The Unknown Variable

…I can't think of an interesting disclaimer….so I'll just say I own nothing and leave it at that.

Pen's POV

The next three months were…interesting to say the least.

After the whole blueberry incident, Tony and I finally sat down and talked about Mortem…yeah…I'm still trying to forget about it.

Tony had sat me down, and in extreme detail, gone over exactly what Mortem and I am allowed to do and not do…it was extremely vivid, and embarrassing and annoying…

Sadly…Mortem had shown up half way through it…and was so flustered that he left within thirty seconds, promising revenge.

His way of revenge was waiting until a morning later, showing up half way through breakfast and inquiring into Pepper's and Tony's…intimate life…yeah…I ended up leaving the room as red as a tomato and promising myself mentally to prank the hell out of my Bonded.

Pranks had become a very common thing in the Stark household, it had just started between Tony, Pepper, and I, but then Mortem joined in after the 'Conversation' and it just kept on growing.

It had taken a week for Rhodey to get the courage to come back to the house and speak with Tony and I. Apparently he had though that we were mad at him for (unintentionally) revealing the secret to Pepper. It was true, I had been slightly annoyed with him for not thinking ahead, but a bucket of pink paint over his head was quick to fix that.

After that, Rhodey (every time he came over which was once a week at the least) joined in on the numerous prank wars. There were no sides to this war, everyone pranked everyone, and if any alliances were made, they never lasted over 24 hours.

Hel and Insania also kept their promise and came over and took me out often. We had become great friends and were responsible for the…large scale pranks on numerous people, mostly Fury, a few annoying politicians, Hammer, and a few others that had annoyed either myself or Tony over the years.

Or people who were just pricks.

It was because of a prank on Fury that Agent Phil Coulson (who Dad had failed to tell me was in on the secret) started coming around. Apparently, he had seen a flash of red hair right before Fury became covered in hot pink paint, sparkles, and flowers.

So, with that, Phil had joined our little makeshift family. It was surprising, after one of Tony's pranks backfired and hit him, that he joined in in our pranking war. I wasn't surprised that the agent was a master prankster, I just had a gut feeling that I now knew had something to do with my past lives.

Phil now came over, like Rhodey, at least once a week. Apparently his two jobs right now was clean up duty in NM and making sure Thor's presence here remained Top Secret, and keeping an eye on Tony.

Fury and Romanoff had met with Tony in a secret location and had told him that because of his resent behavior, he was no longer eligible for the Avenger Initiative. They did brink him on as a freelance consultant…which Dad wasn't too happy about but wasn't complaining much about either.

Dad had recorded the conversation with the two spies, and we had all laughed hysterically when Tony told Fury where he could shove his eye patch and when he basically contradicted them on everything Romanoff reported…it was funny, and according to Dad, a lot like the other resent confrontations with SHIELD.

Phil's connections came in handy when Dad and I decided to kill off Telnets. It wasn't hard to fake 'my' death considering how much damage that was done to the town, it was quite easy for Phil, Dad and I to make up a story and plant a story of how falling debris had killed me.

We also made a fake will so that the 'body' was cremated and then we held a small funeral where half of my old town showed up, along with Pepper, Phil and Tony. Phil, Tony, and Selvig even said a few words, very few in Tony's case.

I had been there, in the back, invisible. Dad and I agreed afterwards, it was one of the strangest things we had ever done; and that was saying something.

I still visited Bruce and the others frequently, and slowly, Bruce started working with his alter-ego and the transformations became more balanced and controllable for both sides.

Another thing that happened was my sweet sixteen; which was an insane thing in itself. I, in some random fit of boredom, declared that I wanted to have a unique sweet sixteen, one which lasted the whole possible 48 hours instead of the normal 24.

Dad took my words to heart and two days before my birthday, Dad, Pepper, and I all boarded Dad's jet and he had timed our flight so that we passed into the International Date Line just as midnight struck…so we skipped a whole day…which was weird.

We then spent the next 48 hours slowly traveling the globe, as would fly for a few hours, touchdown, explore whichever country we were in for a few hours, then get back on the jet for another short flight.

