A/N: So this took me ridiculous amounts of time. I apologize profusely to all of you- I have more time to write during the school year than summer, actually, so updates won't be so delayed this long again! Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait, even though it's mostly foreshadowing.
It was only three days before Kaiser's sleep patterns started to clear up, and during those days Peter almost never got a chance to speak with him. His grades, thankfully, never really suffered for all the time spent fighting villains out on the streets, but it was getting to the point where he spent every waking moment either battling or writing essays. Other than that, he was busy trying to work out a safety-net of sorts for Kaiser- and here he was infinitely grateful to Gwen, because she was not only much better at working things like that out but had more time to do it.
Which also sucked because, to the surprise of apparently nobody who met him except for Peter, everything female seemed to love being around Kaiser. Aunt May was happier when he was helping her in the kitchen, Gwen was more open than ever when he was around, and grouchy neighbors with violent dogs actually invited them over for tea. (Tea. Peter hadn't drunken tea in ten years, but apparently Kaiser's presence in a house made tea feel like a practical necessity. It was probably the British accent.)As for Kaiser himself, he didn't even notice. He caught odd looks on the street, or enticed strange smiles out of woman in the course of what he had believed to be normal conversation, but he was rarely in public enough to be concerned by this.
There really was little difference in staying at May's home as opposed to the hospital. The food, company, and spacing were welcoming, better by all accounts- but still Kaiser did little in his first three days but sleep. And read. The material available to him here was far more interesting than the hospital's storybooks, and he found himself enticed to stay awake in his desire to know more about what might be found between the covers.
There were thousands of ways to describe length, time, or weight, and thousands of ways those things could be used to teach why a pendulum swung or a rocket fired. The story of earth's creation and substance was readily available, as were detailed explanations about the politics and bloodshed that had brought the human race to where it was now. He knew nothing about how to drive a car or buy groceries, and yet he could recite his race's history to the letter. It was an odd sort of comfort, but the more Kaiser read and learned the more he felt he was making up for lost memory, and so he read, and read, and read.
And after three days, it stopped being the worst of all chores to keep himself awake long enough to read on. He started to insist on helping May wherever he could, in the kitchen, cleaning, repairs, whatever needed to be done. She was grateful but cautious, but he only found her concern endearing as he continued his work. He really should have known better, but it wasn't until after a week of work when he made the mistake of trying to carry some boxes from the basement upstairs for her that he realized her fears had a base in logic.
He was now lying on the couch, a cold bag of ice wrapped in too-soft fabric pressed over his forehead that helped in a way he was certain it medically shouldn't have, absorbed in a lengthy text about the uses for numbers, when Peter found him.
Kaiser hoped the boy was by now used to finding a near-stranger on his couch or at his table. He never showed any outward annoyance or confusion for it, at least, but even with all his ignorance he was aware of how abnormal the situation was and couldn't begrudge Peter any discomfort he might have for it. If he was annoyed Peter didn't show it, and the grin that lit his face as he spotted Kaiser was far from mocking. "You know, with the way Aunt May sounded on the phone I expected at least three gaping wounds. You disappoint."
"I'll be sure to fall down the stairs next time, maybe even break something for added suspense," He tried sitting up, but his head felt too hot for the attempt so he stayed as he was, watching Peter dump his backpack in the front hall.
"Make sure not to get too much blood on the steps, it's hell to clean out of the carpet." There was a chair across the coffee table, but Peter thumped, cross-legged, to the ground beside the couch rather than vacating it, tilting his head back to get a look up at Kaiser. "So, what happened? Aunt May just said you passed out."
"She was preserving my dignity- I swooned, it was minimally less dramatic and far less masculine. She brought me water and I managed to get here without help," Kaiser explained, waving his hand in a lethargic arc to encompass the living room. "I strained myself, that's all."
"Ya know, doctors orders specifically said something about not lifting anything over thirty pounds for at least three months."
"Ah, there's my problem. Days, months, can't be bothered."
