Lmao sorry about the wait. It's been a couple months, but here's the end and angst you wanted. I'll try to post again soon.

T. Rycbar is a stupid-head.

IDon'tOwnMarvel

When I woke up the next morning to more silence, I was a little disappointed. With luck, I was positive my hearing would heal overnight and I would suddenly be able to listen to Happy's many constant grunts of disapproval again.

No such luck.

Natasha and Clint were both 'asleep' on chairs, though I'm sure they were always half awake anyways. There was a little bit of sun coming through the window on Happy's side of the room where he too was asleep. The pain of trying to sit up stopped me from getting very far, but I did manage to prop myself up enough to grab both my computer and Tony's helmet.

They both started up with little trouble and connected the two via a cord I was lucky enough to have in my backpack when Pepper dropped by. That, of course, reminded me of where she was going to be right now. Obviously, I didn't feel great about letting her go through that pain, but we were a little too far in now to turn back. Besides, she was the one who killed Killian, so by taking away her temporary mutant powers, I was risking him getting out of this alive. Tony would have to understand if I explained later.

'Is the House Party Protocol intact?' I typed out the question into the equivalent of an IM chat with Jarvis.

J- 'Not yet. The cranes haven't finished with the rubble.'

I frowned. 'Can you speed that up? Don't forget to remind Tony about the game "Barrel of Monkeys" when people are falling out of the plane.'

J- "Absolutely."

'Thanks, and how about the subtitles?'

J- 'I have the subtitles for any outgoing calls prepared.'

I lowered the computer screen a little after that confirmation to look over at the resting assassins. It seemed a little nice that they cared enough to come out here like I was a terminally ill patient. It was almost like they actually gave a little bit of a crap about my well-being, which was odd considering the amount of trouble I'd caused already.

Maybe they just care about what I know? I furrowed my brow at nothing with a small frown. Yeah, that's definitely it.

On top of dealing with the plane issue and that time on the dock, I also had to mentally prepare myself for when Tony got upset about the Pepper thing and the fact that I hadn't warned him about the fake Mandarin. Again, though, he would probably understand if I tried to explain the chain of events issue with him. That would make sense to him, right?

Checking the time, I figured Tony was probably a little tied up at the moment. Probably literally, if I want to make jokes. Steve entered the room too around the time I was trying to determine the best way to explain the Pepper thing to Tony. Steve smiled and offered me a muffin from a bag he had in one hand, letting me take it while the smell of the coffee from his tray of drinks stirred the two sleeping people.

Clint didn't even bother to open his eyes and just held out a hand in Steve's direction, expecting and receiving a drink. Natasha took one too but actually sat up and gauged the room while Clint kept his eyes closed and just sipped the coffee he'd been given. Steve offered me one of the cups too and I was a little hesitant at first since coffee was never really my thing. However, upon seeing the string and small tag, I quickly realized that Steve must've remembered that fact from somewhere.

{T-E-A.} He finger-spelled, immediately getting a smile out of me. The guy was learning sign language.

"Thanks." I took a sip, not hating the black tea and almost hoping the minuscule amount of caffeine might help. "And the sign for tea looks like this-"

I demonstrated with a hand while Natasha watched amusedly. Steve mimicked the gesture and I nodded in approval. "Nice."

Tony had straight up refused to buy tea the past two weeks because he thought it was ridiculous. Apparently only old people drink tea, so he was trying to 'cold turkey' me from my caffeine until I caved and drank coffee like the rest of the world. Jokes on him though- Steve brought me tea now.

A few minutes later, Happy woke up too and crutched out of the room to get his own coffee, even after Steve offered him some. Clint took the extra cup and drank out of it too whilst...drilling holes in the back of my favorite man's head?

"Why are you mad at Happy?" I asked, looking to Clint quickly.

Clint rolled his eyes. {The literal bodyguard can't keep you from getting hurt.}

"He's not my bodyguard." I chuckled, ignoring the painful dings it brought to my chest. "And I put myself in danger. He didn't even know I was there."

