Chapter 2

The Acquisition

A/N "I told you. I don't want to join your super secret boy band." (Tony Stark to Nick Fury)

Endgame Reaction: I'm not crying. You are

Again, just a reminder: This is set around 3 years post Endgame. I'm going to keep it spoiler free (and that way I can stay happy with my own head-canon)

The Acquisition

The kid ignores him, watching Wong with suspicion, and shakes his head.

Wong continues to give him a run-down on his family history.

"It has been in my family for generations," Wong says, dragging a seat to the side of the table and sitting down. "My family consider it a privilege and our destiny… but I do not."

Wong moves his hands, revealing gold rings, pushing them in front of the kid.

"Good evening."

The kid pulls back sharply, arm snapping against his cuffs, chair scraping loudly.

"Apologies," Strange says, "But my good friend here is telling the truth."

"What the fuck…?" Marcus says, eyes wide. "What is this? Where the fuck are you?"

His eyes dart around the room, looking at each of them, trying to gauge their reactions.

"Are you seeing this?" When no one reacts he scooches forward slightly to peer at the orbs, "Where the fuck are you?"

"Seriously Cap?" Tony says, looking around at Steve, shrugging. "You have no problem with the amount of F-bombs the kid is dropping?"

Steve's mouth twitches in amusement.

"I'm sure we will meet in good time, young man…" Strange says. "Please listen to my associate."

Wong closes the gold rings with a small gesture of the hand and rests them back into his lap.

"Who the hell was that?" Marcus asks.

"Dr Stephen Strange," Wong says. "Sorcerer Supreme."

"The wizard," Tony adds, with a wave of the hand.

"Sorcerer," Wong says again, eying him with a challenging stare, "Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts."

"And you?"

"Also a Master of the Mystic Arts and the protective Keeper of the Ancient Books."

"So…" Marcus says slowly. "You're a Librarian?"

Tony snorts.

"Among other things," Wong says.

"How?" the boy asks, confused.

"What do you mean? How?" Tony scoffs, pacing in front of the table, waving his hand dismissively. "Magic. It doesn't really need an explanation."

"I mean," the kid says. "How are you you and your brother is… not."

"Very well put," Tony says, giving the boy a thumbs up. "Eloquent."

"Assassins," Marcus says, teeth clenching. "And magic," he shrugs before turning and eying Tony. "Better?"

"Much," Tony gives the kid a roll of his eyes.

"My destiny was not of my family's. I was disowned as a result. Traditionally I should have been sent away, or killed, for refusing but my family knew what destiny had chosen me and even they knew the consequences of refusing one of the ancient ones."

"Because… you can magic the shit out of them with just your mind?" Marcus asks.

"Quite possibly," Wong says with a small chuckle.

Marcus shakes his head.

"But Master Lin… he wouldn't…." he shook his head again.

"My brother was weak-willed when it came to refusing my father and our brother. He is only now resisting because of his daughter and the path our family has taken."

"But Hydra?"

"Okay," Tony says, stalling his pacing and ripping the remaining file from Fury's hand. "Enough of this shit."

Tony throws down more photos, spreading them out.

"Hydra agent," he says stabbing the photo.

"Hydra agent," another stab.

"Hydra agent," and another.

And another.

Fury and Steve do nothing to stop him so he carries on.

"Why are you showing me this?" Marcus says, turning to stare at Tony.

"Because," Tony stalls to pull out the remaining papers, pushing them in front of the kid. "Each and every one of them attended your little school of assassins."

There's just enough room for the kid to lift his hand and pull the loose sheets up and look at them. He watches as he starts looking at them, slowly at first, then faster, until he's seen all of them.

Tony knows what's there:

School: King's Dominion Atelier of the Deadly Arts

"Congratulations, kid…" Tony says, shrugging. "You were being recruited by Hydra."

Marcus drops the sheets in front of him.

"If what you're saying is true," he asks, eyes still down. "Why me? Because they mistakenly thought I killed a bunch of kids? Why would Hydra want me? I'm nothing."

"Kid," Tony says quietly, choosing to sit against the side of the table, one leg up, another leaning down on the floor to stabilise him. "Maybe the question should be – how do you even know about Hydra? "

"I don't know" he glances up confused, eyes searching for answers. "I guess you guys mentioned it."

