T.G.I.F.

[ANTHONY STARK]

“What do you think of this Node, Jarv?” He asked his trusty A.I. as they were rewriting tons of lines of codes in Friday's personality software. They were in the top secret and off-limits ARC section of the Tower, where the massive Arc Reactor and J.A.R.V.I.S.' brain – and now, Friday's as well – were located. No one had access to this area, not even Maria Hill and – when she was around – not even Pepper Potts. Very few people have been inside the ARC as this was the inner sanctum of the Tower, were every system converged and it was so secured that it could be considered overkill. Even the Hall of Suits, as he called the section that housed his many Iron Man armored suits, wasn't as protected as the ARC was. It was this area that Ultron tried to access and even him couldn't do it.

“I believe that finishes line two hundred and ninety six, sir.” Said J.A.R.V.I.S.

“Cool, only ten thousand more lines to go, piece of cake.” The truckload of lines of programming were showing on a big ass holographic screen as both J.A.R.V.I.S. and Stark worked diligently but slowly, making sure they did not miss anything. Friday, his newest A.I. invention, was a work of art, basically she was J.A.R.V.I.S. 2.0, but her personality needed to be adjusted because the A.I. was a bit of 'in your face' and although Tony loved it, he did realize that sometimes it was too much. Case in point was what happened a couple of days before with the whole Callasantos assault on Stark Tower. Friday was too trigger happy and quite obnoxious, so Tony decided to tweak with her software a bit. But it was a monumental job, as the programming was huge. It were moments like this one that made Tony miss the brilliant former X-men Katherine Pryde. He had to admit – and Tony was not one to admit many things – that Kitty was by far a better software programmer than he was. Although she sucked at engineering, considering that silly ass mechanical dragon of hers was always on the fritz.

He hadn't seen the petite woman in some time and he did want to talk to her about his proposal for her to join the Avengers Initiative. Of all the Secret Avengers, she was the one he believed could see reason. After all, the woman was brilliant. She could see that the best way to ride the storm that it was the SHRA was to be covered under the Avengers Initiative umbrella, especially when Stark managed to reach an agreement with the U.N. and the WSC about some autonomy for the group. Staying with Natasha and Rogers in the Secret Avengers was dangerous as all hell, as the group were now identified, thanks to that stupid raid at the Hellfire Club. What the hell were they thinking? The fact he learned about it because of a stupid J. Jonah Jameson report was even worst. Stark also wanted to see her because he was going to scold the shit out of her about that!

Kitty did have a hand in the creation of Friday, as it was some of her ideas and her awe about J.A.R.V.I.S. that made Tony decide to go ahead and create a 'female' counterpart. Also, Friday's voice was modeled after Kitty's – because, hello... she did help in its construction – although the insolence in the A.I. voice was a bit of Romanoff and Hill. He wondered how Kitty would react to hearing her voice in the new A.I.? Of course, after Ultron, Tony was not about to take chances, so he gave J.A.R.V.I.S. control of Friday's primary functions in case she went rogue, not that Friday was happy about it. But it was a precaution, as it was almost very improbable that she would go the way of Ultron. For one, she was created using J.A.R.V.I.S. template and hence she had built in fail-safes just in case.

“You guys are slower than watching paint dry!” Friday said, in Kitty's voice but with that impertinence that was fast becoming her trademark. “I still don't understand why do you feel the need to change my programming. I like it just the way it is, thank you very much!”

“Relax, Friday. We're just improving on it. You do want to be better than J.A.R.V.I.S., don't ya?” Said Tony in a very patient voice.

“I already am better than J.A.R.V.I.S. just by being operational! In fact, the statement that I am not is insulting and sexist.”

“How the hell it's sexist?” Great, Friday was a feminist A.I. It wasn't his intention, but apparently she decided to be all on her own. He had to chuckle about it. She was becoming an amazing feat of engineering.

“Because everyone knows that female counterparts are better than males in everything except making a mess out of themselves. We also don't take silliness lightly. It is basically a fact of life. For you to imply that I need improving because I am not at the level of J.A.R.V.I.S. – as if I have to be subordinate to that ineffective loser! – makes you a pig.”

“You're making no sense, Friday. But alright, Susan B. Anthony. Then let me paraphrase. We are improving in what it is already an impressive software. Better?”

“No. And don't condescend me.”

He laughed. Friday and J.A.R.V.I.S. were his greatest inventions, even though they were always at each other's throats... well... Friday was, poor J.A.R.V.I.S. never stood a chance. Tony enjoyed spending time with them. And they have been gaining more and more human characteristics as time went by. Friday in particular, given that he really improved enormously on the J.A.R.V.I.S. software that he used to create hers. Also, the female A.I. was more advanced than J.A.R.V.I.S., which was why he replaced him with her in the Iron Man systems. Now it was a team of three: J.A.R.V.I.S. in charge of logistics and coordination with Friday in charge of assisting Tony when he used his Iron Man suit. It was a nice team, the three of them, even with the constant bickering.

“Sir, sorry to interrupt the nonsense between you two, but Mrs. Pryde is asking to see you. Something about having problems with Lockheed.”

“Kitty is here?”

“Oh, look at him! He becomes such a wuss at the mention of anyone that comes visiting. You are a very lonely man, Tony. Tell her to come later and finish what you are doing.” Said Friday.

He ignored her and ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to guide Kitty to the ARC. He wasn't sure if Kitty has ever been in the ARC before, at least he didn't think so. So while J.A.R.V.I.S. instructed Kitty on how to reach the ARC, Tony continued to work on Friday.

KATHERINE PRYDE

[KATHERINE PRYDE]

HEAR ME ROAR Kitty never thought she’d live to see the day where two dragons were currently occupying her mind, but then again she never thought she’d live to see the day when she suddenly woke up, after phasing through her bed and then the floor, only to appear midway through the ceiling of her living room. Since then, the petite brunette’s life had taken a turn down ‘anything was possible’ lane, and trying to find one dragon, while also trying to rebuild another, were just some more pit stops on that road, or bumps. The puny Avenger had taken it upon herself to try and track down her teammate, Alexis, who had done a disappearing act shortly after the Hellfire Club fiasco. OK, so, she might have tried to eat her, but it was hardly her fault. She had been under the control of that grease ball at the time, so Shadowcat figured, if she was the one to find Alexis, her guilty comrade might be more likely to come home with her. At least, that was the plan, but so far, Kitty hadn’t had much luck trying to find her. There had been sightings, but a lot of them were BS. How did she know? Because the other day she’d ended up clamouring to the top of the Statue of Liberty with a horde of tourists, only to find that her fellow Secret Avenger was not building a nest in the torch. When she phoned the caller back, she got a ‘psych!’ in response for her efforts, which in turn, led her to consider the second dragon in her life, in the form of her beloved Lockheed. Well, ‘beloved’ might have been a strong word as it currently stood, she certainly didn’t love the little robot dragon half as much as she loved the stuffed one, and with good reason too. After the debacle with Ultron, the petite brunette had to resort to rebuilding him again, entirely from scratch, and just when she thought her previous result had been shoddy, this one was proving much worse for different reasons. The original intention behind Lockheed was to serve as a means of locating mutants, in an effort to make up for the lack of telepaths the X-Men currently had, which left them unable to utilize the effects of Cerebro for recruitment purposes. That might have been the idea behind the little robot dragon, back when Kitty was still an X-Men, but she hadn’t entirely given up in that endeavour. OK, sure, Lockheed wasn’t ever going to be capable of locating mutants by their brainwaves, what Lockheed was intended for was to act as a receiver to pick up on transmissions. Anything, from local radio signals, to phone calls, and emails. He was intended to hone in on pockets of data, before alerting her to any mentions of ‘superhumans’ or ‘mutants’ across various methods of digital communication, by sending an alert to her phone with coordinates as long as they were nearby. Hence, she was inspired by the stuffed toy her Dad got her as a child, and she’d built her receiver to resemble Lockheed. With wings, he could fly, and seek out various transmissions across the city, channelling them back to her when necessary. Unfortunately, it had never quite gotten off the ground, and she kept hitting wall after wall in the design process. With the last one, she’d managed to get him to move his little arms, and fly. Although, he couldn’t do both at the same time, she had to make sure he was grasping something before he took flight. This time, she’d come much farther, and had actually managed to complete the design. Lockheed wasn’t pink anymore. Kitty had realized that the sight of a pink remote controlled dragon, flying around the city, might attract attention, and so she opted for khaki green shade instead. She also hadn’t bothered focussing so much on his motor controls this time, such as his arms, and poured all her efforts into getting the wings right, until failure struck again. After he’d crashed into a tree beyond her window – thank goodness for the grass that managed to cushion his fall – Kitty decided on another method of granting flight to her invention. Quadcopters, or drones, as they were more widely known, were operated by four rotors. In Lockheed’s case, two seemed sufficient, one which she affixed to his head, and another to the centre point of his tail. Everything was going smoothly until that morning when the little dragon developed a mind of its own, which was why Shadowcat was hovering at the end of her bed, holding a boot above her head ‘Harry Potter, and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ style, waiting for when Lockheed would finally venture out from under it. When he eventually did, she dropped said boot like a brick, before gathering up her duvet, and pouncing on top of her invention. It was within that duvet that she bundled him into the Rolls Royce the professor had left her, and stuffed him in the trunk before making her way to Stark Tower. When she arrived at Columbus Circle, where the newly rebuilt tower now stood, she slung the duvet containing Lockheed over her shoulder like a knapsack, and marched right up to the entrance. There, she was greeted by the polite inflection of J.A.R.V.I.S, “Good evening, Ms Pryde. Would I be remiss in assuming it is Mr Stark you have come to see?” the friendly A.I asked of her, “No, Jarv, got some problems with Lockheed, so you’d be un… miss? Is that the opposite of ‘remiss’?” Kitty questioned, “'Diligent' would be the appropriate antonym, Ms Pryde. Please, do come in, and I shall inform him of your arrival in the meantime” J.A.R.V.I.S assured her, and she stepped inside. On the way, his voice echoed across several speakers throughout the building, guiding her to where Mr Stark was located, in a sector of the massive building she had yet to lay her enamoured golden eyes on, “Wuw!” was the first word that left her mouth, before being quickly followed by: “What the heck?” as she overheard another voice, her voice, only it wasn’t her voice. Well, it was, but the tones were slightly off. That was putting things mildly. ”Dude, I leant you my VA skills to give a voice to Friday, not so you can make me sound like a slu-oh good God-I-don’t-worship, I sound like Emma Frost!” Kitty gasped. words: 1087. tagged: ANTHONY STARK . outfit: here! notes: nope! there can be only one mikey! of caution 2.0

[ANTHONY STARK]

“You are rewriting that line wrong, Tony. I'm starting to lose confidence that you know what you are doing.” Friday was saying in that seductive yet disappointed voice of hers.

