Dawn knocked and walked into the meeting room at the UN, smiling. "Just making sure before I let anyone else come in here, Highness. It's clear."
"I knew it was," Tony complained as he walked in.
"And yet I took out an assassin downstairs," she shot back. "The kids have to be protected so they can be the best Starks yet and breed the next great generation."
"I don't want grandkids, Dawn. Don't threaten me with grandchildren."
She smiled at him. "Some day Chris said he'll have a harem and with his attention problems he'll have at least a good handful." He swatted her with his tablet, scowling at her. She grinned. "Guys, it's safe."
"Minute," Chris called. "I'm fixing my sister's weird wiring coding again."
"It's meant for a ZPM, or a mixed version with our baby arc reactor, not a standard electrical source, Chris," Callia complained then walked in on her walker. She sighed. "Brothers," she complained, cracking up the princess. She grinned and held out a hand. "Callia Stark, Princess Shuri. I've admired some of your work in the past."
"I saw your neuro bridge and thought it was a delicate start." She shook her hand. "How old are you?"
"Fifteen in another two months," Tony complained, staring at his daughter. Who just smiled. "We're about to start hand making her first car together so she learns the old way of forging metal." He patted his son. "This is my boy Chris. The other two are more artistic and waiting at home with Mom to redecorate something." Dawn tried not to laugh. "This is my assistant Dawn Summers."
"We've heard of you," the king said, nodding at her. "You called this meeting, Mr. Stark?"
"For two reasons," he said, sliding over a DVD. "That way it's safer and can't be fished from a reader device. That's on the battle that my daughter accidentally got pulled into when she got sucked to another realm. The one we had in Sunnydale, he came to their version of Wakanda to rip up the world. And if you should, we'd be more than willing to help."
"I appreciate that offer. I know we had a technology treaty at one time that your father broke."
Callia waved a hand. "That doesn't surprise us at all. Grandfather was a jackhole." Dawn hit her on the head. "I could've been less nice about it." She looked at the king and smiled. "We'd also like to talk about perhaps doing some sort of education switching. We'd like to sponsor some of your kids who want to go to an American university and we'd like to let a few of us who have brains come drool on your pretty teachers so we learn better things than I'm getting at Cal Sci."
Shuri giggled but nodded. "I can see why that's a problem." Callia pulled out her tablet and turned it on then selected something and slid it down to her. She looked it over, then moaned. "How?" she demanded.
Callia grinned back. "My mentor is Doctor McKay. It was my work that started the baby Rainbow bridge and Stargate. It led to the nerve bridge and bigger things that're still classified. But it does me no good to duplicate what your geniuses are doing. We need to work together to get bigger and better things built. Before I get bored and start building lasers for Liz to steal and use to take over somewhere."
"If our sister becomes Doom or someone, we've got to let someone else handle it so we don't have to paddle her ass," Chris complained. "Though she'd probably start a surgery industry so she could watch them. She likes the surgery shows," he defended when his father swatted him.
"Liz will not take over somewhere like Doom did, kids. She knows we'd paddle her to death for it," Tony said, sounding impatient.
"Not like she'd do it when you could stop her," Callia reminded him. "She did learn tactics from Stepmom. She uses the shield better than any of us do, including Philip. She and Lexi both."
Dawn looked at her. Then she tapped out a text message to her spouses. "We can stop that. Natasha does not want the girls to need weapons in their daily lives." She grinned. "Remember, I'm younger than your parents. If Liz wants to become an evil overlord I'd stop her so you two don't have to." They smiled at her. She grinned at the king. "Sometimes being the ball busting bitch of an aunt is harder than others." The king let out a tiny chuckle. Her phone beeped and she looked. "That's Xander." She opened the text message. "Um... Shit." She held it up so they could see it. "Kids, car. Now. Hit the tower." They nodded and moved. "Happy, guard and go with the kids," she yelled. She handed Callia her purse and phone, getting a nod that she'd share that information. Dawn looked up the hallway then at the window near their room. "Oh, shit sucking morons," she complained. "Boss, AIM."
"So stupid," he muttered. "Okay. Um...King and Princess, would you like to come to the tower for a bit?"
"They can't be here about us, or this meeting," T'Challa noted.
"AIM are stupidly psychotic scientists," Dawn said as she came back in. "They don't want you, they want your sister. Or the kids." She sighed. Downstairs alarms started to go off. "Boss...."
"Shut up, Dawn. I can fight. You're just a month post birth."
"Five weeks," she quipped and summoned her chainmail. She pulled up her hair and looked up the hallway. "All right. Princess, c'mon, I'll escort you down."
"I can fight," she noted.
Dawn looked at her. "That's smart and all that, but right now, they want to capture you. You fighting back will make them drool. You being a fainting princess sort will make them disgusted and leave you alone sooner. Trust me, I had to learn that lesson the hard way with the Russian mob because I fought back too hard. C'mon." She helped her up and got her out of the building. Happy came back with Rhodey. "Hey. Rhodey, get her evacuated. They want her." He nodded and took her off with the suit flying them. Dawn looked at the guards and sighed. She looked at Happy. "The kids?"
