Chapter 20
“Hi, Hello, Welcome.” Lilith Stark greeted the reporters and their entourages from the podium. “As you have all undoubtedly heard and seen, New York didn't have the best streak of luck yesterday.” The reporters chuckled but only briefly. “Alien invasions used to be the thing of science fiction and conspiracy theories, but then again, so was technology like my husband's Iron Man suit, which he keeps telling me is a Starkanium gold and titanium alloy, mostly, with some other materials in there as well. But even an event that had the potential to be an apocalypse for humanity has its silver lining. They say the worst of times bring out the best of people and I earnestly agree. Not only New York, as a city, and as the people who live and work in that city, banding together, to help rebuild that which was lost, never giving up our hope, but it has also brought out heroes who had their chance to flourish and do good. In these difficult times, I would like to thank the emergency responders who saved so many lives, the police who bravely stood their ground, setting up perimeters and getting people to safety. Thank you, to the national guard with their never before seen response times, arriving within less than 10 minutes of first reports of the attack. And thank you oh so very much,” she said, her earnest tone switching to a honeyed sickly sweet one dropping with sarcastic venom, “to SHIELDs World Security Council, who against the advisory of Director Nick Fury, sent out a nuclear attack to New York City, providing my husband with the opportunity to hijack it and redirect it at the attacking army, saving the city and manu miles of area surrounding it. On that note, thank you as well to Justin Hammer and Hammer Tech for creating a nuke that could be hijacked in the first place. Your mistakes saved more lives than your successes.” By this point everyone was still and everyone who could was tuning into her speech. “But today, here and now, I want to introduce our other heroes, people who took their abilities, and risked everything to push themselves to the maximum, taking out the attackers and banishing them Earth once and for all, saving us all. Please allow me to introduce the Avengers, who have in our time of need, proven themselves to be true superheroes.” She smiled for the cameras, spreading her arms for dramatic effect, as Iron Man landed in his signature three point pose, behind him War Machine and Marvel, back to back. Flipping off of a nearby ledge where she had gone unnoticed was Black Widow, and Hawkeye jumped down, only to shoot one of his bungee jumping arrows up and swing in, landing. Then in came Captain America, bedecked in his uniform, sans helmet and with his vibranium shield. Then Thor landed, hammer rocketing him in, followed by Bruce Banner casually walking out from the back, side by side with an unrecognized man in his early 20s.
“I introduce to you the Avengers.” She said, knowing the cameras got every last moment.
They all stood up, sheathing their weapons, and in Tony and Rhodey’s case, stepping out of theirs.
“Now, you may know or recognize some of these people. I'll introduce them to you anyway. All of you seem to like our nicknames or code names, so here you go.”
Tony waved to the crowd first, and his suit waved with him. “Tony Stark, the one and only Iron Man!”
Tony took a step back as Rhodey stepped forwards. “Colonel James Rhodes, United States Air Force, and War Machine!”
Rhodey and Carol repeated the procedure. “Colonel Carol Danvers, United States Air Force, also known as Marvel!”
“Next up, our very own two renowned ex-SHIELD agents, Clint Barton, codename Hawkeye and Natalie Rushman, former code name The Black Widow!”
“And we all know renowned WW2 hero Steve Rogers, not long since defrosted from the Arctic ice, the star spangled man with a plan, Captain America!”
“And introducing our favorite extraterrestrial, and the oldest member of the team, carbon dating as 1.524 Earth Years, first in line for the throne of his home world, Thor!”
“And last but most certainly not least, Tony please step to the side, we all know you're pretty, our two plainclothes Avengers. World-renowned researcher scientist Doctor Bruce Banner, who can turn into our favorite jolly green Goliath, The Hulk, at will! And the enigmatic shapeshifter we just know as Ed!”
“Please welcome, for their first ever press conference,” Lilith wiped a tear from her eye, “the babies are growing up,” then smiled and said, “The Avengers!”
