Author's Note: Once again, since I'm not super familiar with comic book version Iron Man (although I'm currently working on it), I didn't want to have the villain I ended up choosing being the main antagonist. However, since probably most of the readers are familiar with him…Anyway, if you don't recognize the 2nd villain, look him up on Wikipedia. Carry on!

Chapter 3: Life is a Game of Chess

When Tony came to, he knew instantly that he had only been out for a few minutes at best. If he had been unconscious for more than ten minutes, no doubt S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would be attempting to slice through his suit with a blowtorch. It could have just been the fact that his brain was still shocked, but Tony felt surprisingly calm for someone who had just been ambushed and tased within an inch of his life and was now without the support of his suit. It was astonishing that he was still alive.

The annoying words still flashed across the screen, but it took him a few minutes to process their meaning.

" 'The Game'? What on earth…?" He mumbled to himself.

In response, his visuals flashed to life and revealed a person, an all too familiar person smiling at him with false benevolence. Tony recognized the face with irritation: the luminous green eyes, the slick black hair, the face as fine-featured as a woman, and the slender frame that cut through the blank space like a curved blade. Thor's wayward brother, Loki.

"Hello," He said sweetly; Tony was not swayed. He knew the potential of the little bastard. "If you're receiving this message, you have been chosen to participate in my game. I came up with this as a contingency plan in case I failed with my first set of options." His smile curved up like a Cheshire cat. "I'm afraid you're the guinea pig for this particular stage of the game, but if all goes as planned I will be able to exercise it on the rest of the Avengers."

Tony was confounded.

"Listen closely." Loki said in his singsong voice. "Here is first set of rules for Tony Stark. You will return to your apartment in that Tower of yours. A mortal under my employ has taken something of yours. The most valuable thing you own. When you realize what it is, you will receive the second set of directions. I suggest you do not deviate from your instructions or…something most terrible will happen." Loki grinned as though he wished such a thing would occur. "And now, mortal, I bid you adieu." With a sweeping bow, the god of mischief disappeared from Tony's screen, but his cruel green eyes still seemed to bore into the silence.

Tony groaned as he clambered to his feet. Off the top of his head, he tried to think of what could have been stolen. His suits, perhaps? Maybe the box of items from his father or his hard drive…Looking at the blank screen on his suit, Tony felt a wave of nausea wash over him. What if they had taken Jarvis from him?

"Jarvis?" He croaked desperately. His throat felt like it had been set on fire and massaged with gravel. "Jarvis?"

There was a click and the sound of his suit rebooting. His statistics began to blur back into view and he gave a deep sigh of relief. Jarvis' voice, thankfully, rang through the metal helmet a moment later.

"Sir, I am pleased to note that your vital status seems to be unchanged from when we were shut down. However, it seems to be that we have been hacked. I believe Miss Romanoff has left a frantic message for you. Shall I relay it?"

"Play it for me on the way back."

"Sir?"

"Something's been taken from the house Jarvis. I don't know what it is yet but I already want it back. S.H.I.E.L.D. can clean this mess up." Tony rose up so that he hovered in the air before shooting through a window without a backward glance. Jarvis began to play Natasha's panicked message, much to Tony's chagrin.

"TONY STARK! ANSWER ME, YOU BASTARD! I'm sending people over now. You do not have permission to die. I will not let you." With a hasty click, the message ceased and Tony grimaced. He would contact her at the tower.

"Sir, there is also a message from Miss Potts, sent shortly after you woke. I'll relay it to you now."

Tony breathed a sigh of relief. If the message had been sent so soon after seeing the video, then Pepper had to be safe from harm. Loki had already stolen what was most valuable to him. Pepper was safe.

"Tony!" She gasped, and he could practically see strands of strawberry hair coming out of her already messy bun, her freckles obscured by the frantic blush on her cheeks. "Tony, I just got a call from Natalie!" ("Natasha", Tony corrected her under his breath). "She says you've been attacked and you're not responding! The power is out here and Jarvis is down as well! Happy and I are coming out there now! You had…you had better not be hurt!" Her voice cracked on the last sentence and Tony longed to be at Stark Tower in that second to clear the worry from her face.

