The London Case

Chapter 4 - All About Daniel Jones

June 22nd 2018

Further down the hall was a larger office that was brightly lit up. The blinds were half closed and the light lit up the floor. On the door was another metal plaque that read "Bruce Banner & The Hulk" these guys have weird names.
Steve opened the door and more light shone over us. I lifted my hand and the lights immediately dimmed to a less extreme tone.
"Thanks JARVIS." Came a voice from across the room.
"No problem sir, I sensed some discomfort from mr Rogers friend." Came another voice that you couldn't really identify where it was coming from. It was sort of robotic though and was very formal.
"Hi there, my names Bruce, would you like to come with me." He said and held out his hand. I took it and he led me to a table that had bits of machines coming off and high tech screens with hologram on them. This place continued to impress me.
"Wow..." I muttered under my breath.
"Hehe... quite interesting isn't it?" The man said, taping on one of the holographic screen.
"Yeah," I said observing it all. "I studied higher level computer science at my old school, my teacher told be about how Stark Industries had released the designers for these holographic computers. This is amazing."
"How old are you?" He asked.
"I'm twelve."
"And your studying higher level computer science?"
He seemed shocked.
"Yes, I went to the The British Academy for Higher Learners. We studied topics you would do in year 11 and some times A-level graded stuff."
"Wow, your smart then?"
"Well my.... My mum use to read to me a lot when I was younger and it sort of became a habit to read a lot of books on GCSE science and maths and everything. If I found my self stuck or not understanding something I would continue to find out what it was I was missing. Only if it interested me though."
"Very impressed and your only twelve?"
"Almost thirteen but yeah, twelve."
The man seemed to be interested in my education. It was nice, I hadn't had a conversation with someone who was equally enthusiastic as myself for a while now. But our conversation was interrupted by Steve,
"Hate to interrupt but I really want to go to bed so..."
"You can go to bed, I'll watch the kid." Said Nat. She sat down on a spinnie chair behind me. I was glad she stayed, I liked her.
"If your okay with it then I guess I'll see you later, night all." Blondie yawned and left the office.
"Ok, have a seat and, what's your name?" Bruce asked me.
I looked at Nat and she gave me a look as if to say "don't worry you can tell him."
"Elizabeth, El for short though." I said.
"Ok El, what happened?"
"Nat smashed my head on the floor."
Bruce went quiet and we both looked at Nat who was looking away, avoiding eye contact. "Nat?" Bruce asked.
"Hmm..." she said.
Really?
"She didn't mean to, I was running away and she went to stop me and she caught my hood and I fell." I interrupted.
"Ok... how is your head?"
"A bit messed up, my eye sight is a bit fuzzy from time to time and I'm extremely sensitive to lights."
"How about sickness, have you been sick?"
"No but I have had moments where I could have been."
"When was the last time you ate something?"
"A minute ago, before I came in here."
"Oh ok, what did you have?"
"Some M&Ms..."
He sighed and smiled slightly, "when did you last have a full meal with a decent amount of minerals and protein?"
I went quiet, it had been a while, maybe a month? Or two? I didn't want to tell him that of corse.
"El?" Nat said sitting up in her chair.
"Not, not recently..." my voice drifted off.
"You need to eat something, kid." Said Nat
I just nodded, I would have, I would do anything to eat a nice big meal but I'm skint and dad only buys junk and I'd I did as much as look at it for to long dad would get pissed and shout at me.
"I don't think we have anything. Maybe a couple of pop tarts but you need something that will fill you, they won't do."
"I don't know what you like El but, I could go for a burger, maybe some chips to." Nat said, she raised one of her eye brows and gave me a cheeky smile.
At first I wasn't sure if she was bluffing and I look at Bruce who nodes he's head and said, "yeah I guess that would work."
I looked back at Nat who stood up still holding that files from her office, "come on." She and walked up the the office door. I slid off my chair and stumbled in the presses.
"Hang on," Bruce said and wondered over to another desk. "Take these, have one now and another tomorrow morning if your still dizzy." He handed me a little box with tablets in.
"Thank you, Bruce. I appreciate it." I said to him, smiling.
He smiled back and went off to continue with what he was doing before. I turned to look for Nat who had already left the office so I ran after her, "Bye Bruce! Oh... and er, do you want any thing?"
"No thank you El, it's ok."
"Alright, cya round." I darted out the door and ran after Nat to the elevator. I was secretly excited because I hadn't had a full meal since I had gotten to New York. Of course I had a fruit pot every now and then that I got from a store and stuff but I hadn't been able to sit down and eat a full meal that would fill me. We made our way into the garage again and jumped into a massive car, well I did because in so small but Nat had no problem she was a lot taller than me. I opened the door and just looked at the height, Nat was in the car and was getting her seat belt on when she froze and looked at me. She laughed as I attempted to pull my self up onto the seat but fell back. I tried again and grabbed the other end of the seat and pulled my self up, sat down and sighed a breath of relief. I acted like nothing had happened and put my seat belt on like normal till Nat burst out laughing and I smiled nervously.
"Your so small." she said as we drove out the garage.
"Your so tall." I said with sass.
"Hehe... El, whats your dad gonna say About all this?"
I felt a lump form in my throat. I didn't want to talk about my dad.
"He won't care, probably passed out, sleeping off a hangover in front of the tv."
"Well
, there's a reason we brought you to the compound..."
"Well yeah, I was robbing shops and threatening people so..."
"Yes but do you really think the avengers would be so interested in some kid running round with a knife? There are so many other kids that do worse and we don't go out looking for them."
"The Avenger?"
I recognised the name but I couldn't remember from where.
"Yeah," She gave me a confused look but smiled at the same time, "do you not watch the news? Or anything like that?"
"Dad has full control over the tv, if i even attempt to turn it on I'd be in for it."
"Well, what about your phone or anything? You can't tell me you have never heard of the avengers."
"My phones broken, has been since I got here. And I have heard of you guys before, i think I was preoccupied with something else though at the time so I didn't really listen."
"Haha, right?"
I scoffed and looked out the window, it was quiet and the only light was an orange glow from the street lights.
"So why did you follow me and... kidnap me?"
"Let's just get some food first then we can sit down and talk about this all."
"Woah hang on, why are you avoiding my question?"
"I'm not, I just want to make sure your head is better then I'll get onto this other stuff."
"And I just want to go home to my bed but I can't?"
Nat sighed and I crossed my arms and looked out the window. She turned the radio on and kept driving.