"Locked in the safe floor."
"Great." She called up her magic and stomped back in there. "I do not need this shit today!" she announced. "Stop it!" The soldiers fighting AIM gave her a horrified look. She blasted the idiots from AIM so they were limply moaning on the floor. "Let's get the rest," she ordered. "Before we have an Avengers level event here today." They led her to where the rest were. Tony and the king were defending their floor and the main meeting area where the in-house diplomats were being hidden. Dawn met up with them and promptly killed three people who tried to grab her. She stared at the agents, then shook her head. "Don't do that." She found a few last AIM people and threw something at them, making them scream. "Stop it. You're loud and annoying!" They stared at her. One pouted. "What?" she demanded, tapping a foot.
"You're evil!"
"No, I'm Dawn." She quirked up an eyebrow. "Or do you think I'm mean because I defeated your idiots who were trying to capture smart people?"
"We'll still win! The geniuses are all ours!"
"One's my daughter, I doubt that," Stark noted, glaring at him. "My daughter and son are not yours. And if you managed to get them I'm siccing their sister on you since she wants to take over somewhere."
Dawn burst out laughing. "That might be a good place for Liz to run, boss."
"True." Steve stomped in and he waved. "AIM wanted all the geniuses and thinks they're theirs."
"Son," Steve said, staring at them. "They'd destroy you. Chris would happily destroy you and take all the frustration from school out on you. Callia would do it faster and without robots like her brother would."
"Hell, even Barney would sit there with beer and popcorn to watch the destruction," Dawn quipped. The AIM head person started to cry. "Awww, babyman is upset," she cooed. "Do you need a binky?"
"Dawn, go rest," Tony said with a point. "Check on my spawn please."
"Fine." She walked off shaking her head. Someone tried to grab her so she floated them up. "Not yours to touch. Thank you!"
"Who're you?" a higher level guard demanded, pulling a gun.
Dawn stared at him. "Dawn Summers-Romanoff-Barton. Assistant to Tony Stark." The guy's gun went limp in his hand. "Holder of the badass bitch title in the family since I can do magical stuff." She grinned. "I helped defeat the bad guys."
"You took down three agents," he complained.
"The ones who grabbed me? They're the same sort that kidnaped me. Wearing the same group's insignia. Do I really want to disappear again?"
"I..I remember that," he admitted. She undid the neck closure on her chainmail tunic. "The ones who invaded?"
"AIM."
"Who?"
"Crackpot scientists," she said. "Want to make super weapons and rule the world. They wanted Stark's kids because they're geniuses in engineering like their father."
"Oh." He put his gun up. "Are you all right? Medical?"
"I'm fine." She smiled. "The chainmail is great. The boss and the king are upstairs and made their own mess. Let me go get the car ready so we can escape all this." She called that in and Happy reported they were out front. She called Tony. "Happy's out front to evacuate us, boss." She hung up and headed that way. He and the king came down. And the king looked quite amused. Dawn got out to let them in and got in again, closing the door after herself. Happy drove them off. "Tony, you good?"
"I'm fine," he said patiently. "You?"
"Chainmail blocks most bullets too." She grinned at the king. "Should I warn our infirmary you need bandages, Highness?"
"I'm fine. My armor will stop bullets."
She nodded. "That's great. We've been working on super suits for the team for years but right now they're working on bras for under the uniforms. They're very handy and getting a lot more comfortable these days." She poured him some water. "You're sweating." She smiled. "I'm making sure the kids don't have to watch your sister nag you."
"Callia learned how to fuss over everyone from you already," Tony quipped. "That's half her job some days." Dawn nodded. They pulled into the tower and Dawn got out to check then let them out and upstairs.
Liz met them at the office level elevator, glaring up at her father. "I need to go destroy those sort because they think I'm a bimbo, Dad. Can you tell Chris I'm allowed?"
Dawn picked her up to cuddle. "You can't do that until you're old enough to graduate college, dear. We want you to graduate the evil genius program first."
Liz stared at her oddly. "I don't need the lessons. I took them from Grandma!" She wiggled and got put down so she could stomp off. "Christopher, hack those idiots for me so I can take over," she bellowed. "I'm tired of being thought of as useless and a bimbo. If they can't want me for good reasons they can sure want me for bad ones!"
Dawn sighed, following her. "Do not have Andrew and Jonathan help you, Liz. And no taking over AIM yet. Start on a smaller place first, like a terrorist group for your Auntie Natasha."
Tony looked at the king, who was trying not to laugh. "That was our second child, Liz. Between the two geniuses. We have a baby too but she's just into clothes and dance class and decorating stuff." He led him to the office, where Pepper was talking to the princess. "Dawn's trying to get Liz to leave AIM alone until she's older."
