I'm back baby! I've had quite a bit of downtime, so I'm trying to crank out as many chapters as possible before my family gets here next week for the holidays. Because then, it's freaking crazy town to try and slip away. I hope you enjoy! I'm trying to start getting back on the story-line here, so we can see the whole Avengers thing, which is why you are here. Review please (thanks to all who did!)
"Got you!" Tony cheered happily as Evan scowled, before Tony scowled as Riley tagged him, laughing the whole time.
"Now I got you!" The girl giggled, ducking behind the bushes to avoid the laser fired her way. Tony had whipped up some altered gadget for their guns, so they could play laser-tag. A few Ipad screens attached to vests with some altering worked as sensors.
The Ipad screens had been stolen from men and women they had killed, as Tony enjoyed messing with the technology, and the Chasseurs at the den didn't appreciate it when he took apart the servers. So there they were on the warm spring day, running around the French countryside.
They were messing around in the small clearing with the stream running through the middle, their horses grazing in another clearing full of grass about thirty feet north of them. They were a mile or so away from the den. The Mischief Mongers spent as much time as possible outside, as they were all stir crazy when contained.
And so they wouldn't be harmed by the others for their pranks. Since they spent so much time outside, they had developed many games to play, to stave off the boredom. Sometimes though, they sat in a field, tree, top of the cliffs, or by the riverbank just talking and staring at the sky. They had been scolded many times for sneaking out with snacks and blankets to watch the stars at night.
But laser-tag was one of their favorite activities. For some reason, despite Evan being a sniper, and Tony using pistols more often than the others, they were all evenly matched. Unlike paintball, where Evan destroyed them, hide and seek (yes, they play it, sue them), where Riley had spent a record of six hours without being found (and yet able to find them in under ten minutes), or wrestling where Jace dominated.
Now that he thinks about it, he still doesn't know where Riley was hiding that day. Tony was brought out of his musings by the angered yell of Jace, and a cackling Evan. He had just enough time to dodge a laser shot by Riley.
"Hold still and allow me to destroy you!" Jace screamed at Evan, who was nimbly dodging Bear's attacks.
"Nice try, Mama Bear! Getting slow in your elderly age?" Dragon taunted, laughing as he scaled a tree, jumping from one branch to another, Jace following on foot, firing madly into the trees.
"Well, as amusing as that is," Tony spun to see Tourra Wolf standing with a smile on her lips behind him. "I need to see you in my office in half an hour please." She smirked at a sudden yell of shock coming from the trees ahead of them before mounting her black mare and trotting away.
"Boys! Wolf needs us!" Riley called, running into the trees.
By the time they managed to catch Evan and Jace, it had been fifteen minutes. They rode back in ten, and skidded into Wolf's office in thirty-one minutes.
They sat in their appointed seats, and looked at Wolf, who was sitting calmly behind her desk, hands folded, a grim look on her face.
"Mongers, I have some rather bad news." They looked worriedly at each other. "Obadiah Stane, remember him Tony." A puzzled Tony nodded slowly.
"Yeah, complete asshole… My godfather, and current CEO of Stark Industries. Why?" Tony asked, a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"Well… He's gone off the deep end." Wolf stated blandly. "Ever since he took over the company, he's been selling SI weapons to terrorist organizations. They have taken thousands of lives from people, and the US government has asked us to take care of the problem because they don't have enough evidence to do so."
"So you want us to take the hit?" Jace asked, slightly puzzled about why Wolf seemed so serious about this.
"Yes… But one more thing must go into play because of this." Tony's eyes widened as he figured it out.
"What?" Evan asked slowly.
"I need to take over Stark Industries instead." Tony said softly.
"NO!" Riley shrieked. "NO, NO, NO, NO! You are NOT taking my brother from me!" She latched onto Tony, burying her face in his shirt.
"Calm down the lot of you!" Wolf exclaimed, silencing three of the four MMs protests.
"You can still see him, just be quiet about it!" With that protests were brought way down.
"So, when do we do it?" Tony asked firmly.
"Two weeks." Tony nodded.
"Why that long?" Evan asked. Wolf winced at what she knew was about to be a new round of protesting.