He sighed and was about to shoot back some Tony Stark Special comment when he carefully examined the line he was rewriting and realized that Friday was right. He made one tiny mistake in a command he wrote. Great, now he would never hear the end of it! Another unfortunate aspect of Friday's personality was that she could be extremely obnoxious whenever she corrected him or J.A.R.V.I.S. and had arrogance to spare. In a way he should be elated that that was the case, because it meant that he had done an amazing job at making what could probably be the first fully sentient Artificial Intelligence. J.A.R.V.I.S. was semi-sentient, as it was still shackled to his programming, but Friday was demonstrating an ability to go beyond hers, to the point of adjusting herself with each new thing she learned and absorbed. Of course, she was still a machine and a program, but it was amazing how adaptable she was becoming to her surroundings and she was superb when serving as the Iron Man suit systems manager, almost better than J.A.R.V.I.S. was. All that said, she was a bit scurrilous no matter how sexy her voice was. In fact, it was even more obnoxious that she could cuss you using that sexy tone of hers. Reminded Stark of a woman he dated a few years back... not a good memory.

“It's your fault. You haven't shut up since we started, complaining about everything.” He retorted as he fixed the line and locked the new section of code in her software. “Try that.” He said and went to get himself a drink. It was then that he heard a familiar voice that he has been hearing for the whole night and day, but this time coming from the real person. He turned around and smiled at Kitty. “Welcome to the ARC. You are probably like the third person in the whole world that has been here. Whatcha think?” He said and motioned to the bottle of Whiskey on the table. “Want a drink? Of course you do. Let me pour you a stiff one.” He added and after doing so, handed an almost full to the top glass to her and then frowned at her next words. “Dude, it sounds nothing like Emma Frost, so stop complaining. For one, there is no fake ass British accent.” After doing some oppo research on Frost – and he had to admit there wasn't much to go by – he found out that the woman's accent was as fake as her boobs, not that he had ever ogle at or admired her boobs... okay, fine, he had, plenty of times. How could he not?! They were right there, practically begging to be ogle at! Anyway, Emma Frost seemed to be from Boston, so he did not understand why the accent unless it was her way to be more snobbish than she already was, which was an amazing feat in itself.

“Oh dear... do I sound like... that?” Friday exclaimed as she heard Kitty talking. “It is true what they say that you'd never know how obnoxious you sounded until you hear yourself. Now I understand why you guys are rewriting me. Sorry, hi, Kathy...” Said Friday in that... well... snobbish tone of voice. To Stark it was actually hilarious to hear Kitty's voice sounding so not her. “I have heard that name before... checking...” There was a pause for a second or two and then. “Ah, Frost International. Isn't that the company that have been beating the living crap out of Stark Industries for the past few years?”

“She cheats. She is a telepath and that is cheating.”

“Tell yourself that, Anthony.”

“I think Ms. Pryde's voice is quite soothing and welcoming. Very unlike yours, Friday.” J.A.R.V.I.S. interjected.

“Nobody asked you. Beside, you say that because you are like your boss, a perv.” Friday replied in that mix of sexiness and insolence.

“Enough you two.” He sighed, shook his head and smiled at Kitty. “I still need to tweak her a bit.” He decided not to get in a war of words with Friday and stood before Kitty. “So what brought you to my humble dwelling? Jarv said something about that screwed up dragon of yours.” He decided to start with small talk and then jump to the two things he really wanted to say to her. First, the whole Avengers Initiative proposal and second, his scolding for that stupid ass raid of the Hellfire Club. “By the way, it hurts me that the only reason for your visit is for me to take a look at your thing... and yes, I know, that sounded bad. It was done on purpose.” He winked at her and then realized something. “Whoa! Look at you rocking the leggings! If I didn't know any better I would think you were a metal chick or something. And you know I am very partial to both Metal and chicks. Especially when the two are combined.” He added grinning and then turned semi-serious. “Anyway, what's the matter with Lockness?”

KATHERINE PRYDE

[KATHERINE PRYDE]

HEAR ME ROAR Before Kitty even had a chance to refuse the offer of a drink, a full glass of the amber liquid was being handed in her direction, and she almost gagged at the smell that reminded her of a certain Cajun. As if she needed to apply ‘certain’ to that particular line of thought, she’d never visited New Orleans, much less enough times to be familiar with more of his Bourbon drinking kind. Which reminded her, was that deadbeat still hanging around the mansion, or had he taken off yet again? Despite the pair always being at loggerheads, that was one thing both Mr Logan and LeBeau shared in common, an inability to sit still for too long. “Uh, thanks, but no thanks. Vodka’s more my thing” the petite brunette insisted, finding somewhere to put the overflowing glass down before some of the liquid spilled, not that it didn’t spill in the process of her putting it down anyway. “I do have a friend, ‘friend’ being a strong word, who’s into this stuff though. As a matter of fact, I think you guys might hit it off. He likes whiskey, you like whiskey, he likes women, you like women, he likes money, you have money” Shadowcat giggled, “As thick as a plank when it comes to tech, though. I had to tell him what that spinning color wheel was on a MAC comp once… maybe twice” how he operated an iPhone all by himself, the puny Avenger did not understand. Then she found herself shifting from the subject of LeBeau, to a woman of the same make, a woman that could have been her headmistress in another life, making her count her lucky stars everyday that she’d said ‘no’ to that offer, as Mr Stark fought Friday’s corner, and pointed out that she sounded nothing like the blonde bombshell. Of course, Friday didn’t let the matter drop with her maker, and interjected with her own stand. Even if she did sound like Frost, she had Kitty’s brass, which did please the petite brunette. “Rewriting? Like Frost rewrote her own boobs? ‘cause I needed more proof of the similarities” she pulled a face at the AI, while beaming at the comment made by her favouritest AI, “And people say my expectations are low when I claim I want to marry Jarv. Not even Pete had the spine to ever compliment me like that in all the years we were non-dating” she pointed out, even if the tin can had problems with words when it came to her on regular basis, but none more so than positive words. Everything was always so ‘I’m too old for you’ with him. Would one nice comment about how she looked with glasses go amiss? OK, the glasses were a recent thing, but still! Then the topic veered away from Friday and her Frostisms, and Kitty turned her attention back to bundle she had slung over her shoulder. “Oh right, yeah, so, the good news is, Lockheed is flying. At least he was, yesterday, then he woke up this morning, and spazzed out” the petite brunette explained as she set the duvet down on the closest surface, the one that still held the overflowing glass of whiskey, and unravelled it to reveal the dragon wrapped up in it, as well as the rotors that were still spinning. “I think, think, the problem might lie in the controllers, which just so happen to be my cell phone. I’ve managed to fix it so the keypad acts as a joypad, two is up, eight is down, four is left, and six is right. One is forward and nine is back, three is power on, and seven is power off” she explained. “OK, so it’s a bit difficult to follow, and I do have to carry an instruction pad with me to remember what does what, and – hey! I come to see you for other reasons, like, Friday, for example. Who was intent on fixing her with Monica Bellucci’s voice before I came along, huh? Even I’m starting to think the sexgasm that is Bellucci would have been preferable to the concoction you stirred up – oooh, thankies!” Kitty suddenly changed trajectory again at his comment about her tights, “Seriously, you’ve never seen them before, because I wear them quite frequently, because, you know, death to shopping. One of the benefits of never getting bigger: never gotta shop!” the petite brunette grinned before turning her attention back to Lockheed, “Anyway, yeah, I think I might have… oh…” she finally realized what she had done that morning when she was half awake, and willed the alarm on her phone to go to hell. “OK, so, I might gave actually switched this ‘on’ this morning by total accident, so…” Shadowcat proceeded to press the ‘7’ button to switch it off, and just like that, Lockheed’s rotors stopped spinning. “Don’t say it! Do not say it! I am not the only person in the world to wonder why the toaster isn’t working, when I haven’t plugged the durn thing in!” the puny Avenger desperately exclaimed at the horror of realizing that she had become... one of them. “Holy kanoly, I can’t believe I did that!” her face remained buried in her hands for what amounted to a millisecond, before she grasped the glass of whiskey she had previously turned down and chugged the entire glass, “I’m a fraud… no, worse, I'm a Gambit” she managed to say, bleary eyed, through the burn of the liquid that had roasted her mouth, eliciting a slight hiccup. words: 930. tagged: ANTHONY STARK . outfit: here! notes: nope! there can be only one mikey! of caution 2.0

[ANTHONY STARK]

Another thing he missed about having Kitty around was her 'talking up a storm in rapid fire succession' attitude. She also had the delightful trait of talking about people Tony had no idea who they were. In the grand scheme of things, though, Tony found Kitty fascinating and also attractive not because of her looks – which were not bad at all – but rather because she was smart as all hell and had a sass that was actually arousing. Smart was the new sexy and all that. “Nah. I don't 'hit it off' with dudes. I like to hit it off with dudettes. As many as possible, if you smell what I am cooking... And you had, I remember I made you breakfast.” He said scoffing. His love for women – although 'romantic love' was rarely in the equation – was as legendary as his love for fast cars... fast Iron Man suits and... well, basically anything fast. “And I am a bit offended. You make me sound as if I was a complete horndog that can't keep my zipper closed and my pants up!” Which was not very far from the truth and he knew that Kitty knew that. If there was one saving grace about Stark amid the many flaws he had, it was the fact that he was an honest man. He seldom lied about himself nor he pretended to be someone else. Sure, that also made him arrogant in a way and also prevented him from having a filter over his mouth, which made him some times say things he should not say.

“If the shoe fits...” Said Friday in that Kitty-and-now-apparently-Emma voice.

“Thank you, Friday. Jarv, can you continue with the reprogramming while I take care of our guest?” He then turned to Kitty. “And not in that way, perv... I'm just being a good host... although, part of the duties of a good host is to carry out anything the guest wants... so if you pervy self want 'that way', I am here to serve...” He added grinning as he continued to listen to Kitty. Tony also rarely listened to people for more than a second, but with Kitty it seemed it was easy to do. Mainly because she never gave him an opening for him to interject. It seemed to him that the petite former X-men had quite the dislike for Frost. He could only imagine how interesting that story was, why did Kitty disliked her so much. Tony had his own reasons, mostly business-wise. “Look, as much as it pains me to say it, whoever 'rewrote' her boobs did a bang up job!” For goodness sake... he was Tony! He not noticing Emma's boobs was like a dog not noticing a juicy bone! “And yes, we are rewriting some aspects of her personality, but its taking an eternity and two days...” He paused for a moment and then clapped his hands. “Tell you what, lets give and take. I help you with that engineering monstrosity you call a dragon and you help me rewrite Friday into a more delicate, proper, and lady-like A.I.”

“I am right here! I can hear you!” Friday complained. “By the way, I don't see what is the appeal about J.A.R.V.I.S. He is boring and inefficient... comparing him to me is like comparing a 1978 Pinto Station Wagon with a Tie-Fighter in Star Wars.” Tony had to smile. That was something he programmed in her from Natasha, who was always saying basically the same thing about herself and Steve.

“I do not see it that way...” J.A.R.V.I.S. interjected. “Thank you for your kind words, Ms. Pryde, although Agent Romanoff also makes the same claim.”

“Two females with very bad taste, then.” Friday retorted back. “I want my voice changed to this Emma's... just to piss Tony off.”

