Pepper Potts sighed contentedly and ran her hand across the king sized bed she shared with Tony in the Sunnydale Hilton Presidential Suite. When her hand encountered nothing but bed and sheets, she sighed again, this time in frustration. She drew back her hand and lifted her sleep mask from her eyes. The sleep mask had been essential since sharing a bed with a guy who had an ARC reactor in his chest was like sharing a bed with the world's biggest night light. Propping herself on her elbows, she looked around the suite. "Jarvis, where's Tony?" she asked.
"Tony is at the new Stark Industries Sunnydale Office," the AI replied. Pepper frowned and scrunched her eyebrows in thought. She had planned on looking for a place to buy after she and Tony had woken up. Pepper was taken by surprise that one had already been found. "After hearing Tony's request to you last night, I started a search through the local real estate records looking for a property that would fit his specifications," Jarvis informed her.
Pepper got up from the bed and tugged her kimono off the chandelier where Tony has tossed it. After she had the belt tied, she ran her hands through her bright, red hair. "I take it Tony woke up earlier than usual and approved the purchase," she surmised.
"No, Pepper," Jarvis replied. "As it turns out, Stark Industries already owned a structure that fit the requirements," it told her.
Pepper waved her hand in front of her as if to swat away cobwebs. "What? No... wait, you know the rules, Jarvis. No complicated thoughts until after I've had my morning coffee," she chided the AI. A ding from the automated coffee maker drew her attention to the kitchenette. She poured herself a large cup, drank half of it, and took in a deep breath. "OK, now you can explain how we already owned a building here in Sunnydale," she stated.
"Prior to attending the funeral of Tony's sister, Tony purchased the Sunnydale Savings and Loan to take care of the mortgage on Joyce's house," Jarvis reminded Pepper. "The bank holds the deeds for several foreclosed structures in and around Sunnydale," it pointed out. "I took the liberty of transferring the lab equipment from the Malibu house while you and Tony were engaged in 'noisome simian coitus'," Jarvis said. "Tony awoke rather refreshed and went to the castle to oversee the activation of his lab," it stated.
Pepper shook her head and put the coffee cup down. "I'm going to kill Tony for installing that humour algorithm last month," she muttered under her breath. "Oh Jarvis, just so you know, the proper phrase is 'loud monkey sex'," she corrected the computer. She paused and then a delicate eyebrow rose in shock. "Did you say 'castle'?" she inquired.
******Avengers in Sunnydale******
Pepper walked down the stone stairs into what she assumed must have originally been the castle dungeon. Prior to that, she had double checked that the servant's house was being outfitted with the same equipment Tony had supplied for Dr. Banner at the Avengers Tower in New York. She grinned as she thought that her practicality was finally starting to rub off on her boyfriend. Having Dr. Banner's lab a couple hundred yards from the main building gave the castle, and more importantly the armor labs, a better chance of survival if the "other guy" decided to make an appearance.
Pepper opened the heavy oak doors and walked into the dungeon. What had once been a place of medieval torture was now a seemingly chaotic mix of industrial robots, computers, and various types of lab equipment. Tony was standing in the center of the room, surrounded by a ring of holographic emitters. Several "screens" floated in the air around him and his eyes flicked from one to the other as he processed the information they were displaying. One of the screens was replaying footage from last night's battle with the vampires. The second screen looked like it was a enlarged page from some old book. A third screen showed a holographic image of some kind of fang being sliced into thin wafers with a laser.
Pepper cleared her throat and Tony only waved in her direction, never turning from the screens. "Glad you're here," Tony said. "I need a fresh set of eyes," he admitted.
Pepper stepped into the glowing circle to stand next to her boyfriend. "OK, what am looking at?" she inquired.
Tony pointed at the screen that was replaying the battle. "Believe it not, but Buffy and I fought a pack of vampires last night," he explained. He felt Pepper tense as she was about to say something, but he raised a hand to silence her. "No, really," he insisted. Tony pointed at the battle and made a hand gesture that slowed the playback. "Watch," he instructed.
