Hello readers! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
And I would also like to thank those who have favorited and are following this story, it warms my heart to know there are those out there who have taken an interest in my story.
I would like to try and give a little call out to everybody and motivate them to review but if none do I will still try to get chapters up as soon as possible. I am shooting for a chapter a week but since I am also a full time student and have a job, updates might not be as frequent. Otherwise, check back on Wednesdays because those are the days I have the most amount of free time.
The lightning strikes.
A strengthening roar of vengeful thunder,
with an aim for terror.
A craving justice.
Overwhelmed with power.
Fearless grunts.
A God to many, Myth to others.
Inspiration for battle.
Only one can hold such a Hammer.
A loyal weapon.
The symbol of strength.
Of courage, of honour.
One could not forget, such a mighty symbol.
Rejection to fear.
Claiming his freedom.
The holder of this Hammer.
The holder of my faith.
The strong an true.
The Thunder God
Kelly L "The Thunder God"
Loud thunder rips through the starless night sky, causing the whole building to rumble and the glass of the windows to shake. The whistling storm draws closer and closer to shore with harsh waves that lap at the cliff under the house. There lies a man within, restless in his bed, nightmares and memories plaguing his sleep.
A pale women stands underneath a tall Ash tree that stretches high and wide; its roots extending up out of the ground and out towards the blue ocean it leans over. The woman has long white hair, as light as the snow, with deep blue eyes the color of the sea. The dress she wears is also white that flows behind and around her clear down to her feet but leaving her arms and neck bare. Her face is fair and features divine. The woman gazes up through the branches to the heavens to see a cloudless sky, as if looking or waiting for something. She turns her head to look at a man standing off to the side; a sad smile grows upon her face at his sight.
In the distance on a green hill stands a cabin. Smoke billows out through the chimney despite the warm air and high sun. Not much more can be seen of the cabin due to the distance but a feeling of safety and security overcomes the man at its sight.
"They're waiting for you." The voice of the woman is soft and sweet, one that soothes the soul at the mere sound of it.
The man turns back to look at her to find her looking at the cabin too. Her eyes had taken on a look of even more sadness but she still smiled and had that sorrowful look.
"But you cannot go to them. Not yet." The man felt sad at this prospect but he did not know why.
The woman looked back up and the man does the same. This time there are grey clouds forming overhead, with a soft rumble growing in the distance.
"A great storm draws near. Preparations must be made for its approach."
When the man looks back down, it was to find the woman standing directly in front of him. She reaches up and strokes his hair, pulling a strand behind his ear. The man says nothing as well as the woman. All she does is offer a small smile before leaning up to give a faint kiss upon his forehead.
Bang!
Loud thunder cuts through the sky, knocking the walls together and waking the man from his dream. Tony sits up quickly and frantically looks around him before realizing he is in his bedroom in Malibu. He sighs and runs his hands down his face and through his hair.
"Geez Thor, ya think you can keep it down?" he grumbles to himself and gets up off the bed to stretch.
Turning to the clock he sees that it's only 3:30 in the morning. He scowled at the time. Pepper would not get back until 9 that morning from her trip to New York. Working on the rebuilding of Stark Tower in New York and the five others they had planned in other cities was a long and tiring job. One which Pepper was very good at when it came to the planning and legal part with the mile high paperwork that comes with.
Tony walked to the window to look out at the agitated waters beneath him. He gave a sneer before walking away to pick up his discarded shirt that he left on the floor the night before.
"A great storm draws near, my ass. It's already here lady."
The dream Tony had was not a new one. In fact it was one he had had ever since a boy. Except over the year's small things changed. Mostly it was just what the blonde woman under the tree would say. Granted it was never much and always cryptic, there was still a little bit of variety.
Sometimes she said nothing at all and would only sit or stand there and look up to the sky, out across the ocean, or at Tony. The last one kind of unnerved him because when she did that it was always with that same sad look in the dream except almost as if she was looking at him in disappointment. When she did that if felt like she could see right through to his soul, making him feel like a small child being criticized by his mother.
