Go! Go! Iron Man!
Bruce looked down on the sample and his insides turned cold. They had made their first tries with mixing Peters, well fish, DNA with normal human DNA and they had almost succeeded.
How was that possible? Something like this should take years and years of try and error to accomplish but they managed to get it done in a few fucking weeks. Maybe Zemo was smarter than he looked.
The scientist licked his lips nervously and looked up to the mad man who had a way too satisfied grin on his face, “and? What do you think doctor?”
Bruce grimaced at him, “this is surprising I would never have guessed that your men would have such an early success.” The man’s grin grew even wider and patted his shoulder, “me too but here we are.”
Zemo waved at a guard and the man stepped closer to grab Bruce by the shoulder and lead him away. For a moment Bruce considered fighting back but what good would that do? He was neither strong nor a good fighter and they would only get into trouble.
After the door locked behind him, Bruce sat down on his cot kneading his hands thinking frantically, he had to sabotage the project somehow. This was not allowed to continue and he needed to delay any further success. He stood pacing around the small room which basically meant that he took three steps into one direction turned around and walked into the other.
Suddenly the whole building shook and Bruce had to reach for the wall to not fall to the floor. What was happening now?
Peter was jolted awake as his prison began to shake. With panicked eyes he touched the glass and looked around. The humans looked completely confused but as the ceiling shattered they began to scream and disperse.
Peter stared with wide eyes as a thing; well he had no word for it, in red and gold landed in the middle of the room. It was human shaped and obviously intelligent since it looked around the room focusing on the men holding weapons.
The guards began to shoot it but the bullets uselessly hit the skin and the thing just raised a hand and a light and some kind of explosion happened that threw the humans to the ground.
A man jumped at it trying to knock it off its legs but the thing didn’t even falter, it just grabbed the man by the face and smashed him into the ground.
More shooting was coming from above them and the thing let out an annoyed and quite human sounding sound. It pointed its fist at the men and something like a tiny spear flew towards the men and the ground under them exploded and they were thrown to the ground.
Peter licked his lips watching the scene. He would never be able to describe it since he didn’t know how; he didn’t know the words for half the things that just happened. The thing turned and looked at him and Peter swallowed but something caught his eyes.
“Watch out!”
He didn’t know why he warned the thing but he knew that he could not let Zemo harm it. It spun around just in time to see Zemo charge at it. The man held a sword in his hand and attacked viciously.
The mad man was obviously very well trained in the art of swordfight and the thing did look, well it didn’t have any facial expression so it was hard to tell what it looked like. Peter just guessed it was surprised.
After hitting the red skin and not hurting the thing, Zemo aimed to pierce between the plates of skin and almost succeeded but it just sidestepped his attack and with another explosion coming from its hand, directly in Zemo’s face, threw the man back against the wall.
Peter exhaled as the thing turned around and the golden face lifted to reveal, “Tony!” The human grinned and nodded, “yes the one and only, baby.”
The merman almost cried but managed to just chuckle and shake his head, “gods Tony I thought you forgot about me.” Tony also shook his head and examined his prison hitting it with his fist, “I would never Peter, the entire time I was thinking about you.”
He hit it again and the glass shattered and Peter was pulled outside by the water. Tony caught him and lifted him up like a bride, “and now we can go and romantically ride into the sunset.”
Peter put an arm around his neck, “no, we need to find Bruce!” Tony frowned but nodded placing the boy down in a chair, “I trust they won’t hurt you so if someone shows up unexpectedly just scream.”
Peter nodded and Tony went to look at the system finding the man’s cell quick enough. He flew through the corridors blasting a few Hydra goons who were stupid enough to face him.
Tony stopped in front of the cell and simply ripped the door out of his hold, “what’s up doc?” Bruce blinked and jumped up from cot he had been sitting on, “Tony?”
Said man lifted his faceplate and grinned at the scientist, “oh yes, here to bust you out.” Bruce chuckled at that, “good to hear but we can’t just leave.”
With a sigh Tony raised an eyebrow, “why not? I already got Peter out why should we wait?” The scientist walked past him and down the corridor to the main area where the merman sat in the chair.
A little annoyed Tony followed him; the suit was not made for walking around much.
“Peter you alright?”
The boy still sat where Tony had left him and looked completely unbothered. He smiled and nodded, “yes Bruce, now we can finally escape.” Bruce shook his head, “no not yet.” Tony groaned, “why do you people keep saying that?”
