The man in the white lab-coat raised his voice. "Don't do that to me, Mr. Stark. I'm looking forward to working with you and it would be a shame if they had to break you to achieve this. I hate dealing with blood, tears, and pleading. I admit that the circumstances are far from ideal. But we will have to make do. So if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few questions."
"And you expect me to answer."
"Please, don't waste my time."
"Then don't waste mine. Sooner or later I either find a way out of here or someone will come and free me."
"Nobody will come. They are not searching for you. A few people working for you might still be waiting for a ransom demand that will never come but there is no big rescue mission on its way. Even if it would be, nobody will find you here."
Loki will. Won't he? For the first time, Tony began to doubt, that somebody would come and find him wherever he might be at the moment. And he still wasn't able to come up with an escape plan.
He remained silent and the man slightly raised his voice when he got no answer.
"This facility is the safest one HYDRA owns. Beings much stronger than you were held here and not one of them escaped."
"There's always a first time." He smiled.
"Mr. Stark, it seems you are under the impression that you are Iron Man. You might have been. But here you are just flesh and bones like everybody else. Breakable." When Tony didn't answer once more he added: "Just let them call me when you change your mind."
"I don't even know your name. I think I'll call you Justin. You look like one. Like a royal pain in the ass."
"I'm John." "He knocked at the door and a guard opened from the outside of the room, his weapon in aiming position. "You can take him to room 102."
When three guards entered his cell and the white coat smiled Tony knew he was fucked. "If he tries something, shoot. But shoot to wound, not to kill." John was all smiles.
Two of them still aimed their guns at him and the third one put him in cuffs while he answered. "I'll shoot him in his legs, not his head. Understood."
Tony thought briefly about fighting back but discarded the idea because right now he didn't want to die and wasn't willing to trust their aiming skills. "You better not, you fucking squirrel," Tony grunted at the guy. Instead of an answer, the guard behind him hit him in the back and he groaned. Not fighting back to not get shot didn't include full corporation nor shutting up. So he didn't. But they didn't seem to enjoy his entertaining qualities that much while they dragged him along the corridor, twisting his arms even more painfully behind his back.
"If Tasha doesn't get him to talk, nobody will," Clint stated and Loki just huffed. He was so past being patient. "She better hurry up or I'll go into that room and take care of that."
"Dead people don't tend to be helpful when you're searching someone." The archer, both arms folded together across his chest, was still standing in front of the closed door, blocking the entrance to the room where Natasha was interrogating the one HYDRA agent they managed to catch alive.
Loki shook his head. His head hurt and the tightness in his chest wouldn't diminish. Nothing of that showed in the grin he gave Clint. "I'm not talking about killing him. I just want to talk." He smiled. "Then, if he doesn't want to cooperate, I will kill him. I'll be back in an hour."
Loki turned around and Clint muttered under his breath. "We don't owe you shit. Since when is he the one giving orders? Again, I mean. Should just wrap him up in duct tape and throw him in a hole."
Back in the solitude of their room, Loki was struggling for control. He sat down on the bed, too tense to sleep despite his exhaustion. The feeling of guilt and failure wouldn't leave him. Nothing he did had brought them closer to finding Tony and nothing could soothe his lingering desperation, the dark sadness that tried to grab him and pull him under. It was agonizing and every hour that passed without progress made it harder and more debilitating to gather the strength to keep on going instead of just giving in to it. He shook his head in a silent answer to himself. He had to find Tony and he would be alive. He just had to because he couldn't imagine what he would if not. Loki steadied himself, taking a deep breath. He wouldn't surrender now.
There was a loud knock at the door and he flinched just to get angry about it. When he tore open the door it was Bruce with a plate of sandwiches. "Eat. Doctor's order."
"I'm not hungry."
"I insist. It serves no purpose to starve yourself. So eat."
Loki took the plate grudgingly. Just to drop it a moment later when they heard Natasha's calm voice: "We have something. We'll leave in 30 minutes. Come to the Quintjet."
Banner sighed. "Alright, dinner is postponed until further notice."
Tony wasn't sure how much time has passed when they pushed him through the door of his cell again. Groaning he just stayed on the ground where he fell down. Huddled and in pain. He wasn't sure if he fell asleep or just passed out but when he woke up he was shivering from the cold. This fucking sucks.
Steve studied the satellite picture Natasha gave him before the Quintjet's take-off. "Calypso. Never heard of that Hydra base."
"We neither." The woman in the pilot seat answered. "So we have no information about it. You should be ready for a fight."
The dense woods that surrounded the alleged facility forced them to land the Quintjet far away and walk. They marched in some distance to the road that seemed to lead to the HYDRA base. That way they could keep their direction but they shouldn't be seen by anybody that might use that way. The building was not much more than a big concrete block. It looked a lot like an oversized bunker, sitting low in the hills. They could just guess, that the biggest part of it was underground. Otherwise, the HYDRA guy would have lied and their only trace to Tony Stark would be nothing more than a big waste of time. None of them wanted to think about that. As they sneaked nearer through the dark woods they could see floodlights and armed guards behind an electrified fence topped with barbwire.
"We have to deactivate the fence first. Then take out the guards before they can alert someone inside." Natasha proposed.
Loki made a disapproving noise. "This is not a S.H.I.E.L.D base, so I don't see why we should be as careful as with the Lighthouse. You shouldn't have friends in there. In the event of you having any."
"You're not the highlight of my day." She pointed at the building in the distance. "You can storm in there and get yourself killed for all I care. But they might as well kill their prisoners when attacked. So if you want Stark back alive you might reconsider your course of action."
"A distraction would be good," Hawkeye added.
Chance came to their aid while they were still discussing. They heard the distinct noise of a car, driving in their direction. Steve sprinted to the street and saw a HYDRA agent that drove through the woods in direction of the facility. It was an old open Jeep and Steve stopped him dead in his tracks with his shield while the others followed the Captain to the road.
Standing next to the car Loki's body and clothing turned into the unconscious HYDRA agent that lay on the ground. He now looked exactly like him. "A distraction."
Steve shook his head. He wasn't sure if he would ever get used to that trick.
Black Widow coughed slightly. "Can you even drive a car?"
"Yes." The annoyance in the stranger's face looked unmistakable like Loki.
"Sure you can," Hawkeye muttered. "On the loading area."
