7 Psychological evaluation and a message from space.
A week later.
"These are your son's psychological evaluation, Mr. Stark I suggest you read through it and see a counselor for war veterans"
Tony took it and started reading through it while Pepper turned towards the psychologist who in turn answered her unasked question.
"He has too much apathy and too little empathy. If he sees someone in trouble he will help them because it's the logical thing to do and not something he feels he should do. But if someone he has deemed a threat to those he holds precious, he will ... neutralize them, He also has little to no self-preservation and acts only on logic and curiosity and very rarely on anger. All signs exhibited by those who have been in war for a very long time without proper rest or a break hence my recommendation"
Pepper was very concerned and took on a serious face.
"Did he tell you who he considers important?" Asked Pepper.
The psychologist gave her a warm smile.
"He said he holds the two of you at the same level of importance as Zhyttya and when I asked him who he was he was silent for few moments and said 'God of life".
"Did he mention anything about this god of life? any teachings? description? covenants?" asked Tony.
"Only that Zhyttya is the cumulation of all life that exists and will exist and when I asked what about those that existed he said that they belong to 'death' and no he said there is nothing like rules just that they exist and you should know that they exist".
They then talked about a few things and the couple left.
On the way to the tower.
"What are you thinking about?" Pepper asked Tony who was deep in thought.
Tony didn't answer but was still lost in thought until pepper punched him lightly getting his attention.
"You need to sleep." said pepper as she looked at his face.
"No, I don't I am perfectly fine."
"Sir, You have not slept for the last 54 hours" came the voice of Jarvis from his phone.
"I will have to agree with JARVIS on this one Tony, you need to sleep, even I need to sleep regularly in my Human form" came the voice of Aron.
"Metalman should sleep" came another deep voice.
"Is that Hulk?"
"Yes, he is my friend we were playing smash bros but that's not important you need to sleep because if you don't I think you will end up creating a supervillain or two"
"I won't create a supervillain that's just stupid and you need sleep because you are growing"
"You need sleep! every human requires at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep every 24 hours according to..."
"Okay don't you dare list those names, young man. How do you know all this?"
"I raided google scholar"
"did you break into..."
"No! it's free and besides Jarvis gets me whatever I ask him about but won't let me access the internet" which sounded like he was pouting.
Tony was weirded out while pepper's face was a mixture of surprise and amusement.
"Aron, could you put Jarvis on?"
"He is already on. I am going to play with Hulk he is fun"
"Yes, sir?"
"Jarvis what the hell is going and how did it happen?"
Flashback time.
Bruce was staring at Aron with an expression that was a mixture of anger, intrigue, and worry.
"You want me to let the Hulk out because you want to play with him?"
"Yes," said Aron with a straight face.
"He is a monster. He will hurt you."
"That's stupid! it's like telling a gun is dangerous because it shoots bullets but it's completely harmless if there are no bullets inside it, Besides he can talk and anyone who can talk is no monster. Monsters can't talk!" argued Aron.
"Besides I want to meet him! I am a fan!" added Aron.
"Fan of what? his anger?"
"No fan of how despite being pissed at you and everything related to you he tries his hardest to get your approval"
Bruces face morphed into that of confusion.
"He is looking for my approval?"
"Yes! He is like me a kid! and all he has ever known is anger and what do you expect an angry kid to do other than throw a tantrum?"
Bruce shut up and took on a thinking face.
"So come on switch with him I want to play and there are no other kids here!"
Before Bruce could argue he turned green and alarms started blaring and Aron turned green and partially fused with the Tower and turned off the alarms.
"You like Hulk?" Asked hulk.
"Kind off?, while Hulk is strong I can only become strong by merging with machines," said Aaron with his ring face.
"You are weird." declared Hulk.
"Yep," said Aron standing to his full height.
"Slimy not afraid?" asked Hulk not that angry looking and more curious.
"Nope, You can talk so that means we can be friends"
Hulk grunted.
"Soooo... want to play?"
He grunted again.
"I suggest that Hulk should at least wear something to cover his privates" came the voice of Jarvis after he failed to activate security protocols and trying to contact anyone.
Flashback time over.
"So, I have two giant 4-year-olds playing smash bros in the rec room?" asked Stark equal parts amused, worried, curious, and exhausted.
"Yes sir" answered Jarvis.
"I am grounding him" Said Pepper.
"but after banner comes back...right?"
"I am grounding both of them after we get there." said pepper her mind kinda broken?
Few minutes later.
"What was I thinking?" asked pepper as she paced around the living room.
"You weren't and You were awesome," said stark grinning like a mad man from his couch.
As soon as they came to the tower pepper had stormed into the rec room in her 'angry mother' mode which was enough to scare Hulk and turn him back into Banner and nearly cause Aron to turn into a ship and blast off but didn't do so because he was getting scolded and didn't want to piss her off more.
Pepper glared at him and was about to say something when the door was knocked.
The couple looked at each other.
"Can I come in? we need to talk, it's about Aron" came Banner's voice from the other side of the door.
Banner came in and they talked in the meantime.
<In a warehouse somewhere>.
Steve punched a concrete wall and put a dent in it. His face was hidden in darkness but if you could see it, it promised a world of pain like another blond who put a demon fox inside his child by sacrificing his life just because he couldn't stand to see his wife die before him.
His attempts at talking his friend out of his brainwashing were kinda? successful. he showed lapses in his behavior patterns when he was interacting with him but would return to his programmed self after a few minutes.
Taking him to places that he was familiar with didn't help because they no longer existed.
and their other prisoner committed suicide the minute she was awoken through a capsule in her tooth. Which thankfully didn't exist in Bucky.
He was going to have to find a proper and trustworthy doctor and soon.
<In deep space, on a ship>
A potted plant was just messing around an intergalactic trans receiver playing around with its dials by twisting them and clicking the shiny buttons on it while occasionally talking into it. Thankfully a raccoon had blocked all known frequencies so that the plant couldn't accept or make an absurd promise again.
The plant was getting bored because no one was answering again and was about to give up but was presently surprised when.
"I am Groot?[Hello, I am Groot. Can anyone hear me?]"
"I am Aron.[Hi, I am Aron Stark. I can hear you just fine]"
"I am Groot![Finally! No one answered for a long time! I was getting bored]"
"I am Aron![Me too! I got grounded and I got too bored]"
"I am Groot.[Won't they take away the comunicpur if they find out?]"
"I am Aron.[They probably will so we have to keep it a secret from our parents]"
"I am Groot?[What is a 'parent'?]"
"I am Aron.[A parent is someone who cares for us and tries to give us the best environment where we can grow and learn while also teaching us anything they think is beneficial or not harmful to us]"
"I am GROOT![Then Rocket is my Parent!]"
"I am Aron.[I don't know about that but one of my parents builds things and the other rules over an empire]"
"I am Groot?[You can have two parents?]"
"I am Aron.[You can have many many parents]"
And that was how two very unlikely individuals met and became the greatest of friends.
