"Tony, Tony where on Earth did that come from?"

"Where did what come from?"  Tony asked distractedly from where he sat at his desk, not even looking up at Leslie where she stood at the window.

"Are you blind? The building across the street! The one that is a giant freakin' mirror image of ours!"

Tony jumped up from his chair and rushed over to the window. "Who in the hell is Smark?"

Leslie gave him a disgusted look. "God you are an idiot aren't you?"

"I am not!" he protested. "Do you know who it is?"

"Yes, you moron. It's that little kid from the mutant school, the one you kept insulting."

Tony scratched at his head. "Which kid?"

Leslie slapped a hand to her forehead. "The one you wouldn't let help you with the computers you idiot!"

"Oh right him. He can't do that. Wait can he? He stole our building! Right down to the lettering on top! All he did was change the T in Stark to an M! I'm going over there and give that little brat a piece of my mind!"

"Sure you can afford to do that?"

"Do what?" he asked in confusion.

"Give him a piece of your mind. I mean if you hand over a piece to him it might put you below the legal limit needed to be a functioning human being."

"You are not helping Leslie. Are you coming with me or not?"

"Sure, I need some entertainment."

Tony stalked determinedly out of the office to the elevators. Through the lobby, out the door, to the corner, where he waited for the crosswalk signal. Then he stomped across the street, Leslie trailing sedately behind him, he entered the lobby and demanded to see Mr. Smark.

"Oh Mr. Smark has been expecting you Mr. Stark! Go right up! Take the elevator up to the top floor and see the receptionist, Skylar."

Tony thanked her and went up. He was greeted by a super perky girl sitting at the reception desk. "Good morning Mr. Stark! I'll take you right in to see Mr. Smark!" She led him into a large office identical to his own, which he found odd.

Sitting behind the desk was the little kid he recognized from the school. Only instead of jeans and a T-shirt, now the kid now wore a suit and grinned at him as if he'd somehow beaten him. 

"Right kid what's the meaning of all this?"

"Have a seat Mr. Stark," the kid told him calmly.

"I don't want a seat I want to know what in the hell is going on!"

The kid held out a glossy folder with a black logo on the front. "Here's our introductory packet. Go ahead and read it when you get a chance. It will tell you everything you need to know about Smark Industries."

Leslie took the folder with a frown. "You copied our logo exactly. This is the Stark Industries logo! The only thing you did was make it black and change Stark to Smark!"

Stevie gave her an indulgent smile. "Perhaps, perhaps not. That would be your word against mine now wouldn't it? Now maybe Mr. Stark you should have listened to me when I said I could help you, because you see now Smark Industries is going to take down Stark Industries."

"You can't do this!" Tony screamed.

"Don't make me call security Mr. Stark," he said with a smile.

"Security? You can afford to do all of this? Where did you get the money to even build this building so quickly, how did you do this?"

"I have certain ... connections."

"I'll get you for this you little brat!" Tony raged.

The kid shook his head and tapped a button on his phone. "T.O.N.I., I'm afraid Mr. Stark has overstayed his welcome. Please call security to escort him from the building and advise him not to return."

"Yes Sir Mr. Smark, I will fetch them immediately," A computerized, feminine voice intoned.

"You named your computer system after me?" Tony asked.

"No, not particularly. It's T-O-N-I, and it is a she."

Leslie snickered. "It does kinda sound like you Stark."

"It does not!" he protested.

"Wanna know what it stands for?" Stevie prodded.

"Oh I do," Leslie said.

Stevie smirked. "Totally. Obnoxious. Network. Illusionist."

Leslie burst out laughing. "Well he is totally obnoxious!"

Tony sent her a dark look before moving his gaze back to the brat in the suit. "Whatever, you'll never beat me kid. You'll never outsell Stark Industries!"

"That's Stevie Smark to you or Mr. Smark if you prefer. And trust me Tony, I already have you beat. My latest product is ready to launch this afternoon and more innovative than anything Stark Industries has ready to launch anytime soon."

Two men came through the door. A man and a teen both looked as if they could kick his butt. Despite the fact that he was unwilling to give up on the fight with the kid, he knew he couldn't exactly fight these people, they had powers he couldn't fight on his own, and he wasn't wearing his Iron Man suit at the moment.

