oOoOo
Computer Core
Rhodes caught a flash of light out of the corner of his eye was an instantly on his feet. Tony, whose eyes were glued to a computer screen, only caught his friend's motion. A crack about making a coffee run was on his lips when something about Rhodes's tense posture stopped him. Tony looked up and instantly felt the familiar (and dreaded) tightening of his stomach that told him something unexpected and uncontrollable was about to happen. He instinctively pushed away from the computer then touched the center of his sternum. A chill rippled through him as the obvious occurred to him: He no longer wore an arc reactor nor had container full of nano parts to form armor to shield himself.
Rhodes cut a glance at his friend as he moved toward the door. He saw Tony's motion and read the question in his expression. Unlike Tony, Rhodes never had the bleeding edge armor that could form as needed since Rhodes did not wear an arc reactor full-time as Tony had for years. Therefore, the former Air Force Colonel did not have access to the technology Tony created on that front. They had discussed transitioning him many times but never got around to it as Rhodes's armor was still more than sufficient for his needs, and he didn't like the thought of being as attached to his protective casing. Living in a partial exo-skeleton to walk was more than enough technology in his daily non-work life.
With their split-second discussion over, Rhodes turned toward the door. He saw the anxious look in Tony's eyes and was doing his best not to reflect it back at his friend despite feeling it in his bones as well.
His eyes sharpened as he noted a strange, reddish glow in the hall spilling through the small window in the security doors. Barnes was nowhere in sight, but Rhodes conceded there was a small field of view out the narrow window. He planned to listen at the door before proceeding but it suddenly flew open as if by an invisible force. In the void, Wanda appeared.
Her eyes were wide and wild. Her hair whipped on a breeze that should not have been possible in the climate controlled atmosphere. With her came a strange aura of red light and an intense heat that quickly sent the air cooling units in the room into high gear. The cool air they pumped out and Wanda's intense heat mixed and created a bizarre fog that began to cloak the room.
"A little young for a hot flash aren't you?" Tony remarked in an oddly calm voice.
"Tony, no," Rhodes warned, sensing something was amiss with their teammate that apparently Tony did not register.
"All will be well soon," Wanda replied, focusing her eyes on Tony. "You will pay for what you did to us."
"Who is we?" Tony asked as Rhodes stepped between him and Wanda's straightest line of approach. "What's going on?"
"We are fixing your mistakes," she said as she raised her hands towards him.
Being in danger was not new to Rhodes or Tony. Fighting alongside each other when danger appeared was something the two of them did well when the situations were optimal, but that was not the case in that room at that moment. Rhodes was acutely aware that there were two sides to Tony in such situations. The Tony who could suit up and face the danger was infinitely capable and brave beyond measure because he trusted in his tech and was a master at using it; his creative and strategic thinking were invaluable. However, there was also the Tony outside the armor; the guy who understood he was vulnerable and relied on his hi-tech toys to get through most tight situations. When unprotected by his titanium and gold cocoon and without any level of tech at his disposal, that guy was practically useless in high octane situations. Toddler on an active battlefield was Rhodes's best description of his friend in those situations.
Rhodes was torn. Wanda was his teammate and his friend. She was someone he trusted normally, but his gut told him she was a threat that needed to be contained—not an easy task even under the best circumstances. He also had the added glitch of unarmed Tony being present, making him something of a menace and an extra danger in the volatile situation. There was no question in Rhodes's mind. His best friend needed protection from someone more powerful than the both of them and all the tech toys Tony could create combined. Adding in the guy's lack of sleep and the suddenly ratcheted up stress in the room (along with Tony's underlying PTSD and anxiety issues), Rhodes knew he needed to make a choice that would alter everything that happened in the few minutes irreparably: focus on Wanda or turn his back on her to protect Tony.
