Disclaimer: This fan fiction is not written for profit and no infringement of copyright is intended.

“Are you Batman?”

And Jubilee popped her gum, arms crossed, eyes lit up mischievously. Gestured to the large, metal suit of high-tech armour Tony Stark was working on and whistled appreciatively. They’d been in his cavernous R and D Lab all of three minutes and already she was insulting him- Even for Jubilee that was something of a record.

Didn’t like to admit it, but Kitty loved to watch chica work.

Stark shot the firecracker a charmingly cheeky smile then. “I’m more of a Wonder Woman kind of a dude,” he told her. “Bet you didn’t guess that about me.”

“It’s the hot-pants, isn’t it?” Jubie snorted. “Or is it the lasso?” Marie and Kitty both grinned. “But believe it or not your Amazon fetish isn’t why we’re here.”

He actually pouted. “That’s not what a man wants to hear from three hot women who wear spandex as work gear.”

“We don’t always get what we want, Mr. Stark.”

“Attitude like that, Miss Lee, you never will do-” And he tried to slap her ass.

The paff went off right in his face, nearly blinding him. Making him stagger back towards his suit of armour distractedly and smash into it before he righted himself. A pretty red-haired woman in the office behind him guffawed with laughter when she saw it, and Kitty decided she liked her. A lot.

“Ooh,” Stark muttered. “Feisty.” It was slightly worrying, but the attempt to blind him seemed to have turned him on more.

“Ooh,” Jubie retorted, “Dick-head. But I’m married and not to you, so let’s move on.”

“Don’t you mean get it on?” he inquired innocently. Marie rolled her eyes- they didn’t have time for this- and made to remove one of her gloves. Immediately he backed away, apparently familiar already with her mutation: Rogue didn’t know it, but back in the day she’d been christened Mean-Streak by the Brotherhood.

It was a nickname Kitty knew she’d well deserved.

A beat.

Stark shot her a little smile then. “Well, since you put it that way,” he muttered. “Why are you three charming ladies are here? Besides the desire to see me in rubber?”

“We’re looking for our sensei,” Kitty said hurriedly, before Marie could use two fingers to show him her opinion of seeing him all Bruce Wayned up. “You may know him, the X-Man Wolverine? He was looking into a robbery in one of your warehouses and we have reason to believe he’s in trouble.” She gestured to Jubie and she pulled out Hank’s security pass. Handed it to him. “Doctor McCoy indicated that he’d met with you shortly before he went missing. He sent us.”

She wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been looking for it, but Stark tensed up ever so slightly. His charming smile didn’t waver but Kitty felt the shift in his mood. Suddenly, he was edgy- Not that he showed it. Much. Boy genius had quite the game face.

Intriguing, Kitty thought then.

“I’m afraid I haven’t seen Logan since he left my office,” Stark was drawling. Marie’s eyes widened a tiny bit: she was surprised the billionaire knew Wolverine’s civilian name though she shouldn’t have been. A man like Tony Stark would have wanted to know everything about someone like Logan before he asked for his help. That was just good business, Kitty knew. “I sent him to talk to a former associate of mine,” Stark was saying, “a man named Forge. No surname, just Forge. Like Madonna. Or Kadjagoogoo. He lives in a survivalist compound outside Las Vegas-”

“And you two have history?”

His expression turned mock-sorrowful. “Me and him, it was a nasty break-up. We drifted apart. I blame myself: I chased other engineers. I got the house and the car and all poor Forgie got was the clothes on his back and stretch marks- He was bitter.”

“Bitter enough to rob you?” Jubes demanded.

“There isn’t a man alive who isn’t bitter enough to rob me,” Stark grinned. “But able to, that’s another question. Forge knew my system inside out, he could have circumvented it. He had motive, opportunity- It probably was him. Though how he managed to get something that looks like Logan’s DNA into the building is another question.” His expression turned angelic. “That’s what that hairy Canadian wanted to know.”

Marie cocked an eyebrow. “You have an address for this asshole?” she demanded.

“And what makes you think he’ll talk to you?”

“They’re called boobs,” she dead-panned. “Find me a man won’t open his door to three women wearing leather,” she continued at Stark’s cynical look, “And Ah’ll find you a kitten that yodels.”

“I would pay to see that kitten. But what if Forge is gay?”

“Ah’ll be sure and check for ya.” Marie’s smile was somehow both saccharine and wolf-like. “Now where’s that address?”

He went to his computer, began pulling a file up then. Sending it to print. Kitty was surprised that he didn’t know it off by heart. “I like that you’re butch,” he told Rogue.

“One of us should be.”

“You wound me, Marie-”

He really shouldn’t have said that.

She was in his face in a moment, one lethal, bare hand an inch from his skin. What Kitty suspected was the stress of the last few days finally coming out to play. Nobody used her given name unless she gave permission, it was a thing she and Logan shared. “Only family calls me that,” Rogue ground out. “We clear?” She’d pinned him back against his desk, one knee edging towards his groin, his balance totally shot. The speed was impressive for someone who hadn’t been an X-Man in two years. “And if Ah find out that you’re keeping anything from us, or that you had anything t’do with mah Logan going missing then Ah will personally come back here and do mah best impression of a berserker Wolverine, you got that? Shuggah?”

And with that she all but tossed him across the room.

He landed painfully before his desk.

Something moved in Stark’s face then, something almost… dangerous. Not I’ve-a-whole-load-of-lawyers-on-retainer dangerous, I-can-do-damage dangerous. She couldn’t be sure but for a moment Kitty even thought the suit was powering up- though just as quickly it died. Clearly whatever billionaire playboy routine Stark wanted to sell the public there was more to him than met the eye. The pretty red-head Kitty had seen earlier was rushing towards him, (doubtless calling security) but Marie was done for now- She was pulling back on her glove, muttering something to Jubie about her Logan and then stalking out. The use of the possessive pronoun didn’t go unnoticed by Kitty but right now they had bigger fish to fry-

“Your friend there’s got quite a temper,” Stark muttered then as he pulled himself upright. Forge’s address had printed out, he was folding it and handing it to her. “But then I understand that’s a family trait.”

Kitty took the paper off him, putting it in her ass pocket. He made a show of leering at her, she made a show of giving him the finger. Yup, the boy genius was definitely a moron. “Goodbye Tony,” she said. “You’ve been helpful- I’m sure it’s a first. But you might want to rethink the Wonder Woman hot-pants, I doubt you’ve the ass to pull it off.”

And with that she sashayed out.

Stark watched them leave the office.

Hacked into the CCTV cameras all around the building until he could be sure they’d taken the exit to Westchester and then pulled out his phone. He paused for a second, nodding minutely to his assistant Pepper and waiting until she left the room- The less she knew about this the better- before hitting speed dial. Waiting a beat.

It picked up on the third ring.

“It’s done,” Stark said softly. “They’re on the way. All three of them.”

The voice on the other end hissed with electronic interference. “That’s good, Tony. I’ll have Forge prepare the welcome wagon. We’ll be in touch-” And he hung up before Stark could say a word. Before he could ask whether he’d done enough to help the bastard’s cause. The billionaire poured himself another bourbon, clicking on his computer’s internet icon as he took a swallow. Immediately the screen filled with the same website it had held for the past week: An image of a clock counting down and behind that one of his wife, sitting huddled in a jail cell. Being… interrogated by Victor Creed. He clicked on his intercom-

“Pepper,” he said softly, “Take the rest of the day off.”

And he drained the glass of bourbon in one.