Soon, they approached the drop zone, and Tony readied himself as the hatch on the cargo hold opened off the back of the quinjet. "Be careful out there, Stark!" Cap advised, having to yell above the din of the wind, as he reached for something to hold onto.
The face mask on Tony's helmet clamped shut. Then he gave Cap a nod, and the eye slits illuminated suddenly with blue light. "Catch you boys on the flipside, huh?" he remarked, his metallic sounding voice coming through the speaker in the suit. The jets on his feet fired to life and he slightly lifted up off the floor. But then his hand repulsors blasted, and, as soon as there was room enough for him to, he briskly flew out into the sky. Cap and Clint continued to watch as their friend jetted off into the distance. "Think he really will keep his cool?" Clint asked after a moment.
Cap shrugged. "I don't know. I hope so," he replied. "But he'd have every right not to."
XxXxXxXxX
Tony set his heading for the dock where the weapons shipment was supposed be. The optics in the HUD zoomed in on the location in the distance, and Tony could see there was a main dock, which was expansive enough to accommodate large cargo barges, and two smaller docks- both of which were empty- on either side of it. Two tug boats were moored to the outsides of the nearest smaller dock, and a shipping barge was parked at the main dock.
There were five warehouses in total at the location- two large ones toward the front, accessible to the unloading areas for the main dock. They were constructed of blue corrugated steel, and had what Tony assumed would be the storage company logo in yellow-colored Russian lettering across the sides. The other, smaller warehouses behind them were built with white corrugated steel, and had no lettering on the sides.
"Jarvis? Any activity over there that I should know about, yet? Can you see anybody milling around?" he asked.
"No, sir. The place appears to be deserted," the AI replied.
Tony frowned. Odd, he thought. "Seriously? Nobody's there? Not even the barge captain?" he asked.
"I detect no biological heat signatures, Sir," Jarvis stated.
Tony paused to consider for a moment before speaking. "Is the shipment even there? Did we somehow jump the gun? Or, worse yet, show up too late?" he asked.
"One moment," Jarvis replied, and Tony patiently waited for a reply. Within a few seconds, Jarvis spoke again. "All warehouses appear to be empty, except for one where there does appear to be several crates marked Stark Industries. They are located in the back of one of the smaller warehouses," he reported. "The eastern most warehouse from here, to be exact."
"Bingo," Tony clucked. "But why the hell have they been left alone? Seems strange that they're letting this stuff sit anywhere for a length of time. Don't these kinds of transactions tend to happen quickly? Like, as soon as they get the goods off the boat?" he asked.
"One would imagine, yes," Jarvis agreed.
"Yeah, something isn't right here," Tony resolved.
Soon the docking area was coming into full view, so he slowed his pace. Then he stopped so he could hover right over the top of it in order to be able to get a good look at the whole area. The buildings looked to be in almost complete disrepair, as if the location had sat vacant for many years.
"Stark, do you see anything yet?" he suddenly heard Maria say to him over the comms speaker in his helmet.
"There's a barge parked in the main dock, but no crew in sight. And all of the other warehouses are completely empty and damn near falling apart. Jarvis sees the shipment in one of the smaller warehouses, but here's the weird thing- there isn't a soul around guarding it! Am I crazy, or is that not generally how these things go down?" he asked.
"It is weird," she agreed. "I guess this makes our job of seizing the shipment a lot easier, but...why isn't there anyone around awaiting the trade? Why would they let those crates sit unguarded in an area that isn't at all secured?"
"I know, right?" Tony said. He zeroed in on the logo he saw on the blue buildings.
"Hey, Nat. Need your translation skills," he requested.
"Sure thing. What have you got?" he heard her say back to him.
"Jay, send them that logo," he commanded. Instantly, he saw Jarvis screenshot the image in his display, and send it to the quinjet. "Anything special we need to know about this company?" he asked.
"It translates roughly to 'International Freight Storage Corporation'. But...give me a minute," she said. Tony waited for her reply. After a moment, he heard Natasha's voice come back over the speaker. "That's funny," he heard her say. And then she went silent. Tony frowned.
"Care to let us in on the joke, Nat?" he asked impatiently.
"It's not funny as in 'ha ha'. It's funny as in strange. I'm seeing nothing in a search for this company's history. So either it's really new, or it's..."
