Disclaimer, The First: Wizards of Waverly Place and its characters are not owned by me. Which is a crying shame, since the people who do own them aren't making new stories with them anymore. Boo-urns.

Author's Note: Though my Wizards vs. Christmas stories are far from being my most-reviewed or most widely read, the people who like them reallyseem to like them, and I often get requests for more, even in the off-season. So here it is: the first in a series of loosely interconnected one-shots set in the same continuity, using the same central central spell: Literarium Terrarium Activa, an invention of Alex's which allows her and her brothers to jump into enchanted DVDs of movies and television shows, and interact with the worlds and characters contained within.

It's not necessary to have read either of my previous Wizards vs. Christmas stories (or In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream by jlxology on LiveJournal, the delightfully cracky WoWP/Battlestar Galactica crossover in which Literarium Terrarium Activa made its first appearance) to enjoy these stories, but you might get more out of them if you do. Like the Christmas stories, these are very much "Jalex if you squint", meaning you can (hopefully) appreciate them whether you prefer Alex and Justin simply as siblings with a special bond, or as secretly a little bit more. Max and Harper (and possibly Jerry and Theresa) will figure into future installments, too.

Thanks for reading! Please to enjoy! :)

I. Back to the Drawing Board

Summary: Alex tags along after Justin on yet another one of his self-appointed missions, only to discover a mission of her own in the process. (Well, two of her own, really, but the first one doesn't count.)

i.

And suddenly, with a bright flash of light and a light tinkling noise, Alex appeared in the living room of what could only be described as a really kick-ass house. Spacious, modern, and expensively-decorated, its massive floor-to-ceiling windows revealed a breathtaking unimpeded view of an ocean at high tide. Alex gawked openly as she turned in place, taking it all in. It all seemed familiar, kinda-sorta, but for some reason she couldn't quite place where she was. Maybe she'd seen it on an episode of MTV Cribs, or something...

"Justin?" she called out, marvelling a little at the way her voice actually seemed to echo. Jesus, how big was this place? "Hey Justin, are you here?"

"You are not authorized to access this area," said a man's voice with a crisp English accent, making Alex jolt in surprise.

"Jesus Christ!" Alex muttered, turning in place again as she tried to place the source of the disembodied voice. It seemed to be coming from all around her at once, but she couldn't see any visible speakers anywhere in the room. Or any cameras or motion sensors, for that matter. Whatever security set-up they had in this place, it had to be state of the art if Alex Russo couldn't spot it. (Because, look, you didn't get the kind of reputation for pranking that she had, unless you had at least a passing familiarity with these things.)

"Please identifiy yourself," the English dude continued smoothly, "or I shall be forced to summon the authorities."

"You first, British dude," Alex snapped back towards the ceiling, even as she raised her wand again, in case she had to GTFO in a hurry. "Where are you?"

"That's JARVIS," came another voice from behind her—a woman's, this time—making Alex jump again. "He runs the house."

Alex quickly spun on the heels of her fashionable-yet-affordably-priced boots to level the business end of her wand at the woman who'd managed to sneak up on her. The slim, conservatively-dressed redhead cocked an eyebrow at its glowing tip for a second, then let out a long-suffering sigh. Her eyes swivelled up towards Alex's face, crinkling ever so noticably at the corners as she smiled tightly.

"You're up earlier than most," she observed. "And you're fully dressed, which is a pleasant surprise. Let me guess: he caught your magic act at Cesar's Palace last night? And then brought you home to see what else you could make disappear?"

"Gwenyth Paltrow?" Alex blinked in confusion, then snorted to herself and lowered her wand to her side. "Ohhhhhh, OK...now I know where we are. Duh, I should've guessed..."

"Excuse me?" the redhead said, with a puzzled frown.

"Never mind," said Alex, stooping forward slightly as she hitched her right knee up towards her chest. The redhead's frown grew even more puzzled as she watched Alex tuck her wand down the side of her boot. "Listen, I'm looking for a Justin Russo. Giant nerd with dark hair, about yay high, dresses like he escaped from one of those GAP commercials where everybody dances? You haven't seen him by any chance, have you?"

"Justin?" The redhead's expression softened somewhat, and her shoulders relaxed a little. Which was good, as far as Alex was concerned, because if she'd been wound any tighter, she'd be likely to snap. "The college intern who's been apprenticing with Mister Stark? Yes, he's working downstairs in the garage."

"College intern?" Alex snorted, before she could stop herself. "Seriously?"

"From M.I.T., yes," the redhead said, the puzzled frown threatening to return. But one corner of her mouth quirked up a little as she leaned forward, all conspirator-like. "Are you his girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend? Pfft!" Alex laughed, a little more loudly than is absolutely necessary, given the awesome acoustics of the house. "Please, as if I'd be caught dead dating a complete dorkasaurus like him! Trust me, it's bad enough being his sister!"

"His sister? Oh." And just like that, the redhead went all stiff and tense again, the smile on her face tighter than a coiled spring. "Well, no need for you to go down. I'll just have JARVIS page him and ask him to come up to meet you, then."

"Nah, that's OK, I'll just go find him myself," Alex said, waving one hand dismissively. "I wanna see what he's working on. Besides, I like the way he squeals when I sneak up on him. He's downstairs, you said, yeah?"

The redhead who looked like Gwenyth Paltrow scoffed at this, then crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that won't be possible," she chuckled, an edge to her voice. "The garage is Mr. Stark's private workshop. It's a restricted area. You need a security code to access it."

Hearing the unspoken challenge in her voice, Alex narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to one side.

"Yeah, well, that's what they said about the photocopier in the teacher's lounge, too, but somehow Xeroxes of my little brother's butt still wound up being plastered all over the school." Blinking, she shifted her eyes just to the left of the redhead, then raised one hand and pointed into the empty foyer beyond. "Hey, look! Isn't that the lead singer from Coldplay!"

"What?" The redhead frowned, and spun around to look over her shoulder. "Where?"

"Sucker!" Alex grinned, then held up her hand with two fingers outstretched in a V. "Peace out, Gwenny."

And while the redhead's back was still turned, with a snap of her fingers, Alex flashed out just as abruptly as she'd flashed in.

ii.

Seconds later, Alex reappeared in an enormous, concrete-walled room that was much less lavishly decorated than the mansion upstairs, but no less enormous. It wasn't exactly what you'd call spacious, though—it was packed full of computers, machinery and all kinds of complicated-looking equipment. Kind of like Justin's room, times a zillion. Except that instead of carefully-preserved Captain Jim Bob Sherwood action figures in mint-condition packaging, on display was a row of several expensive and really sweet-looking cars...the kind that her ex-boyfriend, Dean, would havedrooled over.

