Yo, I just got done with my mountainous workload, now I just have to deal with another one that's as high as a hill.

Fuck my life man.

Also, yes, I did decide to include the DCU, just cause I think its funny.

Enjoy

Chapter 3: Viability and Visibility

I dash forwards, an unknown, familiar energy coursing through me as my hands grasp at the air for a weapon immaterial before, in all of a moment, I appear before the smug asshole, my mind firing thoughts at speeds they had never reached before as I thrust my fist outwards.

My mind is a mess of feelings as my metal knuckles impact his frame, wrenching him apar-

My fist goes through him, his smug aura not dissipating as I simply stumble through the man in shock.

"How… amateur" The man muses, turning to me as he hums "Were you charming, I would almost mistake your approach as a recreation of Batman and I's first fight." He continues, stepping forwards and toward my unsteady form.

So he could go intangible, good to know...

Wait did he just say fucking Batman.

Oh fuck, oh no, oh shit shit shit shit shit.

Just the MCU was bad enough, now I have to deal with fucking Darkseid and other universal fucking disasters?!

I did not sign up for this.

"What, cat's got your tongue?" He taunts, I can just tell his smug fucking face is staring at me with imperious arrogance.

That pissed me off, I'm not even going to lie. It pissed me off so much I forgot that DC existed as well-

Nope, I still remember, noted.

For now, I'm gonna beat this shitters face in.

"No, your ugliness just pissed me off too much to speak" I bit back, settling my stance as I sunk into the guidance of Logos further, his gentle hand coaxing improvement at such a rapid pace I shifted a stance every second.

"What are you doing? What, are you restless? Scared?" he taunts, sauntering toward me as he reaches into his belt, retrieving a screwdriver that he twirls around his fingers as I finally shift into the perfect stance and wait.

"Not speaking, then?" He hums, dashing forward at a rather slow speed. As his feet impact the ground I note the fact he doesn't turn intangible when he does so, meaning when he strikes the ground he's tangible.

My body tenses, my fists clenching as his foot strikes the ground one more time, the energy and Logic pushing me forth as the world blurs, my fist striking out and hitting him in the sternum as he doubles over.

His frame flickers as he exhales, his mask loosening somewhat as he doubles over, his body falling through the roof as he turns invisible.

Dammit, that was a bad decision.

I keep myself tense, tuning into my hearing and senses with great care as I pay attention to my surroundings.

He would pop out of somewhere, I just knew it. His powers relegated him to a mostly ambush fighter, considering his invisibility and intangibility allowed him to get to an opponent's weak spots easily, meaning he was somewhere behi-

I roll as the faint sound of breathing behind me hits my mind. My thoughts are sent into a panicked frenzy as I get back to my feet, staring across the rooftop at the faintly shimmering man atop the roof, already sinking through the ground, his posture rigid and displeased as he stares at me, already sinking back into invisibility.

I get to see what he looks like under full invisibility for all of a brief glance before he sinks through the ground.

I tense. Thankfully, it seemed his invisibility wasn't infallible, and instead shimmered slightly when exposed to light.

I widen my stance, following Logic's motherly embrace as she pushes me forth, her guiding hand steadying my own as I grip my fists, truly feeling the air and the ground around me as I sink into a state of oneness with the air.

The disruption of wind flow behind me alerts me to his presence too late, his screwdriver equipped hand piercing what would be my kidney if I had one.

I quickly retaliate, Logic taking my pain and compartmentalizing it for me as my emotions flood back.

Panic, and fear, and quivering terror sneak up on me like a bitch. My legs shake as I stare at the ghostly man, his smug yet serious posture already invisible as my attention tracks him out of the corner of my frozen body.

"How peculiar" His voice monotonously echoes through the rooftop, trying to apply the illusion of him being everywhere.

I ignore it in favor of trusting my eyes as the drums of war beat in my ears, ingrained instincts telling me to fight, fighting against cowardly instincts to flee.

My hand grips the screwdriver and rips it out as he hums.

"A debilitating injury for the average man, shrugged off as though it were never there to begin with. I'm starting to think you're not human, ya know?" he hums, his invisible hands dexterously twirling a camera out of his belt as he snaps a picture of me.

I stand still, allowing the man to monologue as I calm my racing mind, a heart beating yet not within my ears flooding my senses as though the great Yangtze river. The haze of battle and fear clouding my eyes and the smell of non-existent blood piercing my nose.

"I'm quite curious to see how you work, what a true anoma-" I interrupted his speech by darting.

I run at him, my mind a haze pinpointed on a single figure as I raced across the rooftop silently, energy fuelled footsteps making me able to cross 10 in the span of a single one. My phantom heart beats with the power of a cannon as I lash out, my fist spanning the distance in panic fuelled energy as it strikes at his cheek.

