nextgen_adult:

Margaret Donovan-Stark wasn't a stupid woman and she wasn't a fool. She knew that there were always people out to take her position, this time it was family who was after her position. Which was to be expected.

She had been watching the stocks closely and was concerned about this Scion company. They had been buying as much stock as possible and if for some reason they teamed up with her brother...well Margaret would be prepared. Contingency plans were always necessary when someone was trying to take you down.

It was time to initiate those contingency plans just in case. She always covered her ass and she always had a few plans for the future. She began the necessary file transfers.

nextgen_parent:

Thor heads for New York ahead of Syd and Simon. They'll be along, possibly with the Defenders in tow, to help get Scion's New York offices arranged to their liking. When they get there and examine the books, they should find out precisely how much they're being paid for their work. He's fairly sure, at the least, that its a considerable promotion from the babysitting duties.
He heads for Tony's home, hoping to catch him there, and with some privacy.

old_saint_nick:

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.

Christmas Day is a Christian holiday, it's true, but it also has become increasingly secular. It is an opportunity for love, charity, and goodwill, even in Los Angeles, arguably the most superficial city in the country.

There is some debate within mystical circles if there is indeed such a creature as the embodiment of Christmas Giving known as Santa Claus. But whether or not there is such a being, the spirit of giving itself is very real, be it incarnated in a fat man in a red suit or not.

Throughout this small blue planet of Earth, people have brought trees into their homes, decorated them with lights and ornaments, and placed them in locations of honor. Stockings have been placed on the chimneys. And gifts have been placed under the tree.

Some are looking forward more to the receiving than the giving. But for many, it is the act of giving which warms them, which fills them with the holiday spirit.

Each person, in their own way, becomes a part of this spirit of giving. Each person, in their own way, becomes Santa Claus.

The Defenders Manor has been decked out with lights, as has most of the grounds. Ohu has made hanging lighting a top priority, and every tree on the grounds -- including the palm trees -- is well lit with multi-colored lights. Despite the warm location, Ohu has made sure that there's plenty of snow on the grounds, too, with a bit of magic. As for the gods themselves, and their mortal keepers...

nextgen_adult:

As the head of a billion dollar international company, Margaret Donovan-Stark was a very busy woman. Her days consisted of meeting after meeting and dinner usually ended up being a dinner meeting. It took a lot of effort and energy to run Stark Inc., but Margaret was enjoying every second of it.

The weapons development and research was now running at full steam and had taken all of her focus and energy. Stark Inc was once again a major player in the weapons industry and the government contracts were coming in. Not to mention contracts from private security companies, many of which used to be competitors but were now customers. The contracts and money were coming in and the stock price was starting to rise again after the hit it took during the transition.

Despite her very busy schedule, she took time out when her scientists in research and development called her. She stepped out of the elevator and into the lab.

"Ah Ms. Stark, so glad you could come down here. We have made significant progress with our recent project," the chief scientist said as he fell into step along side of her. "If you would allow me to show you?”

“Excellent. Proceed.” she said. If this project panned out, the company would make billions in government contracts not only from the United States government, but from others like Great Britain and other friendly governments.

“The prototype for the unit is finished, however….”

“Is there a problem?” she asked.

“Oh no, ma’am. Just the opposite. There was an unexpected possibility and my team is currently researching ways to make it work. If this proves to be feasible, not only will we be able to do containment, we should be able to use the subject’s abilities to our own benefit.”

“Interesting,” she carefully said, not allowing him to see any reaction either way. “Keep me informed.” She started to walk toward the door.

“There is the matter of our research budget, ma’am,” he said as he walked after her.

Margaret paused. “You will have what you need.” The development money would be mere pennies compared to what this would bring in if the idea worked. She left the lab.

stark_inc:

Wife is out shopping so she won't try to help.  The condo is free of teenagers and Tony Stark is restless.  Anya's crash was a wake-up call.  It's not that he was ignoring her legacy.  It's just that he had been convinced by his loving family that this time he should heal up from his burns rather then work himself to the brink before pulling back.

Pepper is bringing the paperwork.  They've been here before, all right, but this time, it's not about him.  It's not about safeguarding what's in the vaults, or some insane supervillian with a scheme.  No.  this time it's about family - sothing he never thought he'd give a damn about during all those other times.  This is why he's more dangerous today then he's ever been.

redheadspy:

Natasha called each of the kids, the Avengers, Rhodey and Pepper to let them all know Tony woke up for a brief period and was coherent enough to have a short conversation.

redheadspy:

It had been just over a month since the car bomb exploded. Natasha had been up and about for three weeks now and almost all of that time had been spent keeping a vigil over her husband. In the past weeks Tony’s condition had slowly improved, but it was still serious. The nanites that had been injected into him were doing their job, but even with them it would still take time to heal all the injuries he had sustained.

