Chapter Four: Avengers Tower
"Very few people realize that heroes are only human."
-Anon
Diane's face itched. She woke herself up rubbing her face into the pillow to stop it. It didn't work—she nearly suffocated and her skin was still crawling. She sat up and tried to scratch, but her fingers were blocked by gauze. Di's toes curled as she tried to suppress the urge to rip to it off and scratch. She cast her eyes around the room for a distraction.
Dark room, soft sheets, sleek furnishings and fancy art on the walls. Di frowned as she ran through her memory. Four hours of hard flying was sufficiently traumatizing that her brain attempted to block it out. Just leave it alone, it told her. You do not want to know. She threw off her sheets and wandered into the bathroom, digging her toes into the rich carpet. She splashed water on her face, forgot about the gauze, and remembered the itching. Giving a small growl of frustration, she peered at her reflection. Everything came back to her.
Di jumped like she had been pinched and rushed back into the bedroom, looking at everything. She was in Stark Tower! The room took on a new quality; it was like seeing holy relics in a church.
"Tony Stark lives here," she told herself softly. "You could run into him any minute." Seized with a sudden desire to look presentable, Di returned to the bathroom and studied the mirror once more. White gauze covered her left cheek and part of her forehead; there was even a strip bridging her nose. A few other pieces were attached to her neck and shoulder. Pretty good for surviving an assassination attempt, she thought.
She washed her face and hands and ran her fingers through her hair. The result was slightly better than a rat's nest. Di glanced around for a brush. Nothing on the counter; the drawers didn't have handles, either.
"What are you looking for, Miss?"
Di froze. She was not getting used to this strange-voices-out-of-nowhere thing. She was completely alone. "Where are you?"
"About forty stories down, but you don't have to worry; I'm Mr. Stark's computer system. Is there anything you need?"
Di nodded. The voice was coming a speaker somewhere, even though she couldn't identify it. "So you're like… the butler?"
"I run everything in Stark Tower."
What were you supposed to say to a computer? Good job? Do you take tips? Di realized her mouth her mouth was open and closed it.
Just then, a door opened in the bedroom. "Diane? I hear you're awake. How are you feeling?"
"So you're a spy, too?" Di said to the computer. She didn't know if it heard; she didn't even know where it was. Di peeked out of the bathroom and gaped. The Black Widow saw her and smiled.
"Hey, I'm Natasha. I've got clothes for you." She held up a small bundle.
Di glanced down at the satin pajamas she was wearing—not hers, too big, not even going to ask—and came out of the bathroom to meet her third Avenger. Natasha exuded friendliness, putting Di at ease. Nevertheless, she still had to suppress the urge to babble. "Thanks a lot. I can't believe I'm actually meeting you. You're so amazing."
"Whoa, turn it down; you sound like you're trying to sell me something. You are just like Clint said." She laughed. "And nobody believed him."
Di abruptly remembered her chilling phone call. "Clint! Is he alright?"
"He's fine. Relatively. Nobody's too happy with him right now. They were upstairs grilling him last time I checked."
"It's really not his fault. He was trying to be nice to me and then everything went to pieces."
"It's completely his fault, but don't worry about it. Taking orders isn't quite his forte, and since Fury's let us all on a loose leash… never mind. So, girl of the hour, from what Clint tells me, you'll probably freak out when I tell you that the whole gang is upstairs waiting to meet you."
Di frowned. Was it really that obvious? She thought of the mysterious caller's opening remark, along with everything that had happened afterwards. She was going to have to pull herself together. The Avengers needed help; she needed help, and she was going to stop being a silly fan-girl if it killed her. Thinking of her parents made that no problem at all.
"Well, he's wrong. I'll go up and meet the lot of them now."
"Alright, Miss Confidence. You might want to get dressed first."
By the time Di was dressed and presentable, her resolution was wavering slightly. If everyone was as friendly as Natasha (who could untangle hair and tell spy stories at the same time and make it sound normal), then Di figured she'd be alright. As long as she didn't say anything stupid. And as long as they didn't all come at her at once. And as long—Di stopped thinking about it.
