Tony Stark pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling sharply as he leaned back in his seat. The Avengers had assembled—half of them, anyway—in the conference room at the compound. Nat and Clint stayed behind to go fishing for Hydra operatives in Tennessee, leaving Tony to debrief Fury and Capsicle. It was shaping up to be the kind of night Tony wished he could erase with a bottle of scotch and some noise-canceling headphones.

Part of that debrief involved a very irate Harley giving his defense of the scrawny Hydra stray he'd allegedly rescued from the roadside.

"His name is Peter," Harley reiterated as he sat rigidly in his chair, his eyes blazing with defiance. "Not, 'the Hydra agent.' He doesn't even know what Hydra is. They did something to him—hurt him. He doesn't remember who he is." Harley insisted.

Fury leaned forward, his one good eye narrowing as he fixed Harley with an unrelenting stare. "That sounds a little convenient."

Harley continued unperturbed, "A little convenient? Does taking out a big, ugly Hydra goon sound convenient to you?"

Fury's expression didn't shift. "Isn't it past your bedtime? I've already got your statement, Mr. Keener. Your concerns have been noted. If no one else has questions for you, you're dismissed."

Sam Wilson raised a hand before Harley could storm out. "Hold up. You said you checked him for a head injury?"

Harley paused, uncomfortable, "Yes, but…"

"And he didn't have a head injury but he still managed to have very well-timed amnesia?" Sam asked, his tone skeptical.

"I don't know," Harley admitted, his frustration evident. "Maybe it's psychological and not from an injury? He was covered in bruises. It looked like he'd been through hell."

Sam frowned, "Hydra operatives don't exactly live gentle lives."

The silence that followed was thick with unspoken doubts. The Avengers exchanged looks, their skepticism clear. Harley's jaw tightened, but he refused to back down. "Peter isn't a bad guy," he insisted. "You'll see, when he wakes up."

Fury swiveled his seat slowly around to face Tony. "Where is the kid now, Stark?"

Tony exhaled long and slow, "Restrained. Unconscious. He's down in the former medical wing, Bruce's new lab."

"He needs a hospital," Harley muttered under his breath.

"Bruce is babysitting him since we're still unclear on what kind of enhancements the kid is sporting. Superstrength is almost a guarantee. And it appears that he heals at a rapid pace. He doesn't need a hospital." Tony looked pointedly at Harley. "He's in good hands with Bruce, and we can't exactly let him out into the general public when we don't know what he's capable of."

Fury seemed to chew on that for a moment, and Tony wondered what his plans were for the kid. He continued, "We don't really know anything about him. We have no clue where he came from, where his family is, how long he was part of Hydra, or what exactly Hydra had him doing."

Tony wasn't even sure about the things that they did know. The intel from Nat had been ambiguous at best. It had been clear that Hydra had sent a dangerous and capable operative to Harley's hometown. Tony had instantly worried that Harley would be kidnapped for leverage. But there was also the very real possibility that Harley would have been used as a message to Tony that Hydra was coming for the rest of the people he cared about. Tony shuddered at the thought that Harley could have been killed tonight, simply for having a connection to Iron Man.

"Any word from Romanov?" Fury asked.

"Nat just arrived at the safehouse these spooks were operating from in Tennessee. She'll give a report when she's done there."

Capsicle cleared his throat and pulled out a folder. "Tony, if I may?"

Tony suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. He suspected Steve was a bit sore that no one included him on the field trip. He seemed to be taking it personally. And after everything the rogues had pulled during the hassle with the Accords, Steve's sense of being distrusted were not entirely off the mark. But, in all honesty, there just hadn't been much time to collect everyone. As soon as he knew about the potential danger to Harley, Tony had grabbed the closest willing Avengers and flew off like a bat out of hell.

"Go ahead, Cap."

"You stated that Nat was the one who informed you Harley might be in danger? How did she know? I wasn't aware she had an assignment to keep tabs on the Keener family."

"She wasn't keeping tabs on them. Nat has had her ear to the ground over reports of an enhanced Hydra operative all year, so she was already on the lookout." Tony resisted the urge to follow that with a "You already know this, Spangles."

"And you became suspicious that the sudden Hydra presence put Harley at risk? Is there any reason why you would jump to that conclusion so quickly, taking half of my team to fly to Tennessee without so much as a word of explanation to me?"

Yep, he was definitely taking it personally. "You're going to make me spell it out? You can count on one hand how many people in my life are worth kidnapping. I have no family, no kids, no wife. Harley and Pepper are the closest you can get to leverage on Iron Man. Any Hydra activity within a hundred miles of the Keeners would be highly suspicious. And I wasn't wrong. It was no coincidence that Harley had a run in with two Hydra operatives tonight."

Harley interrupted yet again and Tony wanted to gag the kid. "There's no way Peter planned to get hit by my car. He was running out of the woods in the dark. It was lucky I hit the brakes when I did. Where would his alleged plan be if I had killed him or crippled him?"