It was really fun actually, Dad had disguises on so no one would recognize him, and had used his one jet that didn't have the Stark logo on the side, so we flew below the radar so to speak.

We must have stopped in over fifteen countries, from New Zealand, Australia, and the Philippians, to Japan, India, Greece, France, Ireland, and England. Not to mention those countries in Africa, (we avoided Russia…bad memories with Vanko) and a couple of countries in South America and Central America.

It had been quite the experience, and it was on the last few hours of our tip that Dad met Insania and Hel.

My two friends had decided to prank me, but because we had been flying almost all day, ended up pranking me in front of Mortem and Tony.

Mortem just glanced between all three of us and shook his head, obviously not surprised to see us together, though not happy about it.

Tony on the other had wanted to know who the where and how they got on the plane. Pepper couldn't see them.

I had explained that Hel (I introduced her as Helen but she had told Tony never to call her that) worked for Mortem in his line of work and Tony was quickly able to put the pieced together. I had said that she was Thor's niece, I had explained to him what happened in NM a while ago, with more details then Mortem had.

Insania was a bit harder to introduce, but I introduced her as one of Mortem's sisters, and used her real name, considering she would torment me if I called her anything else.

Hel's violet eyes, which can become red on her command, had really interested Tony, and it had taken hours for me to get my two friends to leave, after promising them (Insania) to go to the movies with them the next day.

Dad had been relieved that I had friends my age (sorta, not that he knew that) and told me to go out with them whenever I wanted but on a few conditions.

I was given a ten pm curfew and Dad had made me a secure cell phone that was almost identical to my Tablet but it didn't have as much memory.

The only rule was that I was careful and just kept in touch and tell him the general area that I was going to.

(Dad had placed a tracker in my phone, and I pretended that I didn't know…but seriously, I didn't really mind. Starks are a bit paranoid after all.)

Hel and Insania really liked doing normal Mortal things, and they were determined to get me to be a kid. So we went everywhere possible, and had a lot of fun.

They also took me on a shopping spree…which took over twelve hours, I felt like a Barbie doll the whole time.

Dad and I also…bent…a few rules, and I got my permit and driver's license within a few weeks. I hacked their system so that they thought it had been a six month period between getting the two.

As a late birthday present, Dad, Rhodey, and Pepper all picked out a car for me. Don't get me wrong, I love it; I mean, who wouldn't love the latest Ferrari that wasn't supposed to be released for another six months, but it was Dad's and Mortem's present that really caught my eye.

Dad had conspired with Mortem to get me a motorcycle, a really sweet dark blue motorcycle that was the best money could buy. Pepper had thrown a fit when it showed up, but, like Dad and my Bonded had planned; Mortem took the fall for it.

It was funny, Pepper tried to yell at my boyfriend, but since she couldn't see him she ended up yelling at air for about an hour before I came home and asked who she was yelling at.

Insania adored my new bike, while Hel said it should be red and left it at that.

Dad and I tinkered with my bike every chance we got, and there were so many new features with it now…it could do basically anything.

We never recreated my suit I didn't really feel a need. Even though I was stuck between my two forms, my powers had gotten a lot stronger, and after proving this fact to Tony, he had let the matter drop. Though he had remade my gantlets and belt, just in case, and I still had my boots.

If I ever needed to be Electra… who had 'vanished' and I didn't think I would ever reawake her, I had my silver cape and the girls had gotten me an outfit, a normal outfit, but a killer kick a$$ outfit all the same.

Pepper and I, after a few awkward weeks, finally bonded; and while she would never take the place of Mom…she was starting to feel like a second mother to me. It helped that I didn't have a problem if she actually became my mom someday in the future. (I kept dropping hints to Tony, but he was purposefully ignoring them)

Stark Industries also did a three-sixty involving their manufacturing. Tony had started pulling the company into a new direction when everything went to hell, but now, it was stronger than ever.

Stark Industries was now the only source of clean energy, and they also had the best defense and security programs that you could buy.

