Um... Let's just pretend those three months never happened... For everyone's sake. Hello again! Hope you all haven't forgotten about the story. Recap: Tensions were rising and we're about to meet two new faces. Please, please, PLEASE review!

Disclaimer: I only own my OC's, the rest is all Marvel.

Chapter 23 - The Poison and The Virus

How many hours of sleep did Alexia get after Elliot arrived on the doorstep? Well, there was the five minutes it took for Tony to find the stranger a suitable, drier outfit, the twenty minutes from the journey to the airport and the ten or so minutes on the plane in between Tony's plan-making and arguing with the attendants (due to the short notice, they had to take a public plane). So slightly more than half an hour. That seemed about right.

No, she was being selfish. Tony hadn't slept a wink since Elliot arrived. Then again, a sly voice in her head argued, It was his idea to do all of this, instead of just finding the boy his cure. It was true. Tony had mapped out an entire plan of how to monitor Elliot's every move from the journey to the Familia's hideout to the location of each member. She felt sick just thinking about what the poor boy was going to go through, but there was something else. A mix of trepidation and anxiety that sprouted with Elliot's words. 'I'm sorry too'... She couldn't piece together whether he meant it about Tony, about how it made her feel or about... Something else.

When they arrived at the Tower, Lexy felt wide awake. There was blood stained across the floor, a few cops skirting the entrance and not a single security guard in sight. The police spotted Tony almost immediately and marched over.

"Mr Stark, we have some unfortunate news," one of them started gravely.

"What happened?" Tony demanded immediately and Alexia placed a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"The entirety of your security force were attacked by a woman. Two are dead, four are in critical condition and the rest are stable, but in hospital."

"When did this happen?" Lexy whispered.

"Last night. We have tried cooperating with your computer-"

"Jarvis!" Tony roared, storming into the reception.

"Yes, sir?" Jarvis answered innocently.

"Don't you have any memory of what happened?"

"It appears that I was hacked last night. The last memory I have stored is one of three masked figures in the elevator."

"Oh my God!" Alexia exlaimed, "Jarvis, where are the other Avengers? And Paige?"

"Paige Seath and Bruce Banner were within the Tower when the three trespassers were here. They are no longer in the Tower," Jarvis replied swiftly.

"And the others?"

"Steve Rogers is still missing, Thor Odinson was away in Asgard and Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton visited SHIELD. These are the last recorded whereabouts of the Avengers."

Alexia quickly retrieved her phone as Tony did the same.

"Steve, Bruce and Paige," he said.

"Natasha and Clint."

Speedily dialing Natasha's number, Lexy brought the phone to her ear.
"Nat? You there?" she asked hurriedly.

"Hey Lexy," Romanoff yawned from the other end.

"Where are you? Are you ok? Is Clint with you?"

"The SHIELD Helicarrier, yes but Clint isn't and he's in the medical bay. What's going on? Are you alright?" she sounded wide awake now.

"The Tower was invaded or something, I'm not really sure. I'm glad you guys are ok. You haven't by any chance met up with or spoken to Bruce or Paige, have you?"

"No, are they ok? Do you know where they are?"

"They were in the Tower when the attackers were," Alexia groaned.

"We'll come back as soon as possible and help you look. What about Tony? He's with you, right? Have you heard from Steve or Thor?" Natasha questioned quickly.

"Tony's with me and we have someone with us who... Might be able to help. As far as we know, Thor is in Asgard and Steve is wherever he was yesterday."

Natasha and Lexy continued to talk as Tony tried to contact the others. He tried Bruce first and got no reply. Trying Steve gave no results and he dialed Paige's number, his hope burning out rapidly. But she answered.

"Hello, Mr Stark," the voice wasn't Paige's. It was a man's tone.

"Who is this?" he demanded, "Where's Paige?"

"Miss Seath can't come to the phone right now," he chuckled darkly, "She's a little tied up at the moment."

