"Cool."

"GAH!"

Bruce spun on the spot, his heart hammering, almost to the level that his large green friend would make an appearance, to see someone peering over his shoulder at the screens he was working on, her head tipped to the side inquisitively. As his heart rate dropped to something less dangerous, he sighed slightly.

"Saurial."

"Doctor Banner."

She grinned at him.

"I suppose asking how you got into one of the most secure labs on the planet would be a waste of time?" he said.

The reptile nodded, looking pleased with herself.

"Pretty much. Secure is a matter of opinion, anyway." She looked around, then wandered off, inspecting everything closely. He watched, wondering what bizarre thing was about to happen. Both the previous times he'd come across the lizard-girl, very strange parts of his life were either happening or had just happened.

"Jarvis?"

"I'm sorry, Doctor Banner, I have no idea how Miss Saurial gained entrance to the tower," the calm artificial voice said out of nowhere, Tony's AI replying to him. Bruce looked up at the nearest speaker, frowning a little.

Was it his imagination or did the computer program sound very slightly amused?

"Is there something I can help you with?" he asked, watching as she picked up a sample of a new armor alloy for Stark's latest suit, sniffing it curiously. He was both startled and somewhat annoyed when she then nibbled the end of the six inch long plate, leaving tooth-marks and a small piece missing. Even as he was wondering how in god's name anything could actually eat a nano-structured titanium-beryllium-chromium composite, he was also sighing.

"Please don't eat the samples," he requested.

"It'll work better if you add about two percent tantalum, and half a percent of osmium," she commented, putting the slightly shorter sample back where it came from. "Like this."

Bruce was definitely taken aback when she held up another apparently identical sample, which hadn't been in her hand before, then put it next to the first one. "Pretty good try, though."

Turning around, she inspected the rest of the lab, the end of her long tail flicking back and forth like that of a curious cat. "Neat place. Some friends of mine would be right at home here."

Returning her attention to him, she answered his original question, smiling. "I was in the area and thought I'd drop in and say hi. Partly to let you know that your involuntary creation is feeling much better these days and wanted me to tell you he's sorry about the trouble he caused, and partly just to see what you were working on."

Moving over to another computer station that was displaying the schematics for a mark seven arc reactor, she leaned forward and scanned them, her eyebrow-equivalents up a little, then glanced at the equations on the next screen, nodding to herself. "Missed an integration here, and this term is wrong," she noted, tapping the translucent screen with a claw. Reaching for the keyboard, she typed rapidly for a moment, the security password apparently not slowing her at all. He stared in astonishment as she added three new equations under the first ones.

"There you go. That'll increase efficiency by about thirty percent or so."

Walking over he looked more closely at the work, then her. The lizard creature was looking pleased with herself.

"That… is remarkable."

"Simple enough, I've seen that sort of power source before. A friend of mine came up with it independently back home, but he's moved on to more powerful and efficient systems now. I'm sure you'd have worked it out soon enough."

Tipping her fedora back on her head, she smiled at him. "How's things going with you, anyway? Worked out that unified field theory yet?"

"No," he admitted, remembering their first brief conversation. "Although I'd be very interested in any insights you might have." It was apparent to him that she was definitely from a civilization that was far more technologically advanced than here, and considering that she seemed friendly, thought it worth a shot to see if he could get anything else useful out of her. That quick fix to the arc reactor design she'd just casually done like it was nothing would save them at least six months work.

"Hmm." She glanced at the time display on the nearest monitor. "Well, I've got a little time free right now, so… yep, why not. I can probably point you in the right direction."

Moving over to the table he and Tony used, she sat down in one of the chairs, waving him to another. "Hey, Jarvis, any chance of some coffee?" she asked the air.

"Certainly Miss Saurial," the computer replied, without hesitation. Bruce looked at the ceiling again. The thing was definitely finding this funny, which was worrying on several levels. "Doctor Banner, would you also like some refreshments?"

"Coffee too, thank you, Jarvis."

"Of course. I will deliver it momentarily."

Not sure how his day had ended up so weird so suddenly, Bruce sat down opposite the reptile-girl, who had taken her hat off and dropped it on the table. She smiled at him again, projecting an air of friendly companionship. "So, what do you want to know?"

"Anything you can tell me, I think," he said, pulling his notebook over and fumbling in his pocket for a pen. She slid one over the table to him.

"Here, use mine," she said.

"Thanks." Picking the oddly heavy pen up, he clicked the top of it, then poised it over the pad.

"OK. Let's see… How about how gravity and electromagnetism are connected? That's a good starting point."

"I… yes, that seems reasonable," he managed, feeling more than a little startled again.

"All right." She leaned forward and began talking. He was rapidly so engrossed he barely noticed when the door slid open and a drone deposited a cup of coffee in front of each of them. She broke off to politely thank the machine, then got back to an explanation that he was pretty certain was something that every other physicist on the planet would have happily donated a kidney to hear.

Tony entered the lab, spotting Bruce sitting at the table, four empty coffee cups next to his elbow, staring at a notepad covered in dense equations and what looked like at least ten pages of text, his face fixed in an expression of deep thought, wild wonder, and total amazement.

"What's that?" he asked curiously.

"The holy grail, I think," his colleague and friend replied in a stunned voice, very quietly. He flipped back a few pages, making some more notes with his pen. "I think I'm in shock."

