Awakening

I own nothing, if you think I do then Penny shall fry you and Hulk shall smash.

This chapter is dedicated to my little sister, who loves this song and the show that it comes from. If you know it, you get a cyber-cookie.

Pen's POV

I mentally sighed and popped my neck as I selected the hologram floating in front of me. I was tired, bored, and extremely sore. Not a good combination let me tell you. It's been almost four hours since the surge, and ever since my adoring Sister had dropped me in the Tower's elevator without an explanation I haven't heard from any of my fellow Immortals.

Not even Mortem was answering my calls! It had started to get beyond annoying after about an hour. Thankfully, Pepper and Tony hadn't been in the living room part of the Tower when I literally stumbled out of the elevator and collapsed on the couch. A few key word commands to Jarvis and Dad would never know how rough that surge had left me.

Finally, after about three cups of chai and some chocolate bars later, I had enough energy to at least rant and pace; which is what I was doing when Tony and Pepper came up at about eight with boxes of Chinese food.

I ranted and raved to my dad and soon-to-be mom, (even though neither of them was admitting it) for about an hour and a half, about how I knew something was going on but no one would tell me. After explaining what had happened in the park of course. Finally, about an hour ago, Pepper had gotten tired of my rant and told me that if I wanted to figure out what was going on then I should actually be investigating, not throwing a temper tantrum.

I had glared at Pepper, and had almost yelled at her before I realized that she was right, like usual, and I started researching what on earth the power surge could be.

It wasn't exactly going well, considering the only thing I had to go on was strange energy, and the specific time. But I had a feeling that one of my worms would pick something up eventually; they always did.

But, at the moment I was bored. Tony was…currently out or something, and until one of my worms found something, there really wasn't much I could do. Glancing at the clock and noticing that I was after ten I stretched as I lifted my sore body off the couch and wondered into my room. If I was going to be stuck staring at holograms for a few hours I wanted to be comfy while I was doing it.

I pulled on one of Dad's ACDC T-shirts that I had snagged along with a pair of loose, grey sweat pants. With a sigh I pulled my hair back into two small pig tails, letting the single silver stipe hang down to frame my face.

Sadly, the silver stripe and the blue-green eyes that I had gained when I became 'stuck' between Mortal and Immortal, never went away. It wasn't that I didn't like the changes; I actually thought that the single silver stripe made me look cool. However, the eyes were what bugged me, they weren't the bright blue they had been, and they weren't the brilliant green that was now mixed in. I just wanted them to pick a color and settle it already.

But I had a feeling that until I became fully Immortal, that it wasn't going to change.

Walking back to the couch, I pulled out my tablet, which had been once again upgraded, and enlarged the multiple playlists that Mortem had created for me. Apparently Mortem had gotten bored with my very limited taste in music and had told me that he didn't trust my choices. So, one day when I had been sleeping he stole my tablet and somehow downloaded a whole bunch of music, from every genre that existed, and a few that I was sure wasn't from this dimension.

Hitting shuffle I laughed as a particular song came on, it was funny because something every similar to the scene the song created happened to me this morning, when Hel, Insania and I had been out wondering around town.

We had been checking out a fancy mall when a group of guys, all about two years older than me at least, started hitting on us. They weren't just hitting on us though, their flirting was horrible, and frankly I thought they were all just desperate.

Hel and I had made it quite clear almost instantly that we weren't interested; Insania had just been staring at the water fall in fascination. However, the boys hadn't exactly gotten the hint and even though we walked away, Hel and I dragging Insania, they followed, and wouldn't let up.

They were determined to continue with their horribly inappropriate and cheesy pickup lines along with their awful flirting.

As the lyrics to the song started to play I started imagining what would have happened if I had said something along these lines to the annoying flirters. Looking back, I wish that I had. I couldn't help but sing along, as I highjacked the penthouse speakers. I was pretty sure that Pepper and Tony were somewhere else in the Tower, but either way I didn't really care. They were used to it by now.

While this song personally wasn't my favorite song, it had funny lyrics that were totally relevant to the scene that had happened this morning.

Why am I always HIT ON BY THE BOYS I NEVER LIKE?
I can always SEE 'EM coming from the left and from the right

I DON'T wanna be a priss, I'm JUST trying to be polite,
But it always seems to bite me in the-

Ask me for my number, yeah you put me on the spot
You think that we should hookup, but I think that we should not

You had me at hello, THEN you opened up your mouth
And THAT IS when it started going south
OH!

