A/N - yes, I know, I'm not giving you much time to catch up, but I'm in a MOOD and I can, so ... happy day to me. off we go.

Chapter 137- "Grandpa Tony"

Tony took the quickest route to Genosha that was available to him, utilizing a new booster that was scary fast - but progress was progress. The suit would just need a few adjustments to take it that fast again … for so long. When he got to Genosha, it was just a little after Tommy's classes were out for the day, which worked well for meeting up with Vision at least.

But Vision had managed to talk Tommy into coming to meet Tony, if only because it was Tony and he was curious why he was coming all that way.

"New boosters?" Tommy asked, grinning. "You got some serious speed over the horizon."

"Always tweaking it," Tony agreed, still getting his feet under himself.

"Not as fast as me, but you're getting closer."

Vision sighed and shook his head. "He's far faster than you at the moment."

"Yeah, and I'm going out of my mind." Tommy rolled his eyes and his whole body toward Tony. "Did you know my brain still works just as fast as usual even when I can't run? This is genuine torture."

"That doesn't surprise me, to be totally honest," Tony answered. "What's your brain going that fast for anyhow? Anything interesting or just basics?"

"Gotta do some quick calculations on the fly, you know? Don't want to break surfaces I'm running on or hit something too hard - speed transfers into force, that kind of thing."

Tony nodded. "Didn't realize you were running those calculations. Looked more like an intuitive thing."

"It is a little bit?" Tommy admitted. "But after I got my powers, Dad showed me the physics of it, so I spent sixth grade figuring that out. It helped a lot once I understood what my body was doing."

"Huh," Tony said, then took a few steps to throw his arm around Tommy's shoulders. "That's quite the lead in. What are you doing, anyhow?"

"Ugh. School. At normal speed. It's driving me nuts, because I could read the whole dang textbook in a night if Mom would let me."

"Point of order - why won't she let you clep out of some of the classes?"

Tommy shrugged. "She thinks it'll be good for me to hang out with other mutants and try to be normal - sort of like sending us to Westchester, right?"

"You can do that and still get a degree faster than the average bear."

"Yeah, well… Mom's got a spell on me. I can't use my powers without her say-so."

"Who said anything about powers? You just pointed out some higher level applied physics. Why can't you do that?"

"I dunno. I just signed up for a bunch of general classes; I didn't know what to major in."

"I'd say physics would be a good place to start."

"Yeah, maybe." Tommy perked up a bit. "Did Dad ask you to advise me or something? Because I have actually been thinking about math or physics. Or both."

Tony shrugged one shoulder. "Kind of. Not … listen. You and your brother have been calling yourselves my grandkids - if you're gonna do that, you're going to need to step it up."

"I mean, I have a limited number of hours in the day, Grandpa Tony."

"Yeah? How are you spending those hours?" Tony had one eyebrow raised - and Tommy could see he knew exactly what had been going on.

Tommy grinned crookedly. "Just playing around, you know? Billy's already engaged in every way except officially, there's a baby on the way - I'm actually acting my age, and everyone thinks that's insane!"

"Newsflash - Nate and Kate were acting their age, too," Tony said. "You're on the fast track for the wrong things."

"Ugh, grandpa, I'm using protection, I promise."

"Yeah, pretty sure Nate and Kate can tell you the same story. Can we not have this conversation that I know your Dad already went through? Thoroughly?"

"That would be great; I'm getting the same lecture on repeat."

"Not from me," Tony said. "I'm just here to point out that if you can't do whatever you are trying to do on your downtime and nail down at least two higher level degrees at the same time, you are slacking."

"Okay, laying down a challenge. That's kinda fun." Tommy grinned. "You're totally right."

"Good talk," Tony said before he gave Tommy a little shake since he still had one arm around his shoulders. "If you need a tutor, I'm sure your future brother in law can spare five minutes." He smirked. "In … whatever you're trying to do in your spare time, too."

"Augh. That's a hard no," Tommy said, doing a full-body shiver.

"Hey. He managed to avoid the press while he was acting like you are."

"Yeah, no way. I've heard all about Saint James from Billy, first of all, and second of all, he tried to murder me."

"Your sources don't know everything," Tony said. "And I'm pretty sure - I can't believe I'm going to say this, but - if he was trying to murder you, you'd be dead."

"There were witnesses and my brother stepped in."

"Yeah, but I've seen the aftermath when he's tried to beat someone to death. You're doing okay."

"Still gonna avoid him like the plague, thanks," Tommy said. "Besides, I don't need his tutoring. I do not have a problem finding company, and math? I get math. Always have. Inherited that from Dad."

"Sure, sure," Tony said, smirking now that he had a spot to poke at. "Still. You're behind."

"Ugh, fine. But that means I have to actually take the generals, and I hate that."

"I'll send you some statistics for motivation," Tony said, smiling earnestly now.