And crouched next to one of them—an old black and red hot rod with flame decals on the side—was Justin Russo. Surrounded by the components of a disassembled six-cylinder engine, and holding a timing belt—you couldn't help but pick up a thing or two about cars when you hung out with Dean as much and as long as she had—and looking as bored as she'd ever seen him.

"Hey, egghead!" she called out to him, hands on her hips as she stalked towards him. "Just what the hell do you think you're—?"

"Intruder alert!" the disembodied English guy's voice cut her off, as unseen sirens began to blare and the overhead lights started flashing on and off."Initiating lockdown protocol. Defensive countermeasures engaged."

"Woah, what now?" Alex said, looking towards the ceiling. "Yo, British dude, relax! I'm just here to see my—AAAUUUGGGGH!"

And that was the last thing that Alex managed to get out, before what could only be described as a giant robotic arm on wheels trundled around the corner, and shot her full in the face with a fire extinguisher, blinding her and knocking her flat on her ass in the process.

"ALEX!" Justin's voice cried out.

'"Woah woah woah woah woah!" a second, strangely familiar voice shouted then, as two pairs of hands grabbed at her arms, yanking her to her feet. "JARVIS, kill the alarms and stand down, huh? It's just a girl."

"Just a girl who happens to be an unauthorized intruder, sir," disembodied British dude said pointedly, even as the sirens cut off in mid-blare, and the lighting returned to normal. "Miss Potts is on the phone with the police as we speak."

"Well, tell her to hang up. I've got everything under control here."

"But sir—!"

"JARVIS..."

Disembodied British dude didn't actually let out an exasperated sigh—not that Alex could hear anyway—but there was enough of a pause to give her the impression that he really wanted to.

"As you wish, sir," he said in resignation.

"Right on, thanks. And hey, you! Dummy! Point that thing somewhere else before I turn you into an espresso machine."

This time no voice answered, but a distinctly mechanical whine replied, like a robot whose feelings had been hurt.

"LEGGO A'ME!" Alex snapped, flailing her arms until the hands gripping them were forced to let go. Bringing her hands up to her face, she wiped both her eyes free of the stinging white foam, then shook them out violently onto the floor.

"Alex, are you OK?" Justin asked.

"DO I LOOK OK?" shouted Alex, wiping bubbling foam away from her face with both hands. "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, JUSTIN?"

"Yeah, please don't blame Justin," the other, strangely familiar voice said, "because this is totally my bad. While I have no idea how you managed to get in here, clearly this is a disproportionate response on par with...well, any American 'police action' of the past twenty or so years, let's be honest. But, y'know, 'shock and awe' pays the bills, so..."

Alex stopped scrubbing foam off her face for a second, and looked to her left...to find a goateed Robert Downey Jr. looking back at her, grinning sympathetically. And looking as beautiful as any man had ever looked in the history of manhood.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh, no," she groaned, covering her face with both hands. "I'd like to die now, please."

"Hey, no. It's not that bad, really. It's just a little foam," RDJ said, gently grabbing her hands and pulling them away from her face. "OK, so actually it's metric crapload of foam, but still...my assistant can have your clothes cleaned and pressed within the hour. Trust me. She's a champ at that."

Alex's breath hitched in her throat as RDJ's hands closed around hers, and his thumbs ghosted back and forth over her knuckles, despite the fact that fingers were covered in white frothy goo. Truth be told, she'd always had a tiny bit of a crush on him, which was why she'd only ever put up a token resistence whenever Justin insisted on watching this movie. But even though she knew he was pratically old enough to be her father—and might even be older than Jerry, come to think of it—actually looking up into his deep brown eyes as they crinkled at the corners was making her more than a little weak in the knees.

RDJ certainly seemed to notice, because those deep brown eyes of his slowly swept down the front of her body, then all the way back up. And by the time they landed back on her face, there was a very distinct twinkle in them, accentuated by a smirk that could only be described as mischievous.

"Of course, in order to have your clothes cleaned by Miss Potts," he said smoothly, "we'll have to get you out of them."

Alex felt her cheeks begin to burn, even as her stomach did what felt like a triple-somersault, but she refused to drop his gaze like some shy little schoolgirl. Instead, she cocked one eyebrow and met his smirk with one of her own. "What, you mean right here?"

"A-hem!" Justin interrupted, even as RDJ opened his mouth to reply. He stepped between them and practically yanked his sister's hands out of the other man's grasp. "Why don't I just show her to the restroom, where she can get cleaned up, shall I?"

Both Alex and RDJ blinked at him as though they'd completely forgotten he was there. (Which Alex actually kinda had, to be honest.)

"Um..."

"Uh..."

"Right! Back in a jiffy, then!" Justin said, tugging Alex forward by the wrists so hard that she almost flew right off her feet. She turned to look over her shoulder at RDJ, only to have Justin swing around behind her and push her towards the far end of the workshop, steering her by her shoulders.

"Wow," Alex said, craning her neck to see around Justin's head. "He is so much better looking in person..."

"Alex, what are you doing here?" Justin hissed under his breath, twisting her to the left and steering her around a corner, out of sight.

"Duh! Looking for you, egghead." Alex allowed him to shove her towards what looked like a small bathroom in the far corner, if only because it took less effort than walking there herself. "When what I'm supposed do be doing right now is sitting in a recliner on the terrace, working on my tan. You're seriously cutting into my precious summer vacation lying-around time, here, dorkface."

"So get lost, then," Justin sneered at her. "Who asked you to come looking for me, anyway?"

"Uh, Mom and Dad?" Alex replied. "They're starting to get worried, nerdbutt. You've been gone for days!"

"Stop exaggerating," Justin snapped. "I've been here one day, at most."

"Nuh-uh! Max had to pick up your last three shifts at the Sub Station!"

"Wow, seriously? Geez..." Justin frowned, his eyes looking inward for a moment. "I guess I lost track of time. Then again, there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning, as I tried to determine the most optimal point of the movie in which to insert myself. Maybe I lost more time there than I originally thought..."

"Ugh, only you could turn this kick-ass spell I made for us into a science project, Justin," Alex said, rolling her eyes dramatically. "God, you're so anal!"

"I'm not anal, I'm thorough!" Justin protested, scowling at her. "And I'm sure you were supposed to pick up my shifts, but you somehow conned Max into it."

"Blackmailed, actually," Alex said proudly. "P.S., those issues of Letters to Wiz-Smut we keep findiing around the lair with the pages stuck together? Turns out they aren't Uncle Kelbo's."

"Eyyugh!" Justin grunted, leaning away from her, his face a mask of disgust. "Note to self: never sit in Max's seat during Wizard Lessons ever again...or touch anything he's touched..."

