TONY STARK
The day had started as it would usually, with Morgan running into their room to wake them up, after which she was off towards Nela's room. By the time Pepper and he would enter the dining room, the little girl would have dragged a grumbling Nela and Virgil to the table. After breakfast and a discussion among them, Friday and other AIs, and anyone else that had stayed at night before, they would leave for their work. It usually meant SI for Pepper and Virgil, the lab for him, Bruce and Betty, and Nela, Morgan, and Laura towards their homeschooling classes accompanied by Logan and Ben Parker, who would arrive by that time. The first divergence occurred when Pepper asked him to accompany her to a recently formed Research Department meeting since the department was his brainchild, filled with people who would either invent or find something new or be at the cusp of it in an unforeseeable future, Pepper wanted him to be connected to it in some way. Since the average age of the group was below 25, he invited Nela to accompany them too. Morgan also tagged along with them, always ready to run away from her classes.
Ben Parker escorted them; they were driven to the tower, which looked unusually busy this morning. An inquiry at the reception told him that the building was facing some power issues. He immediately checked with Jarvis and Tadashi, both of whom confirmed that the problem was with the wirings rather than the arc reactor. With the meeting scheduled to start in less than 5 minutes, he sent Ben to check up on the repair teams and headed to the meeting room, now accompanied by his old friend Happy. Taking a seat at the head of the table, he looked at the large group of young adults staring at him with awe and nervousness and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Relax, guys, you have already cleared the selection process—no need to be nervous now. Everyone sitting at the table is a talented person with a powerful mind. Since I am supposed to manage this department personally, let's start with introductions. I'll go first. My name is Tony Stark, Genius, Philanthropher, Iron Man. I can't live without coffee. I'll do the next one too. Her name is Morgan Stark, my daughter and bane of my sleep. She will kill you for pancakes." With that, the introduction started Nela going next, followed by Pepper, who also did Virgil's, then the new employees began with their introduction. He relaxed in his seat, not knowing that in a few minutes, his life would change, and not for the better.
The first explosion happened at the far side of the room, powerful enough to throw him from his seat. Muscle memory worked overtime to the right him, as his eyes fell on his family, only to see one of his longest-running nightmares. Something had connected with Pepper, throwing her and Morgan down to the floor. While his daughter was on her side, with no visible injuries and nanotech armor slowly crawling over her skin, his girlfriend lay still on her back. Pepper was unconscious, covered in dust and debris, a weeping cut to her temple and hairline. He was still frozen in shock when the right side of her blouse turned red. Two more explosions went off, throwing more debris around him as he pushed through the indecision in his thoughts and crawled towards Pepper. He noticed that his face was numb, and he couldn't see with one eye, but that mattered little to him. Checking Pepper's pulse, a wave of relief went through him. She was still breathing. She was still alive. She hadn't left him or their girls. Looking around, all he could see was smoke and dust. Cries of help and pain sounded from every direction, as did the screams. Though they sounded like they came from far away and were muffled, he could barely hear them. Suddenly, someone grabbed his shoulder and wrenching him around and making him flinch back. His hands came up like he was going to shoot his palm repulsor when he realizes who it is. The familiar face of Nela, even though it was coated with blood, relaxed him a little more. He wanted to tell her to take Pepper and Morgan away, but his mouth hurts to open, and he can't hear himself make a sound. Then, a movement behind her caught his attention. What he saw froze everything inside him.
The photo that FRIDAY had shown them of the Winter Soldier did not do justice to the real thing. Unlike the grainy image, where he looked like a fantasy killer, almost unreal, the real Winter Soldier was terrifying even for him. Especially, when he was raising a gun straight at Nela's head. Something inside Tony roared with anger at the sight, and his body moved without a thought. Grabbing a confused Nela with both arms, he flipped her around him, effectively using his body as cover. The shot sounded a second later, but instead of a bullet, a large mass hit and sprawled over him. He recognized the cologne Happy had been using for a long time but had not expected the sharp tang of iron mixed in. With Happy's weight pinning him and a concussion making it hard to focus, he could do nothing as Nela looked frozen in horror at something just past his and Happy's backs. He prayed for help from any deity out there, to stop the next shot and save his family because right now, all of them were sitting ducks. His prayers were answered in the next moment.
