Chapter 11: Tony… Tony Stark
Tony stared blankly at Fury, trying to sort out what he was just told. After Fury had said that Tyler saw the video, Tony demanded a full explanation, and he was not happy with what the Director told him.
"You're telling me," Tony began tentatively, "that my daughter saw the video that explained the ability she had no idea she had… and that because she was angry at me for keeping it a secret she just up and stole a jet. And because she stole the jet, she is now stranded in the middle of the Algerian desert with no contact to you and is at the mercy of the people who shot the jet down in the first place."
"That's the gist," Natasha replied for Fury.
Tony remained silent as he stared at the top of the glass table he was sitting at. He had known that it would be stupid to keep the information from Tyler. He had even guessed that she would do something rash like she did if she found out on her own, yet he never worked up the courage to say anything. Why? Because he wanted to protect her from herself? No. Just, no. He was an idiot. A fool. The worst father in the history of fathers. Slowly, Tony stood and turned to leave the room.
"Stark, where are you going?" Fury inquired in a harsh tone.
Tony paused to look back at the Director, and then at Steve who had been annoyingly quiet throughout the conversation.
"This is my fault," he said with a challenge in his voice, "so I'm going to fix it. You're either going to help me or stay out of my way." His eyes met with Natasha's and he dared her to support him, or to go against him.
"Tony, at this point you'll only be in the way," Fury began, only to be interrupted by the billionaire.
"You haven't even assembled an extraction team yet, have you?"
Fury looked irritated. Like, really irritated. Tony took that as a no and held his hands out to his sides questioningly.
"How would I be in the way if you haven't even made a way yet?"
That didn't help Fury's mood in the slightest. Before the Director could say anything, however, Natasha stood from her own seat.
"I'll take him over to the base in Algeria and keep him there while I assemble a team to look for Clint and Tyler," she said and added to Fury, "If it's alright with you, Sir."
Fury remained silent for a moment, considering the proposition. Tony would only stir up trouble if he was denied the chance to save his daughter, and that was more than he wanted to deal with. He already had a lot on his hands with the serial killer case and all of the other incidents he had to work out. Finally, with a sigh and an eye roll, he waved his hand toward the exit of the room.
"Get out of here before I change my mind," he said.
With that, Tony and Natasha were gone. Next to Fury, Steve stood and opened his mouth to say something, but the Director turned to him with a raised eyebrow and spoke before the Captain could make a sound.
"If you're going then go," he said. Steve closed his mouth and nodded before briskly leaving to catch up to Tony and Natasha.
"Hey," he called across the hallway at the two once he got there. Tony glanced over his shoulder at the Captain but kept on walking.
"If you're trying to scold me then you're out of luck," Tony said. "I don't exactly have the time to deal with it right now." Steve ignored him and jogged to catch up.
"If you're going to try to get Tyler back on your own then you're going to be disappointed," he said. "We're probably not going to be able to get a team from the other base because of how small it is. Their numbers are already stretched thin, so I'm going."
Tony looked at Steve suspiciously. "Since when do you want to help me?" he asked.
"I don't," the Captain replied bluntly. "I'm going for Clint and Tyler."
Tony remained silent, but gave Steve a satisfied nod. He honestly didn't think he would ever receive anything from the Capsicle, and the fact that Steve was going for his daughter was actually kind of heartwarming. Tyler had made a larger impact on the agency than Tony would have thought. It seemed that she found the place that she would be happy working at for the rest of her life, even if it was dangerous and painfully secretive. She also probably didn't see it yet, since she only started just over a month ago.
It took less than five minutes for the trio to reach the hold that all of the planes were stationed at. Natasha, not surprisingly, walked straight to the same model jet that Tyler had taken, which was also the same model she used in the Loki attack. Just as they were about to step into the cockpit, a voice stopped them in their tracks.
"Hey, Avengers!" the voice called out. The trio turned around to see two people heading their way; the doctor Tony knew, but the teenage girl with him was a completely new face. She was the one who had called out. Tony furrowed his brow as the two neared. He looked at the girl up and down after greeting Dr. Banner with a nod.
"And you are?" he asked. The girl looked offended and she glared at him.
"Only Tyler's best friend for the past nine years," she said sarcastically. She was virtually the only person who knew that Tyler's father was the famous Ironman when Tyler had lived in the city. Tony blinked with surprise and formed his mouth into an O-shape.
"Jackie," he said after having triumphantly fished her name out of his memory. Jackie nodded and motioned to the jet.
"Are we going to go?" she asked.
