Bad Aim Chapter 5
By: Cadet Deming
I don't own the rights to The Avengers, Marvel and Disney do, so please don't sue. Rated T for adult language, situations, and violence. Please read and review. It's very motivating.
Central Park
Clint clutched the phone tighter as he spoke with Natasha. "What does your version of Doctor Doom look like?"
Natasha said, "He covers himself in public, but in private his face is scarred up."
Clint thought about how or why there would be two deformed versions of the same man.
He pondered out loud, "Is it possible there are two Dr. Dooms? Maybe he has a body double for safety, like Middle Eastern dictators? Or a Life Model Decoy?"
"Only SHIELD has those."
"Technology is moving pretty fast. SHIELD may not have a monopoly on LMD's. The one I met seemed pretty human. Maybe yours is the fake."
Clint remembered Doom's eyes. They were all too human.
Natasha said, "I've been tracking mine for a week. His actions seem pretty normal, other than referring to himself as Doom like some lame 1960's comic book villain."
"Yeah, mine does that too. Who the hell is this guy?"
"According to his biography, he's the leader of the Gypsies, aka the Romas in the civil unrest. Latveria has been split between Slavs, Romas, and Muslims for centuries. He claims he's from a long line of Gypsy witches on his mother side, and his father was an herbalist."
"An herbalist? Is that Latverian for pot dealer?"
She laughed, "Actually, his father was arrested for heroin smuggling. His mother was busted for fraudulent fortune-telling. You wouldn't know it from how he carries himself. He says he's going to lead the Roma to independence from the decadent West and fallen East. Fury thinks he's a dictator in the making if he takes power. He's suspected of being a terrorist. I'm trying to find proof."
Clint liked the feeling that he and Nat were still working together like old times. "Thanks for the info. Do you have to kill me now because I know too much?"
"If it was anyone but you, yes."
He grinned, "Aww, you say the sweetest things Nat. I'll keep you posted if you return the favor."
"Ditto." she said. "It's true what they say. No one ever really leaves SHIELD."
STARK TOWER
Nick Fury rested his feet on Tony's table. He puffed from a large cigar. "I knew it'd be a matter of time before you came crawling back to SHIELD."
Tony repressed the urge to go on a rant. He hated asking for help. He loathed catering to the egos of other men. But he had to do this.
To the side, Captain Steve Rogers grinned in his quiet unassuming way.
Tony said, "I'm not crawling. I'm asking for help from an old friend. My company is in trouble here. And what's bad for me is bad for the Avengers."
Fury stretched his arms behind his head. "I'd love to help, but I've had my budget and staff cut in half. The Avengers are yesterday's news. People are fickle. They loved us before, but now that there's no alien invasion, they want someone to sue, or at least blame."
Tony felt covered in vulnerability. He hated that feeling. It wasn't a coincidence that his most famous invention, the Iron Man armor was a shell. A shell to pretend he was invincible. Invincible, instead of a scared overgrown man-child on the brink of losing his company to saboteurs and thieves.
He covered the desperation in his voice the best he could. "Can you spare a few people? Just enough to do a high tech sweep, some extra eyes, a little extra security? Please? I'm saying please here. I'll owe you. I can share. We'll share technology. It'll be just like Kindergarten, but with more facial hair."
Fury puffed on his cigar and tapped the ashes onto a sculpture. The sculpture was probably worth more than a year of Fury's salary, but Tony didn't correct him as he was afraid to get on his bad side.
Fury seemed to be enjoying himself. "OK. I'll want more info on your Repulsor technology. And let's say I need to hold a fundraiser for ranking members of the Senate's Finance or Appropriations Committees, the people with the purse strings. I can count on you to be generous with your name and resources, right?"
Tony said, "Done, done and done. Cap is a witness, and we all know he never lies."
Steve and Fury exchanged a look.
Fury said, "Good. I'll see what I can do. Where's your bathroom?"
"There are eight of them. Just keep walking and you'll find one."
Fury put his cigar out on the sculpture and left the room.
Steve sat down in his place. He picked up the cigar and said, "I can't believe these things turned out to cause cancer and people still smoke them."
He flipped the cigar into a proper wastebasket.
Tony poured himself a drink and sat down next to Steve. "Fury is planting bugs in my penthouse as we speak, isn't he?"
Steve stared to the side. "I can't betray a senior officer."
Tony stared at him. He didn't understand Steve. He didn't thrive on attention. He didn't appear to have any vices. He did the right thing no matter how self-sacrificing it was. His only flaw was his awkwardness from being frozen for decades.
Tony's father had been in "The War" with him and talked about him like he was the paragon of manly virtue. Steve was like the older brother that Tony was compared to, but could never measure up to.
Tony asked, "Can I get you a drink?"
"No thanks. I don't drink. Unless it's water. Or Alligator-Aid."
"That's Gatorade. Of course you wouldn't touch alcohol."
"I can drink it, but a side-effect of the Super-Soldier Serum is I can never get drunk again."
Tony frowned at the thought. "Damn. You're in Hell. Not being able to get drunk is worse than...being celibate."
Tony shuddered. He poured Steve the Gatorade. It was the Glacier Freeze blue color that matched Steve's star-spangled uniform.
Steve swallowed it all in one gulp. He put the glass on a coaster and said, "It's not really my place, and I know you and I don't know each other that well outside of the Avengers, but do you think that it might be possible you're turning to alcohol a little too much?"
Tony said, "You're right. It's not your place. Not everyone can be as superhuman and flawless as you. If I was going to have an intervention, they could have at least sent my real friends."
Steve stood up, "I'm not perfect and never said I was. I was trying to help."
"I don't need your help. Do I look like I need your help?"
"The entire reason you're here is to ask for help."
"I asked for SHIELD and Nick Fury's help, not yours. Why are you even here? Why are you still with SHIELD? Don't they have any wars they can ship you out to be America's golden poster boy for?"
"There are always wars."
"So go fight one now and get the hell out of my apartment."
Fury said, "Is there a problem here gentlemen?"
He stood in the hallway like a stern taskmaster, arms crossed and one eye glaring.
Steve and Tony exchanged a look.
Tony said, "I'm fine. Thanks for coming out today Nick."
Fury nodded and walked towards the door.
Steve muttered to Tony, "I don't know how Pepper puts up with you."
"At least I can get women. Lots of them."
"I may not be the most experienced guy when it comes to girls, but I can tell you one thing: None of them like being part of lots."
"Taking advice from you about women is like taking advice from…oh never mind. You're so clueless any pop culture reference I'd make would be over your head."
Steve slammed the door behind him so hard an alarm went off. Tony fumbled with the code to silence it.
He went back to his bar and poured a glass of Scotch from a decanter. He stared at the glass in one hand and the decanter in the other. He put the glass on the bar and drank directly from the decanter, trying to drown all of his sorrows from the inside out.
To be continued
