Author's Note: Ok so a few days from now I have surgery which means I won't be updating for a while (probably, I might get a wild hair who knows.) Just so you guys know that I'm not giving up on anything, just laid up for a while.

23. Detour

Piper yanked Harry into a supply closet as a group of heavily armed men marched past the hallway they were in. She handed him the gun.

"You can handle that right?" Harry nodded. Norman hadn't thought it was appropriate for him to know how to handle firearms but his favorite bodyguard, Frank, had taught him behind Norman's back. He'd said it was better safe than sorry. Piper nodded.

"That's the last clip I've got, so make them count." Harry nodded.

"What about you?" Piper pulled a bowie knife out of the belt, twirling it between her fingers like she'd been doing it her whole life. He raised an eyebrow at her, they were pressed close in the closet, both barely daring to speak above a whisper. She smiled slightly, it should have looked disturbing against the blood on her face but it didn't.

"Auntie Tasha and Uncle Clint may have taught me a few tricks." Harry nodded and they waited for a moment. Piper seemed to be thinking, then she nodded and cracked the door open. Harry followed her down the hallway.

Tony scanned the ground below them and nodded.

"Seems like Iron Fist's friend was right. There's a structure about seven feet down. Looks to be about six floors deep. One access point. And a whole lot of heat signatures. I'm counting at least one hundred fifty plus and no real way to tell which is the kids." Natasha shook her head.

"Not true. Piper's an enhanced, she runs hotter than the average human. Also, if she's bleed at all there will be a radiation trail, minor but still enough to follow." Tony stared at Natasha then around at the others none of whom looked surprised.

"Ok raise your hands if you knew that Piper was Spidergirl before SHEILD fell." Every hand in the Quinjet was hesitantly raised. Tony rolled his eyes. "You know what doesn't matter right now. JARVIS, scan with Romanov's parameters. Please." The AI complied and Tony swore to himself as a dim trail lit up through several floors of the structure. It was moving.

"Looks like she's on level six. Avengers, let's go get our kid back." The others smiled at Tony's slip and the Quinjet landed on the grass outside the small shed that led into the building.

Harry was a bit confused, mostly as to why they were heading further into the structure instead of up and out. Piper was too focused on the task at hand as she rounded a corner, knife at the ready. She pounced, slashing with the knife, forcing the gun out of the hands of an unsuspecting Hydra agent. He swore and she kicked him in the throat. He went down with a choked off scream. Piper snatched up his gun and shouldered open the door he'd been in front of. She smiled as she found exactly what she'd been hoping for.

The room was small, just a few old computer banks on older looking desks. But it was progress. Piper hurried forwards and pulled open a few drawers before fishing out a USB drive. She grinned and plugged it in.

"What are you doing?" Piper grinned at Harry.

"Making the best of a worst situation." Her fingers flew across the keyboard. Harry honestly had no idea what she was doing but the alarm was still blaring. Then suddenly the whole structure shook. Piper typed faster.

Cap made it down the stairs first. He leapt down them quickly, using the railing, much like Piper did. He didn't quite have her immaculate sense of balance though and had to roll at the bottom of the stairs. His com buzzed to life.

"Cap, they should be down the hall, third door on your left." He nodded at Tony's words and rushed down the hall. There were only a few men down here, all unconscious, most with knife wounds, though a few of them had been shot. Whoever had been doing the shooting wasn't all that great at it, only clipping them in the side or arm. But the knife wounds were all expertly placed, if he didn't know better he'd say they ran into Clint, but the archer was still topside with Thor making sure that none of the Hydra agents escaped. He had a feeling that any who tried weren't going to be alive for questioning.

He stepped up to the door Tony had described and heard the click of a safety being released, and the clicking of fingers across a keyboard. He cleared his throat.

"Piper? You in there?" There was a pause then the door was opened and Harry Osborn stared at him before letting out a shaking breath. He saw Piper over the boys shoulder, standing at the computer, her fingers still flying over the keyboard. He hissed slightly. She looked a little worse for the wear. There was a bright purple bruise trying to swallow her eye on her right cheek. Her lip was split and there was a small cut across her cheekbone. Steve stepped into the room, laying a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"We need to go." Piper held up a hand.

"In a minute." Steve raised an eyebrow at her.

"What do you mean in a minute?" Piper rolled her eyes.

"I mean exactly what I said. I need a minute." Steve's com crackled back to life.

"We've got a battalion headed your way Rodgers! Get the kids out of there." Steve tapped his com.

"Piper says she needs a minute." Tony went silent for a moment.

"Put her on your com. Now." Steve paused for a moment but removed his com from his ear and held it out to Piper. She rolled her eyes but slipped it into her hear one handed, the other hand continuing to race across the keyboard.

"Piper you follow Cap out of this hell hole now." Piper shook her head.

"I need a few more minutes. I found this base's main computer. Seriously low tech, I'm ripping everything I can get onto a USB. I'm almost done." Tony frowned slightly blasting another of the agents as he made his way towards the battalion heading towards his daughter.

"No." But Natasha cut across him.

"She's brilliant Tony. This is the best lead we've had on Hydra since SHEILD fell, we need to give her that minute." Tony was about to protest but Clint cut him off.

"Nat's right. She's maybe a step down from you in the brains department. Let her do this while we take care of the last of them." Tony rolled his eyes.

"JARVIS. How many more of these bastards do we have?" JARVIS did a quick scan.

'The only remaining able bodied Hydra agents are the twenty currently converging on Miss Parker's location.' Tony nodded then frowned.

"Wait able bodied. What do you mean J?"

'There are currently twelve downed agents along Miss Parker's original course through the structure. Four are simply unconscious, and eight are wounded.' Tony nodded as he flew down the stairwell. He raced into the hallway, blasting agents left and right. He was met halfway down the hall by Steve, sans coms who had taken out the other ten agents, very few of whom were still breathing. He followed his teammate down the hall into the room where Piper was still behind the desk. She grinned in triumph and snatched up the USB, slipping it into the pocket of her jeans.

"Got it." Tony nodded.

"Great, lets get the hell out of here!"