The Unknown Variable

(Edited as of 5/7/14 by Espacole)

I, swear on the reality of Marvel, that I never have, and never will, own Marvel, Disney, or HP.

I sighed as I spun around in Tony's chair. The past month had been… interesting to say the least. After Tony ousted himself as Iron Man, the press had been digging into Tony's life with a renewed interest.

Sadly, that meant that we had to be even more careful; which was really annoying.

It wasn't just the press that was digging around. The whole town in New Mexico had taken a keen (to say the least) interest in me.

I now had at least two people showing up on my doorsteps every day. The town's teens wanted to be my friends, the kids wanted me to be their idol or something, and every adult in town wanted to be my mentor.

It. Was. Insane.

It had gotten to the point that I had to do something to get some peace and quiet.

So, with Tony's help, I totally mechanicalized my whole house. It had taken over two weeks, but it had been worth it.

Now the holograms were less like holograms and more like an AI, though not as specialized as Jarvis.

It was an independent system that would make the hologram as realistic as possible. Every door hinge had been electronicalized, the fridge could open by itself, the sink could turn on and off, chairs could move across the floor. The TV, radio, lights, and every other electronic were now completely operable to the AI.

The Hologram could live in the house, and I wouldn't have to do anything.

Except meet people in the real world when they invited me to places; but, as long as no one tried to get the AI hologram to leave the house, it was a masterpiece.

I could also monitor the AI's actions through my Tablet, and direct what it did; laundry, showering, watching TV, working on my 'dissertations' anything, it made it possible.

Although, the AI wasn't physically touching anything, I had rigged the house so it would appear that it would.

Personally, I thought it was brilliant and I should get an award for it. But sadly, that would require me to blow the whole scam anyway…not gonna happen.

I was almost, almost done with my dissertations. For some reason, they had just been really hard to write, the normal drama in a Stark's life also didn't help.

Tony and I had also gotten closer in the past month. With Rhodey now in on our little secret, I could go places with Tony, as long as Rhodey was there to keep the cover, but it felt nice to get out of the house with my father.

Rhodey tried to come over at least twice a week, if not more, to hang out with me and my father. I think I have been growing on him, or something.

Anyway, Rhodey was now my surrogate uncle. Sort of like how Dr. Millod had been.

Oh, don't worry; I hadn't forgotten about what happened. In fact, that was one of the first things I did after the fight.

two days after the fight with Stane

I screamed out in frustration and pain as I threw the wrench at the wall. My face was covered in dried tears and my eyes were red from crying.

Tony wasn't here, Pepper had dragged him out some hours ago…I couldn't remember why, but I didn't care.

"WHY!" I screamed as I threw another wrench at the lab wall. The resulting bang and clatter did nothing to make me feel better.

It was if someone had stabbed a hole in the middle of my heart…it just hurt…so much!

"WHY the BLOODY HELL did HE HAVE TO DO THAT!" I yelled continuing to throw various tools at the wall.

"HE ORDERED THEM TO DIE! WHY! WHY DID HE DO THAT! SURE, HE WAS A BLOODY PHYSCO BUT STILL!"

"ARG!" I screamed as I flipped over a table, causing Tony's paper work and other stuff to go flying.

"Miss Penny, do try to calm…" Jarvis started to say but I interrupted him, sending a tearful glare at the ceiling.

"Don't you DARE tell me to calm down!" I yelled at the AI that was practically my brother.

"He killed them…all of them…they're gone…" I choked back a sob before I burst back into tears, collapsing on the floor by Tony's upturned desk.

"They're gone…" I whispered to myself as the words finally sunk in. Stane might have ordered the shot, but the people who actually did it were still alive…

"They are gonna pay!" I hissed as I stood up, my newfound fury hiding my pain.

"Jarvis!" I shouted, stepping onto the pad. "Suit me up!"

"Miss Penny…I don't believe that in your current…" The AI said, trying to stop me from doing anything stupid.

"Jarvis, just do it." I ordered as the floor moved and the numerous arms dressed me in my outfit…that was still damaged from the fight with Stane. I hadn't bothered to clean it up yet.

"Oh, and Jar." I said as the hood fell over my face and the HUD lit up. "Not a word to my father."

Then I walked over to the hole in the roof and Flashed away.

I had some criminals to catch.

I rolled my eyes at the pathetic firewalls the police had. I mean seriously, even a low level hacker would be able to tear them down in a second.

Not to mention that I was not a low level hacker.

My suit blended in with the shadows as I hijacked the Sheriff's hard-drive. They had no leads in Ashley's case. They had two suspects, but with no evidence, unless they confessed, they walked free.

I would not allow that.

