Chapter 39

Sokovia, he talked to Bruce about it before coming here. He was such an idiot, why did they suddenly have such aggressive riots all of a sudden for no apparent reason.

Simple.

Loki's sceptre was here, it started to irritate people and made them hostile just like it did back at the heli-carrier with them. It irritated him without his notice, someone with magical experience. So what of normal people with no experience or idea of it at all.

In his Houdini garb, he was flying his still irritating but recently mild broom, hitting everyone trying to attack the two agents as they all tried to reach the base in Sokovia.

"This is not infiltrating, I repeat, this is not infiltrating. You guys could have sent me and I would have been in with no full blown battle on our heads." He said to his communication com, he deflected a blast by twirling his broom, his head now upside down against gravity. If the man could see his face, he would have peed himself and fainted. The teen sent a very strong stinging curse making the man yelp in pain. Draco rights himself still trying to follow Natasha and Clint to keep them safe.

A laser was shot to their direction, and Draco erupted a shield around them before getting rid of it for Clint to shoot.

"Just like old times." The man said looking at the teen flying besides him and the car.

"We only fought two fights together Katniss."

"Dragon breath. Ten o'clock." Draco made a portago, he shoots three over powered stinging hexes. The men on the tower fell down. Draco found a second tower and flew to it knocking them all with a petrification spell. Two enemies were now flying right at him, shooting. Draco made a sharp turn above just as they were about to smack him, he flips and sends two reductos at their jets, destroying it and making them fall.

"Stark, getting closer?"

"Young teenagers have no patients these days." Tony replied mockingly, making the teen growl through the com. His hood was close to being clipped by a laser beam, the only thing saving him was the sudden appearance of a crow pulling his hoodie away from its path. The crow cawed pointing its beaks at the base. Draco nods at him and starts flying towards it, but realized someone was about to get Steve and went behind the man to save him.

The man sent his shield to hit approximately four enemies before returning it. Draco admired his skills. How can a man drive so finely in the snowy terrain was a question worthy of being asked. He sends a hex to a man on a tree who was about to shoot the captain, essentially falling down with a scream, then a loud groan.

"Thanks kid."

"Heads up cap." He said flying away, now searching for his companion. Diaval needed magic to turn constantly, so he needed to stay by his side to keep changing with no danger to his safety. He found him turning into a giant king cobra strangling two soldiers before jumping and turning into a crow again, escaping a shot at his well being. The crow caws and goes on to pick the person that tries to shoot him before turning into a human and grabbing his gun, punching the opponent with the butt of the weapon.

Draco flew right next to him, stretching his arm out, the man hold his as he was spirited away and sits behind him on the broom.

"Hoodie annoying you much Val?"

"No, takes many a times to be used to it though." He said as they were dodging every beam going their path. Draco took out a gun and gave it to his companion to have something else other than his baton to help him. Diaval looked worried but took the gun none the less, Draco producing his own Elisha Hydon and aiming it at someone's jet. Shooting it with perfect aim, the man was now falling down in a hail of fire.

They were both shooting, Diaval more so with his own heightened senses able to see better than the teen. Everyone was silent on the com, making the teen worry for them all. Only to be surprised by a second when everyone appeared, they were all taking the same path and Draco was able to count everyone's head, including Bruce. Everyone's surprisingly aligned.

Draco does a sharp flight over head, causing him and Diaval to go up with a ninety degree to deflect a rocket launched at them. The man flailed a bit before grabbing hold of his robe. Righting themselves Draco took out a vial.

"Tearing gas, I throw and you shoot to ignite it." He commanded, once they were overhead enemy lines and no sight of their team mates around, he threw the container. True to what he said, the bullet started a reaction Diaval never saw before in human fire arms. Instead of an explosion, the vial's contents turned from dull green to a neon one, the gas somehow expanded in a period of five seconds. It caused many people to drop their guns, and some to land, effectively cutting them off from the fight.

"That was effective."

"Thanks, I've been trying out new potions from the plants in this world." He said before waving his palm, resulting to a bag packed with containers all filled with the same dull green liquid.

"Knock them out, I'll follow Stark to make sure he won't hurt himself."

