My captors had continued to whisper nervously to each other as they moved themselves, and me, into the kitchen attached to the main room. This was apparently their home base for the attack, as several duffel bags sat on the floor. Out of one of these bags, they pulled rope and some cloth, giving me a proper gag and tying my hands and ankles together before shoving me to the floor in the corner—kicking the garbage bin out of the way to make space for me. While I was grateful to no longer have a knife at my throat, I was not a fan of my new lack of mobility. At least I now knew their names from overhearing them speaking. While I doubted they were their real names, it was at least better than referring to them as 'captor uno', 'captor take 2', and 'captor the trilogy' in my head, as I had been doing up until then. Nick was the one who had grabbed me initially, Lance was the second one who had held onto me, and Mac seemed to be the one in charge.

I was surprised that no one had shown up yet to kick these jerks to the curb, a confusion they seemed to share.

"Why aren't they here yet?"

"What, are you looking forward to fighting them?"

"Hell no, but the waiting is unnerving."

"Mayyybeee that's what they're going for."

"Ya think?"

"I don't know, you idiot."

"Shut up, both of you. I'm thinking that alarm just means something is wrong with the system—not an indicator that there are intruders. Which means they still don't know we're here. Which is why they're not here yet. But as soon as they fix the system, and that A.I. comes back online, they'll be able to follow our every move. So, we're going to have a bit of change of plans."

The panic thrumming in my veins was not at all comforted by the thought that their delay was because they didn't know I was here. How much longer until I was rescued?

I tuned back into their conversation.

"Grab the girl, we'll take her with us. Maybe we'll be able to accomplish our goal and get out before they know we're even here. But just in case we run into someone, I want her with as leverage."

Oh goodie.

Nick yanked me to my feet, pushing me in front of him and hissing in my ear, just loud enough to be heard over the still-screaming alarm, "And no trying to alert anyone either or causing any sort of distractions. Or my knife'll be coming back out and I'll be leaving it in your gut. Got it?"

I gulped and nodded, silent tears once more tracking down my face. Lance grabbed two of the duffel bags, going in front of us, with Mac leading the way, gun (gun!) in hand.

He cautiously opened the door leading into one of the interior hallways, popping his head out before gesturing for his goonies to follow, and I was shoved forward, forced to do some weird hopping-waddle mix. As we made our winding way around the red-lit hallways, surrounded by the alarm that felt like it was burrowing into my skull, I tried to figure out where they were heading. It had to be something on this floor (why come up this high otherwise?), but it was mostly just living space things up here, what could possibly be interesting in that? Then we turned down another hallway and suddenly it clicked.

The computer lab.

Tony had a state-of-the-art computer lab up here, it served as a back-up work area if ever Pepper, Peter, or himself didn't feel like going down to the lower levels for their personal computers. These computers, after a few layers of security, could access all the databases and networks for not only Stark Industries, but also their personal accounts. But I didn't think the existence of the computer lab was public knowledge, so how could these people know about it? Maybe I was wrong, maybe we were going somewhere else.

Unfortunately, I was proven wrong a moment later as we stopped in front of the door to the computer lab. I bit back a grin when I saw the hand-print and eye recognition ID mechanism that was required to unlock the door. But then Lance reached into one of his bags and pulled out an odd-looking tool.

He passed it to Mac, who aimed it at the door, a red laser quickly cutting a small square through the door so that he could reach through and push it open from the other side. He replaced the square carefully into its hole, then ushered the rest of us through, taking one more careful look into the hallway before closing and blocking the door.

I was shoved into a corner again, with another stern warning, and the three men each took a computer and started working. Nick and Lance were doing a bunch of typing, while Mac had some fancy usb-connected equipment he was attaching to the computer he was at.

I had no idea what information they were looking for, but I really hoped they didn't find it. I shifted my limbs, my position on the floor not being exactly comfortable. With nothing to do while I waited for help to come, I found my attention focusing on the roughness of the ropes against my skin, and how they dug into my skin, so much so that I was mildly concerned my circulation was being pinched in my one hand. Not to mention how incredibly dry the rag in my mouth was, and by extension my mouth. It was like the Sahara in there.

Any thoughts beyond that were impossible with that fricken' alarm blaring constantly. I could only hope it was equally inhibiting to the brain functioning of my captors, though they did seem pretty focused unfortunately.

And then it was silent.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief—then almost choked on the mouthful of cloth I breathed in on the inhale. The quiet was fantastic, but it was even better that it also probably meant FRIDAY would be up and running soon, if she wasn't already, which meant help would be along momentarily.

Obviously, the invaders had the same thought, Mac directing Lance to look for any cameras so they could disable them from within the room, while he and Nick continued working with frantic expressions. Lance had barely taken a few steps when the red light flickered then faded away back to the normal warm white light.

And then FRIDAY's glorious voice echoed through the room, "Rebooting… Estimate of time until return of normal function: fifteen minutes."

The three men exchanged a look and relaxed slightly. Mac nodded, "Fifteen minutes. That's lots of time."

"Shame you don't actually have that then."

I started crying again, this time in relief, as Dad burst through the door in the Iron Man suit.

In several bursts of movement, Nick stood up with a terrified expression aiming his gun at the suit. Mac hunched over behind him typing furiously, and Lance launched himself the last few steps towards me, wrenching me upwards.

I gave a startled cry into the rag as he dragged me in front of him, tugging me with him towards the others to provide a shield, the knife once more held to my throat.

The eyes in the iron mask narrowed. If my life wasn't hanging in the balance, I would have been scared for my captors. As it was, I was just terrified for me and dad. What if he got hurt saving me?

Dad lifted a propulsor, aiming at the three of them, "Let her go. Now."

Mac's voice, sounding smug, came from behind me, "No. You want the girl to live, you won't do a single thing."

Dad spoke again, his voice coming out with a tone of fake geniality, "Let's talk this through?"

There was the sound of a gun from my left, and I cringed away from Nick, crying out in fear.

Three more shots followed in quick succession, confusing me because they sounded further away.

The arm holding me in place, and more importantly, the one holding a knife to my throat, fell away, throwing me off balance and making me fall to the ground, not at all gracefully. I quickly crawled away, pressing my back to the wall. I smiled through my tears, seeing Uncle Bucky, Loki, and Nat putting away their individual weapons on the other side of the room.

Dad's mask receded, showing a dark grin on his face, "Good talk."

Lance groaned from the floor next to me, "No, it wasn't."

Ignoring him entirely, Dad turned to me, his expression immediately shifting to one of concern as he rushed over. Steps echoed from all over the room as the others joined him. Nat kicked Lance in the head as she passed, his head lolling unconsciously to the side.

Dad reached me first, fingers frantically reaching behind my head to untie my gag as he asked with desperation in his voice, "Are you okay?! Please tell me you are okay?!"

I nodded, tears streaming with renewed vigor down my face. Uncle Bucky's touch almost startled me, as he knelt beside me to untie the ropes from around my wrists. Loki waved his hand and the ropes on my feet simply fell off. Free of all my binds, I threw myself at my dad and uncle, who both wrapped their arms around me, holding me tightly to them, soothing and comforting me in low voices.

I vaguely heard Nat and Loki talking in the background.

"You are sure I cannot kill them?"

"Unfortunately."

"What if I turned them into snakes, and then killed them?"

"Still no. Still unfortunately."