Jax:

Next Day

Morning - Stark Mansion - Garage / Workshop

Jax and Tony were in the basement of the Stark mansion, in Tony's workshop.

Tony was lying on a lab bed, shirtless, the reactor exposed in his chest. "All right. Let's see them. Show me your hands. Let's see them." Jax waved his hands sarcastically. Tony chuckled. "They're good. I just need your help for a sec."

"So the reactor that's keeping you alive is now an antique?" Jax asked.

"Mm-hmm," Tony answered. He showed Jax and updated, bigger, better arc reactor. "This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I was swapping it up for an upgraded unit and I just ran into a little... speed bump."

"Speed bump?" Jax repeated. "What's happening?"

"It's nothing," Tony told him. "It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device and is contacting a socket wall and is causing a little bit of a short circuit."

"What do you want me to do?" Jax asked.

Tony took the reactor off his chest. "Put that on the table over there. That is irrelevant." Jax took the reactor, putting it on the table. "I just want you to reach in... and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."

"Is it safe?" Jax asked.

Tony nodded. "Yeah, it should be fine. It's just like Operation. you just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep'. Just gently lift the wire. Okay?"

"Okay," Jax told him.

"Great," Tony told him.

Jax reached into the cylinder in Tony's chest, making a face. "Oh, is that pus?"

"No, it's not pus," Tony answered. "It's a plasmic discharge. It's from the device. Not from my body."

Jax was still disgusted, though he was chuckling in amusement. "It smells."

"Yeah, it does," Tony agreed. "The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?"

"I got it," Jax answered.

"Now, don't let it touch the sides," Tony told him. "Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't pull out the magnet at the end of it."

"All right," Jax told him, pulling the copper wire out carefully, making sure the wire didn't touch the walls of the cylinder, taking the wire out.

"There you go," Tony told him. He handed the new reactor to Jax. "Now, all you gotta do is put this in and attach the wires to the magnet and close it up."

Jax took the reactor, gently putting the wires into the cylinder. "Okay, okay."

Jax attached the wires to the magnet, pulling out his hand, putting the reactor over the cylinder to close it. He was surprised he pulled it off without a hitch, mimicking an explosion with his hands. "Boom!"

"There, you're done," Tony told him.

"That wasn't so hard," Jax told him.

"No, you pulled it off," Tony told him. "Hands of a surgeon. That was fun, right?" Jax laughed. Tony started to sit up. Jax helped him. "I got it, I got it."

"Nice," Jax told him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I feel great," Tony answered.

Jax turned away to wash his hands in the sink behind him. He picked up the old reactor. "What do you want me to do with this?"

Tony stood. "That? Destroy it. Incinerate it."

Jax turned to face Tony. "You don't wanna keep it?"

"Jax, I've been called many things," Tony told him. "'Nostalgic' is not one of them." He turned to a moving device meant to help when needed. "Hey, Butterfingers, come here."

Tony walked toward Butterfingers, pulling on his shirt.

Jax looked at the old reactor in his hands, walking toward the desk, where a glass cube was, opening the lid, putting the old reactor inside, closing the lid. He looked at two pictures on the desk on either side of the cube.

One picture was of Howard, Maria and a younger, 20-something Tony.

The picture was of Tony, Young, 2-year-old Jax, and Jax's mother, Oliana.

He heard Tony's voice. "Jax."

Jax looked up. "Yeah?"

"What's going on in your head?" Tony asked.

Jax shook it off. "Nothing. Just spaced out. So, what's next for the great Tony Stark?"

"I'm working on something big," Tony told him. "I wanted to talk to you about it. I want you to be part of it. This is not for the military. I'm not... it's different." He walked toward Jax, taking out Jax's sketch, handing it to him. "It's you."

"You managed to keep ahold of it," Jax told him. "I'm shocked."

"I didn't just manage to keep ahold of it," Tony told him. "I managed to make it." Jax looked at him curiously. "I built that thing back in the cave where I was kept. It's what got me out."

"You serious?" Jax asked.

"Deadly," Tony answered. "Your design saved me. You saved me, Jax. And you can help me make the upgrade that you told me about before I left."

Jax smirked. "Or two."

Tony smiled, patting him on his shoulder. "That's my boy."

🚀

Later

Tony was sitting at his desk, bringing up a hologram of a computer and keyboard. "Jarvis, are you up?"

Jarvis: "For you, sir, always."

"I'd like to open a new project file," Tony told him. "Index as: Mark 2."

Jarvis: "Shall I store this on the Stark Industries' central database?"

"Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server?" Tony asked.

Jarvis: "Working on a secret project, are we, sir?"

Jax walked in with his blueprints and sketches.

"I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands," Tony told him.

Jax shrugged. "Maybe in ours, it could actually do some good."