"Fake," Tony interjected. "A dummy location used just for moving black market goods."
"Exactly," Natasha agreed.
"I say fat chance anyone but these assholes we're after really even know this place exists," Tony went on to say.
"Uh, just a reminder? We're not actually after the assholes? We're just after what the assholes are after. Technically speaking, Stark," Cap interjected.
Tony melodramatically gasped into his mic. "Such language, Captain! My word!" he replied back sanctimoniously.
He heard Cap let out an exasperated sigh, and then a chuckle at Tony's needling him. "Your right. Sorry. My mistake," he said, making Tony smirk smugly to himself. Then he cleared his throat.
"Well, since nobody's currently guarding this joint, I might just go have a little look-see for myself before we load this stuff up," he informed them. And before anyone could object, Tony dove out of the sky for the warehouse in which Jarvis had said the shipment was being stored.
"Stark, wait," Maria warned. "Let us get in to position, first. Just in case there's any kind of trouble that comes along."
Tony shrugged. "Meh. You'll catch up," he replied, just as he landed with a soft thud in front of the door of the warehouse, noticing it was padlocked. He made quick work of cutting, or rather melting, the lock, and the accompanying chain easily fell from around where it was wrapped to hold the doors closed to the ground below in a coil.
Tony then grabbed the double doors and heaved them open, swinging each of them back to slide on the rails they were tracked along. They halted at the end of their tracks with a loud metallic clang that echoed throughout the dark, cavernous building.
"Jarvis, do me a favor and scan for signs of life one more time," he ordered, and he saw his display instantly go from normal visibility to infrared.
"All clear, sir," Jarvis soon reported.
Tony nodded in acknowledgement. He had noticed the wooden crates stacked in the back of the warehouse as Jarvis was scanning. So, in the interest of time, he fired his foot repulsors into a low burn and glided to where they were.
Sure enough, the Stark Industries logo was stamped on each one, and the crates were stacked in twos, totaling six 4 cubic foot crates in all. "Hello, fellas. We meet again," Tony murmured, never ceasing to be amazed at how far flung his old munitions had been around the world, a hard fact which he didn't think he'd ever live down.
He moved to grip one of the top crates, and allocated his power to his arms, easily lifting the crate to the floor. Then he yanked off one of the cross beams holding the top together, and the sides of the crate bowing slightly from the shift in support.
A mass of straw used for packing material was stuffed into every space, which puzzled Tony. This wasn't what the inside of a Stark Industries crate typically looked like. For starters, they never used something so flammable as straw to ship their weapons. All weaponry was packed in sealed bomb-proof cases, and surrounded by flame retardant foam before it was crated up.
"What the hell is in these things, then?" he asked himself. He removed enough of the straw to see what it had been protecting. In the center of the crate, he found a bundle of large metallic cylindrical canisters. They looked to be made of surgical steel, if he was guessing. "Jarvis, scan. Tell me what we've got here," he requested.
He waited for a moment, and Jarvis answered. "Vials, sir. A dozen in all in each cylinder," he replied.
"Vials?," Tony repeated. "So...this isn't a munitions shipment at all. It's a...chemical shipment?" he reasoned. The frightening reality of what he'd found was seeping into his mind like black pitch. "Oh, good God," he muttered. Stark Industries never dabbled in chemical warfare. That he knew of. So either someone was dealing in it under the table, or someone was using his company's name to manufacture and crate this stuff, making it look like it came from Stark factories. Either way, this situation was quickly getting far more complicated.
"Uh, guys?" Tony said over the comms. "This isn't your usual shipment of things that blow up."
"What do you mean? Then what is it?" he heard Natasha ask.
Tony took a deep breath. "It's...chemical," he revealed.
"What?! Are you saying that Stark Industries once made chemical weapons?" Maria asked pointedly.
"No! That's just it! We never did! Not to the best of my knowledge, anyway!" Tony exclaimed.
"'Not to the best of your knowledge' ?! What are you talking about! Are you saying you didn't know what was coming out of your factories?!" Natasha called back.
"I did! Or so I thought I did! This isn't making sense! How could I have not..." But just then he was interrupted.
