Arc and Ki

by Miklagaard

A redheaded Japanese girl with an unusual means of getting attention comes knocking at Tony Stark's Malibu mansion bearing surprising insights into a power he barely understands. Pepper worries but Tony was sure opening that door was the right call because: Redhead! Little did he know how past and present would collide to show a new way to the future.

11. Check and Mate

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction and no ownership of any intellectual property is claimed or implied. Quotes from original sources are included, but rather than disrupt the flow of the story, I will acknowledge them in general here. All instances of irony are likely intentional.

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(Chapter theme song: Rumors of War – High on Fire)

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So... Science-Fu is a thing.

Or at least that was what Ranma took to calling it. Tony had been delighted with the term when she blurted it out, and was already designing t-shirts for the slogan in his head.

After they returned to the mansion, they went straight to the workshop, and Ranma's employer launched into a spiel that was as much stream of consciousness babble as it was educational lecture. She had struggled largely in vain to follow the torrent of words even as she worked with JARVIS to calculate the waveforms he assigned her. The result of this was that in the space of an hour or two... Tony had managed to figure out how to make a whole new element. Element. As in update-the-periodic-table-now element. Because of the math, she was sort-of decent at physics... though she struggled with the concepts when book-physics contradicted her real life experience with Ki-physics. As such, while Tony had shown she had a very, very long way to go in her understanding of the science... she still understood fairly well how big a deal a new element was.

This must be what it was like for other people when she busted out something like a Ki-bolt that seemed simple to her when she got the trick of it, but apparently blew their minds. Tony had seemed as blasé about the landmark achievement as she would be about martial arts, making it all look so easy. And apparently, he got his Art from his father who had mapped the damn thing out with his Expo model and left it out for everybody to see. The both of them astounded her with the implications now that she had a better feel for the depths of their intellects. It was impressive in a way that exceeded merely seeing a finished product like the Iron Man armor. She had to wonder if it was hereditary or taught.

Still... having a good idea an element could exist was not the same as proving it. That, apparently, was an overnight project... instead of the multi-year Manhattan Project sort of thing one would normally expect. Tony had commented that his dad hadn't had the computational hardware or the miniaturized Arc reactors needed to repulsor-boost the particle beam. As such, the man could never have fused the element back in his day. So it might be possible Howard had done most of the background work over the course of years before abandoning it. Even so, a less than a day turnaround for a scientific breakthrough of this magnitude was pretty nuts.

Once she got it through her head they were actually doing this... actually making a goddamn element in Tony's basement... she fired up the video record function on her trusty HUD. Tony then explained that JARVIS always recorded things like this, but he went ahead and had the camera drones deployed for extra viewpoints for his assistant's benefit.

It was a good thing she'd worked out ways to operate on minimal sleep while on the ocean, since she was acting as an assistant all night. Not just as a convenient extra pair of hands with unusual strength this time, like when she'd helped assemble some of the ThunderStruck or SkyBuster components, but an actual contribution with her own Art. This time, her precision and technique were given a main ring in the circus.

It had started when she suggested simply slicing the nice marble floor covering the electrical mains and lifting it out as an intact slab so it could be replaced later instead of jackhammering it to pieces like the inventor was planning. Once she demonstrated her ability to do that, Tony immediately reviewed his entire list of requirements with her to determine how she could help better. It was because of her and the Bakusai Tenketsu she had picked up from Ryoga that they had tunneled through the rock behind the computer towers and under the mansion for the particle accelerator instead of wrecking more rooms. The stone fragments had been swept up and scattered in the ocean in the dark of night after she gouged out a circular track with JARVIS's guidance. Tony had been rather taken with the idea of being able to carve out extensive underground facilities without calling in heavy equipment, and thus making their existence public record. He fully intended to exploit that ability later.

The inventor also developed an appreciation for having an assistant who could move or lift heavy objects precisely as needed. Down to fractions of a millimeter, even. She could perform assembly tasks to exacting standards in seconds that would take a normal human team hours. She was even faster and more precise than his robots. She also took verbal direction far better than Dum-E or U.

When Agent Coulson arrived, they were balancing the ring for the particle accelerator on the stone pedestals Ranma had left behind when breaking through the solid rock. "I heard you broke the perimeter," he called down the curved, rocky hallway as a greeting.

"No~" Tony drawled as he walked out the tunnel. Ranma followed him curiously, eminently bra-less in a white cut-off tank-top with overalls and a tool belt. He had refrained, barely, from pointing out how much the outfit made her look like a pin-up in a repair garage. "There was no breaking. More like... putting them down for a nice nap in a gentle and maternal way. Ranma proved she'd be a good mom, I think," he added cheekily.

Ranma, as a legal adult according the United States government, a professional with an important and ever-expanding job, and now a participant in advancing the frontiers of science, responded in a fashion appropriate to her station. She stuck her tongue out at her employer.

Chuckling, Tony asked Coulson: "That was, like, three years ago... where have you been?"

"I was doing some stuff," the agent stated in typical uninformative fashion.

"Yeah, well, us too... and it worked."

"We wouldn't be as far along as we are if Tony hadn't decided to get out of here," Ranma pointed out.

"What she said! Ignore the perimeter thing... Ranma just outclasses anything you've got. Anyway, we're all playing for team USA here, right?" Tony clapped and pointed at the agent to emphasize his point. "We're there with you and all your Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Now... are you gonna let me work, or break my balls?"

Ignoring the technologist, the agent's eyes fell on something sticking partway out of a crate. "What's this doing here?" he asked as he pulled something that looked only partially assembled that was made of several flat rings of metal and a star in the middle.

"I don't know," Tony muttered indifferently. "You were the ones to bring it here."

"It's Flag-Face's shield," Ranma identified with a vaguely hostile tone. "Or a model of it."

"It's Captain America's shield!" Coulson exclaimed.

"That's... what I said. Captain Flag-Face."

"What?" Coulson looked up in confusion and indignation.

"Who did the Japanese fight against in World War II?" Tony hinted.

"Oh, right," Coulson's face cleared as he made the connection. He set the disk back where he found it.

"Should I be worried somebody involved in national security and international incidents didn't remember that?" Tony shook his head. "Never mind. We're busy. What do you want?"

"Nothing. Goodbye," Coulson said baldly. "I've been reassigned. Director Fury wants me in New Mexico."

"Fantastic," Tony murmured. "Land of Enchantment."

"So I'm told."

"Would we have even noticed when he was gone?" Ranma wondered coldly.

"Heh, probably not," Tony commented. "Secret stuff?" he asked the agent.

"Something like that. Good luck," the black suited man offered his hand.

"Sure. Bye. Thanks," the technologist answered as he accepted the handshake.

"We need you," Coulson added... completely out of the blue as he kept the handshake going. Ranma narrowed her eyes at him and started slowly walking over.

"Yeah, more than you know," Tony claimed with reflexive bravado as he recovered his hand.

"Not that much," the balding man riposted.

"Why are you still here?" Ranma asked meaningfully. Seeing the look in her eyes, Coulson hastened his steps back to the stairs.

Tony craned his neck to make sure the agent had gone up the stairs before commenting: "Now was that nice? You're gonna give that man a complex! What happened to the innocent, waifish girl who desperately fled to my house and... proceeded to pick a fight and kick my armored ass around? Where was I going with this?"

"Do you want me to stop messing with him?" Ranma asked.

"Oh, hell no! Keep it up!" Tony gave her a cheesy grin and two thumbs up.

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"Initializing prismatic accelerator," JARVIS announced as Tony cut on the power.

"Holy crap! Holy crap!" Ranma yelled excitedly as the entire accelerator assembly started to shake from the energies cycling through it. Her Ki-sense told her there was a lot more going on than even the thrumming that shook the cavern and the high-pitched warbling implied. "Ready on the wheel!" she reported as she grasped the wheel that would direct the Arc-enhanced particle stream. A camera drone hovered at above head-height in front of her, sweeping its view as it recorded their actions.

"Call it JARVIS!" Tony ordered.

"Approaching maximum power!" The NLUI raised it's volume to be heard over the equipment.

"Turn it!" Tony yelled.

"Got it!" With a single swift, precise motion, Ranma turned the wheel to swing the actinic beam from where it had been striking the basalt walls to pass into the fusion chamber. It lit up the central shaft she had dug out to hold the injector ring with the small triangular target in the middle. Tony's computer display showed she nailed the orientation to within a second of arc... well within tolerances.

"Perfect!" the inventor cried. "Good thing we did this in the tunnel, huh?" he added a he surveyed the line of scored and charred rock. It looked like the movie-version of a laser had cut into the wall, and it was giving him ideas.

"Yeah! Is it working?" Ranma looked gleeful as the held the particle accelerator's frame rock steady despite the way it wanted to shake free.

"Looks like! Just a little more... a bit more..." Tony told her as he watched the sensor display and occasionally eyeballed the target directly. "Now!" he suddenly yelled as he cut the power.

"Oh wow! Wow!" Ranma enthused as she looked at the still glowing triangle.

"Well... that was easy," her boss muttered jokingly. He ducked under the accelerator and approached the fruit of their labor almost reverently. Remembering the gun-safety lectures Happy had given her, Ranma gave the guidance wheel a last twist to aim it away from the man before she hopped over to join him, hovering over his shoulder and not daring to breathe.

"Congratulations, sir," JARVIS announced as the genius technologist carefully grabbed the new core with pliers. "You have created a new element."

"Holy craaaaap!" Ranma's voice was muffled by both her fists pressed into her mouth, her wide eyes following the man's every motion. She held the pose as she trailed after him to duck out of the ring again and move to where the new Arc reactor housing awaited.

Tony placed the core in the receptacle and let it close. Soon JARVIS reported: "Sir, the reactor has accepted the modified core. I will begin running diagnostics."

Turning to his lab assistant, he grinned and said: "OK, you can breathe now."

"Yatta!" Ranma raised her fists in the air and bounced energetically, much to her boss's appreciation. "Let's do it again!"

"Ah-hah-hah-hah!" Tony threw his head back and laughed. "Yeah, I guess we'll have to for me to have spares." He shook his head at the still bouncing martial artist. "Wow, you're excited," he commented cheerfully.

"Yeah, man! You made an element! And I helped!" Ranma kept bobbing up and down ebulliently.

"I know. I was there," Tony said dryly. "Not that I mind the fangirl-ism, but uh... what up?" Her attitude toward subjects other than martial arts tended to be lazy indifference or grim determination... though she would hardly the first to suddenly get bit by the discovery bug.

Ranma stopped bouncing and shook her head with a scowl. "I'm not a fangirl! You don't get it! Back in Nerima, they thought all I'd be is a meat-head loser who breaks stuff," Her grin reappeared with an almost vicious gleam. "But look at me now! I helped make something totally new in the world! With science, even!" Yep... bitten by the discovery bug.

"Ahh... I get it now." And he truly did. It astounded him just how much potential the idiots back in Japan had been eager to waste. "Pretty awesome, huh?" Tony asked with an encouraging tone as she raised her fists victoriously again. "JARVIS! Double her science assignments! And engineering!"

"Eh?" Ranma froze in mid-jubilation rather comically. Tony chuckled at how adorable her consternation was.

"If you want to help more in the future," he explained patiently, "ya gotta put in the time to learn what you're doing. Or did you want to give it up already?"

She shot a stricken glance at the newly constructed Arc reactor. Her fists dropped to her sides and she hung her head.

"Ranma?" Tony prodded.

"Aw mannn," she moaned. "OK! Fine! Gimme... uhgghhghgh..." she shuddered elaborately, "...more homework." Perking up a little, she commented: "At least straining my brain is good for the Ki."

"Great! Actually, you can get started on that while I make a containment module. Then we'll make some spare cores."

"What? Study? Right now?" At Tony's nod, Ranma sighed heavily, then gave him a wry smile. "This is what I get for going out into the big, wide world, huh?"

"Sure is," Tony said. "Welcome! You're gonna love it out here!"

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"We're not taking down the ring yet, are we?" Ranma inquired as she pulled up power cables through the round hole she had sliced into the floor above. The concrete section had been cut so the bottom was narrower than the top. Once the hole was clear, all she would have to do is spray the edges with the super-epoxy stuff Tony gave her and drop the plug back in.

"Nah... priority is to get the workshop and house back in order, and I haven't decided if we'll make it permanent or not," Tony called up before polishing off the last of the sandwich he had for a late lunch after enjoying a celebratory shower. They had made two more reactor housings and a few more... Starkium? ...cores before shutting down the works. The first reactor was still being extensively tested, but he had already repurposed the remaining palladium reactors other than the one in his chest as more spares for future projects. He didn't really anticipate anything but success with the new... Badassium? ...element.

"Dum-E! U!" he yelled at the two robot arms as they failed in sweeping up the remaining pebbles and dust from the excavation. "Can we clean up this mess? You're killing me. You know I don't..."

"Incoming call with a blocked number sir," JARVIS announced.

Ranma poked her head down through the floor above his head. "Hey... those Nobel guys are pretty quick, yes?" she joked

"Ha! No," Tony grinned up at her, "it's probably SHIELD calling to check in." He tapped a spot on the computer monitor. "Coulson. How's the Land of Enchantment?" he greeted.

"Hey, Tony, how you doing?" a gravelly, accented voice replied with a chuckle. Tony's expression darkened instantly and Ranma dropped down to land silently beside him in full serious-ninja mode. "I double cycle," the unexpected voice continued.

"You what?" Tony asked incredulously.

"You told me... double cycles: more power. Good advice," the other man thanked him with slow and deliberate irony.

