Rhea sat with her feet up on her desk in her lab with a large book in her lap while she mumbled under her breath twirling her fingers through the air in a circular pattern. A trail of green light followed her finger then with a sudden flick and a commanding word a green flame ignited between her hands.
"There we go." Rhea smiled taking her feet off of the desk observing the flame. "Now I just need to refine you and store you. Hopefully thanks to Shuri's help you won't blow up like your thirty some odd predecessors did."
Rhea was working on a new battery, but not just any kind of battery, a magic battery that would give her powers a boost in desperate times. She brought out a portion of her magic in the form of the green flame which she hoped she'd be been trying to purify. On her desk was a rare round cut Asgardian jewel set in dwarf star metal, but inside the crystal were cybernetic lines of Vibranium, technology of earth. Attached to the underside of the jewel was the initial power source, an arc reactor. Overall it looked like a palm sized silver brooch with a clear crystal in its center.
She slowly moved the flame over the jewel gently depositing her flame inside causing the crystal to turn green. She smiled at her flame accented by the light of the reactor below it surged through the lines, flaring a bit before settling down in the center of the jewel. She moved to her computer checking out the readings with a couple of clicks. She grinned as they seemed to be holding, but then another window popped up causing her to shoot to her feet.
"Keep a monitor on the brooch AL, anything goes wrong while I'm gone shut it down." Rhea quickly typed into her computer, a glowing blue shield made up of hexagons forming around the brooch causing it to float within. "The force field should contain anymore…learning moments should they arise."
"Will do." AL replied.
"And AL, call grandpa." Rhea ordered running for her balcony as she snapped her fingers changing her outfit into her chosen hero identity, Hex.
It was a long sleeved high necked maroon catsuit with dark maroon sides and gold accents that covered her from her neck down completely including her hands and feet, it was all one suit. She had made with the help of her grandfather and father making it the perfect union of technology and magic. It had repulser stabilizers in the gloves, it had a dark maroon belt and another thinner one that hung loose around her hips at an angle with gold buckles, and her boots had a pair of repulsers in them allowing her to fly. When using her repulsers swirling golden lines appeared on her suit and started to glow giving her the look of a shooting star when she zoomed across the sky.
The catsuit also had a hood and she wore over her face a mask made to look like a Venetian masquerade mask. It was a full face mask that was decorated with a raised golden swirling pattern from the forehead down to the middle of her cheeks including her nose leaving the rest of the mask white except for the golden lips. The mask was connected to her own AI named AL after her favorite show Quantum Leap, she even had it sounding like the beloved character.
"Actually sweetheart, he's calling you." AL replied.
"Hey Grandpa, I'm guessing you got the reading on the spider kid." Rhea took off into the air.
"Yep, are you in route?" Tony asked tightly, the only thing giving away his concern.
"Almost there." Rhea came down over a lake. "He's in the lake. Where are you?"
"I'm going in for him now, stay on shore in case he needs help." Tony replied as he dove his suit down into the waters of the lake.
Rhea stood on the shore as she watched the surface of the water until suddenly her grandpa's suit shot out of it with the spider in his arms. He flew over to shore depositing the teen on the ground in front of Rhea. She knelt down quickly ripping off his mask, Peter coughing as he turned on his side.
"Take it easy. What happened to you?" Rhea helped him up and guiding him over to some monkey bars nearby to sit down. He glanced from Tony to Rhea as he told his story, wondering who the girl was having never met her before.
"Oh, hey. And then he just, like, swooped down like a monster…and picked me up, and took me up like a thousand feet and just dropped me." Peter replied glancing from Rhea to Iron Man. "How'd you find me? Did you put a tracker in my suit?"
"I put everything in your suit." Tony replied through his suit.
"Including this heater." Rhea commented snapping her fingers which signaled Al to activate the heaters in Peter's suit. "That better?"
"Thanks." Peter replied as steam rose from his suit.
"What were you thinking?" Tony asked.
"The guy with wings is the source of the weapons. I gotta take him down. Take him down now, huh?" Peter looked to him for approval.
"Crockett, there are people who handle this son of thing." Tony told him.
"The Avengers?" Peter guessed.
"No." Tony replied. "This is a little below their pay grade."
"Mr. Stark, you didn't have to come out here." Peter said confidently. "I had that. I was fine."
"Oh, I'm not here." Tony's suit opened up to reveal it was empty inside. "Thank God this place has Wi-Fi or you would be toast right now." Tony commented before his attention was taken for a moment. "Thank Ganesh while you're at it. Cheers." He returned to Peter's problem. "Look, forget the flying vulture guy, please."