"Draco, don't forget the main mission. Don't search the base until you finish it." The crow man said, taking his hood off for a bit to show his seriousness. Draco cursed mentally, forgetting that the man knew him well enough to predict what he would have done.

He was planning to hack into their servers so that he could see if his uncle or aunt are dead or alive here, maybe even more. Yet he should be ashamed, their mission is primary and Loki's sceptre was the goal, so that they can stop the riots in the city. He nods, and the man turns into a crow before taking off with the bag. Draco locked his eyes on Tony's form and followed him.

Just when Iron-man reached the building, he hits a shield of some kind, deflecting him and sending him back.

"Shit!"

"Language. Jarvis what's the view from upstairs?" Cap admonished, then asked.

"Tony you're paying in the swear jar." Draco called out, not being able to resist.

"What-"

"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken." Draco growls, his hate towards the organisation showing.

"Loki's scepter must be here. Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it. At long last." Thor announced.

"At long last is lasting a little too long, boys." Natasha adds, a man screaming was heard after she finished.

"Yeah, I think we just lost the element of surprise here." The sound of an arrow as it was released could be heard over his voice.

"No one's going to talk about the Cap actually saying language?"

"I know," a sound of a heavy item being thrown was heard, maybe person with lots of guns on him. "It just slipped."

Draco stopped listening as he drops on ground and starts to sting every person that was in his path. The sting would be so strong, that they wouldn't be able to left their weapons again. He kept ignoring everything as he tried to neutralize the threat.

"Sir, the city is taking fire." Draco heard Jarvis say.

"Dammit Tony, I thought we talked about this, those civilians need to be protected."

"Lay off me kid, I'm sending the iron legion now." Tony grunts, seeming to be having a problem moving the suit. That was good enough for him, so he starts sending a new petrification spell towards the soldiers, one that leaves a person after a few days. He doesn't know whether to hope that they would die in the snow or wishing for someone to come and get them later, only for them to go work back with Hydra.

He was so into the battle, sending hexes, curses and jinxes with one hand and the Haydon with the other, that he neglected the conversation on the com until he heard Natasha yell.

"CLINT'S DOWN!'

"Of all thing's Clint." He whispered but he wouldn't be surprised if they heard him. "Secure him till I get there!" he ordered as he takes out his father's wand, using a point me spell on it. Effectively pinpointing the injured man. He puts the wand back and he was about to run to the location when he felt being knocked out of his feet, air leaving him.

"What the-" he said standing up …

… only to be knocked down again. This time he knew he felt a hand push him. Growling, he gets up, letting his eyes glow a bit in anger.

"Show yourself coward!" he demanded, this time he was knocked from the back, his face first on the snow. He felt the dirty cold water melting somehow behind his neck, when he got up he lifted his hood off to throw away all the snow that piled inside. Still growling.

All of a second, a man stood right in front of him, where there wasn't anything before. He flinched a bit from the speed of the person, making him jump back a bit and looking horrified that someone saw his face for the first time while he worked as Houdini.

The man in front of him had grey hair … no, it was silver. Perfectly silver hair, with dark brown roots. His jacket had arrows on it. Draco's hands went straight up to his com.

"Guys, I'm engaging a speedster." He announced.

"That's the enhanced that's been attacking us Draco, watch out, he's all blur." Captain informed, he got up and stared defiantly at him.

"Why're you attacking us?"

"Ironic question," the man spoke with an accent, most probably Sovokian. "You avengers attacked us first, child."

"Yeah, we didn't attack, you guys opened fire first." He said raising a hand that was glowing blue with a glint of grey. "Now move, I have a patient waiting for me."

"You're not attacking me?" the man wondered aloud, he disappeared and stood next to his left. The man's hand rooving around his own, mesmerised by the coloured glow. "You're like my sister."

"Hey! Let go of me! I said I won't attack because I have pressing matters. I will attack if you're going to stop me and harass me." He told him, yanking his hand and was about to start a shield, but felt a painful and fast poke on the side of me face and stomach, making me blanch at the pain.

"And how are you going to do that?" Draco narrowed his eyes before pointing both hands on the ground.

"This," the ground froze around the speed demon. The man tried to move his leg but was shocked at his inability to do so. "Good luck getting out of that." Draco scoffs and then wore his hood, taking his broom out and flying towards where his father's wand originally pointed at.

