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Lin Beifong hears the knock on her office door and struggles to keep from sighing. Republic City University is filled to the brink with dumb jocks and Lin has no patience for them, in or out of the classroom. But she’ll be damned if she lets one into her Metalbending for Engineers class without a fight. Even if it is the Avatar.
Korra steps in, with just a touch of uncertainty that Lin wouldn’t have expected from the girl who came blustering into her class yesterday morning. “You wanted to see me, Professor?”
“Yes, come in,” Lin replies, “Please sit down.” Korra sits, crosses her legs in a gratingly casual fashion, and Lin decides at that moment to go for sheer bluntness.
“Avatar Korra, why are you in my class?” The girl stares at her, taken aback.
“I don’t…I don’t think I understand.”
“You don’t understand a simple question? If you can’t wrap your head around that, you barely belong in this university. The Dean may be on your side, but let me make myself abundantly clear.” She leans forward over the desk, looks Korra in the eye. “The application of metalbending to engineering is n extremely specialized field, typically taken by students looking to pursue a career, or least a passing interest, in advanced robotics. It is not a subject for students who can’t see past their next pro-bending match. So I will ask you again: why are you taking my class?”
Korra’s eyes flash.
“I don’t know, Professor Beifong,” she snaps, “I didn’t realize having your entire life plan mapped out was a prerequisite for this course. I’m eighteen! Did you have any idea what you were going to do with your life when you were eighteen?”
Lin takes her glasses off and puts them down on the desk lightly.
“The purpose of this meeting, Avatar, is to discuss your work in my class,” she says, her voice dangerously even, “Nothing else. If that’s something you can’t accept, you can leave right now.”
For a moment it looks like she might, but Korra merely folds her arms and sits back in her chair in a huff.
“I don’t know what I want to do with metalbending,” she mutters sullenly, “but I like it. I want to get better at it, and this class seems like it would be really good way. And I’d heard you were a really good teacher—though you don’t seem to be too interested in teaching right about now.
Lin keeps her face stony, but has to fight to keep the corners of her mouth from twitching. The kid’s got spunk, can’t deny that.
“There are no exceptions to deadlines in my class, Avatar Korra,” she says, “no extensions because of bending matches, no favors because you’re the darling of the Dean. If you can accept that, you may remain in my class. Are we in agreement?”
Korra grins.
“We’re in agreement, Professor. You won’t regret it, I promise!” She turns and runs out the door.
“Avatar, don’t forget your first assignment is due tomo—” her words are drowned out as the door bangs behind Korra, and Lin groans. She’s fairly certain that before the semester is over she will find herself regretting this.
The phone rings and Lin looks at the number. Give me a goddamn break…
Against her better judgement she picks up the phone.
“Linny!” she hears Tony Stark’s voice on the other line. “Listen—well, first off, how are you enjoying your new Starktech laptop?”
“Stark, for god’s sake, it’s 3:30 in the morning over there and I have office hours and a student waiting,” she snaps, “What do you want?”
“The mundane can hold for a sec,” Stark says, and she can just picture the smug smile on his face, “First, I wanna hear—what did you think of the desktop background?”
Lin rolls her eyes. When she took it out of the package, she’d opened the laptop to see Stark’s face smirking out at her from his Malibu mansion.
“Good amount of me, yeah? Gonna bring in the ladies? I wanted to try the prototype on you, thinkin’ of standardizing the photos for the whole line… ”
“Don’t you have a girlfriend now, Stark?” she asks dryly. “You’d think that’d mean a moratorium on the shameless flirting and preening…”
“C’mon, Chief, you know I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for anyone with the power to bend it in half,” Lin has to stop herself from hanging up in exasperation.
“Why’d you send the prototype to me, really?” she asks. Never look a gift horse in the mouth, the phrase went, but this was really taking things a bit too far…
“Just wanted to say thanks for those design specs,” he answers, his voice suddenly taking on a forced casualness. “Didn’t think they’d actually ever be useful, but turns out the Mark VIII’s really handy when you’re getting thrown out a window.”
“Which people are lining up to do, I’m sure,” she retorts, “Starting with professors you’re making late for appointments. You got any real business with me, Ironass?”
“Just wanted to see if you’re coming to the Stark Expo Retrospective,” he says, “It’s gonna be way more focused on tech than the actual expo was. Got some engineering panels set up that could really use your input—especially the one on clean energy, Pep’s gunning for you to make an appearance.”
“Yeah, she emailed me last week,” Lin responded, “and I told her the same thing I’m telling you know—you’ve got it set up in the middle of exams. You know I’d love to otherwise, but—”
“Get a TA to set ‘em up and cover for you,” Stark interrupts, “Don’t they have those at RCU? Beifong, you wanna know how many female engineers are gonna be at this thing? How many really smart female engineers? It’s like, a civic duty to your gender or something.”
“Stark, I’m going to bend that suit of yours straight into the ocean, if you think I’m leaving RCU to be your poster child…”
“C’mon, cool your jets, Chief,” Stark says, “You know that isn’t how it is. I want you for your bending and your brain. It’s in Shangai, it’s practically in your backyard, comparatively speaking.”
Lin sighs, contemplating. Stark somehow takes her silence for an answer.
“I’m putting you in, you can cancel on me later,” he says, “And you can buy me dinner if you do.”
“Stark—”
“Later, Chief.” She heard the phone click on the other end and buries her head in her hands as she hears the knock on her door. This is just not her day.
She hears the door open and forces herself to look up. At least it’s a student that she likes.