"You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy," Tony mentioned, holding a finger to his lips to ensure Ranma remained silent despite her angry look. The martial artist mouthed curses.

"You too!" Vanko laughed grimly.

Tony tapped another control to mute their side. "Trace him," he ordered JARVIS.

"Now, the true history of Stark name will be written," Vanko intoned.

"JARVIS, where is he?"

"Accessing the ORACLE grid. Eastern Seaboard," the computer answered.

The terrorist's rant continued. "What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes."

Unmuting the call, Tony replied: "Sounds good. Let's get together and hash it out," and immediately muted again.

"Tri-State area. Manhattan and outlying boroughs." JARVIS displayed a satellite view to indicate the search area.

"Turn on news," Vanko suggested. "You'll see soon. I hope you're ready." The line went dead immediately after the threat.

"Call trace incomplete," JARVIS informed them.

"Son-of-a-shit-faced... he's in New York though, right?! Maybe we can..." Tony's eyes fell on an advertisement for Hammer's presentation on the Stark Expo web-site he had open, and he froze as he rapidly pieced clues together. "Ahhhh... hell. He's going to hit the Expo! With Hammer's gear! JARVIS, call Pepper, now!"

"Calling, sir..." Several tense seconds elapsed. "The call was immediately rejected."

"Dammit, Pep! Keep trying! One... no, three minute intervals! Route it to me if she answers!"

"Wait! Wait!" Ranma exclaimed as she waved for attention. "Why do you think Vanko's doing that? What does Hammer have to do with this?"

"It makes sense," Tony said as he started unhooking the new reactor from the diagnostics equipment.

"Sir!" JARVIS protested.

"He told us!" Tony hurriedly explained, ignoring the computer. "Vanko went from helpless and broke in prison to successfully faking his death and having the means of rebuilding and using his weapons... in seven goddamn days! He's in New York! Hammer suddenly came up with something to present even though I know he had nothing a week ago! Hammer's also in New York!" He canceled the burn-in test of the new reactor and watched as it cycled down.

"Something big is about to happen that will be on the national news soon," Tony continued to review his reasoning. "Hammer's presentation is soon! Therefore: Hammer faked Vanko's death to use him to make something dangerous, and Vanko suckered him and slipped his leash! Stupid moron gave Vanko's equipment a free ride to the Expo! We don't need to know what it is, we already know what Vanko plans to do with it! Everybody at the Expo is in danger, and I doubt the police can handle whatever it is... assuming they would even believe me calling out Hammer with how SHIELD and the rest fucked my reputation over!" He yanked off his robe and grabbed the reactor once the test cycle was shut down and it was safe to do so.

"Sir," JARVIS tried again, "We are unclear as to the effects..."

"I don't want to hear it Jarvis," Stark interrupted. "You want to run some tests? Run them on the fly! And assemble the new suit while you're at it!" He pulled out the old reactor and endured the familiar judder of his damaged cardiovascular system as it reacted to the loss of the boost the Arc-energy gave it. "Ranma... spot me!" he requested as he tapped the replacement reactor into position in his chest with his fist.

"Shimatta!" Ranma yelped and set her hands on Tony's shoulders, pushing her Ki into him so she could monitor and sustain him if needed.

The triangular elemental core's glow brightened and brightened again, to the point where it lit the entire garage. Ranma could feel the oddly Ki-like energies of the Arc reactor flooding her boss's system as he grunted and groaned. Beheld by her aura sense, the previous twists and tangles in his life-force that indicated illness were pushed out in front of the expanding wavefront. "That tastes like coconut," Tony suddenly announced as the not-Ki soaked into his nervous system. "And metal!" he added. Ranma peeked over his shoulder and saw the dark contamination on his torso receding rapidly from the reactor housing out. "Oh wow, yeah!" Tony yelled enthusiastically while the reactor reached a peak.

Tony's back arched and he might have fallen backwards if Ranma hadn't been holding him. She also had the distinct displeasure of feeling the Ki of a man as he achieved an Arc-energy-induced peak. "Ew... ewww..." she muttered as she dragged him to the nearest chair with the absolute minimum of physical contact she could manage. Yanking her hands away, she asked: "You tracking, boss? I don't need to ask if you're feeling good... ick." She looked carefully at his face and torso.

"Wow..." Tony panted, blinking his eyes. "Wow... what was that?"

"Ki overload," Ranma answered clinically, "or something really close to it. Like dumping a bucket of water into a cup. It was something I learned not to do when I was learning Reiki. Really wished the guy teaching me wasn't a guy when I found out about it practicing on him." She shuddered distastefully.

"Why? Did it cause damage?" Tony asked worriedly. "Getting kind of tired of fixes making things worse, I gotta say."

"No, you're fine," she assured him confidently. "Better than fine. It's just... pouring a bunch of Ki into someone makes them feel... er... really... I mean... the thing is... I could feel it while it happened... and..." she spluttered in embarrassment.

"Makes them feel..?." Tony trailed off inquiringly, then realized what his employee was trying to avoid saying. "Oh! You mean...?" He briefly patted the front of his sweat-pants, finding a sticky wet spot. "Huh... s'been a long time since that happened to me," he mused.

"NEVER MIND THAT!" Ranma interjected, flapping her hands with a hilariously disgusted expression. "The important thing is your rash is gone. The poison was squeezed out by the surge, just like my Ki does when Mu Su or Akane managed to get me with something nasty. The only thing is the next time you go to the toilet might be a little weird... y'know... color-wise."

"JARVIS?" the inventor asked without looking away from Ranma, "how long before the Mark VI is ready for deployment?"

"Approximately eleven minutes, sir."

"OK, let me know the second it's ready. Prep the ThunderStruck and the Buster, too." Stark leaned forward and made a beckoning gesture at Ranma "Right, explain in more detail."

"For a brief second, you had about five or six times as much Ki, or sort-of-Ki, as usual flowing through you. Like that cup and the bucket, the water was all in the cup at some point, but it didn't stay. Your Ki is back down to normal now... though the cup isn't a cup... it's a person and people react," the flustered martial artist tried to explain quickly. "So... it felt really good! But don't get any ideas... it'd be a bad idea to do it more than once! You might get hooked. Also, if the Ki is too much, too often, your body gets burnt out. You might want to figure out a way to reduce the power of those things if they do that every time. The old one's didn't do so much."

"Actually..." Tony mused, "I think they did... maybe. Every time I upgraded a reactor, I felt a surge... though it wasn't nearly as strong as that. I thought it was a figment of my imagination each time because they were extreme situations and I was feeling really bad for one reason or the other. A- A- A psychosomatic reaction to getting what I desperately needed to stay alive, I mean."

"Maybe. Another thing I noticed was the almost-Ki was a lot purer. Maybe because you weren't getting poison along with the good stuff? So it was stronger this time?"

"Kind of like taking an upper an a downer at the same time before now, then switching to pure upper," Tony nodded thoughtfully. "With everything magnified and distorted because my heart kept stopping and starting when I was fiddling with things to get the Arc working."

"Wait... what?" Ranma asked, looking alarmed.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Tony looked at her in confusion. "I told you that it kept my heart beating, right?"

"I thought you meant it kept your heart beating as in it kept it un-stabbed, not as in actually making it beat," Ranma clarified. "Which one do you mean?"

"Both."

"That's... how does it do that? The make it beat part?"

"A combination of electrical impulses and a trickle of Arc energy to assist the muscles," Tony explained.

"You've got almost-Ki feeding into your heart? Straight in. To your heart. Am I getting that right?" Ranma asked seriously.

"Uh... yeah..." Tony started thinking of the situation from her perspective. "Ummm... was that a whoopsie?"

"I... I don't know," the bodyguard shook her head. "Hang on." She set her hands on his chest and her eyes lit up with a golden glow. After a couple of minutes, she backed away and stated: "You seem healthy to me right now, except for the hole in your chest part. It explains why I can read your Ki so easy with that reactor running, anyway. But there are people who are better at this sort of thing than me. We might want to ask one of them."

"But I'm in no danger of keeling over today, right?"

"Oh, hell no," she quickly shook her head in denial. "I'm worried about really long term stuff. Like years. And it could still be nothing... maybe? Since it's not too much at once? But I have no damn clue what happens with you taking in that stuff all day every day, and that makes me nervous. You might... you might need it now. Even without the shrapnel."

"Oh hell... addiction?" he wondered. Ranma shrugged helplessly. "That would help account for the way cores got depleted so fast if there was feedback from my Ki demanding more of the Arc energy like a drug. Ugh..." he grimaced. "That sounded a lot more scientific in my head."

"I thought we decided it was from poison adding to stress adding to poison in like a loop," Ranma said.

"Could be one... could be the other. Hell it could be both or neither. We'll have to..."

"Sir," JARVIS interrupted, "the Mark VI is thirty seconds away from being ready for deployment." After a pause, the computer added archly: "Replacement pants and trousers have also been deployed." U rolled up with a basket from the massage table carried in its claw that held spare clothes.

"Shimatta," Ranma cursed and yanked her battle suit and visor out of Stuff Space. "We're talking about this later!" she declared as she made her regular clothes disappear in a blur so she could squeeze herself into the bodysuit that was too sturdy and heavy for the rapid-dressing technique she had reverse-engineered from Happosai.

It was a measure of Tony's frantic concern for Pepper and Happy that he didn't even glance at her nakedness... for long... while changing into clean clothes himself and leaving the dirty for the robots to deal with. "Absolutely," he agreed sincerely with Ranma's cursing as he stepped onto the launch pad and the new armor was assembled around him. "As it is, we'll barely make it before Hammer's demonstration starts in an hour! That's the most likely time Vanko will start the party! Come on!" He ran with a thudding gait toward where their new aircraft had been moved to stand next to the other vehicles, Ranma leaping ahead of him. Seconds later, they blasted out through the garage door and high into the sky, hitting the maximum cruising speed of Mach 5 as soon as they could.

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[Pepper and Natalie... err... Natasha are in the audience of the big pavilion,] Ranma said sub-vocally as she leapt from lamppost to lamppost above the oblivious Stark Expo crowd. [Happy's down below.] She spread her hands to point both index fingers at the senior bodyguard to establish rough triangulation to let JARVIS make estimates with his mapping functions. [In the garage,] she finished reporting. [Tony...] she warned, [I feel a bunch of Arc reactors in the big building, thirty-three of them, and one is revved up.]

"Right, definitely Vanko's work," Tony replied grimly from above and ahead of her. Ranma had reached the area half a minute ahead of the ThunderStruck, but they had decided to leave the vehicles as a reserve high in the sky, so she had jumped off. Tony used her fall time to get ahead of her as they made their final approach. "I see them. Thirty-two Arc-equipped robots... and Rhodes in the War Machine." He sent her an image of several rows of 7 foot tall robots painted in four different schemes and the armor formerly known as the Iron Man Mark II. The military had painted much of it a matte black and scuffed the unpainted parts to keep it from being too reflective.

[Fuck that guy!] Ranma somehow managed to project a hiss though the uninflected tone of the sub-vocalization system.

"Forget him. Get Pepper out of there. Try not to be seen until it's too late for Vanko to interfere."

[On it.] Since her arrival in America, Ranma had confounded the untrained people around her with disappearing/reappearing acts. However, those had all been done with sheer speed, sneakiness, and judicious use of Ki-laced afterimages. Tonight, things were far more serious, so she unsealed the Umisenken... specifically, the more advanced form she had developed. No one was watching her as high above the ground as she was, but if they had, they would have seen her hunch a little into herself before her form wavered and disappeared. She noticed a bit of distorted feedback from her radio as she completed the technique.

The martial artist passed mere centimeters in from of crowd-members' faces without notice even as they rose and applauding when Iron Man came in for a landing on the stage. The two women she was there for were standing as well to keep Tony in view, giving her a landing spot. Pepper shrieked a bit when Ranma appeared crouched on the seatbacks behind them and set her hands on their shoulders.

"Hey, we need to get out of here!" Ranma told them, only listening to Tony's conversation with Rhodes with half an ear.

"Ranma! What?!" Pepper demanded. "What are you two playing..."

"Sssst," Ranma made a slicing motion with her hand to stop the CEO from talking. "Vanko, the whip guy, he's alive! He made Arc's for those robots! He frikken called Tony to tell him he was gonna attack and we think that's about to happen! I'm getting you two out while Tony works on evacuating everybody else before whatever it is blows. I'm being sneaky so Vanko focuses on Tony instead of you."

"What!?" Pepper struggled to make sense of what was happening was brief. "We need to make an announcement!" She looked around. "Take us backstage!" Natasha nodded in terse agreement.

Ranma thought about it for a moment, then decided it was close enough to what Tony had instructed. "Don't scream," she ordered as she gathered the two ladies up in her arms and cloaked them all in the Umisenken. She leapt up and to the side to clear the crowd, then bounced from pillar to pillar until they were behind the gigantic movie screen where she set the older women down.

"God...!" Pepper's voice quavered and she needed Ranma to support her for a second until she got her equilibrium back. "Wow," she shook her head and her voice steadied. "OK. Ranma, I need you to..."

"Chikuso!" Ranma interrupted. "Tony! A bunch of Arc's are cranking up!" she yelled in warning, trusting JARVIS to send the radio communication properly.

Instead of Tony's voice, the first thing she heard as the computer opened the channel was Rhodes's panicked tone: "...Can't move! I'm locked up! I'm locked up! Get out of here! Go! This whole system's been compromised!"

"Let's take it outside," Tony answered hurriedly, and she felt him rising into the air. "Ranma! Smash everything! Everything but Rhodey!"

