I paced to one side. I stood there looking at the wall for about five minutes and then turned to where I was before. I had kept this routine for about three hours now and I think it would go on longer.
After Natasha had caught me (because apparently that was her real name) I'd been put in a cage. Technically it was more of an aquarium, but back to the situation in hand.
I'd been ignored for the most part of my imprisonment which is in itself a miracle. I would have thought they would be dissecting me and trying to torture me into revealing all my secrets. Maybe this is their form of torture, boredom to death. If it was, it was working.
I was in the brink of trying to claw my way out when a man stepped in the lab I was currently in. He seemed really businesslike, what with the suit and the shades he had on. I was suddenly reminded of the subway scene in Men in Black and for a moment I thought I would have my memories erased. Then I remembered I was the freak here so that wouldn't have made any sense.
"What's your name?"
Snapping back to reality, I realized the guy was now sitting in front of the aquarium.
"Max, Max Runner." I turned to him, trying to determine if he was a threat or not. He was very calm, so kudos to him.
"I'm Agent Coulson and I'm going to ask you some questions. Answer them and I'll let you out." Yeah, right.
"Shoot."
"Why were you with Tony Stark?"
I shuffled nervously. "I'm a friend of his."
The man just nodded and I didn't know if that was a good sign or not.
"What… species are you?" Wow, second question. That's got to be a record.
I took a long and deep breath. "In case you're wondering if I'm some sort of mythical, magical or extraterrestrial being, I'm not. I don't have any magic or special abilities. I was just born this small."
After meeting Tony (and Pepper), I came up with a better explanation when meeting other humans. I didn't know how many of us were out there but I wasn't about to rat us out.
The man just nodded again. He asked me about Tony and me, but most of the questions were surprisingly standard. I was expecting him to ask anything, from fairy dust to shrink rays. Before I knew it, the interrogatory was over and Coulson was taking me out.
I was enjoying my time out of prison when a jar was placed on top of me.
"Oh come on!"
"Watch your head."
That was all the warning he gave me before flipping the jar. I was sent tumbling to the bottom. I hated when people did that.
The lid screw shut on top of my head and I was effectively trapped. I sunk to the bottom and suddenly I missed the spaciousness of the aquarium.
Line Break
3rd P.o.v.
Tony was trapped in his work lab. Trapped might not be the best way to describe it. He was held against his will in his own lab inside his own mansion. And what was worst, they took away all of his alcohol. He would never forgive that bastard of Nick Fury. In the back of his mind, he was sure he was forgetting something.
"Hey Tony!"
"Hey Max!" He turned to greet Max. Max, who was sitting on Natasha's shoulder wearing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s emblem on her shirt? Something felt wrong.
"I was just dropping her here, so don't think you're off the hook Stark." Natasha put her down on the table. "Watch out for him for me, would you?"
"Sure!" And then she was off.
"What the hell was that?!"
Max ignored him and checked out what he was doing. "So what have you been doing here?"
"While you were gone I was busy with a lot of work and researching and inventing…"
"You got nothing."
"Yeah."
Dodging the things on the table, she made her way to the screens.
"You searched for everything your dad worked on, right?"
He stared at her. "No because I'm an idiot. What do you think?"
"Sorry, I didn't know you had your sassy pants on. I was saying that just maybe you missed something, because you have to admit your dad made a lot of stuff."
"I know he was great inventor, but in case my father could secretly see the future, I'm not so sure on him predicting me needing a better way to keep off shrapnel from my heart and not die." You didn't need to see the future for that one.
"Maybe you weren't looking hard enough. Remember that video you showed me of your dad in an Expo showing off "the perfect city"? He must have done something that was in large scale and for the future. I mean, if he thought he could make 'Stark City' a thing…"
"Wait, what did you say?" He wasn't looking at me anymore and was instead messing with the screens I was currently using.
I moved out of the way because he had entered the zone where no borrower came out safe and unharmed. "I was saying that your dad could have planned something for the future that you could use…"
"Not that, the other thing."
"Stark City? Are you going to name a city after you? I don't know how popular that would be, but I don't think we should be focusing on that."
"I remember that video. My father was talking about a self-sustaining Utopia, but the energy he was talking about…" He pulled the video on screen and while we watched I started to get an idea of where he was going. Unconsciously, I came closer to him.
Tony stopped the video and zoomed in on the energy tower. Both of them digitally tweaked it, trying to find the schemes that made up his dad's idea and working out the details on how to make it practical. After hours of working, drinking (coffee and Red Bull) and eating junk food, they pulled back with stiff necks but a sense of satisfaction. Max reclined back on her makeshift beanie bag (that was actually a bag of Cheetos) and Tony did the same but in an actual beanie bag.
"I guess this means you're not gonna die anytime now, huh?"
Tony sighed. "I guess not."
I just realized I can only write humor, angst and gore. Mmmh… Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
