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Elaine couldn't help but snicker slightly as she sipped her coffee.
"I swear it's like they're a matched set now, she whispered to Steve. |
"They are," Steve whispered back. "Are we sure they're not more closely related?" He was grinning. They acted like brother and sister more than cousins.
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"At least according to SHIELD," Elaine replied, grinning as well. Her attention was grabbed when she heard the news report come on. "Are they talking about the thing from before with that mutant equalist guy?"
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Tony and Kae both froze at that, and they turned towards the TV as well.
"Turn up the volume," Kae said quietly. The volume obligingly went up. "And we have here some footage of the most recent activity from the Avengers," the news anchor said. "As you can see here, the battle didn't last long, and two as of yet unidentified people left with the Avengers. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's curious about those two, and how they managed to get lucky enough to get a ride home from the Avenges." Kae clenched her fists as the video stopped, zooming in on her and Elaine. For a few moments everything was silent. Then a lamp behind her exploded. |
Elaine yelped and flinched when she heard the glass break.
"What was that?" she asked, a bit shrilly. She trembled a bit from a sudden surge of adrenaline. |
"Lamp exploded," Tony said, moving over to look at it. He had no idea how it had happened, and that just made him a little angry. "It's okay, Elaine. Nothing to worry about."
Steve frowned. Even he knew that lamps didn't just randomly explode. But he moved closer to Elaine, putting his hand over hers, trying to help her calm down. "I'm going down to the gym," Kae muttered, heading for the elevator. She needed to blow off some steam. |
"Lamps don't just explode, Tony," Elaine said. She took a deep breath to try to stop trembling. "Good god that scared me." After a moment, she stood up. "I'm going to go see if Kae is alright. I can only imagine what was on the video feed of the news that made her angry enough to walk."
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"They showed you two," Steve said quietly. "Someone got video of you two getting into the cars with us to leave." He let her go reluctantly. He wanted to go with her, but he doubted he'd be welcome now.
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Elaine paused.
"They caught us on camera?" she asked, a little plaintively. There went the chance to be anonymous... She sighed. "Let me go talk to Kae." Sweeping her cane around, she made her way down to the gym to find her friend. |
Steve watched her go, exchanging frustrated looks with Tony. But there wasn't anything they could do right then.
Kae was in the gym standing in front of one of the punching bags, hitting it for all she was worth. She didn't have a bit of training or anything, but it made her feel better. |
Elaine heard the punching bags being abused and cautiously went into the gym.
"Kae?" she said. |
"Yeah?" Kae didn't stop, but she did look over at Elaine. She was still too angry to hold still for long.
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"You alright?" Elaine asked tentatively. "They told me what was on the news."
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Kae sighed and stopped. "Yeah," she said quietly. "I just... I wasn't expecting this to happen. We're on the news, Elaine. National news. I doubt we can just go home now."
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"I know," Elaine replied. She sighed. "We had such a low profile and now it's just... gone. Given how fast information moves these days..." She shook her head.
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"I don't think we can just go back to running the library," Kae said quietly, mournfully. "I don't think the media will let us."
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"I don't think so, either," Elaine said. She was quiet for a moment. "This is going to sound random, but did you catch what broke the lamp? Lamps don't just explode, not even Tony Stark's lamps."
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Kae blinked. "Um. No. I didn't. I mean, I heard it break, but I guess I thought someone hit it or something." She shrugged.
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"Where was everyone sitting, do you remember?" Elaine asked. "It just strikes me as kind of weird."
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"Huh. You're right. No one was back in that corner." Kae frowned. "I... don't know." Now she was starting to get worried too, because it wasn't adding up.
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"I don't know either..." Elaine shook her head a bit, and then gestured vaguely back the way she came. "Come on, let's go back upstairs. Maybe we got lucky and our names haven't been discovered yet."
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"Maybe not yet, but it won't be long." Kae sighed dismally but walked back over to the elevator with Elaine.
"So what should we do?" |
"We take it up with Fury," Elaine said frankly. "He has to have PR people for this sort of thing."
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Kae nodded after a moment. "Yeah, I guess so. Alright. Do you want me to call him?" She figured she might as well.
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"I can, if you want," Elaine said. She grinned a bit. "Unless you just want the chance to yell at him."
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