The Unknown Variable

(Beta'd since 1/27/14)

I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing, so go bother someone else, and bring your lawyer with you.

"Work, work…come on! Work!" I muttered under my breath, trying to quell my panic as I fell through the air. Perhaps just Flashing up to several thousand feet wasn't such a good idea.

"Thirteen percent power, sir." Jarvis relayed to both of us, instead of one of us at a time.

"Climb!" I hear my dad order, as I tried to focus my sparks…

"Shouldn't have done this…shouldn't have done this….BAD IDEA!" I screamed, and closed my eyes as I free fell through the air.

"Penny! What are you doing!?" Dad asked me, but I ignored him, I was too focused on my sparks.

"Eleven percent." Jarvis stated.

"Keep Going!" Tony yelled.

"Surge, surge, please, surge!" I cried as Tony called my name again.

My sparks flared, and I opened my eyes to see myself hovering about ten feet away from a skyscraper's rooftop. Random static bolts were flying all around me, and I had no clue how, but I was floating.

"Cool…was Mortem right?" I muttered under my breath, making sure Tony couldn't hear.

I glanced at Tony's face before twisting around and seeing the flares that was the suits in the sky.

"I'm a coming." I stated, and Flashed away. Hey, I couldn't fly, but if I could Flash and float or whatever… I was good.

"Seven percent power," I heard Jarvis report as I reappeared, though his voice was wavering. Shit, not good.

"Just leave it on the screen." Tony yelled. "Stop telling me!"

I flashed higher, and brought up my shield to protect me against the cold…not that it worked. My breath became shallower as the air became thinner, but I ignored everything other than helping my dad.

Stane caught up quickly, as I was trying to Flash and Float over to the couple.

I narrowed my eyes as I saw him grab onto Tony's leg, damaging the repulsor. Stane pulled down to him, and after punching him, started squeezing him.

"Oi!" I yelled, idly wondering what was up with my British dialect today, and, while hovering in the air, threw a large bolt that hit Stane in the back of the head.

His repulsors flickered, but nothing else came out of it… I could use an EMP blast to short out his suit, but with Tony right there, I might end up ruining Dad's as well.

"You have a great idea, Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way!" Stane exclaimed as I charged up another large electric ball.

"One shot…just need one shot…." I stated to myself, though I knew Tony could hear me.

"How'd you solve the icing problem?" Tony stated, "Oh, and I believe you have met my daughter?"

"Icing problem?" Stane echoed, worry in his voice, "I…" But whatever he was about to say was unheard as the suit died. I released the blast, and it knocked Stane away from Tony and caused him to start freefalling.

"Might want to look into it!" Tony called down.

"Starks 1, Stane 0." I stated with a grin.

Tony stood there, balancing on only one repulsor and I floated next to him, surrounded by my storm of sparks.

"How did you get up here?" He asked me as Jarvis reported,

"Two percent." The repulsors all flickered, and Tony dropped a foot before catching himself. Then they completely died and he fell about five hundred feet before they sparked back to life for just a moment.

"Not good." Tony told me, as I let go of my sparks and fell down and hovered next to him.

"We are now running on emergency backup power." Jarvis said as the repulsors stopped working altogether.

"Come one!" I cried, and seeing how swiftly he was falling I Flashed down to him. I grabbed onto his shoulders, and charged up my sparks. The energy flew from my reactor, into Tony's giving it a boost it greatly needed.

The repulsors flickered on for a moment before failing again.

"Want me to Flash you down?" I asked loudly.

"No, don't know how the suit'll react." Tony replied, as we continued to fall.

I fed more energy into the suit, causing sweat to appear on my brow. I started panting as the repulsors flared back to life.

For the rest of the fall towards the earth, the repulsors came on every thirty seconds or so; giving us much better control over the free fall then before.

Tony managed to land on the factory's roof, and I dropped to the ground, panting heavily. The repulsors died, sending Tony crashing into to roof.

"Ouch," I commented as I ran quietly over.

"Potts!" Tony said, and Jarvis connected them. I remained silent, regaining my breath.

"Tony! Oh, my God are you okay?" Pepper yelled, her loud voice caused me to twitch. I did not need her that loud in my ear piece.

"Volume down a bit, Jar." I muttered, glad that Pepper did not hear me.

"I'm almost out of power." Tony commented as he pulled off his glove and went to remove his helmet.

