Metal and Magic (Ch. 15)

( Every character in this story is a legal adult over the age of 18 )

Metal and Magic

Chapter 15

Maria woke to the Malibu morning sun peeking in through the massive window that stretched along the entire wall of Harry’s room. She was wrapped in Egyptian cotton sheets, half-naked, and already thinking about the next step in her operation. The sunlight blanketed Harry’s bare back as he slept on his belly with his head facing away from her. She couldn’t help but admire the swell of his muscles and the softness of his skin. At first, she wasn’t very keen to let things get physical. She was never that type of agent. She would only cross that line if it was absolutely necessary. However, Maria was actually enjoying herself. Harry was nice, funny, easygoing, and he was talented in other areas as well. She particularly enjoyed the way he would kiss her. It would always leave her body tingling and her lips ready for more.

She yawned as quietly as possible, rolled to her side, and propped herself on one elbow. Harry lay sprawled across three-quarters of the bed, his face mashed into a pillow. His hair was a complete mess, which was saying something. His hair was always unruly, which Maria found endlessly amusing.

Maria untangled herself from the sheets, slowly pushing herself up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. The only thing she wore was a pair of black cotton panties, riding dangerously low on her fleshy hips. She’d lost her bra sometime after midnight, and after a moment of looking around for it, she found it crumpled on the other side of his dresser. Her body bore the marks of another passionate night with Harry. A cluster of barely visible hickeys dotted her collarbone, her nipples were sore and sensitive, and there was a subtle ache in her jaw that reminded her exactly how far she’d gone to convince Harry to bring her over to the Stark Mansion. ‘Fury better appreciate my commitment to getting the job done,’ she mentally stated.

She glanced at her discarded jeans, which lay draped over Harry’s desk chair. The thumb drive was exactly where she’d left it. It was tucked into the back pocket, disguised as a novelty lipstick tube. She tiptoed across the hardwood, careful to avoid the floorboards that groaned, and fished out the drive. Harry’s laptop was charging on the dresser. It was a sleek, glossy design from Stark Industries. Maria quietly jammed the thumb drive into the laptop’s USB port. The red LED blinked to life, letting her know that it was working. She kept one eye on the bed, making sure he remained fast asleep. His slow, steady breathing told her he was.

The thumb drive was an upgraded version and would supposedly clone his hard drive in under thirty seconds. Maria leaned against the dresser, arms crossed under her breasts, and watched the red LED continue to blink. Maria mentally counted down the seconds. When it passed thirty, Maria frowned, hoping the damn thing would hurry up. In the end, it took over one and a half minutes, something Maria wasn’t happy about. The LED finally flipped from red to green. Maria snatched the drive out, tossed it back in her jeans, and took a moment to admire herself in the mirror above the dresser. She gave her boobs a little bounce for good luck. ‘Not bad, Hill. Not bad at all,’ she mentally complimented the continued state of her breasts' perkiness.

She heard the bed creak, then a soft, stifled yawn. Maria moved back toward the bed and waited for him to wake. Harry’s eyes fluttered open, squinting into the sun. His hair was even more of a mess than usual. He turned in bed and spotted Maria. She was topless with a soft smile on her pretty face, and her hips were playfully cocked to the side.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Maria teased, sauntering toward the bed.

Harry squinted. “How long have you been awake?” he asked, his voice rough with tiredness.

She perched herself on the edge of the mattress, bare chest on full display, and ruffled her hair. “About five minutes,” she said, and then yawned again.

He rolled to his back, arms behind his head, unabashedly ogling her breasts. Harry loved how perky they were despite their impressive size. Her pink nipples were stiff and appeared slightly darker than they normally were. That wasn’t surprising considering he spent much of last night with his lips wrapped around them. She smirked and jiggled her chest for him. “Not a bad way to start your day, is it?”

Harry let his eyes linger. “I’ve had worse mornings,” he said teasingly. Maria ran her hands up her sides and cupped her breasts. She lightly squeezed them and gently pinched the hard tips of her nipples. She then let them drop with a bounce.

Maria crawled onto the bed, straddling his lap. She settled her weight slowly, letting her panties trace the bulge under the sheets, and bent down until her palms were resting on his shoulders. Harry’s hands found her thighs before sliding them up to her hips. He gave them a deliberate, greedy squeeze. Maria shuddered, seemingly enjoying the way he played with her body. Harry grinned at the sexy woman and then pushed his hips upward, pressing his erection against the cotton barrier of her panties. Maria gasped and then ground against him, loving the naughty friction.

“I wish I could stay longer,” she murmured as her eyes fluttered. “But I have a dentist appointment.”

