Now You See Him, Now You Don't

by b00kw0rms

Tony Stark and Charlie Eppes went to colledge together. When Tony is kidnapped after inviting Charlie to New York, will the Avengers trust Charlie enough to let him save thier friend or will thier distrust make them lose their only hope of an unharmed Tony?

1. Chapter 1

AN: This is the beginning of a cross-over between The Avengers and Numb3rs. This first chapter has a scene from the end of Iron Man, but the other characters will be from the Avengers. I haven't done too many chaptered fics, but hopefully you will enjoy this one!

Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or The Avengers

Alan Eppes sat in his chair, watching the news with a grim look. It had become his evening ritual since both of his sons had starting doing FBI work. At five minutes 'till six, he turned on Channel 23-8 and prayed that neither of his boys would appear on the flickering screen.

When the front door slammed opened, he jumped. He grabbed for the remote, but didn't have time to switch to baseball; the screen brightened as a picture of a smirking man filled the screen. Charlie and Don entered the room laughing as their father frowned at the TV.

"He looks very familiar. I can't imagine why, a childhood friend maybe?" Alan mused. Both boys turned to glance at the screen. Charlie froze. "Tony? Why is he on the news?"

Don gave a sharp laugh of derision. "Anthony Stark. He's a billionaire playboy. Worthless, but he pulls stupid stunts all the time and gets on the news. I'm surprised you know him, Chuck, debating you never watch TV."

Ignoring his older brother, the mathematician stepped closer to the TV to listen. "Recently, Stark implemented his patented Arc Reactor, which just might provide his Tower with clean energy. We will have to watch and see if this publicity" the perky announcer put her hand to her ear. "We are interrupting our scheduled program to show live feed from the Stark Expo."

The screen went black for a moment before cutting to a room where the same smirking man stood in front of a podium. He only spoke four words before the news station returned to the shocked announcer. "I am Iron Man."

Alan and Don stared at each other in confusion. Charlie grabbed his cell phone and walked swiftly to his room. From the depths of his contacts list, he pulled up a single number and hit the call button.

"Hello, you've reached Tony Stark."

AN: Well, this concludes the first chapter! It was mostly just an introduction and not really too much happened. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed it! Please review, even if it is only to tell me what I can improve on. That is how I will get better! Thank you so much!