Tony shrugged. "You just have to work with them." He looked at the Cloyster. "Come on, I'll give you time in the big pool with the others. I'll even throw in that tech you hate so you can terrorize her."

Cloyster grumbled but gave in after a minute. Clearly the prospect of torturing the evil tech was worth doing actual work.

Maeve raised an eyebrow. That seemed a bit too easy. Regardless, she went over with the TM to make sure it worked.

"Alright," she said, "Cold Snap." She gestured to the practice target that was set up just for them.

Cloyster performed the move successfully, and then looked meaningfully at Tony, who snickered.

"Yeah, yeah, fine, I'll get someone to take you up in a few minutes." He rolled his eyes. "You pest. You're lucky I've kept you around this long."

Maeve grinned, but hushed Litwick when the little dual-type snickered at Tony and the Cloyster.

"Want to see if you can make someone take Prune or Reforge?" she asked Tony, glancing from the selection of pokemon to him.

"Sure. They're more likely to listen to me, anyway. Bunch of mismatched scoundrels that they are." Tony rolled his eyes and glanced over the pokemon. At least half of them were ones that he'd found over the years, abandoned or injured or neglected. And because he really was a softie inside, he'd taken them home.

Maeve shrugged a bit. Hey, if they would listen to him, she wouldn't complain.

"As far as I've been able to gather, Prune is strictly grass-type, and Reforge could possibly be compatible with steel and fire-types," she said. "Although Litwick can't learn it, so not all fire-types, if it is compatible."

"I'd say I should drag Steve down here to test on his Arcanine but he wouldn't agree to that, so we'll test on Skarmory. As for Prune... test it on Skiploom." Tony shrugged. "Go try with Skiploom. She might cooperate with you."

"Skiploom, hm?" Maeve pondered that as she reached for the TM. It would probably work alright, although it might work better with a Torterra or something. "Alright." She gestured for Skiploom to come forward. The little grass-type did, a little reluctantly, but it let her use the TM on it all the same.

Tony ended up having to wrestle Skarmory a little bit to use the TM, but eventually the pokemon gave in and let him try it. The TM ended up working, although not quite as Tony had planned. Whoops. More reworking to do.

"Two of three isn't bad," Maeve said when the last TM was tested. "Not bad at all." Absently, she waved her fingers through Litwick's flame, making the little dual-type giggle. The giggling made Ralts finally crawl out of Maeve's bag and come over to investigate. Ralts was normally a bit shy, and didn't often come out in the lab, but Litwick seemed happy enough to lure her out.

Tony looked over and grinned. "Cute little Ralts. Wonder how long it's been since I've seen one of them. Coulson's has been a Gallade since before I knew him."

"A Gallade?" Maeve asked. "I don't think I've ever seen one of them before." She tilted her head to her Ralts. "This one will be a Gardevoir if she ever decides to evolve." She held out her hand to Ralts. "Come here, darling, it's alright." Shyly, the Ralts went over to them, but still hid a bit behind Maeve's legs.

"Shy, too, although apparently that's normal." Tony had never really had that problem with any of his pokemon, least of all Ninetails. The fire kitsune snorted and nudged Tony. "Hey, I'm not being pushy. Not really. This is just polite interest." Ninetails just snorted again.

"Ralts as a species are fairly shy," Maeve agreed, nodding. She grinned a bit at the Ninetails and looked at Tony again. "Something I doubt you've ever had a problem with from him."

"Never," Tony agreed dryly. "He was doing PR appearances when I was still a kid." He shook his head and ruffled up one of Ninetails' tails. The pokemon hissed and started grooming the fur back into place.

"That long? Well, I had heard that Ninetails were long-lived..." Maeve mused. She blinked when she realized how badly that came out. "Of course, I'm not implying that you're old or anything, Mr. Stark, of course not, I'm just saying..." She trailed off and put a hand to her face. "It just came out so wrong, please don't fire me over it."

Tony just laughed. "Oh, don't worry about it." He grinned. "Although you should really say that to Steve. I'd just love to see his expression."

"Say it to...?" Maeve started to ask. Then it dawned on her. "Steve Rodgers? Captain America?" She shook her head, eyes a bit wide. "I couldn't possibly..."

"Oh come on, it would be hysterical," Tony said with a grin. "I bet he'd splutter and be all wide-eyed. It would be great. You should do it. I can have him down here in a few minutes."

"Mr. Stark, please don't," Maeve said, her eyes still a bit wide. "I don't know what I would do with myself if I had to call Captain America 'old.'" More than likely die of mortification, if she had to guess. That was a pretty safe bet.

"Alright, fine," Tony agreed with a sigh. He thought it would be great, but he knew that Steve would be pissed if he made Maeve do it when she'd asked him not to.

Besides, he wasn't a complete ass.

Maeve sighed a bit in relief.

"Thank you, sir," she said. After a moment, she started to gather up the test TMs and the notes she'd taken on them, so she could send them back to the right people in R&D.

Tony grinned and texted Steve anyway, managing to get him down to R&D. Because everyone needed some Captain America in their lives.

Maeve had started bustling around working on a couple of back-logged tests and reports when she heard the door open again. At first, she thought it might be Tony coming back in for a while and turned around with a scold ready, but she'd barely opened her mouth when she realized it wasn't Tony walking in; it was Captain Rodgers.

Steve blinked when he saw her. "Sorry, I must be in the wrong room," he said, looking abashed. "Tony said he needed me down here for something, but I guess he meant a different room. Sorry."