I'm so happy to publish this chapter! I'm so sorry, I know it's been a week since the last one, but it should be even better than the others!
gammathetaalpha, thank you so much for kindly editing the whole chapter! I don't know what I would have done without your help!
Thanks to CupcakeCookie21, Pandora Finesilver, leezee, BurningRosethorn, find true strength, FanGirlForever19, Cscorey, Agent blue rose, everHermione and sappjody for adding this story to their alert and/or favorite list!
And, once again, thanks to gammathetaaplha, Ikia and sonicxjones for their reviews! I loved reading them!
Enjoy!
-000-
Maybe being a Stark didn't have that many advantages. That was a thought beginning to cross Tony's mind.
He had admit his plan could be regarded as a suicide. It wasn't that surprising in itself, because most of the ideas he came up with when he was trying not to die were generally belonging, in a quite paradoxical way, in the category of stupid ideas that shouldn't be reproduced at home.
It was mostly a race against the clock, as well as a giant and possibly deadly game of hide-and-seek. He couldn't afford to fail, after all.
In order to execute his plan, he had to go to the chemistry laboratory, which was on the ground floor, which was where the assailants were actually looking for him. Fortunately for him, there were several staircases in the compound, one of which led to the room he had to go to. This was the main reason he had chosen that specific laboratory. He could go in there, take what he needed to take, while still being able to make a break for it if there was an issue.
But the mechanic still wanted to complete the preparations of the gym room he was hiding before he ran out of time. He had already firmly tied a few ropes together, which gave him a solid length of about seventeen feet. It would probably be enough for him to escape, considering the fact he was on the second floor.
The dilemma he now had was making him hesitate between putting the gigantic rope in place immediately or not. If he did it right away, namely, if he hung the rope to throw most of it by the bay window he would have to open, he was taking the risk of getting detected, either by the men inside or the drivers. After all, they may be in possession of binoculars they were using to observe the building, and thus may be able to give more information to their accomplices.
The problem was that if he waited to accomplish his "little" diversion, he wasn't sure whether he was going to have enough time to set everything up. Tony supposed it wouldn't take too much time to prepare, but he would still greatly appreciate a smooth landing, instead of falling down on the ground because he had made a miscalculation. Moreover, the least second was extremely precious to him, and he couldn't afford to waste any.
Still, everything would have been way easier if he had been able to call his armor back, if he had to be sure to escape before the intruders' arrival, but, without electricity, it would have been difficult anyway. Once this case was finally taken care of, the genius would make a point of creating an offline connection between his armor and himself, without needing the help of F.R.I.D.A.Y. He would discover the secrets of telepathy, if that was the only way to do it.
Oh, and after all, screw the second solution, Tony thought, irritated. He was lucky to still be relatively calm (relatively being the key word), so it was probably for the best if he set everything up while he still could. If someone were to enter this room and remove his emergency exit by getting rid of the rope, which would be quite irksome, he could still think about a plan B, then a plan C, and if he really had to, even a plan D while he progressed towards the laboratory and the other rooms.
He fixed the rope in the hooks he had put on the ceiling, then opened a part of the large window, and threw the other end of the rope out. Having kept the thermal detection glasses on his nose, he could, at the same time, watch out for his foes' movements. Tony couldn't run the risk of being taken by surprise because he'd taken them off, even with the intention of doing so only for a few moments. He simply had to lower his head slightly and look above his glasses, like he often did when it was a normal pair of sunglasses.
He heart rate increased when he spotted one of the men going up a stairwell, but luckily, the silhouette he could perceive through his glasses was still faraway off, on the other side of the floor. Nonetheless, he had to hurry before the others also rejoined their colleague.
Tony saw three of them by his personal garage, who didn't seem likely to move any time soon. It was definitely too late for a little road trip in one of his convertible cars.
The inventor put the backpack he had stowed his stuff in on his shoulders, and left the training room with precaution, going to the west and hoping with all his being that the others wouldn't decide to go in his direction first. Otherwise, there was a great risk of his plan failing. Tony wouldn't let that happen if he could prevent it.
His lucky star seemed to actually listen to him for once, because he had a clear field when he arrived at the stairs.
