First, i'd like to apologize for any stupid grammar or spelling mistakes I've made in the past :P
I was just reading through all the former scenes with Steve and Maria and there are some grammar mistakes that made me shake my head. I guess that's what you get for writing a lot of this at one o'clock in the morning. Ha! :D
Anyways! Here's chapter eight! Thanks for continuing to read!
-randomblueboots
CHAPTER EIGHT
Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark
Aspen shot out of sleep with a killer headache. She was sprawled out across the kitchen floor, the empty bottle of vodka clutched in her right hand. Disgusted, she threw it to the side and scrambled to her feet. No! No! Getting up too fast made her dizzy and she clutched the counter to steady herself before dashing off down the hall to find a bathroom. Dizziness came in waves as she crashed through the bathroom door. She barely made it to the toilet in time before she vomited. She'd never had a hangover before but she figured that this must be it. She leaned against the bathroom wall breathing heavily. Her dreams were so vivid they felt almost real. She stood slowly and rinsed her mouth out, then grabbed a new toothbrush from the cupboard and brushed her teeth. Suddenly she realized she couldn't hear Pepper's thoughts.
Something's wrong! Pepper! Pepper! She stumbled out of the bathroom and crashed right into Noah.
"Woah! Aspen, slow down! What's going on?"
"Where's Pepper? I can't hear her!"
"Pepper's fast asleep on the sofa. Are you okay, you look...?"
"Augh... no..." She couldn't feel Pepper at all, she could always feel when Pepper was asleep. Something was very wrong. "No! Pepper!"
"Aspen! Settle down." Noah grabbed her arm. "Come here." He took her over to the living room. "See? Fast asleep, like a baby. She's fine." Aspen looked down at the couch where Pepper was curled up with a blanket, fast asleep.
"Dad was right..." She murmured. Alcohol clouds the mind...
"What? What was he right about?" Noah frowned. "Aspen, are you drunk?"
"Drunk?" She looked up at him. "N-no..."
"Please, I've seen a lot of hangovers and this is one of them... a pretty bad one too. What did you do?" She groaned.
"There was a bottle... a bottle of vodka..."
"Aspen?! What would Uncle Tony say?"
"I'm sorry, okay! I know what Dad would say." She swallowed down her tears. "I had horrible dreams, and it tasted disgusting anyway, and I threw up so I think I learned my lesson. I feel awful, Noah, just leave me alone." Noah grinned,
"I think I've got just the thing to cheer you up."
"Nothing can cheer me up right now, Noah. Nothing. Dad's gone... all our parents are gone... I'm sick... I just want to go back to sleep."
"Aspen, come on! It'll only take a second. Irina and I were exploring the bunker today and we found some stuff you might like."
"Alright, fine. I'm coming." She followed Noah down the hall, but almost fell over. So he grabbed her arm and they went arm and arm down the hallway towards two big rooms. Before they reached them though, Irina came out of the first and when she saw Noah she grinned, but seeing Aspen he grin turned to an icy glare. Still feeling like hell and a little ticked off that Noah hadn't let her just go to sleep Aspen lashed out.
"What the hell are you glaring at, you bitch?!"
"EXCUSE ME!?"
"Woah!" Irina dove at Aspen. Aspen growled and threw a punch, which Irina easily dodged. The younger girl spun around, tripping Aspen. But Aspen grabbed her arm and dragged her down to the floor with her where she punched her in the face.
"ASPEN!" Noah shouted. "IRINA!"
"You think you can have whatever you want, isn't that right, little miss Stark?"
"Well, it's not like you're not wrapped around your daddy's finger." Aspen hissed.
"How dare you!" Irina swung a punch, hitting Aspen squarely in the cheek. They rolled and scratched, hissing like feral cats fighting over a piece of food.
"LADIES!" Noah grabbed Irina's shirt and yanked her off of Aspen.
"LET ME GO, ROGERS!" Irina kicked and squirmed, but Noah wasn't about to let go anytime soon.
"Get up, Aspen!" Noah shouted. "I don't know what that was all about, but I think we're all on edge here, okay? Our parents are gone, our house is burnt down, we've been thrown into this new place, and we're all feeling it. That's all the more reason not to turn on one another. We need to be united. We need to work together. We need to be a family." Aspen stood shakily, glaring at Irina.
"Well, I don't need some stupid-ass archer judging my life choices." Aspen snapped, thinking that perhaps the glare was judging of her drunken state.
"Why you little-" Irina tried to pull herself away from Noah again, but he only tightened his grip.
"Aspen, you're drunk. That's what happens when your drunk, people judge you. Get over it."
"Y-you're drunk?!" Irina frowned, and then she threw her head back and laughed.