The elevator moved ridiculously slowly, inching upwards a mere two floors. The door opened to the sound of arguing voices.
"Look, it's been barely twenty-four hours since this started and even I'm behind now. I wasn't aware I was supposed to report to you every time I stepped outside."
"What about the trick you pulled last week? 'Oh, I didn't see anyone. Place was empty.'"
"I didn't want you setting up a manhunt when I could deal with it myself."
"Oh wonderful. If that's how you deal with things, then it's no wonder SHEILD is useless.
"Lighten up, Stark. He made a mistake—a stupid mistake—but we're not exactly a well oiled team, here."
"We're not a team. I told you, Cap: that was a one-gig thing. I'm perfectly willing to let the Jolly Green Giant use my lab, but I'm not running a community center for veterans and SHEILD agents. I'm surprised Fury hasn't already renamed this joint Avengers Tower."
"You three have gone over this a hundred times. I don't understand what the trouble is."
"The trouble is that a flying teenager showed up here with half a kitchen sink in her face and this idiot knew where she was all long."
Di was too absorbed in the conversation to realize how long she had been standing there. Natasha gave her a slight push forward. "Boys, your flying teenager is here."
The other five Avengers all turned to look at Di. Thor was leaning against a wall with his brawny arms crossed before him. Captain America was between Hawkeye at the bar and Ironman behind it, apparently trying to reconcile them. Dr. Bruce Banner had looked up from a handheld computer. Di drank in the sight. The Avengers!
"It's nice to finally meet my guardian angel." Tony Stark was first to accost her. There was a swagger to his step and an aura of perfect confidence hovered around him. "I would've introduced myself before but I'm a little too famous for that. Plus you passed out last time I saw you. Call me Tony."
He was teasing her. Di smiled. She knew how to be teased. "I seem to recall you doing the same thing the time before that."
"A point for the teenager. I think I'm going to like you, Diane."
"Call me Di. I suppose we're even now, right?" She gestured at the bandage on her face.
"The credit is actually mine," interrupted Banner. Di looked him up and down, mentally trying to reconcile his appearance with images she'd seen of the massive Hulk. He had and affable, quiet look, with faint network of nervous wrinkles behind his smile. "He wanted to give you a dozen different pain meds. You would've woken up in a decade or so. How are you feeling?"
He just had to call her attention back to her itching face, didn't he? Di caught her hand sneaking up to scratch and clamped it at her side. "I feel fine. Like nothing happened. You're a good doctor."
"Cap! Get over here and be sociable. She won't bite you," Stark commanded. "He's afraid of teenagers. Too technology-savvy. We had to force him to buy a cell phone," he told Di.
Steve Rogers gave Stark a withering look and then smiled warmly as he put out a hand for Di. Di told herself firmly not to stare but couldn't help doing so anyway. Of all the Avengers, Captain America was her favorite. She shook it, trying to remember how to breathe. Don't say something stupid. "Hi."
"Nice to meet you, Diane. That was a pretty brave stunt you pulled at Central Park. I wouldn't try to do it again, though."
"Oh, she'll do it again. Believe me." Di tore herself away from Captain America and glanced at Hawkeye.
"Clint!"
She grinned and zoomed over to him, too eager for time-consuming footsteps. Tony whistled and nudged Banner.
"What did I tell you? Like she's walking on air. Not even I can do that."
"There are quite a lot of things you can't do, Stark," Natasha said dryly.
Di nearly crashed into the bar, flinging her arms around the very surprised Avenger and giving him a hug. "You can see me! You're alright!"
"I'm alright? You just got blown up and you're worried about—you are the craziest kid I know."
"Is she the president of your fanclub, Hawk?"
"Shut up, Stark."
"Could you humans stop carping at each other long enough for the girl to tell us what's going on?"
