"Found it!" Tony proclaimed loudly. His voice cut threw the quiet hum of the room like a shot.
Bruce looked up from his own computer screen startled by the other scientist's exclamation. He looked across at Tony's screen but couldn't make anything out anything discernible. They'd both been in the lab all day, subconsciously they were both trying to keep themselves busy and keep their minds off recent events but consciously they'd been working on different projects and Bruce didn't know what Tony was so excited about.
"That's great?" he half congratulated half questioned. "What's 'it'?"
Tony glanced back over his shoulder at Bruce and clarified. "You know how Thor called yesterday, right and said he's gonna be back soon?" Bruce nodded. "Well, he wanted to know how Loki is doing. I know I personally hope they've found I nice dank hole to keep prancer in; but I can't begrudge Romeo for just wanting to know about his brother."
Stark had seen the look on Thor's face when Fury's agents had taken Loki from him. The guy cared for his brother. Stark himself was starting to come to terms with the idea that family sometimes meant loving a person even if you didn't like them.
"So I've been trying to find out the sitch, that's short for situation, for him but we don't know anything because SHIELD's not saying and Fury has been unreachable for a week now." Tony explained, seemingly Bruce thought without stopping for a breath.
Tony put his hands up and expanded the image in the file he was looking at and Bruce was surprised to see it was the image of a tall windowless building and a street address. Bruce noted that the address was about an hour away maybe two hours if there was traffic from where they were. "So this is 'it'? Do you think that's where they're holding Loki?"
"Yeah, I hacked into SHIELD's computers and crosschecked personnel and equipment logs looking for any change in routine. There's been more activity at this SHIELD property in the past week then there has been in the past six months. I do have two other possible locations for our favorite villain's penalty box but this place, this place seems perfect."
"But you don't know for sure."
"No they're really playing this one close to the vest. I searched for video footage, there's usually video footage. This time I couldn't find any, like nothing linked to this location." Tony sighed, it was odd that they wasn't any footage, not even from the parking lot. This was the golden age of the security camera and SHIELD was the proverbial 'Big Bother.' "All I want is some conformation for Thor that his little brother and the babysitter's are getting along so that the god of thunder doesn't get pissed and pelt us with truck sized hail or something."
"So you can't hack into their security camera's or something and take a peek?" Bruce didn't know a lot about hacking but it seemed like if anyone did it was Tony.
"If they've got 'em they're not on any server I've been able to find. Maybe I could find some neighboring cameras or a satellite." Tony tried to think of other ways he could get the information he wanted.
"You know what, screw it, I think I'll just go up and knock on the door and see what's up. This is so not the time for Fury and SHIELD to go all incommunicado."
"That's bold, is it wise?" Bruce pointed out. They had been through a lot recently, still Bruce was just getting to know Tony. He mused that the genius seemed like the kind of guy who might get himself into trouble leaping before he looked. Bruce tried very hard to err on the side of caution.
"Wise shmise, I'm Iron Man and I just helped saved New York what are they going to do?"
"Hum, maybe you should take Steve with you." Bruce suggested earnestly.
"You might be right, the boyscout might be helpful."
The building was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, like an hour away from the city. It was a hugh building surrounded by an empty parking lot five miles off the main road. Tony purposefully parked his expensive car away from the building and the few other cars that were there.
When they pulled up there wasn't a soul in sight. "You really think that Director Fury is here?" Steve looked out the window.
"One way to find out." Tony said seriously.
"Alright but if SHIELD is here and they tell us to leave, I think we should." Steve knew after finding the weapons SHIELD was hiding on the Helicarrier that he shouldn't trust them blindly but that didn't mean he wanted to make a habit of sticking his nose where it didn't belong without at least some intel.
"I'm staying here." Bruce leaned up from the backseat to look out the front windshield at the building.
"You chicken?" Tony ribbed him and Steve gave Tony a disapproving look.
"You talked me into going on this little road trip but I don't have to go into that place if I don't want to." Bruce didn't mind going for a drive and getting out of the city for a while, he really hoped they would get this over and done with and head back.
"This shouldn't take to long. If Fury is here we'll relay Thor's message and be done." Steve laid out the plan so everyone knew it and Tony couldn't argue.
"And see about the rock Lokster." Tony added as he climbed out of the car.
He turned back to Bruce before shutting his door. "I'll leave the car running so you don't get too hot. You can change the radio station but no joy riding young man, I expect you and this car to be here when we get done." Tony chuckled. Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony's sass as he pulled out his iPad and sat back to wait for them.
Tony and Steve walked up to the large windowless building. There was only one door that they could see, it was thick steel and gave no clues as to what was inside the building. Tony reached for the doorknob.