He turned around to check if the man was in place. He was dismayed when he found a very large hole around where he stood, as if someone dug through the snow. Never mind, he'll get him later, after he helps Clint out.

"Enhanced escaped. He could be anywhere. Widow how's Hawkeye's statues?"

"In pain." Hawkeye moans horribly through the com, making the teen wince. "He's pretty bad, we need evac."

"Hold on a bit. Diaval? Where are you?"

"Liquid tear bombs are too affective, I want to cry now. Other than that, west side is secure." was the answer, relieving Draco from any fear. He reached the archer and assassin, and seeing Clint's state urged Draco to immediately get on to work. Diagnosing spell said that his skin tissue was all gone, obliterated. It will leave a scar, and Draco's skin graphs still doesn't work on muggles. Mrs Cho has relative success with the cradle, so making sure Clint will survive the journey back to the tower was better than him healing him.

He gave him the necessary potions to help relieve the pain. "Thor, we need pick up." He called, the man nods and grabs Clint, flying him to their jet.

"Man of Iron, it is up to you to find the sceptre now."

"I'll make sure that he does Thor. Widow, I think a lullaby is needed to help our friend out." Captain ordered, the woman nods and leaves to the green giant. Draco gets on his broom and follows the thunder lord to the jet.

Once inside, he gave him covered the wound with burn salves and enchanted the bandage to be cool before wrapping it around the injury. Clint moans for a bit before being soothed with the remedy. Draco readied two calming draughts, one for when Bruce comes in, the other for Clint, forcing him to drink it.

"Can't you be a bit gentler." He whined, Draco snorts. "I'm a potion's master, not a qualified healer. Now take that thing or you'll be relieving worse through the ride to HQ."

"Bratty demanding kid." He said before drinking it whole, Clint couldn't stay up any much longer and lost consciences. Thor seemed amused by all of this. They were all snapped to attention when they heard Cap speaking.

"There's a second enhanced. Female, do not engage." Thor stood out to the door just to be ready. Just a minute later, the cap was back on. "I got Strucker."

"Yeah … and I got something." Tony was heard, sounding very amazed at whatever he did find. "Thor, I got eyes on the prize."

"Finally, get back immediately Stark, we need to get Clint help. … Tony?" There was no reply, he started to worry about the man. After waiting for ten minutes, a mute Tony came back with his suit, sceptre in hand. He went straight to the box that Bruce, Draco and himself built to contain the sceptre. Draco muttered the charm to stop any leakage of power from coming out.

Cap came back and went straight to an unconscious Clint. Draco's monitoring charm said that he was still okay for someone in his place. Natasha and Bruce finally came, the man hugging himself from the cold. The assassin sat him and provided him with a blanket, before Bruce weakly asked for his head sets. Diaval flew back just in time and remained in his avian form, looking suspiciously teary.

Natasha then went to her place to start the jet's flight. Thor still ready for any fight. They lifted off with no problem. The captain left his shield at the wall as he paced next to Clint. Bruce tried to shut himself off with his music, opera of all things. Thor was over the box containing the sceptre, ready in case something went amiss.

He gave the calming draught to Bruce and charmed his blanket warm before standing up and checking on Clint next. Draco became unbalanced when they hit a large air bump, he found hands over his shoulder helping him poise himself. It was Diaval, indicating from the rough, yet feathery soft large palms.

"Is he going to be fine?"

"Yeah, we aren't in threat of losing him now. The skin might burn for months though, so we need to cure that." He told him. He looked back at Clint and was surprised he was somewhat awake. It seems that he also woke up from the air bump.

"Flight in equilibrium." Tony called, Natasha stood up and went to check on the now awake Clint. The man smiled happily at her before saying that the drugs were dope. She sent a look towards Draco's direction, the teen whistled looking away. Natasha then went to sit next to Bruce, starting a conversation.

Draco being an empath, and Diaval being able smell emotions on people, could feel the emotions between the assassin and doctor. Draco couldn't help but feel happy for them, if only he could just push their faces against each other and tell them to get on with it already. Watching the off start of a blooming relationship was agonizing and sweet at the same time.

