Today I'm taking y'all on a little excursion to the 'Next Avengers - Heroes of Tomorrow'- cartoon. If you are familiar with that, the story doesn't take place in that timeline. It is an AU, where James is slightly older than when Ultron attacks in the movie. In this AU Ultron hasn't yet attacked. Since the cartoon is a kids-movie it doesn't portray a lot of violence, but this was kind of missing for me. I don't know what else to write today other than that so I hope you enjoy nevertheless. It is going to be quite long so I'm splitting it into two parts for two days (October 18th and 19th), I hope that is okay.

October 18th: Before they fell (part 1)

(Rated T)

Like every day in the environment, they lived in, it was sunny and bright. The palm trees were swaying in the soft wind and the birds were singing. On days like that one, however, James would prefer the rain a lot over the sun. He remembered the smell of the air after the rain and sometimes would also try to relive the feeling of the droplets hitting his skin. He missed the rain. Once he had asked Tony why it never rained where they lived now. He was just saying that it was common for the area.

James sighed as he lifted his eyes to the stones once again. They had the names of all the fallen Avengers on them and James now looked at the two erected for his parents. Still looking at them he whispered: "Hey mum... hey dad... It's so boring here. I don't know what's happening. I don't know why I had to leave you along with the others. Tony never tells us anything. But I'm not a child anymore. I will get out of here someday..." He looked down and fell back into silence again.

He had left his bungalow quietly without telling the others since they weren't allowed to leave when it was getting dark. But he was 14 now. He wasn't a kid anymore and he found that rule to be stupid and unnecessary.

After a while, he heard footsteps near him and without thinking about it he hid behind one of the stones. It must be Tony, he was the only one walking around at night and he wouldn't like a lecture about obeying the rules that day.

As James was carefully watching from behind the stone he could see that it was indeed Tony. His expression, however, was extremely sad as he approached the stones and James had never seen him like that before. Tony always looked happy and friendly when he was around the kids. But now, there was clearly something that bothered him a lot. Tony just kept standing there for about five minutes before fishing a small remote out of his pocket and pressing a button.

James jumped a little when everything on that spot started moving suddenly and a hole in the ground was visible. Tony started walking down and the machinery started to close the path again. Without hesitating, James followed him down. He needed to ask him what this was all about. How could he have kept this a secret all those years?

Staying behind a little bit in order not to be spotted immediately James followed the man around the tunnel-like system underground. He stopped when he found himself in a huge room which was almost circular. In the middle, a set of instruments and tables was located and that was where Tony sat down. He picked up a thing that looked like a head, but not really human, but rather mechanical.

James was too curious to keep standing there by now and he braced up. He started walking toward the table and started talking in a low voice to not startle his mentor: "Tony... it's James..." Tony immediately turned around and stared at the boy. James nervously scratched the back of his head: "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have followed you, but I saw you and I needed to know what was going on..."

Tony sighed and gestured next to him: "Since you are here already... sit down please."

James did as he said and sat down on the chair next to Tony's.

Looking around again before focusing on Tony again James said: "What is this thing here?"

Tony put the head aside and looked at James: "Well... it is my lab. I'm making stuff here for the case that... that something bad could happen."

James looked at him confused: "So there is a possibility of Ultron finding us here? Why did you lie to us? You told us we were safe 100 %."

Tony nodded: "I know... I'm sorry. But think about your younger siblings. You and Torunn are old enough to know about bad things, but Pym and Azari... I don't think they are ready for... for the truth."

James slowly looked at the robot head: "What truth?"

Tony hesitated, but eventually leaned back and started explaining: "This place is... not real. It's an artificial environment I created to make it impossible for Ultron to find us via GPS. That's why nothing ever changes. And what you are looking at currently is the only thing remaining from my old friend Vision... the ghost from the bedtime-story I used to tell y'all."

James blinked a few times before looking at Tony again: "Your friend... So... you were the heroes from the bedtime-story? You were with mom and dad?"

Tony nodded slightly: "Yes... James. I was the knight, Iron Man."

James ran his fingers through his hair: "You kept all that from us all those years?! Why are you telling me now?"

Tony sighed: "I did everything to protect you kids, I promised after all."