[IC] Hooked on a Feeling

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin nodded, reaching into her coat and pulling out a pair of sunglasses. She used to wear them in class at McClaine Academy as a form of protest, whenever she had been forced to actually show up and sit to hear lectures. She only ever really saw the point in attending language courses. Otherwise, why couldn't she just learn on her own at her own pace? Everything was too slow - and consequently, irritating - if she didn't just teach it to herself on her own time. "Check that box off," she said with a smile, referring to him accidentally causing someone to go blind.

"If we could figure out how to control them, we'd stand a better chance against Hammer and Kilgrave..." Guin's mind started to race as she started to form a plan. There was a way that they could defeat Hammer. In fact, the plan in itself was rather devious. There was just one question that remained - what was the extent of Kilgrave's power? One approach they could try would be to give Hammer a fake prototype for Project Ultron. They could design the prototype so that way it'd reveal all of Hammer and Kilgrave's misdeeds, having recorded them or just simply collecting evidence, and broadcast them for everyone to see at the Stark Expo. Her mind was picking up speed as she kept on thinking through this idea - all the mind control in the world wouldn't be able to stop that type of public humiliation. It'd ruin Hammer Industries and prevent Kilgrave from carrying out whatever his plan was - right?

Guin's mind was still continuing to accelerate its thought processes, until she actually forgot to breathe.

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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"You shouldn't be wearing those until I actually start trying to use my power. It is dark out and you might have trouble walking or something... Might cause you to fall over. If we want to try it out, we'd need someplace for us to be able to try it, without causing problems. I mean, my dad might get mad if he sees us trying to figure out what to do with them while he's around, but we could probably find a park or something to use for it," he said looking over at her.

She did have a point about the whole Kilgrave and Hammer thing. Kilgrave had powers, so why not combat him with powers of his own? It made sense, though there is that old saying, fight fire with fire and you'll only get burned or something like that. Though they were running out of options for it. He looked at Guin, and noticed that she seemed to be having problems breathing for some reason. "Guin? You need to breathe alright? It'll be ok, just breathe... What is it?" he said, knowing that there was probably something going through her head.

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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Would that plan even work though? It'd be the nail in the coffin for Hammer, but for Kilgrave...She wasn't so sure. Her thoughts kept on going faster and faster as she considered alternate possibilities and methods. Why even bother taking them on at the same time? She doubted that Hammer would care if anything happened to Kilgrave, provided he already had what he thought was a working prototype of Project Ultron. She couldn't decide if that was a type of approach that they'd want to involve their parents with. Of course, there was no reason they needed Kilgrave to be conscious...There was an easy enough design approach to a suit she could use.

Guin didn't hear Lance telling her to breathe, eventually blinking as she gasped for air. "Okay, I think I figured it out...If we can get Kilgrave alone, we hit him with a tranquilizer. All it needs is a distraction - which is your laser light show. He doesn't know you have powers, so it should stun him, giving me a chance to use a bit of an Iron Man suit modified for our purposes, since archery is one thing I don't think I could learn overnight....Hammer, we give him what he thinks is a prototype - but when he presents it at the Stark Expo, it instead just publicly exposes him as a fraud...Sound good?" she suggested, speaking rather quickly.

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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He started thinking about this whacked out plan that she had come up with. It could work, maybe anyway, but there were so many different things that could go wrong. First of all, his dad was being over protective, and would probably get really pissed off at the fact that he was outside, in the middle of the night, and he was only with Guin. Odds were he was not going to let him go anywhere in the morning, especially since Hammer and Kilgrave wanted him working for Hammer Industries. There were so many things that could go wrong, but he didn't know what his dad and Tony would do.

"Maybe, that could work... But Guin, there are so many things that could go wrong with that. First of all, our parents probably will not let us out of their sight in them morning, we got extremely lucky that they had left by the time we headed out today. Secondly, all it'll take is one word from Kilgrave, and I'd be a sitting duck... This probably won't work... But I'd rather attempt it than sit around doing nothing, waiting for them to try and catch us. So, let's see if we can figure out how to control my powers by morning or something."

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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"Oh my god, I am so stupid!" Guin exclaimed, as another idea popped into her head. Why was she bothering with tranquilizers? Sure, they'd work, but they required them to be in the room with the target. There was a way they could take care of Kilgrave remotely. Of course, it was mildly illegal technology that they'd need to use. But was a derivative of something that the government shut down still considered illegal? That was a question she'd figure out later. But this - this was a way of actually combating Kilgrave. His voice itself wasn't the danger - it was just his physical presence. "The Sonic Taser!" Guin then added.

