Chapter 9

"Which one? Can you tell?" Pietro asked, looking over the widow's shoulder to see the device's screen.

"The signal's being scrambled, someone doesn't want us to find it," Natasha explained, trying to hack the signal from the small device, but failing terribly without the correct technology.

"Don't waste time, you'll never hack the signal from that thing. I'll grab something from the workshop for that, you guys get the quinjet heading towards the stone. I'll come behind you in a suit," Tony told them, turning to jog towards the workshop's staircase.

"What suit? They're all broken," Clint said, nudging a broken helmet with the toe of his shoe.

"I have one left," Tony winked, then disappeared down the stairs.

Tony was frantically ripping drawers apart looking for his signal hacking device, earlier named by Steve the: what-a-mah-do-hicky-that-does-stuff.

"It's not here," Tony told Jarvis, who had told him he may have left it in various places, but it wasn't in any of them.

"Sir, the security systems have been shut down automatically," Jarvis informed him, "I believe they're trying to shut down me as wel-…" the british voice cut out and Tony was left in his silent workshop.

He grabbed his comms, "Someone shut down the tower's security systems, they must think we already have the stone. Or they're trying to make sure we don't go after it," he said hurriedly, grabbing a handgun from under his desk where he insisted it could come in handy in an emergency.

The workshop was nearly impenetrable without the codeword, but he still didn't want to be caught off guard again.

"Have you sighted anyone?" Natasha asked him through the comms.

"No one yet, the workshop is locked," Tony told her.

"Stay there, we're coming back," Natasha replied, then there was a rustling sound of voices arguing in the background.

"We can't just turn around!"

"He should be able to take care of himself," he was pretty sure that that had been Steve.

"And if they get in the workshop?"

"They're no match against one of those suits," he was sure that was Clint.

"I'll be fine, get the stone," Tony turned his comm off. He was on his own.

MEANWHILE ON THE QUINJET...

"Tony, wait," Natasha requested, but the comms on his end went dead, "If he gets killed, it's on your hands," she shoved past the super soldier angrily.

"He doesn't deserve to be on this team if he can't defend his own damn tower," Steve replied seriously, turning away from the assassin.

"You're a jerk sometimes," Natasha spat back, turning to Clint, who slightly nodded in agreement, then stopped when the glares from Steve became plentiful.

"I'm trying to save as many lives as possible, that doesn't always mean flying to Stark's rescue," Steve said neutrally, backing down from the fight.

"Approaching the stone," Bruce called from the cockpit where he was piloting.

"The decision's obviously already been made," Natasha snapped, then turned to leave the quinjet.

Clint followed behind her, followed by Thor, Bruce, Pietro, and Wanda. Steve let out an annoyed huff and followed them.

What they saw distracted them from their previous fight, this was much stranger, and this was much more dangerous.

MEANWHILE IN THE AVENGER'S TOWER…

"Alright, you morons, let's play hide and seek. I'll count," Tony whispered to himself as he heard them approach the workshop's locked door.

No doubt they assume the stone is in here being examined… Tony thought to himself.

There was a loud crash, and then cracks showed on the windows.

Tony crouched behind his desk, loaded his gun, and aimed at the door.

Another loud crash, and more cracks.

As the loud crashes became more and more powerful, the glass shattered in places.

Tony looked over the damage, "Could we just talk about this?!" Tony yelled sarcastically, hoping to distract the invaders. They replied with another loud crash that nearly broke open the door, "Okay, so you guys aren't the talking type, I get it," Tony yelled, counting down to himself as the loud crash was surely about to burst from the machinery that was crashing through the door.

"And…" Tony had to shoot before the glass broke, and he knew that was about to happen.

He let out a dozen or so electrical bullets through the glass, effectively destroying the final barrier between him and the attackers.

A few dropped who had been manning the machines, and the machine was beyond repair.

That didn't matter now that the glass was gone. Three of the remaining men, who appeared to be nearly as muscular as Thor, which was seriously saying something, came through the cracked windows, and looked around. They didn't know that behind the desk was an armed billionaire.

Tony jumped out, using the element of surprise like he remembered hearing Clint and Natasha talk about, and shot at least 3 bullets into the chest of the largest man.

