808 Test - Logan and Stark

"Mr. Stark, I just don't understand why you've suddenly taken an interest in me." Logan asked, arms folded. The teen stood by the window of Starks office, staring down into the streets of Fireside City below.

"Let me ask you something, Logan. What do they teach you about the Old World in school?" Jack said, joining Logan at the window. Logan studied the corporate man, his fancy suit, his expensive watch, his confident and almost cocky demeanor. All things that led Logan too have a slight bit of doubt in his trust for the man.

"There were several different Nations, umm, a lot more crime I think? Maybe a lot less? I don't know. I wasn't very good in History class."

"Clearly." Jack said, he turned and walked towards his desk while Logan made a face of sarcastic offense. "What do you know about Old World technology?"

"It was advancing rapidly, I remember that, but the Undead war basically halted it and then regressed it." Logan said, moving closer to the desk, arms still folded.

"What do you think is the most important thing technology brings to the table?" Stark asked. "Actually, let me be more clear. What was so important about technology in the past, and what's so important about it now?"

"I... I don't know." Logan said, annoyed with the pop history quiz.

"In the old world, Technology was the thing that unified the globe. The radio came out and suddenly everyone in town was talking about their favorite radio program, the TV came out and the whole country was getting hooked on the same show, satellites were launched into space and the whole world suddenly knew your country was a big deal, and then the internet came around and suddenly the whole population of the world found itself able to communicate with each other with a few button clicks." Stark exclaimed excitedly. "And then the undead came, and so much was lost. So much advancement was lost. We were regressed several years back and all of a sudden humanity didn't have anything to show for about 40 years of progress, though some of the stuff we lost dated back around 50 or 60 years. So now we're in the Zombie Apocalypse, what is technologies new role?"

"An advantage?" Logan answer-asked.

"Precisely. The more technology you had, the bigger your advantage. Why do you think Fireside did so well? The Regulator prioritized reclaiming and re-utilizing lost technology by whatever means necessary. Researchers and Salvagers worked together for the same goal. Salvagers found the old technology, Researchers re-purposed it. Suddenly, having the best technology gave you the best advantage. And when the world changed, when it came together under one flag, that advantage didn't change."

"Why are you telling me this?" Logan asked, now annoyed by the unwelcome history lesson and showing it in his tone. Jack, a bit disappointed by Logan's lack of enthusiasm, sat back down.

"The Regulator was my great-great-grandfather, as I'm sure you knew."

"You only plaster it too pretty much every StarkTech advertisement you can." Logan said snarkly, Jack simply folded his arms and gave Logan a disappointed look.

"Be that as it may, he was a great man. He wasn't looking to keep his family in political power forever, preferring a democratic system over a dynasty." Jack said, Logan finally sat down, tired of standing and wishing he'd never agreed to a meeting. "But he wasn't dumb either, Logan. Power is power, political or not, and he realized that he couldn't trust all the power of his new nation to the future generations of unrelated strangers. So he founded StarkTech, and he put his son in charge. And that boy, my grandfather, led this company like a champion. The Salvager program, "Urban Reclamation", the Eden Project? Incredible programs that led to the re-discovering of decades of lost technology. And then what did my father do with that technology? Advanced, refined it, furthered it, he led us into the technological age we are in today."

"So what, you want to leave your mark now?"

"Precisely." Jack smiled, "And I think you can help me do it."

"Operation School not enough for you? Or is the public's opinion on Child Soldiers not exactly the glowing recognition you want to be remembered by?"

"Operation School isn't my program. It's not my idea, I just fund it."

"Oh right." Logan remarked sarcastically, "You don't run the program, you just give them the money to do whatever they want."

"And that's beside the point."

"Then what is the point? Why'd you bring me out here for a history lesson." Logan asked in a demanding tone. Jack sighed, stood up, and walked to the window.

"Operation School is a military strategy. The Surge is dangerous, and we need some sort of response capability that our incredibly small non-Operation School military can't provide. But we also need a hero for the people, someone they can look to as their protector, a specific face. Someone they can love and admire. Something Operation School can't be."

"You don't think people will ever accept that program, do you?"

"No." Jack said, "I don't. They may root for a couple soldiers, you know, if there are ever ones who actually save the world or something. But it's kinda hard to convince people that the program turning their 6th grader into a killing machine is a good thing."

"So, what then?"

"I want to fund you, as 808, to continue protecting the common people from crime the way you've already been doing. I want to fund you, and anyone you brought onto your team to fight with you." Jack said, finally making the offer he had been building up too. Logan sat in his chair and nodded his head.

"So, you want to privatize superheroes?"

"Essentially." Jack said, not wanting to dance around the truth.

"But that's not the point. 808 isn't some Bruce Wayne type character who's able to do what he does thanks to money, he's supposed to be someone anyone can be. He's supposed to be me." Logan said, standing up from his seat, "If you passed me by on the street, would you think I was anyone special? I doubt it, especially someone like you. Doubt you would have given me the time of day. But when I'm in costume, saving the day, using frisbee's to knock bad guys on their asses, I'm a hero. I'm giving people hope in a city that's focused on everyone but the people. I'm inspiring people to protect each other, because if that random could-be-anyone teen can protect us, anyone can. And that get's thrown out the windo the second I start using StarkTech and doing commercials for the newest line of whatever." Logan replied. He expected Jack to be angry, and was surprised when the man actually began to laugh.

"Man, how long were you preparing that speech for? I get it your a teen trying to stand up to the man, the evil corporation, whatever. Yes, I want you to use StarkTech and yes, I want to give you the money to do whatever you have too to protect the city. But you got one thing wrong." Jack said, walking towards Logan.

"Oh yeah? What's that." Logan asked, Jack clasped his shoulder.

"I don't want anyone to know about it."