"I heard. I give it six days before she either loses interest or manages it. She even has my command voice down when I have to yell at the mini geniuses." Clint walked past the doorway. "Clint, go stop Liz please."
"Hell no. I want to sit there and enjoy her ruining AIM, Pepper. It'll be more amusing than anything but my wife wearing slutty clothes." He kept walking. "Liz, ask me if you want my help with tactical stuff. I really have to work on that with you."
"Thank you, Unclie Clint," Liz called from farther up the floor. "Think I can talk Uncle Benji into helping me?"
"Maybe. He's bored and complaining."
She let out an evil chuckle she had learned off one of their geeks as she strolled off to call him.
Tony looked at the King and Princess. "Want a few kids? Liz could really use some intense mentoring time with us and the geniuses are getting bad habits about being stuck in the lab until we nag. Chris has missed ten days of school from working on stuff. Which is why I brought him to the meeting, so he couldn't do it again."
Callia leaned in. "Liz said she's really sorry about that group in England who want Auntie Dawn's kids. She's starting with them." She rolled off shaking her head. "I'm giving myself plausible deniability by going to get cake or something. Anyone want something from the caf?"
"No," Tony called, shaking his head and sighing. "JARVIS, please herd my spawn this way please."
"I'm sorry, sir, but Liz has employed Chris's personal time out protocol. I cannot presently find her."
"Find wherever Dawn's nagging her?" Pepper suggested, leaning back.
"She is being nagged by her spouses. Her wife is quite upset she did not call in for help. Her husband thinks she wants to take down AIM so she has more science geeks to fuss over by merging them with the company." The AI sighed. "Chris just popped open an extra large Red Bull and gulped half then got to work on his computer, which I cannot get into at the moment thanks to that protocol."
"Where are they?" Tony asked.
"Chris is in his personal lab, which he has sealed from entry of any kind. Liz may be in the kitchen or she may be in the other tower getting donuts. I believe she's over there because an agent just walked over to nag a blank spot. Which seems to be upset and sniffling, if not crying, but is now yelling back at the idiot agent from the FBI, sir. Should I send someone to intervene?" A pause. "Never mind. Callia got the robotic sentry dog trial and sicced it on the agent. She's screaming in pain and Callia is making fun of her for it since her aunt only swore about the broken wrist one gave her." The AI sighed again. "We should declare a Stark movie day, sir. That way they calm down. Shall I call up something they'll enjoy that's not anime?"
"Tell my offspring that if they attempt that they're all grounded and going to finishing schools," Pepper said. "Including Chris. One where he can't wear a dress and Callia has to."
A pause. "I've informed them of such and Callia said she's already graduated high school and college so they won't take her even at her age. Chris said that's mean and for that, he's showing up at the next Stark event in a fabulous gown. And Liz has announced her presence to note it'd do her good in her future career taking your seat, Miss Potts." Pepper moaned, staring at Tony.
"I know, it's my fault they're so strong willed," he said dryly. "JARVIS, initiate parental guidelines and make them go to their rooms before I paddle them all. Child abuse be damned at the moment."
"I've noted that, sir, and the girls are both pouty but got donuts to go to their various domiciles and hiding spots. Though I doubt it stopped anything. Oh, dear. The director of the local FBI office is trying to gain entry, sir. Fair warning with an ETA of under two minutes. With the head of the Secret Service's local branch following."
Tony nodded. "Great. Thanks." He looked at the duo, smiling. "Want a tour?" They nodded and went with him so they were out of the way of yelling. "It's not usually this insane. I'm sorry you had to see that from the kids."
"I got worse from my own sister," T'Challa said, weathering her hit to his shoulder. "She's the same sort your children seem to be."
"I try," Tony said with a grin for her. "We wouldn't mind if you wanted to borrow them for things or even work with them on stuff. Callia's started a think tank to turn her ideas into things. She's working on an older suit of mine for medical rescues and animal work. That's been an ideal of hers since she was about six."
"It's a good one," she agreed. "Especially if you can include scanning abilities."
"We have two," he admitted. "Neither one excellent but they work. We're working to upgrade them. Without going into Callia's early project that sealed bodily openings thanks to some bimbos hitting on her favorite geeks." He shook his head quickly. They ran into Clint, Dawn, and Natasha, who was being kissed by Dawn. He cleared his throat. "Higher ups in the office, people."
"If I get complained at for handling the ones that were going to kidnap me again, I'll be the one to take over somewhere," Dawn growled. Clint pulled her closer and Natasha kissed her again. "No fair."
"You wouldn't let us help," Clint said dryly. "That's a family wide activity, Dawn." He nodded at the staring Princess. "She's ours. We rescued her so she's ours." Dawn elbowed him in the stomach but he kissed her neck for her, making her moan. "Let's go calm down and deal with the idiots then we'll talk Chris out of helping his sister's plots. She has to be able to do it without any help to do it the right way."
"I can teach her that."