He went down, taking care to be as swift and silent as possible. He rushed to the chemistry lab, avoiding the trap at its entry. The booby-trap was a tripwire that if moved when someone pushed on it carelessly, while walking for example, activated a foghorn. He couldn't exactly afford to get detected right now.
He progressed deeper in the storeroom and discovered, with no small amount of pleasure, what he was looking for. Wonderful quantities of pure and solid potassium, hermetically stocked in bottles filled with mineral oil.
"Hey, you," he mumbled with a grin.
He stowed two bottles in his bag. He was about to leave the room, when he noticed liquid chlorine and alcohol, hopefully separated, which gave him another awesome idea. He took one of each.
He now had to sneak off into the northernmost living room on the second floor, the same floor the gym was on. That area had two access points, one of which leaded to another staircase which would be useful for his diversion.
Another detail that had helped Tony choose this living room in particular was the water cylinder, which was set off when the fire alarm went off, that was in it. Once again, the odds were in his favor (no, actually, it wasn't luck, but rather another bright idea from him, he didn't have time to be modest), because the fire alarm didn't need a power source to be operational. They were working in completely autonomous, and the water temperature was even adjustable. As a result, it functioned perfectly, despite the fact that the main generator was out of order.
His thoughts were interrupted by the ruckus a foghorn caused, the one in the broom closet, at a distance of about ninety-eight and a half feet from where he was. The genius took advantage of the noisy distraction to dash to the staircase before he could get detected. He climbed the stairs carefully, painfully aware that he wouldn't get a second chance, but fortunately his aggressors had not located him yet. Now, there were five of them on the first floor, four on the second, two were already on the third floor and the others were still on the ground floor. He grimaced when he noticed one intruder was not far from the training room he was planning to escape from.
Another foghorn blared, one of the first floor that sounded close to the stairs. Tony held his breath, and stopped dead in his tracks when one of the men (with a stocky silhouette like his, this was definitely a man) moved towards him, heading down to the ground floor whereas the billionaire was still in the stairwell. He heard a raspy voice, and took his tranquilizer gun in his hand, his heart pounding dangerously in his rib cage.
"No, Stark hadn't been spotted yet. I'm getting back to the ground floor. Some of my men are guarding the weapons storeroom and the garage. No, without electricity, he couldn't have gotten away anyway. This coward must be hiding while waiting for his armor's return. I'll keep you updated. Over."
The mechanic forced himself to wait for the stranger to get to the little platform between the two floors to pounce on him and shoot him three times. His gun had the advantage of being almost entirely silent. The man groaned in surprise but he didn't have the time to defend himself, and he collapsed almost soundlessly to the ground, thanks to the strong sedatives he had just received against his will. Tony searched him quickly, not really wanting to spend too much time on figuring out his identity, and found two weapons, namely two guns, loaded with anesthetics. Which meant they wanted him alive; or, at least, that they needed to bring him alive to their boss.
Huffing loudly, the inventor tied the unconscious mercenary's hands together (well, he assumed the man was one) and got to the second floor. Another man was in his path, in a hallway he was obligated to go by if he didn't want to take too much time reaching the living room. A detour would have been dangerous, anyway. He progressed slowly, his weapon still in hand, loaded and ready to fire. Tony peered past the wall hiding him from the intruder, and watched above his improved glasses to observe the long way he had to go through. The man was turning his back to him, and was walking into one of the rooms in front of him. The engineer hardly managed to keep himself from snickering when he realized it was another training room that the one he wanted to use, but which was also trapped.
The thug didn't notice the trip wire he pushed with his left leg as he entered the room. Neither did he see the screw the moving thread unhooked, nor the wooden plank already oscillating above the room's entrance, only keeping balance thanks to this screw, nor the rope bound to it, nor what this rope was holding unsteadily.
Tony, however, perfectly saw the weight of about forty-four pounds falling down gracefully on the villain's head. He almost pitied him. A groan reached his ears, and, after having checked nobody was coming close, he moved to the body laid out on the ground, raising an eyebrow in an impressed grimace when he observed that the other wasn't totally unconscious,though quite groggy. He had to admit that this guy was tough.