"We did," Tony concedes, leaning forward. "But you knew who we were talking about."

"Tony…" Steve says, voice sharp, warning.

"He needs to hear it, Cap…" Tony says turning away to look at him, voice sharp. When he turns back the boy is staring back at him, waiting. "Kid…" he softens his voice. Marcus looks away, suddenly as though he was uncomfortable. Tony tilts his head, dipping it, trying to catch his eyes, acutely aware that he was about to destroy the child's entire world. "Maybe you heard it from your dad?"

The kid snaps his eyes up, challenging.

"No," he says, through gritted teeth.

"Fury?" Tony asks, hand out, not taking his eyes from the kid "File?"

"I'm not sure about this," Steve argues.

Fury nods at Steve, "He's right, kid needs to hear it. Hand it over."

"Haven't got all day, Cap…" Tony waggles his fingers in the direction of Rogers and hears him sigh, before yanking the rolled out file from behind him. Tony takes it and glances back with a smirk "Wow, do I even want to know where you have been keeping this?"

He glances down at the file and then back up again.

The kid has shiny eyes but Tony doesn't look away.

"You're name is Marcus Lopez Arguella," Tony starts. "Son of Marcus Lopez Arguella Snr. Born in Nicaragua. Son of a cop. Came to the US when your father was accused of betraying the Sandinistas when you were five years old."

"Tricked by the CIA," Marcus corrects. "And got a target on our backs because of it, so thanks for that," he says with a sardonic grin. "I'm pretty sure anything he smuggled in for you guys was probably Stark Tech by the way."

"Touché," Tony returns with a grin of his own, file still in his hand. "And that was the official story, yes. The unofficial one was that he betrayed Hydra by coming to Shield."

"Fuck you," Marcus hisses, nostril's flaring. "My dad was never a fucking Hydra Agent."

"When he betrayed Hydra," Tony says, ignoring the anger, calmly glancing at the file. "Your house was blown up. Your dad knew his family was a target so he got you out of Nicaragua and came to the US. Your father dropped the Arguello of your name and your family continued to go by Lopez only. Shield were happy to take your family in. It states here that your father had 'highly sensitive information' that Shield were very interested in. In exchange they provided housing, a job within Shield itself and the security that came along with it."

"You're lying," Marcus says, voice breaking slightly, but still laced with anger and watery eyes finally leaking. "You lying piece of shit."

"The reason you knew about Hydra," Tony sighs quietly, dropping the file to the table, "Is because you heard it from your dad."

"Shut up," Marcus tries.

"And the reason you were recruited to that goddamn school was because your dad was Hydra until he became Shield. And that made you very valuable."

"Stop it," the kid's voice breaks even further. "They. Wanted. Me."

"They did, kid…" Tony says, softening. "But for the wrong reasons."

"So, let me get this straight in my head," Stark says, incredulous disbelief on his face. "You want me – with the most daddy issues out of all of us –" he waves a hand at Bucky, sat lounging on the couch, "an assassin with a broken brain," he continues before nodding at Clint "and a guy who is still half mad with grief at losing his wife and kids and likes to put pointy sharp sticks into people's flesh to be this kid's guardians?"

Currently all three in question – Bucky, Barton, and Stark – are in Fury's office while Steve babysat the kid, left on damage control, back in the interrogation room.

"You were good with the Spider Kid," Fury points out.

"Hmm," Clint points out with a raised eyebrow as he folds him arms over his chest. "Can I remind you that he let a sixteen year old kid go into battle multiple times."

"Once," Stark corrects. "And it was you guys. It was like sending a puppy to stop the idiot brother's fighting."

Bucky snorts from where he is sitting.

"That make you and Steve Mommy and Daddy?" he asks.

"Shut it," Stark snaps at him, before rounding on Clint. "And I didn't exactly invite him the second time. In fact I was very adult like and tried to deliver him back home. Little shit is way too resistant."

"But you gave him a cute little spandex suit and told him to have at it anyway," Clint snipes at him.

"The kid has saved your ass a few times, Barton…" Stark interjects. "And Mine. Also, not so little anymore. And that suit is not spandex. I'm so offended right now."

"Children," Fury snaps, from behind his desk. "Stop fighting."

Bucky snorts again.

