Chapter Nine

Justin Hammer strolled into his New York City penthouse apartment and flicked on some lights. He walked over to the large window which was the back drop of the living room and looked down at the cityscape below, noticing how only half of New York was lit up. The other half was still in darkness thanks to the exploits of the mighty Avengers. Justin's lips curved upwards in an involuntary smile at that thought. He'd been putting himself around all day, making sure his earnest face appeared on as many news feeds as he could find, declaring Hammer Industry's support of the cleanup work. Hell, he'd even gotten on the end of a shovel and moved some rubble himself for the photo op it presented. Today had gone well, better than he could have expected really and the icing on the cake was his meeting with Tony and the rest of the Avengers. Justin's smile widened as he turned around and wandered back into the lounge room, intent on fixing himself a well-deserved drink. Suddenly there was movement behind him, someone stepping out from behind a curtain and then there was the feeling of a large kitchen knife being held to his throat from behind. Justin froze as sour breath hissed in his ear.

"I need help, and you're going to give it to me." The man sounded desperate, on edge.

"But of course," said Justin calmly. "But how about we put down the knife and talk like gentlemen about this, hmm?"

Justin felt the hesitation in the other man but then the knife was being lowered from his throat. He stepped unhurriedly away from the man and turned around, regarding him with an unflustered smile. "So, what's your poison?" He indicated the nearby bar.

The albino man's shoulders sagged and he looked exhausted. "Scotch," he muttered, "on the rocks."

Justin moved over towards the bar. "I'm more of a strawberry daiquiri type myself," he confessed blithely. "What can I say, I've got a sweet tooth, so shoot me." Justin held up a playfully warning finger. "That was just an expression, so don't get any ideas now." He poured the requested drink for the other man and quickly mixed himself that strawberry daiquiri and then walked over with both drinks in hand. "Take a seat," Justin prompted him, "you look like you've had a hard day."

The man sat down on the sofa and reached out a shaky hand for the drink. He sat back and took a noisy gulp of the alcohol.

Justin gave him a sympathetic look. "You look like you really needed that."

"Everything has gone to hell," he rasped. "All of our plans, they've failed."

Justin gave him a surprised look as he settled into an armchair directly across from the other man and crossed his legs. "What makes you say that?"

"The plan was to take New York and kill the Avengers," he said shakily. "And my Manti-droids failed to do that."

Justin smiled. "You know, I remember when we first met all those years ago. I kept hearing about this whizz kid called Noble Maniatis and his crazy bug-themed toys." He gave him a curious look. "Tell me, why convert your nano-technology into insects of all things, Nobbie, can I call you Nobbie?" Justin took in Maniatis' unimpressed expression. "Okay, no, we'll just stick with Doctor Maniatis, keep this thing on a purely professional level, eh?"

"There are over nine hundred thousand different types of insects in this world," said Maniatis emphatically, "they out number humans two hundred million to one. They are a marvel, doing feats men could only dream of and-"

Justin waved a hand at him, interrupting Noble's excited diatribe. "Yes, yes, I get it, insects rock." He smiled at Maniatis over the top of his drink. "And I must confess, the sight of those giant praying mantises marching down Time Square like that," said Justin admiringly, "they were a thing of beauty."

"But the Avengers stopped them," Maniatis fretted.

"So?"

"So, that wasn't the plan," said Maniatis in agitation.

"It may not have been your plan, but I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out," said Justin easily.

Maniatis' pale featured made an anxious face. "Captain America chased me, he saw my face." He gave Justin an urgent look. "You have to hide me, they'll be coming for me."

"Do you know what your problem is, my pigment challenged friend?" Justin didn't give him a chance to reply. "You worry too much."

"Captain America knows who I am," said Maniatis in distress, "or at least he soon will." He scowled. "I kind of stand out in a crowd, freaks are funny that way." Maniatis took another swig of his drink.

"Now, now," Justin tutted, "I won't have you talking so negatively about yourself, Noble. The colour of a man's skin, or lack thereof in your case, is no indication of the kind of man he is and you, my friend, are a genius."

The younger man gave him a grateful look. "You know, I don't know if I've ever told you how much I appreciate the way you believed in my work and helped me refine it, Mr. Hammer."

Justin smiled at his gratitude. "Think nothing of it. I'm all about recognising young talent and encouraging it where I can."

