Chapter 28
“Every source of energy inside the ship is officially shut down now.”
Maria announced inside Fury’s office excitedly, feeling extremely proud of their achievement. It was only Fury in the office right now, since Rhodey had already left to check on his injured men and pay respect to the families of the ones who had fallen in battle.
“Does that mean we can take a look at it now?” Fury asked with a pounding heart, as he shot up from his chair, unable to sit still anymore.
“Of course,” Maria confirmed with a nod. “It’s a perfect advanced copy of our own designs, which proves that it did come from our future, our men had started to apply security cameras inside it for you to- “
“I will take a look at it myself.” Fury interrupted her firmly.
Maria hesitated, looking worried. “But what if-“
“I will go myself.” Fury repeated even more sharply, unwilling to change his mind.
Maria nodded in understanding, figuring there was no point in arguing, and turned to lead him toward the ship examination room.
They were on their way through a long corridor when Fury turned to her asking, “What is the position of the S.T.R.I.K.E team?”
“I provided them with all the tracking devices they need. They are currently following the heat trail that the intruder left when he escaped from the hospital, trying to follow it all the way back to his hideout.” Maria reported, unable to keep her amusement from appearing in her voice, as she remembered the disgruntled, annoyed look on Rumlow’s face when he found out about the intruder, since all that happened while he was in the hospital, so it was a personal insult to his ego.
“Do you think they will actually succeed in that?” Fury raised an eyebrow, doubtful.
“Maybe a 60% chance or so.” Maria shrugged with pursed lips.
Fury nodded with a sigh, as they kept walking down the corridor without either of them saying another word.
They reached the examination room, where the electronic machines were back to work in examining the ship, which really did look like an advanced version of their planned time ship.
On a holoscreen, there was a hologram for the ship, showing its surface and edges in full 3D.
Maria pointed at the hologram. “Its measurements match our design by 96%.” Then she pointed at the ship, which the experts were currently surrounding from outside and inside. “Its machines look a lot like ours, but more advanced. Also, it works with the same systems and patterns as ours. All that proves more and more that it is from our future.”
“Damn it,” Fury muttered under his breath, still finding that idea overwhelming and confusing. “That just makes us ask the same question again. Why is our future trying to destroy us?”
“Why are you assuming it's trying to destroy us?” Maria wondered with a shrug of her shoulders. “That future man is just trying to destroy the Avengers only.”
“Why? Why the Avengers?” Fury frowned in worry as he trailed his eye over the ship, his brain still working on an answer, coming up with none. “Why the future would ever need the Avengers destroyed?”
“Maybe Revenge.” Maria pursed her lips, thinking. “Maybe that man is trying to take revenge for something they did to him or a loved one. Or something they are yet to do in the near future. The Avengers do have a lot of enemies and cause a lot of damage to those enemies, it will certainly come back to hunt them down at some point.”
“I am pretty sure the situation is more complicated than that,” Fury shook his head, not convinced. “I can’t really tell how far in the future that man had come from, but we definitely finished the Time Ship by then, obviously that would be kept a secret as a dangerous weapon, so the public would never be able to lay hands on it. It will only be a SHIELD weapon, used for extremely important missions if needed. Like what happened with Sydney Hunter.”
“What are you trying to say, sir?” Maria murmured, looking worried now.
“I am saying that everything indicates that this future man came back from the future to hunt down the Avengers on an official mission,” Fury announced grimly with a very frustrated frown.
Maria’s eyes widened indignantly, finding that theory terrifying to even think about, and was about to say something, but one of the experts came rushing to them, a troubled look on his face.
“Sir, you really need to see this.” The expert announced nervously, urging Fury and Maria to follow him.
Fury and Maria exchanged a worried look before following the man towards the ship and climbing inside it.
“What do I need to see?” Fury questioned, looking around the ship with a frown.
The expert pointed at a raised part in the back of the ship. “We turned the ship back on, after disabling its attack and defense system, which led us to find that sealed closet, when we opened it, we found a disturbing surprise inside it.”
“What? What did you find?” Fury was reaching his limit in frustration from all those surprises.
“This.” the expert answered as he pressed a button that was hidden in the wall of the ship.
With that press, the lid of the coffin-shaped metal closet opened revealing what was inside it.
Then, Fury and Maria realized that what the expert said was an understatement.
It wasn’t just a disturbing surprise. It was a horrifyingly confusing shock.
***
A bloody red glow overwhelmed Dr. Johnson’s office after the explosion of the Fireball, blinding everyone from how strong the glow was, as the chemical inside the ball splashed on Tony, then got thrown into the wall from the force of the explosion, falling flat on his face.
“No! Not Tony! No!” Charles screamed from his place on the floor after Tony pushed him away so as to not get hit with him. His heart pounding hard in his chest, from worry and panic for his childhood friend.
He scrambled blindly to his feet, waving his arms around as if he were trying to push the harsh glow away while trying to make his way toward Tony. Very aware of the others panicking, Bruce’s shouting, Dr. Johnson's panicked curses, and Alex who kept running into furniture clumsily as she tried to make her way to Tony as well.
