Chapter 3
(1.3m)abny
He didn’t catch Pepper. He asked her to fall and promised to catch her, to trust him, and he missed. Watching the curl of her reaching fingers as they just missed his own as she fell fast into the flowering flames, he could barely feel a thing. She was his heart, proof and all, and then he had lost her. He felt less and less human every day. Sometime he felt like more of a machine than his beloved machines were. Then she arose more like a phoenix from the flame than he ever was and she saved him. Pepper always saved him, inspired him, and loved him when no one else would. At least now he would have a chance to save her, to not miss. First he would cure her of Extremis, which she was injected with because of him, then he would deal with the WSC, free them both from that particular burden, and then he would leave Pepper, unclip her wings from the weight of him dragging her down. She deserved someone decent, someone who would catch her when she fell, and someone who wasn’t so broken in oh so many ways. Tony held her smoking body in his arms and kissed her fiercely, painfully as the Helicarrier suddenly showed up overhead. SHIELD would, of course, conveniently arrive after the party was over. Not that he wanted them at his parties anyways. However it would have been nice if at least one of the Avengers had thought to come and help him out. He was sure that they must have heard about everything, well maybe not Thor, who was off world where they didn’t get cable, but certainly everyone else. The news was practically shrieking its collective head off about it. But then he probably wasn’t a real Avenger, Fury must have been right about that. If he had been surely one of them would have come. He tried not to feel the pang of his wounded heart at the thought and shied away from it.
It didn’t take a genius level intellect to figure out who had been behind Aldrich Killian and his rag tag science team. The rubber stamp of the council had left its marks all over this shit fest. He had been impatiently waiting for them to make their move. And now the WSC had finally showed its dastardly, evildoing hand. Because of their funding of AIM and Killian, there was now a trail leading straight back to them, a very traceable trail. They were about to learn that they should never have fucked with him. They shouldn’t have hurt Happy. They shouldn’t have hurt Rhodey. And they should never, ever, have harmed Pepper. Those bastards were going to pay.
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(1.8m)abny
“Hey JARVIS? How’s it coming, man?” Tony asked while driving DUM-E and Butterfingers to his hotel. You’s frame had been too badly damaged to recover from the ocean unfortunately, although his personality and CPU memory were still uploaded on the Stark Cloud. He would just need to rebuild You. Maybe he could give him some repulsor capabilities… He would like that. He shook himself and got back to the matter at hand, speaking to JARVIS through his earpiece as he wove through the Malibu traffic. Which was as pleasingly vicious as usual.
“I’ve getting a lock on their locations and information, now Sir.” JARIVS’s British tone responded, proudly.
“Details, details! Come on share with the rest of the class!” Tony yelled joyfully as he pulled sharply in front of a Honda Accord that had had the audacity to cut him off.
“The members of the World Security Council include…Mary Cooper-Maryland, CEO of Grecos LTD., Tiberius Stone-” Tony cut in harshly and turned the wheel sharply, almost striking a guardrail.
“Bastard!” Tony snarled. JARVIS continued impervious.
“Indeed Sir, CEO of Stone Industries, London, Gregorio Matigo-Spain, Interior of Defense, and Yuki Toshiro-Tokyo, President of Toshiro Technologies.” JARVIS finished. Tony laughed and tossed his head.
“Ha! And they thought they were unknowable beings of untouchableness, JARVIS begin Protocol No’ Mo’ Money.” Tony ordered.
“Initiating Protocol No’ Mo’ Money now Sir.” JARVIS said.
“Fantastic! Hmmm, I can’t help but wonder why I wasn’t invited to this evil guild of evil in the first place? Surely I’m qualified, overqualified really…or at least I was…” Tony finished lamely.
“Perhaps your invite had gotten lost in the post, Sir?” JARVIS said playfully in his ear. Tony nodded in mock agreement, even though his A.I. could not currently see him.
“USPS is sooo unreliable these days. I’m sure that’s it. You know J, I just had an awesome idea!” Tony said excitedly. JARVIS sighed.
“Not another, ‘all my car’s should have female KIT voice and programing’ idea, is it Sir?” JARVIS asked. Tony smiled.
