When Tori rolled over in the late afternoon she decided to send Bruce the LW so that he could get a move on with creating it. It wasn't a very hard build, she didn't think, hell the hardest part was not letting the wires touch and making the injection explode; her father could help with the building she was sure. Knowing that she had six more days, probably closer to five since it was already four in the afternoon, Tori could feel her excitement building.

Moving slowly out of her room, she wasn't sure what to do with herself. Bruce was taken care of, Hal wasn't coming back until the next day or so he guessed, and Jason and Cassandra had to cancel because a certain clown decided to be less than funny. Her dad was, by this time, either in the shop or at the office, checking out the weapons and realizing that they were all injection based and therefore, would require both he and Bruce to build.

Pepper's car was gone and, according to Jarvis, she was completely alone. She didn't like the feeling at all and quickly decided to see if Conner was online.

Rock&RollDiva: r u on?

ScarletBow: at ur service milady

Rock&RollDiva: the house is empty & I'm bored

ScarletBow: id invite u 2 mine bt the JLA is here

Rock&RollDiva: srry, I knw impulse grates ur nerves

ScarletBow: if he'd stop callin my mom hot it'd b different

ScarletBow: stop laughing!

ScarletBow: is Hal back yet?

ScarletBow: … r u still there?

Rock&RollDiva: srry, couldn't breathe there 4 a sec

Rock&RollDiva: & no he's nt

ScarletBow: har har

ScarletBow: well we're finishing movin my stuff 2 skewl 2morrow

ScarletBow: hav 2 get it done b4 ur party Sat.

Rock&RollDiva: some1 just came in, gotta check it out, good luck with the move, ttyl

ScarletBow: salute, ttyl

Moving quickly down the hall Tori spotted her father, Bruce Banner, and Thor moving into the living room. Keeping a low profile she quipped a quick greeting to them and then moved into the kitchen, feigning getting something to drink. Her father was riled up and whether he knew it or not, was stroking her ego slightly.

"I've never seen weapons like that in my life," he told his team mates, "If that hit me and I didn't know about it… She could have teamed with Loki to protect herself and destroyed all of us."

"I told you she'd never do that," Bruce maintained.

"Those injections were using admantium needles; it would have pierced the suit, the Hulk, Steve's shield and we'd have all been royally fucked."

"I thought you said they were nonlethal?" Thor questioned.

"Even though the serum was like nothing I've ever seen," Bruce told him, "The ingredients wouldn't have killed us but paralysis, blood clotting, and a lot of pain would have really hurt us for forty-eight to seventy-two hours… and while the really bad effects would have been gone after seventy-two hours it looked like some sort of anti-dote would have been required to make them fully go away."

"Did she send us the antidote?" Thor demanded warily.

"No," Bruce admitted, pulling out his laptop, "I'll see if she's on so we can all have a little chat."

"Yeah, I'd like to chat her," her dad said frustrated, "You guys realize that if she ever goes super villain we're all screwed, to put it lightly."

"She won't… She's not on… But she did send me to mods for the Loki Weapon."

"Did she send an antidote with that?"

"You're really grinding on that antidote bone," Tony told his friend, "and no, it doesn't look like she did. Granted the injections are really all the same, it's how their dispensed that she built and modified for everyone."

GreenFallout: it's not an emergency so im nt gonna press the button bt we do need to talk soon

GreenFallout: we cn tell there's an antidote & we want it; also IM says u cnt go super villain

GreenFallout: I'll stay by my computer, message me when u get on

"Daddy, Conner says hey," Tori faked as she read Bruce's message from an invisible stance on her phone.

"Tell him I said hello," Tony commented, looking at Bruce's screen and praying for the girl to get on; whoever she was he wanted to get her on the team, and perhaps Stark Industries, before someone else got her. "Is he finished moving for college yet?"

"They're finishing now. Ollie wants him to enjoy the rest of the Summer and have this done before my party."

"I still can't believe he's letting you call him that."

Tori chuckled and moved to sit at the Kitchen Isle behind the superheroes backs. It was tempting to talk to them right then but there was too great a risk of one of them noticing that she was typing at the same time as PrincessAtom. Thinking over how easy the name would be to figure out if they already knew, she quickly disguised a laugh as a cough and moved to text her stepmom.

Me: There's 2 much testosterone in the house

Pepper: Who did ur dad bring home?

Me: Thor & Bruce; the little guys online girlfriend impressed dad with her weapons

Pepper: Dnt let him read this; we both know how he'd take that statement

Me: LOL, when r u coming home?

Pepper: Soon, I'm just over at the office finishing ur dad's emails

Pepper: then im going 2 check out ur gparents place & c the decorations; wanna come over?

Me: dnt hav a car!

Pepper: get ur dad 2 pull one out of the garage, they all have gps

Me: Hold up I'll ask & I remember how 2 get to gma&gpas

"Daddy," Tori asked sweetly.

Tony felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up and wondered if that's how he sounded to his father, "What do you want?"