His mask snaps as he's sent from one end of the rooftop to the other, his body twisting in the air as he sails through it, sinking into the ground as soon as he impacts.

Mother Logic embraces me, calming my mind as she chides me, her warm embrace guiding me into a readied stance as I prepare myself once more.

I waited 5 minutes before I realized he left.

I wait 6 minutes before I begin to leave.

And 6 minutes, one second later, the tendon of my knees are severed and I'm dropping to the floor in muted pain.

"You were interesting, I admit." He begins, standing above me, unbothered and unassailed as the panic of my mind rushes past ingrained instincts as I freeze in terror.

His white suit crouches low, stooping down to my level as he hums. His hum sends chills down my spine and, as he grasps the horn of my head to get a better look of my helm, I admit to shaking in terror.

"Wanting to fight even now, huh?" I get the feeling that he's smiling as he misinterprets my quivering of terror.

He stands, staring down at me with amusement before he begins walking away, twirling his screwdriver as he sinks back into the ground, giving me one last glance as he stops his sinking.

"Grow stronger, eh? You weren't the most interesting adversary I've fought, definitely not the worst but far, far from the best. 'Kay?" he says leisurely, sinking back into the ground as my frozen form heaves.

I try to sob in fear, nothing comes from my helm as I grasp the ground, my shaking form left useless from an oversight.

Of course an ambush predator would lay in wait until their prey was unguarded and weak.

Mother Logic embraces me, touching my wounds and urging them to heal as she whispers sweet nothings into my ear, repressing my panic and allowing me to calm.

I was lucky, I somehow survived through some shonen main protagonist bullshit, and all I can say about that fact was that I'm thankful.

Or else I would have died.

I tense my muscles and raise to my feet, feeling the great ache from behind my knees as I stumble forward.

That man let me go free, true, but I had another obligation I needed to fill. Mother Logic doesn't stop the aching of pain, of which I'm thankful for.

I needed to learn from my mistakes.

(Pepper Potts)

The new assistant, Nikandr, was a rather strange case to me. When we first met he seemed… how should I say… not robotic but almost listless. As though he had no goal and was panicking on how to find one.

Though, I might be misremembering, because the Nikandr before me was rather different. His posture seemed better, for one. And another he carried himself in an almost cautious manner, as though there could be danger around every corner.

There was also the fact that he was dirty and dented. But that was a whole 'nother host of problems entirely.

"Nikandr" I manage to drag out of my tired throat, smiling up at him weakly as I stand from my chair, the desk in front of me littered with coffee mugs, strewn about pencils and pens, and haphazardly placed stacks of paper.

Why couldn't Paperwork be digital? It would be so much easier on the hands!

"Thank goodness you've arrived. I was worried something happened when you didn't get here 5 minutes ago" I say, unable to repress the remark of his lateness as I slump tiredly.

"Ah" his baritone voice rumbles as his helmet stares at the stacks of paperwork "Sorry, I got mixed up in a fight with someone" He finishes.

He…

Oh god, was he going to just be another Tony?

"You know you don't have to lie to me to get out of doing paperwork right?" I sigh, shaking my aching head as I sit down and reach for another couple of Ibuprofen pills in the drawer of my desk.

"Yes?" He begins questioningly " I didn't lie? I mean, my knee tendons got severed and everything"

I choke on the water I'm drinking, coughing as the water enters the wrong pipe.

"I'm sorry… WHAT"

He wordlessly turns around, pointing to the still healing torn metal where his knee tendons should be.

I stare silently as he turns back around.

Not only had I found out an automaton could heal itself fully, but that he got well and truly jumped by someone that managed to beat him. A man that defeated a cabal of terrorists managed to get jumped and injured.

"I-" I begin, stumbling over my thoughts before I settle on some words with a shake of my head "Do you remember what your attacker looked like? We can get the police to get them arrested. Wait no, they wouldn't survive." I realize.

I sigh, grabbing my still aching head as he paces toward me. "We don't need to do anything, I'm not worried about him attacking again anytime soon. He let me off when he could have killed me. So don't worry"

His attempts to assuage my worries only increase them tenfold.

"That only makes me more anxious. Also, what does "he could have killed me" mean!?" I can't help but shriek, grabbing the much taller shoulders of his frame as he reels back in slight shock

"I-" I breathe a deep sigh "I need a quick break, could you handle the paperwork? If you're not sure about anything there's a bulletin right there that should give you information on what to do. If you still don't know, ask me" I say tersely, letting go of his shoulders as I shake my head, grab my ibuprofen and water bottle before leaving.

I'm going to take a nap. I deserve it after today.