In the end, he did the only thing he knew he could live with if it all went south.
oOoOo
Pietro was screaming at her. Wanda blinked as her eyes watered from the pain the sound caused. She splayed her fingers just as met Tony's confused eyes. As she did, energy shot forward. In that same instant, Rhodes dove toward Tony. He collided with his friend and grabbed him by the shoulders. Wanda's thrust of burning energy scraped the man's shoulder, singeing the sleeve of his shirt as he toppled over a desk backward, taking Tony with him.
Wanda shrieked at missing her target but mostly because her brother was getting even louder and threatening to force her with his own will to do what he commanded. His order was simple: Kill.
Wanda flung her arms out, sending desks, chairs, and computers flying around the room and crashing into the walls. The fog emitted when she first entered was then joined with actual smoke from burning s she moved forward, but rather than approach the two men crumple on the floor in front of her she moved across the room.
"What do you want?" she shouted as she gripped her temples. "How will we get the program if he is dead?"
Kill him, he insisted. Kill them both.
"No," she said through clenched teeth. "Why are we doing this?"
I will make you, he vowed.
"You cannot," she said.
So you think you are the one who killed Barton? You think you had the strength to do that? You, the little girl who was too afraid to leave the apartment when the bombs hit?
"You know what I can do," Wanda countered as his laughing continued to echo on her head while she walked closer to the wall and stared as his face, twisted in a merciless smirk, slowly appeared in front of her.
oOoOo
Rhodes rolled off of Tony and whipped his head around the side of the toppled desks to look for Wanda. He could not see her, but he could hear her talking. The conversation appeared to be one-sided. He then looked at Tony, who was scraping his shoulders off the floor and rubbing the back of his head.
"Learn that move from She-T?" he wondered. "I get that she's powerful and aggressive, but some of us are more delicate and like to be a romanced a bit before you jump our bones, buddy."
Rhodes rolled his eyes, taking the comment as a convincing assessment that his friend was basically fine. He was about to begin a strategic discussion for how to get out of where they were when his phone rang. Rhodes groped into his pocket and pulled it out while sighing with relief. As he hit the call button to answer, both his voice and Tony's carried clearly into the control room and over their speakers. Howard gasped upon hearing his son and felt his mouth go dry with both shock and worry. Although both men on the other end of the phone were speaking in lowered tones, their trapped voices boomed over the speakers, fully expressing surprise and jitters with sudden turn of events.
"You're taking a call?" Tony asked aggressively. "Now? If it's not your girlfriend saying she's outside the door coming in to save us, hang up."
"Chill, it's Coulson," Rhodes snarled in reply before addressing his caller.
"Put him on speaker," Tony said.
"Not exactly strategic, man," Rhodes said through clenched teeth.
"It's a 40 by 60 room with no partitions," Tony in a similar tone. "The Wicked Witch of Sokovia might not be looking at us, but do you seriously think she doesn't know precisely where we are?"
There was groan and a scoff followed by the white noise that filled the background of speakerphone calls and oddly the noise of falling rain.
"Coulson?" Rhodes addressed his caller finally but in a hushed voice. "We're in the core and Wanda is here and… What the hell is going on?"
"Miss Maximoff is…," he hesitated.
"Having a bad day?" Tony offered. "Yeah, we got that. Why?"
"We're trying to get to you," the agent assured him without explaining what they knew. "I can hear both of you. Are you both okay?"
"To say okay is stretching it," Rhodes answered hurriedly.
"What's your situation?"
"Well, Phil, we've got a crazy girl here making a mess," Tony snapped.
"Wanda is… unraveled," Rhodes offered in a more professional tone. "She's definitely has an issue with Tony. She's torn the place up pretty good in the last 30 seconds. We're surrounded by live, exposed wires and burning plastic, which just set off the fire suppression system."
"And is probably drenching us in water contaminated with Legionnaires Disease," Tony added.
"I understand," Coulson said calmly. "That's manageable."
