Title: Vale: Control
Words: 3016
Notes: Vale tries transforming again, and the mad scientists three try to figure it out with their science.
Clint, Tony and Steve are all standing in the control room with Thor, Peter, Vale and Shanta. When Vale went to tell Shanta that he was not going home after all, he let slip that he was going to go downstairs with Banner and Shanta immediately asked if it was to "The Smash Room". About eight months ago, Shanta followed Bruce when he and Tony went down for some "Smash Therapy", and had thoroughly enjoyed watching Iron Man buzz the Hulk so the big guy could let off some steam. Since the room has proven thoroughly resistant to everything the Hulk can do to it, and Shanta seems completely incapable of seeing "Green Daddy" as any danger (Bruce had to very quickly as Shanta not to refer to the Hulk as "Big Daddy" after Tony started sniggering), she's been allowed to come watch. She is adamant about getting to see Vale transform.
Vale, on the other hand, is the only one in the room to have never witnessed a Hulk transformation, so when Bruce goes down to the room, carefully removes his shirt and glasses and Hulks out, he recoils in shock. The kind doctor suddenly becomes a hulking giant, his skin turned green and his features monstrous. Shanta pats him on the arm. She is relaxed and calm.
"It is okay," she reassures him. "Green Daddy will hurt nobody, and he will return to being Little Daddy soon."
"Vale," the green monster grunts, looking up at the camera. "Look. Used to be angry. Smash everything. Hate everything. Kill some. No control. Calm now." He reaches down and picks up his glasses delicately between two giant fingers. "See? Control."
"Trust me, he did not used to have that much control," Tony says. "I don't think the big guy could even talk when we first hung out."
Bruce shrinks back down to normal size and puts his glasses on. "Anyway, Vale, this room has been thoroughly smash tested. The Hulk can't break out, and believe me, we've tried when Tony has been unusually annoying." Tony grins proudly. "Even if you don't have control when you transform, you won't be able to hurt anybody.
"Daddy tried hard to smash," Shanta says excitedly, "but the room does not smash! Go, Vale! I want to see wolf!"
Vale stares at her incredulously, but the girl has no fear, no negative thought or emotion at all. She is genuinely excited for him. She has faith that this will work. "The wolf is scary, though," he says. To me most of all.
"So is Green Daddy," Shanta giggles, "Only is not scary because is Daddy. Wolf will not be scary, because is Vale!"
"You don't have to if you really don't want to," Doctor Banner cautions, stepping out of the last of the multiple thick doors that lead into the room. Vale shakes his head.
"I'll go…" he says, stepping towards the door. Thor places a hand on his nephew's shoulder.
"Vale, you are being very brave," he says sincerely. Vale shakes his head.
"I'm scared," he whispers. Thor squeezes his shoulder and then lets go.
"Then you are all the braver," he says. "Being without fear is foolish. To be without fear is to not understand the danger you face. You know exactly what you approach, and yet you continue on. You are a brave boy."
Vale nods and walks through the doors. They seal shut behind him.
"'Scuse me…" Tony says, pushing past Steve to get to the camera controls. "Jarvis, if anything from Pepper or SHIELD comes through, let me know, otherwise do not disturb."
"Unless the building's attacked again," Clint points out.
"Do all of you really need to be here?" Tony whines. "It's kinda crowded…" They all crane to watch as Vale walks into the middle of the room and looks around uncertainly.
"I'm fine with everyone being here," Bruce admits softly, nodding slightly towards Shanta, who is watching Vale intently. He's pretty sure that he's completely failing at raising the girl in anything resembling a normal life, so he's going to at least ensure that she's as safe as can be. "Alright, Vale," he adds into the mic. "The room's sealed. Whenever you want to."
Vale nods and dips his head. He jerks forwards sharply as his hind legs change shape, becoming no longer suited for a bipedal position, and catches himself on his front paws as his head comes up again, stretching out into a wolf's snout. Thick black fur has sprouted all over his body. His clothes seem to have been included in the transformation, which is almost seamless and takes barely three seconds. Bruce wishes he could learn that trick.
