A short time later, in the city nearby, Tony Stark was retiring to his room after a fun and sexy night of finding out a way to improve the lives of human beings all over the world via the usage of science and engineering. Except it was not actually sexy at all, and in fact, Stark actually felt he was really imagining more Iron Man specs to prototype. It was really starting to become an issue: one minute he would be 'raring' to think about corporate revenue and shareholders and the current state of the economy and government shutdown, and the next he'd be thinking about what would happen if he made a Spider-themed Iron Man suit that was not actually meant for Spiderman. What would happen if he made suits based on all of the superheroes? What if he replaced all of the superheroes with actual autonomous Iron Man suits? What if he stopped slowly metamorphosing into the cause of a future, massive, robot-lead genocide against all organic life?

Stark shook his head warily as he exited the elevator to his large, window-abundant penthouse and made his way to his classy kitchen-bar.

"Welcome home, sir," said Jarvis, as the A.I. lit up the table and alcohol shelves in a muted neon blue 'nightlight' feature. It looked like a bar that would exist in Tron if Tron existed in the Marvel universe. "I would not advise you to be drinking at this hour. But if you insist, then might I suggest something that will not incapacitate you entirely in the morning?"

Iron Man hefted himself into a chair. "Sorry, Jarvis- I hope you mean my favorite, 'cause I think I'm waking up after lunch tomorrow anyway."

"You have three meetings with several key investors and board members tomorrow morning."

The man scoffed. "Why, thank you, Siri. Reschedule all events to the day after."

Jarvis was silent for a moment, but Tony could have sworn he heard a sigh. "Very well."

As Stark's favorite alcoholic beverage was prepared automatically by a series of cool mechanical processes juggling around a glass mug, Tony stared out a window. An organized constellation of man-made 'stars' defined the city in the dark, including moving headlights on the roads and numerous, immobile office lights left on. A plane, or a small S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier, blinked lazily overhead, like a slow cluster of red dwarfs. However, Stark was not looking at all of this. For the first time in a long while, Stark thought about his friends. The Avengers.

After the Loki incident- the super-powered god and demon portal di-threat ending in a trip for schwarma- Stark assumed that he finally had an organized fighting force against crime that wasn't set on putting a leash on him (a.k.a. S.H.I.E.L.D., the U.S. government, etc.). Then, the Mandarin fiasco happened, and suddenly Iron Man became the lone hero. He could understand that Thor had some Narnia-level emergency he had to attend, but where the fuck were Steve and Bruce? Shit, where the fuck were even Clint and Natasha? Weren't they a part of S.H.I.E.L.D.? What on earth was more important than the Mandarin? This was exactly why he had to think about robot superheroes- because shit like this happened.

Tony's drink slid out in front of him, turning him out of his reverie. "Thanks, Jarvis," he announced, before taking a small sip.

The lights suddenly flickered, then turned on fully- nearly blinding and scaring the crap out of Iron Man.

"Jesus Christ, Jarvis! I said 'thanks', not 'I'm turning you into a real boy!'" he exclaimed.

"Sir, there is an unidentified intruder on the premises."

"What, not the janitor on level five? Calm down, he forgets to buzz in sometimes, we talked about-"

"It is not Mr. Nelson," Jarvis intoned, sounding annoyed. "The intruder is in your immediate vicinity, approximately three feet away from you."

"How-What even-"

"I do not know, sir."

Tony glared pointedly at the ceiling, which he felt represented the A.I. well enough. Sighing, he decided to humor the possibly malfunctioning cybernetic intelligence and turn around.

Approximately three feet away from him, clinging to the back of a savvy Ikea couch, was a breathless girl with white dog ears and long, tangled black hair in a black cloak. As she slowly raised her head to face him, he accidentally made eye contact with her startlingly green eyes. Her lips rapidly curled into a snarl, and her being flickered a little with a static green energy. Tony leaned away at the sudden light show. An odd whirring sound erupted, as multiple rifles and machine guns to rise out of various hidden compartments in the room- including from the bar table, right next to Stark.

The girl reluctantly pushed herself off the sofa and hunched over threateningly, her gaze flickering dangerously between the weapons. The girl rocked slightly on her feet, as if she could barely remain standing. But her eyes maintained a panicked, predatory alertness. A deep growl began in her chest, rising in bass, emanating from her- and shook the base of Tony's spine. A tense standoff ensued between the exhausted Hero of Space and the A.I.

Tony suddenly realized that he still held on to his drink. As he slowly attempted to place it on the table, he noticed that the girl's gaze quickly shifted to the glass. For a split second, a fleeting look passed across her haggard face, and her nostrils flared- as if savoring the pungent odor. He noticed that her ears twitched upwards, a sign that Tony noticed and vaguely recognized. Eventually, Stark relinquished the drink, before warily rolling his eyes up to the ceiling.

"Jarvis?"

"Sir?"

"Disengage the weapons."

"…Sir, I would ill-advise that particular course of action in this very moment."

"Yeah, I know." Tony pinched the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb. "Just trust me on this one."

A moment of hesitation occurred, before the weapons all withdrew into their hidden compartments. For all intents and purposes, Stark's penthouse returned to being just a penthouse- not a death trap for unexpected intruders.

"Thanks again, Jarvis," Tony announced. He then turned back to the girl, who now had stopped growling and glaring too threateningly. Once the danger to herself was removed, she appeared to have calmed down. The girl continued to lean on the couch for support, and she now observed the man with a wary, but otherwise neutral gaze.

