He didn't want to do this. He really didn't want to do this. Tony Stark was pacing around his lab running his hand threw his hair. He was to busy working with the Avengers to deal with this and- "Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts is once again trying to contact you threw your phone, may I remind you that she has already been down here eleven times trying to inform you of-"
"Thanks Jarvis I know." Tony said irritably. The door bell went off. "Great." Tony muttered as he went to go answer it "Shall I-"
"No, I'm on my way."
When he reached the front Pepper was there heading to answer it as well. "I got this Pepper." He said. He grabbed the handle and yanked the door open. On the porch stood a 14 year old girl, about 5'3'', wearing jeans and a brown T-shirt. Her face was in a scowl as she bent down to grab the big blue duffel back next to her and reached to pull a giant green and sliver case behind it.
Tony shut the door without saying anything so Pepper tried to greet the teen. "Well it's nice for you to come stay with us-"
"Whatever." The girl said. She brought her things into the living room, and she sat cross legged in the middle of the couch dumping her bag on top of the giant case.
"You really need to show some respect if your going to be staying here." Tony said as he leaned in the door frame studying the girl. She wasn't making eye contact but instead chose to stare down at the floor. "Sorry. Who's in charge?" She asked.
"Well since this my-"
"Because," She cut him off, still not moving. "Sunshine said that this was your house, but then Ally said Pepper was the one who was in charge. Although," She looked up in thought. "That might have been the sarcasm but I'm not sure. Shadow said that I had to listen and follow the rules of what Tony Stark said, but she implied that you were in charge of the house, but if Pepper is the one in charge then does that mean that I do what she says?"
She stared at Tony for a moment, waiting for his answer, her light brown eyes bore into his making him slightly uncomfortable, but then she abruptly looked away.
"You should listen to both me and Mr. Stark." Pepper said coming to stand beside Tony. "Why don't you let Jarvis take you to your room."
The teen gasped in excitement and you could see her eyes widen. "The artificial intelligence system that is used as your butler, security system, internet, and advice giver complete with a sarcastic English accent and a some what sassy attitude?"
"Uh, ya." Pepper said glancing uncertainty at Tony, who was staring out the large windows.
The girl gleefully grabbed her bag and case and started pulling the case behind her as she went around the corner into the hallway. Indignantly Jarvis said "My accent is not sarcastic and my attitude is not sassy!"
"Well she's a character..." Pepper said one hand holding a clipboard while the other rubbed Tony's shoulder. "I don't like it." He said stubbornly, still looking out the window. Pepper sighed dropping her hand. "I know you don't, but you owe this favor to Shadow, the whole SMD group had to break up and they thought that this remote location would be the best for Carmen."
"I know," He said finally turning to face Pepper. "But I still don't like it." He leaned in to her, but Pepper placed a hand on his chest, over the glowing arc reactor. "We still have business to discuss." She whispered.
"Oh, you bet we have a lot of business to discuss." He said putting his hands on her hips. Pepper smiled and said "You know that's not what I meant."
"I know." He whispered. He leaned in eyes closing when. Error! Error! Systems being hacked, voice options being searched. Shutting down for reboot! "What the-?" Tony said pulling away.
"What's going on?" Pepper asked looking around. "Jarvis? Jarvis?"
"Aw, h*** I think I know," Tony said as he headed down the hallway and to the room where Carmen was staying, Pepper was close on his heels.
They were coming up to the door when a Homer Simpson sounding voice came over the AI system "I'm Homer Simpson and I'm reporting for duty! Hope your refrigerator is stocked and your couch is comfy because I-" It was cut off and replaced with a Jamaican accent voice. "Ello you all you partay peoples! I hope your ready for a great night tonIght!
"What is going on? Is that supposed to be Jarvis?" Pepper asked looking around.
"I'm pretty sure I know." Tony said, he proceeded to bang on the door. "Carmen?" No answer. "Carmen!" Still nothing, but the voices kept on going from one accent to another, first a creepy Australian accent, than to what sounded like a sports commentator, and then to some heavy female Spanish accent.
Tony was banging harder now, getting madder and madder. "Carmen! If you don't open this door and let us in then I'm going to force my way in there!" There was a pause and the accents stopped. Carmen yelled from behind the door. "You can't come in here! It's locked!"
"Than I'll unlock!" Tony yelled, he was extremely frustrated.
"Nuh, uh! Not using the Artificial Intelligence system you can't!"
"Than I'll get into my suit and blast it open!"
Another pause than, "You can't come in, I'm-I'm changing."
"Oh, that's a lie if I ever heard one! Why would you be changing!"
"I'm sure you've heard plenty of lies, but I'm changing into my pajamas to sleep!"
"At 2 o'clock in the afternoon!" He shouted, getting ready to go into his lab and put on his Iron Man suit to blast the door open. Pepper just nervously stood there threw this whole ordeal biting her lip.
Carmen was silent a little longer this time, but cried "Yes!".
"Bull ****! Let me in!" Tony's face was getting red, and Pepper tried to put a calming hand on his shoulder.
"You shouldn't use those kind of words! It's not good!"
Tony lead against the door and with anger seething off every word, said in a low voice. "Let. Me. In."
There was a whirr and then a click and the door propped open an inch revealing the light brown eye of Carmen. "Can I help you?" She tried to ask trying to sound innocent.
Tony barged in followed closely by Pepper. Since they didn't know how long Carmen was going to stay, they decided to put her in one of the well-liked guest rooms. So it was very large, complete with a mini kitchen, giant king sized bed, artificial fireplace, couch, big screen TV, and a bathroom that had a bath the size of a hot-tub that also worked as a high-tech jacuzzi.