"Oh dude, I haven't touched anything that Max has since he was old enough to start carrying a dead lizard around in his pocket," Alex said, then jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Look, hop on out of the DVD and come home for a bit, huh? Really. Mom's so worried that she's starting to do that thing where she reorganizes the kitchen and mutters to herself en espanol. Which is seriously starting to get on my nerves, by the way."

"Sorry, no can do, Alex," Justin said, shaking his head as he steered her out of the path of another robot arm on wheels. "Not yet. Not when there's still so much to do."

"But Justi-i-i-i-in! She's moved the pickles on me three times, already!" Alex whined over her shoulder at him. "What the hell have you been doing in here for three days, anyway?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Justin asked. "I'm apprenticing under the great Tony Stark. He's a prodigy in robotic engineering and a veritablegenius in the field of clean energy!"

"Oh, really?" Alex scoffed. "Because when I flashed in, it looked an awful lot to me like you were giving a tune-up to Tony Stark, giant horndog."

"I was not...he is not...!" Justin broke off with a sigh of frustration as they stopped at the door of the small bathroom, and he gestured inside. Alex stumbled forward a few steps, then turned around to glare at him with her arms crossed over her chest.

"All right, so yes I was," Justin admitted, rolling his eyes. "And yes, he is. We're still at an early point in the movie, here, before Mr. Stark gets wounded and abducted by the Ten Rings, which galvanizes him into creating and becoming Iron Man for the first time."

"Yeah, hi, seen the movie, thanks," Alex snarked. "Only about a zillion times, thanks to you."

"I've tried using your Literarium Terrarium Activa spell to jump in later," Justin went on, ignoring her, "but he won't even entertain the idea of an intern beyond this juncture. He becomes too obsessed with his mission to upgrade and refine the armor, and take out the Ten Rings. It's only at thisstage, before he creates it, that I've been able to convince him to take me on as a—"

"Flunky?" Alex supplied, cutting him off. "Gopher? Stooge? Patsy?"

Justin glowered at her. "How is it that you failed English last semester, but you're suddenly a walking thesaurus when it comes to humilating me?"

"I dunno. Which one's the thesaurus? Three horns, or spikes on the tail?"

Justin gaped at her, then closed both his mouth and his eyes, and started counting to ten under his breath.

In the meantime, Alex looked both ways to make sure the coast was clear, then bent over to fish her wand out of her boot. Holding it aloft, she twisted it in a tight circle. With a bright flash of light, her foam-soaked clothes disappeared, and both her hair and makeup were instantly refreshed. Her former outfit appeared in a soggy pile on the counter of the sink to her left. (And, holy crap, even this dude's workshop bathroom had marble countertops. Just how loaded was he?)

"I will admit," Justin said patiently, with a heavy sigh, "that it has been a tad difficult getting Mr. Stark to focus, and share his expertise with—" He opened his eyes, then frowned at her as he looked her up and down. "What are you wearing?"

"Duh. It's called a sun dress, Justin," Alex said, as she looked in the mirror hanging over the sink and subtly rearranged the way her hair fell around her shoulders. "So, what? You're trying to get him to show you how to build one of those robot suits he wears?"

"Actually, no. Believe it or not, I'm more interested in ARC reactor technology." Justin grimaced. "It might be fictional, but if I can figure out a way to synthesize it in the real world using magic, I could solve the planet's energy crisis single-handedly. I've don't think I've ever seen you wear a sun dress before."

"Sure you have," Alex said. Studying herself in the mirror, she leaned forward ever so slightly, and tugged the front of her dress down just enough that the beauty mark above her right breast was barely visible. "Lots of times. I just usually wear a T-shirt and leggings underneath. Justin, you come from a world with a dragon-powered magical power plant. Why do you even care about this ark thingee?"

"Because the mortals will never buy the idea of dragons, but they might just buy the technobabble of the ARC reactor," Justin insists. "And the Wizards' Council would be hard-pressed to prove it was magic, and not just technological innovation. As Plan B's go, working to rid the world of its dependence on fossil fuels isn't bad. So why aren't you wearing a T-shirt and leggings with this sun dress?"

"I'm just trying to blend in," Alex says, squinting at the mirror and pursing her lips at her reflection, to make sure her lip gloss was applied evenly. "Y'know, like when you made me wear grandma clothes in It's a Wonderful Life. California girls wear sun dresses like so. We are in California, aren't we?"

"Malibu," Justin nodded.

"Ugh, fine, Malibu girls wear sun dresses without T-shirts and leggings, then," Alex said rolling her eyes. "Whatever!"

"No, Alex, Malibu is in—" Justin broke off and drew himself up to his full height, placing his hands on his hips. "Wait. You're dressed like this to impress him aren't you?"

"Pfft! Justin, please. He's, like, twice my age."

"Twice? Try almost three times, Alex!"

Alex stopped making duck face at her reflection and whipped her head around to stare at him, wide-eyed. "Wow, reallly? Man, he looks really good for an old dude..."

"Oh my gosh, you are! You're totally trying to—" Justin broke off as his eyes travelled down his sister's front. "Alex, are you not even wearing a bra?"

"Shut up!" Alex said, feeling her cheeks grow suddenly hot. "I told you, I'm just trying to blend in!"

"Well, good luck with that," a third voice said, echoing across the vast expanse of the garage. Alex and Justin both spun towards it, to see RDJ—er, Tony Stark—sauntering towards them, with his hands in his pockets.

iii.

"Uh...I'm sorry...?" Alex asked, transferring her wand to her left hand. She quickly reached around the doorframe, out of Stark's field of view, and shoved it into the pile of damp clothes on the counter, sandwiched between her jeans and tanktop.

"I said good luck trying to blend in," Stark said as he closed the distance between them. He smirked at Alex as he unabashedly looked her up and down again. "Because I'm afraid that you're going to stick out like a sore thumb in that getup. In a good way, of course."

Alex blushed once more, and grinned back, loving the attention. Next to her, she could practically sense Justin going stiff all over.

"Yeah, that is some dress, all right," Stark said, nodding in appreciation. When his eyes finally made it back up to meet hers, he tilted his head to one side. "Where'd it come from, though? You didn't find it just randomly lying around here somewhere, did you? Because Pepper's usually really good about...well, picking up after me..."

"Nonono," Alex laughed, then gestured vaguely over her shoulder into the bathroom behind her. "I just... had it...um, folded up...in my bag...just in case..."

"Ah," Stark said, then frowned. "I don't remember seeing you with a bag, though..."

"Well, clearly, that's because...the dress is the bag," Alex chuckled, as though it were obvious. "Yep, that's the hottest thing in women's fashion, right now: bags that turn into dresses, dresses that turn into bags."

"It's like a floral-patterned Transformer," Justin volunteered, nodding.

"Don't help," Alex snapped, elbowing him in the ribs.

"Interesting," Stark smiled, and his deep brown eyes seemed to be gazing right into her very soul. "Autobot? Or Decepticon?"

