Chapter 2
Ever since her mother's death, Buffy had been walking around in a grief induced fog. Watching a family member head off to fight a battle that should have been hers broke her out of it. Tony might be wearing some sort of super armor, but she doubted that he had much experience dealing with creatures from the dark. Some of things she faced could do magic, and no suit of armor could protect him if they started slinging spells at him. She walked over to a potted plant near the front door, lifted the plant out with one hand, and pulled out a wooden stake with the other. She let the plant drop back into the pot as she locked eyes on Dawn. "No, you can't have one," she told her younger sister.
Dawn was about to protest, but she stayed silent after Giles made a shushing motion with his hand. He looked at the stake in Buffy's hand and arched an eyebrow. "Going out on patrol?" he inquired.
Buffy used the stake to point towards the industrial district of town. "Tony had some guy named Jarvis monitoring the police radio," she said. "Sunnydale's finest pulled out when they had another run in with a so called 'biker gang on PCP', which we all know is Sunnydale-ese for vampires," she stated. "I'm not letting Tony fight them alone. I'm the Slayer and I'll be damned before I let a family member fight my fights for me," she said stubbornly.
Giles nodded his head and Buffy thought she saw a flash of pride in his eyes as he said, "Yes, quite." He jerked his head towards the main part of town. "Off you go. The rest of us will keep an eye on Dawn in case Glory decides to attack," he assured Buffy. Buffy took in a deep breath and ran off as fast as her Slayer abilities would take her. After she was out of earshot, Giles smiled wryly. "At least we know which side of the family Buffy inherited her proclivity for rushing into danger head first from," he chuckled.
High above Sunnydale, Tony slowed down his approach as Jarvis scanned the area. "Pardon me, sir, but I'm afraid I have to perform a suit diagnoses," Jarvis apologized. "It will only be moment," he assured Tony as the AI took systems offline one at time to check their functioning. The only thing Tony noticed was a brief flicker of his HUD icons before a read out on the bottom verified everything was operating at normal levels.
"Jarvis, you did a full pre-flight check before we left Buffy's house," Tony reminded the AI. "What's going on?" he inquired.
There was a pause before Jarvis spoke, itself something of an anomaly. "I'm not exactly certain what is going on. I'm receiving conflicting inputs," Jarvis admitted.
Tony swung his feet under him so he could hover in place. "Now's not the time to go buggy on me, Jarvis," he chided. "Explain," he ordered.
A top down view of several large warehouses appeared in front of Tony. There were three red dots huddled together at the end of a blind alley. "This is a result of my infrared heat scan," Jarvis explained. "Here is a live video feed of the same area," Jarvis stated as another view was overlayed on top of the first. The three red dots looked like young women. The women were surrounded by 10-15 men. One of the men used a broken pipe to smash out a window near the women just to intimidate them. "The attackers are not registering any heat signatures," Jarvis pointed out.
"Stealth suits?" Tony offered, thinking of the most likely scenario. In answer to his idea, Jarvis zoomed in on one of the attackers. The man was wearing a business suit from the late 60's, complete with black and yellow checkered pants. "OK, not stealth suits," Tony conceded. "Oh well, I guess we'll figure it out after we mop the alley with the guys," he said cheerfully. He rotated at the waist and shot towards the ground.
The lead vampire smiled evilly at the three college students they had cornered. He figured they must have been transfer students to the school since anyone who grew up in Sunnydale knew you didn't wander the streets after dark. The vampire put on his game face and savored the screams the women graced him with. He reached over and grabbed one of the women by the throat and lifted her up as if she weighed nothing at all. "Scream again, it always wets my appetite," he ordered.
The vampire looked up when a voice above them boomed, "Put the woman down!" With a smirk, the vampire flicked his wrist, snapping the woman's neck. He tossed the dead body to his pack who descended on the body, ripping and tearing to get every last drop of blood out.