Tony resumed his fast, but prudent dash, and finally reached the living room he wanted. He once again avoided the trap at the entrance of the room, which, that time, was of an entirely different kind, and pushed with all his strength to move a sofa, thus giving access to the alcove sheltering the water cylinder for the fire alarm. He twisted the optical encoder to rise the temperature of the water, to make it warm but not boiling hot. He took out of his backpack the two bottles of potassium, a lighter and a smoke bomb he had crafted in haste with ping-pong balls and tin foil.
He was about to put all this equipment on a table when he saw, through his thermal detection glasses, three silhouettes were approaching dangerously quickly. Swearing loudly, he set the smoke bomb on fire, and rushed behind the sofa to hide himself. The smoke emerging in the room sounded the fire alarm, making the now warm water rain heavily in the room. He hid his hands and the bottles under his jackets so he could keep them dry.
"I know you're here, Stark!" a voice exclaimed.
The genius stooped to have a sneak peek under the piece of furniture that he was using as a shield and discerned, despite the pouring buckets of water and the smoke, three men running in his direction. Because the corridors and the door frames were large enough, they were approaching side to side. Certain they had the advantage, they raced towards him confidently.
And tripped over the colorless plastic film hung (with love, he should mention) in the lower half of the embrasure. Tony thought that, if he had just signed his own death warrant because of this, then his last moments had been particularly hilarious.
The water had quickly stopped the smoke bomb, and stopped pouring just after the three men's fall, with perfect timing. When the water ceased pouring from the ceiling, he took the two blocks of pure potassium out of their bottles, and listened attentively the noises coming out from the other side of the sofa. The mechanic heard annoyed grumbles, and even more irritated voices.
"Stark is on the second floor, the northernmost room!"
"He used plastic film? He's taking us for-"
"I'm going to show this blockhead-"
The idiot in question didn't give them the time to insult him much longer, and threw at them the two chunks of metal, before dashing to the outside of the room by the other entrance, the one that would lead him to the staircase. He didn't bother to turn around to admire the explosion that occurred behind his back. It was far from being powerful enough to transform the living room into a gigantic ash heap, but was enough to knock out the foes in proximity.
The engineer ran as fast as he could to the stairs, climbing the steps four by four, and stopped just in time to hide himself from the sight of a man coming from the third floor. He taking him by surprise and knocked him out. Not bothering to tie his hands together, Tony resumed his hasty walking as soon as he saw his enemy collapse. Through his glasses, he could observe all the intruders going to the newly flooded living room, where their accomplices had alerted them. Even the ones who were previously guarding the garage were joining the others. Counting them quickly, the inventor enumerated eight individuals, so he had rendered six of them harmless… He guessed that, in the end, he wasn't too bad for a coward.
Tony covered the whole third floor without stopping once, and turned around, rummaging again in his bag as he kept an eye on how the situation was evolving. The eight undesirables had spent a few moments together in the same room before going to the stairs and dividing themselves in two groups, one going up and the other going down. Improvising once more a chemist career, the mechanic took the alcohol bottle, that he spilled on the ground in front of him, a bottle of liquid chlorine he put on the floor, and his lighter and small explosives. He set the long strings of the latter on fire, pushing them toward the chlorine and began running again, while his assailants barged on to the third floor and noticed him.
The aspiring mad genius heard outraged shouts, a first explosion caused by the explosives, a second one this time provoked by the reaction between the chlorine and the alcohol, and after that, screams that were considerably less furious and substantially more surprised. Maybe a bit pained, too. But, in all honesty, he couldn't bring himself to care. These idiots were asking for it.
All hail science and explosions.
He reached another staircase and rushed down to the second floor, where he happily observed that there weren't any (conscious) intruders. He looked up. Only two out of the four men were still moving, and yet, they were way slower, probably disoriented.
Tony let a victorious grin take place on his face as he finally headed for the training room. A successful diversion, explosions and science. Maybe in the end, his day wasn't as terrible as he had thought with certainty at first. Yes, there were the intruders, his artificial intelligence out of service and the reparations he would have to pay for the compound, which he had transformed into a giant chemistry laboratory, but a little satisfaction after a properly handled experiment never had harmed anyone.