Harry moved his hands up her sides and cupped her breasts, his fingers splayed wide across her delicate skin. He played with her nipples, his thumbs brushing lightly at first, then pressing just hard enough to make her moan. “Is that so?” he said. “Seems a shame, leaving before the real fun starts.”

Maria shuddered, her hips rocking faster as she rode him through the thin fabric. She could feel herself growing slick, and she could see Harry’s face flush, his breathing becoming ragged. She arched her back, pressing her tits harder into his palms. “It can’t be helped. I’ve already cancelled my appointment twice, and the lady at the desk is starting to get annoyed with me,” she said, coming up with an excuse on the fly. She needed to get that thumb drive out as quickly as possible without alienating him.

He flicked her nipples as he chuckled. “That’s very irresponsible of you,” he joked. He then lightly pinched the hard tips and rolled them between his fingers. Maria moaned, feeling her control start to slip. She pressed down hard, grinding in tight circles. The entire room was thick with the smell of her damp panties. The sensations built rapidly. Heat coiled in her belly, and her fingers began to tingle. She came with a sharp, high-pitched squeal. Her hands braced her weight on Harry’s chest, and her breath came out ragged. Her back arched, and her breasts jiggled wildly. When her body stopped shaking, she collapsed forward, breathless, and planted a lazy kiss on his chin. Harry looked up at her, equal parts amused and aroused.

“It appears you’re starting the day off better than I am,” Harry joked as he palmed and kneaded her panty-clad ass.

She giggled again, rolled off him, and stood to retrieve her jeans. “I’ll admit, it’s better than a cup of coffee,” she smirked.

Maria fished her phone from the bedside table, then caught sight of Harry’s impressive erection. “You’re going to need a cold shower. That thing’s going to poke someone’s eye out.”

He shrugged, stretching luxuriously. “I’d settle for a helping hand.”

She pulled on her shirt, buttoning it with expert efficiency. “You have two working hands, don’t you? You’ll probably need both to cover that monster.”

Harry feigned a tragic sigh. “And you’re just going to leave me like this … You’re heartless.”

Maria paused in the doorway, then smirked. “You know my number. I’ll give you a proper apology the next time I see you.” When the door clicked shut, Harry lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, tenting the sheets. He was still half-hard and thoroughly entertained.

“Pardon my interruption, Harry, but there is something I think you should be aware of,” Jarvis’s voice interrupted Harry’s impure thoughts about Ms. Maria Hall.

“What is it, Jarvis?”

“Right before you woke, she inserted a thumb drive disguised as a tube of red lipstick into your laptop. I analyzed the firmware as she was cloning your hard drive, and it appears to be custom.”

Harry laughed, letting the sound bounce around the room. “She’s resourceful. I’ll give her that.”

“Indeed, sir. She must have acquired it from SHIELD,” Jarvis told him, and Harry agreed. “As she was copying the data, I installed a Trojan on the flash drive. If they attempt to analyze the data on a network connected to the mainframe, I may be able to backdoor their entire system.”

Harry chuckled merrily. He was eager to see if Jarvis could find anything.

Metal and Magic

Harry liked to think he was living the dream, and right now, the dream looked a lot like a kilometer-high flyover of the Santa Monica coast at Mach 0.92. The black and chrome metallic suit sliced through the smog, sunlight glinting off the chrome as he banked so hard that the Gs would have crushed a lesser man. Downtown LA was just ahead, the forest of concrete, steel, and glimmering glass stretched before him. Beneath him, traffic trickled along the 405, the highway peppered with SUVs and convertibles.

Inside the helmet, the air tasted crisp and clean—filtered to hospital-grade, perfumed lightly with the hint of lemon Tony had secretly programmed in, just to mess with him. Jarvis piped in, “Sensors indicate your heart rate is increasing faster than normal.”

“What can I say? Flying gets me hot and bothered,” Harry joked, then rolled into a sharp turn before plunging. He descended a thousand feet before slowing his descent. Harry leveled off, hovered high above the Chateau Marmont, and said, “Let’s see what everyone’s up to. Jarvis, can you scan the local radio frequencies? Give me a sweep of police, fire, and medical … look for anything worth dropping in on.”

“Scanning now,” Jarvis intoned, and Harry couldn’t help but smile as the city’s 911 traffic scrolled across the inner surface of his HUD, a long list of disasters and petty crime.

A second line blared to life, and Tony’s annoyed face materialized in the top right of the HUD. “Hey! You’re not supposed to be out there Iron Man’ing without me!” he accused.

