The Nine Tailed Foxx

Chapter 24

((A/N: No, I haven't forgotten about my other stories. Just waiting on one muse to step back and let others have some time.

A wonderful thanks to my friend Lady Moonhawke, who is also my co-writer, co-conspirator, Idea tester, plot hole finder, monkey wrench thrower, and ghost editor.))

Homeward Bound

Early Saturday morning, somewhere in the Canadian wilderness….

Dawn was less than an hour away when the Avengers finished clearing the HYDRA base. Their SHIELD support teams had arrived an hour prior and were busy dealing with prisoners and the dead. Of the higher ups, LaBrawn had been captured but the main head of the labs had killed himself rather than be taken in. Of the 'good' doctor and his guards, no one had seen them since the start of the battle. And with Johnny's warning in mind, none of the Avengers had gone looking either. As for the base itself, all the data and research had been corrupted already by a virus and any useful information was gone as far as anyone knew.

Instead of walking, or flying back, the team commandeered a pair of mostly undamaged hummers (and a pair of SHIELD agents to return them) to drive back to the jet. Steve was in the lead vehicle and Nat was in the second. At about 300 feet from the quinjet, something hit the windshield with enough force to crack it. A second hit to the windshield cracked it further, forcing Steve to slam on the breaks and throw it into reverse. Nat was able to swerve to keep from getting hit by Steve's vehicle.

"What the hell Steve?" She asked, looking at Steve through the door's window.

In reply Steve just pointed at the windshield. "That's not from a bullet."

"Shit, did anyone let Johnny know we were on our way back?" Tony asked as he leaned forward. "No? No… FRIDAY," he said as he dropped back into the seat.

"Already on it Boss," the AI said. A moment later, the AI spoke up again. "He says 'be glad it wasn't an explosive round'."

"Cheeky little shit," Tony grumbled.

Pepper just rolled her eyes as she huffed a laugh.

Steve shook his head as he put the vehicle in gear again and started forward once more. They all could have gotten out and walked the last little bit since no one was injured, but the cold was still a factor.

No one complained when Clint and Tony were the first aboard the quinjet. Clint took the pilot's seat to begin the startup sequence while Tony ran system checks. Nat came next, doing a full sweep, finding only Alexei in the carrier, strapped in and covered with a light blanket. The rest filed in, in no particular order. Steve and Thor waited outside until everyone was aboard, including Johnny.

"Next time wait till you know who's approaching before you start taking popshots," Steve admonished.

"Next time, don't drive up in a HYDRA vehicle and I'll think about not shooting first," Johnny replied back.

"He's got a point," Nat said with smirk.

Tony stepped out of his armor, ordering it to pack itself away. "What were you doing up that tree? Playing Legolas is his job," he said pointing towards Clint.

"Waiting on sunrise mostly," Johnny replied as he settled next to Alexei, turning in the seat to tuck a leg under him and lay his head on his arm. He flipped his coat around so that it covered Alexei's carrier as well as himself.

"All clear," Steve called from the door before he hit the switch to close and seal it. He made a final visual sweep then nodded to Clint before he took off his helmet and ran his hand through his damp hair. He hardly noticed when the quinjet lifted off as he moved around to check on everyone. What he did notice, however, was Clint calling Johnny up to the front. After stowing his shield, he found all the seats occupied so ended up on the sitting propped up against the fuselage wall next to Sam and across from James.

"Me and Rhodey could have flown home on our own," Tony commented as he glanced around noting that the quinjet was pretty well packed. He also noted that no one seemed to have any problems with Alexei's carrier taking up one of the seats when it could have easily been fastened down to the floor between two of the seats.

"No," Pepper said as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

"I'd like to see any of you say 'no' to her and get away with it," Tony snarked back after the chuckles had died down.

Steve rolled his head to the side and stared for several moments. "Hey Tony, is that suppose to happen?" he asked as he jerked his thumb in Johnny's direction.

Tony turned the chair around and looked in the direction Steve pointed. There was nothing there except an empty chair. When he looked closer he spotted the heat-wave ripple like effect of the chameleon tech at work. "No… no it's not," he said as he stood up to take a closer look.

When he returned to the seat earlier, he had curled up in it again with his coat draped over the carrier once more and the pulled low over his face. Clint had mentioned it would be a couple of hours before they reached the tower, so he planned on napping the entire way back. He had closed his eyes, making himself relax by using mental exercises he'd been taught when the feeling of being watched made itself known. He'd discovered a long time ago there was different types of being watched. From admiration to curiosity to the quasi-hostility used by guards and security the world over. None of those bothered him as much as the feeling of being studied like a lab experiment. That whole feeling of being under a microscope made him twitch. "What Tony?" he asked.

