<> = different language/ Low German that people in and near the Elbe district speak. And yes I did a lot of research on this. I'm tired.
My head hurts.
Wait no, scratch that. Everything hurts.
That was the first thing I thought before I woke up with a start. And when I say start, I mean gasping for breath and my chest heaving desperately to cool down and air out my body to dry the quart of water in me.
I flipped myself over right before I threw up the water on the wood floor, dry heaving. Wait, wood floor?
I whipped my head up and looked around to see a crew of fishermen surrounding me, staring at me surprised.
"<Ah, the blueberry is awake! Hello, blueberry>!" The fisherman in front of me greeted in Low German and thank gods I'm an intelligence system or I would have no idea what they were saying.
"<Where did you come from>?" Another asked in concern at the random girl they fished out of the river.
"<I came from Prague and accidentally fell in the river>," I lied shortly before going to look up my coordinate but stopped when I realized Beck probably hacked into my program and will know where I am if I enable my location. I looked around the boat and the shocked fishermen and saw we weren't far off from land. "<Uh...do you mind telling me where we are?>"
"<You came from Prague?! Blueberry, you're in Mühlberg, Germany>," the man in front of me informed with wide eyes making me choke on the air in surprise.
"<WHAT?! Oh I am so going to kill Peter when I see him I- oh my gods he might already be dead>," I rambled, freaking out. I tried to stand up but I felt the arc reactor in my chest spark and sizzle under my hoodie and felt pain shoot through my body. I fell back, groaning.
"<How are you even alive>?" He demanded incredulously causing me to whip my head back at him.
"<Uhh... I'm pretty scrappy>," I shrugged carelessly before attempting to get up again which was painful but successful. "<Do you guys mind if we dock and I borrow one of your phones to call my...dad>?" I asked, wincing at the sharp pain coming from my chest.
"<Of course not! Let's go, let's go>!" He shouted at the other men who hurried off to their positions to help the hurt, crazy lady from the ocean. "<Here, take my phone your dad is probably worried sick about you>," he said handing me his phone making me smile at him.
"<Thank you>," I said genuinely before typing in Happy's number and turning around as the phone rang.
"Hello-?" I heard him start on the other end but I interrupted him before he could say any more.
"Happy get your ass on a jet and go to Mühlberg, Germany and come pick me up," I demanded in English.
"Hailey? What are you doing in Mu- Mulberg?" Happy questioned, not sounding really surprised which surprised me instead but I ignored that.
"It's Mühlberg and Beck, Mysterio, is a vengeful psycho who is bitter at the world and my father and is about to cause a lot of destruction so I need you to come get me. Me and Peter got separated so he could be dead or somewhere in Europe," I summarized into the phone quietly so none of the fishermen would hear me.
"I just got a phone call from Peter, he's fine. He's in The Netherlands and some weird sounding town," Happy assured making me sigh in relief. "I'm already heading there, just sit tight."
"Alright, I'll see you then. Bye," I said simply before hanging up and handing it back to the man. "<Thanks. You know where I might find a toolbox>?" I asked him, knowing I had to fix my reactor and fast.
"<Ah, yes. It's on board in the wheelhouse. Why>?" He asked curiously, tilting his head slightly.
"<I need to fix something>," I shrugged nonchalantly, avoiding the question which seemed fine by him.
...
After a couple of hours of fixing my reactor only partly so I didn't die right then and there in the gas station bathroom, I heard the distant rumble of a jet that I wouldn't have heard without my enhanced hearing. I stumbled out of the broken down building and saw the shape of a jet far in the sky heading to a distant crop field. I ran through the road to the field, feeling the pain in my chest worsen but chose not to care. As I got near my safe haven I saw the door open and mechanical stairs unravel out
"Hailey?" Happy called out in surprise at my mangled and still slightly damp appearance as I limped toward him breathlessly.
"Happy, oh thank fuck!" I exclaimed in absolute relief, jogging up to him but stopped. What if this was a trick? What if Beck found me and this is just another illusion? "Wait, wait, wait. Tell me something only you would know!" I said putting up my hand for him to stop walking towards me.
"Uh...okay?" He answered back like a question, confused at the demand but didn't question it, thinking for a moment. "Remember when you were younger you would always sneak out with Harley or just fly around and I always caught you but always let you go? Well sometimes I would disable the cameras in and around your room so J.A.R.V.I.S. or F.R.I.D.A.Y. wouldn't tell on you to Tony. That's why no one ever knew about except for me," Happy admitted, referencing the first secret I ever shared with anyone which was him. I felt weight leave me shoulders and I immediately ran up and hugged him, resisting the urge to cry.