"I bet you that they'll kiss in a few weeks." Diaval dared, just as Draco sat down. The teen smirked at him. "No, it's not the matter of if they will kiss or not, it's the matter on who's initiating."

"Thor, report on the hulk?" Natasha suddenly called out, making everyone look at them but Tony.

"The gates of hell are filled with the screams of his victims." Bruce covered his face feeling ashamed. "Uh, but, not the screams of the dead, of course. No, uh…wounded screams, mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and, and uh… and gout." Thor tried to fix, but Bruce only slunk deeper into his spiral of emotions.

"Hey Banner, Dr. Cho's back on her way in from Seoul, is it okay if she sets up in your lab?"

"Yeah, she already knows her way around the lab."

"Thanks." Tony said then addressed his AI. "Tell her to prep everything, Barton's gonna need the full treatment, and take the wheel."

"As you wish sir." Jarvis said, Tony got up from his chair leaving the flight to the AI. After a while, and after feeling reassured that yes, Clint won't be dying on them any time soon. He decided to join the ongoing conversation that's been happening next to the sceptre. Diaval opted to stay next to the archer, finding his chair too relaxing to leave.

"Bruce, me and maybe Draco will give it the once before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you?" he said, Draco narrows his eyes at him.

"I heard my name."

"You're magic, and you know science. Cool combination by the way, did I ever tell you that? Nevermind. We can't let this opportunity go. Maybe you'll be able to find out a stop to the empathetic affect it has on people. You managed to get that cheering slab working and have experience with that."

"Yeah, only the sceptre is doing the complete opposite of what my cheering slab does. Bringing aggression, hostility and anger to people's surface. Maybe I'll adjust one of the slabs to be a counter measure and give it to you Thor, you'll have to give it to whoever's handling it there in Asgard so that no one will fall for it's emotional intrusion."

"Thank you, son of Coul." They all stopped just to digest what Thor accidentally said. "I mean Malfoy son."

"Draco, just say Draco. I'm pretty much the youngest here so there isn't really any offence by that." Draco was still taken aback by Thor calling him the same name he did when they first met. Maybe his mind was a bit jittery after the mission and being on watch with the thing. Yes it isn't affecting anyone now, but it brings dark memories to everyone, more so to Thor.

"Well, we're keeping it for a few days, until the farwell part. You're staying right?" Tony asked the man. Trying to move away from the awkwardness that was ensued by Thor.

"Yes, yes, of course. A victory should be honored with revels."

"Yeah, who doesn't love that, huh cap?"

"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and Hydra, so. Yes, revels." Steve said, looking down on the thing. Draco couldn't help answering with a very bitter tone on his voice.

"Cut off one head, two other sprouts out in its place." They all looked at him looking very worried. The teen shook his head before moving away to a computer.

"Jarvis, copy all the information to my main servers in Malfoy Corps. Then severe the connection. Just in case."

"Alright Master Draco. Beginning copy process."

0o0o0

Once they landed safely. He saw Hills and Cho coming out. A team came in and took Clint, he gave one of them the burn salve removal so that it wouldn't affect whatever they were going to do. Maria comes in the jet.

"The lab's all set boss."

"Oh I'm not the boss." Tony said turning around on his chair. "He is." He continued by pointing at Steve. "I just pay for everything, design everything, generally make things cooler." Draco snorts at the man's words.

"Don't bother trying to trick us Tony, we all know that you like being called boss."

"That I do kid." Tony grinned as he got and gathered his things. He stood behind the cap and Hills, listening to them as they walked.

"What happened to Strucker?"

"NATOs got him." she answered, Draco grimaces.

"And the two enhanced?" Steve asked, not bothered with that information.

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special." She said, showing the riots on her tablet. Draco couldn't help but feel guilty for just watching the whole thing on the telly without trying to help. His products were somehow banned in that area.

"Their abilities?"

"He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation." Draco was shocked, the second enhanced is pretty much on par with him in the powers area. Steve looked absolutely lost, and didn't understand a word. Maria sighs.

"He's fast and she's weird."

"Oh wow, thank you for being concerned of my feelings Hills. I mean, it's not like my powers and speciality are like the girl now is it? Nope. I'm weird."