"Manageable?" Tony repeated. "Ionized water and exposed electrical current are a bad mix. You know, I've had my heart stopped a couple times so I'm not interested in doing it again if I can avoid it and don't recommend it for you either, Rhodey. Seriously, careful on the right. No, my right, your left. Just move this way. You're in a puddle and that coil at your elbow is about to spark. You mean the world to me, but I'm not interested in giving you CPR right now. Save that for Captain Carol's visit, okay?"
"It's like you have zero ability to turn it off," Rhodes grumbled as he was heard shifting his position.
Howard shook his head as he listened to the both the strained voices. The good news was that they were coming through strong and clear, leaving the radiation theory in tatters as radioactive energy strong enough to melt concrete should have rendered anyone close to it unconscious with bleeding lungs. There were other sounds as well: water falling and pooling along with zapping noises of circuits sparking. Like Tony's assessment for Coulson, some of the first scientific properties Howard learned as a young child came to him in that instant. While the information was old and familiar, it did not sooth him as he pictured the rudimentary danger zone he heard described. Water and live electrical current in close proximity to each other and human bodies. Water contained impurities such as sodium, calcium, and magnesium ions. They were charged particles and would allow an electrical charge to flow through the liquid and into whatever it found for grounding. A human body was a perfect target. What those in that room needed was to evacuate; failing that, they needed rubber insulated suits.
But they asked for something else instead.
"Coulson, we're unarmed in here so we need backup—now," Rhodes insisted. "Send it whatever we've got that can paralyze Wanda because she's apparently lost her damn mind."
"How so?" the agent asked, looking for more clues that might pinpoint the cause of her behavior.
"How?" Rhodes scoffed. "Did you not hear the part where I said she started throwing around desks and computers. Now, she's having a conversation with herself."
"It's more like an argument," Tony noted. "Oddly, she seems to be losing it… I mean the argument; although…"
"They get it," Rhodes cut him off then returned to the call. "Barnes was in the hall before she walked in. No idea where he is now or his status."
"Copy that," Coulson responded. "We've got a team just outside, but the building is not current accessible."
"Well, we've got no weapons and no cover," Rhodes replied. "She's… She's… Hold on. She's quiet now. Tones, can you see what's she doing?"
There was a pause that lasted just a few seconds, but Howard felt his heart in his throat as silence filled the line. He didn't dare take a breath again until he heard Tony's voice once more.
"Muttering at the wall in some Slavic-sounding dialect in a kind of bitchy tone," he reported in an incredulous whisper. "And she seemed to be doing what looks like shadow puppets as well. I'd call it an improvement, but something tells me it's not a good sign. You know, you need a rule on base. Only one crazy person allowed in a room at a time. I'm in here so this room is over the limit, and since I was here first, she should leave."
"I'll make a note of it," Rhodes groaned in a tone that was frustrated but held a lot of understanding. As he spoke, a horrible crunching sound carried over the line. "Man, she's still moving things. Get your head down before it gets knocked off."
"What do you mean that she's talking to the wall?" Coulson persisted, keeping his voice calm and even. "The wall isn't talking, is it?"
"Did you seriously just ask that?" Rhodes wondered.
"She's doing her Carrie White impersonation," Tony snarled. "She's Loony Tunes, dropped the brown acid, gone nuts, bananas, bonkers, berserk, up and over the cuckoo's nest, toys in the attic, whacko, Phil. Oh, and tell your boss, this is the last straw for me. I'm never coming over to play again."
"Who is Carrie White?" Rhodes asked with a practiced straight-man of a comic duo's timing.
"Character from the movie Carrie—a crazy telekinetic seeking revenge," Tony answered rapidly. "Hey, don't blame me for the movie reference. Blame Pete; he's… contagious."
"Fine, got all that out of your system?" Rhodes asked flatly and apparently got the nonverbal response he needed. "Good. Can you focus?"
The chatter spawned no reaction in the control room from anyone but Howard, who groaned softly as he shook his head.