"Fuck! On it!" Ranma yelled back over the sound of gunfire and screams. A flying kick put her through the screen just as Iron Man rocketed through the circular opening in the roof above. Nine enemies, including War Machine, were in pursuit. She flattened her first victim among the remaining robotic targets as she landed. "JARVIS! Bring in the Buster and the ThunderStruck!" she ordered as a double spin-kick ruptured the heads of two more robots. Her former passengers lost sight of her after that.

"Natalie?" Pepper addressed her assistant as she examined the hole Ranma had made. "We just lost our muscle. How intimidating can you act?"

"Intimidating?" Natasha asked grimly. "I can manage intimidating." She stalked toward the gesticulating technicians nearby.

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Ivan Vanko smiled evilly. He had anticipated the youxia would be drawn into his trap along with Stark. He had little illusion that his converted drones would be able to track and shoot her in a straightforward battle, or that they would survive close combat for long against her. So this would not be such a straightforward battle. A sweep of the mouse, a tapping of keys, and the twisted genius's next gambit was in play.

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Shoulder-mounted rocket launchers from the 'Navy' robots fired a salvo of missiles toward the crowd. "No!" Ranma yelled and took off after the projectiles while emptying her sleeves of kunai. The wedge-shaped blades intercepted the leading rockets, causing them to explode in flight. Cursing to herself for not having enough of the projectiles, she brought out two lengths of chain. Surging ahead of the rockets, she spun the chains into large whirling shields that ripped through the missiles and destroyed them as she jumped through the air in front of their flight path. The innocent civilians beneath her hurtling form screamed in fear and pain from the shrapnel that managed to get through the martial artist's defense.

The attacking robots simply turned out in a half-circle to prepare to launch the next barrage in all directions.

"Kijin Raishu Dan!" Ranma roared in rage as her Ki lit up the steel chains with furious red Ki. Having already unsealed the Umisenken, bringing out the Yamisenken to was a no-brainer. FWOOM! FWOOM! Two massive, vacuum blades glowing an uncanny non-color howled out to strike the entire platoon of murderous robots before they could fire. Squeals of ripped alloys were joined by metallic groans as the the Demon-God Strike sliced the Navy drones to pieces with short-lived blades of shearing void that yanked their targets into their cutting strands of inverted KI. Ranma yanked the chains back into her Stuff Space just before she landed amidst the fleeing people to keep from hitting them. Instantly, she leapt into the air again to use the same attack on the remaining robots.

############

{"Very skilled,"} Vanko complimented in Russian without real concern. Rapidly issuing commands, he initiated his second phase of counter-measures.

The robots started to scatter, which wouldn't a problem for the martial artist. What would be a problem were panels opening on the sides of the torsos and legs that disgorged several objects that unfolded into quad-fan drones. Each mini-drone had a handgun mounted to it that Vanko had surreptitiously annexed from Hammer's warehouses. Each of the large robots carried six parasite-drones in the empty spaces left behind by Hammer's simple-minded desire for a live operator, and not all the smaller mechanisms were destroyed by Ranma's demon-blade strike. In total, over eighty more attackers took the field and accelerated outward at their best speed.

The new drones could barely move faster than a running civilian, they only carried thirty pistol-caliber rounds in the extended magazines, they had zero armor, and they would last twenty minutes at best before they ran out of power on their own. However, their purpose was not to fight either Iron Man or his pet, but to distract the youxia. The sub-drones began firing at individuals in the fleeing press of humanity as they fanned out.

While that was happening, the Army and Marine drones were instructed to shutter their weapons and exit the building without causing more casualties and while shielding each other. Given the choice between active attackers and inactive, the martial artist would have to devote her attention to the imminent threat. Predictably, some of the larger drones were still destroyed, but eleven of the sixteen made it out due to the sacrifice of the others and maneuvered to set up an ambush for Stark. More than twenty of the smaller drones had been eliminated before they made it out, but now an expanding ring of them were jinking and firing as they flew at below head-height amongst the crowd and they were being terminated far less quickly now.

Like a chess-master playing multiple opponents, Vanko switched between the various control groups to make his moves before he focused on what truly mattered. The industrialist had managed to down one of the pursuing drones during his inattention, but now he could focus his full effort on the demise of Tony Stark.

############

"Tony!" Ranma yelled over the radio. "The fucking murder-bots are going everywhere! I'm losing track of them!" Somersaulting along a widening arc, she annihilated one machine after the other as soon as she had an open shot or one came into her extensive striking distance. Unfortunately, the things were diving into buildings and stairways to make things that much harder for her. They were also flying low enough that they used the fleeing victims for cover.

"JARVIS, forget Rhodey. Switch to hacking the little bastards!" the inventor ordered as he continued to dodge mini-gun fire. Below him a line of parked cars erupted into flame and ruin as tracer bullets set off gas tanks.

"Sir, the auxiliary drones have shut down all communications and are running autonomously. There is no signal that can be used to invade their systems," the computer reported. "Ten seconds until your vehicles arrive."

"Shit!" Tony cursed. "OK, new plan. Have them... whoa!"

Six Marine drones rose up in front of him, firing all guns. He dodged right and found himself staring down the barrels of five Bofors 20mm autocannons as they began to fire from the shoulders of the surviving Army robots. He grunted wordlessly as a glancing hit sent him careening to the side, only regaining control after a couple of seconds.

"Have the Buster kill the grounded robots," Ranma ordered in his place. "Send all the camera-drones to track the smaller murder-bots! The Thunder is to shoot the guys chasing Tony and any murder-bots in them! Once they're down, use their sensors to find the rest of the murder-bots! Shoot the Arc reactors, too! Don't need any other shitty surprises!"

"Acknowledged," JARVIS replied.

"Do not target Rhodey!" Tony yelped just as repulsor bolts began to fall like the spears of an angry god on the robots trying to ack-ack him. "Try to break into the Mark II again!"

"Acknowledged," JARVIS repeated.

"Tony!" the lieutenant colonel hollered over the link the inventor's suit had established. "Don't waste time! Shoot me down! Shoot me... the fuck is that thing!" the pilot's voice rose to a near-shriek as a storm of repulsor bolts annihilated the Hammer-oids in front of him.

"It's... Thunderrrrr!" Tony bellowed melodically in answer.

A sleek flying wedge of glossy red trimmed with gold that was a bit longer than a full-sized van pulled up from a dive. The stubby 'wings' of the lifting body fuselage terminated into vertical fins, each of which held three backward-facing repulsor emitters. As it continued to pull up into a loop, four spherical mounts with the glowing lenses of more repulsor projectors could be seen recessed into the upper surface of aircraft's frame. The name of this craft? ThunderStruck.

Iron Man ascended in a reciprocal loop, Rhodes and the flying drones trying to match him. The former Mark II matched his turn radius, the drones did not... putting them right into the line of fire of the ThunderStruck as it neared the top of it's loop. Brilliant beams of energy blazed out to strike the Hammer-drones. The original four blasters were joined by another four when the bottom edge of the craft came to bear. Following Ranma's instructions, the aerospace fighter continued to fire on the falling pieces to make sure no more parasite-drones emerged. In seconds, falling debris and smoke were all that remained of the Hammer-drones.

"Holy crap, Tony!" Rhodey shouted.

"Thunder!" Stark repeated gleefully. "AaaAAaaaAAaaAAAAAaaah!" he sang off-key. "Nice call, Ranma! Oh man, that was awesome!"

############

{"Well played, Stark,"} Vanko growled. {"Keeping a reserve was not a move I anticipated from you."} It was good he knew about the two aircraft now, that could have been a fatal surprise at the wrong time. It made him smirk that Stark was using the same drone concept as he was to counter him. The air-gapped drones wouldn't let him program them to target the small ones Stark deployed to chase them, but it hardly mattered. He saw one of Stark's fall to the gunfire of arriving police when it came near them.

He glanced at an alert indicating someone had broken into the building, and started entering a series final commands. Camera feeds showed what looked very suspiciously like a pevun'i from the Red Room mangling the security people. It was time for him to vacate. {"Still... they say it is the one who commits his reserve last that wins. Time for me to take a direct hand in this."}

############

"I'm still locked on your six!" Rhodey reminded Stark urgently.

"Not a problem," Iron Man announced confidently. He cut right, taking a couple of glancing hits, and led them in a new direction. "JARVIS, use the ThunderStruck to target the War Machine's mini-gun!" The new craft instantly banked toward the two armored men. "Get ready... ready..." he jinked left with Rhodes in tow, giving the ThunderStruck a zero-deflection shot that wouldn't punch through to his buddy. "Fire!"

Rhodey jolted as his shoulder gun was struck. "Unnf...! OK! OK!" He was encouraged at the red 'X' that marked the gun as destroyed. "That's better! But now you can't slow down without me attacking you!"

"Zorro maneuver!" Tony instructed his computer.

"What!?"

Iron Man bounced upward with his hand repulsors and cut thrust for an instant, letting War Machine catch up before it's rogue programming was ready and passed a foot below him. Boot-jets roaring to match speed again, he wrapped his arms around Rhodey's to pin them in place and looked around as his friend's armor tried to free itself. He turned off his thrusters to start slowing them down a little.

"What are you doing!?" Rhodes yelled in confusion.

"Sending you on a ride," Tony laughed as he suddenly activated his jets again and shoved, sending his friend crashing back-first into the open cockpit of the ThunderStruck. The vehicle had no clear canopy to allow a more aerodynamic profile, and it flew by instruments only. "Emergency close!" Rhodey was cut off from the world as the cockpit abruptly closed again. "Emergency repair cycle! Enjoy the trip!" He dove toward the Expo as his vehicle carried Rhodey away. As designed, it immediately began diagnosing the systems of the armor, starting with a forced disconnect of the Arc reactor and a reboot.

"Tony! What the...!" Rhodey's voice cut out as he lost power.

"Ranma! Where do you need me?!" Tony called out.

"Twenty to thirty of the fucking things left!" she answered in a distraught tone. "I didn't see them all separate, so I don't know the total! They spread out in a ring and I'm taking them down counter-clockwise! Start where I did and work left! Check everywhere, the damn things love to hide and shoot people!"

"Got it!" Tony replied and landed in front of a child wearing an Iron Man mask with an LED glove he had been aiming at a drone just as the pistol mounted under it fired. The bullet shattered on his armor and he blasted the drone out of the air, making sure the repulsor bolt he fired ruined the firearm as well. "Good work, kid," he called over his shoulder before activating his SlyDr system. Much like the 'wheels' of the SkyBuster, the Arc energy of his boot repulsors were redirected into a ground effect that let him zoom at high speed along the sidewalk toward the next target. Ranma's experimentation had served well to make the SlyDr programming work flawlessly the first time he tried it.

############

"Peter! Peter!" a woman yelled as she searched through the dwindling crowd.

The boy slid his mask to the top of his head and stared in wonder at the racing back of the man who had saved him. Iron Man had been the child's hero before this day... but to see the inventor in the technological marvel he built standing not two feet away...

"Peter! There you are!" The nine-year-old was snatched up into the arms of the searching woman, fear lending her strength as she picked him up and sprinted to the exits, his face looking back over her shoulder. He never took his eyes off where the armored man had disappeared.

############

"I see you found a solution for Rhodes before I could. Looks like you'll get your best friend back in a second." Natasha's voice sounded out over the communication channel. "I've got access to Vanko's computers, but he's nowhere to be found."

"Thank you very much for trying, Agent Romanoff," Tony said distractedly. "Can you find the rest of the murder-bots or shut them down?"

"I can't shut them down, but... yes, here's something. They're repurposed inventory control drones and they have RFID tags. Sending you the activation frequencies now."

"Oh, perfect!" Tony said as he got the information packet. "Light 'em up JARVIS!"

"Broadcasting modulated pulse... tags localized," JARVIS reported as targets were marked on the HUD.

"Thank you, Natalie!" Ranma nearly sobbed with relief.

Using her HUD to target the things through walls and people now, she began to ripple fire wind-blades and Ki-bullets in all directions. Ranma's eyes went wide and glassy as she tracked all the life-signs of the scrambling victims around her. Slow as they were, clumsiness and panic made them unpredictable, and she would be damned before any technique of hers struck an innocent. Calculating all possible vectors in parallel... an act that was like trying to juggle hundreds of balls at once without using her hands... she made sure to shoot her attacks through spaces where none of the attendees could possibly stumble or push each other into. She also made sure to calibrate the power of her attacks to penetrate walls and hit her targets while not going any farther.

In seconds, every remaining hostile drone was destroyed utterly. Ranma hissed with frustration even as she failed to find any more targets. A symphony of angles and trajectories meeting in a crescendo of destruction might have been the hallmark of her level of martial arts, something she would normally revel in, but this night the need for it just infuriated her.

"That looks like all of them. Well done," the agent reported. "We'll need to talk later, Ranma," Natasha added gently. In a more brusque tone, she went on: "And also well done on the new chest piece, Stark. I am reading significantly higher output and your vitals all look promising... excellent, even."

"Yes, for the moment, I'm not dying," the inventor replied absently, checking his own sensors to make sure there were no more surprises. "Thank you."

"What do you mean you're not dying?!" Pepper yelled. Unfortunately for Tony, Natasha had tied her in to the conversation when she used Hammer's warehouse equipment to open a channel with his gear at the Expo. "Did you just say you're dying?"

"Uh... is that you? No, I'm not. Not... anymore."

"Wh-What's going on?" the CEO asked.

"I was going to tell you. I didn't want to alarm you," Tony replied with a studiedly calm voice.