"I've never been more happy to see you, Happy," I laughed weakly at my joke and I heard him scoff quietly.
"Alright c'mon, we need to get Peter and get the hell out of here before the hillbillies realize there's a jet in their crops," Happy pushed me along and shut the jet down when we were inside. I stumbled over to the white couch as I took off my black hoodie to reveal my ripped tank top and flopped on top of it, groaning. The arc reactor snapped, cracked, and popped making me wince at the pain.
"You did it?" Happy asked in surprise, gesturing to the reactor in the middle of my chest. I tipped my head up and we shared a look before I bent my head down once again.
"Obviously," I grunted, taking out the arc reactor from my chest and examined the fractured piece of tech. "I can probably fix it before we get to Peter I just need a screwdriver, a pair of tweezers and some Tungsten," I shrugged, going to the nearby cabinets and pulled out an emergency repair kit specifically designed for me. Thank the gods Happy is so paranoid he put a kit in ever car and jet Stark Industries has ever owned.
"Gods, kill me," I groaned, reaching my hand in the box and fished out a mini screwdriver with a Phillips head. I screwed out the top metal sheet of the device and got to work. I felt the plane on autopilot start to take off for Poland as I continued to block out the world and this stressful situation to focus on keeping myself alive and absorb myself in my work.
"I didn't think you'd actually do it," Happy confessed thoughtfully, gesturing to my fathers arc reactor in my hands.
"Neither did I. For years I prided myself on never becoming him. But here I am, still fixing his messes and still being traumatized by him even when he's 6ft under. Weirdly, I am not that surprised," I mused, rolling my eyes as I replaced a set of open wires in the small device. "And here I am, actively avoiding death. What have I become, Happy?" I questioned rhetorically, dripping with sarcasm like usual using it as a shelter for emotional talks and reality.
"I don't know but I definitely didn't see it coming," he laughed softly making me laugh along with him.
"I mean, am I going to become him? Is Peter? Was Beck right? I...I don't want to be him, Happy. I can't be. And this," I lifted up the reactor. "Is one of the many, many ways I'm like him and I hate it," I seethed, closing my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose.
"Hailey...just because you have an arc reactor now doesn't mean you're a copy of him," Happy sighed and I returned it, rolling my eyes.
"Well obviously, Happy, I know that. Beck got in my head and I can't get that asshole out!" I grumbled, turning back to continue to work on the reactor bitterly. "All I can hear in my head is Beck saying that I'm just a mere copy of him, just a collection of his habits and addictions. And I can't make him shut up," I fumed bitterly, sticking my eyes on the device and refusing to look back at Happy.
"Hailey...just the fact that you think this, that you are this self aware means you aren't him," Happy softly laughed humorlessly. "You have your own different goals, ideas, and ideals than him, you've always have. I've seen you grow for your entire life and I can tell you with a 100 percent certainty, you are your own person," he swore making me purse my lips in an attempt to not choke on the air around me.
"Thanks, Happy," I sniffed, brushing away a loose tear before coughing awkwardly and looking down to my reactor. My reactor.
...
I heard the reactor click as I twisted the final screw in place, letting me know it is officially repaired. I smiled victoriously and shoved it back in my chest giving me some sort of power high and instantly making me feel better. I looked out the window, seeing we were dropping to the ground and we landed in some sort of flower garden in Poland. Peter.
Happy opened the door, the stairs spilling out as well and we both walked out to see Peter limping towards us with bruises and cuts all around him. I didn't look nearly as bad since I was almost dry already while Peter looked like he got hit with a car.
"Peter? Are you ok?" Happy called out, walking down the stairs with me behind him trying to push him to make him move faster.
"What kind of question is that?" I demanded, gesturing to the obviously-not-okay teenage boy looking like he was a hair away from collapsing.
"Happy, Hails, is that actually you guys?" Peter asked making my already fractured artificial heart break a little more at the hesitant and scared tone in his voice.
"Is it us...? Yeah, of course it's us," Happy responded, giving him a concerned look as he walked down the mechanic stairs and through the tulips but I knew why he was asking.