Peter watched with a frown as the human walked up to one of the computers and began typing, “why not?” Tony walked up to Bruce looking at what he was doing, “you know Jarvis could help if you tell me what’s up.”
The doctor opened a file and showed it to the armoured man, “they had a breakthrough and we must delete all about it or else they might use it. Hydra could actually manage to make their own super soldiers with that.”
Tony chuckled, “but Bruce that would take years.” With a scoff the other man just pointed at a something at the monitor and Tony’s eyes widened, “alright get your point I will have Jarvis search their databanks and delete all files but we really should go.”
Finally Bruce nodded and Tony went to pick up Peter, “I spotted a helicopter on my way in you can take it.” The scientist didn’t look thrilled but Tony ignored it.
“Tony wait, I cannot fly a helicopter!”
The genius rolled his eyes behind his mask, “of course you can’t but Jarvis can so come along.” Quickly the doctor followed behind as Tony led the way to a landing platform.
“I will take Peter you take the Heli see you back in Malibu doc,” and with that the armoured man took off into the sky.
Peter since being a creature of the sea he of course never flew so he was genuinely terrified by being carried through the air at a ridiculous speed.
The scream that tore from the boy’s throat was heard far and wide and while Tony was only slightly startled another creature was excited by it.
“Jesus calm down Pete,” Tony said trying to calm the boy by flying lower so they were almost touching the water beneath them. He also managed to slow down a little so the merman opened his eyes peeking around carefully.
Like classic villains Hydra had built the base on an island in the middle of the ocean, the only thing that had been missing was a volcano.
Peter had his arms wrapped around Tony as he stared wide eyed at the sea. Never had he been able to get such a view of the world and a smile broke out on his face.
The boy reached out and his fingertips brushed the water. A laugh escaped him. Tony chuckled as he watched the boy.
“You like it?”
Peter looked up and noticed that Tony had lifted his faceplate and smiled down at his friend. They shared a look and Peter blushed deeply while Tony smirked.
“I have a question, do your people kiss?”
The merman managed to almost get as red as his tail but he nodded and when Tony moved to catch his lips the boy went to meet him halfway. Sadly though they never touched.
A loud roar erupted from behind them and suddenly Tony was pulled underwater. Peter yelped and fell down breaking the surface watching as Tony struggled and hit the water.
Gladly Tony remembered to close the faceplate so he didn’t swallowed too much seawater but just as he managed to orientate himself he was thrown up again and Peter was able to spot the giant angry looking snake that had its tail wrapped around his legs.
“Peter!”
The merman spun around and came face to face with the second prince, “Loki?” The slightly older merman wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug.
“My god Peter, where have you been?”
Peter looked at his friend and felt guilty as he saw the worry in his eyes, “I-I will explain it to you but please make Jormungandr stop, Tony is a friend.”
Just on cue the human was pulled underwater again the tail now completely wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides and his legs together. Peter was certain that he would not drown thanks to the armour but he didn’t want to risk it.
Loki raised an eyebrow, “this thing is your friend?” The merman nodded and swam over trying to untie Tony from the tail, “yes and he is a human.”
Loki and his pet hissed in unison, “a human? Peter, don’t tell me you talked and became friends with a human!” The younger blushed, “I…make Jor let him go and I will explain everything.”
The prince clearly didn’t like the deal but he turned to his beloved pet, “Jor let him go we found Peter so you can go home.” To underline his words he pulled a huge crab out of his bag and threw it into the snake’s mouth.
Obviously satisfied, it unwrapped its black tail from Tony and disappeared into the deep waters. The human immediately shot out of the water and Peter followed while Loki hesitated.
“Thanks for making the thing disappear,” Tony said hovering right over the water level. Peter looked up to him, “sorry for that Tony but Loki just wanted to protect me, you alright?”
The genius nodded and looked at the prince who now slowly rose from the water glaring at the human, “you are friends with Peter?”
The black haired merman hissed at him, “it is forbidden to talk to humans.” Tony raised an eyebrow behind his mask, “nice talk well Peter, are you coming?”
The boy looked rather torn, “I…we will swim Tony and meet you at your house.” The human nodded and had his face not been hidden Peter would have been able to see how concerned he looked.