"Actually, can you send some trig? I fell asleep and reading the textbook the slow way is-"

"Oh, you were talking about math. Pretty sure your Dad's your best resource for that."

"Gimmie the other statistics."

"If you're feeling competitive, you're already way behind."

"I'm always competitive," Tommy said. He grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "See? I knew you'd be on my side."

"Careful what you wish for, kiddo," Tony said in a laugh.

Tommy grinned wider. "Okay, so. I actually have a hot date tonight, and if I'm going to do freaking homework, I have to- ugh - whatever, I'll do it. Bye, Grandpa Tony!" he called out and rushed off - and Tony could hear him swearing because he was going so slowly (even though he was a genuinely fast sprinter without the powers).

Still, Tony waited until he was out of earshot before he turned to Vision. "No, I'm not going to send him a list of girls I dated at his age."

"I think you've made things worse in that regard," Vision said, shaking his head as he came level with Tony.

Tony smirked crookedly. "Just wait."

"I suppose I'll have to trust you, seeing as you actually convinced him to get his degrees."

"If he sticks to it, you mean."

"Surprisingly enough, he might," Vision said. "Once he realized it could help him, he dove into mathematics when he was younger. And as I told you, he does look up to you."

"Yeah, I mentioned how that doesn't add up, right?"

"I think when your father is an android, familial connections will be, by their nature, unnatural."

"It's the titles that throw me," Tony admitted. "I do want to see him excel, though. I think he's got a shot if he can keep his head on right."

"It's that second part that worries me. He's so convinced that chasing pleasure is the same as being happy, but he's been … different since he and Mia broke things off."

"If it makes you feel any better at all, that was never my goal at his age," Tony admitted.

"I know. I tried to tell him your history - but he ignores evidence he disagrees with. As teenagers do."

"He'll come around. He's probably half terrified and just running."

"Wanda said the same thing," Vision admitted.

"Then you know it's right," Tony said with a laugh.

"I just don't want him hurt while he runs," Vision said. "Some of these children are too tied in with the acolytes who followed his other grandfather for comfort, but he won't hear it - says that it's not dangerous when there is no commitment."

"Oh, yeah, that's gonna bite him in the ass."

"You'd know, wouldn't you?"

"Too well."

Vision stopped and put a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Well, thank you for coming to my aid."

"Anytime," Tony said with a little smirk. "Now … I need to find the rest of them and deal with a few other things. Teenagers. Like wrangling cats."

"So I've heard," Vision said. "Before you leave - I know Natasha stopped by the Summers house. If you wanted to talk to her as well, I think they were on the trail of something that will require your team sooner or later."

"I don't know if I want to talk to her or not, but it sounds like I should."

Vision chuckled. "Good luck."

"Thanks, Viz. Give Wanda a kiss for me, would you?" He already had his phone out, texting Natasha to find out if the matter at hand was pressing enough to meet up now.

"I will. And tell Jan I look forward to her next movie recommendation."

"She'll have a whole crate flown out next time," Tony replied.

"I'm sure she will. I look forward to it," Vision laughed as he floated away.

Tony took his time, pacing a slow path as he waited for Natasha to spit out whatever it was that was bothering her. He wasn't sure what the protocol was this month in keeping the Summers family safe on Genosha and he wasn't about to be the one to screw that up.

I'll find you. Scott flagged something in SHIELD's intel, and I don't like it. Won't talk over text. See you in five.

Tony shoved his hands in his pockets and found a likely corner to lean against while he waited, knowing that Natasha probably had a tracker in his phone or something.

Sure enough, five minutes later, Natasha walked up to him, her eyes narrowed and her mouth pressed into a line in a way that told Tony immediately that this was going to require his attention. "Nick has taken a very close interest in a prisoner in the Cube," she told him.

Tony frowned deeply at that as he gave her his full attention. "The Cube. Why?"

"A Kree craft apparently crashed and was salvaged by a civilian billionaire who screwed the whole thing up, and caused a lot of damage - both structural and civilian. The sole Kree survivor declared war on the planet, trashed a reasonably large path through a few cities on the east coast, and was eventually captured by SHIELD." She paused and turned toward him with a mild look of concentration. "You remember that burnt-in graffiti and overturned cars out on Long Island a while back?"

"Yeah. Who is it?" Tony asked as he fell into step with her, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"That's the interesting part," Natasha said, one eyebrow raised pointedly. "The Kree isn't from this dimension, as far as I can tell. I don't know what he's capable of - Nick changed his code two days ago and I only broke it this morning - but the one thing I've been able to find is a reference to healing."

Tony stopped in his tracks and turned toward her fully. "Why is that something on his wish list?"

"I think you know, Tony," Natasha said darkly.

"Yeah, that's not happening," Tony said. "I've got it." He was glaring at nothing in particular as he checked his watch. "Who's the creep paying the bills on this one?"

