Thanks for all the support, I'm still enjoying writing this and I hope you're all still interested. Please tell me what you think.
Tony had been forced to leave the room where he and Ebony had their conversation. Lets just say Fury wasn't completely pleased he had been ignored.
"What was that about? I told you it was none of your business, Stark!"
Tony sat with his feet up on the conference table, his fellow Avengers, minus Clint, all staring at him, "I felt it was," he said without looking up from the papers he held in his hands.
"Can you tell me why?"
"Never mind that, what I want to know is why you left me in there. I know you could've easily charged in and pulled me out. If you're so concerned, then why didn't you?" The Avengers all looked at Fury, they had been wondering the same thing.
Nick leaned back into his chair and rested his hands on the desk, "Because, Stark, you may be obnoxious and stubborn…"
"You forgot brilliant…"
"But you seem to connect with that girl quite well." Fury finished, glaring at the man across the table.
Steve looked at Tony. He really was a difficult person to understand; one minute he's cocky and confident, the next he's funny and relaxed but Steve had never seen the side of him that was fragile and understanding like he was with Ebony, "Yeah Tony, how did you do it? You're not the guy to speak to children."
He shrugged then mumbled; "I'm Tony Stark. I can do anything."
"Tony..."
He sighed but kept his bored tone. "I guess I can relate to her. You heard what she's gone through and I've dealt with similar situations."
Bruce was the first to stand up, "Nick, sir, would it be okay if I could monitor Ebony and see if I can discover anything that could help us to figure out her powers?" He hadn't said a word about the speech Tony had given to Ebony. He knew he was talking about him and a sudden feeling of happiness had flowed though his tainted veins. He reminded himself to thank Stark later.
Fury considered this for a moment, "You have my permission however keep the camera on at all times."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Everyone turned to Stark who was looking at Fury with a firm stare, "You let her out of there. I'm pretty sure she's not going to hurt us."
"Fine, but keep her in the isolation chamber in the lab and call me if anything out of the ordinary occurs but do not attempt to intervene yourself." Deep down, buried under all the secrets and the lies, Nick Fury did have a sense of feeling and that feeling was confusion and interest-even he wanted the mystery of this girl to be discovered.
"Thank you." And with that Bruce left.
Thor rose quite dramatically to his feet, knocking over his chair and pushing the table forward a few feet, making his friends either smirk or glare at him in response. "I must retreat for now. Even us mighty Asguardians need rest."
Natasha looked at her watch to discover it was almost midnight. "Yeah, I should really get off too. Training early tomorrow."
"I suggest we all get some sleep; it's been a hard day today and tomorrow it's going to be the same." Steve suggested, also standing up. They all followed his example and emptied their chairs, making their way to the door, "You too, Tony. We're going to have to clean up so we might as well get some rest." Tony snatched the papers from the desk and followed his teammates out the door; he really didn't feel like sleeping, his head didn't either.
Fury watched while his team left the room. He was glad he had founded the Avengers; somehow he thought they were too.
Ebony was slumped against the side of the glass container. She kept on asking herself why she was here, she knew the answer but why should she be punished for something she can't control. She didn't even want these 'gifts'. Looking back on her conversation with the man who called himself Tony, she realized how stupid she had been. She had told him her secrets. She had spoken about her powers. She had cried-crying is a sign of weakness she told herself. Feeling tired, confused and tearful, she covered her face with her hands; these bright lights weren't helping either.
She awoke with a jolt, how long had she been sleeping for? A banging echoed through the room as the door at the other side of the glass swept open and a group of armed men walked in followed by a man in a lab coat. The man walked over to the control panel by the glass doors and typed a code in which caused the doors to her prison to slide clear.
She jumped to her feet but immediately fell to the ground because of her legs that had remained unused for hours. Using the glass to support her, she clambered to a stance. The man approached slowly like he was nearing a frightened animal.
"Hello Ebony, my name is Bruce. I'm a scientist here and I would like to help you." The man introduced.
Ebony remained quiet and furrowed her brow. The only person who knew her name was Tony and he had promised not to tell anyone untrustworthy of her before the men had taken him away. As much as she didn't want to, she trusted Tony and so, she felt she could trust this man too-maybe.
"I promise I won't hurt you. I heard you have some issues you're not happy with- maybe I can help. But we won't do anything until morning." He smiled, "We have a bed that you can sleep in if you want. It beats this place by a mile."
She had not said anything but followed him out of the container along the impressive corridors of the structure. The men with the guns shadowed her, prepared in case she decided to attack, but she didn't and she soon found herself walking into a white room with a small bed. There was nothing much in the room other than an adjacent bathroom and a bedside table. She had no belongings so that wouldn't be needed but the bed looked like the comfiest thing in the world compared to that chamber she had been released from. The men left when the scientist told them they wouldn't be needed and he excused himself soon after, reminding her she was safe and nothing bad were to happen to her. Ebony's head was exhausted and didn't really care what happened to her later because right now all she wanted to do was sleep. So removing her clothes, she slumped down into the bed and closed her eyes.
Bruce had been slouched at his desk in the lab for three hours, analysing the alien body he had removed the goggles from but found nothing too interesting. He didn't usually drink coffee but today was an exception with the girl to be kept under constant surveillance and the work to be completed.
After a simple hour of basic and boring observation of the body a strange sound bounced around the room. A rattling could be identified leaking from the speakers, linked to a monitor that had direct contact with the camera in the room Ebony was in. Confused, Bruce made his way over to the computer concerned and shook the mouse to return the display from the screen saver and he was immediately looking at the video feed being recorded from the isolation room. Ebony was thrashing around in her sleep, rocking the bed and shaking rather badly.
Bruce ran over to the other side of the room and picked up his Bluetooth communicator, "Fury, you might want to send someone down here."
"What's going on down there, Banner?" A voice replied harshly.
"Ebony is shaking badly in her sleep, it could be nothing but who knows what she could do in her sleep." A sudden crash blasted through the speakers, "Whatever it is, it doesn't sound good."
"Men are on their way to collect her, do not attempt to secure her yourself, Banner."
Once he had disconnected from Fury, he lunged back over to the computer and noticed the bedside table in the isolation room had been knocked off its feet and was lying, smashed at the opposite side of the room. Ebony was still sleeping but instead of thrashing about, she was now huddled in the foetus position at the edge of the bed with her face screwed up in some sort of pain. He knew Fury had told him to not get involved but he couldn't just leave her like this so he grabbed his medical bag just in case and slipped from the room.
Tony awoke with a jump to realize he had fallen asleep in his laboratory on the helicarrier. Instead of retreating to his room when the rest of the Avengers had, he had returned to his work that, at that time, had been to fix up the damaged Iron Man armour he had worn in battle.
"JARVIS, what's the time?" He said as he dragged his reluctant body out of the chair he had fallen asleep in.
"Three twenty-five in the morning, sir."
He groaned, stretching his back, he had forgotten to get his coffee before he had begun his work. A sudden bang echoed through the metal room, "JARVIS, what was that?"
The British voice rung throughout the lab just as clearly as the banging had, "It seems to be from the isolation room located in the main laboratory. A video link is available, I am sending it to your computer now sir."
Leaning forward on his hands, Tony accessed the file JARVIS had sent and watched as sleeping Ebony writhed amongst the white covers that pinned her down to the thin mattress.
"Here come the nightmares."
Sorry for the slow progression! I hope you enjoyed!