Alex blinked at this. "Huh?"

"Just curious to know whether your transforming dress is going to try to steal my technology and use it to take over the world," Stark said, narrowing his eyes and looking her up and down again. "Important distinction to make. There should be a symbol on here somewhere that'll clear it right up. Might be in a hard to find place, though. Spin for me real slow, wouldja?"

Alex blinked at him again, then smiled and raised one shoulder in a lazy shrug. "Sure, what the hell?"

Justin's hand snapped out and grabbed Alex by the arm before she could comply. "Ah, Mister Stark, I think I ought to let you know—"

"I'm kidding, of course," Stark cut him off, waving one hand dismissivelly. "Guess you didn't see that movie, huh? Big robots? Punching each other? No? Never mind." He turned and fixed Justin with a stern gaze. "Russo, who is this absolutely radiant creature you've brought into my life, and why haven't you introduced us?"

"Er...uh..." Seemingly aware that he was stammering, Justin broke off with a wince, then gestured awkwardly towards him. "Alex, this is Mister Stark."

"Nonono, just Tony," Stark said, holding up both hands and shaking of his head. "Mister Stark was my dad, see."

Alex narrowed her eyes at this a little. "But everyone here calls you that. The redheaded ice queen upstairs. Disembodied British dude. Dorkface, here..."

"Everybody else, maybe," Stark reached forward to take Alex's hand in his. "But not you, OK?"

Justin hesitated uneasily for a moment, then made an unhappy sound in the back of his throat before he gestured just as awkwardly towards his sister. "Uh, and this here is—"

"Alex Russo," she said, with a grin, as she shook Stark's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet me."

"No, please, the pleasure's all—" Stark broke off and blinked at her. "Ah, I see what you did there. Clever."

"Oh trust me, Tony, you don't know the half of it," Alex said, her smile widening.

"I think I'd like to," Stark said, with a grin to match.

"Ahem," Justin coughed. "Mister Stark, before things get all, um...well...anyway, look, you should probably know that Alex, here, is—"

"Don't tell me, your girlfriend?" Stark broke in with a wince, before he could finish. "Paramour? Significant other? Main squeeze?"

"Sister!" Alex and Justin both corrected him in the same breath. Justin turned to glare at her even as Alex rocked back and forth on the heels of her flip-flops, practically beaming.

"Sister?" Stark repeated, beaming right back at her. "Well, isn't that something?" Without letting go of Alex's hand, he reached out and playfully punched Justin in the shoulder with the other.

"Russo, you didn't say anything about having a sister, much less one as attractive as this."

"I try to block it out," Justin said flatly, grimacing as he reached up to rub his shoulder. "Listen, Mister Stark, don't you think we ought be getting back to...well, 'work', for lack of a better—"

"Older sister, or younger?" Stark asked Alex, ignoring him.

Alex raised one eyebrow raised playfully in a silent challenge. "Guess."

"Oh, for crying out loud..." Justin muttered under his breath, and reached up to shove his fingers through his hair.

Stark narrowed his eyes and stroked his goatee as his gaze darted from her, to Justin, and back again. "Hmm. Given Russo's bent for almost pathological anal-retentiveness, I'd have to guess that you're the younger sibling."

"Much, much younger, actually," Justin said pointedly, before Alex could answer. "And just because I'm thorough doesn't mean I'm—"

"Only by a year and four months!" Alex cut him off, then turned to smirk at Justin. "Which, since Justin is suddenly in college now, and everything, can only mean that I must be..."

"Accellerated program, graduated when I was sixteen, just like Mister Stark himself," Justin countered. He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled tightly at his sister. "Nice try, Alex. But all that still makes you way, way undera—JOOMPH!"

"Understandably overwhelmed," Alex said quickly, as she removed her elbow from his stomach, having driven the wind out of him, "to be in the presence of the great Tony Stark, prodi-thingee in robot whatchamacallits and a very tabled genius in the field of blue energy!"

"Gre-e-e-e-e-een!" Justin wheezed, almost inaudibly, as he doubled over at the waist, clutching his stomach and fighting for breath.

Stark, whose eyes had been going back and forth between them during their exchange, like a spectator at Wimbledon, now drew his head back with one eyebrow cocked, even as he finally let go of Alex's hand.

"Blue energy, huh?" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Right, I get it. You're talking about the ARC reactor. Lemme guess: you're doing your undergrad in Enviromental Science at UCLA?"

"If...that's what you think I'm doing, then...sure!" Alex grinned, even as Justin groaned again.

"Uh-huh, that's what I thought," Stark said, with a wry smile. "Professor Micheline's class? Dude's been a big fan since he was an undergrad, when my old man debuted the ARC at the Stark Expo. He's practically a groupie. You're not the first of his students to come sniffing around for the inside dope on it, hoping for a little extra credit...but you are the first one who had their brother as an in."

Alex shrugged one shoulder lazilly. "You're the one who said I was clever."

"Mmmmm," Stark said, crossing his arms over his chest. He was quiet for a moment as he watched Justin coughing and struggling to regain his breath, before he turned his gaze back to Alex. "Fortunately for you, you're also cuter than most, or I'd be throwing both you and your brother out on your butts."

"Yeah, you'd be amazed how often I hear that," Alex said.

"I'll bet," Stark chuckled, then looked up at the ceiling. "Hey, JARVIS? Tell Happy to bring the car around, huh? And let Pepper know I'm taking Russo and his kid sister on a little field trip to the Skonk Works."

"Sir, may I remind you that your flight to Afghanistan with Colonel Rhodes is scheduled for departure in exactly one hour and seventeen minutes?"disembodied British guy said. "Perhaps this is not the most opportune time for a—"

"JARVIS, it's my plane, it'll wait for me," Stark cut him off, with a glance towards the ceiling. "Schedules were made to be broken. Just let Pepper know, hmm? Uh...after we've gone."

There was another one of those brief pauses where an exasperated sigh should have been.

"At once, sir," disembodied British guy replied. "Shall I alert the Skonk Works personnel to your impending arrival as well?"

"Nah, let's surprise 'em," Stark said, then winked at Alex. "It's hilarious to watch, trust me. Dudes with mulitple PhD's scrambling around like idiots just because the boss has come for a visit? Priceless."

"Skunk Works?" Alex asked with an uneasy frown. "Where the hell is that?"

"Uh, it's my factory in Palmdale?" Stark replied, as though she should already know this. "Which is powered by the aforementioned ARC reactor? You do want to get a good look at it, up close and personal, don't you?"

And before Alex could open her mouth to answer, Justin stood bolt upright and placed a hand on her shoulder, gripping it tightly for support.

"Yes! Yes she does! Absolutely she does!" he said quickly, with a wide smile. Without taking his eyes off Stark, he tilted his head meaningfully towards his sister. "You do, don't you, Alex?"