The deity that responded was not an ancient or even a religious one, but an artificial one created by either him or his alternate self. The sound of roaring repulsors was probably the sweetest sound that he had heard in his entire life. A mark five suit flew over them, crashing hard against what he assumed was the Winter Soldier. And a moment later, another suit landed next to them and lifted Happy from where he was physically protecting them. He checked up on his family once again before turning around. The order to take Pepper and Morgan away was on the tip of his tongue when his eyes fell on Happy's body. The sight of blood covering one of his oldest friends and the uncertainty of his condition proved to be too much. Blackness engulfed his senses as he succumbed to his injuries. The last thing he heard was Nela screaming.
FRIDAY.
The moment she detected a rapid increase of temperature in the room where Morgan was, her entire self went into hyperactive mode. Servers were freed up, her siblings were alerted, and a connection to every suit near to Morgan was initiated. By the time the blast wave hit Boss, Boss Lady, and Morgan, the spare mark five suits in the Penthouse had formed up and were flying downwards from the balcony, the rescue suit joining them midway. She also alerted the Manor's occupants, locking it down and pulling away six of the seven suits present. Another two smaller explosions happened in the room, blinding her of all audio and visual inputs. Tadashi started locking down the tower at her command, while EDITH and DIANA dispatched their owner's suits. Colonel Rhodes, who had been flying in a training exercise nearby, protested only long enough to hear that Boss was under attack. Then, he disobeyed direct orders from his commanding officer and sped towards the Stark Tower.
Something was interrupting her signal to Morgan's armor as it deployed slowly, but she was done playing nice and brute-forced her way through, the system finally activating as it should. Just as one of the mark five broke through the meeting room window, she saw the Winter Soldier shoot Mr. Hogan, in his torso as he placed his body between the danger and the Stark family. The bodyguard's crumpled backward, falling unconscious from the bullet's impact, hitting Boss and covering them up. Instead of using the suit's weapons, she directed one to hit the assassin with all the speed it could muster, hoping to throw it far enough. The tactic worked, but the metal arm's impact jarred something inside the suit's visual display rendering it sightless. She then directed the second suit, that had been helping Boss and others advance on the downed assassin, while the Rescue suit took its place. She had just pulled the unconscious form of Boss to a side when an alert from the mark five came in. The assassin had recovered and was beating the suit down. Nela had seen it too because she shook her head and moved in front of the rescue suit.
"Friday, open up." the young woman commanded. Anger and fear leaching into Nela's voice.
She immediately computed what Nela was going to try to do and came to an answer a few milliseconds later. Nela build was close enough to Boss Lady to pilot the rescue suit. And letting Nela pilot would allow her to focus instead on the others. So she opened the suit for the elder Stark daughter and passed its controls to DIANA, who was more efficient with Nela in a fight. Virgil, who had a gun and stun baton in his hands, stepped up next to the suit. He leaned slightly on his right leg showing an injury to his left but more than willing to stand at Nela's side. Both of them advancing at the assassin as one.
Leaving the two-dimension travelers to deal with the Winter Soldier, she focused on her attention on other people inside the room. The smoke that had engulfed the room was leaking out from the broken window, clearing up the sight. She scanned the room for wounded or alive people but did not find any. The side of the room where employees were sitting had been obliterated, dismembered bodies lying all around. A wall separating the hall from the corridor had fallen inside, probably over the people sitting there and keeping them alive. But there was nothing she could do for them right now. One hundred forty-three seconds later, Colonel Rhodes's suit entered from the broken window. Since EDITH was commanding the suit, it turned straight towards the Winter Soldier after looking around the room. The battered forms of mark five and Virgil stepped back, leaving the War Machine and Rescue armor to deal with the assassin. FRIDAY. Virgil checked up on the Starks while she was finally able to direct the mark five to open up the room's blocked doorway. When the large piece of rubble was removed, several people rushed inside. The person at the front was who FRIDAY needed right now. She connected to his earbuds immediately.