"You were gonna tell me? You really were dying?"

"You didn't let me."

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I was gonna make you an omelet and tell you," the inventor's voice started to rise.

"Urusai!" Ranma snarled. "People are hurt!" The older people on the channel were shocked into a moment of silence.

"Hey! I'm back online!" Rhodey broke into the conversation, his suit OS having been returned to the original. "Give me targets!"

"Uh... JARVIS?" Tony prompted. "Scan with everything. Are we clear?"

"No drones detected. No gunfire detected. Checking security cameras... checking local smartphones... checking police band... no hostile activity remains," JARVIS rattled off. Tony nodded as he met Ranma in the middle of their converging paths, his visor rising to show his face.

"OK," Ranma took a deep breath and submerged herself into the Soul of Ice. "OK. I'm going to start helping the wounded now. I can keep them alive at least until a doc gets to them."

"Huh? Oh right... Reiki," Tony said as he remembered the technique was more than a way to crank a massage up to 15.

"I'm EMT trained," Rhodey spoke up as he flew toward the other two, "I'll help you."

"Ranma, are you alright?" Pepper asked quietly.

"They were shooting people before I could get to them. I could feel people dying," Ranma said in a frigid tone, her face dreadful in its lack of emotion. "I am not alright."

"Maybe you should..." the older woman started to suggest.

"I should help people the way I still can," the martial artist cut her off firmly. "A martial artist protects the weak!"

"JARVIS, can you find the most critical cases and guide Ranma to them," Tony inquired. He was a little relieved that Ranma had put things into perspective and ended his argument with Pepper before it really began, but also worried how the teen was doing.

"Acknowledged. Moving the SkyBuster, ThunderStruck, and our surviving drones to sweep the area and prioritize the wounded," the NLUI agreed. "Emergency services are on site."

"I'll help coordinate with them," Pepper offered. "I have NYPD here with me now. They're arresting Hammer."

"That's some good news," Tony commented. "I'll..."

"Heads up!" Natasha interrupted over the radio. "I found something heading your way. It looks different from the previous drones, the repulsor signature is significantly higher."

"It's Vanko," Ranma announced as she looked to the northwest. "I can feel a hint of Ki along with the Arc. Dammit!" she snarled with clenched fists as she turned in that direction.

"I got this," Tony held up his hand to stop her. "The wounded are the priority and I can't help with that." In the back of his mind, he considered future upgrades to resolve that lack.

"I'm your bodyguard," Ranma pointed out with a highly conflicted expression.

"You're my bodyguard when I'm out of the armor," Iron Man countered. "Stop wasting time and help the wounded. That's my order as your boss. I'll handle old Ivan."

"Tony!" Pepper yelled in protest.

Ranma quivered in place for a moment. "Dammit!" she roared before she took off to try to keep some civilians alive.

"I'll go with you, Tony," Rhodey insisted.

Tony looked his way. "No. You're EMT trained, remember? Help Ranma, but keep the suit handy... it'll take you too long to change out of it anyway. He wants me... he'll focus on me. I'll draw him away from the rescue people. JARVIS, do be so kind as to zap him with the Thunder or the Buster when he's looking my way, alright?"

"Understood, sir. Moving vehicles into low-observation ambush positions."

"Good. Now Rhodey, you'll be plan 'B', then Ranma's 'C' when she finishes with the wounded. If I have to, I'll concentrate on evasion until either the ThunderStruck nails him or you guys come in."

"Tony... fine," Rhodey agreed, understanding the logic. He started jogging ponderously in the direction Ranma went before giving up and taking flight.

"Dammit, Tony," Pepper complained. "You can't keep doing this!"

"Comes with being a big-time hero, babe," Tony smirked.

"Hey!" Ranma interjected over the radio. "Remember Rock-Thrown-Accurately! Keep moving. Stay airborne. Stay distant. Keep firing. Watch for whips. If you screw up, go super-close... grab him by the belt! Stay alive!"

"Got it! I've been doing this for a while! I got this!" Iron Man said with an ironic salute to nobody as he closed his helmet. He took off and flew toward where his radar showed the criminal approaching.

"Sir, Vanko just dove down to the Nancy Stark Memorial Stadium," JARVIS advised him.

"Seriously?" The place was named after his paternal grandmother. That couldn't have been by accident.

"Yes s... Sir! He's taken a hostage!" JARVIS announced urgently.

"Shit!" Tony flew around the coliseum and saw Vanko in a large power-suit. A whip was energized in one hand while the other whip was unpowered and wrapped around a police officer. Other police officers were using their cars for cover as they aimed service pistols and shouted commands, both of which Vanko ignored. The helmet looked up toward Iron Man and raised the hostage as a shield while Vanko backed into the stadium, breaking through the glass doors with his armored bulk.

"Damn," Tony muttered. "Top of the stadium's closed to keep the Thunder out... open enough inside that he can see Ranma coming... or so he thinks... I hate smart enemies!" He came for a landing beside the remaining officers.

"Iron Man! Thank god!" a policeman with graying temples in a white shirt called out. JARVIS helpfully outlined and labeled the lieutenant's insignia and badge the man wore.

"Hey, Tony!" Vanko's amplified voice sounded from behind a pillar inside. "Nice to see you! How about you come in?!"

"You know the perp?" the lead officer asked.

"He was the same guy who attacked me in Monaco," Tony answered. "He wants another shot at me."

"Him? Isn't he supposed to be in jail?"

"Hell, he's supposed to be dead in jail, but Hammer faked his death so he'd make weapons for him." The armored hero shook his head. "It's why your co-workers have Hammer in custody right now, Lieutenant."

"Tony!" Vanko bellowed. "I get impatient soon! Don't bring Youxia this time!" Still using his human shield, he ascended the stairs into the central coliseum.

"'Youxia'?" the policeman asked.

"He means Ranma, my bodyguard... the woman who beat him last time," Tony explained. "She's trying to keep some of the wounded alive until the paramedics can get to them."

"That figures," the other man muttered. Like most of the law enforcement officers in the world, he had seen and been impressed by the videos of Ranma's performance and would very much like to have her assistance.

"Yeah, I need to get in there soon," he pointed toward the nearest police car. "I've hacked into the computer in that cruiser... sorry about that. I'll show you guys my helmet feed and audio so you know what's going on. I'll need you to keep other people out to keep this from turning into more of a mess. Is there anybody else in there?"

"We just evacuated the security and maintenance people when that bastard showed up," the lieutenant reported as he opened the door and saw the video window that was showing a view of him at the moment. "We'll keep people clear. Thanks for the eyes-on... but in my official capacity, I'll have to ask you to not do that again." The older man looked both unconvinced his reprimand would have any effect and unconcerned if it did not.

"Right, see you on the other side, officer," Tony waved an imitation of a salute and walked in through the broken doors, taking his time instead of using the ground running system. He plodded deliberately up the stairs, making as much noise as he could in case Vanko hadn't infiltrated the security system already. He wanted the criminal to know he was coming so he wouldn't get antsy. As he entered the fully-lit stadium, he saw that the Russian standing near an audience box, still holding the policeman up as a shield.

"If you're looking for Anna Kournikova's autograph," Tony said with a nod to the tennis court on the floor of the stadium, "you're here on the wrong day."

"You move like old man," Vanko called up to him almost cheerfully. "Failure weighs on you?"

"You know how it is," Tony replied mock-casually. "Jet lag... long day... assholes wasting my time. Speaking of... how about you let the nice guy with the uniform go now that you got me here? This is between us."

"I think not," Vanko rumbled in amusement. "Because it is between us, he stays. If see single red hair of youxia...?" A plasma whip lashed out to cut through seats and concrete, then back up to pass close to the policeman's head, making him yell in anger and fear.

"Uh-huh, so how do you want to do this? Stand back to back, walk ten paces, turn and fire? Sounds good to me, you face that way," he pointed behind Vanko as he cautiously worked his way closer for a clear shot.

"Funny. Better idea: you take off helmet, walk up to there," Vanko lashed another line of smoldering ruin to mark the intended spot.

"Don't do it!" the officer yelled. "Bastard like this, he'll kill me anyway!"

"This is true," Vanko admitted with amusement. "But he also dies if I'm bored. What will you do, Tony? Can't shoot me." He nodded to the man trapped in his coils. "How much of him you think will be left if I ignite lash? Anything but blackened skeleton?" He studied his hostage with an air of menace, ignoring how the cop writhed to try to free himself.

"Check, huh? Russians do like their chess, don't they?" Tony stalled.

"We do," Vanko chuckled agreement.

"But didn't you put yourself in checkmate?" Tony asked, gesturing around himself. "You don't think you can get out of here even if you kill me, do you? Stick around long enough, and they'll have multiple squadrons of fighters ready to shoot you down on the way out. And that's in the very unlikely event Ranma doesn't get you first." He left Rhodey unmentioned in case the Russian was unaware of his status.

"As long as I have revenge, what does it matter?" Vanko replied. "Enough!" He raised his whip again, the energy pumping through it brightening with increased power, as he backed up again, crashing though the clear doors of the VIP box. "Don't let me get bored, Thief! This man's death will be your fault if you do!"

Iron Man jetted over to the box, then zipped back to dodges a repulsor-whip strike. Vanko continued to retreat, smashing the door and part of the wall as he moved out of view. The struggling policeman met Tony's eyes an instant before he too disappeared.

"Hang in there, man!" Tony promised. Vanko's external speakers amplified his derisive laughter. "God... dammit," the inventor hissed. "'Stay distant! Keep firing!' So much for that plan. Shit." He landed inside the box and used the SlyDr coils to skate toward the shattered exit. "Shit!" he exclaimed when his sensors caught the Whiplash armor just before it struck. He bent backward to dodge the whip that went through both the remains of the wall and the space where his head had been. Hand thrusters kept him from falling and pushed him back upright. "Allllrighty then," he rasped with profound annoyance.

Staying out of whip range, he blasted off to make his own hole through the stadium's cinderblock wall. The SlyDr drive let him get his footing immediately as he entered the hall and turned toward the enemy. Slowly and silently, he slid along the concrete after the terrorist and his victim, glaring at Vanko through his face-plate.

Vanko opened his own helmet just to raise an eyebrow as he eyed Tony's red boots. "Moves with pseudo-Yukawa force of repulsor energy, yes? Like my coils. Again, a Stark needs a Vanko to teach him."

"Teach?" Tony scoffed. "I glanced at your original rig. The applications were obvious."

"Oh? Then I admit. You are skilled... thief!" Ivan abruptly lunged forward with an overhead lash, the ceiling not slowing the glowing weapon even a little. Iron Man dodged to the side, crashing through another door. Coming out of a roll, he sprinted forward, watching Vanko's detected position through his HUD. He tried for a RoboCop maneuver, punching through the wall to reach through and grab, but another whipstrike bisected the concrete in front of him, and he had to dodge again.

Tony didn't let that stop him. He jetted forward at an angle to smash another mousehole, his palms aimed for an opportunity shot. "Shit!" He held fire as he saw the policeman was interposed between them again. Another burst from the SlyDr drive let him stand on the opposite wall for a moment before he dropped to the floor again.

"And... check again," Vanko mocked.

Tony growled to himself in frustration. It was a shitty situation where he had to stay close enough that Vanko would focus on killing him instead of the hostage, while still avoiding those attacks. The bad news was he needed to get it right each and every time he used himself as bait... and the dice would eventually come up snake-eyes. The good news was, if he could stall the maniac long enough, it would be game over anyway. Turing off his external speakers, he muttered quietly: "JARVIS? How's Ranma doing? Precisely?"

Equally as quietly, the computer responded: "Ms. Saotome has six more people to stabilize enough that they can make it to the hospital alive. Based on prior observation, she will be done in 378 seconds and can arrive in 7 seconds more based on the final patient's position."

"Awesome. Gimme a countdown to the hits." Ranma was sneaky enough to get the drop on Vanko even if he were standing in the middle of the Bonneville Salt Flats at high noon, much less at night inside a building. He just had to hold out and keep the hostage alive.

As if anticipating his plan, Vanko brandished his prisoner and stepped toward a pillar as if he would crush the man against it. Tony skated forward, then back again to avoid the inevitable strike. Strafing right, he tried again, and again was held off. Still, the Russian was chuckling in psychotic amusement, so it looked like the cop had a stay of execution.

Iron Man tried the kind of barrel roll that could only be managed by four independently mobile engines. Hand and foot repulsors fired in sequence as he tried to loop around and past his enemy's weapon like a fencer using a circle-parry. Vanko whipped his arm in a circle of his own, making the lash corkscrew horizontally in a tubular standing wave.

"Shit!" Tony redirected upwards to escape, but the tip of the energized coil still wrapped around his foot. "Fuck!" He kept burning for altitude, plowing through the cement to the cheaper seats above and pulling his boot free. He lurched to the side as that thruster sputtered and cut out, and had to contort himself to come back down to a safe landing. "Sunnuva... whoa!" he yelped as the corkscrewing plasma whip devoured the floor in front of him and he had to jump away awkwardly. The section of stairs and stands collapsed, showing Vanko looking up at him with a grin.

"Ey, Tony!" the tattooed psycho yelled at him. "Forgetting this?" He held up the policeman. "Would be shame if your failures let Officer... what's your name, meat?"

"Fuck you!" the blue-uniformed man spat.

"...Would be shame if Officer Fuck had to die, yes?" Vanko continued genially. "Terrible thing to put on tombstone."

