Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I've updated! Things have been going nuts, but I refuse to give up on this story. Enjoy the new chapter!
She was standing in the middle of the street. Debris from nearby buildings littered the street. All around her, fires burned and alien creatures flew overhead, shooting laser devices at random. When she took a step, she saw the dust cloud around her black combat boots. When she looked up, a red and gold suit of armor streaked through the sky. A grin widened across her face as she watched Tony fly by. She knew this battle would end up alright, her cocky brother wasn't going to be defeated so easily. She also knew he was going to be downright insufferable after this.
Then she noticed what the suit of armor was clutching: a sleek white bomb. And the suit headed straight for the gaping wormhole in the sky.
"Close it!" a voice called out. Aly whirled around and looked for the voice. She tried to say "no!" Wanted to scream it to the top of her lungs. The voice didn't know that Tony was up there (wherever 'there' was) or that he hadn't come back down yet.
The next moment, the wormhole closed, sending all the alien fighters clattering to the ground.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
-FLASH-
"Maria, calm down! We're making great time!" Howard Stark said easily as he drove the Mercedes down the dark Long Island Expressway, making their way back to the Stark Mansion in The Hamptons. A ten-year old Aly was nearly asleep in the back seat. She was anxious to get home. Her older brother Tony was just about to finish his first semester at MIT and was due to be home that night. The family was heading back from a production of Phantom of The Opera in Manhattan.
"Howard!" Maria gently put a hand on her husband's arm. "Slow down, dear. That car ahead of us is slowing down."
"Yeah, yeah, I see it. Y'see Aly, I told you your mother was a backseat driver!"
Aly giggled at her father. Howard and Maria were always teasing each other. Her smile soon turned to terror as she saw that her father was pressing the brake pedal, to no avail.
He jerked the wheel to the side, trying to avoid the car in front of them, and then the car filled with the sounds of screams as it began to roll down the hill. Everything went black.
"No…Please…Mom…Dad…NO!"
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Aly sat bolt upright in her bed, legs tangled in the sheets and hair plastered by sweat to her forehead. Closing her eyes she took deep breaths, trying to steady herself. It'd been quite a while since she'd had that particular nightmare-the one of her parents' deaths. She'd been in the car, but miraculously made it out with just a few cuts and bruises, along with a broken leg, while her parents had lost their lives.
Pushing her crimson hair back into a sloppy bun, Aly untangled her legs from her blankets and padded barefoot to the door of her room. While none of the team really lived there officially yet, everyone had seemed to want to stay at Avengers tower after the New York Incident. Tony had of course made sure that everyone was comfortable in this "home".
A quick glance at the clock near her bed told Aly that it was nearly three in the morning. She stretched and walked out the door, heading down the hall to the kitchen, just on the other side of the common room. (The urge to raid Tony's well-stocked bar was very strong, but she didn't think that would be a good remedy for nightmares.)
"What are you doing up so early?" a voice asked. Aly stopped and looked over at the huge sofa. Bruce was seated there, wearing a white T-Shirt and a pair of plaid pajama pants. Aly suddenly realized she was dressed in a very inappropriate pair of pink cotton shorts and a black camisole. The shorts showed off her shapely legs-as well as a long white scar that ran from the back of her right knee to her heel. It was a souvenir from that horrific night. When the car had hit the ground, Aly's leg had been pinned, breaking it so severely that they'd needed to perform surgery on it to ensure she kept it.
Aly allowed a small smile to play across her lips as she walked into the kitchen area, opening the fridge and pulling out a bottle of Fiji Water. She downed nearly half of it before she responded to Bruce's question. "Nothing. Just thirsty." Bruce tried not to notice that Aly's tank top had risen up her back, revealing part of what looked to be a very intricate tattoo that ran from her hips, up her back and up to her shoulders.
"What was the dream about?" He pressed. Aly sighed and flopped down on the couch beside him, realizing that trying to get back to sleep was going to be a huge waste of time. She muttered what he assumed was something derogatory in French under her breath.
"Come on, I know a nightmare when I see one. What was it about? It might help to talk about it." Bruce pressed. This girl was definitely just like her brother, always wearing armor, oblivious to people wanting to help.
"Lollipops and Rainbows." She said dryly. She didn't fancy discussing her nightmare with the doctor, even though she realized that discussing it might make her feel a bit better.
However, Bruce was curious. From the time they'd spent together so far, he had genuinely begun to care for the younger Stark sibling. He was trying to convince himself that he only cared for her in a friendly way. He didn't hold any illusions. He knew it wouldn't be right for him to fall for anyone. He was a monster, plain and simple. Sure, he could control it every once in a while, but he could never put someone in danger like that, it wouldn't be right. So he suppressed his feelings and did his best to ignore the butterflies in his gut whenever she sent one of those bright smiles his way. If he was being honest with himself, though, he was already a goner. He sighed and ran a hand through his already tousled hair and turned on the big screen Television, navigating to the On Demand menu.
Aly leaned forward to see what he was watching. She squealed when she noticed that he'd recorded all of the episodes of Game of Thrones.
