Do some studies (Tag Tony)

[st_hotflashes]

Liz had a small vial of her own blood she had taken from the infirmary. It reminded her of when she had to take blood from Alex to switch with Max's at the hospital. It seemed like a really long time ago now and Alex... well, Alex was dead.

She pushed the thought away as she rounded toward Mr. Stark's room. She knew he mostly used it for work and she hoped he was working today. She also hoped he would be willing to run some basic tests on her blood.

Liz paused outside his door, then knocked. She briefly wondered if Peter told him what had happened to her. She also wondered if Mr. Stark was aware of how they hadn't been kissing for practically two months and now they were again.

Comments

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Let yourself in!" Tony Stark's voice called out from the other side of his door, emblazoned in a rocky-motif. "Mind the roombas on your way in."

[st_hotflashes]

Liz had to wonder what a roomba was as she opened the door, but when she saw some little robots, she figured it might be them. She was careful to walk around them as she looked out into the room. "Mr. Stark?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Well, if it isn't Liz." Iron Man was positioned in the spinning chair (dubbed the Stone Throne) idly, using a foot propulsor to spin about. "What can Tony Stark do for you."

[st_hotflashes]

For a moment she wondered why Mr. Stark was in his suit, but she decided it was probably best not to question it - he could do a lot of things with that suit, so who knew what he was actually doing. "Um. Well... I was wondering if maybe you'd be able to test a blood sample?" She lifted the vial she had on her and offered a small, sheepish smile.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“Yours? Hopefully.” Iron Man slowed to a stop, facing Liz with a quizzical tilt of his armored head.

[st_hotflashes]

"um, yeah... I don't know how much Peter's told you about.. what's been happening lately." She looked meek as she stood there, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

The suit looked from the vial to Liz slowly. “Uh. No. And for your sake I won’t guess.”

[st_hotflashes]

She blinked and then realized there was a very normal thing you could do with blood and her eyes widened. "Oh! Um, no - no it's not.. we haven't -" Liz paused and shook her head, then regrouped. "I, um... when you told me what happened back home with Peter. When I fainted? I.. well, sometimes I can do things now? I can't really control it, but I set a book on fire by accident."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Wow. So you fainted and went full Fahrenheit 451." Iron Man extended his hand for the vial. "Any other symptoms?"

[st_hotflashes]

"Sometimes things explode instead? When it happens, there's like, this energy that forms around my body. It's... a little painful. Kind of like a constant static shock." She handed over the vial, wondering just how crazy she sounded despite the fact Mr. Stark had dealt with a lot of weird before.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

The armor nodded along attentively, examining the vial before the nanites composing his faceplate receded to form a quarter-sized cavity. "I'll pass the message along to the proper Tony Stark." He assured her, inserting the glass for safe keeping.

[st_hotflashes]

Liz stood there and stared. Peter had mentioned that Mr. Stark had created an AI, but she had yet to meet it. She blinked.

"You're... His AI?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I'd say 'in the flesh' but...you know how it goes." As he had grown fond of doing, he separated the head of the armor from its body and staged it to face them on Tony's work desk. It's eyes flickered and cast the projection of a holographic Tony Stark before her--a younger one, give or take ten years.

"Looks like Pete couldn't keep from spreading the good word, eh?"

[st_hotflashes]

She suddenly felt bad for revealing she knew about it. She looked at the hologram and realized talking to it was a little more comforting than talking to armour.

"I don't think he's told anyone else." How did she explain he had told her because he had some complicated feelings for it? She didn't want to let that on. "I sort of pried it out of him." Which was a lie. "... sorry."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"No you didn't." The AI flickered out and back in, now peering out the window. A tree fell down in the distance, though harmlessly. "At ease, little one. I'm not the Tony Stark. I don't get as hung up on shoulda's."

[st_hotflashes]

Peter was right. While the AI looked and sounded like Tony Stark, there was something off too. She watched him carefully.

"Don't you have Mr. Stark's memories and personality? Wouldn't you feel the same as him?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“Memories, personality, but I lack the body. It’s easy to think without that adrenal feedback, you know?” It wasn’t the whole picture, but it was a nice illustration.

[st_hotflashes]

She processed that. "So.. because you don't have hormones or adrenaline or other chemicals like we do in our body, you respond to things differently."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“That’s my theory. I’d take the body over being massless—at least having the option, you know?” The AI flickered back over to Liz’a side, now nursing the projection of a martini.

[st_hotflashes]

She understood what Peter was worried about now. She nodded, though. "...Does that mean, you don't carefully word your answers to questions you might not normally want to respond to?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“...What, like I’m not allowed to lie? If I don’t wanna talk about something, I’ll just say so.” He replied, squinting sideways.

[st_hotflashes]

"No, I meant." She shook her head. "Nevermind. The whole AI thing is still kind of new to me, sorry." She glanced down at her feet, suddenly feeling awkward.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“That’s what the Q&A is the for, right?” WALL-E the robot maid approached Liz, offering her a chilled can of sparkling apple juice from its crane-like head. “There’s no limits on my behavior.”

[st_hotflashes]

She smiled to the robot despite it being a robot and thanked it as she picked up the juice. She was thoughtful for a moment, her mind swirling with questions. She suddenly heard herself ask something was perhaps in the back of her mind. "Do you really think I'll be able to get back to your world?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“Yes.” The AI answered simply, circling his hands to theatrically conjure a burger. “In some realm of the multiverse.”