It feels weird to be updating when it's not January. January was by far my best fanfic-writing month ever, with ten chapters. Thank you to everyone for the support, I can still hardly believe how many readers I got in January alone.
I guess now I'm getting a jump start on February, and February 2nd is a strangely significant date for my fanfics in terms of when they were posted or last updated.
Writing Pepper turned out to be harder than in some of my other stories. I'm not entirely sure I did her justice here.
Mr. Stark had told Harry to play with toys, something he can't remember ever being told to do at the Dursleys'. He goes to the closet, where he'd stashed the pieces of the Thomas railroad track Mr. James had snapped like a twig.
The bigger piece can be Batman, the littler one is Robin. Harry waves them in the air, pretending they're beating up bad guy witches and bad guys with guns. He does the noises in his head, knowing better than to make them aloud.
Mr. James- who agreed to be his dad, Harry can still hardly believe it- follows Harry into the closet, which is far bigger than his cupboard was. Harry thinks the closets here might be bigger than Dudley's second bedroom, or even Dudley's first bedroom.
"You need to learn self-defense." Mr. James tells him. The last time Mr. James said that, Mr. Stark yelled at Harry for having a knife. Instead, Mr. James takes one of the broken track pieces. "Pretend this is a knife."
Harry nods, and Mr. James teaches him how to do something he calls "disarming", which involves lots of ducking and then trying to twist the tracks out of Mr. James's hands.
"If this were a knife, you would not want to grab the blade." Mr. James doesn't punish him for doing it wrong. He doesn't even sound mad.
Harry honestly forgets he's Harry for a while. He feels just like Robin, doing superhero things with Batman in the Batcave. He can't hear anything outside the closet, like he could from his cupboard, so it almost feels like they're the only people in the world.
"Good." his Batman dad says, when he ducks under a slow punch. Mr. James is going really easy on him, even Dudley punched faster, and Harry had seen Mr. James punch super fast and hard when fighting bad guys.
Is it because his arm's hurt? Harry tries to frown, but he can't help a smiling at hearing he's doing something right. His new dad istelling him he's doing something right. It's all he ever dreamed of.
Harry slips out of the way of the wooden track.
"What if it's Dumb-Bell-Door? With his wep-nized stick?"
"It is possible your abilities make you immune to the effects of the weaponized sticks." Mr. James answers slowly. "They did not immobilize you as they did to me."
Harry isn't sure what he means until he says "They cannot or will not make you go still."
Harry remembers Mr. James saying that his... asset superpowers were what helped him get up when they escaped the witch doctor. If he has to use his asset powers to help his dad move again, he will.
"What if I do a shield?" Harry waits for a punishment that doesn't come. He had seen the bad guys make them, but he'd also made one when jumping onto the train.
His Batman dad nods. "That would be useful."
There's a soft but firm knock on the closet door, so unlike Aunt Tunia hammering on the cupboard to wake Harry up. "May I speak with you?" It's Miss Potts.
Harry's not sure why she's asking, and when he glances at Mr. James, he's pretty sure the man would only say yes.
"Yes ma'am." Harry answers quietly. He'd heard Mr. James call her that.
"May I open the door?" is her next question. She's a grown-up, she can do whatever she wants.
"Do you need some-ting cleaned, Miss Potts, ma'am?" Harry asks. Cleaning or cooking were the only reasons Aunt Tunia ever got him from his cupboard. Miss Potts's neck isn't as long as Aunt Tunia's, and she actually smiles at Harry.
Harry hears Mr. Stark sigh loudly, as if he'd said something wrong.
Miss Potts tells him that she doesn't need anything cleaned, so Harry has no idea why she's even opening the closet door. She doesn't ask why they're in a closet, like Mr. Stark did. Instead, she asks "Is this the Batcave?"
Harry nods, sniggering. She'd seemed to really believe he was Robin, not knowing he was Harry like all the bad guys did. "We're dis-awming." he tells her, raising one of his arms. "To fight bad guys. I don't have a knife."
"That's good. Knives aren't toys." Miss Potts tells him seriously, then asks Mr. Stark "You haven't made him a suit or anything, have you?"
