Pt1.33
The elevator dinged. A young woman with wavy, poofy, golden-brown hair in a ponytail to match her pretty medium-light mocha skin tone walked out of the elevator, a shoulder bag with something clunking over her shoulder. "Hermione! Hey! Also, I've told them up to level three, so no worries about the vibranium. That's Tony Stark, by the way." she waved to the named man. She nodded to Romanoff and Barton. "Those are two SHIELD Agents I don't doubt are recording the whole thing and getting it dissected, just like Stark's AI. And that's the not-so-invisible frisbee-throwing old man on steroids." She laughed. "Steve Rogers."
Steve got the joke. He thrust out his hand. "Rose already introduced me, but I'm Steve Rogers. Pleased to meet you."
"Hermione Granger. Pleasure." She shook Steve's hand.
Tony butted in. "Any relation to microchip developer Joshua Granger?"
"That's my stepdad. Although he repurposed those microchips into his and my mum's dentistry clinic ages ago. And you must be Mister Gold-Titanium Alloy Suit Man"
"You're the sciencey friend, right?"
"Yes. I've been wanting to ask, how did you program your AI for preferential voice recognition obedience? Or how did you solve the gradual sentience problem in AI?"
Tony opened a copier embedded in the wall and opened up a block of code. Ten seconds later, Rose could see Hermione fixing a bunch of his stuff, Tony looking both awed and ashamed he hadn't thought of it.
Before Rose could continue her conversation with Romanoff and Steve, JARVIS said, "Sir, the security system is being overridden yet again." the elevator dinged again.
"Fury," Tony sighed, "can't you see I have guests?"
"Yes, I can. Why the fuck have you brought civilians up to the Avengers secure area?"'
"Hmm. Fury, let me guess. Maybe because it's my damn tower?" Tony snarked back. "Also because you could have had a sentient AI conquering the world if not for this civilian" he pointed to Hermione, "fixing the small block of code I would have overlooked."
Fury glared. "And her?" he pointed to Rose.
"I was about to show Stark how to break the fundamental laws of Gravity. Unless you don't want your little super-secret boyband to have another advantage?"
"Hey, that's my nickname!" Stark exclaimed.
"Or are you upset I just doubled your database with information on Kree, Skrulls, Flerkens, three of the only four extraterrestrial species you have ever gotten along with?"
"And where, exactly, did you get that information?"
"What is it with all you super-spies and needing to know everything?"
"That's our only job description." Barton deadpanned.
"Fine, Fury, That specific information was a direct quote of your old friend Carol Danvers, who, I might add, still doesn't forgive you for dissecting that Skrull. Also, my other database. Say hi to your old friend Goose."
Goose prowled forward in nundu form, shrinking back to the old tabby cat Fury knew. Tentacles popped out of her mouth to poke Fury, who rushed back and pressed himself, fear evident on the first time that any of them had seen. "Goose, that's enough taunting the old annoyance."
Goose sniffed imperiously and shifted back to nundu form, sitting so that Rose's hand appeared on her head, petting her to her satisfaction.
Romanoff finally asked the question that is bugging her, as much as she hated asking direct questions, especially in her line of work. "You called Earth Midgard one time. You're not Asgardian, are you?"
"Heck no. No thank you. I'm not nearly as stupid or as much as a hulking brute to be Asgardian. No, their name of Midgard just works well. Let's just say I have a very good reason for avoiding Asgard altogether."
Upon getting a questioning look she clarified, "Let's just say that it's entirely Odin Borson's fault my dad ended up possessed a few months ago, Thor Odinson's fault my half-sister ended up nearly dead on several occasions, and my methods of not getting spied on by the universe's ultimate pervert won't last within close proximity to Heimdall"
"Did someone say my name?" Thor asked, entering the floor, munching on yet another box of pop tarts.
Rose glared at him. "Steve, what's the next closest floor? I would rather avoid a certain hammer-happy blonde bimbo first in line for the Asgardian throne."
Although not understanding the references, Thor understood the general idea of what Rose was calling him. "What issues do you have with my person, My lady?"
She straightened her back and gave her best holier-than-thou glare. She marched over to him. "Rose," Hermione asked, before getting a look back.
Rose glared at Thor and loathed up from the floor to have her eyes just higher than Thor's. She stabbed her finger at him. "You." She nearly snarled, "I have a great big grudge with you, so I will leave now before you decide it deems solving by an honor duel. I would rather avoid having to fight His Royal Idiocy Odin for beating up his precious little spoiled princeling" She turned around and floated back until her feet touched the ground, kissed the top of Goose's head.
She gave Hermione a much softer look. "You can tell them, without names, because I would rather not have the one-person hammer pressing down onto my chest. Just avoid anything too specific, some members of this little gang can hold grudges even better than I can, and I would rather avoid a second battle of Manhattan, mainly because I don't have an army within a few light-years."
Tony fought between his curiosity to hear from Hermione what happened to cause such a big grudge from Rose towards Thor, and his curiosity at what other laws of nature Rose could break. Ultimately, he, and Steve, chose Rose. Hermione turned to Rose, "Here, the vibranium's the bag. Catch," and she threw her duffel bag towards Rose, who caught the bag without a problem.