Before, they might both have been concerned by such a comment, but Kaiser was growing steadily more familiar with the world as others knew it. Facts of life, time, and physical reality were no longer a problem. "I'm gonna get you a calendar one of these days. So, listen, Gwen and I wer- is that my Calculus book?"
Kaiser glanced down at the cover of his current text and yes, the word was displayed proudly on the front, alerting the better informed world to its contents. "It was on the coffee table, and I couldn't get up to find anything else. I am very sorry, should I not have touched it?"
Now that he considered it, reading other people's books without permission could logically be considered very rude. "Nah, go ahead. Have you been reading a lot of my text books?"
The honest answer was yes, and there was no point in lying. Thinking about it now, Kaiser recalled at least five texts that he'd placed improperly after reading, and it was obvious in the aftermath that he had been going through Peter's schooling material and leaving it in the wrong spot once he had finished. He just assumed, when he was done reading, to place the book on the shelf. "Yes. I hope I did not hamper your work in any way." Barely conscious, and he was already causing them trouble.
But Peter seemed genuinely unbothered, though somewhat unsettled. "I found them when I needed them. Did you read the whole thing? All of 'em?" Almost reluctantly, Kaiser nodded. "And you understood everything?"
"Of course."
"Whoa." Clearly that was abnormal. Kaiser closed the book, feeling as if he'd done something wrong, and searched Peter's face for some sign of disapproval. There was none, yet, but that could change. What sort of man could absorb the entirety of a college-level textbook in mere hours and not even know his own name? "You know, I was going to tell you I'd gotten you a job at a café but I'm thinking I should just call up Oscorp."
Oscorp? "You got me- Peter, I don't even have an I.D." Working would be good, as soon as he was able, but… working meant coworkers and customers. It meant understanding people, and it meant legal complications he could not, in any legitimate way, overcome. He tried to sit up, failed once more, and Peter's hand lashed out to steady him before he had even fallen back a half inch. He was certainly quick. "Look at me, I can barely move."
"I didn't mean right this minute. Gwen's got a family friend, an ex-cop, who runs this coffee shop down the street. She said she'd take you on, papers or none, until we can sort everything out. You can start when you're ready- we thought about college or something, but that's too expensive and we want you to see if hanging out with people jumps your memory, not how many six packs you can chug in a day, so the job seemed better."
Peter looked hopeful, in his own way. It took Kaiser a long moment to realize he was hoping for approval, and wondered how he might show it. A smile was hesitant, but the message came across enough for the boy to grin, and slap him on the shoulder as he stood. Either that was a bizarre sign of affection, or people were far more abusive than the doctors had let him think. "Okay, okay, not like I'm rushing you to start. If you think you're not up to it, we'll scratch the idea. For now, try to avoid any heavy lifting, I want you up for a field trip tomorrow."
"A…?" They weren't going to a literal field, Kaiser could figure that much out considering their location and the general tone of Peter's conversations, but beyond that he couldn't much decipher the term. "I'm sorry, I do not-"
"Right, duh. Just means a trip that schools go on."
"We are not in school."
"You're reading my textbooks aren't you? Doesn't matter- sleep up, because we're going out tomorrow." Peter gave Kaiser a quick, condescending pat on the head and hopped to his feet. "So long as I finish my homework anyway. Hey, want to write me an essay on Teddy Roosevelt's foreign policy?"
Teddy Roosevelt- Kaiser recalled the name with ease and, yes, likely could have written Peter's essay for him. The request he knew was a joke, but even so he was on the verge of assenting when an odd shiver went down his spine and he clamped his mouth shut. Not two seconds later, Aunt May's voice was preceding her in the doorway. "Peter Parker, if I see you so much as offer that man a pencil you will live to regret it."
By now Kaiser could tell that May's anger was rarely (if ever) genuine, and he smiled along with Peter at the warning. He would have loved to stand and greet her properly-she had, after all, been worrying about him without pause for the last half hour- but his muscles dragged through the air like syrup, and even a wave was draining. Really, what had he been thinking, lifting those damned boxes? "I can write in pen, no worries."