"Stop!" Peter exclaimed suddenly, raising a hand in a stop gesture making Happy and I freeze in our tracks. "Tell me something only you guys would know," he required to prove we weren't holograms under Becks control.
"Only I would know..." Happy trailed off, thinking for a moment before deciding on something. "Remember when we went to Germany? You pay-per-viewed a video in your room? They didn't list the titles, but I could tell by the price, it was an adult film at the front desk. And you didn't know how I knew-"
"Ok, ok! Fine! It's you, it's you. Please stop," Peter interrupted, his ears turning pink.
"Uh...ok I'm going to choose not to acknowledge that right now," I decided, glossing over that part of this conversation before thinking for a moment. "One time at school when you thought no one was looking you took two star war figures and acted out an entire scene between them and then made them kiss while looking over your shoulder every five seconds like you were a cartoon burglar. You thought no one noticed but I did," I admitted making his face erupt in a smile of relief that we were real and walked forward but I stopped him and Happy from walking forward.
"Hey, hey, hey! Your turn!" I stopped him making him freeze and think for a moment.
"You once forgot a ribbon you used to hold up your hair at my apartment and instead of giving it back to you...I kept it," Peter admitted, looking into my eyes. I felt myself soften at the confession and let go of Happy letting him power walk towards Peter but I jogged past Happy and wrapped my arms around his neck softly so I wouldn't hurt him. He immediately wrapped his arms around my waist burying his head in my hair.
"You're okay...you're okay..." I whispered into the crook of his neck mostly to myself, still trying to convince myself this was real and not just an illusion. That he was real. When we finally pulled away he cupped my face in his hands gently, his eyes scanning my face for injuries like he was trying to memorize every detail.
"You two are going to have to tell me what the hell is going on here," Happy demanded suddenly causing us to separate and awkwardly look at Happy and his confused expression.
...
"Hold still," I murmured behind him as I put the needle through his skin again to stitch up his open wound on his back. Happy sat across the aisle as I tended to his wounds, a tradition in our duo that continues even now. "There we go," I muttered as I continued to do another stitch, feeling him wince.
"I thought you had super strength," Happy pointed out watching him squirm slightly at the pain.
"It still hurts," Peter grumbled, fiddling with a glass to take his mind off the pain. I poked his skin again, running the thread through the hole and tightening it lightly making Peter recoil.
"Hailey, come on," Peter rushed but I ignored his need to go faster, knowing I had to be careful.
"It's fine, I promise. Just a few more. There we go," I reported calmly finishing another stitch and went on to another.
"Oh my god, Hailey," Peter whined but I ignored him like I usually did when he got irritated at my speed or my helpfulness on making sure he didn't get infected and die inSTEAD OF BEING GRATEFUL LIKE A NORMAL PERSON—
"Relax," I said simply said making Peter stand up and take the needle still sticking out of his skin with him.
"Don't tell me to relax, Hailey! How can I relax when I messed up so bad?" Peter exploded making me set my hands down from when I was holding the needle. I sighed, knowing this was coming but hoped we could move past it.
"I trusted Beck. Right? I thought he was my friend. So I gave him the only thing Mr. Stark left behind for me, and now he's gonna kill my friends and half of Europe, so please do not tell me to relax," he ranted before slumping down in a seat, running his hand through his hair anxiously after Happy and I calmly listened.
"I'm sorry, Hailey. I'm sorry. I shouldn't yell at you," Peter apologized genuinely. "I just really miss him," Peter admitted quietly making me look down, not saying anything. 'If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.'
"I get it," I acknowledged lightly. I missed him too, despite my better judgment but I didn't miss him like Peter did. I missed the possibility of him, the possibility that I could have an actual father-daughter relationship with him not a creepy boss-employee relationship. The possibility that I could actually have a dad. And now that possibility, that hope, is dead.
"Yeah, I miss him too," Happy confessed in return and he glanced at me, knowing full well my feelings on this and how much I'm dying inside.
"Everywhere I go... I see his face. And...the whole world is asking who's gonna be the next Iron Man and... I don't know if that's me. I'm not Iron Man," Peter choked with his permanently red eyes.
"Peter..." I breathed, not knowing what to say.
"You're not Iron Man," Happy spoke up making both of us look at him. "You're never gonna be Iron Man. Nobody could live up to Tony. Not even Tony," Happy started making me look down so no one noticed my resentful expression. Father was so mythologized in his life it is literally making Peter fall apart. This is why we don't idolize people, people!
