capeandcowl | [video]

Entry tags:

valeria richards | n/a

[video]

[There is a blue-eyed child looking at you. She can't be more than three. She is, however, wearing a very grown-up expression of dissatisfaction. And some kind of superhero outfit with a big "6" on the chest.

Ordinarily, Val would be cagier about immediately going public in a strange place, but, well, she has A Problem. When she speaks, it's with fully adult syntax and no hint of a lisp or any other childish speech impediment.]

Hi. I'm Valeria Richards. Assuming no alternate timeline stuff--not a safe assumption, I know, but sometimes you gotta live dangerously--it looks like there are a few people out there who're friends of my parents. You've got a couple of hours to come get me before they [she turns the phone to show a pair of what are presumably social workers, looking simultaneously put-upon and patient] try to stick me in foster care and things get sketchy.

[Anyone who knows Val will know that's more for the prospective foster parents' protection than hers. No one wants her turning some unfortunate family's appliances into her robot escape army.]

...'Bye.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm pretty sure they do. We were having to find them when pieces were removed.

[ He swoops to the left, his penthouse in sight on the top floor of a rather nice looking building. Yes, he has a whole floor for his workshop. ]

Ah, there it is, you ready for the grand tour?

[Just one floor?]

How's your nanoetching setup? [She's sure it's fine, really, but she knows how to make conversation. ...Sort of. With other geniuses.]

[ At the penthouse. He also has one at the mansion and the entire underground complex at starktech. ]

Well, I can't give away all of my secrets, can I? They're mostly set up to make a network I can ping at my leisure.

[ He came to a landing, setting her down. ]

Technopath.

[ And not Extremis, nope. ]

[Val runs her hands through her now-messy hair, wincing when she hits the worst of the tangles.]

Extremis, or that local effect people keep telling me about?

You can keep a secret, right?

[ The suit's already peeling away in that odd way it seems to, floating bits and bobs as it pulls apart, leaving a man in, well, underarmor. He points from the roof to the stairwell.

Although it was more of a preparation room than a stairwell entrance. He'd already rented that out too. ]

Extremis, of course.

[Nothing weird about that. Practically everyone Val knows wears skintight catsuits to work.]

You have no idea.

[Let her not tell you about the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, the mad Celestials, and the deal she cut with Doctor Doom.]

[ He nods. ]

Good. Just keep it to yourself. I've had enough trouble with the whole Director of SHIELD thing, I'd rather them think I don't have all of my powers active.

It's less work for me.

[ And more secrets. Which is always good for him. It means he can get away with so much more.

He shuffles on a business shirt, sitting on a chair. ]

So, you want to see the lab?

[No, she wants to sit here listening to Tony namecheck himself some more.]

Yes.

Alright, follow me.

[ Who doesn't want to listen to him do that constantly? Tony sure as heck loves it. He leads her down, though, through a few flights of stairs. He has a lot of floors. ]

This is the home lab, so it's not quite as good as StarkTech's.

[EVERYONE ELSE IN THE MULTIVERSE, TONY.

Val follows him, used to having to take two or three steps for every adult stride.]

I don't need Dad's exotic matter containment facilities or anything like that. I'm just making a hard light holo-emitter.

[No big deal, really.]

Which there should be more than plenty to do just that.

[ Especially since it was his lab, which meant for engineering tasks, it was well suited. It was down a few flights of stairs, passing a floor where the design was pristine, but maybe partially lived in, decor showing an asian flair. The next was a bit emptier, meant for entertaining, although it looked more like a staging area, with bare floors and walls that looked more like screens than drywall.

The last flight would take them down to the lab, where there were keyed entries that weren't pushed, and instead the doors opened without effort. There were codes, but it was programmed to not react to analog entries. Only Tony Stark knew how to get in, or how to key it to enter, were his powers to go out.

A complex weave of contingency plans, but really, who could blame him. The lights flickered to life on entry, anticipating him stepping into the lab. ]

[Val is watching like a hawk in case she has to compromise Tony's security someday. Uncle Doom is better at playing the "what would I do if I were someone else?" game than she is, but she's learning fast.

"How would I secure my lab if I were Tony Stark with Extremis powers?"

"Have a failsafe in case I were to lose those powers."

Tony Stark's life is the story of losing everything and winning it back again. There's no way he won't have a contingency plan in case his powers go out. She'll have to figure out what that is.