"Where the hell is she, you son of a-"

"Now, now, you won't be speaking to either of them with that language."

"You... 'Either of them'?"

"Oh, did I not mention? We have your radiated friend as well. He won't last as long, of course, but he's hanging on at the moment."

"What are you doing to him?" Tony's voice was barely steady.

"We see it as... Cleansing the world of an over-powered monster. And he's just the first, Mr Stark. Is Lexy there?" the voice asked pleasantly.

"Are you Dylan?"

"Ooh, good try. You're getting closer, but Dylan's a little busy at the moment. Sorry, I must be off. Send Lexy our love, we'll be seeing her quite soon, unfortunately."

Before Tony could say another word, the line went dead. He almost crushed his phone in fury as he turned to his partner, who had just finished her conversation and hung up. Elliot stood a little distance away, surveying the scene.

"Nat and Clint are alright, they're on the Helicarrier. They don't know anything about the others."

"Paige and Bruce have been kidnapped by your brother and parents."

"Adoptive parents," she corrected automatically and sighed desperately, "Why am I not surprised? Going to California was a mistake."

"We couldn't have known that any of this was going to happen!" Tony argued, "We just need to regroup. Thor should be back soon enough, we can start looking for Steve and we can ask SHIELD for help detecting where Paige and Bruce are."

"What about Maria? She attacked Clint and now he's in the medical bay, I don't think she should be ignored."

"Once we're all together again, we can start looking for her."

"Excuse moi, where does my sister fit into all of this?"

They both turned in surprise to where Elliot stood with his arms folded and eyebrows furrowed.

"We can... Well, we can't fight off the entire Familia without the rest of our team," Tony was becoming more exasperated by the second.

"And we can't just leave Elise to die while you rally your troops!" Elliot shouted, agitated, "Just let me go home with the plant. I can heal her and, when the time comes, we will help you."

"How can we trust you?" Tony narrowed his eyes, "I'm not letting you go without leverage."

"You would have saved my sister! Of course we would help you!"

"Tony, let him go. I trust Elliot," Alexia interrupted.

There was a moment of silence as the gears churned in Stark's head. Finally, he sighed.

"Fine," he looked up, "Jarvis! Find where the plant is and send someone here with it as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir."

"Merci, Monsieur."

"What's first, then?" Tony grumbled.

"I say we go to the Helicarrier. We can meet up with Nat and Clint and ask Fury for help contacting Thor and searching for Bruce, Paige and Steve," Lexy advised.

"I can stay here," Elliot offered, "I would probably slow you down and the plant will arrive at this location, will it not?"

"Ok, stay here. I'll tell the police to leave and call someone to clean up the mess. Stay in the lobby and ask Jarvis of you need anything," Tony ordered.

"Goodbye, Elliot," Lexy smiled weakly.

"Au revoir, Mademoiselle," he replied gently.

Tony pulled out his phone again and began tapping rapidly. They re-entered the car that they had taken from the airport and Happy looked at them expectantly.

"We got a call from your friend," Dylan mentioned as he dug a syringe into Bruce's weakened arm, "Tony Stark?"

Paige looked up at him, glaring with all of her might.

"What did you tell him?" she snarled.

"Nothing but the truth, I promise you," Dylan laughed, "He sounded quite panicked, though, according to Joe. Nothing like his television persona, I'll tell you that much."

"What time is it?"

"Early morning, probably. I haven't been outside in a while, myself. Karen and Joe have been looking for the woman who is rivaling us. She was in the Tower too, but we got there first. Then she attacked the two SHIELD agents."

"Nat and Clint," Paige gasped.

"Don't worry, they're alright. Neither of them are our targets anyway. If they're caught in the crossfire..." he shrugged nonchalantly and retrieved the syringe, sticking it into a machine beside them, "Still holding on to that superstrength of yours, eh, Dr Banner?"

"Dylan, you can't kill him. Just let us go."