"Can you? Write, I mean." A legitimate question, actually, and one Kaiser would not have known the answer too if May hadn't tested it earlier. He nodded, and Peter decided to accept that at face value. "Sorry, probably a… bad question."
"Not at all. I have no idea what I do or don't know until someone asks me," Kaiser admitted, as matter-of-factly as such a sentence could be said. Neither of them seemed to pity him for it, for which he was always grateful. He did not think he would be very pleased if he'd ended in the hands of a family that treated him like an invalid for his amnesia.
Which, in some infuriating ways, he was.
May needed Peter's help with those boxes that Kaiser had failed to move, so after a brief moment the two of them took their leave. Now that his attention had been drawn from it he had no desire to return to the Calculus book, though there was little else he could do. He'd been told the device across from him was a television, a machine he knew of from books but no more, and yet he was loathe to pick up the remote control that would seemingly flip it on. Half of what he saw would be fiction, half fact- and unlike with the genre label on a book, he would have difficulty at times deciphering one from the other. So none of that.
How was he meant to work like this? A job would be good. Spending money of his own- and a way to repay them before he ended up in any true debt- and a chance to interact, to study strangers and coworkers for some hint of a life he may have known before. But he would be working on charity, because Gwen and Peter had gone out of their way to aid him. To earn him a job he likely wasn't even qualified for, whenever he wanted it, all because… because he had no other way of being any help, now did he?
Useless. Kaiser winced, one lethargic hand coming to press against his forehead, palm fighting off a sudden throb of pain from somewhere in the center of his brain. Not uncommon lately. (Or ever, perhaps- he had no way of knowing what had been common before.) No, not useless, only… wounded. It had been but a few days, he would recover eventually.
Another pain, not enough to startle Kaiser into successfully sitting up but enough for him to bury his head in his hands, teeth grinding together. He tried to reach for the water May had brought him earlier, when he originally collapsed, but withdrew his hand. Better not to risk dropping the glass- he knew these aches by now, they would only get worse before they passed.
The throbbing built to a soft humming, like the static of May's broken radio turned low, and Kaiser's hands went from his face to his ears, which did nothing but make him feel as though the sound were trapped inside, bouncing around in the confines of his brain. His teeth were pressed too hard together-he wondered if they could crack from this- and his eyes scrunched up tight. The worse it felt, the quicker it was over, so when the pain flared and buzzed it came as a relief more than anything.
And, as abruptly as a cut connection, it stopped. Kaiser blinked, grimaced, and with difficulty procured the water and swallowed the entirety in gulps that chased one behind the other without pause. At some point, he'd ended up wrenching his legs towards his chest, halfway to making himself into some sort of ball. Lip curled in distaste, he placed the glass unbroken on the ground and rolled onto his back, kicking his feet out to a more dignified position.
The headaches had begun during his second day at the hospital, at first such a shock and pain that he probably would have screamed himself hoarse if not for the nurse's immediate sedation. It was normal, they assured him, to feel pain and normal for it to linger and hound him down past the hospital steps. And because it was normal, Kaiser welcomed each 'incident'-as the nurses had called them- with near open arms. But that itself was masochistic, not normal, and he didn't like the pain so much as he liked knowing that he was meant to be feeling it. At least his body was working correctly, even if his mind wouldn't act as it should.
Whatever the time was, if Kaiser was going to be leaving the house tomorrow then he needed to sleep off that latest wave of headache. He shut his eyes, accustomed to being drawn into sleep after mere minutes of this, but almost immediately bolted upright- far, far too quickly. His head was swimming within moments, his body flushing with heat in protest, but he was too intent on not crying out to care much. The ache was back, as bad as it had ever been, and he felt himself shaking, gasping without any logical reason.
Ca-n't- hid-e fro- Kaiser swore, quietly, grateful that Peter and May were downstairs lest they hear him. There were thoughts running through his mind that didn't feel like his own- distorted, drawn out, wobbled and rising in inflection with each throb of pain. Stop, stop, go away, it wasn't meant to last this long. He groaned, felt the thump of his head against the pillow and realized he'd fallen back, failing to hold himself upright. Fine. His eyes squeezed shut, as tightly as possible, but the throbbing, like pounding of drums in some foreign speech, did not cease.
