(song above dedicated to Tony Stark (obviously))
ESTHER:
"So far we know that the Omega is inside Nebula's ship. And we're almost positive that it contains the Time Gem," I tell Rogers to catch him up on the conversation he missed when he was staying in here.
"And you two? You can reset the day anymore?" he asks Loki and I.
Me and the mischief god exchange a look and he seems bummed. I am not too happy about that fact either and I sigh. "No we can't... We have... lost eight lives," I say, referencing the myth about cats.
The only people in here right now are me, Loki, Steve, and Wanda. Honestly it's weird seeing our Captain with a beard.
"If we were all on the same page sooner we could have avoided some injuries probably... but we're just glad everyone is alive," I say.
"Is that your polite way of saying this hole in my abdomen is my fault?" he lifts his brows at me.
I keep from laughing and instead look like I'm delivering bad news. "Steve... that piece of vibranium is your shield not your body."
"Oh... damn... I wish you had told me that sooner," he sighs.
I let myself giggle and Wanda is laughing too.
But I look to the right when Stark walks in with Bruce. "Cap. Looks like playtime's over," Tony says. "We need you better."
That's when a woman enters, Asian with long black hair tied neatly into a bun, and wearing a uniform that I am guessing is from where she was working across the sea in either Korea or Japan by the looks of it.
"So without further banter I'd like you to meet Doctor Helen Cho," he finishes.
"How exactly does this work?" I ask as they operate on a fully conscious Steve Rogers lying flat on his hospital bed while her machine (which is basically just a thick arch that is over his bed set up with some chunky parts that look like a work in progress still) projecting a laser like light over the hole in his abs. He isn't even flinching so I know it doesn't hurt. Probably just feels weird. It is currently filling in the space and repairing the broken skin and flesh that was trying to fix itself already. The weird part is that it looks like it is healing naturally but sped up faster than normal. Roger's hospital down is pulled down to his hips so that they can work on his stomach area but his bottom half is covered up of course. And she already fixed his arm which had a nasty wound in it as well.
In fact even after she explains it to me I still have no idea what is happening.
"She's basically creating tissue," Bruce says to me. He had come by to check out this fascinating procedure.
Pietro is in here now too standing beside his sister who is standing at Steve's bedside, her hand on the sheets as she watches. Jane is also here just in fascination for this technology. "That's really... incredible," she says to her.
"It may look like a fake tissue that fills in where it's needed like a cavity on a tooth, but this process is natural. It's merely speeding up the healing process and multiplying cells faster. We have been correcting this over the last few years but a few months ago was when it was perfected," she says as she works.
"This must be really useful in a time like this," I say.
"When the invasion started we were able to use our machine to repair wounded soldiers―mostly of higher rank―so that they can return to duty when they need to. We couldn't afford to use it on everyone but it has definitely helped us," she replies.
"Could we keep you in town for a few days to heal us after we take out Nebula?" I lift a brow and look up at her.
"I can only stay for two days. After that I will have to go back..."
"Not even gonna stay for the after party?" Tony says with offense.
Pietro and I chuckle and Nat smiles with amusement. He always has to joke doesn't he?
"Will he be able to move normally afterwards?" Wanda asks Cho.
"He will need to sit still for a couple of hours once the procedure is finished but after that, yes mobility will return," she says to her with a kind smile.
"Thank you very much for this," Nat tells her. "We will compensate you for it."
"For what he's done for the world I probably already owe him my life, as the same goes for every one of you," she says honestly as she finishes up her work.
I smile at that. I'm certainly not used to getting any form of praise like these heroes and it's not what I work for but it feels nice, I admit. I always kind of looked at it as a duty instead of a charity...
"Alright, Captain Rogers, you can stay there for now and if you can, try not to move for at least an hour. Once you feel strong enough after that, you should be back to normal." She shuts off her machine and gets her equipment out of the room.
"Stuck in that position for an hour? What if he has to pee?" I ask her while looking at him, amused.
He chuckles and looks away from me.
"I am going to eat lunch. See you later, lumberjack," I tell him before leaving and taking Loki's hand to drag him along with me.
WANDA:
"You don't have to do this," Steve tells me as I sit on his lap and focus, using a comb and tiny scissors to trim his bushy beard.
"Stop moving or I'll snip you, Capcicle," I say with sass.