"Why?" Peter asked.
"Why?" Tony echoed. "Because I said so!"
Rhea spoke along with him having heard that as a way of an answer many times before and gained a look from him through the suit.
"It's creepy that I can feel the look through the suit." Rhea took a step back holding up her hands in surrender.
"Sorry, I'm talking to a teenagers." Tony said in exasperation. "Stay close to the ground. Build up your game helping little people, like that lady that bought you the churro. Can't you just be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?"
"But I'm ready for more than that now." Peter argued.
"No, you're not." Tony told him.
"That's not what you thought when I took on Captain America." Peter pointed out, Rhea frowning sadly, missing her separated family.
"Trust me, kid. If Cap wanted to lay you out, he would've." Tony shut him down. "Listen to me. If you come across these weapons again, call Happy."
"Are you driving?" Peter asked, but was ignored.
"You know, it's never too early to start thinking about college. I got some pull at MIT." Tony commented. "Rhea, head home and go to bed, no late night lab."
"Oh come one, I had a break through." Rhea whined.
"End call." Tony said and the call cut.
"Grandpa…" Rhea whined.
"No, I don't need to go to…" Peter tried.
"Mr. Stark is no longer connected." The suit said before flying off.
"That's awesome. "Stay close to the ground"? What is he talking about?" Peter grumbled while Rhea was lamenting her lab denial, Peter's phone rang, Ned's face lighting up the caller ID.
"Hey, what's up? I'm on my way back." Peter told Ned.
"Actually, I was calling to say maybe you shouldn't come. Listen." Ned held out the phone and party chanting could be heard over the phone.
"When I say "penis," you say "Parker." - Penis! - Parker! - Penis! - Parker!" Flash called out and the crowd answered.
"Sorry, Peter. I guess we're still losers." Ned lamented. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll see you tomorrow in school." Peter frowned ending the call.
"Wow that sucks." Rhea commented making Peter jump, having forgotten she was there.
"Sorry, who are you?" Peter asked eyeing the girl.
"Hex." She replied.
"Are you taking Mr. Starks internship to?" Peter asked.
"Nah." Rhea decided to go with the truth as she removed her mask. "I'm his granddaughter Rhea."
"Oh…" Peter's eyes went wide.
Rhea pulled her hood back allowing her mid neck length black hair and bangs to fall free, the moon light catching the silver flecks in her green eyes, she had definitely inherited the Stark Family good looks in certain areas, but in others it was someone else's looks she had, her fathers he supposed. For instance her skin was pale peach instead of the more tanned look that Mr. Stark and Vanessa Stark had, she was also on the tall side, and her facial structure was sharp in an attractive way.
No one really knew anything about her outside of that she was Vanessa Stark's daughter and therefore Tony Stark's granddaughter. There was no clue as to who her father was or when Vanessa had ever been in a relationship that would have resulted in her daughter. A lot of nasty rumors went around for a brief time, but Tony had put a quick stop to them.
"Nice to meet you Peter." Rhea held out her hand to him.
"You…you to." Peter stumbled to shake her hand.
"Now about this party situation..." Rhea placed her arms behind her back. "I wouldn't mind checking it out."
"You mean you want to go to the party?! What about what Mr. Stark said?" Peter asked, brows shooting up.
"A little rebellion every once in a while isn't going to make me go all dark side." Rhea shrugged as she came over to stand next to him taking note that he was a bit shorter than her, Rhea being about '5,10' and Peter was around '5,8' is she was guessing, but she found it very cute. "Plus that guy making fun of you sounded like a real douche."
"Are you sure?" Peter asked getting excited.
"Yeah, it'll be fun." Rhea nodded. "Where is it?"
"The suburbs…" Peter rattled off the address.
"Sweet, not too far." Rhea nodded.
"It's on the other side of town." Peter pointed out, but Rhea activated her boots hovering in the air.
"Just hold on." Rhea placed her mask back on her face. Peter slipped his mask back on as she flew over to him wrapping an arm around his waist and he wrapped his hesitantly around her shoulders. "And brace yourself."
She took off into the air suddenly causing Peter to yell out at first in surprise at the sudden movement then excitement. He found that the view was amazing now that he wasn't having to worry about the giant bird man killing him. The stars were easier to see from their altitude and the moon was so bright. When he looked down he saw the cityscape which reminded him of a bunch of Christmas decorations and straight down were homes and cars that looked like toys to him.