If May or Peter came upstairs… Kaiser forced his eyes open and reached blindly for the book, vision nearly black from the ache, and only managed to hit his hand against the edge of the table. Ow. The other hand pressed to his forehead, trying in vain to fight back the headache, he continued to grope along the surface of the table, searching for the book. If he could pretend to be reading, at least, they wouldn't be worried if they came in and saw him.
His hand brushed something paper, but it was loose-leaf, a piece of Peter's homework perhaps. Kaiser cursed quietly in frustration, but that quickly turned into a gasp of pain, and he clutched the paper as his hand tensed, nearly crumbling it. Wonderful. He'd fix that later- his arm was heavy, and he had to find the book, even if he could see no more than blurred shapes quickly growing black. A remote control, a flower pot- his hand finally brushed the familiar cover of the textbook, but before he could do more than fumble for a grip on it the pain vanished for half a moment, then flared up with the sudden force to wipe his vision clear.
It could have been an hour later, or only five minutes, or half the day- all Kaiser knew when he managed to truly open his eyes, head buzzing with a muggy sort of exhaustion rather than that awful pain, was that he'd blacked out. Not fallen asleep, not grown dizzy and staggered, actually fainted from a mere headache. He groaned, and ran both hands through his hair in frustration, taking a long moment to register that his limbs no longer felt too heavy to do that. Out for more than a few minutes then. If that happened tomorrow, while they were out…
Ah, well, it would make for a funny story at least. Without much consolation to offer himself other than that, Kaiser rolled onto his side, facing the ancient fabric of the sofa, and shut his eyes, determined to get a good amount of actual sleep. Sad that he literally could not remember being physically well- he just wanted to feel better already, so he might actually know what it was like to be healthy.
New York city, apparently, could be considered a large melting pot of not only people, but smaller sub-cities as Kaiser had taken to calling them, unsure how else to refer to the complete diversity from neighborhood to neighborhood. Queens, the Bronx, Manhattan, Chinatown, Time Square, Little Italy, the Village…- each section was like its own little culture, and Kaiser was content to keep to as few of them as possible. So when Gwen arrived the next day and Peter promptly announced that their "field trip" would involve a subway trip to Manhattan during rush hour, he was less than excited. They assured him the crowds would be minimal, but from his experience with the city... Well, he was worried to say the least.
But after they had gotten onto the road that went only to the island, there was almost nobody about. No pedestrians, no cars, no passengers huddled together on rank leather seats. There was little other than a scattered handful of men and woman with grim expressions and durable work clothing. Kaiser felt oddly underdressed, though he didn't know what for, in nothing but the jeans and leather jacket Peter had procured for him.
At least it meant he could sit down without either of them embarrassing him yet again- as they had almost every time they entered a new subway train for any reason, even if they were just out of the house for perhaps half an hour. Gwen, surprisingly, was less overbearing than Peter, who took great delight in declaring that Kaiser was probably going to collapse if he didn't sit, and asking in the most annoying way he could if anybody would please help their poor crippled Brit.
"What happened, exactly, in this place we're going to?" Kaiser couldn't tear his eyes away from the empty seats- something about it looked… unnatural. Neither Gwen nor Peter appeared at all surprised, however, so they were clearly expecting this obscure lack of a crowd, so he assumed they must have known the reason for it.
Precisely why he spoke quietly, lest those few others on the subway hear his question. It was for his own convenience more than avoiding their questions- he'd noticed that people had the oddest tendency to be offended by his ignorance, as if he had lost his memory or never learned simply to make a mockery of the knowledge they coveted, even though his questions should have made it clear that he was doing his best to remedy that. "Long story or short story?" Peter had once done his best to explain. Amnesia meant he was an oddity, something they did not understand, and people feared things like that.