He frowns at me but tries not to chuckle, his eyes smiling as much as they can to express his amusement without moving the lower half of his face. I had changed into a very comfy black dress that's quite plain, and stops at halfway to my knee. And I'm just wearing my boots with it and a soft black grunge jacket rolled up to my elbows as I work.
"I did this for Pietro when both of his arms were numb," I mention.
His brows tense a little bit. "Is there a story behind that?"
I giggle a little, my smile showing my teeth as I clip again. "Um yeah he was messing around with the lab that we weren't supposed to be in and told me specifically, 'Wanda relax nothing is gonna happen' right before he accidentally shot himself with a Hydra Stun Gun that was still being worked on."
He snickers. "Sounds like you guys were quite the troublemakers."
"We both are naturally rebellious but sometimes he takes it too far," I say honestly.
He is smiling at me as I concentrate on cutting straight. But I can feel his eyes piercing mine, taking in my face into his memory and resisting the urge to brush my hair from my cheek like he wants to. I really need to stop reading his mind.
"Looks like you are the one who took it too far this time, however," I tease him.
He lifts his brows. "Nice try, little troublemaker. But I got this injury because of you," he teases back.
"I didn't ask you to jump in front of me!" I giggle as I take the scissors off his skin.
"I saw it in your eyes," he jokes.
"Oh is that how we're playing it? Well then your eyes are telling me you want to marry me." I give him a look like I just won the argument.
He frowns. "That can't be right."
I laugh. "Don't worry I would never say 'yes'."
He snickers. "Remember that time you told me you wouldn't lie to me anymore?"
I giggle and he chuckles as I go back to work on the other side of his beard. "You know I bet if I was in your day I would be considered a whore if I did this."
"Oh no, that's not the reason you'd be considered a whore," he assures.
I slap him lightly on the cheek.
"Hey. That's not fair when I can't fight back," he says sternly.
"Exactly. Now shut up and don't make me angry while I'm holding scissors."
He smiles amusingly before obeying and letting me help him with the rest of the trim. I have already sculpted the edges on his cheeks and then under the jaw to give it a nice shape.
"You didn't get an education after you were ten, did you?" he asks after a I am done and he's had a long moment of thinking deeply.
I hesitate, my eyes drifting down after I have cleaned up the pieces of hair and tossed them in the garbage easily by using telekinesis. I play with my fingers and then shake my head.
The sympathy in his eyes looks so sweet that I could be mistaken for an injured toddler by the expression. "...What did you want to be then?"
"A nurse," I remember back on that.
I take a breath when I recall more. "I would give my stuffed animals check ups and then animals that Pietro caught. I remember when he let a frog loose in the house... we were in such trouble."
He is looking at me with his eyes smiling more than his lips as he listens and imagines me as a tiny child trying to put a thermometer in a teddy bear's mouth.
I just look down and smile a little. Then I look at him. "What about you?"
He lifts his brows... "Well... I changed my mind a lot as a kid. Firefighter, cop, army pilot―things like that. And then soldier... in any way I just wanted to serve my country..."
"You're either just an adrenaline junky or a complete warrior by heart."
He chuckles and looks away. "No I... actually hate being in those situations without cause. I always threw up when I went on rollercoasters," he looks down with embarrassment.
I giggle. "You did?" I say through laughing.
"What's so funny?" he chuckles but looks offended.
I laugh harder and put my hand to my face.
He thinks my laugh is cute so it makes him laugh more but once that dies down I shake my head.
He looks at me with those sweet eyes until he furrows his brows and cocks his head to the side just barely. "If you could go to college now what would you want to do?"
"I don't know..." I breathe through my nose as I think... "I think I would like to take physics... to better understand..." I lift my hand to let the crimson mist fold between my fingers, "...myself." I look at him.
He smiles as his eyes dance around my fingers.
It used to make me feel bittersweet to look at my powers... half liking what I can do, but half thinking only about the painful experiments; as if I am just a product of their madness. But now I think I am something... unique. I don't care if it's because of what they did. My curse is now my gift. And I'm going to use it for good.
I am content with it and myself. I look at him and immediately I know he is too.
I look away before I blush and then realize something. "Well," I frown, "if your legs weren't numb before they are now."
He nods a little but doesn't look like he regretted having me sit on his thighs even if it makes him uncomfortable. It was really the only way I could get to his face properly, however. But I hop off him at once and flatten my lips at him. "Sorry."
He waves it off but then thinks of something. "What time is it?"
