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cap_ironman2009-03-01 04:07 pm
cat-13145.livejournal.com) wrote in cap_ironman2009-03-01 04:07 pm
Entry tags:
Chapter 3: Ironically
Thanks to everyone whose has commented, reviewed or similar.
Hope you enjoy this chapter too.
Author: Me![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cat_13145
Title: Ironically
Rating: Currently NC 17
Word Count: 2081
Beta Used: No, but if anyone is interested...
Genre:
A/N: A Bunch of fics posted here and at Marvel Slash, including and the Heavy Data series from this site. Isn't funny that we all have the same idea?
Archive: Yes Please
Warning: Contains references to eating disorders and Violence,
Summary: An old problem resurfaces it's head for Tony (and no it's not what you're thinking). Steve has to try and save him, with some help from a disgruntled ex (of Tony's, not Steve's)
N.B. Three points. One, this is a crossover with Batman, I will remove it if this isn't allowed. Two, this is set in 2010, as DC has promised to get their act together by then. I'm giving Marvel a similar timescale. Think of it as an AU if you want. Three, there is an OC in here, and I will give more details about her as the fic progresses.
I've been working on this all week, and still not sure if it's right. Unfortunately I won't have a chance to post again for a bit, so it's kinda now or never, (I've got exams coming up and always stop posting during them). Also I want to link to the previous chapters, but the way LJ suggests doesn't seem to work, so if anyone can let me know how, I'd be really grateful and allow them to request fic.
O.K. Enjoy
Chapter 3
Italics are flashbacks.
Post Secret Invasion, During Iron man Most wanted. Pre Battle for the Cowl.
“Get off the grid and stay off.” Those had been Flashman’s words, before he cut the line. It was a mark of how screwed up she was that she didn’t even ask for how long. Just grabbed her processions and set off.
They kept playing it on the radios, on the TVs in the bus stations, even on the streets. Even in her nightmares, she’d never thought it would be as bad as this.
Eventually she stopped using public transport or taxi, and just stuck to the roads, despite the fact it was raining.
She hardly noticed how cold, how tired and how wet she was as she looked up at the sign. Only 53 miles to go.
Gotham had long been viewed as a good place to vanish. Virtually trapped in its own world despite been in New Jersey, a fact that was brought home to her as she got closer and closer to the city. The Main story on the newsstands she pasted or on the broadcasts she overheard wasn’t Tony Stark, but the probably death of Batman. She sighed as she reached the outskirts and surveyed the skyline. Gotham always looked like nothing had changed, no matter how much time had elapsed.
*
The first time she’d come to Gotham, had been a while ago.
Saying she was a mess at that point was a dangerous understatement. She’d just come back from Korea, and had no idea what would happen to her next. She’d just needed a place to think, to consider her options.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t what she’d got.
The second time had started a lifelong friendship, but she hadn’t been in a much better state.
Tony had been her friend during the War. A Street kid like her, he’d returned to America and made his fortune, though you were probably best not asking how.
He’d reinvested a lot of that money into shelters for kids, and it was an unwritten rule that any of his old buddies who needed a place to crash were welcome there.
Unfortunately, no one had told Father Samuel, who ran the one in Gotham. He had informed her that it was “boys from a troubled background ONLY!” before throwing her out.
Thankfully, the old man was one of the few in Gotham who still left the church door unlocked. Gotham was a scary place, especially if you were on your own.
It’s about midnight that she heard the sounds. Soft footsteps, someone with enough caution to move lightly, but lacking in experience.
She moved softly, so that she was hidden behind the screen. A kid, maybe seven or eight. Dark hair, though it was hard to tell how much of that was due to dirt, as the kid was filthy.
She watched slowly as he headed for the communion box. A part of her wants to sigh. It may be a brave new world, but that doesn’t mean anything’s changed.
What was it Tony always said? “Face change, Bruises don’t.” Unless someone takes the first step.
Carefully, so as not to spook the kid, she stepped out.
“I’ve got some sandwiches that taste better than that.” She said, softly extending her hand. “Cat.”
There was a pause, and up close she could see bruises, on the tops of the arms, on the face. Bruises that told their own story.
“Jason Todd.” The child said, eventually taking hers.
*
She didn’t consciously realise it, but her feet were taking her back there. Back to church in a strange city where a chance meeting spawned a friendship.