"Stark, you're about to get company! Get outta there!" he heard Maria yell over the comms, and Tony quickly went to fire his jets to life, but then a sudden explosion from one of the other crates knocked him back and against the opposite wall. Tony grunted when he hit the floor hard, the concussion from the blast making the suit's operating system quickly try to recalibrate. He could hear the whirring and popping of all of the servos as it did this, but it was hard for him to distinguish the difference in sounds from the ringing that had developed in his ears.
"What the hell was that?" he grunted hoarsely at Jarvis.
"Stark?! We heard an explosion! What happened?" he heard Natasha ask.
"It appears one of the crates were rigged purely as a booby-trap," the AI answered. "A pipe bomb was triggered when you opened one of the crates."
"Well, that explains the reason for no guards," Tony deduced, wincing as his head was now pounding. He'd no doubt had got a concussion from the blast. Not to mention being knocked squarely into a wall with full force. "What's the damage? How're the other crates?" he asked.
"The exteriors are damaged, but the contents appears to be untouched, luckily. However, you've taken on some shrapnel, damaging a few of the sensors in the targeting system. You may want to take off since you won't be able to effectively defend yourself for a few moments until I can get you recalibrated, as it appears there is a convoy fast approaching from the west," Jarvis informed him.
"Oh perfect," Tony grumbled as he slowly got back up to his feet, and swiveled around toward the door of the warehouse. He ducked to the side of one of the doors, and then peaked around the corner to get a better look outside. Sure enough, there was a line of four black SUV's speeding up the road leading to the docking area.
"We've landed, and we're on our way. Don't make a move until we get there!" Maria ordered.
"Yeah, too bad I'm practically dead in the water. I need to jet outta here. My targeting system took some hits from the shrapnel, and I've gotta give it a chance to recalibrate. That means my aim is going to suck until it comes back online," he reported to her.
"Copy that," Maria replied back. "How long do you need?"
"A few minutes. But don't worry. I'll catch up," he said.
"Copy. See you in a few, " Maria replied.
Tony cranked up his jets, and punched a hole through the ceiling of the warehouse as he exited, just as each SUV was lining up outside. Once in the sky, he swiveled to watch as the car doors began to randomly open, and men began pouring out of them. Tony quickly tried to take note of who was among the group. "Jarvis, how about some photos for the files?" he requested, and instantly snap shots of each face appeared in his display and were filed for later. Off hand, he didn't recognize anyone from the first three vehicles. But when he moved his eye to the group leaving the fourth, what he saw made him involuntarily flinch. He gritted his teeth in response. His eyes narrowed, as he found himself looking directly at the face of one Rocco Martinova.
His blood began to boil. "There you are, you bastard," he grunted.
"You say something, Stark?" he heard Cap say.
Tony startled and blinked, bringing himself out of his building rage. "Uh...they just pulled up. Four cars worth. And Martinova's with 'em," he reported, trying to make his tone sound neutral and objective.
"Uh-huh. And...are you okay?" he heard Clint ask.
Tony huffed, pushing back the impulse to fire one of his repulsors directly at Rocco, and answered. "Fine," he said in reply, though his teeth were clenched as he said it.
"That sounded convincing," Clint muttered drolly back in reply.
By this time, those that had exited the vehicles had obviously discovered the unpadlocked, opened warehouse doors, and had run inside in a panic to inspect the damage to the crates that Tony had opened. He could hear yelling coming from someone in the group, and he saw some armed men start to investigate the area outside, their guns raised to their shoulders. Rocco in particular was yelling and pointing at them, obviously giving orders to find whomever did this.
Tony turned to jet back toward the quinjet, but he hesitated. The thought of what he'd seen when he was inside Pepper's subconscious, and how hard she'd had to fight to survive her injuries plus the added struggle that was heaped on her from Rocco injecting her with syringe full of Black Dragon, and nearly killing her, had started replaying in his mind like a horror movie. And now to find that Rocco was involved in smuggling what appeared to be chemical weapons under the Stark name was too much for Tony to take.
Just then, the indicator light for his targeting system lit up in his display, signaling it was back online. This was just about the time a few of the men discovered him hovering in the sky, and began firing at him, leaving him no choice but to either blast off toward the jet, and try not get hit in the process, or engage.
Tony took a deep breath. "For Pepper," he said, and raised his hands, blasting his repulsors at them in reply.
"Dammit, Stark!" he heard Maria suddenly cry after obviously seeing what he was doing. "What happened to catching up?!"