"Um... I think six." I walk to the window and open it to see the sun setting over the city buildings.
"It's been two hours then," he sighs... "right?"
I pull my sleeves down to my wrists again and nod... Then I walk back over to him hesitantly. "Are you ready?" I ask to make sure.
He nods, sitting up but his abdomen muscles are still a bit stiff and numb. I take his hand and help him a little though he doesn't need it. I put my other hand on his shoulder as he swings his legs over the side. I tuck my hair behind my ears and wait for him.
He breathes, keeping his gaze on the ground. I think he still feels embarrassed about all this but I don't want him to be. It's an injury and he needs to treat his body well, even if it's stronger than a normal body, it's not invincible. And it's not about being masculine. It's just health. I don't think him any less manly after this at all. And he knows that now. Which is why he is completely okay with me being here and helping him...
We can be vulnerable around each other and I cherish that.
He breathes and steps down, sliding off the bed. I hold his hand tight to make sure he's not dizzy. And when he's standing again I remember how much taller he is than me.
His eyes concentrate as he takes long breaths an stands up straight, not appearing to be affected much at all with pain. To test it, he takes a couple steps and seems relieved.
I stand in front of him and try to make out his expression. "How do you feel?"
He looks down and a smile slowly stretches on his lips. I, too, was looking down where he was stepping and then my eyes go back to him as I give him a wide smile.
"It doesn't hurt..." he decides, finding that amazing considering the pain he was in only yesterday. He looks over at me with gladness in his eyes and I think some amusement from how I am looking at him.
"It doesn't hurt," I repeat, believing it myself as I smile even wider and my brows lift before I crack a happy laugh.
He reflects my expression from my reaction and I put my hand to my mouth to contain it. I am not sure why I am so glad right now... maybe it's just the first time I have ever received good news and I don't know how to handle it. But I grin from ear to ear and throw my arms around him with a small squeal as he laughs, just as happy as me.
We stand in front of the window overlooking the city as he hugs me back tightly, my eyes shutting to enjoy his hand on my hair and the other on my back.
I pull back a little to look up at him, showing him my teeth with a grin and then giggling a little more as he looks just so sweetly into my eyes and puts his forehead against mine. I close my eyes again and my hands come to his jaw on either side, loving the feeling of his thick facial hair on my palm. We don't hesitate to let the distance between us disappear and I lean up almost on my toes as he leans down, his amazingly full lips taking mine as his own in the most passionate kiss I have ever felt. My insides are suspended like a flutter of bliss in my stomach that rises to my heart.
His hands are on my lower waist now as I enjoy the taste of American lips, so much love and devotion in every motion he makes, as if he's writing a love poem with each gesture. It melts me and gives me a feeling of complete joy that I have never felt before. This is the first thing in my life that feels right. This is good... and I love how this makes me feel. I love how he makes me feel. God I wish I could feel like this all the time. Could I? I hope so. If he stays by my side I may get that...
My mind picks up his emotions and how much affection he feels for me when his lips collide with mine that it makes the sensation a hundred times more extraordinary.
I giggle when we part and lick my lips, loving the taste. His hands come up to hold my face with such gentle care in his touch. There's something in his reaction that I pick up subconsciously as surprise... what could he be surprised about? I think he may be feeling something new like I am... something he hasn't felt before with anybody. And he likes it. With his eyes widened slightly and his brows tensed he comes back for more, gripping my neck and tangling his fingers in my brown locks as I gladly return his kiss. My hands fall to his waist now and I grip him there just above his hips, my fingers feeling his muscles that are under the thin hospital gown.
I can't tell you how happy I feel. It's simply indescribable. The war, the pain, the loss... it all falls away for just this one perfect moment that my lips find his over and over and passion is flooding our senses. He pulls me closer to him and I laugh, completely overjoyed when I throw my arms around his neck again.
ESTHER:
"If the brain is inside the ship, we'll need a way up there without getting blown to bits," I say as I look over what data we have available. I know her ship has turrets on the exterior.
"Is there not a way to just blow up the whole ship?" Barton asks.
"Nukes. That's all that would work," Natasha says.
"I arranged a meeting with the Secretary of Defense today at the military base on the coast. Hopefully he'll give us some answers as to why they haven't done that yet and how we can do it," Tony tells us.
"Even if that ship can blow up with a nuclear strike I want to make sure that brain does too instead of falling down with the wreckage where it may survive," I say.