Coulson explained to the men that they were still assessing what was occurring and were working on a resolution plan but everything was rather fluid in that moment then muted the phone. As he finished speaking, the sound of shattering the glass filled the speakers followed by Rhodes revealing that every computer monitor in the core had just imploded. Simultaneously, the team onsite outside the building reported that Thor had just taken a mighty swing at the structure with his ax, but it didn't appear the impact had any visible effect outside. Fury commanded the man to keep trying. Inside the trapped space, the situation and parties continued to unravel as their words traveled back to the control room with urgency.
"Remember when you said this was just computer work and there'd be no danger?" Tony remarked agitatedly. "You've got some explaining to do if I go home."
"We're getting out of this in one piece," Rhodes replied. "It'll be fine."
"I hope so, but I'm not allowed to leave out details involving explosions, electrical fires, interior maelstroms, and crazy people trying to kill me," Tony argued. "Just so we're clear: You're the one doing the explaining, buddy. I'm already in trouble for being unreachable all day."
His voice trailed off as a horrible crunching noise filled the call. From the sound of Rhodes's command and the ensuing grunts, huffs, and groans, they had moved position in a hurry. A report moments later informed the room that several desks near them and had just learned to fly in the room and they, along with their accompanying seats, were now in a mashed up pile on the other side of the room. In the background, Wanda began screeching. Rhodes then described clutching at her head followed by wild, red, flaring shapes leaping around the room, scorching the walls and further filling the air with an acrid odor.
"Who is in that room with Tony?" Howard asked desperately as he found his voice.
He lifted his eyes to the only person in the room who was likely to give him any answers. It seemed odd that it was a college student he had all but dismissed upon their introduction, but Howard decided he would get his intel anywhere it was available.
"It's his best friend, Colonel Rhodes," Peter said softly. "They're a team… sometimes. They know what they're doing… I guess."
"Rhodes?" he blinked. "Not that kid he knew at MIT? Well, no wonder this has gone to hell in a handcart. The two of them can't trusted together. Look, you obviously know my son. Tell me what's going on. What is he doing in there?"
"Trying not to be killed," Peter replied quietly anxiously, assessing the lack of action in the room and not liking it but pleased no one was looking his way any longer. "I'm going to help him. Director Fury?"
Fury seethed and he turned and focused his blazing eye on the college student, who swallowed but held his ground despite quaking a bit in his shoes.
"Sit your ass down, Parker," Fury said. "We can't get in there right now even if we tried. She's got enough hostages as it is. Rhodes is there. He'll handle it."
"No, he can't," Peter argued. "She won't listen to him."
"I know the feeling," Fury said.
"You're letting her kill them," Peter said. "Sir, you don't have to send in your people. I'm volunteering to go, and I don't work for you."
As he spoke, he activated his suit. The bleeding-edge nano tech suit rippled across his body, fully encasing him. Howard's eyes nearly burst from their sockets as he stared at the college student in alarm.
"What the hell is that?" he asked in amazement.
"My suit," Peter said from behind his mask.
"What's it do?"
"Damn near everything but promote common sense," Fury shook his head.
"It repels bullets and radiation," Peter answered with more detail. "It's got defensive weapons and access to satellites and pretty much any digitally recorded information the operating system can find."
"But we're not using it," Fury ordered as Peter retracted his mask and frowned. Glad he'd been heard, Fury turned his back to focus once more on the monitors. "Don't make me say it again, Parker. Besides, you know Tony would agree with me."
Peter's brow furrowed as his frown sharpened because the man was right. Tony would be the first to tell him to stay out of this, but that didn't mean it was the right thing. Tony wouldn't think twice putting himself in danger, so the double standard never sat well with Peter. Realizing that made up his mind. With Fury distracted, Peter reengaged his mask. Howard's eyes remained wide as he stared at the protective skin that encased his lab partner.
"I have so many questions right now," Howard choked.
"They can wait for later," Peter said quietly as he turned toward the door. "Don't worry, Mr. Stark. I'll get Tony out of there. I promise."
oOoOo
In the server room under the concrete, a haze of burned computer wire and office furniture hung low on the air. The sprinkler system drenched everything as sparks showed the room as much as droplets of water. Emergency lighting cast an eerie glow that was rivaled only by the flares from Wanda's fingers.
