"Uh, what?" Dr. Banner muttered once the shock brought on by the display of strength from the preteen faded enough for him to speak.
"Who's the tiny super soldier?" Tony asked, turning to Pepper.
"Your granddaughter," Rhodey said before she could answer. "Courtesy of the Princess of Wakanda."
Tony shot him a wide-eyed look and Nebula shoved him.
"Peter and Harley created her, alongside Princess Shuri and Helen's son," Pepper explained. She nodded at Vivian. "Show him."
She glanced at Dr. Banner as J.A.R.V.I.S. turned on the privacy function on the glass walls then shifted into her base appearance.
Both Tony and Dr. Banner made astonished noises.
"The kids made her?" Tony asked, sounding strangled.
"Amazing," Dr. Banner gasped. "How?"
"The boys stole the readings from the cradle that was used to make Vision and Dr. Cho's notes from her time under V.I.R.G.I.L.'s control," Nebula said.
"They recreated Vision? Incredible. And they brought in Princess Shuri?"
"They needed vibranium and her experience with it," Vivian explained.
"How did they even get into contact with her?" Tony asked, rubbing a hand over his face.
"They programmed a mini spider bot to locate her and give her Peter's number then had me drop it on a car heading into Wakanda. Apparently, it managed to slip through their detections because of its size and the fact it didn't give off any wireless signals," J.O.C.A.S.T.A. said. "For the record, I didn't actually know what the bot was for."
"Not a good excuse," Nebula said.
"They could have gotten in so much trouble," Tony sighed.
"Shuri thought it was funny. She loved Ana," Karen said.
Tony frowned. "Is she…"
The amusement from her treatment of Captain America fled.
Rhodey nodded. "Her brother as well. Their mother is ruling for now."
Tony looked her over and held out the hand Pepper wasn't holding, with a smile. "Com'ere, kiddo."
When she got close enough, he weakly pulled her into a one-armed hug. She carefully returned it, mindful of his injuries. "I'm Tony, but you can call me whatever. Nice to meet you, kid. "
"You too. I'm Karen or Project Vivian," she whispered into his shoulder.
Tony looked around the penthouse as Happy helped him out of the elevator. "Good to be home," he muttered bleakly before forcing a smile on as Karen came rushing in to hug him. "You my welcome home party? I know Rhodey, Nebula, and Bruce left this morning, but where's everyone else."
"Mom's helping Aunt Pepper," Val said, shuffling in with U still in drone form perched on her head. "She's not feeling good."
"Just a stomach bug," Happy said before Tony could start to panic. "She's just been a little bit nauseous the past couple days. She hasn't thrown up though."
"She has now," Val said. "That's why mom's helping her. She's holding her hair."
Tony went pale. "A doctor. What's the status on doctors? We need one."
"Calm down, Stark," Tori huffed and Tony turned to see her standing in the doorway. "She's fine."
"But -"
"Tony." Pepper walked up behind Tori and the woman stepped aside to let her through.
"Pep, are you okay? What's wrong? Do we need to -"
"I'm fine," she said and Karen pulled away so she could hug him.
"Val said you threw up."
"I did, but Tori and I talked and," she glanced over her shoulder then met Tony's eyes, "I think I'm pregnant."
…
"Tony?"
"I think you broke him," Val chuckled.
"Wait, are you serious?" Happy asked in a choked voice.
"Tony?" Pepper said, ignoring him.
"You… I was right?"
Pepper frowned. "Right?"
"I said I had a dream that we had a kid!"
Pepper's eyes widened. "Oh my god."
"I was right!"
"We don't know that for sure, right?" Happy said, looking to Tori with pleading eyes.
"I'm late, and it would explain the nausea and I've been getting some body pains," Pepper said.
Tony kissed her.
"I'm going to go grab a test for her," Tori told Happy as the two continued at it. "Why don't you girls go play."
"I'm too old for this," Happy groaned.
When Tony pulled away, they were alone. "We're having a baby?"
"Maybe? Probably?" she breathed, setting her forehead against his.
His smile slowly faded as something occurred to him.
"What's wrong?" she asked, cupping his face between her hands as he tried to look away.
Tony pressed a kiss to her wrist then stepped back. His eyes landed on the crate Pepper had bought that was theoretically decorative, but secretly held a few tubs of legos and a potato gun hidden underneath Nebula's favorite blanket. "They'll never get to know him."
Pepper followed his gaze then took his hand.
He stared for a moment before turning back to her. "Maybe… maybe we should move."
She gave him a confused frown.