She wasn’t sure if it was just her mood, but Gotham seemed dark, even by its standards, which was saying something. The situation with SHIELD had required her attention so much, that she hadn’t had a chance to keep an eye on Gotham and with Gotham effectively declared by SHIELD as “hopeless”, an honour few African dictatorships managed to achieve no one else was.
Her hand pushed at the lion mouth knocker on the door. Still unlocked in spite of everything. Slowly, she stepped in.
In the darkness, she could just make out a figure hunched in one of the pews.
She knew that scent.
“Jason?” she asked, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the church. “Jason?”
And despite both their dislikes of hugs and people touching them in general, she gathered up the former Robin her arms.
For the first time that night, she was glad for the weather. Because when it was raining, you could pretend that was the reason your cheeks were wet.
***
“Took your time getting here!” Wolverine yelled, as Cat brought the plane down.
“Stopped to get ice cream!” Cat grinned, as she jumped from the plane, with an easy smile born of years of experience. “What we got here?”
Wolverine pulled a face, as he sent a claw through what looked like a tentacle. “Space phantoms.”
He glanced at the figures that emerged from craft behind her.
“Whose your friends?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. There was a guy dressed completely in black, a kid in red and green and a young man in black and red. The guy in black and the kid both wore capes.
Cat winced. “Long story.”
She jumped up, her smaller claws emerging silently from the tips of her fingers, to send one of the phantoms into its ionic form.
**
“So what are these?” the kid looked so tired and at the same time so ridiculous, that Carol Danvers wasn’t sure whether she should laugh or tell him to go to bed. Then again, she thought, as she grabbed at what looked like Wolverine’s claws, but was too blunt to be, as Cat had pointed out on more than one occasion, she was running around in a bathing suit, so in no position to talk.
“Space phantoms!” She paused wondering how much to explain this child, relieved for the first time that Steve wasn’t with them. He would have had something to say about this. “They’re servants of Immortus, Master of time. He traps people in Limbo and due to the nature of that place, they forget who they are and become this.” She sent another punch into the space phantom Wolverine.
“A bunch of Runts?”
“Watch it, Kid.” The real Wolverine snorted, sending a punch into his doppelganger.
“Ms Marvel. Get back.” Cat yelled. “SHIELD’s got a lock on. Going to blast anything with energy in the zone, and I am not going to rescue you from the Negative zone again.”
“Should I be offended?” Carol asked, but obeying the instructions.
“Like Lubyuanka, once is more than enough.” Cat touched her communicator. “Clear!”
A huge flash of light engulfed the area, and then suddenly nothing was there, just heroes standing around in their costumes.
“What the...?” Robin asked, confused. Cat blinked.
“Space Phantoms are made of energy. They have no memories of their past life; they’re kinda like energy Zombies. SHIELD’ll hold them; try to stop more of them getting through.”
She paused for a moment, checking that the black hooded figure was out of sight.
“Excuse me; I have to get our guests to the hospital.”
***
Steve kept watching the television screen. When the alert had first come in, it had taken all of his strength not to rush out of the hospital room, and indeed Tony had encouraged him to go. But he had taken one look at the figure at the bed, looking so small and helpless, and had decided against it.
Even back when he was just sixteen, Bucky had proved himself a capable field leader. He could handle this.
***
Cat had persuaded the Avengers to take Tim Drake-Wayne and Alfred back with them. She would be going straight to her apartment from the hospital and would take Jason with her. Bruce and Cap could either spend the night there or get back under their own steam.
She would have been the first to admit, if anyone asked her that it was the coward’s way out.
If the rumours about Leslie Thompson and Jarvis were true, and even if they weren’t, she did not want to be around when Alfred and Jarvis met.
Add to that the lecture she could already hear, from Cap on the subject of sidekicks, which was inevitably going to happen when he was introduced to Robin, and would become a thousand times worse with Jason added, she was relieved that she could hide out. Though knowing Fury, that wouldn’t happen.
The journey to the hospital was better than she thought. Bucky had volunteered to come with her, and He willingly sat in the back with Bruce, while Jason sat in the front with her. For all that, however no one spoke and she was glad when having shown the guard at the gate her SHIELD ID and entered the building. Bucky waited in the car, apparently not trusting himself where Stark was concerned.