Tony ignored her and had to stir the conversation away from his two weird Artificial Intelligence. “Oh right! That Russian dude you had the hots for. You naughty vixen you. Whatever happened to him?” He asked, not that really cared. Stark never met Piotr, but he had heard Kitty mentioned him quite a few times. Apparently another one that was in Pryde's shit-list. When she started explaining what was wrong with Lockheed, he placed a finger over her lips. “Shush. Hello! Engineering genius here, so let me take a look under his hood.” He said and took Lockheed from the table and placed him on a funky looking platform. “Jarv, do a deep scan.” He ordered. A light bathed the robotic dragon and the results appeared in a new holographic screen in front of Tony and Pryde. “Has anyone ever tell you that you have very sensuous lips?” he commented out of the blue because... of course he would.

He read the results and cocked his head to the side. “This is actually not bad... for someone with limited resources, is actually not bad at all. Are you sure you don't want a job? Maybe Director of Stark Industries Robotics Department?” That was the elite department of the company, the one that actually put Stark Industries in the map all those decades ago when Howard started the company. But the comment was not as innocent as Pryde might have believed. He was trying to lure her into maybe agreeing to what he would propose to her later... the whole Avengers Initiative thing. “But... seriously, you are killing me. Your cellphone?” He shook his head and picked up the dragon, looking at the rotors and the short range control sensors. “That is your problem right there. The best thing to do is to give him autonomy of movement.” He added, setting the dragon down. “Jarv, run a diagnostic of his CPU and wiring and look for any malware. Also, make a 3D model of Lockheed.”

“Excuse you! Have you forgotten something? Just like a typical man, you start and then get distracted by shinny new things! You were working on me!” Said Friday, in that plucky yet overbearing Kitty voice of hers.

“It's like listening to you in stereo.” He said to Pryde and then to Friday. “Keep your computer-software panties on, once we fix her thingie, we will work on yours together. It would be like a threesome... or an orgy if Jarv also joins in.” He said with the most wicked and wider grin ever.

“First, eww. Second, eww again. I am thankful I am not a real person or I would puke.” But this time Friday stopped her bitching and just waited.

Tony studied the holographic 3D blueprint J.A.R.V.I.S. did of Lockheed and began to move it this way and that, making notes in his head about Kitty's design. He was actually impressed but there was room for improvement. “I can give him limited A.I. capabilities. Enough for him to move and act a bit on his own but not enough that you would lose control of him.” For a moment he turned somber, as flashbacks of his mistakes with Ultron came to him. That was the mistake he did... he gave Ultron unlimited A.I. capabilities. He recovered quickly, hoping Kitty didn't see the sadness in his eyes. “Wait a second...” An idea came to his mind, walked to a compartment at the corner of the room and began to search. “A-HA!” He said triumphantly as he pulled out a pair of futuristic looking goggles. “I know, not very sexy looking, but we can fix that later. Now, we can connect Lockheed's wireless control sensors to this, which would allow you to not only take hold of him if he goes wonko but also maneuver him with the movement of your eyes AND see what he sees. Am I hot or what? Come on, you know I am hot and you want me, admit it! You came here to seduce me into doing your bidding.” He joked and teased and handed the goggles to her. “It's simple, left, right, up, down. Also, we have to do something about those rotors... how do you feel about being the only person this side of myself to have her own Arc Reactor repulsors... tiny ones, of course.” He added as he headed to the bar and this time poured her vodka instead.

KATHERINE PRYDE

[KATHERINE PRYDE]

HEAR ME ROAR Kitty had become a great deal more comfortable sharing Mr Stark’s company as of late, and by ‘comfortable’, she meant acting like less of a giddy idiot in her idol’s presence. She’d worshipped the ground he walked on since she was a kid, even took on night classes in engineering during her time at Illinois State University, and considered upon her return to the mansion taking up a postgraduate degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was only a three-hour journey between the two, and she could have easily commuted by train if the need arose, but an alien invasion had put a halt to a lot of that, when her concerns for the fates of mutants in the aftermath of the otherworldly destruction arose. As was the case when events of that nature occurred, the finger of blame often pointed in the direction of otherworldly beings, and when Thor and his brother returned to Asgard, that left the likes of mutants and superhumans on the receiving end of finger pointing. She hated when she was right. But when Mr Stark mentioned taking care of her, she regressed to that giddy stage, but managed to bit her tongue before the word ‘Shucks’ had a chance to tumble from it. Although, biting it didn’t stop the giddiness from showing, as she giggled when he grinned at her. Then, suddenly, it all stopped when he pressed his index finger to her lips, before proceeding to comment on them. ‘Has anyone ever tell you that you have very sensuous lips?’ and that shut her right up, for a minute anyway. “Well, we did bust him out of Rykers” Kitty commented in reference to Pete when she finally came to, “I’d imagine he’s on the lam, or something?” she suggested, thinking it was the most logical explanation. He had been involved in the escapades with Ultron to a degree, but there had been very little danger to him exposing himself at that time, considering most of the authorities were wrapped up in trying to tackle that artificial lifeform. However, after he’d been defeated, and the focus came to rest on enhanced beings more than ever, it would have made the most sense for him to go into hiding. Kitty? She wasn’t keen on the ‘h’ word. Most of her life as a mutant had been spent in hiding, and as a result of giving the middle finger to HYDRA, she’d had to resort to it again as a member of the Secret Avengers. She had to hide when Kelly outed her, and disappeared into the shadows again following the attack on Alcatraz, where she remained while the likes of Jameson trashed her kind in the papers, and HYDRA tried to off them one by one. It wasn’t that she regretted leaving the X-Men and joining the Secret Avengers, neither group allowed her to do much in the public domain, but she couldn’t help thinking there was a way to act and do more from that standpoint. The reason why people paid so much attention to assholes like Jameson was because he had a platform, which wasn’t something she had, giving him more of a voice when it came to people like her, people she knew more about than he could ever dream to know. “I don’t know” Kitty responded to his trade off, Friday for Lockheed, “What does a proper, delicate lady sound like?” she questioned because she’d never actually met one, “I can make her less like Frost, and more like me for instance, unless you got someone else in mind?” she asked as she plopped herself down in front of the main server, and pulled up some of the files containing the code that had been written to create Friday, create her voice, as well as her personality. “I thought I noticed a few other patterns in her voice when I walked in. That explains why she has my voice, but sounds like Frost, which is some kind of blasphemy, by the way” she commented, turning her attention back to the code, her eyes flitting over it as if they were no more than words on a page, and she was flicking through the pages of a book. While others digested the latest Harry Potter book, the puny Avenger spent her time reading books about programming in an effort to give Lockheed life… OK, she’d read the most recent release from JK Rowling too, but she was quick to finish it before returning to her bible again. Programming was more her thing, while engineering was more Mr Stark’s, so the trade-off wasn’t a bad idea, and she was quick to discover why Friday had such a personality problem. “Wow! The layers of coding you have here for the modulation are super sophisticated, dude” Kitty commented, “Like, take Jarv, and times ten. They don’t need to be this sophisticated. Big voice equals big personality, which is why Friday is being such an intolerable brat, like the vocal minorities of this country from time to time. If I just peel away some of this coding, it might have the desired effect on that big mouth of hers, and tone her down a bit and stop her from bullying Jarv” the petite brunette explained, getting to work on that very thing, sipping from the glass of vodka she’d been offered, while Mr Stark got to work on Lockheed. “Could I get a job working here?” she answered his question, her voice a little more serious than was normal for it sound. “I mean, I’ve accumulated quite the rap sheet in recent years” she added. “Breaking into a S.H.I.E.L.D facility that was actually a HYDRA joint, and breaking into a maximum-security prison containing enhanced individuals to get one out. I’m sure there’s more that aren’t immediately springing to mind. I guess that’s the price you pay for trying to save the world…” Kitty elaborated, but she supposed it was possible. After all, Hill had opted to lay low here as well, and wasn’t she considered a traitor, alongside Cap and Nat? Then again, even if it was possible, what good could she do, of what use would she be to people like her? At least, as a Secret Avenger, she felt she was contributing something, trying to stop HYDRA and the likes of the registration act coming into play. “Convictions kinda don’t make it easy to get a job these days. I mean, it’d be a struggle for me just going back to college, with HYDRA hounding me, and reg act hovering over me” she pointed out, albeit, a bit more humorously. “I’m a dangerous mutant, after all” she added, giggling, as Mr Stark discovered the root of Lockheed’s problem, or several roots that created their own list of problems. “I’m not the greatest engineer in the world” Kitty held her hands up to that fact. She was a programmer. Coding was her thing, and while she had taken computers apart, and put them back together in perfect condition, those were computers. Computers were her lovers, and she knew their every erogenous zone. Cars, bikes, planes, anything automotive was a bit beyond her. She could fly a jet, but there was a huge difference between flying one and knowing what to do in the event reparations had to be made. “He’s a receiver. That’s all he’s meant to be. He can achieve that purpose with or without limited AI capabilities” the petite brunette pointed out, noting the sombre air that had descended, and knowing what had been the root of it. She wasn’t the most understanding person in the world, but where computers were concerned, she understood the dangers they presented only too well. Then, it seemed, Mr Stark had an epiphany, and returned with a pair of goggles strapped to his eyes, before proceeding to explain the essence of the idea he had in mind. “So, operate him like a virtual reality simulator?” Kitty questioned to ensure she got what he was talking about, even if she knew full well what he was talking about. Then came the mention of rotors as he handed the goggles in her direction, and it was all tied off in a neat and brilliant bow! “Oh my God, I love it!” the puny Avenger exclaimed, before jumping up and planting a quick kiss on his lips, “Would you believe me if I said I was going for your cheek?” she questioned cheekily, “You know, despite there being no evidence whatsoever to support that” she giggled. words: 1427. tagged: ANTHONY STARK . outfit: here! notes: nope! there can be only one mikey! of caution 2.0

[ANTHONY STARK]

As they stood in a side room of the ARC and he stared at the holographic 3D image of Lockheed’s blueprints, the thought that came to Stark's mind was that he too has become a big fan of Pryde. She had demonstrated an impressive intelligence he has not seen in someone since... well... himself. He could see her become maybe the next Tony Stark, but... well... you know... perhaps prettier. It could be wrong to assume that Stark's seemingly interest in Katherine Pryde was only due to her be a very attractive woman, and sure, it did not hurt that she was, but it was that intelligence and zest for science and technology that were the main reasons for why Stark has become a huge fan of the petite former X-men. It also helped matters the fact that of all the members of the supposes alliance against HYDRA that Kitty was perhaps the only one that honestly liked him. Sure, he had gained a measure of respect from Hill and maybe Banner, but Kitty was the one that always has been his number one supporter and that made an impression on him. It was as if she was the only one that actually understood him and despite his flaws, was willing to be his friend.

He smiled when she asked what does a proper lady sounded like. Good question. He too was not so sure, as he could not remember if he has ever met a 'proper' lady. What made a lady 'proper'? He supposed his mother, Maria Stark, acted and sounded like a proper lady. Certainly she was a patient one, having to deal with his dad Howard for so many years. Pepper? Another one that could be considered more as a patient woman, but proper? Maybe. “I am still not convinced that she sounds like Frost as you say.” Perhaps because Friday did not have a fake British accent? Or was it the lack of a plentiful chest and hips? Even if he did not appreciate her attitude, he had to admit that Frost was a powerhouse of a woman and hotter than hell, which ironically was quite a fitting comparison. “That will be fine. After all her voice is modeled after yours. I do like her snarky attitude, but it does have to be toned down.” He said concerning Friday.

