Chapter 6. Moving Pains
"When'd you get the time to make these?" Ellie asked quizzically as she fiddled with Tony's newest invention. It had some weight to it and would shock her every now and then as she tossed it in between her hands. She looked up at the grinning billionaire who had his hands stuffed in his suit pockets, staring at her mindlessly. "What? Are my roots showing again?" she mindlessly fingered her hair, suddenly feeling self-conscious.
"Have I ever mentioned that love the hair?" he quipped chewing at his thumb nail for a moment before pausing, his lips twitching, "you're a fan, aren't you?"
"I can spin" she supplied with amusement, her smirk turning into a grin when Tony continued staring at her, apparently not getting it, "you know-fan, spin…air?" holding up her pointer finger she spun it in a circular motion in a blurring motion, effectively sending a small gust of wind his way.
"Ah, very good" he chuckled, smoothing out his now wild strands, "but seriously, got this red and yellow thing about you, one of my secret followers now are we?"
"Red and…" she fingered her hair once again, eyebrows knotting together as his ironman features flashed by her thoughts. "You're so full of yourself" she sighed shaking her head, "I just happen to prefer this to my natural hair color"
"Your brows tell me a different story" Tony pointed out taking out his phone to mindlessly fiddle with it, glancing up at her to indicate her dark brown eyebrows.
"Hu" Ellie uttered crossing her arms and leaning back, "what does my finger say to you?" she raised her middle finger in emphasis.
"Where are your parents?" he shot back in a condescending tone, shaking his own finger.
"Stark"
Both of them twitched their heads to the side to see Steve standing there awkwardly, eyes skittish as they swept the room, occasionally eyeing them both.
"What do you want, Monkey Boy?" Tony grumbled holding up his phone sideways with his tongue slightly sticking out. Tapping out some simple commands he glanced up with a lazy grin, uttering, "smile"
Ellie blinked at time slowed down for her. She zoomed in on Tony's phone, mentally flipping the text to read it herself and when she saw the command 'photo' and a slowly building light in the center she flashed a classic fish face as time resumed in normal speed.
"That.." Tony began frowning as he gazed at the snapshot, clearly a deliberate face not a shocked one, "that was…"
"Fast" Steve equipped helpfully, blinking his eyes to make sure he saw right. One second she froze the next her face flipped to a cheeky shot.
"Amazing" Tony deadpanned, scowling at the soldier, "That was amazing, definitely a keeper"
"Always" Ellie stated smiling, holding up the new collar she had been toying with, "now, what's this?"
"Our ticket" The genius replied with a grin stuffing the phone back in his pocket, "goes both ways, don't lose it"
"Ticket where?" she asked juggling the contraption in her hands, pouting when Tony promptly snatched it out of the air, "Malibu?"
"You have Malibu on your side?" he side tracked in thought, "what makes it so different to be different to a parallel universe? Besides not having me in it"
"Gotham. Metropolis. Some other places I'd rather not name" she listed briefly watching as he fiddled with it a bit, "it could be parallel without those though" she mumbled under her breath thinking of the similar yet opposite personalities of Tony and her Bruce. She squinted her eyes at the though, mindlessly propping her feet on the table, thumb nail in her mouth… who would win? Tony had better technology but without the suit…
"Hey, you're on my side" Tony remarked waving his metal collar at her as to reprimand her, "remember, my colors-my side"
"You don't even know what I was thinking, you old hoot" Ellie grumped crossing her arms and hiding her hands under her red and yellow sleeves, "and they're not your colors"
Tony stared at her for a moment like she was a dumb before shaking his head, "right, gotcha, female flash" she pulled her red hood up at that, tugging at the hem self-consciously, "and old? Really, how old are you?" he looked her up and down, gouging the barely there, but noticeable, smiling lines around her eyes and the way she never stopped moving her hands, like they were bugging her if she didn't move them around. Arthritis maybe? Tics? She definitely wasn't the nervous type like Bruce is…
He glanced down at her legs, pretending to size her up, slowly moving up from her feet to her thighs, noting the rotating ankles and swinging of the knees. Always moving.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to ask a woman her age?" he brought his eyes back up to hers with his eyebrows shooting to his forehead, staring, "…32, utter a word and I'll throw you off this thing without your suit"
"Not even my birthday suit?" he barked in laughter as he ducked under a pen that was thrown at him, freezing in surprise when his head was wacked from behind.
"Knock it off, Stark" Steve snapped, aggravated as he came to stand by Ellie's chair. He jerked his chin to the collar, "jewelry?"
