the coming wave

Tony was sat drinking a smoothie in the kitchen. He was watching Steve fill the blender cup with fruits to make another. 

The past few weeks had been tame. Lame even. Tony’d just been silently taking care of Stark International business and pinging back and forth between New York and Malibu. He was tired of waiting for construction to finish and he truly missed his penthouse as it was.

The space he was currently renting was alright, as far as penthouses goes, but it wasn’t nearly as custom as he was used to. 

So, Tony found refuge in his childhood home, the ornate fixings were comforting because of their vague familiarity. Although that was maybe putting it strongly. Because Tony mostly liked the hanging out part. Nowadays, he found himself enjoying the super soldier’s company a lot more, although as time passed he found himself spending more and more time trying to talk Steve out of finding and decimating Fury. 

Unfortunately, the problem with being so far back in the past meant that many events had barely come to be. The Triskelion was currently in the works and SHIELD/HYDRA hadn’t even stolen his repulser tech to even create blueprints for the Helicarriers. 

It was making their whole job that much harder. Their mission had taken on the same ideology of Project Insight’s—How do you stop a threat before it happens? Especially when they had no proof. This had been the basis of several arguments between the men, and it had led them to a stalemate where they agreed to the importance of finesse. 

And of course planned their first mission.

While the modern SHIELD/HYDRA bases were in various states of preparation or non-existence, there were still a few vital ones who’ve been active for the last century.

The plan had started with Tony off-handedly mentioning it’s name and offering to take care of it. This, obviously, did not fly with either Steve or Rhodey.

So, today, they had a meeting on the books to talk about it, much to Tony’s chagrin. If it were up to him, he’d of taken care of it a week ago. 

“Let’s head down, yeah?”

Tony hummed in response, nodding his head and rising from his stool. “Or we can skip it and I can fly over now?”

He expected the snort he got in response, and continued walking gingerly over to the elevator with Steve hot on his tail. 

He wasn’t injured, just tired. With it being 2009, there wasn’t much going on. His past year in a new timeline was going remarkably well, but he wasn’t letting himself be cowed. He had tentatively checked AIM and Vanko off his list of baddies to deal with, hopefully the olive branches and surveillances he’d sent out would yield results. 

With Loki not being entirely batshit, he felt like Earth had a better chance against whoever Thanos does end up sending. Loki’s ‘magic’ was ridiculously powerful, to his eternal irritation—and Strange’s too who apparently couldn’t stand him. 

And with Steve thawed and mentally stable, he was there to reclaim his role as Avengers chairman. Tony’s time, as he had planned it, was no longer being entirely monopolized by Iron man’s business. He knew that this calm wouldn’t last, so he’d tried to use his time efficiently—operative word being tried. 

He was still CEO, after all, and he loved his employees and the amazing stuff they were turning up now that they’d turned away from armaments. Luckily for him, Pepper being COO meant he could shuck the administrative stuff her way. Watching her handle them all with grace and a perfectly tailored suit was just an additional benefit. 

Tony smiled lightly at the thought, watching his own reflection smile back in the elevator doors. His eyes wavered lightly and travelled towards Steve. Steve, who was somehow already watching him. Tony tried not to jerk in shock as he smiled appraisingly at Steve through the reflection first before turning his head to raise an eyebrow at the man. 

Steve shuffled a little before smiling back lightly, “Sorry for strong-arming you here, but we have to be on the same page.”

“Y’sure you’re not just antsy to get back to punching nazi’s, Cap?”

Steve’s face drew up in amusement, “Two things can be true.”

Tony snorted.

-

The meeting, predictably, was not eventful in that Tony did not win the argument. He had gained a sidekick on his quest, which pleased both Rhodey and Steve immensely. Rhodey because he liked to spoil Tony’s fun and Steve because he was itching to find and punch a HYDRA operative. At least, that’s how Tony saw it.

As they continued to pour over a battle-plan, Tony was finally saved by JARVIS in the form of a new email. 

“Sir, Hank Pym has just responded to your query.”

Tony’s head jerks up in surprise, disrupting the flow of conversation. That was the one email he didn’t expect to get a response to. He started grinning madly, “And what did Ant-boy say?”

JARVIS paused pointedly before responding, “He is amenable to meeting and discussing your suggesting talking points.”

