Maria Carbonell and Martha Kane Part 5
Batman knocked on the door, “Come in”
He went inside to see Dr. Banner carefully tying Royce’s hair in a ponytail, Harley and Peter were waiting beside him with little Donnie in Peter’s arms.
“Is Stark awake?” as Bruce Wayne, he would have greeted them a little more warmly but the children didn’t know about his double life so sacrifices had to be made.
Royce stared at him in distrust while Harley’s eyes got comically wide but Peter Parker didn’t seem very phased. Of course, he rolled his eyes, the teenager had an intelligence that could rival his godmother’s and Dr. Banner’s the only thing separating them was the degrees and the experience, while Dr. Banner said that Harley was almost as smart, the boy didn’t know what to look for, unlike ‘Spider-Man’ that had field background.
“Good evening, Batman” Dr. Banner got up from where he was crouching, “She is but she isn’t joining us for dinner” he motioned the rest of the kids, “But she is awake”
Without acknowledging any of them further, he walked towards the main room.
“Who is he?” the little girl asked.
“That’s Batman, he is the one that protects Gotham City” the brother, Harley answered.
Dr. Banner intervened before Peter could say anything, he almost smiled, academically smart but Dr. Banner also had some street smarts to him, “Ok, kids, let’s eat”
~*~
“I am taking the plug” her voice was small and emotionless, low…so unlike the Toni he remembered so unlike the Toni that the world has come to know and Bruce Wayne could only…what could he do?
“What exactly do you mean by that?” they were in the room that he gave them, secluded and safe even from his teammates, Toni’s husband and children were eating dinner in the cafeteria, Dr. Banner saying that he would bring back a plate that very probably would be left untouched.
“We…well, technically…” she took a deep breath and rubbed her chest area, around the Arc Reactor, “I gave Alpha access to Pepper, everything that I have ever hidden from the public so the Avengers could operate as they were…ever since Widow dumped all those files I put JARVIS and then Friday on the lookout to anything related to me or any of the others, a couple of weeks ago, after the whole mess in Leipzig…Friday put all her effort into Widow, Cap, Wilson, Barton, Maximoff and this new guy that I don’t know the name and to be honest I don’t care but what she found…”
Bruce waited but when her shoulders slumped and Toni averted her eyes, the fellow billionaire sighed, “Ms. Potts gave me all the information before sending you to Gotham” but Toni didn’t seem surprised by that if anything she looked a little amused and Bruce could only mourn the fact that there was no trace of a smile anywhere.
“Of course she did”
“So she will reveal everything in one single shot, that’s what you meant”
“Yeah, I don’t know…I covered up a lot of shit for them, perhaps this will backfire perhaps not, Pepper says that she has the right people to handle PR, she always does”
He thought about it, about perhaps helping Ms. Potts but as airheaded Brucie Wayne he didn’t have the politically savvy background to put weight behind it, he could give a few names to Ms. Potts though.
“What about you?”
Toni shrugged, “I don’t want anything to do with any of that, Pepper will call me when the dust has settled”
“No, how are you? With all of this? After all this?” Bruce only watched her shoulders twitching and then she bit her lip.
“I am a little numb. Like it hasn’t sunk in yet, there is just so much work to do and I didn’t have time to…Rhodey gave me this number of a therapist and…I don’t know, perhaps it can be a good idea after ‘the dust settled’”
~*~
“I think it is him”
“Are you sure? Not even their faces are alike”
“But he was the only one there and Hulk was missing”
“So what? That Maria Hill was also in the podium but she didn’t battle any of the aliens, and can you think about the Hulk just standing there?”
“You guys do know that we can hear everything, right?” Harley couldn’t take it anymore, were they dumb?
Flash, the one in the red spandex, note to self: make fun of Peter later, laughed sheepishly, “Sorry, er…hi, I’m Flash and this is Green Lantern” he smiled a little, the cowl not big enough to hide the blush on pale cheeks.