He just laughed, and revealed his bullet proof vest, which looked very advanced and new. Even Tony hadn't designed something quite so perfect.

"He is no problem, lock him in the closet," the largest man laughed, his Russian accent fairly obvious.

"Hey, whoa, I didn't take anything, I don't have the stone," Tony tried, but he knew they were going to search the tower no matter what he said.

"You talk, or we make you," The large man threatened as the two smaller-ish men each grabbed one of Tony's arms and held them behind his back, binding his wrists with a pair of what seemed to be electrical handcuffs.

"I don't have it," Tony tried again, but he knew they wouldn't believe him.

The comm on the desk… Tony thought to himself, looking over to it. He knew he could send an SOS message if he could get to it.

"I know you do, Mr. Stark. Make this easier, tell me where you put the stone," The large man asked, taking a small remote controller from his back pocket.

"I. Don't. Have it," he tried one last time, but he knew he couldn't convince them.

The large man gave the smaller-ish men an order in Russian, and they both backed away from Tony.

"What? Do I smell?" he teased, trying for his usual sarcastic tone.

"Bad choice," The large man told him, then pressed down hard on the button.

A sharp electrical current from the handcuffs rushed through Tony, who fell to the ground on impact.

"That's all you got, twinkle toes?" Tony taunted, knowing it was all he could do until he could get to the comms.

"You make this very hard for yourself, not very smart," The man informed him, then the button was pressed again. And again. And again. And again until finally Tony began saying every time he was zapped that they could search the whole building and never find it.

"I don't think you have the stone in this building, it's hidden somewhere close to here, yes?" The large Russian man towered over him with a glare full of rage.

"No," Tony began again, "I don't have the stone."

"I want that stone, and I will let you go as soon as you give me it's location," The man told him.

"No you won't, you son of a *ladeedadeeda*," Tony spat back at him angrily.

"You are… Unfortunately correct," The man said, then the button was pressed again.

Sometime or another, everything went dark, then there was someone shaking the billionaire awake, and then the button continued it's rampage.

"Sir, there's a quinjet approaching the tower," another man, this one wasn't Russian, informed the large man, "There's a high energy reading on it, they have the stone."

"And you said you didn't know where it was," The large man said, "You are stronger than I expected."

All four of the men walked out briskly, leaving the whole workshop a wreck.

Tony waited for their boots to stop making noises from the hall, and then rushed to his comm and turned it on.

"They're in the tower and they know you have the stone!" Tony yelled frantically, then he heard the sound of the quinjet landing.

"Where are they?" Steve's voice came through the comm finally after what felt like hours of silence.

"Coming up to the roof," Tony told them, then grabbed a wrench from the workbench and loosened one of the handcuffs enough to pull it off, leaving the other to dangle by his side.

Good enough… he thought to himself, hurrying towards what now sounded like arrow fire, gunfire, and a shield bouncing off walls.

"All clear, that's all of them," Clint called back to the group as they came in the main room.

"Those are lovely bangles, man of iron," Thor told Tony with a satisfied smile.

"They're not… Bangles," Tony tried to explain, but thought it best to let the demigod think he got something right, "Thanks."

Thor nodded and sat down on the couch next to Bruce, who had grabbed a bottle of water.

"Are you alright?" Clint noticed the slightly blackened skin around Tony's wrists, one of which still had the electrical handcuff on.

"I'm fine, where's the stone…?" Tony noticed that no one had carried it in.

"It's gone, we destroyed it before it could do anything else insane," Clint explained, pulling a charred piece of metal machinery and an orange-ish stone, which was in multiple parts from his quiver's pocket.

"With this?" Tony held the machinery up in his un-cuffed hand.

Pietro and Wanda looked over to the machinery with devious glances, remembering something about the fight, Tony assumed.

"Yeah, Bruce made it last minute when dinosaurs started showing up," Clint said in explanation, then continued after crazy looks from Tony, "You have to have been there."

"I don't know whether I want to know," Tony told him, then everyone sat down with various beverages, and most of them aside from Thor fell asleep right there on the couches and chairs.

There will be a "Earlier..." part in the next chapter, where I will let you guys know what Pietro, Wanda, Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Thor, and Steve were up against!

Hope you're excited for it!

Sorry for not posting, haven't had much wifi...

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-MarvelLuver :D