Rhodes hunkered beside Tony as they sat shoulder to shoulder behind a barricade of overturned desks and listened to Wanda arguing (with technically no one) in what was her native language as she address her shrill words to the wall still. Tony stared directly ahead of them with an intense gaze that caught Rhodes's attention and gave his heart a spike of hope.
"Where's your head at, man?" Rhodes asked his companion eagerly hoping he was devising a plan for their escape using some odd physics solution that popped into his chaotic brain. "What are you thinking?"
"Uh, about the time at MIT when we broke into Dr. Obermann's office," Tony answered in a rush, "and we found a shoebox on his chair containing a loaded handgun, a naked Barbie doll, and a bottle of what was essentially shimmer lotion."
"Really?" Rhodes snapped as his hopes for an ingenious solution were dashed. "That's what's in your head? Right now? Why?"
"I don't know," Tony replied as the sound of new and angry energy pulses shredded the air around them causing both men to huddle closer to the floor. "I'm looking at the same kind of chair."
"Seriously?!"
"Hey," Tony snarled back anxiously, "I got triggered. That incident, like so many others, emotionally scarred me. This one's doing a pretty good job, too!"
"Okay, whatever," Rhodes huffed. "Get your head in the present. We need a plan."
"Good idea," he answered. "Let's start with: Not die. It's simple; it's elegant; it gets at my main goal for the day."
Rhodes sighed then yelped a second later when another barrage of sounds indicated there was more destruction occurring around them. Tony foolishly peeked over their barricade and nearly got his head taken off by more flying debris moving at a speed fast enough to nearly cause a sonic boom in the room.
"That had some speed on it," he observed unnecessarily. "Okay, so, she's pissed at us for some reason. Any ideas?"
"Not us, you," Rhodes replied.
"No, not me," Tony said. "She was nice to me earlier, and I was nice back. She offered to do me a favor… Unless that's why she's pissed. This seems a bit angrier than you'd expect for a missed impromptu weekend vacation, doesn't it?"
"You invited her on a trip?" Rhodes questioned.
"No, I was sending her to Boston to play security to back up Happy," Tony said. "She told me she got to the airport too late and missed the flight. People who hate me usually have slightly more substantial reasons than a missed flight. Is Coulson still on the phone? Where are they with… I don't know, anything helpful?"
oOoOo
Back in the control room, all assembled listened to the back and forth between the parties in the room. Coulson unmuted himself and acknowledged that he was still on the line and there were teams attempting to gain access to the building. He again asked for a situation update and received word Wanda was again gripping her head while continuing her one-sided conversation. While she was distracted, Rhodes began formulating a plan that involved leaving the room. Their voices over the call echoed in the larger room leaving all the agent and technicians hanging on their words looking for something that would help the trapped men.
"That room there…," Rhodes said.
"The blade server room," Tony said. "There are no doors or windows other than the one to get in."
"But there's wires and whatnot running into it from somewhere, right?" Rhodes insisted.
"Yeah, and the enviro controls," Tony offered in a tone that indicated he was catching on.
"So there's got to be like an intake vent for the air," Rhodes theorized. "Think it's big enough to crawl through?"
"In theory, it should be," Tony said. "Then again, this place was built by the US Military in the 1950s so… I have no idea. Probably not."
"I say we verify it," Rhodes commanded. "On the door, that an electronic lock. Here's the plan: You hot wire it and get us in there. We'll figure out how seal the door behind us. What do you think?"
"I think I'm just a tool to you," Tony replied.
"Tony."
"You're giving me orders like I work for you… or like I take orders from anyone," he scoffed.
"Not now," Rhodes growled. "That door might hold her for a minute, right?"
"Have you not seen what she can do?" Tony remarked as more sounds of flying detritus carried over the phone. "Okay, the judgmental look is uncalled for, buddy. I'm not creating the facts; I'm just acknowledging them."
