Scott's POV
I knew something was wrong from the moment I pulled up to the house.
It almost made my stomach drop down, lower and lower now as I turned off the keys to my car and got out to be near the front lawn. Something felt off, and for one, it was because they left the goddamn lights on. I knew it was late, later than usual since Hank and Hope were still at PYM. They talked to me on the phone when I dropped off Cassie and I was about to head back and check up on Emma. Hank wanted me to grab something from the house before I jetted home, and now I knew something was up. I scanned the house from my area: the neighborhood was quiet and nothing was giving away any sign of a problem. But then the front door was open.
Shit. Emma.
I bolted, grabbing my phone at the same time and dialing Hank's number on speed dial as I ran across the front lawn and up the porch.
"I was just in the middle of a breakthrough here, Scott," Hank warned me as I got into the hallway, looking around in a frantic manner. I skidded to a halt, thinking that there had to have been some kind of clue as to what was going on.
"Someone broke in the house," I explained.
"What? When?" He asked now in a frantic tone.
"Just now, Hank! I pulled up to an open front door and the lights are on," I answered as I walked into the living room and saw a few things moved around: the couch shoved a bit to the side and some of the trinkets off of the end table were on the floor. From what I could tell, there was some kind of struggle. It made me no look at the stairs in a panic.
"EMMA!" I yelled, forgetting about the phone that was in my hand there as I bolted up the stairs and went two by two. Once I reached the hallway, I immediately looked down the hall to where I knew Emma's room was, seeing the door wide open. The carpet on the floor was disheveled, some of the pictures on the wall were on the floor and the glass from the pictures were all over the hardwood floor. Now I knew this was not good at all, and it made me think that I was about to see her passed out on the floor, if not worse.
It was going to make me sick.
"Scott? Scott! Where's Emma?" I could hear Hank on the phone still as I ran into her room. She was nowhere to be found There was no sign of her and it got me not petrified. They took her, whoever they were they took her and now I had no idea where she was and if she was okay. Finally, after seeing the whole room and being so close to punching a wall, I placed the phone back to my ear.
"Emma's gone, she's not here."
"What are you talking about, Scott?"
"She's gone, Hank! Someone took her!" I blurted out to him on the phone. I closed my eyes and squinted in the pain that I could feel was forming in my chest from all that I was taking in. Emma had enough things going on in her life, and now someone took her. It wasn't fair for someone like her, someone who was just trying to live and move on in her life. Everything had to go to shit for her, and here I was thinking that I could be close enough to someone like her. I thought it would be okay, for her, hell, for us. It snuck on me, the concept of us in every conversation we had it would be in the back of my mind. But now it felt farther away from it than closer like it did before, and I only wondered where she was and even if she was alive.
"We'll find her Scott," Hank said on the phone, having me finally open my eyes now and feel less optimistic about the situation.
"How is that Hank?" I asked him, a bite to my tongue now as I said it to him.
"You tend to forget what kind of technology I'm into."
Emma's POV
The black bag that was over my head was now taken from me, having me blink a few times and notice that I was nowhere familiar, somewhere in a dark room with no sense of how big it was. It felt cold, almost having em shiver there in the chair that I was strapped to, both ankles and feet now and I saw a table right in front of me. Everything was quiet, having me blind once or twice from the bright light that was hanging over me now. Where was I? What day was it? Where are the others? Oh god, were they okay? Did they know if I was gone? They had to have known.
"You placed up a pretty good fight with my men when they took you out of Hank Pym's house," A heavy German accent was heard, along with a set of footsteps that were heading towards me from the darkness. It made me look dead ahead and freeze there in my spot in the chair now as the person that was talking came into the light, "But here you are, the one person that would send Tony Stark into a frenzy."
He was a bit older than me, I could give him that, but some about him and the way he spoke and look at me felt like he had something dark hidden about him and hidden up his sleeve. There was a coolness about his face, the loudness of his face and the lightness of his eyes and how he smiled. But it was just because he was the reason that I was tied up to a chair that made me intimidated by him.
"Emma, we get to finally meet and talk," he said to me, leaning down a bit to rest his hands on the cool table in front of me and tilt his head at me, like he was reading me himself and I stayed quiet a bit more to read him with my eyes, my tongue stuck in my throat, "Do you even know why you're here?"
I shook my head, hearing him chuckle.
"That little parlor trick with Stark, I must admit, I was impressed. Stark's not an easy one to get through with his systems, with his spectacular yet naive mind, even my men and I couldn't break into his walls and see all of his secrets. No one could, well, up until you. Such a simple young woman with nothing real big to her man can get through Stark's security walls like you were a mere child hopping a fence: pure genius in my opinion." He explained making it sound like he was giving me such praise there in front of me. I could see something off in his face, his he was speaking and yet he kept his eyes me and read my face all over. The way his fingers were on the cool table there in front of himself looked from stern and stiff than casual and calm, his hunched over stance there felt more rigid like he was on a mission. I knew it: He was up to something.
