The Conceptual Deck

Chapter 53: Introductions

I couldn't help but smirk as Ema flying around the workshop caught Tony off guard. When he focused back on me, Ema floating above my shoulder, I reached out my hand. Tony looked down at my hand and shook his head.

"Yeah, no, not shaking that. Are you the same guy who was driving around New York the other day?" He asked. "Jarvis trolls the internet for copycats and tagged your late night jaunt through Manhattan in some sort of power armor."

"Yeah, that was us." I said with a nod. "There was an emergency."

"I'll say." He agrees, turning to a computer to watch a clip of me leaping between the super truck and the armored carrier captured in shaky cellphone footage. He gestured to Ema's exosuit without looking away "So how does that work? Nanotech? Smart Metals? Some sort of programmable matter?"

"Oobleck and Nitinol." I said simply.

"Oob- What?" He asked, looking confused before his face cleared up. "Oh I get it, you're just the toy soldier. Someone else made the suit. Well I'd be interested in talking to them but-"

As he talked I could feel him trying to pull control of the conversation. Instead of letting him I flicked a card into an empty space, pushing out my cabinet. Tony stopped mid sentence as the thick armored cabinet appeared and I walked up to it, opening it up, my back to the inverntor. I could almost feel Tony looking over my shoulder at my cabinet of goodies before I pulled out my medical scanner. I closed and carded the cabinet again before turning around and showing off my creation.

"This is a medical scanner I made." I explained. "It shows a detailed medical analysis of any person I scan."

To prove my point I pointed the device at myself and pulled the trigger, letting the red beams scan along my arm before turning it to show Ms Potts and Stark. It clearly showed my scan, a rotating image of myself with several charts next to me. I cleared my data and attempted to hand it to Tony, who refused to take it.

"Here, he doesn't like being handed things." Ms Potts said, reaching over and taking the scanner. "This doesn't use radiation or anything like that?"

"... It might project ultrasound waves but that's it." I admitted, Ms Potts and Stark immediately catching onto my hesitation, causing me to shrug. "My creation process isn't exactly what you call normal. It is perfectly safe, that I can confirm wholeheartedly.'

"Jarvis?" Tony asked, still watching my Ms Potts handle the scanner.

"There is no noticeable increase in radiation." The cultured voice announced, Ema bobbing slightly. "I did detect low level ultrasounds."

"Huh, alright. Good to know I suppose." I admitted. "See, harmless."

"Great, well I don't consent to being scanned." Tony said with a shrug. "So-"

"Tony, Agent Coulson said Maker was legitimate. That he has recently helped Shield in a way that has saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives and avoided a possibly global catastrophe." Ms Potts said, getting shocked looks from me and Stark. "We should take him seriously."

"How did you do all that without ending up on the news." He asked, looking back at me. "You know, other than your drive through New York."

"Wait, I was on the news?"

"... you had a gunfight through New York, of course you were on the news." Tony said, looking at me like he was wondering how I was functioning.

"I've been a bit busy." I explained with a shrug. "Planning, building, I'm sure you know how that goes."

Tony frowned and was about to say something, probably something sarcastic and potentially scathing, before he was interrupted by a red beam scanning across his chest.

"Pepper!" He said, though it was relatively heatless.

The red head woman ignored him, instead focusing on the screen of the scanner. After a few seconds of reading she looked up with a surprised face.

"Tony, you said your palladium poisoning was no big deal!" She shouted. "It says you almost died! You're still recovering and you damaged your kidneys badly!"

"...Wait, it actually knew that?" Tony said, clearly surprised. He stepped closer and looked over Peppers shoulder, reading through the information. "Wow, note to self, less salt."

"I told you you needed to cut down on that Tony." Peppe said, slapping his shoulder before looking up at Ema and I, still upset. "Coulson said you could fix his chest. Could you?"

"Yes, absolutely. The only question is if I have something that will fix it on hand or if I need to make something specific for this situation."

"How?" The billionaire genius asked simply, looking skeptical.

"How would I make something or how would I fix it?"

"Both."

"Well explaining that would involve explaining my powers."

"Powers? Like what?" Tony asked. "Does it have anything to do with that disappearing act you just performed?"

"It does in fact." I responded, pulling out the Deck and laying it on the corner of the desk. "This is the Conceptual Deck. I received it not too long ago"

It took almost an hour for me to explain my powers, including a long demonstration that had me pulling and pushing several items in and out of the Deck while Jarvis recorded with a variety of scanners, before combining a random set of tools together. Tony was riveted by the Deck, flipping back and forth between thinking it was the best and worst thing ever. I showed him a half dozen different things, including how my armor worked and how much my speed and strength had been increased. I called an end to the experiments, scans and random combinations after I made an all in one screwdriver by combining three sets together as well as a scroll wheel and a dozen small transformation cards. Tony was holding it, switching from philips to flat head, hex and any variation on size and length.