"Are you enjoying this?" Fury asks, turning to quirk his one eyebrow at him.

"A little bit," Bucky admits with a small smile.

Stark rolls his eyes at him before turning to look back at Fury

"Why not Captain Freakin' America," Tony asks again. "Doesn't he have that wholesome family values thing going on?"

"Cap's busy with a lot of call outs. His responsibilities are elsewhere at the moment."

"And ours aren't?" Stark asks incredulous, waving a hand around. "If I'm not mistaken, after the whole, you know, Thanos incident, the Avengers were re-assembled and you know… I have my own work I need to focus on. Half my workfare disappeared."

"It's been three years, Stark…" Fury turns that one raised eyebrow at him, "And you've already re-established your numbers. And please, you've got people who run the place for you, including Miss Potts. You could retire right now."

"True," Stark admits before sliding into the chair. "Doesn't mean I want to."

"And Cap's had some extra tasks lately, including helping to train new recruits," Fury continues, "besides he might be a good role model, doesn't mean he has the right set of skills for this."

"Like?" Stark asks, raising his eyes in return.

"Kid might not be on the same level as assassins as Barnes was…"

"You think?" Stark mutters, voice filled with sarcasm.

"But they had started to train him in that direction and he's been lied to all his life," Fury finishes. Bucky turns to look at him, interest piqued. "Barnes can relate to that."

"I was brainwashed," Bucky deadpanned

"You say tomato, I say tomatoe…" Fury shrugged. "Whatever," he nods at Barton. "And like you said, Hawkeye here is the only one with any experience. You can send him in when the kid is pukey," he says, "And things might not have been great between you and your dad, but you've learnt from it because of it. You'll be good for him."

"Are you guys okay with this?" Stark asks, eying Barton first and then landing on Bucky. "Because, I don't know about you but when I dreamt I had a kid before I got stranded on Titan, I hadn't imagined I would be co-parenting with The Manchurian Candidate and Legolas. And seriously, you're gonna trust the kid to someone with a Mohawk?" Stark tuts, "Seriously, Barton, the whole battle thing is over now. You can drop the semi-warrior look."

Barton scowls but Bucky smiles and shrugs.

"I don't know, Stark. I kind of like the punk."

"We are so screwed," Barton mutters tiredly, running his hands through what was left of his hair.

"Look, Stark. I don't care if you stay at the compound, move him into your fancy tower or buy yourself a little house with a white picket fence," Fury says as he throws a document down on the desk between them. "This is a legal document that says you are his guardians. The kid's yours now."

"You do realize that I have a dozen lawyers at the end of a call that could pick this apart in seconds, right?" Stark scrunches his face up in disgust, lifting the document up with the tip of a pen as though it personally offends him. "Tell me why I should do this?"

Fury sighs loudly and leans back into his chair.

"Because his father was shield," he says. He fixes Stark with an intent stare. "And he provided us with vital information. And like you said Stark, Hydra were interested in the kid. He's an asset that needs to be protected and," he pauses and takes a breath. "When it comes down to it, he's also Shield property whether you like it or not."

"And there you have it folks!" Stark laughs loudly, nodding over at Bucky and Barton, "That's it right there!" he chuckles bitterly. "Not so much about protecting a kid but protecting something that they think actually belongs to them."

Bucky clenches his hands into fists. He and Stark had never got along – okay, that was mainly his fault, not that he had any control over killing Stark's mother and father but it had truly sucker-punched any comradery Steve had hoped they could have had between them – but right now he could only agree with Stark's bitter dislike for Fury right now.

"Asset? Property?! Stark's voice raises. "Are you serious?! He's a kid for Christ-sakes!"

"He's your kid now," Fury says. "And for all those reasons you're not going to challenge this document."

"This is bullshit," Stark snaps, snatching the document off the desk. "But hell if I'm leaving the kid here. Buckaroo," he says, standing up and marching for the door. "Arrow guy," he nods at them. "We're leaving."

"What he said," Barton mutters after him. "But not because he's the boss of me or anything."

Bucky follows them out and slides in next to Stark.

"You know he said that to get you to take the kid don't you?"

"Shut it, Barnes…" Stark says, stalking off.

tbc

A/N2: Ok, so I took some Marcus background that I found on the web about the comics and did some of my own shifting around to fit it in to Marvel.