Di glanced over at Thor, a slightly stern, aloof presence, and received a nod of acknowledgement. She supposed he wasn't one for introductions. "He's right. I need your help."
Di told them everything, starting when she first learned to fly, and ending with the explosion at her house. Stark was fascinated by her power, asking questions about her limits and so forth in between snarky interruptions. Thor and Captain America could hardly believe her daring in the parking-lot ambush—they even had Hawkeye confirm it, who dressed it up considerably with praise. Everyone was deeply interested in her phone call. Clint insisted that no one could've tapped the phone—he'd gotten it from Agent Hill at SHEILD. It was untraceable.
"Supposed to be untraceable. You should've asked me for one."
"That would've defeated the point of avoiding you."
"How did you get Hill to get you one?" Natasha asked.
Clint shrugged. "She did the whole operation. She's been awfully friendly lately."
"This is Maria Hill we're talking about right? 'Fury's pet jackal'?"
"Obviously we need to look in this," Captain America cut in. "You two see what you can find out about Fury and Agent Hill. Tony can go in the back door as well."
"Hold on there. Didn't I just tell you I wasn't running a bed and breakfast? Go give orders somewhere else."
"Why don't we just lure the plotter out? If he wants to prey on Avengers, we'll set some bait. I'd like to see what happens if he tries to ambush me," Thor rumbled.
"Listen, big guy, if you're going to come down and play with us mortals you should keep up with the times. You can't just go stand on a street corner, announce a duel, and expect the guy to show up."
"He's right," Natasha said. "If you start fighting in the middle of the city, the people are going to riot. Have any of you watched the news lately?"
A collective groan sounded from all quarters.
"They all love us; they just don't want us around. It's not only the news," Dr. Banner said. "I got a very polite letter from the mayor asking me to move out of town."
Di was sitting on the couch after finishing her narrative and watched the bickering with dismay. They talked over each other and sent jabs back and forth so quickly that Di could hardly catch them all. The Avengers were supposed to be… more together than this. "Hey!"
Everyone stopped and the room's attention settled uncomfortably onto her. "You guys sound like a bunch of kids."
"This is coming from the teenager…"
"My parents are missing."—Di would not consider the alternative—"You're Avengers. Go find them. You owe me."
"Did I mention that Di has complete faith in the word 'Avenger'?" Clint said. To Di, he said, "I'm going to turn your luck around. I promise."
"I'm in." Captain America glanced around at them. "It's not saving the world, but it might be nice to play a little low-stakes poker for once. Besides, if the nut behind this has the resources to blow up a kid's house just because she got in the way, it would be nice to get him off the streets."
"And if it involves a mole in SHEILD, then I'm interested," Natasha agreed.
Tony groaned. "Avengers Tower it is. How about you, muscles? Can you tear yourself away from Asgard for a few weeks?"
Thor did not deign to acknowledge Tony's joke. "I'm still here, aren't I? I'll stay until the problem is resolved, but I do have other responsibilities."
"What a good Samaritan. Don't be offended, kid, he's always like this. When he's here, he thinks about there, when he there, he thinks about here..."
"Alright gang," announced Captain America. "Natasha and Clint are checking out SHEILD, Tony and Bruce can do their technical voodoo and Thor and I will go scouting around. Meanwhile, we all stay in the city. If this guy's after us then he's bound to be in New York somewhere, leaving traces."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? You two don't exactly blend in…" Natasha started.
"Then it's time we started practicing, isn't it?" countered Cap. He glanced at Tony. "Stark, don't say it."
"Say what?"
"What you were thinking. Everyone good?"
"What can I do?" Di asked. "I want to help."
"Oh no. You're staying here with Banner. You said yourself this guy likes surprises. If something goes sideways I want you safe up here."
"But I can just fly away! I wouldn't be in the way."
"You're too young," Thor said. "You could get hurt."
"Please! I'll be fine." Di looked around for support.
Clint shrugged. "Sorry, kid. Look what happened last time I told you to fly away?"
