I'm gonna try and update Ripples sometime tomorrow. Happy New Year, everyone!~

Chapter Twelve - Cats, Part Three

I managed to finish the cake and dinner well before Tony was done. Unfortunately, it left a bit of a mess.

I probably should have realized that Tony would have adjusted his electronic mixer, but for some reason it didn't occur to me. So yeah.

Mess.

I finished up the frosting and put the cake into the fridge before finishing up dinner and returning to cleaning up.

"I can't tell if that's impressive or lazy," a voice said, and I shrieked and dropped the flour I had magically picked up off the floor. The dishes I had that were scrubbing themselves dropped back into the sink (luckily nothing broke).

"Impressive," I coughed, pulling any flour off myself and off the floor, floating it into a ball in the air. The dishes started up again. "It still requires skill, and you can burn through a lot of calories using magic. I've found that casually using magic tends to strengthen it, too."

Tony nodded. "So, what's the occasion?" he asked, looking at the baking tools. "We could've just ordered takeout or something."

I raised an eyebrow, and pushed the ball of flour into the trashcan. "You've made a new element. It's a celebration."

"You aren't saying a spell," he pointed out.

I nodded. "Spells…spells focus the energy. In order to do some things in particular, you'll need incantations. The longer the incantation is, the more powerful it generally is. For instance, take Lucy and Cana."

"What about them?" Tony asked.

"Their Primary Magics are both Holder Magics," I said, serving spaghetti on two plates and moving towards the table so we could eat. "But remember what I said earlier?"

"That de-arming Holder Mages usually make them useless, unless they know more?"

I nodded. "Cana and Lucy both have a form of Caster Magic for their Secondary Magic. Cana's is called Fairy Glitter, and it's one of the Three Great Fairy Spells, designed by the founder of our guild. They can only be cast by guildmates, and they all have a specific amount of requirements to fulfill in order to cast them."

"What do they do?" Tony asked, taking a bite of his noodles and smiling. "These are good, thanks."

"There's Fairy Law, Fairy Sphere, and Fairy Glitter. Fairy Law and Fairy Glitter are both similar in that it takes down enemies, but Fairy Law is the stronger of the two. Fairy Glitter will put a group down for the count, but Fairy Law will take out your enemy. Aging them decades, killing them instantly; it changes. And because it has such a bad consequence on the targets, Fairy Law also has a bad rebound on the users; the more people they catch in the spell, the more it will drain their lifespan."

"Jeez," Tony muttered.

"Yeah. In either way, you need to consider them your enemies, all the way down to your heart, or otherwise it won't work. Even if you just think they're your enemies, in a burst of anger or so, they won't actually work."

"Okay," Tony said. "And what about Fairy Sphere?"

"It's a defensive spell," I said. "It can't be cast by one person, but rather a group of people at once, and it's generated specifically through the feelings and emotions you have related with the other people in the group."

"What, like the power of friends makes me stronger?" Tony joked.

"Yes, actually," I admitted. "And I have a few theories on that, both philosophical and scientific, so we can go over that later if you want. Anyway; long spells are generally very powerful. Fairy Law is one of the few exceptions to this, because it takes directly from the Castor. Spells like these barely have any words at all. There's also a set of spells called the Amaterasu Formula. These spells cause insanity in the castor and are a very dark and powerful magic. Not fun getting hit by one of them, either."

I shivered, before continuing.

"They number from 1 to 100; the higher the number, the more powerful the spell."

"What were you hit with?" Tony asked.

I paused mid-bite. "Formula 10. I was thirteen. Not the best months of my life, I'll admit."

"Months?" Tony asked.

"Months," I agreed. "My own personal Afghanistan."

I felt Tony freeze. "Thirteen?"

"Thirteen," I said, eating my last piece of spaghetti and cleaning up my dishes. "But let's move on to happier topics, alright?"

I went over to the fridge and opened the door, pulling out the cake and carrying it to the island.

"Cake?" Tony asked, perking up.

