A new friend...or something like that (11)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 12:12:56 UTC
“Oh for…Quorra, pull over. Let’s try to blend into the crowds, he won’t shoot indiscriminately.”
It’s a risk that might have worked if Edmund had not slipped the tracking pen into Sam’s pocket. As it was, Tony was able to follow the ENCOM associates as they pulled over, left their helmets behind - because even if it disguised their faces, it would not help them blend into the sea of crowd - ran out of their car, slipped into the streets, and jumped inside a taxi.
The taxi Sam had chosen already had two passengers, a pair of siblings. The driver looked annoyed when three more customers suddenly dropped in, and Sam was already speaking.
“Wherever they’re going, we’ll go too, just hurry.”
Sam noticed the two children focusing intently on Clu, as if they knew the man was not completely human. It would be just his luck to run into a taxi carrying unusual people as well.
The children had asked to be taken to the outskirts of the city, and carried a thick wad of cash with them. Sam and the driver, Bruno, suspected they were runaways.
Or maybe they were important people after all. Sam had escaped being chased by Iron Man to being pursued by Men in Black. For a split second he panicked, worried that Clu’s captors had caught up with them. They were particularly vicious when they started rear-ending the taxi.
“Unbelievable,” Bruno snarled. After pulling some driving stunts that made Sam seriously doubt the man was just a taxi driver, the pursuing vehicles were all crunched together. Bruno stepped out to yell at their pursuers, informing them not-so-politely he was out of the business before racing off.
Yea, if Alan insisted on Sam getting a proper chauffer the boy knew who he may hire. He might have to do a background check first, and Bruno might fail it, but Sam thought the guy was probably good enough to have that ignored.
He knew Clu was probably thinking of all the games they could have gotten in with a guy like Bruno as an ally and opponent.
So Sam made no job offers, because who knows what kind of ideas or inspiration they would give.
From a distance Tony knew that the pursuing black vans were not mob cars based on the sheer number of technology tucked inside, they had to be science or government related vans. He had JARVIS contact Fury and hacked into a few more databases before getting his answers.
“Fury, who exactly is Major Henry Burke?”
“Where did you hear that name, Stark?”
“Well, it appears that he’s pursuing our escaped fugitive and ENCOM friends.”
Even without seeing the master spy in front of him Tony knew the man was irritated. Fury’s words are clipped and short, “he belongs in a department that manages the research and development of extraterrestrial affairs. How he found about Clu will be something that warrants immediate investigating.”
As Sam still has the pen on him, Tony takes a brief moment to watch Burke for a while, “I’m not sure our ENCOM friends are what caught his interest.”
Tony’s interested too, he asks JARVIS to secretly contact Bruce for him, and asks Bruce to run the tests that had first pinged Clu and Quorra. Bruce confirms what Tony suspected, the taxi is showing more then two beings with non-human DNA.
“Shouldn’t you tell Fury this?”
“Doctor, do we really need to bring more children in a safe house that doesn’t really exist anymore? I thought only our master assassins believed in the child soldier thing.”
“Fury’s going to have to relocate them all somewhere, would you object if they stayed at the tower?”
“Our super secret and elite Avengers tower?”
“It isn’t exactly super secret.”
“I’m sure SHIELD has plenty of other properties to host another ragtag group of misfits that are a potential time bomb.”
“They’re children, Tony.”
“They already have a megalomaniac among them, the megalomaniac is also not a child, and said megalomaniac already has a personal relationship with one of them.”
“One of them? You think Flynn Junior will become part of this second initiative attempt?”
“After what he’s done? If he doesn’t do it out of guilt himself, Fury might just blackmail him into it. It’s clear the boy has sway over Clu and Quorra. Unless the boy has something he can bargain with, SHIELD is going to sink their claws into him and not let go.”
Re: A new friend...or something like that (11)
anonymous
August 26 2013, 14:48:18 UTC
I recognized Oz The Great and Powerful (though I haven't seen the film) and Alice in Wonderland (I've had exposure/kinda seen the animated one, haven't seen the live action one), and I'm not sure about the third.
This is certainly very interesting! And hey, cameo-dream appearance by Loki!
Thank you for continuing this! I look forward to reading more!
A new friend...or something like that (12)
anonymous
August 28 2013, 07:59:33 UTC
Bruce was a kinder soul with better belief in people, “Flynn might pull something like you did.”
“The kid is new to actually being in power, he was out of the company’s affairs for years, Fury’s going to destroy him.”
The kid also had an uncle figure that seemed quite capable of being a villain and hurting him. Tony wasn’t sure anyone deserved that, especially since Sam seemed to care enough to risk arrest just to rescue Clu.
