Ha-ha! I bet you all thought I was dead. I was, kinda. Apparently my time management skills between 20 credits, 20 hours of work, and running a school organization is worse then I thought it was. However, I have emerged from this semester victorious, so there is that. AND I finally got back to work on this!
I hope that this makes many of you who have read, favorited, followed, and reviewed (which, by the way, so many thanks! You all are awesome) happy and I hope I don't let you down with this chapter. Know this-I've already started working on the third chapter, so it won't be, you know, three months until you get another update. Hopefully.
Anywho, you all know the drill-read, review, enjoy!
(And happy holidays if I don't get the next chapter up in time!)
It hadn't taken long to get the rest of the team assembled; they only had to find Natasha and send an alert to Thor, who would meet them at the tower. They had been itching to go after A.I.M. ever since Clint had called in transport to come pick them up and ordered a medical team. They had arrived, hoping that someone on the team could appease Tony into behaving for the medical team and instead they had found a barely conscious, barely breathing Tony, face pale and lips tinged slightly blue as he struggled to pull in the breathe he needed. Clint had a hand on his shoulder and was murmuring things in his ear. As soon as the medical team arrived, Clint had relinquished his hold on Tony and a few minutes later, he had slipped into the coma he had yet to come out of.
Everyone had been restless since then, confined to the helicarrier as they waited for news. But now, now they were going to actually be able to do something.
Fury was waiting for them when they approached the quinjet.
"Stealing one of my quinjets again? Last time you destroyed New York."
"Technically it was only Manhattan," Steve said, stepping forward. The rest of the team held back, letting their leader take control. "And this time, we're only making a brief stop there."
"And just what do you need back in Manhattan?"
"Weapons. Information. Our last teammate." Fury's eye narrowed as he confirmed what they were doing. Steve pushed on. "We gave you time. We gave you almost a week to find information and so far you've got nothing. We're not just going to stand around anymore while a teammate dies."
Natasha stepped forward suddenly, her arm brushing against Steve's as she stood beside him. Her muscles were tight with anger. "How long have you known Tony was dying?"
Suddenly, Steve understood. Fury hadn't even reacted when he said Tony was dying. Someone had told him about the poison infecting his heart which, really, wasn't a surprise because there were other doctors working with Bruce. But how long had they been kept in the dark so they would stay on the ship?
"For a day. And I told the doctors not to tell you so you wouldn't go running off on some hare-brained mission. You're already down one teammate. I'm not losing my whole team."
For the second time in that hour, white hot rage coursed through Steve. He forced his mind to stay concentrated. As much pleasure as it would give him to throw Fury off the helicarrier, it wouldn't get them anywhere. "You're giving up on saving Tony," Steve stated. "Did you even try to look into A.I.M?"
Fury glared at him. "Yes, and I lost three of my best agents to them.'
"No," Clint said, stepping forward to join Natasha and Steve. "Three of your best agents are right here. And now your three best agents are going out."
"You three are benched. I'm ordering you to stand down." Fury's tone was daring them to challenge him. The part of Steve that was a trained soldier, who had dealt with the military his whole life, was agreeing to stand down. But the part of him that made up the majority of who he was only took Fury's words as fuel to add to his fire of anger.
"And I'm ordering you to fuck off. You either move aside or I'll move you aside," Steve said. Never before had he challenged authority this blatantly and disrespectful. Beside him, Natasha and Clint tensed, ready for a fight if it came to it. Fury noticed it and, while they were on his ship, it would take at least five seconds for back up to arrive, and three trained agents could easily take him down in that time. Not to mention, he wouldn't risk the loyalty of his three best agents. He stood down.
"Fine. But I'm sending Coulson after you," he said as moved aside. Steve nodded stonily as the three of them walked past him to board the quinjet. There was silence as Clint activated the jet and gently pulled it up and out into the open sky. The sun was blazing brightly.
"So now that that's over, what exactly is the plan Cap?" Clint asked, setting in the coordinates for the Avengers' Tower in New York into the system.
"I know Fury said Jarvis didn't get anything, but right now I'm not inclined to trust him. Besides, maybe we just need to get the right person to ask Jarvis. Natasha, I need you to call Pepper and have her meet us at the tower," Steve said, looking out over the sky. He knew how this was going to work. If one of their teammates went down, the rest would go down trying to save them. It was just how teams like theirs worked, and he had a feeling that Fury never really expected to see them again.
