Chapter 9
Harry had forgotten what home life was like before Clint, apparently. Twice he had almost called Hermione by her name instead of "Pepper." He did called Blaise "Slimy Slytherin" once, but thankfully Bruce had taken it as some kind of joke and said nothing about it. In the long run, Harry hated having to censor himself in a place he wanted desperately to call home. Sure, he had to do it back when Clint was a creepy bird-watcher, but somehow this felt worse.
Clint texted him at least three times a day, giving random updates on almost everything. "Coulson won't stop asking about you." Or, "Fuck, New Mexico is going to be boring." And the funniest, "Hey, my boss is so awesome he just kicked some ass at a gas station while buying me donuts." Harry had been promised the full story behind that later.
He also called every night and Bruce was nice enough to completely leave the room. Agent Romanoff would sulk around until she got tired and disappeared into her rented room. Harry didn't trust her not to listen in, so his conversations were still subdued on his end. Clint understood his paranoia and kept things that were between them quiet.
Harry and Bruce were sitting and watching a rerun of Justin Hammer's hilariously failed attempt at drones from earlier that day. Really, it was embarrassing that Harry had given the man an open slot, especially since the Navy drones shorted out and fell to pieces on stage. It was the first time Harry had heard Bruce laugh since he arrived.
The third time they watched Justin Hammer crawling away from the wreckage on stage (Harry would swear to the grave that the man was actually crying), his phone rang. Harry looked at the ID and his grin widened.
"Gotta take this, Bruce. No, no, don't get up." Harry stood, pushing the man back down. "Just relax."
"If you say so."
"I do." Harry put the phone to his ear. "You're late, Barton. I'm disappointed in you."
"Night from hell. Are you near your toys?"
"I can be." Harry stepped into the elevator and hit the button for his lab. "What happened?"
"You remember how I said we were protecting a damn hammer?" Harry made a noise of agreement. "Some idiot broke into base to try and steal it. I'm going to watch Coulson question him and I wanted to know if you could stand to watch a movie."
Harry rolled his eyes and stepped into the lab, waving a hand to turn on the computers. It wasn't magic, just Jarvis, but it was still cool. "Patch me in, but I want audio as well."
"You're the supposed genius here, fuck. Give me a second."
It didn't take long for one of the screens to show a security feed. Harry settled down in front of it and put Clint on speaker so he didn't have to hold the phone. "The room is empty, idiot."
"No wait! He's right outside—there. See?"
Harry arched an eyebrow as the door slid open and Coulson walked a tall, blond man into the room. His muscles were insane and his stance, though defeated, screamed out someone who thought they were better than others.
"That guy broke in? He's huge!"
Clint laughed. "Yeah, well, we got several people here with bloodied noses and broken bones. Wherever he's from, he's well trained."
"Hm… If he were here, I'd scan him." Harry leaned forward, trying to get a better look as Coulson asked him various questions. The man didn't even acknowledge them. "Why didn't he take the hammer?"
"Same as everyone else. He couldn't lift the damn thing."
"Hm." Harry pulled up another screen. "Send some pictures of it to me. I'll have Jarvis scan it."
"Na, we already know what it is. I don't believe it, but they do. Go look up some Norse mythology."
Harry figured Hermione would enjoy it more, so he wrote himself a note to ask her about it. "Cool. So hey, who's that other guy in the room with Mister Break-In?"
Clint was silent for a moment. "What other guy?"
"There's a guy in the room and they're talking. I can't hear anything, but something's happening."
There was a shuffle on the other end. "Tony, there's nobody else in the room."
Suddenly, the man disappeared and Coulson returned. Harry swore, adjusting his screen so he could see all the cameras for the compound. He spotted him almost instantly by the hammer.
"Clint, I'm not messing around. He's staring at the hammer now."
Clint was quiet for a few moments. Then, "Hammer is in sight and I see nobody but our own guys. What do you see, Tony?"
"Flash something, let me know where you are." There was a glint on one of the screens. "Okay, about three o'clock from your point of view, there's a man reaching out to the hammer. How can you not see this?"
