Tony later learned from asking the doctor who took off his cast that he was on a SHIELD medical helicarrior above the Professor's school. That would mean that he would have to fly down using the suit to meet up with…

With who exactly?

To explain his situation to the Professor could be helpful. Wolverine might be able to use his claws to get it off… But did he trust him enough to do that?

He growled and absentmindedly twisted the offending metal band around his wrist. It was cold to the touch, and Tony was reminded of his first building the iron man gauntlet; the cold metal sliding perfectly over his sweat glistened skin.

Unlike the freedom the suit gave him, though, this piece of metal left him defenseless. He couldn't defend himself like he was used to, nor could he fight back.

"Fight back?" He muttered, wondering why his brain led him to fighting. At this point, messing with SHIELD was a big no-no. He was one man. Not only that, but messing with them would lead to Fury alerting the media that he was a mutant. Not only would that ruin the company, but Pepper's-

"Holy shit." He said aloud. Pepper! What the hell was he going to tell Pepper? She didn't even know about his abilities. Or the X-men… or what he was doing. Did someone call her when he was injured? Would Widow call her? Shit, would Fury threaten her to stay quiet? Would he go that far?

Wildly, he searched for his phone. He realized, as he found cell phone in a drawer by his discarded hospital gown, Fury may have been a suspicious bastard, but there was no reason to contact the CEO of Stark Industries. He took deep breaths and clutched his phone in his hand.

He wouldn't call Pepper. She didn't need the stress… nor did he want to tell her about his power. He wasn't ready for that.

His brain was running in circles, distracting him with what the main problem was at the moment: leaving the freakin' helicarrior.

First, he needed his suit. Would Fury just let him take it? He had to because the halfwit still wanted him to finish this mission. He needed him in order to shut down the sentinels.

Second, he needed to get his suit. Though the one he had on when battling Magneto exploded, he did stash one in this helicarrior. After all, he was the one who designed this thing.

Third, he needed to… go back to the Professor? Tony thought about it for a moment. Without any help, it was going to be hard to get off SHIELD's radar for a bit. Fury was an idiot for threating him. He would have stayed as a consultant for SHIELD without many qualms if Fury left him alone. But, no, Fury was a mistrustful, power hungry ass. He wanted everything. Did he not think that Tony would just lie down and let him walk all over him?

Physically shaking off his anger, he went back, once again, to the issue at hand. He would have to grab his suit from the second level without running into the bastard and letting him know where he keeps his toys. Thankfully, there were four levels, and the floor he chose mostly contained the extra weapons. No one was going to go down there unless there was an attack.

First order of business, the cameras. He would have to disable them to make sure no one saw his little secret. That was easy enough. He grabbed his phone, and, while walking down the hallway, made a loop of the last ten minutes on each camera he was going to pass.

Already done after four minutes, he arrived at the elevator to the next floor. Luckily for him, no one was around this part of the plane except doctors, so it was easy for him to continue on his way without questions.

'Too easy' He thought as the doors slide open to reveal the next floor. Five doors down on the left was his suit. Only two SHIELD agents where in the tight hallway, and they were already walking towards the elevator.

He walked slowly so the two agents would already be traveling up the elevator when he got there. Miraculously, the agents didn't interrogate him. Not questioning his luck, he rushed into the room, smiling at the site of his Mark VII.

Not wasting time, and not wanting to think about what he was going to do next, he stepped onto the small platform to get the suit on. The process took a precise minute and in that time, a window was opening to allow him access out.

Without a second thought, he rushed out, the explosive jets on his feet propelling him fast, making him let out a loud laugh.

"Welcome back, sir." JARVIS said into his ear.

"Good to be back." He replied back, loving the feeling of familiarity.

"Sir," JARVIS asked, after he did a couple of happy rolls away from the helicarrier. "I'm detecting a tracking device on your wrist. Should I begin to block the signal?"

Duh. Tony wanted to hit himself. Of course he could jam the single. "Go for it, Jar. But don't block it. Send it to…" Tony thought about it. Should he send the single to somewhere random, or to his house in Mailbu? Randomly putting the signal somewhere would be hilarious, but thinking about it rationally, putting it at his house might distract Fury long enough to not question him.

He sighed. But Fury wanted him back at the school. What would he do if he didn't follow Fury's stupid command?