“Well they should! And I just needed to tweak the coding a bit. Although I will admit the Maserati was a tad over possessive, I’m sure she didn’t mean to try to drive me over the pier and drown me. Anyways this idea is waaay better. I should buy and privatize the post office! Pepper could have the postal service up and running at thrice the efficiency at less than half the cost within a week! I could totally see that, Stark Postal Service, delivering your mail at supersonic speeds! You know, Captain America totally has the hat for that, what with the Hermes wings and all he’s got going, he could totally help deliver.” Tony flapped a free hand at the side of his head. And then nodded assuredly. “Yeah, we’re doing that; work on a cool SPS logo won’t you J? And we need to celebrate our upcoming victorious cyber attack on the WSC. What kind of celebratory balloons do you like J?” Tony asked cocking his head.
“The Iron Man one they have at the Thanksgiving day parade?” The A.I. replied immediately. Tony stared at the surrounding traffic for a long moment.
“You mean…the humongous one that takes like 30 people to move?” Tony asked. After a period of silence Tony continued. “Well…I’ll say one thing for you J, at least you think big. Eh, I’m sure we can manage something.” Tony finished with a shrug and a grin just thinking about it.
“I’m glad to hear it.” JARVIS said as straight-faced as an A.I. without a face could sound.
“Anything for you man.” Tony replied feelingly.
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(1.9m)abny
Tony leaned back in his black leather chair aboard his private jet. Blue tinged holograms surrounded him. He folded his hands on his knees as he watched the show play out in front of him. “Fury, how did Aldrich Killian fail us so miserably?” Mary Cooper asked, her voice cold and clinical. Tiberius’ opinion chimed in roughly.
“I told you Tones was a sneaky bastard.” Tiberius said.
“You think Tony Stark’s behind this?” Fury asked.
“It wouldn’t surprise me at all Director, all the WSC funds having been mysteriously deposited into the charity fund for rebuilding New York? Yeah that sounds just like him.” Tiberius finished with a grimace. Tony smiled to himself. As much as he liked hearing people talk about him, he wanted to get this over with. He hacked Fury’s feed and replaced it with his own charming visage, appearing on all of the WSC’s screens. The faces in front of him looked up at him in shock for a moment before talking over each other angrily. The loudest voice demanded his attention.
“How did you interrupt this conference?” Yuki Toshiro asked angrily.
“With ease, now let’s see, careers, reputations, and bank accounts all ruined. Sucks to be in the evil league of evil, now doesn’t it?” Tony asked rhetorically.
“So you were behind all of this.” Tiberius stated, his face tight with rage. Tony put folded his hands behind his head and propped his feet up.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Ty.” Tony said nonchalantly. Tiberius snarled.
“You are such a dick.” Tiberius Stone said. Tony wagged his finger.
“Un uh. Pot. Kettle. Black. Says one of the bastards who tried to kill millions in New York not to mention fund an organization like AIM, all just to get to me.” Tony said.
“Narcissist, now I see it, we did read your file after all. AIM was not just about you, they were doing important pivotal work for the betterment of the world.” Gregorio Matigo said, his accent thick. Tony lowered his head.
“The greater good…” Tony chanted, trailing off.
“Exactly.” Grogorio said. Tony snorted.
“Humph. Yeah we all know where that leads, hail Hitler.” Tony said.
“You’ve no imagination Stark.” Tiberius Stone accused. Tony took his arms down and folded them over his stomach.
“I invent shit, you destroy shit, I pretty sure I could tell you which of us has less imagination here.” Tony said. He shrugged his shoulders. “So how do you want this to go down? You wanna break up what’s left of your creepy club on your own or do you want me to do it for you?” Tony threatened. Mary Cooper sat up in her chair.
“You can’t touch us! We know you destroyed all your suits!” She screamed almost hysterically. Obviously the loss of her funds had thrown her for a loop. Tony smiled indifferently at the woman.
“I am Iron Man with or without the suit.” Tony said, liking the way that sounded.
“You seem rather useless without it to me.” Yuki Toshiro said. Tony laughed scathingly.
“Yeah, but that’s the misconception, you see the armor the bells and whistles, the general awesome shininess and ya think it’s all there just to protect weak little me, like a turtle in a shell. What you fail to realize is that I’m more of a threat to you with out the suit. After I’m done with you, you’ll wish I had used the armor instead. I can wipe your identities from the map if I wanted; reveal to the world all the little secrets I’ve found out about each of you and air out your entire Council’s dirty laundry as well. I don’t think the world would look kindly on any of you, do you? You’ve been a very naughty Council.” Tony said. The Council looked on him in horror.
