Are You In or Are You Out?

Untitled Part 3

Chapter 3

It was late afternoon when Tony came back out of his office at the Avengers compound. The sun was low, but he smiled as he walked through the central foyer, the tree that was outside but inside was lit up. His mind wandered, 'Pep would love that.' He would have to call her later; it had been a crazy 24 hours and he had only spoken to her once.

When he walked into the large back room, he found Barton and Banner. There were computer desks to one side, a couch with millions of cushions, coffee table and bookshelves on the opposite wall with a TV and radio station, they had a couple of years previously set up a round containment cell for the Hulk. It had been on the Helicarrior that Loki had wrecked in an effort to take over the world. Stark had made it bigger, stronger and more comfortable, it was still designed to take the Hulk, to hold him or contain him or even to give him a safe space to calm. Thankfully they had never had to use it for Bruce yet. The back curve of the holding cell or round-room as they had started calling it looked out at the ocean, to one side was a floating counter with books on, next to this was a cot style bed. Most of the time they used the room to get some quiet time or read, Bruce oddly enough never went in there, but, everyone else did at one time or another, this was actually the first time that Tony had cause to shut the door and lock it.

"Any change?" he walked up behind Banner at the bank of computers and video feeds, it monitored her vital signs, bringing them up on the display, then walked to the round-room and looked in for himself.

Banner shook his head. "No, she's still out. We cleaned her up as best we could. That wound on her forearm healed, right as I was cleaning it up, in front of my eyes Tony. Like once the infection coming out of it was all it needed. " He got up and stood next to Stark looking in at the girl lying on the cot bed. "I gave her antibiotics, vitamins, everything I thought would help really. Her healing seems to be dealing with it though, I might have just given it a boost. Tony are you sure about this?"

"About what? Saving her life?"

Clint got up off the farthest chair. His left arm was in a sling and held close to his chest. "I think he means, taking her out of one cell and putting her in another." He gestured to the round-room. "Even if this one is nicer."

"I know, but what was the alternative. She doesn't look older than 20, she's just a kid. God knows what they did to her, the marks on her are fading fast, but, I know cuff marks, a know bruising from being beaten and I know what it looks like when you're poked repeatedly with a goddamn cattle prod." He sighed heavily.

"She was covered in blood Tony, like I say me and Nat got her as clean as we could, but, we didn't want to risk taking too long, there is no telling how long it'll take for the gas to wear off." He looked at her face, she looked peaceful. She was still wearing his t-shirt. After they had realised it was a girl laying on the cell floor, they broke open the bars and got her out as quick as they could. Bruce had pulled is shirt off and taken his t-shirt off, slipping it onto her to cover her nakedness. "I'm thinking she has some kind of accelerated healing, a mutation maybe. It's not my field, I can put some feelers out to the mutant community up Westchester way, see if there is someone who can give me a little advice. I worked with a guy a few years back, Dr Hank McCoy, he is brilliant, even by my standards."

"Already done Banner. I had the same train of thought and I've been talking to Professor Charles Xavier for the last hour. He sent over some stuff for us to look through. He mentioned McCoy said he'll call by next week, he's currently in Russia for something. I sent her picture; he doesn't know who she is. Offered to come and read her mind." He raised his eyebrows at Banner and Clint.

"Your Kidding?" Clint pulled his eyebrows together. "That's a thing?"

"Apparently." Tony picked up a half-eaten packet of salted peanuts off the coffee table and began popping them into his mouth two at a time. "I told him we can handle it."