The Not So Silent Hill

[starkingenuity]

[Continued from: here]

Staring at the little house, Tony was noteably unimpressed. The child and other half of a god (however loosely you wanted to use the term) really ought to have not been so...small. He was expecting more, and the way he stood with his hip out and arms crossed proved it. They'd take a quinjet to the nearest open field and one of Tony's smaller cars after that, loaded into the back of the plane after he'd ripped out a few seats.

With Extremis stable enough to exist in several now fire-breathing and extra strong mice rampaging through specially designed cages to contain them, JARVIS' databases and hacking ability getting them the information they needed to arrive here, and Alessa more or less content with the nurse she and Banner picked out, this had been the next logical step. Even so, he expected it to be a little more difficult.

Wearing a black t-shirt and dark jeans that only accentuated his somewhat femininely proportioned hips and backside, Tony Stark was still Tony Stark and flashiness and he went hand in hand.

Like a brand name.

It didn't help that the yellow convertible was parked across the street, in direct contention with the overall look and feel of the neighbor around it.

"You can knock." He wasn't too keen on touching things other people did.

Comments

[starkingenuity]

That made Tony laugh. Alessa's last name was rather tame, a sort of posh, New England WASP vibe to it. But she was anything but. Her family was anything but. It was too bad her mother was dead. There might have been some Avenging to do.

Pulling out his wallet, Tony grabbed all of his cash, just under twelve hundred dollars, and laid it on the table. No. He never did anything small. Yes. He was pretty sure bribery was still in fashion.

"We'll have to see about a name change at some point," Tony mentioned. Gillespie won't be safe for her. And you--" He waggled a finger at Cheryl. "You change your name too. It was entirely too easy to find you."

Of course, he could hack into most systems. That helped.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Cheryl's eyes went wide as saucers as she saw him lay out the cash. Bruce hid his smile as she picked it up, trying to be casual about counting it out.

"I did. This is supposed to be a trap for anyone who wanted to find Cheryl Mason, so I had help making a path to Cheryl Mason." She quickly stuffed the bills in her too-big pocket, looking a little like a homeless woman stashing money. "I was supposed to just wire it to blow up and let you stumble into it, but I was sick of running. All I wanted was to make a new life. I don't want anyone dead over it."

She shoved her hands in her pockets, staring at them from under her bangs. "You still need to tell me where to find you."

[starkingenuity]

"We really do appreciate that you didn't blow us up. I'd be dead. Banner would be mourning me for the rest of all eternity," he joked without really realizing how right that might be. When Bruce was too old to sustain the Hulk, the Hulk would continue on. Alone. Likely forever.

Plucking a good leaf business card from his wallet, Tony flicked it towards the woman. It only said his name, Avengers' Tower and New York, NY written on it.

"You can't miss it. I promise. Big building, massive A on it. Ask for Tony at the front desk."

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Yeah, Tony? A little too close to home there. Bruce has no idea if he's immortal and will keep looking like he's in his forties forever, or if he'll somehow find a way to die.

"I bet they'd let me right up," the woman says dryly, taking the card carefully before putting it in her pocket. "I'll think about it." She shrugged her jacket closer to herself, beginning to walk out the door. "Maybe I'll tell you my real name if I show up."

Bruce eyed her, a suspicious turn to his mouth, but whatever is bothering him doesn't seem to be enough to interrupt.

[starkingenuity]

With a nudge to Bruce's shoulder, Tony led the way out of the house. Cheryl would come. She had to. If not this time, they would find her again. And if not the next time, they would find her once more. Tony was confident that the woman would come through. She was curious and well paid. New York was a big place.

Tony had already emailed her picture to JARVIS. The moment she entered the city, they would know, ideally. And certainly the moment she entered the lobby at the very least.

Because he needed desperately to play the gentleman with Banner, Tony rounded the car to hold the door for him. He might even steal a kiss.

