"The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted." - Mahatma Gandhi
Chapter Seven.
"Crazy morning," Clint muttered and yawned, walking over to the coffee machine. Bruce was the only other person in the room. Steve and Natasha had run out of the party deck just a few moments earlier. Bruce realized that Barton could have only been talking to him. So he gave a short chuckle, and a small edgy smile.
Clint glanced over his shoulder to where the doctor was sitting on the couches, reading a magazine or something. A bomb was nothing to laugh over but the doc wasn't really paying any attention to him. He recognized this as silent behavior; the doc wasn't up for a conversation.
He turned his attention back to the coffee, which smelled so good and warm he could almost taste it. It was taking forever. And he was cold and wet. "Hey, you want some?" He asked Bruce from across the room, pointing his thumb back at the coffee machine.
Bruce furrowed his brow together for a moment, thinking it over a moment before nodding. "Sure." He said hesitantly at first, watching Barton carefully behind his lenses. "Thanks," he added a short while after.
Clint noted a hint of rejection but shrugged it off.
He threw in some more coffee mix into Stark's fancy coffee machine and added placed another cup right next to his. "Awesome," he said under his breath as he watched the coffee machine pour the hot liquid itself straight into the two mugs.
By the time the captain and the widow had reached the kitchen the smoke on this floor level had nearly died down, leaving a nearly clear view of the rubble and debris left behind all over the ground. But as they drew nearer to the kitchen entrance, they realized that the kitchen was very much so smoke-filled.
Steve scanned the perimeter; smoke clogged his vision and invaded his nostrils. "Found Stark, over there," Natasha coughed. Steve's eyes landed on a dust-coated figure, leaning against the wall and coughing. A sense of relief washed over them. Tony was well. Natasha was quicker and the first by Tony's side. Steve followed part of the way, still unsure about the building's security.
There was no doubt in Steve's mind the attack was credited to Hydra. This had Hydra written all over it. And he vowed that he would get to the bottom of this and take down every last one of them. He looked at the two people before him, friends and allies, working with each other. And yet both equally could be a part of the affiliation he had battled so long and hard to get rid of. He had worked with Natasha; he liked to think that he knew her. And Tony, well, he didn't really know. Steve knew Howard Stark as a good man and a friend; he liked to think of Tony as a friend.
Natasha managed to get Tony to his feet; the billionaire was in a good state apart from looking like he had been thrown against a wall. "Are you okay?" Steve asked, his voice concerned but professional.
"Yeah, I am. I was outside the kitchen when second bomb went off, not as big as the first not nearly as destructive but it was a lot smokier," he coughed. "It took me a while to find the kitchen, never really been here, and never coming back." He laughed uneasily, using the counter as support.
Steve nodded. "Think you can walk?"
"Think? I know I can, just don't criticize how I do it." Tony jeered playfully, then released his crutch and walked with a bit of a wobble to the far-off elevator, cradling his right arm. Steve shook his head, following up, "Elevators don't work."
"That's what you think," Tony said before running a hand over the buttons, which resulted in the doors opening. "They work perfectly fine," he gestured to the elevator. This earned him two disdainful stares.
"Okay, I know what you're thinking. Why did I shut down the elevators and make you all use the stairs. I cut them because I had all systems offline, defense and offense, anyone could have used them without proper authorization without my knowing; so I pulled the plug."
"Like an employee gone rogue?" The Captain suggested. "Or a pizza man," Tony muttered rubbing the back of his strained neck.
"So what, a pizza man walked into the building and took the stairs to deliver two pizza bombs?" Natasha asked, turning to Stark.
"We're only a couple stories above the lobby, it's not that much of a climb. He or she could have used the flight of stairs and walked right into the kitchen, which happens to have the least amount of security."
"Why would you put the defense systems offline?" Steve asked blocking the way before any of them got into the elevator. "If you hadn't been so careless the security system should have detected the bomb."
"I disconnected everything so it was all computer-based instead of relying on AI. It was late, I was tired," Tony reasoned lazily.
"That's no excuse, you put the whole team at risk."
"Look, what do you want me to say? I'm sorry, Rogers." With that said, he pushed past the man who was clenching his jaw, and got into the elevator. The ride up to the party deck was a silent one.
The whole team was rattled. And they had reason to be. This behavior was expected but Tony was upset about the whole matter as well. It affected him too. If he could barely deal with himself how was he to put up with five other people? In short, he couldn't.
Party deck.
"I'm going to head on downstairs and get washed up, team meeting in thirty." Tony said as they got out of the elevator. He rubbed the back of his neck, then brought his hand in front of his face with a disgusted look at the dust. God, he needed a shower. Badly.