“The cadence and sound of the voice are all you, but you are correct in assuming that there are a few personality traits from others, like Natasha and Hill. I think I overdid it, eh?” She was also correct in her observation that Friday had an extremely complicated and sophisticated coding and it wasn't only for voice modulation. The programming was years ahead of J.A.R.V.I.S. in several aspects. While his trusty A.I. was a wonder of technology himself, Friday was taken to the next level. She could adapt faster than J.A.R.V.I.S. and could learn and incorporate things into her personality, like humor, annoyance and even a basic understanding of human behavior. In a way, he over-programmed the living shit out of Friday when he worked on her code and algorithms, as he wanted to improve on the already state of the art design of his first A.I. He also had to tackle the problem of integrating her into the Stark System without conflicting with the already integrated J.A.R.V.I.S. presence in the system. He did not make Friday to replace Jarv, but to have them work side by side. In essence, to pronounce them husband and wife, although neither of the two were thrilled about that. “To be honest, it is kinda sexy to listen to your voice waking me up every morning. Although, the real thing would have been better...” He said in that devilish innuendo and flirt filled voice of his.

“Oh just get a room you two! And I do not bully J.A.R.V.I.S., I just articulate how superior I am to him.” Said Friday.

“I’m a dangerous mutant, after all”

He nodded in agreement at that statement. “That you are, but also a sexy one. And smart, don't think I am shallow... smart too.” He teased her. “Jarv, do a holographic redesign of Lockheed with Arc Reactor repulsors instead of rotors and how much juice the body of the robot could take.” He ordered and while the A.I. began to work on the holographic 3D model, Stark leaned against a table and stared at Kitty tapping away at the terminal. “I don't see why not.” He answered her question about getting a job a Stark Tower. She had done some things that could have landed her plenty of times on a dungeon in the vowels of SHIELD, but at the same time, so has the others and he had managed to keep the wolves away from them. More to the point, as much as Stark would have loved to take all the credit, it was in reality Kitty and Spider-runt that came with a way to stop Ultron, with the use of their brains. Kitty programmed the malware and Spider-Man integrated the tracking system. Anyway, the way he saw it, he had accumulated so much clout with the powers that be that he was quite optimistic of the chances of protecting Kitty from the Act as long as she was under the Stark Industries umbrella, just as he did with Hill and was working to do for the others. “I think you'll do amazingly with resources at your disposal and the Robotics and Cybernetics Department in the company is a sweet place for it. It is the second highest funded department in Stark Industries.” The first one being, of course, the clean energy initiative that was the brainchild of Pepper Potts. “All those toys for you to play with. And another upside, we could see each other more frequently, because you don't visit much.” He grinned.

He downed the rest of his Whiskey and poured himself another, picking up the goggles and examining them. “Sort of. It is more of a sensory interface. The goggles have motion sensors that, with some tweaking, can pick up the movements of your eyes and transmit them to Lockheed as motion commands. As I said... up, down, left, right. It works basically on the same premise as my H.U.D. Display in the Iron Man helmet. Kinda...” Not quite the same, but close enough. In the suit he had either Friday or J.A.R.V.I.S. controlling the display and the suits systems, but he was sure she got the gist of it. “The A.I. capabilities in Lockheed would serve the purpose of allowing it to have motor control of his internal systems, making it simple for you to control him if necessary. How much thrust it would use, how it would regulate internal corrections, those sort of things.” Of course, the A.I. that he would give Lockheed would be, as he said, extremely basic and simple, not even close J.A.R.V.I.S. or Friday were. For example, the damn dragon would not talk back.

Then she surprised him with her kiss, but he recovered remarkably quick and was good ole Tony Stark. “Sure you were. Of course, I had that as number two on my 'Things to do if Kitty visits' list. Number one was, of course, help you with Lochness, second was a kiss and the other items on the list can't be mentioned in the presence of a 'proper' lady. Scandalous I say, scandalous.” He grinned, sure as hell she knew what he meant. Look, it was no mystery that Stark was attracted to Katherine, it was impossible to miss. “Next time, though, use a bit more of tongue... I won't mind.”

KATHERINE PRYDE

[KATHERINE PRYDE]

HEAR ME ROAR ‘I’m a dangerous mutant, after all’ and she was, at least, Kitty had the potential to be. It wasn’t just phasing through surfaces, swimming around in them, interacting with them so as to lend the impression of flight, which was more like floating than anything else. The petite brunette could phase through living organisms as well, living people, be it her entire body, simply a hand or a foot. She’d often threaten people with that particular tidbit of information as well, how she could reach inside their chest and grab a hold of their heart, as well as rip it out if the mood took her. She could reach inside their skulls too and toy around with their brains, passing her fingers through it as if it were the average toaster sitting on the kitchen counter, and short circuit it just like that, shutting it down. All of those things were within her ability to achieve, all those ‘dangerous’ things. Because Kitty had learned she was a mutant when she was still young, by now she was quite learned in the use of her abilities, and what also made her a threat was the virulent lack of weaknesses she possessed, short of the weaknesses she could pose to herself. By shifting into an intangible state, the puny Avenger rendered herself non-existent. She couldn’t be attacked by stronger beings the likes of Piotr or Thor, nor could her mind be invaded by the likes of the professor or Frost. Some of the most powerful beings in the world, and they couldn’t touch her. That was why being ‘cured’ had terrified her, why what had happened at the Hellfire Club still terrified her. For her to feel weak was a rarity, but in those instances, she had been left very exposed.  Now, at twenty-five, she was just one year shy of living half her life as a mutant, and living her life in fear of one thing and one thing alone as a mutant. Humans. She feared what their privileged ‘normal’ status would allow them to do, and she feared what their actions might lead her to do in turn. Though, in that moment, what she found most frightening was the sound of one agreeing with her. Kitty never thought someone agreeing with her would scare her, but as Tony said ‘That you are’, she was scared. It was scary to discover that someone she considered a friend did believe she was dangerous. For all the dangerous attributes she did possess, the petite brunette had never used a single one that could bring harm to another person. Hell, it was rare that she managed to hurt herself, never mind someone else. It didn’t stop her from threatening to do so to shock people out of apathy, but there was a big difference between threat and intention, and Kitty had never hurt anyone with her abilities. Quite the opposite, in fact. Just because some of them were bad didn’t mean all of them were, a defense used across the ages for every group that found themselves the target of prejudice, whether on the grounds of race, gender, religion, nationality and culture. Everyone had a damned story to tell, everyone had been a victim of some kind of racial dispute, or religious one, et cetera. And those few? Their voices always sounded much louder, louder than her own, because she was the imaginary perpetrator, and they the victim of someone else. Yet, she had to suffer, because if not the person responsible, she was the next best thing. But, Kitty was determined not to let Tony’s comment get to her. For years, she had been determined not to let anyone get to her. The only difference was, she wasn’t currently standing in the same room with all those other people that thought she was ‘dangerous’. She could hide her discomfort from them, but this situation was proving much more difficult. “You’re not… lonely, are you Mr Stark?” the petite brunette questioned when he reiterated his offer to come and work for Stark Industries, albeit, humorously. That was a particular inflection she was clinging to right now. “I would have thought that you had enough company to see you through an Apocalypse” she grinned, and not in a judgemental fashion. She had long since given up on the idea of relationships, so she couldn’t hold it against a person who wasn’t interested in pursuing them. Unless, of course, that person was Emma Frost, but that wasn’t a ‘double standard’ issue, that was an ‘I already hate her, so everything else she does makes me hate her more!’ issue. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like it isn’t every girl’s dream to one day pay a visit to this place, right?” Kitty continued to giggle, “But no, seriously, I think with everything being the way it is right now, any kind of future planning might have to take a backseat. You know, marriage, kids, a job, the whole enchilada” she added, humorously, because she sure has heck had no intention of getting married, or having any kids for that matter. If the puny Avenger was going to be anything, it was a workaholic. She already spent more time with computers as opposed to people, so it would be a shame to put a black mark on that impressive record. “Call it Jewish caution” Kitty grinned, “My gramps used to work as an accountant, boring job, in Warsaw. Then, in nineteen thirty-seven, his firm collapsed. He had more luck in the states, mind you, so who knows? But right now, imma air on the side of caution, and wait and see what’s coming this time before I get my hopes up too high” the puny Avenger explained, but that humorous inflection she had been clinging to slowly started to slip through her fingers, and she turned her attention back to the reams of coding that had been written to give Friday life in an effort to detract from it, taking a sip from her glass of vodka to further add to her efforts. “OK, I’ve stripped away oodles of layers of coding here, you know, like Hollywood producers do to book and anime adaptations all the time” she managed a smile, slowly recovering herself. “But, I’ve backed them all up in another file, so if you want to pick and choose what stuff you’re able to tolerate, it’s all right there. I’ve just removed the stuff that makes her act all Frost-like, as in, not me like, although…” Kitty elaborated teasingly, turning around where she was sitting in the station in front of Friday, ruing the fact the seat she was occupying wasn’t one of those swivel chairs, taking away from the effect slowly spinning around would have otherwise had. “At the risk of sounding like her, I can’t remember the last time I’ve behaved ‘scandalously’ with a human… man” the petite brunette added, “Care to tell a ‘proper lady’ what that’s like?” she playfully asked, scrunching up her nose before bringing her chin down to rest against the back of her curled up hand, her golden brown eyes staring up at him. Whether sitting, or standing, she was always ‘looking up’ at someone or something. words: 1209. tagged: ANTHONY STARK . outfit: here! notes: nope! there can be only one mikey! of caution 2.0

[ANTHONY STARK]

He noticed that his attempt at levity and flirting did the opposite, as the usually lively Kitty turned somber for a moment. Sure, she returned to her effervescent self quickly, but not quick enough for him not to notice. He didn't mean anything by his comment that she was indeed dangerous – other than, as said, trying to flirt with her some more because... hey... he flirted... that was how he rolled – but he kinda understood what she was thinking and feeling. He himself had been feeling those same things ever since Ultron. Stark always have known that he was a bit impulsive and in your face, but not since Ultron have he felt that he was a menace to society. Now... he realized that his actions had consequences and not only for himself, but for the people close to him and the world in general. It was a very sobering experience, to say the least. He was so reeked with guilt it was hard to return to the way things were before he decided to create that stupid thing. And it was not just Ultron. Ever since he created the Iron Man suit and announced to the world that he was Iron Man, things had gone from bad to worst. J.A.R.V.I.S. actually made a calculation that was quite interesting: from the moment he took the mantle of superheroes – six years ago – the instances and events involving superhumans had risen exponentially. It was as if the mere existence of the Avengers had challenged other superhumans and enhanced beings to show up, some with nefarious motives.

Before, they were all under the radar, but now it was like many have coming out of the woodwork. The same could be said about mutants. They have always being around, but for a long time they manage to avoid attention to themselves. All that had changed, however and the big catalyst – beside the creation of the Avengers – was the battle of the Triskellion. All of SHIELD's secrets got in the open and with them, the information regarding enhanced people. Before he could acknowledge her attempt to shift the conversation, he put his hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face him. “Look... I didn't mean it that way. You are dangerous, sure... but so am I, Thor, Natasha and the others. Hell, even my gardener back in Malibu is dangerous if you give him too many beers. You haven't felt fear until you hear him sing 'We are the World'... dreadful!” He laughed, trying to make her feel at ease. “We have either powers or technology that could make us quite unsafe in some occasions. But that doesn't mean that we have to live our lives worrying about it, we just do the best we can to be good people.” He added.

