Here it is. The moment we've all been waiting for. Let me know what you think. Please read and review.
When I arrived at the airport the first thing I did was send Jess a message letting her know I was going to be in Dublin the following day. Then I shut my phone off and when through security and proceeded to my gate. Six and a half hours later I was getting into a taxi on my way to my hotel.
I met up with Jess and Sam for lunch the next day. The biggest surprise of my day was finding out my best friend was pregnant. I was so happy especially when I was asked to be their kid's godmother.
We decided to take advantage of the fact that I was in town to get started on some baby shopping. Lets just say I contributed a gigantic chunk to my future godson's wardrobe and toy collection.
"Not that I'm not happy to see you or anything, but I wasn't expecting you until next week? What's going on Nora?" Jess asked. She could always tell when something was wrong.
"What? I need an excuse to come visit my best friend?" I retort hoping she'll drop it.
"You know that's not it. How are things in school? How's your …" The TV was showing footage from the Stark Expo. Dad in his Iron Man suit and a modified version of the Mark II. They were fighting what looked like androids. I looked at the suit and the Arc reactor was different.
I got my phone out and sent him a message.
Dad, What's going on?
He responds almost right away.
Cliff notes version. Super not so secret organization called SHIELD had files your grandfather left that helped me figure out how to create a new element, which solved the Palladium problem. Hammer busted the Russian guy from Monaco out of prison so he could recreate the suit but instead he built drones. Currently dealing with that. Oh and Rhodey stole a suit that Hammer, with military permission, weaponized with dud missiles.
Wait? Solved the Palladium Problem. Dad's not dying.
So you're not dying?
He responds almost right away
Not today, anyway got to go deal with an angry Russian. Call you later.
I let out a chuckle. Jess just looks at me like I've gone crazy.
"Sorry, just got some really good news."
"Want to share?" I can't tell her the truth so instead I decide to twist it a little.
"My dad had a health scare and the doctors thought it was something really bad. He just got the test results back and turns out it was a false alarm. Everything's good now."
"Oh my gosh Nora!" She gets up and hugs me. "I'm so happy for you. I know how important your dad is to you."
"Yeah, sorry I didn't say anything. Just didn't want to worry you especially now, stress isn't just bad for you its bad for Sam Junior."
"Okay two things. One we are not naming him Sam Junior. It would be way too confusing. And second of all, that is not a good excuse not to tell me these things. I worry about you whether or not you act weirder than usual."
"I'm weird?"
"Yeah but so am I. Come on there's one last place I want to stop by before we head back for dinner."
I follow Jess down the street and into a small alley.
"Where are we going?" I ask starting to get a bit creeped out.
"I found a small shop a couple of months ago by accident. It's a new age holistic medicine place. I know what you're going to say 'That stuff doesn't work, It's just a scam Jess' And maybe you're right but they sell this ginger root tea that's been really helpful with my morning sickness and I'm running low so for me can you please keep an open mind." She says really fast leaving her out of breath.
"Okay. I promise, I'll keep my smart ass mouth shut." I say.
We go through the alley and at the end was a small shop. We go inside and a bell rings. Jess goes up to the counter and I decide to look around. There are dream catchers and new age posters hanging around. There are statues of Buddha's and other spiritual entities from different cultures.
I walk to the back of the store. Hanging on the wall is a tapestry with a gigantic tree at the center. Around the tree were nine orbs representing the nine realms from Norse mythology. Around the tapestry were different colored stones.
On the wall to the left of the tapestry were necklaces and bracelets with different stones. As I was admiring an amethyst necklace, I didn't notice an elderly lady come up to my left.
"It's a lovely necklace but I don't think it's the one for you." She says with a thick eastern European accent.
I let out a bit of a shout and jumped a bit. "Ahh, sorry I didn't see you walk over."
"You have beautiful eyes." She says completely disregarding my earlier statement.
"Uhh thank you." I say. She was a few inches shorter than me. She had long wavy hair that came down to her waist. She was wearing a red Bandana on her head. She was wearing long bead and chain necklaces. She was wearing at least five bracelets on each arm and a long skirt.
"Follow me." She says and started walking not even looking back to make sure I was following her.
Every single one of my instincts was telling me to walk the other way and not look back but for whatever reason I didn't.
She took me into a back room. There was an old vintage apothecary table. She opened one of the drawers and pulled out a cloth. She unraveled the cloth and in the cloth were a bunch of charms with different stones. She started to sort them out and lay them flat in front of me.