"How'd you know it was me? Never mind, how long has your costume? Uniform? Let's call it gear, that works. How long has your gear being doing that?" Tony asked as he moved around some to look at it from all the angles he could.

"Doing what?" Johnny asked, raising his head a little.

"That," Tony said, pointing at Johnny as he said it. "The chameleon effect of blending into the background, without being activated? I presume you don't have it activated, otherwise the eyes of your mask would have shifted as well."

Johnny shrugged, causing a ripple like effect. "I don't know… thought it was just part of the package." He dropped his head again and closed his eyes. "You can poke at it when we get home, but for now.. go away. Go pester someone else," he said. "Pepper… he's studying me!" he put just enough of a childish whine to sound like a kid on a long car trip.

"Am not," Tony shot back, sticking his tongue out.

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Tony! Johnny!" Pepper said with a stern voice even though she was smiling.

Sam and Steve exchanged glances then looked over at James. All three shared conspiratorial grins before they chimed in with 'Are we there yet?'. Over on the other side, Nat and Wanda started poking at each other while calling out 'She's touching me!'. Bruce laughed then looked at Vision and added 'He took my book'. Vision raised an eyebrow replying 'I did not.' Thor, not to be left out choose the classic line of 'I'm hungry! Can we stop to eat?'. It sounded like a car full of kids on a long road trip.

"Don't make me tell Clint to land this ship or so help me I'll have him turn around and take us right back from where we came," Pepper called out over the noise, causing everyone to start laughing.

Tony knew when not to push, so returned to his seat. It didn't stop him though from keeping the chair turned around facing Johnny's direction as he looked though all his research notes on his phone.

When the quinjet arrived at the Avengers Tower, a medical team headed by Dr. Cho was waiting. Alexei was taken along with Johnny to be checked over before anyone else was. Once the exam was completed, it was decided that Alexei would be kept an additional 24 hours to ensure there were no adverse effects from being drugged into sleep. That meant that Johnny would be staying with Alexei the entire time. Before he could do that, Dr. Cho kicked him out with the order to take care of himself before he was allowed to return. Once he had settled in, the only one that could pry him out (Dr. Cho had tried, but he still snuck back in) was Pepper.

It didn't take long before everyone noticed the shift in dynamics when it came to Johnny. Clint and Natasha had dropped back, Steve moved up some and Pepper, followed closely by Tony, took the lead. He still respected Clint and Natasha as teachers and trainers, but backed off, putting space between them on the personal level unlike what he once had. On a whole, Stark Industries had also moved up while SHIELD dropped back.

By Sunday evening, Johnny had finally calmed enough that he was willing to be away from Alexei for several hours if need be. He attended the evening dinner, choosing to sit next to Tony this time instead of Clint or Natasha. As he sat down, he placed a thumb drive and an external drive next to Tony's place and waited.

"Did you finally remember to drop of your- what's this?" Tony asked.

"I dropped it off at your lab before coming up and what does it look like?" Johnny replied as he accepted the dish that was making its way around the table. "With everything going on I forgot I had acquired those from the previous owner." He just shrugged, choosing to ignore a couple of the looks sent his way as he turned to talk with Pepper about the UN hearings and what the status was with that.

By the middle of April, the UN hearings were starting to wrap up. Everything that could be said, had been said, picked apart and argued about until everyone on all sides felt satisfied. Pepper had worked her magic and made it possible for Johnny to teleconference when Alexei's presence was required. By the end of April, the hearings were finished. Even Doom couldn't find any more arguments (legal and otherwise) that would tie up valuable Avenger and SHIELD resources. Surprisingly Doom didn't revoke citizenship for either Johnny or Alexei. It wasn't surprising though, that the stipend the Latverian Embassy was sending was stopped and a politely worded request for it to be paid back was sent to Johnny. Pepper had a company check drawn up for the total amount due and Tony hand delivered it while in the Iron Man armor.

May saw the biggest change to Johnny and Alexei's lives. On the 5th of May, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Murdock paid a visit to the Avengers Tower. When they left several hours later, not only had they been paid in full for their services, but several large donations to noteworthy charities in the Hell's Kitchen area had also been made. Their law firm had also been hired as Johnny's and Alexei's personal lawyers on retainer. Johnny chose Nelson and Murdock on the simple principle that no one could claim SI was manipulating him through legal threats. The rest of the day was spent in quiet celebration. May also saw Johnny graduate early from Columbia University with his Bachelor's Degree in accounting. His plan was to continue on to his Master's Degree so he could enter the field of forensic accounting.