Natasha smiled at her. "We will work on that with her. She definitely needs more tactical training." They walked off. "We will handle the higher ups."
"Thanks." He walked them off shaking his head. "They're interesting as a family. Dawn's a wonder assistant in many ways but I had to nag her too many times about not stepping in unless necessary as backup. I'm going to yell at her again later and suspend her for a few days so she has bikini time to taunt her spouses."
T'Challa looked at his sister. "Would that work for you?"
"I can rock a bikini like no one else can," she shot back with a grin for him. "But I don't need the vacation right now." She squeaked as she disappeared.
"Callia had me beam her to her lab," JARVIS said. "She's skyping with the tinkering group, sir."
"Sure. She should be introduced to people like Rodney and Radek. And Epps if he's involved." The king was looking amused so they'd get his sister later.
***
Clint walked into the office and put a picture from the security tape at the UN, which some news groups already had. "The three that grabbed my wife were wearing these," he noted to the head of the FBI branch. "That is the same group that captured us and tried to do mind control. If she hadn't taken them out, I would've." He put it down and looked at Pepper. "We're hoping it'll be okay but Natasha and I will gladly mentor Liz into being the best evil corporate sort she can be. She needs tactical training." He smiled and walked off. "I've warned Benji about what the kids wanted to do. He's amused but on assignment for the next week."
"Thank you for trying to stop her plot, Clint." She looked at the two higher ups. "Both members of the royal family are safe here. There's not many who would dare to try the tower and we're very good at defending it. Also, some of their own security staff have gotten into the Avengers only areas of the towers to work on things."
"We really should get them to a safer location," the local Secret Service agent said, trying to sound upbeat.
Dawn leaned in and smiled at them. "Are you saying I can't protect them well enough?" He went pale and sat down. "Good." She smiled. "Pepper, I've pointed out to Liz that AIM is too big for her yet. She's starting on a group that wants the girls instead. She'll work her way up. Natasha is going over her ideas on how you do that to correct the funny thinking things like sending in snakes." She walked off humming and turned on the building-wide music system to something nicely soft but rock. It was the building's usual channel.
Pepper smiled at the higher ups. "We have it well in hand."
"We'd still like to talk about the ones Miss Summers harmed, Miss Potts."
"If they're the same group, Dawn is in her rights to take them out before they kidnap her again. We'd really hate that and let the kids take down that group." She smiled slightly. "I'm sure Chris and Callia would adore a new project." He shuddered. "So, anything else today?" They shook their heads and left. She went to the other tower, looking at the two warrior women. "If you had asked, we would've let you in. Your king is in the labs taking a tour and my eldest daughter took the Princess to introduce her to the tinkering group she and her father work with. If you don't want to join them feel free to use the sparring or workout equipment, use our cafeteria, or our infirmary if you need them." She grinned. "I have to talk to my second child about her desire to take out bad people so if you need me, have JARVIS call for me please." She went to talk to Liz herself. She was too young to take over any group, even if they were evil.
The two warriors shared a look and went back to looking at magazines for now. They were on hand in case their king or princess couldn't handle it, though they probably could.
***
Callia made it back to her college, nodding at her teacher and mentors. "I'm back." She smiled. "We talked Liz out of taking over AIM finally." A few moaned. "She wasn't doing good enough plans so Auntie Natasha is teaching her tactics. And Chris so he quits programming their computers to fart at them I think." She handed over her papers. "There we go, all my reports I had due that I didn't get to email because I'm grounded again. And three new designs Dad agreed with me could be submitted for grading because they won't be that classified."
They looked them over then looked at her. "When did you do this?"
She looked. "When I was ten." She shrugged but grinned. "I got bored that weekend. It was meant to eat my shoes because I hated shoes. I fixed the one that Andrew created so the roomba army can dissolve diapers because that one worked in tiny inches for baby safety. Mine didn't have to."
Her mentor gave her a confused look. "Roomba army?"
"Yeah. You haven't seen our roomba army? They started with one that was Roomba Dog. Then it went from there." Her phone meowed so she looked at it. "And they helped me create my first kitty phone." She answered the text message then put her Starkphone down, watching as it moved in circles before curling up in her pocket of her pack.
"What the hell?" her mentor demanded. She just smiled. "Your phone moved on its own!"
"Yeah. It's my kitty phone. My first one with their help was Dad's lab phone. It even learned how to use the elevator to find certain people." She grinned. "I was seven then."
He slumped in his chair, staring at her. "You're quite exceptional in a few weird ways, Miss Stark."
She smiled. "Thank you!" They groaned. "It does come with the name sometimes. The same as bimbos clearly do. I have to learn how to brush them off soon. I had no idea how to get away from the one at the junior scientists event."
Someone stomped in. "I say this *child* is stealing from her father."
