Manhattan, New York

"How is this the basics, Tony!?"

"Because I made this in a cave with limited materials and with the threat of being killed, so you should be fine."

"Fine. So... what first?"

Tony Stark's Research and Development Department was more like someone's converted garage, in my humble opinion. It was cold and had bare concrete floors, ceiling and walls, with automated robots wandering here and there. One of them was still wearing the dunce cap from last week. There were tool benches covered with these things called arc welders and solderers, microscopes, circuit boards, wires, various pieces of metal and numerous computer displays with blueprints I could barely hope to understand. Compared to Xandarian technology, this looked like electronic junk to me.

"You've got to twist the copper coils to the palladium torus core, and then fix it to the first titanium mount."

"Sure, right, of course. Makes total sense."

I pulled a face at the blueprints. This made little to no sense to me, even thought the blueprints looked ten times simpler than holographic models on Xandar. I took on baking quite easily, as well as driving, and I had no problems with advanced mathematics or sciences (according to boy genius Peter Parker), but mechanics? Technology? That was apparently not my expertise. It didn't help that Tony wasn't helping. He was just sitting there, expecting me to do miracles. I guess he figured that being an alien I'd have gone through this 'basic' stuff before learning what was harder. It appears that Xandar just skipped to the hard stuff. At least Tony was just asking me to assemble, not make this thing.

I stared down at the table, then back at the blueprints. There were several pieces that I could pick out from the ones on the table. First I grabbed this odd metal-like ring, which I assumed to be the palladium core and then picked out the copper wiring. Was there a specific way to coil this considering the core was so small? I stared back at the blueprints and frowned. There had to be a step between picking up the core and coiling, right?

"Yes, there are steps between the two," Tony said, as if reading my mind.

"Steps!? More than one!?" I groaned. "I hate mechanics and technology."

"You only hate it because you aren't automatically good at it."

"Shut up."

I stared back at the materials. Curiously, I gazed between the blueprints and a small glass ring. I took a small pair of tweezers and picked up the palladium core then gently placed it inside the glass ring. I shrugged. Seemed right to me. I grabbed some titanium wiring and formed it to the same size and shape at the palladium and put it on top of it, then I began coiling the copper around it at small intervals.

"Okay, so... I need this thing next, I think," I said, looking at a small foreign machine. "This is the soldering machine, right?"

"Yup. Do you know how it works?"

"Not particularly."

Tony stood from his spot and welded one of the coils as demonstration. I observed carefully, trying not to miss anything important, but it looked simple enough. Tony didn't really back off after he showed me how it worked, instead he began helping. Did that mean I was on the right track? No clue. But the help was appreciated. I proceeded to solder each coil of copper to the titanium and to the palladium, which took a long time considering how small this thing was and my obstinate perfectionist teacher who kept distracting me with information about what each step was going to allow the miniature ARC Reactor to do. I say distracting, but honestly all the information was quite useful. It took another hour for the thing to be assembled, but I was ecstatic when the thing began to glow its classic blue hue.

"You made this thing in a cave?" I said after heaving a sigh.

"Impressive, isn't it? Revel in my genius, Ilaria Sable," Tony said, not so modestly.

"Shut up. I'm more impressed that I got this. Baking and advanced science and mathematics are easy to me, but this is not. I don't think I have the mind for tech."

"Didn't you used to develop stuff on your alien planet, or whatever?"

"Well, yes, but it's far more advanced than this. This is like kindergarten to Xandarians, but it would also be incomprehensible. A long time ago we went through this, but now that we've got the basics down, we don't teach it. We just teach what we do now."

"So you skip all the 'how you got there' and just tell the kiddies that this works just because?" Tony said, heading over to another work bench for a glass of scotch.

"Pretty much."

I stared at the ARC Reactor that I built and narrowed my eyes at it.

"Did you get palladium decay-product poisoning, recently or at all?" I asked, turning back to Tony. He frowned. "Palladium decays when its energized this way, and it decays into rhodium which not only stains the skin but its also highly toxic if it gets into your bloodstream. I mean, it'll prevent this thing from rusting, but it'll kill you."

