Tony dropped from above, letting the thrusters cut out at fifty feet to give his impact a little more weight. "Hi," he said, as he stood, ignoring the delighted squeal and crescent-shaped eyes of Wilson's mask. "You can let him go now."
"Who?" Wilson followed Tony's gaze to the weakly struggling man in his grip. "This guy? Naw, we're buds."
"He's blue," Tony pointed out. "I don't think he wants to be friends."
"I kicked his ass, he's bound to be a little down - oh, you mean literally." Wilson held the agent out at arm's length, fingers firmly wrapped around his throat. He surveyed him critically. "Wow, that is not a good color on you, man. You're more of an autumn."
"Let him go," Tony said, and raised a hand, palm out. "Now."
The agent fell aside as Wilson grabbed Tony's extended gauntlet with both hands and tried to shake it enthusiastically; the armor didn't move. "I'm a huge fan. Hugest fan. Especially of your early work. 'Bigger tits,' amiright?! Just throw Ross my way, and I'll be out of your luxuriously soft, touchable-looking hair."
"I can't believe I'm being forced to say this, and don't think it won't haunt me at night, but Secretary Ross is under my protection." Tony pulled his hand back. "What do you want with him?"
"Like I said, he took my girl."
"You didn't say that."
The mask blinked. "You sure? Like, back in chapter eight? Maybe nine?"
"Start at chapter one," Tony suggested after a beat. "Who's 'your girl?'"
"I am so glad you asked." Wilson pulled a leather wallet from the grubby depths of his pocket, ignoring the detritus that flew out with it. Including an unwrapped, half eaten Twinkie and several vintage subway tokens. He flipped it open, and held it up proudly. "Here's my little Princess."
"She's not your little anything," Tony said, staring at a decade-old photo of Michiko Teller. "And that's not your wallet." He snatched it away and flipped to show a driver's license in the other compartment. "It's Paul Teller's."
"Huh. Weird. Oh, here we go." Wilson held up a significantly more disturbing collection of leather, rubber bands, gum and condom wrappers, which might have been a wallet in another life. From it, he shook out a handful of smeared and crusty photos of a familiar-looking woman in various states of undress, staring at the camera with expressions ranging from barely faked annoyance to very real love.
"This is Vanessa on Valentine's Day," Wade gushed. "Oh, and here's last International Woman- actually, you don't need to see that."
"Vanessa Carlysle," Tony said, as FRIDAY displayed her record from files he'd pulled from the hidden installation's servers.
"I know what you're wondering, and no, she doesn't do children's parties." Wilson shook his head. "I do. On request. Sometimes not on request. It's the look on their little faces I love the most."
Tony really wished the armor allowed him to massage his temples. He made a mental note to build that into the next iteration. "She can change her appearance at a cellular level."
"Which was a shock to both of us, I tell you what. Golly. I can't begin to think what good, wholesome fun we'll have with that one."
"So, what? She got snatched, you tracked her down. How?"
Wilson's head tilted fractionally to the side. "How do you think?"
Something in Wilson's body language made it clear the man wasn't smiling anymore and that was a lot more unnerving that Tony had anticipated; he gained a grudging appreciation of why Ross had chosen the better part of valor.
"Okay," he said, deciding not to follow that line of enquiry. "You found the installation, you got in with Teller's ID card, you busted your girlfriend out. Did you break the others out too?"
"Who can say?" Wilson shrugged easily; the clown was back. "Screaming, gunfire, explosions - I was distracted."
"I've known you for the three most regrettable minutes of my life - including all the ones spent in a cave - and I can already tell screaming, gunfire and explosions don't distract you. Squirrels, maybe. How did she end up looking like Teller's kid?"
" They ," Wilson stage whispered, then held up his hands apologetically. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't want to interrupt - you were doing great. They. Go."
"All of them," Tony said. "They all changed to look like a ten year old ?"
"Some guy called Smerdy. Smernov? He pointed out as how most people hesitate before pulling the trigger on a kid, even shadowy government lackeys. That was the only picture I had for them to copy. And it was going great, until some asshole threw a stun grenade at us, because apparently projectiles don't count.
"So everyone's on everyone. Everyone is everyone: there's kids, some blue chick, suspiciously flesh-colored filing cabinets. Vanessa got really tall. Then tiny . Then she turned into Blue and attacked her - that was a good time. We laughed. We cried. Some of us may have soiled ourselves, just a little bit.
"Then this Sydney guy manages to get a hand on her, and she turns into a puddle of goo. Literally. I mean, they say that? But, seriously. And my mother always said goo wasn't for marrying, so you can totally imagine my distress."
"Vanessa doesn't just change her appearance," Tony said, grimly. "She can mimic other enhanced people's powers. Kicks in on touch. She was a shape changer absorbing the abilities of other shape changers. Probably couldn't control it."