"I'm done prepping," Natasha called from the pilot's seat. Tony turned around to see that both Steve and Natasha were already strapped in and waiting. He took a moment to wonder when exactly they did that, and then he, too, entered the jet with Jackie and Banner right behind. Once they were seated, the door to the cockpit was closed and the jet slowly moved forward as Natasha maneuvered it to the take-off strip. Once there she hit the gas and the group was in the sky within seconds.
"Oh yeah," Tony said suddenly, "how long will this take?"
"Ten hours," Natasha responded from the front. Tony and Jackie shared a moan and hit their heads against their headrests simultaneously, a result of spending too much time with one another in the past when Jackie hung out with Tyler everyday. Needless to say, they weren't looking forward to such a long flight ahead of them. The others weren't really either, they just didn't show it.
"I don't think ninety-nine bottles of pop will be enough for this road trip," Tony grumbled.
"Good thing because if you sing I will shoot you," Natasha said from up front. That got Tony to shut up, at least for a couple of minutes.
"So Captain," Tony said after a while with a look at Steve who raised his eyebrow curiously. "Truth or dare?"
Steve rolled his eyes and Tony almost got hit in the head with a flyaway shoe. He had only barely ducked in time to avoid getting a black eye.
"Hey!" he complained. "That would've hurt."
"Good," Jackie said as she reached forward and grabbed her shoe; it had ricocheted off of the wall and landed close enough for her to grab it.
"Alright, fine," Tony said defeated. "I'll shut up."
Uncharacteristically, he actually did. He wouldn't ever admit it, but he probably needed the whole ten hours of flight ahead of him to think of what he would say to Tyler when he found her. That was not a conversation to look forward to.
Tyler shivered and folded her arms over one another to try and keep as much heat inside her body as possible. She knew deserts were supposed to go from scorching in the day to below zero at night, but she hadn't expected it to happen so quickly. The light from the sun was still visible above the horizon though its shape had recently disappeared, and it was already starting to become chilly. She shifted her bag so that it was in front of her and began to fish around in it for something warmer than her short-sleeved T-shirt.
Thankfully, since it had been the middle of fall when she first arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, she had brought a jacket. She had a feeling, however, that the jacket alone wouldn't be enough. Still, for the time being it was all she needed. She pulled it out of the bag and put it on before closing the bag again. Though the strap of her bag was now also enclosed in the jacket, she really didn't care. She zipped it up and left it as it was.
She glanced over at Clint only to find that somehow he didn't even have goose bumps, let alone the need for a jacket. Why was it that all men seemed to be able to fight off cold weather as though it didn't exist? It was not fair at all. She would be shivering on a cold winter night when she was bundled up in sweats and a thick jacket while Tony would walk around with shorts and a T-shirt like it was the middle of July. Seriously, what was up with that?
In front of her, Clint slowed to a stop and surveyed the area around them before he turned to around to look at her.
"It's getting dark," he noted, "and cold. We won't be able to see where we're going without light, and I don't want to risk using it. If we use any flash lights or start a fire we'll be found right away." He turned to his left and pointed at a large rock a few hundred feet away. "There looks to be a small portion of the rock carved away there; hopefully it will be large enough for us to fit into. It will provide at least a little shelter from wind and we will be a lot harder to find than if we stayed out in the open."
He looked back at Tyler who just nodded. She was too tired and cold for words, and she had a feeling that because of the limited amount of water she consumed throughout the day, her throat would burn if she tried to speak. For a moment it looked as though worry flashed through Clint's eyes, but he said nothing. Instead he began to head over to the rock he had pointed out.
Tyler followed, her movements a little stiff from both the cold and the strain of walking all day. They reached the rock and, thankfully, the alcove was large enough for them to sit under, though it would be a little bit of a squeeze. At least it would be warmer than trying to sleep out in the open. The two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents sat in silence, neither of them wanting to speak first. Clint wanted to let Tyler think, and Tyler was afraid that if she started a conversation Clint would try to question her again and, admittedly, she had no idea what she would say. She was hurt, angry, and exhausted. Just about the only thing she had actually been thinking about for the past twelve hours was the fact that she was stranded in the middle of the Algerian desert with hostile natives trying to kill her. It was the best she could do to stop herself from freaking out. Clint had probably been in these situations before, so he was perfectly fine. That was the one thing she held onto to keep her thinking straight: Clint was there and no matter what he would get them through this. With that on her mind how could she possibly think about the situation with her father and the secret he'd been keeping from her for so long?
