Author's Note: Alright fights over, now we get to what everyone has been wanting for a while now, worried Avengers. I own nothing.
44. Aftermath
There was a moments confused silence before a groan broke the tension caused by the arrival of the SHEILD director himself. All eyes in the room turned to Piper who stirred, her eyes flickered open. The normally clear blue was glassy and out of focus. She tried to move and groaned. Bruce laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Stay still. You got hit bad Piper. What happened?" She didn't seem to hear him. Instead she groaned again and tried to sit up.
" 'arry. Where's Harry?" Clint let go of Harry's arm. The boy clumsily raced forwards and knelt at Piper's side.
"I'm here. Piper you need to listen to Dr. Banner, you're hurt. Oh god, is she gonna be ok?" This time he was talking to Bruce. Before the doctor could answer Piper moved again groaning as she did. Her hand came to rest on his and he shuddered at the warm blood that dripped onto his skin from hers.
"Are you ok?" Harry nodded brushing a strand of hair out of Pipers face, for once not caring that her father was standing right next to them. She smiled at him and her eyes slipped closed, her hand going alarmingly limp in his. He sat there stunned for a moment before Dr. Banner called out to Captain America.
"Steve! Get over here now! We need to get her to medical, now!" Captain America, still in full uniform pushed gently passed Harry and scooped Piper up racing out of the room as Jarvis lifted the quarantine. Harry stared after them for a minute before someone gently laid a hand on his shoulder. He looked up into Nick Fury's one good eye.
"You cant do anything for her right now. But we can make sure that Venom is really gone this time. Harry nodded dumbly looking back over at the door Piper had just been carried through. Fury guided him to his feet and helped him over to the hole in the wall where a SHEILD craft was hovering, medical personnel waiting inside it. Once Harry was in their capable hands Fury turned to the team.
"You dumbasses went off the res. You are in so much trouble tonight. You're gonna be running drills for a month straight." Tony stepped forwards.
"Wait, these are yours?" He said angrily gesturing at the group of teen heroes. Fury nodded.
"Yes. And they were supposed to be doing a simple patrol of the area, not messing with things way too strong for them." Fury was lying, the teens knew that but it wasn't like they would tell Iron Man that. Iron Fist stepped forwards and bowed.
"My apologies Director Fury but we saw what was happening and decided to lend our assistance." White Tiger piped up from where she stood slightly behind Luke.
"To be fair it was Nova's idea." Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Which one of you is Nova?" There was silence for a moment before Nova tentatively raised his hand. Tony stepped over to him and looked him up and down for a moment before holding out his hand to shake. Nova stared at it dumbly for a moment before Powerman elbowed him in the side and he reached out and took it shaking it.
"I'm glad she wasn't alone. Thank you. You got potential kid, if SHIELD ever gets too shady for you give me a call." Tony turned and the armor folded off of him and Nova saw that the tremor he'd felt wasn't from the armor. Tony was shaking. He fumbled a phone out of his pocket and hit a button before putting it up to his ear.
"Pepper, I need you at the tower. Please hurry." There was a pause.
"It's Piper, she's hurt." Another pause.
"You figured? How? What do you mean check the news?" Tony walked out of the room quickly and Natasha, Clint, Thor and Nick Fury were the only ones left in the room. The SHIELD ship with Harry in it had already taken off. Clint spoke for the first time, his voice was shaking slightly.
"What the hell happened here? Someone tell me before I shoot something!" The teens pieced together what they could but they knew they didn't know the whole story. The only person who knew for sure was Piper and she was in no condition to talk to anyone right now. Clint nodded at them as they finished.
"Alright." With that he stomped off out of the room. The Widow sighed.
"Thank you for helping her. We do appreciate it." With that she followed Clint out of the room. Fury sighed and motioned the team forwards. A second SHIELD craft landed at the hole in the wall and they boarded the jet. The ride back to the Helicarrier was silent. When they landed they all lined up on the bridge waiting for Fury to dole out their punishment. Fury sighed.
"I gotta say I wasn't expecting her to be this good of an influence on you lot this fast." They all frowned looking at each other confused.
"I'm sorry sir, I don't understand. Aren't we in trouble?" Fury shook his head.
"Yes, but only because none of you called to report what you were doing. What you did, going after her, it was the right thing to do. You did good. Now go get some rest, it's been a hell of a day. I have to clean up the mess." Nova stepped forwards.
"Um sir, I've been wondering. Something Mr. Stark said before he left the room, something about checking the new? What was he talking about?" Fury sighed again. He turned to one of the consoles and tapped a few keys pulling up and unmuting the bugle news.
"Shock rocks through New York today as a years old rumor comes to light about one of our local heroes! Tony Stark has a child!" An image of Piper flying away from Venom, her face was in shadow but the gloves and boots were clearly visible.
"Who is this mystery teen! Where has he been hiding her all these years!? Who's the mother!? More of this at ten!" Fury closed the news and turned back to the teens.
"There's gonna be a lot of backlash from this, get some sleep. You'll need it." They nodded and walked out of the bridge off towards their respective rooms.
Tony paced back and forth in the waiting room of the medical wing in Stark Tower. Any sound from the room within was drowned out by the sound of construction from two floors below them. The tower would be fixed soon enough but there was a mob of press waiting outside for a statement about what had happened. Natasha had popped by and explained what little the teen team had known about the situation but that hadn't been much. SHEILD had whisked Harry Osborn off and that meant he was most definitely involved in all this. Pepper was on the phone putting out fires with the PR department but her hands were shaking too bad to use her Stark Pad properly so Natasha was helping her with that. The Russian would occasionally glance up at the door to the operating room but never spoke or moved other than that. According to JARVIS Clint was in the firing range with Thor destroying the place, it was self repairing anyway and if Tony hadn't been so worried he would have joined them. But he couldn't focus on anything but the image of his daughter's face. Blood flecked on her face her lip split and the gashes in her side. He shuddered as Pepper stood finally hanging up the phone. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close for a moment. He felt himself sob into her hair.