By June, Johnny and Alexei had officially departed their residency of the Avengers Tower. They were settling into their new life in El Cerrito, California. Their home was a large, spacious two story plus basement affair with a detached mother-in-law over a three car garage. The property itself backed up against the Wildcat Canyon Regional Park so there was plenty of space, especially when the homes on either side had been purchased and annexed to the main property. The house itself had also been modified with a state of the art security system, had access to FRIDAY and the home office was set up with a holographic system as well.

In July, Johnny registered, becoming a student at UC Berkeley and started working on his Master's Degree in Accounting. He took every class online that he could to reduce the amount of time he needed to leave Alexei at a (vetted) daycare. He also started working officially for Stark Industries as a security consultant and work at home accountant for one of the small subsidiaries SI owned. He had yet to receive any field assignments from SHIELD, only a few of what he would call desk jobs.

By the end of that year…. Bruce Banner had up and vanished after an Avengers call out that had gone wrong for the team resulting in him having hulked out in a heavily populated area again, this time though civilian deaths occurred. Unable to face what he had done, he chose instead to run. Natasha was devastated by Bruce's choice, even though she hid it so well from everyone but Clint. Since the start of their relationship, she had bared more of herself than anyone but Clint knew about, showing just how much of a monster she was underneath it all. Instead of accepting it, Bruce rejected not only himself, but her as well. The same call out in which Bruce hulked out, Clint had taken a serious injury about two thirds of the way through the battle causing him to be too close to several explosions which rendered him partially deaf. After much deliberation, Clint chose to retire rather than chance the lives of his teammates. It also gave Tony an excuse to take SI into the field of prosthetics. Military personnel received the prosthetics at greatly reduced cost and children were given theirs for free. The price of SI stocks soared. Thor was called back to Asgard to deal with a situation that had arose in his absence. Unsure of how long he would be gone, he took Jane Foster with him, preferring to face his father's wrath rather than lose her. As for Pepper and Tony, they were spending the holidays and the occasional weekend with Johnny and Alexei whenever they could, avoiding the growing tension between the remaining Avengers.

The following year saw the breakup of the Avengers, the civil war between Captain America and Iron Man over the superhuman registration act. Though he was legally working for SI at the time and with SHIELD as well, Johnny managed to stay neutral and avoided getting dragged into the conflict. That was the year he also took in a couple of African American teenagers who needed a safe place to live. The eldest was a 19 year old girl who went by the name of Doc. She was an Inhuman whose power allowed her to bring toys to life for a short period of time. Her 16 year old brother, Donnie, was not an inhuman though. In order to make it feel like she wasn't a charity case or a freeloader, Doc insisted on being the live in housekeeper and nanny. In return, Johnny made sure she was paid, had days off and encouraged her to continue her education. He also encouraged Donnie to finish his schooling and to think about college. Alexei loved being able to play with the toys Doc brought to life. For him, it was normal. With Doc there, it also made it much easier for Johnny to be gone for a few days at a time for work related assignments. Close to the end of the year, Johnny brought home the next addition to the household, 4 year old Riley. The first time he saw her he thought he was looking at a miniature version of Natash. Riley was a red headed waif one of the criminals was using as bait to lure in unsuspecting tourists. The criminal in question was working for the person Johnny had been assigned to retrieve something from. When he left the country the next day, it was with Riley. The amount of pull Pepper Potts and Stark Industries had was truly astronomical. Not only did Johnny now have a second daughter, but Pepper and Tony now had a goddaughter to go along with a godson.

Life had never been better.

Epilogue….

December 23rd, 2018…..

"I'm clear! Blow it!"

"But-"

"Damn it just blow it! I'm clear!"

But he wasn't. Johnny had lied by omission. He was mostly clear of the blast zone. He had found a sheltered nook that protected him from most of the blast. It was the fall out and collapse which was the real danger. He was unable to dodge all the debris.

Late afternoon at Stark Tower, Tony was in the middle of a feat of engineering when he received the alert. After taking his phone out and looking at it, he subtly went into action. "Donnie! Keep building and when you're done with that wall start on the eastern ramparts. I should be back before the battle starts, but if I'm not don't worry kiddo. FRIDAY will record everything for me." He patted the teenager on the shoulder, leaving him to complete the building of the lego fort on one side of the battle field. He walked over to where Doc was sitting at one of the work benches. A full set of original Avenger action figures were lined up with bags of green army men set up in battalions arranged to the side. "Hey Doc," he said softly, glancing over his shoulder at the kids. "Try to keep the battle going. Something important has come up."

