[GLaDOS] Welcome to the jungle.
He was strapped into a suit that usually accelerated the palladium poisoning that was killing him; the only reason it wasn't, this time, was that in the place of the arc reactor he had an unstable cold fusion reactor that was going to overload, causing the reaction to become uncontained and devolve into standard fission.
If you could call a nuclear explosion fission.
He figured a man had to hold on to at least one bad habit.
"All right, Jarvis, where are we at?"
"The reactor continues to generate power at an exponential rate. As it is now, we have minutes before it becomes critical."
"All right," Tony said, opening up the repulsors, accelerating. "Hit it."
"And where do you intend to go, to minimize the risk to the people on the island? No matter where, if there is a nuclear explosion, the fallout-"
"Up," Tony said. "We're going up."
"Need I remind you that the last time-"
"That was the Mark II. We made this one out of alloy they build space stations out of. Past time we tried that out, right?"
Jarvis didn't seem to have much to say to that, beyond flashing a display of how much power was being generated -- a lot -- versus how much he was expending, the force of the climb shaking the entire suit, repulsors flaring in a line behind him. If he'd looked down, he would have seen the two islands shrinking beneath him, the ocean wide and unbroken about them. He didn't. He wasn't a rearview kind of guy.
The reactor was warming in his chest, counterpoint to the colder air around him. No ice, though. Just the thinning air, the lower atmosphere thinning out the rumble of the repulsors. He let out a whoop. He couldn't help himself.
"The reactor is continuing to build-"
"Then give it more!"
Jarvis gave it more. Tony accelerated. Into the atmosphere. Higher.
Into space. Emptiness, all around. Black and open.
"Sir, we have passed the atmosphere. Suit integrity is holding. I would advise not opening the visor to get a better look around. We are currently draining more power than the reactor is generating."
"Shut it down, Jarvis," he said. Almost absently. That issue was dealt with. There'd be enough power left in the reactor, even shut down, for the moment. He had a view to take in.
This, now... this was worth it. He hung there, suspended in the black. As high, he thought, about as high as a man could go. That'd do for a day's work. The reactor hadn't panned out like he'd wanted, but this...
The world beneath him, the curved blue sphere of it-
...this would do for a day's work.
He took a moment. Prepared to descend. And then the proximity sensors went off.
He spun, flared the repulsors, saw the repulsor beam push off something, the interference pattern of one impacting something where there wasn't. "Jarvis, talk to me. What've we got. Other frequencies. Do we have enough atmosphere for sonar?"
Jarvis drew him a picture in the heads-up display. Tony whistled. Someone had been clever. He ran his eyes across the image, searching, there had to be a-
There it was. He flared the repulsors, changed course, found the opening in nothing that the data told him was there.
As he crossed the threshold, it came into existence around him, visible now: the airlock of a space station resolving itself around him. Clean, white panels, smooth lines, almost clinical. Cloaked on the outside, maybe bending the visible spectrum of light, maybe just camouflage. Someone knew what they were about.
The airlock door slid closed behind him. The inner door opened.
And someone knew he was there.
Well, couldn't be rude. "Hello? Anyone home?"
If you could call a nuclear explosion fission.
He figured a man had to hold on to at least one bad habit.
"All right, Jarvis, where are we at?"
"The reactor continues to generate power at an exponential rate. As it is now, we have minutes before it becomes critical."
"All right," Tony said, opening up the repulsors, accelerating. "Hit it."
"And where do you intend to go, to minimize the risk to the people on the island? No matter where, if there is a nuclear explosion, the fallout-"
"Up," Tony said. "We're going up."
"Need I remind you that the last time-"
"That was the Mark II. We made this one out of alloy they build space stations out of. Past time we tried that out, right?"
Jarvis didn't seem to have much to say to that, beyond flashing a display of how much power was being generated -- a lot -- versus how much he was expending, the force of the climb shaking the entire suit, repulsors flaring in a line behind him. If he'd looked down, he would have seen the two islands shrinking beneath him, the ocean wide and unbroken about them. He didn't. He wasn't a rearview kind of guy.
The reactor was warming in his chest, counterpoint to the colder air around him. No ice, though. Just the thinning air, the lower atmosphere thinning out the rumble of the repulsors. He let out a whoop. He couldn't help himself.
"The reactor is continuing to build-"
"Then give it more!"
Jarvis gave it more. Tony accelerated. Into the atmosphere. Higher.
Into space. Emptiness, all around. Black and open.
"Sir, we have passed the atmosphere. Suit integrity is holding. I would advise not opening the visor to get a better look around. We are currently draining more power than the reactor is generating."
"Shut it down, Jarvis," he said. Almost absently. That issue was dealt with. There'd be enough power left in the reactor, even shut down, for the moment. He had a view to take in.
This, now... this was worth it. He hung there, suspended in the black. As high, he thought, about as high as a man could go. That'd do for a day's work. The reactor hadn't panned out like he'd wanted, but this...
The world beneath him, the curved blue sphere of it-
...this would do for a day's work.
He took a moment. Prepared to descend. And then the proximity sensors went off.
He spun, flared the repulsors, saw the repulsor beam push off something, the interference pattern of one impacting something where there wasn't. "Jarvis, talk to me. What've we got. Other frequencies. Do we have enough atmosphere for sonar?"
Jarvis drew him a picture in the heads-up display. Tony whistled. Someone had been clever. He ran his eyes across the image, searching, there had to be a-
There it was. He flared the repulsors, changed course, found the opening in nothing that the data told him was there.
As he crossed the threshold, it came into existence around him, visible now: the airlock of a space station resolving itself around him. Clean, white panels, smooth lines, almost clinical. Cloaked on the outside, maybe bending the visible spectrum of light, maybe just camouflage. Someone knew what they were about.
The airlock door slid closed behind him. The inner door opened.
And someone knew he was there.
Well, couldn't be rude. "Hello? Anyone home?"