Noble looked crestfallen. "And now I've failed your trust in me." He squeezed his eyes close. "And I threatened your life. I don't know why I pulled a knife on you, Mr. Hammer. I guess I'm just really afraid."

Justin stood up and came to sit by the depressed looking man. He patted his leg encouragingly. "You haven't failed me, Noble, like I told you, I'm happy with the way things have turned out."

Maniatis gave him an uncertain look. "Does-does this mean we're not partners anymore?" He gave a little cough as his voice became choked.

Justin pursed his lips. "Well, the thing is Noble, we were never really partners to start off with," he said casually. "You see, I tried a partnership with a brilliant man once, and well," he gave a dry laugh, "let's just say that didn't turn out as I hoped. So, now, I'm more of a lone wolf in these kinds of things."

Maniatis frowned. "But, I gave you all of my technology, you said we were partners in this, equal all the way." He coughed again, breathing sounding a little laboured now.

"I see our relationship more as a teacher/student kind of thing," said Justin blithely. He took the empty glass of scotch from Nobel's suddenly shaking hand, ignoring the way the man was starting to froth at the mouth now, his whole body stiffening. Justin watched indifferently as Maniatis' eyes went wide, silently screaming at him for help while the rest of his body seemed to be shutting down. Justin looked down at the glass in his hand. "I have your nano-technology now and seeing as Captain America can identify you, you've become a wee bit of a liability to me," said Justin conversationally. "I really can't afford the Avengers finding out about our link and I don't know if I can trust you to keep your mouth shut if they do catch up with you." He pulled a face. "So, you can see my conundrum, Nobbie."

Maniatis was twitching now, his breath rasping out in ragged and increasingly infrequent breaths.

Justin gave him a sideways look, knowing he was looking at the last few seconds of the other man's life. "School is out, Nobbie, time to graduate." He held up the empty scotch glass in his hand. "My offer to shoot me might have been an expression, but you choosing your own poison, well, that really wasn't." Justin gave a heavy sigh as Maniatis' betrayed gaze started to glaze over. "I'm sorry it had to come to this but a lone wolf's gotta do what a lone wolf's gotta do."

Noble Maniatis gave one last wheeze and then he was gone, the last light flickering out of his eyes. Justin picked up his strawberry daiquiri and took a sip, smiling away to himself as everything came together very nicely for him. He settled back in the sofa next to the corpse of his former protégée and couldn't help but imagine how delicious it was going to be as his plan played out.

The world and the Avengers didn't know what was going to hit them...

oooOOOOooo

Steve quickly smoothed down his hair with one nervous hand and gripped the simple bouquet of wild flowers in his other hand as he stepped up to the nurse's desk, avoiding the jostle of all the people scurrying around him. He cleared his throat and smiled at the harassed looking African American woman behind the desk. "Hi," he said, "I was hoping you could help me. I'm looking for someone."

"Visiting hours are long over," she informed him distractedly as she handed out a file to a fast moving doctor and answered the phone. "Ward nine, please hold." She held the phone to her chest and nodded at Steve that he should go.

"Look, I know it's past visiting hours," said Steve quickly, "and I know things are crazy right now-"

"Honey, that is the understatement of the century," she returned grimly. "We've been working on generator power up until half an hour ago, half our computer system still isn't working and I'm having to find room for my patients in broom closets." She indicated the heaving hallways littered with people on gurneys and chairs, some even sitting on the floor. "It's a madhouse in here after what happened today."

"I know," said Steve sincerely, having spent that day and night with the clean up as well, "and I know you're doing everything you can for as many people as you can, but it's really important that I find someone. Please, she was hurt today and I just need to know she's going to be alright. This was the hospital she was brought to by the ambulance."

There must have been something in Steve's face which made the woman relent. "What's her name, honey?"

Steve gave her a grateful look. "O'Brien."

"First name?"

He faltered. "Ah..." Damn it, why didn't he find out her first name? He gave the other woman a weak smile. "Miss?" he offered up meekly.

She arched an unimpressed eyebrow at him. "I'm sorry, blue eyes, but you're going to have to do better than that."

"She's blonde," Steve offered up in an attempt to help. "About five feet four, maybe a hundred pounds, slim-"

"She sounds quite the catch," the nurse interrupted him, "but I need a first name."

Steve's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I guess that's that then." He looked at the bouquet in his hand and then offered it to the older woman. "Thanks for your help."

She took the flowers and gave a little smile. "Don't worry, sugar, if it's meant to be, you'll find your Miss O'Brien."

