Hubris Calls For Nemesis

Isilarma

Chapter One

I know I'm meant to be updating 'Strange Visitors', but this idea wouldn't leave me alone. I hope you all enjoy it.

Many thanks to everyone over at The Beta Branch for checking this.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Tony tied off the last knot and sat back.

"That should do it."

Clint nodded but didn't look up from his own work. "Good."

Tony frowned. "Aren't you going to check?"

"Do I need to?" He gave a grunt as he pulled the strips of cloth perhaps a little tighter than he needed to. "It's not like you haven't done it before."

"Good point." He grinned at him. "That was fun."

Clint rolled his eyes. "You have an interesting definition of the word fun."

Tony considered. To most people, spending the evening escaping from a gang of kidnappers probably wouldn't be considered fun. He dismissed the thought with a shrug; they were hardly most people.

"How's your head?" His own was throbbing from the after-effects of the gas that had got them into this, and he was willing to bet that Clint's was to. Not that he expected the spy to admit to something as insignificant as a headache of course.

Clint shrugged. "Fine."

Why was he not surprised? "You sure?"

Clint raised an eyebrow. "How's yours?"

"...Fine." Clint smirked, and Tony was quick to continue. "Better than theirs anyway."

Clint's grin widened as he dumped his own unconscious guard next to Tony's. Both were dressed in nondescript uniforms, now somewhat ragged after being torn up to make bindings, and each had a gun strapped to his leg.

"So, when did you start making a habit of concealing miniature tasers in your cuff links?"

Tony shrugged. "Since I started getting kidnapped on a weekly basis."

"Don't exaggerate," said Clint absently, as he examined one of the guns. "It's rarely more than once a month."

"Twice a month," Tony protested. "At least." He frowned as Clint muttered a curse. "Something wrong?"

Clint dropped the gun to the floor in disgust. "It's coded to his fingerprints." There was an undertone of grudging respect to the words. "How many of those things have you got?"

Tony grimaced. "One more, the charge on this one's dead. Anyway, you're the assassin, why don't you find your own weapons?" He blinked as a thin knife appeared in Clint's hand. "Now why couldn't you have done that half an hour ago?"

Clint raised an eyebrow. "I don't know. Maybe it was the fact that my hands were stuck behind my back and there were four guns pointed at my head."

"So? I was able to get the taser out without too much trouble."

"Yeah, because they were all looking at me."

Tony waved a hand. "And I took advantage of the distraction. Let's just call it good teamwork and move on."

Clint was silent for a moment. Tony got the distinct impression he was counting to ten. "Fine. Got a plan?"

"I got us this far," Tony protested. "It's your turn now."

Clint rolled his eyes. "Yeah. That's the way it works."

Tony shrugged. "Well it's not like it's going to be difficult. Look how atrocious their performance has been so far."

Clint frowned at him. "Don't get careless. That gas did incapacitate both of us."

"Oh lighten up, will you? They might have gotten us here, but that doesn't change the fact that they've acted like morons ever since."

"This is serious, Tony," Clint snapped, and Tony's smirk faded at the genuine warning in his voice. "They extricated us from a building surrounded by security without a problem. People that good wouldn't be so careless now."

"Not unless they were trying to be," Tony finished quietly. His levity dropped like the mask it had become. "If we find a computer, I can get a message to S.H.I.E.L.D."

Clint nodded. "Better get going then. People will be looking for these two soon, if they aren't already." He made for the door, only to pause when he realised Tony wasn't with him. "Is this really the time for that?"

Tony didn't look up from where he was going through the pockets of the two guards. "You never know what you might find."

"We've already got their pass cards," Clint hissed. "They're professionals; they're not going to have anything else that might be of use for precisely this reason."

Tony ignored his impatience with the ease of long practice. "Calm down, this will only take – Huh."

"Stark?"

Tony blinked and held up a shiny smartphone. "I wish all my kidnappers were this accommodating."

Clint's eyes narrowed. "No one would carry something like this around with them normally."

Tony nodded, flipping the phone over in his hand. "They want us to call for help, don't they?"

"Most likely."

"So, we're bait?"

"Uh huh."

