[ when iron man lands on the rooftop, the mask opens up at one. it's tony, in person. he's been holding a few conversation from afar, using the armor as an avatar of a sort. not this time. this time, the man himself arches an eyebrow. ]

you know, these meetings take three months to schedule back at home.

[ just saying. but who is he kidding? he's bored. ]

( and by that time, jon has already set down all the pie-stuff he brought; a pint of ice cream, a couple bowls (because plates don't work well with melty stuff, thanks), silverware, a pie cutter, and a box with a full cherry pie inside of it. luckily, stuff here doesn't cost money, otherwise tony would have had to find a way to get it himself.

his hand moves up to hold onto the ballcap on his head when tony lands, smile on his mouth. )

Yeah, but you're not back home, right? ( so he's not super famous or whatever the reason was for it taking months to schedule stuff. ) And I brought pie.

You have a lot of sass for someone this young.

[ which is why tony likes him, really but he's not going to go ahead and tell him that right away. might go to the kid's head or something. as if it isn't bad enough that he flies. ]

I'm listening, what do you want to know?

[ he won't necessarily say anything outright but some things can be shared, the official bits and pieces, the stuff one can find online. ]

I get it from my mom. ( which is true enough; lois lane doesn't have an off button, she ingrained that into jon, too. he opens the box of pie, starts cutting it into fours. fours is good enough. he's sure tony can eat that much pie if he really wanted to. )

Have you heard of the Justice League? ( to accent his question, he reaches down into his hoodie's pocket, pulls out small, miniature figures of wonder woman, flash, batman, superman, aquaman, one female and one male green lantern: the current justice league, as he knows them. ) Or any of these guys?

[ a smile flashes on tony stark's face for a moment or two. here is an answer he can appreciate; there is a reason he likes this kid, after all. ]

Nope. Never heard of them. but.

[ he lifts a hand, stopping any incoming comment. apparently he has something very important to say. about superheroes maybe - ]

she's seriously good looking.

[ pointing at the little wonder-woman action figure. ]

( thanks tony. that is absolutely useful information to jon. )

She looks a lot better in person rather than as a plastic doll. ( which is true. diana is a very pretty lady. everyone knows that. still, he leaves them on the ground and purses his lips together. )

Have you ever heard of Kryptonians?

Never heard of them.

[ he looks at the little dolls. ]

are you going to tell me about them? you're going to tell me about them. let me guess - earth's mightiest heroes?

[ they remind him of another group, after all. he says nothing, not yet. ]

( so his information sources are still kon, tim, and damian—which is fine. they’re smart, they know their stuff. but it also means that—they’re definitely from two whole different earths. )

Oh! Sure, yeah. ( jon grabs onto the tiny batman, moves him forward a few paces from the rest. ) This’s Batman. The world’s greatest detective. He doesn’t have any superpowers or anything, but he’s really smart and has a huuge house and a lot of cool things, like a batmobile, and a batrocket, batarangs. . He makes his own stuff and can win against people with a loot of powers even without them. I think he knows like seventeen languages and kicks butt with like eight hundred different fighting techniques. He knows like, everything.

( without pause, he grabs onto wonder woman, pushes her forward. ) This is Wonder Woman—she’s an Amazon? Like from Greek myths, except they weren’t myths. She’s super strong and can fly and has the Lasso of Truth; it compels anyone it touches to be honest, and if they’re not, it kinda hurts. I think her sword’s also magic? Maybe. She’s super kind and courageous and amazing.

Flash’s pretty cool, too. ( the small, red-clad figure is pushed forward next. ) He’s the fastest man alive, and has access to the speed force? It’s like. . I wouldn’t even know how to describe it. You’d have to ask him. But he can be anywhere on Earth in less than half a second, and can run through time.

( next, he pushes forward aquaman, puts him close to flash. ) Aquaman is the king of Atlantis--so he can speak to sea-folk, and he’s got super strength, heals real fast in the water, and can do other cool Atlantean things I guess? He’s engaged to another Atlanean named Mera, who’s super pretty and also really strong and can do a lot of magic stuff.

There’s Cyborg too, but I forgot his figure. His name kinda says it all, though.

Aaand Superman! ( the last figure, clad in red and blue with the same symbol etched into it’s chest as jon wears on his is pushed forward. ) He’s my dad. He was born on a planet called Krypton, but it was dying--so his parents sent him away to save him and he was raised on Earth! He’s got the same skillset I’ve got, but he’s been using them yeaars longer than I have, so he’s a lot better at it.

