New Avengers Tower

[worthallthis]

The press meeting takes way too long. Then they're all taken to a hospital, because most of them are injured in some way. Then Mel takes them back to that stupid tower. Avengers Tower. Watchtower. New Avengers Tower. Nobody knows what they're calling it.

They get a tour, even though they're exhausted and grouchy, and even though half the tower is clearly in some state of construction and clearly not ready to be shown off. The labs are complete, hastily so, but none of them are going to be going anywhere near those. The rooftop bar is still in shambles, and none of them want to linger there. The kitchen and restaurant-like eating areas spiraled out around it seem intact, and well-stocked, at least.

They each have their own floor. Stark had originally made a whole floor for each of his superhero buddies, which hadn't really been renovated at all even in the multiple years the Avengers had been toast, so now they're the cleanest and least disturbed of the whole tower.

Bucky gets Steve's, Walker gets Thor's, Ava gets Clint's.

Yelena gets the one meant for Natasha. Of course.

And Bob gets Banner's, with its combination of calming decor and Hulk-proof walls.

Then they're left alone to "rest" with the promise that Mel and Valentina will be in touch over the next few days, which sounds more like a threat than anything else.

Comments

[makingitworse]

"The... making us better part," Bob agrees guardedly. "It would have to be why I didn't die, back there." Because yeah, he does at least remember that much. And the memory thing, which he is, at this point, not 100% sure was real anymore. No one's mentioned it. ... though no one has held hands with him since then vault, either.

[musicdied]

Yelena nods slightly. "O.X.E. decided they wanted to make their own superhero. The study they recruited you for, and others like it in other parts of the world, was their way of recruiting test subjects for their methods. They scrapped the project as a failure, and sent us in to clean up any traces. I don't think Valentina even knew it worked on you until you got shot about a hundred times and didn't die."

Or maybe he had died. She'd seen the footage Bucky had pulled from the surveillance system; he'd been down long enough for Mel and Valentina to walk away. Resurrection isn't out of the question.

"She brought you here after you crashed, to the lab. To pick up where she'd left off with her Sentry project."

[makingitworse]

He listens. He looks... skeptical. Worriedly skeptical, maybe. Not that he doesn't believe Yelena, but... it just sounds like such a stupid idea. "She wanted to turn me into a superhero?" He is not superhero material. He knows that. Everyone knows that. The medical study definitely hadn't said anything about superheroes. He wanted to be better, but he likes to think he wouldn't be that arrogant, even on the highest of upswings.

Except he does remember a handful of his up-days, and he has a sinking feeling that that's exactly what happened.

[musicdied]

"I don't think she saw you at all," Yelena replies quietly. "I know that's probably a shitty thing to hear, but that is how Valentina works. She sees opportunity and resources, not people. In this case, the opportunity to slither out from under an impeachment hearing and shore up the power base that's been eroding out from under her. And the opportunity to control someone powerful enough that no one else would be willing to take a swing at her, unless she pissed off the Asgardians."

She stretches out one leg to nudge his ankle lightly with her foot. "It might not have looked like it would be a hard sell to a man who was willing to get himself killed giving three strangers just the chance to escape."