"This is so cool!" Peter called out.
"It is, I love to fly." Rhea smiled as she spun them around and did a few loop to loops. Peter had almost forgotten about their destination during the exhilarating flight, and was kind of said when it wasn't too long before they were on the roof of Liz's house where Peter had left his clothes.
"Can we do that again some time?" Peter asked as he quickly slipped his clothes over his uniform glancing over to Rhea.
"Sure, why not?" Rhea nodded taking of her mask once again and shaking her hair out. Peter gave her the details of the party as he got ready.
"Um...can you go in dressed like that or…?" Peter trailed off glancing at her uniform.
"Got it covered." Rhea snapped her finger changing her clothes.
She wore a maroon tank top that reached down to her thighs with a black gothic butterfly swarm graphic on the front over an off the shoulder long sleeved black lace shirt, a black leather half jacket, two loose hanging crisscrossing black braided belts, a pair of skinny jeans, a pair of knee high black boots, and a pair of teardrop garnet earrings set in black gold.
"Wow." Peter said in wonder. "You can really do magic? Or is it some sort of hologram?"
"Magic, straight up." Rhea replied as she motioned for him to follow her off of the roof and back to the front entrance.
"So you're a witch?" Peter asked.
"Sorceress." Rhea corrected.
"What's the difference?" Peter questioned and Rhea opened her mouth to answer, but stopped short.
"You know, I'm not sure." Rhea hummed out.
"How'd you get your powers?" Peter went on.
"A good magician never reveals her secrets." Rhea smirked before changing the subject. "Now this Liz girl seems important by the way you talked about her and this being her house. What am I working with here? A crush?"
"I…well…I…" Peter struggled, cheeks flushing.
"Crush it is." Rhea nodded, a little disappointed. Peter was very handsome and smart to boot, she liked that in a man. "Well let's go in there and see what we can do."
Peter walked up the front steps with her, a large jittery smile on his face as he knocked on the door which was opened by Liz who looked in confusion at Peter.
"Peter? What are you doing out here?" Liz asked.
"Oh well I just…I brought a…a friend to your party." He quickly cleared his throat. "I hope that's ok."
"Oh my gosh, you're Rhea Stark." Liz's eyes widened.
"Yeah, that's me." Rhea nodded. She hated that on earth she could not use her surname Lokisdaughter, but it was necessary. "Spidey couldn't make it, Avenger business and all, so I said I'd fill in for him. Plus Peter is one of my best friends and I couldn't leave him hanging. Hope that's ok."
"Yeah, totally. Please come in." Liz nodded and stood out of the way gesturing for them to come in.
"When I say "penis," you say "Parker." - Penis! - Parker! - Penis! – Parker." Flash was still at it as they walked inside.
"Wow, is he still on that? Obsession much." Rhea muttered then looked to Liz. "Is that moron your DJ?"
"Yeah…" Liz glanced in embarrassment toward Peter. "Sorry Peter."
"It's fine." Peter assured her weakly.
"What a douche." Rhea said and started to make her way through the crowd. "Be right back."
"Where's she going?" Liz asked Peter.
"I don't know." Peter shook his head.
"AL, hack his DJ systems for me and turn it off." Rhea smiled as Flash's gear came to a sudden stop causing a lot of disappointment. Rhea leapt up onto the stage and leaning against Flash's system as he tried to get it back up and running. "You know you're not doing that right?"
"And what would you know about?" Flash snapped at her.
"Quite a lot actually." Rhea mocked him as he along with the rest of the crowd recognized her.
"Rhea Stark." Flash's jaw dropped.
"One and only." Rhea turned to the crowd. "Now as I understand it Peter said Spiderman was coming tonight, but as you know the life of a hero leaves very little in the way of down time. He sends his regrets to you all."
"You mean Penis Parker really does know Spiderman?" Flash said in disdain.
"Him and many of the other Avengers, yes." Rhea nodded. "And please stop using Penis as a derogatory term, it is a piece of male anatomy and not a very intelligent insult."
"I just call it like I see it." Flash said smugly.
"If I wanted to kill myself I would climb to the top of your ego and jump to your IQ." Rhea rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"What?" Flash's brows furrowed.
"I just called you an idiot Eugene." Rhea sighed.
"Hey!" Flash snapped. "My names Flash now, no Eugene." He tried to be menacing as he pointed at her. "And you better remember that."
"Oh I'll remember it." Rhea nodded sarcastically. "That's all I'm going to do the rest of my life is go around remembering the nick name you made up for yourself."
