Preparing for the Moment
Summary: Two years after the Loki-Chitauri incident, the Avengers found themselves a new but less threatening person to deal with – Tony Stark's mysterious adopted child. What's with this new Stark in the tower that's considered threatening for the whole team? Read to find out. Mythology-ish and AU-ish.
Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers. [If I do, I'd seriously make lots of BL scenes in movies :))]
Prologue: Who says that choosing the heir of a gigantic company isn't easy?
"What the HELL are you saying?!" Fury bellowed on phone as his team silently listen to the ramblings of a rather volatile genius on the phone.
"Did you also lose your ears?" the person on the other end jokingly asked.
"I'm serious here Stark. . ?!" Fury's patience has finally come to an end.
"What else does a person do in an orphanage? Of course I'm here to adopt a child." Tony sarcastically screamed as the children on the orphanage started to cheer at the sight of him.
"Get out of there NOW. You want a CHILD?! WHY DON'T YOU ASK YOUR GIRLS IF THEY PRODUCED ONE?!" Fury almost threw the glass he was drinking into. Gladly enough, Maria took the glass off his hand on time.
"That's not cool you know. I mean I'm sure nobody's carrying my child. I'm quite careful in that department… SIR." He's still shouting, fighting to make sure his voice is heard on the other line, although he made sure the last part was emphasised loudly before he disconnected the call. He never thought there would be chaos in a secluded place like this. He had make arrangements carefully so no press or media would know of his visit in the orphanage. Besides, who would actually even bother to visit an orphanage in the middle of a rundown village?
"Welcome to our humble home Mr. Stark." A young brunette opened the door towards the orphanage's lobby. He noticed the intricate design on the signboard above the information desk. It read Custodus de Somnium Mundus.
"Custodus de Somnium Mundus? Protectors of the Dream World?" He asked the young brunette who was busily writing something on the record book at the moment.
"We thought that we are protectors of the world these children dreams of having sir." An aged yet beautiful woman answered his question. She has dark brown eyes and hair. She wore a simple blue dress with large black collar and gold lining that's giving off an impression that she's either the owner or someone really significant.
"Ah, I see. Tony Stark," he took the woman's hand and kissed the back of her hand. "I presume you are Ms. Wilhelmina Lockehart, owner of the orphanage?"
"Yes, I am. So about the inquiry you've asked sir-" She was abruptly cut by Tony.
"Just Tony or Stark is fine. I don't feel like being called a sir by such a beauty like you." He flashed his trademark grin to her which earned a surprised but agreeing look on her face.
"Then you may call me Mina." She smiled sweetly. "Then shall we see the children?" He nodded and decided that walking beside her is the best way to avoid being lost. It's not that the house is big but the fact that there are a lot of children here who knows him and what he is here for agitates him.
Mina led the way towards an inner room. The said room was the living room as the young brunette called it. It was quite small if you imagine it being a living room for almost 50 children. It has victorian-styled wallpaper and an antique chandelier. The color of the room was mainly emerald green and pale blue. The furniture on the other hand was modernized but fits perfectly on the wallpaper. All in all, it's like a room from somebody's fantasy or dream. On the long comfy looking sofa in the middle of the room were 10 young children about the age of 8 to 10. Six of them were boys and the rest are girls.
"These children are the ones that passed the qualities you have requested to me last week. By the way here are their profiles." She informed him while handing a folder full of information about the ten children then in a soft voice she said, "Children introduce yourselves to our guest."
The first to stand was the boy in the far left of the sofa. He's a fine boy with intelligent hazel eyes and spiky raven hair. He stands like a blue blood would do – full of confidence and intelligence. He took three steps towards Tony and offered his hand, "I'm Edward Lloyd Austen. Nice to meet you Mr. Stark."
He flipped the pages of the young boy's profile. Orphaned through massacre in London, he was from a middle class family of businessmen. He's educated in an executive school meant for intelligent people and has an IQ of 140. Also, he is well versed in the field of science as he once dreamt of being a scientist who'll be able to discover a renewable unlimited source of power or electricity.