There were a few occasion, however, when the look was only sadness. That usually happened sometime after a great tragedy occurred in his life while the disappointing look occurred after some stupid mistake Tony made. She almost always was sad though, there were a few times that she seemed content and almost happy underneath that tree.
Tony chalked it all up to his unconscious trying to tell him something or comfort him. He had to admit, he did have nice taste because the woman was definitely beautiful. Although the weird part about it was he was never attracted to her. Of course, while there was still some sort of deep emotional attachment to the woman it was never romantic. But none of that really mattered anyways because she was only a dream.
Tony sighed and walked out his room to go to his lab. He knew he wasn't going to get back to sleep with the weather but needed to get his mind off of the dream. And the best way to do that was to work on his suit or tinker with one of his cars in order to keep busy.
Tony knew why he'd had the dream because he'd been having it frequently ever since New York. It seemed that he just couldn't rest after the invasion especially when Pepper wasn't there. When Pepper was there and he'd wake up after a nightmare she'd always be able to get him back to sleep with time. Most nights when he was alone, however, the dreams he had were from the actual battle or memories from his time as a hostage in Afghanistan. After that and without Pepper to comfort him he never got back to sleep. He supposed he could only be thankful that this night without Pepper brought the dream of the woman underneath the Ash tree instead. Although, it still always brought with it a feeling of sadness and unease every time after he had it and he'd never get any rest after, too.
Tony took a quick swig of some whiskey in an attempt to pull him from those thoughts and make him focus on his Iron Man suit instead.
In no time at all it seemed Jarvis was talking to Tony and snapping him from his almost daze like state while working.
"Sir, it is 8 a.m. Don't you think it is time for you to get ready before Miss Potts gets back from her trip?"
"Thanks Jarvis." He quickly finished up the job he was doing before leaving the lab. Tony walked into the bathroom to clean up and then get dressed. Once he was done he went to the kitchen to wait for Pepper.
He decided to try and attempt to make pancakes for himself and Pepper and by the time she got to the house and tried the failed breakfast only to make some herself, he'd be hungry enough to eat. Perfect plan.
Tony was just finishing up with the food and placing the pancakes onto two plates when he heard the familiar sound of Peppers high-heels approaching.
"And there she is, Miss Pepper Potts. Even more beautiful than ever." Tony walked around the table to give her a deep kiss.
"Well isn't that a nice welcome." She smiled at her lover with her arms around his neck.
"And it gets better, I made you breakfast."
"Is it anything like the breakfast you made me after Monte Carlo when Vanko attacked you?" She walked closer to the table and bent over to look at the pancakes set out for her.
"Yep, just like that." She smirked before picking up the two plates to throw the food in the trash. She then proceeded to collect the ingredients to make pancakes herself.
"You wound me. I tried very hard on that."
"Oh sure you did. You didn't make those pancakes at all in an attempt to get me to do it myself." She couldn't keep the smile off her face at the fake hurt expression on Tony's face.
"Dear God, Pepper. You wound me again. It's like you just keep stabbing me with a sharp knife in my heart. You know, if I had one." With that Tony tapped the arc reactor in the middle of his chest as if to prove a point.
"Oh shut up and pass me the milk."
"So, how did New York go?" He asked while at the fridge getting out the milk.
"It went fine. Stark Tower is coming along nicely and should be up and running within the next couple months if you come out and help with the reconstruction."
Tony gave a noise of agreement and sat down. "Shouldn't be long then before we can start working on the others. I think we should start the one in L.A. first since it'll be closest and then move on to Chicago."
"Sounds good. But I think we should start the one in D.C. as soon as possible. If nothing else it'll help with your image with the politicians and after New York they hate you more than ever." Pepper began pouring the mix into the fryer and Tony gave a humorless laugh at this.
"You'd think that after I saved their asses both literally and figuratively because of the backlash they would have received if they had actually nuked the city, they'd be more grateful."
"It comes with the job, Tony. Especially when the entire world knows who you are after you publically revealed yourself to be Iron Man." At that she gave him a pointed look.
"Oh come on, you know I wouldn't have lasted long with keeping Iron Man a secret. It's not in my nature!"
Pepper only shook her head and continued with the food.
