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PREVIOUSLY ON: Dawn of New Change
The last chapter was a two year time jump, Taeyong is now 16 years old. We have just discovered that Mark and Johnny are actually cousins and not brothers. Taeyong is celebrating his birthday with the people he loves most and for the first time, we get to see who Taeyong is without his people. Taeyong without the superhero dad, or the Avengers for friends, Taeyong without Mark, or Johnny, or Rhodey, or Pepper, or Happy and even without Jarvis.
Which begs the question, who is Taeyong Lee-Stark without them?
HYDRA Research Base
Sokovia, Eastern Europe
"This is not a drill!
"We are under attack!"
There were marching footsteps that scattered around the undercover base of another HYDRA HQ. Soldiers and HYDRA agents were scrambling for weapons. Rifles and guns, different assortments of weaponry that were hanging on walls and plastered on shelves. Once used maybe two or three years ago, but were vitally important for now.
These soldiers were too comfortable, they were used to the idea of staying in their perfect bubble. Of the delusions that HYDRA fed to them. That they were protected; if you were to cut off one head, two would grow in its place.
"We are under attack!"
They were under attack and although they had the numbers. They even had the weaponry and the man power, there was something that they could never defeat.
They were up against the Avengers.
Taeyong was sitting in the Quinjet, hands running over the holographic key set-up. His eyes were scanning over the castle that the Avengers were trying their best to infiltrate. Taeyong was technically not supposed to be out on the field but he had the tendency to sneak his way onto the Quinjet. He also had the brains to fool both his father and Jarvis.
After having gone with the Avengers to at least five of their missions, all within the safe confines of the Quinjet, Taeyong was allowed to stay for them. Most of them at least, sometimes Taeyong found that he had too much schoolwork or that Johnny and Mark would be coming over and he'd rather spend his time with his friends instead of saving the world. This was also why Tony tried his best to make sure their missions coincided with Taeyong's little 'play dates.'
Pathetic really, considering Johnny and Mark would much rather hear about the mission Taeyong would accompany than actually spend their days just lounging on the couch watching reruns of... well they were currently watching 'Sherlock.' Taeyong liked it enough, Mark got bored easily and Johnny kept talking throughout the show so no one ever paid attention.
Taeyong would have to rewatch that with Happy at some point.
Anyway! Back to the totally safe mission that Taeyong was safely tucked away from, so that he was... you know... safe. He had a little area in the Quinjet that he practically made into his own little lab. There were three monitors, a bit of an overkill but Taeyong much preferred the monitors over the holograms. At least they had more colours.
Also, he now had a proper ear piece so that he could actually talk to everyone through their comms instead of just having the one link between his dad. Taeyong was keeping track of the HYDRA base that the Avengers would eventually get to.
Currently the Black Widow and Hawkeye duo had compromised one of the HYDRA jeeps and were battling their way through the thick forest. Taeyong had to admit that the forest; with trees older than probably Thor and then the snowy terrain, was a really good hiding spot. Props to HYDRA for that one.
The only reason the Avengers had managed to find out about the place was because their satellites had managed to find the suspicious energy levels the castle was pinging off.
Clearly, whatever they were working on was a rush-job.
Taeyong rested against his wheely chair and looked back up at the screen with his legs resting up on the desk space. "Tank on the Widow dad, I think there's a bot heading your way Natasha," he said.
"You think?" Natasha grunted through the comms. Taeyong winced, watching her duck down in the open doors' jeep and then elbow the oncoming bot.
"No, no," he quickly hurried. "It's there! Good job, you have to show me that one."
"God- he gets that from me," Tony muttered.
"As opposed to..." Clint teased, firing an arrow back at the bot. Taeyong and Clint both watched it explode, tiny hunks of metal scattering in the ground and lifted a little whirlwind of snow from the force. "Taeyong?! You have another sarcastic dad we don't know about?"
Taeyong hummed, "Uncle Rhodey?" he ignored Tony's indignant squawking. "I'm being serious here. I think the entire Iron-man fam had a hand in raising me."
"Did you just say fam?" Steve piped up. Taeyong and Johnny had been trying to explain slang to the man for the better part of two months now. Everyone over the comms groaned.
Taeyong waved them off, even if they weren't able to witness it, he was convinced there had to be at least one Avenger that spoke the language of the internet. And like... "Steve is arguably the youngest."
"Did you just-"
"What?!"
"Need i remind you of the 70 year long nap session-"
Steve scoffed, "I wouldn't describe it as a nap."
Taeyong set his legs on the ground and wheeled himself closer to his monitors. "Okay but like mentally, Steve is technically the youngest, right? Like how old are you Steve, really? Cause I swear Clint is in his thirties-"
"Okay what?!" came Clint.
"I am over a thousand years of age, Taeyong," came Thor's insightful reply.