"I saved your life. Come on!"
Natasha shook her head. Banner agreed with the others as well. "This superhero thing isn't what you see on TV, Diane."
"Why the heck not? She's going to get in trouble anyway. Maybe I could even get her some armor." Tony Stark shot to the top of Di's Cool Grown-Ups list.
"Absolutely not."
Di opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. She hated it when other people were right, and she hated it even more when other people thought they were right. This was Captain America, however. She just couldn't argue with him. She sighed and scratched absently at her bandage.
"Diane!"
Di was not the only one to jump, considering the speaker. Banner was glaring at Di. "Why didn't you say that itched?"
Di's heart resumed beating. "Sorry."
Banner rolled his eyes. "Downstairs. Come on."
Poor kid, thought Dr. Banner as he gently stripped the white gauze off Di's face. She thinks she's found Candyland. She doesn't know what she's gotten herself into. Banner sighed and realized he already liked her. Who knew a kid would have the Avengers going all gooey? The girl sat patient and still, apparently a little intimidated. "So who are you, Diane? Aside from Stark's new toy?"
That elicited a small grin. "I'm not anybody really interesting, if you don't count the flying thing. I like to watch movies, shop… girl stuff, you know? I was on track team because I love being fast. I used to go kart racing before I found out how fast I could go flying. I couldn't really race anyone that way, though." The girl paused, as if searching for a new topic.
"School?" he offered.
"I guess I like school. I'm not a genius, like you and Ironman. I'm a junior, so"—Di suddenly giggled. "I think I just missed my finals again. They were this morning. I'm going to fail."
"You missed them again? What happened the first time?" Just keep her talking. Any minute now it's going to hit her. The consequences.
"I fell asleep 'cause I was flying around the night before. I'm always flying, actually. I was careful all the time, but my parents are pretty smart; they knew something was wrong. They thought I was doing drugs or something."
The last of the gauze was off. Eight small, red nicks dotted the left side of her face. Although healing better than expected, Di's bright young face would be forever marred by the tiny white scars yet to form.
"I was going to tell them, but…"
"We'll find them, Diane." Bruce took a deep breath to quell the tension building up in his chest. He had always been level headed, and his temper was probably the most tightly controlled in the world, but the one thing he could never understand—could never quite handle—was when bad things happened to good people for no reason. "You're doing fine, but I want to keep these cuts covered up another day."
His voice must've caught, because Di suddenly spoke. "Shouldn't I be the one getting upset?"
Banner stopped with his hand on the gauze. The girl had her head cocked, looking at him. "You don't have to worry about me," he said.
Diane smiled, her soft eyes revealing just a touch her own pain. "I've been worrying about the Avengers since before they were Avengers."
Di found Hawkeye out on the top floor balcony, alone. She settled on the barrier next to him. Di had just come up from talking with Banner, and was feeling a little pensive. The Avengers were turning out to be less perfect than she imagined. She had the feeling that if she had been closer that day in Central Park, she would've seen that their smiles didn't extend to their eyes. Something was eating at them, but Di couldn't put her finger on it. Di looked over the balcony at the view of New York sweeping before her. The city of lights… "It's beautiful," she breathed.
Hawkeye glanced over at her. "Stark pulled up your local news after you left. They're still sifting through the mess. Should know tomorrow."
Di knew what that meant. If they didn't find any bodies, then her parents were alive. Maybe not safe, but alive at least. Change the subject. "They fix your eyes?"
"No. Banner's looking at some of my blood. It's a virus, brilliant apparently, that only reacts with adrenaline. It wore off almost as soon as you left."
"So who makes it?"
"No one. It doesn't exist, according to the eggheads. Some genius custom-made it for my personal benefit. We're not likely to find him."
He was holding something back. Di frowned. "Come on." She jabbed his shoulder playfully. "Too embarrassed to talk to me with your friends watching?"
For the second time that evening, Clint gave her an incredulous look. "You're not the least bit angry with me, are you? For starting this whole thing?"