Tony scowled. "Why am I always bait? I hate being bait."

"Really? And here we were all thinking you loved it."

Tony chose to ignore that. "So, what do we do?" In this case, he was more than willing to defer to the spy's greater experience. Clint studied the phone for a moment before nodding.

"I saw we spring the trap."

Tony blinked. "Okay, why?"

Clint shrugged. "How else are we going to find out what they want?"

"What's wrong with some good old fashioned snooping?"

"We'll be doing that too," Clint assured him. "But I'll feel a lot more comfortable if I know there's back-up on the way."

Tony couldn't argue with that. This situation was giving him the creeps.

"Besides," Clint added after a moment. "Natasha will be disappointed if she doesn't get a chance to join in."

Tony shuddered. He would rather take on Loki without his armour than face Natasha in a bad mood. "Excellent point." He turned his attention to the phone. "Keep an eye out for people, won't you?"

Clint shot him a very pointed 'stop pointing out the obvious' look, but crossed to the doorway, the knife ready. Tony shook his head as he finished typing in the number and his send. This was going to be interesting.

Steve Rogers was not having a good day. Not only had two of his teammates been kidnapped from what Hill had assured him would be a perfectly safe conference, S.H.I.E.L.D. was now having problems locating said teammates. Steve had to fight the urge to fidget. As often as he wished for a break from Tony's constant trouble-making, he had never wanted it this way.

The rest of the team weren't taking it much better. Thor was the only one looking even remotely normal, but he was wearing his armour, and his usual beaming smile was nowhere to be seen. He also had yet to let go of Mjolnir, a fact that Steve was actually rather grateful for considering Bruce's eyes had been flecked with green ever since he had heard the news. As for Natasha, she was glued to the screens depicting the progress of the search, and looking so calmly murderous that no one dared to pass within six feet of her.

Steve sighed. They were all on edge, and it was only going to get worse. Despite Fury's best efforts, they still had no idea who had taken their friends, let alone where or why. Needless to say, Fury was not impressed.

"There were four agents in that building," he growled. "Will someone please explain to me how not a single one of them noticed anything?"

Not impressed at all. He almost seemed to be taking the failure as a personal insult. Steve felt a twinge of sympathy for the hapless agent unlucky enough to catch his eye, but he was just as perturbed by the oversight as the director.

Coulson crossed to join them then, and as usual, Steve had to force himself not to stare. Despite being informed weeks ago of the agent's survival, it was still a shock to see him going about his business as if nothing had happened.

"Here are the reports from the witnesses," he said.

Fury took the files with a grunt. "Anything useful?"

"Not especially, considering all of them were all affected by the same gas as Barton and Stark."

Fury scowled and tossed the files onto a console. "Someone make a note to give the rescue party gas masks."

"Yes, sir."

"Assuming we can find them at all," someone muttered.

Fury's eye narrowed, and Steve glared round, but before he could identify whoever had spoken, the silence was broken rather abruptly by the familiar sound of AC/DC. Every eye turned to Bruce, who sighed but otherwise proceeded to answer his phone as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Hello... I'm glad to hear it... Of course you did... Yes, he is, here..." He held out the phone to Fury. "Tony wants to talk to you."

Steve stared at him, but Fury just raised an eyebrow and took it. "Someone get a trace on this." He turned his attention to the phone. "Stark, where the hell are you?"

Bruce glanced at the rest of the Avengers. "He says he and Clint are both fine," he reported quietly. "They have headaches, but were able to overwhelm their guards."

"Good," said Steve absently. He wasn't paying complete attention due to trying to eavesdrop on Fury's conversation too, but he focused rather quickly when Natasha's eyes narrowed.

"Did he happen to mention how he got hold of a phone?"

Brue grimaced. "He said they took it off of a guard." He nodded as her frown deepened. "They aren't happy about it either."

Thor glanced between them. "Is there a problem?"

"It shouldn't be that easy," Natasha explained quietly. "Not even for them."

Steve frowned. "You think it's a trap?"

"Don't you?"

Thor's grip tightened round Mjolnir. "It matters not. We must retrieve our comrades."

Coulson nodded. "They won't have the element of surprise any more."

