Notes:
Tried to upload this yesterday, but my internet spazzed out, so you're getting it Hela early in the morning. (Yes, I have a weakness for puns)
Warning!
Technically anti-American sentiment, if only because Hera's a British person clashing with some brash American's and that British Sass TM is in full force lol. So it's not serious, but I wanted to post the warning in case someone got a little apprehensive about the turn the story is taking.
Last time...
"We'll have to take you over to the Body for Protection of Magical Species." Nice clerk stated after a moment of thought. "They'll go over the guidelines with you, maybe give your friend some ideas. Also, you and Mr. Stark should see about stopping by the Office for Magic Relations and Education, the Fedural Bureau of Covert Vigilance and No-maj Obliviation, and The Wizarding Resources Department, and the Major Investigation Department."
"So, we'll make a day of it, and visit every department in MACUSA." Tony decided with a sharp nod.
"Our plane leaves in less than an hour!" Hera objected. "Also, you're not going anywhere near a department of obliviators!"
"Private jet leaves whenever we say it does. I own it. I can just tell em we decided to take in the sights, Hera. You've never been to New York, so we should do that while we're here anyway, and if we take a little longer than the norm, who would say anything to an enthusiastic teen about her first trip to the US?" Tony countered. "They're not going to obliviate me, Hera. I'd bet anything it's to update their surveillance."
He was headed towards the nearest sign while she struggled internally not to forcibly stop him, before alarms rushes through her, and she's following at top speed. If he was going to wander around MACUSA, he wasn't going to go alone.
Chapter 45
It happened in a flash.
"Stop the car!"
That was the only warning Tony got before Hera was bolting out of the car like her ass was on fire as soon as the door was open, their driver having barely stopped at all. He wasn't even sure where they were, but he followed after her, or tried. Dock workers, loading men, heavy equipment. What was Hera chasing after? What had she seen? She weaved through the workers like she knew where she was going, while he had to stumble through and apologize every five seconds, losing sight of her far too often.
When he finally caught up to her, it was to the site of a chemical spill. People were running around frantic, trying to get everything cleaned up. There was a boy flat on his back in the middle of the place, eyes staring almost at nothing. Hera was on her knees, crouched at the boy's head, offering words of comfort. A man Tony assumed was the boy's father at his side.
"Hera!" Tony shouted, pulling up short when he realized her eyes were just as sightless as the boy's. Crouching down with them, he got to work. "What do you need?"
"You need to look through my pockets. I can't trust that I'll find it as I am." Hera explained, before gesturing vaguely towards the pocket in question. "Left pocket, third down. It will be labeled Oculus. Look for a deep orange colour."
"What will it do?" The man asked, as Tony quickly searched through the magically expanded pocket in question. Upon seeing this, the man hissed. "You two are magic?!"
"I'm not. She is." Tony whispered. "That a problem? Because I'm sure whatever she's got me searching for will help your kid. Maybe. It's either risk that, or wait and see what the docs can do, which might be nothing."
The man looked grim, thin lipped, but he didn't say anything; his attention diverted back to the crying kid in seconds.
"Tony, I need you to call Professor Snape. I can only imagine what ungodly hour it is over there, but I need to know the ratio of potions he's been giving me vs what's normally meant for the average witch or wizard." Hera explained, absentmindedly running her fingers through the boy's hair in an effort to calm him.
"Oh, I bet he'll just love that." Tony snorted, but got out his phone to dial. Snape had a home phone, and would not be at Hogwarts during the summer. "Anyone call 911?"
"Paramedics are on their way." The man with them answered. "Jim put in the call for me. They'll still be a while trying to find us, and we can't move him."
"Then let's hope this works." Tony replied, before dialing the number.
…
"You've barely been gone a day, Stark." Severus grumbled once he'd answered the phone. "What could possibly have gone wrong in that short amount of time? Do you even know what time it is over here?"