Get your hands off my hips
Or I'LL punch you in the lips
Stop your STARIN' at my (Hey!)
Take a hint, take a hint
No you CAN'T buy me a drink
Let me tell you what I think
I think you could use a mint
Take a hint, take a hint
T-take a hint, take a hint

I guess you still DON'T get it, so let's take it from the top
You ASKED me what my sign is, and I told you it was stop
And If I had a dime for every name THAT you just dropped
You'd be here and I'd be on a YACHT
oh!

Get your hands off my hips
OR I'LL PUNCH YOU in the lips
Stop your STARIN' at my (hey!)
Take a hint, take a hint
No you CAN'T buy me a drink
Let me tell you what I think
I think you could use a mint
Take a hint, take a hint
T-take a hint, take a hint

What about "NO" don't you get?
So go and tell your friends
I'm not really interested

IT'S about time THAT YOU'RE leaving
I'M gonna count to three and
Open my eyes and you'll be gone

One, get your hands of my-
Two, or I'll punch you in the-
Three, stop your STARIN' at my- (hey!)
TAKE a hint, take a hint

I AM not your missing link
Let me tell you what I think
I think you COULD use a mint
Take a hint, take a hint
TAKE A HINT, TAKE A HINT
Whoa!
Get your hands off my hips
Or I'LL punch you in the lips
Stop your STARIN' at my (hey!)
Take a hint, take a hint
T-Take a hint, take a hint

By the end of the song I was dancing on the couch, the loud music causing the glass windows to rattle. Boy was I glad that the penthouse was sound proof.

I flopped down onto my back as the song ended, I giggled to myself, before jumping onto my feet as Dad's voice echoed in my ear.

"Do I even want to know why your laughing and singing along to that song? I thought that that wasn't really your genre of music." Dad drawled tiredly through the com in my ear. That I had conveniently forgotten about.

I giggled again and rolled my eyes, there was no way that I was telling Dad about the boys from this morning.

"No, no reason, it just seemed to fit the moment." I tried to keep my voice flat, I really did. But I burst out laughing soon afterwards as the memory of Hel decking one of the boys came to the forefront of my mind.

"For the sake of my fatherly sanity, I'm not going to ask." Dad sighed and I giggled even more as I remembered how I had decked two others.

"Yeah," I agreed as I slowly succumbed to my laughter, "That's probably best."

Dad sighed, and I had a feeling that he wasn't too happy at playing father at the moment. "Well, at least you can take care of yourself."

"Yup!" I agreed before I burst out laughing at the mental picture of Insania turning two of the boys into fish and then throwing them into the mall's fountain.

So, this group of about five boys had decided that it was a good idea to flirt, badly, with us. That was their first mistake. The second was the fact that they flirted using crude humor, and then comparing us to pointless things like a lamp and toasters. I wasn't even sure what they had been trying to accomplish with that. Finally, after about twenty minutes and we discovered that just walking away wouldn't work, they had made their third mistake and insulted Insania, who had been ignoring them completely.

As expected, by Hel and I, Insania's eyes had hardened slightly and she had said, "Are these humans actually monkey's or do they just have small brains." It had been hilarious. But it had also been the last straw. The boys had tried to charge Insania, but of course Hel and I had been faster.

This of course hadn't been the first time that we had been forced to deal with hormonal men, but still. They had crossed the line. Five minutes later, Hel and I had decked every single one of them, giving them back eyes. Two of them were rainbow colored fish swimming in the mall's fountain courtesy of Insania. The ones who weren't fish had red hand prints on their faces, and their hair was all on end from the light electrocution I may or may not have caused them. They also all were in a dazed heap and had the words We are idiotic hormonal primates written each of their foreheads.

Just the memory of it sent me into hysterics.

Pepper stepped out of the elevator but ignored me as I rolled on the floor laughing my head off. Finally, after a moment, I was able to calm down enough and plopped back down, upside-down, on the couch.

"So, Dad, where did you run off to anyway?" I asked as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Did you forget?" Pepper asked, staring at me with wide eyes. I looked at her confused, what was she talking about?

"Huh?" I asked, showing that I had no clue about what I was supposed to have remembered.

"Penny, I'm disconnecting the Tower. We're going completely off the grid tonight. Remember or were you too busy ranting and being hysterical?" Dad teased me with a chuckle and I blushed as Pepper giggled. I had forgotten about that.

"Oops?" I said with a shrug as I poked another one of the holograms in front of me. So far my worms had found nothing on the matter of the surge.

It was then that I remembered that we were making Stark Tower self-efficient tonight; and to do that Dad had to disconnect two lines one was underground near the basement of the building, while the other was underwater.