Bruce blinked at him. "You're not going to tell us it's too dangerous?" Steve saw Thor lean forwards, and knew he was just curious about the agent's answer as he was. To his surprise, Natasha actually relaxed.

"We'll be fine," she said simply.

Coulson nodded to her. "Precisely." His eyes darkened. "Especially since I will be accompanying you."

Steve frowned, but said nothing. Coulson could more than take care of himself. A gang of kidnappers was hardly in the same league as an insane demigod after all.

At that point Fury stepped down to join them. "Agreed." He handed Bruce his phone back, before staring round at each of them in turn. "As you guessed, Barton and Stark were taken as bait. Barton is of the opinion that you should take it."

"We had come to the same conclusion, sir," Natasha said.

Steve tensed, expecting a protest, but Fury just nodded. "Good. Don't get careless."

Thor stood, his face fixed in its warrior mask. "We will not. And we will bring our friends back safely."

There was no trace of doubt in his voice. Looking round, Steve saw the same expression mirrored on each of his teammates' faces, and felt a surge of pride. They were they best, and he knew that they could do this.

He just hoped Tony and Clint could stay out of trouble until they got there.

"Stay close," Clint hissed.

That was one order Tony was having no problem obeying. Clint had decided that it was too dangerous to stay in one place; that call was sure to have been detected, and neither of them particularly liked the idea of being captured again. Besides, it was a perfect opportunity to find out exactly what game their captors were playing.

Still, as they slipped through the deserted corridors, Tony found it increasingly difficult to ignore his rising concerns.

"I know I shouldn't be complaining," he muttered. "But shouldn't there be, you know, people around?"

Clint frowned. "Was wondering when you were going to notice that."

"Then what the hell is going on? They must have realised we've escaped."

Clint glanced back, and Tony had to hide his shudder at the darkness in the spy's eyes. "I'm beginning to think that we haven't."

Tony opened his mouth, then closed it again without speaking. The same thought had been growing on his mind ever since the discovery of the phone, and he really didn't like the implications. He suddenly found himself wishing he'd remembered to call Pepper that morning. He forced the thought from his mind. Think later. Action now.

"Any ideas?" he whispered.

Clint's jaw tightened. "Find information. Escape, if possible. Otherwise cause as much chaos as possible."

Tony allowed himself a smirk. "I think I can get behind that plan."

"Thought you might." His eyes narrowed as they rounded a corner to find a long corridor with a number of rooms leading off of it. "Now what do we have here?" He moved to look through the small window set in the first door, and Tony knew from the sudden tension in his shoulders that it was bad news.

"Let me see."

Clint stepped aside, his expression even more forbidding than usual. One glance inside was enough to explain why.

It was a laboratory, but one that was as far removed from what Tony was familiar with as the helicarrier was from his penthouse. Everything was in stark greys and whites; there wasn't a trace of colour in the whole room. The centrepiece was a long operating table, and Tony felt bile rise in his throat at the straps that lay upon it.

"Damn."

Clint nodded and turned away. "Come on." Tony shot the room a final loathing filled look and followed.

A quick inspection proved that the remaining rooms were similar to the first one. Tony paused at the end of the corridor and drew in a deep breath.

"I think we can guess what they had planned."

Clint grunted his agreement, and stopped outside the last door. "This one has a computer."

Tony grinned and cracked his knuckles. "My turn."

"Just be quick." He remained by the door while Tony took a seat. After a few minutes, Tony looked up.

"This is going to take a while."

"We don't have a while," Clint growled. "Get what you can in two minutes, then we're moving."

Tony didn't bother replying. He had expected the search to be relatively simple, but even getting past the security was proving troublesome. His eyes narrowed. This was new.

"Hurry up."

"Enough of the backseat hacking all right?" Tony hissed back. "This isn't easy."

"You hack S.H.I.E.L.D. on a regular basis; how are you having problems with this?"

"This is different. I haven't seen some of these before."

Clint stared at him. "You don't know something? Let me mark the date."

Tony ignored him. In any other circumstances, the prospect of a code like this would fascinate him. It fascinated him now, but the prospect of imminent recapture and torture and death tempered his excitement somewhat. Fortunately, another dozen seconds found him finally past the protections.