"I feel good about this," he murmured. Alessa would be whole again soon. Whole and happy.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce smiled and rolled his eyes in amusement at his boyfriend's need to be romantic, allowing Tony a chaste kiss, before sliding into the passenger's seat.

"Someone had to have warned her we were coming and helped her with the false lead. People on the run don't have the time or resources to put together fake trails that could stand up to JARVIS within a few days."

He spoke from experience.

"She looks a lot like Alessa, doesn't she?" He can't help but be a little wistful at that. Was Cheryl what Alessa would have looked like had she been given a chance to grow up?

[starkingenuity]

Tony lingered on Bruce's side of the convertible, leaning over the door even after it was shut. He never struggled with wondering if he had done the right thing with Pepper-- The truth was, he had cheated on her emotionally long before he had physically and while he had been in love with her, there was nothing to compare it to the way he felt about Bruce.

Even if they didn't rip off each other's clothing and tumble into bed, there was something wonderful about having discussions long into the night while he ran his fingers through the hair on Bruce's chest.

"She does look a lot like Alessa," Tony said, a slight crease between his eyebrows. "And you're right. I could be leading trouble to our home but... It's been almost two weeks since I've run for my like. I need to get the blood pumping."

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce wondered about Pepper too, sometimes. Felt insecure that he didn't have the history with Tony that she had, and that he couldn't or wouldn't give Tony the things Pepper did. He felt guilty that they had gotten together the way they had, and wondered if Tony regretted it.

But he didn't ask these questions, give voice to these thoughts. He wasn't one to reveal his self-doubt and insecurity without prompting.

"At this rate, you'll die before you turn fifty." He leaned against the window, looking out at the neighborhood. The normal neighborhood. "I don't think she's going to try to do anything to kill us. She didn't seem to be a fan of that kind of thing." Not like Alessa, who would have no qualms bombing potential threats.

[starkingenuity]

Patting the door, Tony rounded the back of the car and slid behind the wheel with a sigh and leaned his head back against the rest. "Good. I don't want to turn fifty. What an ugly number," he confessed and then turned the ignition on with the press of the starter button. The car purred back to life and the top automatically went back up to combat the chill that lingered.

Tony never let JARVIS take over the driving unless he was too drunk to do it himself and peeled down the street like it was his right to drive like a maniac.

"She's Alessa's mirror," Tony said after a few long minutes of heavy silence. "You were in the mirror, though. You said it was like hell inside. But if Alessa is fire and Cheryl is ice, if their temperaments shift along temperature lines... We could get an explosion if they meet."

It was never wise to drop ice into boiling water.

"The colder the water is, the faster it boils," he muttered.

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce grasped the side of the door, then quickly put his seatbelt on. "Looks like I won't reach fifty either," he grumbled softly. Honestly, he wished a car accident would have the same effect on him as it would on Tony.

"Alessa told us it would be a bad idea to get them too close together," Bruce agreed. "If she's right when she says they're a part of each other... sometimes, it's really hard facing all the parts of you you want to ignore."

Honestly, Bruce still had trouble with mirrors. They always looked off to him now. He had yet to touch a single one with his bare hands.

[starkingenuity]

If Tony knew that, he would very likely have teased Bruce about his shaving job or his hair. Tony couldn't help himself. Just like he couldn't help shifting the car into the next gear and briefly removing his hand from the stick shift to touch the other man's knee.

It was gentle. Tender. Brief.

"I don't like not knowing what I'm doing," he confessed. "I just want to help Alessa, but if it means hurting a lot of other people-- Nothing's ever black and white." Tony's eyes stayed on the raid as if he was staring it down. "It's not like with machines."

There was a reason Tony tended to 'create' his friends.

"So what do we do, Banner? We need Cheryl to remove that growth so we don't accidentally have a seven year old give birth to a demon when we fix her. But what if it doesn't matter?"

[honeyibrokeharlem]

“We have to believe it does.” Bruce wouldn’t touch Tony while he was driving, but he would look at him meaningfully. “I mean, gods, demons, cult magic… none of this is our area of expertise, Tony. We don’t know what we’re doing. But that’s never stopped us before.”

