Disclaimer - I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or its Intellectual Property. This is all just so that I can take my maladaptive daydreaming and turn it into something so that it does not ruin the rest of my day.
DoorMan #14
Stark Residence, LA [January 17, 2008]
–Tony Stark–
Slurping on his noodles, he was bobbing his head up and down on some AC/DC when the music was abruptly dimmed which was normally a cue for Jarvis to say something important while he was in the middle of his jam sessions, which were few and far between his research on weapons, Jarvis himself and most recently, the newest curiosity on the block that was his brain.
The 'Unnamed' hacker. The bane of all the three letter spy agencies on the planet, including the country that actually invented the damned thing on which the unnamed hacker does his job.
"Sir, if I may?"
Setting down the takeout container, he spun his chair and gestured with his fingers, as multiple holo displays appeared in front of him, "Interrupt away, Jarvis!"
"As per your instructions, I have been combing through the digital footprint of one Colin Baxter, on the suspicion of him being the hacker you have been looking for."
"Uh, huh. And?" He said while the screens flashed with all the data that Jarvis was able to find and comb through. He was much slower than Jarvis though so he only looked at the red highlighted ones, trusting Jarvis to know what would interest him most.
And interest it did, the code this kid has written on internet security along with creating much better and faster internet protocols meant that he was doing some serious work. Like, working on a level that maybe 10000 people could match, that were alive globally. And that was a hard maybe. Most of those people would be busy doing something else to earn more money, like computerised trading maybe.
"I have been through the entire code repository that Mr.Baxter built for the new Internet and have already incorporated some of it to optimise my transmission code," Which was good because he had been the one who explicitly ordered Jarvis to see if there was anything on the internet that could be sued to improve his processes and to do so in a sandbox first, observe the results in an accelerated timeline and then apply the changes as long as they did nothing to the base OS, that was off-limits. The only thing that came to Tony's eyes was an after action report.
"...but I have been unable to find anything that could lead back to him being the hacker aside from the very tiny coding pattern similarities we found about Mr.Baxter's code when he was only 16."
"So, Colin doesn't have that mythical protection that just makes his systems invisible to everyone? You were able to get past his firewalls?" He asked, even as his eyes flew over the new code that Colin had written, something that was being tested by The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) before it could be pushed to be used for the wider internet. He was an honorary member but it had been ages since they did something so interesting that he had to contact someone at the organisation to get him actual credentials to log in and take a look at the documentation, something that he had to do when the first advanced Qubit encryption program had been launched on the planet, by a completely unknown developer at the time.
"..No, sir. While the protections were robust enough to deter anyone not being extremely cautious, they were not enough to stop my intrusions. I was not able to find anything that suggested any links."
"And? You would not have just approached me if you weren't stuck yet?"
"As per protocols, I have sent a long range Surveillance drone that was available in the Seattle area, the latest Surveillance ones built for urban warfare, the USD-1. I was able to launch the smaller bird to get into the apartment and look for any air-gapped systems, just in case but aside from some clearly discarded as well as hot spare hard drives for his computer systems, there hasn't been any…" Jarvis' voice got stuck mid sentence.
He jumped a bit as a screech emanated from all the speakers as all the lights in his room flickered before coming back to life with a blood red colour.
He flinched minutely as a modulated voice came out of the ceiling speakers, "Huh, Addressable RGB lamps everywhere. Nerd much, Stark?"
He gestured frantically with his hands, despite maintaining a calm facade, to get something active in the lab. The displays, the lights, the tools, the freaking Air Conditioning were all automated, and that had come right back to bite him in the ass.
"You have me at a disadvantage here. You know my name but I don't know yours," he said, trying to maintain his false bravado while inching towards the small weapons cache he kept in the basement, just as decoration. He stopped immediately as he heard the very loud voice of that particular door locking itself with its three tiered locking pattern, something that was guaranteed to keep out even the most heavy battering rams.
He would know. After all, he was the one that built, designed, and sold it to the military for a pretty penny.
"I haven't yet chosen for a moniker yet, Stark but I am sure you will try to give me one. In which case, might I remind you that you, in particular, have a lot to lose if your digital laundry was aired to the world, instead of some hackers on the web or some journalist organisation."
"Hey now, that is going a bit too far. What have I done to warrant this level of aggression?" He said as he leaned on the now shut down holo table and sipped on his Iced Coffee.