🚀

Later

Jax had uploaded his sketches into a hologram, taking and adding pieces and parts in and out by a swipe of his finger.

Jax showed Tony the layout of the powered exoskeleton with armored plating that they would soon start to build. 

Tony was starting to the build metal, electronic boots.

Butterfingers, AKA Dummy, was helping him.

"Next," Tony told him. "Up. Not the boot, Dummy, right here.
You got me? Stay put. Nice. And you? You're of no benefit at all." Jax looked up from his work. "Move down to the toe. I got this."

Jax smiled.

🚀

Later

Tony was still working on boots.

Jax was working on gloves with rings in the palms.

Dummy was trying to help him, nudging him out of the way.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Jax told him sarcastically. "Am I in your way?"

🚀

Later

Tony and Jax were putting the gloves that Jax had been working on onto two mechanical arms.

"Up," Tony told him. "That's great. Don't even move."

Jax was looking at Dummy. "You... are a tragedy."

🚀

Later

Jax was wearing the boots Tony had been working on. He was being filmed by a video camera by Tony. "Okay, lets do this right. Start mark, half meter back of the center. Dummy, look alive. You're on standby for safety."

"You, roll it," Tony told him. "Activate hand controls. We are gonna start up nice and easy, raising 10% thrust capacity to achieve lift. And three, two, one." Jax hit the button to activate the boots, intending to fly. The boots fired too much flame too fast, making Jax back flip and hit the wall behind him upside down, making him fall to the floor. "Oh! Jax! You okay?"

Jax groaned in pain. "I'm good."

Dummy sprayed Jax with fire extinguisher fog.

Tony laughed.

🚀

Later

Tony and Jax were working on the arms and gloves again.

Tony set the metal around Jax's arm to connect the arm.

Jax put on the glove.

Pepper walked in with coffee. "Up two? I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?"

"Yeah," Tony answered. "Everything's..."

"What?" Jax asked.

"Obadiah's upstairs," Pepper answered.

"Great," Tony told her. "We'll be right up."

Pepper looked at the arm and glove on Jax's arm in confusion. "Tony, I thought you said you were done making weapons. Jax, since when have you been helping him?"

"It isn't..." Jax trailed off.

"This is a flight stabilizer," Tony told her. "It's completely harmless."

A light blast shot out of the palm of the glove, the force of it strong enough to make Jax fall to the floor.

Jax looked up at them. "I didn't expect that."

🚀

Living Room

They walked upstairs to join Obie in the living room.

"How'd it go?" Jax asked. Obie didn't answer. Jax saw a pizza box on the table. "Oh, went that bad, huh?"

"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad," Obie told them.

"Sure it doesn't," Jax told him sarcastically. He fell back onto the couch, taking a piece of pizza from the box. "Oh, boy."

Jax took a bite of pizza.

Obie stood from the piano, walking closer. "It would've gone better if you were there."

"You told me to lay low," Tony told him. "You told Jax to stay with me till I get better. And that's what we've been doing. Lot of son-father bonding, huh, Jax?"

"Uh-huh," Jax answered. He looked at Obie. "We do that and you take care of all the..."

"Hey, come on," Obie told them. "In public, the press... This was a Board of Directors meeting."

"This was a Board of Directors meeting?" Tony repeated.

"The Board is claiming a Post Traumatic Stress," Obie told him. "They are filing an injunction."

"A what?" Jax asked.

"They wanna lock you out," Obie answered.

"Why, 'cause the stocks dip 40 points?" Tony asked. "We knew this was gonna happen."

"56 and a half," Pepper told them.

"It doesn't matter," Tony told them. We own a controlling interest in the company."

"Tony, the Board has rights, too," Obie told him. "They are making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest."

"I'm being responsible," Tony told them. " That's a new direction for the company. I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that..."

"Oh, this is great," Jax told them sarcastically.

Tony turned toward the stairs leading to the basement.

Obie grabbed his arm to stop him. "Oh, come on, wait. Tony, Tony."

"Jax, let's get back to work," Tony told him.

Jax stood, walking closer.

"Hey, hey, guys, listen," Obie told them. "I'm trying to turn
this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them." He pointed at the arc reactor in Tony's chest. "Let me have the engineers analyze that, you know, draw some specs."

Jax instantly spoke up, knowing that was keeping Tony alive. "No. No. Absolutely not. This one stays with him. That's it, Obie. Forget it."

Obie picked up the pizza box. "All right, well, this stays with me, then. Go on, here, you can have a piece. Take two."

Tony took two pieces. "Thank you."

Jax took two more pieces.

Tony and Jax walked toward the stairs.

"Do you mind if I come down there to see what you're doing?" Obie asked.

"Good night, Obie," Tony told him.

"Night night," Jax told him.

Tony and Jax walked downstairs.

Obie looked at Pepper.

Pepper shook her head, not knowing what to tell him.