Tony grinned childishly, “Alright boys, that’s my cue,” he announced as he stood swiftly and walked towards the door—ignoring the protests thrown out by Steve and Rhodey. 

“Hank, can I call you Hank?” Tony asked as he sat down across from the man. He wanted to scoff at the total power play that was Hank requesting the meeting in his office at the Pym Tech HQ. Tony found him to be a petty petty man, but he had to deal, so he exercised immense restraint. 

“No, you may not, Stark,” came the derisive response. He couldn’t expect anything less from Hank, because every previous interaction had been exceedingly annoying. Even now, the man sat on his chair raised to the highest height—whereas Tony’s was low to the ground—with his fingers steepled on the desk in front of him.

“Dr. Stark actually, and sorry did you prefer ‘Ant-guy’,” Tony said with an amused look on his face, using his fingers to make air quotes. He immediately wished that he had his meched-out glasses just so he could preserve the face Hank made til the end of time. He had no hope of suppressing his grin. 

“Lighten up Henry, I’m not here to bust your balls. I actually need your help,” he offered as he watched the older mans face grow red with his spluttering. 

“Stark, you think you’re funny? You don’t know what you’re talking about, now get the fuck out of here before I throw you out,” he finally said, looking furious. He tried not to laugh again. The threat was as strong as a sheet of wet paper.

Tony schooled his expression then, “Okay okay, my bad. This is serious, I’ll be serious,” he began placating. “Your time with SHIELD is on the books so I thought you would care to know they’re dealing with an infestation that might put your tech at risk.”

Tony knew from future experience that that was kind of bullshit, but he was determined to get Hank on board. To Tony, it only made sense to gather his allies, and while their relationship was always adversarial, he’d seen what the Ant suit could really do in Germany and he was determined to improve their relationship.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Hank huffed as he scrubbed a hand down his face, suddenly looking exhausted. Tony felt a twinge of sympathy. He knew what Hank was going to have to deal with, estranged family and incoming insurrection of his company and Tony could empathize with that.

Tony opened his mouth to explain before pausing and turning to observe his surroundings. He sighed, “I can explain this better if you come by the lab sometime? We need to have this conversation in a controlled environment.” 

Hank harrumphed, glaring a little deeper, “What makes you think I’d go anywhere with you?”

Tony snorted, his patience having wore thin. He stood swiftly, clearing his throat before adjusting his lapels. Without looking up from his blazer he turned on his heels, heading out of the office. Just as he crossed the threshold he threw one last comment over his shoulder, “Well, I’ll see you later.. Unless you want terrorists to have your tech!”

“Pass me the Phillips head, wouldja?”

Tony bopped his head earnestly to‘The Promise’ by When in Rome, his body swaying jerkily as he moved around his lab table. 

“You asleep on the job pipsqueak?” Tony asked as he prodded the slumped shoulder with his finger, “Yoo hooo!”

Peter jerked in surprise, falling half out of his chair. He looked up grumpily only to find himself being judged silently by Tony as he awaited his attention. 

“What?” he asked, dragging out the vowel.

“Don’t you get enough sleep in class? I seriously doubt you’re paying attention in kindergarten algebra,” Tony teased walking back towards his work surface. He plopped down gracelessly, reaching towards the nearest tablet and reviewing some previously etched notes. 

“First off, I’m 7 not 5 and second, why would a kindergartener do algebra?” Peter questioned while rubbing his eyes with his fists.

“haha, smart-ass,” Tony responded dryly. “My point is that I’m not running a daycare, I promised your aunt and uncle an educational experience!”

“Mr. Stark, be serious,” Peter said rolling his eyes. May and Ben would ooh and ahh if Peter managed to tie his shoelaces right at this point. Being 7 sucked.

“Besides, I was up late reading a few journal articles.”

Tony snorted at that, “Anything new and exciting?”

“You’re not funny. But actually, I found a few that were interesting, there was one about MutS mechanisms in DNA repair which I feel like I could use in my research.”

Tony hummed. “I think I remember Maya Hansen mentioning MutS as a protein of interest, but the squishy sciences were never really my thing. Sorry, kid,” he sighed, reaching out and ruffling Peter’s hair. 

Peter ducked away from the hand, “I’ve never had access to all these paid journals before, no need to apologize,” he said earnestly flashing a smile at Tony before turning back to his own tablet. 

