A/N: Short chapter, sorry, but it was the natural stopping point. Don't worry though, I hope to have the next chapter up soon anyways.
Read, review, enjoy!
Stark woke up early the next morning, much to his dismay. For some reason, he felt like there was something strange was going on. He decided to get up and screw around in his labs for a while.
When he walked inside his main lab to tweak his suits, Jarvis interrupted.
"Sir, I have some troubling news. Ms. White went out for a walk last night and has still not returned."
Tony immediately snapped to attention, waking up.
"What did you say, Jarvis? She's not here?"
"No sir, it's been seven hours since she was in the building."
"Shit. Start scanning for her, J."
Tony hurried out of the lab.
"Jarvis," Tony added, "Wake the others and tell them to meet me in the Avengers lounge!"
Soon Tony was surrounded by five other sleepy people.
"What the hell is this all about, Tony," Steve asked, irritated.
"Eliza's missing."
Everyone was immediately awake.
"What," Clint snapped.
"Jarvis, tell them what you told me."
"Last night at 11:03 Ms. White exited the building. I was unsure as to why however I still haven't marked her return. As such, I brought it to the attention of Mister Stark this morning."
"Right, everyone stay calm," Steve reminded them as everyone but Natasha (though no doubt the same thoughts were going through her mind) looked panicky. Clint especially.
"I've got Jarvis scanning for her as we speak," Tony offered.
Clint nodded, "I'll call in to Fury. Get a face search going."
Clint walked over to the nearest computer and contacted SHIELD, pulling it up on the virtual screen.
"Agent Barton?"
Agent Hill was on the screen.
"Hill, you need to put Fury on. Now."
She nodded, and soon enough her boss appeared, "What is it, Barton?"
"Sir, Eliza's gone missing."
Fury stared at the Avengers, face blank, "Missing? How the hell is she missing?"
"According to Jarvis, she went for a walk last night and hasn't come back."
Fury cursed before turning around to Agent Hill who stood behind him, "Hill, start a face search for Eliza White. I want as many agents on this as possible," he turned back to the Avengers, "I want you to take a look around town and see if you can find any clues. Then report to the Helicarrier. We'll send in a quinjet for you, and it'll be waiting at Stark Tower."
They all nodded and Clint cut the connection.
"Any luck, Jarvis?"
"Negative, sir."
"Right then. I suggest we start searching. Tony, you take the air and circle the city, closing inwards around Stark Tower. Clint, Natasha, the two of you stay undercover and do reconnaissance starting from the Tower and branching outwards. Bruce, stay here and keep running scans. I'll stay here and coordinate things with Fury," Steve instructed.
They all nodded and rushed off to do their various assignments. Stark donned his newest suit and took off into the air. Clint and Natasha, dressed in civilian clothes, left the tower and the former went left while the latter went right. Bruce headed up to his lab. Steve remained where he was, waiting for further information from Fury.
The first thing Clint noticed was the normalcy of the day. No one was rushing around, no one realized the danger that one of the Avengers could be in. Had something happened to her? Woe to he who attacked Eliza. Clint would find him, and kill him, and no one would be able to trace it back. Being an assassin came in handy sometimes.
Tony didn't see anything out of the ordinary from the air. He scouted out the city looking for any suspicious activity including bodies, but found none.
As it turned out, it was Natasha who uncovered the evidence first. She was scouting out some back alleys when she came upon one with two items. First was a syringe, and the second was a small puddle of dried blood. Using some sterilized tweezers, she collected a sample of the blood and placed it inside a plastic baggy. Doing the same with the syringe, she called to her team mates.
"I think I might have found something," Nat said quickly, "I'm taking it back to the lab for analysis. Bruce, get ready for some DNA identification and chemical identification."
"Sure thing."
Natasha made quick work getting back to Stark Tower. She rushed past Steve and rode the elevator up to the Bruce's lab on Level 54. Handing over the two bags of evidence, she sat down out of the way to wait for results.
Bruce took the materials in his gloved hands and started analyzing the blood sample. Pulling up records of Eliza's DNA, he began cross matching. As that worked, he took out the syringe and shook a few of the remaining drops of chemical out onto a microscope plate.
He examined it and pressed the button on his earpiece to communicate to the entire team, "The chemical in the syringe is a highly potent tranquilizer."
After another few minutes his machine beeped and he went to check the cross matching.
"We've got a match. The blood is Eliza's."
Steve spoke up, "Everyone report back to Stark Tower."
Within twenty minutes everyone was hovering around inside Bruce's lab. The air was tense as they waited for Clint, who was last. Finally he got there and they immediately began speculating.
"So, somehow someone got Eliza into an alley, cornered her, and tranquilized her," Tony reasoned.
"Who would be after her," Steve asked, "I mean, her especially that they stalked her last night."
"SHIELD has any number of enemies. It could be she was taken because she works for SHIELD, because she's an Avenger, or because she's who she is," Clint shook his head.
Over the next hour they spent time communicating with Fury and speculating over what could have happened. At the end, they were no closer to figuring out the answer than they had been before hand.