"There's been a chemical spill, something Rand Oil and Chemicals was moving – A kid…Matt Murdock was hit with the stuff. Paramedics are still trying to navigate the minefield of buildings to get through the docks. Hera found him. Demanded we stop the car, and then bolted out of it like her ass was on fire, like she knew exactly where to go. I find her just as blinded as he is, still don't know how that happened."
"File it under her saving people thing." Severus sighed. "Continue."
"Hera asked me to get the Oculus potion to give the kid, but she doesn't know the ratio to try, and what you have to give her is different than others."
"Is this Murdock a magical?" Severus asked, now sitting up on the couch he'd fallen asleep on.
"I don't think so. He's nine. The father says there's been no strange occurrences, but he's gone a lot; long hours at work. So, I'm not sure."
"You can't give potions to a muggle." Severus objected.
"…Hera says you can."
~Give me the phone~ He hears, and then…
"Professor, it can be done. I know it can. It'll work, but we're running out of time. If we don't do something soon, he'll never see again."
"Then he'll never see again. Lot's of people live full happy lives blind, Potter." Severus pointed out. Maybe he should have gone to the states with them, at least then he would be able to see the trouble she was getting into already.
"Trust me! Please? That's all I'm asking!"
"Potter, if this doesn't work, there will be side effects. There could be side effects even if it does." Severus warned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He was met with silence. "Very well. You have to have a dose that's five times what I would give a normal witch or wizard. You would need nearly the whole bottle. A muggle could…theoretically…take a fifth of what one would give a witch or wizard. So…Have the kid take one swallow of the potion. Only one. Anymore than that, and it would damage more than it would help."
"Thank you, Professor!"
- Click -
Groaning, he managed to make his way to bed, planning on pretending he hadn't had that conversation in the morning.
…
"One swallow for Matt, that's what he said." Hera answered, once Tony had hung up the phone for her. "Any word on the paramedics?"
"Still nothing. We have workers trying to find them now." Someone off to the side answered.
"Hey, you sure this will work?" The man's voice came from the boy's side; his father, she realized.
"No." She admitted. "The eyes are delicate, so no one's ever tested this particular potion on a non-magical person, and there's no telling what it will do because of the acid. It's meant to counter a curse that blinds people, not heal acid damage. This is completely experimental. I don't even know if it will work on me."
"And you're still willing to take it?" The man asked, alarmed. She nodded. "Matt? Buddy? What do you think?"
"…I…I'll try it…" Came the soft reply of the crying boy still lying on the ground.
The world was on fire. Things were coming at him that couldn't possibly fit in the room. A truck was running him over; echoing, vibrating, thrumming. Only…none of it was actually inside the room. Those were things that were happening outside. He could see them without seeing them, almost like an outline. Was this the side effects that professor spoke of? Matt cried out when it looked like yet another truck would run him down, this time a big rig.
"Matt!"
"Dad!"
"It's okay. It'll be okay." His dad tried to reassure him, and it was nice to feel his dad's arms around him, but his focus was on the girl cringing in the doorway.
"You…You can come in if you want." Matt called out to her, calming down now that his father was with him. "You tried to help me."
"I'm sorry it didn't work." She apologized, slowly walking into the room. "It healed me, but I'm different."
"Magic. I remember." Matt nodded. "Why can I see you but not my dad?"
"…What?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I can see his outline, sort of make out where he is, hear his heart beat, almost see it, but it's weird. I see things that are outside as if they're in the room, and the louder it is the more solid it looks, until it starts vibrating." Matt explained, squeezing his dad's hand when the man stilled. "Were you blue before? I don't remember that."
"You…You can see that?" The girl asked, surprised and alarmed all at once. Her heart rate picked up quite a bit as a result. "What do I look like to you?"
"Blue skin, lines, red eyes, crown of small horns." Matt insisted with enthusiasm. "That's so cool!"