“We know who you are” the older teenager mumbled into his soup.
“Hi! I’m Royce, this is Donnie, Harley, Peter and Bruce” she finished pointing at her adoptive father, because they were sitting right next to each other, she ended up almost touching his nose, Bruce grabbed her finger and shook it a little as if greeting her, “No pointing, it’s rude”
The blonde girl pouted, “Toni does it all the time”
“It’s part of her charm” Bruce answered half joking, half deadpan.
“It can be part of my charm”
“No, it can’t” Peter and Harley answered in unison without even looking up from their meals to which Royce scowled at them.
“Er…right, pleased to meet you” Flash smiled a little hesitantly and then elbowed Green Lantern at his side that was still unashamedly staring at Bruce.
“Right!” he almost jumped, “Nice to meet you”
Bruce stared at them only for a couple of second before sighing, “Yes, my alter ego is the Oth… the Hulk and he is triggered by anger” he completed anticipating their next question.
Green Lantern grinned and sat down beside an alarmed Peter right in front of Bruce and Royce, Harley was at the head of the table and only lifted an eyebrow with Donnie in a highchair between him and Bruce cooing at everything, bright blue eyes inherited from his mother focusing on the newcomer.
“Seriously cool! There is even a meme of you and Thor defeating that… Leviathan thingy and then you punching him. That was so funny, dude”
Royce was grinning, Harley and Peter only stared at Green Lantern not knowing how to answer that, little Donnie staring wide eyed at everything and Flash chuckled uncomfortably.
“…thanks” Bruce couldn’t help the very small smile, the situation made him remember when he met Toni back at the Helicarrier.
Gulping a little and willing down the blush, Flash also took a seat next to his shameless friend, “How does it work, exactly?” that was a curiosity he had.
“The Hulk?”
“Yeah… I mean you…by yourself kinda broke the Law of Conservation of Mass” much to Barry’s relief, Dr. Banner laughed a little.
“Toni asked me the same thing” he explained, “We theorized that it was something in my genetics, anyone else would have died because of the radiation and, as you said, the conservation of mass seemly doesn’t apply to me, because if turned back into energy…”
“Everybody would notice” the fellow scientist winced much to Dr. Banner’s amusement.
“Yes, but I also don’t lose the muscles in big chunks. Due to recent events, Toni came up with the theory that perhaps the cellular decay works in reverse in my case, the starting materials would be the genetics in me that allow the radiation to build up instead of destroying. So far we have been unable to test it because that would require blood and tissue samples and my biology is also radioactive and although I could test myself, it would be impractical for me to make an entire lab inhabitable with Gama radiation to only confirm a theory”
Green Lantern ruffed, soon excited again, “But do you remember stuff from when you’re the Hulk?”
“Flashes, sometimes more, it depends”
Hal asked before Barry could step on his toe, “On what?”
“Whether or not I transform on my own free will” almost all of Barry’s breaths were coming out as sighs of relief when Dr. Banner only reacted with amusement.
“You can transform by will? Thought you said anger triggered the Hulk” emotional spectrum, of course, Barry smiled.
But this time Dr. Banner took a few seconds longer to answer, just enough to worry the speedster, finally he smiled a little self-depreciating and shrugged, “I’m always angry”
~*~
“That was so cool! Seriously, this guy would be the perfect candidate for a Red ring” Hal’s voice was getting faster and faster, “But I guess that then it would be a little Christmas-y” that made Barry choke and he quickly turned around just to make sure that the automatic doors to the cafeteria were closed.
“Aham”
“What is your problem?”
“Remember what Bats said?” he whispered but Hal only rolled his eyes.
“Oh please, he only asked us not to bother his cousin, nothing about the husband, the HULK husband” he said that as if that was all the excuse he needed.
“Trust you to take advantage on such a small detail that I’m pretty sure Bruce did not mean”