"I'm pretty sure that's what I just said? Anyhoo, whole mess of screaming. It was mostly me. I'm man enough to admit it. Then I'm carrying my best goo out in a bucket, everyone's scattered. Total clusterfuck.
"Something explodes, I'm flying without wings. And legs. Just me and my goo - romantic as balls, right? My goooo, talkin' 'bout my gooo-oooo. My goo !"
"This is hell, isn't it? I actually died, and I went to hell, and somehow this is Rhodey's fault."
"Anyway, I woke up and Vanessa is the kid again - not great, but better than goo - except she has no idea who I am, or who she is. We hightailed into the city, but that Ross guy, he's a persistent fuck. I left Vanessa at a shelter with a fake name and played diversion."
"That was weeks ago, so I'm guessing it didn't work out great for you."
"Did you know they're not even bothering to rendition outside the States anymore? Budget cuts everywhere, man. On the plus side, when I finally carved my way out of there, I only had to thumb a ride from Iowa. You meet just lovely people out there, on the open road."
In the rising sea of confusion, a thought bobbed to the surface. "How did you know it was her?" Off the mask's quizzical expression, Tony shrugged. "The kid who was there when you woke up, was she definitely the same one you took out of the installation? Another shifter could have taken her place, used you to protect them."
Wilson froze for a beat. "Well. Shit." He crossed his arms and continued almost peevishly. "That's going to keep me up at night. That's okay though, the infomercial programming has really stepped up its game. Hector's evil twin has married not one, not two, but three-"
"Enough." Tony blasted the ground in front of Wilson's feet.
"Was that necessary?"
"Yes. Here's the thing: killing Ross won't help you, he's playing the part of government stooge in this particular shit show. The guy you want is called Stryker. You could take him out, but I have serious doubts he'll be inclined to do anything about Vanessa's condition. Your best bet is-"
"The Avengers?! Gasp!" Wilson's hands framed his face while his mouth formed a perfect 'o.' "I'm not even wearing my good utility belt!"
"No, because any one of them would crush you within seconds just to get you to shut up. You get me and my rapidly diminishing good will."
"Team up! I'm so psyched right now. I'll just go kill Ross and-"
"No one dies." Tony gently boosted his thrusters, hovering in Wilson's way. "I'll do what I can to help Vanessa if no one dies. That's the deal."
Wilson turned away, muttering; it took Tony a moment to realize he was arguing with himself. In different voices. One of them had a lisp.
"Okay." Wilson spun back around. "Deal. We go to the shelter."
Tony touched down again. "Haven't been watching the news lately, huh?"
-o o-
Castle stared intently at the kid; Jessica stared intently at Castle. He didn't look like he was about to make a play, but she was willing to bet that was because he'd decided he didn't need to, and not because it would have been suicidally insane.
Everyone and their damn aunt - literally - knew more than she did. The last time she hadn't pushed hard for answers, hadn't forced everything out into the light, people had died. Wasn't happening again.
Luke, Peter and a suit of armor - Pepper Potts, she guessed - were standing in front of a small girl and a larger boy about Peter's age: Ellie and Ned. Another man and woman - S.H.I.E.L.D. for sure - were in the center of the room, standing shoulder to shoulder with identically cautious expressions.
Behind her, Colleen quietly shut the apartment door.
"Cards on the table," Jessica said into the silence. "Right now. And I don't give a fu- uudge about 'classified.'" She rounded on Castle. "We're starting with you, gun nut."
"Guy I owed lost a prisoner. That ain't him." Castle shrugged, looking bored. "I'm done here."
"Sit your ass down." She held up a forewarning finger as Castle's mouth began to open. "And if you 'yes ma'am' me again, I'll put a boot up so far up it you'll-"
There was a pointed cough from the armor, and deeper but no less disapproving hum from Luke.
"Come on! What?" Jessica scowled. "I said ass!"
A quiet giggle came from behind Spider-man.
It was less important than the complete lack of reaction to Castle's statement; apparently they were entering the twilight zone, which made her next targets clear. "Okay, moving along to the Seriously Hilariously Incompetent Espionage Loving D-uckheads."
"Yeah, we actually changed that back in the nineties," Daisy said, then glanced at Mack. He shook his head. "Look, we don't have the authority to tell you anything," she temporized. "Let me phone home and maybe I can get someone on the line who does."
"No one's stopping you," Jessica pointed out.
"Someone's jamming communications." Daisy shifted warily as she looked towards Potts. "It's not you?"
"It's not me," Pepper confirmed, after a moment. "Some kind of signal suppression, FRIDAY can't identify it."
Out of the corner of her eye, Jessica saw Spider-man tense with a full body shiver. Castle pulled himself from a disinterested slouch into full alertness in a heartbeat. "He does that, we got incoming."