In truth it irked the man that Peter would not go with him and he feared that the glaring but good looking merman would convince him to not go back, but what choice did he have. If he decided to just pick Peter up and carry him back he would probably call his pet on him again.
Who the hell has a giant sea snake as a pet anyway? That thing probably already lived when the dinosaurs still walked the earth. If that beast would ever attack him again Tony vowed to skin it and make some silly cowboy boots out of it.
In the end Tony nodded, “see you there Pete.” The merman smiled and with a quick nod he dived down and began to swim. It felt heavenly to him.
Loki was right next to him, “do you even know how many rules you broke?” Peter rolled his eyes at his friend, “as if you cared so much about rules trickster.”
At that Loki actually blushed a little but he kept his gaze locked on the other merman, “alright I give you that but it’s not just the rules, you know it is against the law to interact with humans. They are dangerous.”
With That Peter could not argue, he had seen and experienced it first-hand. His silence seemed to be enough of an answer to Loki since the prince turned to look forward again.
They shot through the water for a while without speaking but it didn’t last too long.
“How is May?”
Loki glanced at his friend. Peter looked guilty and concerned, “she is well, sick with worry but well. I paid her a visit.” Peter’s head snapped around and he made big eyes at his friend, “you visited my home?”
The prince grinned smugly at him, “I did, it was nice, don’t know why you never invited me.” Peter actually blushed and looked away, “you know why, besides your father wouldn’t approve.”
Loki rolled his eyes and turned on his back still keeping up with the younger without problems, “my father doesn’t approve of anything besides Thor so I don’t care.”
There was a bit of truth in the merman’s words Peter knew but he would also be a fool if he would displease the king. For his and of course May’s sake he had to act nice.
The two mermen continued their journey for a while until Loki spoke up again, “please tell me what happened, I was really worried.” Peter heard the sincerity out of his voice and sighed, “alright I’ll tell you but you have to promise to keep quiet until I am finished.”
The prince grimaced and turned around to swim properly again, “alright I promise now tell.” Peter thought back on the day when Tony caught him and sighed again, “it all began when I started to become careless.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony landed on his patio and opened the armour to slip out of it. The genius was soaked in water and left wet footprints as he walked into the house. Damn this stupid snake.
“Jarvis?”
“Welcome home Sir, may I be of some assistance?”
Tony walked into his bedroom changing out of his clothes and getting into the shower, “yeah, once my armour is dried, please move it inside.”
“Very well Sir, do you like to know the status of Doctor Banner?”
Tony soaped up his chest, “yeah sure how is he?” The AI responded almost instantly, “he is currently safely in the helicopter and his time of landing will be in about ninety minutes.”
The genius washed himself clean and nodded, “good did you inform SHIELD about the base?”
“I did and it appears that they are currently approaching it, Mr Fury did try to contact you again by the way. He is most insistent.”
Tony stepped out of the shower wrapping a towel around his head to dry his hair, “well and I am most insistent on ignoring him. Have you seen that man? He is creepy, he wears an eyepatch. That either means he is a pirate or some weird dude.”
“Or he has an eye condition.”
Tony rolled his eyes and dried off before getting dressed again. Peter would hopefully arrive soon and he had the fridge filled with fresh fish and crabs.
Maybe he could convince the boy to stay for the night, for old time’s sake or something like that. He took the wheelchair and went to the elevator that brought him down into the cove where his yacht was lying.
It was the best spot to pick up the merman without anyone noticing.
Soon enough the two boys arrived and Tony smiled at Peter ignoring the dark haired merman, “there you are, come hop in and I will show you my newly mad home.”
Peter smiled but hesitated as Loki placed a hand on his arm giving him a stern look. Tony could see how his friend hesitated. He had to intervene, “I stocked the fridge with your favourite fish, how about you and your friend stay and we celebrate your freedom?”
The boy focused on Tony again and smiled, “that sounds great but after that I have to go.” Tony nodded and smirked at the pouting prince, “of course now hop in, the pool was also remade.”
A little excited Peter climbed into the wheelchair and the genius pushed him towards the elevator, “I will come and get you in a minute Lokster.”
The prince huffed, “this is not my name peasant!” Tony made a gesture with his hand Loki didn’t know before they disappeared out of his field of vision.
He didn’t feel comfortable being this close to a human and he couldn’t keep himself from looking around nervously. Gladly nothing happened and the human returned shortly after he had left.