"Mr. Parker, please evacuate Boss, Boss lady, Morgan, and Mr. Hogan immediately. All three adults are wounded. Boss Lady and Mr. Hogan were shot, while Boss had multiple shrapnel wounds."
Ben Parker did not ask any question to his credit, directing the guards entering the room to evacuate the four FRIDAY had mentioned. By the time they did it, Colonel Rhodes had managed to subdue the assassin by firing a low powered explosive round straight at the metal arm. The Winter Soldier was flung off, hitting the wall behind him again, but did not move this time. The blast, while not affecting the heavy Warmachine suit much, hit the damaged Rescue suit hard. It fell down, disabled and unmoving. Fortunately, Nela, who exited it a moment later, did not look too harmed. FRIDAY directed the mark five suit to move to the infirmary with the SI security taking over the situation's command.
She also pinged May Parker, who was staying on one of the floors above, as the doctors and nurses in the tower infirmary were unknown to her. Penny's aunt responded immediately, answering that she was moving towards the infirmary. Then, she checked upon Morgan. Her sister was crying heavily inside the closed armor and did not look like she had been harmed in any physical way. FRIDAY wanted to get her away from the tower, but there was no one who she could leave Morgan with. Logan was still a stranger, and FRIDAY didn't trust him enough, not so soon after an attack. With Dr. Banner and Ms. Ross with Logan, there was only one option that could guarantee Morgan's safety. A call went out to Ms. Romanova's and Mr. Barton's cell phones simultaneously. The two agents, who were enjoying some time off with Mr. Barton's family at his new farm near the city, responded as she had hoped. Four of the six nanite suits diverted midway from their journey to the tower while Ben Park entered the Mark five suit at her command. Informing Colonel Rhodes of her decision and leaving him in control of the situation, she attached the Mark five suit to Morgan's armor and lifted off towards Barton's farm.
It took the damaged suit fourteen minutes to reach the farm, where Ms. Romanova and Mr. Barton me it outside the house. While Ms. Romanova took a sniffling Morgan in her arms and Ben Parker explained them everything, she directed the incoming nanite suits. Three of them were placed around the house, while one broke down and slipped inside the house, storing all the nanites under the dining table.
Back at the tower, May Parker was done with the essential diagnosis of Boss, Boss lady, Nela, Mr. Hogan, and Virgil. While Nela and Virgil had only superficial wounds, Boss, Boss Lady, and Mr. Hogan's injuries were quite severe. Boss had suffered a blow to the head, while a bullet had passed clean through Boss Lady's shoulder. Mr. Hogan had also sustained a bullet wound, but it had not exited his body. All three of them were being shifted to a hospital by ambulance. She alerted Dr. Banner and Ms. Ross about it, and soon both of them were on the way to the Hospital.
On Colonel Rhodes's request, the Warmachine armor engulfed the unconscious Winter Soldier, taking it away to a cell in the Manor, designed to restrain a super-soldier. Since neither of them wanted to leave him at a place where HYDRA might be able to reach, all government holding sites were discarded as an option. She asked JARVIS, Virgil, and TADASHI to ensure that none of the guards or other employees who saw the assassin, speak to anyone about it. Thankfully he lived up to his ghost reputation, so only the rescue team had seen the assassin before FRIDAY, and EDITH had him underway.
While her knee jerk reaction was to destroy HYDRA, and due to its nature, most of the SHIELD, FRIDAY, held off. Knowing she would need to justify any response to the incident, she needed more knowledge. While it was somewhat frustrating to have to explain her actions, she also understood the need for it. She understood why her freedom scared Boss when she started to really look into what she couldn't do at this time and quickly realized that there was nothing. She decided to set her own limits and lines, and one of them was explaining why she was doing something. It meant that sometimes she couldn't act on information right away, but it made things smoother between her and both Boss and Boss Lady. She started collecting information while waiting for the ambulance's arrival at the Hospital. After all, someone would pay for this. She just had to make sure it was the right people she burned.