Several weeks before...

I landed on top of Avengers Tower in civvies, because this wasn’t hero business, and colors were for up time. Not having to deal with traffic was a big advantage of being able to fly, and I wasn’t too modest to not exploit it.

The Avengers didn’t HQ here anymore, of course, having a much more defensible location north of the city to live and train in. They could naturally use the tower as a place to rest and recover when in town, but mostly it was where Stark did his private stuff, while the top floor or two were reserved for social stuff and spare apartments for the other Avengers if they wanted a night out.

Stark was calling me over personally, which was unusual, and I’d indulged him just for the novelty of it. After saying that Pepper better be present and he better have no alcohol in him, or I was leaving, of course.

He’d agreed after a moment of hesitation. Perhaps it showed how much I trusted his self-discipline in certain matters, even after we’d been in space together. Twice.

The sliding doors opened to admit me, meaning he was inside waiting for me to arrive, as his security system couldn’t see me.

He was in a polo shirt and slacks, and the drink in his hand was ice water. Pepper was on hand to chaperone him and his mouth, and there was a table set up with munchies and non-alcoholic beverages for us.

“If it isn’t the flying wonder who finally made it to the cover of Vogue,” Tony called out by way of greeting. “Welcome to my humble abode, post-totally trashed state.”

I stepped down into the interior calmly, looking around at the furnishings and décor. “You left the gouges, Stark,” I noted, glancing at the ripping slashes in the wall near the door.

“Talking point when I have friends over. ‘That, my friends, is where Doctor Octopus was taken out in one hit after he took over the tower here trying to get to my satellite uplink’,” he air-quoted.

No mention of my name, of course. “Cute.”

“Can I get you anything?” he asked, gesturing at the very definitely fully-stacked bar behind him.

“Carbonated teeth-rotting, mass-grown fruit juices, ice water, 150-proof booze, all the same,” I waved it off. “I’m here at your invitation, Stark. You wanted this face to face instead of over vid, so out with it.” I took a seat at his table without asking, interlocking my fingers in front of me. “My time is also money, you know.”

Ice water in a tall glass it was. Pepper brought it over to me, and I nodded to her. “Thank you, Pepper.” I accepted it graciously, setting it down on the napkin for it, eying Tony as he sat down across from me. He was trying to hide it, but he was both tense and nervous, which was odd.

“You have to tell me how you got such a straight interview with Vogue,” he opened with, to which I sighed. “Seriously, that was the most straight-forward interview I’ve ever seen from them. They take things out of context, state opinions as facts, and generally mess with stuff even when they sound like they are being friendly.”

“I informed her that I had final review of the article before going to print, and if I didn’t agree with it, it wasn’t going to be printed. I don’t mind criticism or harshness, but I abhor being misquoted, especially deliberately. If they wanted to print it, I had end editor status, period. Same thing with the photo spread, too.”

He put his head down and shook it. “You realize how incredibly unfair that is to the rest of us, right?”

“I showed Dr. Strange how to do it, Stark. Notice he never gets in the papers, either?”

“That’s just like those Two and those with them. Ugh.” He sighed and sat back. “Okay, why we’re here today. How good a look did you get at the Xandaran technology?”

“Extraordinary good looks,” I admitted. “I didn’t spend a lot of time in Engineering on the Starholder, but I could probably replicate the entire design of the ship.”

He blinked at me, then stared in a little disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“Resume speaking when you’re done doubting my veracity to my face, will you, Stark?” I replied, taking a sip of water and going silent.

His mouth flapped for a few breaths, and then he exhaled loudly. “Right. Sorry. I keep forgetting how blunt you are about things.” I said nothing, waiting. “I think I can replicate some of the Xandaran tech. I’ve a good handle on how some of it operates, probably because they are so close to human. I know this is a sensitive subject, but the potential of their technology is-”

I snapped up my hand, crackling. “Stark, shut up.” My fingers closed. “Really. Just be quiet a second, while I cogitate on the truly momentous mistake you are about to make.”

“That doesn’t sound good, Dyna,” Pepper commented from the side, glancing back and forth between us.

“Well, Pepper, let me put in context for you. Stark here is talking about technology theft from a super-scientific community of really nice, really good people, probably our only real allies out there in space right now. Instead of stealing tech from the Kree or Skrulls or Badoon, or other species which have invaded us, or Hells, stealing it from the Eternals right here on Earth, he’s going to piss off the nice guys who really hate the Skrulls and space pirates and other bad guys who go around looting and shooting. So, on behalf of the entire planet of Terra, he’s going to get us condemned as tech thieves, and make sure we have no allies in space whatsoever.

“Stark, as you can see, is an ambitious person with the right to condemn the rest of the planet, because he’s so smart.”

Stark’s face was turning interesting shades of colors as he listened to my words. “That’s... a little harsh, don’t you think?” he weaseled.

