Tony Stark was a thousand percent done with these people. COME ON- anyone with class knows you don't interrupt a party to viciously attack a person's computers.
Seriously, it should be some sort of hacker's rule or something.
But apparently these guys hadn't gotten the memo, because they had been working tirelessly all night. FRIDAY had been deactivated on the mainframe, but in a lucky stroke of genius, Tony had a backup on an individual drive.
"Take that," he muttered, fingers flying across the keyboard. Natasha was next to him, furiously typing away as well. Maria was scanning from the doorway, like she had been for the past few hours. The others were taking on some physical attack, which made no sense. Why would they attack us virtually AND physically? Unless they were trying to split the team up, in which case, it was working. Tony scowled at the keyboard, where a new strand of numbers revealed itself.
"Okay, you know what? You are going down. I'm tired and this is boring. I want pizza or something. Maybe ice cream. Definitely ice cream." Natasha raised her eyebrow in dry amusement without looking away from her screen.
"You're just now deciding that these guys are going down?" Tony scoffed, commanding FRIDAY to run a scan of the new numbers before responding.
"Well, it was known before but now I felt like it needed a declaration or something." Maria interrupted before the Natasha could retaliate.
"Turn your comms to channel three. The others are trying to talk but it's not really going through." Tony reached up and did so, hating to waste even a second with his hands away from the keyboard.
"Evac team, what's up?" There was a loud thundering that made Tony wince and loud yelling filled the comm.
"The chopper…had to land…can't find…need backup…at highway…" Straining to hear over the background, Tony cursed into his computer. Steve took over and asked what Tony had been about to.
"What?" There was still too much noise to discern Clint's response. Out of the corner of his eye, Tony saw Natasha stiffen.
"We need to end this. Now. Something else must be going on here." Tony wasted a precious second to stare at her in confusion.
"Um, isn't that what we've been trying to do? It hasn't exactly been a friendly game of hopscotch here." Natasha ignored him and he rolled his eyes with a huff. "Okay, don't tell me. Keep your spy-secret stuff to yourself."
"Evac team, if you can hear me, you need to get back as soon as possible. They're slowly settling down. Repeat, fall back to the Tower." There was only the static and loud background noise in response- if anyone replied, it was too soft to hear. Tony flipped the channel back to their own designated one and sighed in relief at the lack of overwhelming noise.
"FRIDAY, gimme an estimate on how much longer this should take," he ordered, resisting the urge to take another sip of the energy drink- the unhealthy kind, not the natural kind (he wasn't a barbarian).
"At the current speed of yourself and Ms. Romanoff, estimated finishing time is in: three minutes and twenty nine seconds." Ah, the sweet closeness of victory.
"Alright, let's do this." He cracked his knuckles as Maria gave him a weird look but said nothing. For the next moments only the sounds of nails hitting keys filled the room, with the odd noises filling the comms from the rest of the team. Finally, finally, ones and zeros blasted the last of the offensive bots and worms.
"That's right. You messed with the wrong AI and billionaire." After a pointed look from Natasha, he added, "And a spy?" She rolled her eyes and stretched from bending over the computer.
"Any of the Evac team able to respond?" she asked, flipping the channel back. Tony followed suit and to his surprise, the loud noise was gone, replaced by worried chatter.
"I'm on my way to meet the rest of the group. Wounded, a little bit. My tech needs repairing. And my pride got misplaced somewhere in the descent down," Sam replied. Natasha passed Maria and stalked out of the room, the two following behind her.
"The rest of the group? Sam, where are you?" Steve asked. Tony could almost hear him throwing his hands in the air when he replied.
"How am I supposed to know? Our helicopter crashed, dude." Tony choked for a second. That shouldn't have been possible. FRIDAY was controlling…oh.
"Pepper, Rhodes, and I are here. Bruce hulked out when it was crashing, while in his parachute. No clue where Sam and Bree ended up," Clint said. Tony resisted the urge to put his head in his hands.
"So we have Hulk on the loose, and Sam and Bree unaccounted for. That's great." Sam made an indignant noise.
"Uhm, hello? Didn't I just say I was on my way?" There was minor squabbling, which Natasha quickly cut through.
"Why aren't you with the rest of the group, Sam?" she asked and Tony could almost feel his annoyance through the speaker.
"Well, Bree's parachute clip snapped in two, so I was supposed to catch her." The comms went silent, save for labored breathing and background chatter.
"You didn't catch her?" Natasha's voice sounded clipped and controlled, which a glance confirmed for Tony that her eyes were narrowed.
"Well, I would have. I tried! Something hit my wings and sent me tumbling. Hence why I'm walking instead of being with the rest of the group. Clint, did any of you happen to see what hit me?" Pepper's voice filled Tony's ear in response, to his relief -she had been silent until then.
"It was like a glowing blue bubble, or something. Came from no where." The comms fell silent until Wanda broke it, saying what was worrying on the fray of Tony's thoughts.