"Its… Peter and F.R.I.D.A.Y. are everywhere. It was the same at the mansion. I just -"
Pepper nodded. "I know. I think the same thing's been happening to Nebula. She's been staying with Happy and hasn't been back to their apartment since. I don't think I'd be around much either if it wasn't for Tori, Karen, and Val."
"Maybe a fresh start is what we need. Get out of the city. You, me, Karen, and little Morgan. Get a place away from everything and everyone. The Keeners, Nebula, Happy, and Rhodey can come too if we can talk them into it."
"That actually sounds really good," she sighed. She leaned her head against her shoulder. "We need to talk about the name though."
"Nope. Morgan. It's perfect."
"We don't even know if it's a boy."
"Even better!"
"Hey U," Rhodey said when they flew up in their new blue orchard bee-inspired drone.
They gave a few beeps and buzzes, landing on his car door as he carefully maneuvered his legs out.
Once they were clear, he engaged the braces and stood up. "Everyone inside?"
U chirped and did a spin around his head before flying away.
Rhodey closed the door and headed into Tony and Pepper's cabin.
"Hey Rhodey," Happy called when he stepped through the door.
"RHODEY!" Karen cheered and suddenly he had a little girl hanging from his front.
He blinked and wrapped his arms around her. "Where did you come from?"
"Karen Vivian Rhodes, what have we said about flying in the house?" Pepper huffed from out of sight.
"Sorry. But Rhodey's here!" she called back, nuzzling his chest.
"Go put your book in your room and get cleaned up," Pepper tisked, coming out of the dining room. "Dinner's almost done."
The girl gave him one last squeeze then fled the room.
"She's like a duckling," Tony chuckled as he peeked out of the kitchen. "She saw you first now she's attached, Platypus."
"Shouldn't you be keeping an eye on the vegetables?"
"Yes, dear." Tony gave Rhodey a wink then fled from Pepper's glare. "Soon she'll be calling you mama," he called out.
"I don't think I'm the mama you should be worried about," Rhodey called back before focusing on Pepper. "How are you doing? You three settled in alright?"
"We're doing… better. Getting out of the city has helped. Tori's given me a recipe for a homemade ginger shake that's really helped with the nausea and it's relaxing not having work right under my feet. The workshop is finally all unpacked so Tony is only hovering nervously over us eighty percent of the time and Karen has just discovered a fascination with painting so J.A.R.V.I.S. has been helping her research. There are still moments, but it's getting better." She gestured out the window. "Even U has calmed down some. Instead of hovering over us every second of the day, they've taken to patrolling the grounds. I think Tony's been considering making them an entire swarm so they can run security."
"Would U even be able to handle processing that many bodies?" Rhodey asked in a low voice so Tony wouldn't hear.
"I don't know and I don't care. Just as long as it means he'll stop hovering and grabbing boxes out of my hands every five minutes while I'm trying to unpack because I might hurt the baby! I'm barely two months along, the baby's fine!" Pepper responded, not bothering to lower her voice. In fact, the last part she practically shouted in the direction of the kitchen.
"Of course, dear," Tony shot back happily.
"He's really been getting on your nerves then," Rhodey chuckled.
Pepper sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I know he doesn't mean anything by it and he knows I'm not really angry. It's just everything that happened and my hormones and his PTSD all piling up and spilling over."
"Hey, if you guys need some you-time, just let me know. I'll be happy to watch Karen for you."
"Mama bear," Tony chimed and stepped into the doorway. "Also, dinner is ready."
"Did you take the bread out of the oven?"
"I thought you said you did that already."
"No, I said I got the chicken out of the oven."
Tony cursed and ducked away.
"No cursing in the house!"
"That'll never stick," Happy muttered.
Pepper shot a glare at him then called up the stairs, "Karen, are you almost done?"
"Yes!"
"Speaking of which," Rhodey said. "Since when can she fly?"
"We found out a few days ago," Pepper said, leading him and Happy into the dining room. "Tony gave her a check-up."
"She doesn't seem to have all of Vision's abilities, but alongside the flight and strength, she can also shift her density for short periods and create energy pulses. I'm guessing that last one was Shuri's work because they work similar to King Cat's suit, just using the arc energy from the reactor in her forehead instead of kinetic energy," Tony explained, setting a bowl of garlic bread onto the table.
They all sat down, Karen slipping in a moment later to sit next to Rhodey.
"Duckling," Tony hummed.
She frowned and Rhodey ruffled her hair with an eye roll.
"Speaking of baby birds and nests, what were you guys thinking for school?" he asked as they all started to dig in.