"Can I trust you?"
"When can you not? He's trying to pull—" Harry stopped talking as an arrow flew through the man –through him- and embedded itself in the mud.
"How the hell am I going to explain this? There was nobody there!I don't…"
Harry shifted in his chair. "He's looking right at you." Then the man turned and stared straight at the camera. He smirked at Harry and disappeared. "Well shit."
"I am officially creeped out."
"What did you feel?"
Harry watched as Clint jumped down to retrieve the arrow. "Like something just crawled into my head and poked around."
That wasn't just a normal man, though Harry figured that as soon as he saw him. No, that was a wizard. A powerful wizard. "I need you to tell me if you feel that again. I don't care what I'm in the middle of, okay? Send me some kind of sign."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just paranoid. Promise me, Barton."
"Fine, fine. I promise." Clint sighed and looked up at the camera. "I'm going to go talk to Coulson, see if there was something funny caught on cameras. I'll give you an update later."
"Thanks." Harry smiled at the small wave that Clint gave before he turned off the screens. Not two seconds later, someone knocked on the lab windows. Harry smiled at a nervous-looking Bruce before waving him in. "Jarvis, unlock the door."
Bruce pushed open the door, but he didn't come too far into the lab. "Sorry for interrupting."
"Not a problem. What can I do for you?" Harry motioned toward a stool next to him. "Have a seat. Sorry it isn't more comfortable, but I might have set the cushion on fire the day I got in here. Not really sure what happened and I don't remember—"
"Your reactor is made with Palladium, yes?"
"-exactly what I … you… um." Harry stumbled over his words before finally turning his mouth off. That hadn't been what he was expecting at all.
Bruce looked anywhere but at him, wringing his hands against a frayed part of his over shirt. "It's just… I followed you stuff even when I was on the run and I heard from the papers that you were kidnapped. Word-of-mouth travels faster than paper sometimes, so I heard a rumor that you broke into their weapons shed, ripped apart a few missiles, and made the thing that saved your life."
That was so much cooler than what actually happened. Harry looked away, back to the blank screen that Clint had just been on. "Your point, doctor?"
"Is it true?"
Harry sighed. "Certain aspects of that are. For once, it seems as though my WMD's saved someone rather than slaughtered them."
"So you're using Palladium. Or you were using it until you got back, right?"
What else was he supposed to use? Harry pushed a pen across his desk, frowning as it toppled over the edge. "Palladium is efficient for what the reactor needs to—"
"Are you an idiot, Stark?" Bruce stepped closer. "I thought you were smart, a genius that the world hasn't seen in years. You built an armor to protect people. You take down terrorists and brush it off as if everybody could do that."
"Bru—"
"And you're still using Palladium?" Bruce's eyes seemed to green a little, but that was surely a trick, right? "Answer me, Stark."
"You have big balls coming in here to try and force things out of me."
"You have no idea how big they are. I need to see everything you have on the reactor in your chest."
Harry frowned, pushing his chair back to put distance between them. "Yeah, no. Not going to happen."
"Do you want to die? Is that it?" The scowl that had just been on Bruce's face deflated. Harry felt bad for making him upset, but only a little. "Tony Stark has a death wish?"
Harry shrugged. "There's nothing that can replace it, sorry. I've looked."
"You're an engineer. What you need doesn't involve robots or building things or figuring out how to put roller blades into your suit." Bruce pulled the charred stool closer and settled down in it. "Tell me everything you know, Stark, because we're not going to stop until we find something."
"Why do you care?" Harry hesitated before pulling himself back to the desk. "Why bother with helping me through this?"
"You know, maybe the question you should be asking is why don't you care." Bruce motioned to the screens. "Bring up the periodic table before I start reciting this and let's go through what you've tried."
"Well that's easy. I haven't tried a damn thing."
The smile that came to Bruce's face was both terrifying and reassuring. "Then there's still hope that something can replace it. Come on, use that brain I know you have and let's get to work."
Harry really wished Hermione were here, but he settled himself into working through this for now. He would worry about Clint and Mister Mystery later.