(Nikandr)

I hum as I take stock of the last pile of papers in front of me. Half an hour had passed and, unsurprisingly, my new and improved body had helped a lot with plowing through all of the paperwork.

Hell, I was only left with a sixteenth of the work for the week. A stack of paper which was only around a foot tall.

I stood from my office chair, stretching as the vaguely familiar environment around me sent me back, into another time, another world.

I snorted "Fuck that." I mutter to myself, shaking my head as I step out of the room for a quick break.

I had forgotten just how soul draining being a paper pusher really was, I pity Pepper a lot, honestly.

The amount of work I finished in half an hour would have taken her around a week, it would also likely have been less accurate considering I don't fatigue mentally.

I hum as I walk down to the breakroom, opening the door to a rather cozy living space.

4 couches surrounded a carpeted floor with a wood and glass coffee table, the couches themselves were brown and had silken covers. Off to the side was a small table with two seats overlooking a window.

The space honestly resembled a cafe more than one of those soulless corporate break rooms I had come to be familiar with.

Nevertheless, I step forward and out of the doorway, ignoring the passing, interested glances from employees enjoying their time off. Most of them looked happy with their working conditions, which was nice.

I sighed as I sunk into one of the soft caramel coloured couches. The shifting of clothes drew my attention to Peppers resting form.

I watched her for all of a second, making sure she was alright, before turning away and humming as I drew my attention to the ceiling, unsure of what to do next.

I could walk around the city a bit, explore and get a mental roadmap of where everything was, but…

Well, I didn't really need to purchase anything from anyone. I'm a robot, after all. I needed no sustenance, and Tony just gifted me a freaking mansion. I had enough space to do whatever I really wanted.

Hm, I should probably finish the last stack before waking Pepper up. It's likely put her mind at ease, knowing that she could rest for the week and allow me to leave early to do whatever I decide on doing later.

I stand from the couch silently, the creaking springs within relieved at my heavy absence as I shake my head and begin returning to my post.

Finishing the work would take around 2 minutes by my calculations, if I took the average of how fast I did the rest of the paperwork.

I hum as the door to the office closes, sitting back down at the office chair and spreading the stack of paperwork out, both of my hands flashing out and grabbing pens as I read all of the papers simultaneously, organizing them within my mind before signing the ones that needed to be accepted as confirmed and the rejected ones as rejected before annotating the problems and sorting them into piles.

In total, the 15 papers took around 10 seconds to sign, annotate, and sort before I moved on.

2 more minutes of the same work pass in silence as I finish the stack, grabbing the twine beneath each (perfectly mind you) sorted stack of paper and tying them up before lifting both and walking across the room, placing each in a respective stack before tying them up tightly and leaving them be.

I nod in slight satisfaction before exiting the room to return to Peppers resting form.

Needless to say, when she found out I had finished her week's worth of work, she was hysterical. Whether in joy, or in shock or dismay, I didn't know.

All I knew is that she tried to shake the life out of me before giving me a great hug that I had to reciprocate somehow.

I patted her shoulder, since that's all I knew how to do.

You know, I shouldn't be as surprised as I am right now.

Still, the fact that I had been gifted a mansion for saving a billionaire from a cabal of terrorists was still a lot to process. No matter who you were.

"Speechless, huh?" Tony aske, pride, and smug amusement clear in his tone as we entered the gate of the estate via one of the keys spinning around on his finger, the other one lay in my hands.

I should really buy a coat or something, if only for the pockets to store things. It was honestly a bit of a pain having to carry everything around in my hands.

"Yeah… It's uh… It's bigger in real life, huh?" I respond, staring up at the mansion with clear shock as Tony chortles.

"Yeah, well, get used to it. It's yours now. I'll keep the spare key, just 'cause I wanna have access to fix the power and internet issues, and if you or I need help or something." He responds, his words making me feel both annoyed and resigned.

"Fine, fine" I wave off, shaking my head as I walk up the well maintained path to the front door, the large wooden thing blocking my way in removing itself from my path as soon as I insert the key, unlock it, and open the door.

The mansion was even more extravagant inside, with mahogany wood floors and chandeliers hanging from the 15 foot tall ceiling to light up the rooms. The walls were made of a beautifully painted, dark plaster that held paintings of every variation Everything from landscapes, to portraits to even paintings of fruit hung from the walls, filling the hallways of the mansion with a sense of extravagance and wealth that was just so utterly foreign to me that it stun-locked me.

Tony watched me explore with a smug, amused smile as he snacked on chocolate dipped strawberries.

Yo, the reason this one is so much shorter than the usual chapter is because I burned my dominant hand in the middle of the week and its a pain to type with it. I can type for a few minutes before putting my hand on ice and waiting for like 2 minutes and doing it again.

I'll try to write a longer chapter next week when it stops being such a little bitch.