He didn't want to risk it.

"Never mind, don't block it for now."

"Sir?" JARVIS question, not understanding.

"Can't have one eye thinking I'm not listening to him. But, run diagnoses on this thing; figure out how to remove it. Send the info to my phone when it's done."

"Doing so now, sir." JARVIS answered. "Would you like to call Miss. Potts?"

Tony sighed. "Not now, JARVIS." He said softly.

JARVIS didn't comment, which he was grateful for. He sighed again. He was going to have to deal with the Avengers. Not only that, but he was going to have to talk to the Professor about the stupid metal band. There was no way to know if thing was going to act up when he was near a mutant that used his or her ability. How did this thing work?

Experimentally, he decided to try and use his power to propel him forward slightly.

Not even a second later, the thing lightly zapped his arm; the electricity was powerful enough to sting, but not to hurt him too badly. He wouldn't be surprised that if he tried something either bigger or more powerful he would end up with a shock that would damage his arc reactor.

He shivered inside his suit. He didn't want to think about that. Obviously, Fury didn't care that this could kill him.

"Sir?" JARVIS asked, feeling his shiver.

"I'm fine." He responded to his creation's concern, while flying higher. He didn't want to go back to the ground quite yet. He needed to think about what he was going to tell the Avengers.

"Sir," JARVIS interrupted his thoughts after a few minutes. "The report should be done within two hours. It appears that this metal is not anything ordinary."

"Of course it's not." Tony muttered darkly.

After a few more minutes of mindless flying, he decided to go to the school. Thinking about the Avengers gave him a headache, and he already decided that the best course of action would be returning to the X-men.

As soon as he landed at the gates, a vision of the younger him appeared in his head, and he couldn't help but close his eyes and remember back when Jean and Scott were two of his closes friends. It seemed that he would be able to talk to them again, but would they still have the friendship that they had years ago?

He pushed back the thought. Now was not the time to be reminiscing about the good old days. The world was in danger, and he was in even bigger danger.

He detached the Iron Man suit. Fortunately, this model was designed back when he had the fight against Vanko, and it folded into a compact suit case. It was heavy in his hand, but he forced himself to carry it with only one arm.

As he was finally up towards the doors, he realized, with some surprise, that his leg did hurt. The bone may have healed, along with the long cut that was along his ribs, but it was sore, and he wouldn't be surprised if he was limping by the time he made it to the professor's office.

Without further ado, he opened the large door, and froze. Kids, teenagers, and some adults were everywhere. Some were rushing to get to their classes, others had the heads scanning pages of textbooks frantically, and several were chatting and laughing at what another one said.

"Excuse me! Sorry!" A girl said, who Tony could have sworn was not there a second ago. Before he could move out of the way, the girl transport five feet away from him, and continued running.

On reflex he walked down the hallway, moving towards the professor's office. He was stunned that so many had joined the school. When he was here, there were about fifty of them, being taught normal classes if you stayed year round, or individualized classes for your powers. Tony could only assume that most were here year round, due to how many adults he saw. It was shocking to see so many of them.

"Tony!" Someone called from behind him. Much to his surprise, Jean was running up towards him, arms open. In one move she had her arms around him, hugging him tightly. It took a moment to realize that this was really happening, and that he should be doing something… probably with his hands.

He didn't move.

"Oh my god, Tony." She said, detangling herself from him. "I thought – god – I thought you died. When SHIELD took you away, they didn't give us any information. The Professor said that Fury had plans to… to detain you."

Tony nodded, his mind not running at his normal speed. "I'm fine."

"Good," Jean said, surprising Tony even more. Since when did she still care about him?

"Tony, your leg!" She exclaimed, her eyes widening at the site of no cast. "It's fully healed!"

"You guys didn't do it then?" Tony asked.

"What? No, none of us here are strong enough to do that. Does that mean you can… heal yourself now?"

Tony shrugged, not ready to divulge any information to her yet. It would have been nice to have someone to talk to about it, but he couldn't risk anyone knowing the full intent of what he now has. However, it was going to be hard to keep it from everyone.

"Were you here to see the professor?" She asked eventually, catching on to his distrust. For some reason, he wasn't exactly… guilty about keeping information from her, but he didn't like the feeling that he got when he did.