Pepper watched as Tony's niece slammed a pointed piece of wood into a man dressed in a 70's leisure suit. The man exploded into dust after the wood penetrated his chest. Pepper stepped closer to the screen as it switched to a view of Iron Man impaling three men with a flaming chunk of wood. Tony made another gesture with his hand and the image froze, showing a closeup of one of the men's faces. He had yellow eyes, strange brow ridges that ran across his forehead, and long, sharp fangs protruding from his mouth.
Turning to look at the screen that displayed a page from a book, Pepper wasn't surprised to see it was a section from Bram Stoker's Dracula. She continued on to the third screen and saw that an information window at the bottom confirmed the DNA was human. Next to that window was a range of frequencies.
Tony pointed towards the image of the tooth. "One of them got a fang stuck in my neck armor," he stated. "I ran a DNA scan on it and it and it came back as normal human bone," he said. Tony waved both hands and the holograms faded away. He led Pepper over to a window that had different glass from the rest of the dungeon windows. A table with several glass slides stood next to the wall out of the direct sunlight that was filtering through the window.
"Buffy said that the vampires could be killed by sunlight, so I decided to do some experiments," Tony started to explain. He held up one of the glass slides and jerked his head towards one of the industrial robots. "I had one of the twins slice up the fang into small wafers," he told her. One of the 7 foot tall, yellow arms waved at Pepper cheerfully and then went back to work. Without warning, Tony thrust the slide in his hand into the sunlight. The slide shattered as the bone wafer burst into flames.
Pepper stared at the glass shards on the floor. "OK, that's unusual behavior for bone," she said.
"It gets weirder," Tony stated as he picked up a remote control. He pointed it at the window and it darkened just slightly. Tony picked up another slide and held in the sunlight. Pepper watched as nothing happened. "I found the range of UV frequencies that cause the reaction," he said.
Pepper shrugged her shoulders. "It's not that weird. It just shows that the … vampires are vulnerable to UV light," she told him. She couldn't believe she had actually used the word "vampire".
Tony shook his head in frustration. "That's just it. They're not," he said, contradicting the evidence he had shown her. Tony pulled her over to a special projector that was able to isolate specific frequencies of light. He handed her a pair of dark glasses and turned on the machine. Bright UV light blasted out of the end of the device. "This projector is putting out a thousand times more UV energy than what we would find in sunlight," he told her. Tony held another glass slide in front of the beam, and again, nothing happened. He flicked the power switch and the projector shut off.
Pepper took off her dark glasses and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "So the effects are limited to just direct sunlight," she said, wanting to make sure she had followed him.
Tony nodded his head. "It doesn't make any sense. Physical laws are just that, laws," he complained.
Pepper glanced at the glass slides and thought for a moment. She thought back to the screen that had shown a page from Dracula. She snapped her fingers when she made a connection. "It's a two part equation, Tony," she told him. Tony leaned against the work table and motioned for her to continue. "If we go with the information in the book, then the things used to kill or harm a vampire take two components," she stated. "Wooden stake, Holy water, and crosses," she told him.
Tony looked confused, something that didn't happen to him very often. "How do crosses have two components?" he asked for clarification.
"The shape plus the faith put behind them," Pepper replied.
"Well, there goes my idea for putting crosses all over the suit," Tony joked. They both knew he was something of an agnostic.
Pepper went on. "Each of the pair have something that directly opposes the concept of vampires being the evil undead," she said. "Holy water and the faith behind crosses counteract the evil side of vampires. Wood comes from nature and life, the opposite of death," she postulated.
Tony nodded his head. "And the source of all life on the planet is the sun," he summarized. He paused and became still for a moment.
Pepper saw the faraway look in his eyes that meant he was deep in creative thought. She leaned forward, kissed his cheek, and then walked back to the stairs. "Don't forget about dinner with your nieces tonight," she reminded him.
Tony absentmindedly waved a hand in her direction. "Sure … dinner … tonight," he said absently. Pepper shook her head in amusement and made a note to pick up the girls herself. As she closed the door to the lab, she saw Tony step back into the holo-ring and say, "Jarvis, pull up the plans for Project Gaslight."
******Avengers in Sunnydale******
Dawn opened the curtains in the livingroom slightly when she heard a car pull up. Her eyes nearly bugged out when she saw the car in question was a stretch limo. She watched as a tall, red headed woman stepped out in a classy, red business suit. "Buffy, I think our ride is here," Dawn called out.
