I was just putting Kurt's samples into my automated lab when a notification pinged on my helmet.

Closing the deposition chamber and watching as the automated arms began disinfecting the vial and carefully preparing the sample, I quickly flicked through my system. An invitation to the Stark Expo… which is starting tomorrow.

Sighing, I quickly drop the girls a line about the message.

Raven responds first to decline. She's a bit busy ensuring that her subjects are properly educated and discussing the 'federal' laws that she would be enforcing across her domain.

Angela took a little longer to respond and informed me that she was going to be busy for much of the next week, making sure the infusion chambers for the biotic pills would be working up to standard.

Gwen, however, was more than up for it.

I took off, covering the distance between me and Manhattan in moments, the water eventually giving way to the cityscape.

I see people point as they notice me fly through the city and out over Times Square, where I find Gwen waiting for me in her costume.

I touched down, bracing myself as she jumped me, "Thank you so much!"

"I'm glad you are excited. How are things going?" I asked.

She pulled up her mask to give me a quick kiss before crawling onto my back, "Things are going well. New York's been pretty quiet lately and I've had plenty of time to practice for the festival."

"That sounds like fun," I agreed, "I guess you have some free time this week then?"

She grinned, "Yeah, I've got plenty of time this weekend for the expo."

I shake my head, "Have some free time now?"

She focused for a moment, "I guess so? I'm fairly sure I'm not going to find any crooks on the rest of my patrol, and my dad has my number in case one of the supers ends up acting weird. Why?"

"Well, I was going to drop in on Stark for sending these passes to me at literally the last minute." I admit.

She looked at me, "You really think you can get past his security?"

"I've got an inside man," I say confidently as I pull up JARVIS's direct line, "Hey JARVIS, wanna help me play a prank on Tony?"

The AI is silent for a moment, but I hear a dry chuckle soon after, "Sure, what do you have planned."

Taking off, I discussed the plan with JARVIS as I ferried Gwen across the country and began to silently send myself down the entryway into the garage.

The lab had changed a lot since the first time I had been invited here. A large particle accelerator dominated an entire wall of the laboratory, most of the circular track disappearing into the wall.

Stark himself was engrossed in something at his station as we snuck in and started putting down the little animatronic puppets.

It took a moment, but the little robots lit up and started rolling over to where Stark was.

"Hi Dad!" They chorused.

The man jumped and toppled back, knocking over his seat, "What the…"

And then he spotted us, "Jon."

Gwen burst out in laughter as the AI began to giggled, "What's the problem dad?"

He sighed as he righted his chair, "Betrayed by my own kids. You could give your old man a warning."

I rolled my eyes, "You also sent me those passes to the day before the expo started. Also, I promised them that they could keep the puppets."

He stared at the miniature Tony Starks that the bots were possessing, "Dear god, they look like me too."

"I will make sure to customize them later. Ripple was quit forthcoming with design specifications, so we should be able to fabricate new faces for these." JARVIS reassured him.

He nodded weakly before resting his head in his hands, "how long have you had this planned? Making those must have taken a while and I only sent you those passes a few hours ago."

"Those were going to be Christmas presents, but I decided it was worth making something else for that since you sprung that on me." I nodded.

He took a breath and stared at me, "You know that I'm going to get you back for that."

"I'd like to see what you have planned!" I retort.

He looked at the bots, "And this time, you are going to be helping me for once!"

"Of course." JARVIS intoned.

I raised an eyebrow, "I see JARVIS isn't calling you sir anymore."

"It felt kind of weird after Pepper caught wind of the whole kid-bots thing." He admitted, "I told JARVIS that he could stop calling me sir if he wanted to."

I nodded, "Still not letting them call you dad?"

"I mean, we've been experimenting with creator?" Tony sais.

DUM-E's drone, now done up in iron man colours flys in, "Creator is the best!"

Gwen takes a moment to pet the little drone on the head, "I bet he is."

"So, does Rhodey know about all this yet?" I asked.

Tony shook his head, "No, not yet, we're planning on christmas, I think?"

"Good, I need some time to build up a lead!" I say with a nod.

He looks at me in confusion, "A lead for what?"

"Favourite uncle, of course! I'm going to make sure that They come to me for their digital intoxicants!" I said with a nod.

Every eye in the room turned to me.

"Digital Intoxicants?" Jarvis asked, intruiged.

I nodded, "Code snippets designed to replicate the effects of alcohol on AI, I picked up a few variants near Knowhere."

"Nope! Not before you are twenty-one!" Tony yelled.

DUM-E squealed, "Can I have some?"

"Oh yeah, you're 32." Tony said, "Still no, not until I take a look at that stuff."

I shrugged and tossed a thumb drive at him, "I ran some auguries, it should be safe, but I guess you can take a look."

He nodded, "I'll take a look at this later."

He paused to look at me, "And you can't give them any copies before I do that!"

I whistle innocently as I put away the spare thumb drive.

Gwen pulled herself back together, "Okay, enough of the games, what happened to that whip guy who was in Monaco?"

"He's still in prison last I checked." Tony responded.

"Creator?" JARVIS mentioned, "That might not be true anymore."

A hologram of a news story of an attempted jailbreak in Monaco, where Vanko was found dead.

"Judging by the information surrounding this, there is a not-insignificant chance that Vanko may be free at this moment." JARVIS summarised.

Tony sat back down, "We're going to have to step up security."

"I can come in costume if you want." Gwen mentioned.

Tony nodded, "That sounds like a good idea, you have that danger sense, right?"

"Yeah, I'll warn you if I sense anything coming." She nods.

I absently poked at the air, "Hey, isn't Hammer doing those iron man knock-off drones?"

"You think that Hammer snagged him to get arc reactors to power his drones?" Tony asked.

I nodded, "The power plants are listed as experimental on these listings."

"Yeah, It's a shame that Howard patented the Arc, otherwise I could use this to put Justin out of business." Tony griped.

"Oh, are they public domain?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Not my optimizations, but the base concept? Sure."

I grin, "mind if I make them for my own use then?"

"Go ahead, but I'm not helping you." Tony said with a shrug.

I wave it off, "Nah, I'm fairly sure I can pull it off."