"Well, it takes two to four weeks for a bruise to heal…" Riley hissed, standing up quickly.
"You want to hurt him! Why?"
"We need a background story! Being held captive by Stane for nine years is the best cover we can come up with, not too many details to keep straight, no one to accuse us of lying." Wolf explained.
"And someone held captive would be hit a lot. So bruises with different stages of healing… Oh, that's good…" Tony mumbled to himself. Riley was still bristling, but sat down. All four of the siblings had moved closer together in a protective group, making Wolf's heart warm slightly at the sight.
"Well then, let's go." Jace said tersely, but determined. The other nodded.
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The next two weeks passed quickly. Tony received small beatings every evening, and ate less to show more muscle loss, and it killed his family and the other Chasseurs to see it happen to him. The MM found themselves on a quinjet headed for Stane's house in Coronado, California.
It took them a few hours to get to the overly lavish house. They snuck in after dark, the large glass doors easy to breach, and walked without even bothering to disguise their presence there.
Stane did wake until they were standing around his bed in a creepy fashion. Riley laughed, and Stane bolted up, head whirling around the room.
"Wha-No! Please, nonononono, Please please please!" Stane sobbed.
The Chasseurs watched the pathetic mess with raised eyebrows.
"I think he tops that Youns guy for 'most pathetic meltdown champion'." Evan said dryly as Stane sobbed into his sheets, stuttering out his false promises and apologies.
"Can I play with him a little?" Riley asked innocently. The boys each held up their hands and backed away.
"Have at it, sister." Jace said. Riley giggled, pulling her daggers from her sheath, and crawled over to Stane in a sultry way, tracing the blubbering man's jawline with the blade, nicking him ever so slightly.
"You like hide and seek?" She asked sweetly, as Stane's eyes widened. "Good. You've got thirty seconds to hide. Ready, set, go!" She laughed as Stane scrambled from the bed and out the door, swinging her legs as she counted.
Tony disabled the house phones, and blocked cellular service to the house with a few taps on his wrist gauntlet he had created. Basically a tablet for his arm, but it was already cued into almost any server on the planet. He still had a few left to crack, but he was getting there.
"Should we stop her?" Tony asked from his perch on the edge of the bed. It had been almost half an hour of Hyena chasing Stane around, and while it was amusing they were getting bored. Stane ran by shrieking like a little girl, body covered in cuts from Riley's daggers, hands waving wildly in his panic. The boys followed him with their entire head, moving in sync as he ran across like a scene from a movie, before returning their conversation.
"Probably." Evan said lazily from his spot leaning against the headboard.
"I really can't be bothered." Jace muttered. They watched as Stane ran screaming across the doorway again, Hyena cackling behind him.
"We've gotta' be in Arizona so we can drop you off soon though." Bear turned toward Panther sadly.
"Yeah, and someone has to rough me up a little too." Tony spoke as Stane passed again, this time crawling quickly past the door, Riley walking slowly after him, singing 'Crazy'.
"Alright," Jace grunted, standing and stretching. "Let's go stop our sister before she has all the fun." They walked toward the door, chuckling as Riley hummed her song while smiling at Stane, who was quivering and sobbing in the corner.
"Obadiah Stane," Jace boomed from his position in the center of the small line they had formed, Dragon on the far right, twirling his bow staff, popping the hidden blades out.
Hyena was on the far left, crouched, finger tracing the edge of her blade. She cocked her head back and fourth in a creepy fashion, watching Stane closely.
Panther stood to the right of Bear as well, glaring silently at Stane. "You have been found guilty of supplying terrorist cells with weapons that have claimed thousands of lives, Tourra Wolf finds you worthy of death." Obadiah sobbed and begged.
"We're here to carry out the orders." Bear finished.
"We are the Death Walkers. And you are in our sights." They said as one. It was a joke Riley had said during one mission, and it had stuck.
And those were the last words Obadiah ever heard. Tony hit his gauntlet, pausing the cameras from recording for the next twenty seconds, and the group of four sprinted out of the house and onto the motorcycles they had been given for the mission, which Riley was especially enjoyed. Tony would remember that.