"So what you're saying is Bree fell from a high elevation without a parachute?" Her voice screeched upward in the way that only young girls can and Tony winced, a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"Holy…guys, start looking. Ground team, is there anyway that you can help look?" Tony didn't think twice before starting to answer, but Steve beat him to it.
"We're on our way. We just finished downstairs." Tony nodded along, adding in,
"Done here, too. Virtual attack overridden. Where are you located?" FRIDAY was silent running a damage report as he glanced at his watch. Not as bad as he had thought it would have been.
"Not sure. I think we're a little ways upstate. We had only been flying for a little while until we crashed. I think we're around Sterling Forest area." Tony cleared his throat and stepped through a pile of rubble.
"FRIDAY, could you trace the comm and find where they are?"
"Already on it, sir." The map on his watch zoomed upwards, and slowly narrowed in.
"Could one of you keep talking? It's easier to trace," Tony explained. Clint started rambling off his surroundings ("We've got a dead-looking, half-fried pigeon coming up on us." "Excuse me, I do not look like a fried pigeon" Sam had retorted as he joined the group) and the watch finally beeped with a location. "Yep, you're in the Sterling Forest area. Pretty close to a lake, actually. Stay close to the area, we'll be there soon." The rest of the fighting team wordlessly met in the garage as Tony grabbed his suit in a briefcase. Tony jumped in a car, not really caring which one. Natasha, Maria, and Thor followed, getting into Tony's car as Steve, Bucky, Wanda, and Vision went in a different car.
"We're on our way."
The car slammed to an abrupt stop as Clint watched the door swing open so fast he was worried the hinges would fly off. Half of the group had gotten there a while earlier- the others had gone to calm the Hulk. The remaining of the group trudged over, Tony eying Sam's smoking wing.
"Wow. Clint wasn't kidding about the fried part." Sam scowled and patted the part he could reach.
"It's just a little singed. It's fixable, I'm sure." Steve interrupted the two before another squabble could break out.
"Where have you guys searched?" Clint gestured to the areas surrounding them widely.
"Pretty much all around us within about fifteen yards. We didn't want to go too far. Whatever hit Sam is still out there," he said with a sigh. Steve nodded, casting a glance to the sky.
"We should start looking while there's at least a little bit of light. It'll be pitch dark soon." With that, they split off. For hours, Clint paced up and down his section of the forest, hearing mumblings over the comm of the others. He feared he would look down and see the worst. But nothing came over their speakers, no updates. They all found nothing. After about three hours, a sigh came over.
"We've been searching this whole area. She's not here," Sam said. Clint dragged his hands over his face. Vision spoke over the sighs.
"That literally seems impossible. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you landed where we parked, right? That giant smoking helicopter was yours?" Clint snorted and nodded his confirmation.
"Definitely ours." Though he couldn't see him in the dark and distance, Clint could sense Tony's pacing and gesturing with his hands.
"Right. So logically, she should be within a mile of here. And we've searched that. Bruce, you're sure you didn't see her?" The sullen scientist replied,
"I'm sure I didn't. I would have said something about it," he snapped. Clint resisted the urge to go over and like, pat him on the shoulder or something. Bruce looked so disappointed as he was searching, just murmuring to himself under his breath.
"So that leaves us with two options," Tony continued, ignoring the testy remark. Steve picked up what Tony hadn't yet said.
"You mean she got up and walked away? She would probably be too hurt to do that. I mean, she fell from a helicopter." Clint shook his head, glancing up to the sky.
"We weren't up that high. I knew we were going down so I tried to level it out as low as I could before jumping. I mean, yes, high enough to get hurt, but not high enough for…I don't know, major internal bleeding or anything."
"That's one option. What's the other?" Wanda asked, sleepiness seeping into her tone. It was Bucky that answered her.
"That someone took her." The sentence rang through their ears and Clint stopped pacing to rub his eyes.
"Oh," was all Wanda replied with. It was then that a shrill ringing broke through the forest.
"FRIDAY?" Tony asked apprehensively. The AI said something the rest couldn't hear, and Clint trudged over in his direction.
"Tony, what was that?" As he neared closer to the man muttering, he could start to see the determined look and relief sweeping his face.
"FRIDAY said the police just got a call. Bree's been found." There was a pause as muted cheers fluttered through the forest and Tony pressed the watch closer to his ear. "She's at a sandwich shop? In the city. FRIDAY's sending over the coordinates right now. Apparently she talked briefly to Bree herself." Clint was now close enough he could hear the AI's response of,
"Indeed, sir. She appears to be under the watchful care of an employee. I have inserted myself into the security cameras there, and will alert you of any change. Coordinates received." Clint peered at the watch as it zoomed in miles from where they were.
"How did she get over there? The helicopter landed here!" Wanda protested, watching it curiously. The group started towards the cars. Clint fought off the uneasy feeling in his stomach. This was easy-too easy. Nothing ever went this easy.
"We'll find that out later. Let's go get Bree."