"No, believe it or not, I haven't been giving a preschooler weapons. Even I'm not that reckless."
Miss Potts turns back to Harry. "I see Tony and Jarvis went overboard buying you toys. Not that you don't deserve it. Do you want to show me some of the stuff you got?"
She's smiling at him again. Harry holds up the broken tracks, but Miss Potts looks sad for some reason.
She eventually coaxes him out of the closet and to the gigantic living room. She asks about the Thomas trains and Harry slowly pushes James the Red Engine up his dad's robot arm. James the Red Engine's wheels click-clack over the grooves in Mr. James's arm once the sleeve of his Batman shirt is pushed up.
Mr. James speaks in a quiet voice as Harry runs the train back down his arm, "Have you ordered Stark to improve his maintenance schedule?"
"Tony ignored my schedules for years." Miss Potts shakes her head. "But it's not up to me to decide when your arm is fixed, James. It's whenever you feel ready."
Harry can't tell if the next thing his dad says is a question or not "You are not the new handler."
"I'm not going to make medical decisions for you." Miss Potts tells him. "You're an adult. You're allowed to make your own decisions."
Mr. James just looks at Miss Potts for a bit. Harry thinks his dad's eyes almost look confused behind his mask. Then he turns to Mr. Stark and orders "Fix it. One session. Now."
Mr. Stark huffs loudly, running his hand through his hair. "I told you, I'm not going to torture you just to fix the arm. And I sure hope you're not still asking about the mind wipes."
"The prosthesis must remain operational." Mr. James states in his usual voice, then slowly adds "...I need it to protect my han- Harry. My boy."
"What if the giant comes?" Harry demands, glaring at Mr. Stark. He'd said he'd fix Mr. James's robot arm, but he hasn't, so Harry's new dad is still hurt.
"Giant?" Miss Potts asks. "Tony says you told him there are people looking for you. People who want to hurt you."
Harry nods and whispers "Like Uncle Vewnon."
"Your uncle cannot hurt you." Harry feels his Bat Dad's flesh hand rest on his shoulder. "I made sure of that."
Miss Potts looks at Mr. James for a long moment, then back at Harry. "Did your uncle hurt you?"
Harry nods. "He burned my hand on da cooker. My Batman helped." He'd bandaged Harry just like Aunt Tunia always helped Dudley when he got hurt, only without all the kissing. His hand is completely fine now, but his dad's arm is still broken.
Miss Potts looks sick. "He burned you?!"
"I d'served it."
"I can promise you, whatever you did, you did not deserve to be hurt." Miss Potts sounds so sure, maybe even more sure than when Uncle Vernon and Aunt Tunia said he was good for nothing. Harry doesn't answer. Once she realizes he isn't Robin, she'll know he did.
Miss Potts takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry that happened to you."
Why is she sorry?
"The Dursleys were not the correct placement for you, Harry." Harry's dad tells him in a firm voice. "I… could not deliver you to another incorrect placement. The only proper placement is under my protection."
Harry smiles. His Batman looked out for him since finding him in his cupboard, before he even looked like Robin. Harry clings to his dad's leg, wrapping himself under the dark cape, as his dad tells Mr. Stark "I cannot protect him fully with a damaged prosthesis."
"You aren't gonna give up on this, are you?" Mr. Stark sighs. "I'm trying to save you undue pain and trauma. And don't you dare say-"
"Pain is irrelevant." Mr. James says. Mr. Stark gives a long groan.
"Look, I'll use literally all my tech making sure nobody hurts either of you." Mr. Stark promises. Harry's eyes go wide. He wonders what the Dursleys would say if they heard Iron Man promise to protect him, and say Harry has superpowers instead of saying he's a freak. "My suits are even better than your arm."
"Use your tech to fix the prosthesis." Mr. James almost growls.
"Fine! But you better not wreck another one of my cars." Mr. Stark then turns to Miss Potts. "And you say I have self-destructive habits. At least I don't demand surgery."
