Spectrum ⇒ Avengers [ 1 ]

Never going to give you up

Never gonna give you up,
Never gonna let you down,
Never gonna turn around, and hurt you-

"I swear to god if someone's Rick-rolling me-" I slur, tangled in white sheets.
"Ha! Told you that'd wake her up!"
"Mr Stark, please-" a bright light shines in my eye and I flinch, burrowing my head away. "Brynn? Can you hear me? My name is Helen Cho." A smooth voice says, very gently. It's blue, but only faintly- so pale that it's almost white. "You're in Stark Tower's medical wing."
"Medical wing?" I ask in a scratchy voice.
"After Tony's accidents with his suit, how could we not include one?" Pepper's bronze voice breaks through my confusion, and I try to sit up to see her.
"You need to stay still, Brynn. You fractured a rib." Helen Cho says, leaning into my limited field of vision. She's exceptionally pretty, a young Asian woman- Japanese? Korean?- with a white doctors coat on. "And your wounds need time to heal."
"The Lizard." I remember.
"Yeah, you totally Muldoon-ed him." Tony cackles. I hear crunching- he's eating those damn peanuts again. "Except Muldoon totally bites it in Jurassic Park, so you're more of a badass Ellie Sadler."
"Ellie Sadler's pretty badass already." Pepper disagrees. "But badass or not, you're staying in bed, young lady."

"But what happened to him?" I struggle to sit up again, and manage to move slightly. I'm in a very white room with a different view of New York to my bedroom. Pepper's standing by the window, and Tony's sprawled on a chair near my bed, tablet in hand. There's no sign of Bruce.
"Oh, Barney the dinosaur's cooling off in the basement," Tony says smugly. "He won't be going anywhere fast."
I frown. "It wasn't his fault- he was only trying to grow his arm back."
"Yeah, yeah." Tony waves his hand. "Web-head filled us in on all of that. Gotta say, I'm impressed. Laboratory break in? You have been busy." Pepper gives him a severe look and he quickly backtracks. "Which was not a good thing to do. At all. You'll be on a curfew until you're at least ninety two."
"Wait, Spiderman's here?" I ask urgently. "Is he okay?"
"Mild concussion, a few cuts and bruises." Helen Cho reassures me. "But he left a few hours ago."
"Why?" I frown.
"He's got his own family to get back to." Pepper reminds me. "He didn't want to go, but I suspect he was missing school to be here." The sun is setting outside the window.
"I wonder how he's going to talk himself out of that one." Tony chuckles, shoving a handful of peanuts into his mouth.
"And where's Bruce?" I ask, searching my memories.
"Studying Connors' blood." Helen Cho says grimly. "Trying to assess whether the Lizard persona could make a comeback in the future."

I think of the fangs, the claws, and the enormous strength, and shudder. "I hope not."
"Well, male Black Widow left a copy of the cure with us, so that should be enough." Tony shrugs. "We've got too many people who can transform into giant green things in this city." Pepper glares at him again and moves to my side.
"Is there anything you need?" I shake my head numbly. "Okay, I'm supposed to be getting on my plane right now- I've got to go. Helen, don't let her or Tony get herself out of bed before you say." She says firmly. Helen nods, the ghost of a smile on her lips. "We'll talk when I get back." She concludes, looking down at me. I gulp, but I'm surprised when she leans over and kisses my forehead. "I'm glad you're safe."

Helen Cho leaves with Pepper, the two women talking. Tony stares after her for a moment, and then shrugs.
"Just you and me, short-round." He says casually. "So, while you were doing your best sleeping beauty impression-" I raise an eyebrow. "I had a look at what my computers were pulling up on the Tarantula." I pull myself into a sitting position, wincing as my abdomen cries out in pain.
"Did you find something?" I ask eagerly. He smirks.
"I'm Tony Stark, sweetheart. Of course I found something." He pulls the chair right up to the bed and hands me the tablet, which lights up into the 3-D hologram I've come to expect. "So, I tracked down the first boy by a simple missing person's report- low level stuff, I'm sure SHIELD knows about him." An image lights up and I suck in a breath. "Look familiar?" I nod.