"It emits a specific frequency and capacitates anyone who hears it. Kilgrave gave you a phone number to get in contact with him by, right? On his business card," Guin explained. "All we need to do is have you call him - I'll trace his precise location - and then I'll have your phone programed to emit that frequency on Kilgrave's end, rendering instant paralysis. If I remember correctly, it is non lethal...." she had stopped breathing again, her mind zipping at the speed of light.

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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"That might not end well, since we'd have to then find Kilgrave to take him out completely, or have him arrested or something like that... He might come back with a vengeance knowing what we did. That probably would be our best option though, considering the fact that then we wouldn't have to be in the room with Kilgrave. Let's do it, come on, off to the rooftop to try and learn how to get my powers to work right in case we need to try to go to plan B or something," he said as he headed off.

The two of them eventually went to a rooftop, hoping to figure out how Lance could control his powers. At first, they didn't work for him, it wasn't until his emotions started going out of whack when he finally was able to cause blasts of lights to appear. That was an improvement, but it took him forever to be able to trigger it, or figure out how to trigger them by using his emotions. It was not an easy task, trying to not hurt Guin at all with his powers.

Once finding the trigger, next was trying to figure out how to use them in self-defense. After several hours, he was able to create and manipulate balls of light, which he could use to injure someone, or just blind them, depending on the situation. It also became even more apparent that he was totally immune to the bright lights he created. The two of them worked and trained until the sky started to lighten up, indicating that sunrise wasn't too far off.

"So... Now what?" he asked Guin, the entire thing was her plan anyway.

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin yawned, looking up at the brightening morning sky. She knew that they'd need to get some sleep, but they didn't quite have time for that. She had to send off a prototype of Project Ultron to Hammer that morning - otherwise, she'd raise suspicion as to the efficacy of the mind control. Lance had to arrange for a meeting with Kilgrave. There was so much that could go wrong in the next hour alone that it took her breath away. As much as she was stubborn and strong, she was also terrified. Lance's powers were great - but he was like Aang, fresh out of the iceberg. Was he really ready to save anyone?

"Come here," Guin said finally, taking Lance's hand and dragging him over towards the edge of the roof. She then sat down against the wall of a small little structure, pulling him down with her. "Let's just watch the sunrise for now," she explained. She wanted to remember this moment - just in case anything bad happened to either one of them.

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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Lance gave Guin a smile, saying nothing as he walked over to the edge of the roof, and sitting down next to her. This was interesting, and it was not something he usually did. Staying up all night, being outside for most of the night too. It was interesting, but his mind went back to what would happen later in the day. They'd have to face Kilgrave and Hammer effectively, and they could not let their dads know about it. He was actually somewhat surprised that their parents hadn't shown up yet.

His body still hurt a lot from the whole incident with the Hulk, not to mention the fact that he was exhausted from what they were doing all night. Lance yawned as they sat there, watching the sunrise. "So... Any bets on how long it'll take our parents to look for us?" he asked her, feeling his side. His ribs were hurting, and he could probably do with some pain meds or something.

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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"Probably another twenty minutes," Guin replied, knowing that they had gone off to look for Daredevil. From what she remembered, the costumed crusader was only active at night. She let out another yawn and inched closer to Lance, resting her head on his shoulder. As much as she wanted to stay awake to watch the sunrise with him, she found her eyes fluttering closed. She was incredibly exhausted and she muttered something incoherent to Lance, before she fell asleep leaning on him. Her walkman was still playing songs and as the sun finally rose in the sky, the song that came on was especially appropriate.

She was still fast asleep as two individuals landed on the roof. In fact, she had began to mumble things slightly. Most of it was hard to pick out - but one phrase was rather clear. "...Don't leave me..."

Banner walked over to Guin and Lance rather quickly, doing his best to keep his temper in. When he and Tony had returned to Stark Tower, with a complete plan in mind, they had found the kids gone. No note, no explanation - nothing! And this was just hours after a convicted criminal had used his mind control abilities on them. To say it had given Banner a small panic attack to find Lance gone was an understatement. It was a small blessing that Tony tracked Guin wherever she went. "Hey buddy - you wanna explain yourself?"

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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"You know what? Not even going to try," Lance said with an eye roll, before a ball of light started floating around him. He flicked his hand and it floated off the edge of the rooftop, before it finally disappated. "On second thought, whatever. Not like you guys didn't really notice us gone. It was either leave the building or let Guin drink herself unconscious or something. Figured this would have been better. It's not like we ran into any problems..."

He created another ball of light, and started juggling it slightly. His body was still super sore, and it was hurting a lot, he winced slightly at the movement, but didn't say anything. "Besides, not like we weren't doing anything somewhat useful..." he added as he kept juggling. Tony looked at Guin, shaking his head. "She is way too much like me, just drink away your problems or something..." he muttered.