Except not in her hands, but just kept it floating behind her. Tony Stark led her over to the elevator, such was his curiosity, he even pressed the button for his private lab floor.
"So," he asked her, his eyes gleaming in curiosity, "what are you?"
"What do you mean by that, Stark?"
"Call me Tony. So, you said you're not exactly human. What is it that enables you to break Newton's basic laws, and how can I do the same?"
"Well, Stark, the easiest way for you to understand it would be a genetic mutation. Evolution, in a sense. Except for the type of evolution that creates new subspecies."
"Thank goodness. No magic. I had enough of that with the battle."
"If it makes you feel any better, your arc reactor, from what I know of how it works, is borderline magic."
"No, it doesn't. But what kind of mutant are you? How does it happen? How does it work?"
Steve had snuck away from the science talk he couldn't hope to understand with his high school education from back in the forties
"Well, it's not really a mutation, because that only applies to the first generation. My father isn't Midgardian, so I'm half-alien, my mother is from a long line of people with recessive, for lack of a better term, magic genes. And I don't know the scientific explanation, but I do know that after I was born when my mum married my stepdad, I had a procedure done so that my genetics would show my stepdad as my third parent."
"Do you know how that works? Because this could be revolutionary for adopted children."
"I looked into it for Hermione and her stepdad, but it doesn't work without our specific mutation." Tony was about to open his mouth, but Rose mentioned, "Don't ask Hermione about it. Her biological father is a bit of a sore spot, and just trust me that it will be even more sore coming from you. If she wants to, she'll tell you. I don't doubt you'll find out in the next week, but let her tell you first." Tony realized somehow Rose, who he had just met that morning, knew him extremely well. He made a note to look up Hermione Granger and what her biological father might have to do with him.
"What about the vibranium? Dad got just enough of that for Roger's shield back in the forties, imported out of Wakanda, but that cost a pretty penny. There's even more here, and you don't seem to have a bodyguard service for it."
'Let's just say I can do a lot more than you would expect. You can make half of it if you can make this." She pulled up some blueprints and added casually. "As for how I got it, let's just say I have an in with Wakanda. Its royal family owes me a favor or two, so if you mess up, I have quite a bit more."
Tony gave up trying to understand Capsicle's friend. "As for my mutation, let's just say I'm telekinetic and leave it at that."
"I've heard Xavier's school upstate has a telekinetic or two. You're not from there?"
"No, but I went to a similar one, except there used to be hundreds of us with similar mutations."
"Used to be?" Tony queried.
"A megalomaniac caused a worldwide civil war with our type. We used to live in such a way, you would think we were a different species. But for all intents and purposes, we are. Like Skrulls, Kree, or Aesir. Anyways, a majority of people sided with him, but he was the one who killed my mum and stepdad when I was a baby, so he and his got what was coming for them. There are currently six left of us adults with this mutation and three more kids. Everyone else is either dead or has given up the power."
"You can do that?"
"Sure. If you can make what's on those blueprints, I'll give you a sample of a temporary infusion of the ability. I have more than enough."
"What exactly can you do?"
"Let's just say that if it came down to superhuman abilities including a battle between me and your pet god of thunder, as long as I don't get a hammer down to the chest, it'll be no sweat. How do you think I've lived so long with several thousand superhumans trying to kill me since I was a year old?"
"You sound like you're forgetting something."
"I actually don't want to brag. It works like a muscle, the more I use it, the better it is. The less I use it, the weaker it is. That's why I float around a lot, not that I don't like walking. It's just the easiest way to keep up the muscle."
"So that's how you beat the capsicle."
"No, that was just his overconfidence and me staying fit. I think if Romanoff or Barton wanted to, they could beat him too. They just don't seem like the type to tell anyone the full range of their abilities until there are lives on the line."
"True. Now, what is this you want me to make with the vibranium? It looks like a mini glove."
"Let's just say there are some things I need it as a storage unit for and leave it at that. I don't mind telling stuff, but there are some secrets that I will most likely die with."
"Well, off the superspy track, I think I can have it done by the end of the day."
"Thanks, Stark. You don't need the details, but I can just say it's needed to get rid of a murderous alien who doesn't have Loki's moral barriers."
Tony whirled around, looking at Rose through narrowed eyes. "Loki? Moral barriers?"
"Stark, my power is extremely similar. I know what Loki could and could not do. And I can tell you that that battle, that was Loki holding back."
"I nearly died somewhere in the middle of space, light-years away from here with what you call holding back. I don't believe you. You're the type who will try to romanticize every single villain you see."
"Yet four years ago, Romanoff was in the same position, and look where she is now. I won't try to convince you, but I just want to say that when Loki gets back to Midgard, I would be interested in how far he goes next time. Not that I approve of the destruction of the planet I grew up on, don't misunderstand, but our power is so similar, forgive me or my curiosity."
"Yeah, something here isn't adding up."
"Fine, here. This is about 5% of my abilities, I don't trust you with more, rather SHIELD influencing or dissecting you with more. Play around with it, it should last for a week or so until it runs out."