"That thing's directly over the city," Bruce says as he looks out the window at it. "If there's wreckage it's going to kill half the population of Manhattan."
I shut my mouth as I think.
Loki looks at me, knowing I don't want that to happen... "Could we get it away from the city?" he asks them.
"If there's a way to intercept the control room I'm sure there's a way to pilot it towards the ocean," Nat says.
"Nebula's not gonna let that happen," I say surely as I look down at the scan of the ship on the observation table.
"Then we will have to draw her out. Some kind of distraction?" Steve suggests.
The entire Asgard crew looks at Thor.
He seems confused as he returns their glances with his brows furrowed. "What?"
"Oh... have you forgotten your nickname amongst us when we were in training?" Loki jests.
He looks up in though. "Big dummy?"
"No the other one."
He frowns and starts thinking for a long time... "... ... ... ... ... Goldilocks?"
Loki sighs. "Nevermind."
"Thor is always the best at smashing or talking his way out of... anything," Sif says with attitude, smiling as if remembering times when that was useful.
He pops up one brow and looks away. "I don't know if I should say 'thank you' or not."
"Well they were mostly things Loki got us in trouble for," Fandral comments.
Loki doesn't disagree but he looks down with a dry chuckle. "As humorous as those incidents were, I believe my pig headed brother got you into more chaos than I did," he argues.
"I did not!" Thor retaliates.
"He is rather pigheaded," I add, smirking.
"Aha! See?" Loki proves.
"Can we get back to the plan please?" Tony interrupts, angry.
"Right. So Thor can take his marry band of weirdos and distract Nebula―" I say.
"How?" Volstagg asks.
"You'll think of something," I say as I look at my work, writing down what we have thought of so far.
"How do we get up there?" Loki asks me.
I think on that and then glance over to Sif and the Warriors Three. "Did you guys keep that airship?"
Thor looks at them, wondering if they did.
"Fortunately," Sif answers.
I mark that down. "Right, good. So we'll take that and Thor and his friends can have the S.H.I.E.L.D. ship. Nebula probably has an army at her hand as well."
"The Chitauri?" Loki asks me.
I look at him with slight fear in my eyes. "If their allegiance was to Thanos then... probably..." I look back down. Great we have Nebula, Hydra, Mimics, and the Chitauri to worry about.
"I don't know. I haven't seen any more aliens come out of that thing," Natasha says.
"Maybe she's keeping them inside, to guard her ship," Wanda says.
Steve takes a deep breath. "That way she can make sure no one would get through," he realizes.
"Then... we will have to take everyone we can in there," I say. "Tony you and Banner can head to the piloting station while the Hulk clears a passage for you to do so. You'd be the best to figure out how to navigate the way to drive that massive thing. Let's see, Loki and I will find the brain and kill it, everyone else will take out as many aliens as you can and find where they are coming from. No doubt she has a portal opened up in there if she has the Tesseract still. So you'll have to take it or find a way to break whatever she is using to draw power from it. Hopefully they can find a way to blow this thing up once we get it over the water and as long as Nebula is distracted we should be okay. I'm not sure how much power that gem she has gives her but if all else fails we can converge on her and take her out. She won't be able to take us all at once. Sound like a plan?" I look up to see everyone's eyes on me, some looks being exchanged but no one really arguing for something better.
Steve is looking at me like a proud father, smirking just slightly.
I frown at myself. "Wait did I just come up with a whole plan myself?" I realize, looking almost frightened that I can do that, dropping my pencil.
Loki chuckles at my reaction and looks down.
"Yeah I thought you and Capcicle switched bodies for a second," Tony remarks.
"I wouldn't mind. The first thing I would do is play with my man boobs," I say plainly.
"Does that mean I'd have to become a lesbian?" Wanda whines.
"Oh like Loki?" I ask.
The man of mischief glares at me with offense.
Rogers starts chuckling.
"Okay I do have one question," Clint interrupts.
I groan.
He ignores me. "If there are turrets all over that thing, how are we going to get up there alive? She'll shoot us down immediately."
"It's a shame we don't know a super genius billionaire who could invent or build anything he wanted..." Tony sighs as he looks out the window.
Everyone in the room looks over at him expectantly.
"Did you all think my time I spent here was just lollygagging?" Tony tells us as he walks through the basement of the building that he's adapted into his own lab.
We start at the edge and see a stand that holds something; a canon launch pad that contains a strange looking missile.