"Cake," I nodded, setting it down in front of him.

His head tilted as he read it aloud. "Congratulations! On your newfound communication skills!" He looked up. "I thought we were celebrating the new element."

"We are," I said, grabbing his dirty plate and putting it in the sink. "But JARVIS mentioned that we could give leftovers to Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. And they're not going to know about the element until after your 'miraculous' recovery."

I took a knife from the counter and began to cut a slice. "This size good for you?"

He nodded, and I moved it onto a plate and passed it to him.

"You made this from scratch?" Tony asked, cutting off a piece.

I nodded, smiling. "How is it?"

His eyes went wide as he tasted it. "OHMAYGOHD!" He moaned, swallowing. "You are not allowed to leave. Ever."

I laughed. "That's good. I'm not the best at cooking (Natsu and Laxus are good at that, but they cheat with magic and I don't have the patience for cooking with fire), but when it comes to baking sweets…well, I can follow a recipe damn well. Because I love sweets. And if I can make them then I can eat them more. And I might also cheat a bit."

"You need to do this more often," Tony said, eating another piece. "JESUSIMINHEAVEN."

I smiled at him. "Ready for some more learning?"

He nodded, clearing his throat. "Yeah, but first, why is this so good?"

"A mix of ingredients and also magic," I admitted. "'Made with love' is a thing, actually. Though there is one girl who does particularly well with this type of magic, since it's related to emotions. You should taste her food. Anyway, since I use magic to prepare the cake, and magic is generally fused with emotions, it'll tend to taste good."

"That explains why your spaghetti tasted really good, too, even though it was normal spaghetti," Tony muttered. "I thought I was just hungry."

"To be fair, that might be it, too," I admitted. "Generally, the hungrier you are, the better something tastes."

Tony nodded, cutting another piece off his cake. "Back to magic, for now. Long spells are more advanced, generally; but ones that have a bad backlash on the caster don't. Any reason why?" He shoved the piece into his mouth when he was done.

I nodded. "Yeah. So, remember how I mentioned the 'magical container'?"

"Wh't ab't it?" he tried to speak through his full mouth.

"It's filled with something we generally call 'Ethernano'. That's what our magic runs on, and it naturally replenishes itself. But it's also in the air. Using the spell calls more Ethernano to you, which is one reason why longer spells are also stronger. Now, as I said before, Cana has Fairy Glitter. Lucy has one called Urano Metria."

"That sounds slightly familiar," Tony muttered after swallowing his cake with water.

"It is the name of the first known Star Atlas, sir," JARVIS announced.

"Huh," I muttered. "That explains a lot."

I looked up from the piece of cake I cut. "Then, there's something called 'Sacred Arts' – things that Slayers have. A specialized type of spell they need to build up more, and generally have a much more powerful outcome. They'll usually have a few different ones, and can even create their own."

"That's kinda cool," Tony muttered.

I nodded, taking a bite of my cake.

Okay. Yeah. Wow. That tasted good.

I missed corn sugar.

Shit, they're all going to go nuts over candy. I winced in my mind. Sorry, Lucy.

Well, at least Erza wasn't on Earth. They probably still had cake in space, but ever since Erza's had my cake, she's gone especially nuts over it (which is saying something because I didn't think she could go crazier over cake). And that's without corn sugar.

"Anyway," I said, taking a drink of water and hoping that half of them don't blow their cover over sugar. "There's one last important thing, I figure."

"Yeah?"

I nodded. "It's called a Unison Raid. Now, Unison Raids are generally considered difficult. The casters need to resonate on the same frequency and combine their magic, which is then doubled again. The easiest types of Unison Raids are Light, Water, and Sky (or Air or Wind)."

"What was that about frequencies?" Tony asked.

"Our magic is on a specific frequency," I explained. "Because of this, we're in tune with a lot of things in particular."

"Like what?"