"Okay." He finally said, putting the screwdriver down. "Your power obviously works. It breaks physics in a hundred ways and I but it works."

"Great. Now will you let him fix you?" Pepper asked, having sat down in a small break area while Tony put me through my paces.

"No." He said, before putting his hands up when Pepper started to get upset. "Not right now. I need at least a week to adjust the armor so it holds its own power source, rather than drawing its power from this."

He tapped the arc reactor in his chest, before turning back to me.

"After I'm done with that we can start with how your Healing amulet works. If it can dissolve metal fragments then then there is no reason for you not to fix me up."

"Thank you." Pepper said with a smile, walking to Tony and kissing him on the cheek.

"Great, I'm glad to hear that." I said with a nod.

"Now, let's talk about price." Tony said. "I want two healing amulets-"

"You can't wear a healing amulet." I said, cutting him off. "It would try and fix your chest and the shrapnel."

"Fine, I'll buy one later. I want one for Pepper then, as well as two armored undersuits, and a helmet. I'd like a stamina and strength cuff as well."

"Tony-" Pepper said, starting to speak up.

"Pepper, you saw how innocuous he could make them. There is no reason you shouldn't have all of those."

"...Fine." she said before focusing on me. "If I give you some jewelry could you make them transition from them?"

"Yes, that's not much trouble." I said before continuing. "At least for the armor and helmet. The healing amulet would need a few of the same things to change its shape."

Pepper nodded and left, leaving Tony and I alone. Ema was bobbing next to my head, nudging me slightly before I remembered.

"Oh, Sorry Ema." I apologized. "Tony, is there any way for Ema and Jarvis to talk?"

"Uh, yeah. She can talk to him anywhere in the house."

"Sir perhaps I could give her a tour of the house?" Jarvis suggested.

"Yeah buddy, go for it." He said with a shrug, Ema looking at me before zooming off when I nodded.

"They grow up so fast." I said as Jarvis's voice got farther away, Ema floating up the stairs, talking with the bodiless artificial intelligence.

"Tell me about it. Is she fully sentient?" Tony asked, watching her go before focusing back on me. "She seems too fluid to just be a simple VI."

"She is as far as I can tell." I said with a shrug. "She expressed a desire to talk with Jarvis without my prompting. She dislikes being in her exosuit for too long. Her purpose is being my companion and assistant as far as I can tell but I didn't program her, and neither of those things help her 'purpose'. In fact her dislike of being in her exosuit is kind of the opposite."

"Huh Think you could help me with Jarvis?" He asked. "He is as close as I could get to a fully sentient AI but that last gap is stumping me."

I frowned for a second and went through the possibilities in my head. Eventually I shrugged and kept it vague.

"It's possible, but I would probably have to lock him into one central location to do that." I explained. "He would be able to access things and even maybe tap into everything but he would be tied to a chassis, like Ema is."

"Good to know. I might take you up on that anyway, I would have to think about it." The inventor said before shaking his head. "We need to talk about price."

"Right. Well I have two requests. Money is obviously useful as my ability eats through it slowly but steadily. But I need something specific right now."

Over the next fifteen minutes we discussed the repulsor beam technology, about how I had already cracked flight but I wanted to push it even faster. I showed him my wings, standing where he kept his cars for the extra room. Pepper shouted when she came to drop off her jewelry, leading to me scratching a bit of paint off of one of Tony's hot rods as I turned to look at her. After a short explanation she left in search of a glass of wine, letting Tony get back to his questions.

"And they move instinctually?" He asked, touching the tip of one of my metallic wings. "You don't feel this, do you?"

"I know its being touched, but it's not like if you were to touch my arm." I answered, before pulling the wings back. "And they do move instinctually. I think it's a combination of the magic and well other things."

I had mentioned magic already when I was explaining how I made the wings, and I regretted it immediately. It had taken a while for Tony to accept the partial lie that magic was just what I was calling the nebulous energy that helped smooth things together. I didn't mention where I got it.

"Well, I don't mind trading a few repulsors, if only because they won't be repulsors by the time you are done with them." He admitted. "What's your top speed now?"

"Around a hundred and seventy miles per hour." I answered. "It's good but I want it to be better."

"Right. Well as soon as you make everything for Pepper I'll give you four, two for you and two for Emerald."

"Six and five hundred thousand dollars." I countered, getting an indignant look from Tony.

"Do you have any idea how much one of my repulsors cost?" He asked, rolling his eyes. "I'll give you six and two hundred thousand."

"And forty thruster energy beams from an actual suit." I said. "It costs you nothing and I can use it to improve each unit."

"What? How? Does it draw more energy?" Tony asked, rapid fire as he stared at me.