"I can," Dylan snapped, "You don't know what I'm capable of. These chemicals were formed for the purpose of weakening gamma radiation... Or something like that. Joe knows the science of it all, but the point is, I can kill him."

With that, he stormed out of the room. Paige sighed and glanced at her unconscious companion. There must be something she can do.

Maria was becoming more impatient by the second. Her two allies were yet to arrive and she had been sitting at the top of the abandoned train station (their agreed meeting spot) for over half an hour, ignoring the aching of her battered body. She stood up, dusting off the rubble from her expensive (yet unclean and slightly bloodied) clothing and reaching for her stolen car keys. The entire operation was taking longer than expected and now she couldn't even find her reinforcements in the ridiculously large and busy city.

As she took an unsteady step towards the exit, the door was blasted open. Though slightly startled by the sudden entrance, Maria rolled her eyes. These were the types of theatrics she expected when working with the super powered experiments. The first to enter was, of course, the curvy silhouette of Anthuria. As she flicked her long auburn hair back and showed off her perfectly painted face, the second figure joined her. Red Techno, with his short, spiky hair and sly smirk, was slightly shorter than his accomplice, but made up for it in speed and knowledge. They wore matching crimson outfits, though Anthuria's was a tight leotard and a short skirt, while Red Techno's covered his entire body and had bright white lines running along the threads.

They stood as if posing for a photo shoot, until Maria marched up to them and shoved the folder she was holding into the young man's arms. He glared at her for a moment before rifling through, his eyes skimming each page. The woman glanced over his shoulder at every page.

"These are your targets. Keep the last one alive and don't incapacitate her," Maria instructed stonily, "There may be a member of the Familia still nearby, he's French and young. Ignore him."

"These people... Aren't they the Avengers?" Anthuria asked suspiciously, a thick Californian accent in each syllable.

"Yes. Is that a problem?" Maria answered coldly.

"No problem, I am just wondering why we are after such high profile and strong enemies."

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall, Annie," Red Techno grinned, "Just means a larger victory for us."

"One whom they know as a leader of sorts, Captain America, has been taken care of for now, I think. A place to look might be the SHIELD Helicarrier, but be careful, they're more advanced than they may seem," Maria finished.

"Hey Red," Anthuria smirked, "You can take the metal suit, I'll take the spies?"

"It would be my pleasure."

Clint was groaning in the medical bay when they arrived, but not in pain. His doctor had announced that the injuries would heal quickly, but that a couple of days rest would be 'beneficial.'

"Beneficial!" he repeated for the fifth time, "Do you know what that means? It means I am confined to this stupid room for another 24 hours because of a few cuts."

"Clint, I think it's a little more than a few cuts," Natasha rolled her eyes.

Barton began to quietly grumble a response and Lexy almost giggled. Almost.

"So, where's the 'someone who might be able to help'?" Natasha asked and Tony frowned.

"We sent him home with what he needed. He's probably leaving later this afternoon," Tony relayed the information with mild regret.

"Who was he?" Clint prompted.

"Just someone with a connection to the Familia," Alexia smiled weakly, "He's innocent, of course."

It was quite true. The two spies nodded uncertainly.

"I think our main aim should be finding Bruce and Paige," she continued worriedly, "They've been kidnapped and Tony said that Bruce was being 'cleansed' or something. It sounds bad."

"What about Steve?" Nat asked, "We haven't seen him in days, now. He could be in even more trouble."

"I agree with Miss Brookes," a deep voice announced as a familiar eye patch closed the room's door.

"Director Fury, sir, I just think that-"

"Captain America can take care of himself. Miss Seath can't protect herself at all and from what it sounds like, the other guy is either gonna disappear completely or be forced into a frenzy."

"Sorry, I called him," Lexy shrugged as Clint and Tony looked questioning.

"Alright," the redhead agreed reluctantly, "When's Thor getting here?"

"He was planning to come back today, anyway," Tony responded.

"We're already searching New York for Banner and Seath. Alexia, do you know anywhere they would be?"