Steve grimaced, wishing he'd been able to find her just to say sorry one more time. "Do you think?"

"I met my husband when I hit him with my car," she said easily. "Twenty years later, we're still together."

"You hit your husband to be with a car by accident?" asked Steve in disbelief.

She shrugged. "He thinks it was an accident, meanwhile all I know is that a good looking brother wearing a Gucci suit is hard to come by. You have to have some little tricks up your sleeve to snag yourself one of them." She gave him a cheeky wink. "Can I trust you to keep my secret, honey?"

Steve couldn't help but laugh. "To be honest, I'm a little afraid not to."

She gave a satisfied smile. "That's what I like to hear."

oooOOOOooo

Steve walked back into the kitchen at the Avenger's Tower later on that night to find Bruce sitting at the breakfast bar on a stool with a huge array of food in front of him. Steve arched an eyebrow at him. "A midnight snack, I see?"

Bruce looked up from the huge tub of ice cream in front of him which he was eating directly from, several packets of cookies already open around him and half a chicken. "I get hungry after my transformations. The other guy uses up a lot of calories."

Steve looked at the crushed fridge. "I'm going to take a wild guess – Thor?"

"He and that hammer of his seem to be a bit on edge," noted Bruce as Steve took a seat across from him and reached for a cookie. Bruce smacked his hand away and gave him a warning look. "When you transform into a mindless rage monster, you get a cookie, until then, try the fruit."

Steve rolled his eyes but pulled an apple out of the nearby fruit bowl anyway and took a bite out of it.

"You're late in," Bruce noted around a leg of chicken which he'd just used to spoon out a big clump of ice cream. "Did you and Miss O'Brien have a nice chat? Are you feeling less guilty now?"

Steve screwed up his face as he watched Bruce stick the chicken/ice cream combination in his mouth. "I couldn't find her, so no, I don't feel any less guilty." Bruce gave him a questioning look and Steve sighed, feeling like an idiot. "I don't know her first name," he admitted. "The hospital couldn't even start to help me."

Bruce nodded. "I see," he said around a mouthful of cookies now. "Well, look at it this way, she was doing fine when you left her, there is no reason to believe she isn't doing fine now."

"Mph," Steve grunted, "it shouldn't have happened in the first place."

"You need to do what I do when it comes to the other guy," advised Bruce, "let it go."

Steve stared at him in disbelief. "You obsess continually over what the Hulk gets up to. You're like a broken record about it."

"Alright," said Bruce affably, "then you need to not do what I do."

"Your advice seems kind of variable," Steve noted dryly.

"Yeah, well, I'm eating," said Bruce as he shoved more cookies into his mouth, "what do you want from me?"

"You can't eat and think at the same time?"

"Can, just don't want to," Bruce grunted.

Steve rubbed the back of his neck tiredly. "Have we had any luck tracking down that albino guy?"

"Fury says he's working on it."

"And what about the metal pieces?"

"Tony can't get them out of his suit."

"Bet that rattled his cage."

"He had a hissy fit and threw a screwdriver. It bounced off the wall and hit him in the forehead."

Steve's lips quirked. "That would have been fun to see."

"I laughed so hard I peed a little," Bruce confirmed casually.

"Sorry I missed it." Steve frowned and cocked his head. "Did you hear that?"

Bruce stopped chewing and listened. "Hear what?"

Steve strained his hearing but couldn't hear anything. "Nothing, thought I heard something rattle."

"It was probably the fridge," reasoned Bruce. "I don't think it's long for this world."

Steve shrugged. "I guess." He eyed the nearest box of cookies. "I'm having a cookie."

Bruce's eyes narrowed at the challenge. "You should have tried for the element of surprise, now you're screwed."

The two men faced off over an Oreo cookie.

oooOOOOooo

The vase of white roses sat in Pepper's office, which was just above the kitchen. The water droplets still clinging to the petals suddenly moved. Each tiny speck trickled from the shapely petals and dribbled down the side of the vase, pooling together in a large liquid drop on the glass table top. The amorphous blob oozed itself from the table and along the carpeted floor. The mass then hit the wall, seeking out the air conditioning vent. It slipped inside where the puddle broke off into pieces again. The pieces became silver balls and then the balls morphed into tiny centipedes. The multi-legged creatures dispersed in the air-conditioning ducts, scurrying off to go about their business and undetected by the building's security system...