Chapter 1:
"Hey, Kat, I'm going for sushi, you wanna come?"
Kathleen looked up from her desk where she was grading exams--Elizabeth was leaning against the doorframe into her office. At a small five feet and one inch, Elizabeth Chau stood out among the faculty of Iron Man University. Elizabeth and Kathleen had become quick friends, being two out of three female professors, out of sixty-something professors in total.
"Yeah, sure, just let me finish grading this one test."
"Midterms?" Elizabeth guessed. "What's the average grade so far?"
"Not...very....good," Kathleen answered, marking off three multiple choice answers in a row.
"Well, I know you're a good professor, so your students must be some kind of stupid," Elizabeth remarked. "Are those the target exams?"
On the corner of Kathleen's desk was a stack of bullet-hole marred targets. Elizabeth picked up the first target exam on the stack and held it up. None of the bullet holes even came close to the bulls-eye.
"Fail. You better give this one an 'F'," Elizabeth said dryly.
"You're so cruel. Some people have aim issues. You know the target exams are difficult."
"I prefer the term 'merciless.' It's much more epic."
Elizabeth Chau was the leading expert in the Iron Man unit of intelligence and interrogation. She was hired at twenty-two years of age for the new Iron Man unit, just graduating summa cum laude with a degree in Security and Intelligence Studies. After five years working at the Iron Man Headquarters, Elizabeth was relocated to Malibu, where President Norris had decided to shut down Pepperdine University and rebuild it as Stark University.
At first, Elizabeth had been furious that she was being taken away from Washington, D.C., to do what she firmly believed was "pencil pushing." But after speaking with her colleagues, and after cornering the people responsible for her relocation, Elizabeth found out that Stark University was the government's way of placing a network of Iron Men in the major city of Los Angeles without alarming the liberal population of California. This made perfect sense to her. She was one of the Iron Men analysts who developed the hypothesis that one of the major California cities--Los Angeles, San Francisco, or San Diego--would be the next terrorism target.
"So what happened with that guy who got your number at that bar the other night?" Kathleen asked absently, calculating the student's score in her mind.
"What guy? I don't remember a guy."
Kathleen paused in her work, looking at Elizabeth with raised eyebrows.
"I knew you were drunk. Too many martinis!" Kathleen chided.
"That's ridiculous. Iron Men don't get drunk."
"We're technically not Iron Men."
"I don't get drunk," Elizabeth replied firmly. "Is that who's been texting me this morning? 'Hey baby doll.' What a douche. I don't even have this guy's name in my contacts. He must not have been all that spectacular."
"Your standards are too high."
"Says the person who required her man to have spurs?"
Like Elizabeth expected her to, Kathleen just replied with a smile and dismissive wave of her hand. She would have continued to make fun of Kathleen's tastes in men, which were so different from her own, except her phone vibrated in the purse that was slung over her arm. She examined it with concentration on her face.
"Is it that guy? The bar guy?"
"No...I asked Galia in the administration office to tell me if our extremely contentious President of the Board happens to visit the campus. He's been avoiding answering my messages asking for more funding for the Intelligence Program here, and I want to talk to that moron face-to-face."
"So is he going to be here?"
"Yeah, he's going to be here for a meeting to discuss new additions to the faculty."
"Oh. Noobs. How wonderful," Kathleen said sarcastically.
"Nobody's going to replace us, though. We're unmatched," Elizabeth replied without arrogance, just matter-of-factly.
Kathleen grabbed her purse.
"Let's go...I need sushi."
Fin's Sushi Bar and Restaurant was bustling at the lunch rush hour with people downing maki rolls and sashimi, shoveling Japanese sushi rice into their hungry mouths, sipping sake slowly enough so that their heads didn't buzz, barely enough to get a warm feeling in their middles.
"More sake?" Kathleen offered. "Meeting with authority figures is more fun if you're buzzing."
Elizabeth held up her tiny sake cup for more, chewing quietly and thoughtfully on her spicy tuna. She was trying to carefully formulate in her mind the exact words she would say to the President of the Board. Her past experiences with authority always ended with her inevitable sharp tongue and extreme opinions getting her into trouble, and this time, in order to be effective, she wanted to catch her flies with honey, not vinegar. Her phone beeped and vibrated again, rudely jerking her out of her sushi-induced concentration.
"What news, general?" Kathleen asked, picking up a piece of salmon roll and popping into her mouth.
"Their meeting ends around three o'clock. I'm gonna head over right as I'm coming back, do you wanna come with?"
"Are you asking me if I want to come witness you shake down the President of the Board?"
"I'm not going to 'shake him down,' gawd, Kathleen--"
"You're approaching--if not, intercepting him--to get money from him," Kathleen said with a smirk on her face. "No matter what you call it, I'm not going to miss it."