Initially he planned to wait until his target and his non-human associates left the taxi before retrieving them. He’ll get Fury to send other associates to get the original taxi occupants. Unfortunately for SHIELD, Sam seemed inclined to stay in the taxi, and neither Clu nor Quorra made a break for it.
“Stark, what is going on?”
“Ah, Fury, it seems like Burke is still chasing after the merry group, but he’s after the children in the taxi.”
“You know this?”
“I hacked into their communications and listened to some conversations.”
“Stark…”
“Ah, our elusive captain joins us at last. What’s up, cap?”
“I’ll tell Burke’s higher ups to back off,” Fury interrupts. “Rogers, with me.”
“I’m guessing the captain will probably help smooth over any petty squabbles about jurisdiction and authority?” Tony crowed. No one dignifies that with a response.
Inside the taxi, Jack apologizes to his customers and promises the kids that he would take them to wherever they want. Sara and Seth, as the kids introduced themselves, are in a hurry to get to their destination. Sam was planning to borrow their phone to give Alan a call, he had not intended to bring something that could be so easily traced back to him when he broke into SHIELD, but then he saw the kids’ destination. The house was broken down, seemingly abandoned in the middle of nowhere.
“This place needs to be rebuilt,” Clu announced.
“You just want an excuse to destroy it first,” Quorra counters.
Seth and Sara took that as a cue to run out the car and into the building. Jack and Sam frowned as they watched, and before Sam could commandeer the taxi driver back to the city Jack was out and following the children in.
Quorra gave the empty driver seat a significant look, Sam sighed, “No, we are not stealing this car.”
“Not even to escape that?” Clu pointed, and Sam noticed a green armor-wearing figure heading towards them. Quorra froze, Sam tensed, but the figure ignored them and strode inside the abandoned house instead.
Only a few seconds passed before the gunshots began.
Quorra is jumping into the driver seat and starting the taxi, just in time as Sam shouts for her to stop because Jack is leading the kids running out the house. Sam flings open the door and they’re all scrambling inside before Quorra steps on the gas pedal. Clu is the only one unaffected as they are all thrown backwards and speeding down the trails. Jack lets Quorra drive before they spot the space ship flying after them.
“The Siphon!” Sara shouts.
“What the heck is a Siphon?’ Jack shouts back.
“Another alien attack?” Quorra asks.
“You’ve already had experience?” Seth asks.
“Not personal experience but in New York…” Sam begins before something in front of them fires. Their eyes widened in horror, but the mini rockets zip past them to hit the spaceship instead. The taxi screeches to a stop in front of another armor wearing figure, only one that the Sara and Seth did not recognize.
“A new Siphon?” Seth and Sara look at each other in alarm.
Sam buries his face in his hands, “oh no…”
“The Iron Man?” Jack could not believe what his night was becoming.
The iconic metal man steps up besides their car and knocks sharply on the glass Sam is closest to. Clu oh-so-happily lowers the window, and the metal face plates pull back to reveal Tony Stark’s face.
“Sam Flynn, are you trying to get into the Avengers’ affairs?”
“Sam Flynn,” Jack turns to look at the teenager in the car, “you are Sam Flynn.”
“Would you believe me if I said no?” Sam almost sulks, between his word and Iron Man Tony Stark’s, he doesn’t have any delusions about who seemed more credible.
A new friend...or something like that (13)
anonymous
August 28 2013, 08:08:19 UTC
Gunfire erupts around them again. From the smoke and fog the Siphon is emerging, weapons drawn. It stops, raises an arm, Tony is ready to fight the new alien invader…
And the Siphon goes flying back when something suddenly smashes against it. Several trees are blown aside and there’s a loud crack of thunder.
“Ah, so Point Blank is now here.” The iron mask slides forward to protect Tony’s face as he watches Thor arrive and proceed to fight his fellow alien. Turning back to the taxi, he points at Sam, “you’re coming with me.”
Sam raises his hands in surrender, “Okay.”
“Not just you.”
Quorra looks at Sam, “Is this where the phase I want to speak to my lawyer comes in?”
“I’m not talking to just your little group, I mean all of you, including you two passengers with alien DNA and you, Mr. Jack Bruno.” Behind Tony, helicopters were emerging into the sky, whirling and rumbling, contributing to the noise of battle between Thor and the Siphon. The multiple spotlights landed on the taxi and almost blinded the occupants.
