AN ~ My livestream of AOS 2x01 was not working! SO I started this fic instead. It will be canon-divergent as of the end of s1, that is, not necessarily including s2 unless it fits. I will let you know if a chapter contains spoilers for s2. I don't write this genre much/at all so I would love your feedback! Otherwise, enjoy.
"Sir," Jarvis interjected. "Encrypted message incoming."
"Get onto that would you? It might be just what I need."
Tony frowned at his screens. They were littered with all manner of information; SHIELD, Iraq, Mossad operations, CCTV footage, news channels. None of it seemed to fit together – at least, not in the right way. It was if someone had tipped fifty boxes of puzzle pieces in front of him, and hadn't told him which image he should be building. But worse. Puzzles, he could do - engineer-inventors didn't get this far if they couldn't – which is why it was irking him so much that he couldn't get this one.
"Tony," Pepper scolded, "You didn't come down to eat."
"This is important." He waved her away, but she put the sandwich on the desk in front of him anyway, and frowned at him as he swiped the information into a new arrangement, and back again when he saw no pattern.
"I love that you've got a sense of purpose now, Mr Hero," she said. "But Cap's got this one. You don't need to worry."
He dropped his hands and looked at her.
"Got what one."
Pepper, in response, called up a news feed and expanded it, kicking Tony's collection to the side screen. Tony's eyes widened and he stepped back as helicopters, bullets and explosions lit up the footage. As Pepper had suggested, Steve was pelting along a rooftop at high velocity, with half a dozen people on his heels. But more important to Tony at that particular moment was the rooftop itself.
"Is that-?"
"The Triskellion."
Tony's jaw fell slack.
"Message decode complete," Jarvis chimed in.
"Bring it up," Pepper ordered, as Tony seemed too busy absorbing the bursting of his work bubble. His eyes scanned it. Then scanned it again.
Out of the darkness, into the light. – Hydra.
"Holy Mother of Cap," Tony finally managed.
"Agent Hill called," Pepper explained. "Fury's down. SHIELD's collapsing in on itself. Nobody knows how far up it goes."
Heart pumping, Core whirring furiously to keep up, Tony leapt into action. Not for the first time, he cursed his messy desk-keeping habits as he dug around for his cell.
"Jarvis – search Hydra. Shield. World War II. Leave out myth. Pepper – when did you find out about this? Have you called Romanov? Does Clint know? Where's Banner?"
Pepper placed his cell into his hand. Her lips were pursed, pretending she was not amused, though her eyes told a different story: as usual, they were of course – no, wait. They were sad. Tony stood upright, slowing, balancing out his movement. He turned to face her properly.
"I couldn't get a hold of Nat," Pepper explained. "Do you think she's okay? She was pretty close to Fury, wasn't she?"
Tony nodded slowly, hoping that he appeared as convinced as he felt when he said, "She's fine. She probably doesn't even know yet. She's probably deep undercover in the Ukraine by now. Something fishy's definitely going on there."
Pepper nodded too, hoping she looked as convinced as she wanted to feel; apart from anything else, Natasha would knock the both of them out and throw them out a window before she heard a word of sympathy from either of them.
"I haven't tried Clint or Banner yet," Pepper continued. "Thor's obviously off the grid."
"What about Coul-" Tony stopped himself before he could finish the name. He cleared. "Hill called, right? Good. Someone's still standing. And Cap's onto it. That's good too. But let's see what we can do to help."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Is it still called hacking if I made it?"
Pepper's lips curled up in a smile for a moment. "I'll contact Clint and Banner and give our people a heads up."
Tony nodded and Pepper took his phone back, already putting it to her ear as she strode out of the room, leaving him with his screens.