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

“What are you all looking at?” Tony asked nonchalantly. Standing up straighter since he was in the suit.

The Southern Belle was hiding it well though. “We’re trying to decide which Power Ranger you are,” she drawled.

He had to grin. “Clearly I’m the Pink Ranger. See how shiny I am?”

“Are ya sure? Because Ah woulda gone with Dick Head Ranger mahself-”

“There’s no such Ranger-”

“There is now-”

“Okay, shut up, the pair of you!” And the Asian chick actually growled (it sounded kinda sexy), letting those glowing energy globe thingies she had dance along her fingers. He could tell just by the look on her face that she was thinking of killing him slowly-

Since just about every woman he’d ever known had looked at him like that at least once. Well, all except Pepper-

He pushed that thought worriedly away.

“Look, I’m sorry if I messed up your whole Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! vibe back there,” he drawled, “But I had to make sure Mystique was distracted before I moved in. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity ever since you left New York so when Stacey called-”

The Asian chick held up her hand in a T. “Whoa, time out,” she interrupted, annoyed. “You were waiting for an opportunity? You’re the reason Stacey rolled over on Forge?” He nodded and her expression went from pretty but pissed to pretty but homicidal as understanding dawned. “You knew this was a trap, you sonofabitch!” she snarled.

Well, duh. “You’re telling me it didn’t occur to you that you were being set up?” he inquired.

LeBeau’s fireworks went off directly in his eyes, making him fall back. He righted himself and Pryde phased her knee through his suit, smacking matter-of-factly into his balls. He shot her a dirty look but she was unrepentant. For safety sake he pulled up his visor. “Of course it occurred to us,” Pryde said sweetly. “But the question isn’t whether we’re going to beat the shit out of you for that, Anthony. The question is whether we’re going to beat the shit out of you for sending our sensei into a trap.” And her chocolate brown eyes narrowed dangerously. “Now what did you tell Logan? And please remember Marie here has at least some of Wolverine’s sense of smell, so try to be honest-”

And all three of them shot him their cutest, most girlish grins.

It was terrifying.

“Look, I told Logan what he was walking into,” he muttered defensively then. Jubes hissed, and to his astonishment one of her fireworks sparked into existence inside his mask. He actually yelped as it went off. “I’m serious! I mean, come on, do you honestly think I could have lied to him with that nose of his? And do you honestly think I’d be stupid enough to try and get the man who gutted the Hulk killed?” Jubes looked unimpressed and two more energy globes went off, inside his gauntlets this time. Those ones actually smarted. “Look, two weeks ago my wife disappeared,” he said more urgently. “We’ve managed to keep it out of the papers, but Emma was kidnapped. The people who took her told me I was to contact Logan, send him here to see Forge. That was the price of her release-”

“And you paid it?” Pryde demanded.

“Yeah, I paid it,” he retorted. “But I warned him. Told him that he was walking into a trap and we came to an understanding-” despite himself his gaze flicked to Rogue, who was staring at him in frank disbelief. The understanding had been all to do with her- “He agreed to help me. Agreed to get taken in. For a fee he’d find Emma, get her out and give me a hand if I needed one in smashing the operation. He was never supposed to be captured long-term, I swear to you-”

Rogue spoke over him.“So why didn’t you tell us this when we turned up at your office?”

“Because the people who took Logan and my wife told me not to.” All three women looked at him sharply- that Pryde woman did the best accusing puppy-dog eyes he’d ever seen- and he sighed. “Look, whoever is pulling these strings had me send you here,” he said. “They were using Logan as bait for you three, I’m pretty certain about that. So I decided that since you were what they wanted-”

“That Logan wasn’t the only person who could be used as bait,” Marie finished, crossing her arms mulishly. Giving Pryde’s accusing gaze (and his mother’s) a run for their money.

“Yeah,” he said. “I knew they’d have to come out to get you, so I gave the prototype a test run.” Jubes opened her mouth to snap and he spoke over; For once he wasn’t proud of himself, a fact which he cunningly covered with defensiveness. “Yeah, I know. Shock, horror, used you as bait. But we’re all over it. And we all know you three would do the same to me in a heart-beat if it meant getting your precious Wolverine back, so cut the self-righteousness crap.” Hell, if they had to they’d serve him to Creed in a marinara sauce. Not one of the girls disagreed: they just stared at him in angry, accusing silence. Let him stew. “Look,” he snapped eventually, that pesky little spark of guilt still eating at him, “I was watching the feed today when I realised that the woman on the screen wasn’t even my wife. That she might- That Emma might be dead.” He took in a hissing breath despite himself, still worried as Hell. “There was camera flare around the eyes-”

“Porn Smurf flare,” all three said at once.

“Yeah. That’s what I’m thinking, Porn Smurf flare. And if it’s not really Emma-” if it was never really Emma- “then I have nothing to lose.” He said this part to his boots, thoughts going once again to Pepper and how thankful he was that she was still safely ignorant of all this.

Because one dead woman he cared about was more than enough for his conscience to bear.

A beat.

To his surprise Rogue put a hand on his shoulder then. “We’ll find her, Tony,” she said more gently. “We’ll help. Just keep us in the loop next time, okay?” And she cleared her throat suddenly, moved back towards the other girls. Apparently there would be no more touchy-feely for him. “Now I’m assuming you let the Blue Bitch get away for a reason?”

Finally Tony could smile, nodding. “I totally tagged her.” He took in the girls’ disbelieving faces. “What, you don’t believe me?”

“We’ve tagged her before,” Marie drawled. “It won’t work. Mystique has a knack for realising she’s transmitting. And whoever took Logan would have to be ten kinds o’ stupid not to check her when she came back-”

Stark grinned tightly. “Yeah, if she was transmitting now. But the bug’s designed to wait until the adrenaline levels of the host go down before it starts transmitting.” His smile widened slightly, now they were on his favourite topic- His genius. “One of my better ideas, I know. Makes it almost impossible to detect…”

Pryde almost looked impressed. “So it waits until you’re calm and think you’re safe before it gives you away. Nice.” She picked up her Blackberry, threw it towards him. “We can use that to hone in on the signal, we just need the frequency.” She grinned darkly at his unimpressed reaction. “Don’t worry, it’s more powerful than it looks: After all, I hacked into your system in under a minute with it more than once.” She ignored his scandalised expression. “So how long do you think it‘ll take?”

He shrugged. “There’s no way to know: We just have to wait.”

All three women nodded. Jubes pulled out a pack of cards and held them towards Tony. “You play, cher?” she murmured, suddenly demure. Sweet and innocent. “Since we gotta wait around, non?” Marie and Kitty were grinning behind their hands, biting their cheeks.

“I’ve been known to play a hand of poker,” Tony muttered.

Jubes smile turned dazzling. “Then you will love playing with me.”

Suddenly Tony found himself wishing that Mystique would start transmitting right now. Because something told him that the cards weren’t the only thing about to be played.