"Yes!" she crowed, settling in to watch. "Just what I need, fictional violence, instead of whatever the hell's been going on here lately."
"Maybe in some universe, everything here is fictional violence." Bruce said with a grin. A silence hung in the air before both of them burst out laughing at the thought.
Finally feeling her restless night, Aly stretched out, laying her head on the pillow on the end of the couch, stretching out her legs so they lay across Bruce's lap.
Bruce didn't mind, even though his stomach was currently preforming acrobatics. The girl definitely had no trouble getting familiar with someone. "So I hear your friend is moving into the tower soon." He commented, trying to break the silence.
"Yeah." Aly said, stifling a yawn. "It should be great. Mels is a lot of fun to be around. We've known each other forever. She even knows where the bodies are buried." Aly gave an evil grin while Bruce gave a horrified look. She cracked up into laughter, letting him know she was kidding. He couldn't help but return her laugh.
"Yeah, well, clearly she annoys your brother, which is pretty amusing. She's okay in my book." Bruce said with a grin
Aly gave a slight laugh, and a few moments passed in silence as they watched Queen Cersei attempt to school Sansa Stark on how to cater to the Boy King Joffrey's every whim. The next moment, though, when Bruce looked over, he noticed Aly was sound asleep.
How to get someone's legs off of you when they're asleep? How to make sure they don't wake up? Bruce was smart, but he couldn't think of what to do next. He settled himself down to get caught up with his favorite show before sleep finally took hold of him as well.
When Aly woke up a few hours later, it was to hushed giggles and the sound of a phone camera taking pictures. When she opened her eyes, it was to see Tony grinning like a maniac and taking pictures on his cell phone.
"Awww! Look how cute! Aly and the Doc decided to snuggle!"
Aly slowly sat up, finally seeing that Bruce was asleep at the end of the couch, and Aly's legs were draped over his lap.
"Son of a-"Aly exclaimed jumping off the couch and reaching for Tony's phone. He lifted it up over his head, taunting her like a child. Bruce sat up groggily on the couch, for a moment forgetting where he was. He then saw Aly standing with her hand outstretched towards Tony, her chocolate-colored eyes narrowed and glaring at his phone.
"What the-?" He asked. Then he remembered the previous night. Aly watching Game of Thrones with him, falling asleep on the couch, everything. Deciding that this situation was quickly going to turn into a brother-sister argument, he quickly got up off the couch and busied himself in the kitchen making coffee.
"Tony, give me the phone, now!" Aly said loudly, holding her hand out expectantly for the phone.
"Nope, these are going straight on the internet!" Tony said with a grin. It was around this time that JARVIS' crisp, accented voice cut through the argument.
"Sir, Miss Melissa Lutz has arrived. Shall I direct her to the penthouse?" the AI said in his normal monotone. This served to distract the Starks from continuing their bickering.
"Yeah, J, let her up." Tony said offhandedly.
"JARVIS, can you also delete the most recent photos on Tony's phone?" Aly said with a smirk as she walked into the kitchen, where she gratefully took the cup of coffee that Bruce offered to her.
"Right away, Miss." Came JARVIS's reply.
"I'm gonna go change. Tony, be nice to Mels." Aly said, retreating to her room.
Just a few minutes later there was a knock on the door. Tony seemed to steel himself as he opened the door, revealing Mels, who had a backpack slung over her shoulder and a Monster's University ball cap over her frizzy multicolored hair. Tony opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Aly, who appeared from the hallway at just that moment. She was wearing a pair of denim cutoffs under a white tank top under a black and grey flannel shirt.
"Mels!" Aly squealed, throwing her arms around her best friend.
"Cant. Breathe!" Mels gasped as she endured Aly's bone-crushing hug.
"Sorry, Sweetie. I'm just so glad you're finally here!"
"Hey Dumbass!" Mels said with a grin over Aly's shoulder at Tony. Tony rolled his eyes and gave her the peace sign and a grin.
"How's it going short stack?" He asked, as he sipped his coffee and texted on his phone."I thought you said you weren't gonna be here til tomorrow."
"Yeah and I thought you said you were gonna call me after our date freshman year." Mels said matter-of-factly. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a hint of a blush on Tony's cheeks.
"Awkward. Well, I gotta go post some pictures of Aly and the Doc on Facebook, or whatever." Tony said, turning to head back to his room
"Hey don't even think about it!" Aly yelled. Mels held an arm out to stop her from going after her brother.
"Hold up. I still need to find my room." She said
"Oh, it's this way! You're gonna love it! We get to share a lab with Bruce Banner, he's really chill-usually-so it should be fun!" Aly didn't much like the knowing look Mels gave her.
"What?" she asked, giving her friend a glare as she walked towards the elevator.
"Nothing, "Mels said with an increasingly smug smile on her face. "It's just…do I detect a hint of a crush?" she tried and failed to keep the grin on her face. When Aly looked at her, she half expected to see canary feathers sticking out of her teeth.
Aly groaned. "You're worse than Tony with that crap." The elevator finally opened on the floor that contained the lab where Aly, Mels, and Bruce would be working. It was easy to see which areas would belong to whom.
