Tony Stark was busy at his work, surrounded by his own creations. The halograms that sensed and reacted to motion, Jarvis his (nearly) constant companion was always loyal and wise, the robots were still needing to be tweaked but generally did well. They all obeyed his command. Here, he was in his element, his happy place and his stomping ground. As expected from an earlier alert from Jarvis, his stomping ground was invaded by a squad of women. Two out of three he knew. Pepper and the ever-mysterious and alluring Agent Romanoff were easily recognized, but the third that Jarvis referred to as "an apparent guest" and Pepper referred to her as Elle. Or El... or simply L.
The young lady had to be in her early twenties and seemed somewhat in shell-shock over the overwhelming presence of technology in the lab. She quietly followed the others, looking around in a silent awe. Her lips almost seemed glued shut. Tony even ventured a studious eye to see if they had been sewn shut or for residue on the outside of the light pink and somewhat narrow pair. They were there but nothing like the plump lips such as Natasha. As they spoke, she had a surprisingly strong and firm voice, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, sir."
"Elle is actually a specially guest of the secrete organization that I have no knowledge of," cheekily, comments Pepper as she sets a case file down for Tony to pick up. He willing does so and starts looking over the girl's information. Sure enough the girl is called Elle Ross. She was adopted to a family who lived in eastern Omaha, Nebraska. She shows a great amount of intelligence and was the successful patient of an experimental procedure in which a stillborn can be brought back to life. She was amazing and yet unremarkable unless provoked out of her thoughts, it seemed.
"Do you know who your real parents are?" mused the genius out loud. He blinked as the unfamiliar hand pulled the S.H.I.E.L.D. folder away from him. He grinned as their seemed to be an emotional response from her. Interesting, so she does allow some emotions show.
"Actually, that's why I'm joining S.H.I.E.L.D., to be honest," she more softly answers. "My grandparents never were people to live lies. They taught me from a young age that I was the daughter of their daughter and a man who I would need to find. They even were as honest with me as to show me my mother's grave. I'm here to not only to meet my father, but help him... Anything else?" Her last sentence has the same firmness she presented earlier. She was neither beautiful nor hideous. She had hazel eyes behind thin black plastic frames, her honey brown hair was pulled back into a simple pony tail, and she a had a faint tan to her. She was not that impressive on the outside. But, she was impressive on the inside.
Tony was curious."Yeah, who's your dad?"
"Not you, obviously," Elle curtly answered and walked around, hands strictly on the folder in front of her. "I haven't been able to be around such awesomeness in a long time."
"You mean, technology like this?" Tony watched her as she dared not to touch anything. Is this from being polite or was she trying to show something else? And, is that a slight limp in her gait?
Natasha chuckled and joined Elle. She knew was a techno-geek but the look on the young woman's face was the same as if looking into a miracle. Like an art lover looking into a gorgeous painting, a person regaining hearing... indescribable enjoyment and elation. It's beautiful. I knew he choice to visit Stark would be best. "Elle was a major on technology, but she mostly about music," commented the red head. Sure enough, there goes his eyebrows and now he'll be thinking harder.
"So, do you incorporate music into your work or the tech into your music?" asked the genius. He leaned against one of his counters and sipped on some coffee.
"Music theory into my work. It's a bit harder to get hacked into when you don't always speak geek, you know?" answered Elle. She looked over at the well-known tech genius. Is it me or was Tony Stark was just grinning at my answer? What is going on in that mad and yet brilliant mind of his?
"I know who your father is..."
"Don't ruin it for the rest of the class, Stark," commented back, Elle.
"Well, Elle just wanted to meet you first. She has other people to meet and then she'll be working on security and planning systems for the main system," stated Natasha as she leads the younger girl out the lab. As all of them knew, Tony's curiousity was going to spike with this comment.
"Planning and security?" Tony sat down his coffee and followed them. He barely noticed as Pepper picked up his refurbished and refined suitcase suit. So, they think they're gonna drag me in with this? They better try better.
"Yep, stuff to help out Fury since Coulson's not around to keep an eye on everything for him and organize things as much anymore. We're going to visit his grave if your interested..." answered the assassin.
Tony nodded not even fully realizing he had followed them all the way out of the lab and back upstairs. He suddenly wasn't so sure who this girl was related to anymore. "Elle, is it?"
"That's the name I was given..." she answered more playfully. Perhaps she had felt more confident with the advantage of a mystery that Tony couldn't give up.
"Ellie, is your dad alive?"
"My 'dad', you mean the man who raised me?"
"Well, your biological father, of course."
"Oh, you want to know if my birth dad is alive."
"Yes, I would appreciate that."
"Do you really want to know?"
"That is implied, yes. Is he alive?"
They were on the roof as Tony answered this. Of course, there was a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter waiting and running for them to all to load. The buffeting noise was the perfect cover. "My father is..." is all Tony could hear from her. They boarded the craft and Pepper handed him his suitcase suit. Tony nodded a thank you as the S.H.I.E.L.D chopper lifted off leaving Pepper waving at the three good-bye as they headed out.
"So, Ellie, your answer was kinda muffled out there," commented Tony after a few minutes. He nearly flinched when she glared at him. From over the head sets all of them heard her ask, "Excuse me?" Quickly the genius backpedaled as he added, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you didn't like that name. What I meant was... I didn't get to hear your answer on your father when we got on the roof and.."
She started laughing and waved her hand, "Sorry, Mr. Stark I had to do that to you. And, I know, I wanted it that way..."
"That was not nice," he grumbled. His pouting stupor distracted him just long enough for them to arrive at Steve Roger's favorite park. Sure enough, the ancient young man smiled and waved at the chopper as it arrived. He helped Natasha and Ellie out as they walked away from the chopper and pilot actually killed the engine this time. After a few minutes the man-made pond calmed to a nearly complete placid state. Steve was chumming it up offering the young lady the crook of his arm as she and the assassin followed him to a pair of concrete benches near the pond's cattails and a couple of trees.