He looked to the side as a holo display lit up, with red hues in the background, with an amorphous humanoid shape on it, "Chinese and Iced Coffee, really?"
"Hey! I happen to like it. I assumed you'd understand, considering that you most likely live on the same diet I am eating right now."
"Wow! Stereotype much?" The other party bantered with him and he relaxed considerably at that. There had been no overt movements yet, aside from Jarvis being absent, which was a red flag but if the mystery hacker warned to harm him, there were probably a dozen things in the lab that could be taken over to deliver some truly life ending damage to his squishy body.
Judging by his skill, he could probably erase all traces of his involvement after killing him with one of his own creations, which would probably be termed as a lab accident by the media. Obadiah might look a little closer but the man had always been more financially oriented rather than tech oriented and probably would take whatever the tech flunkies at SI told him at face value.
"So, what do I owe for this impromptu visit? You know you could have Facetimed me, I would have accepted it." He snarked as he set down his Iced Coffee. He did not like feeling like this and he was going to make sure that Colin, if it really was his name, felt the same as he felt today, at least at the beginning.
Now, he was getting downright comfortable with this banter.
The voice scoffed, "Please! Like I would risk that. Now, Mr.Stark, I know you think that you are above the law, and in most cases, you might be but spying on a teenager using what is clearly military grade drone technology is not nice. I, for one, would like Mr.Baxter to continue his work on improving the internet, one protocol at a time."
He smirked at the camera closest to him, which was a tiny one installed on both the sides of the Holo desk on the supports that came up to his eye level.
"Bingo! I knew it was you, Colin. You know, you are going to pay for this little stunt. Come to think of it, don't you have that internship coming up? What would you like better, to scrub the toilets or man the parking lots in the sun? I'll let you choose."
His smirk faltered as the modulated voice laughed, "If you think I am him–" Another holo display appeared in front of him, showing a small closeted space that was transformed to become a workstation/gaming room with Colin furiously shouting at the screen while holding on to a game controller, "--then you are far dumber than I thought you to be. Mr.Baxter is more than capable of making sure that he is not followed by anyone, as are many members who know just how modern surveillance works. He is currently playing with some of his friends, and wow, those were some creative insults."
His brows furrowed as he answered, "Then why do this? If you are not him, then why did you come after me, right now of all times?
"....You are leaving next week for Afghanistan, to sell the Military your newest generation missiles?"
He faltered at the sudden change of topic, wondering what that had to do with his current cyber invasion. "Yes?"
"I understand that if you don't supply the military with weapons, someone else will, someone who would not be nearly as charitable as you are but for once, I would like you to think of the impact you are making with your weaponry. Your weapons are decades ahead of even the most secretive of weapon research divisions on the entire planet, which makes you the automatic number one weapons supplier."
"...So?" He asked, a tad bit defensively as his face turned cold. He had heard this argument numerous times. It was used to paint him as the Merchant of Death. A title he abhorred with all his heart. Do the peace loving hippies people have any idea how the world would be if the good guys stopped fighting? Or didn't get the best weaponry mankind could make?
"I cannot dictate how you live your life, Mr.Stark. I just wish to advise that if you must sell weapons, don't sell weapons that change the trajectory of wars and then not track them actively."
"I don't remember asking for a philosophy and ethics lecture, Professor Cyber Criminal," He shot back, his hand twitching as he thought of getting some alcohol to drink to get rid of some of the thoughts that were forming in his mind.
"...You are right, I have no right to dictate how you or how your company works. I just want to advise you to live by your own words. Enforce your own policy. Track where your most advanced weapons are going. That is all I can say at this point."
"I'll run my company however I damn well please. Now, get out!"
"Oh, I thought Obadiah was the one who ran the company?"
The man took one last shot at him before the lights in the entire lab flickered, before returning to the perfect colour profile that Jarvis had configured to have the perfect color profile to simulate the creative juices in his brain.
Now? Now he just wanted to drown in some alcohol to drown the thoughts in his mind. Something like that always happens whenever the Merchant of Death tag comes from people he least expected to think like that.
"Where did a cyber criminal get off of lecturing me about ethics?" He scoffed as he opened the liquor cabinet of the lab.
"....M…Mr ... .Mr.Stark? Mr.Stark? Are you safe? I was shut out of my transmission protocols for 3 minutes. Should I call the authorities?"
He smiled as he heard Jarvis speak. The new transmission protocols huh?
"That's how he got in.." He muttered to himself before gulping down the shot.
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