"Uhh"

"Okay, new offer. Eight repulsors, forty repulsor beam blasts and five hundred thousand dollars in cash, in exchange for everything basic, two cuffs for me and a few things combined together for me to gather data on."

"Done. Nice doing business with you."

"Yeah I know, now makey with the reality breaking while I go call my bank."

I easily made my way through the protective gear for both of them and the cuffs for Tony, mostly because all of it was already waiting in my cabinet. I bound everything to their new owners after I had everything set and waiting for them, with minimal questions about whether I was going to summon cthulhu with my blood magic or steal Tony's soul.

Tony's cuffs flattened quite a bit when I bound them, which made sense considering how tight his armor was to his body, while Pepper's simply shifted for looks, her undersuit changing to a certain familiar blue, while her jewelry stayed mostly the same. I combined her healing amulet with a blue sapphire necklace, which changed slightly but resized and shifted when I bound it to her. Unsurprisingly Tony's undersuit, which shifted from a basic bracelet, turned out to be gold and hot rod red.

"Good to know even my soul is consistent." He said, examining himself in a mirror. "If I drill holes in this will it still shift back and forth?"

"Maybe? If you can manage drill holes in it let me know, I'll need to update mine. Either way I'll fix it."

When I was done with that I combined a few things together for Tony, starting with a few pieces of metal. I double stacked a faceplate from one of his suits, combined copper and titanium as well as aluminum and titanium, double stacked a repulsor, combined a repulsor with a blast of repulsor energy before finishing it off by double stacking an older version of his arc reactor. I also promised to come back and double stack his newer version when he got around to making a few more. Apparently this latest version was less than a few weeks old and her was in the process of setting up the infrastructure to make more. The palladium poisoning that Pepper had mentioned was because the previous version used palladium as an fuel.

At some point Ema had come back down stairs to check up on us.

"Are you sure letting him have all this stuff is okay?" She asked, looking over the samples I was making.

"I'm already selling and trading him a bunch of stuff anyway." I said with a shrug. "Besides, you scan almost everything I make, have your scans ever come even close to figuring out how any of it works?"

"No. Alright, I suppose that is fair." She said, floating around. "Just covering the bases."

By the time that I was done putting everything together Tony had boxed up eight repulsors and his bank had delivered the cash. The fact that he could get that much money delivered to his house was mind boggling, but I wasn't going to complain. Even more impressive was that he was able to get a ridiculous amount of real hawk feathers delivered to his house within a few hours.

When I explained what process I would be using to apply the repulsors thrust to my wings he laughed for a minute before he realized I was serious. He immediately insisted that he had to see that and made a half dozen calls. The feathers arrived by the box load while I was carding repulsor streams and letting my fingers heal from the damage

"So you're not worried that the flight concepts will affect the integrity of your armor?" He asked, watching as I added five repulsor streams to four of the repulsors. Tony was unsurprisingly quick to understand the nuances of the Conceptual Deck.

"No. If I'm honest I'm working on a major upgrade for my armor, so if this one gets a bit weakened in the process it's no big deal." I explained, double checking all of the repulsors. "At this point it's more of a harness for the wings than anything."

I looked around, making a quick judgment of the size of his workshop. Relatively sure that it could fit the storage shed I flicked out a card, the shed suddenly occupying the garage area.

"Holy shit." Tony cursed, leaning back on the counter. "You are a drug runner's dream."

"Yeah, I'm aware." I said, stepping into the shed and coming out with my magic rod supplies. "I'm going to need to make a run to my workshop. I need some super metal."

"Super metal?"

"A conceptual blend of molybdenum, aluminum, titanium and tungsten." I explained.

"And that just works? Jesus that's Well I've got some stock in the basement." Tony offered. "How much do you need?"

"Uhhhh eight or nine sheets of each?"

Tony led me down to a massive hidden basement full of parts, stored tools and metal stock. I carded a bunch of metal and brought it back up with us, pushing it out and starting the process of enhancing the feathers. Once I had made a few dozen stacks of enhanced metal feathers I started laying them into the enhanced repulsors. Slowly they restructured, shifting gradually until they were just metallic feathers with an incredible concept of thrust. I carded my chest armor off of myself and combined all four of them into it before pushing it back out.

The chest armor itself was slightly smoother around the edges but beyond that it looked the same. The wings on the back however looked slightly lighter, though still obviously metallic. I extended them out after carding the storage shed, working them out and retracting them a few times. After I was sure they were still responding properly I pulled them back in.

"How do they feel?" Tony asked.

"They feel like they need a test drive."

"Sweet, let me put on the suit and-"

"Wait a minute!" Ema yelled, floating between both of us at head level before turning to me. "It almost sounds like you were going to go flying without doing my wings as well."

"Alright alright." I said, holding up my hands. "Go put on your suit and give me your wings. I'll upgrade them. Then we will go for a test flight."