"Tony," Rhodes scolded through clenched teeth.
"Fine," he answered slightly breathless. "But I'm not a machine. I have feelings you know... and nerves… fraying nerves as it turns out… lots of them… like right now."
"We're gonna get out of this," Rhodes coaxed with an obvious shift of compassion in his voice, "but we gotta work together, right?"
"And trying something is better than doing nothing," Tony exhaled. "Okay. I'm on it, but we're not done talking about this. You're only a half best friend right now."
"Huh?"
"I just mean that you're not being very compassionate or understanding right now," Tony complained on the verge of a whine. "So, I just know that if I needed to do something extreme, like say dispose of a body and I called you, you'd either move it or bury it but not both. It hurts me that there's a limit to what you'd do for me compared to what I'll do for you."
"Do the door," Rhodes ordered firmly.
"Tyrant."
As the agitated chatter continued into mentions of college pranks involving instances of vandalism and small instances of contained arson, Howard listened from afar. He groaned and buried his face in his hands. His heart began racing, and he felt himself trembling.
"Oh my god," he moaned. "It's just not an act to annoy me."
"How's that?" Hope asked as she touched his shoulder with concern.
"I used to think he rambled rapidly like that to get on my nerves, but it's obviously not a ploy to harass me," Howard scoffed.
"No, that's pretty much his personality," Hope said flatly. "Apparently, some people find it… charming."
"Yeah, other lunatics," Howard hung his head. "I understand reacting to head rushes when you're inventing something and it's going really well or even really bad, but this? This is a serious, deadly situation and he's just… Who acts like that when there's a crazy woman in the room trying to kill you?"
"Well, Tony, for one," Hope shrugged.
Coulson again keyed the mute button to cut off sound from the control room to the men in the computer core. He looked over his shoulder to Howard, who was suffering his own anxiety to the events unfolding over the speakers.
"Sir, it's mostly a stress response in this instance," the agent explained calmly to Howard. "He tends to rattle off a lot of details and thoughts fairly rapidly normally, but this is not precisely a normal day for him… anymore."
"It doesn't worry any of you?" Howard gaped at the man's calm and lack of outward concern.
"No," Coulson replied confidently. "We've grown accustomed to it after so many years. Frankly, I'd be more worried if he was quiet or readily agreeing with Colonel Rhodes without the added stream of consciousness commentary. This is an anxious situation and he's out of his comfort zone, so to speak, without any defensive nanotechnology at his disposal."
"Nanotechnology?" Howard repeated. "What do you mean after so many years? Why is he even in the middle of that mess?"
"We tend to only fully find out these things after the incident is over," Coulson answered.
"Incident?" he barked in reply. "An incident is when someone causes a scene in a restaurant because their fillet was overcooked. Trust me. I've flew a civilian plane across enemy lines through anti-aircraft fire during a war. I know what I'm talking about when I say that sounds like a battle in there. My son has no business being in the middle of that. He's is an engineer and a physicist, not a soldier!"
Looks of discomfort and confusion bounced among the people in the room, but all stopped as they eventually looked to Fury, who remained stone-faced and did not acknowledge the comment. Hope, however, was not under the man's command so she offered the thought that was on everyone's mind.
"He may be The Consultant, but he's also Iron Man… or he was," Hope offered. "I don't think you can really retire from something like that fully."
Howard's brows pinched together and his nose wrinkled in confusion as he looked at her with bewilderment. In the meantime, Coulson continued to explain.
"This is a serious situation, sir, but it's not out of control," he said sagely. "When he and Colonel Rhodes team up like this, they never seem to have what could be called a predetermined strategy other than 'don't get killed', as you heard them discuss moments ago. Historically speaking, they make up their plans as they go along which has proven quite successful."
"Historically successful?" Howard gaped. "They've done this before?"
"Not precisely this, but near enough," Coulson nodded as sounds of the men moving among the wreckage of the room crackled over the line followed by more pained babbling from Wanda.