"This is what I have to fire at Nebula's little moon. It can travel up to one-thousand miles on its own and when collides with an object it creates a shield around it. Nothing can get through that barrier or break it. Now unfortunately that means no one will be able to leave while it's up. So when the time is right I will have to bring down the barrier for you to enter the ship and then bring it back up as soon as you land."
"And you'll have to remove it when we fire the nuclear missile," Rogers says to him.
"Exactly."
"Wow, you made this whole thing in just a couple days?" I ask in surprise.
"Oh I'm not finished," he says. "Let's walk this way..." he turns and leads us on. "We can't fight an alien army in the crap you guys brought so luckily I made us some new toys. Let's start with Cap." He brings us to a table where Rogers' shield lies. "I should say this in a way you'd understand," he sighs, mocking him. "I inserted a chip into the arm band of your suit and then one in the shield so when you need it to come back to you all you have to do is flex your fingers into a fan. The connection will be so strong that nothing except your command could release it from your arm."
He nods and definitely understands that.
"And of course a new suit considering your old one was torn up and kind of... repulsive―"
Steve glares at him.
"Anyway this one is mostly bullet proof with plates of Kevlar inside the fabric and with a better over all movement and quality of it should last through a lot which is good considering you're the canon fodder―"
He shoots him another glare.
"Kidding," he stops chuckling. "As I was saying this should help your lazy one-hundred-year-old ass around because of the better boots and overall fit―You know what? I'm thinking you should keep the beard I like it―"
"Is there anything else that's new?" he asks, wanting to get to the point.
"Alright, Captain," he says with attitude. "In your helmet I have actually placed a built in communicator that has two main channels. One connects you to all of us who be logged into it, the other is a close range―about a one mile radius."
He takes the helmet and examines it.
The gear is no longer a cheesy light blue, but a dark navy, with a silver star on the chest and four sectioned off dark red stripes on the abdomen, as well as two silver stripes on either side of the chest that go from the star to the back of the shoulders. It looks tougher and more durable, like real modern day armor instead of a flashy super-suit. I like his look better without the helmet but he's also not Hulk or covered head to toe in titanium alloy so he needs the protection on his head. It looks much more practical now, however. And the color matches the dark color on the suit. The "A" that's sketched into the forehead looks like it was painted on the same way things are written on the helmets of official US soldiers. I also notice that the words "Captain S. Rogers" is written in small black words on the left side of the chest...
Cap nods, impressed with everything and grateful. "Thank you, Stark..." he says with dignity.
Tony puts a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah... looks like I really do care whether or not you live or die..." he takes his hand off. "Oh there I go, getting all sappy," he comments with irritation. "Alright moving on."
He walks to another set up.
"Sorry, Clint but we're covering your arms," he says as he reaches Clint's new suit that is just as badass as Steve's. It's all black with shoulder plates and his quiver is attached with a strap that goes across his chest like a sash with a triangular patch on the left peck that connects another strap that hooks around the back under his arm. The knees have plates there as well and his boots are heavily armored, resembling army combat boots. His bracers are the same. And they have the same functions that his old ones had but this time they are connected to sleeves. His back can hold a quiver and there's a place to put his bow if he needs to switch to a firearm. There's a place at his thigh for a pistol but also a sniper rifle on his back. The best part is the helmet. It looks like a combat mask that would be taken in a firefight, goggles attached to the plate that covers the face.
"I've installed a radar system in the helmet that targets enemies even better than you can. It's matched up with the bow so that you could see where you're going to hit even without looking down the laser sight. And it works with either of these other weapons as well. Now here's where it gets fun." He smiles and points to the feet. "I've also put thrusters in your shoes for brief flight capabilities. So you can essentially jump enormously high when you need to or evade an attack and fire in the air... or get to higher ground. This is ignited by a switch at the side of your helmet that I have also put a com into like Rogers'."
He looks everything over and takes in the info. "You've been bustin your ass, that's for sure."
"Yeah apparently I am 'obsessive'," he makes air quotes and we all know it's Pepper he's talking about, "and that I work too hard for my health."
I snicker.
"Alright let's move on to Natalie Rushman," he says and looks to the other suit laid out on the table.
Natasha smiles, rolling her eyes as if it's some inside joke. But then we let her stop closer to see what he has made.
"I modified the electric baton suit I made you a while ago. This one should help with the protection problem so that you don't have to dodge everything."
