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"mouth from a to-go carton. 

"There's one other one but she's a lot older. For some reason, her mind won't allow her to access any memories in between age three and age twelve." 

"What's the memory at age twelve?" 

"I'm in a group home." Alex replied. "It's a visit with the state doctor when I kept passing out after fighting with the girls in the group home. They declared I had anemia to explain why I would faint often, but now that I remember, the girls would make fun of me. I guess I was so angry the energy was too much for me to handle," 

"Anemic? What kind of doctor came up with that?" 

"The doctors that came to see us didn't really care about us, they were being paid either way," 

"Messed up," Bruce shook his head. 

"So what are we doing today, more tests?" Alex asked Tony. 

"After the routine diagnostics, you, young lady, are going to work out." 

"I beg your pardon?" 

"Work out. Like, exercise? You need to build up stamina if you ever want to last longer than a seventeen year old boy losing his virginity." 

"Love the visual, Stark." Bruce said. "Personal experience?" 

"Never. Ask Pepper," With a wink, Tony led Alex to a staircase, where they descended down two floors. 

"My personal gym, fully equipped with the latest exercise technology and exclusively yours. And mine, of course, but I mean, look at me." 

She rolled her eyes, poking at a machine. "What does this one do?"

"It attaches to your hands, and moves them in motions that you'd most likely need to be able to use rapidly during a fight. It'll track your energy output, and calculate how you can strategically use that in combat." 

"Woah," She said, turning to another machine like a kid in a candy store. "What's this one do?" 

"That's an elliptical." 

"Oh." 

"You'll need to make this a part of your daily routine here. I think that if you're in shape, you won't get so worn out." 

"What a nice way to tell me I need to lose a couple," She nudged him. 

"Alright, now come on. Drop and give me twenty," 

"Twenty?!" 

"Twenty." He replied, checking his watch. "Go," 

She bent down, getting in a plank position. She performed a strong push up, gaining some faith in herself. After about four, she let herself lay on the ground. 

"Four, really?" 

"It's a start, okay? What's next." She struggled to get up. 

"Burpees. 50." 

"Alright," She jumps up, then dropping to the ground to kick her legs out. She repeated this eleven times, then got stuck on the twelfth one. 

With a grunt, she gave in and collapsed, face first. 

Tony sighed, bending down to her level. "Alex?"

"Whht?" Her voice was muffled as it was against the gym floor. 

"We got work to do," 

"Yeah." 

"Alright, come on." He lifted her off the ground. 

<>

Over the next couple of weeks, Alex worked hard to get into shape. She ran daily on the treadmill, and lifted weights with a trainer's help. She began to work out twice a day, once in the morning and again at night. Her time became consumed with their research sessions. 

Her muscles began to grow at a fast pace, much to Tony's confusion. 

"Jarvis, log her blood toxicity levels. They've decreased as her muscle mass has increased. God, you are a confusing test subject." 

"Sorry?" 

"Let's test your pull stamina. Record this,"

"How long should I try for?" 

"Just do as much as you can before passing out," 

She focused on pulling the energy from the lights in the room, harder than she ever had before. They flickered for a moment, but quickly went out. The computers started to malfunction as well, shutting down. She grinned at Tony, feeling empowered. 

She looked to his suit collection, holding her hands out. 

"Well, maybe not the su--"

Sparks flew as the suits lost their power. 

"O-kay." Tony clasped his hands.

"Where else can we pull from--" He stopped as he saw her on the ground. "Jarvis, record her time." 

He pulled her off the floor and into a chair. "And remind me to get more damn juice at the store." 

"Tony," Bruce came rushing in. 

"Look who's hours late," 

"Sorry, but I had a breakthrough. I was thinking, she needs energy to take it, right? So, I'm thinking, how do people get energy? Energy drinks."

"Let me stop you there. If you want to give Sleepy here a RedBull, I seriously doubt--"

"No, not a market energy drink. We make one. An artificial one, that her molecules won't eat up. So, I've got a sample with me."

"Well, when she wakes up, we'll test it out."

"Test what out?" She was groggy. 

"Good morning, sunshine, we've got a cocktail for you," 

"Hello, Bruce." She smiled weakly. He nodded. 

"I'm going to administer a trial energy serum for you. We're going to see if this can help with keeping your energy up." 

"Alright," 

"Serum #1," Bruce holds up a needle. "Focusing on the neuropeptide Y, a main chemical for energy intake--"

"Okay, Bill Nye, just give her the ouchie, we don't need the technical terms."

"I'll record them in my journal for when you ask what was in it later," Bruce huffed, sterilizing her arm. 

She squeezed her eyes shut as he injected the serum. 

The two men stared at her, awaiting results. 

"I don't feel any different,"

"Give it a minute." Bruce scribbled in his journal. 

"Um, Banner," Tony said. Bruce looked at him, who pointed at Alex. 

"Oh, God," 

"What?" She asked, panicked. "What is it?" 

"You're, um--"

"--Glowing," Bruce finished. 

She looked down at her hands, and her veins were indeed glowing white. Her entire body, in fact, was lighting up. 

"Something feels weird," She said. 

"Take a picture of her, Jarvis," Bruce said. 

"Don't tell him what to do. Jarvis, write all the ingredients of that serum down so we know what not to do." 

"Hey, I tried." 

"You turned her into a lamp." 

"You guys, how do you turn it off?" She said frantically.

"I don't know how to turn off a girl." Tony shrugged. 

"Tony!" She whined. 

"Jesus," Bruce said at the same time. "Okay, don't panic--"

"Hard not to when my insides feel like they're buzzing,"

"Buzzing?" 

"Yes, like, um, like a," She thought how to describe it. "Like a bug zapper?" 

"A bug zapper. Well, we know who to call in the summer," 

"Can you stop fucking around for two seconds?" Bruce exclaimed. 

"One, two--" Tony counted in a baby voice. 

Suddenly, Alex screamed. All three of them passed out. 

And all of Stark Tower lost power. 

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