"You're just a laugh riot," Tony muttered. "Careful what you wish for!" he spoke more loudly. Taking off, he flew back and up a few yards, then dove back down headfirst to crash through the floor again. He made another aborted feint at Whiplash, and had to swerve away.

This time, Vanko was not content to simply bait Stark into range. Firing his own boot thrusters, he surged forward, his whip strobing into an actinic buzzsaw as he flew. Floors, walls, and more of the abused ceiling had deep cuts burned into them as he pursued the frantically scrambling billionaire. Less experienced in armored flight than his target, he bounced off the ceiling a couple times, but gave it no mind. Nor did he give much consideration to his hostage beyond making sure he stayed alive to continue being an effective shield and bait. The policeman hollered curses as he was buffeted by shattered building materials.

Taking advantage of the Russian's momentum, Tony jinked to the side and reversed course. This time the whip wasn't able to change direction fast enough and he got around and behind the enemy. With a wrenching blast of repulsors, he did another 180 and closed in on his clumsier opponent.

Rather than hang around for the incoming retaliation, Vanko pushed his engines harder to keep the distance open. Blindly, he whirled his whip over his head in a broad loop that passed through pillars and walls as easily as open air. Tony easily zoomed under the lash and closed in rapidly, even with just three thrusters left.

He dodged the whip. He didn't dodge the falling structure.

"Oh, shiiii...!" Tony yelled before tons of upper deck crashed down on him. The Arc-fortified armor made sure he came to no real harm beyond being rattled, but he was still grounded violently. Hastily, he pushed up on his hands and knees to lever the slabs of concrete off before Vanko could take advantage. Too late, as the moment the rose above the rubble, a whip howling with electric fury wrapped it around his torso, trapping his arms.

"I've got you now!" Vanko gloated with a deep snarl. The reel of his whip pulled Iron Man into his grasp, and he slammed the inventor into the floor, holding him there with his superior weight while the repulsor coils burned away at his armor. "Witness this, Officer Fuck You!" he demanded of his hostage. "The long-deserved demise of the famous Anthony Stark!"

"Urg!" Tony ignored the wailing alarms in his helmet as he struggled. The energy of the whip was interfering with the repulsor-enhancement of his servos, and he couldn't break loose with main strength. The Arc reactor on the front wasn't pointed in the right direction, so a uni-beam shot was out of the question. He tried turning his palm toward his captor, but Vanko only grinned and tightened his grasp to keep his arm from being able to contort that way. "Dammit!"

"No youxia, no servants, no government minders," Vanko chortled. "Your wealth. Your fame. It comes to nothing in the end." Exulting in victory, he ignored how the back of Iron Man's hand was angling upward.

Gritting his teeth and sweating from the heat-buildup, Tony eyed the wireframe model of the enemy JARVIS projected, and the red dot creeping its way up it. The Whiplash suit's Arc reactor wasn't within his range of motion, and he could only get one hand on target, so he had to pick his target carefully. Too low, and there was no guarantee that the vengeful lunatic wouldn't burn the cop to ash even if the hit was eventually fatal. His wrist hit the limit it could bend in the gauntlet a couple of degrees short of his goal.

Screaming in unfeigned frustration and pain, Tony arced up on his shoulders and feet in the very picture of agony. Vanko was able to enjoy the sight for a fraction of a second before Iron Man's contortion put him exactly where he needed to be. A flash of red guiding laser marked the path of the invisible, repulsor-boosted particle beam as it fired.

It was Vanko's turn to scream as Arc-accelerated atomic fragments lanced through his armor, his shoulder, and, most importantly, the reel holding his un-charged whip, destroying it. The motors within the coil-strand lost power too, and the whip slackened enough the the bruised and bleeding policeman could work his way free and roll away.

The one-shot beam ran out before Tony could cut down into Vanko's body with it, but it did enough damage that the Russian's concentration and control were disrupted. Iron Man took the chance to tear off the whip that had caught him. Too hurt and disoriented to try flying away, he took Ranma's last bit of advice instead. Lunging forward, he trapped Vanko's undamaged arm under his own smoldering one. The terrorist managed to close his helmet just before the palm-blaster of Tony's other hand was aimed at his head and fired. Repulsor energy splashed and roared as he fired continuously, trying to blast though the structural reinforcement his adversary's Arc reactor provided.

Realizing he was seconds from death, Vanko frantically thrashed to try to escape, but one arm was trapped and the other dangled uselessly at his side. Pushing off with a burst from his thruster, Vanko twisted to throw the both of them to the floor, and they began to roll down the steps of the main stadium area. This managed to throw off Stark's aim, but it also allowed the intact whip to wrap around the both of them.

Bellowing in rage and determination as they tumbled off the edge of the seating to land on the arena floor, Vanko activated the whip. Repulsor-enhanced arcs of electricity flared around them, and started burning through both sets of armor.

"You'll kill us both, you maniac!" Tony yelled over the shriek of coruscating metal, trying to get enough clearance under the restraining coil to get his palm-blaster back into play. The Whiplash armor only gripped him all the tighter and Vanko rolled onto his back. The Russian managed to sling one metallic leg over the back of Tony's knee and engaged a heavy foot clamp to sink into the floor and anchor them in place.

"Again," Vanko chuckled darkly as he entered a final command into his interface. "Good idea. Very energetic... my father's creations."

"Sir! His Arc reactor is looping into itself in a chain reaction!" JARVIS warned. "It will detonate in approximately 30 seconds!" Tony redoubled his efforts to escape the ticking time-bomb his enemy had become.

"Tony!" Rhodey's voice echoed out above them, the War Machine armor hurtling to a landing beside the struggling opponents. "Hang on, man!" he exclaimed as he tried to pull his friend loose.

"Forget me!" Tony yelled in panic. "He's set off an Arc self-destruct!" A sudden horrifying realization struck him and he screamed: "Get to Pepper and make sure she isn't near any reactors! He's probably set them all off! There's no way to stop them!"

"Correct!" Vanko announced with dark glee.

"Twenty seconds," JARVIS announced within the two friends' helmets.

"He's got nothing!" Rhodey corrected them. "We wrecked all the other reactors! Pepper's fine!"

"Oh, good," Tony sighed in relief, relaxing.

"Hey, don't fucking give up now!" Rhodey protested. "Ranma's on the way!"

"Give up, Stark!" Vanko suggested helpfully.

"Get out of here, Rhodes-ster," Tony said calmly, ignoring the burning sensation in his back as well as the thunderous roar of his soon-to-be killer's weapon.

"Ten seconds!" JARVIS interjected urgently.

"No! I'm not letting you go out like this!"

"Go! I can't let another friend die!" Tony pleaded. "Tell Pepper I'm an idiot, and that I love her!"

"You lose, Tony! You lose!" Vanko gurgled in mad delight.

"You keep saying that..." Ranma gritted out through clenched teeth as she appeared out of nowhere. Hands glowing with silver fire, she grabbed the howling coil directly and tore it off of Vanko's reel. A flicker of hands shredded the rest of the whip to free her boss.

"Ranma! What...!" Tony called out.

"Bakusai Tenketsu!" the Ki-adept yelled as she touched the floor with her finger and caused an explosion of concrete shards to erupt, leaving behind a deep crater.

"...But Ranma Saotome don't lose!" she roared as she ripped Vanko loose of the floor by his feet and used him as a club to bat the two Americans across the stadium. Then she slammed the Russian face-down into the new crater. "Iron Iron technique!" she called out in English as she jammed her feet and one hand into the fractured cement, holding Vanko inside the hole.

"Ranma! No!" Tony protested as he jetted back toward her as straight as he could with one boot thruster, reaching out to snatch her away.

Vanko's reactor detonated in an eruption of yellow plasma and a thunderous K-THOOM, blanking out Iron Man's display and sending him into an uncontrolled spiral. "RANMA!" he screamed as he smashed into the ground, skipping off the tennis court and crashing into the wall. Shades of Ho Yinsen rose in his mind, and his heart hammered in his chest.

"Oh my god...!" Arms scrabbling, Stark lurched to his feet and staggered in a half-circle until he located the smoking crater. "Ranma! Oh god... not again...!" he staggered toward where he last saw his bodyguard. "Oh god... what'll I tell Pepper?! JARVIS! Is she...?!"

"Scanning... sending reboot signal to her visor... no response..." the NLUI reported with the urgent tone its programming called for.

"Jesus!" Rhodey yelled down from where he was untangling himself from destroyed seats. "Is she alright!?"

"I-I-I don't know!" Tony stammered. "I can't-I can't see her! JARVIS! Give me a..." WHAM! He jumped when a heavy, metallic body landed behind him. "Shit!" he yelped, and spun around. "Oh no...!" Before him was the ruined corpse of Ivan Vanko. A blackened crater nearly cut the body in half, with only a few strips of smoking flesh connecting the remains of his torso to his legs within the ruined shell of his armor. "Oh no..." Tony whispered at the sight of the devastated body.

"...te-te-te-te..." a soft, high-pitched sound drifted down from above his head.

Iron Man looked up. "Ranma!?" he yelled incredulously.

"Ite-te-te-te..." Ranma moaned piteously, looking down with a grimace when the fragments of her visor fell away. The martial artist was embedded into the retractable metal roof over a hundred feet above their heads. There was a larger, clear imprint of the Whiplash armor crumpled into the aluminum around her. "Ugh... kuso... that su-uuuuuucked!" her complaints rose into a squawk when her pained writhing worked her free and she suddenly fell out of the impression, her heel catching to send her in a limp tumble. "Kuso!"

"Unnf!" she gasped when she hit something a lot sooner and with less pain than she expected. "Wha...?" she slurred confusedly.

"You OK?" Tony asked worriedly as his facemask rose to expose his face and he peered at Ranma's eyes.

She blinked at the unexpected proximity. She looked around to gain her bearings. "Y-You caught me!" she announced with surprise. Her tiny form was cradled by one arm while the other was held out to balance the thrust from the one boot repulsor Tony had left. His flight was wavering, but the improvements of the suit and his own experience kept them mostly level.

"Well yeah..." Tony gave her a funny look as he carefully descended. "I'm not exactly clumsy, you know, even if I'm not as much of a martial artist as you are." He neglected to mention the small, dense reaction spheres that helped control his orientation.

"Everybody else lets me go splat when stuff like that happens," Ranma nodded toward the ceiling. Blithely, the squirmed out of his hold and dropped to the floor. Looking up at him, she muttered: "Huh," in a thoughtful tone.

"We keep telling you the people back in Nerima were horrible," Tony reminded her dryly, using his now-free hand to help control his landing.

"You guys alright?" Rhodey asked as he descended the stairs.

"Uhh... I'm fine except for a touch of sunburn," Tony said as he moved his limbs with only a little sparking and grinding.

Ranma winced a little as she stretched and twisted. "Wouldn't mind some time in a furo and some sleep. What about you?" Her look at Rhodes was unreadable.

"I'm copacetic," Rhodes claimed.

"Might have a another patient for you though," Tony said as he looked around. "There was a cop who got grabbed. We need to find him."

"Up here!" an unfamiliar voice yelled. They looked up to one of the entrances and saw the man was limping toward them. The trio went up to meet him partway.

"You OK, Officer?" Rhodey checked. Ranma simply set a hand on his forehead and flooded his system with restorative Ki. The scrapes on his face visibly closed under the residual blood. She'd need to get him on a stretcher or cot or something to do more.

"That... that was amazing!" the policeman yelled in awe as he stared shamelessly at Ranma. Now that they had a good look at him, it was obvious he was very young. No doubt a rookie. "Can-can I have you all's autographs?" He patted his pockets for paper, then his face brightened as he pulled out a smartphone. "Hey! Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"

Tony and Rhodey glanced at each other. "I think this is where I came in," the inventor muttered.

############

Ranma sighed as he relaxed in the strangely configured, yet sizable furo. Barely half an hour of battle had resulted in several hours of interviews, paperwork, damage assessments, medical checks, more interviews, more paperwork, and an oh-so-pleasant icing of interpersonal drama from Pepper threatening to quit from all the pressure and everyone else in the world who shuddered at the idea of Stark being in charge again... including Tony himself... jollying her into keeping the job of CEO.

The raven-haired teen sighed again for a different reason. He... or she at the time... had been coerced into sitting down with James Rhodes to have a discussion since apparently all was forgiven and Tony didn't want there to be any lingering resentments. Honestly, Ranma was never one to hold a grudge for long, and Rhodey's willingness to be shot down, his assistance with the wounded, and his help in the final fight... ineffectual though it was... were enough to let it go as far as the martial artist was concerned. But no... they had to talk about their feelings... something the lieutenant colonel was as uncomfortable with as Ranma. It seemed likely most of the reason Tony insisted was because of the awkwardness they had to experience.

At least Pepper and Tony had finally decided to become a couple. Something even the Japanese immigrant had come to anticipate impatiently in the two weeks of being associated with them... so that was something.

It was well past midnight on the East coast by the time all was said and done, and there promised to be more later on that day. Rather than fly home, Ranma had been instructed to check in to a luxurious hotel where Pepper and the rest had been staying. Tony had joined the CEO in her room. Despite the lateness of the hour, the evening's events and the time zone change had Ranma too wired to go to sleep immediately, so he enjoyed the American equivalent of a furo, though the weird holes in the sides of the tub had puzzled him. He never did get around to asking what they were for at Tony's place.

