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SEPTEMBER 2016
"SO LET ME get this straight..."
Theadora silently gauged for an enraged spike in the billionaire's reaction, alternating her line of sight from the holographic blue screen and the rakish face that stared at her from behind it.
Tony's worn fingers rubbed his perfectly manicured goatee as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that two newborn dragons were scrambling around his newest laboratory. He looked at her hatchlings uneasily. The largest of her two was shiny black, his scales blended with hues of vivid scarlet to match his wings and horns. The gold one enjoyed lounging about above them, her wings shimmering as the overhead lights cast shafts of radiance against her scales. Tony was suddenly grateful for the fire-proof casing around all of the devilishly expensive technology and research equipment.
"Pete tried to save the Vulture guy and you decided it was a great idea to— what? Fire bend and get your hair done?" A quick swipe of his fingers had all the information Thea was distracting herself with to pulsate with a new influx of data.
"What can I say? I'm like a walking fire extinguisher," she said wryly, twisting a lock of her new silver-gold hair around her finger. Eventually, Thea had gotten tired of using hair dye (plus, it was super messy) so she had gotten around to using a transmutation spell to magically re-color her hair brown or silver when necessary.
Tony bowed his head down, pinching the bridge of his nose out of sheer exhaustion. "You are a hazard to yourself and society, kid."
"I love you too, Mr. Stark," she said, smiling sweetly. "And so do your grandchildren."
He looked at the screeching little hatchlings, flapping their big wings, and then at Thea impassively. "That's not funny."
The chamber that stood behind him rippled with golden energy the second he entered in a manual code. Thea found the lab and Stark's technology breathtaking. They were not far from the Avengers facility for the safety of the dragons but they were surrounded by the most peaceful grove of trees where the buzz of the city life or the bloodthirst of her enemies couldn't touch her. The the back entrance of the lab led directly to a hidden bunker but the front exterior retained a modern polish. Tony liked to have his signature style emblazoned on every piece of infrastructure he owned and that included the lab. The fewer people poking their noses around two Avengers testing magic and raising dragons, the better.
Thousands of files filled the space in holographic light. They were filled with illuminated, pulsating images, numbers, charts, graphs, whatever. A picture of a stone palace enraptured her attention, filling her with wistfulness.
Dragonfort was structured and grim. It wasn't family-oriented as it was concerned with protecting its household from enemies all around them. The manse was built long ago by maegys with arcane arts, sorcery, and Dragofyre. Black stone would melt and bend to their will, forming statues and emblems of dragons that complimented the salty air from the North Sea. Many would come to call it the Smoking Sea for the rumors of dragons inhabiting the mysterious and mystical island. Ivorstone was quite a big holm, magically blocked off to the humble public who'd count tales of shifts in the shadows and bending of light.