Clint apparently didn't like that answer and just shook his head in annoyance. He addressed me again after he finished his first coffee via chugging the hot stuff while Natasha gave him a disgusted look. {Are you staying here after this?}

That was a little daunting of a question. Tony might be a little mad for not warning him about this, but he wouldn't straight up kick me out, right? Suddenly, I was not feeling so great about Tony's temper.

Maybe I should have a plan just in case?

I shrugged in response. "I have something set up with SHIELD."

{Are you sure you want to work for them?} Natasha signed back, looking about as worried as she could with her mostly stone features.

"Eh," I waved it off, "What have I got to lose? Maybe I'll save some lives."

Okay, now, obviously, I wasn't going to turn to SHIELD for help on the off chance that Tony was irate. Those guys would use the hell out of me and the mysterious purple power I could manipulate. The other option would have to involve running away. Technically, I might consider starting my Junior year, which is where I am supposed to be currently but never started because Tony didn't make me. I mean, who needs school when you can summon lightning?

I guess that doesn't sound bad. I finally agreed with myself, But, you know, it's unlikely that he'd be that mad, right?

The three of them ended up sitting back in silence again, clearly not needing conversion to be comfortable while I opted to do some actual research on my back-up plan. I kept a close eye on the time while I sifted through the dark web and attempted to find out how believable a new identity would be coming from some guy who claimed he could get me a birth certificate from Texas that said I was 18.

While I was in the middle of a negotiation, the helmet beside me lit up. By the way everyone else looked at it, I assumed it must've made a noise too. Hesitantly, I picked it up and passed a look at Natasha before I put it on.

"Hello?"

The screen in front of me immediately started a display of words with the label 'Tony Stark' telling me who was calling.

'Hey, great to hear you're doing well. What the fuck is is your problem?'

Oh boy. I cringed. "Uh, I take it that you got your suit back?"

'Jarvis, can she even hear me? Okay, he says you can. You have about four seconds to tell me why you neglected to tell anyone- literally anyone at all- that Pepper was going to be involved in this.'

I winced and bit my lip. "I can't."

'You can't?' His tone was pretty well heard through the coms despite me still having an issue with making out words. To be frank- he sounded pissed. 'I'm sorry, you can't explain to me why the woman I love is currently suffering in a raggedy testing facility with about a fifty percent chance of spontaneously combusting?'

"You make it sound worse than it is." I tried to rationalize. "She's gonna be fine-"

'How could you even know that?' His voice and words cut me off. 'How could you even- I-I can't. I swear to all that is holy, if I don't see you again for the rest of my life, it would still be way too soon.'

"Tony-"

'Don't do that. There is no reason for Pepper to get roped in and you let it happen anyways.'

"There is a reason-" I tried again, only for him to hang up on me before I could finish what I was saying.

Already dreading the feeling in my gut, I set the helmet down and at first avoided looking at the people who were most definitely staring at me. After a second, I did return the questionable stares.

"There is a reason." I muttered awkwardly.

Steve was giving me a hesitant look before he said something to Natasha. She signed to me. {Are you sure?}

Honestly, I wasn't sure about anything. Letting Pepper get taken just seemed like the safest option for the timeline. Tony would reverse the sciencey bug that she caught after she manages to kill Killian and everyone would live happily ever after like every other one of these adventures.

Though, the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized how stupid I'd been. Of course Tony wasn't going to sweep this one under the carpet, especially not now. He's in a much more stressed out mindset than he was when the movie was over. The man thinks he's gonna lose Pepper and I just made myself the scapegoat by saying that I knew what was going on.

How dumb do I have to be-

My mind was preoccupied with worry before I remembered my previous work and decided to take it with a little bit more urgency. You know, everyone seems to make this garbage look easy in the transformer fanfics, but shit hurts when you're not Mary Sue material. The ransomware commission that was going to get me proof of existence was not going to be an easy thing to put together since I hadn't made one yet. The fun really started when I started to realize how little I'd actually considered the fact that police exist here too. Police, FBI...and...all those...other ones that could catch me for doing illegal shit online. There was a reason why I didn't do this so often back in 'super dead and destroyed home'. I didn't really need to spend life in prison.

