I do not own the Avengers.


Tony was in the middle of replacing the last of You's inner workings when JARVIS spoke up.

"Sir. I believe you should join Miss Potts in the sitting room. She is distressed."

That got his attention. "Why?" He didn't wait for JARVIS to answer before dashing off towards the elevator, leaving the newly restored Dummy and Butterfingers beeping worriedly behind him as he left the lab.

"It is the news, Sir." JARVIS explained as he helpfully sent the elevator upwards at near top speed. (Pepper had forbidden top speed. It tended to leave the occupant flattened on the floor.) "Something appears to be occurring in Washington D.C. It involves S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain Rogers, and Agent Romanoff."

Tony swore and burst out of the elevator almost before JARVIS opened the door. Pepper had been spending the day overseeing the coating of the Loki-hole in the living room with gold alloy. If whatever was going down was bad enough to have her retreating to the sitting room…For a moment, Tony felt extremely vulnerable. He reminded himself firmly that he had given up the Iron Man gig and managed to grind to a halt before he ran Pepper over.

She was standing in the middle of the room, tears running down her face, watching the figures moving on the StarkScreen in front of the wall. Tony turned to look.

The screen was covered with images of Red and some other guy being pushed into an armored truck, and Capsicle kneeling on the pavement, surrounded by smoking, ruined cars, his shield lying beside him, and a freaking gun pointed at his head!

The truck has the S.H.E.I.L.D. logo on it. The guy standing behind Cap glanced up, straight at the camera, and looked back down. The guy pointing the gun stepped back and they manhandled Rogers to his feet and into the truck.

The entire scene was no longer than ten seconds.

Tony was still frozen in shock when JARVIS spoke again. "Sir. There is something else I believe you should know."

Tony felt his mouth work for several seconds before sound came out. "What."

"Director Fury is dead Sir. As of 1:03 AM yesterday."

"WHAT!" He inadvertently knocked Pepper's arm aside as he began to frantically pace with short, sharp steps. "Why are we only finding out about this now?"

"Because Sir," JARVIS explained in his rational tone with just a hint of sarcasm that was totally not in the programming Tony put into him. "System reboot began two days ago at noon."

Tony groaned and smacked his hand against his face rather harder than he should have. "Of course," he muttered, still pacing. "We turn you off for thirty-seven point four hours and the world goes to hell in a handbasket."

He turned and looked at Pepper, not sure how to say the words hovering just behind his lips. She smiled sadly at him. "I know you have the materials to make a new suit Tony." She said quietly. "Go on."

The next twenty-four hours were a flurry of frantic activity as Tony began assembling a new suit, trying desperately not to think if Cap and Red had really gone off the deep end, (Though the probabilities are about 56% in favor of it being S.H.I.E.L.D. that's lost it) and JARVIS attempted to get into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s systems to figure out what is going on, only to be blocked out by some program that JARVIS reports (sounding incredibly disturbed) "It seems to be…sentient Sir."

Tony left the suit to the bots and joined JARVIS.

And so the two of them had a front row seat when all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets were dumped onto the internet, and suddenly H.Y.D.R.A. was no longer just the stuff of nightmares and bad memories from decades gone by.

Tony sat in shock for approximately a tenth of a second before jumping into action.

"JARVIS! Isolate all information about Fury, the Avengers, SI, Agent Agent, and anyone else we care about. We need to filter this."

"At once Sir." JARVIS said. "Parameters?"

Tony thought a moment as he swept his hands across the projected StarkScreen. "We can't just delete it all unfortunately, that would look extremely suspicious. We need to edit. Anything they have on Pepper outside of the most bare-bones business file. Any and all information that could lead to connections between Dr. Banner and The Hulk. The locations of Thor and his girlfriend, as well as their relationship and connection. As much as possible about Cap, personal stuff. The Wonder-Twins too. Don't bother with the general stuff, but if you find anything that seems personal to them, hide it. Fury and Hill…Use your own judgment."

"And Agent Coulson, Sir?"

Tony swallowed against the lump in his throat. "Anything. His very existence. Those vultures don't need to get their hands on him."

"Acknowledged Sir." The tinge of grief in JARVIS' voice was almost too much for Tony.

"Tony?"He turned, Pepper was standing in the door of the lab, looking shell-shocked.

Then the lights flickered.

This was Stark Tower. The lights don't "flicker".

"JARVIS." Tony said cautiously. "Security report?"

"There seem to be several armed intruders three floors down, Sir." JARVIS reported serenely.

Tony's eyes widened. "How long until you can finish the suit?"

"Approximately seventy-one seconds, Sir."

Tony nodded. "Pepper, get to the safe room."

Pepper didn't argue, (he loves that woman so much) knowing that now was not the time to go through their usual routine. She vanished down the hall towards the sitting room, headed for the hidden elevator that would take her to the sub-level of the basement that was set up to stop everything up to and including a nuclear blast.

Fifty-nine seconds.

Once she was safely in the elevator, Tony locked down the lab. Lights off, doors closed, glass bullet-proofed. The only movement coming from the mechanical arms JARVIS utilized to put the final touches on the Suit, even the bots had retreated and were huddled in corners and under tables.

Thirty-seven seconds.

A dark figure moved on the other side of the glass. Tony crouched behind a table, shushing Butterfingers on the way down and slipping on the control bracelets for the suit. Automatically, his hand went to his chest, searching for the familiar sensation of the arc-reactor.

Oh, right, surgery. Not there anymore. The new suit has a built in reactor.

Thirty-one seconds.


There are nine more chapters to come!

Please review, Bob is loosing weight at a horrible rate. I'm worried about him.