Seriously. Bruce was sure he wasn’t the only one who was basically running blind during the Chitauri invasion. Mutants, super soldier serums, giant iron suits—he knew how to deal with that, had context for it, but aliens? Norse gods? Not so much.

“We try to listen to the people who have some context. We can get a sample of Aglaophotis, examine it, figure out why it worked last time. Jane said that Thor was supposed to come to, so maybe he’ll know something. If we still can’t figure it out, maybe the Order will know. We can see if we can get our hands on any of their information.”

[starkingenuity]

"I need to fire our travel agent," Tony muttered but said nothing else on the subject.

Arriving back at the tower, they were greeted by a large man with hair that seemed to grow like wildfire each time they saw him. Then again, it had been over two years since Thor had left their presence in Central Park but seeing him again, and not on grainy footage of Greenwich, made Tony smirk.

"Man of Iron!"

The bear hug he was given afterward was a little too bone crushing to allow that smirk to remain however. "Down!" he howled. "Down boy! Banner, a little help!"

Stupid phone

[honeyibrokeharlem]

“Nah, I think this is good for you.”

Bruce was being a fantastic boyfriend by completely ignoring Tony’s pain. And hoping that Thor would forget to give him a hug, too.

“It’s good to see you, Thor,” he said, sidestepping the hugging duo and giving Thor a small smile. “Thanks for coming on such short notice.” And with so little information about what he was coming for. “We could use your help.”

[thunderboltsandlightning]

"I have been told," Thor said, immediately stoic as Tony limped off to the bar to wheeze pathetically against it and poke at his ribs just to make sure that they were all where they ought to be...still inside of his skin. "You are both my allies. I will help you as best that I am able."

"How's Asgard with regrowing bones?" Tony asked.

Thor looked somewhat perplexed. "That would require sorcery. I have not been trained in that particular craft but if I perhaps beseech--"

"Never mind," Tony groaned. "Not important."

"You have brought me here to jest?" Thor did not look too pleased at that. "My hammer is yours when you require it but I will not be toyed with."

[honeyibrokeharlem]

“He’s joking. You know how Tony is.” Bruce ignored Tony’s melodrama, instead gesturing for Thor to pay attention to him instead because Bruce was forever going to be the level-headed one, weirdly enough. “Actually, it’s about something that happened to us a bit ago. It started when I got a letter from my mother—who’s been dead since I was a kid, by the way—and it ended up with us wandering around a haunted town that’s apparently been luring people in for years. We found a little girl who claims to be pregnant with a god.” He looked up at the door, arching an eyebrow. “Alessa, I know you’re eavesdropping. Come down and meet Thor.”

Alessa stuck her head through the door without opening it, giving one of her scowl-pouts at Bruce. “How could you tell?”

“That’s exactly what I would’ve done at your age.” Bruce turned to look at Thor, gesturing at the head sticking through the door. “Can you see her?”

She narrowed her eyes critically, phasing through the door completely. “His hair’s really long. Why do you guys have so many friends with weird hair?”

“Remind me to teach you how to be polite,” said Bruce, putting another topic of lecture on his mental list.

[starkingenuity]

Thor blinking at the little girl with a note of wary caution. Yes, he could see her. And he knew that he ought to not be able to. Thor had seen many wondrous and terrible things over his life and Alessa might just be both. He stood still as he watched her, saying little more than: "Indeed I do."

"Who else has weird hair?" Tony asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He was happy to see her. His plan, upon touching the quinjet down on the roof deck, had been to come and see her right away. They'd been gone for a little while and every time they had the chance to return home, Alessa was always first on his mind. "And don't say mine. I'm trying to rock the silver fox look. I'm told it looks distinguished," he complained, crouching down beside the girl. "Other than lack of manners, have you been good? Did you take apart any more city property I'll need to make a donation about?"

Best ask, right?

