CHAPTER 35

Anthony Stark is looking out the window, like he does most days when not preoccupied with the affairs of superheroes or the poison that's destroying him from inside out. It's still crippling him; degrading bone marrow and sending his fragmented bones throughout his body. Magnetic disks, some of the most intelligent created, are fastened to his limbs to keep everything together. Anthony Stark is living on borrowed time.

He finds soliace in looking out the window. Sometimes, he imagines that he'll spot his missing daughter from there. That he'll call on his suit and rush down, sweep her up in his arms and tell her that it's okay. She'll sob into his arms or maybe make a cutthroat joke and they'll fly off into the sunset, maybe to Paris where they can have dinner before he grounds her for an eternity. Not even Gale would be able to see her.

On two, separate occasions, he's almost called upon his suit because he's spotted girls that look like Lana, far below. It hurts him with every second passing that she's out there, alone, hurt, and being manipulated by supervillains to do their bidding, because of him.

Pepper is bedridden most days. She's sick from morning til evening. Apparently that's normal but Tony wouldn't know because, what the hell would he know about children?

Lana wasn't a kid though, she was something special. Tony wondered if she ever had time to be a kid. By the sound of it, her SHIELD family made it rough, so she wouldn't turn out like him. Once again, because of him.

They don't know the gender of the child, they could know, if they wanted, but Pepper insists that it remains a secret. The Avengers and fellow associates are divided split down the middle with bets. It's one of the things that brings a friendly banter to the table instead of the usual, dark talk about the deteriorating state of the world.

All the drama has cause a steady grey undercurrent to form in Tony's hair. He's annoyed, he got to this age for him to start getting grey hairs now. Perhaps he should turn to dyeing?

The good news is that the poison is out of the Offspring, something to do with their SHIELD-engineered genetics. Thor is clear too, Steve is almost at that point. It just leaves Tony, Bruce, Clint and Natasha on the verge of death. Tony is jealous, he wants SHIELD-engineered genetics, he also wonders how the files of the Offspring weren't discovered during the SHIELD shutdown.

Bruce is getting increasingly frustrated by the mystery of Lana's Mist. Everyone is. Tony's sees this clearly when he walks into the main living room and everyone is lying around, stone-faced and depressed. It's quiet and he longs for the usual, jubilant vibe that used to be present.

Despite being the first one expected to die, Tony orders pizza. It's a great idea that everyone loves until the mission for Death's Scales return.

"We lost Becky." Gale cursed. "But we got the stupid scales." He slams down a set of old-fashioned, golden scales.

"How are we going to access Death then?" James asked, concerned, running mistletoe through his fingers, he jerks back as he stings himself, everyone pauses for a second, gauging James' initial reaction. He shakes out his hand, sucking on the wound (even if it's not medically correct). Those around him, settle down.

"I don't know." Cleo snapped, folding her arms and resorting to pacing.

"Let's just stay calm. And keep our heads on. Pizza?" Tony offered a box and Cleo took it, sitting down and eating to herself, munching aggressively.

Everyone gathered an hour later. Literally every hero allegianced to the Avengers were there. It wasn't uncommon for them to swing by, it was usually the most secure way to get updates and there was usually free food.

"Thank you all for coming." Steve started off the talk. "We're here to talk about the leader of the organised crime and what this means for all of us. As the most of you know, Alana Stark, under the name Kalela has been leading groups of villains, powered and not, around and causing general headaches. She's backed by Magneto and Dr. Doom with their assets as well. Some of these attacks seem sporratic and pointless, some of them have direction. Like one done earlier today. One of our own, Becky Lokidottir-Banner, was kidnapped by their forces. She's unspeakably important to us and it goes without saying, that we need her back. Any ideas?"

"We could draw them out?" Gale says slowly, he's staring at the Christmas decorations that Tony put up the other day. Tony frowns, he wanted to put them up with Lana.

"Do we even know where their base is?" An accented guy spoke, Pietro.

"We do know that it's in Manhattan." Steve answered. "With the help of Becky."

"Well I'm going over there later, but by Laws of the Universe, aka, the author, I can't tell you where it is." Deadpool piped up.

"Why's he here?" Clint groaned from the shelf.

"Why not?" Loki said suddenly, angrily, standing and whipping around on the Merc.

"I literally couldn't tell you, even if I wanted to." He defended.

"Why are you going over there?" Steve asked, frowning.

"Death asked me to, she thinks Lana is deviating from her ultimate mission."

"And what's that?" Steve pushed, everyone suddenly seemed really interested in what Deadpool had to say.

"Look, I've gotta go, if you really wanna know, ask Spidey, deep down in his innocent skull, he knows. But for now, I gotta go." Deadpool ran through a window, sending it shattering and down into New York City below.

All the heroes turned to Parker at the same time. Steve was the first to speak. "Do you know what he means? It's really important."

He shrugged and shook his head. "Trust me, I'd tell you if I could, I want more than almost anyone to have Becky back, I-I, uh, yeah." He looks down. Supers sigh and shuffle in frustration. The room, chock full of superheroes becomes even more silent than before. Most were wondering what they needed to do, when the final fight would come, who they needed to save.

"Intruder in Main Bedroom Level Sixty-Nine, Intruder, Level Sixty-Nine." FRIDAY reported. Supers leapt to their feet. The majority turned to Tony in confusion. His face drained of blood.

"Pepper!" He croaked before rushing out.