Awakening

Hey everyone! Yeah, never got around to getting this finished last night, but hey it looks like updates are becoming regular again! XD

Enjoy.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"That's why you're an idiot." I told my father as I continued to spin the spoon on the tabletop in boredom.

"I am not an idiot!" Dad protested, quietly thankfully, with a slight pout. I didn't say anything, just giving him a pointed look before his eyes widened and a playful smirk settled on his lips.

"You know, if I'm an idiot then so are you. We can be genius idiots together."

I rolled my eyes at my father, but smiled at him none the less. Letting the spoon fall to the table with a clatter I raised my eyebrow at the older genius.

"Who said I was an idiot? Idioticness has never been proven to be genetic." I replied swiftly and smoothly, but Dad was ready.

"No one's ever proved genius is genetic either but here we are." He told me and I had to admit that he had a point, but I wasn't going to admit that to him.

Before I could give another playful quip in remark a strong feminine voice interrupted.

"How may I help you?"

Dad and I paused in our pointless little argument/debate to see a waitress with dirty blonde hair, a light pink and white uniform, a large bust, and a equally large mole on her cheek standing before us.

I blinked as Dad swiftly ordered without flirting even a bit. Flirting with waitresses had been something I had been trying to drive out of him; and it seemed that this time I had been successful, even without trying.

The woman turned towards me and I placed my own order, knowing from the glint in Dad's eye that our previous conversation was far from over.

"I'm just saying, things would go so much simpler if we moved back to Malibu. We weren't planning on staying in New York forever you know." Dad pointed out as we both took our icecreams and settled down on a park bench.

The sky was a dark blue as the final bright layers of pink and purple bled out of the sky, the horizon was completely straight, besides the tiny buildings and water towers dotting the scene. Oh the wonders of Texas.

I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes again. It seems like Dad was doing everything in his power to argue with me about everything. It was getting rather irritating.

But I knew he was just regurgitating everything that had been bugging him while teasing me, so I didn't really hold it against him. I did the same thing to Mortem when I got too stressed or overwhelmed.

"Dad, we promised Pepper that we'd stay in New York for at least a month if not two to promote the Tower. Now stop dodging the real reason you want to leave. Yeah I know the team's annoying and after everything that's gone on it would be so much better and easier to just go back home, but we have commitments here now; at least for the next little while." I took a deep breath, trying to word everything so it wouldn't irritate my father. He was just panicking and worried, not to mention dead on his feet. He was always the most radical when he was tired and/or worried. (He used to be really radical when drunk to, but I thankfully weaned him off of that habit.)

"Besides," I said slowly, knowing that this was a sore topic for my father. "I'll be just as safe in the Tower as I would be in Malibu. Probably safer, since Loki and Thor are in the immediate area."

Dad grumbled as he licked on his mocha cone coated in dark chocolate. I could tell from the way that his shoulders slumped just slightly that he knew I was right.

Nibbling on my own coffee coconut coated cone I watched as the last of the sunset vanished. It was definitely getting late, but who cared.

There was a soft moment of silence as we both enjoyed each others company before I poked Dad in the side.

"I bet you I can guess Phil's retribution prank before you." My eyes glittered in the dying light as Dad's gaze flickered to mine. A large cheshire cat grin spread across his face as he rose to the challenge.

"Oh you're so on."

"I'm telling you, he's not going to go for glittered paint again." I argued with my father as we walked into the large, dark theater and began looking for seats. "He's done that too many times already, and the last time it backfired on Insania, remember? He'll be going with something more humiliating."

"What's more humiliating than being pink and sparkly for a week?" Dad countered as we slid past other people, popcorn and drinks in hand. We were both ignoring the previews on the screen, as neither of us really cared. The only reason we were in this fancy Hollywood cinema in the first place was because the two of us really didn't want to go back to the Tower at the moment.

"A lot of things, Dad, a lot of things." I informed my father because while yes, being pink and sparkly wasn't pleasant, there were worse things. A very large quantity of worse, more humiliating things.