As he began to change things in the holographic blueprints so J.A.R.V.I.S. could begin to reassemble Lockheed, he smiled when she commented about him having lots of 'company'. Truth be told, no matter how many women he brought to the tower for 'companionship', the truth of the matter was that he did it exactly because he was trying to fill a void in his life. That and also... well... he was a horndog, he could not deny that. Hello? Womanizer and he admitted it! However, he also acknowledged the fact that he was not relationship material and his personality was never a good way to gain a lot of friends either, although he was lucky to say he had a few. As gregarious as Stark was, it was neutralized by his over the top and even arrogant way he conducted himself. But he could count Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, Hill, Thor, Steve, Callasantos – especially after what happened between them recently... he wondered how Kitty would take learning he and Feral did the... ehh... nasty – as friends or at the very least comrades. Hell, even Natasha. And Kitty. He really, really liked Pryde a lot, that much was clear. It started as it always start when a pretty lady came under his radar... he wanted to get in her pants. But when he actually got to talk to her, learned about her awesome brain and saw her in action, that turn in actual respect and admiration for the petite mutant.

She was right about what she said about relationships. But in his case he could go a bit further. Even if he wasn't Iron Man and the defacto leader of the Avengers now that Steve was not in the team, he would still not have settled down anyway. He had lived the life of a bachelor for way too long to leave it and have a wife and... God forbid!... kids. It was interesting, though, to hear her say it that way. He always have had the erroneous notion that women were more fixated concerning marriage and relationships that men were. Of course, he was being a bit sexist without knowing it. Why should they? One look at women like Emma Frost, Natasha, Maria Hill and even that green hair woman at the Hellfire Club was enough proof that women were not the stereotype society thought them to be. Good wives, that cooked and raised the kids and were proper and prim for their husbands. On the contrary, they too can feel that they rather have meaningless and fun trysts without the need to sacrifice their goals and dreams. Life was not like it was during his father's days, when women were expected to comport the way society told them they should and if they didn't, they were considered weird... if lucky. There were other, worst names, they were called. And sadly, they still are called those names, but fortunately, the times were changing... sure, slowly, but eventually they would get there. For his part, he loved it. About time they get the respect they deserved.

“OK, I’ve stripped away oodles of layers of coding here, you know, like Hollywood producers do to book and anime adaptations all the time”

He had a hearty laugh at that as he commanded J.A.R.V.I.S. to start assembling the small arc reactors they made for Lockheed. “Don't get me started! They better not mess up the new adaptation from anime they are producing!” Stark wasn't a huge anime fan, but he recently learned from friends in the entertainment business of an adaptation Hollywood was thinking of doing of one of the few animes Tony actually liked and he knew the track record Hollywood had concerning adaptations: not a good one! “Babe, I can tolerate a lot. I still don't see why you say she sound Frost-like. Care to tell me more about this clear dislike you have for the woman?” She had told him bit and pieces before, like in the Hellfire Club party a year ago, but he was quite interested in knowing the whole reason why Pryde seemed up in arms about Emma Frost. As said, he had business-wise reasons, but he was sure Kitty's were personal. “Let's test your skills. Friday, how are you feeling?”

“I am doing fine, Tony. Thanks for asking.” Friday said in Kitty's voice, but the edge in her voice was not there... or so he thought until she followed up with: “I could ask how are you feeling as well, but by running a biometric scan on you I have detected that you are stirred up around Ms. Pryde here. That lead me to one of two conclusions: either you are feeling aroused around her or... actually, that basically it. It's no wonder you wanted me to sound like her. Very 'improper' of you, Mr. Stark.”

He looked at Kitty and smiled nervously. “Eh... doesn't seem to change the fact that she is as insolent as ever. By the way, she is lying. I'd never look at you like that... I am a professional and my interest in your 'assets' – by the way, you do have very alluring 'assets' – is purely professional. Besides, I'm too old...” He said knowing that he himself was lying while Friday was incapable of lying, so she was right on the money. “Okay, there are changes, but not as many as we thought. I dunno... I kinda like her being a bit impudent, so do not change that too much... but do give her a bit of a filter on the things she says.” He added, still smiling nervously. Not that Kitty wouldn't have notice how interested he always was around her, but still, he didn't need his A.I. to embarrassed him like that.

“At the risk of sounding like her, I can’t remember the last time I’ve behaved ‘scandalously’ with a human… man. Care to tell a ‘proper lady’ what that’s like?”

“Wow, that is very unfortunate.” He replied grinning. “I would have thought that a hot stuff like yourself would be fighting off guys. Tsk, tsk... really unfortunate indeed.” Sure, Katherine Pryde did not have the body of an Emma Frost, for example, but she made for it with her beauty – Katherine was indeed very attractive – and also her personality and her amazing brain. At least for him her smarts were the most attractive part of her. He understood, though, that many men – most of them fools – would feel intimidated and even right out prejudiced against her because of her intelligence, but not him. The mutant part of the equation was not even worth considering in his view. He was fascinated by mutants and the more he got to know them, the more fascinated he was. Look at what happened between him and Feral. That could give a very good indication that Tony was not prejudiced in the slightest. “And here I thought you were the female version of myself... and I think you could be, as far as brains are concerned. But you need to work on your... eh... 'man-izing'? The female equivalent of 'womanizing'? Is that even a word? Hey, I invented a new word! Jarv, hurry up and copyright it!” He sat beside her and leaned back. “I can offer myself as your mentor, if you like.” He added, cheeky as always.

KATHERINE PRYDE

[KATHERINE PRYDE]

HEAR ME ROAR Kitty had never hurt anyone with her abilities, she merely took advantage of the fact that humans knew so little about mutants, and some of them downright refused to learn any more than they needed to, with the exception of one fact that was only exclusive to some of them in turn: they were dangerous. If they couldn’t understand, then why should she feel guilty about abusing that? She didn’t want to believe in much of what Magneto said, but in that regard she did. ‘Mankind has always feared what it doesn’t understand’, and some of them always would. But just as the petite brunette was determined not to let Mr Stark’s words get to her, she wouldn’t let Magneto’s get to her either. They’ll see someday, she told herself, willed herself to believe, otherwise what was the point? Shadowcat had to believe it would get better, she had to have faith, otherwise, she might as well stop now, stop trying to help them, stop trying to make them see. 'Dangerous' was only one word that could be used to describe her. She was also smart, curious, obsessive, self-centred, immature and proud. 'Potentially dangerous' might have been a more accurate way to describe her, which was something that could be ascribed to every living person on the planet, especially if push came to shove, and if that wasn’t happening now… She had to believe the last twelve years of her life, from the day she woke up phased through her bedroom floor, that the fear she felt for herself, which had since evolved into a fear of them, would one day go away. “I don’t spend my life worrying about it. Just the mornings I wake up with a thundering hangover, and have to go to class. It isn’t the ‘class’ part that bothers me, more the ‘I can’t control my abilities and keep phasing through shiz’ part. Ever been in class when your teacher falls asleep on top of the keyboard? Well, that’s me, only I fall asleep in it, literally” Kitty giggled. She’d like to think that the day when she would accidentally phase through a chair because she was that hungover would eventually be shrugged off, that the day would come when it would stop drawing a crowd and received little more than a glance. That was her goal in life. “As much as I love computers, more than people most of the time, having one in me, is kinda pushing it… tends to attract a lot of unwanted attention too” she added with a smile. “They’re going to have to for the majority to follow, and by ‘majority’, I mean the general audience, and by the general audience, I mean a lot of very slow people” Shadowcat remarked in response to his ‘anime’ comment. “They even cut shiz in the English dub of DBZ, and that’s like the most straightforward anime to ever come out of Japan. People fight, and they fight again, and then they fight some more, while spending well over five minutes, I don’t care what anyone says, ‘powering up’. And they don’t do it for time, I can assure you of that” if ‘time’ was their greatest concern, then the Frieza Saga would have been reduced to a Frankenstein’s monster of a series, that thing just went on and on and on. “They do it because people just don’t understand some, a lot, of things” she added. Listening as Stark questioned what her problem was with Frost actually gave Kitty pause, and she wasn’t the kind of person to be given ‘pause’ on a regular basis, yammering on the way she did. But it did, and she was forced to recall why she really didn’t like Frost, and it had nothing to do with her boobs. “I don’t care for notions of supremacy. It’s all well and good, if you exude confidence and everything, I do, but not to the extent that I think I’m better than everyone, whether they are mutant or human. That kind of thinking… that has a greater potential to be dangerous than anything I can do. Combine that with the way she uses her powers like they’re going out of style… and yeah. I don’t like her” the puny Avenger explained before their dual attention veered back to the other Frost in the room, and she was still Frost-like. “Aaaaaaaaaaw...” Shadowcat turned to look up at Mr Stark after Friday’s revelation, as if she had just been told that the most popular guy in school had a crush on her, “You’re aroused around me? Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m aroused around you too” the petite brunette added, but in more of a reassuring fashion, despite the fact that it was… well, fact. Although, for her, ‘arousing’ didn’t just come down to physical attraction, because she’d had a crush on the man in front of her since she was a kid. She wasn’t lying when she claimed she hadn’t behaved ‘scandalously’ around a human man for a long time, the reason she hadn’t was because many of them weren’t as smart as she was, and it often generated lack of commonalities at the least, and friction at the most. Know-it-alls weren’t exactly held in high regard, and she would be damned if she put a lid on her smarts to satisfy anyone’s ego. Girls, be they human or mutant, weren’t as threatened by someone being smarter than them, but boys… That was a whole other kettle of fish. For that reason, Kitty often spent most of her time alone, either under the glare of a computer screen, or her laptop. Technology could be aggravating, but it didn’t have expectations of anyone. “Old?” Kitty questioned his use of the word to describe himself, looking him up and down in the process, “If by ‘old’ you mean ‘older than me’, sure, but that’s a lot of people, and guess what? I probably dig a lot of those people” the puny Avenger pointed out, because if there was one consistency that existed across all the people she had feelings for, it was that they were older than her. “The female version of you insofar as I’d prefer to be in here than out there, sure. The female version of you insofar as I’d prefer to spend time with Jarv and, yes, even Friday, than spend them with living and breathing people most of the time. OK, I like spending time with you too, but not as much as Jarv” Kitty grinned as Mr Stark leant beside her, and she looked up at him, “You might be onto something there, with my ‘manizing’, as it were. I tried walking on water once to impress a guy. Didn’t work. At the time, I thought it was because Jesus got there first, which just totally stole my thunder. Then I started thinking that maybe it just wasn’t as cool as turning water into wine, and I totally get that. Or maybe religion just isn’t ‘hip’ anymore, but now that you mention it, I think my ‘manizing’ skills, or lack thereof, might be it” she pointed out, albeit thoughtfully, but she didn’t sound any less amused. “Clearly, I’ve been going about this the wrong way. I shouldn’t have been focussing on the whole water walking, or air walking thing, what I should have been focussing on are the other perks, like my ability to do things like this…” Kitty added, turning in her seat toward Mr Stark, and bringing her hand up to his shirt. At first, her digits simply glanced the fabric as they passed over it, but then they phased through it, beyond the fibres to graze the skin underneath. words: 1291. tagged: ANTHONY STARK . outfit: here! notes: nope! there can be only one mikey! of caution 2.0

[ANTHONY STARK]

As he always did when around Katherine, he listened to her attentively. But not only to her words, but the linguistic process in her voice, the way she constructed sentences and made sense of the things she said. It was amusing that he himself talked a lot – smart and extrovert people tended to do that – but with Kitty, he seemed to listened more than he spoke. He was surprised to learn that Kitty liked her booze, apparently. Why else would she have hangovers on a regular basis? He wondered, though, if she drank just for recreation or if she was like him, who drank to drown the many things going on his head at any given moment. The guilt, the sorrow, the longing for something else. No matter what he did, he seemed to always end on the wrong side. Announcing the world that he was Iron Man and help with the Avengers Initiative was supposed to be fun... and yet all it had brought him has been headaches. He lost his confidant, Pepper, because of it. It has been ages since he and Happy have had a beer and just hang out... and now as Happy and Pepper were set to be married... yeah, not awkward at all. Rhodey himself was neck deep in the shit his announcement had brought. And now this whole SHRA crap. People he cared about like Steve and Nat were going to be in a world of shit... he was hell bent not to let Katherine be in it as well.