"Ahh here it is!" She exclaimed.
She picked up a silver chain bracelet with an intricate charm with a green stone in at the center. She held it out to me. I gently took it out of her hand and held it up. The charm was beautiful. The craftsman ship on the bracelet was simple. On the edge of the charm there was an inscription in a language I had never seen before. I looked at the stone and for a second I thought it glowed.
"That is the bracelet for you. Please take it." She says.
"Uh how much is it?" I ask.
"No, no, no. It's a gift. Please take it." She insisted.
"No I can't accept it this is too much." I replied
She took the bracelet out of my hand and placed it on my left wrist. "Take it. It suits you and you can make better use of it than I ever could. I won't take no for an answer." She gave me a look that left no room for argument.
"Okay, Thank you." I say giving her a smile.
We stood up and went back to the front of the store. Jess was talking to the cashier when she spotted us.
"Did you find something you like?" She asked.
"Oh I was looking around I was talking to…" I turned around but the lady was gone.
Jess looks behind me and says, "Who were you talking to?"
"There was a lady." I start.
"Nora the only person who works here is Holly, the cashier." She says.
Now I'm creeped out. I decide to change the subject. "Did you get the tea?"
"Yeah I did, we should go. Sam just called and said he's starting on dinner. Got to get back before he burns down the kitchen." We both chuckle. We say goodbye to the cashier and walk back to the car.
After dinner I decided to head back to my hotel. I managed to get Dad on video call.
"So you're not dead?" I say.
"Yeah starktonium did the trick."
"Starktonium?"
"Too cliché?" He asks
"Kind of a mouthful" I retort.
"I'll think of something. How's Dublin?"
"Cold, rainy, and with a ton of pubs. The usual"
"You were right."
"About?"
"Pepper, there's been something there for a while but it took me almost dying to make me do something about it."
"So what did you do?"
"We kissed on a rooftop after I saved her from exploding hammeroids?"
I burst out laughing. "Did you just say you saved her from exploding hemorrhoids?"
"No I said…" I keep laughing, "You know what never mind."
"So you'll never guess what happened to me this week?"
"Something else happened besides you almost dying and pissing off a senator? You've had a big week." I say.
"Well besides that, turns out my new PA was actually a spy sent by patchy the pirate to evaluate me for their super secret boy band."
"If it's so secret why are you telling me?" I ask.
"That's not the point Nora. According to her Iron man is a perfect candidate, Tony Stark on the other hand is not."
"I get that." I say.
"What? How can that… Nora you've gone crazy."
"Dad it actually makes a lot of sense. As a public figure you keep up a facade that you don't care about rules or consequences. You're impulsive and erratic…"
"I resent that" He interrupts.
"But," I continue. "When you're in the suit in the heat of the moment you think things through. You analyze the situation and act accordingly. So yeah Iron Man is a good candidate, Tony Stark the public figure, not so much."
"They also said I was a narcissist." He says
"Wow pretty dead on with that one." I say with a smirk.
"Hey!" He says jokingly
"You know its true." I retort.
"On a side note, keep an eye out. I know you told me they haven't approached you since after the Stane incident but that doesn't mean they haven't been keeping an eye on you." I think back to the past couple of weeks and think about Clint. I better do some hacking later.
"Don't worry Dad I'll keep and eye out." I yawn. "I think I'm going to call it a night."
"Okay but before you go I got some news to tell you."
"What did you do now?" I say.
"Relax, I didn't… well technically I did, Rhodey and I are being honored in DC tomorrow and you'll never guess whose presenting us with our medals?"
I think and it hits me, "No"
"Oh yeah" He says with a smile.
"You have got to record that for me."
"I will. I'll send you the video after the ceremony. Get some sleep kid."
"Kay, Night dad."
"Night" He said before hanging up.
Two Days Later- Nora's POV
After a few days of shopping and girl time in Dublin it was time to head over to Geneva. I was very excited. I had been to Geneva before very briefly but didn't get a chance to visit the Super Collider.
I arrived around midday, a few hours before the big presentation. I was going to meet up with Doctor Hawking, Not Stephen Hawking another one, an hour before the presentation. I had enough time to go to my hotel and drop my things off, change clothes and even grab lunch.
I chose to wear some charcoal grey slacks with a white long sleeve button down blouse. On top of my sweater I wore a navy knit sweater. I wore simple silver stud earrings and my arc reactor necklace that dad had given me for my birthday. I looked down at my left wrist and saw that I still had on the bracelet with the green stone charm that the lady had given me in Dublin. There was a problem with the clasp and I couldn't get it off so I decided to just leave it on.