Then again, would Fury really leave me to rot in a regular jail after knowing what I could do? Probably not, right? He would likely take me and hold me captive in SHIELD which isn't really much different, except they'd make me use my cool lightning thing there. Either way, the main goal here was to not get caught in the first place which added a lot of anxiety to my life as I watched the attacked oil brig go up in flames on the news the following morning.

The three avengers got called out that night by Fury though, leaving me once again alone with Happy. They kind of gave an awkward goodbye that Christmas Eve night and I woke up the next morning to a small box with a ribbon on the bedside table. That just got me back into a depressing mindset wherein I tried not to spiral while thinking about spending my second Christmas without my sister, and my first without either of my parents.

We used to have this dumb tradition where we'd try to succeed in putting the Elf on the Shelf in the funniest positions during the month of December. Mom, for some reason, always won on her last turn. It was like she spent the entire time building up to one big presentation when she knew she'd crush us. Christmas Day we'd lock him back up for next year because we were honestly all a little bit unnerved by it's creepy little eyes and smile.

I had to just sit there now in a hospital bed beside an unopened box that had my name on it's pretentious little label. Instead of looking at it for the first half of the day, I just got to work on the malware commission, seeing that Tony wasn't going to want anything to do with me. It was...worrying to think about considering that I'd be stuck on this planet for the near future, though, hopefully far away from where my contact said I'd get the best housing prices- Mississippi.

The box did get to be a little much though after a nurse had Happy signing papers and then passing me a glance before walking out and not saying anything. He was probably disturbed in the very least after what he must've heard from Tony. Now it was just me and that stupid box in the room.

"Alright, fuck it." I snatched it off the table and sighed to myself in annoyance, turning the little label over and trying to see if the giver left a name. "Great. Love mysterious gifts."

I inspected the box first, flipping it over in my hands and narrowing my eyes at the jewelry-type feel it had.

If they got me a necklace, I'm gonna send it back.

Flipping the lid open, my eyes diverted from the actual gift immediately as a small piece of paper fell out. As I looked back at the box though, the gift sort of confused me at first. I frowned at the watch as it flaunted a pretty black leather strap with silver hands and a charcoal face. It forced me to take a moment to question why the fuck someone would gift me a black watch thinking that it was something I might need. Then, of course, the note answered that million dollar question.

'Now you don't have to rely on wall clocks for important times.

Steve'

I sighed at that to myself and pulled the watch out to flip it over and pop open the back. "Oh, Steve. I'm not a dog."

Sure enough, the inside had a small electronic bit that did not belong in there at all, making me smile a little as I pulled it out.

"Have fun tracking…." I looked around before sticking it to the side of the bedside table. "This. Lovely gift though if you ignore the original intentions."

Okay, so the gift might've made me feel a tiny bit better about not having any family for Christmas, but still- jewelry isn't exactly the best at filling holes in the heart. I put the watch on regardless and made sure the time lined up before spending the rest of that day on my commission.

Another week passed while I was still in the hospital after that one lonely Christmas. I had too much time on my hands and ended up getting two more commissions for malware after I set up a link in Garage. Garage, for those who might not know, was just the online equivalent to some sort of sketchy backstreet market where they sell drugs, body parts, and hitmen. Okay, most of them were dugs, but it was starting to be effective for illegal money-making. I constructed, sold, and 'delivered' to two more people outside of my contact for extra cash since they'd both asked for the same thing.

Unsurprisingly enough, Tony didn't stop by. I assumed everyone else was still working or also hated me for existing because they too didn't come by. Fury called near the end of that week and told me Agents would be collecting me as soon as I was discharged on the sixth, so I booked it a day early on the fifth, effectively hanging Fury out to dry for the...third...fourth time maybe? I don't know. I just felt like I constantly disappointed that man, so it was a little much trying to keep track.

End-credits

"You can't just wait and expect him to ask you to the dance." I took another bite of my sandwich with a shrug. "Ask him yourself."

"Okay, but not all of us are as fearless as you." Kate rolled her eyes at me before addressing our friend again. "Lola, listen to me, if he doesn't ask you, you'll just go with me and Link."

When I didn't respond, she elbowed me in the side roughly and shot me a glare. "Right?"

"Ow!" I protested at the jab, shaking my head right after and taking another bite of my lunch. "Right."