The two went back to their own individual projects, comfortable in their silence. They were happy to simply spend time with each other, knowing that they didn’t have to pretend to really be any thing or any age. 

The music in the lab transitioned into more upbeat synth pop that had them both jerking their heads to the beat and lost in their own worlds. Which is why it took them both a few seconds to notice the new additions in the lab. Both scientists startled at the sound of a very purposefully cleared throat and lifted their heads to meet twin glares from alien royalty.

“Sir, there are intruders,” JARVIS then announced, entirely uselessly. At the very least, he made the effort to reveal a few defensive mechanisms semi-threateningly, which Loki simply scoffed at.

“Yeah, thanks J,” Tony huffed without breaking eye contact with Hela. He hoped the shaking in his hands wasn’t obvious. Even transplanted from the future, Tony was only so good at sharing his sanctuary, so, a stranger was really pushing it. 

“So, this is the sister?…. did this whole family motif just skip Thor?” He said, gesturing up and down with an unimpressed look on his face.

Peter snorted at the absolutely put-upon carefreeness in his stance when he could tell how absolutely off-kilter people appearing in his lab was making Tony feel. As long as Peter had known Mr. Stark, he’d hated magic.

“Yes, very amusing,” came Loki’s acerbic response. He then sighed, slumping his shoulders, “We have a problem.”

Tony furrowed his brows, leaning back into his chair and crossing his arms, “I can’t help you with all the Abra-Cadabra stuff, go find Strange.”

This seemed to finally make Hela speak. She’d been standing resolutely silent, watching Tony and Peter with disinterest. She’d been thoroughly warned by Thor about any moves against the two Midgardians who’d somehow endeared themselves to both her pathetic brothers. "Do we truly need the help of this chattering mortal?"

Loki grunted, “Was your job not containment? I seem to remember you being particularly annoying in asserting your apparent prowess?” 

Tony scrunched his eyebrows at that, “Containment devices for the stones, yeah. We’re a long ways away from that.” Tony scratched his beard, “I’m still prototyping right now.”

Hela groaned, “You’re boring me, mortal. Take this and figure it out,” she then conjured the stone and took a form which implied she was planning to throw it at Tony. 

Tony startled at the sudden appearance of the Power stone, immediately reaching an arm to shield Peter. “What the f—,” he turned to look at Peter, “…udge?” 

Peter grunted in annoyance, batting Tony’s arm away.

Loki sighed, reaching forward to snatch the stone, “My sister.. she went rogue.” Loki continued to maintain eye-contact with Tony, not sparing a glance to Hela. Tony wanted to laugh at how long suffering he looked, but couldn’t bring himself to snap out of the shock he was feeling.

“We can only hope that you can create something of use quick enough to prevent any would-be conquerors from finding and destroying us,” Loki drawled. 

Tony stammered, “W—.. Well, I have the prototype for the Space stone and we haven’t grabbed that just yet,” he then bounced up, rapidly stalking towards another lab bench and rummaging through a drawer. 

He grabbed a metal cube and opened it similarly to a jewellery box, “This was based on the notes I pulled on the tesseract.” He observed his own creation, squinting, “It would’ve been easier if I had it of course, but we’re not planning to move on that for a while.”

Hela quirked an eyebrow, “You know the location of the Space stone?”

Tony hummed, responding without looking up from the box. “Oh, yea. SHIELD’s got it locked up right now, some base in New Mexico I think.” JARVIS silently pulled up a corresponding holo-screen as he spoke, showing the base.

If Tony did look up from the device, he would’ve seen the alarm on Loki’s face and would’ve probably held his tongue.

Hela made a face before popping out of existence once again, unnoticed until Loki whipped his head back at the silence. “Stark, you are a fool,” he sniped, turning back to the confused man. 

Hela re-appeared 30 seconds later, this time in between the two men, one glaring and the other confused.

“Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Peter gasped in the background, suddenly being shielded fully by Tony again. 

“Okay, I guess I’ll start working on another,” Tony said, furrowing his eyebrows.

He waved his hand up, imitating tossing upwards as if the stone was a tennis ball or something equally innocuous. The stone followed his movements in a gravity-defying float, “I’ll hold onto them for now, call for me when you can finally prove your worth.” 