Not trusting his voice, he nodded. Without another word, both of them stepped through the doors of Xavier's office. First, looking around, he realized that, even though the school is now filled to the brim with kids, his office – or his presence – had not changed. Sure, a few more pictures were added, maybe a lot more books stuffed into the book shelf, but this was exactly the same room from fifteen years ago.

…And that made Tony feel incredibly small.

"Anthony!" The Professor said, a relieved smile on his face. "Thank goodness you're alright."

"Yeah," He said, mind still attempting to keep up. "Nicky boy released me out of the goodness of his heart, as you probably know."

Tony watched as the Professor's expression change from relieved to concerned in less than a second. The Professor glanced at Jean. "Jean, why don't you go get the rest of Anthony's team? I'm sure they will want to see him."

Tony snorted at the idea of Jean being idly sent away. Jean gave him a look – first at the Professor at the plain excusal – than back at him. "Of course," She said responded, obviously not liking the idea of leaving Tony. Or maybe was it getting his team?

Wait a moment, his team? Since when did the Professor still associate him with the Avengers? He wasn't even sure if he still associated himself with the Avengers.

"Is there anything you would like to tell me, Anthony?" The Professor asked, gesturing from him to set down after Jean had left. He did so with some hesitation. "About Nicholas of course."

"Couldn't you just take it from my mind?" Tony said somewhat angrily, trying to buy himself time. He still wasn't entirely sure he wanted to go down this route. Was he sure he could trust the X-men?

The Professor looked sad. "You know I would never do that."

Tony was surprised to feel some remorse at causing the Professor pain. Obviously something happen while Tony was… away. The conversation halted for an awkward moment, neither ready to share their past experiences.

"Fury wants me on a tight leash." Tony said eventually, never liking lulls in conversations. He rolled up the sleeve of his suit, revealing the band. The Professor leaned closer to look at it. "This, whatever the hell it is, restricts my ability. It sends out an electric current every time I use my power. Obviously, Fury doesn't like the idea of me having another thing over him."

Tony could tell by the Professor's face that Nick Fury was no longer on his trusted allies list. "I'm hoping you have some idea to get it off. This is, after all, you're field of specialties."

Tony shook his head. "I could jam the signal, but I'm pretty damn sure Fury would kill me before I got passed one server. There's no way for me to just turn the thing off. I would have to actually dismantle it. I obviously can't do that."

"If you would allow it, I could ask Logan to try to cut it off, but I'm unsure if he would do it for you. It takes him a long time to trust people."

Glad that the Professor was willing to help him get rid of it, he smiled. It was reassuring knowing that not everyone wants your head on a platter.

"For now, I plan to leave it on. It may be well beyond annoying, but I still need patches needs to at least think that I'm under his control. I can't let SHIELD steal the iron man suits."

The Professor nodded, not liking the idea but understanding it. "Would you be able to only block the frequency that regulates brain waves?"

Tony, seeing where this was going, actually perked up. Yes, that could actually happen. He never even thought of that! Of course the stupid thing works of brain waves! How else would it know when he using telekinesis?

Without saying anything to the Professor, he took out his phone and held it up to his ear. "J, forget finding out what metal it is for a moment, is this thing sending out anything connecting to brain waves?"

"Scanning sir." It took another five seconds. "Yes, out of three signals, only one deals with waves. Should I shut it off?"

"Yes, that's perfect. Thanks, J." He realized something. "Wait, three signals. What else is it transmitting?"

JARVIS didn't get a chance to answer. There was a loud knock at the door then Jean walked in, along with the rest of the Avengers. Tony felt the prickle of fear, but he held himself high in the chair. He had nothing to hide and no reason to feel guilty. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Natasha. She was leaning against the door frame in the picture of innocence, but he felt everything but safe.

"Stark," Steve began, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. "We-" he looked around at the rest of team, who were looking steel eyed at him. "decided that we can… trust you. But, you have to prove it to us first."

Tony snorted, resisting the urge to let out a laugh. "You're telling me that Miss 'shoot first, ask questions later' over there is okay with a mutant on our gang of misfits?"

Natasha growled at him. "I don't like it." She agreed, still refusing to move from her spot in the door frame, "But we also have to work as a team. We're going to need to in order to get the mission done."