“It’s not my fault you’re stuck in a stuffy boardroom meeting. Besides, as the city’s preeminent superhero, I need to be out here …”

“I’m the city’s preeminent superhero!” Tony interrupted, jabbing his thumb at his chest. “And don’t you forget it!”

Jarvis interrupted their banter. “There is an item of note on the fire department frequency. A rescue situation. Coordinates and audio patch on your HUD.”

A green dot pulsed on the city grid. The words "FDLA: Animal Rescue, 2700 block North Sycamore" blinked to life.

Harry zoomed in on the area. “Let me guess. Cat stuck in a tree?”

“There is, in fact, a feline in distress,” Jarvis humorously replied. “The Los Angeles Fire Department has not responded. I imagine it’s a low priority for them.”

“Finally, an opponent worthy of your talents. Don’t let that dastardly cat get the best of you, Harry,” Tony snickered.

“Never met a pussy I couldn’t tame,” Harry joked back, and Tony’s image froze mid-eye roll as he disconnected.

Harry flared the suit’s repulsors and punched straight through a cloud bank. He then angled toward the neighborhood in question, following Jarvis’s vector, which was visually displayed on his HUD. Harry dipped down to just above roof-level, careening over pools and gardens until he hit the grid of bungalows at the foothills. On approach, he slowed his speed, coming to a stop with a flourish above a two-story house. From this altitude, he easily spotted a small, teary-eyed girl in a pink dress. She was looking up at a tree while her mother tried to comfort her. A small crowd of neighbors was also gathered.

“Visual contact established,” Jarvis stated.

Harry cycled his helmet visor to infrared, and a tiny, vibrating heat signature revealed itself in the uppermost branches. Harry landed with a solid thud, letting the suit’s impact reverberate for maximum effect. The crowd froze. The girl gasped. The mother, a tanned and toned bombshell in form-fitting athleisure clothes, craned her neck up to get a better look at him.

He couldn’t resist. He did the classic superhero landing, fist to pavement, one knee down, before straightening up and surveying the crowd. “Is someone in need of assistance?” his voice boomed.

The crowd murmured while the mother stepped forward, hips lustfully swaying. Her hair was immaculate, even though it was probably her gym day. “She’s been crying for an hour,” the woman said, and Harry noted the subtle valley-girl lilt that LA socialites never quite outgrew. “The fire department hasn’t come yet. Is there anything you can do, Mr. Iron Man?”

Harry considered correcting her. Iron Man was, strictly speaking, a different guy, but then she flashed a smile so dazzling that he decided not to split hairs. Still, he needed his own superhero name. He’d be damned if he ever got called Iron Man again. Tony would never let him forget it. “Anything for a damsel in distress,” he replied to the little girl, who was now clutching her stuffed unicorn with the grip of a drowning man.

He flexed his knees, engaged the micro-thrusters, and shot up the tree trunk. Bark exploded away as the sonic vibrations rattled the branches. The cat, realizing too late that its perch had been invaded, tried to leap away. It jumped right into Harry’s waiting gauntlet. He cradled the animal, which immediately commenced to shredding his suit with needle-sharp claws. “That’s not very nice,” Harry chided, but he held the squirming bundle gently, dropping down with a slow, showy descent. The crowd clapped as he gently touched down.

He kneeled down and offered the cat to the girl. She hesitated, eyes wide, but the mother nudged her forward. Harry held the cat out and tried to calm it, but it latched onto his armored forearm and refused to let go. “You’re really attached, aren’t you?” He jostled his arm, and the cat simply dug in deeper, meowing with indignation.

Finally, he managed to hand off the trembling cat to its owner. The girl squealed with delight, burying her face in the animal’s fur. Harry wiped a phantom bead of sweat from his brow and turned to the mother, who was now giving him a look like she wanted to climb him instead of the tree.

“Thank you. We were honestly freaking out,” she said, putting an extra roll in her hips as she moved closer. “Is there anything I can do to repay you?” She batted her eyelashes, hoping he would read between the lines.

Harry’s visor slid up with a flourish, revealing his tousled hair and best lopsided grin. “Just doing my civic duty, ma’am. But if you insist ….”

Harry grabbed her around the waist and dipped her low. She pressed herself close, and Harry noted that she smelled like coconut. Her arms threaded around the back of his armored neck just as he kissed her deeply and passionately. A few of the women present squealed in delight and egged her on. The woman deepened the kiss and practically shoved her tongue down his throat. He eventually let her up, only to see several people in the crowd taking videos of it with their phones. He made sure to wink for the cameras.