She glared at him. "You're so damn stupid," she said dryly. "Why would I steal from my father when we work in different fields of interest usually? Or why would I have patents in my name for everything I've ever done?" He glared at her. "Oh, do try to take a swing, dude. You're not worthy to breathe the air I am. Hell, you can't even solder a circuit board. And you think you can try to be Justin Hammer to my Stark greatness? Puhlease." He glared harder and balled up his fists. She stared at him. "That'll be the last mistake you make, dickwad."
"I say we challenge her skills," he sneered. "I actually graduated with honors and I doubt that she's worthy of the same degree I hold."
"And yet, I did my bachelor's thesis project under watch, including when I was designing it." Her mentor nodded that was true. "With three of the people in here watching when I built it in the labs here. With only one thing I brought from home because your soldering irons are shit." He sneered. "Maybe you're not worthy of the degree since you can't even make a light circuit with a potato." She looked at the teachers.
"We've seen you designing many things instead of listening to lectures," one said.
"She's too young to be here," the guy sneered.
"Well, I graduated high school in all but name at twelve," she said dryly. "Because I held myself back for as long as I could while doing all my freshmen mandatories through the college." She waved a hand in the air. "But whatever, dude. We all know you're a fraud. Your diagram for your talk was mislabeled, stolen from a geek in England that we know about, she's suing you by the way, and you put in things backwards so the resistors wouldn't have let things work. And you think you can match me, who's been building things since I was a toddler?"
"I want her evicted from the program for plagiarizing her father."
"I want you to prove it," her mentor said. He put down a set of plans. "I see the names Stark, no first name, and three others." He looked down. "Doctor Epps, one is yours."
He looked at it then nodded. "That was something the tinkering group came up with thanks to her nerve bridge work. She took it tiny and some of them took it larger with Doctor McKay's input. I helped her with the math she was still learning as it turned toward nano levels. In that case, that Stark is actually Christopher Stark. That was his design."
Callia looked and nodded. "It was. It's not the one that's underneath it either." She got into the other plans. "This was classified," she noted, holding it up. "By order of Stargate Command and SHIELD." Charlie winced but took it to fold up. "I wasn't at that tinkering session but I remember refining the laser focus on that later on. And this one," she said, holding it up. "Was all mine and still classified." She smirked at him. "So you got into things you shouldn't." She patted her phone. "Phone, call Stepmom. Tell him that someone has classified info from Stargate here."
"Calling," it meowed. "Stepmom said hold on, backup coming."
"Thank you, phone. Go ahead and hang up." It did that. She looked at her teacher, who shrugged. "I can't let classified stuff out. That's a weapon. We're not doing weapons for public use. Avengers use. Family use when we have to rescue ourselves, but not public use." Two agents stomped in, and she knew one. He was a jackass. "This Hammer wannabe had classified plans, guys. Stuff the tinkering group came up with for the SGC."
They looked and checked the files. Epps handed over the one he was holding, getting a nod for it. "I helped create that. It is classified thanks to being in use by the SGC."
"The tinkering group," one agent said.
She grinned. "Me, Dad, Chris, Professor Epps, Uncles Rodney and Radek with Andrew and Jonathan when they can?"
"Oh, that group. We just call that scary, Miss Stark."
She smiled. "Thank you." The guy tried to grab her with a knife so she destroyed him. She looked down at him. "Wow, you're not very good at that. Have fun talking to Hammer in jail, dude." The agents took him and the plans with them. She looked at the teachers again, shrugging. "So, anyway, why the call in today?"
"You've officially graduated two programs by your hours," Charlie Epps said with a smile. "You have to apply to graduate studies, Callia."
"Or I can take a different program."
"The graduation process has already started. You can't just switch majors." Her mentor smiled. "Nice try though." He handed over a packet. "For your masters?"
"Dad wanted me to try MIT." She grimaced. "I don't like Boston."
"Do that for a second masters," Charlie said. "It's done all the time."
"I guess. I can't just add on another minor?"
"No," they all said.
She sighed and looked at the packet, filling it out and pulling up things to print out then handed it in with a check from her account. "If I must."
"Is that for the graduation costs?" Charlie asked. "And take the GRE this week if you can please."
"I already have. Chris and I both used it to test against each other."
"Is he coming here?" her mentor asked.
"I think Dad's talked him into going to MIT because they do a lot of the component and racing and fast stuff he likes."
"They have a better PhD program in your field so do that then and he can come here for his masters," Charlie Epps said.
"He's being lazy. He's managed to get held at almost his age level so he can hang out with Philip. No one might get him until he's nearly eighteen. I tried to point that out to Dad but he said to let him have his own fun. I think it sucks I did so much more work than he does."
"You pushed yourself," Charlie reminded her with a smirk. "He's wanting to play. Boys are like that."
"I noticed. Though he was going to help Liz take out AIM for daring to attack the UN. She ordered and he leapt to help her."
"Is your brother a transsexual?"
"No, Liz convinced him he had to be pretty to be one of us. He does better at applying makeup than I do. I let him do mine for anything formal. Loki getting him that subscription to the queen magazine helped him a lot." They all stared at her. "It's called Queenly."