[ ok so tony likes batman. if only because the guy sounds oddly familiar, big house, lots of gadgets and ok, tony stark would have liked to try that batmobile thing.

he has to wonder if a connection to the speed force might have helped them all out of here but it's no use going there. ]

And is any of them here? and is she single? I'm just - curious.

[ :> ]

I'm pretty sure she has a boyfriend.

And no, none of them're here. Batman's got two of his sidekicks here? And then there's me and Kon for Superman, and Kid Flash is here, too. But none of the actual Justice League members are here.

All the mini-mes.

[ great. he didn't sign up to being a babysitter for all this younglings but at the same time, tony feels a sort of responsibility similar to what he feels towards one peter parker. ]

do you train? group activities? anything?

( poor tony, surrounded by babies. )

We watch movies together and play video games and hang out in Robin's secret base.

-- is that a tree house? please don't say it's a tree house.

[ though, in all honesty, they all sound so young. at the very least it means they are still young at heart. this place can take that away. tony has never been happier to see its failure. ]

No, no, it’s a uh—a room! Robin picked one of the rooms out for his “cave”. It’s a secret though, so I can’t tell you where it is. It’s full of computers and stuff—he and the other Robin are really good at programming and building stuff.

( so definitely not a tree house. )

They’ve got stuff like grapple guns and batarangs and smoke bombs and flash bombs and . .there’s a giant dinosaur too! I helped build it. There're pretty intense security protocols too.

...Smoke bombs and a dinosaur.

[ god help them all he can't believe he's saying this again but: ]

you boys are in serious need of an upgrade. F.R.I.D.A.Y, pull out the video file.

[ sure thing, boss. tony passes him his phone that's currently displaying bits and pieces from the battle of new york city. ]

meet the alternative. the Avengers.

( fingers wrap around the phone; jon watches the feed with awe written clear as day on his face eyes following the movements of the avengers carefully. )

Hey, I know her! I saw her on the network once. And I know uh-- ( fingers raise, pointing to the small blue shape of steve on screen. ) I know his voice!

( familiar enough for him to recognize them at least. ) We’re just kids, even if some’ve us’re a little older. So it’s not like we’ve got all the cool stuff Batman has. And we don’t really need need super high tech stuff. I go through clothes really fast, sure, but aside from that. I mean I could pick you up with one finger! And throw you pretty far too. And I've got heat vision and x-ray vision and super vision. .

Romanoff. They call her Black Widow. But I think she likes kids. small people.

[ what. she liked barton's after all. ]

They call that one Captain America.

[ and that's all he'll say for steve rogers, ]

and you should watch the attitude. that might be where you fail. You're strong, kid. but you need discipline. That's more important than powers.

She’s nice, I like her. ( at least the times he’d spoken to her, she’d been nice--ooh, but he’d protected her during the tower incident and she was a superhero? wow. that’s amazing.

he does have the decency to look at least a little ashamed, at least. )

Sorry, sir. I’ll work on it.

I sound like my father.

[ he pinches his nose. that's the last thing he wants to do, be that sort of adult in the kid's life. he takes a seat near the roof's end. ]

when I got that suit, I thought I could do anything. I found out the hard way it's more than that. Maybe you don't tech, maybe you do. This isn't your usual sort of battle here. What I'm saying is - you're Superboy not because of all these powers, but because you want to help people. Helping people also means being prepared. and that takes practice. Even Superboy needs some.

[ he flashes him a bit of a smile. ]

come on, last time wasn't that bad.

( the smile’s returned with one of jon’s own, bright and wide. he jumps up to his feet, rocks back on the heels of his feet before holding out the phone to give it back to tony. )

You sound kinda like my dad, too. ( and jon misses him more than words can describe. but it’s kind of nice, having someone around that does remind him of clark. ) I don’t mind practice! I like flying a lot. When I got here, I mostly just--jumped, and I couldn’t do it very long! But I’m getting better.

Flying, navigating, dodging, running just in case they ever take away your mojo. I heard that can happen. better be prepared. I try to train without the suit, just in case.

[ he nods. ]

try and have some fun, too. have a pizza night in your weird man cave.

Yeah, haha. I uhh. . I lost power during the tower event, towards the end. The invisible dogs took a few bites out of me, but they've healed now.

( jon raises a hand, fingers curled into a fist. for fistbumps. )

I do! I always have fun. And Robin's working on helping me learn hand to hand combat, too. I mean usually I fight with my fists but I kinda just hit instead of try to hit? But now I'm learning how to.

[ you'll get that fistbump, Jon, but tony stark is now officially worried. ]

right, okay. if you need help from someone who isn't twelve, you know where to find me.

[ erm. not that he's offering. or actually, he is. ]