AN: Thanks to those who have reviewed, favorited, and followed this story so far.
Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes had just poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down in one of the straight-backed chairs in the Chief of Staff of the Air Force's office when his S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued pager went off. A glance at the code showed that S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill was calling regarding an urgent developing situation. With a hurried apology to his superior officer, Rhodes picked up his disposable cup, downed the contents in a single burning-hot gulp, tossed the cup into the trash can, and walked quickly out of the office. He pulled out his cell phone and thumbed a single number.
"Hill," a severe female voice responded after a single ring.
"You people really don't like me talking to the most important uniformed officer in the Air Force," Rhodey observed wryly. "That's my second meeting with him this year that you've interrupted. Out of two. So what's so impor—"
"Tony Stark has been captured," Agent Hill interrupted briskly.
"What?" Rhodey said in surprise. Several nearby servicemen gave him a startled look when they heard him cry out. He waved them off with a gesture as Hill continued to speak.
"He was taken on his way back to the Tower this morning after going out on an easy mission with Hawkeye yesterday evening. Justin Hammer has him and is demanding to be released from prison."
"Justin Hammer? As in Justin "I was trying to take a dump on Tony's front lawn but just managed to soil myself" Hammer? That piece of trash? Oh, hell, no," Rhodey responded angrily.
"Oh, yes," Hill snapped back. "He's basically holding Team A hostage in the Tower, so your team gets to take point on this mission. Rhodes, I need to warn you: This isn't going to be anything like those other missions you've been on with us, where only one of two of you were needed; this is a drop-everything,-all-hands-on-deck mission like the Chitauri invasion: We need him back yesterday. The helicarrier is currently docked in the Chesapeake. Get in here as soon as possible." The line clicked dead.
Rhodey began muttering to himself in anger and frustration as he walked quickly to the weapons locker on the top floor of the Pentagon that housed his War Machine armor while he was in D.C. He wasn't paying any attention as the boots formed around his feet the moment he stepped on the yellow circle I the floor and the armor quickly worked its way up his legs. The breastplate rose out of the floor, snapped into place, and connected with the back plate of the armor. The metal scales rippled down his arms from the shoulders, covering every inch of his [dress blue uniform] and ending in gauntlets that covered his [bleached-white dress gloves]. The neck piece formed and slid up to cover the back of his head, and the helmet snapped down to cover his face as the heads-up display flickered on. Finally, his shoulder-mounted mini-gun extended out of its housing in his back and activated as it snapped down into place.
A small circular section of the ceiling above the room split along an invisible seam and slid open far enough to allow him to leave. Rhodey activated the suit's thrusters and hurtled out of the room through the opening, directing his course slightly north-east toward the helicarrier.
"JARVIS, give me a sit. rep.," he ordered as he settled into a cruising altitude of 200 feet.
"Sir, Mr. Stark was captured a couple hours ago following an attempted bank robbery in the Bronx. Mr. Stark and Agent Barton responded to the incident yesterday around 6 PM after the robbers shot a hostage, and breached the bank this morning at 8:00 AM. After they subdued all the robbers, Agent Barton left in secret to avoid the press, while Mr. Stark went to give an interview. At that point he severed his connection to me, and shortly thereafter his suit was forcibly shut down by unknown means. Since then Mr. Hammer has informed the Avengers at the Tower that he is holding them prisoner in the tower until he is released from prison and his company is restored to him."
"And S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't interested in submitting to either of those demands," Rhodey stated definitively, "even if Hammer had any intention of holding up his side of the bargain." He pushed his thrusters to their maximum strength, and landed on the deck of the helicarrier less than five minutes later.
Agent Hill was already on the deck waiting for him. She met him as soon as he landed and led him below deck to the main conference room, where he saw Agents Carol Danvers, Barbara Morse, and Scott Lang sitting on one side of the table. Director Fury sat at the head of the table, with Agent Coulson sitting on his left and an empty chair on his right, which Agent Hill immediately took. The view screen on one side of the room showed the back wall of the Heroes for Hire office in downtown Manhattan, with Danny Rand and Luke Cage sitting in front of it.
As soon as Rhodey had taken the unoccupied seat at the other end of the table, Director Fury silently touched a button on the console in front of him, and the screen replayed the message from Justin Hammer for the members of Avengers Team B. When the message had ended, Fury said, "I don't think I need to tell you how important it is for us to get him back. You need to be careful in searching for him; we don't think Hammer is aware of your team's existence, but we can't be certain that he is devoting all his efforts to keeping Team A pinned down in their Tower. He's smart enough to at least prepare for a rescue attempt."
"So I guess our only question now is where to begin," Scott Lang commented.
"Isn't it obvious?" Danny Rand asked. "Hammer said he was in Harlem, so we need to start there."
"Gentlemen—ladies—you have work to do. Dismissed," Fury said.