Wolf-Vale looks around, sniffing the air and snarling. He barks and howls, turning around and around, scrutinizing every area of the room.
"Very big now," Shanta observes.
"He actually looks… scared, kinda," Peter adds. "A bit like a lost puppy, y'know? Only showing his teeth and barking to make himself look bigger and scarier."
"I wonder if that's it?" Bruce says. "Wolves are pack animals, after all…" He looks at Thor. "Thor, what do you know about shapeshifting? Is it common?"
"Not particularly," Thor says. "Father can do it, through a branch of magic unique to the King of Asgard. His word truly is law. He is not adept at it, however, not like Loki is."
"Loki's a shapeshifter too?" Steve asks. "That's never come up before."
"It takes vast amounts of magical power and talent to learn how to do," Thor says. He smiles vaguely. "Loki started doing it when he was six. He had no control at all over it then, however. The animal's mind would overtake him and he would stay whatever shape he took until he fell asleep and the spell waned."
"The animal's mind?" Peter asks. Thor nods, frowning.
"I understand little of such things myself," he admits. "Loki has always been the clever one. Perhaps the shape of the mind changes with the body?"
"Well, if the inside of his body's changes as well as the outside, maybe his brain's changed as well," Bruce comments, watching the wolf back against a wall, snarling at the empty room. He realizes that the room must smell very strongly of the Hulk and hopes that this isn't panicking Vale. "Human- and I guess Asgardian- brains are different from animal brains. We've got the prefrontal lobe, which allows conscious thought. Right now, he's not capable of that. He probably can't even remember how he got into the room, the reasons behind it are too complex. Animal brains don't really do reasoning, they do cause and effect. You can train a mouse to press a button to get food and it'll never question why pressing the button makes food happen, just that it does."
"So right now Vale can only think like a wolf?" Clint asks. "How do wolves think?"
"They think in packs," Peter says. They all look at him. "My dad had tons of books about animals and animal biology, probably for his research. I read them religiously as a kid, just 'cause they were his…"
"So what'd you read about wolves?" Tony asks, nodding at the image of the wolf. "How do they work?"
"Well… wolves have a very tight social hierarchy, and their entire lives are run by it," Peter says. "The heads of the pack are the Alpha and his mate. Most of the pack will be their pups, though not all of them. When they hunt or fight, they do it in a pack, under the Alpha's direction. Every movement of the pack is dictated by the Alpha, where they live, when they hunt... sometimes young wolves will leave to find a mate and free territory, some challenge the Alpha. The Alpha Bitch doesn't really get challenged, her position is directly related to and decided by the Alpha…" he shakes his head. "Sorry, that's nothing to do with Vale, he's male."
Thor scrutinizes the screen closely for a moment. "Yes, he is male," he says with some relief.
"You had to check?" Bruce asks cautiously. Thor nods.
"Loki occasionally shifted into female form, aesoid or animal," he explains. "It did cause some trouble, not least because, even when he was more accomplished at it, it still took many years to keep his mind entirely in the grip of his soul…"
"Back up a minute," Tony interrupts, "What's an aesoid?"
Thor looks confused. "A species in a similar form to an aesir," he says obviously. "A being composed of two arms, two legs, one head, of similar facial structure…"
"Down here we call that "humanoid", but I guess you guys were probably here first," Bruce comments dryly. "So. Transforming takes a lot of practice just to be able to consciously do it back or have any control over his mind, so right now he's just a big wolf who's scared without his pack."
"It depends if he thinks he's the Alpha or not," Peter says. "I'd guess he doesn't- he's too young, even if he's huge- and he doesn't really know what to do without the direction of the Alpha or the assistance of the pack. That's all just crazy animal lashing out."