“And what is it you want Stark?” Gregorio Matigo asked slowly.
“I already told you. I want you to stop playing God and I want you to leave the Avengers and SHIELD to their own devices.” Tony said.
“There’s a reason we control things Stark. Whether you agree with our methods or not, we keep order in the world.” Tiberius rumbled.
“Well its time for a new order. Now step down, or be squished.” Tony said. The Council was silent for a full minute as they tried to stare him down, each in their own way. Mary Cooper was the first to crack.
“I’m done.” She said.
“Me as well.” Matigo agreed grimly.
“I am out of this.” Toshiro said.
“You win Stark, enjoy your victory, hollow as it is.” Tiberius said as he glared.
“Enjoy scraping what’s left of your credit scores, criminal records, and pennies from the bottom of your collective piggy banks. Happy trails!” Tony responded with an insolent wave.
“You’ll pay for this!” Cooper snapped her lip curling in a snarl. Tony tisked.
“Ick, cliché. Yeah and good luck with that.” Tony said and then blacked out all the hologram screens, ending the conference except for Fury’s end.
Fury spoke up suddenly in the sudden silence having heard the entire conversation and seen the powerful World Security Council utterly destroyed in a matter of minutes.
“We need to talk, in person.” Fury said.
“I’ll be in New York tomorrow, my schedule’s open, set a time.” Tony replied.
>>><<<
(1.9m)abny
Tony met with Fury at the New York City SHIELD location, cleverly disguised beneath an abandoned Borders bookstore. He drove his silver convertible V8 inside the underground car park next door and entered through a side door with a key code. The doors opened immediately into a sterile and sedate lobby. A bespectacled beauty of a brunette sat behind the wide desk typing on a laptop. Tony approached and asked without preamble. “Where’s Fury?” The brunette raised her head in her own time and asked with a polite arch of her brows over her glasses.
“Who Sir?” She asked. Of course this being a secret origination of secrets, the secretary did not have a nametag. So in his head he dubbed her with, uptight brunette.
“You know who I mean and who I am, just cut the red tape already and send me through.” Tony demanded impatiently. The uptight brunette looked up at him with a convincingly blank stare.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean sir. Might I enquire if you have an appointment?” She asked blandly.
“I’m sure you might. Just point me in Fury’s direction, ah forget it.” Tony tapped his earpiece. “JARVIS, which way?” He asked.
“Take the lift Sir, fifth floor down. Last door on the left.” JARVIS said as he started walking towards the elevator. The uptight brunette looked peeved but remained at her desk.
“Sir, I suggest you wait for an agent to escort you as you will need level 7 clearance in order to use that elevator.” She said.
“It’s cute that you think that.” Tony called back to her as he got in the elevator and had JARVIS force it to take him to the correct floor. He arrived at the door and entered without knocking.
“Fury long time, no see?” Tony joked, taking a seat in front of Fury’s desk.
“Stark, ever heard of protocol?” Fury asked with a glare over his folded hands.
“Nope, what’s that? Anyways, I took care of the WSC problem, now they’re off both our asses.” Tony said, taking a pen off Fury’s desk and twirling it. Proving that he was not afraid to touch Fury’s things without asking.
“And I suppose you want a pat on the head for that?” Fury said condescendingly. Tony looked up at him, stopping his pen fiddling.
“They were a corrupt bunch of power mad crazies! They’ve been causing more deaths than Loki ever did!” Tony declared.
“And your point?” Fury said with an eyebrow arched over his eye.
“My point is I expected a little gratitude for taking those bastards out of the game!” Tony yelled.
“Good boy. Happy now?” Fury asked mockingly. Tony stuffed the pain at the words deeply inside himself. He knew it had been a bad idea to talk to Fury again. He hadn’t even seen the man since the debriefing incident. Luckily not having to run into him when he did the Helicarrier upgrades weeks ago.
“I thought you were the one who wanted to talk?” Tony said quietly.
“I did.” Fury admitted. “But not about the council, well not precisely about them.” He finished. Tony looked at him considering.
“Then what precisely?” Tony asked.