With the Arc technology along with the element, the company swiftly climbed back up to the top of the industrial world.

We supplied the US military (and SHIELD) with new energy based shields, (which Tony had created by finding the correct frequency that my powers used and recreated it) and had upgraded all firewalls and had even supplied all agencies with new glass screens and some low tech holograms.

The Arc tech also started to be a reliable power source and already the coal and oil businesses had started declining…which they weren't happy about.

Tony had started a whole branch of Stark Industries that went into helping educate and stabilize third-world counties.

We also, after I had found the school, made an anonymous donation of high-tech electronics and different systems to the Xavier Institute, which for some reason; I knew I had some connection to…in some other life time.

Tony had also done some anonymous backing of politicians who were fighting for mutant and meta-human rights, along with other things that would balance power in the world and stop all of the idiotic power play between the 'normal' and 'abnormal' groups, along with, hopefully, stopping some of the prejudice along the way.

Tony Pepper and I were the major brainpower behind the company's new direction. Though Pepper stated that when Tony and I got going, it was best to just sit back and watch, it would be dangerous to try and keep up.

Everything that we had done was only the beginning. We were determined to change the world the best we could.

As a way to advertise and display just how much power the new Arc tech had, construction of Stark Towner in NYC was started. It would be a completely green, off the grin sky scraper literally built with new tech that most of the world just beginning to see.

Pepper had told us that if she didn't know about this whole other side to everything, she wouldn't thought that the Tower was another way to boost Tony's ego, but now that she saw the masterminding behind it, she agreed it was a great way to go about it.

Pepper was still the CEO, though Tony was a major player, I wasn't sure how it worked, but somehow they had changed a few thing around so Tony and Pepper had equal power in the company but Pepper took care of all of the legal and business stuff while Tony did what Tony did best.

I thought it worked really well, I just started saying that they were Co-CEOs …Tony had laughed and just shook his head.

Almost two months after my birthday, Stark Tower was finished, and we moved it. It had the best security systems on the planet and there was no way that I would be discovered, so we all felt confident that we could pull it off.

We weren't going to make Stark Tower our permanent home, but as part of the advertising we would all live there for about a month or two, to show the world just what we (though they still don't know about me) could do.

Everything had been calmer in those three months. Our family grew larger and closer, and I got an actual taste of normality…something I always wanted.

But a growing pit of dread and worry had been growing in my stomach. None of my Immortal or Asgard friends would…or could…tell me what was going on, they all just said that they weren't allowed to tell me anything and I would have to figure things out on my own.

Which I started to do with the limited knowledge that I had; Insania was a big help though…she would drop hints that were worded so strangely that it would take me hours to understand what she meant, and when I did…I was really grateful.

Tony had finally stopped bugging me on how on earth I had met Mortem and my other… not normal…friends, but I just evaded his questions and he finally let it go and accepted that I was just connected with very strange things.

Though Pepper….she hadn't gotten there yet, but that was alright, she was still new to all of this.

Basically, it was a break, we all got back on our feet, we grew stronger with one another, and we slowly started making the changes we wanted to bring about.

Sadly, no matter how much Dad would say it.

It wasn't the end of our problems; it wasn't the end of our struggles and the fights.

It was only the beginning.

And that is where the real story begins.

Finished….for now….

DONE!

….I don't know whether to be happy or sad….anyway, the next part, (remember, this was a prequel...sorta) is already up and the URL is s/9630148/1/Awakening

I hoped that ended well enough, I could have split this into a few more chapters but it all just came out and well, I think it sets the scene well enough.

Avengers and HP really come into play in the next part; I thank everyone who has stuck with me through all of this greatly, and hope you continue to follow Penny on her journey.

As Infinitas would say, "There are no ends, only new beginnings."

And as I have said many times, this is only the beginning.

The Unknown Variable is done, but the E're Series and Awakening has just begun.

Awakening is now up, enjoy.

Thanks to everyone, new and old, and thank you my Beta's,
Expecto Prongs and Aqua Are.

Cry-Pom