"Huh. OK. Anyway, have a look at this, it's really cool."

"OK."

Bruce didn't look away from the pad.

"I came up with a very neat idea, a single long chain molecule of a synthetic organometallic substance," Tony went on, holding up a small device. "Figuring out how to actually make it was a bitch, but I did it. Stark wins again, universe bows head and weeps."

"Great."

His friend was still making notes, not looking at him. Tony went on anyway.

"Fantastic stuff. Twice as strong as carbon nanotubes, flexible, and has a melting point somewhere north of three thousand degrees. I'm planning on using it as a replacement for the internal lining of the next model suit, but it could be used for artificial tendons, nearly unbreakable composites, half a dozen things I thought of just on the way down here."

"That's nice."

Bruce corrected one of his notes, then stared at it, before shaking his head and correcting the correction.

"I'm also going to use it to tie up Thor so I can tickle his bare feet, then go fishing for the Loch Ness Monster," Tony said, glaring at the other man, who was completely ignoring his genius.

"Sounds like a plan."

Watching his colleague for a moment, Tony sighed. "You're not listening to a thing I'm saying, are you?"

"Two sugars, thanks," Bruce muttered, flipping pages again.

"Hey, want to see something else it can do?" the billionaire said brightly. Walking over to the table, he snatched the pen out of his friend's hand.

"HEY!" Bruce yelped, looking at him with annoyance. "I need that."

Tony held it out of reach tauntingly. "So do I. Look. This stuff is so strong you can use it as a blade. Watch." He carefully extended a foot or so of the invisibly thin thread from the small demonstration unit he'd made, the handle attached to the end dangling in mid air rather improbably. The mono-molecular wire itself was far too thin to actually see. Gingerly holding the handle, he wound a couple of turns around the pen, then pulled, saying at the same time, "See? It's so strong and so thin it cuts… right..."

"..."

"What the fuck?"

He pulled again, while Bruce folded his arms and stared at him, not looking impressed.

Nothing happened. Again.

"OK. I've got this," he muttered, making sure his grip was solid, then pulling as hard as he could. The pen, a dull gray metal one, very high quality, bobbled in mid air, then slipped out of the loop of filament and flipped up, smacking him in the face.

"OW!"

He dropped what he was holding, grabbing his nose with both hands. "Fuck that hurt," he growled.

"Can I have my pen back now, please?" Bruce requested. He looked slightly amused.

"What the hell is that thing made of?" Tony muttered, rubbing his nose while he bent down and retrieved the thing, inspecting it closely.

It looked like a perfectly normal if very expensive metal ballpoint pen, with letters engraved down the side along with a tiny gold logo, that seemed to be some sort of reptilian head. Squinting at it as he tilted it to catch the light, he read, 'FamTech® EverPen™'

"Never heard of it," he said.

"Don't care," Bruce snapped, getting up and reaching for it. "I need it, I was busy."

"Why didn't the filament cut it?"

"No idea. Gimme, busy."

The physicist looked quite irritated now. Tony ignored him, feeling the pen curiously. "Not titanium… or stainless… too heavy for steel of any sort. Thermal conductivity is way too high… Tungsten? No. Some sort of ceramic-metallic composite?" He peered closely at it, while Bruce made an annoyed sound.

"Huh. No idea. Weird. OK, let's see if the cutting beam does anything."

He headed for the other end of the lab.

"Cutting beam?! Stop trying to destroy my pen, I was busy and I need it."

"Find another pen," Tony said over his shoulder, putting the thing into a clamp on the bench, then swinging an articulated arm over it, the device on the end pointing at the writing implement from about two inches away. "This will do it, it'll cut anything, even my armor eventually."

Bruce sighed loudly. Tony turned the machine on. Both of them watched for about five minutes.

"Can I have it back now, please?" Bruce finally asked. Stark was peering at the progress of the cutter, which was doing absolutely nothing except spreading brilliant light around the room and making a sizzling sound.

"That's impossible," Tony mumbled, feeling very confused indeed, turning the thing off and examining the pen with a magnifier. "Not a mark."

Putting his hand near it, then gingerly touching it, he gaped. "And it's stone cold. What the hell?"

A set of footsteps stomped away from him as he rubbed his chin, thinking of what else he could try. "Thermite? No, that's not even as hot as the cutter. Acid? Maybe hydrofluoric would do it… Aha! Micro-explosive shaped charge! That's what I need."

The sound of a cabinet on the other end of the room opening and closing barely registered. The footsteps came back as he unclamped the pen and held it up, marveling at the complete lack of any damage.

"This is amazing," he exclaimed. "Where the hell did you get argle argle eek."

Bruce looked down at the twitching form of his friend, then at the stun-gun in his hand, shrugged, and reached down for his pen. Slipping it free, he checked it still worked, then headed back to the table and his notebook.

Some things were more important than friendship.

Like physics.

For which you needed the right pen.

It was a really nice pen.

He could never be totally certain, but he had a vague impression that when Tony weakly called for help from Jarvis, the AI sounded like it was trying not to snicker. But he wasn't paying much attention, he was concentrating on his equations, and wondering when Saurial might come back and show him some new stuff.

"Out of interest, while I lie here in pain, why does my armor sample have a bite out of it?"