She looks down at the suit that's made from sections kind of like Cap's is, with thin plates of Kevlar in certain areas as well as the chest in which the collar reaches her neck, fastening on the left side instead of one zipper down the front. It looks more slick and leathery than Steve's suit but it's definitely too matt to be leather.
"I added a grapnel sling onto the right wrist. You fire it and it clings to the first thing it touches and you can use the rope to sling or pull yourself onto another surface―it can hold up to two hundred and fifty pounds so it's probably okay for you since you weight like... eighty pounds―"
"I'm not Esther," she snickers.
"I'm right here," I say with offense when I poke my head around at them, being the smallest and shortest Avenger here.
She smirks at me and winks before going back to Stark.
"This is what I like to call the spider web," he holds up a device that is hooked onto the other wrist. "You fire it and the cable shoots through everyone nearest in relatively a line. You don't want to use it when allies are nearby but it's wired to fire ahead so it won't harm you. Also I've added a gravity adhesive system into the bottom of the soles that can be switched on at the belt. When it does your shoes will stick to whatever it hits against for one millisecond before it releases again and sticks once more to whatever it touches next―essentially you can run up a wall, tree, even upside down―well okay, maybe not upside down. But you get the idea."
She doesn't have time to reply before Tony says, "Oh and these." He holds up a small tablet. "I call it black widow's kiss. You fire them from this attachment that extends from the other side of your wrist here... they will stick onto a surface and melt away anything that it touches slowly. It's basically a very powerful black acid. I created it by mistake when I was trying to come up with a hair gel..." he says with regret as if there's a painful story behind that...
She snickers and shakes her head.
"Just a quick question, how many things do you make on accident?" I ask with a frown.
"Uh... more than you would expect."
Wanda starts laughing quietly.
He clears his throat. "Alright..." He walks on. "Now the Asguardians have the best protection armor here so I don't really need to mess with it. But for Thor I have come up with some things that could help with his Nebula distraction―"
"Ooh" I say as I pick up an object that's roughly the size of a grapefruit with a good grip handle on it.
"That is not to be played with," he takes it from me like I'm a child. "It's essentially an explosive with the blast radius equivalent to about three M-Sixty-Sevens; so like fifteen to seventeen meters if completely exposed."
"Pretty handy," I look it over, the loop that is the handle good to hook onto someone's belt.
"It can be. But it's for you to carry."
I look at him. "What?"
"You're going to need something to blast that brain apart when you find it. This is going to make sure it's dead. And it can be remotely ignited with a switch I have installed in your utility belt."
I nod. "That is definitely going to be better than a string of grenades," I say honestly.
"What's this?" Thor asks as he picks up a small object.
"That's a sonic neural neutralizer. This does exactly what it sounds like it does which is to damage the hearing significantly, rendering her unable to hear anything and there's a perk. If my math is right... it should attract a certain alien species that are all around and even in the ground―"
"That rhymed," I say.
"Yes, thank you," he says immediately.
"What's this?" Thor continues, picking up a little round device with small metal rods that come out of it at about a centimeter.
"I call these sticky bombs. They're real fun."
"What's this?" He picks up a spray can.
"For your hair. To control the static frizz."
"What's this?"
"...My pen."
"...Oh yes," Thor smiles widely. "I... I knew that..." he sets it down and it falls onto the floor.
Stark just continues walking. "Now for the Olsen twins."
He takes us to another table and stands by Pietro's suit first. "Here we have a breathable fabric made from a certain blend I used to make my clothing that goes under my suits. It's completely aerodynamic and supports lots of use without getting worn out. Now all know your speedy ass is great but if you stop, look who becomes as vulnerable as a baby koala. So I've combined this material with plates of carbon fiber―and about a million other things that would take more than one sentence to explain but it's completely bullet proof and the separation of the plates makes it very flexible." He shows him a very futuristic looking grey and black suit that has armored sections all separated in a way to help mobility. But it's ten times better than a compression shirt and normal pants. There's a slick design on the shoulders that look like silver slash marks and the back plate is colored a metallic pale blue.
"To help with the worn out muscles and fatigue, I have this," he lifts a bottle of pills. But there are only two inside. "Now this won't do anything except create an energy flow in your body that recycles itself, burning as little as one one-thousandth of the energy stored in your system. You can go longer without getting worn out―but I wouldn't try to sleep for at least twelve hours some of the works in progress went a little south when I tried these a few months ago and couldn't sleep for a week."