“How’s the project coming, Asami?”
“I’m finished, Professor!” she holds out her hand, covered in a metal gauntlet crackling with electricity. “I even got to try it out on a test subject on my way here.”
Lin raises her eyebrows.
“The less I hear about that, the better, Sato.” This had been a borderline unethical project to begin with, but Lin could hardly say no to Asami’s budding ideas. She inspects the gauntlet. Work worthy of Iron Man himself, and Asami had never so much as seen the type of tech Stark has his hands on.
“This is solid work, Asami,” she says in approval. “Professionally solid.” Asami beams, and Lin allows herself to feel her own tiny sense of pride.When she’d first seen the name Sato on her roster she’d sighed, expecting nothing but a spoiled, vain child behind the pretty face. But Asami had demanded no favors and brought hard work as well as talent to the board. She rose quickly to the top of her class and had spent the past summer helping Lin out with some research in the lab, even starting work on her own projects. Speaking of…
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do next summer, Asami? I’d love for you to work in the lab again, but there are dozens of companies who’d want your skills. You should look to see which have internships…
Asami reddens slightly as she rummages around in her back.
“Well, I would miss working with you, but I have been looking, and I’ve drawn up a list already…” she hands it to Lin, who studies it.
“That top one’s a complete pipe dream,” Asami says hastily, “put it there more for wishful thinking than anything else…”
“Stark Industries?” Lin raises her eyebrows. “You’ve got just as good a shot with them as you do any of these. More so, now that you’ve finished this gauntlet project…”
Asami gives her a resigned look.
“You know how Stark Industries feels about Future Industries as well as I do, Professor,” she says, “I’m my father’s daughter. Anyone in SI takes one look at that name and my application goes in the slush pile.”
Lin purses her lips in annoyance. Asami’s got a point. Still, she’s the best student Lin’s ever had, and if she can claim any sort of clout with Iron Man…
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, Asami,” she says, “Send the application in, and add that motorcycle job you did last year. Stark appreciates skill, and he’s got a weakness for auto-mechanics like you wouldn’t believe…”
***
Lin waits until she gets home to call up Stark again—she figures she’s got a better shot at this if she can catch him on a video call.
The early morning sun is streaming through Stark’s workshop, and he scowls blearily as he appears on the screen.
“…the hell, Beifong?” he asks, wiping motor oil off his hands, “It’s way past bedtime, I’m about to grab some shuteye.”
“Thought you were an all-hours kind of guy, Stark,” Lin smirks, “The sun ought to be coming up over there by now…isn’t the day just starting?”
“Pepper’s is,” Tony says smugly. “Me, I’ve got at least five hours before any meetings that require Stark in the flesh. And I intend to use all of them, so if you don’t mind keeping it short…”
“Hypocrite,” Lin shakes her head, “It’s about this Retrospective conference. Iv’e been thinking about it, and you’re right. I should be there, and I will be—on one condition.”
Tony blinks in surprise, but gives a nonchalant shrug. “Yeah, sure, name it.
“You take on an intern this summer.”
“Stark Industries employs dozens of interns, Chief,” Stark says, “Tell the kid to apply, if they’re a student of yours, they’ve got more than a fair shot…”
“No, Stark, I mean you take on an intern,” Lin clarifies. “You personally.”
“Beifong, I’m sure this kid is smart, but no way in hell…”
“I’m sending you her resume right now,” Lin interrupts, “Read it, and tell me you aren’t dying to take her around the shop and show off your toys.”
She hits send, and there’s silence on the other end, Stark’s face expressionless as he reads through.
“Mechanical engineering, built her first robot at twelve…ooh, fixes cars in her spare time,” he cocks his head to the side in consideration. “Think she’d help me fix the Cobra?”
“Look at the last one,” Lin says. Stark whistles and raises his eyebrows in approval as he looks at the specs for Asami’s latest project.
“That’s…that’s impressive, Beifong, I’ll give you that,” he says, “Her name’s not on the resume, though…who is this kid?”
Lin takes a breath before answering. “Asami Sato.”
“Sato?” Stark chokes, “What exactly do you think I’m smoking, Chief? No way, no how am I letting anyone from Future Indurstries within five states of my tech, let alone the daughter of old Hiroshi himself…”
“Christ, Stark, seriously?” she asks in exasperation, “You’ve only ever competed with them when it comes to PR, and even that’s been a joke the past few years. Besides, she wants nothing to do with her father’s company. She’d be working there already if she did.”
“Yeah, that’s just what she wants you to think,” he retorts, “Come in, steal the secrets, bring ‘em back home to daddy, it’s a classic move…
“She hasn’t spoken to her father in three years, Stark,” Lin cuts him off, annoyed now, “Not since he was put in prison over the Amon crisis. Cut her some slack—I’d think you of all people would understand what daddy issues feel like…”
“Ouch,” Tony gives her a mock-wounded look, “Fightin’ dirty, are we?”
“Let her work for you, Stark,” Lin says, “She wants to, she’s good, and she deserves a chance. And hey, this way you won’t even have to look to me as a poster child for engineer women of the world. You’ll like her better than me anyway—unlike the both of us, she was graced with social skills.”
Stark gives her a long look, finally waves his hand
“Okay, okay, you win, I’ll take her.” He groans, “You’d better not make me regret this, Chief.”
“Don’t worry,” she says, “I’ll come up with something for the conference that’ll blow even your armor off, Stark.”
Well, that’ll make Asami’s week. She grins in spite of herself as she switches off the webcam. There were, on occasion, benefits to having a history with a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.