"He is angry because he is lonely," Shanta pipes up. "Maybe he need other dog to play with?"
"I don't think that's a good idea, Shanta," Bruce says, patting her head. Vale has sat down by the wall and is still looking about him and growling. He looks very twitchy. "He's looking pretty territorial."
"Thor, where are you going?" Steve demands. Thor walks out of the control room and over to the first of the doors into the Smash Room.
"Tony, please allow my entrance," Thor says calmly. "It may be possible for him to recognize my scent, to recognize me as family. If so, I may be able to calm him."
"Thor… you two aren't actually blood related, are you?" Steve cautions. "If he's running on pure instinct, he might not see you as a relative…"
"It is a risk I shall take," Thor says firmly. "I have faced those more powerful than he and emerged unscathed. I am confident that I can ensure that neither of us are harmed."
"Besides, wolf packs aren't all related," Peter adds. "Sometimes they'll pick up other wolves, strays and outcasts, and treat them the same as relatives if they build up a strong enough bond of trust."
"With dogs, you must stay low and small and hold out your hand open," Shanta offers. "And no teeth, because to dogs that is, uh… is scary, is trying to look scary!"
"Aggressive," Bruce says. Shanta nods.
"Thank you for the advice, Lady Shanta," Thor says with a formal bow. The first door opens and he steps through, waiting patiently as he goes through the three doors one at a time. Vale's head snaps up as the door opens and he snarls, immediately standing up to face the door.
Thor steps through and makes eye contact with Vale. He moves very slowly, crouching down and reaching a hand out towards Vale, palm up.
"Vale," he says softly. Vale's head twitches. He seems to recognize the name. "Vale, it is I. Thor. Your Uncle. It is okay, Vale. Do you recognize me?"
Vale barks loudly, stepping forwards. Thor stays very still, not flinching or retreating, keeping eye contact with the huge wolf. Vale steps closer to him, slowly, sniffing at the air.
"This is the first time he's transformed that he hasn't been under attack, right?" Tony comments. "He might be calmer now. Might not be that dangerous."
Vale suddenly snarls and bites down on Thor's outstretched arm. Thor flinches and his free hand fists.
"Dogs in Kolkata do that," Shanta says. "If you hurt them, they think you enemy. If you do nothing, they think you not enemy and not hurt you more."
"He's just working on animal instinct, he's not thinking," Steve points out. "That still makes him dangerous."
"That's what we're working on," Bruce says, leaning over to the mic. "Thor? Are you alright?"
Vale twitches at the sound of the voice. Thor does not look away from his nephew.
"I am fine, Doctor, thank you," he says calmly. "This is not a serious injury. Calm down, Vale. Look. I shall not hurt you. Do you understand, Vale? It is safe."
Vale growls for a few more minutes, but as Thor continues to not attack him his relaxes. He slowly unclenches his jaws to let his uncle go. He sniffs at the blood that wells up from the injuries, then he licks them.
"Now you must go to Doctor for shot," Shanta says, making a face. Bruce laughs and crouches down to put an arm around her shoulders.
"I don't think Thor can get rabies, Shanta," he assures her.
{}
"It's getting close to dinnertime," Bruce said, checking his watch. It has been two hours and Vale has still not changed back. Thor is sitting next to his nephew, occasionally scratching behind his ears as he talks calmly and continuously to him. He is resting his injured arm across his knee a little tenderly. Tony can tell that Bruce is dying to check it out, but it's not bleeding badly and infection seems unlikely. "Shanta, it's time to go."
"But Daddy, will Vale be okay?" Shanta asks, looking up at her adoptive father in concern. "Daddy, you must help Vale! You promise!"
"I'll come back and look after him after dinner and bedtime, okay?" Bruce says gently. Shanta pouts.
"Tell you what, Shanta," Steve says, crouching down and yet still towering over the girl, "why don't you come with me? We can eat dinner with Mrs Parker. She'll probably be lonely if Peter's busy here. Then we can play video games before bed, what do you say?"