Tony only glanced at the dead woman for a moment before slamming into her murderer. The vampire was knocked back so hard, he dislodged several bricks in the building behind him. Tony was surprised when the attacker stood up and brushed dust off his clothes. The vampire braced his feet on the wall and launched himself at the metal intruder. Jarvis over-rode Tony's arm control and swung his right arm over to catch the "man" by the throat in mid-air. The vampire banged his hands on the metal arm impotently, unable to free himself.
Tony took over again and simply raised his arm, lifting the thing off of its feet. "Thing" was the only word he could come up with now that he got a good look at it. For the most part, it looked human, but its forehead was covered with several brow ridges. The thing had yellow eyes and long, sharp canines protruding out of its mouth. "Tony, I've noticed something strange about the attackers," Jarvis said, always the master of understatement.
"You mean other than they're not human?" Tony replied sarcastically.
"Yes," Jarvis stated. "The pressure sensors in your gauntlet are not registering a pulse. Also, I am not reading any signs of respiration except right before the creature spoke," it explained. On Tony's HUD several smaller images appeared. They were all close up shots of the attacking gang's necks. "Since we have landed, I have not detected a carotid pulse on anyone other than the women," Jarvis said.
The vampire started kicking Tony's armored legs in another attempt to break free from the iron grasp. Tony replied by punching the thing in the face with his free hand, stunning it for a moment. "What are you trying say, Jarvis?" he asked.
Again there was a slight pause as the AI double checked its facts. "That information combined with their lack of body heat leads me to conclude that the creatures attacking the women are not alive as we know it," Jarvis surmised.
"Huh," was all Tony could say as he mulled things over. While he was looking around the alley at the creatures, one of them snuck up behind him and tried to bite what it thought was a soft spot at the armor's neck joint. One of the vampire's fangs got stuck in the titanium mesh and was ripped out of the beast's mouth when Tony back-fisted him in the face. Tony spun around and flung the creature he was holding at his second attacker. The two vampires went down in a heap next to a large trash bin.
The vampire leader shoved his pack mate off him and snarled as he rose. He stepped behind the trash bin and shoved it with all of his vampire strength. The bin smashed into Iron Man and knocked him to the ground. The vampire looked on in horror as his opponent stood up, his armor not even dented. Iron Man picked up the trash bin and held it over his head. The vampire leader and his now one fanged friend turned and tried to run. The lopsided vampire managed to leap to a fire escape ledge two stories above them. His leader wasn't so fortunate. Iron man brought the bin down on him, cutting the vampire in two at the waist, and burying the bin into the street.
"You jerk!" the vampire hissed at Iron Man. Tony was surprised that the thing was still alive, let alone able to talk. "Do you know how long it's going to take to grow a new set of legs?!" the vampire whined.
Buffy stepped out of the shadows and stood over the vampire leader. "Is that one of those unanswerable questions like 'what is the sound of one hand clapping'?" she inquired sweetly. The vampire had time to open its eyes wide before Buffy slammed her stake through its heart. The vampire exploded into a cloud of dust.
Iron Man picked up the bin and tossed it aside so he could get a better look at his niece. "Buffy... what the hell are you doing here?!" he demanded.
Buffy shrugged her shoulders dismissively. "My job," she replied.
Tony turned around quickly as he heard the creatures hiss, "Slayer!" One of the vampires near the back put his fingers to his mouth and gave out loud, long whistle. Ten more vampires came running out from a side alley.
Buffy stepped towards her uncle and stood back to back with him as the vampires surrounded them. "We don't have time to argue," she told Tony. "These guys are real vampires," she said quickly. "Soulless, blood sucking, bastards," she added.
"Oh, you mean they're lawyers," Tony quipped.
Buffy chuckled. "Only the ones who work at wolfram and Hart," she replied. "The only way to kill these things is a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation, fire, or sunlight," she said quickly before an overly brave vampire rushed at her. Buffy took advantage of his sloppy attack to kick him in the groin. When the vampire dropped to its knees in agony, she mercifully staked him through the heart. His dust floated on the breeze towards the other vampires.