Mels nearly squealed with delight as she ran to her area. On the stainless steel worktable sat something large covered in a tarp. Mels lost no time in tearing away the tarp, revealing a jumble of wires and metal.
"Oh, my baby!" she cooed, running her hands over cool metal. Aly rolled her eyes and perched herself on her worktable-which currently held a hodge-podge of papers and beakers and test tubes. A vaguely expensive looking microscope sat on the corner next to a tablet.
Mels chuckled as she lifted one of the metallic panels on the side of her creation.
"It's still there!" she said triumphantly. Under the panel, in black paint, were the words "Suck it, Tony Stark. Love, Mels" Aly giggled as she slid off the table, wincing a little as her bare feet hit the cold floor.
"Come on. I'll show you around the rest of the tower." She gestured out the door and Mels silently followed her.
Later that night, however, as Mels was getting acclimated to her new home, none of the Avengers were aware that a very different kind of meeting was taking place.
The dim light of a nearby street lamp flickered in the night, casting the long shadow of a man with a trench coat. He glanced around at his surroundings in the alley. He was alone, not according to plan. He turned all of his attention to the iPad he carried and started tapping on it.
A figure shrouded in darkness appeared on the screen. But the man failed to notice the dark figure creeping down the fire escape of the brownstone behind him.
"Sir, it has been an hour. The contact has failed to meet me." He explained.
The watching shadow pulled something from one of the pouches that were part of what looked to be a combat suit.
"Give him time. He has been known to be... Reckless with... Everything. Even time." The man on the iPad explained. The item the shadow held was slowly unwrapped so the figure could start eating it. The man with the iPad groaned and looked around.
"With all due respect, sir," he said, turning his attention to his leader, "I feel this contact is more of a liability than an asset. What kind of professional would show up an hour past the meeting time?" He felt something hit his head.
"The kind that was hungry, dumbass!" an angry voice yelled. The man looked down to see what had hit his head. It was a balled up wrapper for a microwaved chimichanga. He was startled by the man in red that landed in front of him, jumping down from his perch.
"I mean seriously, have you ever gotten the munchies so badly, it feels like your stomach is going to consume you from the inside out?" He continued, "I have it almost all the time. Chimichangas always hit the spot. Hard to find them around here though. Especially this late."
"Mr. Wilson." The man said. A hand was raised and waved.
"Ah! Ah! No, nononono. Please. If we're talking business. It's Deadpool. If the business takes place amongst Spanish people, it's la Piscina de la Muerte." Deadpool introduced himself. He bowed lightly before crossing his arms. "Now what the hell do you want?"
The man turned the iPad around to see the figure on the screen.
"Hello, Deadpool. I'm sorry to be speaking to you this way. I had to hide my face and alter my voice. I'm not ready to be revealed. Not yet." He said
"Ooh, shadowy guy, smoke and mirrors. Haven't seen that one before." Deadpool deadpanned. The man on the screen sighed. His image was replaced by a picture of a girl with bright red hair.
"This is your target. Alexandria Stark." He explained. Deadpool leaned closer to look at the girl. He nodded his head and rubbed his chin.
"Just a grab job? You know, when people call me, it's 'cause they need me to kill people, save the world, or look really cool for their friends." He pulled two guns out of their holsters and posed for an imaginary camera.
"This will not be easy." Came the mystery man's voice.
"It never is, is it?" Deadpool sighed wistfully, standing up all the way. Another picture showed Aly and Bruce together. "The man she is seen with is Bruce Banner." The shadowed figure explained. "I'm sure you know of his…erm…anger management issues."
"Hm, Jolly Green is looking good. Okay, get the girl alone." Deadpool nodded his head.
"Also, the target must be delivered alive, and unharmed." The mystery man's face came on screen again. Or at least, the outline of his face.
"Say what now? Come on! That takes away most of my fun!" Deadpool whined, "It's usually just bust in going Pew, Pew! Slice Slice! Stabby Stabby! Boom, Murdered! No wait, that last one is something like a Raccoon would say if it had really big guns." One of the guns in his hands went off, and the iPad carrier fell down. "Shit shit shit shit shiiiiiit! Didn't mean that." Deadpool picked up the iPad.
"There is the matter of pay,which we need to discuss." The man on screen sighed, not seeming to care that his employee had just been killed.
"I like the number seven." Deadpool said flatly.
"Pardon?" the employer asked, sounding confused.
"I like getting checks with seven zeros before the decimal point."
"Very well." Said the man on the screen.
"Good deal! I'll have my people call your people. When I get the girl I'll bring her back here for you. Gift wrapping will be an additional zero on my check, although she's pretty enough not to need gift wrapping." Deadpool said, placing the iPad on the dead man's body.
"Mr. Deadpool." The man on screen said, obviously done with the conversation. With the position of the iPad, he was looking to the sky. The next image he saw was a handwritten note saying 'I. O. U. 1 goon.' Deadpool let it float down onto the device and was gone before it touched the screen.
As he made his way back, Deadpool couldn't help to ask himself what the hell he'd gotten himself into now.