Elizabeth drained her sake, and then checked her phone. It was only one-thirty, and all she could think about was meeting with the President. "Eat the rest of my cucumber roll," Elizabeth said, plopping three pieces of sushi on Kathleen's plate.
"Are you sure you don't want it?"
"It's too big."
"THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID."
"Oh gawd, Kathleen, you just had to take it to a bad place."
"I wasn't going to let that one pass--you're the one who said it in those words."
Kathleen was the sophisticated professor of projectile weaponry at Stark University. At five feet and ten inches, she was taller than most of the small, pasty scientists who made up the rest of the projectile weaponry faculty. With her fair skin and dark brown hair, she attracted the attention of many of her indoors-y male colleagues. Only her high standards kept her single.
Like Éli, Kathleen had been taken from her job to work as a Stark University. But unlike Elizabeth, Kathleen had to make an even bigger transition from clandestine work to teaching. Her expertise was, in simple terms, shooting. She knew how to work anything from a bazooka to a tiny handgun. Kathleen was a modern-day Annie Oakley. While Elizabeth could hit her target ninety-nine percent of the time, Kathleen could hit anything she wanted anytime she wanted. Elizabeth usually left the gun questions to her friend, and tackled the martial arts problems herself.
Elizabeth was as small as Kathleen was tall, with extremely long black hair she usually kept in a strict, long ponytail high up on her head. Kathleen, on the other hand, kept her hair short, cut in the same 60's style as Audrey Hepburn. Elizabeth stuck with simple all black outfits, while Kathleen defied the expectations of her colleagues and dressed in daring fashions that included but was not limited to high heels and skirts. "I've virtually got a desk job now, I don't need to be in running boots and limber wall-climbing pants, wearing a Batman utility belt," she would always say when people expressed disbelief that she was a sharpshooter. "Shall we start walking back?" Kathleen suggested, patting her mouth with a napkin. She started to reapply her lipstick, a pleasant rosy color. "We can stop by that gelato shop and still have enough time for you to hover and prepare for the Great Ambush."
Elizabeth and Kathleen sat on the edge of a planter. Kathleen watched the door of the meeting room like a guard on duty, occasionally taking bites of her chocolate malted crunch ice cream. Elizabeth had a cone of sweet strawberry sorbet in one, but was concentrating on her phone. Every once in a while, she licked any melting sorbet that threatened to trickle stickily onto her fingers. A large group of men began to leave the conference hall--Kathleen nudged Elizabeth to get her attention.
"Are any of those guys el Presidente?" Kathleen asked, examining each and every single one.
"No. I imagine he'll be one of the last to leave."
They waited for the crowd of men with a few women sprinkled in the crowd to leave, and as the last began to slowly make their way out, Elizabeth prepared herself to approach them. With Kathleen at her two-inch black pumps, Elizabeth confronted the final group of four men: a middle-aged Caucasian man, a young man in an expensive dashing suit, another young man with bulging shoulders in similar dress, and a fourth guy in a dark trench coat.
"President Volker?" Elizabeth called inquiringly. The oldest looking man paused in his conversation and turned to the two women approaching him. Elizabeth realized just how ridiculous she must look, with a determined look on her face, holding a sweet sorbet cone in one hand, her friend following her like a bodyguard.
"May I help you ladies?"
As she got nearer to the President of the Board Berthold Volker, she saw that the three men he had been talking to were by no means normal. The dark man in the trench coat had bright, glowing eyes, and in one hand he clutched a long staff. With his other hand, he was fiddling with something in his pocket. While he was turned in the direction of President Volker, his eerie eyes were on Eli. The man with the bulging shoulders had what looked like angel wings jutting out from the edge of his jacket, which explained why he seemed to be bursting at the seams. The last man upon first glance seemed normal, but he had a certain aura of power and magnetism around him that caught the attention of those around him.
"Mr. Volker, I'm Elizabeth, Chairwoman of the Intelligence department. I'd like to speak to you about funding--"
"Ahh....Miss Chau. I have heard much from you. I'm sorry I haven't...quite gotten to your responding to your plentiful messages."
"Yes, sir, that is why I'd like to speak to you now," Elizabeth said.
"Well, if you would just contact my secretary, we can set up an appointment, but right now I'm occupied with some new potential professors--"
"But Mr. Volker--"
"--Mr. LeBeau, Mr. Worthington, if you would just come with us to Mr. Stark's office--"
"Mr. Volker, I insist on speaking with you now."
"Miss Chau. I'm afraid I can't speak with you now as I am taking up the precious time of our most generous benefactor Mr. Tony Stark, who as you can see, is right here with me. Miss Chau," Mr. Volker hissed, dropping his voice to a low level, bringing his face in close to Elizabeth's until their noses were inches apart, "I am currently preoccupied with something very urgent, so if you please."