~o0o~
"So explain to me again how exactly you plan to get into there without a map?" Clint asked, adjusting the bow on his back as they crouched down on one of the hills that surrounded the warehouse. It was good cover for the highly illegal operation, but it also provided them with good cover as they scoped the place out.
"Not just me Barton. You too," Tony said. Jarvis was currently hooked up to his blue tooth device and situated in his ear. As he scanned the area, he reported back only what he could tell without hacking into the system. Tony was starting to get really tired of this high security system—without being able to break in, he couldn't bring all of the traps and codes down before they headed down the hill, so they would have to avoid what traps Jarvis could pick out and Clint could spot and then go old school on the entrance codes and hack them when he got to them. Not to mention, it was grating on his ego. He was supposed to be the leader in technology and he'd never met a system he couldn't corrupt.
He really wanted to take A.I.M. down.
"Their system is too advanced for me to hack into from an outside source, so we're in stealth mode," Tony said. He saw Clint roll his eyes at him and let out his trademark smirk.
"And there's no way I can just go in by myself? It's bad enough that you have to carry that thing," he pointed to the bright red and gold briefcase sitting at Tony's feet, "with you, but you aren't even trained for stealth!"
"Tell me birdbrain, did you understand anything I was doing in the lab the last couple days?"
Clint rolled his eyes again. "Tony, I gave up trying to understand your work a long time ago."
"Then no, you can't do this. Point, me."
"When you're the first one to get discovered and I have to come save your ass, then I get to use one of your cars for a week." Tony opened his mouth and Clint added, "One of the ones in your workshop. Not one of the ones you keep to crash."
Tony scowled. "Fine. Here, put this in your ear. It's hooked up to Jarvis, and he'll be able to tell you where some of the traps are set up."
"How, exactly?" Clint asked as he put it in. "I mean, if he can't hack it, how can he tell there's traps there?"
"Most machines give off a hum at a certain frequency when they're on. He can scan for that frequency. Now are we going to do this or what?"
Clint pulled his bow off his back, testing the string just to be sure before they left. "Let's go."
Twenty minutes later, they had finally made it down the hill, around the traps, and through one of the back doors. The security on the door was low compared to the rest of the warehouse, only asking for a palm print and a numeric code. The latter, Jarvis was able to provide easily and the first was just a matter of heating the screen to a certain temperature before the residual palm print was at human body temperature.
"What now?" Tony asked as the door opened and they slipped inside. When Clint shot a glare at him, he shrugged. "You're the tactician here. Plus I don't have any help here without technology."
Clint sighed. "Fine. We'll have to split up and look for the control room."
"Whoa Buckeye, I don't need the control room. Just any computer. Lot less security in some of those side rooms."
"Are the coms still secure?" Tony shot him an offended look. "Right, of course they are," he said before Tony could start some protest. "Stay in constant contact. I don't like this."
"Aye-aye," he said with a two fingered salute. Tony hefted the suitcase higher, wishing he could just throw it on the ground and trigger it. Natasha had started training him in stealth but he still preferred his suit any day.
Most of the doors required a code that he really didn't feel like breaking through. In the meantime, Clint was constantly talking in his ears, safe up in his rafters. Tony responded with quiet one worded answers as often as he could. While there were some guards walking by…
"You notice how deserted this place is?" Tony asked as Jarvis scanned for connecting computers and life forms.
"Maybe it's a side base. We don't know anything about them," Clint said, but Tony heard the implied or it's a trap in his tone.
"Right," Tony responded.
"Sir, the room to your right is unlocked and also has a computer that is connected to the network," Jarvis intoned.
"Great. Tell Clint."
"Right away sir."
Tony slipped into the room. It was complete deserted. A couple of monitors were hooked up into the operating system on one side. Other than that, the room was empty.
"Tell Clint this is definitely a trap. Then see what you can do to break into the system."
"Sir I'm detecting an-"
Tony heard it just before he felt it—a slight whirring sound of a machine coming to life. Then the computer in front of him shut off, Jarvis' voice was cut off, and the light in the reactor died.
Normally, the arc reactor held up to EMP devices. But this one was a powerful one, and was closer than he had ever planned on allowing such device. His heart began to stutter, his breathing became uneven, and he stumbled back against the wall.
Definitely a trap.