"Call her back for me, Jarvis." He hoped he could catch her before Happy took her too far away, but with each consecutive ring, his hope for such a thing decreased. Pepper must have been extremely worried if she didn't hear her cell ringing.

At the sound of her voicemail, Tony gritted his teeth in annoyance. She would chew him out later but he was at least considerate enough to leave her a message. "Pepper, it's Tony. I'm…fine, sort of, but someone's taken something from Stark Tower. I need you to head back there as soon as you get this message and help me figure out what's been taken." He paused, remembering the pain in her voice. "And Pepper…I'm fine. Really, I am."

After hanging up, he pushed the suit harder, rocketing back to Stark Tower at full speed. He was unsurprised to see that all of the lights were off. Apparently Jarvis' mainframe had not yet rebooted.

Tony simply broke through another window, wincing as shards of glass rained down around his shoulders. His metal boots made hollow clanking noised on the marble floors and he pulled his helmet off, tossing it over his couch.

"Pepper?" He called, but there was no response. She and Happy were probably already headed back to the office buildings to meet up with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Tony sighed in frustration. Now he had to search for the thing 'most valuable to him'. "Jarvis, while you're booting up the mainframe here, can you contact Natasha for me?"

He dreaded every second that the phone rang, as he searched aimlessly.

Natasha picked up on the second ring. "TONY?"

"Darling." He replied, making sure his voice dripped with sarcasm. "Did you miss me?"

Natasha's voice was shot with ire. "You had better be on the brink of death in an office building right now, or I am going to personally come over and finish the job."

"I'm sorry to always be a colossal disappointment to you, Natasha, but in fact I am in Stark Tower at the moment. I have to find my most valuable object, which, right now, sounds like a glass of cognac. Want to help me figure it out?"

"You have one minute to explain." She snarled.

Tony poured himself a drink before launching into the story, starting after he had woken up from his temporary bout of unconsciousness. About halfway into his first sentence, Jarvis was back online and Stark Tower glittered to life once again. After the tale was complete, Natasha sat in silence for a few moments.

"So. Even after he's been apprehended, he's still going to try and bring us down." Natasha's hatred of Loki ran so deep that she refused to say his name aloud. "What are you going to do now Tony?"

Tony set his empty glass down with a hollow clink. "Well, I have to figure out what Loki and his accomplice, Zappy, have taken from me. I honestly have no clue as to what it could be. I can rebuild most of the things I own and Jarvis is still here."

"I like to keep out of your personal business, Mr. Stark." Natasha said sourly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have your mess to clean up." Tony was about to protest that none of this nonsense was his fault, but Natasha cut him off. "Call me back when you figure this out."

Tony twisted his lips in frustration.

"Jarvis!" He called. "What should I do? I don't know where to look first…" He had Stark Tower, his home in Malibu, and all his storage to consider. It was a great deal of items under his control.

"Sir, shall we employ the surveillance system you implemented recently? If something was stolen from the Tower, then it will be on film, even though my systems were not functioning." Jarvis said sensibly, as though he was amused by Tony's lack of direction in a crisis.

Tony grinned; in the excitement, he had completely forgotten about the protective measures he had put in place. "What would I do without you Jarvis?" He poured himself another drink and waited for one of his countless computer screens to drop down to his fingertips. His hands maneuvered deftly across the face of the computer until he reached the most recent surveillance videos.

The video came up on screen and Tony scrolled through the thumbnails until he found the segment of his departure. After that, it was just a matter of waiting to see if he saw an anomaly in the film. But that mission was quickly abandoned as he began to focus solely on Pepper.