When the mother was back on her feet, she leaned in just enough for her lips to brush his cheek. “Seriously, if you ever need anything … Here’s my number,” she said, then wrote the digits on the chrome portion of his chest in permanent marker.

Harry tilted his head down and tried to inspect the phone number, then said to Jarvis, “Remind me to get this transferred to my contacts.”

“Already done, sir,” Jarvis amusedly replied.

He gave the crowd a little salute, then triggered the suit’s thrusters and shot straight up. He leveled off at a thousand feet, laughing. “Tony’s going to love this.” Harry rocketed up into the sunlight and flew lazily over the city. “Alright, Jarvis … What’s next?”

Metal and Magic

For the next few hours, Harry chased emergencies and minor disasters up and down LA. There was an elderly couple locked out of their car, which Harry took care of with a bit of magic. He ferried a bleeding rollerblader to urgent care. He even delivered a tray of gluten-free pastries to a vegan bakery after the delivery truck broke down. The final call of the day was a chemical spill at a discount day spa in Burbank. It was nothing major, just a few gallons of highly caustic facial peel splashed across a dozen shrieking soccer moms. Harry clunked into the lobby and magically cleaned them with a wave of his hand. By the time the first responders arrived, the women had flocked to Harry, clawing for photos and autographs. When one of the spa regulars invited him to join her in the steam room to help him “relax,” Harry found it hard to resist.

He left Burbank flying low over the rooftops, his euphoria heightened by a half-dozen lipstick kisses on his helmet and another phone number scrawled in red Sharpie directly on his left gauntlet. This one had a heart drawn around it. Jarvis had already cataloged the digits for later use. When Harry finally made it home, it was a little after seven. He stepped directly into the waiting robotic arms and sighed in relief once the suit was removed.

The living room TV was already on. Jarvis must have known Harry would want something mindless, because the TV was tuned to one of those live talk shows that went over LA’s daily events. Harry immediately saw himself on the screen in full armor, making out with a woman in the middle of a neighborhood, while the assembled masses hooted and filmed from every angle. The front door slammed. The heavy, annoyed footsteps of Tony Stark thudded up the marble entryway. Harry’s day instantly got brighter.

Tony strode into the living room wearing a tailored suit. He looked like a man who’d spent all afternoon explaining quantum engine schematics to people who still didn’t know which end of the screwdriver to hold. He had a briefcase under one arm and a scowl that could have soured fresh milk.

Harry didn’t even bother to sit up. He laced his fingers behind his head and greeted Tony with a smile. “Hey there, bucko. How was work?”

Tony glared, then threw the briefcase onto the coffee table so hard that the glass top shuddered. “Don’t start. I had to sit through two meetings today. Two!” he reiterated. “Why does everything bad happen to me?!”

Harry snorted, watching Tony pace. “I believe there may be some starving children in Africa who might disagree with your sentiment.”

Tony ignored him, pacing behind the couch. He ran a hand through his hair, then stopped dead when he saw the TV. The video was still playing. Tony groaned and dropped down next to Harry. They sat in companionable silence for about thirty seconds before Pepper glided in through the front door. The first thing she saw was the wall-sized TV, which showed Harry in the process of kissing the aforementioned MILF. She raised one eyebrow before shaking her head and going into the kitchen.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Tony started.

“What about?” Harry asked as the talk show continued to show clips of Harry’s good deeds.

“I’m thinking of giving up my position in the company,” he told Harry. Harry turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

“Really?” Harry asked, only slightly disbelieving. Tony nodded. He actually looked serious.

“I’m not really needed there anymore, and I’m just wasting my time with nonsensical meetings and fighting daily traffic. I’m thinking of making Pepper the CEO,” he said that last part quietly. Harry whistled in appreciation. “I’ve been thinking about it over the last few days, and seeing you out there doing good today just confirmed my decision. I’ll be much better off out there doing stuff as Iron Man than sitting in my boring office as Tony Stark.”

Harry nodded, completely understanding his point of view. Tony didn’t need to work. He had more money than he could ever spend, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t work from home. “You think Pepper can handle the job?” Harry asked. He didn’t want Pepper getting in over her head. He had actually grown to really like her.

“There’s certainly a learning curve, but she already knows how to do ninety percent of my job. I’m guessing she’ll do great,” Tony told him.

“Well then, I say do it. There’s a whole world out there full of adventure just waiting for two idiots to screw everything up,” Harry chuckled. Tony, however, looked more eager than ever. Pepper chose that moment to join them. She sat down between the two men and laughed at a clip of Harry pushing a car that had run out of fuel into a gas station. Harry wasn’t exactly out there saving the world, but you had to start somewhere.