"You are." Hills said without remorse, making the teen huff in annoyance. He left them to talk with each other and apparates to Bruce's lab, mindful of being hidden, remembering that Cho doesn't know what his powers are. Although she seems to suspect who he is.

He went in on her and told her everything he did, she nods and continues to her healing. He sat down in the corner and started to drift off in sleep. He was used to this by now, the magical drain when he keeps using it non-stop. Recently he's able to hold off a week of continued usage, but that doesn't mean he didn't feel the emptiness it left him until he was completely wiped out. He liked the idea of sleeping whenever a bit of magic in him is gone, since he can't sleep any other time.

It was like being a video game character, always awake unless tired, injured or in need of mana. Which you can all recover with sleep.

He opened his eyes when Diaval flew in with Stark. He sat on the table picking a glass for himself and pecking it to drink. Tony took one for himself.

"He's flat lining, call it in."

"Is that Blueberry juice?" he wondered aloud, what was Stark's obsession with the fruit? He was of course ignored.

"No, no. I'm going to live forever!" Clint said, as he happily accepted the glass from Stark's hand, checking it first for poison before sipping. "I'm going to be made out of plastic." He announced happily, the drugs still working.

"You'll be made out of yourself Mr Barton, your girlfriend wouldn't tell the difference."

"I don't have a girlfriend." Clint blurted out, the teen rolls his eyes. Of course he doesn't, he has a more important woman in her life. Natasha caught him doing so, she raised a brow suspecting if he knew. He nods at her as a way of answering. She nods back and looks at the exchange.

"That I can't fix." Dr Cho said cheekily. She took file looking at it. "This is the next big thing, Tony. Your clunky metal will be left in the dust."

"That's the plan." Tony said, surprising everyone with the answer. Draco started to wonder if he was on something.

"Are you coming to the party Helen?"

"No I won't, I don't have lots of time for parties like you Tony. Unless … Thor is there?" she asked shying a bit and trying to act normal. Draco grins at her. "The whole party is for him! It's a farewell, he's going home later, so he's the star and all."

0o0o0

He was being dragged down to Tony's part of the lab with Bruce. The friendly giant being on Stark's right while he was on the left.

"So, what's the rumpus?" Bruce asked being too emotionally drained that day and add to that the existence of a being called Tony, he wasn't all there right now. Draco was just silent, now that he recharged enough of his magic after Clint's healing.

"Well, the scepter. You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive. So, I've been analyzing the gem inside you may recognize." He said, taking out a transparent remote – Tony, could you be any futuristic – and clicking on it, creating a hologram that Bruce stood in the middle of.

The man moved to look at the golden circuit like hologram.

"Jarvis." Stark said way too happy.

"Doctor." Jarvis greeted Bruce instead.

"Starting out, Jarvis was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion. He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper."

"I suspect not for long." The AI said, the circuits actually moved to look at Tony's hands like an eye. It then looked at Bruce before ending up looking at him. Draco was stunned. He can … read Jarvis, like he was a real person.

Jarvis is sentient! How in hell did Tony create a real sentient program of all things? What if his robots were also sentient? Like Dum-E, what if the little childish robot was sentient. Dear lord, if he was, then it has the conscious of a child.

He kept staring at Jarvis's eye, the program looked back as if understanding what Draco has just done but wouldn't speak of it.

'can you talk?' he asked mentally, he was not ready to receive a picture of a thumbs up in his brain. 'oh god, this is not the time to find out that you can connect to computers, and probably the internet.'

'On the contrary sir, my analyse indicates that you still need a sentient program as you originally thought.'

'Jarvis, don't do that, I'm having a meltdown here.'

Stark clicked his fancy remote again, another program appeared. "Meet the competition."

This time it was a tesseract blue, and it was larger in diameter than what Jarvis's size was. It was also interesting for the fact that it moved just like a brain.

"It's beautiful." Bruce breathed out, looking it over.

'Don't get jelouse Jarvis.'

'My creator slept with woman from the moment of my creation. If I were to feel, I wouldn't care right now for Doctor Banner's new love interest.'