"There we are."

"Anything interesting?"

Tony didn't reply for a moment. He was too busy processing what he was seeing.

"Stark? What is it?"

Tony continued to stare at the screen. "Nothing."

"Tony-"

"There's nothing here."

"What?" Clint moved to look over his shoulder and swore viciously. "Damn it."

There was only one reason for a computer this heavily protected to be blank. Tony turned to meet Clint's gaze, not even trying to keep the anger from his voice.

"You know, I'm really beginning to get fed up of this."

"You're not the only one," Clint growled. He straightened up. "We're leaving. Now."

Tony stood up to follow, but he knew it was a futile gesture. This had been planned from the start, and they had walked into it like a pair of Hammer guards. Sure enough, he managed two steps before the door hissed shut. Neither of them were surprised when the pass cards failed to have any effect.

And then there came the now familiar hiss of gas.

Tony's breath caught in his chest as he tried to quell his rising panic. They had been played, and now they were going to pay the price. Clint took a step closer to him, his expression unreadable.

"It'll be fine," he said quietly. "They're still coming."

Tony opened his mouth to reply, but his mouth suddenly felt like cotton wool and all he could produce was an incoherent mumble. The gas still worked then, his mind supplied fuzzily, and he felt rather than saw Clint stagger next to him as he too felt the effects.

The last thing that crossed his mind as the ground rushed up to meet him was that the rest of the team had better not make the same mistakes that they had.

Steve let out a long sigh as he stared down at the complex.

"This is going to be interesting."

Thor nodded grimly. "Indeed, but we will succeed. There can be no doubt of that."

Steve could only hope he was right. Whatever lapses of security, deliberate or not, there had been inside were not present now. Armed men patrolled in pairs at regular intervals around a tall fence, and the area was well lit by a number of spotlights.

"It doesn't look like we'll be able to take them by surprise."

"That's the whole point of springing a trap, Cap."

It took all Steve's self-control to keep from jumping like a frightened schoolboy. How did she do that every time? "Is that really necessary?"

Natasha's teeth flashed white in the gathering gloom. "Depends on your point of view." The levity disappeared from her voice as she continued, "It's the same round the back. Coulson will need a few more minutes to get his group into position."

Steve nodded an acknowledgement and turned to Bruce. "How are you feeling, Doctor?"

Bruce's face was completely expressionless, but his reply made Steve reach involuntarily for his shield. "Angry."

Steve and Natasha exchanged a long look, but Thor just grinned and clapped the scientist on the back. "And that is exactly what we need, my friend."

Bruce blinked, then his lips twitched into a slight smile. "Good."

Natasha smiled at him. "You're going to be fine, Doctor." She paused, evidently getting a message from Coulson. "Understood." She turned to the rest of them. "They're ready."

Steve hefted his shield. "Then let's go."

The plan was for them to act as the distraction while Coulson led his agents in to find their teammates. Fortunately, Thor was very good at attracting attention. In this case, by calling lightning down upon the spotlights. Result: chaos, and explosions.

"I think that did it," Natasha murmured to Steve.

Steve smirked back. "It's almost as if Stark was here."

Natasha grinned, and then they were fighting, and there was no time for banter. Steve blocked a vicious punch with one arm before driving his shield into the man's face. There was a startled yelp as the bone gave way with a crunch, and Steve had to fight back a surge of satisfaction. It was so tempting to unleash all the rage and frustration of the past several hours, but he knew that a wild rampage was not what was needed now.

Besides, he reflected, as half a dozen screaming men went flying through the air, the Hulk more than had that covered.

It didn't take long to gain entry. The electrified fence might as well have been paper for all the good it did, and trained though the guards were, Steve and Natasha went through them like a sickle through wheat. S.H.I.E.L.D. forces were arriving to take control of prisoners, and Steve turned his attention to the steel door.

"Thor, do you mind knocking for us?"

Thor grinned in answer, but even as he raised Mjolnir, the door slid open and a man stepped out. The Hulk roared a challenge, but Steve held up a hand, all his senses suddenly screaming at him. Something strange was going on here. He could understand them wanting to talk after seeing the devastation of their forces, but who would be foolish enough to send only one man?