Pepper had barely knocked when the door opened for her. She had been brushing up on her vampire lore on the internet and wasn't offended when no one invited her in. To prove her human nature, Pepper walked right in past the middle aged man wearing glasses who had opened the door.
The man shut the door behind her and then offered his hand. "Rupert Giles," he said, introducing himself.
Pepper returned the handshake with a firm grip. "Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries," she said. She saw a hint of disappointment when she added, "And Tony's girlfriend." She looked into the living room and saw it was filled with young people - Buffy and Dawn (whom she recognized from the funeral), a short girl with hair as red as Pepper's, a taller girl with brown hair holding the redhead's hand, a blonde woman, and a young man with dark hair who was drooling just a bit. The blonde woman glared at the young man and hit his chin to close his mouth.
Buffy stepped forward and looked suspiciously out the window. "Why didn't Tony come pick us up himself?" she asked.
Pepper thought for a moment and decided the truth was the best option. "Your uncle is … well, let's just say his picture can be found in several psychology textbooks next to the sections on severe ADHD," she chuckled. "More often than not, he gets hyper focused on something and I almost have to hit him over the head to get him to take a break to eat," she confided.
All of the Scoobies discreetly glanced at Dawn and tried to hide their grins. Dawn stomped her foot in frustration and pointed at Buffy. "She's just as bad as I am," she complained, which set the room off into a small fit of laughter. The laughter died off and then came back when Buffy first glared at the Scoobies and then stuck her tongue out at Dawn.
Buffy waved her arm towards the Scoobies and Giles. "Do you think Tony would mind if I invited a few friends to join us?" she asked Pepper.
Pepper frowned for a moment. She knew Tony wanted to talk about Buffy's abilities and the things that went bump in the night around Sunnydale. Pepper didn't know what, if anything, Buffy had told her friends.
Buffy read Pepper's expression correctly. "We're going to talk about me being the Slayer and everything that entails," she assured Pepper. "Giles is coming because he can explain the whole vampire slayage thing better than anyone," she said. Buffy gestured towards Willow and Tara. "Will and Tara are witches and they can explain magic," she stated. Buffy moved her hand towards Xander and Anya. "Anya can explain about demons," she added. Buffy frowned and turned looking right at Xander.
Without having Buffy having to ask, Xander put in, "And I'm going along for the free food."
Pepper smiled, noticing Buffy introduced her friends with the same nonchalant air that Tony had when he had introduced her to the other Avengers. "The more the merrier," she said.
Giles opened the door again and Pepper led the way to the limo. As the long black sedan pulled away from the Summers house, no one noticed they were being watched. A goblin looking demon in a brown robe started up his motor scooter and followed the limo a safe distance away. The demon was so intent on his orders to follow Buffy and find out what it could about the key, it didn't notice there was a person following it. That person was a blonde vampire running from shadow to shadow, holding a thick wool blanket over his head, and swearing the whole time.
As the limo pulled up to the newly named Stark Castle (as Jarvis had informed Pepper via her bluetooth headset on the ride back) the Scoobie all started to grin when they realized where they were headed.. "I see you bought Dracula's castle," Buffy said conversationally.
Pepper looked out the windows at the tan stone castle with the dark slate roof. "It does look like something out of a storybook, doesn't it?" she replied.
Buffy tapped Pepper on the shoulder and shook her head when the older woman met her eyes. "I'm being serious," Buffy told her. "Dracula brought the castle over from Latveria a few months ago when he came to Sunnydale," she explained.
Pepper blinked a few times at that statement. "Dracula … as in the one made famous in the books and movies?" she inquired.
Dawn nodded. "Yeah, he decided he wanted to kill Buffy. Since she wasn't going to Latveria, he came here," she said. "Buffy kicked his butt and he went back home with his tail between his legs," she told Pepper.
Xander turned from the window and had a weird look on his face. "How did you end up owning Master's … I mean Dracula's castle?" he asked.
Pepper caught Xander's slip and made a note to ask Buffy about it later. "The castle was foreclosed on due to non-payment of taxes," she replied. "Stark Industries bought the bank that owned it," she told him.
Xander shook his head and went back to looking out the window. "I told him not to ignore those tax notices," he muttered under his breath.
