The Unknown Variable

(Beta'd as of 1/27/14)

I do not own anything. If I did, I would remake the 6th HP movie and change a bit (more than a bit to be honest) of Iron Man III. But I don't, so go complain to someone else who does.

Back to Penny's POV

I rubbed the bandage wrapped around my stomach and was sourly tempted to take it off. I wasn't sure how or when, but I was certain that Mortem had healed me. Since it no longer hurt, and I was slowly starting to feel like myself, I was pretty sure.

But because Tony didn't know about Mortem… and apparently Rhodes now knew about us, I was being careful.

"But I want to come!" I protested, as Dad walked onto the platform. It had taken less than a minute to get Jarvis back up and running. We still weren't sure what Stane did to him, but we had about ten different programs running, checking, fixing, scanning, and securing everything.

I was also happy to find out, that every SHEILD bug in the house had been destroyed by the device Stane used. It was the only good thing that came out of it.

"No Penny." Tony said, as the arms started to construct the suit around him. "You're hurt; you're not going anywhere."

"But Dad!" I protested, and almost decided to take the bandage off to prove that I was fine. "I am fine!"

"Yeah, like getting stabbed is fine." Rhodey muttered under his breath, but we both heard him. I glared at him, causing him to flinch. My look could still practically kill.

Rhodey turned away from my glare and back towards Tony and the Mark Three as it was fully assembled.

"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen." He stated, looking at the suit in awe.

"I've seen better." I comment, it was pretty awesome, but I wasn't happy with Rhodey, so why would I agree?

"Not bad huh? Let's do it." Tony stated, causing me to clap and say,

"Well I'll just go get my…" I was barely able to slide off his desk and take a step before Tony snapped.

"No Penny. You are staying here." He stated, as he rolled his shoulders and blasted his smashed blue race car out of the way. I opened my mouth to protest but he cut me off instantly. "No buts."

"You need me to do anything else?" Rhodey asked as Tony's faceplate snapped into place.

"Keep the skies clear." He said, "And Penny here!" he fired up the repulsors and with a blast, he was off through the hole in the roof.

"Damn." Rhodey watched him go with an unreadable expression on his face, before looking over at the silver Mark Two and said, "Next time Baby."

"I heard that." I called from my room, and I exited wearing a pair of spandex leggings and long sleeve top. It was basically a wet suit…but thicker.

"What are you wearing?" Rhodey asked, eyeing me strangely.

I rolled my eyes, this could get annoying. "None of your business."

I walked over and stepped onto the platform.

"Hey I thought that Tony said…" Rhodey started before I cut him off.

"I don't have a suit." Well, not the same type of suit. "Jarvis, suit me up!"

"Miss Penny, I have specific instructions from your father to not allow you…" Jarvis replied, his tone final.

"Jarvis." I said warningly, "I said, suit me up."

"Your father…" Jarvis spoke again, and I sighed rolling my eyes.

"Jarvis, override code six-four-delta-bravo-niner-tango." I stated, my voice echoing through the lab.

"What?" Rhodey said, clearly confused.

Jarvis sighed, yup, I made an AI sigh. "That was quiet unfair Miss Penny."

"Just do it Jar," I replied, as my metal soaked clothes appeared out of the floor. Tony had fiddled with it, so I could change quickly with Jar's help…though he still wanted to 'upgrade' my suit to one of his suits. I was still saying no.

I stepped into the black boots and leggings, before sliding my arms into the sleeves. I grinned as the metal seams clicked into place and stretched. The metal fabric bended with my body, and I sighed as I popped my back.

I pulled up the hood and smiled as it locked into place, now it could only be removed by myself or Tony. It would never fall off.

"Awesome." I stated as I watched the HUD light up completely finished.

"Guess Dad isn't just working on his armor." I stated to myself as I realized that the few bugs I had yet to work out had been fixed, along with the HUD being finished.

"What on earth is that?" Rhodes asked me. I peered at him through the screen. It was a little disconcerting knowing that I wasn't actually seeing the world with my eyes, but the picture was excellent quality, and if it wasn't for the floating information bubbles and numbers on the side, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference…maybe.

"You saw Dad's secret project. This is mine." I commented, shifting slightly so I was at the perfect diagonal angle to the hole in the roof.

Rhodey saw me move and came to stand in front of me. "Tony told me to keep you here. And I thought you said you didn't have a suit?"

I rolled my eyes, though I knew he couldn't see me and said, "Different type of suit. And you can't stop me."

"Are you sure about that?" Rhodey asked, though he wasn't even sure of himself.

"Yup!" I stated, activating my invisibility just long enough so I was directly beneath the hole.

I became visible as I said, "Bye Rhodey! I'm sure Daddy won't be too mad at you." Then, with a large unseen smirk on my face, I Flashed away with a loud bang, lightning bolt and all; leaving a shocked Colonel behind.

I wasn't hiding tonight.

Tonight, was payback time.

"Jarvis," I said as I appeared on a roof about a block from the factory, where I assumed Stane, Pepper, and more importantly, my father would be.

"Yes Miss Penny?"

"How's Dad's Arc holding up?" I asked, scanning my surroundings, I wasn't sure if Dad was here or not yet, and I didn't want to be in the wrong place.

"His Arc is currently at 48% and falling, it wasn't…"

"Designed for sustained fight, and his new suit takes a lot more power than his first one. I know, keep me posted just in case." I stated to Jarvis. I didn't want anything to happen.

"You two are so much alike it is scary at times, Miss Penny." Jarvis stated to me.

"So you've said," I muttered under my breath as I looked around for someone, "So you've said."

Indeed, Jarvis had claimed that Dad and my similarities were frightening. Personally, I think he's just teasing.