"It's not funny, you bitch!" Aspen dove forward again, Irina put up her fists.
"Hey! HEY! HEYYY!" Noah shouted. He jumped in between them. Holding both of them back. "Your both grown women! Now start acting like it!" Irina put her fists down. Aspen stepped back.
"I'm sorry, Irina." Irina angrily yanked herself away from Noah's grip, she glared up at the tall young man,
"I'm no family of your's." She cursed him in Russian, "And I never want to be." She straightened her coat as she walked back down the hall, spitting out profanities in her mother's first language.
Aspen watched Noah stare after her. "Please forgive me." She whispered.
"A Stark, asking for forgiveness. That's pretty incredible."
"She was just glaring at me, and I don't... I don't know what came over me."
"Like I said, we're all on edge. Being drunk doesn't help." He grinned.
"Are you and her, are you going to be okay?" Aspen asked.
"Me and her? What about me and her?" He shrugged, "It'll pass."
"Yeah, but..."
"Aspen, we're friends, we get in fights sometimes, it doesn't mean she won't get over it. We'll be fine."
"Her words were pretty harsh."
"What's this about?" Noah squinted down at her. Oh nothing. Just that Irina has this huge crush on you, and I'm pretty sure you like her back, except now I've just made her really pissed at you for not taking her side or something equally dumb.
"Oh Nothing..." Aspen shrugged.
"Alright, come on. You've got to see this." Noah led her to the end of the hall where the two doorways to the two rooms were. "This is the training room." Noah gestured to the left. "And this is something even better... I mean, in your point of view." Noah opened the door on the right and led Aspen in, flicking on the lights as they did so.
"A... A..." Aspen stared around her at the lab, huge computer screens, counters, supplies... it was beautiful. "A lab!" She breathed, but then she saw what was in the very center: the blue plastic casing.
"Oh my god." She breathed, walking up the case. "Is... Is Jarvis here?"
"Not that I know." Noah shrugged.
"Jarvis?" There was no reply. Aspen spun around and saw that none of the computers were on, none of the electronics were on in the room. "There's gotta be a system reboot somewhere around here."
"Is this it?" Noah gestured to a large green button on the wall next to the light switch.
"Yeah! Punch it!" Noah pressed the button with the palm of his hand.
"System Reboot requires a password."
"Jarvis! It's me, Aspen! I need you to reboot the systems, I have to see..." She looked over at the blue casing again. "I need you to remove the blue casing. I need to see what's underneath."
"System Reboot requires a password."
"What could the password be?" Noah asked.
"I don't know, goddammit!" Aspen gasped.
"What about... Avengers Assemble."
"Incorrect."
"No. My dad's not an idiot. It wouldn't be something as stupid as that." Aspen frowned, trying to think. "Override Password, authorization Aspen Victoria Elaina Stark- co-owner of Stark Industries."
"Override denied."
"Who can override the password?" Aspen asked.
"Only an Avenger." Jarvis replied.
"Fuck you, I am an Avenger."
"Lets not resort to foul language." Jarvis said.
"Jarvis, when we're through with this I am going to kill you."
"As you wish, Miss Stark. You have three more chances to give me the correct password or I will go into lock down."
"Aspen..." Noah frowned.
"Augh! How about..." What would dad set his password for? Probably something that he would never say aloud in a million years... "I'm sorry, I was wrong."
"Incorrect."
"Dammit!"
"Two chances left."
"I was wrong!"
"Incorrect. One chance left."
"How about..."
"ASPEN AND PEPPER!" Noah cried.
"NOAH!" Aspen screamed. Now it's locked! Now we'll never-
"Password Accepted, Rebooting Systems. Please wait."
"Wh-what?!" Aspen gasped.
"Every father uses their children as passwords." Noah said.
"You idiot!" Aspen screamed.
"Excuse me?"
"What if you had gotten wrong! We could have been locked out! And then what?"
"Well, what would you have guessed? Because it certainly wouldn't have been that!"
"Oh! Does it bother you that my brain isn't working so well this morning?"
"Hey, I'm not the one who got drunk and is now suffering from a hangover." Noah shouted.
"You got drunk?" Alexei stood in the doorway of the lab.
"It's none of your business, Barton."
"Oh no, I think it's my business. You've woken up the entire house."
"Oh, pardon me for being such a burden on you all. I'm just trying to do something important."
"Aspen, you're not a burden." Elsa Jean stood behind Alexei, her arms crossed.
"Guys, I made a mistake, okay. I'm not thinking right, I feel like hell, so I'm pissed off at everyone, and-"
"We're all on edge today." Noah said.
"Don't interrupt me!" Aspen screamed. "Yes, we're all on edge. Last night I just wanted to forget so I found some vodka-"
"By rights that's my mother's vodka."
