Why Tony Shouldn't Interrogate People

Noah's POV

I'm shocked. Who would want to hurt Laura? And, more importantly, who knows how to tamper with my Vector gloves? The only person I know of is Joe, but seeing how he's pale-faced and clutching Laura to him like she'll fade away without his embrace, I majorly doubt he did it.

Unfortunately, the way that Iron Man… no, my boss, is looking at me suspiciously means that I must be the main suspect. I still find it amazing to think that Iron Man, my childhood hero, is now paying me to work for his company. Unfortunately, I might not be working there for much longer if he thinks I KO'd my own teammate.

"Bruce, check on the student," Tony says, gesturing to Laura. I realize they are pretending like they don't know us so as not to reveal our secret identities. Bruce looks Laura over, then frowns. "She might have a concussion, but is otherwise fine."

"A CONCUSION?! THAT'S NOT FINE!" Joe yells, concerned for his girlfriend.

"No, that's not fine," Captain America says. "That's why we're going to get to the bottom of this. "You two," he says, gesturing to Joe and me, "you're coming with me."

With Bruce and Hawkeye promising to watch Laura, Joe and I follow Captain America and Iron Man outside, then into their jet.

Tony clears his throat. "Wow, Steve, this jet takes interrogation to new heights!"

"Very funny," Steve replies. "Considering we heard about this accident on the way back from stopping Doctor Doom, this will have to do as an interrogation room." With that, Steve walks out of the room. Tony turns to face us, and I realize he will be doing the interrogating. I'm surprised Hawkeye isn't doing it, since he's the second-best spy after Black Widow… until I remember he's Joe's father and would be biased.

"Sooo… interrogation. You're probably wondering why I'm doing it." Tony says, pacing around the room as he talks. "I'm not much of an interrogator, but I am an engineer, and I know there's only one person who can take apart a repulser glove and put it back together perfectly," he says, stopping pacing and staring directly at me!

I swallow. "It's not what it looks like—"

"Noah's a good teammate." Joe pipes up. "He wouldn't do this.

"Oh, I know that!" Tony exclaims.

"You do?" Joe and I ask at the same time.

"Of course!" Tony exclaims. "I said that only you could put it back together perfectly, and if you look here," Tony says, picking up my Vector glove with his Iron Man glove on, so as not to get his fingerprints on it, "you'll see that there is smoke coming out of this glove. Whoever messed with it didn't get the wires quite right, and I know you know how to wire it properly. That brings us to you!" Tony says, turning his stare on Joe.

"YOU THINK I WOULD HURT MY OWN GIRLFRIEND?!" Joe yells. I realize that this is the angriest I've ever seen him.

"Of course not!" Tony exclaims. "I was just wondering if you know of anyone who might want to hurt her?"

Joe shrugs listlessly. "Some people don't like her. I didn't think anyone would hurt her though."

Tony nods. "Alright. Well, if we don't know who did it, could you at least walk me through what happened? Did you lose your Vector gloves, or how did they end up in Laura's locker?"

"S'posed to be a prank, but it went wrong," Joe mumbles.

"A prank?" Tony asks.

"Sam got confetti'd, but Laura got blasted," Joe mumbles, his face pale. Tony looks confused, so I figure it's time to step up.

"Some people at our school were pulling pranks on each other, so Joe and I decided to replace the energy beams in my gloves with confetti and rig one in Sam's locker and one in Laura's. Sam got confetti blown at him, like expected, but Laura got an energy beam.

"Confetti… and it blew out of the glove? It didn't get stuck or anything?" Tony asks.

"No," I reply, not sure how this is helping with the investigation.

"Well then why didn't I think of that!" Tony exclaims, slapping his forehead. He pulls a notebook out of his pocket and writes "Confetti in Iron Man gloves". When he flips the notebook shut, I realize it says "Awesome Prank Ideas" on the front.

Tony catches me looking and grins. "You're not the only people who have prank wars. Us Avengers need to have fun too sometimes. Of course, Steve just does the same boring pranks over and over again, but Natasha—"

The smile drops off Tony's face and he clamps his mouth shut. He must have been thinking about the pranks that Natasha, superspy, super pranker, and wife of Steve pulled before a mysterious villain killed her thirteen years ago.

"…Anyways, your father," Tony says, pointing to Joe, "is quite the pranker to beat. In fact," Tony pulls out a walkie-talkie, "Bruce?" he calls into it.

"Tony? What's your situation?" Bruce's anxious voice replies.

"Pranktastic!" Tony exclaims. "I think I've found the next generation of Science!Bros.

A loud sigh can be heard from the walkie-talkie. "That's great, Tony. Please remember to stay on task." With that, the walkie-talkie clicks off.

"Spoilsport," Tony grumbles, but he looks a bit more serious now. "So… did you leave the gloves anywhere before the prank… maybe misplace them in a Hydra lab… anything?"

Joe shakes his head. "They were in my room from when we worked on them to the prank. I don't understand…." Joe says miserably.

Tony frowns. "What about at school? Ever notice your backpack feeling lighter… maybe a metal Doctor Octopus arm carrying your gloves away?"

"There was nothing!" Joe exclaims. "My parents are spies. I know how to tell when people are acting suspiciously, and I've got nothing. I have no fucking clue how this happened!"

Tony nods. "Alright, I believe you. I suppose you'll want to check on Laura now, he says, opening the door and gesturing for us to step out of the plane. "We'll keep looking for the suspect. Give us a call if you remember anything helpful."

Joe and I nod, then walk out of the plane. As we walk back to school, the other Avengers join Tony in the plane and take off. Right before the school doors, Joe stops and turns to me. "Do you know how this could have happened? Who could have done it? Because the gloves were with me the whole time, so unless some supervillain snuck into my room and messed with them while I was asleep…."

I'm not the best at comforting people, but Joe could use some cheering up. "Hey, man, don't worry. We'll figure this out and catch the asshole that did this," I say, but all the while, I'm trying to convince myself as well as him.

AN: lokilover901: Thanks!