“Now that the Council been cut out of the picture there has been a power vacuum taking up its place.” Fury explained. Tony thought about that for a moment and then leaned forward.
“A vacuum you intend to fill I assume.” Tony said. Fury nods. Tony’s eyes widened at the implications. “You can’t be serious, you want to be the next Council of Doom? And you don’t think that’s a bad idea- Wait. You knew about this didn’t you? You used me as a cat’s paw to get rid of the Council for you. It’s what you wanted all along!” Tony said, appalled.
“And for a self admitted genius, you were surprisingly easy to manipulate into doing just that.” Fury said. He got up and began pacing his office. “Didn’t it occur to you to wonder at how easy it was to keep your nosy A.I. buried in our systems? Didn’t you find it at all suspicious that I had cameras set up in my own private office? This is a secret organization after all.”
“If all this is true, if I’ve been set up since the beginning. They why are you telling me all this? What exactly are your plans Fury?” Tony asked, hurt and anger boiling in his stomach.
“My plans are none of your business. However I am telling you because now that the WSC has been dealt with, you can engage again with the Avengers.”
“Engage?” Tony asked pointedly.
“They’ve separated, been scattered around the world and beyond it, I want you to bring them together. As they will be needed again.” Fury declared.
“Know something I don’t?” Tony asked.
“The world’s getting stranger, the WSC was more a hindrance than you knew, the Earth needs to be prepared for the next fight. And mark my words there will be a next fight. But we need the Avengers, and you are the only one who could bring them together.” Fury stated.
“Why me?” Tony asked.
“You’ve got the space, the pushiness, and the location. And don’t think I didn’t know that this is what you wanted. I’m aware of the renovations you’ve got underway in that tower of yours. You were going to do this anyway.” Fury said, taking his seat behind his desk once more. Tony narrowed his eyes.
“Maybe so, but why the rush?” Tony asked.
“I’m sick of hearing Barton crawling through my walls and stealing from the vending machines. It’s like living with a fucking raccoon.” Fury said, annoyance tingeing his voice.
“And what else?” Tony asked.
“What do you mean what else?”
“A rodent infestation can’t be your only reasoning. Stop fucking toying with me, and tell me what else is there!?” Tony demanded. Fury smiled for the first time since Tony entered the office and it was completely without humor.
“You’re learning. Alright, I’ll tell you, better yet I’ll show you.” Fury said, leaving his office and gesturing Tony to follow him down to the eighth floor.
>>><<<
He left the New York SHIELD office two hours latter. Tony’s heart was far heavier than when he’d entered, the ache of his recent surgery aside, his mind trying to work out the solutions to a very complex problem. It turns out that Fury was right. The Avengers needed to be brought together and be on hand. Because this foe, was something he couldn’t fight, not alone. And he had to keep its existence a secret. He sucked at keeping secrets. But for now it was necessary, Fury had convinced him of that; they were in for a long game. Unfortunately he couldn’t help but feel that even with all the Avengers combined they still might not be enough to win. But he would work to try to bring them all together again. Tony tried not to smile at the prospect. After all he shouldn’t be happy that the world was going to burn, whatever the perks.
>>><<<
(2.1m)abny
“Um…yeah, pretty sure that this is a bad idea actually, a really, really bad idea.” Dr. Bruce Banner insisted yet again. He held his arms stiffly at his sides, the black boxing gloves hiding the clenching and unclenching of his fists. He wasn’t angry, well no more than usual, but he was frustrated.
“What are you even talking about? You totally need to let loose Big Guy, and I could use the practice, I need to get back in shape, since the operation you know? I’m back in the saddle baby, lets go, I’m ready, I’m ready, I do not watch SpongeBob, yep totally don’t, that’s my line and I’m sticking to it.” Tony Stark, snark extraordinaire danced back and forth on his side of the boxing ring, his nervous energy barely restrained, almost contagious. Bruce resisted the contagion as he shook his head, his newly cut hair not flopping around for once. He wore jeans and a plain button up white shirt. Tony wore a ragged Iron Maiden black hoodie, sweats and red gloves. Bruce hadn’t been around Tony Stark all that long, but he could already tell that when it came to fashion, in spite of his money, the man preferred to slum it whenever possible. He tried not to think too hard about the reasons why he’d seen Tony so seldom over the last couple of months. Of course, he had been occupied with that whole Extremis thing, and Bruce had been busy also, working in the lab Stark had lent him, he worked on finding cures for some of the diseases he had discovered in his wanderings but hadn’t had the ability or tech to do more than treat the symptoms. It was good work and while he was not necessarily happy, he was pleased. The Other Guy hadn’t made a peep since The Battle, luckily. He was so not looking forward to breaking Manhattan, it had been broken enough as it was.