"You do realize you're not the only one the entire world has strong opinions of. It's just the rest of the Avengers are all unknown to everyone so they have to target someone."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm the richest so Fury isn't exactly stepping in when New York is demanding compensation for the damages."
"Something like that." Pepper smiled and placed the last of the pancakes onto one of the plates. She carried the two over to the table and sat down. Tony followed suit and sat next to her, reaching for the syrup and butter.
The two continued to eat breakfast and talk. Not once did Pepper ask if he had had any more nightmares for which he was grateful and he never told her. They were perfectly content on just eating and talking about other things without having to bring up the troubles that constantly bothered Tony.
After they were done eating, Pepper got up to go take a shower while Tony put the food away and the plates in the sink.
"Sir, there is an incoming call for you."
"If it's Fury tell him I'm not here."
"No it's the Shady Oaks Retirement home that's located in Santa Rosa, California."
Tony scrunched up his face in confusion. He'd never even heard of the place before. "Retirement home? Why the hell would they be calling me?"
"I haven't the faintest idea, sir."
"Well you're no help. Put them through."
A man's deep voice could be heard in the kitchen, one that Tony had never heard before.
"Hello? Mr. Iron Ma-I mean Tony Stark, sir?"
"The one and only."
"Hi, my name is George Carlson. I'm a nurse at Shady Oaks Retirement home. I was wondering if you knew a man by the name of Neil Boggess?"
"Boggess. The name sounds familiar. Why?"
"Because he is a resident here at our establishment. He says that he knew you and your father."
"Well if he's old enough to be in an old-folks home then that would make sense why he knew my dad and why he sounds familiar."
"So you do know him?"
"Yeah I guess. Don't fully remember. Why?"
"Well that's kind of complicated. You see, he's been here for about seven years after his kids couldn't take care of him anymore due to his Alzheimer's. He hasn't been able to remember much of anything because of it but every now and then he has moments of remembrance and understanding with varying degrees. After 2008 when you , uh, when you went on T.V. and told everyone you were Iron Man, he started asking for you, said he needed to speak with you. However, his children informed us to not contact you whenever that happened. "
"So why are you calling me now?"
"Because, Mr. Boggess is reaching the end of his rope and we don't know how much longer he has. And seeing as his wife died years ago, both his children are too busy, and all his grandkids live too far away to come see him one more time I decided to call you."
"Breaking the rules, huh, Georgy?"
"Yeah, I am. Mr. Boggess was always a kind man and I decided that it didn't matter what his kids wanted since they never really seemed to care in the first place. So I finally decided to call you."
"Better late than never I suppose. But what exactly do you want me to do? Come see a dying man I don't even remember?"
The man could be heard as he sighed. "I know it's a lot to ask but I don't know if I could have lived with myself knowing that the one thing that Mr. Boggess only ever seemed to care about when he was himself was getting a hold of you. You don't have to come out here, hell, even if you do I don't know if he'd recognize you or be able to tell you whatever it was he always seemed to think was so important. But…I just thought I should let you know."
"Well thanks, I guess. I'll think about it."
"Thank you Mr. Stark. You don't know how much it means to me and Mr. Boggess. Oh and Mr. Stark?"
"Yeah?" Now the man sounded nervous, almost hesitant.
"It's just my son is a huge fan of you and the rest of the Avengers. I told him I'd be calling you and he wanted me to tell you how much you mean to him."
Tony chuckled and couldn't help but smile.
"Tell your kid, thanks and that Iron Man says hi."
"Thank you Mr. Stark." George sounded pleased before he finally hung up.
Tony stood there for a few more seconds before hearing a voice from behind him causing him to jump.
"You going to go see him?"
Tony turned around to find Pepper standing in the doorway with her hair wet and in new clothes.
"I don't even know the man. Why would I?"
"Because he knows you and your Iron Man."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Pepper smiled and walked towards him to wrap her arms around him. "You're Iron Man which means you have an obligation to the people and you're supposed to help."
She kissed Tony on the lips before pulling away and walking to the sink to clean the dishes.
