Chapter 29
“You!”
Tony growled the moment he heard a foreign voice talking to him through his watch, putting two and two together immediately, that this must be the man who was behind all that was happening.
“Yes, it’s me, you genius.” The man answered him in his mocking, angry voice, making Tony feel the rage building up inside him, wanting nothing except to strangle that man with his bare hands. “I am the person you will never be able to defeat because I know everything about you. Even the things you desperately want to hide.”
Tony clenched his teeth in anger. “You do realize that, from this call, I can easily track you and find your location-“
“My location?!” his loud mocking laugh cut off Tony’s words, making him stop and frown. Everyone around him was looking at him in worry. They can’t hear the call, it was only for Tony, so they don’t know what’s going on, but waiting for him to finish to ask. “Who said I am trying to hide my location?! It is the opposite actually, I called you specifically to tell you where I am.”
“And where are you?” A wave of worry washed over Tony, as he thought about all the worst places that man could be right now.
“There is someone here who can answer that better than me.” His sneer was obvious through his voice, Tony didn’t need to see it to hear it.
He frowned, wondering what he could possibly mean, but his wondering wasn’t long, since in the next second, Charlie’s panicked, terrified voice was suddenly in the call, exclaiming in utter panic. “Tony! He is here! He is in the hideout where Raven and the mutant kids are hiding! I went there only to find him waiting for me! He put Raven in the same state as the others! The kids are in danger! He forced them all into a room and locked it! The kids are in danger, Tony!”
Her words managed to send Tony’s heart plummeting to his feet.
***
“From Rumlow to base. We found the enemy’s hideout. We are surrounding it right now.”
Rumlow reported back to base, as he moved swiftly and subtly with his team towards a small, isolated two-story house at the edge of town. He and his team surrounded the place as discreetly as they could, to not be spotted.
“Our investigations and tracking devices led us to here.” Rumlow continued his report through his communicator. “We tracked the heat traces of that invisible man to here. We are waiting for orders.”
“Don’t try to attack now, agent.” Fury himself answered back to him firmly. “Wait for backup. I repeat, don’t attack now.”
“But we are already here, sir!” Rumlow objected indignantly, finding it personally insulting if they thought he needed backup. “My team is more than enough to “
“Wait for backup, Rumlow. I will not repeat myself.” Fury practically growled, not accepting any objection to his order.
“Fine. we will wait, sir.” Rumlow exhaled in frustration, hating everything and everyone. Then all his team’s machines caught a loud, continuous signal all of a sudden, making Rumlow flinch and ask “What the hell is this?!”
“What? what’s happening?” Fury exclaimed when he heard Rumlow’s exclaim.
“There is something strange happening, sir,” Rumlow muttered a little nervously, staring at the house’s top window. “A light came suddenly from a window, then our machines caught a loud signal that we are not sure where’s is coming from.”
“Retreat! Take your team and retreat right now! Evacuate the entire area! Now!” the alarm in Fury’s voice should have really clued Rumlow in that something was about to go very wrong.
But he just frowned, not understanding the alarm. “Why should we retreat? We can just-“
He cut himself off with a sharp gasp, eyes widening as he stared at the small crystal ball that flew out of that window, hovered in midair, and started to glow red.
“Fall back! S.T.R.I.K.E team fallback right now! Fall back!” Fury shouted through the speakers as if he was watching the scene with them, feeling the urgency of the situation.
They didn’t have time to obey his order, because the crystal ball suddenly exploded loudly, releasing an alarming amount of Fireballs that quickly spread out terrifyingly fast. To pounce towards each one of Rumlow and his team.
Without thinking, Rumlow dropped his communication device and pulled out his gun while shouting at his team. “Fall back! Protect yourselves! Fall back!”
In front of his eyes, he saw a ball explode into one of his teammate's chests, sending him flying away, another ball chasing another teammate, while a third one exploded into another member.
Then he saw one Fireball coming right towards him.
“Shit! He is wiping us out!” Rumlow shouted frantically, raising his gun and shooting at the ball, once, twice, three times. Nothing. The ball kept charging towards him.
When he realized this was pointless, he turned around fast and ran as fast as he could, trying to reach his car, to protect himself with its force shield.
However, the ball was faster than him. it hit him in the back and exploded violently.
From the explosion, Rumlow’s body flew forward so hard, that he surpassed the roof of his car, before hitting the ground roughly.
From the communication device that was in Rumlow’s watch, came Fury’s voice calling out to him in worry. “What’s happening? Rumlow?! What happened to you?!”
Rumlow opened his eyes with great effort and tried to say anything, Anything at all. But the pain was unbearable, and the paralysis was spreading too quickly through his body.
Despite Fury’s voice calling for him frantically. He was unable to answer him, as his eyes fell closed and darkness overwhelmed his surroundings.