"Sick," Taeyong said, looking at his monitors. Thor didn't have a body cam like Natasha, or Clint or Steve. He and Hulk were the only Avengers in which Taeyong ever had a hard time trying to get a read on. Thor's electric powers, no matter how complicated and science-driven as they could muster, just couldn't handle human technology well. Then the Hulk? Yeah, Taeyong wouldn't try strapping a body cam on Bruce, let alone his green counterpart.
Taeyong did manage to get some good views of Thor just because the God and his dad were both fighting off HYDRA soldiers at their watchtower. Taeyong's ability to view the fight from above was a little sceptical.
The main monitor covered the castle they were trying their best to infiltrate but there was also the weird energy source that sent pulses of almost cosmic energy through the air. Cutting the screen every 5 minutes, and making the fight lag so badly Taeyong just wanted to restart his entire computer.
Jarvis wouldn't allow him.
Even so, the lack of video footage of Thor's fighting was still enough for Taeyong to sit and watch him in awe. Thor just bloody fought with brute strength and Taeyong admired that. He watch the God knock a HYDRA agent off the watchtower with a strong kick, before spinning his hammer, Mjolnir, in the air, swinging it into a HYDRA soldier's chest. Taeyong made a small 'oof' sound when he heard the soldier grunt and inevitably fall off the tower.
Other than his dad, whose entire suit was designed to be linked and tracked from the Quinjet and Jarvis, Steve was probably second best, when it came to body cam results. He was on his motorbike, not the one he used for his daily life but a high-tech Stark invention that Tony designed. It was fit for the Avengers missions that the new S.H.I.E.L.D. had tasked them with.
Taeyong hummed, "How's the bike Steve? This is the first time it's riding in snow correct?"
"It's making tracks alright."
Taeyong furrowed his brow, "I... don't know what that means."
Jarvis piped up this time, “I believe this is another piece of slang from the 1930s Taeyong. It would roughly be translated to: 'The bike is very quick or abrupt.' Would you like me to add it to the list, Taeyong?”
"Sure," Taeyong shrugged.
Natasha snorted, "you have a list of all Steve's old man sayings?"
Taeyong grinned wickedly, "I have a list of all of your guys' weird old people saying." Taeyong giggled, not fully hearing the rest of the arguments. His closest monitor had picked up on most destruction. Turned out the Hulk had ripped an agent in half and then smashed one of their jeeps into the ground, cue some general explosions and suddenly the screen was alright again.
The younger boy settled comfortably in his chair, grinning. "I love when you guys are together," he said. Every one of the Avengers had come together in unison in order to get over the pathetic defence line the HYDRA base had created. "It makes the computers all buzz happily because your trackers are all in range. Like bluetooth for anyone who doesn't understand," he quickly added on.
"He does not mean me," Tony said, his voice almost amused. Taeyong grinned.
"This time, I understand," Steve commented. "Thor?"
Taeyong burst out laughing when all he heard was a grunt from Thor's comms. He slowly went back to actually monitoring what was going on but the blasted castle was still tampering with their satellite readings and if there was one thing Taeyong hated about technology (which was really nothing, because he loved all his weird robotic siblings equally) it was when stuff lagged. One time, he was playing Galaga with Obadiah and the man's phone was so old-- actually, a bad story.
Taeyong should try to forget about the man, it's been a good couple of years. He should definitely forget about him.
***
"Shit!"
"Language!" came Steve's reply. Tony was in the middle of flying his way through the nearest window when his suit banged against the castle walls. He fell back from the force and took some damage to his right side. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"
"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield."
Tony rolled his eyes, that he could feel. "Whatever's in there is probably what's disturbing you," came Taeyong's voice.
"Strucker's technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base we've taken," Jarvis said.
Tony flew around the building, getting a quick scan over it.
"Loki's scepter must be here," Thor grunted from wherever he was still fighting. "Strucker couldn't mount his defense without it... at long last."
"Pfft okay," came Taeyong and Tony couldn't help but grin. "Calm down there Thor- if anything, his technology is a hindrance than a help. We just need to find his weak spot."
"'At long last' is lasting a little long, boys," Natasha said. "I've handled two birdies but Iron Man, we're gonna need you to penetrate into that shield."
"Yeah, I think we lost the element of surprise," Clint teased.
Tony shot down some HYDRA soldiers climbing up another watchtower and then furrowed his brows. "Wait a second. No one's gonna deal with the fact that Cap just said 'Language'?"
"Taeyong's listening!"
Taeyong's carefree laughter crackled through the comms, "Captain, I think you and I both know how bad my language intake is. We've binged 'Law and Order' together!"
"I know..." there was some sort of explosion from Steve's line before he said, "just slipped out."
Tony could applaud the man for ignoring the snorts and cackling trickling through the comms.
NEXT TIME ON: Dawn of New Change
"Dad, they look like they came out of 'I, Robot' and no one likes that film. Shit is creepy."
"Stop swearing??"
"I can't, need to emphasise how right I am and how wrong you are."