(A/N) Chapters are probably going to be a bit shorter this week because I have so many finals. Still expect updates daily though even if they don't get on until late.
Ice cold water fell on him waking Tony Stark immediately alert and aware. Looking around wildly for any indication of where he was Tony saw the steel confining walls of what was most likely a storage unit. How he got there was beyond him but with the gentle way the container swayed back and forth and the faint smell of saltwater told him that he was on a boat.
Tony's eyes focused finally on Justin Hammer standing a few feet in front of him holding a metal bucket that dripped with the remains of the water that had been thrown at him. "As if my day wasn't bad enough."
"Tony." Hammer smiled at him kindly. "Now I know we've had our disagreements but let's try and be civil."
He would have laughed if his body didn't feel like it was on fire. "I'm not an expert on being civil, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't involved being tied to a chair and having water thrown on me." Tony pulled against the restraints on his wrists that tied him to the chair to further prove his point.
"Good point Tony, though I've always found being civilised so boring." He unbuttoned his jacket and threw it off to the side of the crate. "You see Tony I've learned many things from my work with Ivan Vanko. Like how if you want something done the right way you just have to follow your instincts and damn the consequences."
Tony watched his captor carefully keeping track of his every movement; not for one second letting him out of sight. "I wouldn't be taking my life lessons from a psychopath with a personal vendetta against me. Though now that I think about it I can see why you two worked together; it was quite the bromance when you look back on it."
Hammer laughed in a humorous way. "I miss this playful banter of ours. You don't get much of that in prison."
"The inmates not as chatty as you hoped?" Tony twisted his wrists around the leather cuffs that bound him looking for any weakness in them. "So is that why I'm here? Because you went to prison?" He tried to keep Hammer talking since he didn't know what would happen when he stopped. "This a kind of a taste of your own medicine sort of thing?"
"That's just part of it." Hammer went straight up to Tony and leaned in so he was an inch away from his face, all the rage in the world burned in his eyes. "You see there are a lot of people out in the world who hate you Stark, and a good chunk would love to attend your funeral as well as being the cause of it."
Tony glared into Justin's eyes. "If your going to breath in my face would you at least eat a Tic Tac?"
Justin pulled back and slapped Tony once hard on the face before grabbing him roughly by the color of his shirt. "Do you ever shut up?"
His face stung where Justins hand made contact. "I thought you loved our banter." He retorted working the tension out of his jaw.
Justin let go of Tony's shirt and even went as far as to smooth it out for him. "I do, but you see Tony you have a way of pissing people off. Whether it be a one night stand, or someone's child who your weapons have killed. Some of those people, like the person who hired me, are willing to do something about it."
"And this person is alright kidnapping children overall of this?" Tony accused remembering the woman with the gun. She had said something to him before but he couldn't remember.
"Oh come on now, it's not so much as kidnapping as securing a partner. Purely business. Infact Melissa could you come in here?" Hammer called into a random corner behind Tony where he assumed was a security camera.
Soon enough the dark haired woman walked in her hands shaking. "I'm so sorry he made me do everything."
He nodded to the woman and gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry soon enough the Avengers will be here." Hammer gave him an odd look at the name of his team. "It grows on you."
"Well know that where you are the Avengers will never find you." Hammer's smile spread across his face. "Oh my partner is going to love this." He pulled out his phone and started dialling.
"Mind putting it on speaker I would love to know who is trying to kill me." Said Tony with a sarcastic grin on his face.
Hammer laughed. "That's very likely." He finished entering the number and put the phone to his ear waiting patiently for the number to begin dialing.
There was a ringing in Tony's makeshift prison. Not just any ringing but the one of a phone. Hammer and Tony looked around confused trying to pin the source both of them having their eyes settle on the woman with dark hair whose no long shaking hand held a phone and in the other a gun pointed at Hammer.
"Voice distorters are a marvelous thing aren't they. It makes it so easy to remain anonymous." Her voice was no longer scared in fact it held no emotion that even resembled it at all. Instead it held the power of a hawk nearing it's prey.
Hammer looked back and forth from Melissa to the gun. "Well that's something I didn't see coming."