Writing down the two addresses of the suspects, I then erased my presence in the system, before I Flashed over the hospital.

I had some surveillance feeds to steal.

The surveillance videos were a bit harder to hack into…like…two percent harder. I rolled my eyes at the world's lacking security. Seriously, no wonder SHIELD could find anything out about anyone… it wasn't exactly hard.

Bringing up the feed from the Ward a few days ago, I scanned the crowd, looking for the men that Dr. Millod had described to me.

A smile spread across my face as I watched the men talk to numerous nurses, and Dr. Millod, just like he said.

"Got you." I whispered as I froze the frame exactly at the same time both men glanced at the hidden camera.

Blowing up the frame, and enhancing the photo took a moment, but I soon had a very clear picture of their faces.

"Well boys," I said studying their faces. "Time for a little…get together."

Picturing the larger man's face in my mind, I wiped my actions from the database and quickly exited the hospital unnoticed.

Clearing bringing up his face in my mind, I flashed away. Time to get these men behind bars.

I was actually surprised, not only had the Sheriff's suspects been the two men who actually killed Ashley and her family, but it was extremely easy to get them to confess. I hadn't even needed to 'order' them to with my sparks.

I had found them exiting a bar, a town away from the hospital I had grown up in, and after dragging the drunken men into an alley they quickly spilled the beans.

"Don't know what you're talkin' 'bout lady!" the first man, the larger one, who had way too much to drink said.

"Oh," I replied coldly, "I'm sure you do. You killed that nurse, and her family. You were hired, and now, you will be going to jail."

The younger of the two men, who was in his early twenties, spoke up clearly scared of me. "We didn't want to do it! But our families man! We needed the money!"

"Who hired you?" I asked, pretending I didn't know. If they did know it was Stane, which I doubted, then it could cause some complications.

"Look man," the younger one said, as the other one tried to shut him up. "We were hired, but I have no clue who was on the other line! I swear! I didn't want to hurt her…"

"Shut it!" The drunken man hissed, pulling out a gun. "You talk too much, you yella' bellied rookie!"

I stared at the pistol, as Jarvis pulled up a lot of information on the screen. "You think that'll stop me? You must be pretty naive."

The older, drunken man pushed his buddy to the ground as he turned off the safety.

"You're the one who's naive lady!" he sneered, smelling strongly of whiskey. "You think that pathetic get up scares us?"

I rolled my eyes although he couldn't see the action. Man, these guys were idiots… perhaps it was just because he was drunk?

With a swift kick, I sent his gun flying out of his hand. I dodged his fist as I pulled his feet out from underneath him. With a well-placed kick to the head, the drunken man was knocked out cold.

I heard a loud crash behind me and turned to see the other man fleeing the ally.

"Idiots." I muttered, Flashing in front of the murderer.

"Holy Shit!" he cried as I appeared in front of him in a flash of lightening. With another kick to the head with my boots, the murderer dropped to the ground, a large bump appearing on his head.

Rolling my eyes I dragged the younger man over to his companion before I Flashed over to the police station and dropped them in a holding cell.

I wrote a quick note, and taped the small recorder that I had taken from the Lab to the wall by the cell.

You needed a confession. Here it is.
~A friend

I smirked as I exited the station and Flashed away. Revenge was sweet.

Having the two men behind bars hadn't made the pain of losing Ashley and Dr. Millod any less painful. But it helped ease my mind knowing that justice had been served.

I cringed as I remembered the conversation that Tony and I had had afterwards. Apparently, Tony had showed up right after I left, and instead of Jarvis telling him…he found a loophole…video footage of my tantrum.

Let's just say that the talk lasted for five hours and I cried hysterically half the time.

Thankfully, with Tony discovering what happened, he transferred half of Stane's frozen assets towards Ashley's mother, who was living in a nursing home, and the other half to the hospital. He was careful to cover his tracks, so that no one could trace it back to him, and I was glad that something had been done to help.

The world wasn't perfect, and we couldn't fix everything. That was something I learned that day, but we could still try to make it a better place.

That took longer than I thought. But hey, she got them locked up! There are going to quite a few filter chapters that cover everything that happens in the six months between movies.

I will be mentioning this later as well, but just a heads up. While I own Iron Man II, it's on my Kindle, and I discovered that my Kindle can't do subtitles… so I'll do the best I can on keeping the important scenes accurate…like I was doing here. If that makes any sense.

Anyway, thanks to you all. Oh, and Guest reviewers, if you want to yell at me then at least leave some way for me to reply. I am in full support of criticism, and everyone has their own view and opinion, but yelling and bashing just to yell and bash is inappropriate. Especially when every other word is a curse.

Thanks to Espacole,
Cp