“What’s happening here?!” Dr. Johnson yelled in panic, reaching blindly towards his office phone, raising it towards his mouth, and shouting. “Emergency! Everyone gets here fast! Emergency!”
Bruce, Charles, and Alex by some miracle managed not to hit each other accidentally as they reached the fallen Tony, while still being blinded by the sharp glow, but not caring as they tried to get to Tony and help him. Charles was the first to reach him, reaching forward towards his childhood friend.
“No! Don’t touch me!” They were all shocked to hear Tony shouting back at them, flinching away from Charles.
They flinched back too, as the glow faded, allowing them to finally gain their sight back, only to find themselves staring at a very awake Tony.
“Oh God, you’re fine!” Bruce exclaimed with wide, unbelieving eyes, he was pretty sure he passed out at some point and was dreaming now. “Wait, you're fine?!”
“Yes, I am fine, don’t worry,” Tony reassured them, as he stood up slowly, shocking them even more.
“But-but how?” Alex was the definition of confusion now, as she stared at Tony’s clothes, where a very obvious splash of chemicals was on him. “You were hit! How are you still moving?!”
Tony started moving his hands swiftly and very carefully on his body, removing a very thin, clear cover that was apparently covering his entire body, avoiding touching the chemicals that were splashed on it.
“It was Castiel’s idea.” Tony took pity on the three confused sets of eyes that were still staring at him and started to explain as he removed the thin cover. “He suggested that I cover myself with a clear protection cover so that chemical won’t touch my body if I got hit.”
He was still removing that thin, very delicate, completely unnoticeable cover from around him very carefully, as they stared at him in awe. Still in shock.
“But how did you get that cover?” Charles stared in wonder at the thin, clear cover, that covered Tony’s entire body, except for his head. He probably planned to not let the chemical touch his face when the Fireball attacked. “I didn’t even notice you wearing it until you started removing it from around you!”
“That’s the point of it.” Tony looked up at him, smirking proudly, ready to explode ego on their faces, which right now was totally justified. “I made it a few weeks ago, didn’t really find a use for it until now actually. It is a very delicate, but very strong clear body suit that can be worn above the clothes, allowing no restrictions in moving or breathing. It is still a prototype, I didn’t know if it would actually work, I guess I am really a genius after all.”
No one dared to even object, because they couldn’t help but admit that it was true. Tony gambled with his life just now and managed to win because of his brain alone. That's pretty damn genius if they were being honest.
Tony had finally managed to remove the cover completely off of him, so Bruce rushed to get a big plastic bag and rushed back to Tony, so he and Alex could help Tony drop the cover inside it with all the mysterious chemicals covering it.
“Is it safe to hug you now?” Charles asked Tony, his body still tense from how worried and terrified he was for his friend. The idea of almost losing him like the others, filled him was so much fear and worry it was unbearable.
“Yeah, it’s safe now.” Tony smiled reassuringly to him, as Charles wasted no time in pulling him in a hug, almost crushing Tony’s ribs in the process.
“Don’t you dare scare me like that again.” Charles muttered menacingly, as he crushed Tony with his arms to make his point.
“I am sorry, Big Brain.” Tony smiled as he patted Charles on the back reassuringly.
Security appeared by the door, almost crashing into the room, if not for Alex shouting at them “Wait! Don’t enter! Not until we make sure the room is safe and no chemicals splattered anywhere!”
The security men hesitated at the door, glancing towards Dr. Johnosn, who sat on his desk chair, still trying to calm his panicking heart after what happened.
“She’s right.” Dr. Johnson swallowed as he faced the security. “We are all fine. Go get the lab experts! Now!”
The men rushed to obey, while Tony released himself from Charles’ arms, a frown on his face.
“He won’t stop at this failed attempt,” Tony announced with a tight look on his face, fists clenching. “He will try again. This time, he will not fail. I don’t have a second cover.”
“Then we need to find another way to protect you!” Charles exclaimed, clutching Tony’s arm in worry.
“No.” Tony placed a hand on his arm, looking serious and determined. “It means we need you to work fast on my brain to get what we need before he tries again.”
“What about protecting you?” Bruce objected indignantly.
“Protecting everyone else comes first.” Tony countered firmly, not backing down, as he made his way towards the fallen chair, pulled it upright, sat on it, and turned to Charles. “Come on, do your magic.”
Charles stared at him silently for a second, exchanging a look with Bruce and Alex, before nodding as he made his way to Tony. “Fine. let’s get to it.”
A loud vibrating sound rang through the room before Charles made one step toward Tony, making Dr. Johnson flinch and shout. “What? what now?!”
“What the hell?” Tony muttered nervously, staring at his watch, the cause of that loud vibrating sound.
“What is it?” Charles asked nervously, as Bruce tensed next to him.
“It is the team’s main communication device. Only the team members can use it, and they are all lying here, unable to press a single button.” Tony frowned in annoyance, as he raised the watch towards his mouth, answering the call. “Who’s there?”
A harsh gruff voice answered back to him in a mix of anger and sarcasm.
“So, you survived my fireball. Should have expected that Tony Stark will not fall as easily.”