Fury sighed and looked at his former boss with frustration and pity, knowing most of the man's confusion was on some level his fault for keeping the man in the dark since his arrival.
"This is what they do," Fury said. "They're like SHIELD Agents, but with other skills than spying. They're Avengers, Howard, the world's mightiest heroes."
"Heroes?" Howard scoffed then felt several pairs of surprised eyes focus on him. "Not Tony. Sure, he can to write a program for a guidance system or target a laser, but he doesn't know how to fight or actually use a weapon himself."
Fury sighed and simply shook his head rather than give a greater explanation. He reasoned that Howard, who worked behind the scenes at the SSR and later SHIELD, wouldn't understand how someone with Tony's level of financial privilege would step up to the front lines. Even Fury himself still puzzled on that occasionally. Yes, the man's kidnapping set him on a course, but it did remain something of an appreciated and unexpected quirk of history that the man continued on that path. There were various layers to his personality, intertwined threads of adrenaline junkie and a tonnage of guilt mixed in with a savior complex that grew out of the heartache from a lonely childhood and losing his parents. Despite his public proclamation of seeking counseling for the psychological damage life inflicted upon him, the man still occasionally consulted with the organization (albeit it at times under pressure).
"He's The Consultant that was mentioned earlier?" Howard scoffed and shook his head. "He's an academic! How can he know enough about… any of this to be a worthwhile consultant?"
"He left active duty, but he's remains on-call to assist us," Coulson said. "Mr. Stark, I'm certain this is distressing for you, but he's not alone in there. Colonel Rhodes is one of our most capable operatives and the one who always paired most seamlessly with your son. They know each other so well they can nearly read the other's mind. That's a helpful tool strategically."
Howard blinked and huffed his shock and disbelief, but the stony looks on the faces around him let him know he was the only one experiencing incredulity. Still, he didn't feel like he could let this moment slide without a comment on its sagacity.
"That's great that you think they play well together," he growled. "What I'm hearing is two grown men acting like children squabbling while an off-her-rocker woman with some repulsor type technology at her fingertips is destroying a room around them. This is somehow the better option that replaced SHIELD?"
Rather than answer his charge that the Avengers were not on par with SHIELD or that their mission and mandate was any less necessary or impressive, Coulson decided to fill in the man on what the men were facing.
"Miss Maximoff is one of our top operatives," he said. "She isn't toting a weapon. She is the weapon. She possesses telekinetic and psychokinetic abilities. Pop culture has dubbed her the Scarlet Witch. Frankly, I've always found her to be a pleasant personality, perhaps a bit depressed lately. This is the first time in many years that she's actually been homicidal."
"She's trying to kill my son as she tears apart your base," Howard pointed out then turned to Fury. "Nick, you allow this kind of insanity? You can't even stop those two fools from…whatever the hell it is they're doing."
"If anyone can explain to me a functional means to prevent it, I'll listen," Fury replied flatly.
"Their unorthodox process has proven to be a successful operating procedure for many years," Coulson insisted. "To their credit, neither of them ever indicate that their methods or solutions were good or wise endeavors after the fact."
As they spoke, the onsite commander stated that Thor's efforts were continuing and appeared to be putting cracks in the façade of the building. As that update arrived, Howard began rubbing his temples and trying hard not to think of the heart attack he felt was on the horizon as his ticker thumped double time against his sternum.
"I should have just let his mother push him into becoming a concert pianist," he muttered.
"Juilliard is better off because you didn't," Fury said. "The rest of the world is, too."
He then turned away and barked a question about a contraption someone on the base was allegedly developing that might be able to issue a neutralizing pulse to stop Wanda without inflicting a fatal wound to her. The response he got was not encouraging. The tool or weapon he requested was only prototype and the single model they possessed was in the server room undergoing a software transfer at the time the mad woman began tearing the room apart. Fury then called for other options from anyone in the room who had any. The replies were all shot down quickly for tactical reasons by a variety of people who Howard just scowled at once they destroyed the plans for action.