Iron Man cleared his throat, feeling awkward. "So, uh..." He slipped off of his chair and gestured towards a large, silver fridge behind the bar, which sometimes functioned as a kitchen. "Hey, are you okay? Do you need some water, or something? Or, uh, snausages? You can sit down if you want."

The girl regarded him vacantly, and then shook her head sharply.

"No… Thank you," she spoke softly. "Sorry, I… I got here by accident." She straightened her back, with a groan. "I'm so, so sorry… I should, I should be going…" She flickered with green static.

"Wait!" Tony shouted, causing the girl to flinch back into solidity. "Gah! Sorry, sorry. Just, don't leave yet! You can't just infiltrate an Avenger's home base and then expect to just beam out of it, no questions asked?" Iron Man scratched his chin. "Crap, you can't just 'accidentally' beam yourself into Iron Man's apartment, out of all the places to beam yourself to." He shook his head. "Also, one- if you really have no control over your powers, then you shouldn't be using them, and two- unless you're acting, I'm guessing you're on the verge of collapse. Don't you, I don't know, want to wait until you're sure you won't teleport yourself into an active volcano?"

She shrugged. "I… fell into an active volcano once," she remarked. Her ears flicked. "Did… Did you say 'Iron Man's base'?"

Stark nodded. "Uh, yeah. Didn't the face and the cool domestic weapons give me away? Or maybe the fact that you could not have just 'accidentally' teleported here?" He stepped away from the fridge. "Wait, did you say you fell into an active volcano?"

The girl smiled, revealing an overbite of her two front teeth. "Oh! No, well, actually, I was thrown on the surface of the lava by this troll girl, and so I skipped on the surface like a rock on water. But it was okay though, because I was unconscious, and I have these cool healing abilities. I was also possessed before that, so there were no hard feelings with her. So, if you are Iron Man, does that mean that the Avengers are real? That you have a lot of superpower friends and stuff?" She was standing entirely up now, and she stepped away from the couch's support.

Tony was taken aback by her forwardness. "Gee, why, no- we're all actually comic book heroes and you're actually having a coma dream," he retorted sarcastically. "Of course we're real! What, did you teleport out from under a rock? I don't believe this- did you sleep through the Loki-demon portal thing?"

Suddenly, she was laughing- it was a squeaking, gasping, yet utterly cheerful sound, which was almost as loud as her growling. She then walked up to Tony and began shaking his hand enthusiastically. "Oh, wow! This is so great; I get to meet you, and I get to find a universe with more protection, and- this is so great- my friends are going to love it here- and I have like a billion friends with superpowers, and some are aliens, and some are nerds who just love you guys, like John, and, I have, uhm, a bajillion friends who are total techno-geeks, like me, and-" She then let out a heavy sob, which distorted her facial features so that she looked utterly miserable. The girl soon caught him tightly in a hug.

Tony suddenly wondered if this girl was his illegitimate daughter. She shared the same hairline as him, and a similar nose and brow line. He also wondered why she was so dang strong, why she had dog-ears, and what the hell was she talking about. He patted her head gently, avoiding the ears, not knowing what else to do.

Eventually, the girl pushed herself off the poor man, and then determinedly started rubbing at her eyes. "Guh! Oh gosh, sorry, sorry, it's just that you're the first adult I've seen in a long time! And also my role model; I even have my own armor based on your designs!" She stopped wiping, and looked at him with bright green eyes. "Gosh, it's really dang cool to meet you- and to be on earth again, wow." She scratched the bottom of her dog ear, as if thinking about what else to say. "Oh! My name is Jade, Jade Harley. I'm a hero too, I guess- I am a Witch of Space."

Jade suddenly flinched, as if her title reminded her of something, and made sure to look Tony Stark in the eyes. "Oh, oh my god, I almost forgot- earlier, I dropped a boy in your world by accident, and I'm not sure where he is now. But- I think this is the best place I will ever find for us and for him." She paused, asif waiting for questions, then quickly continued. "I want to look for him, really, but I am really running short on time." She took Tony's hand. "Can you look after him for me? His name is Karkat, and he is grey with nubby horns. He also wears this shirt with a Cancer sign on it." She released Tony and made the sign with her hands.

Tony backed up onto his seat, and picked up his drink. "Uh, sure, Karkat. Boom."

Jade nodded. "Great. In the meantime, I'm gonna bring more of my friends here, so that they can all stay alive. Is… is that okay? Some will look like Karkat, and or will be humans with cool powers like mine- but who are not mutants," she added, as if that detail mattered. "Please, this is really important," she murmured. "We have nowhere else to go, and I am getting very tired…"

Stark swirled his old drink, feeling drained. "Well, unless your friends are either dangerous or number in the 'bajillions', then I think you're good to go.'

Jade smiled. "No, they're not dangerous at all!" she exclaimed. "Well, maybe one or five of them, but otherwise, no. And there's only about thirty of us." She was quiet for a moment, before looking back at Stark with her green eyes. "Thank you, Mr. Stark. I don't know how to thank you, but I will when I'm done." The entirety of Jade then dissipated into a flash of static green- which vanished altogether.

Tony stared at the place she once was, wondering if he just made a terrible mistake for his possible furry space-witch daughter, or if he was just having hallucinations from breathing in metal-welding fumes. Soon, he bolted down the entirety of his drink, and later went to bed.

Thank you for the reviews! Usually, I try to update once every two weeks~

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