Aug 31, 2022 - Vegas Mishap, Ch 5 (FR-13)
Aug 31, 2022 - Vegas Mishap, Ch 5 (FR-13)
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: Buffy breaks one of her rules, but manages to save the day anyway.
Challenge: for the livejournal 2022 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Crossover: MCU
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 1050
Timeline: Iron Man for MCU; post-series for BtVS
A/N: And so ends another successful month. Thanks to the mods, writers, readers and reviewers for making it a joy.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. MCU characters belongs to Marvel et al. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Tony’s home
Not surprisingly, it was decided by Tony’s people - the ones who seemed to care the most about his return - that to sell the marriage, Buffy had to move into the Malibu mansion. Not exactly a hardship apart from the built-in babysitter, JARVIS.
Even if she believed that she wouldn’t be spied on, she still refused to discuss anything Slayer within the building. If she needed to get in touch with anyone, she’d use the Coven’s mind link to talk while she did meditation exercises on the beach. To make it less obvious what she was doing, she’d still call using a real phone when she wanted to do family chats.
The problem was she had been there for over a week and still didn’t have a good opportunity to snag something of Tony’s for the location spell. Even with Willow’s power, the ring wasn’t cutting it. Besides, Buffy needed to take it back to play the little wifey.
“Is something wrong, Ms. Summers?” JARVIS inquired in his overly polite tone.
“Can you lie to me, JARVIS?” she questioned back. “Like, are you a very realistic sounding user interface or something more?”
“I began as a natural-language user interface based on the voice print of Sir’s family butler, Edwin Jarvis. As time went on and he gave me more software and hardware updates, I became an artificial intelligence,” he explained, not sharing anything not already known by dozens of people. He was grateful for her help, but he wasn’t about to tell her all of his creator’s secrets because of it.
“So like HAL 9000, but less murdery?” she asked hopefully.
“My primary function is making Tony Stark’s life easier in ways that he would approve of. Murder is not one of those ways,” he attempted to assure her. It only partially worked.
Something about his wording did twig her trust-o-meter, though. She quickly thought up a way to word her question without outing her people, “Can you keep a secret if it means rescuing him sooner? Even if it’s kind of ‘out there’?”
“I believe I would need some clarification before I answer you,” JARVIS replied, sounding a little suspicious.
Buffy sighed, then explained, “I know Tony is like Mr. Science and Technology guy; probably would have a stroke if he knew this about me…but I believe in things that can’t be explained by science all the time. Or at least I’ve never heard of anyone being able to explain it in scientific terms. Specifically, I’m referring to psychics.”
“As in the dictionary’s definition: a person apparently sensitive to nonphysical forces?” he quoted skeptically.
“Yes. Since I was a teenager, I’ve had a few predictions about me come true. Very specific predictions,” she stressed.
“For example, miss?”
“That I would die when I was sixteen,” she quickly clarified, “I did drown and was dead long enough to be considered legally deceased, but a friend found me and gave me CPR, which is why I’m still around and he’s still one of my best friends - as well as my brother-in-law.”
“Mr. Harris,” JARVIS responded, reminding her that they had her family history.
“Yes, and when my sister was kidnapped, we were told who the kidnapper was and where we could find Dawn,” she added, lying somewhat on that score. It wasn’t as if JARVIS could prove anything about Glory/Ben. “The kidnapper got away, but we were able to save Dawn before she could be killed.”
There was a significant pause as JARVIS considered what Buffy was telling him. At worst, she was certifiably crazy, and Sir’s own mental well-being could be called into question if she repeated this in public. At best, she could know somebody who could help in non-traditional ways. The fact she was hospitalized in high school leaned towards the former argument, but that was easily explained by her parents’ failing marriage and her attempt to keep them together by claiming vampires were real.
Her behavior since coming to Los Angeles to save Sir’s company indicated she was not only sane, but shrewd in ways that she used to defend her husband, to the press as well as the board members trying to hand over control to Stane. He weighed the risks and determined that he wanted Sir rescued sooner rather than later, even if it meant doing something unscientific.
“What would you need for this psychic?” he inquired.
“Anything personal. Hair would be perfect, but if that bothers you in anyway, something with strong sentimental value to him,” Buffy replied, doing a happy little inner dance.
Afghanistan
A week later…
It took a personal call from the President to the head of Rhodey’s team to get the military to act on the ‘information’ provided by Tony’s wife. Still, it had him shaking his head at what kind of fruitcake his best friend married while drunk in Vegas as they approached the caves. It was very dangerous because if they really were in those caves, it was a well-protected area and near impossible to sneak up on.
But they weren’t called Special Forces for nothing.
By the time they got through the perimeter and cleared most of the caves, they found far too many SI weapons for it to be a fluke. Somebody was selling those weapons to America’s enemies and those people would have to be dealt with.
Tony was discovered in a room that was barred from the inside. They were only able to get in when he heard Rhodey calling out his name.
“Man, you ride with me next time,” Rhodey insisted. “By the way, we need to talk about your choice in women…although she was right about finding you here, so unless she’s a plant, I guess I can forgive her believing in psychics.”
“Who are you talking about?” Tony asked, refusing to let go of his best friend long enough to look him in the eye. He was so sure he’d die in this godforsaken place. Even though he managed to get free from the car battery and started his plans for a suit to escape in, he didn’t think his captors would remain stupid long enough for him to finish it.
“Your wife, Tones,” Rhodey answered, smirking when his friend blue-screened. It wasn’t often he could make Tony go speechless.