Suddenly, I became worried. Even in his suit Dad didn't do water very well, but then, I still didn't either.

"So, which one are you on?" I asked trying to keep the worry out of my voice as three of my worms popped up, telling me that they had found nothing. That only left two more, the SHIELD one, and the government one.

I dismissed the three worms that had finished the job and checked on the SHIELD and government one. I had a feeling that SHIELD had something to do with the surge, but I could never be too careful.

"I'm disconnecting the last one now," Dad replied and if I listened closely I could hear hissing in the background.

"How's it going?" I asked, though we all knew that I was really asking how he was doing.

"Everything is fine Pen." Tony stated, though I swore I heard a slight quiver in his voice. So I rolled my eyes. "Almost done."

"You sure about that Dad?" I asked and I watched as Pepper shifted in her seat. I knew that she wouldn't be interrupting as long as we were on this topic.

After a moment of silence I heard Dad sigh and say, "I'm fine Pen…as long as I pretend that I'm actually disconnecting a power line in the sky and not under a few hundred feet of water…"

Dad trailed off and I heard him gulp as he pushed the thoughts away. I shivered as I thought about as well; yeah, I wouldn't want to be doing that.

Pepper shook her head and I rolled my eyes as my gut squirmed uneasily, and I wasn't even the one down there! Pepper and I had tried to get Dad to have someone else disconnect the power line, as Pepper had seen just how horrible our panic attacks and flashbacks were in the past few months. But of course Dad was beyond stubborn and refused to let anyone else do it. He claimed that it was his Tower and that he could do it.

Pepper claimed that now she knew where I had gotten my stubborn streak from. I had asked how she hadn't figured that out sooner.

"There." Dad said and I just knew he was smirking. "All done, are you happy yet?"

"Good Job," I mentally applauded him. My eyes widened as my SHIELD worm flashed as it founds omething. I flipped myself around and enlarged the information. There was a lot of it, but it looked like I had found what I had been looking for.

"Hey, get home quickly. I think I might have found something." I stated as Pepper raised her eyebrow at me as I started reading the information in front of me with narrowed eyes.

"I'm on my way Pen." Dad replied, and judging from the fact that there was no longer a slight hissing in the background I assumed that he was now in the air.

Knowing that I was now busy, but still listening with one ear, Dad turned his attention towards his girlfriend and Co-CEO.

"You hear that Pepper? We're good on my end."

"Yeah, I heard you. You got both of them disconnected successfully? Does this mean that we're off the grin?" Pepper asked trough the com.

I was still paying attention, but the information in front of me was more important.

I narrowed my eyes as I realized the reason why I couldn't find any information about the surge before. It was because no actual reports had been filed about the event, the only thing that had been in their database were the damage reports…and those my worm hadn't thought as important until the actual report had shown up.

Then it linked it all together and I was notified.

I leaned forward as I pulled up the official report written by Fury himself and all of the pictures and damage reports that were attached to it. I typed in a quick command for my worm to pull up everything that had transpired in the SHIELD system since the surge. I needed to know what was going on.

"Why yes it does. Stark Tower is officially about to become a bright beacon of self-sustaining clean energy." Dad stated proudly, and I could tell he was smiling.

"Emphasis on bright." My addition to the conversation was barely more than a mumble as I absorbed line after line of the report. Each sentence causing my eyes to widen even more, I couldn't believe what I was reading.

I hadn't exactly agreed with Tony about putting our name on the side of the building but Dad, and surprisingly Pepper, had convinced me that it was a good idea. Apparently, it was good advertising.

"That is assuming that the Arc Reactor will take over and nothing will blow up." Pepper drawled, but her smile revealed that she was just teasing my father.

"One time, Pepper, one time. Besides, don't you trust me?" Dad sighed and I almost giggled. However, the fact that a SHIELD research facility had blown up because they had been messing with things beyond their knowledge. Well, at least I now knew where Selvig had disappeared to.

I'm surprised that you don't trust me." Tony mocked gasped and I chuckled at their antics.

"I seem to recall that you and your daughter blow things up quite often; and trusting you? Wow, now there's a thought." Pepper stated and I rolled my eyes before finishing the report, and scanning the pictures attached.

Damn, Fury had made a mess.

"Alright kids, get along." I stated as I pulled up the security feed that my worm had found for me.

Pepper shot me an amused look, taking a moment to look away from her own holographic screen that showed the large Arc's stats. However, I ignored her.

For I sat there frozen; thankful the sound was off, as I watched as Fury stalked into a large research lab as big as an airplane hangar. I watched in horror as what I had been able to identify as the Tesseract opened a wormhole and the person who came out of it.

