Chapter 10
“The boot was empty, why?” Peggy snaps as soon as she’s in sight, not even caring that she was in the middle of chatting with Hank about his latest ventures in the tiny world of an ant. Hope had convinced him to help her construct a diamond enforced beehive in her room as a type of bonding exercise, he actually had a photo of her snuggled between her worker-bees. It was adorable.
“It wasn’t when I arrived.” She hums casually as she eyes the British woman. She’d left the boot unlocked after shooing JARVIS away with the excuse that she didn’t want him to get bored just sitting in the car for hours, she’d promised to call as soon as she was heading back to the car. Those super soldiers were never getting out of cryo so it was nothing to worry about. “A pity, I won’t be able to make more.”
Peggy’s eyes narrow. “What do you mean you can’t make more.” She hisses, my, she was starting to draw a crowd.
“I used the last of a few things, a little risky but the only thing that worked.” She tells Peggy calmly before turning towards Nicholas Fury who was trying to lurk without drawing attention, he was so new it was adorable. “Be a dear and help our lovely Mrs Carter to bed, we wouldn’t want the whole world to know what’s going on. And do try to fix this little fuck up, I shudder at the lasting implications.”
“I…” Peggy chokes but she must be worse off than Helana thought because Fury does what she asks instantly, waving his hand to summon Phil Coulson to gently cox Peggy away. She must know that she’s losing the battle with Alzheimer’s because she lets herself be led away.
“Miss Stark, Mr Pym, I’ll see you at our meeting tomorrow afternoon.” Fury says confidently, she’d blink if she was a lesser person. “2pm sharp, being late isn’t an option.” Then he just up and leaves like he has any right to their time.
“Confident, wasn’t he.” She chuckles.
“Overconfident.” Hank bites with a dark scowl.
“True, are we curious enough to go?” She asks as she swipes two more mock cocktails, she’s paid the waiters heavily to bring her only non-alcoholic drinks because she couldn’t be bothered to pretend to be drunk and Hank was being dragged into it with her by proxy.
Hank’s scowl darkens further before he takes the drink. “I’ll bring extra Pym particles.”
“No need.” She assures with a sharp grin and a clink of their glasses.
Tony had been asleep when she’d returned and while he was napping on her lab table instead of his bed she’d take him being asleep at all as a win.
James though, he’d been wide awake and sitting pathetically at the glass wall separating him and Tony. Watching her descend mournfully. “Stark? Helana? I… they’re some really bad people after me, doll, and I need help.” James pleads weakly. In response she toes off her heels and leaves them just left of the doorway so she wouldn’t trip on them if she forgot, then she plops onto her rolling chair and lets the momentum roll her over. “I’m sorry I was going to kill you, they ordered me to and I… I couldn’t say no, Helana.” He continues as she rolls to a stop just in front of him.
She places her elbows on her knees, letting her chin rest on her linked fingers.
He wilts.
She tilts her head a little to the right.
He shrinks away.
She raises an eyebrow.
His expression shutters off until she’s looking into shards of ice instead of soft browns, a contrast to how fluidly he goes from weak, broken, soldier to highly confident assassin. “В красном ты выглядела лучше, котенок.”
“Liar.” She grins as she leans back. “I look good in everything.” He grins back and it’s so ruggedly handsome she wanted to deck him, dick. “Now that we aren’t pretending anymore I think we should clear the air, I thought we were friends Солдат and yet you tried to shoot me. Twelve times. I’m hurt.”
“I didn’t try very hard, котенок.” He purrs up at her.
“But you did try and it’s the thought that counts, no?” She purrs back. “However. Unlike you, I am a very good friend. I took that nasty little disgrace of an arm off and made you a nice new one.”
His eyes slide past her to the shiny new arm she was gesturing to before sliding back to her. “You’re very sweet, котенок. What’s the catch?”
She grins wider at him, so very glad he understood how in debt he was to her for not just gutting him in the middle of the street. “That.” She waves to where Tony was still sleeping. “Is my darling son, Antony Stark. If you cause him any harm I’ll rip you limb from limb with my bare hands. Да?”
“Да.” He repeats confidently, smart cookie.
“Wonderful.” She says with a clap of her hands. “Now, you’ll have to stay in there for a few days, maybe a week, while I convince the rest of the family but it’s not too bad. Think of it like a vacation.”