We both founds seats, and continued on our conversation, ignoring the rather disgruntled looks the other viewers were giving us.

"I don't know, I think being turned into the opposite sex and then being parading around in floozy competitions with your crush watching is pretty bad." I commented lightly before chewing on a handful of popcorn.

Dad just blinked at me in slight disbelief before paling just a bit as he imagined it. "Speaking from experience?" He asked, and he seemed rather terrified of the thought.

"Sorta," I shrugged. I had pranked a rather annoying friend of mine who was avoid their crush in one of my earlier lives. Mortem had helped me out, and although neither human friend had ever figured out it'd been me, we had all been sworn to never speak of it again.

"A friend in one of my...earlier lives, was being really irritating. He was ignoring my other friend, who he liked, so I turned him into a girl and threw him into a few beauty pageants in front of his crush. They eventually confessed their love for each other so I guess it was a success."

Dad just stared at me in slight surprise and I was glad that I hadn't mentioned that in that lifetime I'd been a guy as well. Eh, he didn't really need to know that.

"Anyway, I've seen a lot of humiliating pranks in my time and trust me, being pink and sparkly isn't that bad." I concluded just in time as the previews ended and the copyright warnings popped up.

"I think I'll take your word on it." Dad said slowly, and several people around us glared at him.

"Shhh!" One woman in front of us turned around and pressed her finger to her lips with a glare. I rolled my eyes at her but poked Dad anyway.

"Don't worry Ma'am, I'll keep my father quiet." I told her sweetly, grinning at her heavily makeuped face.

"See that you do." She said slowly, her deep voice counteracting her bright blonde hair.

As the woman turned around and the intro started Dad glared at me weakly with a pout on his face.

"Since when is my daughter a little devil?" He asked, causing more people to shush us.

"I think you missed the memo, I'm pretty sure it was sent out a few millennia ago." I drawled in a whisper, not wanting to get thrown out of the theater. "Now shut up Dad, and watch the movie or I'll turn you into a sixteen year old girl."

Dad's jaw shut with an audible click, and I grinned cheekily at him before throwing more popcorn in my mouth.

Tormenting Dad was sooooo much fun.

It was about eleven by the time Dad and I pulled back into the Tower. Our movie had ended at ten o'five but we had both been discussing the movie so much that we ended up speeding through Cali before we even realizing what was going on. Traveling by less than legal highway speeds and my sparks opened up a lot of opportunities for us, and it did help that I was able to drag the car along when we jumped around the country. That had been a very nice, if accidental discovery a month ago.

Who cared if I could do it with more ease now? It let us go across the country in about six hours without causing any suspicion.

Dad and I were both laughing as I parked the car (I haggled Dad into letting me drive after teleporting us across the country, since I was the one taking us back to NY and all), and if I admitted it, we had both obviously enjoyed our father-daughter time. It wasn't like we didn't hang out...we were around each other more than most fathers with daughters my 'age'...but little father-daughter outings such as these were rare and treasured.

The car turned off, we both just chuckled lightly, our laughter slowly dying as we came to realize that our little outing was over. That was a...sad...thought. Don't get me wrong, I love Bruce, Pepper, Phil, and Thor (and I was slowly getting used to the others) but just goofing off with my father without any responsibilities was nice.

"We need to start doing that more often." Dad said softly, and I nodded in agreement.

"Especially since I don't think we're gonna get much alone time in the Tower anytime soon." I commented as I climbed out of the car, my glee dimming just a bit as my Duties gave me the strangest feeling. They weren't warning me, or yelling at me, or anything like that...it was like they were twitching, like the lightest of movements.

I had no idea what they were trying to tell me, but any movement from them usually meant I wasn't going to be able to relax for a while.

Stupid Soul warning system making me worry and putting a dampener on my mood.

I hid a scowl as I smiled at Dad. I could ignore odd feelings for now.