A bad feeling appeared in my stomach as Tony continued, "I've got to get out of this thing. I'll be right there."

I jumped as Stane landed right behind Tony; thankfully, Tony closed his faceplate as Stane snarled,

"Nice try!" and tried to punch him. Tony dodged and went to shoot him with the repulsor but he tried to shoot with the hand that no longer hand a glove.

'Shoot,' I thought as I charged up energy balls. Then, Stand punched him in the face, sending him tumbling across the roof.

"Leave him alone!" I yelled, throwing ball after ball at him.

But they seemed to have almost no effect on him. Tony, using his repulsors, jumped up and punched Stane in the faceplate, but it did nothing except bang…loudly.

"Dad," I stated, my eyes widening, "Distract him. If I can get a good hold on him, then I might be able to drain the Arc dry!"

"Got it." Tony replied right as Stane managed to grab him with both hands and started pulling the suit apart.

Tony struggled for a moment as the suit sparked before he said, "Now would be a good time please!"

His words snapped me out of my shock and taking a running leap, I managed to lock my hands around the mechanics of his neck, and my arms flared as I pulled as much power off of him as I physically could.

"Weapons status?" Tony asked, and I focused on his voice, the power I was absorbing was making my chest hurt… the Arc and my body could only hold so much.

"Repulsors offline. Missiles offline." Jarvis replied as the suit started spewing oil out of the back.

My sparks were dancing around me, and I struggled to absorb as much power as I could. My very skin hurt, and the energy was filling every atom of my body, trying to follow my commands. My eyes burned and my vision spun as Stane's suit died for a moment.

"HEY!" Stane yelled as the grip on Tony slacked just enough for him to yell, "Flares!"

I closed my eyes just in time, for a bunch of bright flares exited the suit from the hip, and Tony was dropped in the process.

I took a deep breath, against the overwhelming sensation of being electrocuted for the first time ever and then pushed as much power as I could out, against the suit beneath me.

The resulting explosion was much larger than I anticipated; I flew across the roof, and landed hard, on my back.

"Oh," I moaned as I slowly rolled over, "Not doing that again…" I looked up to see Stane trying to climb to his feet on the other side of the roof. While the blast hadn't moved him very much, the suit was scorched and the power kept flickering. I had done some damage.

Stane was blinded by the flares, as he said, "Very clever, Tony. How does it feel? Having a freak for a daughter?"

Rage filled me as Tony and I yelled together, "I'M/SHE'S NOT A FREAK!"

Stane chuckled as his vision returned, and his suit smoking, flickering, and occasionally twitching.

He started to look around to roof for Tony and I as I turned invisible and Tony hid behind an AC unit.

I crept silently over towards Tony, checking to see if Tony had added any gadgets to the skirt that I hadn't noticed before.

My eyes widened as I spotted throwing stars that also appeared to be made out of Palladium. My brow furrowed as I thought up a plan. However, so was Tony.

"Potts," Tony said quietly, drawing my attention.

"Jar, volume a bit louder please." I whispered, and the volume increased.

"Tony!" Pepper gasped through the intercom.

"This isn't working," He said, and I glanced down at his video feed to see that it appeared that his HUD was cracked…among other things. That wasn't good. "We're going to have to overload the reactor and blast the roof."

"Well," Pepper said, in shock, "how are you going to do that?"

"You're going to do it." Tony replied, I sent him a raised eyebrow in silent question, but he gave me a look that said, 'later.' "Go to the central console, open up all the circuits. When I get clear of the roof, I'll let you know. You're going to hit the mast bypass button; it's going to fry everything up here."

I pulled four stars into my hand, I had no clue how to throw them, but I would give it a try.

Knowing that Tony and Pepper needed a distraction, I silently crept to the other side of the roof, charging up the star. This was a total wild card… I hoped it worked.

"Okay, I'm going in now." Pepper said, as I let the star fly. It flew true, and hit Stane in the leg. The metal star exploded on impact, energy flew everywhere while the metal star itself imbedded itself into the leg.

"Make sure you wait till I clear the roof. I'll buy you some time."

"I'm already doing that." I stated quietly, and if Pepper heard me, she made no comment. Two possible reasons, Jarvis modified my voice, or Jarvis blocked Pepper from being able to hear me. Either way, Thanks Jar.

Stane stumbled, almost falling. He fired a missile at where I was, but I was already on the other side of the roof. The star slowed him down, the leg was now limping. With a smirk on my face, I pulled the other twelve stars out.