He felt guilty. Di was forced to laugh. The best marksman in the world was afraid that she was mad at him. It was ridiculous. "It's not your fault. I just have bad luck, remember?"
"How can you take this so well? You're laughing after all this."
"I don't see you freaking out when bad stuff happens."
"I'm not sixteen."
"Seventeen."
"Seventeen in two weeks."
"Being friends with a spy sucks."
"So does being friends with a teenager."
"Hey! Some of my best friends are teenagers." Neither of them could hold a straight face any longer. Once their chuckles faded into the city lights around them, Di sighed. "It's kind of like, if I don't laugh, I'm gonna cry, you know? And I don't cry."
Steve Rogers was sitting at the darkened bar, thinking. About the girl, about the team, about the date: April 2, 2014. A glance at the digital clock told him that it was already April 3. He wished he could hear it ticking, if only to be absolutely sure that it wasn't going faster when he wasn't looking. What he would give to slow it down. High above the bustle of the city, Steve closed his eyes and imagined it all gone, replaced with the soft murmuring of a 1940s town rolling along at a decent pace.
Thunk.
Steve opened his eyes. Everyone was asleep; he was alone.
Thunk.
"Jarvis? Are you there?" Steve was still not quite sure how to handle the omnipresent computer. Did it ever sleep?
"Yes sir?"
"What was that?"
Thunk.
"Miss Wright is downstairs in the racquetball court."
"At two am?"
Thunk.
"She left her room an hour ago and wandered around for fifteen minutes until she asked me to let her in the court. She doesn't seem to be observing the rules. She simply hits the ball as hard as possible against the walls and the ceiling. They're usually soundproof but she's recently cracked it in a few places."
Thunk.
"Should I ask her to stop, sir?"
Steve didn't know what Stark needed a racquetball court in his penthouse for, but he could picture the slender girl swiping at the tiny ball, pounding at it fiercely, zipping through the air, even slamming into the walls, perhaps.
Thunk.
"Sir?"
Thunk.
"Let her be."
Thunk.
By the time Di awoke and dragged herself upstairs the next morning, Cap and Thor had already departed to scour the city for trouble, and the top three floors of the tower were deserted. She had gotten used to Jarvis, and asked him where she was supposed to find food, and after finding nothing recognizable in the high-tech fridge, asked him where to find normal food. She was dangerously close to sabotaging the infuriatingly calm computer when Natasha came in and saw her arguing with it. Di reddened. Natasha grinned and began translating the expensive labels into a layman's description of Tony's hedonistic tastes. Di finally had to give up and let Natasha do the cooking. The spy was an amazingly versatile individual.
As Natasha deftly scrambled her some eggs, Di sat on the counter, swinging her feet. "So how long have you and Clint been partners?"
"Years. Forever maybe."
Di had already noticed that Natasha loved to chat about anything—other than the past. It was as if everything farther back than last year hadn't happened. If she related a story (usually about Clint doing something stupid) she could never remember exactly when it happened. So her answer was typical, and Di approached the topic from a different angle. "Does SHEILD send you two out on really dangerous missions?"
"They used to. Now Fury's keeping us on hold—because of the whole Avengers thing—and we're not allowed to do any missions. Clint's going a little stir-crazy. So am I."
"What kind of stuff did you two do?"
Natasha shrugged and poked at the eggs. "Toppled dictators, rescued VIPs, that kind of stuff. After awhile it's nothing special."
Okay, new topic. Di scooted closer to Natasha and tilted her head conspiratorially. It was a long-shot, but maybe it would get her to talk about herself. "Do you like him?"
The eggs nearly tumbled out of the skillet as Natasha lost her grip on the spatula. "What?"
"You do! You guys would be so cute together," Di cooed.
Natasha had already regained her composure, however. Hands on her hips, she shook her head vehemently. "Clint is an awesome agent, a sweet guy and the best partner in the world, but he's just my partner."
