Chapter 8 The Mission

Metatron's point of view

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"LOKI!"

"Yes Metatron?"
"Did you do this?"
"Did I do what?"
"Don't you play innocent with me boy, I know what you are! You don't fool me… did you prank everyone?"
"Yes. Dr Strange needed cheering up"
"So you figured you would help him prank everyone"

"Yes"

"With the thing they fear most in the world?"
"Yes, there's a revenge clause in there somewhere"

"I see"

Tony's point of view

Pepper and I were standing on the bed clinging to each other while Morgan and Meg chased the mice and spiders out of the room… I heard my mother squeal and not in a good way.

"Don't worry Tony, I got it" said Jay

Jay's point of view

"EWWW! They're everywhere!"

"Mom, Dad, don't worry. Bruce and I will take care of this"
"OK"

"The mice and ummm… 8 legged beings will be put to good use in the lab. We'll be setting the snakes free."

We went downstairs.
"Who did this?" Dad and Tony asked at the same time

"Loki and Strange"
"So old stiff upper lip finally got loosened?"
"Yes"

"Can I have a pet snake?"
"OK"

Howard's point of view

"Anthony Edward Stark, you bring that slippery nasty disgusting belly crawling beast anywhere near me and you won't be able to sit for a month!"

"Mom… you wouldn't be able to give me a spanking because of the snake"

"Don't worry Mom, I'd take care of the snake until you were done"
"Traitor"

Tony chose a small corn snake to keep as a pet. Metatron made him a vivarium for the snake.

"This little guy is Sir Hiss"

"Prince John's snake in the Disney Robin Hood cartoon was called Sir Hiss!"

"I know"

"He's pretty cute"
"Don't let mom hear you say that"

"Pep… meet Sir Hiss"

"Hi there" she said tickling the snake's chin

"You… LIKE SNAKES?" Constance shrieked, recoiling in horror.
"Actually, yes… when they're this size, corn snakes are friendly, and they don't usually bite."

"Dad used to have a python called Barney, but he got a fungal infection… and he died from it. Mom was rather relieved, she was terrified of Barney. Barney is buried up at the house in New York."

Tony looked at Howard and they both started laughing. Peggy huffed and crossed her arms, puffing up like an angry toad as though to say "don't you dare tell that story"

"I'll never forget the time Barney somehow escaped his vivarium… Mr and Mrs Jarvis were on vacation and Dad was taking care of the animals himself. To this day, he swears he definitely put the snake back and closed the vivarium properly. Barney was an intelligent being though and he somehow escaped the vivarium. Mom was in the shower when he slithered into the bathroom and hid under the towel. Mom got out of the shower lifted the towel found Barney and ran out of the bathroom butt naked and screaming bloody murder! dad grabbed her clothes and went to calm her down while I grabbed Barney and put him back in his vivarium. It was hilarious."

"No it bloody wasn't! I was dripping from head to toe because I was just getting out of the shower and I grabbed the towel to bind up my hair and right in front of me was a 15-foot wriggly squiggly terrifying Burmese Python that looked VERY much like it wanted to feast on me for lunch! No wonder I ran out of there naked as a newborn and screaming bloody murder!"

"Yeah and because of a broken lock that no one told me about I got screamed at for 50 minutes!"

"My ears were ringing by the end of the lecture! I'd been outside fixing Barney's vivarium and feeding him mice. As if that weren't enough Dad's flamingo - Bernard - broke out of his enclosure again, and I had to go and dart him."

"We were inside doing schoolwork, and I heard mom yelling and went to go upstairs, but Tony said we should fix the vivarium door to stop Barney getting out again." said Bruce.

"I was away at school" said Clint. "After not being able to cope with learning at home I begged to be allowed to go to military school."

"So wait, you grew up together?"
"Yes, Mom and Dad couldn't have any more biological children after me because mom had some nasty complications after I was born. So when I asked for a sibling when I was 7 years old, Mom and Dad privately adopted Bruce, Jay and Clint. Then 2 years later, we found 5 day old infants on our porch. On Christmas morning… Wanda and Pietro"

"Howard… tell them… about." said Peggy
"Are you sure Peg?" I asked

"Yes. I can't do it… I'm still…" and she buried her head in my shoulder.

"That's not all… you have a half-sister you've never met, Mom was attacked by someone she worked with at the SSR because he never made it into the super soldier program and she and your Aunt Maria did."

Peggy sat up a little

"After this guy attacked me, I lost all my confidence… I couldn't go anywhere for a long time - not even to work. It took me a very long time to get over it. After a while Maria suggested that we come to Malibu for me to recover." she said
"We did just that, I wanted to work on the film I'd been writing." I admitted sheepishly
"It was after we all returned to New York and… did things for the first time in a long time that it became apparent that something had happened to me… When we returned to New York, I felt a lot better"

"We did some… couple things, that we hadn't been able to do for a while. Afterwards, I went to the office to check in with things there, and I came back at lunchtime"
"And that's when you found me in the bath… I did the calculation 11 times and still couldn't believe what an idiot I'd been"
"I called for help - First I called Maria, but she was ill and couldn't help. Fortunately, our personal physician was available."