He starred at the perplexing man across from him. Tony Stark, weaving back and forth across the ring, shadow boxing with himself. Almost directly after inviting Bruce to stay at his tower, which was still being refurbished, he’d swanned off to Malibu for two months. At the time he’d claimed he didn’t like the harsh winters in the City. Bruce didn’t know if that was true or not, it was difficult to tell when Stark was lying or just not saying the whole truth. After he’d left, they’d communicated by Skype occasionally, Stark asking how he was, if he was enjoying the new lab, the accommodations, the record snowfalls, which he was, maybe not the snow but everything else, immensely so.
Over the years he’d become accustomed to sleeping with the dirt, bugs and various elements, always hiding, always on the run, never safe. Just sleeping in a bed had become a privilege, and he was grateful, of course he was, but he had imagined from Tony’s invitation that the billionaire would be there with him, watching, monitoring, studying his every move. Instead after Tony’s sudden collapse and recovery, he’d been abandoned to his own devises. He’d walked out of the building a few times just to see if he could, as if anyone could stop him, but no one even tried, and no one followed him, he’d know if they had. It seemed Fury was as good as his word. He was in the wind; he could leave whenever he wished, go wherever he wished. But he stayed, he stayed because he was a scientist first and foremost and he grudgingly admitted the lab was nice, plus he was curious. He couldn’t figure out why the billionaire had bothered inviting him in the first place. He had thought it might have been to collect him, contain him, to add him as an asset, and shiny new plaything to Stark Industries, maybe even to experiment on him. But he had seen no sign of these things. Surely if he wanted him here just because the man wanted to talk science, as he put it, with someone who could speak his language, he could have found someone else to do so with, someone far, far safer. Reed Richards for instance. So why, why did he want him here of all people? He could not for the life of him figure it out. And the strangest thing of all, the man was not afraid of him, he knew that in his bones, he was much too acquainted with fear not to know its signs. He could admit in the quiet of his own mind that the lack of fear intrigued him and made the anger he always held on to lessen a tad, the roar lessening to a questioning rumble. Tony Stark was an enigma wrapped in a pretzel, with extra sprinkles on top. He’d been hanging out with the billionaire for far too long if his speech patterns were starting to rub off on him. He could feel the alarm starting to ring in his ears. Time to go Banner, time to run... He squashed it down viciously.
Now that Tony’s Malibu house had been destroyed, he’d flown back to Manhattan to live in the tower’s upper floors with him. It was a little awkward, more than a little awkward if he was honest. Tony gave eccentricity new meanings; he worked odd hours in his workshop, hardly ate meals with him, talked at supersonic speeds constantly, and strangest of all, acted like they were the best of friends, just like he had after the battle for New York. Stark had only installed himself in the tower barely a week ago and already they’d had two minor explosions, the last of which necessitated Bruce to get a haircut to even out his burnt hair, he was surprised the Other Guy hadn’t shown up, Tony was, predictably, disappointed. They had also had several ‘therapy’ sessions. Which he was pretty sure was just a put on by Tony to mess with his head. Needless to say, it worked. Bruce noticed Tony slug one of his thick green health drinks before he began stretching on the rubber ropes, limbering up for their fight. Bruce tried once again to change Tony’s mind about trying to box with him.
“Yeah, letting loose, not actually a good thing for me, you know that.” Bruce said. Tony stilled himself for a moment and cocked his head at him.
“All I know is that you’re going to learn how to box, and I’m going to get some exercise, win-win for all concerned, yay!” Stark said as he punched the air. Bruce moved back to the edge of the ring and put his hands behind him on the rope, trying to figure out how he got talked into getting into the ring in the first place, he was pretty sure it was some form of Tony-hypnotism, which he had become familiar with during the past week, and was probably why he had accepted his invitation to come live here in the first place.
“This is definitely not win-win. Why would I want to learn how to box, the Other Guy can beat to a pulp anything…or anyone he comes across.” Bruce said sadly.