***
For a few seconds, Tony didn’t utter a word. His emotions froze. In fact, his entire body froze in place. Unable to do anything except stare at Charles’ face, who was still standing in front of him, looking at him with worried eyes, completely unaware of what Tony was hearing in the call right now. He wasn’t sure if he was more terrified of what he was hearing, or from Charles’ reaction after he told him what was going on.
Meanwhile, Charlie let out a pained sound in the call, followed by a thud, and then the man’s voice took over the call again.
“I am guessing now you know what’s happening, right Genuis?” his harsh, angry voice, made Tony shiver from how enraged he was, that voice crawled over his body like sickness and disgust.
“Yes, you fucking bastard,” Tony growled back, almost feeling the veins in his forehead popping.
“It’s him, isn’t it?!” Charles asked frantically, as Bruce and Alex stood next to him, all staring hard at Tony, waiting for an explanation.
Tony gestured for him to stay quiet. He can’t afford for that man to know that he wasn’t currently alone, he couldn’t risk that.
“How can a lowly Future Spy get so low to resort to kidnapping innocent children?” Tony growled from between his clenched teeth.
“Children? My Children?!” Charles exclaimed with utter panic when he heard that, but Tony gestured for him again to wait and be quiet for now, then they would panic together.
“Future Spy?!” The man growled in frustration, sounding like he didn’t appreciate that sentence at all. “So you figured half the truth then? Well, damn! You guys turned out to be smarter than I gave you credit for.”
“And we will always be smarter than you, you bastard! we exposed you and your fucking plan!” Tony snapped sharply.
The man was silent for a few seconds, then muttered with a growl. “I don’t think so. All you figured out is that I am from the future. That doesn’t mean much if you hadn’t figured out the second half of the truth.”
“And what is the second half?” Tony wondered carefully. Trying to get the man to talk more, to get any more information.
“What are you doing exactly?!” The man shouted viciously. “Are you trying to waste time, or are you mocking my intelligence?!”
“What are you doing?! Did you fail to fight the adults so you decided to let out your frustrations on helpless children?!” Tony snapped back just as viciously.
By now, Charles was on his way to having a heart attack from just hearing Tony’s side of the call.
“Listen here, Smartass, enough with your stupid sensibilities.” The man growled with so much cruelty that Tony felt a shiver run through his body. “I didn’t come here and took control over those fucking mutants, so we could chat over your watch! This is an attempt to get back control over the situation!”
“So you are confessing that you lost control over the situation!” Tony couldn’t help but be a little satisfied with this small victory.
“That is because you are too fucking stubborn for your own good.” He growled in utter frustration. “Everything was going just fine! things were going with the schedule! According to the plan! But you ruined everything! everything!”
“Then why-“
“Shut up and listen!” Tony was interrupted by the man’s loud, angry yell, and Tony flinched against his will. “If you want to get those two women and those freak kids alive, you need to give me your full service!”
“What?!” Tony shouted indignantly. “You want me to betray my team? My present?!”
“No, I am telling you to obey my orders without question, or else…”
“Or else what?!”
“Or else I will slaughter those two women and those children without hesitation!”
That sent Tony’s heart plummeting again to his feet, his breathing was getting short as he tried not to panic. “You wouldn’t dare.”
A mocking, cruel laugh answered back to him. “You really want to bet on that?”
He then heard Charlie’s pained scream and thudding noise, indicating that that man was most likely pulling her harshly towards him, then he heard her voice clearly as she screamed. “He would dare, Tony! He would! That man is a monster! Stay away! Don’t come here! Don’t-“
His words cut off with her screaming then a loud thud followed, meaning that she was shoved towards the floor, before the man’s voice returned, growling viciously. “I want you here in twenty minutes before the sun rises. Don’t you dare to tell any living soul what happened between us now? Especially Xavier. Don’t you dare to tell him anything or consequences will happen. Twenty minutes and everyone here will die.”
The call ended with that, and Tony’s face paled so hard, and he swayed on his feet, feeling dazed and uncoordinated.
“Tony?!” Bruce and Charles exclaimed as they rushed to steady him, a look of pure worry on their faces.
“Tony, what happened? What did that man tell you? My children! Are my children alright?! Raven? Charlie?! Tony, talk to me!” Charles immediately showered him with questions, as his own panic started to overcome him. “What does he want?!”
Tony turned to look at him dazedly, feeling helpless, not knowing what to do. What’s the right choice now? What the hell should he do now?
His mind conjured the image of those poor, mutant children, who are always happy to see him whenever he visits. Those poor kids who didn’t do anything wrong to deserve be dragged into this mess. The image of Raven and Charlie facing that monster right now on their own.
The choice was obvious. It was painfully, humiliatingly obvious.
“Tony? What are we doing now?” Bruce asked carefully, trailing his eyes between him and Charles nervously.
Tony turned his eyes towards him, stared at him like he was seeing him for the very first time, then turned to look at Charles’ worried, panicked face, his heart clenching in his chest painfully.
“It looks like I have no other choice.” Tony choked out, resisting his wish to scream in frustration and pain. “No other choice at all.”