"Go time." I whispered and continued on with my game.

Three stars later, and Stane's movements were limited by a great amount. Nether legs could bend, and the left arm was practically immobile.

Just as I was about to launch another star, Tony jumped onto Stane's back, and stuck his hands into the mechanics and wiring.

"This looks important!" Tony stated as he pulled out a large tangle of cords.

Stane flared around, trying to reach Tony who hung on to his back with all of his might. I threw another star that hit Stane in the chest, however, it also made Tony slip, letting Stane grab him and throw him from his back….by the face.

"Sorry!" I told Tony as he slid onto the large skylight…his helmet and connection to both me and Jarvis gone.

I threw another star, right at the reactor, but Stane saw it coming, and blocked it with Tony's helmet. Before crushing it like a bug.

Throwing the smashed helmet at me, I barely managed to dodge as Stane opened up his suit.

"I never had a taste for this sort of thing," He stated, an insane look on his face.

"Really?" I stated sarcastically, "You can't tell."

"But I must admit, I'm deeply enjoying the suit." Stane stated, glaring at Tony.

Taking another star, but not charging it, I threw it towards Stane. However, it barely scratched the arm and bounced off.

"Not very fun toys without the powers huh brat?" Stane commented, looking at me since he could finally see me.

"I'm not a brat!" I hissed, the HUD making my voice louder than it actually was.

"You finally outdid yourself, Tony." Stane stated, limping slowly closer to my father. "You'd have made your father proud."

I hissed at the comment, but I didn't see Tony's reaction as I had pulled another star out and charged it up.

I saw Tony stand up as I shot the star that hit Stane right in the back of the knee; causing his leg to lock and him to wobble when the star exploded.

"It's ready, Tony! Get off the roof!" I heard Pepper shout in the distance.

Stane activated the machine gun attached to his right arm. Tony brought his arm up, and the armor created a shield for his face. The bullets, however, shattered the glass that Tony was standing on, causing him to fall and having to grab the beam to stop him from falling.

"DAD!" I yelled, and let another star fly, this one impacted the machinegun, causing it to explode in Stane's face and the arm to catch fire.

"TONY!" I heard Pepper yell. I raced towards my father, and approaching the broken skylight, I threw up a large field, the protected both myself and my father.

"How ironic, Tony!" Stane yelled, the bright light from the large Reactor making everything blue.

"What the bloody hell do you know about irony?" I asked under my breath, but Tony heard me.

"Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever!" Stane yelled.

"The best weapon in existence is the human mind," I quoted my Metaphysics Professor, Tony cracked a weak grin but it faded within a half second.

"Pepper!" Tony yelled, while shooting me a look. "Get out of here." He said, looking at me.

"No." I stated, I wasn't leaving. I knew what would happen when the Arc overloaded. I wasn't leaving Tony up here to die…alone.

"And now I'm going to kill you with it!" Stane announced as he fired a missile. It missed by a long shot, exploding at the edge of the roof.

"You ripped out my targeting system! And she damaged my movement." Stane announced.

"Time to hit that button!" Tony yelled, giving me one last pleading look.

"You told me not to!" Pepper protested.

"Hold still, you little prick!" Stane yelled, and fired another missile, which landed closer than the last one.

"Just do it!" Tony yelled the same time I yelled, "Listen to him, Woman!"

"You'll die!" Pepper yelled back.

The third missile fired and it caused Tony to slip. He was now only holding on to the bar with one hand. I lunged forward and wrapped both of my hands around Tony's wrist. I focused all of my strength on my shield, and opened my senses… I had no clue if it would work…

"PUSH IT!" Tony yelled at his PA before giving me one last pleading look.

"We're family." I said, letting my hood drop back so we could look in each other's eyes. "Family sticks together."

We both closed out eyes as we heard the energy built beneath us, and I concentrated on my shield as hard as I could…encasing both of us in its energy.

Then, the electricity hit.

Well, that's all for today, but hey! It was a long chapter! So be happy. I'm not completely happy with the chapter, and yes, Penny could have done a lot more. It was her first time in an actual fight… so yeah no matter how much I want her to be able to kick some A$$... she still has things to learn.

So if you're going to bug me about her not using her full potential…then go shut it. Other wide, I welcome all reviews. Thanks to everyone, and Espacole
Cp