They made it to the quinjet in record time. They gathered close together, physical contact reassuring them that the others were still there. Because their group of four, was going to be three for the next few weeks until Tony could get some time alone to meet them in private and act like he knew them.
A couple hours later they landed in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. They stumbled out sleepily into the cool night air, blinking at the blandness of the desert area. Tony nodded towards the small town of blinking lights in the distance.
"Ok, let's do this." Riley nicked Tony a few times, and Jace broke his nose to help with the illusion. Their many past injuries on the job would look to anyone who didn't know what they did as abuse, so that made it all the more realistic.
Afterwards, they came forward into a huddle, pressing their foreheads together in a final goodbye.
"Au revoir, frère ... On se voit bientôt. (Goodbye, brother... We'll see you soon.)" Riley murmured softly, pulling Tony's face to hers, tears falling down their cheeks. They would see each other in a few days, but they had never been separated for more than a week without contact and complete control of the situation.
"Ne vous inquiétez pas sœur, je suis un grand garçon. (Don't worry, sister. I'm a big boy.)" Tony joked back just as soft. Evan and Jace latched on the boy into a hug.
"Nous t'aimons. À bientôt.(We love you. See you soon.)" Evan croaked out. This caused more tears to dampen their eyes. Despite loving each other very much, it wasn't something they voiced often. Tony remembered the first time one of them had uttered it when they were eight.
Flashback
Riley sat on her bed, her brothers around her to comfort her as she cried. She cried and cried, before laughing coldly. They murmured softly to her in support, reminding her that they were there.
It was a particularly bad nightmare and took Riley almost half an hour to calm down. Blinking tears from her eyes she looked around at them.
"I love you guys." She said quietly. They started at the words before smiling, pulling her closer.
"We love you too, sister." Evan muttered softly, the other boys repeating the words moments later.
"You're the first family I've ever had…" Riley yawned, drifting off into sleep.
They fell asleep in a pile for the first time after that.
Tony was brought out of his memories as they released him.
"See you in six days." Jace chuckled, wiping his face.
"Bye Ton." Riley sniffed, giving a sad smile before boarding the quinjet, the other two following.
"Bye guys." Tony called weakly, waving as the jet took off. And with that, he wiped his tears, tore his old baggy t-shirt to make it look older, and rubbed some dirt on it in places to seem grimy.
Tony quickly discovered that was pointless, because in one hour he was covered in sand, dirt, and his shirt torn from a run in with a cactus (he silently vowed never to tell anyone what happened). He was very dehydrated and starving as he grew steadily closer to the small town.
They had picked it because of the small hospital there. He was still another hour away, and the sun started beating down on him as it rose, so he tied his shirt over his head to keep the worst of the heat off his head. He now fully looked the part of a boy held captive for years, as his newly acquired cuts, bruises, and broken nose set in, along with his hair growing damp with sweat, and the stench of blood from Stane remained slightly. Plus the BO of an adolescent sixteen year old boy grew in strength.
Almost an hour and a half later, he stumbled into the ER of the Franklin Hospital, collapsing as nurses and doctors swarmed him. He faded from consciousness.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
"Sir, can you hear me? Sir?" Some voice asked and Tony groaned.
"Sir. Can you open your eyes please?" Tony groaned again and slowly pried his eyes open, staring around with blurry eyes. Blinking, he noticed the three or four nurses and the doctor standing around him.
"H-hello?" He asked with a realistic croak. One of the nurses quickly handed him a glass of water, to which Tony drank greedily.
"Where… Where am I?" He asked to keep up the facade. The doctor checked his eyes for something.
"You're at Franklin Hospital, Turo, Arizona. Can you tell me your name?" The doctor answered.
"Yeah, uh, Tony. Tony Stark." One of the nurses gasped and ran out of the room, the others glancing at each other in shock.
"Ok, Tony. Could you tell me your birthday?"
"May thirteenth, 1988." Tony rasped.
"We need to take a DNA test to prove you really are Tony Stark, ok?" The doctor spoke as the nurse came back with a needle and a small biological sample bag, along with a vile.