After the limo pulled up in the long circle drive, the group got out and went into the castle. Pepper led them to the main dining room where a table had been set out with just the right number of chairs. Several trays full of food were already set up. Pepper gestured to the table and the others sat themselves. "I'll go get Tony," she offered.
"Thanks, but I'm already here," Tony announced as he walked in from a side door. He was carrying a dark box about two feet long. Pepper sat down, smiled at Tony, and then wrinkled her nose at the unpleasant odors coming from the table and the box Tony was carrying.
"Um … who are the extra folks?" Tony asked, seemingly registering for the first time that there were others in the room other than Pepper and his nieces.
Willow waved a cheery greeting. "Hi, I'm Willow," she said. She raised her lover's hand and introduced her, knowing Tara was overly shy. "This is my girlfriend, Tara," she said and watched Tony's reaction. He didn't flinch at all at her declaration of lesbian love. Willow smiled at him, and gave Buffy a covert thumbs up sign.
Giles stood from the table. "My name is Rupert Giles. The young man oggling your girlfriend is Xander," he said.
"I am not oggling!" Xander protested.
Giles smirked. "Yes, quite. My mistake," he said in a way that let everybody know that's not what he truly thought. "The woman next to him is Anya," he concluded the introductions. "Now that we all know each other's names, could you tell me why you have brought to the dinner table a box that smells like … ?" he inquired, not quite finding a polite word for what he was smelling.
Dawn rolled her eyes. "You know, I'm almost 15," she complained. "I have heard that word before," she reminded them.
"Poop?" Willow suggested.
"Poop, yes, thank you," Giles replied.
"That's because that's what it is," Tony replied, answering Giles earlier question and earning him a grimace from everybody at the table. "That and a few strains of genetically modified bacteria," he added.
Pepper perked up when she realized what Tony had done. "Project Gaslight?" she asked. Tony nodded proudly.
"I'm sorry, what is Project Gaslight?" Giles inquired.
Pepper pointed towards the box in Tony's arms. "One of the challenges Stark Industries has focused on recently has been renewable energy sources, especially for third world countries," she said.
Tony took over the explanation. "We developed a series of bioluminescent bacteria that eat … poop," he said, winking at Dawn. "Each little critter is only able to produce a certain frequency of light," he stated. "By slightly altering their genes, we were able to created several strains that when combined produced full spectrum light," he explained.
"Is it safe?" Giles asked, not wanting to risk everyone at the table getting infected with genetically modified bacteria.
Tony made a dismissive gesture with his free hand. "The bacteria is perfectly harmless to humans," he assured Giles. Tony started chuckling. "All though in the initial trials, we did get an annoying lab assistant who accidentally ingested a large dose of the little guys," he said. "Oddly enough, it was only the green strain that got into his coffee," Tony stated. "Poor guy thought he had been dosed with gamma radiation since his poop glowed bright green until we gave him some antibiotics," he reminisced with a smirk.
Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them before he sat down, not knowing what to say to that. Tony put the box down on a side table out of nose range and slid open a hatch letting purplish light out. "I figured out the combination of strains to produce the right frequencies of UV light," he said proudly. He held up one of the glass slides. "Vampire bone wafer," he said before putting the slide in front the opening. After a few seconds, the glass shattered as the bone eventually ignited.
Despite himself, Giles stood back up and made his way over the box. "How did you accomplish that?" he asked. "The Watcher's Council learned years ago that UV light alone has no effect on vampires," he said.
Tony pointed to the stinky box. "Light made from a living source instead of a bulb," he explained.
Willow and Giles both exclaimed, "Of course!" at the same time.
Buffy looked at the box. "You're not mounting a box of poop on your suit, are you?" she asked, knowing his coolness factor would drop significantly if word got out.
"Of course not," Tony replied. "This was just a proof of concept. The actual version will have cells of these stashed throughout the suit linked by fiber optic cables fed to a lens," he told her.
"What will the bacteria being feeding off of?" Willow asked.
Tony shrugged and slid the slot close on the box. "The suit has a waste recycling system in case I have a long mission," he stated.
Buffy realized what he was saying and held up her hands to stop him. "Too much information there, Uncle Tony," she said.