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin woke up to hearing Lance and Tony go on about her supposed alcoholism. She blinked her eyes open and then almost instantly closed them again, deciding to pretend to still be sleeping. There wasn't really anything she could say to her father that would deescalate the situation that was about the develop. The very least she could do was run by her problems by effectively playing possum. It wasn't like she had actually drank anything anyways - she was doing pretty well, sobriety wise. No one may have believed it, but she hadn't had a drop since she was sent to rehab.

"Let the Avengers handle this, buddy - it's our job," Banner insisted. He smiled slightly at Lance controlling the light, glad to see he had gotten used to his powers finally - but he didn't know how exactly to voice that. He wasn't a very talkative person and neither was Lance, meaning that conversations between them were weird to say the least. "And you get what you did was wrong, right? Sneaking out when a madman is trying to control you? You're smarter than that, buddy."

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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"Clearly... Yeah, I get it was bad, but it made it easier to forget things. Honestly if they didn't drag Guin and me into this odds are the two of you wouldn't have even noticed Hammer and Kilgrave doing something whacked out. Guin only figured something was messed up because of the whole thing when Hammer tried to get me to work for him the nice way," Lance said, before he shut his mouth, realizing what he had just said. He panicked slightly, and the light in his hand flared up before going out. That was an accident, since he had just let slip something big.

Tony had heard him, and now was staring at him. "Wait, are you telling me that you ran into Hammer, before last night? That he already knew who you were, and Guin knew this, heading to that party last night? What the hell were you two doing there, and why didn't you mention this before?" he asked, looking at him. Lance turned away, not looking at them at all. He did not want to talk about that.

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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Guin felt conflicted. On one hand, she was apparently successfully pretending to be asleep, as no one had tried to say anything to her. But on the other hand, Lance was getting chewed out for decisions both of them had made. They were getting on his case for plans that he hadn't come up with - she had. It wasn't fair that he was taking the fall for it and she did owe him, since he stayed with her on a danger night. She also hadn't forgotten what he'd done for her the night she nearly OD'ed. She owed him for that as well.

She sighed and basically picked herself up, turning to look at the two angry parents. She was pretty sure she'd regret stopping pretending to be asleep very quickly. "It was my idea - so lay off of Lance," Guin started, crossing her arms after pulling out her earbud. She had shoved the earbuds away into her pocket with her walkman. "And we weren't there on a date - which you've already figured out. Honestly, Dad, I think I might be gay or something," she added, rolling her eyes. She wasn't too sure what her sexuality was exactly, but she knew she found girls cute and she'd never really seen a guy she found cute. Well, except for the one. "As for what we were really doing - we were going to hack into Hammer's files and see what he was so butthurt about. He wanted Lance for something."

Banner sighed, not wanting to tell Lance this but he knew he had to. Lance was old enough to hear it - and he was worried that it'd end up putting him in danger - and maybe it already had. "Buddy, you gotta be careful...People will think that the secret to the Hulk is in your blood - in your DNA. They might try to take you in order to get it..."

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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Lance did not like the fact that he was being yelled at, since usually what happened was he was the good kid who did what he was told and asked no questions. Now he was actually trying to take control of everything he did, and he was being yelled at about it. This was new to him, as he generally tried not to piss his dad off in any way, since it could end horribly for him. He did not like being around the Hulk, at all, unless he couldn't help it.

The instant his dad mentioned the whole, people think that the secret to the Hulk is in him, was the last straw. He had guessed that, and he didn't really care too much, it wasn't like they'd be able to really get away with kidnapping him or something. It wasn't too hard to guess that. "Whatever, it doesn't really matter. Besides, I don't get why your freaking out so much since this is the first time I've ever done anything like this," Lance said, as he stood up, his body shaking slightly both from exhaustion and pain.

Tony wasn't paying much attention to the comment she made about her sexuality, but he did hear what she had said about their plan at Hammer's party. "Why didn't you two mention this to us at all?" he asked her.

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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"Of course this matters!" Banner snapped, before forcing himself to take a deep breath. He didn't want to Hulk out in front of Lance again that evening. He had already smashed a large building in Harlem. If he broke Harlem a third time, then he was pretty sure the citizens of Harlem would campaign for him to be thrown on a one way shuttle to Mars. Twice was already way too many times to go and smash buildings there, anyways. "This is your life, buddy. I need you to promise me that you'll be careful. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to keep a closer eye on you - like how Tony watches Guin."

Guin faltered when Tony asked why they hadn't mentioned it to them. She didn't really have a good answer for that. Her gut reaction was to just deflect it with a bunch of other problems she had with her dad, but those weren't the truth. Of course, she had a reason for why she hadn't suggested going to them - several, in fact. But would any of them get her out of trouble? She doubted it. "One, Lance kinda hates you guys. Two, you're already babying me lately because you don't trust me, so this would've just made you flip out and send me to school in Canada or something. Three, we didn't need you two to solve our problems for us...We're almost adults. We could've handled it."