"Tony do you think maybe we should try calling Fury again..." Steve stood back, hesitating. He was all for giving Fury the information from Thor, but he wasn't crazy about walking into a situation they didn't have any intel for. "Did you try contacting Clint?"
"If Tasha didn't know anything then Barton certainly doesn't know. Anyway we're here now, we might as well make sure that this is the place." Tony turned the doorknob and even he was surprised. "Look at that it's not locked."
Tony stepped inside and Steve followed him close behind. Inside it was dark in dramatic contrast with the brightness they'd just left. Tony stopped and Steve had to stop short to avoid running into him. Tony's eyes adjusted and he could see that there was another set of doors in front of them.
These were metal and glass, probably bullet proof and had a double deadbolt lock with a security card reader. The tech was older making Tony think that this building must not have been used in a while.
Tony pulled out his own SHIELD ID/key card. He'd was pretty sure it would work, he'd modified the encryption to give himself, in anticipation that he wouldn't have it, high enough clearance to gain access to the building. He ran the card through the reader and smiled when he heard the locks click open.
It was still dark when they walked through the second set of doors but their eyes were now well adjusted. They stepped into a narrow corridor. There was a hallway with a set of double doors to their left and a door fifteen feet in front of them that led to a set of stairs. Everything was cinder block, steel and grey, and quiet.
"What do you think door number one or door number two?" Tony asked looking back and forth wondering where all the people were.
Steve was apparently wondering the same thing. "Where is everyone?" Usually SHIELD facilities were teaming with guards, agents, and technicians. "Maybe this isn't 'it' and they're at one of the other buildings you located?"
Tony turned back to Steve to defend his educated guess but before he got the chance the door in front of them opened.
Always on alert Steve stood up straight and tensed ready for a confrontation. Stark stayed calm, he turned and put on his most charming smile as a woman in a white lab coat carrying a tablet came into the hallway.
She stopped in her tracks. The heavy door closed behind her with the 'bang' that echoed off the solid walls.
"You can't be here." She said sternly.
Tony held up his ID badge. "We have clearance." Even though he was projecting confidence the woman looked at him skeptically.
"Director Fury didn't say anything about..." The woman glanced every so slightly back the direction she came from.
Tony caught the gesture and leap into action. "So he is here." Tony smirked. He had guested right. "I've got a message to give him."
Tony walked around the woman and through the door and started up the stairs before the woman could get the words out of her mouth to protest.
The sound of the door closing drowned out the woman's feeble "You can't go up there."
Steve stood in the hall with the woman. "He is infuriating isn't he."
Fury sat on the edge of the long desk in the control room and looked out the window at his prisoner contemplating what his next move would be.
The prisoner had been rendered unconscious by the cattle prod yesterday but even in his less than healthy state he'd only stayed unconscious for about ten minutes and they'd found he didn't have Thor's gift for controlling electricity.
'good to know.' Fury thought snidely.
Fury stood from his perch and moved towards the control panel. "Let's kill the fans again." He spoke to the lab coated man at the computer who complied with a nod.
"What did the fans do to you?" a voice that Fury didn't expect came from behind him. Fury moved from where he had been leaning over one of the computers and stood up straight to his full height.
"What are you doing here Stark?" He asked without turning to the man. The door closed behind Stark.
Fury knew he shouldn't be surprised that Stark just let himself in, he was a self-important brat who had a track record of sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
"Just here to leave a message. I tried calling but you didn't pick up. Did your phone die, did you loose your charger?"
The flippant tone of Tony Stark's voice grated on Fury's every nerve.
"I'm working Stark." Fury expertly used his tone to implied that the 'too smart for his own good' genius should hurry up and get out.
"What are you working on? You are holding Loki here aren't you? Do you need any tech? I could help with that." Stark moved a step further into the control room.
Fury turned on his uninvited guest. He watch as a number of different expressions flashed on Stark's face he guessed in reaction to the intensely serious expression on his own the same he'd worn since he'd brought Loki here.
"The message." Fury demanded through clenched teeth.
"Yeah." Stark looked at Fury and then scanned the room, he couldn't see out the the viewing window from his vantage point. "Thor called, he said the stuff from Asgard will be here any day now."
Fury couldn't hide his reaction to the news. He desperately wanted to appear professionally detached but he knew that Stark could see his jaw muscles clench. He turned his back and looked out the window again where he could see Loki paying for what he'd done. "Fine, call us when he's back." Fury spoke dismissively.
Stark didn't leave. "Thor, he wants to know how his brother is."
Fury's hands curled into fists. "The prisoner is contained."
Stark stepped further into the control room. "I don't think that's what Thor wants..." His sentence trailed off when he got his first good look out the window and into the large open 'cage.' "What the?"