Ten minutes later, the four Avengers on the helicarrier were standing in the main hangar bay below deck in front of their assigned quinjet. Because the helicarrier was floating in the Chesapeake rather than hovering above it, the main hangar bay doors were underwater. Rhodes gestured for the other three to follow him up the loading ramp into the plane. While Rhodes and Lang took seats on the benches along the sides of the main cabin, Danvers and Morse took their seats in the pilot's and co-pilot's seats respectively.
As soon as they raised the ramp, Danvers started the jet engine and spoke into the jet's radio, "Avenger Two requesting launch authorization, code Delta-Foxtrot-07345."
They received an immediate response: "You are authorized for launch from the main runway. Stand by for the elevator."
The four Avengers felt a sudden jolt as the elevator underneath their plane activated, pushing them up toward the ceiling. The ceiling retracted above them as they reached it, showing them a cloudy afternoon sky. Once the elevator stopped moving, Carol Danvers pressed another button on the console to initiate vertical takeoff. As soon as the quinjet reached the cloud cover at 1000 feet, Carol turned the jet north toward New York City.
"Power Man and Iron Fist are going to meet us in Harlem, right?" Bobbi asked without taking her eyes off the console in front of her.
"Yes," Rhodes replied with a nod. "We didn't want to raise anyone's suspicion by having them come down and meet us at the carrier. They are going to start asking around and checking out possible hiding places as soon as they get to Harlem. I already have JARVIS working on hacking into the feed from every surveillance camera in the area to look for anything suspicious.
"We're looking for suspicious activity in Harlem?" Scott said sarcastically. "That's like looking for a needle in a needle stack!"
"It's not the best situation we could ask for, but at least we have somewhere to start," Rhodes replied.
"Yeah, unlike two months ago in South Africa!" Carol laughed.
"Don't remind me," Scott groaned, raising both hands to his forehead.
"Oh?" Rhodes asked curiously.
"The two of them had to spend five weeks searching the entire country of South Africa for a missing Wakandan diplomat," Bobbi informed him. "Something about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agreement with Black Panther. Of course, the guy turned out not to even be in South Africa; he was actually in Lesotho."
"Even then, it was only by luck that I was paying attention to my scanner when I flew over Lesotho on one of my search passes," Carol observed. "Once we knew where the man was, it was a fairly simple matter to rescue him."
At that moment Rhodey's suit beeped to inform him that JARVIS had retrieved surveillance information from several traffic cameras in Harlem. Unfortunately, they showed nothing unusual apart from the occasional drug deal. He ordered JARVIS to keep looking.
Luke Cage pulled his motorcycle up in front of a convenience store on the edge of Harlem. Danny Rand jumped off the back and walked into the store. He was wearing a pair of loose khaki cargo pants and a lime green T-shirt with a dragon emblem emblazoned on the front. He had not yet put on his headband since they were trying to be covert, and all of the Avengers had been shown on the news at least once following the incident seven months ago with the Chitauri; the Avengers Gift Shop actually sold replicas of his headband for $10.
Danny walked around the store casually, browsing through the snack aisle and taking in his surroundings. A couple of men were standing in the hardware section with their heads close together. Iron Fist grabbed a handful of potato chip bags as snacks for the mission, and moved toward the cashier to pay.
Before he got there, however, he walked past the two men and overheard one say quietly, "Why does he need so many of us guarding the prisoner when his team can't even leave the tower to rescue him?"
"Since when does anything the boss does make sense?" the other man answered with a shrug.
One man grabbed a pack of Twinkies, and they both walked up to the cash register to pay. Rand pulled out his cell phone and sent a quick text to Luke: "got a lead 2 guys abt 2 leave get rdy 2 roll".
Danny watched the men get into a black town car and drive away south. Before they had gotten far, however, he watched Luke press a button on the handlebar of his motorcycle. A tiny tracking device shot out and attached to the car's bumper. Danny waited another minute before quickly paying for his snacks and rushing out the door. He saw that Cage was already revving the engine to give chase. Danny shouted in his ear, "They may be part of the group guarding Stark! Follow them, but keep back!"
The two heroes turned south and followed the town car. By then the car was 4 blocks away, and Luke was careful to maintain that amount of separation. Because they were so far away, they nearly lost the car five minutes into the trip when it made a right turn onto a busier street. Thanks to the tracking device, however, they quickly relocated the car. Finally, the town car turned left off the main street to go down a residential street. Luke followed the car down the street several minutes later.
They'd only gone half a block when a parked black Suburban in front of them pulled out sharply, cutting them off in front. Another black Suburban pulled out behind them, trapping them. At the same moment, the tracking dot on the motorcycle's monitor screen blinked out. They both suddenly realized they'd made a grave mistake.
"If they find out who we are and what we're doing here, Stark is dead," Danny muttered under his breath. "And that's not all they'll do."
"Not necessarily, but if they report who we are and what we're doing here, Stark is dead," Luke muttered back.
"So we have to either convince them we're harmless or eliminate every last one of them?" Danny responded with a look.
"That's the way I see it," Luke muttered with an imperceptible nod.
"Great."
A big man wearing a black combat uniform stepped out of the lead SUV, leveled his AK-47 assault rifle at them with a glare, and demanded, "What is your business here?"