But Life Ain't What It Seems
The boy knew who Iron Man was, he knew who all the Avengers were. They were bad people.
Very, very bad people.
He was being trained to eliminate them one day. That was going to be his big mission that brought Hydra back from the dead—he wasn’t supposed to know that, but everyone seems to forget about his hearing.
He looked up at the metal figure, eyes wide and fearful. He was too weak to fight him off. His body ached from drowning just a short time ago, his head was so fuzzy he doubted himself in his ability to walk in a straight line from the alarms, and he was yet to receive his daily meal.
“What the hell?” he heard the man whisper. “Guys, there’s a, uh, there’s a kid here.”
The boy’s eyes, if possible, widened even more when a response came, disembodied and crackly.
“A kid?”
“Are they dangerous?”
“Doesn’t look it…” Iron Man replied. He clicked his tongue. “Looks scared mostly.”
“Well we’re not detaining a kid, right?”
“Definitely not.”
“Well then, what are we going to do?”
“We could keep them.”
“Clint, we can’t just keep them.”
“Sure we can. Why not?”
“Because… Because.”
“Very convincing, Steve.”
“FRIDAY, mute my comms.” There was a clicking sound and the voices stopped. The red and gold figure broke apart and a man stepped out of it. “Hey kid, I’m Tony.”
Tony. Tony was a normal name. Like Peri Lowe, or Dr. Brennor, or Emerson. Not like Iron Man, or PP-12. The boy knitted his eyebrows together.
“What’s your name?”
“P P Dash Twelve,” he mumbled uncertainly. Tony sucked in a breath.
“Let’s get you out of here, yeah?” The boy cocked his head to the side. “Don’t you want to leave?”
“Leave?”
“Yeah, you can leave.”
“Can’t leave. Dead like R L Dash Nine.” Tony shook his head.
“We’re here to rescue you. They can’t hurt you anymore.”
The boy hesitated. An endless amount of questions were swirling through his mind, but he had learned through his obedience training that voicing them was unacceptable.
But Iron Man—Tony—wasn’t Hydra… so did those rules even apply?
“Hurt me?” he asked timidly. He saw Tony wince and recoiled. This was the longest conversation he’s had in years, surely he was nearing punishment territory.
“Hydra hurt you, kid.”
“Hydra’s good.”
“Any organization that was good wouldn’t leave a kid in a gross cement room, cold and wet and clearly malnourished.”
The boy looked down and quietly observed his fingernails, blue from cold. Could Tony be right?
No, that was impossible. If Tony was telling the truth, then his whole life had been false. He’d suffered for no good reason. But then again, none of the scientists or other employees—all with normal names—had to drown or stay up as long as their body could handle or undergo surgeries to see how fast they’d heal. Was that not normal then?
His eyes found their way back to Tony, whose face was pinched with what seemed to be concern. No one had given him that look before—no one other than Peri Lowe… the ‘traitor.’ So if the only two people to ever be concerned with his well-being were on the other side, then maybe Tony really was telling the truth.
He didn’t want to think of the implications behind that.
“You’re good?” Tony nodded and took a step forward, causing the boy to flinch violently, and Tony immediately stopped.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“No punishment?”
“Why would I do that?”
“I talked too much.”
“You can talk as much as you want if you come with me.” The boy searched the man’s face, looking for even the tiniest hint of deception. Maybe this was a loyalty test for Hydra? Or maybe the man really was Iron Man, and he was bad just as he’d been taught, and the man was there to kill him.
But he found no evidence that Tony was lying.
“Okay,” he said finally, slowly lifting himself from the floor.
Tony flashed him a smile before backing into his suit and saying, “FRIDAY, comms please.” The click sounded again. “What’d I miss?”
“What the hell, Stark?”
“You can’t just drop that on us and leave!”
“It happened, I’m back now, stop living in the past,” Tony said with a smirk.
“Well everyone is knocked out and in cuffs so our part is done.”
“We’re waiting for you in the quinjet.”
“We were about to send Sam to make sure you weren’t dead.”
“Do you really have no faith in me?" He shook his head. "Don’t answer that… I’m coming with the kid.”
“We’re keeping them!? Ten bucks, Steve, pay up.”
“What the hell else are we supposed to do? We’re not letting Fury get his hands on him, he’ll see him as just some more information, another person to interrogate.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself, Tony. Just hurry up, I’d like to get back home sometime today.”
“Right. I’ll be there in five.” He looked to the boy, who was watching the exchange with curious eyes. “Well, come on then.”
The boy walked cautiously toward Tony, stumbling as he went, still dizzy from the alarms.
Tony outstretched his arm, and the boy stared at it for a few moments before leaning into it gratefully.
___
“Took you long enough,”
“Beats the time you were an hour late because you dropped and lost your bow.”
“One time! That was one time!”
The boy sat down next to Tony, and let out an audible gasp when he felt his surroundings shake around him.
“Don’t worry kid, it’s supposed to do that. Look, out the window,” Tony said, nodding his head toward the window behind them. The boy turned and stared, watching, mouth agape, as they were lifted into the air and left the old gray building behind.
“Wow,” he whispered, the only word coming to mind. It was as if his vocabulary had packed up and left.
He turned back around sometime later and was met with the stares of six adults.
To say it was disconcerting was the understatement of the year.
He looked down at the floor and shivered. His shirt was dry by now, but his hair was still damp and dripping drops of water down his neck. Tony must have noticed, because he stood and left for a moment before returning with a blanket and draping it over him. He smiled in thanks; a small, shy smile, but a smile nonetheless.
The ride continued in an awkward silence for a few minutes before a man with a bow in his lap—he recognized him as Hawkeye—leaned across the aisle and said “hey, kid. My name’s Clint.”
Clint. A normal name. He looked to the other Avengers—Black Widow, Captain America, The Falcon, The Hulk—did they have normal names too?
As if his thoughts were being read aloud, the others introduced themselves as well. Turns out they did have normal names—Black Widow was Natasha, Captain America was Steve, The Falcon was Sam, and The Hulk was Bruce.
It was as if he was the only one in existence without a name. Tony did say that Hydra was bad, maybe Hydra took his name.
Why would Hydra take his name?
He swallowed, eyes downcast, and said “it’s nice to meet you all.”
He meant it.