"Does she even need to go to school?" Happy asked. "I mean, can't she just download anything she needs to know?"
"No, she can't interact with computers like Vision could. Violet, salad too," Tony interrupted himself before continuing, "As soon as the cradle disconnected from her brain, she was locked into a closed system. She's got an eidetic memory, but she'd still have to learn things the hard way first."
"The others couldn't figure out how to make any wireless connection devices work with my synthetic brain given the guidelines they were working with from Vision," Karen added, looking up from where she was cutting her chicken into pieces to grab the salad bowl. "They ended up deciding the Mind Stone was what allowed for the compatibility."
"So school?" Rhodey asked, amused.
Tony shrugged and turned to Pepper, who shook her head.
"We haven't talked about it. I suppose we'll have to see what online schools are still running." Pepper gave her an apologetic look. "I know you can disguise yourself as a human, but people will begin to notice that you don't age."
"She ages."
Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy turned to Tony, who shrugged again.
"Shuri figured it out," Karen said. "She didn't explain it well - I think she enjoyed teasing the boys on their lack of knowledge about Vibranium - but it has something to do with it being a living metal."
"Living metal?" Happy asked, slowly, and she nodded.
"Wherever the asteroid carrying the Vibranium came from must have developed life of a more metallic variety."
"Explains why it's so adaptable," Tony hummed. "Too bad Dad mixed his batch up with other metals to make Cap's frisbee. What I wouldn't give to get my hands on some of the raw stuff."
"The boys felt the same, but Peter kept track of everything that Shuri sent them to be sure that any that wasn't used on me was sent back untouched out of respect for her culture."
"Of course he did," Pepper said proudly before getting back on topic. "Well, I suppose it's your choice then, Karen. Would you rather go to school or take online courses?"
Karen blinked up at them, surprised. "Me?"
"Yeah, Violet. We're not going to force you into anything," Tony said gently.
Karen looked between them then ducked her head. As she started to make little swirls in her sauce, she said, "I don't know. Peter always seemed to like school and his friends there, but Harley always complained about it and Shuri and Amadeus thought it was useless."
Tony rolled his eyes. "Harley was a brat and would have complained no matter what, Shuri probably had an army of tutors ready to teach her whatever she wanted at her own pace and probably never set foot in an actual school in her life, and Cho thought everything was beneath him. You're a lot more like Peter."
Karen looked up at Rhodey and he squeezed her shoulder with a smile. "It's your choice, but socialization is important."
When she still looked uncertain, Pepper offered, "How about this: You try going to school for a semester and if you don't like it, then we can look into online options for next semester. There's nothing wrong with keeping your options open."
Karen glanced up at Rhodey again and nodded. "Okay."
"Hey, you."
Vivian looked up from her book on the Lascaux cave paintings to see a pair of boys standing in front of her.
"What are you doing out here?"
"Reading," she said with bemusement, holding up her book. "It's about -"
"Why're you outside?" one of the boys asked, with a snort.
"Why not?"
The boys frowned. "Aren't you going to eat?"
She shrugged. She had been so excited about her new book, she had decided to sit out in the courtyard instead of eating lunch. "I'm not hungry."
"What's wrong with your face?" the other boy asked, pointing at her forehead.
"Birthmark."
"What's your deal?" the first boy asked, frustrated.
"What do you mean?"
Before either boy could say something, a voice yelled, "Would you two just get lost before you end up looking even more like idiots? She's not buying your bait."
The three turned to a girl who was lying on the grass nearby, her head held up to glare at them and a bag of chips on her stomach.
The boys grumbled, giving both girls scowls, but walked off.
"Bait?" Vivian asked as the other girl laid her head back on her folded up jacket.
"They wanted to upset you," she said like it was obvious.
"Why?"
"Because their boys and you're a pretty girl," she scoffed, looking back up at her. "You haven't spent a lot of time around boys have you?"
"Not exactly." Vivian frowned down at her book. "Why would they want to upset me if they think I'm pretty?"
"Because they're idiots who don't know what emotions are." She sat up fully, chips falling into her lap. "I don't remember you from Elementary school."
"My family just moved here from the city this summer. I'm Karen."
"America."
"Pardon?"
"My name," the other girl chuckled. "It's America. I know, weird."
Vivian closed her book. "My aunt's name was F.R.I.D.A.Y. I've heard weirder."
The girl smiled and held out the bag. "So are you on a diet or did you forget your lunch money?"
Vivian shook her head and pulled out the box of food Pepper prepared for her. "I really was just not hungry."
America shrugged and grabbed a chip.