Kaiser simply could not fathom that. He didn't understand anything, and maybe it was all a little intimidating, frightening even. But he tried to immerse himself in those things he was ignorantly wary of, not shun them, and why not? He had no desire to leave in fear. "Long."
"Well, we don't actually know that version. These creatures flew in and attacked Manhattan not that long ago- the place is still in shambles, and we only know the guys who stopped the attack, not who started it or what they wanted. A few of them are usually there on most days, helping fix things up." Peter gestured out the window, where Kaiser caught the glimpse of one of few familiar views- the Manhattan skyline, a common feature from many of his books that he'd seen captured in thousands of photos online (that Peter, hearing him mention the buildings in passing, had insisted he view). But something was… wrong, and Kaiser realized with a sinking heart that there were whole buildings missing from the iconic sight, half-crumbled gaps amongst the glory.
"And we are allowed there?" Some unknown force attacked the city, destroyed it… Kaiser knew enough about government to imagine it would have been closed off.
"The relief effort takes all the help it can get." Gwen, like all New-Yorkers that Kaiser had yet seen, had the inborn ability to walk without the slightest unsteadiness from one end of a subway car to the other while it was not only in motion, but picking up rapidly from a brief stop to let on just one more passenger. She came and sat beside Kaiser, leaving Peter to pout across from them, and gestured out the window. One building stood high above the others, a survivor amongst the wreckage, further into the center of the city but still perfectly visible. At the top, a large metal 'A' declared the logo of some unknown entity, and Kaiser could only look to her for an explanation. "The Avengers, a bunch of superheroes. They run it, but more about that later. The point is, Peter and I realized you're wasting a perfectly good opportunity with your amnesia."
"I'm- Pardon?"
"Ask almost anybody you see- they'll tell you that humankind, as a whole, is glaringly flawed." Peter now, relenting and moving to join them when he saw Gwen was not going to move back. "It's easier for people to remember all the bad things that happened than the good."
"But you don't really know much of the bad, do you? So we want you to see something nice, just in case the world drives you crazy later on. Something pleasant to think back to."
Humanity, flawed? Kaiser had noticed flaws in everything he'd seen so far, but over all… he had been saved by two strangers, given a home while he needed it, clothes, books, food, and two overbearing friends who were already trying to get him on his own two feet again in terms of understanding and funds. He knew not everybody would have done the same, and he was lucky to be found by Peter and Gwen, but neither of them seemed abnormal.
There were worse things to be than human, really.
Kaiser did not know what he expected when they rose at last from the subway, but what he found certainly wasn't it. They were stopped the moment they stepped off the train and searched, though Kaiser less thoroughly than either of his companions, the bandage on his head marking him as no serious threat. They were led as a group out of one clearly marked entrance, the others they passed seemingly stuffed with rubble, and never let out of sight until they were well and truly above ground. It was odd- he'd read of characters being searched on their ways into buildings, usually airports or the like in the novels, but never upon leaving them.
"It is kind of ridiculous though. The place is enough of a wreck already, and there's broken glass and metal all over the place. Hurting somebody wouldn't be too hard," Peter muttered, just out of earshot of one of the guards who had waited to watch them on their way. "And there's your first experience with human paranoia, Kaiser- remember it well."
"I'm going to pretend this time that that turn of phrase was on accident- don't count on being so lucky next time."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Stop it."
"Right, sorry, force of habit, I keep forgetting."
"Gwen, if I assault him and use amnesia to claim ignorance of the law you'll back me up, won't you?"
"Of course." Gwen was completely blank, but when Peter turned to her with a wounded stare she laughed minutely- not a giggle, the word reeked of idiocy she did not have, but something like it. "Seriously you two, no more bickering. This isn't the place for it."
Kaiser thought that was an odd thing to say in any part of New York, really, where almost all of the people he had come by did nothing but bicker. Here though, he supposed he could see the point. Now that he was looking around, instead of responding to Peter's taunts, he saw that the city really was in shambles. There was a lot of noise from a little further off, where he could see machines taller than some of the shattered buildings at work, and people were darting all about, most of them digging through rubble or bringing supplies to those who were. He saw uniforms and T-shirts, adults and children, everyone able-bodied of course, and he began to wonder what he was supposed to do here. What he could do here.
