Chapter 23:

5 days, and counting…

Dani POV-

I had just gotten home from school. Today was one of those days that Issa couldn't come over because of her jazz practice after school, which was fine with me. I have been even more spacey and on edge since we now only have until Friday afternoon until Vlad gets here, thankfully, we have finished the suit, but we still barely have a plan.

I was sprawled out on my bed, staring at a few posters I had recently posted on the ceiling, correction, posters that Issa had posted on the ceiling because apparently I need to "be normal for once." How could I possibly be normal? Especially at a time like this.

I groaned and rolled over, slamming my face into my pillows. I vaguely heard the doorbell ring. I took no notice of it, Pepper occasionally rings the doorbell when she brings over clients…I guess to make sure that Tony is…decent? After a few seconds, I heard a knock on my own bedroom door.

"Hey Dani, could you come out here?" Pepper asked sweetly from the other side.

"Okay," I called back to her.

'Why does she want me?' I wondered as I jumped out of bed. I quickly did a little inspection of myself in the mirror (don't want to embarrass myself in front of one of their clients). After fixing a stray hair, I opened the door and walked out into the living room with Ghost following behind me at a leisurely pace.

Before I rounded the corner, I thought I heard a familiar voice. Quickening my pace, I got to where I could see the living room. I was right.

"Danny?" I asked tentatively in his direction. He immediately looked up at me and grinned.

"Hey Dani," he smirked at me with a goofy smile on his face just in time to get tackled by Ghost. The pup placed his large paws on Danny, making him stumble backwards onto the couch, laughing as Ghost licked his face. I ran over giggling as I tried to take the dog off of him.

"Ghost, stop, heel," I ordered half-heartedly. We finally managed to remove the dog from him, which was actually a difficult task through our fits of laughter.

Danny stood up, and I gave him a hug, which he returned.

"His name is Ghost?" he asked with amusement.

"Yep," I grinned and we both laughed.

"So how are you?" he asked me with concern.

"Better, now," I answered honestly.

"Jeez Tucker, I'm a girl and you brought more crap than I did," I heard another voice complain. I looked up to see Sam, Tucker and Happy coming in the front door.

I beamed, breaking the hug and running up to hug them too.

"Hey Danielle," they greeted me.

Finally, Tony decided to make his grand entrance, a drink in his hand.

"Surprise," he smirked at me, "Do I get a hug?" he pretended to be offended.

"Okay," I replied and gave him a hug too. I looked back at the trio from Amity Park and smiled. Tucker looked like his eyes were about to fall out and roll on the floor as he stared at Tony. Tony seemed to notice too.

"So you must be the one that hacked my system," Tony said, faking a scowl as he walked closer to Tucker until he was standing right in front of him. Tucker looked horrified like he wanted to shrivel into dust. Danny, Sam, and I tried to contain our laughter, even the corners of Pepper's mouth curled up in amusement.

"I..I...I…" Tucker struggled to find the right words. Tony finally grinned at him, I could practically see the relief wash over his face as Tony spoke.

"I'm impressed," Tony told him, "You're 18 call me for a job."

Tucker was speechless, "I…I…thank you."

Tony and I rolled our eyes at the same time.

"Yeah, nice surprise Tony," Pepper spoke up, "I didn't know that three teenagers would be staying with you until you asked me to go with Happy to pick them up from the airport," she glared at Tony playfully.

"Would have been four, but Jazz had a scheduled college visit to Yale, but trust me, she wanted to be here," Danny said.

"How did your parents allow you to come here anyway?" I asked.

"They think that we have been 'personally selected' to attend an 'engineering camp' hosted by Tony," Sam told me.

"Wait, why are you three here?" Pepper asked.

"Right," Tony said, clasping his hands together, changing the subject, "Let's get to the 'engineering' part. Happy will you take their bags to the guest rooms. Come on guys," he motioned for them to follow, "Oh, Pepper, could you handle the rest of my meetings for the day," he said with a 'pretty-please-with-cherries-on-top' smile. She sighed.

"Of course Tony," she replied as she exited the house to go back to Stark Industries.

When the door closed, Tony walked us toward the lab.

"Wow, they just got here and you are already showing them the lab. You had to find out my secret before I was allowed in there," I teased.

"That didn't stop you," Tony remarked back as he punched in the code to enter the lab.

I shrugged and Danny laughed, "How are you doing in school Dani?"

Tony laughed, "A hell of a lot better than you, and her classes are harder."

"No shit, I'm in 6th grade and I'm taking calculus," I laughed. The tree teenagers gawked at me.

"Wait, you're Danny's clone where did you get so smart?" Tucker asked.

"Hey!" Danny exclaimed.

"Sorry Dude, but you know it's true," Tucker shrugged.

"Honestly, I have no idea where I got so smart, but it might have had something to do with those months I spent with clockwork," I told them. Danny seemed thoughtful.

"Oh, hey Danny, you don't happen to have a portable Fenton Thermos release system do you? I've kind of had the box ghost trapped for several weeks," I grinned.

"That explains why I've actually been able to get some sleep lately. And yeah, my parents just invented one, it's upstairs in my bag, I managed to swipe it before we came here," Danny told me.

"Awesome," I replied.

We finally came down to the last door before the lab.

"Here we are at the Iron Man cave, it's like the Bat cave but better," Tony announced, before opening the door.

"I have died and gone to geek heaven," Tucker gawked entering the lab, making all of us laugh.