A/N:This was a long time coming, and still shorter than I would've liked, I'm sorry guys! Tony decided to give me a hard time and tried to be exceedingly difficult to write. I've rewritten this chapter over half a dozen times, and I'm still not sure if I'm 100% happy with it, but at this point, I'm moving on. On the bright side, next chapter Jason and Tony will definitely be meeting! And possibly a few other Avengers depending on what happens. We'll see. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this and tell me what you think!

Chapter 11: Meetings

When Tony showed up to the orphanage, it took minimal convincing to see the kids, though it was with the stipulation that one of the staff would be in there with him. Once they'd heard there might be a danger to the little munchkins, they'd quickly agreed. Looking around the place himself as he waited for the man he'd been speaking with to fetch the kids, Tony immediately decided he'd be donating a few million soon. It was obvious the place was well cared for and the staff and their volunteers were doing their best, everything was in relatively good repair and as clean as it could get with as many kids as lived there, but their best was still not very good.

Walking in he saw on the left a few bookshelves with books of various different reading levels put up for the kids, but it was clear the books had been well loved, and were rather falling apart. There were dents in the walls from kids speeding along and crashing into them, and the edges of the short false wood table in the den was fraying at the corners with wear. The various chairs and couches were beat up and lumpy from kids bouncing onto them, and the carpet, though it was picked up and vacuumed, had stains here and there from kids being the messy little trolls they were and was matted so much it was quite unrepairable. A toy box sat in the corner of the room looking like an explosion had taken place with how the toys had been left all around it, and the box itself had obviously been broken at some point and repaired with a good deal of duct tape, but the kids didn't seem to mind it at all. There were five around the room reading, playing with the toys or running around each other playing some version of tag.

Luckily, before the kids could run into him and drag him into their game the man came back with four kids following hesitantly behind him, the youngest maybe seven, and the eldest about fourteen.

"You kids Matt & Jamie Pena, Julian Sahirul, and Cleo Emonts?" Tony asked, though he already recognized them from the video. The kids passed a wary look between them before the one JARVIS had identified as Julian Sahirul stepped forward.

"What do you want?"

It was then that Tony realized he had no idea how to talk to kids. How do you approach a kid and say 'Hey the guy that saved you the other day? Actually a major villain! So I really need you to give me all the information on your knight in not so shining armor so I can arrest them!'. Yeah. Like that would go over well. But how else can he tell the kids to stay away from the guy? Keep the safe away from the evil psycho? Damn, this was too difficult! Give him his 'bots any day thank you very much! Mini-humans were just too complex and confusing, and never, ever, straight forward. Ever. He remembered that much from his days as a little brat himself. Why were they trusting him with talking with these kids again? Oh yeah, cause they're in danger. Right.

Still, it was a breath of fresh air seeing them, being able to see that though the kids looked worn, and very wary of everything, they looked healthy. Skull hadn't hurt them. Not yet at least.

"Err, okay tiny tots, I got some questions for you about somethings that went down the other day. The guy that saved you? Bright Red, skull-like face? I need to find him."

"Are you gonna make him an Avenger?!" The smallest little monkey said, bouncing on his toes excitedly at the idea, though the others still had varying degrees of suspicion painted across their faces.

"Ah, well, here's the thing- pretty sure the guy who saved you, well, he might've, uh, gotten himself into some trouble, and he might get you hurt the next time you see him. I need to know where he is right now so we can resolve it." They gave him a dubious look- honestly, you'd think he was one of the world's dumbest instead of one of the world's greatest minds with the looks they were giving him.

"Okay dufus, that's where you're wrong." The girl started up, though one of the boys hissed at her at the 'dufus' bit, elbowing her in the side. "Shush it Matt!" She shoved back, "I mean it! He's being a dufus and you know it! Red saved our fucking lives and now you're tellin' us that he's gonna get us hurt the next time he sees us? Red wouldn't get us hurt like that. He ain't a moron! That's the kinda shit you Avenger types pull, putting people in harm's way and not protecting them! Your tower is a fucking bigass target in the middle of the city and you have people in there that have no business superheroing, they're just normal people! What kinda protections do they have, huh? If you're going to go after Red for putting us in danger you need to take a look at yourself first ya hypocrite!" The man who had brought the kids over and stayed to make sure Tony didn't try anything untoward cringed a little at the girls language, but it seemed he wouldn't interfere, content to let them talk it out.

"Look, kid, I know the man saved you, and I don't doubt that he would try his best to keep you from harm's way-" Tony cringed internally for having to say that-there was no way Red Skull was in this for the good of the kids-but if it convinced them to talk to him it'd be worth it, "but that doesn't mean you won't get hurt around him. Look, I'm trying to help here. The tower's not perfect I'll admit, we're working on fixing that, but the doesn't change the fact that the man is a danger to you, an immediate one, not just a possible danger like the tower is. I'm just trying to keep you kiddos safe. I don't want anyone getting hurt but those doing the hurting, but I need you to work with me here." Tony could tell the kids weren't very happy about it, but he'd mollified them some.

"So you're going to help him then? Make sure whatever trouble he's in doesn't get to us?" The older brother asked, and Tony nodded, it was an Obi-Wan -ish way of putting things, but oh well. He would make sure the trouble that was Red Skull wouldn't get to hurt these kids, and help Red Skull receive punishment for his crimes, so in a way he was doing exactly what the kid was asking him. In a way, anyway.

"Yes! Now you're getting it." The kids looked at each other, as they tried to come to a decision, before the older brother spoke up again.

"You promise to help him, promise, cross your heart, hope to die, promise, and I'll get him to meet with you and you can help." A burst of alarm shot through Tony at those words, if Skull was still in contact with these kids Iron Man coming to them could get them killed, especially if the kid then tried to lead Skull to superheros who would be trying to take him down.

"He's in contact with you?!" The kids again looked at him warily.

"Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. You don't need to worry about that, he's not bringing any trouble here." The other older boy said, and Tony thought about that for a minute. It was clear that even if the kids knew where Skull was they wouldn't tell him the location, and this maybe the only way to find him. If Skull was in contact with the kids anyway then they were already in danger, and would be just for talking with him. Still, the chances of Red Skull actually showing up if he did agreed to the kids deal were low, he'd send minions before he went himself, especially if he knew who the meeting was with, but it was entirely possible they could get his location and plans from any minions the guy sent. No matter what the kids were in danger, and Tony would have to see about putting a buttload of security around this building to keep the kids safe, but maybe if he accepted they would have a chance of catching Skull.

"Okay kid, you got a deal. Set up that meeting."

"And you promise to help him?" The youngest boy asked him pleadingly, puppy dog eyes wide and open for business. Damn. It was hard not to feel guilty looking at that face, but-

"Stick a needle in my eye, kid. I promise. " It was, at least, a version of the truth. He was helping Skull. Helping him see the evils he's done, helping to make him pay for those evils. He'd be helping. The kids seemed to believe him at least.

"Good." The girl nodded firmly. "I'll talk to Red, then." Tony really hoped he was making the right decision here, because if he wasn't, then, well. Fuck. This could be very, very bad. "You got a way for us to tell ya where he'll meet you?"

"I'll give you a phone number to call, how 'bout that?" She shrugged.

"I suppose that works."