"I doubt they shared their secret lair with their teenage daughter," Tony rolled his eyes.

"Well, didn't stop them with Dylan," Lexy muttered.

"Dylan!" Natasha exclaimed suddenly, "Your parents are probably smart enough to be careful whenever they go out, but Dylan has got to be on security cameras somewhere and we can follow him back to wherever Paige and Bruce are."

Fury nodded and began to make a call, slipping out of the room to make it.

"Until SHIELD finds them, we should watch out. Maria's still after us and she's probably got some help by now," Clint added.

"I don't think Karen and Joe will be stopping with Bruce either. Tony, do you think you could improve Jarvis' software tonight or should we stay somewhere else?"

"Even if I could, I don't think we should stay at the Tower," the genius replied, "And I don't really feel like staying here all night, no offense Barton." (he shrugged) "Does anyone else know of anywhere?"

Alexia bit her lip, "Well, I'm still renting out my old apartment. Dylan has only been there twice, Joe and Karen haven't even seen it and no one, not even SHIELD, knew that I was still renting it out."

Natasha smiled in approval and Tony chuckled.

"Don't mind me, I suppose. I'll just stay here all night for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON!" he yelled these last words while eyeing the door aggressively.

Alexia did laugh this time, it was soft and small, but it brightened the room.

"Once they let you out, you can join the sleepover as well," she teased.

"We can tell Thor when he comes back," Natasha added as Fury walked back in.

"Nick, have you found anything on Steve yet?" Lexy asked.

"Not much. He was accompanied by Albertelli and traveled by subway. That's where we lost them: getting off at one of the stations. We're scanning the area."

"Let's go," Tony decided, "We've got nothing else to do. Maybe three pairs of fresh eyes will help."

Fury nodded slightly as Clint mumbled something inchorrent under his breath.

"What, are we just going to stroll around hoping to find him in a backstreet or sitting on a building's front steps?" Nat remarked skeptically.

"Sort of," Tony grinned.

(Warning! Some images of gore. There is a brief explanation at the end if you don't want to read it.)

Panting heavily, Elliot raced through the halls of the hideout, footsteps clapping against the floor as he skidded yet another corner. The plant was held precariously with both palms, it's violet petals were drooping unhappily. When he finally reached the room he had been seeking, the Javier threw the door open with one hand and began to shout hoarsely.

"Dr Santoya, I have it!" he exclaimed at the man, who was bent over the bed with alert eyes.

He returned to his full height and examined the boy at the threshold. Swiftly, the doctor approached, relieving Elliot of the plant and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I will take the pollen to make a medicine. I suppose that is how your parents intended to use it?" he questioned seriously.

The boy had no idea how the plant was to be used, so he shrugged and nodded helplessly. The man, who's pale skin and darkly circled eyes gave away his own ill health, surveyed the shaking French quickly.

"Take a seat next to your sister," he instructed quietly, "Get some rest before I return."

Again, Elliot nodded. Santoya darted out of the room with the plant hastily and the blonde advanced to his restless sister's bedside, slumping into the empty chair. Elise was thrashing about, arms, legs, neck, hands, face all spasming sporadically, her eyes squeezed shut in pain. He wanted to comfort her, but he hadn't slept in so long, and she couldn't hear him anyway. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, Dr Santoya was back, shaking his forearm gently and holding a small bottle of light purple liquid.

"Elliot? I thought you'd want to be awake for the results," the doctor explained briefly.

Without waiting for a reply, Santoya turned back to his patient, gently scooping her writhing head in one smooth, cupped hand and tipping the bottle towards her dry mouth with the other. At first, the barely-conscious girl resisted the drink, but slowly, her lips parted. When every drop had vanished, Santoya sat back, breathing a sigh of finality. Either there would be improvement, or the girl was lost. Elise lay back, no longer moving at all, though her chest still heaved slightly. Eventually, even that began to cease. Elliot was frozen, staring with wide, hopeful eyes. Minutes passed with no change and the doctor sighed again.