"Being that you're the only person in the world that can hack into the computer and genius mind of an Avenger, we felt as though we wanted to have some of that talent on our own team. Let's face it, brains are hard to come by these days, and you happen o be the very brain that I would want," He made it sound so sincere, and yet what came out of his mouth sounded a bit lethal and unethical. He stood up completely once more folding his hands in front of him now as I shifted in my chair.
"You're wanting to use me," I finally used my voice, thinking that I had nothing else to say in the moment now since it was true. I knew this was going to happen, someone out there was going to get to me and find some way to either tear me down for what I did or use me for something that they thought I had. I knew I was just another hacker in the world, but according to this man, I was some kind of God. I was no God, I was an insecure deaf girl who had a hacker for computers and falling for single dads who were thieves.
"You make it sound like a bad thing," He said in a light manner, so casual about the fact that he admitted that he wanted to use me, "I think it would be a great investing to my company and my men to have someone like you, being on board to help take down someone like Stark," So, this was all about taking the other company out while they had the chance. I felt something more sinister was at play here, but then again I was once again quiet about it since it was going to be more daunting than anything. Since I was the one who jabbed at Stark the first time, he now wanted me to jab at him again since I was the only one who knew how.
"What if I say no?" I asked, thinking then right after I said it that it was the stupidest thing to say to him in that moment. A flicker came over him, small but doable for me to see now since it felt like I almost touched a small nerve on him for saying no. What was he going to do to me now since I properly decline him? Shoot me? Leave me for dead on the side of the road.
Oh God, use me as bait?
"I would really have you think twice before you would say something like that, especially in the state that you're in the position that you're in," He advised me, his voice sounding a bit lower now and yet he was trying to make it sound like it was just another day in the office for him. I said nothing there, thinking that I should say something to him to make him feel as though he made the wrong choice. But then again, feeling the tight holdings on my wrists and ankles and how I was feeling the tingling feeling down my spine, I knew that this was no joke and I was not going anywhere.
I was stuck there.
"I'll leave you here to change your mind," He said to me, infamy moving away from me and away from the table now as he was about to walk away from me before he turned and looked at me once more. Just that look he was giving me, was enough for me to really fear him excuse he was so calm and yet so sinister at the same time for dragging me there without any real reason as to what they were going to do with me.
"By the way, I'm Helmut Zero, if you need to call for anything,"
Scott's POV
"Let me go through the security feed."
"They cut all of those off, though, Kurt!"
"Well, Luis, you tend to forget that they didn't take out the entire security feed, just the sense. I know what I'm doing,"
"Okay, Russian Mafia. I leave it to you,"
I was sitting there in the living room with my head in my hands, thinking of all of whom would take Emma. It made me first think of Stark, and yet it didn't at the same time. Stark was too big of a person in the media to do something like this, at least in my mind it wouldn't make any real sense of go into kidnapping for something as simple as hacking. But then again Hank hated the guy and he knew that Tony was not one to be trusted. So where did that leave Emma?
Where in the hell was she?
God, I missed her. Since we went out on our date, I was thinking about her constantly and how she was doing with her life. I loved seeing her in that dress, it was perfect for her and yet she was still herself, talking to herself with that shyness that I liked about her. It wasn't that this happened so quickly, what I was feeling towards her. No, this snuck up on me very slowly and without any sign of wanting. I didn't think it would happen to me, someone who was divorced and who had a young child to fight for and to take care of. She was very opposite of me, and yet the same.
I cared about her, way more than I should.
"Scott, I might have something!" Kurt called out, having me shoot up from the couch and trot over to the kitchen, where I could see him hunched over the computer there and typing away with Luis, Hank and Dave right behind him and watching his every move.
"What is it?" I asked him in a rushed as I moved over to standing right behind him. He looked over his shoulder at me now with a determined look in his eyes, already in his zone.
"We can't get into the computer files that were planted in that camera around the house. whoever came through wiped them all out and I have no way to finding out who took her and where they went," He explained, having me almost want to deflate in defeat from what he was telling me, "However, I do recall a certain piece of technology that she always wears on hers,"
"What do you mean?" I asked him, not getting where he was going with this. He then whipped his head over to Hank now and pointed at him while his other hand was still resting on the keyboard.
"Do you still have the information and serial number on her cochlear?" He asked Hank, who gave him confusing look now as he slowly nodded his head.
"It's in my desk drawer, I didn't put it through my computer yet.." Hank trailed off, Kurt smiling at him.
"Bring it here, I need the serial number," He explained, Hank moving out of the way and over to his office to find it as I looked at him in question.
"Why do you need that?" Luis asked him.
"The cochlear implant that Hank gave Emma has a serial number, and since it's one of the newer products and models that they made, the serial number on the product can be traced," He explained to him now as I perked up from the idea.
"You think that would work?" I asked him.
"Of course, since the latest technology now can have you leave a trace on them and see their every move on the product without moving from you own office," Kurt explained, Luis looking a bit lost from what he was saying but I was nodding my head in agreement since ti sounded too good to be true.
"So…" Luis trailed off, having me look at him now with my smile back on my face.
"It means, we're going to find her."