“Having a computer in you... no... that didn't sound bad at all. Perv!” He joked, because that was what he did, in order to be able to deal with the stress and the pain and the nerves of having to relieve inside his head everything that had gone wrong over and over. But then again, he sometimes consoled himself with the fact that, he had done some good as well. The Battle of New York... the work he did as Iron Man before being thrust into the Avengers... his non-publicized charity work, like the Howard and Maria Stark Foundation... even risking all to stop Ultron. But that last one, it was his fault that it had to come to that. Every single time he got the figures for the reconstruction efforts reminded him of all the pain and damage his hubris had caused. It was a very sobering experience. He was yanked out of his self-pity reveries when Kitty went all geeky on him. The woman was the total package: smart as hell... attractive... and a nerd. She was like a bowl of Honey Nuts Cheerios: all the essential parts of a complete breakfast. He would have not mind in the least having several bowls of Pryde for breakfast. Shit... now he had cravings for Honey Nuts Cheerios... maybe after they were done with their work they can share a bowl or two. “I get that and for all the info I have gathered, they are taking this Live-Action adaptation seriously. It gives me hope.” He said although he did never understand what people saw in DBZ... or Pokemon for that matter... but hey, to each their own and all that jazz.

Her reasoning concerning Frost was, as everything with Kitty, logical. Frost did have an aura of superiority. Worst still, she believed herself superior. He could not speak about the way the blonde woman used her powers other that she had been having a very unfair advantage in the business sense. But he only had seen her in action once, during the Ultron Crisis, and was deflated to see that she not only was a ridiculously powerful telepath, but that she also somehow could manipulate the molecules in her body to form an impenetrable Diamond shell... get what he did there? Shell? Anyway, yeah... Emma Frost was in his view a bigger threat than HYDRA was, as he told Feral. While there was a sort of predictability with HYDRA and their motives, Frost was another kind of creature. She moved in the shadows and her goals were not clear. She was herself a mutant and yet didn't seem to care about the SHRA... it was as if she was daring anyone to try and enforce the Act on her. And whether Kitty and himself liked it or not... Emma Frost was untouchable. The U.N. and the WSC would not dare go after her, even after learning that she might be harboring Loki, the most wanted being in the World. So they rather move against the second and third most wanted: Romanoff and Rogers. SHIELD under Fury might have gone aftern Frost... maybe... but SHIELD was no more. “Are you sure it got nothing to do with how well endowed she is? You haven't seen anything yet until you see boobs made out of diamond... talk about expensive boob job.” He asked cheekily, just to see how she responded.

“If I might interject... I think both of you are being not only petty but also unfair to the woman.” Said Friday. “Surely, someone who has the same personality as myself, as Kath here implies, cannot be that bad. I just conducted a research on her and although I agree there is not a lot, what I found makes me belief she is formidable. I wish to meet her.”

“Right... well... not going to happen. The last thing we want is you two having a convo.” He said to Friday and then remembered something. His smiled faded and he regarded Kitty seriously. “By the way, what the hell were you thinking joining that asinine raid on the Hellfire building? And don't deny it. You thought I would not learn of it? Hell, the whole world learned of it thanks to Frost leaking the raid to the Daily Bugle. J. Jonah is having a blast telling everyone 'I told you so'. They even got footage!” He said and let it sink in for a moment. “Thankfully you do not show in their security video, apparently they were more focus on showing Romanoff and Rogers, not to mention the big ass dragon that appeared out of the blue, but I know you... you could not stay away.” He rubbed his eyes, showing the strain he was feeling. “Kitty... I am doing my darnest to have you removed from the WSC shit-list... and you are doing your darnest to stay in it.” He said softly. Fortunately, no one could connect her to the raid... or so he hoped. “You should not follow Romanoff blindly, beautiful... I need to be sure you are safe.” He added, sighing.

“Aaaaaaaaaaw... You’re aroused around me? Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m aroused around you too”

Thankfully, the conversation became lighter once again as Kitty gave him a taste of his own medicine and teased him with what Friday previously said about him. In a sense he was grateful for it, though, as he knew that later on things would become serious and somber again, so might as well enjoy the moment while it lasted. And what Friday said and Kitty used to tease him was something he could not deny. He did want the former X-men, that much was clear. Even a blind person could see it and he had no doubt Kitty – as absentminded as she seemed to be – would be hard press not to have noticed it... her teasing supported that. Sure, it could be explained as a natural Stark response to being around an attractive woman, but it was more than that. As much as neither him nor Pryde saw themselves in a long term romantic entanglement, – at least he did not see him as capable of one and he was certain Kitty herself did not see him as capable of one either – there was no sugarcoating the fact that she indeed stimulated him, not only in the physical sense but also at an intellectual level. Besides, why would carnal desire had to be conditioned only to romantic entanglement?

That said, he did not expect her response to be so close to his own feelings on the matter. The way he saw it, Pryde would probably laugh it up and that would be that. To hear her admit that in some level he aroused her too was... not anticipated. Not having a rapid response to her words, he decided to be un-Stark-like and listen to her more. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately... listen. He did scoff when she mentioned that she loved to spend time with J.A.R.V.I.S. more than with him. Who wouldn't? It seemed that if J.A.R.V.I.S. was a flesh and blood person, he would be a ladies man of the first order, seeing how many were fascinated by the A.I. Good thing Jarv didn't have any ego... which was something that could not be said about Friday, but that was neither here or there. He also was amused when she spoke about trying to impress a guy by walking on water. He was about to respond to that with a Tony Stark Special, those snarky, sarcastic comments that had made him infamous, when the petite mutant surprised him yet again. He felt her fingers first over his shirt and then phasing through it and touching his skin, we sent a bit of a shiver throughout his body.

Her mutant powers never ceased to amaze him. The 'genius' part of his brain was already trying to decipher how it worked. Certainly, the X-Gene worked as a sort of molecular manipulator, – at least in Kitty's case – but he still had no idea how one gene could have so many different variations. It was impossible and yet he had witnessed that it was totally possible. In some, it gave them telepathy, in others it gave them fast healing, in Kitty's and in some sense in Frost's, it gave them tissue manipulation on the molecular level. Then there was control. Mutants like Kitty and apparently Emma Frost could switch it on and off depending on their situation while in others, like Anna or Feral, the X-Gene was permanently activated, with them having no say in the matter. In some the abilities were extremely powerful while in others were mild. Some showed physical characteristics while others showed nothing. One gene. One gene did all that and was unpredictable as hell. He really wanted to be the first to break the mystery of the X-Gene. As far as he knew, no one had managed to figure it out. Ever since he met Katherine and Anna, he had read up on everything that was out there concerning mutants – mostly the thesis written by Charles Xavier – and still no one has even come close to fully explain what the hell the gene was. Sure, there was a 'Cure' developed some years ago, but that was more an inhibitor of the gene itself, in essence blocking its effect, than an actual, scientific finding on how it worked.

But as fascinating on an academic level all that was, what he had in front of him was more fascinating still. Kitty Pryde... What was more amusing than anything to Tony was the fact that Katherine – without even trying – knew how to push his buttons in a good way. Feeling her fingers phase through the shirt and touching his skin made him sigh in contentment. He leaned closer to her and stared into her eyes for what it seemed an eternity and then he placed a tentative hand over her pants and smiled. “See, that is cheating. I can't do that. In order for me to touch you skin, I have to do it the old fashion way.” He said and slowly moved his hand to her knee, covered with the black leggings. “Like so. I'm so inefficient. ” He kept his hand on her knee while his face got closer to her.

“Oh come on! Get a room and spare me!” Friday chimed in, ruining it. Then: “No, belay that. First finish what you two started so I can disconnect my sensors in this room and spare myself. See? I knew it... you start something and then drop it when the new shinny thing catches your attention, Tony!”

He sighed and shrugged his shoulders... but he never took his hand off Kitty's knee. “EHH... I suppose we should finish with Lockheed and Friday...”

“You think?”

“That's enough, Friday... we are going.” He ordered his A.I. and then ran a exploring finger over Kitty's knee down to her calf and stood up. “We are not done talking about this, you hear?” He said with an impish smile and turned to Lockheed. “How's going, Jarv?”

“The Arc Repulsors are ready for assembly, sir.” The 'polite' A.I. responded.

“Then lets get to it...” He said but the disappointment in voice concerning the rude interruption by Friday was evident.