Tony scrolled through weapons menus and selected his incendiary missiles. Unfortunately, he only had two of them. He targeted two areas where the vampires were squeezed close together. Twin panels popped open on his shoulders and the micro-missiles shot from their launchers. A split second later, five vampires were engulfed in flames. Their screeches were so loud, Jarvis had to dial down the audio pick ups.
Buffy looked at the screaming, staggering bonfires and frowned. It wasn't that she had a problem with seeing a bunch of vamps die, she just really disliked guns or anything like them. "I thought you said your company doesn't make weapons anymore," she said coldly.
Tony shook his head. "No, I said 'our' company isn't in the weapons business anymore," he clarified. "I don't sell weapons," he said indignantly. "All the weapons I make I keep for myself," he stated.
Buffy spun around and staked a vampire that was trying to take advantage of finding the Slayer deep in conversation. She barely paid any attention to the cloud of the dust that settled around her arm. "Fine, but if you do sell any weapons, I'm kicking your ass," she warned her uncle.
Tony looked down at Buffy and nodded in understanding. The vampires were pulling together and closing the circle around them. Tony slowly turned his helmet around, looking at everything. "Wood through the heart?" he asked, making sure he heard Buffy correctly on how to kill a vampire.
Buffy spun her stake around in her hand. "Yep, old reliable," she replied. Tony took four large steps past the two co-eds who were still huddled on the ground. He smashed the wood fence blocking the alley with his fist. When he drew back his fist, he was holding a jagged, three foot long piece of wood. The co-eds took the opportunity and ran out through the hole Iron Man had created.
A small panel on Iron Man's left forearm opened and a small, pivoting tube popped out. A red laser lanced out of the tube and caught the end of the fence fragment on fire. "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing," he told Buffy.
"Yeah, that should work," Buffy told him. Tony kicked off the ground and shot into the pack of vampires, impaling three of them before coming to a stop.
The vampires, knowing they were between a Slayer and hard place, howled as one and attacked the Slayer and her new ally. Within moments, the air was filled with so much vampire dust, Buffy could hardly see. She fought by instinct, letting the Slayer within her take over. She kicked out with her left leg and shattered the knee of a vampire trying to flank her. As it screamed, she used its shoulders to vault over the group facing her. Buffy staked two vampires before they had a chance to turn around.
Soon the remaining vampires regrouped in front of Buffy and Iron Man after he had walked back to get a fresh piece of fence. They smiled at each other when the sound of a ram's horn being blown reverberated off the warehouses. The vampires scattered, happy to let something else deal with the Slayer and her armored friend.
Tony watched the vampires run off and then looked down at Buffy who just shrugged. They didn't have to wait long before the ground rumbled slightly as a large troll stomped into view. The troll was over 8 feet tall with long, brown horns jutting out from the side of its head. Tony pointed a metal finger at the monster. "What is that?" he inquired.
BUffy sighed and rolled her neck to get out the kinks. "That... is a troll," she replied.
"Really? I thought they stayed in their parents' basements and stalked people on message boards," he deadpanned. Buffy smiled despite the danger they were in. She always enjoyed a joke during battle. "Anything I should know about..." Tony started to ask before the troll smashed him the chest with its war-hammer. The blow drove Iron Man through several walls and into a pile of crates.
Buffy and the troll both looked through the holes to where Tony had landed. "Yeah, they're super strong," she replied.
A red gauntlet waved from the smashed crates. "Thanks," Tony said sarcastically before letting his hand fall back down.
The troll chuckled and turned his attention towards Buffy. "Glorificus will pay me much gold if I bring her the Slayer's head," it thought aloud. "Maybe even a hundred gold pieces," it told itself. Buffy rolled her eyes and equaled the weight on both of her feet, preparing to fight.
