Further Than Infinity

Out in the Atlantic Ocean, Tony, in his Iron Man suit, was cutting a pipeline transport with a laser cutter coming from his hand. He then placed a Stark Energy Reactor. It lit up. Iron Man rocketed out of the water and flew towards Stark Tower.

"You're good on this end," Tony said. "The rest is up to you."

Pepper Potts, on the other line, asked, "You disconnected the transition lines? Are we off the grid?"

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy."

"Wow. So maybe our reactor takes over, and it actually works?"

Inside the suit, Pepper appeared on his HUD monitor.

"I assume," Tony replied. "Light her up." Iron Man flew to the Stark Tower Building and the power switched on the Stark sign, lighting it up.

"How does it look?" Pepper asked.

"Like Christmas, but with more... me."

"Gotta go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press. I'm in DC tomorrow. I'm working on the zoning for the next three buildings."

"Pepper, you're killing me. Remember the moment? Enjoy the moment."

"Then get in here and I will." Tony arrived at his skyscraper penthouse and was in the process of taking off his Iron Man suit through a hi-tech gauntlet of gadgets.

"Sir, Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. is on the line," JARVIS said.

"I'm not in," Tony stated. "I'm actually out."

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting."

"Grow a spine, JARVIS. I got a date."

Pepper stared up at the monitors of the reactor device and said, "Levels are holding steady... I think."

"Of course they are, I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question: how does it feel to be a genius?"

"Well, ha, I really wouldn't know now, would I?"

"What do you mean? All this came from you."

"No. All this came from that." She pointed to the energy in his chest plate.

"Give yourself some credit, please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself... twelve percent of the credit."

"Twelve percent?"

"An argument can be made for fifteen."

"Twelve percent? For my baby?"

"Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you."

"Oooooh."

"My private elevator..."

"You mean our elevator?"

"Was steaming with sweaty workmen. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?"

Pepper poured herself and Tony a glass of champagne. "Not gonna be that subtle."

"I'll tell you what. Next building's gonna say 'Potts' on the tower."

"On the lease."

"Call your mom, can you bunk over?"

"Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overwritten."

"Stark, we need to talk," Coulson told him.

Tony picked up his phone and looked into it at Coulson.

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message," Tony told him.

"This is urgent," Coulson said.

"Then leave it urgently." At that moment, the elevator door opened and Coulson appeared. "Security breach." He said to Pepper, "That's on you."

"Mr. Stark."

"Phil! Come in."

"Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent."

"Come on in, we're celebrating."

"I can't stay," Coulson said.

"Which is why he can't stay," Tony repeated.

"I need you to look this over." He held out a file towards Tony. "Soon as possible."

"I don't like being handed things."

"That's all right, 'cause I love to be handed things," Pepper said. "So, let's trade." She passed her glass of champagne to Coulson, took the file from him, then took Tony's glass of champagne while passing the file over to Tony. "Thank you."

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday."

"This isn't a consultation," Coulson stated.

"Is this about The Avengers?" Pepper asked. "Which I... I know nothing about."

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought," Tony remembered. "And I didn't even qualify."

"I didn't know that either."

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."

"That I did know."

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore," Coulson said.

"Whatever," Tony retorted. "Miss Potts, got a minute?" Pepper walked over to Tony who placed the files into his own databases. "You know, I thought we were having a moment."

"I was having twelve percent of a moment," Pepper told him. "This seems serious, Phil is pretty shaken."

"How did you notice? Why is he Phil?"

"What is all of this?"

"This is, uh..." Tony expanded his arms and different profiles appeared in holographic form floating in the air in front of Tony and Pepper. "This."

Screens appeared of Captain America and Astraea in action, the Hulk roaring as he attacked the army at Culver University, and Thor fighting the Destroyer in New Mexico. Another was of Loki and the Tesseract to which Tony and Pepper looked at in awe.

"I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight," Pepper said.

"Tomorrow," Tony corrected.

"You've got homework. You've got a lot of homework."

"Well, what if I didn't?"

"If you didn't?"

"Yeah."

"You mean if you finished?" Tony nodded his head. "Well, um... then." She whispered something in his ear. Tony gasped. Coulson looked away in embarrassment.

"Square deal. It's the last date."

Pepper kissed him before saying, "Work hard."

As Pepper left with Agent Coulson, Tony grabbed the Tesseract in holograph form, worried.