Many of the local hotels have been booked for the annual science-fiction convention. It used to an annual UFO convention but had been renamed since the alien invasion. The other SHIELD buildings in the area are not equipped to deal with so many, and so Rogers and Fury show up at Burke’s mountain hideout and ask him for some rooms.
Burke would normally be annoyed, but he’s somewhat in awe of Captain America, and he is smart enough not to cross Fury.
There were other things to argue about.
Sara and Seth want to board the ship that Burke had seized and leave the Earth. If they were to be believed, if they don’t bring their research back home Earth would be looking at a second alien invasion. Unfortunately not many believe them, concerned that the children might instead be scouts for another invasion. A few agents were also intent on replicating the technology of the ship or even putting the children through vivisection, they certainly seemed different from the Chitauri.
SHIELD was also trying to borrow some technology from Burke's men to replicate the dream technology they had been using for Alice. After all, SHIELD was more concerned about the leader of the first alien invasion potentially showing up on Earth again - even if Loki was just in their dreams.
Clint was potentially compromised because it was likely his dream that brought Loki forward. So he had to be sent to another room in case he showed any signs of hostility or blue eyes.
The remaining Avengers were watching the new group.
They were all wondering if they should have maybe locked Clu away, but Sam refused to let the older man out of his sight.
So now, everyone was sitting around in one of Witch Mountain’s many secret rooms, told to wait while SHIELD and Project Moon argue it out, because there’s still a Siphon running about, and no one the safehouse occuprants.
“I didn’t choose to get thrown here,” Oz complained “I’ve never been good at dealing with power and responsibility.”
“But you’re not a novice,” Susan observed, “You’ve run a kingdom before.”
“I told them that their land should forever be free and made only the really big decisions, I was more consultative than anything.”
“You had a kingdom in your grasp and you didn’t think of improving it?” Clu sounds genuinely offended.
Dastan recognizes power-hungry coup-planning characters very easily now, “Improvements are never supposed to just benefit one person.”
“And that’s why we are now here caught up in Avengers business and surrounded by men in black,” Edmund drawls. “I get that they want to expand their army, we’re protecting not just some VIP but Earth itself, and I’m glad they do not discriminate based on age, but right now?”
“We should be out doing something,” Peter scowls. “Helping with the wreckage, training, if we’re to be stuck inside we should be told of what’s happening. All we know right now is that you,” he pointed at Clu, “was labeled as an enemy at one point and you,” he pointed to Sam and Quorra, “destroyed the safe house to get him out, but somehow you’re considered safe enough to be kept here with us.”
“Sam won’t hurt anyone,” Quorra sensed an upcoming interruption and snapped at Clu, “your minions don’t count, it was self-defense.”
It’s a risk that might have worked if Edmund had not slipped the tracking pen into Sam’s pocket. As it was, Tony was able to follow the ENCOM associates as they pulled over, left their helmets behind - because even if it disguised their faces, it would not help them blend into the sea of crowd - ran out of their car, slipped into the streets, and jumped inside a taxi.
The taxi Sam had chosen already had two passengers, a pair of siblings. The driver looked annoyed when three more customers suddenly dropped in, and Sam was already speaking.
“Wherever they’re going, we’ll go too, just hurry.”
Sam noticed the two children focusing intently on Clu, as if they knew the man was not completely human. It would be just his luck to run into a taxi carrying unusual people as well.
The children had asked to be taken to the outskirts of the city, and carried a thick wad of cash with them. Sam and the driver, Bruno, suspected they were runaways.
Or maybe they were important people after all. Sam had escaped being chased by Iron Man to being pursued by Men in Black. For a split second he panicked, worried that Clu’s captors had caught up with them. They were particularly vicious when they started rear-ending the taxi.
“Unbelievable,” Bruno snarled. After pulling some driving stunts that made Sam seriously doubt the man was just a taxi driver, the pursuing vehicles were all crunched together. Bruno stepped out to yell at their pursuers, informing them not-so-politely he was out of the business before racing off.
Yea, if Alan insisted on Sam getting a proper chauffer the boy knew who he may hire. He might have to do a background check first, and Bruno might fail it, but Sam thought the guy was probably good enough to have that ignored.
He knew Clu was probably thinking of all the games they could have gotten in with a guy like Bruno as an ally and opponent.
So Sam made no job offers, because who knows what kind of ideas or inspiration they would give.
From a distance Tony knew that the pursuing black vans were not mob cars based on the sheer number of technology tucked inside, they had to be science or government related vans. He had JARVIS contact Fury and hacked into a few more databases before getting his answers.
“Fury, who exactly is Major Henry Burke?”
“Where did you hear that name, Stark?”