[honeyibrokeharlem]

“It wasn’t city property.” But it was a computer at a local insurance office. And then a bank manager’s BMW. And then a random kid’s iPhone. “Bruce’s hair is all fluffy. Pepper’s is too red. And my nurse just dyed his hair blue. I’m the only normal one.”

Bruce let out a small puff of laughter, the corner of his mouth quirking. His eyes slid to Thor, the smile fading somewhat at the look on the Asgardian’s face.

“She’s an astral projection,” Bruce said, nodding towards Alessa. “Her body is upstairs. It… can’t function without a lot of medical equipment at the moment.”

Alessa looked over Tony’s head at Thor again, psychically taking a lock of his hair and pulling it outward to see how long it actually was. Someone needed to explain to her that that really wasn’t the proper way to greet people.

Bruce would have given her a gentle nudge with his foot, but that would have been a useless gesture. Instead, he smiled apologetically. “If you want to know more, she’d probably be able to tell you better than me, if she’s feeling up for it.”

[starkingenuity]

"You can not keep her here," Thor said immediately, the color drained from his face as he turned, battle armor forming again over his broad chest. The cape swooped around his feet. It was an impressive display, but it also was telling of how spooked out he was over the little girl.

Our little girl, Tony thought to himself, putting himself between the projection and the Asgardian. "Hey, back off. She's--"

"There is a prophecy, one I have heard from the earliest of my memories," Thor breathed out slowly, bare arms rippling with muscles. "You. Can not. Keep her. Here. Stark, do not be foolish."

[honeyibrokeharlem]

Bruce clenched his teeth, taking note how Thor slapped on his battle armor, and unconsciously stepped beside Tony.

"Maybe you should give us a little more information before you tell us what to do." His voice was mostly level, mostly it's reasonable, soft norm, but there was a strain of protectiveness in it. Thor hadn't been the one who discovered the decaying body. Thor hadn't been the one who had been constantly woken up early in the morning by a child who didn't want to be lonely and yet refused to admit it. Thor hadn't been the one watching her try to control her temper, try to not break things when she got frustrated with how different the world had become. Thor hadn't been the one telling her stories, making her teddy bears, being threatened with glitter when he got too used to treating her like a child.

How dare he act like he could just take her away?

Then Alessa stuck her head through Tony and Bruce. Her presence, once again, felt warm, humid, and smoky, and she was frowning at them all. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here."

If she was disturbed by this news, she didn't show it. She hadn't allowed herself to get used to Tony and Bruce yet. She had expected something like this would happen, that she would leave and still be in pain one way or another.

Pain and loss is what she's used to. She knows how to cope with it.

[starkingenuity]

Thor more or less ignored the girl. To him, she wasn't there, she was a ghost, she was nothing. His own mother could project her image but that image was not hurt. It could not touch, it could not feel. It was all lies. Wicked lies. His brother had taught him that. Trusting a mirage would only lead you to thirst.

Thor's anger, righteous and unlike Bruce's, seemed to stir his cape. He was not in the most pleasant of moods but at least he had not summoned Mjolnir. Things could get pretty dicey then.

"She will bring about the destruction of all Nine Realms," Thor insisted, and Tony rolled his eyes.

"Alessa is just a child!" he insisted...but how Thor knew what Alessa...what Cheryl...had told them was frustrating him. He was tired of Asgardians. Just plain tired.

"Even a child has the power to cause great harm. I am the sworn protector of this realm, my friends. I can not allow you to protect the one destined to bring it to an end."

[godandhermother]

Funny thing? Alessa wasn't upset by the news. Someone wanted her dead, other people wanted her alive. They didn't ask her say in it. This was just a day in the life.

But despite her affection for Bruce and Tony (and she did have affection, though it was kept at arm's length, so she could still let it go if she had to), she had been raised in a society where women ruled. Women made the rules. Women made the choices. If one wanted to make their own choices, they had to fight the older women to earn the right. Men, in comparison, had no rights. To even try to fight women for their rights would be blasphemy.