Di would not be swayed. "I say you like him."
Natasha sighed and assumed the patient tone people reserve for persistent toddlers. "Now why would you think that?"
"Because you're burning the eggs."
Di giggled as Natasha rushed to rescue breakfast, growling under her breath about teenagers.
"Why don't you ask him out?"
"Di, life is sometimes more complicated than it looks from high school."
"You know, the more people tell me that, the less I believe it."
The argument was cut short as Clint stepped out of the elevator, phone in hand. "Tasha, where have you been? I found an old friend downtown who can give us some advice. We're going to see him now."
"On my way." Natasha lowered her voice and fixed Di with a look that said: I can kill you in fourteen different ways with my bare hands. "This conversation never happened."
Di smiled sweetly. "Bye, Tasha. Thanks for the eggs."
Befriending the Avengers had its perks. Being stuck in Stark Tower—despite its opulence—was not one of them. Di didn't expect to save the world, but couldn't she at least help find her own parents? Watching the news alone in the huge flat was depressing, especially as the main topic of gossip was the Avengers. After meeting the real people, Di found she no longer had any interest in the gossip or intrigue over them that was usually running 24/7 on some station or other (she used to wonder if the networks divided it into shifts among themselves). It wasn't long before she headed downstairs to lab number two, otherwise known as Tony's cave, where he stored and tweaked his Ironman armor. She stepped out of the elevator and into fairyland. Holographic screens abounded, covering the ceiling and walls, spare parts and mysterious gadgets littered the tables and floor, and at the far end of the room, behind a spacious desk, was a wall of glassed in Ironman suits. Jarvis let her past the keypad lock and she slipped inside, drinking in the aura of genius.
Tony Stark himself was at the center of a veritable hurricane of screens, shifting, studying, and barking out commands for Jarvis. When she came in he cleared half of them away with a swipe of his hand, glanced at her, and then summoned them back once more. That was apparently as much greeting as she was going to get. "Jarvis, run program ANGEL."
"Yes sir."
A smudge of blue holograph detached itself from the swarm around Tony and zipped over to Di. The picture enlarged and focused to briefly show the schematics of some device, then switched to a life sized outline of a person. Di took a step back and the picture floated after her in perfect alignment.
"Don't move, kid."
Di held still while the model shifted—grew shorter, limbs tapering to a slightly more delicate build, torso taking on more feminine proportions. It was a model of her.
"I've heard that teenagers grow fast," said Tony, not looking up, "so do me a favor and just don't."
"What was that?" Di asked as the holograph shrunk and zoomed away.
"Just something in case Cap loses his mind."
"Huh?"
"Forget it."
Di had asked Jarvis to bring the news downstairs with her, and a decent sized holo had obligingly appeared at her elbow, sound muted for Tony's benefit apparently. Di inspected it from the corner of her eye, and then jabbed it quickly with a finger. The holo bobbed backwards. Di had to suppress a squeal. In a few moments she was bouncing it back and forth, looking ridiculous. A particularly clumsy shot sent the news holo flying out of her reach—and right into the pile of holo near Tony, scattering them everywhere. Di cringed. "Sorry."
Tony shook his head. "It not like I was getting anywhere. I'm starting to dream about the blasted thing."
Di caught venomous look he shot at one of the Ironman suits, and recognized a decent sized dent in the side where a teenage girl had hit it recently. She rubbed her shoulder in memory of the tremendous bruise she acquired. "Your suit? Didn't you fix it?"
"That's the official story. The last thing I want is for the world to know I can't fix my own armor. With my luck Morgan would offer to help and I'd have to kill myself."
"Who's Morgan?"
"Edwin Morgan is head of InfoTech. He's the slickest, slimiest saccharine tablet on the market. He's bankrupted dozens of rival companies—he's worse than Justin Hammer. At least Hammer won't stab you in the back and then offer you candy. But he's a genius, and the press loves him. You can't account for taste."