"Uh, sure." Tony nodded, and looked at the needle 'nervously'.
After many tests, He was confirmed as Tony Stark, and an FBI agent arived.
"Mr. Stark?" A woman asked, knocking on the door. Tony looked up from where he was 'reading about everything that had happened'.
"Yes?" He asked quietly. He was trying to act a little shy, but was slowly coming out of my shell.
"I'm SSA Thalia Young, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" She asked, coming a little closer.
"I don't really have a choice do I?" Tony chuckled, causing her to let out a small laugh in return.
"Not really." She took a seat next to his bed. "Do you mind explaining where you've been the past nine years? Please describe in as much detail.
Tony pretend flinched slightly and looked as his hands. "I-I-I remember being woken up by a man in black, a bandana over his mouth. H-he grabbed me, and stuck a rag in my face, and I think it was chloroform on it now, because I passed out. I woke up in a room. There was a mattress, a toilet, and a sink.
"The place was filthy, and I wa-was scared." He paused and took a fake deep breath to calm his nerves, watching in silent satisfaction at the look of pity in Agent Young's eyes.
"They men came back in, and told me my mom and dad were dead… I think I cried for a while, before one of them smacked me and told me to shut up. They told me they wanted me to make things for them-weapons.
"I told them I didn't know how. The next few years passed in a blur." He stopped, looking at the opposite wall, with fake tears. The agent put her hand on his in sympathy.
"You can stop if you need, Mr. Stark." He shook his head.
"N-no. I can keep going. They h-hit me… A lot. They let me read and learn because they wanted me smart so I could make them weapons. I think I might have been a stress reliever too. When I was ten something weird happened." He took a deep shuddering breath and the agent leaned forward in anticipation.
"They said I had a v-visitor," Tony let his face crumple. "And in walked…" The agent drew in a breath. "In walked Obadiah Stane." The agent gasped before remembering herself.
"Hem, please continue."
"I w-was so excited, I-I-I thought he was going to save me, but… It t-turns o-out he w-was responsible for my a-abduction to begin with." The agent's eyes widened. Tony was dying laughing internally, but kept a devastated face in real life. Tony kept up giving the agent false details of his 'captivity', and finally got to the previous night,
"Last night they were acting weird, and then someone said that the money had stopped, because Stane was dead. That since Stane was no longer paying for me to be held, I was useless. They knocked me out, and I woke up in the desert." He finished, the agent nearly in tears.
"Thank you, Mr. Stark." Young said, standing, shaking his hand, before leaving the room.
The rest of the day passed with the nurses giving him pitying looks, and passing him candy when they could. Tony pulled off the innocent act well. At six o'clock, he pulled up the news, nearly laughing at the headline.
"Breaking News, after nine years of being missing, Tony Stark, son of Howard Stark and heir to Stark Industries, was found wandering the deserts of Arizona. Tony Stark was apparently held captive by a group of unidentified men being paid by Obadiah Stane, the former CEO of Stark Industries.
Obadiah Stane was found dead this morning in his house. He was killed by the group of assassins known as the Death Walkers. The group of four are some of the youngest assassins to date, and are the most deadly in the world. The Death Walkers include Ursa Bear who has one hundred and twenty-seven kills, Estra Hyena with one hundred and fifty-six kills, Waiku Dragon with one hundred and forty-eight kills, and Tagoi Panther with one hundred and fifty-two kills.
Stane was found with each of their tokens, making a grand total of two hundred and eleven kills as a group in just the four years they've been active, earning them the title of Death Walkers. The confession note found with Stane's body read: 'I've been selling weapons to terrorists around the globe in order to raise my profits, killing thousands. I end anyone who tries to stop me. I took advantage of Howard Stark's death by kidnapping his son to gain control of SI forever.'."
"Thank you, Karen. It appears that there is a pattern developing here, The Den des Chasseurs keeping killing SI CEOs. Will Tony Stark follow?"
Tony chuckled at the screen. Oh yes, this was going to be a very interesting next few months.
Well, I really am starting to think no one likes it, because only two people reviewed (that I've seen until this point where I'm writing this) on the last few chapters. P-L-E-A-S-E Review! Bye!