"What was she thinking?" Tony grumbled as he and Natasha entered the Tower.
"She was buying us time, Tony. Regardless of how she usually acts, she's a very smart girl," Natasha replied calmly. "She'll be safe."
Tony sighed. "I don't know how I'll tell Bruce."
With that, they entered the living room where the rest of the Avengers waited.
Pepper was the first to notice them. And also the first to notice that Laynie wasn't with them. Or Carter. "Where are the girls?" Her voice wavered.
Bruce looked up at Tony and Natasha immediately.
Tony took a deep breath. "Hammer wasn't satisfied with what we had... Carter offered herself as ransom in order to give us more time."
Bruce stared at Tony, blank faced.
Tony stared back, trying to express how sorry he was without actually saying it.
"Carter..." Bruce's voice broke, and he stopped.
"This has gone too far," Clint said quietly. The entire room was too quiet.
"What're we going to do?" Pepper whispered.
Tony wrapped his arms around her. He didn't have an answer, so he didn't speak.
"Is it not time to seek help?" Thor asked. "Surely Director Fury could be of assistance, and we cannot keep this a secret much longer anyway."
"They're going to want to just charge in, guns blazing. We can't risk letting the girls get hurt," Tony mumbled.
Natasha, stoic as ever, shook her head. "No. You saw Laynie today. You saw that look on her face, you saw the bruises."
Pepper sobbed silently.
"And she's the bargaining chip. Imagine how he'll treat Carter, who has little value to him, if he treated Laynie like that."
Bruce rose and left the room, book forgotten on the chair.
Tony shook with silent rage. "I don't know what to do. I don't know."
"Something needs to be done."
"Then you call the shots!" Tony roared. He rose from his chair, face flushed in anger. "My daughter is trapped with that maniac and it's my fault!" He put his hands on Natasha's arms as he shouted.
Natasha gripped his wrists and twisted her body, forcing him to the ground. "You're not the only one she means something to!" she screamed. "Don't you think we're all blaming ourselves too?"
Before Thor and Clint could drag her away, Natasha landed a weak punch on Tony's face and bent his arm hard enough for it to make a nasty popping sound.
Steve helped Tony up, and rammed his shoulder back into place before the man even had time to realize it was out of its socket. "We all need to calm down," Steve said, giving pointed looks to Tony and Natasha. "None of this is going to help the girls. Thor, if you would go find Bruce please. Natasha, do you need a moment?"
The redhead took a deep breath, shaking her head.
"Alright. Let's all take a minute to calm down, and then we'll try to figure this out. Calmly."
Thor gave Steve a nod as he walked onto the landing pad after Bruce.
The morning had turned impossibly sunny, which seemed unfair with all that was going on around them. Bruce sat in the middle of the platform, eyes closed against the sun.
Thor sat next to him silently.
"I'm not normally a praying man..." Bruce began, voice quiet. "But if your dad takes shout-outs..."
Thor smiled. "I'll put your request through, my friend. Though I'm afraid nothing but action will solve this problem."
"That's what I'm afraid of. You know, I don't think I've ever loved someone as much as I love Carter... Or Laynie." Bruce sighed and stood. "We have to think of a way to get them back fast. God only knows what Hammer will do to them."
"I only hope we get them back soon." Thor replied.
"Me too." Bruce started walking back to the door. "Me too."
Once they ambled back into the living room, Tony was holding an ice pack over his shoulder while Pepper clung to the other, and Natasha sat in between Clint and Steve, who kept looking at her out of the corners of their eyes.
Bruce sat back down in his chair, and Thor remained standing. "We must now discuss our course of action," Thor announced.
Everyone remained silent, thinking.
"SHIELD might not be the best idea." Steve looked down at the carpet. "They can be deceptive, and we need truth from our allies."
"Agreed," Tony murmured. "What we need to do is find Hammer's weak point, stoop to his level."
Bruce looked at Tony. "What's that phrase about fighting with fire? Something about everyone getting burned..."
Tony ignored the biting comment.
Natasha shifted. "We need to get to Arthur. He seems intimidated by Hammer, and all he really wants is to further his research."
Tony pointed at Natasha. "Yes. Not half bad. Better than your left hook." Tony jumped up from the sofa.
She pursed her lips. "I didn't actually want to break your jaw."
"My jaw has seen worse than your fist," Tony called as he ran down the stairs.
Reluctantly, the rest of the team followed him.
"JARVIS, bring up Technovore!" Tony shouted.
He pulled a screen out of thin air and began tapping away at some coding.
Bruce stood over his shoulder. "Oh man, you're getting somewhere."
"Come on, what's going on?" Clint asked.
"Parks needs a lot of really complicated tech to make his invention work safely. If I put Technovore in just one bit of the tech I give him, it will spread through the whole thing and take control. I made Technovore to lay dormant in War Machine, should Rhodey ever oh, I don't know, let the government try to replicate it."
Bruce picked up where his lab partner left off. "Technovore is activated by unauthorized access to the War Machine systems and programmed to take out the systems. It would turn the armor into a tiny junkyard. If you put that in Arthur's tech-"
"-It would destroy him."
Clint frowned. "I don't get science people. Is it going to help us get Laynie and Carter back?"
"Yes," they answered.