He frowns as if wondering that these pills would still have the same side affects.
"But I've since fixed it, obviously. Anyway the shoes are pretty basic since most of your mutation does this on its own. But they absorb the shock that is created each time you take a step so that you don't break your legs and should keep your feet from getting sore thanks the new formula in the foam at the soles. But the real fun happens here." He picks up the bracers attached to the suit and clicks a button. Blades appear from them hooked onto the outer arms so that he can slice his way through his enemies.
"That's going to create a lot of blood," Pietro smirks.
"I called Nebula. She's okay with working her janitors overtime," he says plainly before moving on. "And for Wednesday Adams, hopefully this should extend both your telepathic abilities and telekinesis. The binding in the sleeves should be able to channel your Jedi powers better and faster. I had Esther help me with the design of the overall look."
Wanda looks at me and I just tell her honestly, "I wanted it to look cute."
She laughs and fist bumps me. The outfit does look pretty rad.
The leggings are made from different materials, some leathery some thicker all grid like, kind of like Pietro's plates but these are thinner. We incorporated the bullet proof materials in the pants, boots, and torso. Her boots have thick souls with spiked bottoms, and her top is black on the chest and stretches to hook around her neck the part under her bust is leathery dark red and extends past her hips like a long tunic. That red part comes up and forms a short sleeved look, however the sleeves under that extend to her middle finger and are black as well. I mean if we succeed these looks of ours will be on action figures. So they gotta be fly as hell, right?
"For Bruce..." he walks over to a table that only has a pair of pants on it... "It's a fabric made from a combination of spandex, nanocellulose, and a couple other ingredients are formed into pants that can stretch up to eight hundred percent its size."
Banner nods...
We all kind of stand there expecting more. But Stark puts his hands in his pockets and doesn't say anything.
"...So that's it... for me?" Bruce asks him.
I try not to laugh as I look at them both, holding back a grin.
Tony looks at the pants for like twenty long seconds... ... before he says, "Yeah," very plainly.
"Okay," he replies and continues on.
"Well finally we have here for Esther... a small surprise," Tony adds.
I look at him, no idea he was making something for me. But he brings us to a mannequin that has on a suit that resembles the one I stole from the Helicarrier all of those days ago. But there's something different about this one.
"I made it from completely fire proof materials and the fabric is as tough as you can get while still being regularly flexible. I know that's important for your fighting style―let me repeat myself. I think what you heard was 'this thing can't catch on fire' but what I said was 'this thing cannot be affected by fire... or heat'... in fact you could sit on a bon fire for thirty years and it wouldn't change its consistency."
"Wow―uh what is this made from again?" I say with confusion.
"You really want to know?"
"Nope. I probably wouldn't understand you anyway," I say plainly.
"Probably... Now when I first met Esther she was trying to claw the face off Slitherin over here so I thought this would be kind of fitting for our alley cat." He clicks something on the wrist that makes small blades stick out from the nails.
"Badass," I nod.
"Alley Cat. I like that name for her." Natasha says.
"Andromeda is better," Wanda comments.
They exchange a funny glance.
"Yeah and I'm not wearing pointy ears like Catwoman," I point out.
"And then we would have a hawk, spider, cat, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mr. Bald Eagle of Justice over here," Tony says as he gestures to Cap with that last one. "And that's too many animals."
"Way too many animals," Natasha nods.
"But this is awesome, Tony. Thanks man!" I raise my hand for a high-five.
He just gives me a look with his brows raised. "What? No hug?"
I crack a laugh and open my arms. "Come here, Iron Man."
"Oh no, I'm mad now."
I laugh again and throw my arms around his waist when he turns away from me, squeezing him as he almost stumbles.
"Alright, don't kill me," he says with humor.
"Yeah I can't do that," I say. "I mean where would we be without you paying for everything and making us all look so cool?"
"Yeah that's definitely true―uh how do I get this thing off me?" he asks Loki.
"Pinch the spot behind her left ear," he answers immediately.
He does so and I recoil from him with an "Ah!" and a chill going down my spine. I slap Loki on the arm and he chuckles.
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(song: "Scars" by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein)
(song: "Life in a Northern Town" by The Dream Academy)
(song: "Miracle" by The Score)
(song: "One Simple Idea" by Hans Zimmer)
(song: "Mark II" by Ramin Djawadi)
(song: "Outlands Part II" by Daft Punk)