To be fair, the first time Tony had worked on the prosthetic arm, James had been eerily still and blank-faced. It was only the second time when he'd snapped.
The only reason Tony agreed to work on the cybernetic arm now was because he'd bet James would start poking in it himself if Tony didn't, and probably cause even more pain and damage.
Pepper had left for a conference call with some foreign company, leaving Tony alone with his houseguests. Unlike him, she actually has a company to run.
Now, James sits with his back against the wall and Harry in his lap. James had started to tell Harry to keep away, and after what happened last time, Tony isn't surprised. Harry hadn't listened, and is now wedged against James's chest, seeming to stick to him like an octopus. James actually relaxed minutely once Harry settled down.
Both of them are clearly unused to contact that doesn't hurt.
A video of does and fawns frolicking through the woods plays on a holographic screen. It seems to keep the flashbacks from getting too intense, as they reportedly had last time. Well, Tony assumes they were flashbacks, James had reported them as "visions" in that disturbingly detached manner of his.
Sparks jump from the wiring in the prosthesis, but James doesn't react. Tony forces the thought that James has to have felt that away and keeps working, reconnecting wires.
Even with its horrifying design, he can't deny that the cybernetic arm is an incredible piece of engineering. Tony could see from the way it moved, when it wasn't stalling, that it almost rivaled his own Iron Man suits.
As he slowly repairs the gears and wires, he asks "How'd this happen again? Oliver, you said something about a giant?"
From a kid's perspective, any adult would be a giant.
"At the castle. But my Batman dad beated him up wit' a tree."
Tony isn't remotely surprised to hear James could use a tree as a weapon.
"What castle?" he prods, hoping to find some clue of where they came from, and who else was there.
Harry shrugs, saying something about being taken in a tornado, as he had when he arrived. "An' they taked my Bat-Dad away, an' Dumb-Bell-Door tried'ta take his mem'ries and cook me in the fire."
"Dumb-bell-door?" Tony mutters. "Who's that? The leader of a cannibal cult?"
"Dumbledore is an enemy in possession of a weaponized stick." James's voice doesn't betray any pain he's undoubtedly in. Tony, who had an electromagnet put in his chest with no pain relief in a cave, winces in sympathy.
James continues speaking as if nothing's happening to him, even though his vitals are probably skyrocketed. "The weaponized sticks allow specific users to levitate and immobilize opponents, fire energy projectiles, create shields and teleport."
It sounds completely out there. With the man's talk of mind wipes, Tony would wonder if he's lost all touch with reality. James seems to think both Batman and HYDRA are real, and what he's describing now sounds a lot like wizards and wands.
And yet, Tony had seen Harry's superpowers, which to the layman would look exactly like magic. Even Tony thinks it looks like magic, though there has to be some sort of scientific explanation.
"They have bad guy powers." Harry says simply. Tony has to wonder if he has the same powers, though, with the way he sort of levitated a mug.
"So, you're telling me wizards are after you." Tony keeps his tone light, as if he's humoring them. Another wire sparks, but James doesn't even flinch, much less hurl a object with a force to destroy a car door. "Wizards who society just happens to have not noticed?"
"Society fails to notice many things." James intones, and geez, he sounds like the wildest conspiracy theorist. "Order must be brought about. Society is too weak to stand on its own."
Tony frowns. "Tell me I didn't invite a guy with plans of world domination into my home."
It sounds like it should be part of the monologue a power-hungry villain set on conquering the world would give. James makes it sound more like brainwashing, like he's merely repeating what he's been told.
Hell, it sounds like the twisted worldview of HYDRA.
Pieces have been building up in Tony's mind. The use of the word Asset sounds significant, James must speak Russian for some reason. Tony already doubts he'll like the finished picture of this puzzle, given the fact that memory wipes and torture seem to be on the table.
Still, he gathers the information in his head, determined to have Jarvis look into it. "Jarvis, look into wizards for me, will you?"
"That's something I never thought you'd ask, sir." Jarvis replies dryly.
"So, wizards are after you." Tony asks while fiddling with the arm's mechanics. "How come? You aren't a wizard, are you?"