I glanced over at Maria. She was pale. I saw Obie squeeze her hand.
"We somehow got me out of the bath and Jane was born on the bathroom floor."
"Is she the reason I was born by c-section?"
"Part of it. Obviously, because I was completely oblivious about having conceived until Jane was born I couldn't have had any way to prepare for the pain and that was worse than the original attack, and it put me off delivering naturally." "You were 11lbs 2ozs and a footling breech so attempting a natural delivery was completely out of the question. Attempting to deliver a footling breech naturally is a recipe for disaster. The cord can prolapse and that can be incredibly dangerous - even fatal." said Maria

"So we planned a c-section - which in those days was mostly unheard of. It was only done in emergencies or when there was a real risk to life. That's why the maternal fatality rate was so high. Complications could and often did still occur… no one realised that I had placenta previa. The placenta had implanted at the bottom of the uterus, over the cervix or close by, which meant you couldn't be born vaginally. Of course there were no scans for anything other than the number in those days. The scans weren't advanced enough to see potential complications. I had to have a hysterectomy to stop the bleeding or I would have died."

"What happened to Jane?"
"Obie and I raised her. I couldn't carry to term and we had already adopted my cousin's children after they were murdered in a mob hit gone wrong."

Peggy's point of view

Pepper got up from Tony's lap and hugged me. There were tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I was born of sexual violence and my mother resented me which is why she treated me so badly and when I started preschool - a year late the teachers noticed and called in the authorities. I went to live with my godparents when I was 4. My mother wasn't allowed to visit. She died when I was 7. When I went through the same thing… when Aldrich Killian did it to me the first time when I was a teen, I insisted on having a pregnancy test done which was negative thankfully. When Harry - my ex - did the same thing to me… I didn't even think about a pregnancy test then the exact same thing that happened to you happened to me only, I had a little boy."

"Adam"

"Yes. Tony and I had just reconnected. I was at Stark Industries for my interview… I walked from the bus stop… Tony passed me in his car and stopped to take me the rest of the way. He said I was overqualified for the position I'd applied for, and he wanted me to be his PA. I explained why I'd applied for the role I'd applied for. He went to sort out the paperwork and that's when the pain began… he found me doubled over on the office floor and alerted Bruce. Obie took Tony and me to Bruce's clinic. I was nearly ready to deliver, and I had no idea I was even pregnant… it was terrifying. Tony was right there with me the entire time, he encouraged me through the entire ordeal. When I was told that I was giving birth my exact words were 'I can't support a child, I can't even support myself - Harry is a layabout!' and Tony replied 'Don't worry about it, I'll have my godfather handle it.' Obie made all the arrangements for the child, he and Maria came and collected Adam while I was asleep after the delivery. When I was awake enough, afterwards, Tony and I discussed our relationship and whether we should get back together after our break or not. We decided that yes we should and that he would support me through getting counselling for my ordeal and if I didn't feel comfortable being his PA I could be an Executive Assistant."

Pepper's point of view

I hadn't thought about my son in a long time…

"Adam is 11 now, and he's doing great in school, he's going to MIT four years early"

"I'm glad he's been brought up properly by good people who could provide him with a decent future and who don't resent him because of how he came into the world."
"You did the right thing by giving him up"
"I know."

"Would you like to see a photo?"
"Yes"

Maria pulled out a photograph of a handsome boy with blond hair and bright-green eyes and freckles on his nose.

"Does he know that he's… adopted?"
"Yes. He knows about everything. We told him when we told Jane… He said that he wanted to know because he doesn't like secrets… or men who hurt women. He's going to MIT because he's very intelligent. He wants to do something with the military, so we sent him to military school. He said he would like to meet you one day."

"I would like that"

A young boy with blond hair bright-green eyes and freckles came into the room.

"Hey buddy, this is your mom"

At first, he didn't say anything, he just hugged me.

"Mom… I know you went through a hellish ordeal when I was conceived and when I was born. I wanted to thank you for allowing me to be adopted. I'm glad you found your way back to stability and happiness." He eyed Tony.

"You better never hurt her, or you'll have me to answer to"

"Yes sir, I will never hurt her. In fact, we recently got engaged. I asked Vince's permission to ask her because it felt necessary… since he and Linda brought her up. Obviously, I'm about to extend the same courtesy to you… Adam, would you mind if your mom and I get married?"
"Not at all. I can see you treat her well"

"Like you, I don't like men who treat women with anything less than respect."

"I'm glad to hear that. I made myself a promise when I found out that my father treated my mother like dirt… that promise wasn't about revenge or violence. It was about treating my significant other with respect."

"I made a similar promise when I was your age… it was just after Killian attacked your mom for the first time — long story — some of which will likely come up in the movies we're about to watch."
"I appreciate that."
"Nice segue Tony… and on that note… let's take a quick break to get some snacks and a drink, find your seats and get comfortable because it is time to watch the past, the present and the future." said Metatron