"Yeah, probably not. At least we can lock all of them out of the lab!" Dad said with a grin as he too exited the vehicle, and I had to laugh. Yes, we could lock everyone out of the lab if needed, or if we wanted to.

"Except Bruce." I stated with a small smile, thinking of the doctor and how he wasn't as shy or timid as he had been when we'd met.

"Of course! Brucie is part of our Science Fam!" He exclaimed as we strode towards the elevator, and I glanced at him in question.

Why did he like nicknaming people and things so much? He didn't have the best naming abilities. I mean, look at the bots! Dummy, U, and Butterfingers, not the most intelligent of names; and sure, Jarvis was a perfectly fine name but he was named after Dad's old butler/grandfather figure, that didn't take a lot of creativity.

Part of me believed that Dad did it on purpose, another part of me was glad that Dad hadn't been at my birth, purely for the fact that I actually liked my current name.

"Well, Brucie is my Science Bro and that make's him your Science Uncle! And since we're all related through the wonders of science...and oddness...we're a Science Family!" Dad exclaimed enthusiastically, and I rolled my eyes.

"And you couldn't just say Science Family the first time why…?" I asked slowly as I shook my head at my father's antics. I loved him, but seriously he was a giant child sometimes.

Ok, it wasn't like I was any better and I had a lot of millenia on him, but still.

Dad shrugged, " 'Cause Science Fam is easier to say."

"Idiot." I quipped as the elevator doors slid closed behind us.

"I am not!" Dad protested, our earlier fight reigniting. "Back me up J!"

"I'm sorry Sir," Jarvis said from the ceiling, sounding extremely amused. "But you do have a tendency to have rather often if random bouts of idiocy."

I burst out laughing, clutching my stomach to keep me from falling to the floor. Oh I loved Jarvis so much!

"Jarvis!" Dad exclaimed in protest and I could just tell that Jarvis was laughing at us.

"I also fear that it's genetic Sir, since Miss Penny seems to suffer from the same problem at times."

I tried to stop laughing to glare at the ceiling, but I couldn't do it. So I just continued to laugh as Dad chuckled lightly, a rather smug and satisfied look on his face.

"Well, that's definitely true." Mortem's amused voice said through the Bond and I mentally poked him.

"Stalker." I teased with a slight hiss as I tried and failed to stop laughing.

"Amusing little child."

"You're the one Bonded to me." I replied cheekily and felt Mortem's amusement and exasperation through the Bond.

"Yes, and sometimes I wonder what on earth I was thinking." He drawled and I burst out into even more laughter. Teasing Mortem was just as fun as teasing Dad.

"That you love me, duh." I reminded him and his laughter echoed in my mind as the Bond settled.

My gaze flickered up to my father, who was staring at me with a raised eyebrow. Blushing just a bit I realized that Tony was getting much better at figuring out when I was talking to Mortem through the Bond.

"Mortem agreed with Jarvis, wondered why we Bonded in the first place, oh, and I called him a stalker."

Before Dad was able to do more than blink and open his mouth, the elevator doors opened and I skipped out into the hallway towards the kitchen we had all been using.

I wanted hot chocolate, and that would be the easiest time to drug Dad, unless I wanted to use my powers, but where was the fun in that?

Ok, Romanoff's apology to Pen was going to be in this chapter but it seems to have fled before I could get it down on paper. Oh Romanoff, do you not like me any more? ;)

Anyway, hope you like it and since I have a late start at school tomorrow I'll update again tonight.

Hey, I was wondering, how many of my original readers are still reading these posts? I'm asking cause I was wondering if I should still do that beach scene or if I should just cut it. If you have any idea what I'm talking about shoot me a PM or a review, if you don't….review anyway!

Just so everyone knows there'll be a few more filter-like chapters while Romanoff get's back in everyone's good graces and there'll be a bit of team bonding. Then we'll get to the final action point that brings us into the third book. I can't say how many more chapter's there are exactly, but we're getting close.

Thanks,
Cp