"No!" Harry sounds offended on James's behalf. "He's not a freak like my other dad."
"The weaponized sticks do not respond to me." James studies him. "They are after Harry. He seems to be a person of significant interest. They would take Harry and perform a wipe with their weaponized sticks."
"So they're the basta- bad guys who wiped you before?"
James looks at Tony as if he's being dumb on purpose. "Negative. The Chair is used for wipes. The Chair provides electroshock stimulation to the brain to remove visions and... memories."
Tony stills. It's obvious James has been through hell since he'd been Bucky Barnes, but hearing the torturous method of memory removal is even worse than hearing it happened in the first place, or seeing him so submissively wait for punishment.
Tony's had some up close and personal experiences with torture. Technically, this un-sedated operation he's performing now is probably torture, but for James it's clearly routine. The fact he'd suggested it earlier makes Tony feel sick.
Tony has to force his hands to stop shaking at the thought, and he wasn't even the one who went through maintenance. Is going through it now.
James sends him a look telling him to continue, and Tony forces himself to take deep breaths.
"Sorry," Tony winces, but James doesn't reply.
Tony tries to start a more lighthearted conversation, telling his guests stories of when Dum-E had broken things like mugs. Harry asks about Dum-E's punishments, and Tony has to leave out the parts where he'd threatened to sell the robot for scrap metal. Not that he'd ever really meant it, of course, but he doubts Harry or James would pick up on the hollowness of the threat.
"You know, I'm not even mad about you wrecking my car." Tony tells James. "I fell through the windshield when I was testing my suit's flight. And I've destroyed a few with repulsor blasts."
James is watching him, his expression blank but something almost amused flashes through his eyes, so quickly Tony thinks he might have imagined it.
Finally, Tony sets down his tools. James tests the flexibility of the cybernetic arm. The arm no longer stalls or grinds. Of course it doesn't, with Tony as the mechanic. It moves flawlessly as James puts it through its paces, performing several stretches and fine-motor skills.
Honestly, the thing might even be even more dexterous than Tony's Iron Man gauntlets. It clearly lacks repulsors, but is still obviously a weapon.
James nods in satisfaction after picking up a screwdriver and effortlessly flipping and catching the tool. "Functionality is restored."
Tony senses an unsaid about time in that statement.
Tony studies it intently. "It doesn't hurt, does it? You have to tell me if it hurts. I don't care what others said, your pain is important. Sheesh."
"Are you hurt?" Harry echoes, voice trembling slightly.
James rotates the arm in a full circle, then slowly reports "Pain is below usual parameters."
The Asset James does not think he's ever been a father before. The mission parameters are unclear.
At 1146 the following day, after another patrol, he finds himself reading aloud to Harry from a book the computerized voice Jarvis had ordered with high recommendations. Matilda by Roald Dahl is about an extraordinary little girl burdened with an extraordinarily stupid and petty family. Her parents clearly don't want her around and prefer her brother.
James wonders if the computerized voice Jarvis picked the book for the similarities with Harry's relatives, or the fact that the summary on the back cover mentions Matilda develops telekinetic powers. Harry has not used his abilities since prolonging the mug's descent, despite Stark's excitement over the prospect.
When he reads about Matilda putting superglue on her father's hat so it sticks to his head, Harry laughs so hard his whole body shakes. It fills James's chest with warmth.
Harry's so busy laughing that he does not even run to the Batcave closet when Miss Potts arrives. Her obvious competence and the way she radiates authority send memory snippets of an unidentified woman flashing through his mind. The Bucky voice says Carter.
Despite being the handler of Stark, Potts turned down being the Asset James's handler. He has nobody to answer to but the voices in his head. Still, he finds himself unconsciously standing at attention in her presence.
"I glu-ed Uncle Vewnon's hat to his head." Harry tells her, still snickering. James knows he is merely copying the story, but Miss Potts plays along.
"Did it get stuck on his head?"
Harry nods, stuffing his fists in his mouth to smother his giggles.
Potts turns to James and starts discussing therapy.
"Nobody expects you to be who you were, but it's obvious you've experienced trauma." she tells James.