Not only that, but her body was starting to get numb from the cold. She pulled her knees up to her chest and folded her arms around them to hopefully keep warm. All she wanted was to fall asleep. At least then she wouldn't have to be thinking about the events as of late, and she wouldn't feel the biting chill gripping at her from all sides. Even the rock had already lost most of its warmth. She began shivering because of it and tried to breathe warm air on her hands, but that seemed to just make it worse. Her hands would be warm for the second her breath touched them, but then their temperature would immediately plummet back down to freezing even though she was rubbing them together to keep the warmth inside of them. She knew that if she were to fall asleep, she could likely freeze in her out of consciousness state, but the thought of forgetting about how cold she was happened to be very enticing. Beside her, she was aware that Clint had begun to shuffle through his bag and she wondered if he'd been smart and brought some warmer clothes. And then, she thought about just how stupid she was.
She had virtually no training in the field and no instruction on how to shoot a gun. She hadn't brought anything to help for the weather conditions. She had hi-jacked a jet from an organization that didn't trust her yet because she was so new to their ranks, and her father was known for hacking into their computer systems. The worst part about the situation, though, was that she knew she would be yelled at continually by at least two people, Fury and Tony, and possibly more. She wouldn't be surprised if Maria had anything to say about it, and the Captain would be sick with worry and irritation. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he probably thought of her as a gender-bent Tony as a result to her actions earlier. Jackie would also probably try to kill her, since she didn't say anything to her even though they were so close. Natasha might not be too much of a problem because she did help to steal the jet; however they crashed in the middle of the desert. The agent would definitely have something to say about that. Just about the only person Tyler probably wouldn't have to worry about was Bruce. He didn't strike her as the lecturing type, nor did he seem to get into other people's business without permission, unlike many of the others.
Tyler's train of thought was abruptly interrupted when she found a strong arm around her shoulders, as well as a blanket that was warm, despite it being rather thin. She looked up at Clint with surprise, but before any words could come out of her mouth, he spoke.
"You were shivering," he said. "It'd be best if we stayed close, it'll keep us warmer."
Tyler looked back down at the ground and shifted to be even closer to him, grateful for the warmth. She probably wouldn't be in very good shape in the morning without it.
"Thank you," she said quietly. As they sat there in silence, Tyler realized just how close she had become to Clint, relationship wise. She looked up to him as both an agent and an honorable man, and he protected her like an older brother. She hadn't really thought about it until then, but Clint had gone from being a stand-offish supervisor to a senior agent looking out for his predecessor in the agency, and then to a friend who only wanted to help her out. It should have made her happy to realize that, but for some reason it only unsettled her. She'd only known Clint for one and a half months and he was already defending her like she was one of his own. Could he be acting just to get her on his side so he could use her? It seemed way out of character, but then again he was an agent. He had to be a good actor in certain situations or he'd have been dead long before he made it to the spot-light in the agency.
"Tyler," Clint once again interrupted her thoughts, this time with a completely different motive in his mind. Before he could ask the question she knew he was going to ask, she shut him down.
"Not now, Barton. Sleep is all I'm concerned with."
Clint, surprisingly, didn't say anymore. Tyler took that as a blessing and closed her eyes to actually fall asleep. It was only about twenty minutes before Tyler had been taken over by her subconscious, but Clint remained awake. There was no way he was going to let his guard down, especially when they were so vulnerable. He remained painfully awake the whole night, and he would do the same the next night when it came time. With nothing better to do, Clint went over the events of the past few days and wondered once again whether he should tell Tyler about her father. Part of him hoped that Tony would just pop out of nowhere, but the other rational part of him told him that Tony was long gone. It was a grim thought, but the billionaire did get himself blown-up in his own home. Clint sighed and looked up to the sky, littered with millions of twinkling lights. He really didn't want to think much on Stark; Tyler would probably find out once they reached civilization anyway. Even at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base they played the news, it was just lucky that Tyler had never been around to see it before. At the new base, however, she would definitely see it or even hear about it at one point or another. With a deep breath of hopelessness and exasperation, Clint moved his line of thought to something more important: the serial killer case he had looked at with Natasha earlier.
Every one of the people murdered were women, ranging from ages twenty to forty-five, and they all had two things in common. The first was that they were all somehow connected with S.H.I.E.L.D. The only problem with that was that practically the whole United States population was somehow connected with the agency, they just didn't know about it. It that way, the assumption that the killer was after the agency was, more likely than not, false. The thing that really triggered the interest in the case, however, was the strange circumstances of the deaths. It was as though the body of the victim started rejecting itself, and as a result ended up destroying itself. The cause was unknown, and the symptoms were like none any of the medical examiners had ever seen before. Not only that, but on every victim there was a distinctive mark on their bodies. It was on their left forearm, and at first it was assumed the first victim had simply gone to get a tattoo, until all of the victims began sharing the same mark. It was simple: two black lines circling around the arm as though enclosed with an irremovable bracelet, and a diamond above the lines, on the outside of the arm. The symbol was searched for continuously on the internet and on archives but there wasn't any record of anything like it, so it was assumed that the killer just wanted to make a name for himself by branding his victims with his own created signature.
