Chapter 2

Hope you enjoy.


"So, any updates?" Tony asked as he stepped into the lab, he was carrying a cardboard tray of takeaway cups he'd grabbed from the coffee shop in the ground floor lobby.

Handing one to Helen, who'd wanted tea, she accepted it with a grateful nod.

"You mean in the five minutes since you'd gone downstairs?" Helen asked with light sarcasm as she took a sip.

"Not much, but I ran the tests again, this time comparing Thor's DNA you have on file. She's definitely not Asgardian, but you were correct in the alien assumption. From the small samples we've been able to gather non-invasively, she's not human but as to what her race is, I'm as in the dark as you are." Hellen said as Tony nodded slowly, glancing across the lab to see their mystery woman sleeping still.

Helen had, without Tony present for modesty's sake, removed her uniform to better check for any injuries and had found none, leaving the blonde in her undergarments before placing her in a more loose fitting set of comfortable clothing consisting of a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

They'd tried taking a blood sample, partially to try and get a match of her DNA, as if she was Asgardian then Tony was going to try hailing Thor to come explain why one of his people had crash landed in front of his car, another partial reason for their attempts to draw blood had been to confirm or deny the trace of any potentially harmful pathogens she could be carrying but her skin had resisted all attempts to pierce it with any of their needles.

Even the denser one's that had been constructed for use on Thor in case he ever needed medical attention after a Hydra raid or battle. So far they'd mostly been collecting dust aside from their initial tests on Thor who had thanked Tony for caring about his well being, but apparently he rarely needed medical attention at all, least not from any "Midgardian threats" due to his advanced healing and regenerative abilities.

Tony was definitely envious of that.

Some Asgardian healing would be a literal godsend, and no doubt would help clear up the aches and pains that he had as well as the heart condition.

Getting old sucked.

Getting old and getting shrapnel lodged in your chest for five years sucked harder.

Since blood samples were out of the question they'd tried other options, gathering samples of her DNA from her uniform or costume as Tony dubbed it.

Anything with boots like that and a cape was designated a costume.

They'd been able to retrieve small skin samples as well as hair from it. Trying to remove even a lock of her hair from her head had presented similar issues to the blood sample. Tony had considered bringing in something more high powered, maybe some of the laser tech he had lying around but Helena had vetoed it, instead opting to scan and retrieve any samples from her clothing.

"Who are you sleeping beauty?" Tony said as he stared at her sleeping form with confusion, but internal curiosity hadn't diminished since finding her.

"I did find something interesting" Helen said as she was standing over by the work bench, several slides were under magnification which was displaying the images enlarged above them on a separate screen, which was recording the analysis.

"Take a look at these samples, specifically the cells themselves" Hellen said as Tony came over, a curious expression on his face as he looked at the readings on the screen.

"That's…interesting" he said, echoing her earlier description with distraction as he continued to look at the screen before turning to the samples themselves, taking a slide and moving it over to a microscope to take another look.

"Her cells are practically soaked in solar radiation" Helen said as Tony handed the slide back to the previous position beside the others, the screen still displaying the feed as he narrowed his eyes.

"Her body stores solar radiation on a cellular level, taking in UV rays. Think it could be a power source of some sort?" he theorized.

"To know that for certain we'd need to run more tests, or at least wait till she wakes up. But it's not causing any detrimental effects from what I can tell, in fact her cells seem as healthy as can be" Helen continued as she glanced over towards the sleeping blonde.

"From the scans you did earlier we already know her bone structure and musculature are also incredibly dense, not just on an epidermal layer of her skin. Her entire molecular structure is resilient and on levels I've never seen before, she's incredible. And that's again just what we can confirm now" Helen said as curiosity laced with excitement filled her tone.

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, she's not going to be our unconscious lab rat" Tony said, rolling his eyes, causing Helen to clear her throat.

"No, of course not, I wasn't- I am just a little excited is all." Helen said, regaining her composure as she glanced back at the readings.

"What do you want to do now?"

"Well her body is apparently a big solar battery, I'd say we could try giving her concentrated doses of UV radiation, maybe we could…" he began to say before his eyes narrowed in concentration.

"...Hm, worth a try"

"What is?" Helen asked as Tony turned to her.

"I've got an idea"


Several hours had passed and it was well into the afternoon hours as Tony overlooked the corner of the labspace they'd sectioned off for their still unconscious visitor. She was currently lying underneath a modified tanning bed as her body was being bombarded with concentrated UV rays.

Tony, having had two express delivered within half an hour of his idea, began working to modify them and increase the output, the lamps being reinforced to handle the increased power and strain. He'd gotten two in case of needing a backup, and so far it hadn't been needed, but was still sitting in the corner beside its twin just in case.

Her vitals were steady and the lamps seemed to be reacting positively with her physiology, he expected she would wake soon.

"Boss, they're here."

Friday's voice caused Tony to look up to the ceiling with a grateful nod. "Thanks' Friday, tell them to come up."

It didn't take long before Tony's labspace had more occupants, the first coming when he was almost tackled to the floor by a running thirteen year old. The young girl had run ahead of the other three, and Tony's arms instantly wrapped around her when she crashed into him.

His grip on her increased as he buried his head in the top of her hair, bending down to embrace her as he could feel her shaking in his grip.

"It's ok, baby girl." Tony whispered as he held onto his youngest child.

"I'm ok, you're ok…" he said as the young girl looked up at him, dark brunette hair in a messy ponytail and her red rimmed eyes shielded by her glasses.

"Everything's ok now, Penny." Tony said as they were joined by May who pulled Tony into her arms.

"Group hug, sure why not." he said with an air of lightness, though his arms still wrapped around her tightly.