"You weren't lying when you said advanced science was your thing," Tony commented, sipping on his scotch. "See, I realised that too... after I was poisoned."

"Idiot. Rhodium poisoning is so rare even the best doctors can't help you. How'd you fix it?"

"Lithium dioxide."

"No... that would just alleviate the symptoms," I corrected him.

"I created a new element. Well, rediscovered it. My dead dad helped."

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you serious?"

Tony shrugged.

"Wow, you're serious. So the ARC Reactor in your chest runs on something that... you have no clue what it is?"

"Yup."

"Can I have a sample?"

"I'm sorry, it's patented," Tony said, cocky.

"No it isn't, you idiot. Look, I just want to analyze its chemical structure. If your dad had access to it, then maybe I can find out where he got it or if it was used for other things. You know, I bet we use it on Xandar."

Tony looked at me, unsure.

"Come on! For purely scientific reasons! And I promise that I won't take it out of this room... or one where I can actually analyse its components and structure and maybe even some isotopes! Hell, how'd you even create it?"

"Pointed a laser at something," Tony shrugged.

I frowned and began pacing the room, thinking out loud.

"A laser? That's a bizarre and unheard form of nucleosynthesis. A variant of explosive nucleosynthesis, maybe? But those usually involve supernova... What kind of laser did you use?"

"Dunno, stole it from S.H.I.E.L.D. It nearly cut my house in half."

"How many coils?"

"Three. Four feet each."

I stared at nothing for a while, trying to do calculations in my head. It'd probably be faster if I wrote it down as the answers for each equation could be referenced visually, but as long as I didn't forget anything I was fine. Because of Peter, I'd begun to do these things more often - he didn't write anything down either.

"And you pointed it at Palladium?"

"Yeah. Well, after it cut my wall in half."

I think at that point I began writing calculations in midair, trying to visualise things. I took into account the power and heat of the laser, the density of the material, the time of exposure, and all other variables that could potentially influence the nucleosynthesis of the element. Eventually I gave up on mental calculations and scavenged some paper and a pen on Tony's desk, furiously writing down a boat-load of numbers. Tony came over and looked over my shoulder at what I was writing, making small approbation noises as he read what I wrote. I crossed some things out and added some others.

"Can I have the sample and a lab?"

When Tony said nothing, I looked to someone else.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. where's the lab?"

"The laboratory you need for this process is on the floor below, first door to your left," I heard J.A.R.V.I.S. say. "Would you like for me to provide a sample of the element for you, as well, Miss Sable?"

"That's be great, Jarv."

"Jarv? I call him Jarv!" Tony said, humourously outraged. "Are you taking my son away from me? How dare you, Sailor Moon. Betrayed I tell you, by my own son. J.A.R.V.I.S., you're grounded."

"I'm afraid I can't be grounded, sir. It's not part of my programming."

"He's giving me sass!"

I smiled and shook my head at Tony, then picked up my papers and headed towards the door. Tony quickly followed behind me as I made my way down to the lower level and entered the lab J.A.R.V.I.S. had designated. The desks and benches in the laboratory could only be described as archaic, almost as if his father was the last one to furnish it. They were like something out of the 1940's. But all of the equipment in it was state-of-the-art. There were stainless steel centrifuges, microscopes, PCR and QPCR machines. There was a huge walk-in refrigerator and several water baths. There was a double door autoclave and two enclosed areas with flow-hoods. There was a walk-in shower for chemical decontamination and several canisters of gases. The hum of machinery was like a soft whisper in the background. The aroma was mostly of the setting agar plates but there was an undertone of bleach. Across the back wall were floor to ceiling windows revealing a view across the city towers and spires that could only be described as stunning.

"You use this lab?" I asked, noting its exceptional cleanliness.

"No, Banner does," Tony replied.

"Bruce? He's here?" I said, spinning around.

"Wow, way too excited to see a man twice your age." Tony poked at a few tubes of clear liquid in their stand on the counter. "No, he's in... Stockholm? Conference or something. He'll be back in a few days. Managed to convince him to not go hide back in whatever hole he was in and come back to the science side of life. It was easier than expected."