"Right now, it looks like the Cube's warden is overly interested - but that's possibly because of the higher-up interest. They took apart his ship for study; that's gone to SWORD. Brand lost her temper in official communication because it looks like they wrecked it beyond repair in taking it apart for intel."

Tony shifted how he was pacing with his hands on his hips as he thought it over for all of two seconds after Natasha finished speaking. "You got anything planned tonight?" He tipped his chin up. "I can have a suit here for you that won't show up on any radar in about five minutes."

Natasha smiled crookedly. "For something like this? I'm always free."

"Great. Why don't you call Clint and tell him to bring take out to Jan with the kids. I guess my other business will have to wait until this is evened out."

"Great." Natasha texted Clint quickly and then glanced up at Tony. "James and Billy are due in the tower. I'm sure they'll find something else to do while they wait."

"And they can stay there. We'll catch up. I'll tell my kid to stay put," Tony said, already texting James for exactly that - and coming up with a couple of great one liners in response that went with James' all caps 'why'. "You taught him to be suspicious," Tony accused as his armor encased him and Natasha's appeared on the horizon.

"And I'm so very proud," Natasha said, staying still so the armor could wrap around her.

"This doesn't seem fair," Tony said. "Think we should invite Viz? He never gets out to play anymore."

Natasha couldn't help but smile, because she knew that Vision had intended to reach out to Tony. "Of course, Grandpa Tony."

Tony smirked in response. "So I suppose you haven't heard little Parker call you Granny Widow yet, huh?"

She swore in Russian.

"Like a Black Widow, but … you know … with more knitting. And cookies."

"In that case, aren't you about nineteen years behind on pulling quarters from ears?"

"I pull jet packs, old lady," Tony countered as he texted Vision to join them in a rescue and destroy mission.

"Right, right, back in your day and all that."

"Which was still about sixty years after your day."

"Tony," she said in a tone of voice that still, to this day, made him wince, "do you enjoy having what little remaining hair you have?"

"I've still got it all," Tony laughed. "It's just going gray from you talking to me like that."

"Shame."

"Don't care what you say. Jan likes it." He was smiling under his faceplate, then took off, just to make sure Natasha had to catch up.

Natasha rolled her eyes but took off after him - and Vision met them in the sky, looking bewildered but pleased all the same.

"Patch in, junior, Granny Nat's about to get us both up to speed on the way," Tony said - purely to rile her.

"Granny Nat's about to contaminate your shampoo and see what you look like bald," Natasha said. "And I'm in a good mood."

"Save it for the idiots trying to go after my kid. Again."

"What's going on?" Vision asked, instantly concerned as well.

"He's fine, probably doesn't know what's going on - unless he's broken into my system again," Tony said, then looked to Natasha to let her take the lead in filling Vision in.

In the short time it took to get to the Cube, Natasha filled Vision in on what was happening - along with a few details that Tony didn't yet know. Like the preliminary findings on the Kree ship that seemed to operate at the same wavelength that telepaths did - but as its thrust. Or the fact that the man who had shot down the ship in the first place was a known lunatic and collector of aliens. Or the fact that the sole survivor was likely one of the younger officers, considering the swear words they were using for their graffiti.

"Alright, I'm knocking, who's going in the back?" Tony asked as he started an arc that would let him dive in at full speed to blow a hole in the place. "You said the guy can heal, so I'm not going to try and minimize too much damage."

"I'll go the back way," Vision said, and Natasha immediately agreed.

"I'd like a look at their servers if you two can keep their attention off of me."

"Taking the easy job, are we?" Vision teased.

"Always."

With a word of warning, Tony took his approach at speed only to fly straight up when he began to pass by his own munitions. The extra boost did make them hit just a bit harder, but they barely had to kick in the boosters to meet their targets - and blew apart an entire corner of the cube.

It was the perfect way to draw fire and give Natasha and Vision a chance to get their hands dirty, too. But that also meant the timer was ticking, and knowing that the Cube was a priority, Tony reached out to James in a call to ask him for a favor. "I need you to get online and shut down SHIELD's response," Tony said even before he said hello.

There was a short pause as James processed what he was saying, then Tony could hear movement. "How complete of a shut down do you want?" James asked.

"Don't drop the helicarriers, but otherwise …"

"Consider it done," James said with a laugh. "Okay, fly safe, no idea what's up but … love you too!"

Which left Tony laughing to himself, knowing that James was going to get SHIELD off their backs before they could properly react. And that left Tony far less worried about covering his back while he did what he liked to do best - blow things up.

Once the guards were down, the warden proved himself a coward and ran through a back entrance in his office. Natasha pointed at him wordlessly, and Vision snagged him before he could leave.