“Well here you go and why did you call me a peasant?”
Loki glared at him as he climbed into the chair, “because I am a prince you dense creature.” Tony let out a surprise sound at that, “a prince wow Peter didn’t tell me that he was friends with a royal.”
The prince pushed his still wet hair out of his face and huffed, “of course not it is forbidden after all.” The genius rolled his eyes and pushed the merman into the elevator; with a grin noted that he looked a little concerned all of a sudden. Good.
“It is also forbidden to by a shit ton of cocaine and fuck three hookers in two hours but hey your only young once.”
Loki exhaled as the doors opened again and looked over his shoulder to examine the human, “yes and the way you look it was a long time ago.” Tony hissed at him but he noticed that Peter was watching them from the pool so he let it slip and stayed silent.
A smug grin appeared on his face and even Peter looked pleased as the prince looked around with big eyes, taking in a human home for the first time of his life. Tony was almost about to make a comment but he referred from it.
It was Peter’s turn, “you like what you see?” Loki swallowed and looked at his friend, “I-I don’t have the words, what is all this?” The younger merman smiled, “if you want to know about everything you have to stay at least a few days, I stayed three days and still don’t know it all.”
The prince gracefully, Tony hated how gracefully, slipped into the pool and moved closer to his friend. The new pool was partly tiled in white tiles and partly more natural. At the natural part the floor was covered in sand were seaweed and other water plants grew.
The designer even placed a few real rocks there and in between a few tiny fish and clamps lived. Tony wanted to make it comfortable for Peter. He knew that the boy would not stay with him but maybe he would come to visit once in a while.
Loki sighed, “we have to go soon Peter, all of this is very fascinating but unlike May my family will wreak havoc if I don’t return home soon. You know how father is when he is upset.”
Peter looked down and nodded. His friend was right of course but honestly he wanted to spend a little more time with Tony, to say his goodbyes properly. Maybe even steal that kiss he was denied before.
The boy blushed and quickly focused on something else, “I like what you did to the pool, it is really nice now.” Tony beamed at that, “you like it, good because I did it just for you.” Now both blushed and Loki frowned looking from one to another.
“I mean I did it because you told me how bad it was before and I didn’t know if you were healthy of injured when I went to pick you up.”
Both acted like they believed what he just said and Loki almost groaned, this couldn’t be happening not for real. The prince took a deep breath and calmed down a little, “didn’t you say something about food human?”
Tony gave him a sour look, “I did but I fear I have nothing that is suited for a delicate mouth like yours.” Peter bit his lip to not laugh out loud, Loki meanwhile turned red and angry, “nothing about me is delicate human!”
The genius chuckled and winked at Peter, “sure thing Ariel.” Peter burst into laughter and Tony satisfied with that reaction got up and walked into the kitchen to get them their meal.
Placing the food on a platter he could hear the two mermen whisper to each other and he smirked as he heard Peter chuckle. It would do the princeling good to be shown that he doesn’t know everything.
Tony did get the feeling that Loki normally was a real smartass and rarely put in his place. The human walked outside again sitting down at the rim and handing the plate to Peter as he let his feet hang into the water.
The boy took the plate with a quiet thank you and showed it to Loki who made big eyes, “I have never seen fish this big and perfect, where did you catch them?”
Tony leaned back smirking at the prince, “humans breed fish and make sure they can safely grow and develop so we can have the biggest and nicest for food.” Peter took a crab and Tony winced as he broke the shell with his bare hands.
Loki placed the plate on the rim and ripped the tuna in half, “that is interesting, humans really evolved a lot. Is your kind less barbaric now?” Tony made a face and Peter snorted, “no, they are not.” With a sigh Tony nodded, “yes let me quote the awesome Tommy Lee Johnes, a person is smart, people are dumb.”
Loki chewed slowly on the fish and nodded, “sad then we will keep ourselves hidden.” Peter pulled some of the meat out of the crab leg, “as if your father would even consider coming out of hiding.”
The human felt a pang of jealousy seeing the two talk in such a familiar fashion and he couldn’t help but wonder, were those two really just friends?
Loki swallowed a large piece of fish and laughed, “no father would never consider, but one day Thor will be king and he can be argued with.” Peter smirked, “you mean to trick him right?”
They laughed and Tony clenched his fist, oh how he wished that this stupid prince would just grow a pair of legs and leave.