Hi friendsss, bit short-ish, but I'm about to pass out and wanted to post for you all first!
Jayce POV
Dealing with Secretary Ross seeing Nat and I again wasn't fun. Especially not after he stared me down and threatened to out me to the world, expose my identity. In all honesty, I am still surprised that he hasn't.
It isn't like I would really mind anymore, I am no longer in school, my full-time job is basically this, so people knowing isn't much of a threat to begin with. But he thinks it is, which provides me with the power nonetheless.
Once we see Bruce, Natasha looks taken aback, like she had just gotten the wind knocked out of her. No surprise there considering the guy transforming green beast disappeared on her right after she opened her heart to him, placed it on full display.
Yet he just left. Without word. Was off-world for however long. And now he is asking for help.
The overall layout of the compound is seemingly the same, lab looks the same. I recognize all the tech I've used and instruments I've curated with Tony over two years ago on a table in the corner. Tells me he has been trying to develop them more, figure something out. Although I can't really tell what he figured out.
I was working on an oxygen supplying component to the suits. I figured it out with my own nanotech with my iron spider suit, so that going up great heights wouldn't suck all the oxygen away from me.
Tony made me aware of that malfunction in his own Iron Man suit when the Battle of New York went down. Having an experience like that myself once trying to save a plane going down, the high altitude almost stripped me of every last breath.
A problem that I was determined to fix.
Makes me wonder if he's cracked the code as well. Knowing Tony Stark, I can only imagine it wasn't much of a challenge.
While Natasha awkwardly greets her ex-flame, I veer off around the lab, giving Rhodey a quick handshake and asking about Tony's time spent here recently, if there's anything that can provide intel on him and Peter.
"Well, thanks to your two's work together, Tony had a suit made for Peter. Nanotech. Suit materializes around him, providing oxygen for high altitude situations."
My smile slants to the side as I look through the equipment, tapping on Dum-E and U's robotic arms and whistling, "Playtime. FRIDAY, how are you dear? Miss me?"
I can feel Natasha's eyes cast over to me briefly before looking back to Bruce. Only ever knew the guy through the footage I watched back in the Ultron days when I was still inmate zero in the Avengers' dungeon.
"That's Jayce Parker," I can hear Natasha say, to which Bruce nods slowly, "The one who helped us with that Ultron thing? The Spidergirl?"
"Just The Spider, Hulky, but yep. That's me. And you're the one who ghosted Natasha and flew off-world, breaking her heart, yeah?" I smirk to myself while my hands get busy manhandling the mess Tony left behind on a counter.
Looks like a computer threw up all over. There's bolts, grease, plates, hard drives, motherboards. I don't know what he was attempting to do but he's gotten messier. My eyes catch sight of a picture on the wall. Of Tony and Peter. A Stark Industries Internship certificate between them in its own picture frame. They looks smiley together, Peter looks thrilled.
I can only guess that the "internship" in question is Stark's cover story for helping him out in Germany back in the day. And Peter working as an "intern" Avenger while we've all been gone.
That's when it dawns on me.
This mess isn't Tony's on the desk. It's Peter's. All this junk looks like it came from a video game trading store. Peter's always liked looking through old trash or cheap technology, he enjoys fixing them up and creating things of his own.
"I um...yeah. Yeah, that's me. Didn't know you were still around," I hear Bruce speak up again. There's a nervousness to his voice, a bit of guilt residing for turning his back on Natasha, a twinge of intimidation dawning on the words rolling off his tongue from my first words spoken to him.
Sensing everyone's eyes on me, I tell FRIDAY to open up the files in the monitor, to go through Peter's data, attempting to get an idea of what he was trying to do before turning around with a wrench in hand, flipping it up and catching it, pressing my tongue to the inside of my cheek as I look the scientist up and down.
He staggers a bit. Only slightly. Barely noticeable to the normal eye, but someone with my senses and Natasha and Yelena's attentiveness to detail, we see the movement.
"Yep. Thought I'd stick around for a little. Guess that gives me the one-up on you, huh?" I wink and toss the wrench, laughing to myself as the nerve-wracked man tries to catch it, hands fumbling until he gets a decent grip, swallowing thickly until Natasha sighs, "We're here. Tell us about Thanos."
"Right, follow me."
I hear footsteps but I don't bother to follow just yet. My body pivots to face the monitors while FRIDAY pulls up all of Peter's work, tapping into his phone even.
"It seems as if Peter was looking for ways to contact you. Trying to build his own tracking device and somehow link it to your coordinates. He never quite figured out how to crack the case without having a direct signal from your end, however."
Pursing my lips, I stare down at the tech in front of me and lift up a nearly completely built model of a square tracking device. He's been trying to fit different drives and disks, coding and decoding, wiring...all to find me. When I told him not to.
If he did it could've put him in danger, not just me or Nat. But he never gave up.
And now he's the one who's gone.
"You gonna join or are you just going to find more ways to belittle Bruce?"
Having Stark's robots Dum-E and U clean up the tabletops, I walk across the lab, stealing a glance at the glass cube mechanism holding web fluid inside. There's prototype web shooters and test tubes filled, some darker shades, telling me Peter's been experimenting with different web types.
Smart kid.
We may have similar powers but he did not get the webs like I did, so he makes his own. Like a true genius.
Understanding that Natasha isn't quite waiting for a response, she is mostly just waiting for me to join everyone, I turn and walk towards the exit, mumbling, "I wasn't belittling. Just making sure he understands he fucked up."