"Get the files; I'll deal with this one," Natasha told Vision, grabbing the warden by the collar to drag him away from witnesses - though she didn't get far into the back hall before she realized this entrance wasn't an escape. It was the hall opening up to three hidden cells, one of which was occupied.

"Found the Kree, but I'm in the middle of an interrogation," Natasha said into her comm.

"You have a tag in your left wrist," Tony told her. "Point and shoot. Armor will wrap him up and yank him."

"Perfect," Natasha said - though she had to frown when she saw that the prisoner didn't seem to react at all to the armor. Which, of course, only made her more determined to demand answers from the Warden.

Ten minutes later, she came to join the other two as they finished up what they were doing. Her eyebrows were knit together, and she came to stand by Tony. "They're halfway through the process, so it's not as bad as it could be. But they were working on complete control." She gave him a sharp look. "I don't think it can be fully replicated, but it would be a good starting point to control others."

"Yeah, that's …" Tony sighed heavily. "Did you destroy the research?"

"Of course I did, Tony; I'm not senile."

"Then if I get a vote, we call Rachel next." Tony gave her a look. "What's that her dad says? Can't kill an idea? But you can sure as hell delete it."

"That's absolutely our next call," she agreed instantly. "And I'll need to talk to Nate as well. One can work on deleting the idea, but the other needs to help with our little rescue. The warden destroyed the part of his mind that houses his purpose; he has no direction, and if that can be replicated, SHIELD would have receptacles for orders."

Tony held up one hand and called both kids. "How are my favorite vengeful telepaths today?" Tony asked, then launched right into what was happening. "I have two jobs and there are two of you, obviously you can say no, but seeing as this is likely a family centric issue, I'm going to both of you first. Who wants to delete a horrible mind control idea from a few … dozen dirty SHIELD scientists, and who wants to help with what could be a potentially highly dangerous already mind controlled Kree kid?"

"I'll take the Kree," Nate said before Rachel could speak up. "Not tempting the fire bird with a mindless Kree."

"Great. Go get some armor, Rach. Jan or James can help you. Nat will catch you when you get here."

"That sounds way slow," Rachel said. "Just tell me where to go and I'll see you in a few."

"Dimension hopping girlfriend," Natasha said to Tony. "I thought you could keep up?"

"Sure. Nate - we're headed to the tower. Meet you there," Tony said, then turned toward Vision. "Are you staying? Going home? Going back to Genosha?"

For just the slightest moment, Vision couldn't hide his smile. "I think I'll go back to Genosha; Tommy is forever in need of a chaperone."

"Wait until he gets my files," Tony laughed.

"I'm still not sure that was at all helpful, but I trust you."

Natasha smirked as she watched Vision leave - and then broke into a genuine laugh when she saw James's good work - a bunch of SHIELD drones and transports all frozen in the air. "Your brother is amazing," she called to Rachel when she and America stepped through a star portal.

"What did he do now?" Rachel asked, then looked to where Natasha had been facing. "Oh. yeah, he's been wanting to use that for a while now. Their weapons systems are all locked too."

"I thought he might have something up his sleeves," Natasha said.

"It's SHIELD. He's got more than that. This is an opener," America chuckled.

"I'm sure that's right," Natasha said. "I have a whole section of scientists who have come up with a semi-complete mind control device. In use on a healer. Enjoy."

Rachel's hair lifted from her shoulders with a bit of fire flickering at the edges - she was getting better at harnessing the Phoenix when she called on it. "Oh, I will enjoy it," she promised in a tone that was mostly her own.

Natasha turned on her heel to America. "Want to see the nastiest creep this side of the pacific? He still was being stupid about a few answers if you want to play around, too."

"Aww, you shouldn't have," America said and blew a kiss to Natasha before she headed down the hall - and the warden screamed a few times before America emerged again, smirking to herself. "He's been reporting to Maria Hill before Nick Fury."

"She's on the list already," Natasha said.

"Yeah, but it's fun to know there's some power plays, huh?"

"It is," Natasha agreed. "But that isn't my list of people to hit."

"Fair." America wiped her hands off on part of a uniform shirt she had ripped off of someone else so she wouldn't get her jeans jacket dirty. "Oh, and the kid's sixteen. The Terran-to-Kree year conversion is fun, but that's what it shakes out to be in Terran years."

"He looked young," Natasha said with a frown.

America nodded. "I don't think SHIELD knows he was that young; Brand wasn't helping with some of their questions."

"SHIELD doesn't care about age," Natasha said dryly.

"Not in the normal sense. But age can also tell them how vulnerable someone is."

"I should introduce you to the man in charge of training kids for SHIELD's distraction operations," Natasha said. "He just requires they be old enough to act."

"Mia's feeling better lately; I've got more time and my girlfriend is a workaholic. Sounds like fun."

"It'll be in your inbox before breakfast," Natasha replied.

"Perfect."