Alter Ego

Chapter 7

Evy POV

Something isn't adding up. Dad was released from the hospital in three days with the diagnosis of a heart attack. I'm no doctor, but shouldn't he be on some sort of treatment? I guess a super soldier would heal faster, but he would still need to heal...right? I looked up some stuff about it online and although most people can resume their normal activities, there are still a lot of tests and lifestyle things that they should do. I'm not trying to freak out, really. I just don't want to see dad like that ever again. The more I think about it, the more I wonder exactly how much dad isn't telling me. Bullet point number one on the list of fishy things that doesn't make sense: dad's treatment (or lack thereof). Bullet point number two: dad seizing the day. Dad's really tried hard not to be an absent father. True, he is away A LOT for missions, but when he's here, he's 100% dad with all the attention on me (whether I like it or not). I'm lucky though. I see how Lizzie's parents are away so often, and barely spend any time with her when they're home. When Captain America is home, he becomes super dad-no negotiation. But now, he's spending a lot of extra time with me doing really special things. I think we've gone out to dinner every night this week (I'm not sure we even had clearance!), stayed up past my bedtime, on school nights, watching movies together, and he's already planning our big summer trip to the cabin. Maybe being sick has gotten to him. Maybe it is worse off than what they are telling me. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit and I told Bruce just that when I questioned him about dad's condition. Bruce sighed, ran his hand through his hair and did his glass-cleaning thing which translates to a flat-out, 'I'm not saying anything.' I'm going to figure this out. I just need to strategically put myself by the tower's most consistent secret-spiller. So, I headed to the workshop right after school.

I love the workshop. Uncle Tony and Uncle Bruce have always let me hang out with them-ever since I was a toddler. I can always tell when the elevator has reached the correct floor by the overwhelming booming of ACDC. I walked through the open doors and a chorus of over-excited chirping. DumE, You and Butterfingers rolled over to me causing a flurry of mayhem in their wake; I heard a groan from the side as Uncle Tony muttered something under his breath about a city college.
"Hi guys!" I greeted them affectionately, patting their claws. "Guess what I got you?" I pulled out the brown paper bag.
"I hope you didn't get them crayons again. It took me a week to clean out melted, crushed crayons from their wheels." Tony called from behind his work desk.
"Nope-no crayons this time," I assured him. To be fair I had gotten them colored pencils before but that was banned after Elijah and I, DumE and Butterfingers serving as our steeds respectively, used the pencils to joust in our very own tournament. Sighing I took out the small red and grey screen.
"An Etch-A-Sketch?" Tony asked.
"Why not?" As the robots crowded around me, I let them play with the knob. Butterfingers knelt down first, his claw tentatively grabbing the dial and rotating clockwise. When the line appeared in the sand, the other two robots, gathered closer watching the line move in 90 degree angles as DumE took the other control. I put the paper bag on the ground and walked over to Tony.
"So whatcha doing?" I asked hopping onto a nearby stool.
Upon closer inspection, I saw the hologram Tony was designing. It was a suit, but it lacked the traditional Iron Man flair. Actually, it looked like some kind of wetsuit.
"Is Iron Man going surfer or something?" I asked.
"Don't you have homework?" He replied.
"Nope. You get to have the pleasure of my company for the whole afternoon," I retorted smartly.
"Careful. Your dad might think I've rubbed off on you."
"You still haven't answered my question," I reminded him. "What's the deal with the wetsuit?"
"It's not a wetsuit," scoffed Tony. "Besides when have you been so interested in my work?" He not so casually segued and turned off the hologram.
"Always!" I smiled.
"Well then make yourself useful...hand me that socket wrench." I retrieved the wrench and handed it over. He rolled over to his hot rod and proceeded to ignore me. After a while of watching him tinker, I decided to pull out my sketchbook.
"Oh Butterfingers!" I called and the little robot excitedly rolled over. I worked on the contour lines, having finished the basic shape of the robot before me. Suddenly, the claw grabbed at my sketchbook repeatedly. "Okay, okay! What do ya think? Did I get the wheels right?" Butterfingers chirped positively at my sketch of him. The elevator dinged and none other than my own father walked out.
"Tony? I got your message, what-" he stopped when he saw me. "Evy? I thought you were staying after school with Lizzie?"
"I was, but she had to bail last minute. So I caught a ride home with Neil instead. And don't worry, I cleared it with Happy," I told him. Before I could even think to shut my book, dad lifted it up out of my hands. He whistled.
"Dynamism. That requires a good deal of technical skill," he said looking over my sketches. He smiled over the book.
"I was just dabbling, dad. It's not like I'm going to be the next Pablo Picasso or anything," I mumbled, feeling my cheeks redden.
"No, you're not going to be the next Picasso," he agreed, handing me my book. "You're going to be the first Evelyn Rogers." His look of pride suddenly turned to one of confusion as he took in my full appearance.
"What's that all over you?" He peered closer at the smudges of ink and graphite that undoubtedly covered a good portion of my fingers, and by proxy, my face. He tried rubbing it off with his thumb.
"Dad! Don't." I flailed and whined. "It's my street cred!"
"Your what?"
"You know mark of an artist?"
"No, I don't know. Apparently I wasn't hip enough to have street cred or 'lead poisoning' as we called it."
"Dad, they don't have lead in pencils anymore!" I squirmed. Then, dad just had to walk over to Tony's desk, grab a couple of tissues, do the classic parent licks tissue and proceed to try and wash all off the smudges off.
"Okay, okay. Ew. OKAY!" I leaped off the stool away from his assailing tissues. "I'll go wash it off. All of it." Dad put down the tissues and smiled.
"Good, while you're at it wash up for dinner. I'll be up for supper soon."
Ugh, dad could be really embarrassing sometimes!