"We'll have to take her down with something more hands on and less technical, I suspect," Coulson offered.
"You don't have guns on this base?" Howard scoffed.
"Wouldn't do any good," Fury shook his head. "She can redirect the bullets."
That left Howard blinking and his jaw hanging loose. He had taken the telekinetic and psychokinetic statement earlier seriously. He'd spent so more years facing the more conventional aspects of Hydra's efforts that he'd forgotten there were unconventional powers in the world and sometimes monsters were real.
"Our best bet to neutralize her entirely is to blow up the lab," someone in the room offered. "Sir, we can have a missile targeted in 60 seconds."
Fury sighed and tilted head then pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't that will kill everyone in there?" he asked gruffly and received a nod in reply. The director scowled. "That's the only option you've got for me? Is it a full moon, people? My day started with the revelation that anything is possible because there are hooker penguins, but now you're all telling me we're out of options so all we've got is to kill some of my best people with warhead?"
The room fell silent as Fury fumed as he leaned menacingly over a computer screen. Howard looked up and lifted an eyebrow as he stared at the man.
"Hooker penguins?" Howard asked then winced as the likely source came to him. "Let me guess: your Consultant?"
"He shared some trivia that turned into a good argument for continuing his work," Fury replied as the sounds from the computer core remained hushed in an eerie and unsettling way. "I've become an expert in the language of Stark Speak."
"Colonel Rhodes, it's been fairly quiet?" Coulson asked as he redirected his attention to the call. "Are you making progress?"
"Working on it," he coughing. "The air is getting a little heavy in here."
"There is an overhead conduit in that room that might allow you passage into the hallway," Coulson reported as a technician flashed base schematics onto the screen in front of him. "I don't know if there's an egress from the building from there, but it gets you out of Miss Maximoff's immediate vicinity. Have you been able to bypass the lock?"
"This wiring is pathetic," Tony noted as he too coughed. "Morgan could construct a better circuit in her sleep using a battery, tinfoil, and paperclips."
"Can you bypass it?" Coulson prodded.
"Your lack of faith is hurtful and offensive," Tony chided. "I could get past a more sophisticated security system than this when I was nine."
"School or house alarm?" Rhodes wondered.
"Neither, the garage at the Glen Cove house," Tony replied sounding both pleased and like he was concentrating deeply. "My father kept his antique cars locked up, but they were fun to take apart so…"
"So you did," Rhodes said flatly.
"Poor Jarvis—the original one," Tony said with a hint of amusement in his strained voice. "He caught me, but he covered for me because adored me." He paused then exhaled with relief. "Yay, we're in. Coulson, you owe me an apology for your doubt."
Howard looked up from his slumping seat as his jaw tensed and the worry on his face was replaced instantly with a sharper emotion. It was one thing for child-Tony to break into an area he was expressly forbidden to enter, but roping Howard's private butler into the scheme, getting the trusted man to cover it up for him, then bragging about it years later was not something Howard found humorous.
"I paid that man's salary," Howard said sharply, his voice getting caught over the line and carrying through to Rhodes's speaker clearly.
"What was that?" Rhodes asked. "We didn't hear you clearly."
"Nothing," Coulson asked quickly then hit mute as Fury glared at Howard so that the man sank back into his seat although there was less defeat in his shoulders as he folded his arms. "Where is Miss Maximoff?"
"It's a little smoky in here and out there," Rhodes muffled his coughed. "I can't really see her well. Okay, where's the conduit… Damn it!"
He described what he saw as his hope for escape evaporated. The grate over the opening in the ceiling that let cables enter the room was large enough to crawl through, but doing so would be impossible. Despite the ignition of the emergency lights signaling that the security measures protecting the room (namely the laser grate over the overhead conduit) were offline, certain measures guarding the room were tapped into a secondary power source. The smoke from the room drifted into the closet and reflected on laser beams crisscrossing the space over their heads cutting off the only accessible way out of the room.
oOoOo