The boy paced anxiously across the room while the man scowled at him.
"Stop pacing." The boy ignored him but instead picked up the pace. "I said, stop pacing." The boy tore his eyes off the wall in front of him to mumble,
"Shut up, Matt." Before he could blink, the man was no longer casually leaning against the wall but instead right next to him.
"Don't talk to me like that." His words were carefully articulated and steely, making the boy wince and nod.
"Yessir." Apparently this wasn't any better based off the scowl tossed in his direction. Hesitant to speak again, he slowly asked, "Aren't you nervous? We disobeyed a direct order." Matt shrugged, leaning back against the wall.
"Anything's possible when you act like you knew exactly what you were doing. We did. Until you were an idiot and now I'm stuck covering for both of us." The scowl hardened and the boy made the decision to shut up with the sarcasm.
"I don't know what I was thinking. I panicked. All of a sudden, I couldn't do it," he said almost apologetically and Matt waved it off dismissively.
"Whatever, kid. It was your first big mission. I'd be surprised if you didn't screw it up somehow."
"Don't call me kid," the boy mumbled in response. "You're only…what? Five years older? Six?" Regretting the snarky response as soon as it slipped out of his mouth, he fought the urge to cower. As Matt turned to sneer again, a door opening and a man ushering them down the hall saved him. Glancing down one of the open doors, a frowning woman had cloth and pins in her hands, measuring a man with bright blue hair. The next held two people fighting.
"Right in here," the man ordered. He held a door open and the boy took a deep breath to calm himself.
"Just let me do the talking," Matt hissed under his breath. He watched as the older of them pasted on a confident smile and strode into the room. He kept behind Matt as they walked, keeping his eyes on the three people sitting in front of them.
"Well, if it isn't our dynamic duo?" the woman said dryly, raising her eyebrows. Matt spread his arms out.
"Commanders Jackson, Moore, Martinez. So nice to see you again." The three ignored him and studied their notes. Finally the man in the middle spoke.
"You know why you're here, I presume." Matt opened his mouth to speak but the woman added in,
"And none of your elaborate stories or excuses this time," she said with a pointed look. Matt stuck his hands in his pockets and smiled agreeably.
"Of course. There's a good explanation, I assure you. It started when we first got on the field, I had the idea to…" The boy watched as the scientist spun his words almost effortlessly. For someone who used to spend so much time isolated behind a lab and a desk, he sure knew how to use charisma.
"This still doesn't change the fact you disobeyed a direct order," the woman stated matter-of-factly, eyebrows still raised.
"Ah, Commander Martinez, you can't get ahead if you aren't afraid to take chances. See, here was our issue; if we took the girl now, there's not going to be much of an emotional attachment. Sure, there would be mass searches and the Avengers would be upset and concerned, but they would get over it quicker than we need. Just think about it. If we waited, let them get emotionally invested and attached, it would be like pulling a rug out from their feet. These people make allies and ties differently than us- they're loyalty is unquestionable. We're not going to be able to break that again. It's been tried. We need to turn their loyalty against them, let it rule their emotions." He could see the gears turning as they studied the man before them and the notes. He watched with dread as the woman finally noticed him hiding behind Matt.
"And what's your story?" He cleared his throat before mumbling,
"The same as his." Wrong this to say, wrong thing to say. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion and Matt quickly interrupted.
"You've got to admit it makes sense." One of the men shook his head.
"And how are we going to get the girl again? We caught them off guard once, it might be hard to do it again." The confident smile was back on Matt's face again as he pulled a small object from his pocket and tossed it to one of the officials.
"Well, we didn't let her go without doing anything. What are we, idiots?" He attempted at a chuckle, but all that was received were dry looks, so Matt continued. "While she was, ahem, asleep, we put a tracker embedded in the base of her ankle. Enough cover that whatever artificial intelligence would pass it off as part of the shoe. We can remotely activate a paralysis that will inject an anesthetic into her bloodstream as soon as we hit the button. Easy extraction when needed." A sigh of relief escaped the younger of the two as the commanders seemed to be warming up to the idea. Only the woman seemed skeptical.
"Very well. Your smart thinking will be rewarded," one of the men said, flipping a page. "Matthew Lewis, you will be promoted to one of the leaders of Project Number One Eight Two Three, Operation Wolf." As they both prepared to leave, he spoke to the boy. "You too, Colin Richards."
(A/N: Dun dun duuuuuun! ;P So there you have it. The two guys who were in the warehouse. I hope this cleared up a little bit of what's going in! Also, please correct me if I'm wrong about any of the New York geographies and shops. I have absolutely no clue about sandwich shops and forests for helicopters to crash. I tried to research as much as I could, but sadly Google doesn't have much of a response for "where would a helicopter in New York crash after _ minutes?"
Thank you to all of you lovely readers who followed and favorited, and special thanks to AleuStark, Phoenixfromthefire, and FlowerChild23 for reviewing! Y'all are awesome and I I love your reviews (seriously. They inspire me! :P)