The case was bothering Clint, mostly because there weren't any leads thus far. He and Natasha had been puzzling over the case for a while, but they saw no connections through the girls, other than S.H.I.E.L.D., and no reason anyone would want them to be dead. As with any serial killer, it was likely that the offender simply grabbed whatever woman he wanted, but the problem was that there was no pattern. Serial killers always had a pattern, whether it was because they liked a certain type of profile or because they had something against a certain race, there was always a pattern. This case, however, had no patterns, at least not obvious ones. All the victims were in different age groups with different distinctive features and different ethnic backgrounds. There was absolutely nothing in the way of evidence or helpfulness in the case, and it just seemed as though the answer wouldn't be found without a linking clue, which was so far invisible.
A sudden scuffle in the dirt outside of the small cavern caught Clint's attention and he had his gun in his hand in an instant, without stirring Tyler from her sleep. He pointed the gun to where the noise came from, but then he realized what it was that made the sound. A lizard. He gave an exasperated sigh and holstered his gun into his belt with a grumble and once again focused on surveillance. If a lizard could sneak up on him like that when he was thinking about the case, then so could the German-Algerians. For the rest of the night, he concentrated on every sight and sound in the desert; there was no way he would get caught off-guard.
At around seven or so in the morning- at least that's what Clint thought it was- Tyler's eyes opened and she looked up at him. He returned her glance with a small smile.
"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," he teased. Tyler rolled her eyes and straightened out, causing both the blanket and Clint's arm to fall away from her shoulders. She stretched and moaned with both delight and pain; stretching felt good, but she was sore from sleeping on a rock in the freezing air all night.
"Do you have any idea how far we still have to go?" she asked groggily.
"Well, day one is over," Clint mused, "and we made pretty good time. We might make it to the hideout by the end of the day, we'll have to see."
Tyler nodded, relieved. Though it was her idea to steal the jet, she didn't fancy being stranded in the desert, even if it was only for a couple of days. She would probably be in worse situations in the future, but at least then she'd be a little more prepared. Or, she hoped she would.
"Well," Clint said as he returned the blanket to his bag, "time for breakfast."
Loki watched as Agni kneeled to the ground and picked up what looked to be the head of a snake. It was one of the few clues they could find as to the whereabouts of the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. they were currently tracking. The wind blew all footprints in the sand away and because of it they had to double back a few times to search for the clues that would lead them in the right direction. Loki hadn't realized before how far he'd been behind the agents, but as soon as he did he wished that he had something with which he could fly. Staying with the midgardians was tedious, and their method of tracking wasn't near as quick and easy as he thought it would be. It was a lucky thing they had an extra pair of clothes lying about that fit him, or he would be dying of a heat stroke in the black coat he had earlier been wearing.
The outfit wasn't too preferable in the looks department to him, but he doubted it really mattered if he was traversing a land with such vigorous heat. The outfit he donned was white and thin. There were pants that flowed about his ankles and sandals to protect his feet from the scorching sand rather than close-toed shoes. He wore a vest that didn't close and had no suitable shirt to go under it, so like Agni he was bare-armed and subject to the heat of the sun. He also wore the strange hat that some of the others had on. It was simply material crafted to wrap around the head and face. His identity would be hidden to any who would recognize him, which was both a plus and a curse.
"It's a horned viper," Agni said as he stood with the snake head in his hands. He inspected it closely and after a while said, "It was killed around noon, three and a half hours ago. We're getting closer."
Loki held back his sigh; closer wasn't the word he would use. At the very least, they had vehicles and would be able to catch up soon. Although, the reason they were so far behind was because they needed to be sure they were on the exact trail of the agents or they wouldn't find them; the desert was too vast. If the agents had a place in their mind that they wanted to go, it would be easy to start off walking one way and then change direction in the next moment. A sudden thought came to mind and Loki looked at Agni questioningly from his seat in the back of the car they were traveling in.
"Are there any towns in the direction that they're going?" he asked. Agni pocketed the snake head, for what reason Loki knew not, and pulled himself into the front seat of the car. Once he was in, the appointed driver powered the car and began traveling in the direction Agni pointed out. Agni remained silent for a moment and looked up at the position of the sun, then back in the direction the agents seemed to be traveling.
"No," Agni replied, "not anywhere close. I assume that they are heading to their base; it's about a three days' journey depending on the speed of walking."