"We have the prisoner under control Stark." Fury growled, knowing without looking what had shocked Stark.
"Control is keeping the door locked on a padded cell and having scheduled meals and supervised recreation time. This is something else." Stark tried to take in and process what he was seeing but even seeing it didn't make it clear what he should think of whatever it was they were doing to Loki.
"Stark, the cell we had for the Hulk didn't hold him." Fury spoke. "We had to rethink how we hold him. We've had to do some experimenting."
"What experiments are you doing? What, you've found the guy gets a headache when the blood rushes to his head, well guess what that's true for everyone. This isn't a lab, you can't just do things and call them experiments." A thought in the back of Tony's mind burned to be spoken. "this is... torture."
Fury looked indignant at the accusation. "I'm protecting my planet from a crazed murderous alien Stark. What would you have me do? I made sure he won't escape this time. He won't get a chance to."
Stark felt conflicted. It arguably would take a lot to contain the crazy that was Loki. Still this looked cruel and unusual and that didn't set well with Tony.
Fury could tell that Stark's wasn't sure what to think. He put on his most confident and directorial air. "We are simply keeping his mind and body occupied he hasn't been physically touched."
Tony's eyebrow hitched skeptically. Fury continued. "He's never in one position very long and he's a god a little leaning this way and that is probably about as bothersome to him as some light turbulence on a plane might be to us."
Stark was curious now. He moved closer to the control panel and could see Loki hanging at an angle with his head down strapped to the same bondage backboard he'd left Stark Tower on a week ago. Stark looked at the computer screens and could see scans and graphs and even a full size x-ray of Loki on the wall, his brain started to compute what all the different numbers and charts meant.
"How does it work?" Tony asked looking over the engineer's shoulder.
The engineer looked to Fury for the signal. Fury nodded his head and the engineer swiped at the controls on the screen. The cables Loki was hanging from began to retract and bring him up to a vertical position.
The choice of position was that of the engineer and Fury knew almost instantly that it was a bad idea not making the call himself. The new position gave Stark, even from the distance that they were, a better view of Loki and the state he was in.
Loki was deathly pale, slack and sagging in his bonds, with red blood visible on his face and hands.
Stark's eyes widened and he turned green. Fury cursed the engineer with ever fiber of his being.
"Looks like you didn't have to lay a hand on him." Tony felt lied to.
"Stark." Fury spoke in a low gravelly tone that should have been a warning to the Avenger.
Looking again at the life size x-ray scan of Loki Tony could now see the brakes in bones. "You need to stop this now." Tony was no doctor but between the x-ray and what he could make of what were surely vitals readings on the monitors Loki was most definitely being tortured. "Are you trying to see how much it takes to kill him?"
"Stark, he's a war criminal." Fury argued.
"You're still not suppose to torture him. This is wrong, we're the good guys, we don't torture." Tony and Fury faced one another now. Tony's face had gone from sickly green, to 'saw a ghost' pale, to an determined angry red.
"Don't tell me what to do. I'm dealing with this, with him." Fury was shouting now.
"Doesn't make it right. There are other ways." Tony understood the 'knee jerk reaction' mentality, it made people, even good people, do horrible things.
"He's a murderer." Tony saw as Fury started breaking in front of him and he knew that this was personal for Fury just like defeating Loki had been personal for the Avengers.
That still didn't make it right in Tony's opinion. As it was this might start an inter planetary incident. Tony needed to try and do some damage control before Thor saw what Fury was doing to his brother.
"Fury, Nick stop this now and go to whatever safe house you call home and shower and sleep and eat. Eat a gallon of ice cream. Go and mourn." Tony sighed. "This isn't going to bring Coulson or any of the other victims back. Go home Fury, you may be the super spy but you're human and you have needs, and that may have been a Smith's song but my point stands. Go take care of you and don't let this kind of hate twist you into the kind of monsters you've worked to fight against."
"Or what?" Fury spoke with deadly seriousness.
"Or I'll find a way to stop this." Tony for all his earlier levity spoke now with the authority of a man who had lived through torture, through Hell.
Fury stood very still sizing up Tony as he made a decision. Tony was unnerved but didn't back down. In the end Fury decided to cut his loses and walk away. "That makes him your responsibility."
The engineering team took the director's cue and followed quickly after him.
Tony let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as the door closed and he was left alone.
"What now?" he asked.
He looked around the empty control room, at the body scans and the brainwave scans and quickly determined that this was not his area he pulled out his phone and dialed help.
TBC...
Thanks for reading. I've gotten some really nice reviews, thanks guys. This chapter was long and Avenger/ Fury heavy there will be lots of Loki in the next.