Steve POV

I heard a low whistle as I watched Evy exit the shop quickly. Turning, I saw Tony slowly applauding me.
"That was brilliant."
"What?" I asked dropping the tissues in the wastebasket. "Evy runs whenever I try to baby her."
"Who would've thought you'd be more repellent than me?" he snickered. "Jarvis? Can you lock the shop, make sure cap and I have some privacy."
"Of course sir, although I hope you know that sort of talk will only fuel the romance rumors."
"Exactly why I'm asking for privacy," he told the AI "Because, me asking cap to take off his clothes would set off a firestorm." I raised an eyebrow.
"You want me to take my clothes off?"
"To change into your suit. You can change over there-I'm not going to look, but I need to run diagnostics- make sure the currents won't stop your heart or anything."
"That's comforting," I said unbuttoning the cuffs on my shirt. "Is this safe? After all, I did have a 'heart attack'."
"Don't worry, your doctor is on his way," Tony explained handing me a bundle of black synthetic material, the faintest lines of wires. I stepped behind the wall to put it on. The fabric clung to my body like a second skin, the wires like the veins in my body. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was unpleasant. Despite its tautness, my movements weren't too constricted. I walked back to Tony's desk where he pulled up a full-size hologram of my body.
"Okay, so this may hurt a bit. If you start having uncontrollable twitching, say something and I'll video it," he told me while entering a sequence.
"Why- what does that mean?" I asked
"I'd hazard a guess that we were frying your nerve endings."
"You'd 'hazard' a guess?" I asked. "And the video will help you figure that out?"
"Oh sure," he said, before adding in a lower voice "And it'd be hilarious to make a continuous loop of it." We heard strident knocking on the door.
"Come in!" Tony answered, as Bruce entered the lab.
"Am I interrupting something?"
"Some pretty scandalous stuff, especially now that you're here big man." Bruce shook his head and looked over to the hologram.
"Have you started the current yet?"
"Nope, we're waiting for you doctor."
"Let's turn it on," Bruce approached me and tapped another sequence onto a holographic keyboard. The suit lit up, illuminating my body. I could feel the current humming in the fabric.
"That wasn't so bad," I commented.
"Oh-uh, we're just calibrating the suit, Steve, we haven't turned it on yet." He rolled out a portable AED.
"Just in case we need to shock your heart back into rhythm," Bruce muttered.
"I'm 97 percent positive that the internal lining is insulated enough to protect him from electrocution."
"All right, I'm lost," I told the two scientists "What's lighting me up like a Christmas tree going to do?"
"The suit will generate a current which in turn will create an electromagnetic field to alter your particles."
"Which is completely theoretical, because we'd need an electromagnetic field tantamount to an exploding star to have a great enough effect on the particles," Bruce added
"Thus, the reason the suit's lined with vibranium and infused with starkium which should 'theoretically' give enough juice."
"Are you telling me, you have no idea if this is going to work, but it will likely stop my heart? Or explode?" I interrupted the two.
"It won't stop your heart…completely," Tony clarified.
"Comforting."
"Besides, we're not even to the point of creating a magnetic field," Bruce intervened. "Right now, we're having you wear the suit so that we can gather more information about the decay of the serum."
"Personally, I was just to flip the switch," Tony shrugged. "But your doctor thinks it would be safer to test the suit out."
"Test it out?" I asked feeling like a dullard.
"We want you to wear the suit under your clothes. Just do everything you would normally do. The suit has sensors that will record information and send it to Jarvis. We can track the rate of decay, the kind of decay and if there are catalysts. The current is too low of a setting to create the field, but it should be enough to power the sensors. Once we're more comfortable with the data, we'll engage the field."
"And now?"
"Now, cap," Tony pulled up another screen. "We're going to light you up like a Christmas tree." Bruce stood by closely with the AED, a few robots were gathered holding video cameras and a fire extinguisher, as Tony hit the 'on' button. The suit blared to life the hum increasing in pitch and volume until everything went black.
"What the hell?" I heard Tony exclaim. "Jarvis, initiate the backup generators."
"Tony," Bruce interrupted. I looked down to see the faintest of blue and white light coming from the suit, the only light source in the room.
"Hey Steve? You still alive?"
"So far," I answered. The back-up generators brought the lights and holograms back on as I looked down to the suit. Quickly Tony brought up a few screens.
"Check cardiac rhythms and bioelectric processes…" Tony muttered as Bruce examined a complex data set.
"Normal. It seems to be normal," Bruce finally concluded.
"Told you, 97%," Tony added. "You can put your clothes back on."
"It's working?"
"As of yet."
"How exactly am I going to explain this to Evy?" The two scientists stared at me dumbfounded.
"I thought we weren't going to tell her," Bruce started.
"I'd like not to, but I'm not sure how to explain why I suddenly glow," I gestured to myself. "I look like one of those fellas from that movie-the movie Evy loves…Train-Tron. Tron! I look like one of those guys. How do I explain that?"
"Tell her that you've been hitting up the gamma radiation again," Tony tossed my shirt over.
"She shouldn't be able to see it under your clothes, Steve," Bruce reassured.

The shirt did conceal the eerie light, thankfully-but I know Evy is getting suspicious. Right now my hope was on the two scientists in the lab. If they succeeded, maybe I would never have to tell her.