The burns covering his body were healing, albeit slowly. The doctors removed what they could of the black charred skin and it was up to the nanites and Tony to heal the rest. His skin was still red and very tender, but it was healing. That was the important thing. She still wasn’t allowed in the room much to her dismay. She wanted nothing more than to be in there next to her husband’s bedside. She wanted to hold his hand and let him know she was there.

Since the moment she had been allowed out of bed, Natasha had been at the observation window. She had taken up a position in a chair and only occasionally left that spot to get coffee and grab a shower. Nothing short of the end of the world would make her leave for any real length of time. Anya and the kids brought changes of clothes during their frequent visits. Natasha only left when one of them was watching over Tony because she didn’t want him waking up and not having a family member there.

Natasha yawned and rubbed her eyes. The lack of sleep was catching up to her. She could go in the room that had been set aside for the family, but she wouldn’t leave Tony. Not even if her life depended on it.

She hated this more than almost anything in the world. She hated seeing Tony like this and she hated not being able to do something about it. Natasha climbed out of the chair and started pacing back and forth in front of the window. The doctors had said it was a matter of time and Natasha wished she had the ability to make time go faster. She wanted Tony awake, better and out of here. Then life could go back to what passed for normal for them.

The urge to go hit something, or better yet shoot someone, was great. A few hours in the training room would do wonders and she had been greatly tempted. There was the possibility of going out and doing some urban gymnastics and beating up some thugs. It was something she always loved doing. The little voice in her head urged her to go and do something, but Russian stubbornness won in the end and she didn’t leave.

She stopped pacing in front of the window. She turned and put a hand to the glass. “Please Tony,” she whispered. “I need you.” She bowed her head and said a silent prayer.

nextgen_adult:

Friends in high places are wonderful things.  It's even better when they owe you.

The men loyal to Tony Stark have mostly been weeded out over this last month.  Some quit.  Others went to "promotions" within shell companies.  Her Department of Defense friends have already offered potential contracts and as for designing them?  There's always some smart, ambitious kid that wants to make a name for themselves and enough to pay back their student loans.

Margaret Donovan-Stark is at a cocktail party tonight socializing and selling the Stark brand.  Many people here knew her father and brother.  She's selling the old Stark - one that knows and loves America, one that has the company in mind rather then a bunch of "citizen of the world" Avengers, and one that sure as hell doesn't marry Russian spies.  She has the added ability of being every man's fantasy in here - a woman that hunts, fishes, loves money more then shopping, goes to church just enough to claim the Christian label, and is a single former beauty queen.  She sips her wiskey on the rocks and looks out on New York - the town she's beginning to own.

anyastark:

The trip to New Orleans was just the kind of break Anya needed. It gave her a few hours of not thinking about anything except food and talking to her best friend in the entire world. Her brain stopped thinking about code, at least while they were down there, and she hadn't thought about repairing armor either.

The code for the nanites was done. She had finished it and triple checked it before handing the nanites over to the doctors. They would be injected into her father and he would start to get better. That was the most important thing. Once Dad was up, then they could deal with "auntie".

One good thing about being in S.H.I.E.L.D. was that her "aunt" couldn't reach her. Anya knew the woman was pissed about the computers at Stark and Anya figured "auntie" knew Anya had been the one to lock her out. It had been amusing to watch her reaction when she discovered that she controlled Stark Inc, but couldn't get to anything.

Anya delivered the nanites and immediately went to the room set aside for the family. She fell on the bed and was asleep in about two seconds. Even with the nanites it would take Dad some time to wake up and the family could catch up on missed sleep while he healed.

nextgen_media:

Hollywood, California There’s news of a new teen drama coming out of Hollywood and it’s being reported as being the next big thing. Scripts for the first few episodes are in and now the roles have to be cast. The production company has announced that there will be casting calls in Hollywood, New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas and Las Vegas. People interested in auditioning for the show should go to the shows website at http://www.newteendrama.tv for details.

New York, New YorkIt seems like New York’s pranksters are at it again. This time they have unleashed their mischief on Times Square. By some means, dozens of people, citizens and tourists alike, were made to believe they were mimes. People were unable to speak and were only able to use pantomime to express themselves. The citizens and tourists were turned back by some mysterious means and the culprit of this dastardly deed still remains at large.