Mostly, she wandered about and dithered; it was something she did all too often when Tony was not within five feet of her influence. Any further away and he was capable of causing an international catastrophe. She walked aimlessly, sometimes kicking things aside with her heels or sorting things into indiscernible piles. Tony watched her in a mix of amusement and parental affection. He liked her quirks.

As if on cue, Pepper pulled out her phone and Tony knew it was Natasha as Pepper turned white and began to talk fast. Her hands were shaking as she hung up the phone and set it on the bar. It took her a few moments to compose herself, but even the dubious future of her boss could not rattle Pepper beyond repair, even as the lights went out. She calmly poured herself a drink, downed it in one gulp and picked up her phone, probably first to call Happy and then Tony.

Tony was entranced.

As if on drugs, Pepper flitted about the foyer like a crack-addled butterfly, pushing things haphazardly out of the way and moving at speeds Tony thought were impossible to accomplish in heels. As always, she was surprising him.

He raised his glass to drink as Pepper strode to the door, pulling on her coat…

"Sir," Jarvis began. "At this point, on monitor three, a break-in was detected."

It was as though his drink was filled with dry ice. The cognac turned to battery acid as it slithered over his tongue, down his throat, whereupon it promptly froze in his stomach. The pain was like icicles were jabbing into his organs: his lungs, his heart, his skin… His fingers clenched around the glass.

It couldn't be…

Pepper was with Happy. She was safe, riding to rescue him. She had to be.

As he shakily selected the third monitor (the one on the terrace), Tony did see the intruder: wearing a costume similar in style to the Iron Man suit, he looked as though he had opted for stealth over style, as his suit was black, in ninja-style. However, he had allowed himself a small concession for flair with red striations, like muscles on his chest, legs, arms, and the side of his head. Tony felt sick.

"Play the video." He whispered hoarsely to Jarvis, secretly begging Pepper to move faster.

But she didn't, turning back at the last moment to get her cell phone. Tony felt his heartbeat in his temples as the Iron Man-lookalike/ninja crept closer and closer to the foyer, avoiding the upended paint cans and mechanical objects. Pepper's hand was on the front door…

Tony's very expensive crystal cognac glass shattered upon impact with his floor, sending crystal shards, ice, and alcohol all over.

Pepper turned back and dropped her phone to floor. Astonishingly, that was as far as her shock went, as she obviously began to confront the intruder, reaching for her phone. Tony would be extremely proud of her if he had not been so afraid for her.

"Run Pepper." He pleaded with the screen, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. "Please, just run to Happy."

Like before, Tony had never seen anyone move so quickly as the ninja did. He was behind Pepper before her nails could touch the plastic edge. Pepper straightened up and turned, her reddish-blonde hair coming out of its' messy bun as she moved. Her face now registered fear.

Tony saw blue lightning and couldn't stop the anguished cry from escaping his throat as Pepper writhed under the powerful electric pulse. If the taser was painful in the metal suit, then having it touch bare skin must have caused unimaginable pain. Tony was shaking with fury as Pepper's knees gave out and the man in black tossed her over his shoulder like a useless weight.

He couldn't watch any more. Now he knew what was most valuable to him.

Tony stepped on the shards of crystal as he ran, pushing the screen aside. Blood spattered the floor as Tony scoured for his helmet, pushing aside anything and everything in his path. When he found it lying on his couch, he forced it down on his head, almost painfully.

Jarvis sounded pained as well. "Sir, shall I contact Miss Romanoff?"

Tony was furious, mind numbingly so, his hands shaking with the urge to hit whoever had touched Pepper. His Pepper.

"Loki, you fucker!" He screamed. "You took Pepper Potts from me! You give her back!" The screen on his vision blurred, but it was not Loki who appeared in front of him. Instead, it was the black-clad kidnapper who appeared in front of him, stoic as stone.

"Tony Stark." He started, his voice deep and rough like the sea. "They call me Spymaster."

"Well, I call you a dead man." Tony snarled. "Let's get started with this nonsense. Where's Pepper?"