"Jewelry? How.." Tony's growl trailed off as he looked from his invention to the Captain and back, "Ha, very funning, pick that up from me, didn't you? Old dogs do learn new tricks"
"Hey, now!" Ellie jumped up to place herself between the two men, "we do nice to our comrades!" she quoted the Director quickly, waving her hands in the air.
"Practice what you preach, why don'tcha?" Clint voice stopped her and suddenly letting the oversized boys go at it didn't seem like a bad idea so that she could smother Barton with covers. As she turned, holding up an extra pen like it was a knife, he added, "and, Bree?"
"What?" she seethed, baring her teeth at him.
He grinned as another voice drifted in to her left, "We do nice to our comrades, Miss Pennyworth"
I'm gonna peck your eyes out she mouthed to Clint as she innocently turned toward her new audience, twirling the pen through her fingers, "G'Afternoon, Director"
Fury stared her down until she hesitated and sat down, having Steve and Tony take a seat on either side of her. "I'm taking a guess and saying Mr. Stark hasn't informed you of your assignment I sent him out to tell an hour ago"
"We did talk-" when he glared at her she quickly added "about nothing important" she turned to Tony stoically, "bad, Tony, bad". This had Tony snickering, muttering, "here, here".
"As I've gathered" Fury stated humorlessly, "Agent Barton has been informed, so he will be better equipped to explain as you pack your bags"
"Hu?" Ellie breathed, a bit dumbfound, and just as her mind sped up to the speed of light, hope rising, Clint opened his mouth.
"A retrieval mission, you aren't officially leaving the nest yet "
"Then why am I packing!?" Ellie exploded, standing up as millions of reactions and outcomes flashed through her mind and her subconscious trying to hole them back up, "you can't-"
"I can and I will" Fury said calmly, not batting an eye at her, "you're still under my employment and even if it's temporary, I'd actually thought you'd like to retrieve your Foster Father"
If it hadn't been for Steve next to her, Ellie would have been embarrassed as they both reared back in confusion, for different reasons but it made her feel better that she wasn't the only one lost as it seemed both Tony and Clint already knew the details.
"We can't risk that the portal won't close after we've taken you home, Miss Pennyworth" Fury went on, "Mr. Stark has kindly made a small system that will allow you to pass through for a certain amount of time before you'll be sucked back through to our side-"
"There's a transmission that will be linked to your energy field that will temporarily connect with your world so that you'll have a happy trip to the right destination" Tony butted in, "now, you could just take off the collar once you get to Kansas" ignoring the Director's glare he continued, "but we still need you here, seeing as no one knows how or when spandex came to be here, or you for that matter, so we don't want to take the chance anyone else being stuck in this world that doesn't belong. Until we sweep up the strays, you're stuck with us, Sweet Cheeks".
"Then send Clark with me so that he can go back home" Ellie slumped down, seldom at the thought she had yet to settle back home, temporarily forgetting Fury mentioning retrieval.
"If you'd let me finish" Fury ground out, giving Tony a look, "there are three transmitting collars, seeing as you'll be accompanied by Agent Barton and needed an extra one to bring back an extra person. Mr. Kent will be sent with you so he can continue his job protecting his own world, he will comply as to give back his collar to you so that it can be worn by Mr. Wayne so he can come back here"
Ellie immediately perked up, Steve still confused as he watched her mood flip on a dime and slouched.
"But why does Barton have to come?" she asked, sending the archer a withering glare before looking back at Fury, "why not Tony? Steve?" her eyes brightened as a new idea came to mind, "OH, how bout Bruce- the doctor Bruce-He'd be awesome company. Nice, calm, smart-"
Tony looked offended and Steve looked a bit disappointed as Fury spoke, Clint rolling his eyes along the way, "Agent Barton was assigned to you for a reason, Miss Pennyworth, and it's his duty to fulfill the job requirements that go with it"
"Couldn't, you know, swap 'em?" Ellie asked tentavely, seeing Fury's cold stance, "I thought sending Steve down was you showing me you were turning over a new leaf – you know, replacing Birdie with a gentleman? Isn't it Steve's job now?" she pushed, opting for Steve's company as her latter one was rejected.
"I didn't hand Agent Barton's job over to anyone" Fury stated, blinking, "Mr. Rogers was pulled in as was mandatory, seeing as he's a part of the team"
"But.." Ellie was looking over at Tony for help, but he seemed put off that his company was put off once again, "But… I already moved Steve in, Director"
Fury stood clueless as the room kept quiet despite the workers below them.
"Into Clint's room" she explained, smiling sheepishly when the Director brought his hand up to rub the bridge of his nose in exasperation, "I was mistaken… but they both took it well!"