New York, New York Sources have it that there has been a shake up at the top level of Stark Inc. Tony Stark, now former CEO, is still out of action due to last week's car bombing incident. Sources inside of Stark say that an unknown half-sibling of Tony's appeared almost out of nowhere and swooped in to take advantage of Tony's absence. Stark Inc stock fell when the rumors started but has since stabilized, still well below the price from before the bombing. CONT ON PAGE 2.

anyastark:

Anya had spent the past week in S.H.I.E.L.D. medical sitting outside the isolation ward where her parents were. Mom was improving and the doctors said they were going to take her off the medication keeping her unconscious in the next day or so. Her healing factor, as slight as it was, was doing its job and she was significantly healed.

Dad was a completely different story. He was stable, but wasn't really making any progress. Anya spent every waking moment searching her father's private computers for information on the nanites inside of him. Unfortunately there were teraflops worth of data to go through and she wasn't any closer to finding the information she needed. It was essential to either upgrade the nanites inside of him and if she couldn't do that, she had to disable them so newer generation nanites could be introduced into his system. If both were active at the same time they could see the other as foreign invaders and destroy each other.

A week of searching and she wasn't any closer to helping her father. She slept when she absolutely couldn't stay awake any longer and she showered when her siblings forced her to take a break. Constant contact with Pepper and Uncle Rhodey was kept and they kept her abreast of what was going on with the company. They had managed to put out the fires and kept things running smoothly for the past week. Today was a board meeting to formally select an acting CEO until her father made a recovery. If he...Anya stopped herself from thinking that. Dad would get better and would be back to running the company again.

When Pepper called her this morning, Anya returned home, showered, put on a suit and headed into the company. Right now she was in Pepper's office and the two women were waiting for Rhodey to show before going into the board meeting. Anya stared at her laptop screen and kept searching through computer files.

nextgen_media:

New York, New York An explosion rocked the usual festive atmosphere of Coney Island today as a car bomb exploded. Caught in the blast was billionaire Tony Stark and his wife Natasha Romanova. The couple had been out and enjoying the afternoon at Coney Island, rumor has it that the location was the site of their first date many years ago, when Mr. Stark’s car exploded. Police and ambulance responded and New York’s famous couple were rushed to an undisclosed hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Stark suffered severe injuries and both are listed in critical condition. Investigation into the cause of the explosion is under underway. CONT ON PAGE 2.

New York, New York Could a new wave of anti-mutant sentiment be spreading through the city and country? An explosion rocked a homeless shelter in Tribeca today. The shelter was engulfed in flames and fire crews arrived on scene. Six people were caught in the blast and are believed to have been volunteers and staff. The cause of the explosion is under investigation, but authorities believe that it may be related to anti-mutant sentiment. The shelter was a popular one with the city’s homeless mutant population. Similar occurrences happened at shelters that are popular with the mutant population in cities such as Miami, Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta, and San Francisco. CONT ON PAGE 3

New York, New York It seems like New York’s pranksters are at it again. This time the dastardly culprit showed up at an event of Rooftop Films and started throwing crème pies at the attendees. The culprit was dressed in a black outfit, wore a mask and a wide-brimmed hat when he pulled off this caper. During his lobbing of delicious desserts, he culprit was reciting poetry. The exact poem was unidentified along with the identity of the prankster. He disappeared into thin air when he was done. Police would like to talk to anyone who has any information to the identity or whereabouts of this person.

nextgen_parent:

There were times when Nick Fury hated his job. Now was one of them. Stark and Tasha had been brought into S.H.I.E.L.D. medical not long after the bomb went off and had been immediately isolated. It wasn't good. Natasha had some third degree burns, a broken arm and a concussion. She got off lucky compared to her husband.

Stark was a lot worse than his wife. Third degree burns over most of his body, shattered ribs, punctured lung, compound fractures in one leg and one arm. It was amazing the man was alive. Though he had to give Stark credit. He had used his body to shield Tasha from most of the blast. Stark was in isolation, the bed surrounded by plastic and only people in sterilized outfits and masks could enter. The worst things about bad burns was the risk of infection.

Forensic teams were already going over the what was left of the car. Not that they would find much, but if they did find anything it could lead to the identity of the person trying to kill Stark. It was Stark's car and Nick had to believe he was the target and not Tasha.

Now came the hard part. Nick dialed his godson's number.

redheadspy:

It had been something that had been lingering in the back of her mind since they had mentioned it back in December. It had been a matter of waiting for the weather to get warm and for life to calm down. Strangely enough both managed to happen at the same time. Small miracles.

Time with her husband had to be scheduled, not that she ever minded. It was easy as calling Pepper and telling her that Natasha needed some quality time with her husband. Pepper was usually happy to oblige. The two women knew how much of a workaholic Anthony Stark really was and on occasion they plotted against him. Two weeks ago Pepper had cleared Tony's schedule for today from noon on and of course didn't tell him. Tasha was planning to kidnap her husband for the afternoon.

At eleven fifty five she was walking into Tony's office.