The time has come

[Third POV, Year 2001, 10th, Adrian's House, Night time]

Time flies when you're having fun or just keeping yourself busy. This holds true even for our time-traveling protagonist, Adrian.

During all the time that had passed, Adrian continued learning everything he could from Tony. They even got started on the power armor project.

Because Adrian had seen the movies, he knew more or less what Tony did to improve or fix the armor over the years—what worked and what didn't.

Originally, Tony planned to make an armor strictly for ground use. However, Adrian quickly suggested that they could incorporate repulsor technology to give the armor flight capabilities.

Of course, Tony being Tony, was a bit stubborn and didn't always listen to Adrian's advice, which quickly led to some hard-learned lessons.

One such example was the infamous thruster incident, as Adrian liked to call it. Stark and Adrian had started by sketching and modeling the armor, which ended up looking just like the Mark 2. They then created a pair of thruster boots for flight. Adrian, thinking ahead, suggested adding a pair of palm-based repulsor gauntlets to help stabilize flight, which Stark agreed was a smart move.

(Because in this timeline Tony didn't make the Mark 1 in a cave! With a box of scraps!, the suit they're working on is referred to as Mark 1 here.)

When it came time for testing, Stark arranged everything—Adrian secretly set up a camera to record it while Dum-E was positioned nearby with a fire extinguisher, just in case.

Stark proceeded with the test, running the suit at five to ten percent power. Adrian warned that he should start at one percent and gradually scale up, but Tony dismissed the idea, confidently saying nothing would go wrong. Predictably, he was immediately launched into the ceiling due to the overwhelming power. He then crashed painfully to the ground, prompting Dum-E to douse him with the fire extinguisher, thinking he had caught fire.

Adrian, laughing hard at the sight of Tony sprawled on the floor, quickly ran to help him up.

They went back to work. During the second test, Tony was assisted again by Dum-E, Adrian, and even U, while J.A.R.V.I.S. monitored everything. This time using much less power, Tony hovered awkwardly around the basement, struggling to maintain control and nearly crashing into several expensive cars.

Eventually, he landed—this time without incident—and told Dum-E not to use the fire extinguisher again before proudly announcing that he could now fly. Adrian quickly reminded him that he almost destroyed a lot of things.

Once the flight thrusters and repulsors were perfected, Tony moved on to refining the suit's design—making it sleeker, more aerodynamic, and adding articulated flaps for better control and stability. He also began integrating a user interface using his J.A.R.V.I.S. AI. Despite J.A.R.V.I.S.'s caution, Tony decided to take the Mark 1 out for its first full test flight.

Fortunately, since the suit was made entirely out of gold-titanium alloy, it didn't suffer from high-altitude icing, so Adrian wasn't particularly worried.

Tony managed to beat the SR-71's altitude record for fixed-wing flight—85,000 feet—then returned to the mansion. Adrian, anticipating a repeat of earlier disasters, handed Dum-E the fire extinguisher again and started recording.

Hovering over the mansion entrance, Tony prepared to land. But he didn't account for the suit's extra weight and ended up crashing through the ceiling, destroying his piano and one of his sports cars. Dum-E promptly sprayed him again while Tony leaned back in both pain and frustration.

Adrian, of course, was still recording—and laughing.

With all that going on, Adrian stopped thinking about it for a while. And so, we return to the present, where we find Adrian lying in bed.

He was remembering all this in an attempt to calm his nerves.

Why the nerves? Because tomorrow was supposed to be the day one of the most significant events in history would occur. It would also be the day he would find out if all his planning had paid off—if the terror attack would be prevented or, at the very least, stopped if Hydra tried to carry it out.

But even if the day passed uneventfully, his work wouldn't be over. A week later, the anthrax-laced letters were supposed to be mailed. Adrian wasn't sure if that would still happen, given the possibility that the bio-attacker might've been motivated by 9/11 in the original timeline.

Eventually, Adrian managed to fall asleep. He set an alarm to wake him at 5:30 AM—he wanted to be with Tony early and use 343 and Jarvis to monitor airport security footage. Of course, they couldn't check all the cameras themselves, but they would ask Jarvis and 343 to flag any suspicious activity.

[September 9th, 2001]

As soon as the alarm went off, Adrian's eyes snapped open. He sat up in bed for a few seconds, waiting to avoid orthostatic hypotension, then rushed to shower and got ready to wait for Happy in the living room.

He had already told his parents the night before that he'd be heading to Tony's mansion early.

After about ten minutes, Happy arrived and picked him up. While they sped toward Stark's mansion, Adrian pulled out his phone and messaged 343.

"Spark, I'm already on my way to the mansion. Tell Jarvis to let Tony know I'm coming and to prepare everything. Meanwhile, start infiltrating every airport and their security camera networks."

"Understood! I shall relay this knowledge to them."

343 immediately complied, messaging Jarvis to inform him of Adrian's imminent arrival.

"Adrian has tasked me to send word of his soon arrival to the Stark mansion. Please inform your master to prepare for the day."

"Understood, 343 Guilty Spark. I'll relay the message to Mr. Stark."

Receiving the message from Spark, Jarvis informed Tony.

"Sir, 343 Guilty Spark has contacted me. Adrian is on his way and requests we begin preparations."

"The name that kid gave it is really a mouthful. Just call it Spark or something when you're talking to me or Adrian."

"Understood, sir."

While Jarvis spoke, Tony closed the projection of the red and gold armor and opened another interface.

"This isn't a game of chess. We can't afford to lose those towers. You know what to do, Jarvis."

"I've already started infiltrating the security networks of all major US airports. Spark is doing the same at this very moment."

"That kid's fast—but considering he was the one who warned me, I guess that's only natural. Now we wait."

Eventually, Adrian and Happy arrived at Stark Mansion and went to Tony's workshop, where they found him studying the projections.

"Spark hasn't found anything suspicious yet. You?" Adrian asked.

"Not yet, kid. It's still early. I doubt they'll try anything for at least another hour or two."

"And the suit? Did you tweak it while I was gone?"

In response, Tony opened a projection showing the current model. Adrian noticed the color and remarked,

"Definitely a very low-key design. Not flashy at all. Very 'you.'"

"I always aim to be low-key," Tony replied with a smirk.

Chuckling at the sarcasm, Adrian stepped up to one of the projections and spoke out loud.

"Spark, how is airport security responding so far?"

"Due to early warnings from anonymous tips and the arrest of several suspects in July, the country has reinforced airport security. The FAA has issued high alert orders regarding hijacked plane reports."

"The hijackers might try false hijack alerts as a distraction. If any claims of hijacking pop up, trace them."

"Understood!"

Then Adrian turned to look at Tony and spoke to him.

"How does it feel to try and stop one of the possibly biggest attacks of terror in the world"

"Just another day for your one and only Tony Stark"

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 Author note: Chapter of 1500 words before editing and revising, tbh most of my time is wasted because of research in details and learning lore.

Please add to library and give powerstones!