The Unknown Variable

I own nothing. I have stated this 71 times…do you believe me yet?

Attention people! I am posting this and the next two chapters afterwards because I am going away for a few days (school camping trip) and will not be able to post till either Friday or Saturday my time. SO I am posting in advance.

Be happy I didn't just ditch all of you...though you might kill me...

I have to say, that the new Arc was…impressive to say the least. Mortem had explained to me what Dad had done, and I was shocked. Even in our world, creating a new element was impressive.

The new Arc, although a bit…interesting looking…had a much better power output and a much, stronger, and cleaner source of energy. My sparks sung unlike ever before, and I never noticed how tainted my Sparks had felt until they were no longer like that.

While I wasn't entirely sure that the change was entirely from the new Arc, I was sure that it played a big part in it.

Even though I was partly Immortal now, I was still dependent on my Core, and probably still would be even after I Awoke, though I wasn't one hundred percent sure about that.

It was very easy to get to the Expo; my new mode of Flashing was quicker and more discreet.

As I stood on a skyscraper overlooking the panicking crowds and explosions that Hammer's drones had created, a large burst of rage came over me, and I snarled.

Ivan Vanko had over stepped his bounds, and now, he had me to deal with.

I placed the com. in my ear but didn't activate it. Dad needed to deal with this without me distracting him, and besides, I didn't want SHIELD to get wind of this. That was the last thing I needed.

Mortem appeared besides me and asked, "You ready?"

"Like always love, like always." I answered causing my Bonded to smirk.

I giggled as I disappeared, Mortem and I had a plan, and boy, was this going to be fun.

Tony's POV

My breath hitched as I saw a drone aiming at a kid wearing an Iron Man mask, the kid wasn't running, and I had to wonder what was going through the child's mind.

Just as I was about to land in front of it, shadows jumped up from the ground and wrapped around the drone, before dragging it back down.

"Huh," I commented to myself as I changed directions and flew back into the air, targeting the drones tailing me. That had looked like what Mortem had done…was he helping?

I didn't have time to think about that…or anything really as Rhodey's voice echoed though the com.

"You have about eight coming in hot, Tony." Rhodey had been silent since I told him about Pen, and telling him actually made me feel a bit better…like how telling Dr. Foster had.

I was finally able to lock away the ocean of feelings and deal with this mess, I knew I had had a part in creating it, but Hammer was the idiot that got the guy out of prison.

"We need to get this away from the Expo and civilians." I stated as I shot up higher into the sky the eight drones following me.

I managed to cut down two with repulsor blasts and one more with a mini missile, but the others were hot on my tale.

I weaved through downtown, and around the highway bridge, my eyes widened as I made a sharp turn and two more drones crashed trying to copy my actions.

"So you guys can't turn…" I muttered to myself as I quickly devised a plan.

"Tony, listen, a pack of those things just peeled off, their heading back towards the Expo." Rhodey stated over the com.

"I saw 'em." I stated, watching their progress on my screen.

Something strange was happening at the Expo, more and more of the grounded drones were disappearing, their signatures just vanishing from my sensors. I hoped that they were being destroyed and didn't have some kind of cloaking technology.

I swiftly dodged a few enemy rockets as I headed back outside, things were getting tricky.

"I'm closing in on you, locking and getting ready to fire! Watch it Tony!" Rhodey exclaimed in worry.

I managed to easily dodge all of his attacks; though the many cars beneath us didn't have that pleasure…I was donating something to them afterwards.

I made a sharp turn again as soon as we were in open sky and shot back towards the Expo.

"You wanted to play? Well, let's play." I snarled as I flew through the sky.

This needed to end.

Penny's POV

It was quiet fun, actually, making the many droids vanish. While I wasn't one hundred present sure how I was doing it…it was fun!

However, another tug on my soul caused me to freeze as the droid in front of me vanished in a storm of sparks.

"Hmmm" I muttered to myself as I was quick to locate the source of the disturbance.

"Mortem, keep it up. I'll be back in a flash!" I shouted to my boyfriend and though I only saw his Shadows creeping along the ground, I knew he heard me.

He always did.

With a great burst of power I disappeared, I had a Russian to take care of.