Alex looked from Stark, to Justin, and back again, then rolled her brown eyes towards the ceiling.

"Sure, what the hell?" she said flatly, with another shrug. "Let's go see the ark thingee."

iv.

"Lady and gentleman, behold," Stark said, an hour and a half later, as he gestured proudly to the massive generator behind him like a circus ringmaster. "The 'Great Experiment' of Stark Expo '74, and the red-headed stepchild of the Stark Industries R&D thinktank: the ARC reactor."

"Wow," Alex said, impressed despite herself, as she looked up at the massive, tranparent ring of pulsing blue-white energy that loomed before them, constantly humming with a deep, throbbing base tone that she could feel in the pit of her stomach. Next to her, Justin practically quivered with excitement.

"That's no moon," he stage-whispered in a reverent tone, as he held on tightly to the metal observation railing that encircled the reactor, staring at it with eyes the size of dinner plates. "That's a space station!"

"Yeah, not bad, huh?" Stark grinned. He dropped his arms and shoved his hands into his pockets as he ambled towards them. "My old man designed and built it in his spare time, from right after the second World War until the day he kicked the bucket. Pretty impressive to look at, but not exactly what you'd call cost-effective. The amount of money we spend on palladium in a single year to power it is ridonkulous, greater than the GNP of most Eastern Eurpoean countries."

"Boy, howdy," Alex said with forced enthusiasm, as if she'd understood a single word of what he'd just said besides 'ridonkulous'. "That's, um...wow."

"Well, at least it shuts the hippies up," Stark said, coming up next to Alex and turning to watch the reactor himself, before he quickly glanced at her. "Uh...I mean, it serves as a beacon of Stark Industries' commitment to environmental responsibility, and...y'know, all that crap..."

"What does it generate?" Justin asked excitedly, like a kid on Christmas Eve.

"Only about 1.73 gigajoules per second, on average," Stark replied with a wince, almost apologetically. "Pretty sluggish, I know. She'd do better if we could speed up her rotations, but given her size, and the exponential increase in wear and tear the palladium core would sustain just from the neutron damage alone, it's just not feasable."

"Awwwww, ma-a-a-a-an...!" Justin said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

Stark exchanged glances with Alex—who rolled her eyes skyward—then smiled in amusement at Justin.

"Yeah, it's a crying shame. I've always meant to take another good, hard look at Dad's little science project myself, someday, when I don't have Uncle Sam breathing down my neck to meet the delivery date on the latest boomstick. But seeing as how I don't expect that to happen until sometime around the thirteenth of Never..."

"Oh, that's right," said Alex, as a sudden thought struck her. "I forgot. You make, like, guns and missles and stuff at the beginning..."

"My company does, yeah," Stark said, bristling a little. "Let me guess: you have a problem with that?"

"Uh, no," Alex blinked, "but it kinda seems like you do."

Stark shrugged. "It's a living."

"Shyeah, that sure sounded convincing..."

"Look, somebody's gotta do it, OK?" Stark said. "And if it's gotta be me, I might as well do it to the best of my ability. Otherwise America's soldiers would be out there, fighting our battles for us, armed with pea shooters and slingshots. Or, God forbid, Hammer Industries tech. Which wouldn't be a whole helluva lot better, trust—"

"Are there specs?" Justin cut him off, apropos of nothing, as though he was oblivious to their entire conversation. Judging from the way his eyes were dancing as he continued to stare up at the ARC reactor, Alex figured he probably hadn't heard a word of it. "Please tell me there's specs! Can I see them? Please?"

Stark narrowed his eyes at him. "Technically, that's proprietary data...but, seeing as how it's a technology almost forty years out of date, and you've already signed the standard Stark Industries NDA, anyway..."

And with that, he turned and whistled towards a cluster of engineers and technicians gathered around one of the many computer consoles that surrounded the ARC reactor, and waved them over. They hesitated a moment, exchanging glaces with one another, before the oldest of them—a bespectacled bald man in a white lab coat—reluctantly trotted over.

"Yes, Mister Stark?"

"Hey...um...you!" Stark said awkwardly, with a forced grin, then jerked his head towards Justin. "Russo here's an intern from MIT, and he's got this enormous hard-on for the ARC. Set him up at a terminal, wouldja? Show him everything we've got."

The engineer goggled at him, in open-mouthed horror, as though Stark had asked him to hand over his first-born. "Everything?"

"Warts and all," Stark nodded, then turned and slapped Justin on the shoulder. "Go play, Russo."

Justin turned to look up at him, his eyes glassy.

"Thank you so much! You have no idea what this means to me!" he squeaked. He clapped Stark on the arm, grinned widely at Alex, then turned and practically ran after the bespectacled engineer, so excited that he was practically vibrating. Stark smirked as he watched after him, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Your brother's quite the brain," he observed to Alex, who was leaning forward with her elbows on the observation rail, her chin propped in one hand. "He reminds me a little of me at that age."

"I seriously doubt you were ever that much of a dork," Alex said, sounding bored.

"Well, I did say a little," Stark observed, leaning against a console behind him and shoving his hands in his pockets. "I had you two pegged wrong, though, didn't I? You didn't use him. He used you."

"Huh?" Alex turned her head slightly and frowned up at him. "How do you mean?"

"Oh please," Stark scoffed. "You've had about as much interest in seeing the ARC reactor as you would in seeing the pig that won the blue ribbon in last month's county fair."

Alex thought about this for a second, drumming her fingertips absently against her cheekbone.

"Honestly? I think I would've rather have seen the pig," she said. "At least that I could've poked with a stick..."

Stark snorted, then lowered his chin to his chest and shook it in amusement.

"Everybody's got an angle, huh?" he chuckled. "Even Russo. He knew I'd be swayed by a pretty face and a hot—ahem—a nice figure."

Alex flushed a little, but narrowed her eyes and pivoted her chin on her hand to look up at him.

"Justin's smart, yeah, but not devious," she observed. "Trust me, I'm the one who got all those genes. He's a dork, but he's a straight-shooter all the way. Me being here is just a happy coincidence."

"Sure, it is, honey," Stark scoffed, then held up both hands and patted the air as Alex glared at him. "Hey, hey, no offense...don't get me wrong, I'm genuinely impressed. You need that kind of killer instinct to suceed in this business."

"Justin has no interest in your business," Alex shot back, surprised to find herself growing annoyed, even a little angry. "He wouldn't hurt a fly if his life depended on it. The only reason he's here is because he wants to save the damn world!"

"What, with the ARC reactor?" Stark scoffed. "Seriously? Whatever it is he's smoking, I want some. Will he share?"