A loud breaking noise caught my attention as I hopped across the roof tops to the Reactor Building.

I cursed as I saw the outline of Stane's large…okay humongous suit and Pepper's shadow of a figure.

"Jarvis, patch me through to Dad, and keep the channel secure!" I stated, as I saw Tony fly in.

"STANE!" I heard him yell as Stane pointed the large gun at Pepper. Both of their attentions turn towards Tony, letting me Flash in next to Pepper, grab onto her arm, and Flashing to the other side of the building, close to the Arc, but away from the fight.

"Who are you!?" She screamed, stumbling from the Flashing experience.

"A friend." Was all I stated, and I was glad that my hood modified my voice.

I Flashed back to the front of the Reactor building to find both men gone, and explosions coming from the highway.

"Come on Dad!" I stated annoyed, as I carefully Flashed away.

I reappeared in the middle of a traffic disaster. A large eighteen wheeler had crashed on one highway, causing a huge traffic jam, which cars were still slamming into, and on the other side, people were swerving and slamming on brakes to avoid hitting the suits.

I saw Stane pick up a car that held a young mother and her three kids, and my eyebrow twitched. Okay, now, that was too far.

"I love this suit!" Stane yelled as he picked up the car,

"Put them down!" Tony demanded as Stane replied,

"Collateral damage, Tony." He stated, stalking towards Tony. My eyes narrowed I Flashed right next to Tony and let a bolt of lightning Fly, just as a large blast came from the central reactor.

Our combined attack blasted Stane back, but caused the car to go flying through the air. Thankfully Tony caught it and it landed on its wheels…the bad news… was that as soon as Tony put it down, the Mom floored it and it ran Tony over.

"Ouch," I said as Jarvis informed me, "Your Father's power's been reduced to 19%"

"Shit," I cursed under my breath as Tony said, "Penny?! I thought I told you to stay home!'

"And as I told you," I replied, eyeing Stane as he walked over, "This is my fight too."

"When did you say that?" Tony asked me. I rolled my eyes and glared at Tony's HUD feed in the corner of my screen.

"Oh, let it go Dad." I told him as he used his repulsors to jump high and grabbed a motorcycle from under its rider and smashed Tony with it.

"Dad!" I cried out as I watched him get thrown into the air and crash into another car.

"Talk later, kick butt now?" I suggested as I started directing the panicking crowd.

"Just leave, go that way!" I told a bunch of people who were fleeing the bus Tony had landed in front of.

Stane jumped into the other lane and kicked Tony into the bus.

"Okay Stane. You've Pissed Me OFF!" I shouted as I let loosed two large lightning bolts. They flew true and struck Stane in the back, making the power flicker for a moment and knocking him into the bus.

He landed on his feet, but seemed to believe that the attack came from Tony, for he bent down and picked him up saying, "For 30 years, I've been holding you up!" he then slammed Tony down onto the ground, making sparks fly.

"I built this company from nothing!" He stated sinisterly, stomping on Tony.

With four twists of my wrists, I slowly charged up one large energy ball within both of my hands.

'Oh, you asked for it!' I thought as the ball of energy grew, and grew. Tony tried to get up, but Stane grabbed him and threw him into the bus. "and nothing will stand in my way. Least of all…YOU!"

The bus collapsed in on itself as I yelled, "Oi, big metal and stupid! I've got a present for you!"

With a large heave of my shoulders I threw the ball at him. It exploded in a shower of bolts, sparks, and flames causing Obadiah to be thrown backwards across the highway.

Sadly, because Stane was also about to fire a missile at the bus, the explosion caused it to fire so the bus Tony was in also exploded.

"Shoot, that didn't go as planned." I muttered to myself, "Dad are you okay?" I asked, his video feed was crackling, and I knew the suit had been damaged, I just hoped not too badly.

"I've had better days." He commented as he was thrown through the air, but managed to catch himself before he crashed.

"How about we take care of this and go get pancakes." I suggested again, I really needed to talk less.

"We end this no problem, and I'll fly us to France for Crêpes." Tony stated.

"Really?" I said, as I charged up another Ball, "Cool."

"Impressive! You've upgraded your armor!" Stane yelled, looking at my dad.

"Ok, is he ignoring me? Or just plain stupid?" I asked getting annoyed that Stane was ignoring me.

"Maybe both? But definitely the second." Tony told me as Stane continued his rant.

"I've made some upgrades of my own!" he yelled loudly.

"Yeah," I yelled back Flashing in front of him, "We've noticed."

"Would it be naive to ask you to stay out of this?" Tony asked me, sending me a pleading look through the feed.

I shrugged, "You can ask, I'm still gonna stay."

I brought my hands up to cover my ears as Stane's extremely loud repulsors flared to life.

"Sir," we both heard Jarvis say, "It appears that his suit can fly."

"Come on!" I sighed, "How is it I'm the only one that can't fly!"

"Duly noted, take me to maximum altitude." I heard Tony command Jarvis as he took off flying.

"With only 15% power, the odds of reaching that…" Jarvis said but Tony interrupted with a growl.

"I know the math! Do it!" Tony yelled, shooting off into the sky, Stane right behind him.

'Oh, I'm not staying out of this!' I said with a growl. But it wasn't like I could go Flashing across the sky… I'd probably end up crashing into something.

Suddenly I remembered what Mortem had told me, about telling my lightning to catch me… that it was mine…that it would listen…

"I wonder," I said, a smirk appearing on my face as my sparks flared.

AND….DONE! Okay, nowhere near done, but this chapter is! Rest of Stane, Tony, and Penny's fight later. K? Now… now I say thanks to all, and Espacole my Beta, and say,

See you next time,
Cp