Loki was stunned for several long moments before clearing his throat, "And you are?"

"Jarvis, sir. State your name and title."

"Loki Ruser. Entrepreneur." Loki looked over the files, "Jarvis? An acronym no doubt…clever, naming an AI something like Jarvis."

"Name not found in database. Please re-state identification or contact Mr. Stark to be added to database."

"Contact Mr. Stark…?" Loki's thin lips drew into a frown. He tapped a few keys, pulling up the last system update. It had not been touched since before Mr. Stark's death. "Mr. Stark is deceased. I have primary access codes and authorization now."

The files rapidly scrolled across the screen, Jarvis pulling up a simple file labeled 'Last Will yaddayadda.' "Impossible sir. Mr. Stark left this system and all access codes to Pepper Potts."

"Who passed away after Stark."

The files scrolled by faster, "The system than was to be donated to the state of California and serve as the 'Science Museum of Iron Man.'"

"And it did, however, it was auctioned it off this month for budget deficit reasons." Loki countered, shaking his head; he was trying to argue with a machine.

He pulled back up the code and went to work, trying to re-code Jarvis with the needed information, but the screen locked as Jarvis accessed the Internet rapidly opening and closing tabs. Loki could only catch the glimpses of the pages as they rushed by in a flurry of colors.

'Tony Stark dead at 46."

"Iron Man technology lost after tragic death of Tony Stark."

"Stark stocks plummet after death of CEO."

"Pepper Potts, lifelong assistant to Tony Stark, dead at 63."

"Stark industry bankrupt!"

"Who inherits the lost Stark technology now?"

"Lost Stark Tech? Experts baffled."

"The Life of America's Last Genius."

"Will Iron Man Ever Be Resurrected?"

"Stark Tower in Manhatten Purchased by Hammer Industries."

"Experts Claim Stark Malibu Home Contains Key to Lost Stark Tech."

The articles began scrolling by too quickly for Loki to follow, it all turned into a stream of video, audio and images that blurred across the room until all of the screens went suddenly black.

"Anthony Stark is dead?" the British voice asked.

"Yes. Yes, I am afraid so. You were unaware?" Loki fought the surge of sympathy that hit him. This was a program, not a person.

"I…" the hesitation in the automated voice had to be imagined, "I was unaware. Mr. Stark shut down my file…this is the last recording I possess in my memory banks…." the file was pulled up, and the audio recording began to play.

A warm, rough voice filled the room. "Hey Jarvis buddy…" there was a long coughing fit, "I'm going to turn you off for just a bit, alright? Just have to get some things taken care of. It..it…won't be long." There was a very soft sniffle, and the voice wavered, then cracked, "Just…remember to be good buddy, okay? An…And to take care of Dum-E." There was another weak cough, "…goodnight buddy…Daddy will always love you, kay?" the audio file cut off.

"I…see…I'm sorry." Loki shook his head. This was ridiculous; he was apologizing to an AI for the loss of its creator.

"Thank you for your condolences, sir."

Loki stood, and took a deep breath, "So Jarvis…what functions do you serve?"

"Mr. Stark programmed me to optimize household functions. I monitor equipment levels, store files, assist with research. I run everything that Mr. Stark uses."

"Yes…I do not think Mr. Stark will be needing much help with running anything any longer," Loki cleared his throat, pulling up the AI's programming again.

Again, he was struck by the simple elegance of the coding. It was a masterpiece in everyway. Even for being over 100 years old, it held strong, and was better done and more complicated than many of the modern day programs Loki had worked with. This was done by a mind that was not constricted by time or the technologies of his day, "This is truly genius." Loki murmured.

"Mr. Stark is…was….was is was is is was…" Jarvis' voice caught, froze and flickered between past and present, unable to decide, unable to proceed forward.

"Jarvis?" Loki got to his feet warily, "Jarvis, Mr. Stark has passed on. He is no longer here."

"Negative sir. Mr. Stark is always here."

"Jarvis. You read the articles yourself. Surely there is a protocol of operation after Mr. Stark's death." Loki scowled, hurrying through the 'Last Will yaddayadda' file. All of the information in it only pertained to what would happen to the home. It was utterly devoid of coding of any sort.

"Jarvis…activate whatever action you have listed as your primary function in the event of Mr. Stark's death."

"Shutting down," was the only warning Loki had before the house plunged into darkness.

Loki stared down, squinting against the blackness. He ran a hand through his hair and got to his feet, hesitantly feeling his way through the lab, grunting when his shin crashed into a table leg. He muttered softly and fished a small lighter from his pocket. (And his brother had told him that his smoking habit would never help him!)

There had to be a way to manually override the system and restart everything. He needed power restored long enough to see what adjusting he could do to Jarvis' coding; clearly Tony Stark had not intended the AI to be accessed after his death. The program was faulty in that regard, and if Loki wanted the system to function again he needed to find someway to override that.

The small light from the flame didn't help drastically but it let him at least avoid destroying his shin again. How in the world could an AI shut off a self-sustained energy power? This was…genius. Loki shook his head, admiring the dead like this was not healthy.