Fury was waiting for them. She wasn’t surprised; she had known him too long for that. He didn’t say anything; merely fell in step beside her, letting her know that he wouldn’t press her now, but that he wanted a full explanation later.
The hospital had a whole floor set aside for Avenger use, and she could see the surprised expressions on the Gothamites faces at some of the more unusual requirements. Really, if you dealt with those capable of setting everything within a ten mile radius on fire every time they sneezed, an oxygen removal tent was simply a sensible precaution.
Tony wasn’t on the main ward though. Extremis, coupled with the normal rules regarding those viewed as a risk to themselves, meant that he was in a private room just off at the end. As they approached, Cat could see a familiar shape through the door.
“Has he actually slept?” She asked Fury in an undertone, who shrugged, before pushing open the door.
“You got visitors, Stark.”
***
Steve glanced up from his one sided conversation, at Fury’s growl.
The one eyed grizzled veteran was there, with Cat standing at his side. There was another man with them, dark hair and dark eyes. Tony appeared to recognise him.
“Hello Bruce.” He said, softly, his voice harsh from lack of use. Dimly, as though from a great distance he could hear Cat suggesting that they got some coffee and left these two to get reacquainted.
***
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him.” Cat said, as they sat in the hospital cafeteria. A young man, introduce very briefly as Jason, had been dispatched to get coffee, while they gathered around the table. “The press brings it up almost every time Wayne Industries are in the news and they brought it up in spades a couple of years ago.”
At the look on Steve’s face, she blushed slightly. “Sorry.” She shook herself. “Short version a tragedy. Wealthy couple, leaving the movies with their son, gunned down in front of him.” she sighed. “The longer version is a bit more complicated. Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha are leaving the movies along with their eight year old son, Bruce. They enter Park Alley, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to the renaming of the street Crime Alley. Out of the darkness come two shots. When witnesses get to the scene, they find the kid kneeling in his parent’s blood surrounded pearls.”
Steve interrupted. “When did this happen?”
Cat frowned. “For some reason, I want to say 1940, even though I know it’s wrong.”
“That was the date of the film.” Fury volunteered, his eyes never leaving Cat. “The 1940’s Mask of Zorro. Happened about 20 or 30 years ago.”
Cat nodded. “No one knows what really happened there, or why the kid was spared. Various versions I heard have been a robbery gone wrong, deliberate assassination, even heard one where it was claimed that Martha Wayne was unfaithful and her husband hired a hit man.” She shrugged. “Maybe the guy just blanched at killing a kid or maybe he was disturbed before he finished the job. No one knows and it doesn’t really matter. Either way the Waynes were dead and Gotham sunk deeper into corruption. The kid is brought up by the butler and a Dr. Thompson and vanishes off the radar for a while.” She took a sip of her tea, winced and added another packet of sugar. “Then about 20 years ago things change in Gotham. It acquires its own protector, Batman, the Dark Knight. About the same time Bruce Wayne returns from parts unknown.” She met Steve’s eyes. “I’ll let you draw your own inferences from that.” She shrugged. “Things have been pretty much constant since that. Bruce Wayne is a wealthy philanthropist and father to three boys. Dick Grayson,”
Steve smiled. “Think I’ve heard a great deal about him from Peter.”
“Jason, who you just met and Tim Drake, who should be sleeping at the mansion about now.”
Steve nodded slowly.
“And you think he can help Tony?” he asked, trying not to let his disbelief slip into his voice. Cat shrugged. “He's done so before.” She slid a file across the table. Fury got to his feet.
“Where’s that Kid got to?”
Cat grinned, also rising.
“Probably on the point of collapse from Exhaustion. I’ll head off. You make sure Steve and Bruce get back alright?”
Fury waited until he was sure that they were out of Steve’s hearing before asking.
“You wanna give me the extended version.” At Cat’s expression, he sighed. “Come on kid, don’t fence with me. The guy’s a cape. It’s evident that you’ve got some connection with that kid, and the brief interaction I saw suggests that neither of you like him very much.”
Cat sighed, slumping against the wall.
“It’s complicated.” She said. Fury grinned.
“Nice try.”
Cat shrugged. “It is though. You remember Tony?”
“Andolini, the Italian kid?”