'You definitely have Tony's sarcasm.' Was it because this is the first time he saw Jarvis's eyes. Is that why he can read his mind now, whatever his mind seem to be like, the golden hologram most likely. This is really fascinating to him. He could read animal minds but they were too different to be a clean read. Being able to read Jarvis was like standing in an electric storm, the electricity was pouring instead of the rain. Yet it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would. Legilimensy needs eye contact to do the spell, and although Draco is a telepath now and didn't need the spell. He never thought of reading Jarvis a computer program of all things, resulting to the idea slipping his notice.

"If you had to guess what it's doing?"

"It's thinking … it's not a human brain, but they're like neurons firing." Bruce said, exhilarated.

"Down in Strucker's lab I saw some fairly advanced robotics work. They deep-sixed the data, but…I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door." Tony said.

"Artificial intelligence." Bruce thought aloud.

"This could be it guys, this could be the key to creating Ultron." Tony proclaimed, making Draco look sharply at him. "I thought you scraped that idea." He said in a low threating voice.

"Yeah Tony, I thought it was a fantasy." Bruce said, laughing a bit.

"Guys, not with the sceptre around. We can do it, three days tops. Wouldn't it be awesome to finally be able to relax, not watch our backs or other's all the time. Bruce, you could be living the dream life getting a tan and drinking away without Veronica watching your back. Ultron could protect the world from any threats!" Tony said, in a mad alarmistic sort of way if anyone asked the teen wizard. Draco backed away a bit.

"The only thing threatening the planet are people." Bruce said, looking a bit worried and nervous as well.

"Come on guys, just for three days. Jarvis can't copy everything, so we only have this time." Bruce and Draco looked at each other, sharing worry in the process.

"You're not planning on telling the team are you?" Bruce surrendered. Draco was still crossed with what to do. "Right. That's right, you know why, because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear the 'man was not meant to meddle' medley. I see a suit of armor around the world."

"Sounds like a very cold world." Bruce mumbled, Draco rubbed his arm.

"I've seen colder. This one, this very vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. Peace in our time. Imagine that."

"Tony, I can see why you're motivated to do this. It's just …" Draco tried to reason.

"Come on, not you too Howser." Tony said looking betrayed. Draco huffs.

"I'll help, but remember this guys. I … have a bad feeling for this." Draco announced. They both looked sharply at him, after all, if he got a bad feeling, something bad will happen. Warily, they started working, and he was prepared for the literal three days of insomnia. Working things out, juggling between three tasks. Looking to help in building Ultron, adjusting the cheering slab to match the sceptre and searching Hydra files. At the end, even he felt exhausted by all of it, as he found himself particularly lazing on the table watching Tony and Bruce, also giving up and trying to melt on a chair.

Looking at the screens surrounding them, it was turning into a blurry painting.

"Jarvis, please move away the screens. I'll puke if I saw more."

"Right away Master Draco."

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me master?" He asked, but he knew he wouldn't be answered. The program was too polite to stop calling him that.

"I don't get it, what did we miss?" Tony stressed, rubbing the back of his head.

"I'll continue to run variations on the interface, but you should probably prepare for your guests. I'll notify you if there are any developments."

"Thanks buddy." Tony said removing himself from the lab, Draco stayed behind to look at strewn out paper before collecting them and putting them on the desk.

"Enjoy yourselves sirs."

"I always do." Tony called out, Draco only then followed the man. At least he got the slab to work.

0o0o0

Sam scored another point on the pool table. Draco gives him ten dollars.

"You're just lucky."

"Uh-huh kid, brush up your skills. Where's the bird?" he asked looking around for Diaval. Draco points at the side, where Diaval was talking to an old veteran seeming to be engaged with the conversation.

"Just enjoying himself. He's been stressed looking after me."

"I would." Sam said before re-taking the white ball and aiming it perfectly before shooting it. Two more balls go in. Steve sighs. "I don't have money in my pockets."

"Don't worry pal, we have later for you to pay up." Sam grins he looks around, scooping everything easily even in the dim lights. "I'd think Stark would already have girls hanging on his shoulders by now." he commented, Draco chuckles darkly at that.

"Let's see him even think about it. I'd call Pepper right away. She would've been here if it weren't for the company."

"What about Thor's girlfriend? Miss Foster." Captain asked, shooting the ball and only succeeded in bringing the ball closer to goal. The man stared forlornly at it before giving up.

