After capturing Atuma, the Tony's team re-grouped with the second team that had been tasked with taking down Dracula. They told a similar story to Tony, Sam, and Thor's battle with Hyperion; Dracula and his army had been fighting earnestly, then suddenly, without warning, both Dracula and his forces had suddenly retreated, disappearing in annoying, vampiric puffs of smoke.
Friday had no leads on Modoc or Red Skull, so for now, all the Avengers could do was return to the tower to lock up Atuma.
Although most of the Avengers still didn't trust Ed, after hearing what had happened, and seeing him bruised and bloody, the others silently allowed him to ride in the quin jet. Thor was oddly quiet, and kept glancing at the kid with something akin to guilt.
Even if the others didn't trust Edward, Tony now had reason to suspect they weren't dealing with an extraterrestrial villain after all. (and he did plan to share that particular bit of footage with the others)
The ride back to the tower was quiet, but it pretty much always was after a battle.
After a few minutes of flying in the jet, they got back to the Tower and -as had quickly become the routine after a battle—headed straight to the makeshift med lab in the tower.
The room had originally just been one of the many empty laboratory spaces in Avengers tower, but after a few battles, it had quickly become to go-to place when an Avenger was injured. It had scanners, examination tables, and some of the scientific equipment necessary for monitoring some of the more complicated members (like Bruce, who was so full of gamma radiation that he overloaded just about any of the normal equipment).
Over time they had stocked the cabinets with bandages and other first aid, and now, it was quite simply 'the Med Lab'.
The Avengers walked into the lab to various cabinets and corners that they had more or less claimed and began the routine of patching themselves up. They'd done it so many times that by now that they really hardly even needed to say anything, wordlessly going through the motions.
Cap always sat on a certain chair by the cabinet, usually bandaging his fists from punching something too hard.
Natasha was always near Clint: Tony was pretty sure that he was the only one she would let fix her up besides Bruce.
Bruce had a little bottle of painkillers under the cabinet. He was almost never injured—it was hard to hurt the hulk—but he was usually tired and often had a headache after de-hulking.
Thor too, was rarely injured, but sometimes he had cuts or bruises he would run under the sink. Tony had questioned it once, and Thor had launched into a long spiel about the 'allmother' and 'magic' and a lot of other things Tony had shoved into the mental folder of 'Asgardian Bullshit'.
Falcon was usually pretty beat up, so he liked to stay around Bruce to get help sometimes. He typically hung around in the same corner as the disinfectants and atraumatic needles.
Basically, there was an established routine that each Avenger had a part of.
The kid however, was absolutely out of place. He hung around the door at first, almost like he didn't want to enter. When he finally did, he seemed to lack the motivation to even bother with any of the professional grade equipment, much to Bruce's growing horror. After observing him trying to wash the cuts on his face with the hand soap next to the sink, Bruce had ordered him to sit on a table, where he attempted to perform first aid on the stubborn child.
Emphasis on 'attempted'.
Have you ever seen those videos of people trying to give cats baths? It was like that.
Ed had absolutely refused to let Bruce so much as touch him. He had sat in his bloodied, tattered red cloak and stubbornly refused to be helped. When Bruce meekly suggested that some of Ed's cuts might need stitches, Ed retreated to the other side of the room so fast Tony wondered for a brief second if he had super speed.
In the end, a frustrated Bruce had shoved a first aid kit into Ed's hands and let him take care of himself.
"Jeez." Clint huffed, watching. The kid had retreated to a far corner of the room, and had his back turned to them, supposedly patching himself up. "He really doesn't trust us at all."
Tony wondered if maybe the kid was like Natasha, who only let the people she really, truly, trusted see her injured. His attitude often had eerie similarities to the way their ex-assasin held herself.
"Do you blame him?" Natasha asked Clint flatly. Thor frowned.
"I just hope he actually knows what he's doing." Bruce commented tiredly. "If he makes it worse, it's just going to be even more of a pain to fix him up later."
"Kid's fine." Tony said with a shrug, feigning indifference. "He's got, ya know…experience." Tony made a vague motion towards his side, where Edward's large scar was located. He paused, grimaced, then went back to checking the damage on his armor.
Clint sighed dramatically, "Probably has a tragic backstory and everything."
"I can hear you!" Ed called loudly. Clint stuck his tongue out in his direction.
Bruce sighed and walked over to Edward. "Are you done?"
Edward frowned (Tony was pretty sure that was just his default expression), but nodded and handed back the first aid kit.
No stitches. Tony noted in amusement. He watched eagerly as Bruce, frustrated, tried to explain why, really, Edward should stitch the wounds, but man was the kid stubborn. He glared at Bruce, countering his arguments with 'So?' or 'I don't care' until Tony wondered if Bruce would hulk out. (The kid had a knack for riling people up.) Eventually, Bruce just sighed, turning away in frustration and running a hand through his hair. "I-you-ok. Fine. Do you need anything else?"
The kid—Edward, smirked in triumph and started to shake his head, but seemed to change his mind, opening and closing his mouth uncertainly. "maybe…" he frowned, looking away, "Maybe, like…a wrench?"
"A wrench?" Tony asked curiously, cutting in before Bruce could ask Ed why, "What, do you need to screw your head back on?"
Edward made an indignant noise, and Tony suddenly remembered: The kid had a prosthetic arm. If he was asking for a wrench…did that mean it had been damaged?
His interest piqued, Tony eagerly crossed the room. "It's your arm right?" he said as he approached, "Show me."
The kid grabbed his right arm almost protectively and glowered at Tony. Bruce gave him a warning look, but Tony was way too interested to back off just from a simple stare down. Eventually, with a glance at Tony's armor, Ed sighed and yanked off one of his white gloves, holding out the mechanic hand for Tony to see. Tony wasted no time, rolling back the kid's sleeve (he wouldn't take the stupid coat off) and inspecting the arm.
He wanted to take it apart so bad. It was a fascinating piece of (potentially alien) technology and he really wanted to know exactly how it worked. Unfortunately though, this arm was attached to a short golden anger machine, and Tony liked his head being attached to his body.
"Well?!" The kid demanded, glaring hard and snapping Tony out of his reverie.
Tony shrugged. "I can fix it, of course, if that's what you're asking." The kid arched an eyebrow in disbelief. Tony mimicked him. "Kid, there isn't anything I can't fix. I'm a certified genius. Ask anyone."
Clint piped up across the room "Genius, and yet the microwave is still—"
"The microwave is broken because you tried to heat an entire pizza in it." Tony cut in smoothly, "and as such, you are going to fix it. But really," he said, turning back to Ed, "I am the Iron man. I built the suit, kid. I could do your arm in my sleep."
"You don't know anything about automail." The kid said with a frown.
Automail huh? So that's what it's called. Tony yawned, "Kid, tech is tech, and I know tech."
Ed frowned, glancing between his arm, Tony, and the Iron Man suit over in the corner. He grimaced. "Fine." He said, turned back to Tony, "But if you screw up my arm-!"
"Wouldn't dream of it." Tony assured him sarcastically, dragging him out of the room and down the hall, leaving the Med Lab in uncomfortable silence.
"And that's the last of Stark we'll see for today." Natasha commented dryly.
"Nah." Clint laughed, throwing a roll of bandages across the room into her hands, "That little demon will escape to eat something, I'm sure."
Thor 'hmph'd in agreement, and everyone returned to what they had been doing.