“Italian American.” Cat corrected him. “I met Jason when he was about 6 at one of the shelter’s he set up.” She sighed. “The story was pretty typical. Dad left when kid was three, Mum had a series of boyfriends, most of them abusive.” She paused. “When I met him, the worse one had just appeared. Kid basically decided that the streets were safer than his home.” She lifted her eyes to look at Fury. “Makes you wonder what we fought for huh?”
Fury didn’t think there was anything he cloud say to that. Cat had been born in a brothel in the slums of Liverpool in 1929. Mother a prostitute, father unknown. She had been fending for herself since she was 4 or 5. When she was ten, her mutant powers manifested when either her mother’s pimp, or boyfriend Fury wasn’t quite sure which, tried to rape her. Since then she had served her country both in Britain and abroad. But that didn’t mean she’d forgotten her roots.
“Looks like things turned out O.K.” he ventured uncertainly. For all he knew this guy could have been part of the problem. Cat snorted.
“Kid’s almost as messed up as I am.” She drew a deep breath. “got taken in by Bruce Wayne, killed by his biological mother, resurrected by means unknown, beaten by his brothers, flung around the multiverse, and generally treated like a piece of dog’s meat by the world.” The anger was in her voice. She stopped for a moment, and breathed deeply.
“Make sure Steve gets home.” She said, with a fake calmness in her voice, as she headed off to find Jason.
***
Bruce had never been good at talking. He had believed since he could remember that actions spoke louder than words. But this was something that actions couldn’t sort out.
He sunk down into the chair beside the bed and stared at Tony.
“You know you could have called.” Bruce Wayne tried to joke. “You didn’t have to try to kill yourself to get me to visit.”
Tony’s eyes stared dull and unfocused at him.
“Why?” He asked, gently.
Tony blinked.
“I screwed up.” He said softly. “I screwed over The Avengers, I screwed over Steve. They all hate me.”
Bruce wanted to argue that it wasn’t true, but with what Barbra had told him about the last few years here, and the look that Cat had flung in their general direction he wasn’t sure.
“But it’ll be alright,” there was fever light in Tony’s eyes. “Everything’ll be O.k. Just another twenty pounds to go.” His eyelids were drooping as he added. “Then everything’ll be perfect.”
Looking at the skeleton with skin stretched over it, that had once been his friend, both Bruce Wayne and Batman felt afraid.
TBC
Hope you enjoy this chapter too.
Author: Me
cat_13145Title: Ironically
Rating: Currently NC 17
Word Count: 2081
Beta Used: No, but if anyone is interested...
Genre:
A/N: A Bunch of fics posted here and at Marvel Slash, including
Archive: Yes Please
Warning: Contains references to eating disorders and Violence,
Summary: An old problem resurfaces it's head for Tony (and no it's not what you're thinking). Steve has to try and save him, with some help from a disgruntled ex (of Tony's, not Steve's)
N.B. Three points. One, this is a crossover with Batman, I will remove it if this isn't allowed. Two, this is set in 2010, as DC has promised to get their act together by then. I'm giving Marvel a similar timescale. Think of it as an AU if you want. Three, there is an OC in here, and I will give more details about her as the fic progresses.
I've been working on this all week, and still not sure if it's right. Unfortunately I won't have a chance to post again for a bit, so it's kinda now or never, (I've got exams coming up and always stop posting during them). Also I want to link to the previous chapters, but the way LJ suggests doesn't seem to work, so if anyone can let me know how, I'd be really grateful and allow them to request fic.
O.K. Enjoy
Chapter 3
Italics are flashbacks.
Post Secret Invasion, During Iron man Most wanted. Pre Battle for the Cowl.
“Get off the grid and stay off.” Those had been Flashman’s words, before he cut the line. It was a mark of how screwed up she was that she didn’t even ask for how long. Just grabbed her processions and set off.
They kept playing it on the radios, on the TVs in the bus stations, even on the streets. Even in her nightmares, she’d never thought it would be as bad as this.
Eventually she stopped using public transport or taxi, and just stuck to the roads, despite the fact it was raining.
She hardly noticed how cold, how tired and how wet she was as she looked up at the sign. Only 53 miles to go.