“Puny Gods included.” Stark added with a cheeky grin. Bruce refused to smile in return, even though he had watched JARVIS’ recording of Hulk beating Loki into the floor with amusement. “Still, learning new things, totally a good thing, and it will be fun, you need fun, lots and lots of fun, and blueberries.” Stark said quickly, his words jumping over themselves to abandon his mouth. Bruce glanced over.
“Blueberries?” He asked, and then shook his head again. “Never mind, I don’t really want to know, how about I go back to the lab, and you can test out that new punching bag you designed for Rogers’ instead.” Stark moved up to him and put his glove on his shoulder. Bruce tried not to flinch, not used to people casually touching him. Only Tony would dare to touch him like that without the slightest hesitation. It was just another thing about Tony Stark that made him unique. Tony’s lighthearted voice slowly turned serious as he spoke.
“First of all I didn’t make them for Cap, though I have to wonder about his penchant for ripping the poor defenseless bags apart, I mean what did they do to him? Anyways, Fury bitched that SHIELD was going into financial ruin trying to replace a ridiculous amount of the damned things and insisted I solve the problem. Who knew he was such a drama queen? Oh yeah, I totally did. And finally, secondly, no way buddy, you’ve been hiding out in that lab for the past two months, you need some air, your looking a little...”
“Green?” Bruce supplied with a wince.
“Pale, I was going to say pale, smart guy.” Tony said with his trademarked smile while thumping his arm with a glove for good measure.
“I wasn’t hiding, I was working, important time-sensitive work that I really should be getting back to, and we are still inside Stark Tower, so how much air am I really getting?” Bruce pointed out obstinately. The boxing ring was located on the 80th floor.
“Its Avenger Tower, you did notice the giant A on the building right? And its different air, and all of it in the tower is circulated and pumped fresh from the roof, lots and lots of large vents, do you think Clint likes vents? I think he likes vents, seems like a venty kind of guy.” Bruce was confused by the non sequitur.
“Clint?” Bruce asked wondering who that was and why he would like vents of all things.
“Yeah, also called Hawkeye, you know, the assassin with the arrows who was controlled by Loki, but is now on our side and may or may not have a thing with Black Widow, I’m leaning toward may, but I am currently taking bets.” Tony supplied the name of the Avenger who had fought with them. He then rubbed a hand through his hair, mussing up his already mussed hair, his eyes unmistakably shadowed underneath as he continued. “Anyways its 32 percent cleaner than the outside air actually, totally smog free-but that isn’t the point, stop distracting me, and don’t think I don’t know that that is what you were doing. Now come on put up your dukes.” Tony moved away and raised his arms in a traditional boxer’s stance. Bruce gave it one more shot.
“Say you hit me, I go…green, then what?” He asked tentatively. Tony sighed dramatically.
“Jarvis?” He asked, his eyes staring in the middle distance. The A.I.’s voice appeared from thin air. Bruce was long used to Jarvis after having been around him for the past months. He didn’t startle as the dry British voice answered Tony’s question.
. “Yes Sir, I have the prototype Mark 43 ready to deploy in case the Hulk needs to be engaged.” Tony nodded, his point proven.
. “There you see? If anything happens, I’ll just put Hulk through his paces and test out my totally awesome new suit at the same time, two birds, and one mighty stone. You do know that he saved my life though right, like twice, and…New York?” Tony asked. Bruce never remembered much of what happened when he was the Other Guy, but he found it hard to believe that the monster had been that helpful, despite the evidence to the contrary. But he was a scientist and empirical evidence was his bible, so he supposed the Other Guy had been useful for once. But that wasn’t to say that he wouldn’t go wild the next time he emerged.
. “So you say.” Bruce said sighing.
. "I was there. I know what happened, and you have hundreds of shaky phone vids on YouTube to prove it. Hulk is not a monster, not really, and neither are you.” Tony said earnestly, seeming to read his mind as his brown eyes tried to burrow into his. Bruce looked aside uncomfortably as he pointed down at the boxing ring with his glove.
“Whatever you say. But this, this is a bad idea, Tony.” He said.