Bit of an understatement there, says the Bucky voice.
"I'm not qualified to help you." Potts continues, "But I know SHIELD has several therapists who are cleared to handle... classified cases."
James goes rigid. He had heard whispers of SHIELD from techs and agents. Some made the organization sound like a joke, even though he knew that several members were high-risk targets. He knows Rumlow and other STRIKE members have positions in SHIELD as well, from their conversations when they thought he wasn't listening.
No matter what, SHIELD would separate him from Harry, attempt to take the Asset James into custody.
Harry's ours, snarls the Bucky voice. They won't take him.
The mission blares in his head. AVOID SHIELD. AVOID HYDRA.
Harry is no longer a handler, but the mission has remained the same.
He should have checked Potts first, the lack is a tactical error.
James gathers Harry into his arms. He is adept at avoiding or disabling security cameras, but Jarvis is omnipotent to what goes on in Stark's house. The Batman James could have broken into the lab easily, could have hot-wired a car and drove away even with Tony in the lab. He is always silent, but with the music blaring from the speakers, he could have clomped around and still been unheard.
Jarvis announces James's presence as he's breaking in. The music lowers in volume, and Tony turns to him.
"Huh, now you're going Grand Theft Auto on me?" Stark looks mock-hurt. "I fix your cybernetic issues and you just up and bail?"
James doesn't deign him with an answer. They are in danger. Potts could have contacted SHIELD hours ago, agents could swarm in at any moment.
"Jarvis told me you kind of freaked out when Pepper mentioned SHIELD." Stark continues. "I guess that should seem suspicious, but you know what? I don't trust them either."
All of Stark's vehicles are far too elegant to provide the necessary cover of a getaway vehicle, but he could always switch cars on the road.
"I've been digging through their databases. Found some pretty sketchy stuff. Nothing about wizards yet. I'd say you were delusional, except Oliver has superpowers."
"My Batman kicked the em-eny asset's butt. And the giant's." Harry's voice is full of pride, even though the enemy asset had successfully immobilized James more recently.
Stark clears his throat and continues talking. "I did, however, find that my former assistant-slash-secret-spy got shot through her body by an unknown assassin. She's scarily competent, so the fact someone got her by surprise..." Stark studies him.
"It might be a stretch, but you seem kind of assassin-y in general and definitely skilled enough to do that. So I wouldn't be surprised if SHIELD is after you."
James doesn't confirm it, but he doesn't deny it, either. He remembers that mission, shooting the target through the red-haired agent tasked with the target's protection. The bullet went through the agent's abdomen to eliminate the target.
THE WITNESS WAS NOT ELIMINATED
Stark is studying him with intelligent eyes. "I'm not going to turn you in. I'm getting the impression you didn't have a whole lot of say in whatever you did, given all that awful stuff you've told me. But trust me, you're safer here than on the road, so stay a while."
James slowly gets out of the car, which did not have adequate safety features for Harry. The engine rumbles to a stop.
Potts enters the lab, and James immediately faces the woman.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." she sounds completely sincere, but then pulls Stark to the other end of the lab. They speak in hushed voices that the Batman James still easily hears with his enhanced senses.
"How does he even know about SHIELD?" Potts is asking. "Doesn't that seem suspicious to you?"
"SHIELD seems suspicious to me." Stark fires back, loud enough that James would have heard it without enhancements.
Harry shifts nervously, muttering a question as to whether they're discussing the shields he makes with his powers.
James assures his boy that is not the topic of discussion, then informs Stark and Potts of something he knows is classified, something he would be forbidden to reveal. "HYDRA has several agents working undercover inside SHIELD."
I ended up cutting/postponing a lot from this chapter, including the fast-forward scene I mentioned in last chapter's author's notes.
I sort of doubt I'll be able to update as frequently in February as I did in January. Life is starting to get busy. But I guess I have a head start on chapter 24.
YouTube kept recommending behind the scenes videos of Harry Potter actors from 2000, and I can't stop watching them. Seeing young Dan, Rupert and Emma just goofing off is honestly so entertaining.