Tony Stark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
iron_y) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
all_inclusive2014-05-19 08:55 pm
iron_y) wrote in all_inclusive2014-05-19 08:55 pm
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"Shit," Tony Stark muttered. He stopped pacing to glare across the long room, past dozens of rows of ficus plants, at the thread of smoke rising from one of them. It was clearly visible against the white walls.
"Jarvis, is that supposed to happen?" Tony asked.
"The plant involved is one of the controls," Jarvis said. "Nothing to worry about, sir."
"Hmmph," Tony said, and resumed pacing and glaring at random ficus plants. A ficus had been good enough for the late Maya Hansen may she rest in peace, back when she'd still been a promising scientist and not a moral quandary, but what Tony was finding was that biology was not nearly as satisfying as engineering. Plants took time to grow. Obvious inferior design, right?
If it had been Tony with the Extremis problem, this whole thing would be a lot further along, because he'd already thought of about twenty short cuts to this whole process...but it wasn't him. It was Pepper.
"If I may make a suggestion..." Jarvis said.
Tony stopped pacing again. "Jarvis, I warn you, this had better be--"
"Duck!" Jarvis said.
Tony was ducking even before he consciously registered the lack of the usual sir, a sure sign of urgency. The fire extinguishing foam from one of his stupider robots passed over his head and hit the plant right next to him just before it burst into flame.
"Good job, but next time--" Tony started to say.
But the damn plant burst into flame anyway, and the foam went everywhere, and the overhead sprinklers made an ominous noise.
"No, wait for it," Tony muttered. The plant next to the flaming plant was still stable, and as long as...
"Oops," Tony said as another plant -- on the far side of the room, no less! -- started smoking. "That shouldn't have happened. Jarvis--"
"Activating sprinklers," Jarvis said.
"Shit," Tony said as a whole row of plants along the far wall burst into flame too. "Shit shit..." Blinking against smoke and hunching against the spray, he ran to the nearest door and wrenched it open. "Shit," he said to the quiet of the hallway, and then pulled out his tablet.
"Better fireproof partitions," Tony muttered, scribbling down notes as fast as he could think. Water dripped onto his tablet, but that was okay, it was waterproof. "And more testing, lots more testing with heat, and...chemical stimuli, and...magnetic fields, how about a focused electromagnetic field?" He felt a weird sort of relief at having something to do, even if it was something he should have thought of before the big fire took out at least half of his work. "And Jarvis, don't tell Pepper about this, okay?"
There was no response. "Jarvis?" He looked around, and realized that he didn't recognize the hallway where he was standing.
"Jarvis, is that supposed to happen?" Tony asked.
"The plant involved is one of the controls," Jarvis said. "Nothing to worry about, sir."
"Hmmph," Tony said, and resumed pacing and glaring at random ficus plants. A ficus had been good enough for the late Maya Hansen may she rest in peace, back when she'd still been a promising scientist and not a moral quandary, but what Tony was finding was that biology was not nearly as satisfying as engineering. Plants took time to grow. Obvious inferior design, right?
If it had been Tony with the Extremis problem, this whole thing would be a lot further along, because he'd already thought of about twenty short cuts to this whole process...but it wasn't him. It was Pepper.
"If I may make a suggestion..." Jarvis said.
Tony stopped pacing again. "Jarvis, I warn you, this had better be--"
"Duck!" Jarvis said.
Tony was ducking even before he consciously registered the lack of the usual sir, a sure sign of urgency. The fire extinguishing foam from one of his stupider robots passed over his head and hit the plant right next to him just before it burst into flame.
"Good job, but next time--" Tony started to say.
But the damn plant burst into flame anyway, and the foam went everywhere, and the overhead sprinklers made an ominous noise.
"No, wait for it," Tony muttered. The plant next to the flaming plant was still stable, and as long as...
"Oops," Tony said as another plant -- on the far side of the room, no less! -- started smoking. "That shouldn't have happened. Jarvis--"
"Activating sprinklers," Jarvis said.
"Shit," Tony said as a whole row of plants along the far wall burst into flame too. "Shit shit..." Blinking against smoke and hunching against the spray, he ran to the nearest door and wrenched it open. "Shit," he said to the quiet of the hallway, and then pulled out his tablet.
"Better fireproof partitions," Tony muttered, scribbling down notes as fast as he could think. Water dripped onto his tablet, but that was okay, it was waterproof. "And more testing, lots more testing with heat, and...chemical stimuli, and...magnetic fields, how about a focused electromagnetic field?" He felt a weird sort of relief at having something to do, even if it was something he should have thought of before the big fire took out at least half of his work. "And Jarvis, don't tell Pepper about this, okay?"
There was no response. "Jarvis?" He looked around, and realized that he didn't recognize the hallway where he was standing.