Tony was over there almost instantly, examining. "Well I'll be damned. It was hard enough to get the vibranium, I didn't think it would blend with anything." He tapped on her hand. "But look at that, it works, they're actually mixing. This is great, this is perfect, this is absolutely I have to get Brucie up here to see this I can use this this will be perfect--" And he was already thinking of various ways to use it.

"Tony, wait a second," Paige said, pulling her hands back. "I don't even know what I did, let alone how to do it again."

Tony pouted. "Come on," he wheedled. "I'm not going to do anything, I'm just looking. It's fascinating. I don't care if you don't know how you did it." He paused. "Actually yes I do because I want to know now."

"I don't know what I did," Paige said. "It just happened." Carefully, she let go of the metal in her skin, and the new mystery alloy separated and disappeared. "It doesn't feel any different than normal."

Tony picked up two bits of metal he knew he could melt together and held them out expectantly. Because clearly now he needed to know.

Paige took both bits of metal in one hand and let the metals bleed into her skin. Where the metals met, they blended together seamlessly.

Tony nodded. Yeah, that looked right. "Doesn't feel any different?" he asked, poking her hand once. "Nothing odd about it?"

"It's a bit... fuzzy, I guess," Paige said. She flexed her hand a bit, and the chunks of metal clinked against her metallic skin. "It's easier to hold them both when they mix. It doesn't take as much concentration. But it's harder to tell them apart."

"Does that actually make a difference for releasing it?" Tony asked. He was half-way tempted to give her a few pieces of metal to hang on to all the time, because she could make her skin a stronger alloy than a bulletproof vest in just moments. And he wasn't paranoid, no, not at all.

"Not really," Paige replied, still looking at her hand. "Letting it go is the easy part. Holding on to them is what gets tricky."

"Here, you can keep those then." Tony backed off a bit, since he knew she didn't like to be pushed. "Those should work well for you."

Paige blinked even as she released the metal in her skin.

"Wait, what?" she asked. "Keep them? I thought you weren't allowed to give out vibranium because Ms. Potts said not to. Or did something change while I wasn't looking?"

"That's not vibranium, that's just more common stuff," Tony said with a careless wave. "I don't have enough vibranium yet to give away. But I have lots of that stuff, so you can take those bits, I don't need them."

"No, I know these aren't vibranium," Paige said. She reached over to where the chunk of metal sat on the table. "This is. It just sounded like you were going to give me all the little bits, so I wasn't sure." She set down the vibranium again.

"Start off with those two," Tony said after a moment of consideration. "We'll see how that does. Play around with them, see what you can do. I'll get more bits for you sometime. Jarvis, remind me to get more bits."

"Of course, sir." Jarvis sounded terribly amused by all this.

"Okay," Paige said, watching him. Tony suddenly seemed distracted, which typically meant he was turning a challenge over in his head. "Something else got your attention?"

"Nope, just thinking," Tony said with a bit of a grin. "Considering things, planning, my normal five different things at once, nothing to be worried about this time."

"And what are you thinking about?" Paige asked as she absently fiddled with the bits of metal in her hand.

"Getting more vibranium. I need more anyway." Tony shrugged. "We'll see what happens, though, Peps might make me get creative to get more." He grinned. He liked having to get creative.

"Alright, I'll bite," Paige said, looking at him. "How do you get more vibranium?"

"There's one place in the world where it occurs naturally, or I make it." Tony grinned. "I made my bits, I have no idea how my father got enough vibranium to make a shield out of."

"You made them?" Paige asked, blinking. "Okay, that's kind of impressive."

Tony grinned. "I do what I have to," he said. "Although it was kinda fun too."

"Fun?" Paige asked, raising an eyebrow. "What, does it require explosions or something?"

"...Yeah, pretty much. Burned a hole in my lab." Tony grinned. "It would have been more fun if I hadn't been dying at the time, but, y'know, it's all good now."