"Are you trying to be smart with me?" He growled. "Do you know who my family is?"
"I know them, but I know you know my family as well, so what's your point?" Rhea crossed her arms.
"Whatever! Good luck having a party without a DJ, I'm blowing the boring burg." Flash jumped off the stage and left, a few of his crony's reluctantly going with him.
"Wonderful, now…" Rhea clapped her hands together, not at all bothered by his leaving while everyone else just starred in shock at the turn of events. "How about we really get this party going?"
Rhea took over the DJ stand, plugging in AL through her phone into the system. Rhea pulled out her Fall Put Boy Light Em' Up Dubstep. She was a fan of theirs amongst many other artist covering an ocean of various genres. Moving her fingers along the key board and bringing up a holo-turntable from her phone curtesy of Al she was able to really get the party rocking.
She jumped and danced with the crowd as she worked the DJ stand. She smiled out over the crowd taking it all in. It was amazing to be out amongst kids her own age outside of Asgard and Shuri. It was not that she liked them any less, it was just when she was on earth she always felt separated from them somehow.
She put AL on Dj mode after a few songs wanting to mingle a bit herself not having a lot of contact with kids her age. She danced with the crowd which consisted mostly of just jumping up and down to the beat of the songs, happy to see Peter and Liz talking together. She stopped to dance a few songs with Ned who was absolutely awesome in her book.
"I'm just saying Han was a smuggler, out for his own good." Rhea called out to Ned over the music. "I would not put it past him to have shot first."
"No way, Greedo totally took the first shot." Ned denied. "Lucas always said that that was how he intended the scene to go from the beginning."
"Not according to the earlier draft scripts." Rhea pointed out. They went back and forth with this debate for a bit longer before going their separate ways. Rhea slipped into the kitchen grabbing a bottle of water and chugging it down.
"So you're Stark's grandkid huh?" A girl addressed her. She was a lovely young lady with curly dark brown hair, was on the taller side much like Rhea, and had intelligent brown eyes.
"Yep." Rhea nodded eyeing the girl, then held out her hand with a smile. "Name's Rhea."
"Michelle." Michelle shook her hand. "You came here to bail out Parker."
"Yeah, when Spidey couldn't show I said I'd step in." Rhea shrugged. "Might not be a hero and only famous by family association, but I seem to be doing the trick." Rhea smiled for a few pictures holding up a peace sign. Rhea looked to the book in Michelle's hand, nodding to it in interest. "What are you reading?"
"Of Human Bondage." Michelle replied dryly.
"Never read it, what's it about?" Rhea asked leaning against the counter. Michelle looked at her searchingly for a moment to see if she was serious and when satisfied went into a brief summary of the book. Rhea took out her phone bringing the book up and downloading it right away. "Sounds good."
"You're going to read it?" Michelle looked surprised.
"Yeah, seems interesting." Rhea shrugged. "Have you ever read 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'?"
"It's a classic." Michelle nodded and for a time they set discussing the book merits, both positive and negative. She had just returned to the DJ stand when she felt her phone vibrating.
"Uh oh." Rhea read the caller ID. "Think I can get away with not answering AL?"
"Not really doll, he'll just hack your phone to answer or send one of his suits after you." AL replied.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Rhea sighed stepping out onto the back porch. "If I acted like I just woke up would you believe me?"
"You had better have a very good reason for not being home." Tony said lowly.
"I really do." Rhea related what she overheard over Peter's phone call. "So I had to come and plus I met some really nice people here, it's nice to be around kids my own age."
"It's great you stood up for Peter, but you're still grounded." Tony said sternly.
"I understand and accept these conditions." Rhea nodded. "As soon as the party is over I will confine myself to my room."
"I actually meant you need to go home now." Tony sighed.
"Going through a tunnel, I'll be out of it around twelve when Aunt May come to pick up Peter and his friend." Rhea replied.
"Fine, but that grounding is going to have strict non-fun guidelines." Tony told her.
"Got it." Rhea smiled knowing that Tony wouldn't be able to keep up with her punishment, he never could before.
"Don't think this is an empty threat, I'm bringing in the big guns." Tony warned her.
"You wouldn't…." Rhea gasped.
"That's right, I'm telling Pepper." Tony said smugly.
"You tell Pepper and I'll tell her about the jello pool." Rhea shot back.
"That's cold." Tony said lowly.
"All's fair." Rhea grinned. "But I'm willing to deal, how's one week?"
"Fine." Tony agreed. "Get home safe."
"Will do." Rhea hung up and headed back into the party.