Steve studied the man more closely. He was unremarkable to look at. Average height and weight, nondescript brown hair and eyes, plain suit. Not a single memorable feature. The sort of person one might pass in the street and have forgotten about the moment he was out of sight. Completely normal.

Too normal. But what really raised Steve's concern was that this man was facing down a demigod, a spy, a super-soldier, and a giant green rage monster, not to mention the team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, all without batting an eyelid. In fact, without showing the slightest emotion at all.

As if sensing his concern, Natasha drifted closer.

"Be careful," she murmured.

Steve nodded, but he hardly needed the warning. This was not typical. He glanced around. Thor was tensed for battle, but awaited his command. From the expression on his face, he too had been struck by the man's poise. Banner was the real problem but, for now, the Hulk seemed content to follow Steve's lead. Steve took a deep breath and stepped forwards.

"You are holding two of our teammates hostage. You will release them immediately, or face the consequences."

His voice rang through the silence, but to his shock, the man just turned his head slowly to look at him.

"I do not think so." His voice was as expressionless as his face, but that did nothing to decrease the menace in the warning. "You will surrender immediately."

"And why would we do that?" Thor growled.

In answer, the man pulled out a small globe. Steve tensed, along with everyone present, but it wasn't a weapon. Instead, a holographic screen appeared above it.

But any relief they might have felt died immediately as they finally discovered what had happened to their teammates.

Clint was bound to a chair to the side of the room, and although the quality of the image wasn't high, it was all too easy to make out the blood trickling down his face. He didn't make a sound, and Steve couldn't read him well enough to determine his condition, but the sharp intake of breath from Natasha next to him was more than enough to confirm his worst fears. She didn't move, didn't speak, but that single sound conveyed volumes.

As bad as Clint's condition was though, Tony's was altogether more alarming. He didn't appear to be visibly harmed, but, unlike Clint, he wasn't bound to a chair. Instead, he was strapped to an operating table. Memories of Bucky and the camps flashed before Steve's eyes but he forced the images aside. This wasn't the time. His concern deepened when he saw that Tony's shirt had been removed, revealing the glowing arc reactor set in his chest. The Hulk gave a furious growl, but stilled when Thor laid a hand on his arm, his own eyes like chips of ice. Steve took a deep breath.

"Release them."

"No."

"You-"

"You will surrender, or they will die."

Steve desperately tried to think of another option, anything, but bare seconds had passed before the man looked at the globe.

"Remove it."

Too late, Steve realised what was happening. "No!"

But on the screen, another man, as expressionless as the one talking to them, had already reached out and removed the arc reactor from Tony's chest.

The effect was instantaneous. Tony's eyes widened and he jerked back. His mouth was covered by a gag, but he caught Steve's gaze, and the terror in his dark eyes struck more heavily than Mjolnir. The Hulk roared his rage to the skies, but Steve ignored it, unable to tear his eyes from Tony's silent screams.

"Enough," Thor shouted. "He is a prisoner!"

"Precisely," said the man. "Now you will surrender. S.H.I.E.L.D. will leave. Or he will die."

And he would, Steve realised with a sickening lurch. This man did not want Tony alive for leverage, or for knowledge. He would die.

Steve had never surrendered in his life. He had never given up. But never had he stood and watched a friend die when there was any chance he could do something about it. Even this. He took a deep breath, and spoke the words he had never in his darkest dreams imagined he would say.

"We surrender." Bile rose in his throat, but he continued to meet the man's gaze as he dropped his shield to the floor. "We surrender." He didn't dare look around, but he heard the thud as Mjolnir fell, and felt Natasha relax from her combat posture, but didn't dare meet their eyes.

The man nodded once. The scientist replaced the reactor in Tony's chest, and Steve felt momentarily light-headed with relief as the billionaire's breathing eased, and the colour began to return to his cheeks. He looked away before he could meet Tony's eyes, shame flooding him as his arms were caught and held by two of the guards. Slowly, the realisation of what he had done began to sink in.

He had surrendered. He had failed.

God help them all.

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