"Well that's in the past. Like years in the past. And right now we need as much unity as possible so if you could just play nice, that would be much appreciated."
My ears pick up on the playful tone but I focus more on the underlying concern and frustration while I stop in my tracks. She may be trying to keep the peace, but Natasha isn't a robot, she isn't even a soldier. She is human and has emotions just like the rest of us and seeing someone she actually began to trust before he abandoned her and made her feel worthless is taking a toll on her. Whether she'll voice it or not.
She isn't made of stone, much to plenty of peoples' opinions or theories of the famed Black Widow. Natasha Romanoff is a human being with very tangible and real emotions, and she should be treated with care.
Yet Doctor Banner seemed to think otherwise for his own selfish reasons.
"Duly noted," I breathe out, kissing the top of her head before walking out of the room, glancing back to see her neck craned towards me, lips lifting into a small appreciative smile before joining me.
Once we step into the eyesight of the others, Wanda and Yelena glance at me with curiously arched eyebrows, to which I assume Natasha communicates wordlessly back that she has handled the situation.
Although there is not much of a situation, just a mutual understanding that I want to wrap my webs around Bruce's neck and pull until his big head pops right off.
Bruce takes a glance at me before Steve clears his throat and gets the conversation back on track.
"Alright. So, we gotta assume they're coming back, right? And they can clearly find us. We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?" Banner turns to Natasha who tilts her head and shrugs, "After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families."
"Who's Scott?" Bruce frowns and Steve quips, "Ant-Man."
Now the short scientist frowns, shaking his head while processing the information...rather slowly if I do say so myself, "Wait, so there's an Ant-Man, a Spider-man, and The Spider?"
"Says the man who turns into a giant green killing machine."
I didn't mean for it to come off as rude as it did, but when Natasha pinches me warningly, the hot pain from the definite scowling glare she's shooting at me, I smile innocently once the doctor turns to face me.
His cheeks get a bit red when he sees the close proximity of Natasha and I, his brain processing yet another tidbit of information, once again...slowly.
"Okay, look. Thanos has the biggest army in the Universe. And he's not gonna stop until he...he gets..." When the man trails off I follow his eyesight and look to Vision, who is standing, hand over his wound while gazing out at the view through the window.
"Vision's stone," Bruce finishes, rather hesitantly, and I can gather why. It would kill Vision to rip the stone out of his head.
"Well then, we have to protect it," Natasha settles on her plan instantly, making me smile just a bit but feel a weight on my chest, coming to the conclusion that it won't be that simple. Vision is a fascinating being, but he cannot protect himself against an entire army, especially not when Thanos already has some of the stones.
"No, we have to destroy it."
All eyes turn to the synthezoid. Briefly, I look to Wanda who is already standing at concerned attention, Yelena gently placing her hand against Wanda's bath, tracing smooth circles into her shirt while the redhead's nerves spike.
"I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also, its composition."
Vision turns to face Wanda, walking over cautiously to her while Yelena gives them a respectful amount of space, understanding that Wanda and Vision have a connection and friendship no one can deny, "I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something, very similar to its own signature, perhaps... Its molecular integrity could fail."
My eyes land on Natasha behind me who seems just as nervous as Wanda while my heart beats faster in my chest. This is what I knew Vision would say, he's selfless, and the only way he can think of keep the stone from Thanos is by having Wanda destroy it.
"Yeah, and you with it. We're not having this conversation," Wanda argues sternly but in a soft voice, her vulnerability shining through, the fear of losing yet another loved one overtaking her thinking.
I can understand that, though.
"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain Thanos cannot get it."
Taking in his words, my wheels start turning again. Vision's right. The stone does need to be destroyed. But who's to say he has to go with the destruction?
"That's too high a price," Wanda battles again but Vision won't let up.
"Only you have the power to pay it. Thanos threatens half the Universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him–" "But it should. We don't trade lives, Vision," Steve catapults into the tense discussion, grabbing the synthezoid's attention.
"Captain, 70 years ago, you laid your life down to save however many millions of people. Tell me, why is this any different?"
I watch on as they face one another and decide to cut in with my idea while the thoughts billow in, bouncing on the walls of my brain.
"Because you might have a choice."
Everyone turns to me and I look to Bruce with a short nod, then back to Vision, "Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, Bruce, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another."
My hands start speaking with me, recreating the movements of the stone's placement into Vision's head, the wiring the configurations of building such an incredible being like him.
And it's true, he is made up of so much, it's like losing a kidney, your body still operates without it, it won't take down the whole human if removed carefully and correctly.
"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Wanda's eyes glimmer hopefully, to which I smile softly and take her hand in mine, "I'm saying that...if we take the stone out, there's still a whole lot of Vision left."
"Perhaps the best parts," Bruce adds in lightly, then nods with an approving grin, "It could work."
"Can we do that?" Natasha asks but I snort, "Not me, not green brains over there. At least not here with the minimally advanced technology we have."
Bruce frowns slightly which only makes me shrug, "What? It's true."
"Well you better find someone, and somewhere fast. Ross isn't exactly just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back."
Clicking my tongue, I look to Nat for ideas but she just shakes her head. Yelena sighs and mumbles, "Well that was lame." That earns an elbow to the gut from Wanda, causing the blonde Russian to keel over with a pained chuckle until Steve speaks.
"I know somewhere."
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A/N: Ahhh I'm living for angry/slightly jealous Jayce.
What do you think will happen?
What do you want to happen?