Clint walked up to the three just as Stark was about to take off, "What took you guys so long?" Bruce was sitting calmly on the couches nearby.
"Where's Thor?" Steve dodged.
"Still out," Bruce mumbled tiredly, resting his elbow on the arm of the couch. His mug laid untouched on the coffee table.
"Hey, what's up with your fire sprinkles Tony? We nearly drowned in 'em," Clint poked, crossing his arms. Tony waved his hand, swatting at the matter, "The smoke from the kitchen triggered them, the whole building reacted. Minor computer error."
"Yeah whatever, get it fixed, I'm soaking."
"Water looks good on you."
"Shut up."
"Whatever feathers," Tony said, and made his way out. He took the elevator down to the sleeping quarters.
After the doors to the elevator had closed, Steve looked to his team. "I think we should all get ready, dry up, get dressed, meet here in thirty."
Clint and Natasha went off on their own, taking the stairs down to the bedrooms.
Steve turned to Bruce, "Follow Tony. Keep an eye on him, make sure he's okay."
Of course Steve meant more than just a friendly check up and Bruce knew that. He nodded his head, placing two hands down to push himself off the couch. Keeping true to the buddy system still, at least he was paired with someone he could talk to. He took the elevator down.
Back at the archer's bedroom, Clint was seated on the edge of his bed, rubbing his palms together, biting the edge of his tongue, gathering up the courage to ask the question that pegged everyone's mind. He took a leap. "So Nat, who do you think it is?"
She didn't answer, continuing her task of drying her hair with his purple towel. Had she not heard him? He hoped she didn't hear him, immediately regretting having asked. To his disappointment, she turned to him and he knew she heard him just by her eyes, the way she looked at him. He bowed his head slightly, looking back at his hands.
She walked over and took a seat by his side on the bed. She was sitting in an odd way. He frowned, she wasn't facing him directly or sitting up straight, in a way she was sort of leaning over and he soon understood why. Cameras were online. She held notecards in her hands; they were pressed close to her stomach only visible to him. It read two words: Tony Stark.
Now that all the systems were back online, so were the cameras. In the privacy of his room, Stark pulled up several screens previewing rooms that had activity within the last 24 hours. It was pretty pointless considering all the cameras were pointed at weird angles from being inactive, all he could do was control them now that the tech was back in his hands.
He couldn't help it. He changed the preview to present room view over the party deck where most of his teammates were when he last saw them. Most of them had gone, Steve was the only one still poking around. He used his camera locator to find the two former agents; they were in Clint's room drying off. He watched them for a while. He had another window open tracking Bruce's movement, the man was on his way to Stark's room.
Then he saw Natasha sit down next to Clint. Her back was to the camera. She knew. Based on her sitting position, she was communicating with Clint somehow. Tony pulled up another window projection, to all unauthorized technology devices. There were none. So she wasn't using a phone or any sort of communicator. Clint barely made any reaction and she had obviously shown him something but the damn camera wasn't positioned to see what.
"Sir, Bruce Banner-"
"Not now Jarvis," he muted his AI, insistent to keep his focus on the video. Natasha's arm moved, and for a short glimpse he saw it. She was using cards.
Then his door opened.
Stark changed his transparent projections as fast as a teenager switched tabs when his mom comes into the room. With his display changed, he put up a casual expression though refused to acknowledge the intruder as he normally would, simply focused in his own work.
"Am I interrupting?"
It was Bruce.
"No, not at all." Tony gave the doctor a smile, closing the projections, biting the inside of his cheek. He wanted to know what was going on with Clint and Natasha but Bruce here had to come in and ruin the party.
"You cleaned up fast," Bruce noticed. "Mind if I-?" He pointed to the bathroom.
"Oh no, go ahead." Tony waved him away, hoping to get a few more minutes of private time. The doctor left to dry off.
Tony waited till he heard the lock on the door before pulling up the window with Barton's room. They were gone.
"Dammit," he muttered, his fingers moving over the hologram to search the building. They were nowhere to be found but the entire building was on lock down, he made it that way. So where were they…? Tony rubbed his temples, think, think, think, he told himself. He sat up straight in his chair, "The boiler room." Of course! It was the only place with no cameras or audio recorders. They must have ran in the short time Tony wasn't paying attention to the monitor.
He got up from his chair and went to the door that led to the hall. Something needed to be done about the two former agents; they were a slippery pair and he didn't trust them. He knew their kind; they were sneaky. It was in their nature. He opened the door and there was Steve. Great.