"Look, I know it sounds ridiculous," Alex said, rolling her eyes—more at her own sudden, overwhelming need to defend her brother than at anything Stark had said—"but Justin's pretty good at this kinda stuff. And by pretty good, I mean really good. If he thinks there's a chance, then I believe him."

Stark watched her silently for a good, long moment, long enough that Alex had to stop herself from fidgeting under his gaze. Keeping her hands on her hips, she stared back at him with what she hoped was cool defiance.

"You really do, don't you?" he said finally.

"Sure do," Alex nodded, before casting a quick glance after Justin. "Not that I'll ever admit it to him."

"Well, hey, if Russo can figure out a way to do something worthwhile with the ARC, more power to him," Stark said, pushing off the railing and ambling towards her. "You see what I did there? 'More power to him?' Because the ARC is a—nevermind. Fact is, if your big brother can manage to pull it off, he'll make my dear departed dad prouder in a single afternoon than I managed in my entire lifetime."

Alex wrinkled her nose at this. "Shyeah, he's really good at that, too."

"Ooo, what's this?" Stark asked, his smirk growing wider the closer he got to her. "Do I detect a bitter note of sibling rivalry? Because as an only child, I find that whole dynamic utterly fascinating."

Alex tossed her dark hair back over her shoulder, and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Really."

"Nah, not in the least," Stark admitted, stopping barely a foot away from her. "But I do like the way your eyes flash whenever you talk about him...both when you're bagging on him, and when you're defending him...often in the same breath. It's actually kinda sexy, in a...well, a vaguely disturbing sort of way."

Alex felt her cheeks get hot again, all the way to her ears, but didn't allow herself to break his gaze. She didn't even let herself blink. (And, y'know, the fact that he had the kind of brown eyes you could get lost in didn't hurt.)

"Justin says we have a complicated relationship," he said, without being quite sure why she was bothering to tell him this.

"No kidding," Stark said, moving even closer to her, close enough that she caught the scent of his cologne, or aftershave, or whatever it was that older dudes used when they wanted to smell good. "So you say you're the devious one, hmm? The bad seed? Just how bad are you, Alex Russo?"

Alex shrugged her shoulders, suddenly conscious of just how bare they were beneath the thin straps of her sun dress. "I say what I wanna say, and I do what I wanna do. And if I don't like what I'm doing, I stop doing it. If that makes me bad, then—" she shrugged again— "whatever."

"A girl after my own heart," Stark nodded, as he ran his eyes over her face. "Anything in particular you wanna to be doing right now?"

Alex smiled and felt her stomach do another triple somersault, even as she shrugged once more, this time with a tilt of chin. "Nothing I can think of off the top of my head."

"Fortunately it's not the top of your head I'm interested in," Stark said, as he leaned in closer. (And man, he did smell really, really good.) "Put it to you this way: how'd you like to do something that I think has the potential to really piss your brother off?"

"Well, since you put it that way," Alex murmured a little breathlessly, even as she felt herself leaning towards him. "As long as it's for a good cause."

Without really even intending to, she lifted her heels off the floor and stood on the toes of her flip-flops. Her eyes slid clossed practically on their own as she pursed her lips and—

"HEY! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!"

—and felt all the little invisible hairs on her skin stand up on end, as the air was split by a high-pitched, rising "TWEEEEEEEEEEE!", and Stark grunted as though he'd been punched in the gut.

Alex's eyes popped back open just in time to see him stumbling backwards against the railing, arms pinwheeling wildly as he tried to regain his balance, his own eyes as wide with shock. Instinctively, Alex lurched forward, reaching for him, then ducked and covered her head with both arms as another "TWEEEEEEEEEEE!" sounded behind her. A blue-white bolt of energy lanced through the air just over her head and struck Stark again in the shoulder, throwing him back into the railing again. He cried out as he tumbled backwards over it, ass over teakettle, then crashed to the floor on the other side, and lay still.

"TONY!" Her heart in her throat, Alex whipped her head around to look over her shoulder. "Justin! RDJ is—"

She broke off with a gasp as she suddenly understood where the bolt of energy had come from. There, standing about twelve yards away and staring at her, with one hand outstretched—the palm of his red gauntlet glowing as white-hot as the reactor mounted in his chest and the eye-slits in his helmet—was Iron Man.

v.

Alex gaped at Iron Man in shock as the room erupted into pandamonium, the white-coated engineers and technicians who manned the ARC reactor all freaking out and running for cover at once. Warning klaxxons echoed through the cavernous chamber around them. A handful of black-uniformed security guards ran into view, took one look at the scene before them, then drew their guns and opened fire. About a dozen rounds pinged and riccocheted off Iron Man's armor in the first five seconds alone, but the person inside the metallic red-and-gold suit—whoever it was—didn't even flinch once. He just stood there, impassive, hand still outstretched, letting the bullets bounce off him as he glanced around at each of the shooters calmly—almost curiously—before those eerie, glowing white eyes returned to Alex, and Stark lying on the floor beyond her.

But...wait...none of this made sense. Wasn't it Stark who wore the armor in this flick? Then why had he just appeared and...shot himself?

She barely had a moment to wonder before he lowered his arm, and took a step towards her. Then another. The servo-motors that powered the armor's joints whined gently, barely audible over the alarms and gunfire, and his boots clanked heavily against the concrete floor, as he slowly closed the distance between them.

"Ohshit! Alex gulped. With a surge of adrenaline, she scrambled upright and charged towards the arc reactor, then vaulted over the railing one-handed with a swiftness and surity that would have stunned her P.E. teacher. Crouched next to the prone form of Tony Stark, availing herself of what meager cover the railing offered, she rolled him over onto his back. Hunched over him, she pressed two fingers to his throat and turned her ear towards his nose and mouth, just like they always did on TV in situations like this. Then, relieved to find that he was still breathing and had a pulse, she reached down to dig her wand out her boot.

Or at least she would have, if she'd been wearing boots, instead of the flip-flops she'd flashed herself into when she'd changed outfits. Cute and trendy though they may have been, they didn't exactly lend themselves to concealing her wand. Which, she was realizing now with a sinking feeling, was sitting in a pile of clothes that were currently sitting on the counter in Tony Stark's bathroom, all the way back in Malibu.

Oh, Christ. It was Halloween Sorority Party Disaster all over again. Only, y'know, worse.

Wincing to herself, she raised her head a little to peer over the railing. Iron Man was still coming towards them. Two of the security guards had raced around in front of him and put themselves between him and their boss, firing like mad, but whoever it was in the suit didn't pay them any heed. He continued to advance until he'd backed them right up into the railing, then raised both hands, and—

Hand magic. That was the ticket. She wouldn't have a lot of juice on her own, not without her wand, but maybe she didn't need much for what she had in mind. Nodding to herself, mouth set into a tight, thin line, Alex bolted to her feet and raised her own hand at the armored menace before he could fire.

