Tony's eyes roved over the data that was scrolling down his computer screen. A young boy sat in the room before him, on the other side of a large glass window. The room was well lit as Bruce oversaw the boy's care.
As digital screens opened around him, Tony payed little attention to the sound of the door to the lab opening.
"How's the kid?" Steve's voice met his ears, drawing him from the various screens.
"From what i can tell the kid's suddenly developed some kind of cellular degenerative disease. According to Bruce, his body is literally trying to eating itself," He explained, as a blue light sparked through the patient's room suddenly. "And he keeps doing that. I don't even know what's causing it. There isn't anything innately special about his body, nothing that could generate that energy."
"Perhaps it's Ma-"
"Don't even think about saying the "M" word," Tony warned before returning to his data screens, "Jarvis have you determined anything about the origin of those sparks of energy?"
"Nothing yet, Mr. Stark," the A.I. responded speaking through a small digital screen floating next to Tony's head.
Tony grumbled, he didn't like researching under these conditions, when a kids life was in danger, even less so when it had already been three days and they had yet to discover anything new since the first.
"What the hell did the Red Skull do to this kid? And why?" he thought aloud, grabbing the nearest holographic screen and crumpling it into a ball, before tossing it into a digital wastebasket.
"I'm not sure Tony... but we better find out soon, he doesn't look like he'll last much longer," Steve stepped up to the glass as he spoke, looking over the child's countenance. His short black hair was messy and damp with sweat, eyes dull and lifeless. His tiny body hooked up to a dozen or more machines.
"Has Black Widow managed to dig up anything on the Red Skull?"
"Nothing from her last report, he must have buried himself pretty deep to avoid her."
"Well that's just great." Tony flopped back into his chair and resumed his research going over every bit of data that his computers could scrape together on the boy.
"TONY!"
Tony's eye twitched at the sound of Clint's voice shouting through intercom. Snapping his fingers a small screen opened up next to his mouth for him to speak into.
"What is it Clint?"
"There's a dog... outside my window... a very big, angry dog." Clint responded slowly.
"Clint your room is on the ninety-first floor, how exactly is there a dog outside your window?"
"You tell me! And why is a woman riding on top of it's head?!" Clint shouted, followed by a loud deep growling noise.
"Are you on some kind of medication we don't know about?" Tony replied, his voice dripping with skepticism.
"Just pull up a security cam and see for yourself... Nice doggy.. please don't break my windo-" The sound of glass shattering made Tony's brow raise up in interest.
"Jarvis, pull up a security cam on the outside of the tower, near Hawkeye's room."
"Right away sir."
Tony batted away the many holographic screens he had been using for research as the new one opened displaying a live video feed of what was going on outside Avenger's Tower.
There in the middle of the screen, was a large fluffy white dog, with swirling clouds at it's feet keeping it aloft. Its large head jammed into what he could only guess was Hawkeye's bedroom.
"Well then..."