"Matt, she's danger-"
"So?! She tried to help me. It's not her fault the plan didn't work!" Matt insisted, pleading with his father to understand.
"Your father's right." The girl mumbled, looking away. "I am dangerous. I should…I should go."
"Dad!" Matt scolded when the girl had gone, looking to where the outline of his father was. There was his heartbeat, and the puffs of breath that helped him better outline the man, enough that Matt could tell his dad had on his 'concerned' face.
…
"Was it the toxic waste, or what you gave him?" She hears once she's walked down the hall a ways, and turns around to face the man.
"I don't know, Mr. Murdock. He was exposed to that stuff longer than I was, and I didn't have nearly as much of it hit me as he did." Hera admitted, fidgeting in her nervousness. He didn't need to know that she'd tried taking the damage into herself the way she had with Loki; it hadn't worked quite like she'd hoped it would anyway. "I have to take stronger medicine than most when something affects me, so I wasn't sure how much he could have, or how it would affect him. Maybe if I had-"
"What he's described, did that happen to you too?" Mr. Murdock asked quietly.
"Sort of." Hera nodded, tilting her head as she began listening to more than what was around her. "I can hear…Tony fussing at the Doctors…it's faint, not loud like Matt described…Tony's demanding specialists look at your son's eyes. Doesn't like how they treated him when they found out you didn't have any money."
"I know what I said before, but…Would you…would you stay with my son?" Mr. Murdock asked suddenly. "I need to go stop Mr. Stark before he gets us kicked out."
"Three floors down." Hera said, when Mr. Murdock made to leave. He paused, uncertain of what to make of that, it seemed. "You'll find him shouting at a doctor three floors down, near the elevator. He's demanding to speak to the Director of the Hospital. I think he means to buy it."
"That's almost worse." Mr. Murdock mutters, before hauling off down the hallway towards the nearest elevator.
...
"So…Wanna learn Braille with me?" Matt blurted, when the girl…Hera? walked back into the room.
"Sounds fun." She agreed with a smile. "Wanna learn Morse Code with me? I don't think we're staying here long, but both those things are great for long distance communications and stuff."
"Cool. It'll be like learning a secret language!" Matt agreed, with a smile. "I've always wanted to be able to do that."
...
When Tony and John managed to get back to the room, Hera and Matt were already in a full on conversation about inventions. They'd discovered Matt could read normal books as long as the printing was a little raised, and it had snowballed from there. What about paper with raised lines on it? Ink that raised up a little as it dried? Were there typewriters that wrote in braille? Computers? Surely some of this had to exist already, and if not Hera planned to make it happen.
Tony got curious when he realized that the kid wasn't just able to see Hera, but was also able to track him and John about the room. Acting on instinct, Tony tossed a marble across the room, something that had John ready to kick his ass, but the kid just caught said marble in mid air like it was nothing. That just got the two kids even more excited, thinking of even more things to do and create. It was like they had known each other all their lives. John and Tony had been dealing with the lawyers from Rand Oil and Chemicals all that morning, and Tony had no doubt that while the man could still knock 'em out in the ring, he wasn't as equipped to fight a lawyer; Tony was, and made sure that by the end of that meeting, Rand Oil and Chemicals were parting with a good chunk of their money.
John hadn't wanted to be a charity case, but Tony had been insistent. This wasn't charity. This was for the kid's future. If John wanted to move somewhere, rebuild his life, settle old debts, he could still do all that and give that kid an expensive education. Matt apparently wanted to go to law school, something Hera encouraged wholeheartedly. Tony took a bracing sigh, really wishing he didn't have to be the one to call an end to this strangely eventful trip to New York.
Obadiah was supposed to handle the press, but apparently there'd been a mix up. As soon as the door had opened, the pictures started snapping. They'd had little warning, but Hera had at least seen them before they'd stepped outside. She wasn't happy about it, but at least she hadn't been caught completely by surprise. That would have ended in a frightened teleport to who knows where.