"Literarium Terrarium Activa Caesura!" she said, shouting to hear herself over the klaxxons, gunfire, and the building whine of Iron Man's charging repulsors.

The palm of her hand flared bright green for a moment, and a large transluscent 'Pause' symbol—two vertical lines, side by side—shimmered briefly in the air before it. And as it did, everything around her stopped: the blaring of the alarms, the pop-pop-pop of gunfire, even the low, persistent hum of the gigantic ARC reactor behind her. Everyone stood frozen in place like living statues, unblinking and unmoving, whether they were a security guard, a cowering lab technician, or some lunatic in a sophisticated robot suit.

Alex heaved a sigh of relief as she dropped her arm to her side, then closed her eyes and lowered her chin to her chest. Holy shit, but that had been close. What the hell happened? Why was Iron Man even here, this early in the movie, and what did he want from Alex? Had the spell messed up? Or had casting it on the DVD as many times as Justin did wrecked it somehow?

Oh God! Alex's eyes came open with a start as she suddenly remembered she wasn't alone in here. Justin...

"Justin?" Alex called out, her voice echoing in the silence that pressed in on her. She slowly turned in place as she scanned the room, trying to spot him in the frozen tableau of chaos surrounding her, like one of those hidden picture games she played on her Android. "Justin, where are you? Are you OK?"

No response. No sound at all but the dying echo of her own voice. Alex felt panic beginning to claw at her throat. Pausing the DVD with the Caesuraspell shouldn't have had any more of an effect on Justin than it had on her. It only worked on the movie itself, and the characters within it...or, at least, it was supposed to.

There'd been an awful lot of shots fired over the past couple of minutes, though. If Justin had had been hit by a stray, or a riccochet, and she hadn't noticed in all the confusion...what would happen? Could it hurt him? Could it kill him? If he died here in the movie, would the spell just snap him back to the real world, or would he actually...well, die?

Normally, these types of 'what if?' questions were addressed in spellbooks—usually in the section that Alex referred to as the 'blah blah blah' part before you got to the good stuff—either by the wizard who had originally researched the spell, or the members of the Wizards' Council subcommittee who'd certified it. But Literarium Terrarium Activa hadn't come from a spellbook. It had never even been submitted to the Wizards' Council for certification in the first place. Mainly because the wizard who'd researched it—to use the term loosely—had been her. And naturally, she hadn't bothered writing a 'blah blah blah' part for her own spell. (Because, seriously, who even read that stuff?)

"Justin, come on! Quit it!" Alex tried again, conscious of how much her voice was trembling. "It's safe now! Stop hiding like a little wuss and come out where I can see you!"

Again, nothing. Her brow furrowed, Alex started looking around frantically for some sign of him. Leaving Stark where he lay, she ducked beneath the railing that surrounded the ARC Reactor, and strode past the two frightened security guards who leaned back against it, frozen. Her eyes darting around the room, she barely even glanced at the menacing form of Iron Man as she stepped around him.

Until, that is, she heard the faint, muffled voice, shouting at her from within.

Doing a classic double-take, she stopped short in her tracks, then came back around to the front of him, eyes narrowed as she stared into those eerie, glowing eyes, and listened carefully for once in her life.

Yep, there it was again, a just barely audible voice calling her name, sounding alarmed, annoyed, and altogether as familiar as coming home. Exhaling sharply in a combination of relief and exasperation, Alex reached up to grab the edges of Iron Man's faceplate with her small hand, worked her fingertips under one edge, then pulled with all her might. Grunting, bracing her flip-flops against the armor's shinplates, she yanked again and again, feeling it give just a little more each time, until finally—

"GUUUHHHHHHHH!" Justin gasped, red-faced and heaving for breath, as Alex wrenched the helmet open to reveal his face. "Oh, thank God! I thought I was gonna suffocate! Whatever circulates the air in this thing shut down along with the rest of it, the second you paused the movie..."

"Jesus CHRIST, Justin!" Furious, Alex heaved the faceplate back at him, causing him to flinch as much as the frozen suit of armor would allow him as it glanced off his shoulder with a clang. "You scared the living CRAP out of me!"

"I know, I know," Justin said quickly, wearing as sheepish an expression as she'd ever seen on him. "But listen, I can explain..."

"Oh really? You can explain why you just tried to KILL Robert Downey Jr. with his own suit?"

"I was not trying to kill him! Repulsor blasts aren't lethal, not at the setting I shot him with, anyway. And technically he's Tony Stark, not—"

"Why the HELL were you shooting him in the first place? I just get through telling him you wouldn't hurt a fly, and bam! Next thing I know, you're hijacking his robot suit and lighting him up like a goddamned mosquito caught in Grandma's bug zapper!"

"I didn't light him up," Justin protested. "I hit him twice. With a very controlled, low-level repulsor burst. At worst, he's suffered a—look, can we argue about this after you've gotten me out of the suit? I'm starting to cramp up, here!"

"No," Alex replied, crossing her arms beneath her breasts and tilting her head to one side. "Where the hell did you get the suit from, anyway? I thought he hadn't built it, yet."

Justin closed his eyes, and let out a sound that was half-sigh, half-groan.

"Alright look," he said, in a low voice. "I was over there, looking over the specs for the ARC Reactor, when I saw him leaning in to try and kiss you, and...and I wanted to get him away from you, and...well, maybe I used my wand to summon the armor from later on in the movie, pulled it back here and flashed myself into it."

Alex blinked at him, startled. "Wow, really? You can do that?"

"I dunno, I guess so," Justin said. "It wasn't really a conscious decision on my part, to be honest. I just kind of...did it on impulse, I guess. Like I said, I wanted to get him away from you, and using the suit to do it was the first thing that popped into my head. Which is only natural, given what movie we're in..."

"Sure it is, dork," Alex snorted, rolling her eyes towards the ceiling. "But then why didn't you say anything after you'd zapped him? You just came at me..."

"I tried, but I couldn't get the external speakers to work," Justin said. "What little chance I had to study the armor earlier, I was focussing mainly on the power system, which the repulsors figure into pretty heavily. Just getting it to walk was tricky enough. I figured I'd grab you and flash us out, then explain later. But then the guards came in, and...well, then everything kind of..."

"Went to shit, yeah," Alex said, with a shake of her head. She reached up and patted him on the cheek, none too gently. "Good plan, nerdbutt."

"It wasn't a plan, Alex," Justin growled, trying and failing to jerk his turn his face away. "I just...I couldn't let Stark to take advantage of you like that."

"Take advantage of me?" Alex scoffed. She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Pfft, as if. Justin, has it occurred to you that maybe I wanted him to kiss me?"

"What?" Justin's grey-green eyes widened, his expression quickly turning as red as the helmet surrounding it. "Alex, he's three times your age!"