“Tell me, did you know Terra is pursuing formal diplomatic exchanges with Xandar, and the Two have invited them to set up a colony in the Blue Area and help run LaGrange? If you didn’t, then you’re only a monumentally stupid sunuvabitch setting all that up to fail. If you DO know it, then you’re a fucking arrogant bastard trying to set up the Two, and, goddamn it, Stark, I don’t care how much they like your dad, you’re probably a dead man.”

That turned both of them white. “Uh, no, I wasn’t aware of... formal efforts being made...” he managed to say. “They, they’re coming here?” he repeated in a small voice.

“Right, you’re out of the loop.” I could feel that hit him where it hurt. “You’re mucking around here with your last-generation tech doing weird stuff with the local supervillains and playing hero to let off steam. You don’t even rate a Crystal Vaccine.” I put my hands to the bridge of my nose as That Look went across his face again. “Let me guess. You actually made some of this stuff.” He started to say something, and nothing came out. “Let me further guess. It’s some of the key molmech assembler stuff at the heart of their tech, and maaaaaaybe it can tap the Nova Force.”

He distinctly swallowed when I raised my eyes to him.

“How fast can you destroy it?” I asked him directly. “Files, hard copies, data, prototypes. All of it. So thoroughly that not even someone with Xanadaran sensor tech is going to be able to tell you built any of it?”

“Excuse me. I’m going to be back in about ten minutes.” He got up urgently and fairly raced for the spiral stairs down to the lab level.

I let out another heartfelt groan.

“Is it really that bad, Dyna?” Pepper asked, still wide-eyed.

“If someone stole Stark technology and randomly started running around shooting people with it, blowing shit up, killing multitudes, what do you imagine Stark’s reaction would be, Pepper?”

“He would... go out and kill them,” she said softly. “He... doesn’t want to see his technology abused.”

“And yet he’s stealing technology for that exact reason, so he can put it into his armor, and from friends, no less.” I just groaned, looking at the ceiling. “I can see von Doom doing that, because he’s so damn arrogant, but Stark should have known better. All the alien tech we’ve looked at and replicated has to be readjusted when we reverse-engineer it to work for us. Some of it doesn’t work at all, no matter how hard we try. And we pretty much take it from those who have crossed us in one way or another, so they can’t complain about it. Even the Shi’ar went and kidnapped one of us recently, and have been snatching captives from Terra for years. They can’t complain.

“But from an ally and a friend we’re trying to develop a relationship with?”

“But... didn’t you just say you could build that entire Xandaran ship?” Pepper pointed out.

“Yes. But the fact remains that I have not done so, and neither have those I work with. We’ve used some simple Xandaran tech as guidelines to working on our own equivalents of fairly universal technology, but the really good stuff? We haven’t touched it, and won’t without a go-ahead to do so.

“I could build an Iron Man suit, too, Pepper. Have I done so?”

“Oh!” A light clicked on. “Yes, that would... not go over well...”

“To put it mildly. His power armor is how Stark survives in a world full of Powered. Giving that advantage to Powered would not go over well. It’s probably why I irritate him so much.”

“Irritate him?” Pepper asked, somewhat surprised. “I’ve never heard Tony speak... huh...” She thought about her own answer. “He does tend to curse a bit around subjects dealing with you...”

“Pepper, how long have I known him?”

“Uh, five years? Six?” she replied hesitantly.

“Do you realize that he has never called me by my proper name, heroic or private, during that entire time?”

She flinched. “Well, you only call him Stark...”

“Not true. I called him Mr. Stark originally, and then he persisted with the childishness, so now he’s just Stark. His father is Mr. Stark, or Howard.

“Watch for it when he comes back. He probably even considers it a cute little individual display of affection that I appreciate.” I didn’t look at her. “This from a man who went to the whole trouble of building up an email shunt through Dr. Richard’s firewall so he can send emails to me addressed to [email protected], which was shut down years ago, instead of to [email protected] instead.”

She reddened despite herself. “I-I’m sorry. I had no idea...”

I waved it off. “Pepper, it’s not your fault,” I said, emphasizing her name, and she took a breath in relief. “I’m Powered. I’m smart enough to correct his work. I’m a woman. I’m not from the States. I work with the only man he might acknowledge as smarter than he is, and Reed has nothing but praise for me and what I do. I correct and clean up the work of both the Richards. I’m effectively the guide and tutor for Hank McCoy and Peter Parker, who are both polymath-level geniuses, as well as Gwen Stacey, who is Susan Richard’s equal in the field of biochemistry.

“For a genius to shine, others have to be dumb. Who has Stark taught anything to?”

She almost gasped, a little shocked at the directness of the question.

“Everything he’s doing or done is at Ferrus, and when he’s finished... so is his company. Without his genius, it’s just another corporation making whatever item of the day and time, and instead of innovating, it will be working against innovation so as to retain its relevance.

“He walked away from his heritage. I don’t know if he has any regard for it. You’ve known him for years. Has he even talked about marriage? Children?”

She blushed. “We have spoken about... things. But he has no desire to settle down just yet...”

“Yeah, the world can see that.” I just sighed. Felicia had easily seduced him, and he definitely had enough experience to know what he was doing. Billionaire playboy, big surprise.