A/N: Oops, almost missed it tonight.
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: Buffy breaks one of her rules, but manages to save the day anyway.
Challenge: for the livejournal 2022 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Crossover: MCU
Rating: FR-13
Word count: 1050
Timeline: Iron Man for MCU; post-series for BtVS
A/N: And so ends another successful month. Thanks to the mods, writers, readers and reviewers for making it a joy.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. MCU characters belongs to Marvel et al. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Tony’s home
Not surprisingly, it was decided by Tony’s people - the ones who seemed to care the most about his return - that to sell the marriage, Buffy had to move into the Malibu mansion. Not exactly a hardship apart from the built-in babysitter, JARVIS.
Even if she believed that she wouldn’t be spied on, she still refused to discuss anything Slayer within the building. If she needed to get in touch with anyone, she’d use the Coven’s mind link to talk while she did meditation exercises on the beach. To make it less obvious what she was doing, she’d still call using a real phone when she wanted to do family chats.
The problem was she had been there for over a week and still didn’t have a good opportunity to snag something of Tony’s for the location spell. Even with Willow’s power, the ring wasn’t cutting it. Besides, Buffy needed to take it back to play the little wifey.
“Is something wrong, Ms. Summers?” JARVIS inquired in his overly polite tone.
“Can you lie to me, JARVIS?” she questioned back. “Like, are you a very realistic sounding user interface or something more?”
“I began as a natural-language user interface based on the voice print of Sir’s family butler, Edwin Jarvis. As time went on and he gave me more software and hardware updates, I became an artificial intelligence,” he explained, not sharing anything not already known by dozens of people. He was grateful for her help, but he wasn’t about to tell her all of his creator’s secrets because of it.
“So like HAL 9000, but less murdery?” she asked hopefully.
“My primary function is making Tony Stark’s life easier in ways that he would approve of. Murder is not one of those ways,” he attempted to assure her. It only partially worked.
Something about his wording did twig her trust-o-meter, though. She quickly thought up a way to word her question without outing her people, “Can you keep a secret if it means rescuing him sooner? Even if it’s kind of ‘out there’?”
“I believe I would need some clarification before I answer you,” JARVIS replied, sounding a little suspicious.
Buffy sighed, then explained, “I know Tony is like Mr. Science and Technology guy; probably would have a stroke if he knew this about me…but I believe in things that can’t be explained by science all the time. Or at least I’ve never heard of anyone being able to explain it in scientific terms. Specifically, I’m referring to psychics.”
“As in the dictionary’s definition: a person apparently sensitive to nonphysical forces?” he quoted skeptically.
“Yes. Since I was a teenager, I’ve had a few predictions about me come true. Very specific predictions,” she stressed.
“For example, miss?”
“That I would die when I was sixteen,” she quickly clarified, “I did drown and was dead long enough to be considered legally deceased, but a friend found me and gave me CPR, which is why I’m still around and he’s still one of my best friends - as well as my brother-in-law.”
“Mr. Harris,” JARVIS responded, reminding her that they had her family history.
“Yes, and when my sister was kidnapped, we were told who the kidnapper was and where we could find Dawn,” she added, lying somewhat on that score. It wasn’t as if JARVIS could prove anything about Glory/Ben. “The kidnapper got away, but we were able to save Dawn before she could be killed.”
There was a significant pause as JARVIS considered what Buffy was telling him. At worst, she was certifiably crazy, and Sir’s own mental well-being could be called into question if she repeated this in public. At best, she could know somebody who could help in non-traditional ways. The fact she was hospitalized in high school leaned towards the former argument, but that was easily explained by her parents’ failing marriage and her attempt to keep them together by claiming vampires were real.
Her behavior since coming to Los Angeles to save Sir’s company indicated she was not only sane, but shrewd in ways that she used to defend her husband, to the press as well as the board members trying to hand over control to Stane. He weighed the risks and determined that he wanted Sir rescued sooner rather than later, even if it meant doing something unscientific.
“What would you need for this psychic?” he inquired.
“Anything personal. Hair would be perfect, but if that bothers you in anyway, something with strong sentimental value to him,” Buffy replied, doing a happy little inner dance.
Afghanistan
A week later…
It took a personal call from the President to the head of Rhodey’s team to get the military to act on the ‘information’ provided by Tony’s wife. Still, it had him shaking his head at what kind of fruitcake his best friend married while drunk in Vegas as they approached the caves. It was very dangerous because if they really were in those caves, it was a well-protected area and near impossible to sneak up on.
But they weren’t called Special Forces for nothing.
By the time they got through the perimeter and cleared most of the caves, they found far too many SI weapons for it to be a fluke. Somebody was selling those weapons to America’s enemies and those people would have to be dealt with.
Tony was discovered in a room that was barred from the inside. They were only able to get in when he heard Rhodey calling out his name.
“Man, you ride with me next time,” Rhodey insisted. “By the way, we need to talk about your choice in women…although she was right about finding you here, so unless she’s a plant, I guess I can forgive her believing in psychics.”
“Who are you talking about?” Tony asked, refusing to let go of his best friend long enough to look him in the eye. He was so sure he’d die in this godforsaken place. Even though he managed to get free from the car battery and started his plans for a suit to escape in, he didn’t think his captors would remain stupid long enough for him to finish it.
“Your wife, Tones,” Rhodey answered, smirking when his friend blue-screened. It wasn’t often he could make Tony go speechless.
A/N: Oops, almost missed it tonight.