His Dairokkan felt Natal... Natasha walking through the hallway and smiled. He was strongly tempted to hop out, turn female, and poke his/her head out to greet her, but decided to wait for the morning... or later that morning, rather. He was a lot more eager to let bygones be bygones with her than with Rhodes. The agent would have earned his forgiveness by fighting at Hammer's factory if there was anything left to forgive, but honestly he couldn't have maintained a grudge even if he tried. Not after that kiss in the foyer of Tony's mansion. He knew he was being manipulated at the time, but he had felt her honest contrition, even if it was mixed in with a lot of other things. She also didn't leave him feeling humiliated and abandoned like Nabiki did when the Tendo pulled something over on him. And again... there was no forgetting that kiss...

Tony had approved wholeheartedly of his reasoning, even though the inventor himself wasn't feeling as generous toward the professional spy.

Ranma was sinking a bit deeper in the hot water when he heard a keycard in the lock of his room's door. Hastily leaping out of the water, he swung the door to the bathroom so that it was only open by a couple of inches. "Uh... hi, Nata-sha!" He corrected the name he was about to use in mid-phrase. "It's me in here! Sorry! Looks like I got in the wrong room somehow!" Shaking his head in exasperation, he added: "Knew those silly little cards couldn't be trusted like real keys."

"Hi, Ranma!" Natasha greeted as soon as she entered the hotel suite. She looked to be back in 'Natalie' mode in her black evening dress and hair in a bun. She looked good... very good... but Ranma kind of preferred the bodysuit she had worn for battle that evening. "Ah... excellent," she nodded approvingly as she viewed his lack of clothing. "Stay right there." She headed toward the closet, opened it, and pulled out a travel bag. "You're in the right room. I booked it for you, after all. It just happens to be my room as well," she explained as she kicked off her shoes.

"What...?" Ranma asked blankly.

"Open up," she ordered with a flip of her hand as she strode over to the bathroom.

Obediently he stepped back and let her in. "Hang on a sec..." he offered as he reached for his clothes.

"Don't bother," Natasha stopped him by setting her hand on his chest. "Go back into the tub and enjoy your bath. I just need to take off my makeup."

"Oookay..." Ranma said slowly as he saw her blatantly eye him up before meeting his gaze again. Shrugging, he went back to the hot-tub. Body shyness was only something he had learned at mallet-point, and it never really stuck given the years of habit before Nerima. Nor did this woman look panicked or distressed like females ranging from Akane to Pepper had in the past when catching him naked for the first time.

Natasha unzipped her dress, lowered it, and stepped out of it elegantly before starting to remove her makeup. Looking in the mirror when she heard a sloshing sound, she saw Ranma had moved so his back was to her. "It's good to be a gentleman," she announced, "but I'd like it if you faced me. I want to have a conversation with you."

"You're facing away," Ranma pointed out.

"I'm facing a mirror," Natasha riposted. "If I was worried about you looking at me, I wouldn't have taken off anything. I note you aren't too worried about your own nudity either."

"You didn't get all anxious about my guy side like some folks, so I figured you're OK," the young man shrugged.

"Anxious? About your male form?" Natasha made a point of turning around and craning her neck for a better view over his shoulder. "OK, I can see that... but I'm made of sterner stuff than most women," she smirked. "Though given your history, I doubt all the young ladies fled in intimidated terror."

Ranma sighed. "It's the girls who stick around and get naked too that I really had to worry about."

"You mean like Ashlee and Tawni?" Natasha asked leadingly as she applied remover. "Or the strippers of the Party Plane? Turn around already," she insisted.

"That's... different?" Ranma said cautiously. Despite his concern, he moved to face her again. As much prove to himself that he could trust her as any other reason.

"You don't sound sure of that."

"No... it's definitely different. I'm not sure why, though," Ranma frowned as he considered it. "I guess because I didn't ever think they'd do anything nutso."

"That's probably because while they're no philosophers, they are sane, self-assured women instead of insecure, delusional girls," Natasha concluded.

Ranma gave her a strange look. "Tawni is studying philosophy. She's doing that second round of college thing... what was it called?"

"Graduate school?"

"Yeah... at U. S. C." He was careful to repeat the acronym correctly.

"Well..." the red-haired woman smiled in pleased surprise, "that's me reminded not to make assumptions. What I meant was that even though they were not particularly... solemn-minded, they weren't going to get caught up in meaningless drama. So when they took off their tops, it was out of a desire to have fun with you and some awe at your abilities, not to trap you or coerce you."

"Yeah... I wasn't too clear on the details, but I went along with it 'cause it looked like something fun would happen. Like you said I should if I wanted to." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he made his excuses. He hadn't been real sure what he was going to do with either of the two ladies from the party beyond kissing, but they had gotten him... or her at the time... ready to wing it until Rhodes busted things up.

"Nothing wrong with that. You weren't asking for anything they weren't willing to offer. Presumably they weren't in committed relationships any more than you were."

"Should I have asked about that?" Ranma wondered.

"Eh... not specifically," she shook her head. "Asking in general what they expect before things escalated much further... into the bedroom, for instance... would be a good idea. If they are looking for more than a night, then that would be the time for them to mention any other relationships they might have. If they don't say anything while starting a longer term liaison with you, and later on you're given reason to believe they are together with someone else, then you need to ask. Or not, if you don't care if they're cheating on anybody." Finished removing her makeup she went over to the large, glass-enclosed shower, unfastening her bra and tossing it on one of the shelves. "Still watching?" She asked over her shoulder before she bent to take off her panties. She put her last item of clothing aside and entered the shower, still in full view through the crystal clear glass.

Ranma went still as he tried to figure out what to do next. A year ago, he would have used the Umisenken and run for his life. A couple of months ago, it would have depended on who the naked female in front of him was. If it was Akane after they had decided they were effectively siblings, it would have been merely annoyance... they would have rolled their eyes at the parents arranging yet another encounter of the unclothed kind and moved on. If it had been Ukyo, he would firstly been surprised that she was back after being declared the true heir of her school... no husband required. After that, he would have to do his best to turn her down nicely... and probably would have muffed it badly. If it was Kodachi... the best response for her was a kick to the face... to hell with chivalry. Shan Pu, however, would still have gotten the run and hide treatment. With potential punishments from her lunatic tribe looming over her head, he would have been hesitant to reject her quite as thoroughly as Kodachi. Even now, he still wasn't too sure about Ku Lon's announcement it was all over.

This evening was another situation entirely. No fiancees to attack him. No plans to entrap him or blackmail him. Natasha had specifically told him that she wouldn't have taken her clothes off if she minded him looking. But 'not minding' and 'wanting' were two different things, and he didn't want to be a creep. After looking at the ceiling... then back at her... then examining the tiles of the floor... then back at her... he finally decided to trust her and treat her the way she'd treated him. He took a good look at her nude form when she turned in the shower to rinse her hair so she could see that he did, then focused on her face. He had to admit he liked it when she did the same to him previously. It had been a boost to his ego without being too... Happosai-like.

"There you go," she said encouragingly. "If you looked away entirely under circumstances like this, a woman could think you thought her unattractive. If you had stared obsessively at my tits or something for a long time, it would have been obnoxious. An appreciative glance and polite attention was what I was looking for."

"Why do I have a feeling it won't always be that clear cut?" Ranma asked.

"Because it won't," the redhead said bluntly as she lathered shampoo into her hair. "There are people who won't know what they want from you and will lead you on, much like you and Akane used to do each other." The martial artist winced, but held up a hand to acknowledge the point. "There are other people who know what they want, but don't know how to get it, so they'll do random, stupid things like Ukyo or Shan Pu... or like most young people when they are starting out. Then there are the people who know exactly what they want, or think they do, and exactly how to get it."

"Like you?" Ranma said with a little irony.

"Like me," she agreed as she began soaping herself.

"I guess that would be a good thing," the young man said, a little distracted by the vision of suds sliding down skin.

"Either very good or very bad. After all, there is no guarantee that what someone else wants is good for you," the spy corrected. "You just have to be observant and keep both your needs and the other person's in mind. Communication is key."

"So uh... since communication is key, should I ask what your plans are tonight?" He tried to keep an indifferent expression on his face, but he also held his breath.

Natasha stopped rinsing herself off and gave the martial artist a steady look. "Like I said, I want to talk with you about some things. Other than that? Isn't it obvious yet? I want us to go to bed together."

"Er... go to bed? As in...?" the young man asked carefully.

"As in have sex, Ranma," Natasha confirmed with a roll of her eyes.

"Just like that?!" he yelped.

"Just like that," the redhead declared. "This isn't Nerima. The status quo is no longer king. No drama. No duty imposed by third-parties. No commitments. Just two adults finding each other attractive and doing something intimate and pleasurable together because of it. Or don't you find me attractive?"

"No, no! I do! You're the sexiest woman I've ever met!" Ranma hastened to set the record straight, waving both hands rapidly.

"Then what's the problem?" She leveled the kind of look on him that women had been giving particularly foolish men for millennia. Needless to say, he blinked first.

"It's... I... Huh." Ranma let out a long, thoughtful breath in realization. "Uh... I guess there isn't one?"

"Exactly."

"O...K?" Ranma frowned as his prior experience clashed with Natasha's logic. He shook his head as he realized the only woman who might object to the erotic turn in the night's events was the same one who caused the turn. Not that hypocrisy wasn't something he'd seen before.

The pair stayed silent for a while as Natasha finished washing. She shut off the shower and sluiced off excess water with her hands. Not bothering with a towel she walked over to lean on the edge of the tub, her upper body on full display. "You mind if I join you in the jacuzzi?"

"Sssure... go ahead," Ranma said slowly, eyes a little wide in surprise despite her open behavior. Nerima aside, this was a beautiful, sexy, and... most importantly... calm woman making the request, so he wasn't going to say no.

"Thank you," gracefully she slung a leg over the top and descended into the water in one smooth motion. Reaching for the controls, she asked: "Do you mind if I turn on the water jets?"

"The what?" the raven-haired fighter raised his eyebrows and looked around. "Oh, is that what the holes are for? I thought they were for filling the furo faster, or something. Go ahead."

"Thank you," she said again as she activated the jets.

"Weird," Ranma commented as he examined the streaming bubbles.

"I find it relaxing," Natasha told him as she sank into the water a bit. She stretched out her feet and put them in Ranma's lap. Wordlessly, he started massaging them, broadening the smile on her face. "Don't make with the Reiki... not yet anyway. I want to be able to think clearly when I talk to you."

"OK, so what did you want to talk about? And why in the furo?"

"Aside from wanting some time in the hot-tub for myself? Or getting to see you naked again?" She smirked as he rolled his eyes at her. "It's so we can be more open with one another and so I can tell if you're using the Soul of Ice. Don't, by the way. I want to know what's going through your head."

"'More open' huh? Uh-oh." Ranma closed his eyes and shook his head briefly. "Should I use the Wild Tiger's Instinct Truth Sense?"

"Hmm... maybe? How long can you keep it running?"

"Eh... a few minutes. It's actually tough to keep the aura out that long. It needs a fair bit of power and lots of concentration still."

"Then don't bother," Natasha shook her head. "This conversation might take a while. I'll do this the old-fashioned way... using my body and my eyes to read you."

"Oookay... lay it on me."

"I heard you were pretty distraught from the civilian casualties."

Ranma's eyes went flat. "'Casualties'. Is that a word for innocent people who got shot?"

"Yes. Admittedly, it's a disingenuous word, but people are used to using it."

"Uh-huh. Assholes who never saw stuff like that, I bet," Ranma conjectured unkindly.

"Probably," Natasha agreed. "Was it your first time seeing something like that?"

"Ehh... not really," Ranma's expression closed down further. "I saw some bad stuff on the road, but usually I only saw it after everything was done. Somebody getting put in the hospital by the yakuza or a drunk getting knifed for their wallet or stuff like that... once we found a dead body from a suicide. All that was stuff I couldn't do anything about because I was a gaki. This was different. Nothing even touched me during the fight... not really... but I still couldn't get the job done fast enough."

"There's a big metal sheet with a you-shaped dent in it as evidence you got a bit more than 'touched,' but I understand your point. However, you should think on this: could you have used attacks to destroy all the drones that were still there all at once? With all the people scattered around?" Natasha asked.

Ranma leaned his head back to rest on the edge of the tub. "If I knew about the stupid little murder-bots before they flew everywhere? Yeah, easily. But... after they started spreading out and were in among people? I could have, but people would have been caught up in it and gotten hurt or killed. I see where you're going with this, so before you ask... I still can't think of anything I could have done knowing what I did that would have worked better... not with just the techniques I've got now. I just..." he slapped the surface of the water, "...I'm used to winning! No matter what the odds. Dragons... armies of ninjas... hordes of maniacs... gods... didn't matter who I was against, I always got the job done before!"

"Sometimes the odds are just too great. If someone's absolutely determined to inflict mass casualties, it is very difficult to stop them. Especially when you think they are already dead." Seeing he wasn't completely convinced, Natasha asked: "If Vanko had set up a few dozen bombs in random, populated areas and set them off all at once, would you have been able to do anything? Would anyone you know or even anyone you've heard about have been able to do anything?"

The Ki-adept thought it over. "Help with the wounded... that's all I got for me. JARVIS or Tony might be able to detect bombs before they go off."

"If they have sensors in the right places... and if they know to scan for them in the first place... then maybe they would be able to stop an attack like that. In fact, from the reports you gave the police, it was clear they didn't see the potential bombs that were the Arc reactors scattered around. You destroyed them before they could explode."

"Well I didn't know they were going to blow up either," Ranma waved a hand dismissively. "I just said to pop them so no more surprises would happen."