Charlie shook his head. "I've seen him reading that."
"So has Mom and threw a fit. Stepmom too. He has expensive makeup tastes. Mom said he had to start paying for his own. It cut into his Redbull habit so he cut down on how often he wore it."
Her mentor shook his head with a sigh. "It's nice that your brother is living up to being a weird Stark." She grinned and nodded. A bright light flashed.
Callia stared at the creature. "That's an alien from the realm I got pulled to. And me without a weapon or a nerve bridge. Phone, get help!"
"Getting help," was meowed. "Everyone is out of the area."
"Use the satellite! We have an alien from the realm I got pulled to here. And I don't have more than a minor laser." It meowed that and she sent up a prayer to Xander while trying to summon at least a weapon. She summoned a surprising weapon and the guy holding it. "Shit. Barney, bad alien guy, I don't have a weapon." She grabbed his bow and used it before he could snatch it back. Then he shot the alien but it had a shield up. She summoned a weapon from the temple and prayed at it while she used it on the alien asshole. "Hi-yah!" she shouted to distract it from Barney doing something as she stabbed at it. It grabbed the spear and pulled. She was off balance and she knew that. "I need to travel with more weapons."
Clint appeared and kicked at the alien, tossing her something. "Use it and move, Callia. This is big hero work."
"Gladly! He's a minion of the purple guy." She stuck the bridge on and got out of there with the teachers.
Barney looked at his brother. "What is this thing?"
"Alien bad guy. Helping Thanos take out humanity for shits and giggles."
Steve and Tony appeared and attacked the thing, backing it against Clint and Barney, who were beating at the shield it had. Natasha appeared with Phil and Xander and an electrified spear. They dove in. The alien was going to lose. And it did. It tried to get away with some sort of machine but Stark broke that and stomped on it. He died and the others looked around.
"No sensors reading any other aliens," Tony noted. "That is the same source that took Callia."
"I'm hoping it's not the idiot she had to get help for because he had classified plans," Steve said, pushing back his cowl. "Can you track the energy this time?"
"Yeah. It's coming from the labs." He stomped off and flew to that building, going to find it. The security team for the campus hurried after him. He found the machine and stared, then shot it to shut it down. "Better." He looked around. "Any idea whose bright idea it was to steal from us? That's clearly off Jonathan and Andrew's machine that pulled people."
Callia leaned in a few minutes later with Clint behind her. "That's not quite the same thing, Dad. Theirs runs on a crystal energy matrix. This one plugs in. The one who usually uses this lab is in Doctor Kormara's class. He's her mentor." She rolled off. "I'm going to put a nerve bridge and emergency laser in my storage area here. Just in case. Then I'm going home."
"Fine. Don't drive this time," he called after her. He looked at Clint, who waved and followed her. "Can we find the idiot who did this?" he asked the security team. One of them went to find that teacher so they could identify the student. They did not want this sort of thing on their campus. It'd shut it down and give them a huge bit of bad notice.
Steve stomped past to talk to that student. He hoped it wasn't something like she was jealous of another student, or that she was paid to do it, or she was just a cranked scientist. No, she just wanted to prove she could do it. She had it reversed when she had accidentally sent off Callia. Not that she cared who it had sent off but someone would like to make her face reality. Maybe Rodney needed a new lab flunkie?
Barney looked at Natasha, who shrugged slightly in return. "I have no idea how I got here."
"Callia was probably trying to summon some help."
"Uh-huh." He shook his head. Then he spotted a problem. "Um....sister-in-law...." He pointed and got out of the way.
She walked over to look outside. Pity that window didn't open so she had to go yell at the duo of boys in person. Chris had downed the idiot. Philip had tied him up and they were getting away from an agent who was trying to grab them. She cleared her throat and watched as both boys noticed her then ran to hide behind her. "You both go to school on the other side of town. Why are you here?" she asked calmly, not looking away from that agent.
"School tour," Philip said. "We were with the others when that idiot burst in and tried to grab me so we led him off. Then the agent guy there tried to grab us."
Chris quit fiddling with the remote he usually carried to look up. "We have no idea who he is. He didn't identify himself, Auntie Natasha." He finally got it to work. "Remind me to change batteries later, Philip."
"I can do that," he quipped. "If we're not locked in a closet."
"I would not do that, son, but grounded may be a given." Natasha put her hands on her hips. "Why were you trying to grab my child and nephew?"
"Who're you?" he demanded.
She smirked a tiny bit. "An avengers member. Yourself?" He sneered. "Also a SHIELD agent." He tried to come closer but was knocked down by a magical spike.
"Be damned if I want that to keep going on here," Callia called from the doorway. "He put a thing on the family car, Aunt Natasha. I don't *think* it's a bomb but not my area of expertise."
"I'll have someone check it. Get these two back to the school tour."