The room fell silent again, the Avengers' collective doubt hanging heavy in the air. There were a lot of unanswered questions, and the Avengers didn't like to deal with so many unknowns.

Steve's frown deepened, and Tony could tell the captain was going to ignore that in favor of continuing his annoying, needling line of questions. "If you had identified Harley as a possible source of leverage, why wouldn't you put protections in place for the kid?

Tony stared, "Is there a point to all this, Spangles?"

Fury sighed, bored, "Leave Stark alone, Rogers, we've got bigger issues to contend with than your FOMO."

Harley, to everyone's surprise, muttered, "It's not Tony's fault. He did have protections in place. I just … didn't follow the plan."

The last thing Tony needed was the kid trying to defend him. "Let's not get the kid riled up again. Listen, it's 2am, Harley is done here. You've asked your questions, it's bedtime for baby engineers."

The Captain looked guiltily at the clock, "You can go, Harley. Get some rest and let us know if you need anything." Steve stood up to open the door for the kid, who stayed rooted in his seat.

Tony nodded at the teen, "Go on. I left sandwiches in the fridge for you while you were being interrogated earlier. Grab a bite to eat and then get some sleep. We can start a new project in the lab in the morning."

"I'm fine. I want to make sure Peter…"

"Go. The grown-ups want to talk. And don't even think about wandering down to Bruce's lab. FRIDAY will tell on you, anyway, so you wouldn't get very far."

Harley looked like he might be ready to argue again, but then pushed away from the table, and exited the room in a huff.

Fury watched the oddly paternal exchange behind steepled fingers and raised a brow at Tony. But the man was pointedly not looking at him.

"Okay, let's get that update from Banner," Fury moved on.

"Put him on the screen, FRI."

Bruce's lab filled the large conference room screen, and everyone could see the distant, still form of Peter lying peacefully on a bed. Bruce had started an IV banana bag and had bandaged the boy, despite protestations that he "wasn't that sort of doctor." It wasn't much but it was the best they could do for the kid, at the moment.

Bruce came into view, abruptly sliding into the seat in front of his computer.

"Sorry. It takes a couple hours to properly analyze these things." He held in front of the camera a lidded petri dish in which he had stored a small, spiky, clear container about the size of a thumbnail.

Everyone in the room leaned forward to look at it.

"This is what Nat found on the kid's old clothes?" Fury asked.

Banner nodded. "It was in a pocket of his jumpsuit. There was blood on the barbs, and a mark on the boy's neck where it was probably attached. I think it's a projectile, it doesn't look like it was designed to stay attached for long."

"Projectile? So, the kid was shot with it?"

"Probably."

Tony scrunched his nose at the painful looking item. "What does it do?"

"Not entirely sure. The barbs are hollow, hypodermic. Residue from inside the casing is interesting. I thought at first there would be tranquilizer drugs. But it seems to have a virus and some strong amnesic compounds."

Fury scowled. "Amnesic? You're sure?"

Bruce nodded.

"What about the virus?"

Bruce shook his head. "It takes a little longer to analyze proteins and genetics vs the tox screens I've managed to do so far. But if I had to guess, it's an ontogenic drug vector."

"A way of delivering a drug to a specific part of the body." Tony clarified for the crowd.

Bruce nodded. "Most amnesic drugs will put you in a temporary amnesic state. Things like Rohypnol and Benzos, will make you forget what happens to you while the drug is in your system. But to delete your past memories using a drug, you'd need to target specific neurons in the amygdala. I think that's what we're looking at here. They used a fast-acting virus to wipe long-term memories in this kids' brain."

There was silence in the room.

"So he really doesn't remember who he is?"

Banner shrugged. "That would be my conclusion. I'll know more about the specifics of the drugs after I look into the virus's genetic code. But from what I already gleaned from the residue inside, I think the kid's telling the truth."

"Huh. Well, I'll be." Fury looked momentarily put out, but recovered quickly. "It looks like you've gained yourself another teenager, Stark."

"I'm sorry, what?"

There was chorus of murmuring from all Avengers gathered.

Steve added a helpful, "Is that wise, sir?"

"You said it yourself, he's just a kid, and he's enhanced, so he'll need special supervision. We can't just release him into the general public. I'll leave him in your somewhat capable hands. But I'll definitely be taking the other guy to the Raft. He doesn't have amnesia, and we can probably inspire some answers out of him."

"Wait!" Tony's brain was misfiring. Had he heard correctly? "You…you can't just leave him here!"

"And why not?"

"Don't you have somewhere to stash enhanced youth? Some secret lair where you train up an army of Furies who all wear ceremonial eye patches and learn to shoot before they learn to read?"

"No, but I'll take it under advisement." Fury got up and left, leaving Tony gaping after him.

Tony slumped in his chair, his brain struggling to process. "You've got to be kidding me."