"He fits perfectly with the requirements that I requested." He shook the boy's hand and motioned for the others to introduce themselves. Bit by bit, he discovered that in all of the boys therein, the first was the one he's searching for. As for the girls, he doesn't like the fact that the one was obviously swooning at the sight of him and the second was not very familiar with science.
"Hmm. So I guess there's one more?" He faced Mina as gestured his hand towards an empty seat on the far right.
"I guess she went to the bathroom or something. Ira, go fetch the young girl please." Mina instructed to the young brunette. A few minutes later, Ira returned with a timid young girl who's basically hiding behind the brunette.
"Come on, introduce yourself." Ira gently took the girl's hand off her pants and guided her in front of Tony. She has an eye-catching platinum blonde hair and sorrowful looking grey eyes. She's quite small for her age and a little bit skinny too. Nervously, she opened her little mouth to say her name.
"My name's Freya. I'm seven years old... or at least that's what Mina and the others assumed." She said in a tiny but charming voice while staring at the floor. After that, silence took over the room.
"Her memories are quite messed up so we don't know whether she has other relatives or something. I found her walking around the forest at the back together with a pack of wolves that was obviously waiting for the right time to eat her up. I found a necklace with a key pendant tucked on her dress that day with a date of 7 years ago etched on it. I assumed that it was her birthdate." She pointed on the pendant that the girl was silently playing with. He looked further on her profile and found something interesting on the psychological and mental part of her medical results.
"Traces of MPS and no available result for IQ test?" He raised an eyebrow and studied the young girl below her. Surely enough, the boy was the perfect child he's looking for but something about this young girl allures him so much. It is as if she was something he needed to have, something he must keep near to himself.
"Well, there are times that she would say that we're all nothing but ants against her. As for her IQ test, the doctors said that the tests given to her was not enough to measure her mental capabilities."
"Really? That's interesting and a little bit disturbing at some other parts." He then kneeled down to face the young girl and asked her a simple question.
"They say you're very intelligent. Let's test if you really are, shall we?" He closed his eyes for a mere second and then grinned to the young girl. "Suppose you were to create a source of power that's clean and renewable, what material would you use and what theory would you apply to achieve your goal?"
The girl stared at him for a minute, not really knowing what to answer. Silence, once again, enveloped the room. Lloyd on the other hand, jumped with interest as he sprinted towards Tony.
"If I were her, I would choose the materials and process you did with the arc reactor! Not only it's proven to be safe, it's the only clean energy available out there that has the least harmful effects aside from it being very costly to make!" He burst enthusiastically as he held onto Tony's arm and Freya's shoulder.
"Exactly! That's exactly the answer I'm looking for!" Tony proudly patted the young boy's shoulder, acknowledging the great answer he offered to everyone in the room. Freya merely titled her head slightly. She eyed Tony again before she pulled him down and whispered to his ears an answer that sent chills down to his very soul.
"If I were either him or you, I would not rely on the arc reactor that much. Its power would only last for about a millennium or so… If I were to create a stable source of clean power, I would definitely use the power of gods." She let go of Tony and showed a sickly sweet smile to him.
"Power of gods? So you're a religious maniac huh? Sorry but I'm an atheist." He joked to her with a soft voice. Well, he can't blame the girl if she becomes a religious maniac. After all, he doesn't know what hell the girl went through before she ended up in the orphanage. To his surprise, the girl continued to smile at his joke and pulled him down again to whisper a more sinister answer.
"No, I'm not a religious maniac. I am referring to the Tesseract, Anthony Edward Stark." Out of shock, he abruptly pushed himself up. Because of this, Freya lost her balance and fell on the floor laughing. Mina quickly helped her up and said, "Now, do you understand the "traces of MPS" written on her med record?"
"I guess I do." He quickly steadied himself and flashed his Stark grin to Mina and said, "Please prepare the papers of the young girl. I want her to come home with me tonight as I chose her to become the adopted daughter of the owner of the Stark Industries." He too, started laughing along with Freya as he conveniently sat upon one of the chairs in the room.
AN: What do you think? Reviews are greatly appreciated~
Please forgive the grammar/spelling errors ^^" English is not my mother language :)