"I'll put everything back in its place then."

"You don't have the element."

"I'm afraid she does, sir," I heard J.A.R.V.I.S. say. "Miss Sable, you'll find it labelled under 'Chemical Element Unknown' in the laboratory's storage."

"Thank you, J.A.R.V.I.S."

I dropped my things on the counter and headed for the storage. Everything was clean and impressively organised, so it was easy to find the strange metal that Tony had discovered. I returned to find him lying down on the counter.

"Would you quit being a drama queen, Tin Can?" I laughed, looming over him.

"I can't help it. I have a knack for the dramatics. Do you think I could be an actor?"

"Get off the table Tony."

"Make me."

"Oh, I'll make you, trust me."

"You won't be making anyone."

I turned my head towards the door. A very pretty readhead was standing in the doorway, arms crossed and looking completely unimpressed.

"Pepper!" Tony said cheerfully.

"Pepper?" I said, confused. "Oh, Pepper! This is the famous Pepper Potts!"

Pepper raised an eyebrow.

"Ilaria Sable," I said, extending my hand for her to shake. "I'm one of Iron Man's colleagues."

"Oh!" The woman's face brightened immediately. "You're the alien!"

"Yeah... That'd be me."

"Sorry, it's just - Tony... an unknown pretty woman..."

"I have renounced those days, I'll have you know," Tony said, still lying down on the counter.

"Totally get it. Though, all I was gonna make him do was get off the damn counter!" I frowned and turned back to Pepper. "Wait did you say pretty?"

"Don't tell me she has your ego," Pepper sighed, looking over at Tony.

"Close. But not quite. She's got this girl next door kinda vibe. Impeccable movie and music taste however," Tony said, swinging himself off the counter at last. I rolled my eyes. "You're here because?"

"Because Obi is here and needs to see you."

"Yeah, this doesn't concern me. I'm gonna get to my work," I said, awkwardly backing up towards the chair in front of the main workspace.

"Oh, you're a scientist?" Pepper asked.

"Sort of. I'm still learning, I suppose."

"Well, we'll leave you to it."

Pepper then dragged Tony out of the room, and I couldn't miss the playful bickering between the two on their way out. She was forceful that one - good for Tony. He needed someone to kick him in the ass once in a while.

I pulled a hair tie off my wrist and tied up my hair so that it was out of my face and then got to work. I examined the piece of metal that Tony had created. The first thing I noticed was that it was really light. It was a finger-sized piece of metal, but there was barely any more weight to it than a piece of cardboard. It was so shiny I could almost see myself in it, and when I brought a magnet to it, the magnet stuck.

"Odd..." I muttered. "Not many metals are magnetic.

I spent the next few hours pounding information into my head and crunching so many numbers that it gave me a headache. I ended up measuring the density of the metal, its electrical and temperature conductibility, its strength and malleability. I tallied up all the information and made myself a table.

"So... it's magnetic, super light, conducts electricity and heat quite well, and not at all malleable 'cause this thing won't break." I sighed loudly and checked the time on my phone. I'd been at this for three hours. "J.A.R.V.I.S?"

"Yes, Miss Sable?"

"I'm entering the properties of the element that I can determine without much work into the computer, can you isolate all the elements that fit the bill?"

"Of course."

I pushed off the counter and rolled to the computer desk. There were search boxes open on the computer already, so I input all the data necessary. All that came up was a big fat nothing. I ran my hands over my face in annoyance and exhaustion.

"Can you expand your search parameters?"

"What shall I include?"

"You've hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D., right? Can you extend your search to their databases?"

"Of course, Miss Sable."

I waited a few moments until I heard a few beeps. I turned back to the monitor.

"It seems to be cited twice in the S.H.I.E.L.D. database, Miss Sable."

"Under what name?" I asked, tapping a few images on the screen.

I tapped mainly graphs and tables showing the previously calculated properties of the metal. It seemed calculations mirrored my own.

"It is cited under the name Vibranium."