"A NUCLEAR BOMB!?" Aly roared, brown eyes narrowed and glaring daggers at her brother. It had been two weeks since the battle with the Chitauri. Aly and Tony had begun simply calling it "New York." The entire team knew what they meant.
The whole of the Avengers was currently in a conference room in a secret SHIELD facility, as Fury had called them all in for debriefing. He'd called Aly in because he assumed (correctly) that Tony would tell Aly whatever she wanted to know anyway. Bruce sat in one of the swivel chairs, watching the brother and sister duo,who had been arguing for the past twenty minutes. The rest of the team had left as soon as the bickering started, but Bruce had stayed just to ensure no blood was shed. The debriefing had long since ended, and Aly had found out the full details of the battle. Namely that her older brother had flown a nuke into a wormhole and nearly died.
"What else was I supposed to do, let it fry Manhattan?" Tony responded shortly, popping a dried blueberry into his mouth. Aly was nearly beside herself with rage that her brother had kept this from her. She'd known she'd come close to losing him, but not this close. "You're TONY FREAKING STARK! You could've figured something out you fils imbécile stupide de pute!" Tony's eyes widened at the insult. Even Bruce picked his head up at the sudden outburst in French.
"You speak French?" he asked in surprise.
"Only when she's angry. She and I learned it when we were younger so our mom never caught us swearing." Tony explained.
"Stupid cabron." Aly muttered under her breath. Bruce looked even more taken aback. Tony gave him a mock-happy smile.
"Yeah. My sister can cuss me out in about seven different languages, plus sign language." Aly glared, giving him the universal sign language for "fuck you." The sight nearly made Bruce burst out laughing because it was such a contrast to the outfit she'd chosen to wear that day. She wore tight black jeans and knee-high combat boots with a dark gray shirt under a black blazer. On the T-Shirt was a bright yellow smiley face a la Sherlock.
"Sibling rivalries aside, are you both quite done yet?" Fury asked, walking into the room, black leather duster flaring dramatically behind him. Just outside the doors were the others, waiting to hear his screams of pain, or the admittance of peace amongst the Starks.
"Because if not, I do have some medicine designed by Dr. Banner to slow and calm the heart rate."
"I'm still testing it though. It could nearly kill whoever ingests it." Bruce piped up with a rueful smile, standing at his seat. Fury briefly closed his eye. That sounded like it would do the trick in shutting the Starks up. Whatever kept his migraine from growing.
"Yeah, Aly!" said Tony, walking around the table. "Can you stop going all 'Mother of Dragons' on me?"
Aly reluctantly allowed a small smile to play across her lips. "You know nothing, Jon Snow."
"What just happened?" Steve said, just as Bruce let out a chuckle.
The rest of the Avengers all filed in after their Captain. All of them took their own seats at the table, waiting to hear more from their one-eyed director.
"Whatever, I can't deal with this anymore." Aly said, then turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, the door opening and closing with a pneumatic hiss. Captain Rogers got up to follow, but Thor stopped him.
"No, Steve, Lady Stark must have some time alone." The Asgardian said with a slight shake of his head.
They looked up, however, when the door closed once again, and they noticed that Bruce's seat was now empty.
Aly stalked into the parking garage, making a beeline for Tony's shiny silver Audi. She was beyond stressed. Watching the footage during the debriefing had really brought home the fact that her brother had been very close to dying. She reached into her blazer pocket and pulled out the pack of Camels she'd brought with her, along with a lighter. perching herself on the Audi's hood, she lit up and took a drag, allowing the nicotine to calm her nerves. She only ever smoked when she was extremely stressed, and boy was she ever. She took an almost vindictive pleasure in ashing her cigarette on Tony's pristine paint job.
"You know that's really bad for you." A voice pointed out. Aly was slightly surprised to see Bruce walking towards her.
"Yeah, but it's also bad for Tony's car." Aly countered, repeating the motion.
Bruce sighed and leaned against the car, right next to Aly.
