Chapter Text
Indy followed Sharee off the aircraft.
‘Maria Stark Foundation?’ Indy asked.
‘Used to be called the September Foundation, before Maria Stark died,’ Sharee said, leading him out towards a series of tents. ‘Then Tony rechristened it.’
‘His mom, right?’ Indy asked.
‘Yup.’ Sharee suddenly called out. ‘Hey, Jack!’
Indy turned his head and looked. The fair-haired man walking across the path cleared of rubble looked close enough to them that he could easily believe he was Sharee’s brother. And, if Indy was honest, he was kind of dressed like Indy too – just with a more 21st century flair. The jeans, Indy could understand. They were made of a material called denim, which did technically exist in the 30s. It just wasn’t commonly used yet outside of industrial and farming work.
It was more tear-resistant than a lot of the other materials and, unlike leather, it breathed.
‘It’ll come into fashion with the hippie movement in the 60s and then it’ll be commonly worn from the 70s,’ Sharee had told him when he’d asked.
So it wasn’t surprising for Indy to see it so much. Sharee seemed to have an endless supply of jeans and her brother was wearing them too as he walked over. Aside from that, looking at Jack was kind of like looking in a mirror. He wore hardy work boots and an off-white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
‘Hiya, pa,’ Jack said.
Indy cracked a smile. He was still getting used to the idea that he had a daughter out there somewhere, and these guys were the grandchildren of that daughter. Honestly, he’d never been too sure that he’d even have kids – yet another reason Abner ought to be glad he was dead before Indy found out about Hazel.
‘Great grandson?’ he checked.
‘Yup.’ Jack got a cheeky grin. ‘No cousins. And I’m the oldest.’
Sharee blew a raspberry at him.
He gave her a smug grin.
‘All right.’ Sharee stretched her arms out in front of her. ‘Well, we better get started. Where’s the main tent, Jack?’
***
Most of the work included victim retrieval.
‘So, what actually happened here?’ Indy asked as he and Jack used ropes and pulleys to lift some debris off an area where one of the sniffer dogs was poking at.
‘Pretty common story by now,’ Jack said. ‘Rogers decided there was a HYDRA base or operation in the area and fought them in public. Then strolled off like a prick.’ He scoffed. ‘In all honesty, I’d prefer an earthquake.’
‘Looks like one hit anyway,’ Indy remarked. ‘What’s Rogers’ obsession with HYDRA?’
‘Well, from what I understand,’ Jack paused to grunt in effort, ‘the man who gave him the serum escaped from them and then was killed by them immediately after the injection process. Then when he broke out the 107th, against orders mind you, they were being held in a HYDRA base and the leader of that particular faction of HYDRA was the other guy injected with the same stuff Rogers was.’
Indy took a moment off asking questions to focus on getting rid of the last of the debris before he headed down to check on the people down there. They focused on getting the people out and across to the medical tents. Indy didn’t broach the subject again until they sat down for lunch. Sharee was on Jack’s other side at the time.
‘Did Rogers never fight actual Nazis?’
‘I don’t think he did,’ Sharee said.
Jack shrugged and tipped the remainder of his bowl into his mouth. He lowered it and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. ‘But it really wouldn’t surprise me to find out he equates HYDRA with Nazis.’
‘They’re not though, are they?’ Indy asked.
‘Not by a long shot,’ Sharee said. ‘HYDRA had a different name before World War II: the Worshippers of the Hive.’
‘Oh.’ Indy nodded. ‘I’ve heard of them. They’ve been around for so long no one remembers how they started. But they’re pretty small, aren’t they?’
‘Until World War II, yeah,’ Jack agreed. ‘There’s a lot of factor involved in how it happened—’
Sharee interrupted him. ‘—But mostly from going into the shadows and taking advantage of people with more arrogance than common sense.’
Jack ignored the interruption. ‘—But they built up a pretty significant power past since then, and were only recently discovered.’
‘Although most people haven’t worked out the name change,’ Sharee added.
‘You mean no one has,’ Jack said.
***
Indy looked up as he heard the roar of repulsors and watched Iron Man come down for a landing.
‘Pretty good of him to make time to come out here,’ he remarked, watching the helmet fold down and Tony head over to talk to the relief effort coordinators. ‘Especially seeing as he had nothing to do with the mess.’
‘Yeah, but that’s Tony,’ Sharee said. ‘He actually stops and interacts with the people he’s supposed to be protecting.’
Indy snorted. ‘I love the sass you say that with.’
‘Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s your sass.’
‘Could be Marion’s.’
‘Could be someone else’s entirely.’
‘True.’
***
The thing Indy noticed about the Iron Man suit – and the War Machine one when Rhodey made it to the relief site – was how effective they were.
Oh, they’d been built for combat, and they’d be invaluable on a battlefield.
But when it came to finding civilians, they were unmatched. Tony had basically everything here. He had thermal cameras to detect body heat in among the debris. He had sniffer dogs to find people that those cameras might miss because they were too cold or whatever technical reason there was for the devices to miss people. And he had countless people digging through the rubble to find people, as well as the best medical help that could be brought here.
Those suits of armour, though, were something else entirely.
They could not only locate body heat and movement under the rubble, but they could lift the rubble like a crane. There were also some remote controlling of the suits, allowing Tony and Rhodey to leave the suits holding up the debris if they needed to quickly duck out and under to move smaller debris or something.
The more Indy saw of Tony, the more he was convinced he was exceptional.
‘Still, it’s impressive,’ he said. ‘I mean, I’ve seen billionaires pour money and resources into relief and humanitarian efforts. But this has got to be the first time I’ve seen the actual billionaire get out there and get his hands dirty doing actual field work.’
‘Oh, I know,’ Sharee said. ‘The press can say what they want but…ever since Tony’s little adventure in Afghanistan, he’s been painfully aware of the damage his weapons do.’
Indy sighed. ‘That was when he was kidnapped by insurgents, wasn’t it?’
‘Bit more to it than that,’ Jack agreed, ‘but yeah.’
Indy didn’t doubt.
He’d been around the block a few times. He knew what sort of “persuasion” methods were used by people like that; people who believed violence would get them what they wanted. There was a reason he and Marcus flat-out refused to let Marion go with him to some places. Not because of where he was going but because of the kind of people Indy expected to run into.
Indy shuddered at the thought.
***
‘I’ll be around when Tony works out how to get you home,’ Jack said to Indy as he saw him and Sharee off.
‘I think everybody wants to be there,’ Sharee remarked.
Indy grinned. ‘Well, I guess I’ll see you later then, Jack.’
‘Yeah,’ he said with a grin. ‘See you, pa. And be very wary anytime Sharee says “Hey, you know what would be fun”.’
‘I resent that!’ Sharee exclaimed in mock outrage.
Indy just chuckled.