"I'LL BUY YOU SOME NEW VODKA!" Aspen screamed.
"System reboot complete. Welcome back, Miss Stark." Aspen spun around.
"Jarvis! Take the cover off of the thing in the center of the room."
"As you wish."
"Remind me to never take you to a bar. You obviously get angry when you consume alcohol."
"OH SHUT YOUR TRAPS!" Aspen shouted. The hands came down from the ceiling again and removed the blue plastic, Aspen drew closer as IronMaid mark one was revealed. Her father had fixed it, and sent it here. But why would he send it here? She had to think for a moment longer because the fog from the vodka was still present.
"I know what Dad wants me to do." She breathed.
"What?" Elsa Jean asked.
"Find him."
Eric Matthew Banner
It was angry screaming that woke him up that morning, and it didn't exactly help his level of depression and anger. There was yelling in the hall, and then farther down the hall. It sounded like in the lab. He sighed, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. After a few minutes he succeeded in doing so.
"Eric." He groaned. "Eric. Wake up, please. I know you're mad, but I need your help." Aspen stood over his bed. He groaned, rubbing his eyes in the brightness of the light she had flicked on.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Look, you know how when I got home two weeks ago my dad had a gift for me?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, it was an IronMaid Mark One."
"So like IronMan except for a girl?"
"Not just any girl- me!"
"So what?"
"It's here."
"What?"
"I know right! It should have burned with the rest of the tower. I mean, not burned because it's metal, but... you know what I mean. But why would it be here?"
"Maybe he was just working on it here in solitude."
"No. No. There's no sign of any work being done in the lab."
"So... maybe he cleaned it up." Aspen laughed.
"Have you seen my dad's lab at home?"
"Okay, I'll take that as a no. So, what do you think?" Eric asked.
"I think Dad knew something was coming that they couldn't defeat and so he sent the suit here, a safe place where I'd find it. And you know what else adds to my theory?"
"What?"
"Uncle Steve's shield is here too. Noah and Irina found it."
"What? How did it get here?"
"I think IronMaid must have been programmed to bring it here as well."
"Why? Why would they send them here?"
"They want us to come find them." Aspen breathed.
"Wait. You want to go after our parents?"
"Yes." Aspen nodded. She's crazy. Absolutely insane. But what was it I was saying last night? I was saying that I wanted to help SHIELD find our parents. Wouldn't it be better to help my friends?
"I'm so in."
"Great!"
"Who else is involved?" Eric asked.
"Noah, Alexei, and Pepper. We didn't want to get the others involved. They're too young."
"Yes, I agree, though I think they'll hate us for it."
"Should I bring the others in?"
"Go ahead." Eric nodded. Aspen turned towards the door while Eric pulled his pants on underneath his blankets and then climbed out of bed. Alexei, Noah, and Pepper came in. They all gathered around Eric's bed.
"Alright, Miss Stark, what's your first plan of action?" Alexei asked.
"I need to get the footage from the security cameras back, or at least make copies of them onto thumb drives. SHIELD has stupid people on their teams. If I can get my hands on that footage I could examine it and figure out what happened that day where SHIELD couldn't."
"Where would they keep something like that?" Noah asked.
"They'd be analyzing it in the computer rooms." Alexei said.
"But they're not just going to let you waltz in there and steal evidence, Penni." Eric frowned.
"No, but if I can get my hands on a SHIELD uniform and badge..." She looked over at Noah.
"Don't look at me, I don't work for SHIELD."
"No, but you have a mother who does." Aspen smiled.
"The tower burned down." Noah said.
"Have you noticed how the wardrobes here are stocked full? Lets see if we can't find an extra uniform and badge here." Aspen said.
"Still, it's not going to be good enough. Someone's going to notice you're using Director Rogers' or Natasha Romanoff-Barton's ID card. Especially the Director."
"Then someone's going to have to keep the director occupied." Aspen frowned. Suddenly Alexei's phone rang. He sighed, and frowned when he saw the number. He flipped it open.
"Hello?" There was a long pause. "Yes, of course... Look, Aspen's having a difficult time with this situation. How about Noah, Eric, and I come down today?...Three o'clock?...Sounds good to me... alright, thank you, Director... Goodbye." Alexei hung up with a grin. "We just got ourselves an interview with the director at three o'clock. How does that sound for a distraction?"
"Alexei, you're the best. Let's find that uniform and get to work, and remember, no one else needs to know about this."
"This is going to end badly." Eric sighed, the feeling of worry tickling the back of his neck.
"Stop being so pessimistic." Aspen grinned. "This is going to be brilliant."
Oh dear...