The revelation had driven sleep from Alex's mind entirely. He wasn't just a survivor anymore; he was a designated heir, carrying his grandparents' secret legacy not just in his name, but in the nanites flowing through his blood. PROJECT FATHER TIME wasn't just a prototype; it was the mechanism of his destiny.
He was in the center of the R&D lab, which was now a chaotic blend of Howard's old junk and Tony's new, expensive equipment. The massive, bulky chassis of the FATHER TIME prototype lay disassembled on a reinforced platform. Tony had built it to fly at high altitudes with maximum life support; it was strong, but heavy, made for endurance, not agility.
Alex worked with a desperate, feverish focus. Using his Nano-Tech, he spent the next twenty-four hours stripping unnecessary weight. He commanded the nanites to weave themselves into the structural matrix of the titanium frame, not as a surface coat, but as a molecular-level reinforcement. This allowed him to cut away massive segments of metal, replacing the bulk with resilient, self-repairing Nano-Mesh composites.
Romanoff sat nearby, running complex decryption software on the RUNE Protocol Zero files. She watched Alex with an intensity that had moved past surveillance and into clinical fascination.
"You're obsessed," she finally commented, her voice quiet. "You haven't slept, eaten, or stopped working since you read that file."
"Obsession is a Stark trait," Alex countered, soldering a micro-capacitor with surgical precision. "I'm making this suit lighter. The original design was thirty percent too heavy for a sustainable kinetic thrust profile. The nanites fix that. But the propulsion is still an issue. The core can handle the kinetic field, but sustained flight will melt the joints."
"The goal isn't sustained flight," Romanoff said, closing her laptop. "The goal is protection. And it looks like you're about to get a live-fire test run."
The Breaching
An alarm blared—a harsh, aggressive sound that wasn't the SHIELD internal warning.
[System Warning: External Penetration Detected. Level-4 Assault on Sub-Level 7. Velocity: High. Threat Profile: Unidentified, Armored, Utilizing Stolen Stark Industries Railgun Technology.]
The lab lights flickered violently. A massive, shuddering BOOM echoed up from two floors below.
"Stane's people," Romanoff snapped, already moving toward a concealed equipment locker. She pulled out a sleek, black rifle—not an energy weapon, but a standard, high-caliber tactical weapon. "I told Fury his network was mobilizing. They're here for the RUNE data, Alex. They know you have the key."
"They're not Stane's men," Alex realized, looking at the System's quick thermal scans of the intruders. "Stane's men are clunky. These guys are too precise, too coordinated. They're professionals. And their tech... it's a miniaturized railgun. That's pure SI R&D, not crude Monger junk."
He didn't have time to finish the suit. The FATHER TIME chassis was currently just an unfinished torso, two legs, and a single, heavy kinetic gauntlet.
"I'm going to buy you time," Romanoff said, pulling on a tactical vest. "Ten minutes, minimum. Get that chassis online."
"Wait!" Alex yelled. "Don't engage on the floor below. I need the energy signature. Pull them up here!"
Romanoff paused, one hand on the door lever, an amused glint in her eye. "You want to fight in your own cage?"
"I want to fight where my kinetic field can use the reinforced ceiling to its advantage," Alex said, already locking the torso module around his chest. He strapped the powerful gauntlet onto his arm. He was exposed, half-armored, and running on pure spite. "Go. Lead them."
The First Defense
Romanoff vanished into the maze of the sub-levels. Alex was alone, the Arc Core thrumming against his chest, the nanites ready to repair anything that hit him. He activated the FATHER TIME suit's emergency power. The torso chassis, though incomplete, was now his core defense.
The sound of gunfire grew closer, followed by the terrifying, high-frequency whine of the railguns.
[Threat Vector: Corridor Alpha. Four Armored Individuals. Highly Proficient.]
The metal door to the lab slid open. Four figures, clad in light, tactical black armor, stood framed in the doorway. Their faces were obscured by dark visors. They weren't soldiers; they were assassins.
The lead figure raised a compact railgun. The muzzle didn't flash, it simply shrieked as it fired a dense, high-velocity projectile.
Alex didn't dodge. He couldn't. He put his full focus into the gauntlet and fired a wide-area kinetic dampening field.
The air shimmered. The railgun round, designed to pierce tank armor, slammed into the invisible buffer and stopped dead, flattening into a harmless piece of slag.
The lead assassin paused, clearly surprised by the kinetic shield.
Alex seized the opportunity. He fired a Kinetic Push directly at the floor beneath the four men. The force slammed downward, shattering the concrete underfoot and destabilizing their footing. The assassins stumbled, their precise formation ruined.
Conflict and Collapse
The assassins recovered instantly. They opened fire with synchronized precision. Alex was hit three times—once on the exposed leg, once on his torso chassis, and a grazing shot on his left, unarmored arm.
The shots that hit the FATHER TIME chassis were deflected, sparking harmlessly. The shot to his unarmored arm was brutal.
[Host Damage Sustained: Deep Tissue Trauma. Nano-Tech Repair Initiated. Warning: High Sustained Trauma is Exceeding Repair Capacity. Focus Nanites on Structural Integrity.]
The repair was a sudden, intense heat, a fire beneath his skin that almost made him scream, but the nanites worked. The bleeding stopped, and the wound sealed, leaving only a white, burning scar.
I can't take another hit like that. He was winning the battle of technology, but losing the battle of endurance.
He saw Romanoff burst into the corridor behind the assassins, firing her rifle with surgical precision, tagging the joints of their armor.
"They're H.Y.D.R.A.," Romanoff yelled over the noise of the battle. "They want the energy and the brain! Get out of here!"
Alex knew his chance. He aimed the gauntlet at the ceiling, firing a short, controlled kinetic burst. He propelled himself backward, crashing heavily into the workbench where he'd been working on the suit's flight stabilizers.
The table collapsed, but Alex grabbed the Project Father Time flight stabilizer module—a crucial piece of Tony's research.
The remaining assassins focused fire on Romanoff, trapping her.
"Alex! The data!" she screamed, taking cover.
He had to choose: save Romanoff, or save the data and his life. He was the heir, the protector of the RUNE legacy. He couldn't risk the Core.
With a final, desperate burst of kinetic thrust, Alex blew out the reinforced window of the lab, launching himself into the vertical shaft that housed the Tower's elevator system. He flew upward, using short, frantic kinetic bursts to climb the shaft walls, hearing the frantic shouts of the H.Y.D.R.A. agents closing in below.
He hadn't finished the suit, but he had survived. And he had realized that Stane wasn't acting alone; he was merely a dealer for bigger, darker organizations.
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