"This isn't over kid," he sneered the word kid, refusing to call him by his name.

When they made it back over to his office, he stomped around the room. "I can't believe that kid's nerve, trying to ruin Stark Industries! Who does he think he is?"

"An exceptionally smart kid you walked all over like the ass you are?" Leslie was flipping through the glossy folder full of promo brochures for Smark Industries. "I have to say the kid knows how to sell his business. Whomever he got to print this stuff up knows what they're doing. You are in deep Stark."

"He is not going to win this! I'm older and smarter!" Stark thrust his arm in the air, pointing a finger at the ceiling.

"Older yes, smarter eh ..."

"You're still not helping Leslie."

She shrugged. "What can we do Tony? The kid claims that whatever product he's putting out today is going to blow us out of the water. All we can do is sit back and wait to see what it is."

He grumbled, but had no choice but to agree with her.

Across the street, Stevie had his feet up on his desk and a huge grin on his face. "Did you see how frustrated Stark was? I swear I thought he was gonna pee in his pants!"

Ziva shook her head at him. "I think you pushed him too far Stevie. You don't poke a man like Tony Stark with a live cattle prod."

Stevie snorted. "What's he gonna do?"

"Uh poke back with a bigger cattle prod?" A'Cadia told him. "And eventually you are gonna lose. Vincenzo is gonna back you for only so long. Eventually he is gonna get sick of handing you cash and want some of it back."

Stevie snorted and pulled his feet down off the desk. "We are going to make money. This isn't some lark I made up simply to poke at Stark. I want to make this work."

"If you say so. What time is this press conference thing to announce your product launch?" Ziva asked him.

Stevie check his watch. "We need to get down there now."

They headed down to the conference room where everything had been set up for the presentation. Stevie took his place behind the podium—standing on a stepstool—as the press was taking their seats in front of it.

As soon as everyone got settled, Stevie gave them a giant smile, rather reminiscent of a car salesman, and began his presentation. "Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the launch of Smark Industries new solar storage system that will revolutionize how families use solar power. How they store it as well."

With a flourish, he whipped the cover off the display board to his right in order to reveal the picture of the solar panels they were introducing.

"These are Smark Industries brand new solar panels. They are lighter, slimmer, and more efficient than previous companies' models.  Our storage system is also more efficient as well. It will store more power, and it will do it more efficiently, it will also return more power to the consumer. Are there any questions?"

"How do these panels compare to Stark Industries latest solar panels?" one reporter asked.

"They are ninety-seven percent more efficient," Stevie answered.

"Can you prove that?" another asked.

"Yes, the comparison reports are available on our website." He gave the website address.

The questions flew at him and he answered calmly, fielding the questions easily.

A'Cadia leaned over and whispered to Ziva. "We may have a chance to pull our butts out of this in one piece if Stevie handles everything like this press conference."

Ziva gave a small nod of agreement. "The sad thing is, with our luck, it won't all go this way. I can see disaster coming miles off, I just don't know what form it will take as of yet."

A'Cadia wrinkled her nose. "Gah, why do you have to ruin it like that?"

"Because I believe in being a realist and our luck could never be so good. You know it; you simply refuse to admit it."

A'Cadia watched Stevie for several minutes in silence. After a bit, she looked at Ziva. "This is because of our epic crappy luck with Lenny, isn't it?"

"No, this is because of our epic bad luck in general."

"Damn. Then we should just be prepared for the crash and burn?"

Ziva shrugged. "At some point."

That sat back and watched the rest of the press conference in silence.

In Tony's office across the street, Leslie and Tony were watching the press conference on television. Tony was scowling as he read over the solar panel comparison reports on Smark Industries website.

"If these reports are correct then their solar panels are going to bury ours."

Leslie turned to look at him. "You think the kid would lie?"

"No, I doubt it. He isn't stupid; he knows I would challenge him on the reports."

"Then we fight back. We come out with something better," Leslie told him.

Tony ran his fingers through his hair. "And that would be what exactly? Everything we have right now is still in the development phase?"

Leslie tapped a finger on her chin. "Leave that to me. I'll come up with something."

Tony's look could only be described as frightened. "Don't scare me Leslie."

"Oh shut up Tony." She stood and left his office to begin work on something that would save their butts.