And here were three men, fighting over a decision that belonged to a woman. A decision that she, Alessa Gillespie, had earned, through blood, sweat, and unshed tears.

And they were being rude about it!

Bruce could feel the explosion before it happened. He could feel it in his bones, behind his eyes, the way he could feel the presence behind the mirror. He tensed and grabbed Tony's arm, his heart beginning to thunder. "Maybe we should--"

"I SAID DON'T IGNORE ME!"

The room was suddenly blisteringly hot and thick with smoke. Psychic force slammed on all three men, intending to force them all to the ground. Predicting that an Asgardian would be stronger than two men, she tried putting enough power on Thor to crush all the bones of an Earthen man.

[starkingenuity]

A good chunk of the decking beneath their feet, most of the windows and part of the stairs leading back inside the penthouse shattered, tossing Tony and Bruce aside in Alessa's efforts to get at Thor. The Asgardian, however, simply raised his gauntlets to stave off the destructive blow. There was no one else in this world, save for perhaps the Hulk, though that was yet to be seen, that could combat such a blast.

And yet, Thor stood there still, hair falling back into place and bright blue eyes hard as he looked down at Alessa.

"Your anger will not help your cause," the Thunderer intoned, hand outstretched as he called for his hammer. It was in his palm before he even finished speaking his next words. "You must learn to control yourself before you destroy us all!"

Tony only heard ringing, however, and in a daze, he tried to see over the blurriness and the brain fog and the dust of crushed construction material to figure out where he had landed. Something along his left leg ached but all of his fingers and his toes still wiggled. It only occurred to him a moment later that they were all still in danger.

"Banner--!"

[honeyibrokeharlem]

"I'm okay, I'm okay." Bruce had managed to brace himself for some kind of impact, and his irradiated body was good at withstanding punishment. Even so, he was going to be sore for a while.

He got on his hands and knees, blinking through the smoke. "Tony?" Was Tony okay? Alessa and Thor probably were, since one was a god and the other was... a god's astral projection. When did their lives become this?

"My cause? What do you know of my cause?" The projection was losing its shape, becoming bigger, amorphous, horrible, angry. Bruce wondered if that was what he looked like when he was the Hulk. "You arrogant man! You think that just because you see this power in me, you know my cause?!" She was deliberately trying to burn him now. Little burns, like the nips of fire ants up his arms and legs. "You assume that I will try to live no matter what? That I will try to destroy the world? It hasn't been you fighting this for thirty-eight years! It hasn't been you who have suffered mutilation of the soul and body to save this WRETCHED SCUM OF A UNIVERSE!"

She was blinded by her fury, by her pain, by her sorrow. Bruce pressed his forehead against the floor, covering his ears as her voice thundered, genuinely frightened that the girl he cared so much for would consume herself and everyone else in her rage. "Alessa!"

[starkingenuity]

Being thrown around tended not to end well for the people around Bruce. Tony half crawled towards him, gripping the scientist by the shoulders and then pressing his fingers to his throat to feel for a pulse while he looked for a green tinge to his eyes. Tony wasn't sure if he could stop the Hulk from coming out, but he had to try.

And not for his own sake either. Bruce's guilt at each transformation was etched on his face. Tony hated that. He gave Bruce a quick kiss when he found him to be unhurt or too overly startled and then helped him to his feet.

Thor seemed to be fairing so much better. His cape billowed out behind him as he took his few steps forward. It would do nothing, he knew, to throw the hammer at the girl. Projections able to wield such magic would be unable to be touched.

He wished, and not for the first time, to have his wayward brother by his side.

That silvertongue of his might get them out of this trouble. And his perceived slight-- Oh, Loki would have had a wondrous time with the girl.

"I have been alive far longer," Thor bellowed back. "I know what you are and why you are. I am the Prince of Asgard. End your rage and see beyond, so that you may know the truth! You are of the blood of Surt, your heat and fire know no other way to be. Your kind gave light to all of the stars and it is that light you might hold dear before you consume Midgard and those that only wish to help you!"