"Hey come on, aren't I the parent here?" Tony asked with a pout in his voice as I watched in horror as the man who I assumed was Loki, considering he looked a lot like how the myths, Mortem, and his daughter described him, attacked the men in the room, and used some magic staff to get Barton and Selvig on his side.

"It really depends on the mood." I told my dad, having trouble keeping my voice stable.

I really need to tell my father and Pepper what I had discovered but we had been working on this for a while now, and I wanted my father and Pepper to enjoy the moment.

"Ok fine, whatever." Tony dismissed before he exclaimed happily, "light her up!"

I let myself smile as the Tower lit up around us, for the last few hours the Penthouse had been running on our emergency generators, and I had been fueling all of the holograms and Jarvis' systems as the generators really couldn't do all that much.

A sense of calm washed over me even though I was watching as Loki stalked out of the lab with his mind controlled minions following him. I cringed as I saw the wormhole destabilized and the energy expanding before the feed died as the cameras were destroyed. However, the wonderful hum of Arc energy that was flowing through the Tower calmed my nerves. Oh how I loved Arc technology, its energy always made my own sparks sing.

My own Arc seemed to hum in happiness along with my sparks as Pepper asked, "So, how does it look?"

I sighed in sadness as I read the death toll and damage report for the collapse of the wormhole and the crater that used to be SHIELD's research facility. No wonder Hel had been called in, a lot of people had died.

It also made sense why all three of us had sensed it. Hel had sensed the large amount of death's that happened, and Insania and I had felt the wormhole opening and exploding. Which explained the two large waves of energy I had felt, I mean, we were Immortal. Of course we would feel a space and minor universal wormhole opening up and then collapsing. It wasn't exactly natural.

"It's like a bright blue Christmas tree…but with more me." Tony stated happily, and I rolled my eyes as his comment brought me out of my thoughts.

"Me too," I said and mentally cursed as my voice wavered. Thankfully, neither adult noticed which was good. I didn't want to ruin this for them.

"Of course, it's our name on the building." Tony exclaimed, happy that his side project was a success. I tried to smile, but couldn't manage one. For a moment I wished that I didn't know what was going on, but sadly…I did.

"The board wants us to go bigger on the public awareness campaign. They're trying to schedule more press." Pepper reported before collapsing onto the couch next to me. I quickly minimized the SHIELD files I had found. I wanted to give my parents a few more moments of peace before our world plundged back into hell.

I didn't care if I was being pessimistic. My gut was telling me not to take this likely.

"I'm going to be in DC tomorrow Tony." She stated as I closed my eyes. I just wanted to know what the hell Loki was doing here. Hel had told me that things were really rocking between Loki and the rest of his family, but she didn't really know much since she wasn't really welcomed on Asgard and neither was her mother.

"What're you doing there again, remind me?" Tony asked and as I opened my eyes I caught site of the Mark VI swerving around a building a few blocks down.

"I'm working on the zoning for the next three buildings." Pepper reported and I sighed. I was glad that I had been letting Dad and Pepper handle most of this. Recently I had just wanted to be a kid.

But it seemed that that was going to be put on hold pretty soon. That is, if the feeling in my gut was anything to go by.

"Ah, right. How about we just enjoy the moment, we can worry about that later." Tony stated, not wanting to think about the paper work and press they were going to have to do.

I let a small smile appeared on my face as I realized that Dad and I were thinking the same, even though it was for different reasons.

"I thought we were having a moment?" Pepper asked as her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"We are." I stated and this time my voice managed to stay flat. I pulled up the files on my tablet as Tony touched down on the landing pad and the upgraded arms started removing the suit as he walked. I had to admit, it was cool; and Dad had been thrilled when we finally figured that out.

I let Dad and Pepper have their moment as I scanned a small report that I had previously missed. My eyes widened farther as a cold ball of dread appeared in my stomach.

Damn.

Loki wasn't just here causing trouble, apparently he had an army.

Double damn.

With a tired sigh I stood up as Dad and Pepper finished their kiss. I really hated to break this moment up, but sadly trouble had found us once again.

"Dad, Pepper? I'm sorry to ruin this but, I'm afraid that we have a problem."

Ok, am a lot happier with this chapter this time around, at least this time I'm not writing it in the middle of class. Eh, it's not like I ever get caught anyway. SO, tell me what you think in a review.

That is if FanFic allows you too with their whole, one review per chapter thingy which annoys me.

Anyway, hope you all are enjoying this,
Cp