"Somewhere, she's been getting new jobs everywhere, I always call to know if she's back in England. At least Erik and Ian are there, Darcy is always with her." He mutters, calculating every angle of the pool table and predicting his future move. He took the white ball, settles it, before shooting it.

He succeeded in knocking all the balls, making them all go inside the holes.

"Keep your bet money, I don't need it." Draco said smugly at Sam who gaped at him, he drops the pole on the table and left to sit somewhere alone. Thinking that no one would bother him for the rest of the night, he found Maria by his side slapping his shoulder.

"Dance with me kid."

"Why?"

"To get rid of a douche that's why. Come on." She said pulling him off his feet. He was awkward at first, realizing that she was taller than him by an inch with her heels. After a few stumbles he started to remember the old dancing steps and enjoyed the rest of the dance. Maria kept looking over his shoulder, probably making sure douche isn't there anymore. Finally, she let go of him at the edge of the dance floor.

"Thanks kid, you aren't bad at all." She told him, making him blush a bit.

"Er, formal parties and all. Been a while." He explained lamely before finding himself sitting on the bar that Natasha was working at. "Fire Whiskey?"

"How old are you?" She asked mockingly, making Draco groan. "You don't even know what I asked for?"

"Actually, Tony has a bottle, there's a note on it saying – and it's his hand writing not mine – mock Jimbo with bottle and continue to drink it whole before any party ends." She said producing the bottle from the bottom.

"Stark!" he yells, when did the man steal that?!

"Guess it won't hurt drinking a bit."

"No, just a glass." When he got his glass, he looked at the party going around. He found Steve and Thor were now on the same island that Diaval was sitting on, still with the elderly. Thor seemed to be bragging, the expression obvious from his face. The elderly man demanded something from him, and Thor gave him a shot glass.

The elderly drank everything in one gulp, but it obviously knocked him out. Diaval looked distressed as he sat next to him making sure he was okay. The man seemed to be mumbling nonsense now, and the crow man was staring down the thunder lord for what he has down, Steve carefully backing away from them while Thor looked apologetic. They both ran away from the crow man as he tries to sooth the elderly veteran, finally two men came to help the man out. Diaval followed to make sure he was safe.

Strange, his magic told him that the elderly was very important, just not in a way he expected. Shrugging, Draco sank into the shadows and tipped his glass, using his notice-me-not spell engulf him.

Bruce arrived, it seemed that he has finally got enough rest to be able to join the party. The man wore a brown suit that wasn't flashy at all, it made him look boring. Good old Bruce. He stood right in front of Natasha and started talking … flirting.

The teen looked at the other side. Everyone was flirting, having fun, generally enjoying themselves. Here he was feeling … empty, like someone was missing … He misses them whoever they are, yet he can't remember them. He felt disgusted with himself for it.

Another gulp of fire whiskey burned his throat.

He moved away and pealed the spell off of him, just moved around greeting anyone who noticed him or worked with him for a while before leaving and wandering again. He remembered the Malfoy balls, when he did the same thing. Greet, socialize, strategic manoeuvring that could bring two houses together, make new allies.

Only that there wasn't a reason to do all that anymore now is it?

"H-Hello." He looked up, finding one of the waiters in front of him, blushing and looking down at his shoes.

"Yes?"

"I couldn't help but notice that you've been spending time alone. S-so I thought that I'll bring you this. It's really great, I tried it before." The man said, giving the teen a glass of alcohol before quite promptly running away. Draco stared the trail behind him, feeling flab staggered.

Did someone just flirt with him?

Suddenly, all the tiredness or searching, working and loneliness disappeared, all because one person sought to cheer him up. Of course the alcoholic beverage was useless to him but he could still enjoy the taste.

He'll ask Tony for the waiter's name later.

AN:-

To the ones who still didn't figure out what happened in the last chapter yet. I was talking about the Spider-verse story. Where all the spiders of the multiverse are being hunted down and killed. Basically, our Peter got sucked into that.

Also, if you want to know what true evil is? It's Insomnia. The kind that starts by an hour or a half with the weirdest experience of half dream half-awake stage. Then waking up to never be able to sleep again.