"Look. I know you're upset." He said
"I am beyond the point of upset, okay?" Aly said, "I am furious! I feel like I could throw a car or, or break windows, or, or, just... Just-!"
"Smash everything in sight?" Bruce quietly added, looking down at his hands. It was then Aly realized where this conversation was going, and the effect it was having on Bruce. She regretted it immediately. Especially after seeing the pain and sadness on his face. He looked up at her.
"Everybody gets angry. Sometimes it's just hard to control." Bruce said
"How... How do you control it?" Aly asked tentatively.
Bruce shrugged. "I don't. Instead, I aim it away from civilians, friends, family, I keep just one goal in mind."
"What is it?" Aly asked in a hushed tone, leaning in as if to hear a secret.
"Protect them. At all costs." Bruce said, a serious expression on his face.
"Also," Bruce said with a sardonic smile, trying to lighten the mood. "Don't spoil the newest episode of Game of Thrones, I'm not caught up, what with the alien army attacking and stuff."
Aly actually laughed out loud at that one. "I just wish the team could go to Westeros and teach Joffrey a lesson...or beat the crap out of him, whatever "
"Why not both?" Bruce asked with a grin."I don't even think the Other Guy would need to be there..." Bruce trailed off, seemingly realizing what he'd said.
Aly was slightly surprised at the mentioning of the "other guy", but not enough to discuss it further. Not after the previous conversation they'd had. She snuffed out the cigarette, grounding the butt against Tony's car, and put the rest of the pack away. Aly cleared her throat and stood.
"We should probably go back to the debriefing." She said. With a nod of agreement, Bruce followed her as they returned from whence they came. When they arrived back at the conference room Tony looked at her, then at the rest of the team.
"Speak of the devil." He said
"And the devil shall appear."Aly said with a smile and a flourish of her hand.
"We thought you and the doctor had eloped to Mexico " Hawkeye said with a grin.
"Actually, we were planning on eloping to Hawaii, so that's what you know, Legolas." Aly retorted. Tony made a mental note that his sister seemed in a much better mood than she had been. He also caught the distinctive smell of cigarette smoke wafting from her.
"My car has burn marks now, doesn't it?" He asked in a resigned sort of voice.
"Oh Tony, you know me too well." Aly said, stepping forward to give her big brother a kiss on the cheek. Looking at Fury she said "are we done here?"
"There is still one question you have yet to answer, Aly." he asked, fixing her with a stern glare. "How the hell did you find our Helicarrier when billions went into making the cloaking technology? Hell, even the president has to sign an executive order for us to give him reports."
This question caught Aly off guard. Tony picked up the subtle body language, the slight stiffening of the shoulders, the pursing of the lips, and the flaring of the nostrils. Clint and Natasha picked up on it, too, being well trained in their field.
Only Tony had an inkling of what his sister's hesitance meant, though. He sighed and rolled his eyes.
"It was her, wasn't it?" He asked her pointedly.
"Well... Yeah. Just a little help, you know?" Aly said sheepishly, a nervous smile on her face.
"Care to share with the rest of the non-genius class?" Steve asked
"I may or may not have a friend who is a wiz at tech for communications, tracking and finding, and connections with NASA." Aly admitted, trying hard not to meet Steve's eyes.
"Sounds like an ally surely useful on the battlefield." Thor said, attempting to reassure her.
"I second that." Clint said, raising his hand.
"That kind of technology is too useful to fall into the wrong hands. Might be better to have them on our side, then on the opposite." Natasha said in her normal, bored voice. Everyone looked at her. It was the first time anyone had heard her speak since the earlier debriefing when she'd given her report in a clipped, businesslike monotone.
"But I don't want her." Tony whined like a child. Aly rolled her eyes and pulled out the highly modified iPhone she'd received from Tony last Christmas, speed dialing the number of her best friend in the whole world, Melissa.
"Hey Mels, it's Al- Oh! Sorry..." No one could hear the other end of the conversation, but judging by the eye roll and the wince that Aly gave, it was clear she was being chastised. "I know, texting is better now... Okay. I will after we're done. Bye."