"Well…one of the girls back home has a type of Music Magic. If she plays the right sort of song with her magic, she can enhance other people's magic. Generally, we're a very music orientated group. Singing and dancing and things like that."

"That's kinda cool," Tony muttered. "But it could also be pretty bad. There's probably a way to magic-proof things, then, as long as they learn how to block frequencies."

"Probably," I said, sighing. "In our older world, we just used Rune Walls that Freed would put down - that would stop certain things - but I guess we would have to worry about things differently now, considering the technology available here."

"We'll work on it later," Tony said, shrugging, before pushing his (now empty) plate back to me. "More please?" he begged.

I rolled my eyes and cut another slice. "Only because it's a special occasion and you already ate dinner."

"Yes, mom," Tony said.

"Good, son," I said, patting his head as I passed him for the fridge. I smiled at his incredulous look. "I told you. I adopted you. And since I'm 'never allowed to leave' as you put it, I guess you adopted me too."

He did tell JARVIS he was keeping me, after all. Tony ate another scope of cake and seemed to be thinking. "What about the west coast?" he asked, out of nowhere.

"For now we'll leave this coast to Pym," I said. "But New York is where we'll need to be. A lot of things like to target New York. I have no idea why anyone would want to live there."

He gave me a look. "We want to live there."

"I meant civilians," I said, rolling my eyes. "JARVIS, can I access the internet through this countertop?"

"Yes, Mrs. Dreyar."

"That's fucking awesome," I breathed, double tapping on the island and watching the screen activate.

"Why are you opening Chrome?" Tony asked, watching me.

"Why?" I asked. "Is it not the best right now?"

He shook his head.

I grimaced and opened Internet Explorer. "I have an unusual amount of hatred for Safari and Firefox, and no, I do not know why. Chrome should be getting an update sometime this year though, I think, and it'll be working best then."

"JARVIS?" Tony asked.

"They have a new release scheduled at the end of May," JARVIS intoned.

"Goodie!" I muttered, going through Google. "Chrome is the best."

I looked up at Tony. "Unless you want to create your own browser. I'm sure a Stark Internet Platform would be the best one."

"You're not sure?" Tony asked.

"You didn't exist in my original universe," I pointed out. "And Tony, you're the mechanic equivalent of 'everything you can do, I can do better', remember? Whatever you decide to make will end up better; you're the second smartest person alive."

He started. "Second? Second?" he leaned forward eagerly. "Who's the first?"

"You've gotta be patient~!" I sang.

"Ellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllle," Tony whined. "Do you know how hard it is to find people who can even slightly keep up with me intellectually? To be able to find someone smarter than me?"

I gave him a soft smile. "You'll meet her eventually. And you'll have Bruce and Betty to look forward to meeting. Also Jane."

He groaned. "Fine, I'll wait. Can I at least have a hint?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh My God, Tony. Fine. She doesn't have a last name."

"The…smartest person in the world…doesn't have a last name?" he asked, confused.

I nodded.

"Hmm," he muttered. "Is it like a hacker-code name?"

I sighed and shook my head. "Tony, you're going to drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out. She'll contact us eventually."

"She'll contact us?" Tony asked. "Why can't she do it now?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because we have things to do first."

He sagged. "Fine," he whined, pulling up a hologram of a self-cleaning litter box.

I sighed, going back to the screen in front of me. "JARVIS, can you show me Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey's schedules?"

"Why?" Tony asked.

"So you can tell them you were dying and we can discuss out a plan," I said, not looking at him. "Go back to your hologram."

He grumbled but did as I asked.

"Do you happen to know where Rhodey is?" I asked.

Rhodey was actually stationed close by, luckily, and Pepper had a free spot coming up soon.

"Alright. Tell Pepper and Happy to be here by 11:00 AM, tomorrow," I said.

"What?" Tony whined. "But that's so early."

"And tell Rhodey to go outside at 15 to 11," I continued, ignoring him. "There will be a ride waiting for him."

"There will?" Tony asked.

"Me," I answered. "Now, it's time for bed."