Loki stared at the desert ahead of them, where the agents were supposed to be. He had less than three days to find the presence he had felt on the jet as it passed by. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to locate that presence since he reached the desert, or he would have found the person belonging to it long ago. He didn't know why he couldn't feel it, because he was close enough to be able to.
"If you know where they're going," Loki said and turned toward Agni once again, "then wouldn't we be able to get ahead of them and then intercept them before they can reach their base? Or perhaps we could just drive in that direction until we find them?"
Agni smiled and laughed. "If only it were that simple," he said. "S.H.I.E.L.D. is a very cautious organization; we wouldn't be able to get within ten miles of their base if we tried. The agents we are tracking know that, and they also know that if they get close enough they can make it to the ten mile marker and they'd be safe. They can go at the base from any side, so it is impossible for us to guess where exactly they would go. Aside from that, if they are trying to lose us then they would purposefully take a winding route with no pattern that we could guess. If we head straight there is little chance we will find them."
Loki pursed his lips into a thin line as he searched his mind for some reason that would disprove Agni's explanations, but he could find none. After a few moments of contemplation he nodded. While he thought that it would be easier to find them if they just went ahead, Agni admittedly knew more about the area than he did. Though he prided himself in being cunning and intelligent, one could not know something they were not taught or exposed to. He had to listen to Agni on this one. For a while, he remained silent. Though Agni could be quite boisterous at times, he wasn't always talkative and Loki didn't want to push his luck. He had many things that he wanted to ask about, for the sake of knowing them in case the time came he would need to use the knowledge, but it wasn't information that would likely affect whether his plan would succeed or not. Not all of what he wanted to know, anyway. There was one question that he'd been thinking about for a while.
"What exactly are you going to do once we've found them?" Loki asked Agni. The Algerian smiled wide, his eyes still trained on the desert floor in front of them.
"Why, my friend, I'm going to kill them."
Loki paused; that was what he was afraid of. Unfortunately for Agni, Loki wouldn't allow him to kill the one he was searching for.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," Loki said darkly. Agni looked at him through the rearview mirror.
"I do not think I understand what you're trying to say," he replied slowly, with a slight challenge in his voice. Quickly, Loki came up with a lie to ensure that he remained allies with Agni, while still achieving what he had come there to do.
"I need one of them alive," Loki explained, "they took something from me and I want it back."
Agni paused, considering this, and eventually nodded.
"We will leave one alive, but the other is going to see his last days on Earth once we find him."
Loki nodded. "As long as you don't touch the one I need, you can do whatever you want with the other."
Agni once again looked back at Loki. "And just who is the one you need? I don't want to accidentally kill him, now, do I?"
Loki gritted his teeth. He had no idea which agent it was that the presence came from. All he remembered was that the presence was familiar, as though he'd come into contact with that person before… He closed his eyes and concentrated hard on picturing the face of who he thought the person was. For a few seconds, he couldn't do it. He had little focus and it had been such a long time since he'd felt the presence that its potency had long since worn off. However, just before he opened his eyes to look at Agni once again, an image popped into his mind's eye, and it wasn't at all who he thought it would be.
"Tony," Loki said quietly under his breath, surprising even himself. He looked up at Agni and repeated louder, "Tony Stark." That didn't seem right though, the presence was similar to Tony's, but at the same time it was different. Again, he came up with a lie to combat his doubts. "Tony is the one who stole from me, and he has a relative in S.H.I.E.L.D. The relative is who I want; Tony will return what is mine when they are threatened. I don't, however, know fully who the identity of this relative is."
Agni raised an eyebrow curiously. "You must be pretty important to have had contact with Tony Stark," he said almost suspiciously. Loki huffed and looked away.
"I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," he lied. Sometimes, being the god of lies was awfully handy. Agni took the hint and dropped the subject easily. A silence fell over the car and Loki reveled in the peace. He wasn't exactly sure how his plan would end up working out, but he knew that once he carried it through there would be no time for silence and peace. The thought of it, of what was to come, excited him. With luck, his plan would be so far along before anyone realized it that it would already be too late. Midgard would fall under his control.
(A/N): Well, goodness. Four months ago I said that I would try to post a chapter a week... You can see how well that turned out. I'm really sorry for such a late post, I got swamped with school and marching band. Marching season is over, however, and I will have more time to write for at least a couple of months before track season starts. Just a warning, I'm writing several things at once so the posts might not be regular. They won't be four months apart from one another, however. :) I'm really sorry, again. (Btw, saw Thor 2. GASTHP it was awesome. Am I right? Loki was epic and very sassy. Me gusta. Lol) Please review! Reviews make me happy and a happy author writes more. :3 Ciao!
-KC