"Yeah, thanks - I figured that one out already." Jessica crossed to the window as Colleen swung to face the door, sword already half drawn from its sheath. "Where they coming from, kid?"
The sky was lightening into a false dawn, but she couldn't see jack.
Spider-man's head twitched to the side and his fingers extended, like he was feeling for vibrations on an invisible web. "Kind of. Everywhere," he said, moving closer to the center of the room. "But it's not … we've got a few minutes. Uhm. Can anyone else hear helicopters? Plural. More than one helicopter?"
Pepper stepped forward. "I guarantee I'm faster than anything they have. I'll fly Ellie and Ned to Stark Tower. Meet us there."
The female S.H.I.E.L.D. agent - the one from the radio, Jessica guessed - shook her head. "Stark Tower's been stripped of its defences, remember? And our quinjet's closer. It's-"
"On the roof of the shelter," the room chorused, in varying degrees of mockery.
Luke crouched next to Ellie, muttering something in her ear that made her giggle again.
"Rand Enterprises," Colleen suggested, into the lull.
Jessica considered it. They had security, a lot of them were ex-forces. It had been heavy before and now it probably qualified as a small private army.
And Danny with typical, unthinking, Rand generosity, had made it clear that the building was open to Jessica and Luke any time, day or night. When he'd said it, Jessica had made some flat, sarcastic comment - she assumed, she'd been drunk, so fucked if she remembered - but now it might be the answer to a hell of a problem.
"Yeah," she agreed. "It's secure, it's public, and it's got nothing to do with the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. or any other crap. Neutral ground."
"Except for Rand being the Immortal Iron Fist," the other agent snapped. "We're not a hundred percent clear what that is, but it doesn't sound that neutral to me."
Fighting the increasing urge to move-move-move , Peter watched them argue. The agents and Ms Potts. Ms Jones, and Ms Wing, and Luke freaking Cage . He was pretty sure there weren't enough paper routes in the world to pay for their help at this point.
He was being stared at. Castle.
"I see you thinking, Bug," Castle murmured. "Choosing a window. It's dark enough, you might make it. Not carrying them, though." He nodded at Ned and Ellie, still watching the adults with open mouths.
Peter nodded; he'd already figured that one out.
"They're right: go to ground, no one's winning a fight in here. Cage draws fire, the suit goes the other way with the kids. Then you go. Go fast, don't engage, you're gone before they even know you're there."
"I'm not going to run away, I started this."
"How you figure that?" Castle shook his head. "The girl? You don't even know who she is."
Peter watched as Ellie laughed again at whatever Ned and Mr Cage were saying. "She likes ponies and Star Wars," he said. "She's really good at drawing, and when she wants to, she can sound like birds. She's my friend."
"You're her friend, she might not be yours," Castle ground out. "You can't trust anyone, Bug. And no one has a God-given right to a second chance."
"Yeah. They do. Or was I meant to leave you back in the subway for your amazing exploding door trick?"
Castle frowned; he looked more resigned than angry at Peter's response. "Maybe you should have," he muttered.
"Good talk."
"I know what you're thinking," Ned said, appearing at his elbow as Castle turned away. "It's a really bad idea."
Which Peter would have been annoyed by, except he was totally right.
"It's a great idea," he said anyway. "I've never had a better plan."
"That's actually true." Now Ned looked actively queasy. "How are we not dead?"
Peter could hear movement below. Ms Potts had stiffened; FRIDAY was probably telling her the same thing.
He stared at Ellie as she ran to pick up a plushie kitten from the pile on her makeshift bed. Maybe this was some con; maybe it wasn't. And it didn't matter, he reasoned. Because he wouldn't let anyone get taken against their will, whoever they were.
Which made this the simplest decision in the world.
"They know it's me and Ellie," he said, loudly enough for the others to hear. "Maybe they don't know about the rest of you. If I go, they'll follow me, especially if they think Ellie's with me. Then, Ms Potts, if you fly the other way, no one will even be shooting - way safer. And there'll be way less people for everyone else to get through. They may not even come up here. Tactics, right?"
Despite himself, he glanced at Castle, who looked back with a faint frown.
"No!" Ellie cried, tears beginning to fall again. "You won't come back!"
"Yeah, so, it turns out a small child has more sense than you." Jessica shook her head. "Don't even move. Luke, watch him?"
Luke's hand dropped on Peter's shoulder and Peter was never, ever washing that shoulder again.
Peter looked up as apologetically as he could. "Sorry, Mr Cage."
"Nothing to be sorry for, kid."
"I'm really glad you feel that way." He brushed Luke's hand away and leapt for the open window, pulling a bundle of blankets into his arms as he went. A chorus of yells followed him; he was already gone.
We're closing in on nearly done! Maybe another part out this week, but more likely all the remaining parts next weekend.
Thank you so, so much again everyone who's reading and kudosing and taking the time to comment, you're all the awesome and pretty much made my month.