Tony laughed darkly. "Always about the mission." He muttered. He clapped, getting up from his chair, leaving his suit leaning against the chair.

"What about you, Brucie? You okay with little old me coming back to the team?"

Bruce looked anything from comfortable, but thankfully uncomfortable didn't mean angry. "Does it mean you can actually control where you place explosive things?"

Tony smiled at the old joke. "Nope, that's never gonna happen. You have your side of the lab, I get mine. If something goes off in mine, fine, I take the blame. But if it seemingly goes off in yours, who can say whose fault it is?"

Jean mouthed a "what" while shaking her head while the rest of the Avengers shook their heads in exasperation at the old fight.

"Still your fault." Bruce muttered, but smiled at him.

"Barton?" Said agent shrugged at him. "I don't really care what you are- whether mutant or Iron Man. -you're still a pain in the ass."

Tony couldn't help but feel honored. "You wound me, Katniss"

"Iron ass."

"Okay, that's enough." Steve said, learning from experience that this could go on forever.

Tony looked down. "Thank you," He said sincerely. It made have made him feel sick a few hours ago, but now that everyone knew, he felt amazing. He had the Professor and the Avengers (well, most of them) on his side. Nick Fury didn't have shit on him. And, well, awkwardly enough, he had a team he could rely on completely.

"So, we're here to become a team with the X-men, right Professor?" Tony said eventually, still smiling.

The Charles looked surprised at being put back into the conversation. "Yes." He said with some hesitation.

"So," He replied, intending to show the Avengers the lair downstairs. "lets get started then."

Out of nowhere, Tony felt a projectile flying past his ear. In his surprise, he stopped the silver blur midair. It was two inches away from Jean's chest. Instantly, the bracelet, to Tony's shock, zapped his arm harshly. Tony felt his arm vibrate, his chest burning, and rest of his body lying somewhere between twitching and hurting. He felt the ground rush towards him, then… nothing.

XxXxXxXxXxXx

He woke up to a horribly bright light in his eyes. He felt the coldness of metal under him, and the, now familiar, feeling of having an IV in.

"What the hell?" He whispered, but it came out like "wat the el"

He could feel someone's hand in his. "You were knocked out with a powerful blast of electricity, Tony. It knocked you out for three hours. You're fine now."

He groaned. "JARVIS blocked the wrong signal then." He muttered, remembering that there was a third frequency. He closed his eyes again. Everything was too bright.

"JARVIS?" She asked.

Though he wasn't in the mode for small talk due to the headache he was experiencing, it was nice to talk to Jean again. "My AI. Told him to jam the signal. He got confused and jammed the wrong one."

"You built an AI?"

He chuckled. "Jean, I built a suit that can beat any air force jet and could level New York City, and you're surprised that I finally managed to create a self-sufficient robot."

She swatted him playful on the arm. "You know I was never into whatever the hell you were making. It was all too confusing for me. That was always yours and Scott's thing."

"Ah, Scott," He said. "Where is the one eyed bastard?"

Jean ignored the obvious insult. "Off with your team, attempting to defuse whatever that bitch Romanoff did. She almost killed me, after all, and you know how protective he is."

"So, Natasha threw that?" He wasn't surprised by that information. He knew she was a distrustful person, but doing this? What would she accomplish by that?

"I know what you're thinking: I don't know why she did it either. There was no reason to. And it was a small knife by the way. What kind of woman keeps that stuff on her at all times?"

"An assassin." Tony thought.

There was silence.

"So, you and Scott dating?"

Tony opened his eyes just enough to see her face. She was blushing. "I never really know with him. He's one of those guys who doesn't want to date me in case I get hurt. He never wants me going on missions."

"Good," Tony said, realizing his mistake to late.

She smacked his arm hard this time. "I can handle myself!"

"Ouch!" He said, a pout on a face. "That one actually hurt."

"Good, maybe you fat head will understand that you're not the greatest person in the room…" She paused. "Tony, what happens after this? Are you going to go with them or stay with us?"

Tony couldn't respond to that. Not right now. "I don't know, Jean. I really don't know."

XxXxXxXxXxXx

A/N: I know! What a way to end it! I tried to make it longer, but I really think this is where this chapter needs to end. Next chapter we'll deal with an out of control Natasha, more reactions to Tony's lovely bracelet, and training with the X-men! YAY!

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