"Going somewhere?"
"And if I am?" Tony challenged.
"Where's Bruce?"
"Washing up," Tony pointed over his shoulder back at the bathroom door. "Why?"
Steve shook his head, "Never mind."
They stared at each other for a while, with no words exchanged. The whole building was tense, including these two. Right before Tony could say anything the Captain spoke first.
"You said team meeting in thirty, it's past ten past thirty. So unless you were ditching…?"
"Oh." Right. "We'll be there," Tony assured the Captain, winking and shutting the door quickly. Steve sighed.
Bruce walked out of the bathroom, wearing dry pressed clothes.
"Better?" Tony perked.
Bruce nodded, "Much. Was that Steve?"
Tony shrugged, "Let's go, team meeting remember? Had to wait on you."
"Sorry," Bruce smiled, walking past him.
"It's fine, I'll be a minute hold on," Tony said, closing the door but not all the way. He left it ajar just a bit.
He went back to his monitor and pulled up a full diagram of the tower. Something wasn't right with his teammates' behavior and he took it upon himself to find out why. No one else but Steve seemed to truly care about the matter.
He counted the number of people at the party deck. There were three, which meant Steve, Bruce and… Clint? He noticed two dots on the sleeping quarters level and zoomed in, it was his room. He wasn't alone.
"You can stop pretending," a familiar voice spoke up from the door.
"I beg your pardon?" Tony asked with an innocent enough tone as he turned around in his wheelie chair to face the woman. Only the woman was not visible, for she chose to remain in the corner of darkness while the light of the projections illuminated Tony's face and left her in the dark. "JARVIS, lights please."
"Of course, sir." The AI responded, simultaneously turning on the lights to reveal Natasha Romanoff.
"I don't understand, how'd you—"
"Get down here so fast? We're on the same level, Stark. I walked."
"But I couldn't see you on the monitor."
"Of course not."
"This is trespassing."
"This is treason." She nodded toward him, arms crossed. If he were to get up she'd block his way.
Okay, fine. Natasha knew. She figured him out. The master assassin knew he contacted Hydra this morning. Tony could handle that but he needed time before he could explain. Damn. She could use that against him in this wild goose chase.
He ran to the open window.
"JARVIS, deploy Mark XI!" He ordered, his faith in his own tech was unwavering.
Tony had pressed the link on his bracelet as soon as Natasha showed up, figuring she knew about Tony. The link on his bracelet deployed the stealth suit and it arrived just on time. Natasha tried to intercept but Tony had the advantage of distance.
Natasha looked out the window where Tony had jumped. There was no sign of him, just the suit that zipped past her up the side of the building.
Maria Hill entered the party deck, and walked up to the three remaining Avengers. "I came as soon as I could after hearing that the Tower got bombed."
"So you came to check up on us?"
"In a way, yes. How are you all?"
"Good."
"Yeah, good."
"Bit off."
"Where's Stark?" She asked casually, asking the question to no one in particular, with her hands on her hips.
"You just missed him. He left the building less than three minutes ago," Natasha informed her, walking in.
"What?!" She dropped all pretenses, fake concern turned to alarm, and she took charge of the team, "We're leaving. Stairs. Now."
Steve frowned, "Why?"
"The bomb, the technology, the resources, it all makes sense," Clint filled in.
"Romanoff contacted me after the bomb went off and before it hit the news," Hill said. "I came here to move your base of operations to a former SHIELD base for extra security. It's safe and off the grid. You shouldn't be disturbed there."
"What does this have to do with Tony?" He pressed, trying to keep up. The pit in his stomach grew bigger and he hoped he was wrong. "What are you saying?"
"Tony Stark has been marked as Hydra," Hill broke the news to him.
"Stark is the traitor."
AN: And there we have it, I'll let you interpret it as you will. I'm working on some more team dynamics; changing up the writing style a bit, not sure if it's noticeable yet. Thank you for your continued support guys, writing this story wouldn't be the same without y'all.
chills10124: I must say, you keep throwing me off with all your amazing catches. I'll do better next time to stump you. Since the story's not over, I have a lot more to play with.
Purple Pixie5: I guess, here you have it? Ex-Shield says it's Tony.
Anana16: I'm glad you like it! Merci! Nice guess, and you have great English! Thanks for taking the time to read my story.
Wolftattoo: You've got a lot of wisdom, I can tell. Thought-provoking response.
aRedStarintheSky: Thank you!
fezwearingjellybananas: I absolutely love your review, and the whole examination.
Guest: Great! I'm doing my job right! You're welcome.
Theprogenitorofallthings: Glad you liked it.