Chapter 27: Meeting Your Hero
Chapter 28
It was pure and utter chaos here. All around Xavier, people were rushing to finish their projects before the contest started.
He was one of the few who had complete faith in their creations, not trying to rush around and fix things last minute.
Tony Stark had arrived late the night before, being early for once. Though that was only because of Pepper pestering him about how important this was.
The way the building was made, the 5th floor was double the heights of the rest. This allowed him to have a viewpoint from a window on what would be the second floor.
Currently, he was looking through one of these windows at the teenagers down below him. "How on Earth are they all so panicked?" He asked incredulously. He thought for a second before slapping his forehead, "Ah, of course. It's because they're going to see me."
"They're just kids Tony, be nice." Pepper said from the side.
He just shook his head. "I just can't believe that they haven't finished their projects yet. I mean why wait until the day of the contest to finish what you're doing when you can do it early and do nothing at all?"
Pepper just sighed at him. "Come on, the grand opening will start soon and you need to be there." She said, turning to Happy who was standing in the background the whole time. "Could you have your guys do a final sweep of the area before we go?"
He was already relaying orders to the security teams. "Of course miss Potts, I was just going to do that."
Pepper started walking towards the elevator, holding it for Tony. "Come on Tony, let's go."
"Sigh, I feel like I'm on a leash." He grumbled.
===
Outside in front of the new Stark Tower, dozens of reporters had arrived and were waiting for the opening to start. After that, some would be allowed to enter and cover the internship competition.
"... This could be such an important event that it could change…"
"Hello, and welcome to Channel 6!"
Ten minutes later Tony walked out to begin the opening event. His speech was partly created by Pepper and himself. With him going the ideas and her perfecting them. He spoke about a brighter future without the destruction of past mistakes, and he seemed to genuinely want to change his company for the better.
===
Half an hour later, and the competition was kicking off. Tony Stark himself was the judge, walking through the set and looking over everyone's creations. Every last person was incredibly nervous and he was unimpressed.
"O-Okay, so what I've made is a reworking of a jet engine…" Every project that he walked by was un-original, nothing new. Even with his feelings, Tony stuck true to his position and judged… a bit unfairly.
The kids who remade something without many changes would get something like 4/10. If someone made something original but not special, he would give them a six. And above that, a few kids had real good ideas where he would go into more depth.
A half hour later, and he was nearing the end of the competition. So far he still hasn't seen anything that peaked his interest as of yet. Tony could actually count on one hand the number of projects that he thought were good.
That was until he came across a kid that was lounging in his chair. The kid had kicked his feet up on the table, leaning back in the chair he found, and fell asleep. He was wearing a black outfit, jeans, hoodie, shoes and all. The only color he had was a bit of gold on the ball cap he used to cover his eyes with.
"Hey! Kid!" One of the bodyguards stepped forwards to wake him, but he didn't make it far.
"It's fine, I'll get it." Tony held out his hand, walking over to the kid. Before the guard could protest, Tony went to knock off the kid's feet to wake him.
Just before his hand connected though, the feet dropped from the table. "Huh?"
~Stretch~
Xavier stood up and did a long stretch for his stiff, sleepy body. 'Hmm? When did I put on a hat?' He thought to himself.
"Are you awake now?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Huh? Oh yeah." Grabbing the glove and putting it on, Xavier flipped the switch. Suddenly, the lid of the box on the table burst open, a bunch of little insect-like bots running over each other to form the shape of Xavier's hand.
"Woah!" One of the guards was surprised by the sudden movement of the bots, drawing his service weapon.
"Woah there bud, put that down. What are you scared of, my hand?" Xavier was not impressed by the gun. He has seen his fair share after all.
"Holster that weapon now!" Happy ordered the guard.
"S-Sorry sir!"
Unbothered by this happening, Tony was completely focused on the hand form that these bots had formed into. He found it intriguing how Xavier had gotten the bots to lock together in certain places but move to other positions as he moved his hand around.
"As a whole these mini-bots weigh about two pounds, and they can lift at least 300 pounds. Obviously I couldn't bring such a weight myself but I bought a fifty and other weights to show how flexible they can be."
Moving his hand, he acted out picking up the fifty pound weight. Following his movements, the bot-hand mimicked him, picking it up with ease.
"It can change shapes too, does not have to be a hand. Though controlling it becomes a bit tricky when it isn't a hand." He muttered, changing its shape with a hand motion.
Following his order, the bots collapsed and fitted themselves around a flat weight, pinching its sides and picking it up. Then while one side was lifted, some bots took the place underneath of it to hold it up. Doing the same process on the other side, the last weight was now lying on top of the bots.
"That was faster than I thought it would be. Pretty nifty kid." Tony watched the bots slide the weight back and forth on the table with no trouble at all. He watched Xavier demonstrate a few other shapes before deciding.
"Well, I like your inventions…"
"Xavier, Xavier Parker." He told Tony. Internally smirking.
"Allright Xavier, I'll have someone reach out to you soon." He said with a smirk, holding out his hand.
Shaking Tony's hand, Xavier nodded his head. "Thank you Mr. Stark, have a good day."
===
Later that night, Tony was slaving away in the workshop of his New York penthouse when Pepper walked in.
"What do you think about the contest today?" She asked him, weaving through the clutter lying around the workshop floor.
~BTTS, BAM~
Whatever he was working on shorted all of a sudden and created a minor explosion in his face. "Damn. What did you say?" His face and arms were covered in soot.
"Sigh, the contest from today?"
"Oh… eh, most of them didn't impress me. Most of the kids there weren't even there to really show off their inventions rather than to just meet me." He said dismissively.
Thinking back, Pepper couldn't argue with him on that. It was true that many of the kids threw something together just to meet their favorite celebrity Tony Stark.
"Though, there was this one kid there that intrigued me. You were off ahead of me so you didn't meet him but when we first got to his table, he was asleep! Haha the nerve on that kid. His project was really well put together even with the few flaws I could see, but it felt like he had put serious time into what he built even before the contest was announced."
The reason it seemed that way to Tony was because Xavier had actually thought of it before. It was something he planned to use in case a building collapsed or a large part of the city was destroyed. In its pure form, it was designed and built to use in search and rescue.
That was because individually, the bots could fit in very small spaces and would be equipped with other technology like cameras. He even wanted to make his own AI to control them, but that would take time.
"Sounds like you like the kid. Why don't you take him under your wing or something, like an apprentice. I was thinking about how to get you a possible successor anyway. Plus, you need someone to talk to about what happened and since you won't talk about it with me…"
"...I'll think about it." He told her.
"Okay. You have a meeting tomorrow at noon so ill be coming to pick you up around 11 AM. Goodby Mr. Stark." She said walking out of the workshop.
Listening to the sound of her heels clicking getting quieter as she walked away, Tony muttered to himself over the ruined remains of what he was working on.
"...An apprentice huh?"
===
Sorry about not posting over the weekend I was busy and unable to write anything. Made this chapter longer because of that, Hope you enjoy!
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