She hung up, looking at the rest of the team. "I interrupted her vlogging. I need to text her first." she explained. Seeing Steve's confused expression, she explained further. "Vlogging is basically a video-diary. She's Youtube famous, or so she keeps reminding me every gorram day."
"All that tech, and she runs a vlog?" Tony snorted, suddenly amused by the situation.
"Hey, after her program ended at NASA, she had to find something to do with her spare time." Aly explained with a shrug, her fingers tapping quickly on the phone.
"Do we really need to call her in?" Tony whined again with the air of a petulant child being forced to eat his broccoli.
"Don't worry, dumbass, i don't like the idea of working with you either." A voice came through the room's speaker system. Tony jumped and whirled around, just in time to see a grinning face appeared on the vid screen. Her blond frizzy hair had streaks of pink and blue. She adjusted her glasses and sat back in her seat. She was wearing a red hoodie and pajama pants.
"Honestly, I should have just texted back, but this was too good. I needed to see this in person. I saw you all on the news!" Mel gushed "You're all superheroes! It was sooo cool to watch. Oh, and I guess you did a good job too, Tony." Mel knew she had to be serious, professional, but seeing these heroes, in semi-person, she was having a slight nerd freak out.
"Also." she said, pointing a finger at Tony. "I don't have time to talk, but if you want to discuss my work, dumbass knows where I live. I know you do!" she glared and pressed a button off screen, cutting off the video feed.
"I like her." Clint said with a smirk. Natasha's lips quirked up in just the barest hint of a smile. Aly actually raised her eyes at that one. She had, up until now, thought the pretty Russian had been suffering from a debilitating case of Permanent Resting Bitch Face.
"You heard her, Tony, better go see her. But she doesn't like you, so you might want to bring Thor and Steve, to serve as a distraction." Aly said, her grin widening to resemble the Cheshire cat. "Plus, it's Mels or that Parker kid, and I know how much you like him." Aly's grin widened as she mentioned one of the high school kids she and Melissa mentored. Peter Parker was smart, resourceful, and also never lost an opportunity to help Aly prank Tony.
"Besides. It may be an asset to us to have someone who's not necessarily on SHIELD's payroll on our team." Natasha piped up. Clearly, this closed the matter, and Tony groaned and walked towards the door. Thor, Hawkeye, and Steve followed shortly after, with Clint losing no time in calling "Shotgun!"
Aly rolled her eyes. Natasha made a comment about going to train, and that just left Aly and Bruce by themselves in the conference room. Aly glanced at Bruce before making up her mind.
"Screw this, you wanna go grab something to eat? I know a really great diner over in Queens we could go to, it's on the way back to Stark Tower." She asked, jerking her head towards the door.
Bruce shrugged. "What the hell, why not?"
Aly smiled and led the way to the parking garage. She dug a set of car keys out of her blazer pocket and pushed the unlock button on the keyless entry. Bruce's eyes widened at the car who's headlights flashed.
"That's your car?" he said in awe. It was a shiny black Range Rover with black tinted windows. Aly grinned with pride at her truck.
"Yep, that's my baby." she said, getting into the driver's seat. "Oh and, by the way. I have one rule in my car. Call it a House Rule, if you will."
"What's that?" Bruce asked, slightly nervously as he slid into the passenger seat. Aly gave him a playful smile as "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars began thumping through the truck's high-end speakers.
"Driver picks the music." Aly said, pointing to herself and throwing the Range Rover into gear. She loved hearing the roar of the engine. "Shotgun shuts his cakehole." With that, she stepped on the gas, guiding the truck out of the secret parking garage.
Hey, sorry for the delay in updating! So much has been going on in the world of Jaden, lol. Hope you enjoyed my blatant references here. also, some translations:
fils imbécile stupide de pute: Stupid dumbass son of a bitch!
Cabron: Fucker
Gorram (If you've watched Firefly, you'll recognize this one, but if not...) God Damn
So please review! Any constructive criticism is ok, flames will, as always, be publicly mocked.