I left my hair down since I had just unmade the braid it was in it looked perfectly wavy.
I got in a taxi and made my way to CERN headquarters. I went up to the receptionist and she handed me all my passes and walked me to Doctor Hawking's office. When we arrived at his office Doctor Hawking immediately stood up and greeted me.
"Doctor Martell, It is such a pleasure to finally meet you. Erik has told me all about you and I have read all of your published papers. You're paper on Newton's third law on perceptions of time and alternate realties was amazing." He says.
"Thank you Doctor Hawking. I'm a big fan of your work on anti matter."
We talked about his current theory on the collision of neutrinos at high speeds and the experiment he was trying to perform. We kind of lost track of time. If it weren't for his assistant coming in to tell Doctor Hawking it was time to head to the conference room we would have stayed in there for hours.
We arrived at the conference room. Doctor Hawking went to greet a few colleagues before going up on the stage and I went to go find my seat. I was in the front row. I guess it does pay to have good connections. The presentation started. He played a simulation. The super collider was going to use magnets to push two opposing particles going in opposite directions to approach the speed of light. Then the shift in pressure in the chamber was going to be measured to see if it approximated that of what theoretical antineutrinos similar to dark matter would be. Doctor Hawking started the collider and everything was going good.
At first you really couldn't see anything. The particles were atomic. Then the sensors started to detect the shift in pressure and started to mark on the screen the residual energy lefts as the particles passed. For about twenty minutes everything was good but then the temperature started to rise inside the chamber. The sensors started flashing red and soon the alarm started ringing but before anyone could evacuate there was a loud boom sound. The lights went out and the collider let out a pulse that knocked everyone to the ground. That's when the green stone on the bracelet started to glow. The light started to get brighter and brighter until all I could see was white.
When the light started to fade, I noticed I wasn't in the conference room anymore. I was in a hallway. I stood up slowly. I felt dizzy and lightheaded. Once I took a few deep breaths and calmed down a bit, I started to walk down the hallway looking for someone who could tell me what happened and if everyone else was okay. I turned right at the end of the hallway and I saw something strange. I saw a red banner with a white circle and a black swastika at the center. What the hell? How did I go to the most neutral country in the world to some Nazi cult hideout?
I walked toward the banner. Maybe it's some sort of prop? Maybe I'm being punked or dad decided to get back at me for calling him a narcissist? I got to the banner and nope. Its real. I looked to the left side of the hallway and what I saw gave me the chills. It was another banner except this one didn't have a swastika on it. It was all red. At the center was a black skull with tentacles.
I flash back to the stories Peggy and Dugan told me about the war and the picture of this very symbol. HYDRA. Oh Shit. This is bad this is very, very bad.
I need to find a way out of this place I start to run down the hallway. When I see a group of four guards with strange uniforms. Their faces are covered by masks and their eyes were covered by goggles.
One of them spotted me and yelled "Halt" They're talking in German. I am definitely not in Geneva anymore. I turned around and ran as fast as I could.
I made a couple of turns and then ran into even more guards. "Halt das Mädchen," Stop that girl, the guards yelled at the other group.
I kept changing directions, avoiding as many of them as I could. But eventually they activated the alarm and there were guards everywhere. They finally cornered me. They grabbed me by my arms and tied my hands behind my back. They dragged me down the hall and made me kneel in front of a man who I'm guessing was their leader.
"Wo bist du hergekommen?" Where did you come from? He asked. I decided not to answer. He came up to me and forced me to look up at him.
"Let me go," I said.
"American. Where did you come from? You were not with the captured soldiers." He said with an accent
Captured soldier? Last I heard majority of American soldiers were stationed in the middle east not Europe.
"Erhalten Sie mir die Aufnahmen aller Überwachung aus der Basis, Finden Sie heraus, woher sie kam." Get me all the surveillance footage from within the base. Find out where she came from. He told one of the soldiers.
"Ja, Sir, was machen wir mit ihr?" Yes sir, What do we do with her? The soldier asked.
Their boss looked down at me and then said, "Nehmen Sie sie zu Zola, er hat nach mehr Labratten gefragt." Take her to Zola, He's been asking for more lab rats. Zola? No not him. I start to fight back. I kick and shove as many soldiers as possible to try and get away but I was out numbered. One of the guards grabbed me and next thing I know I feel a sharp pain in the back of my head and then I black out.