Sliding carefully into the training room, which was also trapped with weights, he hummed in appreciation when he noticed everything had stayed in place. After having given his surroundings a quick look to check if anybody was coming, he rappelled down and let a relieved sigh escape from his lips when his feet touched the asphalted ground of the outside.
Scanning his environment with his eyes, and taking his tranquilizer gun in hand, he frowned when he perceived drones flying above him. He hadn't spotted them with his thermal detection glasses. What irked him the most was the fact that one of the drones shot him without even giving him enough time to seek cover. He ogled at the anesthetic syringe that had just nestled in his right shoulder. He tried to grumble, "C'mon, tell me I'm dreaming."
His words sounded more like a whine though, and he staggered, his body colliding with the floor. His vision darkened. Tony closed his eyes.
000
"What… what do you mean? He's in danger?" Peter asked in a toneless voice.
He had the feeling his breath had been stopped by panic. The hand that was holding his phone to his ear began to shake, and he had to stabilize it with his other arm to prevent his mobile phone from falling to the ground as he waited for the doctor's answer. From the corner of his eyes, he distinguished Ned and Michelle, whose curious expression had changed into another, more worried this time.
"Someone used his voice to make everyone leave the compound and thus isolate him. If I understood correctly, F.R.I.D.A.Y was also hacked and won't answer anymore," Helen explained.
"But how… how could someone hack F.R.I.D.A.Y? I mean, it is Mister Stark's artificial intelligence! She is super smart!"
"I have no idea. That's what's worrying me the most. I can't call Stark, either. Did you hear from him recently?"
"He called me," the teenager declared, trying to keep his voice low and be discreet. "It was… an hour and a half ago, I think. He asked me if I really was on a field trip today. I thought it was weird, but I didn't pay more attention to it. Maybe I should have."
"It wouldn't have changed anything, Peter. But you said he called you."
"Yeah. Why, is it important?"
"I think that if someone was able to hack F.R.I.D.A.Y, then this person was also probably spying on Tony. And, if this is the case…
"That someone could know."
"About you, yes. You need to be careful. Where are you at the present time?"
"At the Bronx zoo. Did you warn somebody else?"
"I already warned the three other people Stark trust the most, Ms. Potts, Colonel Rhodes and Mister Hogan. By the way, I asked him to get you. We have other secured bases not far from here, you'll be safe there."
"Wait," the boy intervened quickly. "Please, I'd rather prefer you pick up my aunt May to take her to your base. She's probably in danger, too. I'll join you by myself, you just have to give me the address."
"You're right. Sorry for not having thought of that sooner. Will you be fine finding us alone?"
"I'll have Karen guide me if I need to, don't worry."
He paused, his brain boiling as he tried to think about anything he could do to help them save his mentor.
"But," he suggested with hesitation, "couldn't we attempt to go to the compound? He may need our help, don't you think so?"
"I'm going to be honest with you, that kind of attack can be extremely fast. With the time we'll need to get there, it will doubtlessly be too late by the moment we arrive."
"Mister Stark will fight back, he's not going to let himself be pushed around."
"I know, that's not what I wanted to say. Tell yourself that if the people assaulting Stark could get rid of one of his best creations, they also plausibly took control of the other machines in the compound. Maybe they even managed to take control of the Iron Man armor. Either Tony managed to escape and by now he should going to one of our safe houses, or… or that's not the case. If we go while the enemies are still there, it could be dangerous for us, too. For instance, if you go and get captured, they'll have another means of pressuring Stark. We can't afford to rush headlong into a possible trap, do you understand?"
"Yes, of course. I'm so sorry, it's just that.." Peter trailed, not sure of how to end his phrase.
"You're worried. I know, we all are. But we'll plan something, and we'll get Tony out of the trouble he's in. Join us as soon as possible at the place I'll tell you to go, alright? I'll ask Happy to go get your aunt."
"Got it. Thank you."
He memorized the address, and stowed his phone in his pocket, before turning to his friends. He was finding it hard to breathe, and the look the two others were giving him certainly didn't help him calming down. Biting his lip, he explained nervously, "I have to… I have to go. It's really important."