"Can I borrow a car; Pepper wants me to meet her at Grandma's to look at decoration plans."

He sighed with relief, "I thought it was going to be something horrific; go down and grab one."

Her eyebrows raised, "…If you insist."

She didn't run but moved very quickly down the stairs; she was halfway down them when a desperate, "FREEZE!" rang out from the floor above. Smirking she stopped and leaned against the wall beside the stairs, pulling out her phone to text Pepper.

Me: dad 4got I wasn't allowed in the garage, im surprised I cn still stand and breathe, lol

Tony quickly appeared at the top of the stairs and pointed behind him, "Get back up here, now!" he glared as she walked up the stairs with a Cheshire like grin, "You're a bad girl; go wait on the porch and I'll bring the Audi around."

"How much did you enjoy that?" Bruce demanded as she came back up and Tony disappeared.

Tori moved to lean on the seat next to him, "It had its moments."

As she moved to take the car keys for the Audi, Tori wasn't surprised to hear her father's phone start ringing, "Hello… No, she didn't see anything… She only made it halfway down the stairs, Pep… I was distracted… Yes, I know we now have a teenager in the house; she just proved how devious she can be. I didn't know we had children eighteen years ago… Hello?"

Tori couldn't stop laughing as she sped away from the scene, her father still trying to talk to a dial tone. The roads were practically empty, at least for Malibu, and she was rather proud to say that she only pushed the speed limits a little bit. Pepper hadn't gotten there yet when she pulled in so she decided that it was safe enough to reply to Bruce.

PrincessAtom: I dnt hav long, wat's up

GreenFallout: this is IM; ur a genius!

PrincessAtom: funny, my father says the same thing

Tori didn't know why she couldn't resist, well yes she did, but still she knew that it was a bad idea to poke the bear like that.

GreenFallout: Ignore the idiots; IM just wants u 2 come make him money

GreenFallout: yes, i do!

GreenFallout: cn u get us the antidote & cn we open a vid chat; mite be easier from this end

PrincessAtom: the ad is on its way now bt no, no chat.

GreenFallout: afraid I'll figure out where u r

PrincessAtom: we agreed nt to push this; im getting off now

She signed out quickly, sighing with exasperation. The boy just didn't know when to quit and he was making their lives all the more difficult by pushing. If anyone was going to be able to track her, it was going to be her father; Tori wasn't crazy enough to think that she could out hack him. If she thought that it would make a difference she'd stop talking to Bruce completely but that would just push him to tracking her that much faster. She was hoping that she could string him along with short conversations every day or so, at least until the Loki threat had passed or she started working for Shield.

Pepper pulled up but she went unnoticed for a few minutes. She could tell that whatever Tori was thinking about was really starting to get to her. After a few more minutes, the CEO moved to lean on the Audi, next to the teenager, "What's going on?"

Tori knew that she wouldn't get away with saying nothing so decided that half-truths was better than none, "I feel like I have a bullseye on my forehead."

"Your dad would never let anything happen to you."

"He can't be around all the time Pepper; even if he moves to Boston he can't be right there ALL the time… I just feel like a sitting duck."

"Is this because of Loki's escape?" she probed gently.

"… something like that."

Pepper knew that Tori had nothing to worry about. In less than a week she'd have a suit and she'd be perfectly capable of defending herself, at least until Tony could get to her. She still couldn't explain that to the girl so placating her worries was the only option, "Hey, you're with us now. I know your dad will do whatever it takes to make you feel safe and I promise you that it will all work out soon."

She just grinned, "Thanks Pepper, you're right. I know it'll work out."

"Good, now let's go through the plans."

The house was still being cleaned and all the valuables removed. Tony was hell bent on throwing a party, that didn't mean Pepper trusted almost three hundred teenagers to mind the precious things that Maria Stark had collected in her life.

"Alright, so the DJ will be there, dance floor there; I figure we can try to keep the dancing and partying out here and the catering and adults inside," Pepper said as they walked around the pool.

"Do you think Dad will end up in the pool?" Tori asked.

"I'd love to be able to say no but I've known your father for more than a day," Pepper told her, "We're doing a solar system replica over the pool and a since Hal is sending us pictures of foreign planets we're doing decorations based off those throughout the rest of the yard. The band is going to be set up over there…"

"I thought Dad got a DJ?" Tori asked.

"He did but he also got Nickelback to perform."

The jumping, squealing, and hugging fest that took place after that ensured Pepper that Tori had completely forgotten all of her woes about Loki and being a 'sitting duck'. They quickly moved through the rest of the party, getting the guest of honor's approval on everything before heading home in their separate cars. Tori arrived ahead of her stepmother and apparently made quite the entrance before running up to her room.

"Now that it's been confirmed that I'm the best dad ever," Tony said, still stunned, "Can you enlighten me on what I did to earn the title."

"I told her about Nickelback."

"Pepper, you know that was supposed to be a surprise. And you accused me of being a present ruiner!" He growled.