"Sure, I can help with that." She nodded and they followed her back to where the rest of the group was. "Mostly solved," she quipped with a grin for the staring teachers. "Hey, Professor Philips." The english teacher smiled at her. "The agent that tried to get them is tied up. We're waiting on an all clear on the cars. Can I help the tour?"
"Of course you can, Miss Stark."
"Stark?" the teacher demanded, staring at her.
She grinned and waved a bit. "I'm Callia, Chris's older sister." She stared at her, mouth slightly open. "I did most of my schooling through one on Long Island." She looked at Chris. "I have to graduate."
"Eww."
"They forced it since I've already done all my stuff and then some. So apparently I beat Dad's record by a few months." She grinned. "Slacker."
"Hey!" He scowled. "That's mean."
"Yup. But you're being a boy."
"Yeah," he snorted. "I have more fun."
"Maybe." Philip hugged her. "Hey, you. You okay?"
"You did great things," Philip said with a grin. "We need to celebrate by talking the parents into buying ice cream."
"We can do that," the siblings agreed. "C'mon, guys. Let's go check out the main rec area. A lot of stuff goes on in there so we're in there at least once a week, especially since the main cafeteria is in there." They led the group off to look things over. "Where haven't we seen?"
"Maths, history, and the art rooms," the teacher called.
"Okay, we can do that. They're on that side of the campus anyway."
The teacher looked at the professor. "She's one of the same Starks?"
"Yeah. That's why she's graduating at fifteen." He strolled off. "I hated her paper writing style because she always had to cut things down but she's excellent at the family business."
The teacher scowled and went to talk to that young girl. "So you're getting your bachelor's, Miss Stark?" she asked.
She grinned at her. "Double with a minor. I graduated high school at twelve. I was doing college work through them too. Chris might've went there but we moved back to the west coast most of the time. Philip picked the school and Chris nagged until he could go instead of home schooling." She looked at her brother. "You *still* have to finish your robotics project for Dad to grade. He was looking for it last night."
"It's done. I had Andrew and Jonathan look it over for me." He grinned. "It's really helpful too." He skipped ahead to get the door, Philip following. "Mommy Pepper did try to teach us manners," he quipped.
"She did try," Callia agreed dryly. "Sometimes it even worked on me too." They went inside to look over the student center and the attached rec center area, then the cafeteria. Then out the other door to head to the history building. "They're pretty equidistant but I thought we'd hit history, then math, then the art area since that's nearer to the parking lots area. That flows easier and doesn't mean backtracking to the other side of the campus." The other kids nodded.
She pointed. "That's our founder's statue. He was kinda boring in a lot of ways but he did great math things. He always hated girls in math but Cal Sci has some of the most gender equality in most fields. In the sciences we have about forty-five percent female population. Most colleges have about thirty. And our teachers here are used to people who have weird ideas. They didn't even stop the kids trying to make hallucinogenic cats by injected them with DNA from licking frogs." She shook her head quickly. "The rest of the teachers saved the cats but let them keep going hypothetically. It was their graduation project."
"What was yours?" the teacher asked.
She grinned. "A new cycling motor for the campus' energy generation system. I revamped it while bored one weekend because it went down unexpectedly. The maintenance guys say it's a lot easier to maintain, check the lubricant on, and it uses standard motor oil for those things. My teachers caught me doing it so they counted it. I was going to use a new rocket booster system but..." She shrugged. "That and I had a design project I had to do for mechanical engineering. I designed, built it here, all that under watch for that project." She looked at Chris. "They said MIT has a better PhD program for me and they have a good masters here if you wanted to do MIT like dad did." He grinned and nodded. "And there's a ton of great schools if you and Philip are going together."
"That's one way to make sure we both do homework," Philip said. "My mom would heave if I flunked out of college."
"You have no idea," Callia told him with a smirk. "By then the girls will all be in school and she'll have fewer people to nag with us off out of the compound. Which means you'll get a lot more attention."
"Eww." They went in to look over that building then went to math, then to the art building. Philip bounced over to redraw a few lines on a chalkboard that were in the wrong spot then bounded back to the group. The teacher was giving him horrified looks but oh well. He was used to it with his smartass moments.
The problems started when they were headed back to the school's van. There were more agents there about the girl whose project had pulled an alien. And bad guy agents. Clint and his brother were on a park bench watching the idiocy in action because Steve was yelling at people and hit one with his shield for being an idiot.
Chris sighed and looked at Philip, who shrugged. They glanced at Callia. "Oh, no, I'll get screamed at, guys. She pulled an evil alien into the meeting I had with my advisors. I had to summon help."
Chris pushed his remote. Philip grabbed his hidden weapons. The remote controlled robotic version of Joyce Summers landed and started to nag the bad agents. Philip's bow had an arrow that would knock out people and did. Robo Joyce smiled and told them to back to what they had been doing.
"Grounded, son!" Clint yelled. "So damn grounded. You get to clean the pool, do the yard work, and help your mothers shop!"