Gotham had long been viewed as a good place to vanish. Virtually trapped in its own world despite been in New Jersey, a fact that was brought home to her as she got closer and closer to the city. The Main story on the newsstands she pasted or on the broadcasts she overheard wasn’t Tony Stark, but the probably death of Batman. She sighed as she reached the outskirts and surveyed the skyline. Gotham always looked like nothing had changed, no matter how much time had elapsed.
*
The first time she’d come to Gotham, had been a while ago.
Saying she was a mess at that point was a dangerous understatement. She’d just come back from Korea, and had no idea what would happen to her next. She’d just needed a place to think, to consider her options.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t what she’d got.
The second time had started a lifelong friendship, but she hadn’t been in a much better state.
Tony had been her friend during the War. A Street kid like her, he’d returned to America and made his fortune, though you were probably best not asking how.
He’d reinvested a lot of that money into shelters for kids, and it was an unwritten rule that any of his old buddies who needed a place to crash were welcome there.
Unfortunately, no one had told Father Samuel, who ran the one in Gotham. He had informed her that it was “boys from a troubled background ONLY!” before throwing her out.
Thankfully, the old man was one of the few in Gotham who still left the church door unlocked. Gotham was a scary place, especially if you were on your own.
It’s about midnight that she heard the sounds. Soft footsteps, someone with enough caution to move lightly, but lacking in experience.
She moved softly, so that she was hidden behind the screen. A kid, maybe seven or eight. Dark hair, though it was hard to tell how much of that was due to dirt, as the kid was filthy.
She watched slowly as he headed for the communion box. A part of her wants to sigh. It may be a brave new world, but that doesn’t mean anything’s changed.
What was it Tony always said? “Face change, Bruises don’t.” Unless someone takes the first step.
Carefully, so as not to spook the kid, she stepped out.
“I’ve got some sandwiches that taste better than that.” She said, softly extending her hand. “Cat.”
There was a pause, and up close she could see bruises, on the tops of the arms, on the face. Bruises that told their own story.
“Jason Todd.” The child said, eventually taking hers.
*
She didn’t consciously realise it, but her feet were taking her back there. Back to church in a strange city where a chance meeting spawned a friendship.
She wasn’t sure if it was just her mood, but Gotham seemed dark, even by its standards, which was saying something. The situation with SHIELD had required her attention so much, that she hadn’t had a chance to keep an eye on Gotham and with Gotham effectively declared by SHIELD as “hopeless”, an honour few African dictatorships managed to achieve no one else was.
Her hand pushed at the lion mouth knocker on the door. Still unlocked in spite of everything. Slowly, she stepped in.
In the darkness, she could just make out a figure hunched in one of the pews.
She knew that scent.
“Jason?” she asked, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the church. “Jason?”
And despite both their dislikes of hugs and people touching them in general, she gathered up the former Robin her arms.
For the first time that night, she was glad for the weather. Because when it was raining, you could pretend that was the reason your cheeks were wet.
***
“Took your time getting here!” Wolverine yelled, as Cat brought the plane down.
“Stopped to get ice cream!” Cat grinned, as she jumped from the plane, with an easy smile born of years of experience. “What we got here?”
Wolverine pulled a face, as he sent a claw through what looked like a tentacle. “Space phantoms.”
He glanced at the figures that emerged from craft behind her.
“Whose your friends?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. There was a guy dressed completely in black, a kid in red and green and a young man in black and red. The guy in black and the kid both wore capes.
Cat winced. “Long story.”
She jumped up, her smaller claws emerging silently from the tips of her fingers, to send one of the phantoms into its ionic form.
**
“So what are these?” the kid looked so tired and at the same time so ridiculous, that Carol Danvers wasn’t sure whether she should laugh or tell him to go to bed. Then again, she thought, as she grabbed at what looked like Wolverine’s claws, but was too blunt to be, as Cat had pointed out on more than one occasion, she was running around in a bathing suit, so in no position to talk.
“Space phantoms!” She paused wondering how much to explain this child, relieved for the first time that Steve wasn’t with them. He would have had something to say about this. “They’re servants of Immortus, Master of time. He traps people in Limbo and due to the nature of that place, they forget who they are and become this.” She sent another punch into the space phantom Wolverine.
“A bunch of Runts?”
“Watch it, Kid.” The real Wolverine snorted, sending a punch into his doppelganger.
“Ms Marvel. Get back.” Cat yelled. “SHIELD’s got a lock on. Going to blast anything with energy in the zone, and I am not going to rescue you from the Negative zone again.”