"Is there a problem, Berthold?" the most ordinary of the strangers asked.
"No problem, Mr. Stark."
Tony Stark approached them, extending a business-like hand. He was taller than the already towering President Volker, and filled out his suit well. His brown hair was slicked back and he had a mustache that would have made any other man look like a porn star.
"Tony Stark," he said. Elizabeth ignored his handshake. Her attention was on Mr. Volker. "If the problem is funding, I'm very interested." He trained his gaze onto Kathleen, who was observing the situation unfolding with alertness and amusement. "Very interested." "No, Mr. Stark, we're done here with Miss Chau." Kathleen could see the storm brewing in Elizabeth's personal aura. She was speechless, her mouth open, stinging words forming on the tip of her tongue. It was time for her to cut in.
"Mr. Volker," Kathleen interrupted, extending her hand. "What Miss Chau just wants to talk to you about is funding so she can send her students on missions and so she can fund internships. This conversation will only take a few seconds of your time. You don't mind, do you, Mr. Stark?"
"No, of course not, and I can personally provide adequate funds for your friend's endeavors to improve the education here at my university. Remy, Warren, you don't mind, do you?"
There was something familiar about the dark man in the trench coat.
"I don't mind at all, Tony. Especially as I've been trying to contact Miss Chau today."
This statement disarmed Elizabeth suddenly, but before she could ask, Mr. Volker brought her back to the pressing matter at and.
"Alright, Miss Chau, whatever you want, just send it to my secretary, and I'll relay it to generous Mr. Stark, now, gentlemen, let us continue to Mr. Stark's office and we will negotiate salaries."
Remy LeBeau, also known as "Gambit," hadn't wanted to come to Malibu, California, to go to school. But he felt a strong sense of duty when his close personal friend Tony Stark, or "Iron Man," called him and decisively told him the date and time when he needed to be at the Stark University campus. After several years of being a free spirit, just recently divorced from his first wife, a temperamental only child female who had insecurities because she didn't have the maturity to control her own powers, Remy felt like attending the meeting for potential new professors and at least listening to Mr. Berthold Volker's pitch would be enough.
There were three things he encountered at the meeting that he hadn't expected. The first was his friend Warren Worthington, known to his fellow X-Men as "Angel." While Gambit had not been an X-Men, he often fought alongside them and with Angel because of his wife, Anna Marie, or "Rogue." After their messy divorce, Gambit got in bad with the X-Men, except for Warren. That is when they became friends, so Warren was a welcome sight to him.
The second thing he didn't expect was that Tony and Volker kept Warren and him after the meeting, speaking to the two personally. Volker wanted to give the two super-powered men positions as professors in two new divisions that they were planning to open up. Warren, with his knowledge of flying, would help the Iron Men scientists to create metal wings. Gambit's power, which was essentially the ability to explode things, he would work with the explosives team. He was tempted to take the job.
The third shocking thing was the sight that was before him. A somber young woman who looked too short to put her carry-on luggage in the overhead bin, her hair pulled back in a strict pony tail that reached the top of her buttocks, a look of indignation on her face while she held an ice cream cone, strawberry sorbet to be exact, in her hand. This sight, Miss Elizabeth Chau, set feelings through him, a fascination and an attraction he hadn't felt since he laid eyes on Rogue. In a way, he felt like these feelings were even stronger this time around. Upon seeing Miss Elizabeth, he wanted to work there. With her. Near her.
She was with a friend, a tall, leggy brunette who was eyeing him suspiciously with a knowing look on her face. Remy was done with tall, leggy brunettes. He felt like petite, serious, work-obsessed Intelligence professors would be a refreshing change. The brunette's stare was unnerving him. He was thankful when she shifted her eyes onto Tony Stark, who was eyeing her with the same amount of intensity.
"Alright, Miss Chau, whatever you want, just send it to my secretary, and I'll relay it to generous Mr. Stark, now, gentlemen, let us continue to Mr. Stark's office and we will negotiate salaries," Volker said impatiently, hustling them in the different of Tony's rarely used office.
"Mr. Volker, since I already know that a bill will be coming my way, would you mind if I extend a dinner invitation to these ladies?" Tony said suavely. "So that we may discuss this more in depth." Remy looked on with a smirk on his face as Volker sputtered in his speechlessness.
"Well, y-yes. Of course, Mr. Stark," Volker finally said, still at a loss for words in the presence of that which was Tony Stark and his ability with the ladies. Out of the corner of his eye, Remy saw a thin trickle of melted sorbet about to touch Elizabeth's thin, tapered fingers, which were wrapped delicately around her waffle cone. He reached out a finger and wiped the sorbet before it could make her sticky. If he tabbed this woman right, she wasn't the type who liked being sticky in a professional situation. Instinctively, Remy placed his finger in his mouth and licked the sorbet off.