Of course, she might have to take out Tony's powers for the contingency to be usable, but that should be doable if it comes up.

It's no more than a couple seconds of thought, disguised as looking around the laboratory.]

I guess it'll have to do.

[She's teasing him, because Tony does not take half-measures with his facilities, and they both know it.]

[ He watches her take everything in. Wondering what she's thinking, but he responds either way. ]

Well, it'll get the job done, at any rate.

[ His tone's faintly amused. He doesn't show any insult, and neither would he. He knows his labs are pretty fly. ]

I think you'll be able to get what you need done here.

Super.

[She's already climbing onto the stool in front of an electronics bench.]

I'm gonna dump some quantum lensing calculations onto your servers. Feel free to use the general solution for your repulsors. I'm pretty sure the math for the hard light handling I have to do and your repulsors are both subsets of the complete solution of the relevant phase space formulation.

[See, she's helping already.]

It's like working with your father again. [ He sounded exasperated, but even so. If he could adapt it to make the suit better, he would do it. ]

In a good way, by the way.

[ He leans against a ledge, letting the rest of the screens flare to life. He didn't expect that she needed, well, most of them.

And supervising Val was just keeping a camera on her to make sure she didn't blow anything up to see what would happen. He could run some calculations on the side. ]

[Intellectual condescension you can't convincingly object to because they really are that smart: now available in travel size!]

I'm smarter than Dad.

[Val's not even bragging. Just filling Tony in on relevant information as she enters the mind-bendingly complex equations she's already devised into his computers.]

[ He watches, or rather observes the calculations fly into formation on the screens. He doesn't really look, but he's aware of it all the same. She really was that smart, and he knew it, too. ]

Oh, I know you are, kiddo. I just mean it's like being in the same room with your father.

There really aren't that many people who make me feel like the less intelligent person in the room.

[ Said with no malice, though. Tony Stark was fully confident in his abilities, and he really didn't seem bothered by it. He looked to the future, and if Val was the future, well then. Maybe it would be just a touch brighter. ]

[So bright he's gotta wear shades. Possibly because Val is blowing up Jupiter.]

At our level it's mostly about bragging rights, anyway. You could build a portal to the Negative Zone if you wanted, and Dad could build armor like yours if he wanted.

[She pauses in her work and looks up at Tony.]

If I were the type to assume teleology, I'd suspect the varying research interests we all have are an intentional mechanism against overspecialization on a species-wide level. Dad's a physicist, primarily. So's Dr. Banner. Dr. McCoy and Dr. Pym are biochemists. Uncle Doom and King T'Challa are generalists, but they've never rivaled the high points the specialists hit in their fields...yet any of you could pick up where the others left off, if you had to.

[Yes, she just referred to Victor von Doom as "Uncle Doom." Unironically.]

You're right about that.

[ He'd had to delve into some of them, from time to time, at least to save one thing, or another. Then again, at that level, they were more going with that they were interested in, as well. Could Tony probably figure out a way to enhance himself biologically instead of technologically? Sure.

But would he? No. ]

Wait. Uncle Doom?

He's my godfather.

[Johnny's her godfather according to Reed and Sue, and Val will happily acknowledge him sharing the office with Doom if asked.

It's likely Tony knows some of what went on around Valeria's birth, especially because her name is Valeria, but I doubt the details are something the family makes public.]

What, you have two?

I think you should probably still call him Doom, though. Uncle Doom is a little... [ He trailed off, holding his hand up, and rocking it back and forth a bit.

He and Doom had a history, after all. Maybe not the same kind that Reed had, but there was still something there. ]

Odd.

Uncle Johnny is my godfather too, but Uncle Doom saved my life, and Mom's, and I'm under his protection. ...And he doesn't mind me calling him that.

[Val doesn't seem to realize, or is ignoring how bizarre her relationship with Doom is.]

I'm sure he doesn't mind.

[ Actually, he really didn't know. This was Doom, but then again, stranger things had happened. Like being trapped in an age of Arthrian legend with Doctor Doom.

The only thing he could really do was roll with it. ]

That's still a little...odd.

I'm three years old and I can do teleport calculations in my head in real time, I have a brother who's basically a god, and you're hung up on what I call a guy you don't even like?

[Yeah, she knows she and Namor are the only people who can stand Doom.]

Yes, I am.

Because it's Victor Von Doom.

[ That's his point! ]