Chapter 2

Tony Stark collapsed at his desk in his workshop. Peter's Aunt May had every right to be worried and confused by her nephew's kidnapping, but comforting people was emotionally draining especially when he was in dire need of comfort himself. If anything happened to that kid, he'd… Hell, Tony didn't even know what he would do.

Tony was just about to reassess the case information when FRIDAY informed him of a visitor.

"Hey, why don't you call it a night and get some sleep?" Rhodey asked.

"The trail is getting colder by the hour, and you know it," Tony answered forcefully. "Where are the others? Let's review what we know."

Rhodey held back a sigh. As of 2:14 PM, it had been 72 hours since the last voiceover from Peter Parker was heard, the last of the three victims to say anything. "Wilson and Banner are upstairs with Pepper, eating. Vision is with Romanoff and Maximoff in the briefing room, looking over everything we've got so far."

Ten minutes later, everyone was sitting around the long table in the briefing room for the third time that day. It was late, but no one complained. Having found nothing new, everyone had already memorized the details of the event. Nevertheless. Stark studied the notes on his screen.

At 1 PM three days ago, the Avengers had been gearing up to lead a storm on an underground bunker in Washington state. There had been reports of odd creatures roaming a particular forest. Because initially the team was only going to sweep through the area, Tony let Spider-Man tag along with Cap, Barnes, Vision, Wilson, and Romanoff. However, the undocumented bunker caught their attention. Cap was right: they should have taken time to regroup. On the other hand, Stark had a feeling that they were already being watched.

Somewhere inside that maze-like industrial bunker, they ended up walking single-file down an unlit hallway towards heat signatures. It was then that they were ambushed by things that smashed through the walls beside the team. Tony was sure it was a trap: they had weaponry designed to infiltrate even Iron Man's and Vision's machinery. In minutes, each member was injected with some horrible poison. With the humans barely breathing and Vision down, Rogers and Barnes disappeared first. It seemed like abducting Parker was an afterthought, causing him to speak last. It had been barked out through gasps for air and groans of pain, but it was clear who he had been addressing: "Mister Stark!"

Tony snapped out of his notes and memories when Bruce began talking. The scientist reported, "The lab got back to me about everyone's blood and urine samples. They didn't identify any traces of any common sedative. Whatever they injected into you might have been a homemade concoction."

"I think we could have guessed that," Natasha said, unimpressed. "It was able to take down Cap and Peter, and those two can handle a variety of biological hits."

The corner of Tony's mouth perked just a bit at the subtle reminder of Roger's immune system. A few months ago, when everyone had been out of training for food poisoning from some bad Chinese takeout, Rogers had recovered almost immediately compared to the others. He was the one who had been pouring Ginger Ale and cleaning the bathrooms.

Tony addressed Banner. "Maybe that's a good thing. If it was an unusual substance, then we can trace it back to a specific source."

Bruce nodded. "That's what I was thinking, too. We'll keep looking for anything out of the ordinary."

Tony turned back to Wanda, Natasha, and Vision. "There was nothing left where the bunker was?" While recovering, the Avengers had heard reports of an explosion at the site of the abduction. Their kidnappers had destroyed the evidence by recklessly blowing it up. The news had shocked them all. Regardless, Stark wanted to see what was left.

Wanda shook her head. "It caused a forest fire. We helped put it out as quickly as possible, but there was nothing left."

Vision noted, "We spoke to several firefighters and nearby citizens after handling the fire. No one seemed to recall any odd activity in the area of the forest by the industrial shelter, but more interestingly, everyone seems to have forgotten seeing any odd creatures in the forest as well."

Natasha added, "Yeah. Those reports must have been fabricated, so I traced them back to their sources. Each report of a rampant creature in that forest was sent from a library, and each library is in a different state all around the country. There's no pattern."

Over seventy-two hours and nothing to show for it.