He wasn't worried about Ned, the latter seemed to have understood his best friend was going to change into his alter ego for an apparently crucial mission, concerning their hero. No, what he feared was Michelle's reaction. He knew it was unwise of him to talk about something that important and secret in front of her, when she could listen to what he was saying, but there was a man's life he cared deeply for at stake, and he didn't have the time to get away or to talk alone. The young woman was silently gauging him, and kept on doing this for several seconds, seconds that were awfully long to Peter.
"Try not to die," she finally answered with a huff. "We got a presentation to do, and I definitely intend to get a good mark."
He shook his head almost violently, articulating a "thank you" with difficulty, before dashing towards the nearest zoo exit. He had probably never run that fast before in his life, and concentrated on ignoring his classmates' intrigued gazes as he ran past them.
He continued to race for a couple of minutes before managing to find a deserted alley, rushing inside to put his suit on.
"Hey, Karen," the boy greeted when his heard his artificial intelligence's voice, "I need your help. Could you guide me to this address?"
"Of course, Peter."
He soared in the air with his webs and gave Karen the location where Dr. Cho wanted him to go to. As he swung above the busy streets of Bronx, Karen informed him that he would take a few dozens minutes before reaching his goal. The teenager decided to sum up what he understood about the events occurring for her.
"Someone decided to target Mister Stark, and apparently F.R.I.D.A.Y was hacked and she won't answer anymore. Could you try to contact her, Karen?"
"I have attempted, and I have not received any reply of any kind. Moreover, no communication with the compound seems to be possible. Everything appears to be broken."
"Does it mean that F.R.I.D.A.Y was… was destroyed?"
"An emergency protocol exists for Mister Stark's artificial intelligence. However, I don't know anything more about this subject."
"Could you try to find out something about this? There could be something like an emergency network for her, don't you think?"
"This could absolutely be a practicable solution. I am now looking for safe networks. Yet, I may not be able to have access to some of them. I have restrictions in relation with the Training Wheels protocol."
Peter groaned, ranting once again about how unfair this protocol was, and how much trouble it had cause him.
"Wouldn't there be a way for you to deactivate it entirely, even temporarily? I know a part of the restrictions were removed thanks to Ned, but… It's really important, Karen. Mister Stark is surely in great danger. It could save his life if we managed to find F.R.I.D.A.Y."
"I do not possess the required qualifications to deactivate the protocol by myself, Peter. I am, however, going to do my best to make myself useful. I found two extremely secured networks that are hard to detect. My data base, programmed by Mister Stark, permitted the discovery to the access, meaning these networks are almost entirely undetectable to strangers."
"Great! Can you connect yourself to them?"
"I can't. A large number of passwords are preventing me from accessing them."
"And… I suppose it's so well guarded it's not even worth trying to hack into them, right?"
"Indeed."
"Let's do it anyway."
"I'm on it."
Karen became silent, and a few minutes later, the teenager reached the base… a base that looked like a laundromat. He stopped in front of the entrance, hesitating to get inside in his suit. But he didn't have the time to ponder the question too much, because Helen exited the building and greeted him with a tired smile.
"Good morning, Spider-Man. Believe me, I would have preferred that we could have met under better circumstances. Let's go inside."
He followed her to the back room (he didn't know a laundromat needed one) and barely refrained himself from gaping in awe, when he saw her push a few buttons on an electric panel, which opened a hidden door. Cho smiled at him.
"After you."
He entered a staircase and descended quickly, almost flying past the forty steps. The super hero reached a vast basement, equipped with quite modern technologies, like the ones at the compound.
"Peter, I still can't connect myself to the network but I'm detecting activity in one of them," Karen suddenly announced. "Rectification. One of them granted me access."
The young man's heart jumped in his chest, swelling with hope.
"Dr. Cho, could you lend me a computer? Karen may have found something useful!"
She instantly guided him towards a small room with an impressive computer, looking interested by the artificial intelligence's potential discovery.
"You can use this, Karen," the doctor said. "Please, show us what you have found."
"Right away, Doctor," the android's feminine voice answered, already connecting to the machine and loudspeaker.