"Regardless of your reasons, you performed precisely the correct actions to minimize harm and saved no telling how many lives. Potts mentioned she was near the wreck of one of the drones when Vanko's scuttling program went off." She shifted one of her feet to stroke Ranma's thigh and get him to meet her eyes. "You very possibly saved her life just from that. She was very impressed."

"Yeah, she thanked me for that." Ranma still looked a little surprised at receiving gratitude despite it happening several times recently. "Still... Vanko dying when I was right there. That wasn't good."

"Were you seriously trying to take him alive after all that?"

"I... should have? I mean... I thought about ripping out the reactor and chucking it somewhere, but Tony said the explosion was unstoppable. I thought maybe it would explode early if I did that, and I didn't know how big a boom it would be. There was so little time... I just used Vanko to bury the blast instead," Ranma shook his head in self-recrimination. "Maybe I could have saved him instead. Didn't really try, though."

"Ranma..." Natasha's voice was full of sympathy. "When you're right on the edge like that, it's OK to think of everybody but the murderous maniac first. Sometimes we don't make the best decision at the moment of truth. That's what training is for, so you can come up with better solutions. Even with training, you can still mess up and people will get hurt or even killed. All you can do is the best you can. For the record, though? The only thing I thought you did wrong was lie on top of the suit before it exploded. That was a terrible idea," she said critically as she stared him in the eye.

"I had to!" Ranma protested. "I had to use the Iron Iron technique to make sure Tony and the others didn't get caught up in the explosion!"

"They had armor, and you're you. You all probably would have been fine, the explosion wasn't that big," Natasha countered.

"Well I didn't know that!"

"Exactly my point."

"Huh?"

"When you're the person on the ground, making the split-second decision, you can't be worried about a perfect outcome. If you can manage 'good enough' it that kind of scenario, then you're ahead of the game."

"Ugh. I guess," Ranma grimaced.

"Trust me on this. If you were a SHIELD agent, you'd be getting a commendation for what you did. You probably are going to get an award of some kind," Natasha predicted.

"I'll take your word for it." Ranma didn't look too enthused.

"Any other misplaced guilt I can assure you really is misplaced?" Natasha asked with a weird mix of sarcasm and sympathy.

"No," Ranma rolled his eyes, then frowned. "Well..."

"Really?" Natasha looked amused, but she still projected a gentle demeanor to encourage him to open up. "What is it?"

"Well..." Ranma repeated slowly. "I was supposed to be guarding Tony, and I let him go after Vanko alone."

"No, Ranma. No." Natasha stated firmly.

"Huh?"

"When he's wearing his Iron Man suit, Stark is no longer your charge, he's your partner," the agent said assuredly. "He might joke about you being the sidekick or whatever, but you're really a team of two. You watch each other's backs, but you also trust each other to handle your parts of the mission. If you have to split up to get the job done, then you do it and you don't waver. Or do you think he should watch over your shoulder all the time?"

"No... but..."

"How many people would have died if you hadn't given them enough of a boost so they could live long enough for the medics to get to them?" Natasha questioned sharply.

"Uh... I can't really be sure," Ranma muttered doubtfully.

"At least six, possibly seven is what I saw from the reports," she stated unequivocally. "That's assuming the paramedics got to them in the time that they did. Something that might not have happened if you weren't there to confirm the site was secure."

"And three more died on the way to the hospital," Ranma scowled.

"Then it would've been ten if you hadn't done anything," Natasha plowed on. "Again, you made the right call. Stark handled his part, you left him to it, and innocent people are alive because you did."

Ranma took a deep breath in through his nose, his mouth twisted up dubiously. Like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. So she decided to keep prodding him. "Do you want to stop?" At the young man's confused look, Natasha clarified: "Do you want to stop doing this job? Avoid being in these situations in the future?"

"Oh hell no!" Ranma gave her an incredulous look. "I'm doing important things now! What else would I do? Go back to Nerima to slave for whoever managed to win the Ranma-lottery? Keep dealing with stupid crap that means nothing?"

"I'm pretty sure Stark would let you quit with a big bonus for all the things you've done for him and Potts," the spy pointed out reasonably. "You could just be a student here in America or get some other job. I doubt anybody's going to deport you before you hit twenty as long as you are at school or working, especially if you're doing both. There are plenty of people from other countries that do that every day, it's normal."

"Heh," Ranma smirked. "I don't do normal. If I don't go back to Japan, I might was well keep working for Tony. He lets me be weird and get paid for it. Not many people know how to deal with someone like me."

"That is a good point. However, you should expect more days like today if you do that. Are you prepared for that?"

"If not me, who?" the martial artist asked. "Nobody else I can think of who's near my level is reliable. Best match would be probably Ku Lon, but damned if I know what goes through her head. She might steal all Tony's gear and try to conquer the Qinghai province or something. Better for me to stick with it."

"Then you will see more innocents die right before your eyes, no matter how skilled or powerful you are. There is no doubt about it," Natasha told him bluntly. "Can you bear that?"

Ranma's hands stopped rubbing her foot and she felt that if he were in any less control of his body, his grip would have tightened. "Yeah. Yeah, I can. I have to."

"'Have to'?" she interrogated.

"For the people who died or got hurt tonight... or last night, I guess," he answered grimly. "It'd be like spitting on them to not keep trying to help people when I can. What would I be saying to them if I stopped? 'Oh, the half-assed job I did for you folks was good enough, I'm gonna stop now'?"

"You can't live just for other people," Natasha admonished him.

"It'd be for myself, too," Ranma told her levelly. "I couldn't be the kind of guy who'd walk away from that. I'd be just like Ryoga or the goddamn Kunos. Or... me... when I first hit Nerima. Wrapped up in my own little world and not caring what happens to other people. Being a true martial artist... protecting the weak... is way better than that. It'd also make all the stupid crap back before I came here worth it. Like everything I went through was leading up to this day."

The redhead looked him in the eye expressionlessly for several moments. Ranma, of course, didn't back down or look away. What he said resonated with her. In fact, it defined her current existence. The Red Room and the thing they turned her into... nothing would make that right... but trying every day to dilute the red in her ledger by working for SHIELD justified her survival. Slowly, she nodded. "I believe you. I think you have the right attitude to stay in the business."

"'Course! I'm the best!" he replied casually. "Need to stop treating this all like a vacation, though."

Natasha raised her eyebrows at him. "Vacation? The only part I can think was vacation-like was Monaco, but was that really a vacation for you?"

"Sure!" he agreed brightly. "Well... maybe not. There were way fewer explosions than the usual trip to the ocean," he half-joked.

"It really is remarkable how stable you are..." the woman sighed.

"It's a work in progress," Ranma admitted ruefully. "It was only when I got out of Nerima more often that I figured out that just having my head on straighter than the rest of those guys wasn't exactly something to brag about. I'll be seeing a therapist soon, too. That wasn't my idea, but Pepper talked me and Tony into it. Apparently I freak a lot of people out and they want to make sure I don't pull a Kuno." He smirked a bit before getting more serious again. "That's one of a long frikken list of things I need to do. And I still need to get better in the Art."

"Is that even possible?" Natasha wondered as she cocked her head and thought about just how far above her he was in martial arts.

"Sure is," he declared definitively. "Aside from the simple stuff of getting a bit faster and a bit stronger, I need more and better techniques. Ways to heal better. Ways to spot fucking murder-bot's or other things that don't have living Ki or Arc energy. Something better than just using my eyes and ears so I can take them out instantly and I won't have to heal folks so much. More attacks that can bend around people and hit things. Maybe a way to zap robots instantly while leaving people unharmed. That sort of thing. Like I said... vacation's over."

"Sounds like you have a good idea what to do next," Natasha nodded approvingly. "In that case... how about we move on to a more enjoyable topic...?" she suggested as she arched her back to raise her chest out of the water, her hands sliding up the sides of her breasts. Ranma's breath caught as he stared at the display. "Actually..." she suddenly moved to cover her nipples with her fingers, the target of her seduction exhaling suddenly with a slight hint of a whimper. "Sorry... there's one more un-fun thing I need to mention. Ignore the boobs."

"You're kidding me, right?" Ranma's face twisted up in confused mix of disbelief and aggravation. He wasn't too sure of himself when considering Natasha's offer, but he was definitely warming to the idea. He'd dealt with plenty of naked girls before... and his own other form. He'd even dealt with naked girls in a bath with him. So he wasn't as hypnotized by Natasha's breasts as several other guys he knew would be. However, a friendly, low-pressure conversation with a beautiful nude woman was proving to be more of a turn-on than he would have expected.

"Nope!" The agent stated cheerfully. "Coulson wanted me to ask you how you felt about joining SHIELD." She frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe I should be showing the goods when I make a hiring pitch?" Her hands levered outward to expose her nipples again, then closed again. "Maybe not? Hmmm..." repeatedly her hands flicked open and shut as she mused.

"OK..." Ranma ceased the foot massage in order to prop his elbow on the side of the tub and rest his head on his fist. "You are messing with me," he drawled dryly.

Natasha grinned impishly, then lowered her torso out of view below the frothing water. "Well... this way I can reassure Phil I gave it my best and went as far as flashing my tits when telling him how you refused anyway. He won't be happy, but Director Fury will be relieved."

"Oh yeah?" Ranma arched an eyebrow at the playful woman. "Wait... isn't Coulson the one I pretended not to know falling was bad with?"

"So that was a bluff after all?" Natasha giggled. "I thought so. Coulson was pretty sure that was the case too... when he had a chance to think about it. He was impressed."

"Really?" the raven-haired young man looked like he thought someone was crazy. "I'd've thought he hated me now."

"You protected your charge. Thoroughly reversed the intimidation tactic he was trying to use on Stark. And any physical discomfort Coulson had was gone by the time he reached his car instead of the long term bruising one would expect from being suspended by the throat... another Ki-technique, right? You bet he was impressed. So was I. We're professionals... we appreciate competence."

"Wow, OK," Ranma blinked. "I'll pretend that makes sense to you all. So why don't you expect me to join? Not want me to?"

"On the contrary," Natasha's face turned serious for a moment. "I would love to have you join and work with me. I just don't think it would appeal to you or be good for you even if you wanted to join." Privately, she had broken down the pros and cons of Ranma joining SHIELD, and the cons had won by a mile. Even most of the pros could have turned into cons way too easily.

"OK?" Ranma looked confused.

"Let me put it this way: I'm not authorized to tell you a lot about SHIELD, but I can say is that while our task often involves protecting innocent civilians, that is not our true purpose."

"What is?"

"To maintain stability," Natasha said slowly and deliberately. "That means making sure no big changes happen too fast. It means keeping the people who are currently in power, in power."

"Oh..." Ranma murmured in an enlightened tone.

"You get it? The Stark-Squeeze-Play I am absolutely not confirming we had anything to do with? Totally possible, even likely, I'll do something like that again some day. And not necessarily because the target was guilty of anything other than disrupting the status quo, either. Orders would come down, and we'd execute them."

"OK, yeah. I get it," the teen nodded. "You know that word that people kept asking me about tonight? Youxia? It's also a type of book. There are like a million youxia stories of martial artists defending regular people against corrupt officials or warlords. On the other hand, there are a bunch of stories of good samurai serving and defending evil daimyo because they're virtuous and loyal." Ranma scoffed contemptuously. "I'd much rather be a youxia than a samurai."

"That's what I expected," Natasha nodded. "I never heard the word 'youxia' before last night, but I looked it up. It means 'wandering knight' or 'wandering hero' doesn't it?"

"Something like that," Ranma held out a hand palm-down and waggled it a bit. "It was a big thing in China a while back and people still use the term for us. Guess they do in Russia, too, since Vanko knew about it."

"Not really," the expatriate denied. "I'm Russian, and I never heard of it before. Remember that Russia is a big country and Vanko grew up in the part of Siberia bordering China and Mongolia. I grew up west of the Ural mountains... it's a very different place."

"Like Hokkaido and Okinawa," Ranma gave as an example.

"Essentially, yes."

"OK, cool. So why would SHIELD be bad for me? Other than it sounds like I'd hate working for your bosses, I mean. And if it's so bad, why don't you quit?"

"I never said it was bad for me," Natasha corrected. "Compared to the things I used to do, things that... I need a way to make up for... it's like working with the Knights Hospitaler these days in comparison. SHIELD lets me use the things I learned to do good in the world. As much as I owe SHIELD, however, I know it's not for most people. You included. Your temperament is definitely the biggest reason. You're not one to shut up and soldier if you think you're doing something unethical. SHIELD is a secret organization with very little civilian oversight, the likelihood of you deciding something we do is too wrong to go along with is high, no matter how well justified it might really be if you had full information."

"Heh," Ranma scoffed. "That just sounds like a good reason to join."

"So you could wreak chaos from within?"

"Yep."

"Nope." Natasha shook her head disapprovingly. "You're definitely not getting in."

"Aww..." Ranma teased. "I'm pretty sure you can talk me into anything."

"I can," Natasha admitted baldly. "The problem would be later. I was reclining right here when you admitted you'd mess us up on purpose."

"No, no..." Ranma crooned unconvincingly. "I would definitely be all loyal and stiff upright and all. Scout's honor!"

"Where'd you pick that phrase up from? Do you even know what a scout is?"

"Uh..." Ranma's gaze went shifty. "A... guy who looks around to find stuff? And has honor?"

"Right. Never mind."

"Hey." Slyly, Ranma started working some Ki into the foot-rub he was giving the femme fatale. "You sure you don't want to spend more time around me?"

Natasha sipped air as she reacted. "Ranma. What did I just say about me keeping a clear head?"

"Hai, hai." Ranma eased off the aura technique.