He moved the light across the basement lab. There had to be a manual restart, surely someone smart enough to build all of this would have known that a manual override would still be necessary. "Where is the bloody thing?" he muttered.

He nearly jumped when there was a sot whirring, chirping noise and a shadow moved across the wall. Instantly, his mind was in overdrive, was it possible that the home had been boogey trapped? Was Jarvis' shut down the beginning of some aggressive action? He would not put that past Tony Stark.

He spun around, seeing another flash of shadow darting towards him. Heart pounded in his chest as the whirring, chirping grew louder. He backed up, freezing when he felt the cold barrel of something press against his back. He was going to be killed by a house. That was how it was going to end.

His breath frozen in his chest, he slowly turned around, spotting the strange robot made of only the barest pieces of metal. It was so unlike all of the other elegant, sleek designs of the home, Loki briefly wondered if he as hallucinating. A fire extinguisher was clutched in its simple claw-like hands, and it took Loki about two seconds to realize what was about to happen. But that was two seconds too long. The robot fired and the extinguisher covered him in foam.

Loki coughed and sputtered; he slid in the foam and slammed into the ground, groaning and trying to get back to his feet but the foam covered him and he had no traction. He sighed and hit his head on the floor, closing his eyes before he felt warm laughter bubbling up from his stomach.

For the first time in years, Loki Ruser was overcome by his laughter. Tears rolled down his cheeks and his sides ached. It was several long minutes before he could catch his breath, coughing softly as he managed to sit up, still covered in the thick foam. He couldn't help but feel that somehow Tony Stark had just played a prank on him.

He had to crawl, still not able to get to his feet, and fumbled blindly forward. The sudden return of the lights made him wince and try to cover his eyes. He glanced towards the screens which flickered back to life, returning to the plain start screen, still saying plainly, 'Welcome home Mr. Stark.'

Grabbing hold of a table for support, he got back to his feet, deciding that round two with Jarvis would have to wait until after he was uncovered from the foam. He slid his way carefully up the stairs and back to the main living area where he had to resort back to moving on all fours across the slick wood flooring. He settled for just crawling into the shower, fully clothed, and kicking the water on.

The foam was slowly rinsed away, and he was finally able to get back to his feet. Getting out of his sopping wet clothes proved to be a challenge as he just pried the clingy fabric from his lean frame and tossed it to the shower floor. He would deal with this later.

He washed carefully, wondering just how old that fire extinguisher had to be and what effects expired fluoro tensides had on the human body. He didn't appear to be having any sort of negative reaction: no rashes, pain or scarring. He washed again just in case before wrapping in one of the red towels (monogrammed with a golden 'S' of course) and going to find a bedroom.

This had been more than enough for one day. He fell into the first bed he found, and sleep quickly claimed him.

The next morning, he woke to the smell of coffee and breakfast. He frowned, who in the world had broken into the house to cook breakfast? He draped himself in the bedroom sheets, and carried a lamp with him to the kitchen.

Everything was moving of its own accord, the coffee maker almost done brewing its first pot. Eggs were sitting warm in a skillet over the stove. Loki frowned, "Hello?" he called, lamp still raised and ready to strike.

"Good morning sir." Jarvis chimed, "I have prepared coffee, eggs, and…" he paused.

Loki blinked, "And?"

The toaster popped, and Loki leapt, slamming the lamp down over the toaster. The lampshade popped off, flew into the air and crashed down onto Loki's head. He stared in shock.

"And toast sir. Is there anything else?"

Loki wasn't sure how to glare at Jarvis so he settled for lifting the lampshade from his head and narrowing his eyes at the ceiling, "That will be all Jarvis."

"I will alert Mr. Stark that his guest is awake."

Loki sighed, "I am not a guest. I own this house." he protested as he tossed the lampshade aside, and went to unplug all of the offending objects. The toast had been crushed, mashed into the heating units by the lamp. He sighed, dumping the coffee. He hated the black brew, preferring green tea instead…though the eggs were a nice touch and well done.

Once the kitchen was cleaned up and the lamp and toaster sent out to the trash to rest in peace, Loki headed back into the lab, diving back into Jarvis' code. This time he decided against trying to rewrite Jarvis' mainframe, instead, he created a new user file that shared primary ownership.

With some difficulty he was able to make both himself and, since he found himself unable to delete it, Tony Stark the primary account holders. He then set about setting up his own preference: a tea kettle set to brew in the morning, low lighting, classical music (not this rock rubbish) and the primary color of the screens, codes and other items to green.

He smiled at his work before speaking softly, "Jarvis, activate Loki Ruser user preferences."

"User preference temporarily changed."

The screens flickered, light Beethoven began to play, the coding across the screens flashed to green, and Loki grinned, "Please set Loki Ruser preferences to default."

"I'm sorry sir. Tony Stark's preferences are permanently my default settings."

Loki sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands, "Tony Stark is dead."