Di knew a little about InfoTech, the biggest rival to Stark Industries. Every time Stark Industries cranked out a new innovation, InfoTech would have a cut-price generic out within the week—mostly due to this Morgan character, Di guessed. She also vaguely remembered Justin Hammer from Stark's trial a few years ago. This was all very interesting, but Di was more interested in the Ironman suit.
"So what's wrong with it?"
Tony pulled up a holo, maneuvered with it a little and presented Di with a small scale model of the suit a few feet away. "Everything was running perfectly last week before the accident. It follows logically that anything that went wrong was the result of a systems failure on a massive scale. In that case the suit would've failed instantly. Instead, I had about four seconds warning before the main crash, and then two seconds before the backup failed. It's possible that the power system malfunctioned, but there's no possible explanation for the reverse effect on the reactor—"
"Whoa! Wait. I'm only in pre-calculus. Can you do that again slower? Without the mechanics?"
Tony sighed and looked like he might be praying for patience. "The suit reported a power failure before I fell. My reactor generates more power than the suit could use in a month, especially if I'm not fighting a horde of flying aliens or anything strenuous like that. There's no way it could've used up enough power to stop the reactor from working unless there was a major failure somewhere else, which I would've found by now. Even then, it would've shorted out both the suit and the reactor, but when I took the suit off, the reactor was fine. So I have no idea where all that energy was going to."
Di nodded slowly. It was still kind of fast, but she got it. "So something sucked the power out of your suit and killed all the circuitry, and you don't think it's your fault. Someone tampered with it?"
"Exactly. I have a theory, but it's… look here." He highlighted part of the Ironman model. "The suit expends maybe sixty percent of the reactor's output. If something were to siphon off that much—say that's the siphoner's max capacity—then there wouldn't be enough to power the suit. Once the suit was no longer sucking up the extra energy, however, the siphoner could take sixty percent as long as he wants, and I probably wouldn't even notice. It explains everything." Tony bit his lip.
"But what?"
"No one can siphon my power when I'm twenty stories up. You can't remotely absorb energy. It's against the laws of nature."
"Well, so is flying."
Tony dismissed the holo. "A fact that I am very interested in, believe me. If I didn't have to waste power flying that suit around… Are you sure you have no idea what caused it? You didn't fall into a vat of toxic waste or get abducted by aliens?"
Di shook her head. She had no idea—wait. Should she tell him? He might laugh. "Well, there's one thing, but it's kind of silly."
"Well we could use some comic relief here."
"Back home, at the mall, they have this fountain. I was there on my fourteenth birthday, and so I threw in a wish. Next day, I was practicing for track and… took off."
"Do you think they would sell that fountain? I've got a lot of wishes."
"I'm serious! I'm sixteen; it's not like I believe in the tooth fairy, but this, this is weird with cheese on top. I can't help thinking that I was supposed to get my wish."
"Well, if a Norse god can go on a power trip in New York City, then I guess can accept a granted wish in Phoenix. This reminds me—the news from out west: no bodies."
Di's heart skipped a beat. Alive! Her mom and dad were alive and the Avengers were going to find them! Di grabbed the nearest holo and threw it into the air. It ricocheted delightfully off the ceiling and hit Tony, who chucked one at her. Di jumped out of the way and didn't bother to land. What ensued topped every snowball/mud-pie/pillow fight Di had ever participated in. The holos bounced harmlessly off of every surface, rebounding madly in different directions. Di zipped through the air, pelting Tony from above and catching everything he sent towards her.
"You are so losing!" She laughed at him.
"Oh yeah? Try this out!" Tony expanded the holo he was holding to the size of a refrigerator and batted it towards her. It was too big to catch, too big to dodge—all Di could do was scramble backwards as it advanced towards her. It happened to be Di's news holo, still muted, but showing CNN's live broadcast in expansive digital clarity. The tiniest details of footage jumped out at her as if she were looking through a window.
Di dropped straight to the ground, gaiety forgotten. "Tony! Look at the news!"