Julie snickered. "Yeah, I've already had a couple run-ins with that Rotom. Rotom can be very... stubborn."

Tony chuckled but didn't comment, instead making a few more adjustments to the little device before he held it up. "Alright, you might want to move back that way." He flapped a hand at the corner of the room away from where he was holding the device and a stray StarkPad.

"Just like its trainer," Bruce said with a bit of a grin.

Maeve nodded and took several steps back, behind a table. Hey, you could never be too careful with the boss-man was involved in something.

Julie snickered. "No kidding," she agreed. "But I love his Ninetails."

Tony attached the device to the StarkPad and turned it on, setting it down carefully and backing up a few steps. The device hummed for several moments before it exploded.

"A lot of people do," Bruce commented. "It was Howard's, I think. But Tony said he grew up with it, and it was more his than his father's."

Maeve yelped and ducked behind the table with Kirlia. Litwick just let everything phase through it, although it did jump in the air a bit.

"Well that's clear. I mean, seeing the two of them, especially when they're relaxed here, it's clear that they're close." Julie smiled.

Cyndaquil huffed and puffed a bit of smoke, clearly getting jealous, waddling out of her backpack and going to go sit on Bruce's foot for attention.

Tony had managed to dive behind the table with her, and he waved away some smoke, turning on the vent in the room.

"Well," he said cheerfully, peering at the wreckage of the StarkPad. "I guess that was a little too much."

Bruce blinked and looked down.

"Hello to you too," he said to Cyndaquil.

"Just a little," Maeve said as she cautiously came out from behind the table. "It's like what happened when Litwick hit a cell phone with Hex."

Cyndaquil puffed at him, glowered briefly in Julie's direction, and then turned hopeful eyes on Bruce. Julie just laughed quietly.

"Really? We'll have to test that sometime." Tony bent to put up the remainder of the device.

Bruce chuckled and leaned down to pick up the little fire-type.

"Guess you just want some attention, huh?"

"Any time you want to test it, let me know," Maeve said. "Litwick likes helping with tech tests."

Cyndaquil chirped at him and managed to worm his way up onto Bruce's shoulder, clinging there like some demented wall hanging. Julie had to clap a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.

"Well, not right now. I think Peps might kill me if I make more a mess in this lab today. Although, really, you'd think it would be good to make the mess in one place, but nooooo, I've been relegated to destroying one normal lab per day, everything else has to be up in my personal lab." Tony rolled his eyes.

Bruce gave Cyndaquil something of a sideways look, but let it stay. It wasn't hurting anything, so there was no reason to move it.

Maeve snickered.

"That explains so much about basic lab procedures around here," she said. "So much."

Julie laughed quietly. "He can get jealous," she said with a little grin. "If I spend too much time with another person, especially a guy, or if I'm talking about someone else's pokemon. Silly guy."

Tony rolled his eyes. "It's all because Pepper's a stickler for protocol and all that," he grumbled. "Then again, not everyone is my level of genius, I mean, it's hard being the person in the building with the highest IQ all the time."

"I can see that," Bruce said, chuckling as Cyndaquil got comfortable on his shoulder. "He's cute, though."

Maeve rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I'll bet," she replied. When Litwick went over to investigate the remains of the StarkPad, she grinned a bit. "Looks like he's interested in what made that explode," she commented.

Julie nodded. "Yeah. He was my first." She grinned indulgently. "He didn't like Swablu for a few days, until he got used to her."

Tony shrugged. "Let 'im poke at it all he wants. He can't hurt it." Tony had grabbed his own StarkPad and was already starting to fiddle with the design of the device.

"Togetic was the first one to want to stay with me," Bruce admitted. "I'm grateful every day that she decided to stick with me."

"He's used to being asked to help with the ghost-type tech-testing," Maeve explained. "You know, the redundant circuits that are supposed to resist being shorted when a ghost-type goes through them. Litwick typically helps with that."

Julie nodded. "Yeah. These two are great. I've been thinking about adding another one to the group for a while, but... I dunno. I just never saw the right one to add to the group, if that makes any sense at all."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, he'd be good for that. Be good for fireproof-testing, too, at least the lower level tests." For a few moments he was distracted with things he could get Litwick to test, then he shrugged.

"Mine all sort of came to me," Bruce admitted, a bit sheepishly. "I don't think you've seen them all; some of them stay behind at the tower." He gestured to the two. "Togekiss and Blissey, obviously, and Meganium. Clefairy, Jigglypuff, and Lapras tend to stay at the tower."

"Well, he's still little," Maeve said. "A Chandellure would be able to do more high-level fire-testing, although nowhere near the level of, say, a Charizard. The Chandellure line is more ghost than fire."

"Yeah, I can imagine why." Julie grinned. "Lapras, huh? I've never actually seen one in person, just in pictures."

"Yeah. Your friend, whats-her-face, has a Cyndaquil, that would be better for fire testing if she evolves it. And your Kirlia would be good for psychic testing, since Pepper forbade me to use her Espeon."

"Yeah, he gets that reaction a lot when people see him," Bruce said. "Lapras are endangered, after all. But he's been good to me, far better than I deserve. Now that we've got something almost stable, I try not to drag him around too much."

"I wonder why," Maeve said dryly. She sighed. "I want an Espeon. Just so much. I saw the one that belongs to Miss Potts, it was gorgeous. And my friend is Julie."

Julie laughed quietly. "Yeah, I can imagine he doesn't like traveling inland too much. Is there a pool up there for him or something? You know what, don't answer that, that was kind of pushy and personal."

"Yeah, her." Tony looked at her for a minute, calculating, before he shrugged. "You know we have an Eevee lab here."

"No, it's okay," Bruce replied. "Yes, he has a pool all to himself. A tank, really, Tony went a bit overboard on it."

"I know," Maeve replied. "And I also know that people don't waste Eevees on part-time lab techs." She shrugged. "Eevees are out of my price range right now, but I'll have one eventually. I'm more interested in finding a Vulpix right now, to be honest."

"Tony seems to go overboard all the time. He doesn't really do things in halves, he just goes all out and then some." Julie grinned though. She kind of loved her boss. And her job.

"A Vulpix? You?" Tony blinked. "I wouldn't have pegged you as the type for Vulpix. Eevee, yeah, sure, Natu I can see, Beldum I can see. But not Vulpix."

"That's Tony exactly," Bruce said with a bit of a grin.

"I do like Natus," Maeve admitted. "But no, the Vulpix wouldn't be for me. Julie wants one. Julie really, really wants one. I don't suppose you would know where to find them?"

Julie snickered. "Yeah, kind of figured." She blinked when Swablu settled right on top of Bruce's head and tried hard not to snicker. "I guess they like you."

"Ah, I see. No, I don't know at the moment, I'll look into it later. Or have Peps look into it. Or someone will." Tony shrugged. He didn't mention that every once in a while people would send him Vulpixes, either to get his approval on a breeding line or because they saw he had a Ninetails, figured it would be awesome to mimic him, and then weren't prepared to deal with the Vulpix.

Bruce couldn't help but smile.

"I don't mind," he said. Reaching up, he gently moved Swablu until it was on his other shoulder.

"If you find out within the next two and a half months, that would be fantastic," Maeve said. "I'd love to be able to give Julie one for her birthday."

Julie laughed and shook her head. And then sneezed and glowered briefly at Meganium.

"Alright, doc, got anything new for the allergy stuff?"

"Two and a half months, huh? Plenty of time." Tony smirked faintly. "Come on, I need to go get parts and try this again."