But apparently Carmen just wanted to play with the AI system, which had multiple panels throwout the room. She stared sheepishly at her feet as Tony stood in front of her, "What were you doing?" He demanded, Pepper whispered for him to go easy on her since she was a guest but Tony was to fired up with anger to care.
"I don't care if she's a guest Pepper, you don't" He took a step and wiggled his finger at her like you would at a naughty two-year-old. "play with Jarvis, you don't lock me or Ms. Potts out of your room, and you don't lie about what your doing! Do you understand?"
She dragged her toe across the red plush carpet before saying, "Yes."
"Good," He said.
"I'll fix him." It sounded like an offer but she went over to the AI panel and placed her hand on it.
"No-no don't worry I'll fix him." Tony said but soon there was a gentle gurgling, murmur, sound over head than the familiar voice of Jarvis soon sounded. "All normal voice activation systems are back online sir."
"Ah well," Tony said his anger fading away. "That solves that." Then he noticed all of Carmen's equipment in the far corner of the room. There was a desk that looked like a Hampton corner desk except three times the size, complete with fully stocked cabinets filled with all kinds of notepads, pencils, colors, graphing pads, rulers, diagrams, protractors, anything a computer geek could want. The computer itself was one of Tony's models.
Next to the desk though, was the giant green and silver suitcase, it was open and a whole bunch of monitors, computers, wires, plug-ins, even clear smaller cases that held beakers, tubes, cylinders, all of this had somehow been strategically placed inside the suitcase to make it fit.
It most certainty caught Tony's attention. "What do have going on here?" He asked as he made his way to the pile. As he came closer he noticed a plastic box filled with a variety of notebooks. Some were open and he bent down to look at the notes that had been written inside it.
It was all very interesting. The math was spot on and the diagrams were fascinating. He soon lost himself to the world as he read threw what was apparently Carmen's original hover board designs.
It took him a minute to feel Pepper's hand shaking his shoulder. "Tony, Tony"
He looked up "What?"
"Look." Pepper said and pointed at Carmen. She looked like she had to really used the bathroom. Her lips were pressed together, hands clenched at her sides, and she was bouncing up and down.
He immediately dropped the book and walked over. "Is something wrong?"
She shook her head but looked from him to her notebook he had dropped. He was confused, but only for a second. "Do you not want me looking at your stuff?"
She let out a dramatic sigh, "No. I don't" and raced past him and Pepper. She dumped the book back in the box and shut the lid over it. She preceded to unpack her things, she seemed to have a very precise order of where things were.
"Those were some very interesting notes you had." Tony said wanting to learn more. "The aerodynamics were a little off, but everything else looks like it could work. I mean, that was brilliant."
She never paused what she was doing but replied with. "I know."
Tony nodded. "Okay then. Do you want some help?"
"I think you've done enough." She turned to him eyes looking up and the ceiling. "Now...is it custom for the hosts to let the guest have some time alone to set up, or do they always stay and watch."
Tony would have come back with a witty retort, but he wasn't sure if it was sarcasm or not. It had sounded pretty genuine. "Uhm, we'll leave you alone then." He turned and headed for the door. He walked out but before Pepper did she turned back to Carmen and said "Jarvis will let you know when it's time for dinner."
Carmen nodded an acknowledgment but was busy setting everything up.
When Pepper had closed the door, Tony was leaned against the wall and turned his head to look at her, letting out a long sigh. "I don't want her here."
"I know, but we won't have to deal with it forever. Just until the heat dies down."
"But why couldn't S.H.I.E.L.D. Have taken them in, or some witness protection program!" He threw his hands up as he headed down the hall.
Pepper followed him, all professorial and patient, even though they've had this conversation over sixteen times. "Because The Deeds wants their blood, S.H.I.E.L.D. Workers could be double-agents for the them, no ordinary witness protection program will be safe for them, and The Deeds wouldn't dare to try and attack any of the Avengers," She managed to catch up with him, placed a hand on his shoulder and gently turned him around and said more quietly. "And let's not forget the part you played in having most of SMD going down there and getting all that information."
He wouldn't look at her. "So I encouraged them a little, I never thought that they would do something as extreme as that." Even though he sounded indignant, she knew he felt guilty for even planting a kernel of that idea into their heads.
"They're teenagers on top of that they're mutants with their own group name, if you tell them something dangerous and stupid, but sounds like a good idea they will most likely do it."
She gave a small sigh before saying "Now, we still have business to talk about."
Tony growled and threw up his hands once more before walking away. "I don't want to talk about that right now!"
Pepper said quietly "You never want to talk about it," Before following him again. "Your publicity and reputation is slipping, you need to go to some charity organizations and make some generous contributions, Homeland Security is still pressing for an inspection of the Iron Man suit, and the CIA and FBI are both asking for private conferences, Rohdy called again you really need to meet with him he's concerned..."
The list went on and Tony would occasionally insert quips here and there about certain people or agencies that Pepper would mention.
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Carmen is one of MY original characters. Tony, Pepper, the Avengers are all Marvel's. So now that's out of the way, what did you think? A different flavor I know, but I hope that you still enjoy it, no this is not a oneshot and the next chapter will be...wait...nah I won't say anything :). So please reveiw and I'm expecting for you to yell at me if I accidently don't stay true to the characters personalities. This story will be mostly from Carmen's perspective and more details about the SMD group will come later. By the way SMD stands for Sisterhood of Mutant Defenders, I know I know...it's not that great. But anyways I hope you enjoy! 3
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