“Well, it appears that he’s pursuing our escaped fugitive and ENCOM friends.”
Even without seeing the master spy in front of him Tony knew the man was irritated. Fury’s words are clipped and short, “he belongs in a department that manages the research and development of extraterrestrial affairs. How he found about Clu will be something that warrants immediate investigating.”
As Sam still has the pen on him, Tony takes a brief moment to watch Burke for a while, “I’m not sure our ENCOM friends are what caught his interest.”
Tony’s interested too, he asks JARVIS to secretly contact Bruce for him, and asks Bruce to run the tests that had first pinged Clu and Quorra. Bruce confirms what Tony suspected, the taxi is showing more then two beings with non-human DNA.
“Shouldn’t you tell Fury this?”
“Doctor, do we really need to bring more children in a safe house that doesn’t really exist anymore? I thought only our master assassins believed in the child soldier thing.”
“Fury’s going to have to relocate them all somewhere, would you object if they stayed at the tower?”
“Our super secret and elite Avengers tower?”
“It isn’t exactly super secret.”
“I’m sure SHIELD has plenty of other properties to host another ragtag group of misfits that are a potential time bomb.”
“They’re children, Tony.”
“They already have a megalomaniac among them, the megalomaniac is also not a child, and said megalomaniac already has a personal relationship with one of them.”
“One of them? You think Flynn Junior will become part of this second initiative attempt?”
“After what he’s done? If he doesn’t do it out of guilt himself, Fury might just blackmail him into it. It’s clear the boy has sway over Clu and Quorra. Unless the boy has something he can bargain with, SHIELD is going to sink their claws into him and not let go.”
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This is certainly very interesting! And hey, cameo-dream appearance by Loki!
Thank you for continuing this! I look forward to reading more!
Reply
Reply
Reply
“The kid is new to actually being in power, he was out of the company’s affairs for years, Fury’s going to destroy him.”
The kid also had an uncle figure that seemed quite capable of being a villain and hurting him. Tony wasn’t sure anyone deserved that, especially since Sam seemed to care enough to risk arrest just to rescue Clu.
Initially he planned to wait until his target and his non-human associates left the taxi before retrieving them. He’ll get Fury to send other associates to get the original taxi occupants. Unfortunately for SHIELD, Sam seemed inclined to stay in the taxi, and neither Clu nor Quorra made a break for it.
“Stark, what is going on?”
“Ah, Fury, it seems like Burke is still chasing after the merry group, but he’s after the children in the taxi.”
“You know this?”
“I hacked into their communications and listened to some conversations.”
“Stark…”
“Ah, our elusive captain joins us at last. What’s up, cap?”
“I’ll tell Burke’s higher ups to back off,” Fury interrupts. “Rogers, with me.”
“I’m guessing the captain will probably help smooth over any petty squabbles about jurisdiction and authority?” Tony crowed. No one dignifies that with a response.
Inside the taxi, Jack apologizes to his customers and promises the kids that he would take them to wherever they want. Sara and Seth, as the kids introduced themselves, are in a hurry to get to their destination. Sam was planning to borrow their phone to give Alan a call, he had not intended to bring something that could be so easily traced back to him when he broke into SHIELD, but then he saw the kids’ destination. The house was broken down, seemingly abandoned in the middle of nowhere.
“This place needs to be rebuilt,” Clu announced.
“You just want an excuse to destroy it first,” Quorra counters.
Seth and Sara took that as a cue to run out the car and into the building. Jack and Sam frowned as they watched, and before Sam could commandeer the taxi driver back to the city Jack was out and following the children in.
Quorra gave the empty driver seat a significant look, Sam sighed, “No, we are not stealing this car.”
“Not even to escape that?” Clu pointed, and Sam noticed a green armor-wearing figure heading towards them. Quorra froze, Sam tensed, but the figure ignored them and strode inside the abandoned house instead.
Only a few seconds passed before the gunshots began.
Quorra is jumping into the driver seat and starting the taxi, just in time as Sam shouts for her to stop because Jack is leading the kids running out the house. Sam flings open the door and they’re all scrambling inside before Quorra steps on the gas pedal. Clu is the only one unaffected as they are all thrown backwards and speeding down the trails. Jack lets Quorra drive before they spot the space ship flying after them.
“The Siphon!” Sara shouts.
“What the heck is a Siphon?’ Jack shouts back.
“Another alien attack?” Quorra asks.
“You’ve already had experience?” Seth asks.