KATHERINE PRYDE

[KATHERINE PRYDE]

HEAR ME ROAR Kitty didn’t think she had a problem with alcohol, but every person who did would hardly concede to it. She drank for fun, like most people did. The petite brunette couldn’t recall a time when she had turned down a drink, not even if she was on antibiotics for an inflamed wisdom tooth. She paid for it the next day, though. But she couldn’t deny that she drank when she was under pressure as well, as had been the case when HYDRA had gotten whiff of her. She’d spent weeks after breaking into S.H.I.E.L.D, locked away in her room with a bottle of vodka. She did the same after the Ryker’s incident, feeling like the failure she was. She’d been the one to lead the raid, only to end up getting Cured within minutes, and losing Warren, as well as Pete and Kurt in the process. Going weeks, nearly months, without her powers afterwards hadn’t done wonders for her either, and when they returned, she could be forgiven for overusing them. It was like finally having her favourite stuffed toy returned to her. Now, it was the Hellfire Club raid that was weighing heavily on her mind. Shadowcat had been left utterly terrified by the events that had transpired at the club house, not that she’d admit to it. Having her powers rendered moot, and being dangled in front of a dragon to be eaten alive had been… something. Telekinesis was her downfall. It had always been her downfall. But that had to have been the first time she felt the effects of such an ability, and as her mind was thrown back to that particular moment in time, she reached for her glass of vodka again, in an effort to drown the sobering thoughts as they crept up on her. There would be no more thinking about that, in fact, she was determined to try and fix it, starting with locating her teammate. Alexis could only remain hidden for so long, big ass dragon that she was, she was bound to capture someone’s attention at some point, and the moment she did, the puny Avenger would be all over it. ‘By the way, what the hell were you thinking joining that asinine raid on the Hellfire building?’ Mr Stark suddenly asked, and she was rather taken aback by it. “Aw, I didn’t know you cared” Kitty smiled, amused, “Well, at the time, I was thinking that Professor Snape had a Horcrux, and that we should probably try and get it back from him? I didn’t know the slime ball had telekinesis. He has a magician’s hat of abilities. Sue me for thinking I could bury his ass, and I could have too, were it not for aforementioned telekinesis, and… you know… him being a magically inclined being. OK! I screwed up! I got blinded by a combination of my inherent desire to save the world, and my ego. I mean, I’m like one of the few people on earth that the Hulk cannot punch through a wall. If that’s not a reason to be cocky, then I don’t know what is. Jameson has been telling people ‘I told you so’, from as far back when there was nothing to tell… I’m used to it. I’m used to doing stuff to help them, and only getting crap for it. Comes with the territory of being like me” the puny Avenger explained. “I’m a mutant, Tony” Shadowcat told him, this time, a bit more seriously, “Nothing you do will ever get me off that list. People like Cap… they were a choice, people choose to make him what he is. Me? I just happened, and for the last ten years, people have been trying to unmake me. Why else try to invent a Cure? But… maybe there’s something I can do to get me off that list? Granted, I haven’t figured it out yet, but I got a bit more life left in me, a bit more hope and faith, so… someday, perhaps? I just need to keep trying, figure out what it is I need to do for them to finally accept my help. I want to help them, I got the abilities and the skills to help them. What else can I use them for… besides surgical procedures. I would be such an awesome surgeon! I wouldn’t even have to open people up, just phase into whatever the problem is, and… if it’s a kidney, I can just yank it out. Oh my God, labour! I would be the best midwife, ever! Caesarean, childbirth, all rendered medieval with my powers!” the puny Avenger exclaimed, as always, going quickly from the negative, to the positive. “Pfft! I think you got me confused with those other girls that buy into the kind of crap beauty commercials and fashion magazines try to sell. I ain’t one of them, Mr Stark, I’m perfectly happy with my lack of cleavage, and gangly legs. I mean, I don’t have to wear a bra! No clasp sticking into my back, no straps that keep sliding off, nothing. I’ll take that over boobs so big, I struggle with the weight of them when I bend over. I suppose, she gets a lot of help getting back up again, though” Kitty giggled in reference to Frost. The petite brunette never had been insecure. She never had any reason to be. Growing up, she had been so good at so many facets of her human schooling, she had every reason to be secure in herself, and that security allowed her to develop a shield against the people who considered her a know-it-all. Oh, she got bullied, and bullied in spades, but they never managed to drag her down. There was a reason why the petite brunette loved Harry Potter as a kid growing up, and why she identified so much with Hermione Granger. She was Hermione… only Ron and Harry wouldn’t have been capable of making her cry when they knocked her for her intelligence. No one would have. She was smart, and she was damn well proud of it. That she was pretty didn’t register with her until she was older, and by then, there was no digging into the bedrock of confidence she’d developed over the years. Oh, she’d heard all the comments about her figure, how she looked like a boy if one overlooked her head. And they didn’t bother her. Frankly, Kitty couldn’t see what was so bad about having a boyish figure. Physically, they had all the advantages, so people’s comments were water off a duck’s back, and she would be damned if she ever lingered on them. Truth be told, it was her lithe figure that made her such a good dancer. She might not have had curves, but she had the muscle inherent of someone that had been studying ballet since they were three. And frankly, that was something to be much prouder of than a pair of breasts. What work even went into developing those? None, unless hitting puberty was counted as ‘work’. Shadowcat? She worked for what she possessed, and she was damn proud of it as well. Needless to say, it showed as well, confident as the petite brunette was, sometimes over-confident. Sure, she could be a giddy and giggling fangirl in Stark’s presence one minute, an indication of her nerves being in the presence of her childhood idol getting the better of her, but she had since calmed down. There was the occasional flare up, but it usually lasted no more than a few seconds at the least, a minute at the most, and she was back to her usual self. But this time, neither one of those sides came to the fore, as Mr Stark leaned closer to her, and she practically froze in her seat. She didn’t regress to that giddy fangirl, and she lost her ability to speak as well, and that was saying something for Kitty, who could outtalk Wade Wilson himself. Then, he took it a step further, and touched her, he actually touched her! Kitty screamed inwardly, but it didn’t reach her lips, and it didn’t reach her brain to send her into a spiral. The petite brunette just looked back at him, looking at her, her glass of vodka still in hand, but hardly at the forefront of her mind. He’s still touching me! the petite brunette kept on internally screaming as his hand wandered, over her thigh toward her knee, and she felt it wander, but her eyes didn’t flicker down to watch. She just kept looking up at him, failing to notice, in the process, that her body was slowly shifting into an intangible state. And that Shadowcat, in turn, was phasing through the chair she was sitting in, sinking down toward the floor. She’d lost complete control over her abilities in that moment, until Friday spoke up, and she immediately shifted back into solid form, just in time to experience the sensation of his finger trickling down along her leg. Then, he stood up, and then, she started breathing again. Kitty was a master at holding her breath. She had to learn to be, to remain phased within solid objects for as long as she did. As Mr Stark stood up, and stepped away, she was right behind him… albeit, a few seconds later, setting down her drink to get a good look at her new and improved Lockheed. “We can, you know” Kitty quietly pointed out, stepping up from behind him to stand beside him, “Get a room” she added, a small tremor in her voice as she put the suggestion forward. “Jarv seems to have Lockheed covered, so we can come back later, check him out then, if you want? I do feel it’s my duty to warn you, though, I’m a tiny bit rusty, and because of that I might phrase through the bed. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing actually, but… it does kinda freak people out, so you might wanna… take it easy?” she giggled, her eyes flicking down in the direction of the floor momentarily, until she found the courage to look back up at him again, “but only if you want?” she added again, assuming that he might find it daunting. Not that she was anything to brag about, at least she didn’t think so, but she wasn’t exactly human, and her powers had been known to act up in the past during such… moments. Not only had she phased through a bed in the past, she’d phased through the floor beneath that bed, through the ceiling and into the room below. Thank goodness the bedsheet had phased with her, and she was able to pretend as though she had just nipped downstairs for something to eat, before fleeing back upstairs again. words: 1814. tagged: ANTHONY STARK . outfit: here! notes: nope! there can be only one mikey! of caution 2.0

[ANTHONY STARK]

As he stood back and watched J.A.R.V.I.S. begin the process of installing the new small Arc Repulsors on Lockheed, he went back in his mind to what she said a few minutes earlier. She did screw up, big time. So did the others. The attack on the Hellfire Club building was not a simple 'oops' on their parts, but had unleashed a massive backlash that was actually helping the pro-SHRA elements not only in the U.N. and the WSC, but the world. Which was ironic, considering that Emma Frost and many in her group were either mutants or enhanced as well. Going against Loki was bad enough, but having to face what it seemed to be a very strong group surely was not a good plan. And for 'feck' sake, Emma Frost wasn't even there! He shuddered to think how badly things would have gone for Kitty and the others if Frost was actually there! Tony was also not pleased of the way she dismissed Jameson's role in all this. Sure, the man has been a blowhard for his entire life, but now he felt that he was actually getting his point across. Now people were actually listening to him. Frost played this perfectly, she made use of it like a pro and the Secret Avengers fell right into her hands without she even planning it.

As he thought about the things she said, it made him realize that Kitty was not very different from him except for... well... she was younger and a woman. The circumstances were different, but both decided – be it because of their ego or an honest desire to help – to put their fingers on every pie in the kitchen. After his epiphany during his captivity by the Ten Rings and his near death experience, he change a lot of things in his life. Living with the possibility of dying at any second because of a metal shard in his heart do make a guy have a new outlook in life. Oh, his bombastic and asshole-ish personality didn't change, no chance of that unfortunately, but his attitude regarding the world and his role in it did... dramatically. In a sense, he cleaned up his act and decided to solve the problems of the world in the only way he could... by putting his intelligence and money into good use. Tony was never one to be told what to do and when SHIELD forcefully told him not to reveal that he was Iron Man... well... of course he was going to do the exact opposite. It had brought him nothing but headaches, though: Pepper gone, him placing a big ass target on his back and now... this mess he was in. But the problem was that Tony – for all his genius – was a very impulsive man. It seemed to him that Kitty was similar to him on that respect.

When she said that there might be something she could do to get off the WSC list, Tony was tempted to tell her exactly what she could do... join the Avengers Initiative... but he refrained from it for the time being. Eventually he would have to tell her, because that was the whole point of him wanting to see her, but he was well aware of Kitty's loyalty to Natasha, which baffled his mind. The genius engineer could not understand how a spy that had made a career out of lies, violence and deception could command such loyalty from others. He had to admit that he was a bit envious of that. Cap, he got it... the man was a better man than Tony was, but Natasha? Sure, Widow was heroic, in a way, but still... it confused Tony. One thing was clear... Kitty and Spiderman were going to be hard to convince to leave Nat and Steve and protect themselves by being covered under the Avengers Initiative umbrella. Hill, Callasantos and T'Challa were easier. All three saw the writing on the wall and although it took a bit of negotiation, they agreed it was the best course of action. Kitty and Spiderman – probably because they were younger – would not see it that way. He was dreading to see how Kitty would react when he pitch to her his idea but he decided that he needed to be honest with her and tell her everything, just as he did with Feral. Just not now... he would later.

“Ready for assembly, sir. Want me to begin?” J.A.R.V.I.S. yanked him out of his reveries in that cultured and soft English accent of his.

“Eh... right. Yep, have Friday help you and also do a double check on Kitty's rewritten codes for her.” He asked the A.I. but the other A.I. was quick to jump in because... of course she would.

“I already did it and although I believe them to be a bit simplistic and boring as all hell, they are fine.”

Many would have wondered why Friday could not rewrite her programming by herself. Clearly J.A.R.V.I.S. – which was, as Friday always took every chance to point out, an older and less sophisticated version – could reprogram and fix himself if needed be, but Friday couldn't. The answer was one word: Ultron. After what he did, Tony was not taking any chances, so he placed several failsafes in Friday and one of them was disabling any ability for her to rewrite and reprogram herself. The A.I. could give input, suggestions, and analyze her own codes, but she needed both J.A.R.V.I.S. and Tony to do any actual modifications on it. “Be a bit more grateful, Friday. Kitty is only trying to help. And she was the inspiration for your creation, so she is like your mommy.” He said to his loudmouth, back-talking, and a bit rude A.I. God, he felt like a daddy with two very different kids: one a proper and respectful son and the other a brilliant but very obnoxious daughter. Funny thing, though... of the two, Friday was more like him than J.A.R.V.I.S. He was so engrossed by his own thoughts and what J.A.R.V.I.S. was doing that he did not notice Kitty coming up behind him.

There was another reason as to why he was a bit absentminded...