And she put away the microphone, stepping to the side of the podium ,as up on the screen behind her appeared the words, “Full profiles of the Avengers, their abilities, and even some reels and bloopers of their abilities will be available on the website of their sponsor, Stark Industries, in 3…” it counted down, “2...” Everyone not set to be interrogating the Avengers opened up their devices to the Stark Industries website, “1… Now!”
Director Fury of SHIELD was not happy, not one bit. “Coulson! You were supposed to be their handler! What the fuck went wrong?!”
“Sit, I suspect it all went wrong from the moment Tony Stark was put into the consideration list.”
“So you're saying it's all on Stark?”
“No, sir. I'm saying it just went off the rails from the beginning, but that was the defining moment.”
“Now let me tell you exactly what damage control you have to do.” Fury began, but then the press conference was on.
“First of all, since when are Barton and Romaniff ex-SHIELD instead of current?”
“I think that was their resignation, sir.”
“Who is the shapeshifter?”
“No clue.”
“And when the fuck did Carol Fucking Danvers get back to Earth?”
“Sir, I think right after you did, back in 92.”
“And what are you to the Avengers?” A reporter asked Lilith Stark.
“I'm the cool head for all their reckless bravery and heroics. A personal friend of mine gave me the nickname Mrs. Boss.”
Fury froze, looking at the screen. “I need to deal with this shitshow. Coulson, get out of my office and don't come back until you have made progress, I don't care if the world is ending, been there, done that.”
“Yes, sir.”
Fury groaned. There was no way to salvage the situation, was there?
“When you said soon, I didn't expect it to take 8 years.” Teddy said.
“I'm sorry Teddy, public opinion is a fine line few can even see, and sometimes, it takes this much to do it.”
“Mom?”
“Yeah Teddy?”
“What were you hiding yesterday? With the Avengers?”
“They weren't ready to hear the truth about some things, and I wasn't ready to share.”
“Did you tell dad?”
“Most of it.”
“Can you tell me?”
“Of course, you deserve to know the whole truth. Both about me and about you.” And so she did. She told him the whole uncensored truth, about her own circumstances of birth, then Darcy's, then of her years in Hogwarts, not censoring anything. She had experienced it younger than him, she would be a hypocrite if she said he wasn't old enough to know. She told him about Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, about their newborn son, orphaned after a mere day, adopted as her own by Hermione Stark. About how the only thing Remud and Nymphadora had managed to give him was their love and Nymohadoras Meramorph outfit,, the only gift she had ever gotten from the Black family. About about her childhood and then her Hogwarts years, because she was earlier than him when she experienced it, he was old enough to hear of it secondhand. She told him about how he himself was born, and about how he was orphaned barely a day in, and how he was Hermione’s son in all the ways that counted, and after that hers and Tony's as well. She told him about the Order of the Phoenix, and about the battle that was Dumbledore’s last stand. She told him about the Ministry of Magic, and of all the lessons they learned from the war. She told him about Ron, about Hermione and about Luna. About Neville’s bravery destroying a horcrux with his last breath and about the vitality of even the smallest elf like Kreacher. She then took a deep breath, buried her feelings as deep as she could, and told him about their endgame plan, and how it worked, and how the two of them ended up with Tony in the end.
“So you fed him amortentia? Does he really love you? Or me?”
“Yes, Tony. The amortentia was improved, but it wasn’t perfect. It has long since worn off. It’s a drug, Teddy. Do you think I wanted to curse Ron so badly I would get pregnant while Tony was on a drug?”
“No, no I didn’t.” Then he paused and said, “That’s why you were reluctant to say where you got it from.”
"The cooling corpse of Nymphadora Tonks, well, actually Lupin. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I don't remember them and I’d like to believe they would have wanted me to live as best I could.”
“You can meet them, if you want. I’ve put it off for long enough.”
“They’re dead.”
“Teddy, so am I. I can’t bring them back for good, even if I could I wouldn’t, but I can bring them back, on the day of their death. To talk.”
“I think I’d like that.”
“You can come with us, Tony and I, when we go and talk to Hermione, Ron, Luna, and well, everyone else. I think Hermione would love the man you’d grown into.”
“Thanks mom.” She just hugged him, as they relaxed in the peaceful and safe comforts of each other’s embrace.