He was absorbed by the sight, now that he bothered to take it in. People lifting loads that seemed impossible for their sizes, calling for help when they needed it and immediately someone was there, no questions asked, giving them whatever they could. People called out gratefully at the sight of newcomers, waving and smiling grimly through faces choked in dust and plaster, while men and dogs darted about, pointing with their snouts at buildings or piles and barking themselves hoarse. Peter immediately rushed over to one such canine, assuring them he would be back quickly before vanishing down the street after the tail of a huge, black and brown animal.
"Search dogs," Gwen explained, catching his confusion. "They're looking for people who got caught when the buildings collapse- or pets too. We've found more cats then you would believe, though they always need some help. That's what I do, patch up survivors. The medical tent always needs help."
"Can I go there?" He'd read medical texts- not enough to really know how to work of course, but Kaiser was itching to test the knowledge, and if he could do it on somebody who really needed help… well, all the better. The quicker he paid the world back for the kindness he had been done, the better.
"Peter says you're smart enough, so yes. Stick with me, or they won't let you in," she warned, and Kaiser could only register that a teenager had more authority than most adults he had met before she was leading him off yet again.
May's fussy tendencies were not something he had ever expected to be thankful for-grateful, yes, but he would have preferred to avoid them- but after she had forced him to sleep, eat, and drink his way to health the day before Kaiser managed to maneuver his way through the rubble without even losing his breath. He did need help regaining his balance more than once, but he would accept his accomplishments in small doses.
They reached a somewhat in-tact hotel before long, the lobby of which had been converted into a scene far too reminiscent of days Kaiser preferred to ignore, bustling with volunteers and the stench of blood. The man Gwen directed him to was two inches shorter and about thirty pounds heavier than Kaiser, who snapped like a police sergeant and had breath tainted with pork. For the next few hours Kaiser was kept busy delivering supplies from doctor to doctor, wrapping wounds and sprains (on animals and humans alike), checking for concussions (he was sure that Peter was laughing at him, somehow) and, which he found he enjoyed best of all, talking to shell-shocked children, calming them down and convincing them to let the doctors take a look.
He loved… something about it. The way these people asked him for help, the way they looked at him with the gratitude he had worn since Peter saved his life, the way they said they would remember him and the way they needed him. He knew that wasn't what he's supposed to find so exhilarating, but when Gwen arrived to check on him, she saw only that he was enjoying himself, and Kaiser supposed that was what mattered. He was helping people, and he liked doing it.
"You're not getting tired, are you? Because if you're going to faint, I'd rather you do it here than on the subway," she wondered immediately upon approach, laughing slightly as she said it.
Kaiser returned her smile, setting aside a just-shut bottle of iodine so he could stand and speak to her unencumbered. "Thank you, but no. I am fine. Has Peter come back yet?"
"He said he got caught up across the city, he'll meet us when it's time to head back home." Gwen was in constant contact with Peter, and vice versa. It was a little unsettling, really, because Kaiser could never quite manage to catch them with their phones out. "But I'm asking because everyone's getting worried. You're looking pretty pale."
Was he? Kaiser frowned, and turned around in search of a mirror. He felt fine, really, but then again he usually did until the moment his legs would no longer carry him, but it wasn't as if he'd done anything particularly strenuous today. He shook his head, intending to assure Gwen that it was coincidence only, when the volume from outside reached a new high, a brief roar of excitement load enough to drown out the medical din of their room. He flinched at the uproar, short as it had been, and turned quickly towards the windows, seeing nothing but the crowds, a few men and woman looking upward and smiling.
"Who is it this time?" One of the other nurses called, sounding somewhere between exasperated and amused.
Someone nearer the window peaked his head out the door, returning a few moments later to scoff and grin. "That spider kid's helping Iron Man fix some broken paneling. Your pretty boy isn't here."