“Should I be offended?” Carol asked, but obeying the instructions.
“Like Lubyuanka, once is more than enough.” Cat touched her communicator. “Clear!”
A huge flash of light engulfed the area, and then suddenly nothing was there, just heroes standing around in their costumes.
“What the...?” Robin asked, confused. Cat blinked.
“Space Phantoms are made of energy. They have no memories of their past life; they’re kinda like energy Zombies. SHIELD’ll hold them; try to stop more of them getting through.”
She paused for a moment, checking that the black hooded figure was out of sight.
“Excuse me; I have to get our guests to the hospital.”
***
Steve kept watching the television screen. When the alert had first come in, it had taken all of his strength not to rush out of the hospital room, and indeed Tony had encouraged him to go. But he had taken one look at the figure at the bed, looking so small and helpless, and had decided against it.
Even back when he was just sixteen, Bucky had proved himself a capable field leader. He could handle this.
***
Cat had persuaded the Avengers to take Tim Drake-Wayne and Alfred back with them. She would be going straight to her apartment from the hospital and would take Jason with her. Bruce and Cap could either spend the night there or get back under their own steam.
She would have been the first to admit, if anyone asked her that it was the coward’s way out.
If the rumours about Leslie Thompson and Jarvis were true, and even if they weren’t, she did not want to be around when Alfred and Jarvis met.
Add to that the lecture she could already hear, from Cap on the subject of sidekicks, which was inevitably going to happen when he was introduced to Robin, and would become a thousand times worse with Jason added, she was relieved that she could hide out. Though knowing Fury, that wouldn’t happen.
The journey to the hospital was better than she thought. Bucky had volunteered to come with her, and He willingly sat in the back with Bruce, while Jason sat in the front with her. For all that, however no one spoke and she was glad when having shown the guard at the gate her SHIELD ID and entered the building. Bucky waited in the car, apparently not trusting himself where Stark was concerned.
Fury was waiting for them. She wasn’t surprised; she had known him too long for that. He didn’t say anything; merely fell in step beside her, letting her know that he wouldn’t press her now, but that he wanted a full explanation later.
The hospital had a whole floor set aside for Avenger use, and she could see the surprised expressions on the Gothamites faces at some of the more unusual requirements. Really, if you dealt with those capable of setting everything within a ten mile radius on fire every time they sneezed, an oxygen removal tent was simply a sensible precaution.
Tony wasn’t on the main ward though. Extremis, coupled with the normal rules regarding those viewed as a risk to themselves, meant that he was in a private room just off at the end. As they approached, Cat could see a familiar shape through the door.
“Has he actually slept?” She asked Fury in an undertone, who shrugged, before pushing open the door.
“You got visitors, Stark.”
***
Steve glanced up from his one sided conversation, at Fury’s growl.
The one eyed grizzled veteran was there, with Cat standing at his side. There was another man with them, dark hair and dark eyes. Tony appeared to recognise him.
“Hello Bruce.” He said, softly, his voice harsh from lack of use. Dimly, as though from a great distance he could hear Cat suggesting that they got some coffee and left these two to get reacquainted.
***
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him.” Cat said, as they sat in the hospital cafeteria. A young man, introduce very briefly as Jason, had been dispatched to get coffee, while they gathered around the table. “The press brings it up almost every time Wayne Industries are in the news and they brought it up in spades a couple of years ago.”
At the look on Steve’s face, she blushed slightly. “Sorry.” She shook herself. “Short version a tragedy. Wealthy couple, leaving the movies with their son, gunned down in front of him.” she sighed. “The longer version is a bit more complicated. Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha are leaving the movies along with their eight year old son, Bruce. They enter Park Alley, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to the renaming of the street Crime Alley. Out of the darkness come two shots. When witnesses get to the scene, they find the kid kneeling in his parent’s blood surrounded pearls.”
Steve interrupted. “When did this happen?”
Cat frowned. “For some reason, I want to say 1940, even though I know it’s wrong.”
“That was the date of the film.” Fury volunteered, his eyes never leaving Cat. “The 1940’s Mask of Zorro. Happened about 20 or 30 years ago.”