"Can we, Daddy?" Shanta asks Bruce excitedly. Tony grins. Steve's a lot of fun to play video games with because of how into it he gets. Steve Rodgers is intense and serious about everything.
"I promise that she'll be in bed at a decent hour," he says seriously to Bruce. "You don't need me here just now. I want to contact SHIELD and find out if they've reached a verdict on what we're doing about Anadyr, anyway."
"Thank you, Steve," Bruce says gratefully. Steve stands up and reaches down for Shanta's hand.
"Come on, little lady," he says. "You get to pick the first game."
"I'll go call Nat for you," Clint says, getting up and stretching. "There's nothing going on here. Have fun, try not to kill anybody…"
"Not in the evening's plans," Tony promises. He glances at Peter. "I thought your aunt was trying to make you get back on a normal sleep schedule before you go back to school?"
"Uh, yeah," Peter says sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck, "but this is way too interesting. Even if I go, I'll probably just end up sitting up getting Jarvis to give me a video feed. I keep trying to figure out how it works. How does he gain all that mass? Where does it come from? Where does it go? How does it not brain damage him to reform his brain like that?"
"It's possible to stimulate bones and muscles into rapid production in order to gain mass," Bruce says with a nervous little grin. "It does terrible things to the metabolism, of course… I'd wonder more about being able to rearrange his body structure like that… and you've got a pretty good point on the brain… there's the matter of the soul, which from what Thor's said about Hel and Valhalla does seem to definitively exist…"
"How do you check or quantify that, though?" Tony says, throwing his hands up in the air. "Thor keeps claiming that Asgardian magic is just science we don't understand yet, but that means it's gotta have internal rules of some sort, and I can't see any yet…"
"Well, let's start with what we know…" Bruce says, grabbing a computer screen and starting to make notes.
"Mister Stark," Jarvis interrupts them some time later, "A Bifrost portal has opened over Stark Tower."
"Who came out?" Tony asks, pulling away from a page of heat scans of the Smash Room. Vale's body temperature is higher than a human's, which isn't odd for a wolf, but Thor's is actually lower, and they've been arguing for a while about what that means. Bruce and Peter, slightly guiltily, turn to the video feed to the Smash Room to make sure that nothing's happened. Thor is still sitting there, still scratching Vale's ears and talking to him. The gigantic wolf still shows no signs of shrinking back to a boy.
"Lady Sif, Mister Volstagg, Mister Hogan and Mister Fandral, sir," Jarvis reports. "The Captain has greeted them and directed them here."
"I hope nothing else happened," Peter says nervously.
You've never met them before, have you?" Bruce asked, saving the page of notes. "The Lady Sif and the Warriors Three?"
"Uh, no," Peter says. "Who are they?"
"Thor's old buddies," Tony says, peeking out of the door to the hall to watch the lift. "They're… well, you know how Thor's normally pretty lively?"
"Yeah…?" Peter says warily.
"Like that. Only more so. Except Hogan. They don't call him "Hogan the Grim" for nothing."
"We've only met them once ourselves," Bruce says. "They came down to visit Thor for a couple of days. Ate tons, laughed a lot, told some really wild battle stories and outdrank Tony."
"Just because I fell asleep before I finished drinking does not mean they outdrank me," Tony argues. "Anyway, Steve outdrank everybody. Not being able to get drunk is cheating."
"Also, sir, Miss Potts and Mrs Parker would both like to know if you're eating and have arranged for dinner to be sent in to you," Jarvis adds, a touch reproachfully.
"Tell 'em to triple whatever they've made with Volstagg here," Tony says as the lift opens. "M'lady, guys…. What's up?"
…Wasn't this just a oneshot, long ago and far away? I actually have a good forty thousand words of this sitting in wait, I don't even know how, but it's all for bits that I'm not yet.
It all has to be little or large…