The nurse flushed, and the two broke into a brief argument that, judging by the general expression of acceptance, was a common thing. Kaiser tried to focus on what they were saying, but the man's last words and his own curiosity were calling for attention as well, and the multi-tracked train of thought caused a light throb of protest in his temple after a moment or so. "There's no way I can phrase this eloquently. What just happened?"
"Come on, take a look." Gwen offered her hand, but Kaiser shook his head and insisted on walking alone, a little annoyed that he apparently looked bad enough that she felt the need to offer even though he felt perfectly fine. He informed the doctor he was helping that he was stepping out for a moment, then followed her onto the street, tilting his head upward along with the crowd.
Most people had gone back to work, but a few were dawdling enough for him to follow their gazes up to the top of a decaying building, huge beams and panels of metal hanging off it like flaked skin. It was a little eerie, but Kaiser was paying far more attention to the two bright red shapes at the top of the building, one flying and one seemingly stuck to the walls.
Neither thing should be possible. How was it possible? The one hanging on the building had his hands out, and even from this distance Kaiser could see thick threads connected seemingly to his wrists down to a large metal pole, currently being welded to the building by… a red and gold robot. Blue shot from its hands and feet, keeping it in the air, but… it wasn't logical. Kaiser ran through everything he had learned on physics and chemistry and other sciences Peter kept books on, but none of it gave much justification to keeping a thing like that so steadily in the air.
He narrowed his eyes, trying to work it out, and nearly swore in surprise when the robot stopped to give the boy on the wall a thumb's up, flipping back a mask to reveal a human within. A flying suit. It… apparently it was possible, and he could see it being plausible, really, but it still seemed strange that such a thing could exist. "That's a person?"
Gwen looked at him in surprise, but he could not imagine why (ignorant, of course, to the unusual strength of his own eyesight and how nobody else on the ground could see but the blurriest outline of the two red figures). "That's Tony Stark, sometimes known as Iron Man. You'll hear a lot about him if you turn on the news, and that's Spiderman- his identity is kept secret, but he likes to drop by to help out the older heroes." There was something fond in her teasing that was far too fond to be mere admiration for an unnaturally powered boy doing his part to help.
Superheroes. Well, he hadn't expected to see anything like that, not when the realistic books he read all denied fantasy or merely considered it wistfully. "And they're the ones who saved the city from this attack?"
"Iron Man was the most well-known of six. Spiderman showed up before that, but he was stuck in Queens and it was impossible to get here while everything was going on."
Gwen was the easiest to talk to about simple things like this, facts of everyday life. Even Peter had a hint of the usual tendency to take his time to make things sound like conversation- she just gave a textbook response. "Who were the others?" The man, Stark, must have finished the welding. He flew away, leaving Spiderman to keep it in place while he checked each side, made sure it was properly stuck on, before both moved on to the next dangerously loose piece of metal. Better to repair it than destroy it, though Kaiser imagined it would be much easier simply to throw it aside. The building was a mess already, why bother?
"Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. The other two never show up, so I don't know about them." Even from here, Kaiser could see that the two of them were making little progress on the building. "You'll talk to one of them eventually, they come by the medical room all the time. And you're smart enough to actually be interesting."
"With a name like 'Captain America' it is a little difficult to imagine intelligence."
"He's from the nineteen forties, so we give him a break there."
"Is that possible?" Kaiser had a momentary image of a seventy year-old man battling monstrous forces in the middle of Manhattan. It was not pretty.
Gwen smiled and quickly launched into an explanation as they returned to the medical lab, describing a young boy with severe physical frailty and a time period he knew better, thanks to the presence of an American history book or two, than he did this one. Kaiser attempted to listen with rapt attention, but he couldn't help a final glance for the airborne man, who had turned to give a quick wave to the crowd below. He hesitated for a moment, long enough for Stark to look toward their building, and he could have sworn that the man stopped, staring down at him through the mask before turning around to work once more, and Kaiser walked away still able to tell himself that it meant nothing.
A/N: Rest assured, Tony will be here in the next chapter, which will mostly be about Loki's cafe-ing adventures.