The immense, holographic screen lit up, and a multitude of data popped up. Peter had to admit that Ned would probably have understood more things than him, being way better than him in computer science. Yet, he could still distinguish some details
"So, now, you have access to one of the networks, Karen?" He asked.
"That is correct. Something, or someone, allowed it. Do you want me to connect myself? I do not know what this network contains or protects."
"We'd better try, anyway," Helen intervened. "If Stark made it so secure, there must be a reason. In any case, we can't lose anything more by trying."
"Alright. Connecting mode activated."
A handful of seconds lapsed, during which the two humans held their breath.
"Connection authorized. Good morning, Doctor Cho, Mr. Parker and Karen. It is nice to see you again." a robotic voice that wasn't Karen's formulated.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y!" Peter exclaimed, overjoyed. "You're here!"
"Indeed, Mister Parker. Mister Stark managed to reorient my system on this network, created for an emergency like this one. I was protected from the hacks that damaged my data base. I could thus fix the integrity of my system, and I am now functional again."
"What happened, F.R.I.D.A.Y? What happened to Mister Stark?"
"We suffered from the attacks of a hacker earlier in the morning. The technology that permitted this was extremely advanced. It is highly possible that it could come from Wakanda, because it is very similar to the Wakandan technology. I didn't manage to detect the hacks in time. If Sir hadn't forced my system to be redirected to this channel, I wouldn't have been able to prevent my destruction. Also, I am not able to access the compound's networks."
"Wakandan technology…" Helen repeated, amazed. "It is exceptionally developed, and difficult to match. That is indeed a perfectly logical explanation."
They were interrupted by the arrival of Ms. Potts, Happy and May. The latter threw herself on her nephew and hugged him tight, while the two other adults greeted him with a forced smile, too worried to be able to be genuinely happy to see him again. Peter removed his mask, and his taunt asked him, "Are you okay? Mister Hogan told me about what happened to Stark."
"I'm fine, May," the boy reassured her. "Hi, Happy and Ms. Potts."
"Hey there, Peter," the CEO of Stark Industries answered softly, while Happy waved at him. "Please, call me Pepper. Rhodey should be arriving soon, Helen."
"Someone definitely wanted to lure Sir into a trap," the billionaire's artificial intelligence added. "The Mark 47 was sent to investigate, but the connection was lost. I am attempting to regain control over it. Data was registered on another network."
"The second one," Peter guessed.
"Exactly. Here is what it protected."
Files were displayed on the screen. There were several videos, data that the teenager didn't understand, as well as a picture… of him.
"What is it?"
"This picture was sent this morning, asking Sir to go to the indicated address. We have however determined there were high probabilities that a person disguised themselves as Spider-Man and, with the help of an accomplice, faked their capture to pressure Mr. Stark, who called you so he could check if nothing had happened to you, Mr. Parker."
"So, instead, you sent the armor to have a look at the place?" the boy supposed, ignoring the weird feeling in his stomach and avoiding to look his aunt in the eye.
"Absolutely. Videos were recorded by the Mark 47, but they didn't reveal anything. Moreover, because of the brutally interrupted communication, I cannot receive data anymore. New files were added, however, after my system was shut down. These are videos, recorded by Sir's personal and mobile cameras. They are monitoring in real-time what's happening at the compound. Here they are."
The screen, fortunately big enough, divided itself in about thirty boxes, on which the videos appeared. It looked like they were only pictures, because nothing was moving. On some cameras, messy rooms could be seen, as if a hurricane had ravaged all the furniture in its path. There was nobody, but a room was flooded, there were burn marks on some walls, and, in a gym room Peter recognized as the one he often trained in, a rope hung on the ceiling and dangled outside an open window.
"Maybe he managed to get away," the young man said.
"At any rate, he made life tough for them. I'm certain he played with explosives again," the doctor commented. "F.R.I.D.A.Y, could you rewind the videos? So we can see what happened before?"
"Right away, Doctor."
All the videos were rewinded back an hour, and this time, things were quite different on the screens. Numerous armed men, scattered over inside of the compound, seemed to be looking for something- or rather someone- and nobody had illusions about the identity of this "someone".