Doc's brown eyes widened slightly. "Mr. J?" she asked.

"Yeah," Tony replied. "But don't worry. I'm calling in a few favors." With that, he walked out of the lab to place a few calls.

December 24th, 2018. Mid morning….

Tony and Pepper stood together, watching as the Avengers quinjet made a smooth landing on the pad. It was one of several tower features from the time the Avengers called it home, they had decided to leave in place. Only after the jet was secure, engines off and the rear hatch lowering, did they allow the kids past the doors. As soon as Riley saw her papa walking (with assistance) down the ramp, she took off at a full run towards him. Alexei came toddling after, though he was holding onto Doc's hand, pulling her along as fast as his tiny legs could move him.

Johnny let go of Wanda with a nod of thanks as he crouched down and held his right arm out. The small body colliding into him was enough to knock him back on his rear, sending a flare of white hot pain through his left shoulder and arm. But it was worth it as he wrapped his arm around Riley and hugged her tight. A few moments later, Alexei was worming his way into his papa's lap.

Tony and Pepper walked out to meet Steve as he came down the ramp. Tony held his hand out with a genuine look of gratitude. "Thanks Cap. We owe you. More than you know."

Steve glanced over at the pile of bodies with a smile. "I think I have an idea," he said. "You were lucky we were still in that area when you called."

"No, they were the lucky ones. You brought their papa home for Christmas," Pepper said letting go of Tony to give Steve a hug. "It's not much, but please, stay for Christmas? We still have plenty of guest rooms that are empty."

Steve looked over to the other members of his then back to Pepper. "I think we can manage that."

Mid Morning, Christmas Day….

Wrapping paper was scattered everywhere, along with toys and games. The coffee and end tables were littered with empty mugs and small plates. Tony and Pepper were curled up together on a loveseat together, Sharon and Steve occupied one end of the couch while Wand and Vision the other. Bucky and Nat were sharing one of the recliners while Sam was sprawled on the floor with Doc and Donnie. Johnny was settled in the other recliner with Alexei in his lap, laying against his chest and Riley cuddled up as close as possible on his right side. None of the chair's occupants were awake at the moment.

"How long has he had her?" Steve asked, nodding to the girl snuggled up against Johnny.

"Riley? He's had her for a year and a half almost. She was the only thing Johnny has ever asked us for," Pepper said.

"First time I saw her, I thought I was going to have to call you up and ask if you were missing a Black Widow," Tony added with a chuckle. "FRIDAY? Bring up the pics from this past Halloween," he said.

The TV screen lit up with the requested pics. A small Black Widow stood next to a tiny hulk and kneeling behind the pair was the Goblin King from Labyrinth. Other pics included Tony and Pepper dressed as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen.

"What? No Iron Man?" Nat teased.

"It's not a costume if you wear it everyday," Tony replied with a grin.

From his recliner, Johnny cracked an eye open and smiled as he ran a hand through Alexei's hair before rubbing Riley's back. Closing his eye again, he listened to the banter as the conversation jumped from topic to topic. He'd been given the best gift this year that anyone could have asked for. A second chance to be with his family. He felt a presence next to the chair some time later. Opening his eye again, he glanced up at Nat. "Hmm?"

"Lunch time," She said.

"Kinda loaded down," Johnny said, poking Riley in the side gently to wake her. "Come on Riley, sweetheart. Wakey wakey."

"Think he'll let me pick him up?" Nat asked nodding to Alexei.

"Probably," Johnny replied.

Nat was able to pick Alexei up and hold him with little trouble. He gave her a slight frown before looking around. "You looking for Papa?" she asked, turning so Alexei could see Johnny. That seemed to satisfy him.

Johnny was able to get up from the chair with a little difficulty, but once he was up, Riley was once again glued to his side. He held her on his hip, wincing only a little as her arms brushed his collarbone. He walked next to Nat towards the dinning area.

Bucky crossed his arms over his chest as he watched his partner walk away with the white haired guy. "You didn't mention he was easy on the eyes," Buck commented with a smirk.

Steve rolled his eyes, shoving Bucky forward. "There's more to a person than looks," he returned.

"So.. how did you two meet again?" Bucky asked innocently.

" 'Fox tried to shoved his tongue down Steve's throat while copping a feel'," Nat said over her shoulder in Russian.

Steve scowled when he heard his name. Even though he only understood a couple of words, he had an idea of what was being said.

Bucky started laughing, earning a punch to the shoulder. "I like him already," he said.