"Tony was my best friend. And he was a mess. He second-guessed everything he did. He was all over the place. The one thing that he did that he didn't second-guess was picking you," Happy said and I resisted the urge to give him a look. Yes, yes he did and I had to scream at him that Peter was the best choice and an amazing hero. But whatever gets through Peters thick skull.
"And I don't think Tony would have done what he did, if he didn't know that you were gonna be here after he was gone," Happy finished and it seemed to lessen his pain, or at least emotion that is. But it wouldn't help him in the long run. He would still be dependent on my fathers approval even when he's dead and I couldn't take it anymore. I stomped up to him and crossed my arms.
"You want to know my opinion? Forget about him," I stated bluntly, standing up and I saw Happy furrow his eyebrows in my peripheral vision and Peter looked up to face me.
"Forget about being him and forget about what he would do. The world already had a Tony Stark and it was terrible until a single moment right before the end. He killed hundreds of thousands of people, possibly millions, and erased an entire country off the map. The world doesn't need another Iron Man. It needs you," I emphasized, looking into his bloodshot eyes.
"Now, your friends are in trouble and your tech is missing. What are you gonna do about it?" Happy asked going off of my encouragement. Tailcoat rider.
"I'm gonna kick his ass," Peter decided with determination, standing up from his tacky chair. How the hell did he look hot while being a second away from death?
"Okay, love the determination and violence, it's super hot, but not an actual plan," I pointed out.
"Yeah, I mean, I mean, I mean right now. Like specifically what are we gonna do? Because we've been hovering over a tulip field for the last 15 minutes," Happy observed and pointed to him in agreement.
"Right. I can't call my friends because he's tracking their phones," Peter muttered and we looked at Happy expectantly.
"What?"
"Happy. Your phone," I prodded in a 'duh' tone.
"Oh," he mumbled sheepishly, fishing out his phone from his pocket and handed it over to Peter. We stared at him again.
"What now?"
"What's your password?" Peter asked slowly and I shook my head at him.
"Oh. Password," Happy answered making Peter look down to the phone and glanced back up at him.
"No, what is your password?"
"Password, the word spelled out, password."
"You're head of security, and your password is password?"
"You're my head of security and your password is password? What the hell dude?" I repeated incredulously, giving him a look.
"I don't feel good about it either," Happy defended and I rolled my eyes as Peter scrolled through Instagram.
"What are you...?" I trailed off in confusion as I watched him go to Flash's profile and tapped on his recent blog.
"I'm gonna be in London soon-" I heard Flash announce on the phone to his "fans" that were definitely bought followers.
"They're in London. London, ok," Peter muttered to himself in thought as I saw his mind whirring with a plan. "Yeah, I need a suit."
"Well duh," I rolled my eyes and flicked my wrist in the direction of the cockpit making electricity shoot from my hand and enable the 'tech deck' (not my awful nickname) to come alive. The entire back wall of the jet opened up revealing an entire work area and a 3D suit printer with screens surrounding pretty much everything. My old charging port stood in the corner, just in case of emergency's, and I remembered the port also comes with nanotech suit adjustments that can be used for my old nanoparticle compartment and my new one.
Peter stood in awe at the secret technology before walking into the area making the room come alive. I walked over to my charging port and hopped right in, grinning as it came alive as well. A hologram appeared in front of me when I got in position, waiting for a command.
"Okay, open everything on Circuit," I commanded, showing me my full list of suits I had designed over the course of my life. "Aw, I remember this one," I reminisced when I saw the first suit I had ever designed. It was a stereotypical superhero suit, a mask that only covered a slither of my face aka my eyes and eyebrows paired with cute but impractical shoes and extremely impractical and useless cape. Yes, an actual cape. It was almost shameful.
I flipped through the list before I found one I had been recently working on. I smirked and tapped on that one making the machine whir and I smelled the familiar scent of oil and an assortment of metal.
"You take care of the suits. I'll take care of the music," Happy grinned turning towards the cockpit and clicked a button on the above console. AC/DC started blasting from the speakers making me grin and shake my head at Happys usual taste in music.
"Oh, I love Led Zeppelin!" Peter shouted to be heard through the music. I blinked and turned my head toward him in absolute astonishment at him. "What?"
"You are so lucky you're cute," I stared at the clueless boy before shaking my head making his ears turn pink. "Now let's get this show on the road!"