"I'm sorry, Elliot," he murmured, "There is nothing more to do."

"But… It was supposed to save her!" the last Javier argued with a single tear in his eye,

"The plant… Maybe it takes time to work!"

Santota lowered his eyes.

"We shall wait, then," he said lowly, "Why don't you replace the cloth? To keep her temperature down."

Elliot nodded sharply, standing on weak legs and snatching the drying flannel draped over the pale girl's forehead. He raced out of the room and through the adjacent doorway, then dropped the item into the slightly dirtied sink and twisted the handle. The cool, clear water splatted against the rag and Elliot tapped his foot arrhythmically against linoleum. There was some noise that made him swivel to face the corridor and the room past it: a meek shout, a thump and an uncomfortable shredding sound, softened by the closed door. Elliot clawed at the renewed cloth, roughly disrupted the flow of water and stumbled forward, blinded by the euphoria of certainty that his sister was alive and better. He thrust the door open, barely noticing its sudden strain, but his smile dropped at the sight of the room.

"Elise…"

The girl was crouched, cowering in the corner made by her bed and the wall, her face hidden from her brother. Between them was a sickening sight, one that Elliot would never rid from his mind. The hard floor was stained by a spreading pool of crimson water, which centered around a barely recognizable body. Dr Santoya was no longer whole, and was definitely dead. The parts of him that were missing had been flung in all directions. Elliot wanted to vomit.

"Elise, what did you do?" he whispered, shaking violently.

Seemingly, the girl heard him this time, and turned quickly. Her brother's mouth opened and he gasped briskly. Her eyes were lined with red as they had been before, but now the gap between the circle of raw red was filled with a shocking violet. Her hair hung greasily around her pasty face, some damp locks lumped together with blood, the same blood that was smeared across her chin and around her mouth. She smiled weakly at him.

"Elliot?" she greeted with hope and admiration, "You came to save me?"

(For anyone who didn't read due to the slight gore, basically, the plant has turned Elise savage. At least she's cured, right? Right?)

It hurt like hell. The thirst was starting to get to him and the hunger was roaring angrily in his stomach. No matter the pain, however, Steve felt a light feeling when his legs and arms began to twitch. His bones ached as they moved for the first time in who-knew-how-many hours and he had barely enough energy to raise a finger properly, but he was grinning on the inside.

His vision was blurry and his breathing was hitched. Steve kept pushing, because if he stopped driving himself to move more and more, the supersoldier had a feeling that he wouldn't last very long, even with the serum that flowed through his veins. How long had it been since he last saw his friends? It seemed like years. He could almost imagine Tony bursting through the door, hear Alexia's anxious whispers as Natasha helped him up and practically carried him out of the tiny apartment. Wait a moment...

Steve blinked in shock as he felt the familiar soft skin of the Russian spy brush past his own. Tony was on his other side, looking as pale and sickly as the soldier felt. Lexy was holding the door open for them, her wide eyes fixed on his almost unmoving face. He wanted to tell her that he was ok, that there was no need to worry, but he couldn't and it wouldn't be believable anyway.

They led him to a sleek car on the bustling street below and gently lowered him onto the backseat. Natasha clambered into the driver's seat and Tony didn't even complain about not riding his own expensive car. He just slid silently into the leather chair beside her. Alexia was next to Steve, rapidly forming water with her fingers that hovered in the air and swayed towards his tightly shut mouth. She eased his parched lips apart and coaxed the liquid through the gap.

He almost choked as it streamed down his throat, but the refreshing act brought some of his senses back and he was able to swallow. The brunette sighed with relief and relayed the information to the front of the car. At least, that's what it looked like she was doing. All Steve could hear was the pounding in his ears. His vision slowly faded. Whether it was slumber or unconsciousness, for the first time since he had been paralyzed, Steve felt peaceful.

Steve's back! Who are these new villains? Where are Bruce and Paige being held? Why am I asking questions?

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