Steve still looked a bit put out while Clint glared at the reminder of all his belongings being dumped in the hallway.
"Agent Barton is there for your protection" Fury reminded the woman, "Mr. Rogers has some catching up to do while Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner are staying here to make sure you can safely travel back and forth without anything going wrong"
"Fine" Ellie sighed, "but why do I have to pack if I'm coming back?"
"Just in case the next time we decide to send you off is the last, we want to make sure nothings left behind if you leave in a rush" Fury supplied as he turned to leave the area.
It was quiet for a moment before Ellie cracked one of her knuckles, murmuring, "does Clark know anything?"
~BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBRE AKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK~
Bruce adjusted his glasses with his free hand as he gazed up at the neon blue tear in the sky, occasionally giving off electricity as the energy rolling and colliding off of it. He hadn't gotten the chance to really look at it last time, when Loki attacked, so he wasn't sure if it was anything like the last hole in the sky. He looked down at Ellie who was clutching his arm with both of hers, her eyes looking down at the drop instead of up – seemed she didn't trust herself around drop offs anymore.
"Are you sure you can't convince Tony to zap another collar up so you can go with us?" Ellie asked again, dreading the small amount of time alone with Clint and the departure of Clark, "maybe Clark wants to stay and-"
"He needs to go back to his city, his city needs him more than we do" Bruce smiled gently, catching on that she already knew this as she slouched in defeat, "Gotham needs Batman too, but it seems to be filled with psychotic villains than super ones – I'm sure that's how Fury sees it, us needing him more than your world"
Ellie kicked at the landing pad, air whipping past them.
"Chin up" he chuckled, finding her hand shyly to give it a squeeze, "it won't be long, before you know it, it will be all over with, things will go back to normal- well, as normal as it can get" he corrected, bumping his elbow into her with a sincere smile.
"It's just going back only to have to leave again" Ellie admitted with a sigh, "I get to see Bruce-" she stumbled at the name, blushing when she realized the names were going to be hard to place now, "the other Bruce-" yet again she stammered, as Bruce's dubbed name for The Hulk was 'The Other Guy'.
"I know what you mean" Bruce chuckled, clearly amused. He had felt so much lighter when he woke up, almost younger and himself. He tried to grasp the fleeting memory of his dream but knew he'd have to wait to recall it as he was left empty handed.
"I get to see Bruce and stay with him after so many years – but…" Ellie groaned, beginning to get a head ache, "… just being home, in front of a fire place with Alfred waiting up for Bruce, I miss that and it won't be happening for another long time. I won't properly reunite with my family"
"You said Bruce was your adopted Father, yes?" Bruce inquired softly.
"Yeah, after an accident with Mum and Dad being an-" she stopped, taking a breath, "he put me under his wing, but Alfred agreed that it would be safer if it was just a select few who knew that the Bruce Wayne adopted a kid, to everyone else, I was Alfred's relative who needed a new home"
"That explains it" Bruce murmured, matching the odd last name to facts of origin, "sorry, it bugged me once I actually read through your name a couple times"
"You're the first one to ask" Ellie shrugged, frowning as she saw Clint and Clark look towards her expectantly, "I suppose the Director made up his own theory of my name, it's not really in the file either"
Bruce felt a bit of pride welling up that he got a bit of information Ellie hadn't given out to just anyone, though a tidbit sad also seeing it was her time to leave.
"Everything will be fine" he assured her once more before detangling himself for her arms and urging her away with a gently hand on the small of her back, "I'll be watching over you, so will Tony, so I'd say chances are slim anything could go wrong"
"Famous last words, Dr. Banner" Ellie teased back, grateful for the lighter mood, "I'll see you with your double later"
"Be careful" he murmured back, stuffing his hands in his pockets as his chest tightened in anticipation and doubts rose. She would come back, right? The other Guy shook off his worries to replace it with confidence – startling Bruce with his aid.
"She'll come back, lover boy" Tony piped up next to him, chewing on those tasteless dried blueberries again before grinning at Bruce's pink tinted face, "don't worry, your secrets safe with me"
Bruce rubbed his nose. The whole world knew he was Ironman, he didn't really have secrets that didn't involve his health, so Bruce could imagine what his gossiping mouth would spew out now.
And it didn't go by Tony Stark that Bruce didn't deny anything.
Dry coughing and warm tea is not helping. Questions, question away. Gratitude for the comments, also C: it was lovely walking about Downtown Disney with no money, waiting for a showing that didn't start for another two hours and getting a buzz from my phone alerting me that someone reviewed. Needless to say it made those two hours waiting better.