“This is not a request.”
Helana can’t help but grin at Fury before turning to Hank. “Did you hear that, Hank? They aren’t making requests.”
“I heard.” Hank growls, apparently less inclined to play with his food than her. “And I want to know where the hell you got the idea that you could demand anything from us? Helana is the only thing keeping your science departments floating and I quit years ago.”
Nick Fury stares them down, well, he tries too. Honestly he’s too young for her to take seriously and she’d lost what little respect she had for him in the future when he’d started manipulating Tony. Hank is clearly less inclined to fall in line being that this supposed to be their first official meeting with the new director.
“If you leave this room without giving us a blood sample we will be forced to treat you both as hostile entities.” Fury informs them stiffly. Like a puppy telling off a couple of lions.
“Entities?” She asks with a purr. “Why, it almost sounds like you don’t think we’re human.”
“I don’t.” Fury growls, well then. At least he was more direct than Peggy who liked to hide sharp objects around in the hopes she’d stab herself for the sample.
“How could you say that?!” She cries playfully.
“You know exactly how he can say that. You’re shit at hiding it.” Hank snaps making her pout. “Listen here, kid. We’re giving you one chance to back down and let us continue this little partnership we’ve got going on. But if you make an enemy of us then you’d better have better fire power than the shit outside. I mean three men with dart guns? I’m fucking insulted.”
“So you’re admitting it.” Fury states.
“It’s like he’s not even listening, Hank. Honestly, kids these days. No respect for their elders.” She sighs. “Do you know why Former Director Carter tried to be sneaky when dealing with us? Its because she knew that it was better for her and this little organisation if we all played nice. Yes, she never figured out this big conspicuously you all seem to have about our humanness because frankly Hank and I know how not to get stabbed by our own shit but you still got all those nifty little toys to play with.”
“We’re not giving you our blood. We’re not volunteering for experiments. The fact that we’re not declaring all out war for the insult alone is a miracle.” Hank growls.
“Think about it, Nickolas.” His eye twitches at the fact that she knew his name even though he hadn’t introduced himself. “What happens if you do manage to capture us?”
“Three guards.” Hank grumbles angrily. “It’s like he thinks just because we’re older than him we’re falling apart.”
“The entire world is going to start panicking when the CEOs of two major companies suddenly go missing.” She explains gently, like he was an unruly child. “You could claim that we died I suppose, but when we get out.”
“And we will be getting out you little shit.”
“It will be a bloodbath.” She smiles sharply at him, Hank made the best hype man. She can tell because both of their blatant disregard for whatever plans he had was visibly worrying him.
“This won’t be happening though since you only have three guys.” She loves how pissed off about that Hank is. She gets it, she really does because really? Just three? But he’s so mad she circles back around to being amused.
Which is probably for the best, her being mad would end very badly for everyone involved.
Fury glares at them and she understands that they have put him in a tough spot, if he lets them go he’ll be weak but if he tries to capture them she’ll fucking ruin him, however she has bigger things to worry about than her bastardised baby organisation trying to free themselves from her like they’d survive without the financial help.
Her phone pings and she dismisses Fury completely, knowing that Hank was one wrong comment from jumping the table to beat the boy to death with his bare hands, to open the image.
Oh, oh no.
The picture has been clearly been taken by FRIDAY due to the angle of the shot. In the middle sits Winter [as he’d insisted, she call him since all he had of James Barns was the body], a sparkly green birthday hat strapped to his head and a yellow feather boa draped over his shoulders. On his left U is trying to add a second birthday hat to his head, this one blue with purple stripes. On his right Butterfingers has one of her expensive eyeshadow pallets in one claw and a make-up brush in the other, completely ready to give Winter a dark red blush. What really ticks up her sudden urgency is Dum-E, sitting behind Winter with the hose of his fire-extinguisher pressed against the back of his head.
This wasn’t the bots playing around. Dum-E was threatening Winter, U and Butterfingers were tormenting him in the very cruel way only children were capable of.
How the hell did they even get in there?
“And I’m afraid times up.” She says as she locks her phone again. “Hank and I are leaving, are going to let us or do you want to see exactly why just three men was a bad choice?”