I arrived at the Hammer building about the same time Black widow did, and smirked, this was going to be interesting.

Happy was trying to take down a security guard as Romanoff slipped past him.

"Hello," I greeted her, my hood down; thankfully, my voice modifier had been salvaged from the suit…not that she would recognize my voice anyway.

"And you are?" Romanoff stated as she jumped over the first guy, wrapped her legs around his head, and flipped him like she had done to Happy.

"Electra." I stated jumping over another guard, and with a quick burst of energy, he dropped to the ground.

She eyed me curiously before nodding and jumping over and taking down the next one, "New outfit."

I rolled my eyes, though she couldn't see me. "Old one was trashed after New Mexico. I didn't have a backup."

"Always have backup." Romanoff stated. She slid through another guards legs before I kicked him in the head knocking him out.

Romanoff tackled another one, as I ducked under one's fist, and held my sparking hands to his head. He dropped, unconscious, instantly.

Two more came running around the corner and with a swift jerk of my hand, a shield sprang up between us and them, they fell unconscious as they crashed into it.

Romanoff threw two flash bombs at another set of guards, and was quick to disable them before they could even blink.

This wasn't as fun as I thought I would be, so I let out a long range electrical wave that sent every guard in the building into unconsciousness, and grabbing onto Romanoff's shoulders, transported us straight into Vanko's cell.

I had used the energy output level in the building to find where most of the currents were going, it was a guess, but I was right.

Sadly, he was gone by the time we got there.

I let go of Romanoff instantly, and ducked her attack. "Hey! Stop, I got us here faster, didn't I?" I stated harshly.

She glared at me before hissing, "You could have done that sooner! And besides, I don't need your help!"

I rolled my eyes before turning my attention towards the computers.

My eyes widened and I cursed, "Shit!"

"What's wrong?" Romanoff asked as she sat down in the chair and started hacking the system.

"He made a suit! Shit, he made a fucking suit!" I cursed and threw an energy ball against the wall in anger.

Man, this day just sucked.

"Go help Stark, I've got everything from this end." Romanoff ordered, and I glared at her. I was going to help my Dad. She didn't mean to be mean about it.

Pressing two buttons on the keyboard, and letting my sparks fly, I connected my com to the network. I would be able to listen in on Romanoff and help Tony at the same time.

"Call me if you need something." I stated, ignoring her glare as I charged up my sparks "I'm good with computers."

Tony's POV

I had managed to make three more crash, however, another whole team of them had been deployed, making me want to yell and scream, and smash Hammer's head in.

"Rhodey, you still locked on?" I asked as Jarvis stated,

"Sir, I am in the Mark Two's systems. I shall be disengaging the current target and returning fire to the drones. However, we will need a full system restart before Colonel Rhodes will be able to retake control of the suit."

"You get that buddy?" I asked him as I turned around and shot three more out of the sky. Just how many of these things were there? "

"Yeah, I got it Tony!" Rhodey yelled.

"Hold on," I stated as we shot towards the global structure. "Things are about to get bumpy! Lock on targets Jarvis, and fire at will."

"Of course, sir." Jarvis replied instantly.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Rhodey yelled but I ignored him.

I smirked as the targets and calculated path appeared on the HUD. I saw Rhodey swerve around the globe just as I entered. I shot through, turned around, and shot back through the top.

None of the droids could manage that, and they all exploded upon impact of Asia. Huh, looked like Jar didn't need to fire at all.

I flew back around and said, "Be glad Jarvis took your systems before you had to follow. Where are you?"

"Right behind you." Rhodey replied and I let the repulsors die for a moment, so Rhodey was in front of me, before I grabbed onto his back and swerved, causing both us to crash into the green house type of thing and land in the mud.

"What was that for!?" Rhodey yelled lifting his head from the water.

"You insulted my fathering ability." I stated coldly before smirking. "Besides it was needed, Jarvis systems reboot."

"Right away, sir." Jarvis replied and I only managed to hear the start of Rhodey's protest before the modified suit died, the link along with it.

Rest of the fight later, Iron Man II is coming to a close…Tony will see Penny in the next chapter…probably.

Thanks to everyone,
Cp