"Stark's here," Helen said, pointing at one of the screens with her finger.
He was, at this moment, in the same living room Peter had seen flooded, and he wondered what could have happened, even if he suspected he was going to get an answer very soon. His mentor, who was wearing glasses he had never seen before, was rummaging through a backpack, getting two bottles, a weird object in aluminum and what appeared to be a lighter. The mechanic stiffened, sweared crudely, and set the strange aluminum-made thing on fire, before taking shelter behind a large sofa. The unusual object suddenly released grayish clouds of smoke, which activated the fire alarm. Water began to pour from the ceiling.
"I know you're here, Stark!" a voice exclaimed.
Three silhouettes appeared in the field of view of the camera, but, as they were about to barge into the same room the engineer was currently hiding in, still behind the piece of furniture, the three of them simultaneously tripped on something invisible, and took a nosedive. Outraged groans could be heard, and, at the same time, water stopped raining down, only leaving a giant puddle as large as the room.
"Stark is on the second floor, the northernmost room!"
"He used plastic film? He's taking us for-"
"I'm going to show this blockhead-"
But they never finished their sentences, because the inventor threw at their feet two metallic blocks, and rushed out of the living room. The images suddenly blurred, and a loud bang, like an explosion, burst out loudly. When the smoke dissipated, the three intruders were on the ground, and were not moving anymore.
"Stark always had the timing and the style worthy of a movie character." Helen murmured, impressed.
Peter knew he couldn't contradict her on that point.
"What happened?" May asked, confused. "Were those explosives?"
"It must have been alkaline metals," her nephew explained easily. "When they're in a pure state, and contact water, they cause a chemical reaction. The warmer the water is, the more violent the reaction gets. Considering the explosion created, I'd say Mister Stark used potassium or sodium."
"Coming from Tony," Pepper sighed, "it's not really surprising. He must have discovered a sudden passion for chemistry and he will have wanted to make everything explode to take his frustration out on them."
There was silence again, and the group observed worryingly eight more people reach the now flooded room, giving orders to each others before pursuing their paths. Nobody was able to see it on cameras, but they all heard two other explosions as, well as pained screams.
"These guys were asking for it," the billionaire's former bodyguard muttered. "Look, he's in this gym room.''
The others followed his gaze and watched the forty year old man sneak outside by using the rope. For a while, nothing happened, until one of the remaining men began to talk.
"Alright, we got him," he announced with a hoarse voice. "One of the drones took him down. He's harmless now."
Peter stiffened abruptly, feeling desperation invading his whole body. He was not the only one, because the four adults accompanying him were showing similar expressions.
"This prat took down eight of our men," another person intervened, who had just joined the first man. "Let's pack up, retrieve the unconscious ones and Stark, and get out of here. There's no way I'll fall in another one of his stupid traps. I'm sure I have a second degree burn because of that jerk."
They could only watch, helpless, as they watched the intruders get their accomplices back, when May exclaimed, "Stop the video!"
She pointed at a blurry emblem on the shoulder of one of the men. However, no matter how blurry the picture was, the symbol was easily recognizable.
A skull surrounded by six tentacles.
"He was kidnapped by HYDRA," Helen hissed.
The name made Peter react abruptly. He remembered a discussion he had once with his mentor, and which seemed already quite ancient; but he still knew it by heart.
"What do you think they're doing in New York, Mister Stark?"
"I have no idea. And I don't think I want to know."
"Which means you're going to investigate, right?"
"Obviously."
The teenager turned towards Helen.
"Tell me, Ms. Cho, HYDRA, that's the organization Captain America was fighting against, right?"
The doctor nodded, scrutinizing the super-hero. The others did the same, understanding he had come to a realization.
Spider-Man stared once again at the emblem, making the silent promise that, no matter what, he would find Tony Stark.
"I think I have an idea."
000
Maybe being a Stark didn't have that many advantages. That was a thought beginning to cross Tony's mind.
However, what he often forgot was that there were people ready to fight with all their strength for him.
Hydra had better watch out.
-000-
How was it? I hope you liked it, please let me know what crossed your mind while you were reading this chapter!
See you soon!