"I'm sorry about this, Hera." Tony sighed. She was hesitating to even leave the plane, and he couldn't blame her. "It was bound to happen sometime, I had just hoped Obadiah would make sure it was later. You don't have to say anything. We'll just ignore them. In fact, that's my go to sometimes."
"I'm just surprised no one stopped us in New York." She admitted, with a grin that could have been a grimace. "We were there for a while."
He'd been prepared for the camera flashes to pick up in speed too when they stepped out of the plane, casually shielding her behind him until she could get her bearings. The questions they asked were obscene! He was used to being asked about his playboy lifestyle, but to insinuate that every woman in his life was someone he had or would fuck was just…That they would assume he was fucking such a young girl, or that Hera was only after him for his money…This is not how he'd wanted to introduce her to the public.
"Excuse me?" Hera asked, her voice carrying over the crowd in what he knew was a subtle wandless sonorus charm, and the crowd silenced. "A tart, or a thief? Is that what you're calling me? And these are your only two options?*"
"I didn't say-" A reporter exclaimed, now blushing brightly.
"You insinuated I am either manipulating Tony for his money, or that he is rogering a fifteen year old girl; neither of which are palatable things to either of us. He's my brother, you arse! Are you really suggesting he's into incest and pedophilia?"
"I notice you didn't answer the money part." Another reporter, this time a woman, commented snidely.
"I didn't think I had to." Hera snapped, glaring at the woman in question. "I'm a fifteen year old girl, you imbecile, and he's my brother. But just to alleviate your fears that I might be taking advantage of Tony for his money, I'm rich in my own right. My parents left me a sizable fortune when they were brutally murdered. I was one year old, in case you go thinking I orchestrated that. Now, are you lot done acting like heathens, or are we free to get on with our day? We have better things to do than sate your curiosity. Bloody vultures, the lot of you."
"You've got a lot of nerve, kid," Someone commented. "coming to our country and telling us how we should behave."
"Really?" Hera asked with a lazy drawl, and Tony just knows they're in trouble judging by the shark like smile she gives them all. "Because from where I'm standing, my going to another country and telling you what to do is the most American thing I could have ever done. I'm fitting in already."
Tony starts coughing, having tried to laugh and snort at the same time, and guides her away from the reporters before they can recover from the burn. She looks absolutely mortified, embarrassed at what they'd called her, the things they'd suggested, and probably more than a little at how she'd responded to it all. Her face is beet red, and she's staring down at her shoes. They go through the usual checkpoints, make it into the limo he'd called ahead for, and she still hasn't said anything by the time it's all over. He's going to have to do something about this.
"Damn, Frost, I don't think they'll ever recover from a burn that severe." Tony chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. She looks up, giving a small hesitant grin, and he sighed. "If you hadn't said something, I would have, and it probably would have been a lot worse. Might have to make you my PR person."
"Please don't." Hera groaned, which started him snickering again.
"What made you think to act like that towards them?" Tony asked, out of curiosity.
"Oh, I asked Draco for advice. His dad has to deal with that sort of thing all the time, and he said his father just looks down his nose at them and treats them like they're children when they act like that." Hera admitted sheepishly. "So that's what I did…sort of. Might have gotten a bit too enthusiastic about it though."
"Maybe next time they'll rein themselves in." Tony suggested, though it was doubtful. "Alright. Let's get home. We can get settled in, get some food ordered, and figure out how to sibling for the next three months."
"Get food ordered?" Hera asked, confused. "Do you not…Well, I mean, you haven't been home in a while, but you're rich so I assumed you got people to go to the grocers for you. Did you forget?"
"Hera, I'm a twenty four year old man-child who runs a business and invents things that explode." Tony reminded her. "I don't even know how to cook."
AN: Quote is from Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger
While I'm sure she meant it entirely different than how Hera said it, channeling a strong female character like that in this series, I couldn't not be inspired by her.