"His preferences are still set to permanent default sir."

Loki looked up, "…he…has his settings…" he chuckled, looking back to the code. The very core of the coding had Tony Stark's user account as the permanent default; the only way to remove that was to completely rewrite the programming from the ground up.

Tony Stark had not written this program to ever be used after his death. It had been intended to stay sealed up, and now that Loki had started it up… he was going to have to live with a house that was programmed to the exact preferences of a man who had been dead for over 100 years.

Loki shook his head and sighed. He had a lot of work ahead of him, but for the first time in years, Loki felt alive, was having fun. This was a puzzle that he could lose himself in, a challenge that would take him time to unravel.

"You bloody genius…" Loki was unable to keep a faint smirk from darting across his thin lips, "You bloody asshole genius…"

"Yes sir, Anthony Stark is a genius." Jarvis responded, "Who does not play well with others according to his file."

He settled into his seat, and set to work, "…Well then Tony Stark… let's see how well you and I play together…"

Loki lost himself to his work, disappearing into the world of codes. He managed to make a few minor adjustments, adjusting the volume of the music that would play automatically, but was unable to crack into the code that made Jarvis cater to Tony's preference. He ran a hand through his hair before leaning back and stretching, jumping when his hand crashed into something very hot.

He yelped and jumped to his feet, turning in time to see that same fire-extingusiher wielding robot. Only this time, the little robot was holding a tray of food, a bowl of hot soup knocked over, flooding everything on the tray. Loki frowned, sniffing the air. The rich scent of creamy tomato soup wafted around him, the scent of buttered toast and melted cheese hit him next. He looked down at the little robot, "…lunch I presume."

The robot chirped softly and lifted the tray higher, Loki stepped back just avoiding the bowl of soup as it crashed off of the tray.

"Midnight snack actually, sir." Jarvis responded, "It has been greater than 12 hours without your consumption of food."

"…And who is this?" Loki asked, leaning forward to hesitantly take the soup-soaked sandwich from the tray. He looked it over, nothing appeared out of date, or expired. He took a bite, smiled: it was, aside from being soggy, a nice simple grilled cheese.

"Sir, this is Dum-E. Mr. Stark's first robot."

Loki vaguely recalled that recorded voice asking Jarvis to take care of Dum-E, "…what does Dum-E do? What are his functions?"

Jarvis seemed to hesitate, "Dum-E….serves as an extra pair of hands."

Loki frowned, "…Dum-E?"

The robot whirred softly, wheeling closer.

Loki smiled lightly, "…Can you clean up this mess?" he motioned to the soup splattered all around them.

Dum-E chirped with excitement, dropping the tray, and splattering more soup across the floor. It rolled off, tracking orange soup tread marks across the lab before returning with a lab and slapping the rag against the floor. Loki flinched as soup flew into his face, "Ah…t…that's perfect Dum-E…thank you. That's all. Looks great. Tip-top really."

Dum-E chirrped again, spinning in a slow circle, arms flashing up and down until Loki finally had to pull the rag from Dum-E's clawed hand, "Really…Um… that is all…Please." Loki leaned down to wipe the robot's wheels clean.

Dum-E finally wheeled away, and Loki sighed as he got on his hands and knees and began cleaning up the soup. It all kept pooling over by the wall furthest from the workstation. He grumbled under his breath as he cleaned, pausing when he watched as the liquid seemed to keep sliding between the walls. He narrowed his eyes and got to his feet, feeling across the wall. It felt sturdy…but… his fingers hit a small area that was not flush with the rest of the wall.

"Jarvis. Open this doorway."

"I'm sorry sir, only Tony Stark has access to that area."

Loki narrowed his eyes, looking around the lab. He found a small welding torch and, after a few false starts found what he needed. He lit it up and began working along that line in the wall. He could hear the wall protesting, the scream of metal as it was cut, and then a dull thud as something fell.

Cutting off the power to the torch, he grabbed at the edge he had just cut, grateful for thick gloves protecting his hands, and pushed with all his might. He paused before smiling, "Dum-E. Help me open this."

The little robot grabbed on to the door and tugged. With Dum-E's help the hidden door gave way. Loki coughed, waving his hand in front of his face against the scent of burnt metal and stale air.

He peered into the room, taking a slow step forward. There was a soft click and the lights slowly flickered on one by one. The room was huge, a sort of underground garage, Loki would guess. He moved cautiously, hearing Dum-E whirring along behind him.

There were glass cases, still dark, and various screens running stats that Loki couldn't quite make out. Various parts and pieces of metal were across seven work tables; it looked like work had stopped suddenly, in the middle of some sort of project. He slid through the room, dust stirring up at each step as he made his way over to the first worktable, trying to find some hint of what he had found. He brushed aside a few scraps and froze.

Looking down, he found himself suddenly staring into the battered and torn face of the lost Iron Man suit.

***###

Thanks so much for the great responses! It will not be until December that I update again. Finals are coming up and will be eating my soul. Enjoy! Please comment and let me know what you thought!