“Well Brucie, just so you know for future reference and all, me having bad ideas, not a new thing. Alrighty then Jarv play some awesome fighty tunes for our epic battle.” Eye Of The Tiger began blaring out over the speakers. Tony looked up in horror. “Oh no, no, no, Jarvis, don’t you dare! We do not do Rocky clichés, hell no, fix it!” The song ended abruptly and then ACDC’s TNT began playing and Tony flashed a smile and readied his fists. “That’s much better, ready or not, here I come. Aaand yeah I’m never saying that again.” Tony finished with a wide grin as he danced up to him and threw a fast punch with his right glove. Bruce dodged the hit falling back into the rope.
“Slowly!” Bruce shouted over the music, hoping he didn’t suddenly see green. Tony backed up a bit.
“Slow as paste. Just remember, keep your arms up, and it’s all about the footwork.” Tony said as he moved his feet to show how it was done, and stumbled slightly. Tony shook his head at himself and pretended nothing had happened resuming his fighting stance.
“Perhaps Dr. Banner would benefit from having a professional coach him in the ways of boxing.” Jarvis suddenly spoke up, his voice displaying the same acerbity as his creator.
“Awe, Jarvis, I’m hurt, I am professional-ish enough-ish.” Tony said, smiling. “Anyways Bruce thinks I’m cool don’t ya Bruce?” He said while looking at Banner mock hopefully.
“Yeah, coolest guy ever.” Bruce said rolling his eyes.
“Sarcasm does not suit you, and you need to work on better comebacks.” Tony said right before he threw another jab, that Bruce failed to block. The blow hit his chest, hard, but not hard enough to hurt. Bruce looked up; surprised that Tony had actually hit him.
“Hey!” Bruce said clutching at his chest. Tony ignored him and danced back a step, grinning.
“Foot work! Float like a butterfly, sting like a non-extinct bee.” Tony sing-songed at him.
“I thought, um, that guy, uh, Happy was your go to guy for boxing. Didn’t you tell me that?” Bruce questioned haltingly while moving over to the other side of the ring, keeping his arms up in case Tony went for him again. Tony’s smile abruptly faltered and then resumed.
“Yeah. He’s with Pep down in Cali., all ship and shape from his run in with a human bomb. Can’t bring him up here every time I want to go for a round though can I? Well I can, but I won’t…probably. Anyways come on, throw a punch, and don’t pull it either, you know I’m not.” Banner signed, resigned.
“That’s part of the problem…”
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JARVIS observed the playful match and banter between his creator and the man Sir had invited wholeheartedly into his house and life. He’d rarely seen Sir so happy in the company of another human, the exception of course, being Ms. Potts and Col. Rhodes. JARVIS had been gifted with the ability to work through complex problems, and come to his own conclusions. He thought that this positive human interaction would be good for Sir. He had spent a lot of time observing Dr. Banner and found him intelligent and agreeable. But the man seemed not to understand Sir, like so many others. JARVIS rescanned both of the men again, reassuring himself that Dr. Banner’s alter ego would not soon make an appearance, and studying the strain measured in Sir’s body. He was still recovering from the surgery; the removal of shrapnel and the majority of the arc reactor still healing and straining his body. He had cautioned against Sir being this physically active so soon. Sir had unsurprisingly, disagreed, which was why all he could do for him was observe his statistics and hope to persuade him to rest tonight. Sir had not slept for 34 hours, 43 minutes. It was not unusual, but Sir was still recovering. Therefore JARVIS would watch and wait, and hope that Dr. Banner would be a help to Sir’s physical and mental wellbeing.
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(2.1m)abny
Clint noticed a paper magically being slipped through a slit in the screen in front of him. He crawled forward silently and picked it up, finding it to be a letter. He squinted at the envelope by the faint light coming through the screen and read.
Dear Agent Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye
The ventilation system in the SHIELD Helicarrier
Airspace of Long Island
Barton shook his head bemusedly, noticing the giant red wax seal with the imprint of a hawk and opened the letter. Catching a keycard as it slipped out. He glanced at it for a moment before reading the letter typed on crisp expensive paper.
Dear, Hawkeye
You are cordially invited to live at Avenger Tower located in Manhattan, New York, floor 92. Feel free to bring any belongings you wish. If you have any accommodation requirements or questions feel free to forward them to the above address. We sincerely await your arrival.
P.S. I have way better snacks than a SHIELD vending machine.
Truly Yours, Tony Stark
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