"Can you ever not get my blood pressure going through the roof?" she asked lightly, while her arms gripped him tighter, causing Tony to let out an amused huff.

"I'm your younger brother, it's pretty much socially expected for me to piss you off."

"Piss me off, sure. Worry me so much, no." May said as she backed away and was checking over him for injuries.

It reminded him of when they were kids.

Ben had walked over and gave him a one armed hug, clapping him on the back as Tony returned the gesture as he glanced around.

"Where's-" He began only for them to be joined by a fourth figure, Darcy's annoyed expression clear as soon as they laid eyes on one another as she practically stomped over towards him.

"Well here I was enjoying my vacation, when Happy dragged me away to your super secret horror movie survival bunker. Thanks for that by the way." Darcy said, rolling her eyes, but hugging him nonetheless, again sandwiching Penny who hadn't moved from her spot hugging Tony's midsection.

"Well at least you're here to complain about said bunker, rather than the alternative." Tony said as he could feel her grip on him tighten similarly to Penny's. Underneath all the snark, he knew she was just as concerned and worried as her sister.

Tony was glad Happy had taken the group to the bunker, Pepper having been secure in another location at the time as well. It was isolated and put together a few years back, before the invasion of New York in 2012, but since then he'd updated it as well as had more made across the country for emergencies.

"I'm glad you're safe." Darcy said quietly as she separated, their eyes meeting as he smiled and nodded at her.

"I'm glad you're safe." he emphasized, gaining a small smile from her as she lightly jabbed him in the arm.

And it was true, they'd all been on his mind the entire time during the conflict with Ultron, but now he could breathe a sigh of relief.

"Um…I'm sorry, what's going on here exactly?" Ben's voice called out, causing Tony to turn and see he was standing near the tanning bed that was currently holding the unconscious woman in.

"Oh her, yeah long story short I hit her with my car."

"You what!?" May exclaimed, turning to him with wide eyes.

"Is she dead?" Penny asked, looking up at him.

"No, she's not dead." Tony said as he walked over to where Ben was, the others followed him as Darcy looked over one of the screens showing her vitals.

"She fell out of the sky and crashed into the ground and I accidentally ran her over. She's clearly not human, both from the fact she had no signs of damage on her at all, but also we ran what little DNA we could. I'm hoping this will help her recover and I can get some answers." he said gesturing to the set up.

"Is she Asgardian?" Penny asked, causing Tony to shake his head.

"Nope, not one of Thor's people from what we've gathered."

"Huh, her body seems to be a big solar battery from these readings." Darcy said as she scrolled through data on one of the screens, glancing at the tanning bed.

"That's what we've discovered." Tony said, nodding in her direction.

"Think she needs to eat, or just soaks up sunlight?"

"Well from the scans and x-rays we were able to take, it appears her internal organs are-" Tony began only for May to interrupt.

"I'm sorry, are we just going to gloss over the fact you have an unconscious alien woman in your lab?" May asked incredulously.

"It's no different from when you found Thor sleeping on the couch that time." Tony said, waving it off.

"It's very different!"

"Look, I couldn't just leave her there for anyone to find. And calling this in…Well, I have enough issues with Fury to just call him up and hand her over to him. There's no telling what he'd do with her." Tony said seriously, folding his arms and turning back to the readouts on display.

He knew all too well what Fury could do with an unconscious alien, or worse a dead one. Thor was different, at least in Fury's eyes, he was royalty of an alien kingdom and a powerful one who had armies and forces that would come if anything happened to him.

But Ms Anonymous here was unknown. And Tony hadn't seen anything regarding her, or the symbol on her chest in any of SHIELD's files or the data dump. It could just be an S but more likely a symbol, a glyph or coat of arms that didn't match any known language he'd run it through or cross referenced with the files he had on hand or acquired from SHIELD.

Tony wasn't just about to gift wrap her to them with a bow.

It still made him sick when he thought about what they did to Coulson, and the alien DNA they'd harvested to do it.

No way, SHIELD was a no go right now.

Especially when he wasn't sure what side of the fence Hill lay on, he wasn't about to call up Fury's supposed right hand to ask for help either, not till he got a good grasp of who she really worked for.

"How do you know she's not dangerous?" Ben asked, as he had stepped away from the console and tanning bed and was now at May's side.

"I don't…not certainly at least. And given our history with aliens on this planet, I'm not naive enough to just blindly do this just because she 'looks' like us. But…" Tony said before trailing off and running a hand through his hair before continuing.

"I don't know how to explain it, but I have this gut feeling she's not a threat."

A few seconds of silence filled the lab before Tony turned back to them, clapping his hands together.

"Why don't we grab something to eat, I'm sure you're all hungry. We can order in if you want, I can have Friday-" Tony began before the screens near Darcy began to register new data, causing him to walk over to her side and look at it with interest.

"Ok, increased brain activity that's-"

"Ughhhh."

At the sound of the feminine groan, all eyes turned to the tanning bed as Tony walked over to it and gestured for Ben and May to step back, the two of them taking Penny in hand and walking to the edge of the lab despite her protests as Darcy stood near Tony, wordlessly nodding to him before Tony reached down and opened up the top latch, folding lid back and revealing the young woman fully as her eyes began to flutter open slowly.

"Ugghhh." she groaned out softly before bringing a hand up to her head, eyes still not open fully as she winced.

"Alex?" she asked before moving her head down away from her face as her blue eyes opened up groggily as she looked at them.

"Who…Who are you?" she asked before glancing around beyond the tanning bed, her eyes widening at the lab setting before she looked back at them.

"Where am I!?"


And to clear things up now in regards to this chapter.

Darcy Lewis is Tony's daughter.

Peter Parker is also one of Tony's kids, and is female in this fic.

Explanations will be made about May and Ben in the coming chapters.