"Damn," Philip muttered, hiding the bow again as they ran for the school's van.
"And no hanging out with Chris for a month outside school things!" Clint added. "Turn off your robotic grandmother while you're at it, Christopher Stark!"
"She has an auto shut off," he yelled. He climbed into the van and displaced the kid sitting in the back corner so he could hide. Philip moved to hide beside him. The other kid threw her jacket over them and acted like nothing was wrong. She had heard the parental yelling.
"Why do you have weapons!" the teacher demanded, yelling into the van.
"Because some Somali terrorist idiots tried to get me and Mom yesterday at the grocery store," Philip called from his hiding spot. "That way if they show up they can be held off until my Moms get there to kick them around. Can we go before the parents make it over here? Please?"
Callia rolled off on her walker snickering. "So damn glad my name is not Christopher," she sing-songed to an agent she knew. She watched the robot. "He did a pretty good job but her voice is out of whack and she has power flaws. He'll have to correct that." The agent did a double-take when he realized who she was. She grinned. "I'm wondering if he worked from the plans for the Auntie Natasha and Mommy Pepper robots Warren made years ago." She rolled off to find her own car. It had been searched, the thing taken off it, so she could go home and laugh until she got sick. Her driver came jogging out to get her home so that was nice. She could giggle madly on the way home too.
***
Tony Stark looked at the robot of Joyce Summers, then around. He saw the boys running away and sighed. "I think he's passed Robotics 5." Steve glared at him. "Chris."
"I can tell that. Callia's would've had other adaptations." He glared at his husband. "The children need sense."
"Agreed," Tony said with a grin. "We've all tried. Including you and Bucky. Has it worked yet?"
"No. We need to try harder tonight though," he ground out between gritting teeth. "And he needs to fix her voice range."
"Hey, Robo Joyce, can you please quit yelling for a bit," Clint called from his seat. "Your voicebox is not calibrated right and it's making people shudder."
"Of course, dear." She smiled and waved. "I'd like grandchild time this weekend if I can, son-in-law. I can take my flesh version's time since she's going to be with Bruce for a few days of vacation time."
"Hey, talk sense into the kids," Clint agreed with a grin and a nod. "They could use it."
"Yes, they could," Tony agreed. "Quite a lot." He walked off shaking his head. "They can go there while they're grounded and I look over Chris's plans for you."
Clint looked at Barney. "It's really the kids you have to watch out for," he said. "Liz took over and out a group in England that wanted her siblings and cousins. She's working her way up to taking over and out AIM for pissing her aunt off."
Barney looked at him. "Why did you have to have kids?"
"Not my doing. We planned on some someday. Then Philip came to be and people kept me away from Dawn's pregnancy for a lot of it. She had to do it on her own."
"Yeah, that may have created that problem." He shook his head with a sigh. "Any other weird shocks?"
"My youngest three daughters want to model I think. They're weird and fashionable like Dawn. Even Natasha's daughter is fashionable like Dawn." A kiss was dropped on his head as they walked past him. "Thanks, Diana. Have fun in classes."
"You too, Uncle Clint."
Barney looked, letting his mouth drop open. She winked. "He is my uncle."
Clint grinned and nodded. "Buffy's kids grew up way too pretty. Sean's just as pretty. We have to keep beating people off them."
Barney stared at him. "How?" he asked with a point.
"Growing up on Asgard apparently. It's why Philip's so pretty too. She had to spend a bit up there so she wouldn't deliver early." He grinned. "And you thought the family would warp me in the wrong direction?"
"No, clearly you're insane." He got up and walked off shaking his head. He ran into Sean, who was very pretty and trying to get a girl off him by swatting at her. He shoved the girl and walked off again.
"Thanks, sir," Sean called then ran off before she could latch on again. He paused to hug Clint then chased after his sister.
Clint grinned. "The kids are so weird sometimes but pretty neat."
"I want those grandchildren too," Robo Joyce called. Clint smiled and waved. "Good." She strolled off to talk to someone who was taking notes. "Are you the local SHIELD liaison?"
"No, ma'am," he said, blinking at her. "I'm FBI. I know you're a robotic version of the head of SHIELD, ma'am. How did you get made?"
"Chris. He made it so I could help Joyce if she needed to get into dangerous things so his grandmother wouldn't get injured."
"Ah!" He nodded, making that note. "It's sweet of him to help his grandmother that way."
"He is such a good boy, even if he does have a Redbull habit and likes the wrong shade of mascara for his eyes." She strolled off. "Let me get some oil for tea time."
"Of course," he agreed, just nodding. He had seen way too many weird things being in LA. A robotic version of an agency director? Well, she had been created by a Stark.
Tony looked over at him. "That was his robotics class project he wouldn't let me see. He and Callia are both a bit wild even by my standards."
The agent just nodded, letting that be the last word on this event. It was a good wrap up.
The End.
Future Old Ones and the No Good, Bad Days of Fuck You.