Start at the Beginning Pt 4

"Walt!"

Walt grinned and approached his old friend. Dave started to rise but Walt waved his hand to keep sitting in his wheelchair device. He kneeled down and happily gave his friend a hug.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," he said. "It's damn good to see you!"

"Likewise!" Dave said then punched him lightly in the shoulder. "And you're damn right should be sorry! Been waiting here all morning!" He peered at Walt. "That bad with the board?"

Walt shook his head. "That bunch? Nah! Just some noise from the minority. Whining mostly. Took longer than expected to put the children to bed." He rolled his eyes. "I think the old man likes seeing them squabble."

Dave sighed. "Did he come down from his office?"

Walt shook his head and Dave smirked. "Probably had someone under his desk with the sound muted amyway."

Walt chuckled. "I was thinking the same thing!" They both laughed. "Anyway it took me awhile to get out of there and then fly my ass out here and get through the security. Oh, though speaking of..." Walt reached into his pocket and pulled out a small container that expanded and then opened.

"Is that...?" Dave asked.

Walt nodded. "Wedding cake. I managed to sneak out a couple pieces. You and Harls enjoy!"

Dave grinned. "How'd you manage that?"

Walt grinned and winked. "Trade secret... wasn't easy let me tell you! They were watching and I got some chow hound characters sniffing around all the time. I swear one can hear a Refrigerator open a kilometer away and the other can do the same for sniffing out sweet stuff. Glad I got two near superhumans on the maid staff. Oh and the bottom compartments got cookies for yall."

Dave chuckled. "You shouldn't have gone to the trouble..."

Walt shook his head. "No trouble. Least I could do for you two! Though, uh... keep the cake thing just between us. There were a couple of incidents..." Walt saw the look Dave gave him. "Not my fault this time!... I think... probably..." he sighed. "It's hard to say exactly between Stark and Gardner luck. We're looking into it but it was likely Jimbo... but hey they did get hitched! Mission accomplished!"

Dave facepalmed. "You know... I'm almost glad I wasn't able to attend."

Walt pulled up a chair. "Yeah, yeah... like you and Harls didn't leave some smoking crater somewhere on your anniversary getaway? Hmmmm?"

Dave waved his hand. "Structure was unsound. Falling down anyway. Really it was a public service if anything..."

Walt nodded. "Riiight... 'nuff said?"

Dave grinned and nodded. "'Nuff said! So did you bring any of your ladies with you?"

Walt shook his head. "And have them left unsupervised in a top-secret, hidden RD installation? I trust them but that's just irresponsible. What if some random jerk started trouble or a mistake was made and they got rounded up and shipped out? No, I sent them home after NYC. It's too bad. I'd have enjoyed taking them around. But business before pleasure... and speaking of business... ?"

Dave sighed and nodded. "Actually I wanted to talk to you about that." He starts calling up various bits of information on the large display. "With 3S's and particularly Fridays assistance we uncovered data tampering in the logs."

Walt frowned. "Isn't that supposed to be-"

"Next to impossible," Dave said. "Even if it could be done by the best hackers and AI's to manipulate the data it'd be easy to spot that something had been done. The system is just that good." Dave shook his head. "It's nearly impossible. Itd be like you, as a human pulling out your gun, firing a round then running ahead of the bullet and not just catching it but neatly plucking it from the air-"

"Actually," Walt said. "If I went to my lab, accessed some-"

"That's partly my point, Walt!" He looked at him. "Only someone who can think on that kind of level, with access to a AI monstrosity, no offense Friday-"

(("None taken. I know I frighten most rational people. My creator is proud of me and that's good enough for me."))

"Damn right," Walt said crossing his arms. "Friday's no monster. Frankenstein's Creature wasn't the monster. The doctor was. I am."

Dave sighed. "I apologize for the analogy but you'll see my point. Walt," he paused. "Did you and Friday do this?"

Walt stared at him a moment in shock. "Of course not! We wouldn't do that and- oh... shit, is it that bad?"

Dave nodded. "It is. There's a very short list, only one person who could come up with a plan like this with sophisticated AI technology that shouldn't exist and then execute it... repeatedly with daring!"

Walt rolled his eyes. "If you're about to suggest a Mirror, Mirror version of myself or evil identical twin with a mustache to twirl was up to something I'll have to take you to the medical and have you checked out. Besides there are no AI's that can match F.R.I.D.A.Y. or her... signature- shit... shitshitshit..."

Walt started pacing in circles. "We ran into an AI that actually slowed Friday down a bit at The Pitt. It wouldn't directly engage her but it knew enough to slow her down. Dammit! I should've had that whole place instantly surrounded and seized! Show me the first spurious log!"

Dave showed him the falsified data and sure enough eac succesive falsified entry was more and more sophisticated. "And the AI coding signature patern is similar to yours Friday?"

(("It's similar but also different. Like the genetics of a-"))

"Sibling," Walt said putting his face in his hand. He felt a headache coming on. "And let me guess... the first instance they tampered with was Marvel, wasn't it?"

Dave nodded. "Your absolutely correct. They went into your old Marvel case instance."

Walt sighed. "Well that explains where we need to start looking first, I guess... ugh, I need to go talk to "Tony". I'm getting a headache already."

Dave chuckled. "You going in?"

Walt sighed. "I don't see how I have much choice in the matter..."

"Whoa there you alright?" Walt grabbed the dapper old gentleman and pulled him out of the way of the car.

"Woooo! That was a close on!" Said the fellow with the greying hair and mustache with sunglasses.

Walt looked him over fondly. "Sure you're alright?"

"I think so but wow that was almost my number up!" He smiled at Walt. "Thanks young fella! I'm alright, true believer!"

Walt waved to the familiar man as he walked away. "Excelsior," he whispered. It was one of his favorite parts of visiting a Marvel instance. You never knew where he was going to turn up, but it was almost guaranteed you'd run into him somewhere on a visit.

Walt noticed the guy had dropped a paper opened to the "help wanted". "Hey, Sta- I mean Sir! You dropped your... paper... dammit."

Walt looked at The Daily Bugle in his hand and was surprised Spider mania wasn't the top headline (though it was just under it with a line about "Spider Merchandise! Harmful to developing childrens minds some experts say!" Page 2), the top spot had been reserved for "Tony Stark: R.I.P... Again!"

Walt nodded. "Avengers mansion destroyed again... blah, blah, blah... picture of a spiderweb of course... blah, blah, blah... Just great... I guess we better head on over to 721 Fifth Avenue. But first... we should recruit some help..."

Walt pulled out his mask and activated 3SIODM Gear Mk2. "Let's see what this thing can do... Friday directions to the office of Howard T. Duck Private Investigations..."

[Walter Stark Penny Polendina F.R.I.D.A.Y Neopolitan Pyrrha Nikos Nora Valkyrie Yang Xiao Long Blake Belladonna Kali Belladonna Sienna Khan Willow Schnee Glynda Goodwitch Zwei Ahnassi Lifts-Her-Tail Senko Sayoko Shinozaki Roberta Cisneros Haruna Sasha Blouse Ilulu Raven Manami Aiba also with Tsuyu Asui Haruhime Sanjouno The Baroness Demona Mystique Pirotess Lydia Aela the Huntress Serana Mission Vao Curie Ada PAM KL-E-O and Merida

Will Return In

Start at the beginning Pt 5

Coming Soon]