A deep voice behind the troll caused it to turn around suddenly. "Yoo-hoo," Iron Man called out before smacking the troll in the face with a 6 foot long metal I-beam. The blow was so strong, the I-beam bent slightly. The troll spun around and faced Buffy again, his eyes slightly crossed. Buffy rotated her hips and punched the troll in the jaw with all of her strength. This spun the troll around one more time to face Iron Man. Tony brought the I-beam down in an overhead blow that dropped the troll like a rag-doll. The troll didn't get up and started snoring loudly.
Tony dropped the metal I-beam and looked at his niece, his face plate retracting so he could look her eye to eye. "Would you mind telling me just what the hell you were thinking running into a mess like this?!" he demanded.
Buffy squared her shoulders and scowled at him. "Me?! What the hell were you doing?" she countered. "At least I knew what I was dealing with," she scolded her uncle. "Besides that, what gives you the right to tell me what I can and can't do anyway?" she yelled.
Tony closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He held out his hands palm forward to show he didn't want to fight. "Buffy, I lost way too many years in a feud with your mom," he stated slowly. "Those are years I would give anything to get back and share with her," he told her. "You and Dawn are the only family I have now," he said softly. "I don't want to lose you right after I found you," he whispered.
Buffy stepped forward and punched Iron Man on the dent in his chest armor. She was surprised the hammer had only dented it and not smashed into Tony's lungs. The blow Buffy landed knocked Tony back a foot, causing him to stagger. "Don't you think I feel the same way?" she asked rhetorically. "I never even knew I had an uncle and the same day I meet him, he races off to fight a bunch vampires unprepared," she reminded him.
The troll groaned and started to lift itself up on its arms. "Excuse me for a moment," Buffy said as she picked up the metal I-beam. She slammed the I-beam down onto the troll's head again, causing another bend in the metal and knocking out the troll once more. She dropped the I-beam and stared at Tony, daring him to say something.
Tony looked down at the I-beam and then back at Buffy. He knew it weighed almost half-a-ton. "I guess there's stuff we need to talk about," he said lamely.
Buffy smiled at him. "We can talk about it over dinner tomorrow," she offered. "How about you get us at seven instead of eight," she suggested. Before Tony could say yes, she ran off using her full Slayer speed.
"It would appear as though your niece is a meta-human," Jarvis said in Tony's ear.
Tony slid his face plate down while shaking his head. He looked up and used his repulsor boots to rocket into the sky. "You don't say," Tony replied sarcastically. The thought that a family member might be a mutant made him start to question his beliefs on the Mutant Registration Act that was being tossed around on capitol hill. He shoved those thoughts aside as he decided to focus on more pressing matters. "Jarvis, open a line to Pepper," he ordered.
A second later, a picture from Pepper's webcam sprang up in the lower left hand corner of his HUD. She was wearing a silk kimono tied loosely around her. The front was open slightly showing a generous amount of cleavage. Pepper smiled as Tony just stared for a moment. "Do you need something, or did you just want to see what I was wearing?" she teased her boyfriend.
Tony blinked his eyes a few times as he regained some semblance of coherent thought. Beautiful women, and this one in particular, had always been his greatest weakness. "Um... yeah, I mean yes, I called for a reason," he stammered. "I need you to purchase someplace either in or around Sunnydale for us," he told her. "Usual size with enough room for one of my armor labs," he stated. Tony looked down at the slumbering troll. "Better make sure there's plenty of room for a lab for Banner as well," he added. Pepper jotted some notes on her computer, starting the search. "Oh, one other thing," Tony said while making a point of staring at Pepper's body. "Make sure my schedule is clear for tonight. There's only one person I want to have a meeting with," he told her.
Pepper rolled her eyes, but smiled just the same. With one hand, she untied the silk belt holding her kimono closed. With the other, she shut off the webcam right before her kimono fell open. "Jarvis, plot the optimal flight path to the hotel, maximum speed," Tony ordered.