"Sooo…I'm Iron Man. Which means I have to go put on a show for senile old people in homes to cheer them up before they die?"
Pepper scowled at him and lightly slapped him across the chest. "That's not what I meant. The man knows you and you know him. He has no family that will see him, just go visit for an hour or two."
"I don't actually know the guy, I remember hearing the name from somewhere or other, probably from my dad since he says he knew the guy. But that doesn't mean I knew him."
"Still, promise you'll think about it?"
"Fine, I'll do what I told Georgy, I'll think about."
Tony walked off and down towards his lab to go work more on his Iron Man suit. But as he worked he couldn't help but think more on this Mr. Boggess. The man had him thinking about his father and how exactly they knew each other. Maybe they were business partners.
Pretty soon Tony found himself opening the chest that Fury had given him of his father's during the whole Vanko incident. He did that a lot, rummage through his dads possessions. It almost made him feel closer to his dad even if he wasn't there.
His dads' old journals and notebooks full of notes were what he looked at most. A couple weeks back he found one that he remembered reading but never realized was full of notes and research on the Cube or Tesseract as Thor called it.
It was a while later by the time Pepper came down too. "What are you doing?"
"Just looking through some of my dad's old stuff. There's a lot of shit in this thing. A lot of old files from SHIELD too, nothing important of course. Not that that matters, if I wanted juicy info on SHIELD I'd just use Jarvis and hack in."
"Very good sir."
Pepper smiled at that and picked up a random file on the ground and started looking through it. "So you trying to find if there's anything in here about the man at the retirement home?"
"Not really. Just looking through stuff mostly. If I was going to try and find anything in these old papers that has to do with Mr. Boggess I'd just have Jarvis scan them all and tell me if his name pops up anywhere."
"Well why don't you?"
"Because this is a box that has to do with SHIELD, why would there be anything that has to do with Mr. Boggess in here?"
"I don't know, maybe that's how your dad knew him?"
"Wouldn't he then be in some government retirement home somewhere?"
Pepper looked confused, "Government retirement home?"
"I don't know, it's SHIELD, I wouldn't put anything past them. And besides, wouldn't that be too much of a coincidence and farfetched?"
Pepper just looked at Tony. "Really?"
Tony chuckled, "Ok, so maybe that wouldn't be that farfetched but actually make sense after I found out my dad worked for SHIELD." Pepper snorted and looked back down at the file she was holding.
"Fine, I'll have Jarvis look through all the papers and see what he comes up with it. It's not like it can hurt."
The two collected all the files and journals and began to put them on one of Tony's high-tech tables in order for Jarvis to scan through them all. Tony walked to his computer to sit down when Jarvis alerted him he was done.
"Sir, I've found mentions of Mr. Boggess in some of your fathers SHIELD files."
"What?" Tony sat up straighter for he didn't expect the scan to turn up anything.
"Show me on the screen."
On Tony's computer screen was shown a file concerning SHIELD's high council which runs the organization. They were even higher up then Fury and were the ones who had ordered the nuke on New York City.
"The file states, sir, that Mr. Neil Boggess joined the SHIELD council in 1957 and retired the year of 1990 at 65 years of age."
"SHIELD high council? He was in charge of SHIELD?" Pepper stood behind Tony's chair and looked astonished.
"Looks like you were right Pepper. Jarvis, delete all the files of the scans you just took, I don't want Fury finding out about this."
"Yes sir." Tony got up and began picking up all the papers on the table and began placing them back in his father's chest.
"So I take it you're going to go to that retirement home."
"Sure am. If this guy was part of SHIELD, part of SHIELD's council no-less, and has wanted to talk to me for the past five years, despite his Alzheimer's, it's got to be important."
"I'll call and get the jet ready for tomorrow morning."
"Thanks Pepper." She came over and kissed Tony on the lips before walking off. She turned around one last time before leaving the room.
"I only hope that it won't be catastrophic or world-threatening."
Tony smirked, "With my luck it will be universe-threatening."
Sorry for the somewhat boring chapter. But I had to set up for the next chapter which will include both more of Tony and things going on in Asgard.
P.S. Anyone know the reference the retirement home is from?
See you all next week!