"I just wanted to make her feel better," Pepper said quick to play the guilt card, "She started feeling like a sitting duck because of Loki and I just wanted to make her forget about it."

Suddenly Tony had forgotten all about the band, "Was she okay? Did something happen? What did she say?"

"She just said that she felt like she was defenseless and was realistic in saying that you couldn't be around all the time."

"Yeah but after Saturday…"

"I know that Tony but I couldn't tell her about that present so I went for divulging the band," Pepper rationalized, "At least that was a temporary solution."

….

By Thursday Tori had everything answered for her party and was ready to get to it. Her dad had been talking about how her present was almost ready and how much she was going to love it. As she moved to his room, her laptop balanced on one arm and a soft drink in the other, she was determined to get an answer to her question this time.

"Dad, can I use your holographic projector?" She asked, turning sharply to follow him as he headed speedily for the workshop.

"You could have any other day, princess, but I've got to start a new project for the engineering department. Ask sooner next time," he said, disappearing behind the door to his shop.

She stared at the door for a moment before proceeding to place her laptop gently on the ground, put her drink beside of it,… and jump up and down, pitching a fit royal of any pre-schooler.

This continued for several minutes, with her oblivious to the person standing at the bottom of the stairs. By the time she finally calmed down and noticed him, all she could do was point a finger saying, "Not one word!"

"Oh don't worry," Rhodey told his niece, "I might not know what he did but I know how he can be… So what did he do?"

She gracefully picked up her things and moved toward the stairs, "It's not even worth repeting."

Rhodey quickly moved to enter his code, "What did you do to my Baby Girl?"

"What?" Tony asked as he finished a few mods to Tori's suit, "I haven't done anything."

"You might not know what you did, but you did something… I heard that Loki escaped and you were having personnel problems."

"What have I told you about talking to Fury; it rots brain cells."

"So what's going on?" Rhodey demanded.

Tony sighed. He hadn't actually talked to anyone about Bruce's situation and he figured if anyone could help him rationalize everything that was happening it was his best friend.

"Okay, check this out. Bruce meets this girl online in a medical chat room, they get to be really close, and no it's not romantic I've already checked," Rhodey quickly closed his mouth, "Anyway apparently she's like, me-smart, and helped him control the Hulk. While doing this created a full-fledged antidote for Bruce's BFF and replicated the effects of the radiation."

"Are you saying she could create a Hulk army?"

Tony nodded, "So then along comes the team and back when we were all afraid of turning on one another, Fury decided to create Anti-Avengers Weapons in case one of us turned on the group. He asked me and Bruce to design them at two different times but we never could seem to get it right separately. At some point Bruce asks his girl to create them and she does. They're bad Rhodey; they could kick all of our asses."

"So you do have them in your possession? Have you done any testing?"

"That's the thing, we're going off the girl's paper work because we only have one of each weapon. I checked out how they were built from the diagrams but there is no way to get the serum out of weapons to check it without ruining it. The only reason we know how bad it could be for all of us is, like I explained to the team once me and Bruce put our heads together, all the serums are the same for each of us. It's the weapons that are custom to each of our weaknesses. So the serum that we're using in the Loki Weapon is the same one that would be used on all of us."

"Wait, go back!" Rhodey said, "Why are you guys building this weapon?"

"That's where it gets complicated," Tony said, "The girl sent us all the information because she's in trouble. Bruce read it to mean that she's in danger somewhere and I didn't call him on it but I disagree. The woman says she's in trouble, not necessarily danger."

"There's a difference?" Rhodey said.

"Yes, you had to see it in context," Tony explained, "but anyway, she did the reworking of the Loki Weapon and then sent us the plans to build."

"So what's the problem; it seems like it's all under control."

"Bruce says that the girl is acting weird and he's afraid that if we don't go ahead and track her then someone else will find a way to. Right now all people have been told is that there are indeed Anti-Avengers Weapons but eventually people are going to start wanting to know, especially bad guys, who made them."

"Like you and Jericho," Rhodey realized, leaning back in his seat.

Tony nodded, "I know that it's none of my business really but Bruce asked me to track her down if things didn't go back to normal soon. On the one hand I understand why she doesn't want to be known for this, it'll be so dangerous for her, but on the other hand so much could go wrong. If we need her and she's not online or one of the bad guys discovers who she is or just where she is they could…"

"It's a tough spot," Rhodey said, still digesting the situation, "Have there been any sightings of Loki?"

"No, whatever hole in the ground he's found, he's not so much as popped out for fresh air."

"What does Thor say?"

"Thunder bolt's lost patience with his little brother. By now the team's just as much family as Loki and we've never tried to kill him…"

"Uhh, Tony…"

"We've moved on from that, thank-you. I'd probably be more willing to bide my time with the girl if Tori wasn't freaked out over the whole thing. I mean you come home to feel safe, not have a crazy guy out to get your family."

"Tori probably just got spooked but she knows you'd never let her get hurt."

"Wouldn't be the first time I've dropped that ball."

….

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