Cat nodded. “No one knows what really happened there, or why the kid was spared. Various versions I heard have been a robbery gone wrong, deliberate assassination, even heard one where it was claimed that Martha Wayne was unfaithful and her husband hired a hit man.” She shrugged. “Maybe the guy just blanched at killing a kid or maybe he was disturbed before he finished the job. No one knows and it doesn’t really matter. Either way the Waynes were dead and Gotham sunk deeper into corruption. The kid is brought up by the butler and a Dr. Thompson and vanishes off the radar for a while.” She took a sip of her tea, winced and added another packet of sugar. “Then about 20 years ago things change in Gotham. It acquires its own protector, Batman, the Dark Knight. About the same time Bruce Wayne returns from parts unknown.” She met Steve’s eyes. “I’ll let you draw your own inferences from that.” She shrugged. “Things have been pretty much constant since that. Bruce Wayne is a wealthy philanthropist and father to three boys. Dick Grayson,”
Steve smiled. “Think I’ve heard a great deal about him from Peter.”
“Jason, who you just met and Tim Drake, who should be sleeping at the mansion about now.”
Steve nodded slowly.
“And you think he can help Tony?” he asked, trying not to let his disbelief slip into his voice. Cat shrugged. “He's done so before.” She slid a file across the table. Fury got to his feet.
“Where’s that Kid got to?”
Cat grinned, also rising.
“Probably on the point of collapse from Exhaustion. I’ll head off. You make sure Steve and Bruce get back alright?”
Fury waited until he was sure that they were out of Steve’s hearing before asking.
“You wanna give me the extended version.” At Cat’s expression, he sighed. “Come on kid, don’t fence with me. The guy’s a cape. It’s evident that you’ve got some connection with that kid, and the brief interaction I saw suggests that neither of you like him very much.”
Cat sighed, slumping against the wall.
“It’s complicated.” She said. Fury grinned.
“Nice try.”
Cat shrugged. “It is though. You remember Tony?”
“Andolini, the Italian kid?”
“Italian American.” Cat corrected him. “I met Jason when he was about 6 at one of the shelter’s he set up.” She sighed. “The story was pretty typical. Dad left when kid was three, Mum had a series of boyfriends, most of them abusive.” She paused. “When I met him, the worse one had just appeared. Kid basically decided that the streets were safer than his home.” She lifted her eyes to look at Fury. “Makes you wonder what we fought for huh?”
Fury didn’t think there was anything he cloud say to that. Cat had been born in a brothel in the slums of Liverpool in 1929. Mother a prostitute, father unknown. She had been fending for herself since she was 4 or 5. When she was ten, her mutant powers manifested when either her mother’s pimp, or boyfriend Fury wasn’t quite sure which, tried to rape her. Since then she had served her country both in Britain and abroad. But that didn’t mean she’d forgotten her roots.
“Looks like things turned out O.K.” he ventured uncertainly. For all he knew this guy could have been part of the problem. Cat snorted.
“Kid’s almost as messed up as I am.” She drew a deep breath. “got taken in by Bruce Wayne, killed by his biological mother, resurrected by means unknown, beaten by his brothers, flung around the multiverse, and generally treated like a piece of dog’s meat by the world.” The anger was in her voice. She stopped for a moment, and breathed deeply.
“Make sure Steve gets home.” She said, with a fake calmness in her voice, as she headed off to find Jason.
***
Bruce had never been good at talking. He had believed since he could remember that actions spoke louder than words. But this was something that actions couldn’t sort out.
He sunk down into the chair beside the bed and stared at Tony.
“You know you could have called.” Bruce Wayne tried to joke. “You didn’t have to try to kill yourself to get me to visit.”
Tony’s eyes stared dull and unfocused at him.
“Why?” He asked, gently.
Tony blinked.
“I screwed up.” He said softly. “I screwed over The Avengers, I screwed over Steve. They all hate me.”
Bruce wanted to argue that it wasn’t true, but with what Barbra had told him about the last few years here, and the look that Cat had flung in their general direction he wasn’t sure.
“But it’ll be alright,” there was fever light in Tony’s eyes. “Everything’ll be O.k. Just another twenty pounds to go.” His eyelids were drooping as he added. “Then everything’ll be perfect.”
Looking at the skeleton with skin stretched over it, that had once been his friend, both Bruce Wayne and Batman felt afraid.
TBC