“Not personal experience but in New York…” Sam begins before something in front of them fires. Their eyes widened in horror, but the mini rockets zip past them to hit the spaceship instead. The taxi screeches to a stop in front of another armor wearing figure, only one that the Sara and Seth did not recognize.
“A new Siphon?” Seth and Sara look at each other in alarm.
Sam buries his face in his hands, “oh no…”
“The Iron Man?” Jack could not believe what his night was becoming.
The iconic metal man steps up besides their car and knocks sharply on the glass Sam is closest to. Clu oh-so-happily lowers the window, and the metal face plates pull back to reveal Tony Stark’s face.
“Sam Flynn, are you trying to get into the Avengers’ affairs?”
“Sam Flynn,” Jack turns to look at the teenager in the car, “you are Sam Flynn.”
“Would you believe me if I said no?” Sam almost sulks, between his word and Iron Man Tony Stark’s, he doesn’t have any delusions about who seemed more credible.
Tony glanced over Sam’s shoulder, “Get down.”
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And the Siphon goes flying back when something suddenly smashes against it. Several trees are blown aside and there’s a loud crack of thunder.
“Ah, so Point Blank is now here.” The iron mask slides forward to protect Tony’s face as he watches Thor arrive and proceed to fight his fellow alien. Turning back to the taxi, he points at Sam, “you’re coming with me.”
Sam raises his hands in surrender, “Okay.”
“Not just you.”
Quorra looks at Sam, “Is this where the phase I want to speak to my lawyer comes in?”
“I’m not talking to just your little group, I mean all of you, including you two passengers with alien DNA and you, Mr. Jack Bruno.” Behind Tony, helicopters were emerging into the sky, whirling and rumbling, contributing to the noise of battle between Thor and the Siphon. The multiple spotlights landed on the taxi and almost blinded the occupants.
Many of the local hotels have been booked for the annual science-fiction convention. It used to an annual UFO convention but had been renamed since the alien invasion. The other SHIELD buildings in the area are not equipped to deal with so many, and so Rogers and Fury show up at Burke’s mountain hideout and ask him for some rooms.
Burke would normally be annoyed, but he’s somewhat in awe of Captain America, and he is smart enough not to cross Fury.
There were other things to argue about.
Sara and Seth want to board the ship that Burke had seized and leave the Earth. If they were to be believed, if they don’t bring their research back home Earth would be looking at a second alien invasion. Unfortunately not many believe them, concerned that the children might instead be scouts for another invasion. A few agents were also intent on replicating the technology of the ship or even putting the children through vivisection, they certainly seemed different from the Chitauri.
SHIELD was also trying to borrow some technology from Burke's men to replicate the dream technology they had been using for Alice. After all, SHIELD was more concerned about the leader of the first alien invasion potentially showing up on Earth again - even if Loki was just in their dreams.
Clint was potentially compromised because it was likely his dream that brought Loki forward. So he had to be sent to another room in case he showed any signs of hostility or blue eyes.
The remaining Avengers were watching the new group.
They were all wondering if they should have maybe locked Clu away, but Sam refused to let the older man out of his sight.
So now, everyone was sitting around in one of Witch Mountain’s many secret rooms, told to wait while SHIELD and Project Moon argue it out, because there’s still a Siphon running about, and no one the safehouse occuprants.
“I didn’t choose to get thrown here,” Oz complained “I’ve never been good at dealing with power and responsibility.”
“But you’re not a novice,” Susan observed, “You’ve run a kingdom before.”
“I told them that their land should forever be free and made only the really big decisions, I was more consultative than anything.”
“You had a kingdom in your grasp and you didn’t think of improving it?” Clu sounds genuinely offended.
Dastan recognizes power-hungry coup-planning characters very easily now, “Improvements are never supposed to just benefit one person.”
“And that’s why we are now here caught up in Avengers business and surrounded by men in black,” Edmund drawls. “I get that they want to expand their army, we’re protecting not just some VIP but Earth itself, and I’m glad they do not discriminate based on age, but right now?”
“We should be out doing something,” Peter scowls. “Helping with the wreckage, training, if we’re to be stuck inside we should be told of what’s happening. All we know right now is that you,” he pointed at Clu, “was labeled as an enemy at one point and you,” he pointed to Sam and Quorra, “destroyed the safe house to get him out, but somehow you’re considered safe enough to be kept here with us.”
“Sam won’t hurt anyone,” Quorra sensed an upcoming interruption and snapped at Clu, “your minions don’t count, it was self-defense.”
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Also, my favorite line in this set of updates has to be: “Ah, our elusive captain joins us at last. What’s up, cap?” OH TONY.
Thanks for continuing this! It's really interesting.
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