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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"Fine whatever! Honestly, one freaking mistake and you get pissed off. You wonder why I don't talk to you about things," he said, saying that last sentence at more of a whisper. Lance didn't care if he got snatched away or something, probably make his life better in his opinion. Nothing could be worse than a father who you piss off and then goes on a crazy rampage. Right then, Lance recognized the fact that he was pressing his dad's buttons, but he didn't care anymore. He was sick and tired of being super careful, to the point where he basically listened to what everyone told him to do. He was careful, because he didn't want his dad to go green all of the time, to make his life easier, and so he never argued about anything if he couldn't help it.

"I don't think you could have handled it based on what has happened Guin. The two of you, walked in there, without anyway to protect yourselves really, and you ended up getting hit by mind control. That does not sound like you could have handled it, it sounds more like you got overwhelmed and it can easily happen again! We need to get you two back to Stark Tower, since odds are Hammer and Kilgrave are going to know that you two aren't doing what they wanted you to soon."

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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"I'm angry because I don't want to lose you, buddy!" Banner snapped. He had to close his eyes and count off the digits of pi, trying to calm himself down. He really didn't want to get too angry with Lance and let the other guy take the wheel. It was one of the major downsides of having another personality - another individual - inside his head. Whenever he was angry, there was a chance he'd freak out and the Hulk would come out. It didn't help that anger management issues tended to run in the family and from what he could tell, it looked like Lance had inherited them after all. "You're all I have left, Lance!"

"I know how to fight, Dad. Aunt Nat taught me how," Guin pointed out. They hadn't been entirely defenseless and they had had a plan. It would have worked, had it not been for Kilgrave. "And it's not like you could have been prepared for mind control either, Dad. There's not exactly a device for that. Plus, if you hadn't shown up right now, I would've been on my way to the tower to make a fake prototype for Hammer that when launched would publicly expose him for being a douche. And that's fucking rich - now you want me to go back to Stark Tower? Really? Your usual solution is to send me away so you can pretend you're a fucking genius billionaire playboy philanthropist without a kid! Bet you'd be fucking thrilled if Hammer had killed Lance and me!"

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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"Right... Whatever," he muttered, looking away from him again. His dad was way too overprotective, and it bugged him way too much. The fact that his anger issues were a pain too didn't help. Even when he was trying to stay calm, he still found some way to yell or something, seriously, it bugged him. He turned his back to his dad, and just started juggling balls of light again, trying to keep calm himself, since he knew his powers could go crazy if he lost his temper.

"I care about you Guin! Of course I would have cared had he killed you, hell I'm pissed that he and that friend of his Kilgrave messed with you at all! Why would you have decided to try and take on the two of them by yourselves, making a damn fake thing like that! You would have literally had to walk right up to him in order to get that, and he would have messed with you again Guin," Tony said, getting a little mad.

[Morose]

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Guinevere Stark

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"Buddy....I love you..." Banner mumbled, shoving his hands in his pocket. He didn't really know what else to say or do. He knew that he needed to have a long conversation with Lance, but they also needed to get them safely back to Stark Tower - at least for now. They had already put their own plan in motion and hopefully, it'd work out.

"Yeah, well, sorry for being a major fucking disappointment," Guin grumbled. "And let's not forget, your biggest mistake. Surprised you didn't need an arc reactor to keep your heart going after the paternity test said you were my father!" she snapped. She wasn't even really staying on top with the stuff she was screaming at her father. Her head felt like it was spinning and a good portion of her brain was telling her to make arrangements to score a few hits. It wasn't hard to find a drug dealer in New York City, after all. They were just about everywhere. And the more she craved, the angrier she felt with her father and Kilgrave and Hammer and the world. She just wanted to play Just Dance and avoid the outside world for a few months - maybe even a year.

[BlueSky44]

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Lance Banner

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Lance said nothing, just trying to remain calm, and for some weird reason, his powers were helping him with that. He now knew enough about how his powers worked to defend himself, but he didn't want to let his emotions get the better of him and cause them to spiral out of control. The past 24 hours had been crazy insane, and he couldn't do a thing about it, and now these two basically were putting an end to their idea for how to deal with Hammer and Kilgrave.

"Guin are you even listening to what you're saying anymore? It is making no sense with everything you just said two seconds before. Look, we need to get you two back to Stark Tower, no arguing, alright. We have a plan, and we are going to deal with Kilgrave and Hammer. You two need to be back at the Tower where we can keep an eye on you."