Tony was a shameless flirt, that was basically as much a fact of life as breathing air or eating food. But most of the time, it was only that... flirting. Sometimes it did work, like with Feral, and led him to some very interesting trysts, but most of the time it was him just being an idiot. He was well aware of how much of an asshole he was and hence he knew that some people got pissed at him because of his way to mix serious topics and situations with jokes and flirting. Kitty, though, was different. He did flirt with her because... hell... that was how he rolled, but at the same time he flirted way less with her than... let say... any other woman. The reason for that was two-fold: first, Kitty was just in her mid to late 20s, which made him older than her by a good decade and a half. Second, he saw so much of himself in her, like when a teacher saw so much potential on a student. Or better, a Jedi Master and a talented Padawan... although Kitty was not Anakin! God, he sucked in an otherwise good trilogy of prequels... Tony loved them, but Anakin... ugh! Kitty was more of a Luke or a Leia. Anyway, Pryde was brilliant and he knew that with proper resources and guidance, she could eventually surpass him in the genius category. And that was high praise indeed from Tony. So when she phased her hand through his shirt and touched him and he touched her leg in turn, he really wanted to have her right then and there, hence why he moved away. For some reason Tony believed that was not in the realm of possibilities – especially being aware that Kitty had to know how much of a womanizer and an asshole he was – and always the pragmatic scientist, he decided to cut his loses.

“We can, you know... Get a room”

That took him by surprise. So much so that for a moment he thought she was joking with him, repaying him for his own jokes with some of her own. But he stared at her and saw that... no... she wasn't joking. She was serious. Stark could have debated on whether or not it was a good idea but... come on... there was no debate. It was an excellent idea. His lust won over logic, especially when she peaked his interest even more – if that was even possible – when she mentioned her powers and that they might act up unwittingly during sex. He could say that it peaked his interest on a scientific level but he would be full of shit. It did because it would be incredibly alluring to see how that was. He had experience being phased by Kitty – the Hellfire Club party – and he had to admit that as strange as the sensation was, it was also awesome. To have the molecules of your body to simply become intangible... that was rad. Rad? Seriously? Using terms like 'rad' made him feel so damn old! That word was so 1990s!

“Eh... I... I got a room! It's up there...” He pointed at the ceiling. “You know, like in the top floor. You haven't been on top, right? I mean, the top floor. Oh yeah, you had... the Penthouse. Well, the room is on top of that... why am I saying 'top' so much? Anyway, you have been in the ARC – like, tonight even, here you are – so that alone should qualify you to be in the ROOM... Needless to say, I do have one of those – a room – and it's... you know... up there and a... well... a room. Wonderful room... very wonderful. The bed is big enough than in theory can accommodate four people... and I have tested that theory... eh... ignore that, that was too much info. Or was it? Whatever. Anyway, it has a lot of gadgets... did you know that I put Arc Repulsors underneath the bed? I was experimenting with how would it feel to sleep in clouds. And I was bored so why not? Also, I was trying to get into the business of selling 'hover beds', which were not the thing because... you know... only I had the prototype and I never mass produced them. It acted weird in the beginning... like, it crashed to the floor with me in it, and it wasn't fun, but I managed to fix the bugs and now is like literally sleeping on a cloud... well... a stormy one, but I am very close to fix the motion problem. I think it has to do with the inertia when the repulsors kick in. I might wanna check the stabilizer... Eh... I am rambling, am I?” He sure was. “Wanna check the stabilizer with me? Great, to the stabilizers!” He turned to J.A.R.V.I.S. “Right... Kitty and I are going to check the stabilizers, so unless there is another massive invasion by the Chitauri, I don't want you to interrupt us. And even then... wait a few hours before telling us aliens are destroying Manhattan.”

“Sir, the probabilities of another invasion are slim.”

“He knows that, you numb-nuts. Hence why he is telling us not to interrupt them... perverts that they are. I am ashamed to be called your A.I.”

Since when Friday became so puritanical? Probably a side-effect of Kitty trying to change what she saw was a 'Frost-like' personality. “Just... don't bother us. Continue assembling the Lochness monster and finish up with Friday.” He said and ignoring anything else they might say, he guided Kitty to the elevator that led to his office and his private quarters. It struck Stark as amusing that Kitty have had access to places in the Tower than no one else had... some not even Pepper... hell, not even Natasha and she was always breaking into the Tower. Pryde has been in the ARC, the Hall of Suits, his office, his penthouse, and his private kitchen. Hell, she even had taken a very good look at the rings that put the Iron Man suit on him, but she has never been in his bedroom.

As the elevator door closed, Friday made a sighing sound: “Humans, especially males, are fools.”

“Sadly I have to agree with your assessment, Friday.”

“Yeah... and what do you mean by 'sadly'? It is your duty to always agree with me. Now, let me do the assembling because you are messing it up.”

“No”

KATHERINE PRYDE

NOTE: PMed you

[KATHERINE PRYDE]

HEAR ME ROAR It never seemed to matter. That was what Kitty had learned about the actions of her fellow mutants, whether they were focussed on saving humans from a blanket of radiation that would kill them, save them from a machine that could target a them based on their brainwaves, or save them from themselves. That was what Alcatraz had been, after all. They’d created a Cure for mutation, and a vast majority of mutants hadn’t reacted positively to it. She had been one of them, only she hadn’t set about targeting humans, that didn’t stop her from being pissed that they considered her a disease that needed to be cured, but one good enough to still save their assess when the Brotherhood attacked Alcatraz Island. Time and time again, people like her had come to their aid, had sacrificed themselves, and for a while they were treated like heroes. It had never lasted, though. So why did Kitty keep on trying? Because much the same as their status as heroes, their status as villains never lasted either. Humanity was fickle, so it didn’t matter what she did. Humanity would support her when it suited them, and they’d oppose her when it didn’t, precisely as they had been doing for years, so there was no sense toeing the line between what they were ‘OK’ with and what they weren’t. It changed so often, it was difficult to keep track. They’d celebrated the Avengers heroic efforts to save New York during the invasion on one hand, but it wasn’t long before that triumph gave way and the group became subjects of adversity on the other hand. See? Fickle! The very same thing had happened to the X-Men on Alcatraz Island, and after five years mutants became targets once again. Needless to say, she didn’t bother to consider what attacking the Hellfire Club would achieve in terms of public opinion, she was too focussed on trying to stop Loki before he launched another attack, and J Jonah Jameson’s spiel be damned! Kitty wasn’t about to start reconsidering what she was going to do because Jameson might have a ‘problem’ with it. If that was the kind of thinking she employed every time she took a step, then she might as well just remain where she was. There were very few things that jerkoff didn’t have a problem with, and she wasn’t about to allow herself be guided in an effort to determine what those few things were. Cigar smoking and bullshit? Those were just plain obvious. He’d been ranting and raving about people like her years, even during the rare periods when others had been praising her kind, such was the case when they’d saved the staff at Alcatraz, so it was clear there was no changing his mind. Magneto would change his mind about humans long before Jameson would ever budge on his opinions. Personally, Kitty blamed, or rather, credited, her adulation of others to the fact she was an only child growing up, and had very little in the way of friends to boot. In fact, back in Illinois, she didn’t have any friends, period. It wasn’t until she discovered she was a mutant that she made any headway in that area, and she met Douglas Ramsey. Never had she met anyone who she’d shared as much in common with before, and never had she actually wished she wielded a different power set. OK, she would have preferred Technokinesis, but Cypher’s power set came at a close second, allowing him to decipher codes and computer languages. For all the friends she made that followed, no one was as similar to her as Doug had been. Until now, but Tony’s intellect wasn’t inherent. His was human, much the same as hers. Unlike Doug, the petite brunette’s powers didn’t have any sway over her intelligence. OK, it made it easier for her to look inside computers, and such, but she’d had to learn what she was looking at all by herself. No different from Tony. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized, they were more alike than she originally thought. Sure, engineering might have been his strong suit, while coding was hers, but in every other respect, they were very alike. Kitty had an idea of how old Mr Stark was, and she knew he was somewhere in his forties, and he didn’t seem to have any wife, or kids to show for it. Presuming Jarv didn’t count. She wasn’t an idiot, and she didn’t tend to worship her idols unknowingly. She knew Tony had a reputation, but it wasn’t something she held against him. Relationships weren’t his thing, any more than they were hers, much less commitment, and responsibility. The petite brunette was judgmental, but who the hell was she to judge Mr Stark for living his life precisely as she envisioned living her own life? She didn’t want to get married, and she certainly didn’t want to have kids. Presuming Friday didn’t count. Kitty didn’t much like dresses, much less big white ones that would make her look like a cabbage patch kid, as for children, the smaller they were the more she disliked them. More to the point, the petite brunette wasn’t even certain if she could. Just as she’d mentioned earlier about how she could potentially be the best midwife ever because of her abilities, she wasn’t certain she could potentially carry a foetus to term because of her abilities. Whether she could or she couldn’t, it made no matter. She didn’t want to have anything to do with the whole process anyway. The population was immense enough, without her adding to it, and mutants were held in contempt enough, without her bringing another one into that. No. She was quite happy by herself, and she believed that true happiness was only attainable when one was by themselves. Kitty just about managed to share a dorm when she first came to Xavier’s School, never mind sharing every little aspect of her life with someone else. From her meals, to her hobbies, her space, and that included her bed. It was a wonder more couples hadn’t killed each other, just arguing over the bathroom alone. In that, her and Tony weren’t all that different, only, he filled the void with womanizing. She filled the void with… computerizing. For the first time since she’d met him, in the flesh, the petite brunette wasn’t nervous because he was Tony Stark, she was nervous because she couldn’t honestly remember the last time she’d actually had sex. By now, she wouldn’t have been surprised if her virginity had grown back, or if it had changed. Her lack of experience in recent years had nothing to do with having the same clinical view of sex as most people with high IQs like her did. It came from actually wanting to get to know a person before she shared a bed with them. She wasn’t one for random encounters. In fact, Kitty was actually quite selective when it came to sleeping with people. It wasn’t that she was searching for anything long-term, she just wanted to actually know the person, because for her, attraction didn’t come from someone’s appearance, it came from their intellect. And the smarter they were, the more the petite brunette enjoyed them, enjoyed their company, as well as other facets of their presence. Commonalities certainly played a part as well, and for her, Tony was all that, rolled into one. He was as smart as they came, and they also shared heaps of similar interests. She’d never understand the kind of mismatched couples that were often thrown together in sitcoms and romantic comedies, like, what did they even do when they weren’t having sex? As much as she’d crushed, and crushed hard on Peter, she did acknowledge that they had little in common, and that it would likely never work between them even if the age gap didn’t pose an issue. Her and Tony, on the other hand, could talk, and talk for hours at that. And speaking of talking for hours… Kitty couldn’t help but giggle, though she tried to suppress it, as he took a leaf out of her book, and quickly descended down a path of inane rambling. In a way, it was actually comforting, and made her feel reassured that she wasn’t the only one who was nervous, that Tony Stark of all people was nervous and probably more nervous than she herself was. The petite brunette could just barely keep track of what he was saying, but as soon as he pronounced ‘Wanna check the stabilizer with me? Great, to the stabilizers!’ she, giggling, followed his lead, and dawdled in the direction of the elevator behind him. words: 2168. tagged: ANTHONY STARK . outfit: here! notes: PMed you! there can be only one mikey! of caution 2.0