"You were dripping," he explained when she stared at him with surprise.
"I'm sure she was," Kathleen said from behind her. Tony cleared his throat quickly.
"Tonight, pick you two up at seven?"
"Seven is great," Kathleen said, returning Tony's smile with her own brilliant, confident one. Elizabeth seemed to be confused by what was transpiring before her.
"Alright, ladies, we'll pick you up from your apartments at seven. I didn't get your name, Miss....?"
"Kathleen. Just Kathleen."
"Well, Miss Kathleen. It was enchanting to meet you. I'll see you two tonight. No need to exchange numbers--I can find yours in the faculty directory, and Miss Chau, I believe Mr. LeBeau already has your number," Tony concluded. Extending a hand, he pointed the men in the direction in which they were headed.
As the men left the two women behind, walking briskly, Tony neared Remy and whacked him in the chest with the back of his hand.
"What?"
"You're coming with me tonight."
It was funny how I saw you today.
What's your name again?
Remy LeBeau.
"Oh my god," Elizabeth exclaimed while they were in Elizabeth's apartment getting ready for dinner.
"What?" Kathleen asked, emerging from the bathroom with a curling iron in her hair. Her face was made up impeccably so that she glowed. Elizabeth was sitting on the edge of her bed, wrapped cozily in her black comforter. The little woman was staring at her cellphone, reading a text with eyes wide with shock and realization.
"That guy. That guy. The one I supposedly met at the bar? That was him."
"Who was him? Elizabeth, you're not making any sense. You need to start getting ready--please don't go to dinner with the dashing Mr. LeBeau in your work clothes."
"The guy I met at the bar was Mr. LeBeau. His first name is Remy."
"As in the antihero of Louisiana? That Remy LeBeau?"
"You know about this guy?"
"Yeah. He has super powers. Like he can blow stuff up or something--at least, put some makeup on or something."
"It's just a business dinner, Kathleen, it's not like it's a date."
"Right, I'm calling dibs on Stark. I didn't know he was going to be so...human. I never imagined that Stark University's biggest benefactor was going to be so down-to-Earth," Kathleen said, setting the curling iron on the marble counter and rooting through Elizabeth's closet. She plucked out a royal blue strapless dress and threw it in Elizabeth's direction. "Wear that. You get LeBeau." Elizabeth sighed in exasperation. She shouldn't have even purchased those dresses. But Kathleen wasn't going to give up and would keep finding flattering dresses for Elizabeth to wear for this one dinner. Her friend was already going through her makeup drawer and was finding eyeliners and mascaras for her to wear.
"Alright, I'm not going to make you wear lipstick but that's only because I think LeBeau is going to try to kiss you tonight. This is the second time you guys will be drinking some kind of alcoholic drink together."
The two girls were waiting outside in the cold as a shiny, black limo pulled up. Tony stepped out first, dashing in a black tuxedo.
"Wow, Kathleen." She looked incredible. Being tall, the dress hung on her well, accentuating the right parts of her body. Her dress was floor length, dark emerald green. She held a creamy clutch purse as she eyed her date. Her hair was gently curled and framed her face. Tony couldn't help but notice that her eyes were sparkling and her cheeks were sweetly blushing from the cold of the night.
Remy stepped out of the limo from behind him, his hands in his pockets, probably clutched around his cellphone and his deck of cards. His eerie, glowing eyes passed carelessly over Kathleen, but stopped when he saw Eli.
Elizabeth looked different from the serious professor they had met earlier. She was wearing a bright blue strapless dress. Her eyes were rimmed with creamy black kohl, her hair left down. Her hair was still in a high, loose ponytail, but because it was curled tightly in what Tony could only guess was Kathleen's doing, she didn't look practical, but glamorous. She wasn't keeping her shivering to a minimum as well as Kathleen was. In Malibu, the ocean kept the weather cool compared to the rest of Los Angeles, and Elizabeth nearly vibrated as her teeth chattered, her breath visible in the air. She looked a lot more vulnerable this way, something Tony knew Remy was a complete sucker for.
Remy's mouth was open slightly as he gaped at the woman he had been intrigued by earlier. Suddenly, the sides of his jacket burst. He had been so entranced that he accidentally exploded his whole deck of cards and his cellphone within his pockets.
"Did I excite you, Mr. LeBeau?" Elizabeth asked dryly. Kathleen giggled.
"You...you clean up well."
Tony clapped his friend on the shoulder.
"I've got an extra jacket in the limo for this such occasion. I got your back," Tony assured. He extended a hand to help Kathleen into the limo. "Ladies?"
January 29, 2010 Update: Changed the name of "Eli" to "Elizabeth."