"He's Robert Downey Jr.! You think I give a shit?"

Justin's nostrils flaired at this. "I am so telling Mom and Dad when we get back home."

"Go right ahead," Alex shot back. "Trust me, Mom will understand."

"I—" Justin apparently reconsidered whatever he was about to say, because he just clicked his tongue and shook his head ever so slightly. "Look, would you please just flash me out of this thing, already?"

"Ugh, fine," Alex groaned, as though he was asking her to perform the most complicated spell in the history of wizardry. "But you owe me."

Alex snapped her fingers, and with a flash of light, Justin disappeared from inside the armored suit, then reappeared right next to it, his arms raised in the exact same pose. He groaned as he lowered them, rolling his shoulders to work out the kinks.

"Thanks," he said, his voice edged with sarcasm, as he reached back to fish his wand out of the back pocket of his jeans. "You ready to get out of here?"

"Well, wait...what about the ark thingee, egghead?" Alex asked, jerking one thumb over her shoulder at the silent reactor behind her. "This is the closest you've ever gotten, right? Don't you want to find some plans, or blueprints or something that you can bring home with you and...I dunno, do whatever it is nerds like you do with plans and blueprints?"

"No, there's no point," Justin sighed, looking past her and getting a good last look at it. "I got a decent enough look at the specs to know that they're basically nonsense. Gobbledygook. Stark's right, the ARC reactor is pretty much a no-go. It's powered more by movie-logic than palladium."

"Well, that's too bad," Alex said, patting him on the shoulder. "So there's no way even a hopeless science geek like you could make it work in the real world?"

"Not without it being perfectly obvious that magic was involved, even to mortals, much less the Wizards' Council," Justin said bitterly. "It would mean creating an entirely new element, one that doesn't yet exist on the periodic table, to replace palladium as its core. And honestly, how feasible isthat? There's technobabble, and then there's utter fairy tale nonsense. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far, y'know."

"Only you would know, and/or care," Alex replied, leaning on his shoulder while examining the nails on her other hand. Before Justin could cast the spell, Alex looked up and cast a final glance at the frozen nightmare of chaos they were leaving behind. "Say, what happens to all this once we're gone? This isn't how the movie's supposed to go. Did we, like, change history for them, or whatever?"

"No, the movie resets itself as soon as we leave," Justin said. "Any changes we've made completely undo themselves. For Stark and the others, it'll be like none of this ever happened. They won't even remember it."

"Awww, so he won't remember me?" Alex pouted, tilting her head to one side as she looked to where Stark lay on the floor. "How sad for him."

"Uh huh," Justin said. He raised his wand, then hesitated and frowned at her. "Wait, isn't this your spell? Shouldn't you know something like that?"

"Yeah, well...there's a lot of things about how this spell works that I kind of glossed over," Alex admitted. "And I'm starting to think maybe we should figure them out if we're gonna keep using it."

"Well, we do have all summer," Justin said. "It could be fun, going back to the drawing board, reverse-engineering and tinkering with it. Kind of like Tony Stark reworking and refining the Iron Man, all throughout the movie..."

"Wow, your idea of fun is so very different from mine, " Alex said flatly.

"And seeing as how my plan to build a fully-functional ARC reactor by September has gone by the wayside," Justin continued, "I do suddenly find myself with an abundance of free time."

"Good," Alex smiled. "Because by 'we', I really meant 'you.'"

Justin narrowed his eyes at her. "I'll help to work out all the kinks, but only if you agree to submit the finished product for official spell certification as soon as we're done."

"Certification? Ugh, seriously?"

"Seriously. We split the credit and all residuals 50/50."

"Snkt, whatever! 90/10!"

"60/40."

"Don't insult me," Alex sneered. "95/5."

Justin rolled his eyes. "You're going the wrong way, Alex."

"Not from where I'm sitting, egghead."

"70/30," Justin countered, "and I don't tell dad about you trying to make out with Robert Downey Jr. Because, trust me, he won't understand."

"Hmm, interesting." Alex raised her chin slightly, and looked at him through slitted eyes. "Throw in being my alibi for a prank to be pulled later, and you've got yourself a deal."

"Done," Justin nodded, extending his right hand towards her. Alex took it in hers and shook it.

"You drive a hard bargain, Russo," she said with a sly smile. "I may have been wrong about you. You just might have a killer instinct in you, after all."

"Oh, Alex," Justin said back, "the things you don't know about me could fill volumes."

Their right hands were still clasped together when Justin raised his wand in his left, gave it a twirl, intoning "Literarium Terrarium Activa". And suddenly, with a bright flash of light, and a slight tinking noise, they were gone...

vi.

Crouched next to his antique black and red hot rod, in the garage of his Malibu mansion, Tony Stark peered into the engine casing and held out his right hand expectantly. "Hey, hand me the socket wrench, willya?"

A heartbeat passed, then another, but no socket wrench appeared in his hand. Tony grimaced at his empty palm, then looked up and around at the massive underground workshop. Aside from "Dummy", the massive robotic arm on wheels that stared back at him from the opposite side of the garage, he was completely alone down here.

"I beg your pardon, sir," came JARVIS' voice, from everywhere all at once, "but were you speaking to me?"

Well, as alone as he ever got, anyway...

"No, not you, J," Tony replied, wearing a puzzled frown. "I just...I had the weirdest feeling for a second that there was someone else here. Like...deja vu, or something."

"Deja vu actually refers to the sensation of having said or experienced something before," JARVIS pointed out, because he was annoying that way.

"Yeah, that too," Tony said, reaching up to absently stroke his goatee, as an absent thought struck him. "Hey JARVIS, would you dust off all my dad's notes and schematics from the ARC reactor, and send 'em to the secure server on the jet? I feel like giving 'em a once-over while Rhodey and I are in-flight to Afghanastan."

"A surprising bit of non-sequitor, but certainly," JARVIS replied. "Feeling nostalgic? It's been years since you last viewed those files."

"No, it's not that, I just...I dunno," Tony said with a shrug. "It's weird. It's just on my mind for some reason. Can't hurt to give it another look, though, can it? Go back to the drawing board? Who knows, maybe I'll finally have the breakthrough my old man never found."

"Perhaps, sir," JARVIS said smoothly. "The requested files have been transferred. Your flight with Colonel Rhodes is due to depart on schedule in one hour and twenty-three minutes."

"Well...one hour and twenty-three minutes-ish," Tony said, scooping the crescent wrench up out of his toolbox and crouching back over the engine casing. "It's my plane. It can wait for me. Schedules were made to be broken, after all."

—30—

Disclaimer, the Second: Sadly, the cinematic world of Iron Man and all its characters don't belong to me, either. Ironically, they're now owned by a lot of the same people who also own Wizards. Damn you, lucky people! Damn you all to hell!