"But yes... I would like to spend more time with you. That's another reason for you not to join."

"Huh?"

"I don't like... attachments," Natasha explained seriously. "Really don't like. I am one of the few people you're likely to meet who is as allergic to marriage as you are, for my own reasons. That extends to any long-term relationships. Off the job, I keep my sex strictly friendly. Or anonymous. I get what I need from several different people at different times, and I don't let them get clingy."

"Oh... huh..." Ranma muttered thoughtfully, his expression mixed, as his hands slowed in their work.

"I'd hate it if you spent too much time with me and ended up wanting more. I'd cut you off, and I don't want to do that." She shook her head. "Moderation. That's the way for me." Ranma still looked like he didn't know what to make of her words, so she added: "Besides. It's stupid for people who are too young to try to make life-long commitments or something. Play the field! Try a lot of things... and a lot of people... and find out what you like! Tawni and Ashlee would be an excellent start, I think. They seemed pretty energetic, but also casual." She was pleased to see him visibly give that some consideration.

"A lot of the pluses I could think of for you joining SHIELD are like a long-term committed relationship. One that turns sour," she pressed on. "Starts off nice but turns negative pretty easily. Besides, we could get the same benefits by just borrowing you from Stark occasionally. The operational equivalent of casual one-night-stands. The higher ups would love to have the illusion of control over you from a commitment, but they'd just get that much more wary or even hostile when you showed them how little control they really had. Pretty much like a marriage Akane would probably have turned out. Your lie-detector Ki-technique..."

"Wild Tiger's Instinct Truth Sense," Ranma insisted.

"Shush!" She flicked a few drops of water at her grinning companion. "So your lie-detector would be nice to have in the field, but there are people who'd have nightmares about you using it back in HQ. You thrive in chaos, like a good independent agent should, but you'd also bring that chaos back home. You wouldn't be able to help yourself."

"All that was totally Nerima's fault, I swear!" Ranma looked wide-eyed and innocent.

"People don't typically go around and catch anti-air missiles bare-handed in flight," Natasha said flatly. "Do you have any idea how much that would freak out regular agents?" Ranma had to snicker at that. "You lean into your uniqueness," she pointed out. "You can't help yourself. You shouldn't even try. Which reminds me of another reason not to join. You'll grow more with Stark."

Ranma shrugged. "I'm not exactly arguing, but I'm pretty sure I can cultivate my Art anywhere."

"Maybe, maybe not," Natasha countered. "Stark is known for his unconventional thinking, so he can give you ideas. And we are a military organization, where a lot of the people would really prefer some conformity from you, not constant changes due to self-advancement. That isn't what I meant, however. You're eighteen. You should be broadening your horizons with exploration and education. Oh, SHIELD would put you through classes, even the equivalent of university courses, but they would lock you in to what they wanted you to focus on."

"Well, Tony's been pushing math, physics, and engineering, and some other stuff I don't remember," Ranma pointed out. "Pepper's been pushing literature and art... the painting sort of art, I mean. That's kind of the same thing as what SHIELD would do, right?"

"That's not the same thing at all," Natasha denied. "Nudging you in a wide array different directions is pretty much the same as not nudging you anywhere in particular. I am certain they would have no problem if you decided to cut your own trail educationally speaking. SHIELD, on the other hand, would dictate your classes, and give quarterly reviews of your progress. In triplicate. They'd even have some pointed opinions about what you tried to develop on the martial arts side of things."

Ranma went still and scowled with offense. "Oi... that's not happening."

"Hey... foot-rub!" With a smirk, he resumed massaging Natasha's feet and ankles. "Didn't think so, but you'd have to put up with some noisy complaints. Or quit in the end anyway." Ranma nodded in agreement. "If it were me running things? I'd throw all kinds of random stuff at you and let you nose around and experiment to see what worked. But it wouldn't be me in charge, and the people who would be would want something structured even though they weren't experts. What do they know about Ki techniques? There's no telling what would inspire you in particular. We don't even know the history of those kinds of techniques in general."

"Yeah, that's true," Ranma agreed blithely. "Hell, I don't really know where I'll get an idea from either. Usually I come up with stuff after getting into some random mess."

"Well, don't limit yourself to that," Natasha insisted. "The way the story goes, Newton started the theory of gravity when an apple fell on his head. That's probably legend, not truth, but plenty of people have gotten ideas from strange places."

"Ugh," Ranma groaned as he flopped his head to the side. He didn't stop rubbing her feet, however.

"What?"

"Happosai and his panties. Those people with the orangutan and their tea." He shook his head. "I just remembered how stupid the sources of some damn useful techniques were."

Natasha threw her head back and gave a husky laugh. "Well there you go, then." More soberly, she continued: "But that's what I mean. A wider-ranged education would help more with you figuring things out than trying to come up with some rote training program. The kind of free-ranging studies Stark and Potts would line up for you would be exactly the sort of shotgunning of topics you would need. For that matter, Stark's got the remnants of all kinds of hobbies he picked up and dropped later scattered around his various properties. I'm quite sure he hasn't picked up those guitars he has on display in the Malibu mansion in years. He can't complain if you try something for a while and then move on to something else."

Ranma chuckled. "Like painting flowers or something like that?"

"Maybe. How would I know?" she shrugged. "Not like I can shoot Ki-blasts at people. Try it and tell me."

"Yeah, yeah," Ranma sighed. "You've convinced me. Hokkusu-sensei's already proved expanding my mind expands my Ki anyway."

"And SHIELD?"

Ranma looked startled. "Are you seriously asking? You just went though this whole thing."

"Just for the record."

He squinted at her in perplexity. "Yeah, OK. I won't be joining SHIELD anytime soon. Or ever."

"I laid out the scenario. I asked. You answered clearly. We can skip ever bringing it up again," she announced breezily. "That said, there might be something we do come back to you with later."

"What's that?"

"There's this thing called the 'Avengers Initiative.' Coulson really wants me to pitch that to you, too."

"OK. What is it?"

"No idea." Natasha smiled impishly.

"Wh-whaaat?" Ranma looked incredulous, and then unimpressed. "Oh... spies... right. There's such a thing as too secret, y'know."

Grinning, Natasha shook her head. "That's not the reason. I'm kidding. A little. The idea is there would be a team of people with exceptional abilities to deal with exceptional threats. Things conventional military or police weren't equipped to deal with. Like Vanko."

"Sounds... simple," Ranma said hesitantly. "And like what Tony and I are already doing."

"Right. You are numbers one and two on the list of possible candidates. Note the list is exactly two names long."

"It... what?" Ranma almost whined in confusion.

"The Avengers Initiative is... strange," Natasha admitted ruefully. "There's no funding. No table of organization. No staff. No team leader. No broad strategy. Nothing. Fury and Coulson have been poking at it for years to try to make something of it. Every so often, they'd get a one-off allocation of cash to allow some investigations, or else they'd cram some extra objectives in some regular operation. The only other solid thing that has been decided is that it will be officially separate from SHIELD, other than us providing intell and guidance. Whether that's because they want it to be international in scope, or for plausible deniability, is anybody's guess."

Ranma closed his eyes with a pained expression. "Ah... why?"

"They're Captain America fanboys?" Natasha chuckled when Ranma grimaced and stuck out his tongue with a disgusted look. "Sorry, but it's true. At least in Coulson's case. Beyond that, I have no idea what the motivation is. Or how it would work. My most optimistic guess would be a super-powered version of Doctors Without Borders. Get in and get things done, hopefully with a minimum of politics."

"Uh-huh."

"So anyway... if this whole vague SHIELD-but-not-SHIELD thing ever got anywhere, like by having a whole three possible members, would you be willing to think about considering possibly joining on a provisional basis, maybe?" she asked brightly.

Eyeing her dubiously, Ranma slowly said: "...Sssure?"

"Fantastic. I've officially made more progress on this initiative than anybody in the history of my organization," Natasha said sarcastically. "Finally," she sighed. "I'm off the clock now. Bozhe moy, my job is so stupid sometimes." Ranma had to laugh faintly at that. "No more ulterior agendas, we can concentrate on pleasure, now."

Still chuckling, Ranma asked: "You sure? Seems like you always have some kind of angle."

"Hmm..." Natasha cocked her head while putting on a show of contemplation. "Pretty sure my only motive is sex now. But I gotta admit... my mind's so twisty my subconscious could be plotting something and not even I know about it!" She grinned at his groan. Then she cut the groaning off when she stood up, water sheeting down her voluptuous form. Ranma stared as his fellow jacuzzi occupant took slow, short steps toward him. Deliberately taking her time instead of crossing over with a single step, and making sure to sway her hips with each move. Her body definitely affected him, but it was the look in her eye that made him freeze. She smiled triumphantly as she knelt to straddle his lap, only her knees touching his thighs as of yet. Leaning forward, she asked: "You are going to call Tawni and Ashlee, right?'

"Uh... what?" Ranma shook his head in disbelief. "Wh-what?! You're doing this," he jerked his head in a nod at their positions, "and you're bringing up other women?"

"Of course," Natasha said softly as she pressed a bit closer, her lips approaching Ranma's. "It would ease my mind if you had some other possible lovers lined up. I do, and I'm not planning to give that up. I'm dead serious about not being tied down. After everything in Nerima, aren't you? Or did you want to do the monogamy thing? Share your space and your fortunes and your life journey with... who knows who? While you're still figuring things out?"

"Well..." Ranma bobbed his head from side to side. "I guess not. Not for a while."

"If you actually meet the right partner, you can do the cookie-cutter-picket-fence house with the two-point-three kids and a dog next decade," Natasha said. Her breath tickled Ranma's lips as leaned in a little more. "You do know their contact info, yes? Ashlee and Tawni?"

"Err... no?" Ranma replied dazedly.

Natasha pulled back with a disapproving look. "No?" She repressed a smile at Ranma's comical expression.

"Uh... err... Rhodes blew up the party before I could ask!" the Ki-adept defended himself.

"Tsk," she shook her head chidingly. "All guests were listed along with their phone numbers and e-mail addresses as per the security protocols. I'll send them to your phone in the morning. You'll call them, right?" She jabbed a finger toward the bridge of her soon-to-be conquest's nose

"Y-yeah, I wanted to make sure they were OK after them getting scared anyway," Ranma agreed bemusedly.

"And you'll call me later, too, right?" she added. "Women hate it when someone they sleep with doesn't call later. Even if it's just to say they had a good time but they don't plan to do it again."

"Right, you got it. Real honor this time. Martial artist's honor," he promised. "Make sure you send me how to call you, though."

"Good..." Natasha breathed softly as she finally molded her body to the martial artist's. "Now just let Onee-Chan teach you some important fundamentals," she demanded just before she kissed him. After a few moments of shocked inaction, Ranma proved how well he retained newly-learned skills as he gave back as good as he got, drawing some muffled moans from her.

When Natasha finally broke for more air, her partner panted: "Wh-why? Why now? Why with me of all people?" Despite his hesitant speech, his arms enfolded her and held her close.

For all his confidence in most things, Natasha knew Ranma's uncertainty with social situations in general... and with romance in particular. Had it not been for Akane Tendo's efforts to undo her own negative conditioning when prompted by her new friends, and the fact that he was a very healthy young man with healthy desires, Ranma would likely have fainted by now. Or fled. So she understood, and accepted the quaint frailty of the superhuman martial artist. "Because you're gorgeous, in both forms," she punctuated her statement with a brief kiss. "Because I have fun when we're together." Another kiss. "And because I really like the idea of teaching you how to treat a lady. Instead of you training me to kick ass, it's my turn to train you how to drive a woman absolutely wild!"

"Ah..." Ranma's jangling thoughts settled down quite a bit when she said the magic word: 'train.' He remembered how Natasha had already given him some training just by kissing him... or her, at the time... while the Wild Tiger's Instinct Truth Sense was up. Remembering that, he lit up his aura and the bathroom with the technique.

"Perfect," Natasha purred as she stared into his eyes, squirming in increasing arousal at the feel of his Ki. "And now you can trust me. No guessing. No games. I'm not a trap. I'm a gateway out of the box you were put in. And after all the ridiculous bullshit back in Nerima, isn't it about goddamn time you got laid?" Ranma's eyes widened as Natasha's point struck home. The two-way flow of the technique let her feel his lingering hesitation rapidly evaporate.

Ranma grinned wider and wider as the one thing he could truly trust, his Art, told him that this was an offer without any hidden pitfall. He could clearly feel that all Natasha wanted was to have fun. She was definitely playing him, but it was only in the cause of sex... and he had to admit had no problem with that. He stopped holding back and fully enjoyed the sensation of her body pressing against his. "Yeah... yeah... it kind of is... thank you! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu... Sensei," he concluded playfully.

"A sex Sensei? I can live with that," Natasha chuckled as her lips closed in on his. "I'll be sure to take good care of you when you're in my care!"

############

Author's notes: You know? It was kind of stupid how Tony and Rhodey never used their repulsors on Vanko in the movie until the final power-of-friendship-cross-the-streams thing. The obvious thing would have been to fly at a hover, get some distance, and rain fire on him until he was glowing slag. The whips weren't that long. So... I came up with what I hope was a better justification for the extended fight.

Also, I made up the 'pevun'i.' That's not canon. There will be more on that in about six years in the story time-line.

And there's no getting around it. Natasha was influencing hard during her little encounter with Ranma. But in the end it was to increase Ranma's options, not constrain them, so it's OK? Ish? In any event, it is literally her job to manipulate people, so there's some carry-over into her personal life... which isn't particularly separate from her professional life in the first place.