Loki then imitated putting the stones in his pocket, but instead of reaching for his pants, a rip in the air revealed a deep purple space that looked like a quintessential picture off the ‘cosmos’. He tossed the stones in.

"We won't always be around to save you, you know," Hela added, looking amused with a heavy tinge of condescension. 

Tony raised and eyebrow in question at that, completely unamused. The sister was still as much of a mystery now as she'd been when they first met 30 minutes ago, but from what he could tell, he was not a fan.

"You created the problem, ya might as well help," he scoffed, deadpanned, before turning away.

“HYDRA! ….Are you bull-shitting me?”

Tony snorted at that, “I really wish I was actually, but no. And we could use your help.”

Hank had, very predictably, shown up at his Malibu HQ. He’d demanded a meeting very belligerently and refused to leave.

When Tony had finally come into the office, Hank had surely made any enemy of Mrs. Arbogast, so Tony led him out of the building and headed for his off-site lab. 

“I’m sure you could, considering you had your assistant pester me until I emailed you back,” Hank grumbled. “What the hell kind of name is Friday anyway?”

Tony quirked a brow, “Uhh… what?”

He drummed him fingers on the table, “FRI?”

He heard a light chirp before the reluctant explanation came through, “…I may have put some of my new skills to use!”

Hank grunted, “By new skills does she mean extreme irritation?”

Tony hummed, “Probably. What’d she do?”

“She hacked my personal computer and kept flashing random red rings and comics every time your name would even vaguely be mentioned.”

Tony hummed, face scrunching up slightly. Red rings? Comics? That made no sense to Tony at all. “FRI, did you find…memes?” At the silence, Tony  laughed out loud, full bodied, at the thought. FRIDAY had been born at such a chaotic time in the other timeline that it was nice to see how she developed away from the stressors.

“That’s all?” Hank growled, “That girl wouldn’t get out of my systems for months like some sort of thug! I should sue you both!”

“You’ll find, Henry, that I’m not so easy to track down,” FRIDAY said again, “In fa—”

“Alright!” Tony interrupted, “JARVIS please reprimand your sister, she’s going SKYNET on us.”

Tony then turned to Hank looking apologetic, “I’m truly sorry Hank, as funny as it may be, I didn’t actually sic her on you that was all her rambunctious personality.”

“She takes after her father unfortunately,” JARVIS added dryly, earning a snort from Tony and a raised eyebrow from Hank.

“Do you… do you have children, Stark?”

Tony smiled, “Yes, I do. JARVIS and FRIDAY, children please show yourselves.”

Two holograms popped up in the air beside Tony suddenly, startling Hank. One was a familiar web of orange synapses, resembling closely a human brain. The mass pulsed as JARVIS greeted Hank, “Hello Dr. Pym, It’s a pleasure.”

The second hologram was the form of a tall and bright young woman, red hair only slightly lighter than the red dress she wore, perfectly complementing the steely blue of her skin. The hologram was iridescent, shimmering beautifully as if bathed with a warm golden light. She stood with an arm on her popped hip, smirking, “Nice to finally meet you, Henry.”

Hank started spluttering, Wh-.. Is that artificial intelligence?” he smiled then, although is resembled a grimace, “It’s an honour to meet you!”

He shot to his feet, approaching FRIDAy rapidly much to Tony’s chagrin. He reached an arm forward, which startled Tony to action, leading him to begin hedging himself between the two.

“At least buy me a drink first, Henry,” FRIDAY said amused. Hank looked mortified as Tony whipped around to stare at FRIDAY in shock.

“Absolutely not, FRIDAY! Not funny, don’t joke about that!”

“That’s— not ! I’ve go-.. I’m a married man!” Hank stepped backwards rapidly, slumping back into his chair, running a rough hand through his hair and then down his face. 

FRIDAY bursted into bright laughter at both their reactions, looking between the two before blipping out of the air with another laugh. JARVIS made a noise resembling a snort before disappearing swiftly again, “I’ll speak with her, Sir”. 

“Wow. Artificial Intelligence that advanced?” he said with a wistful look. 

Tony turned back to him, hackles risen, “You got a wife that you’re hiding?” He figured deflection would help him here, he had no plans of explaining his AIs to anybody, let alone Hank Pym. 

Hank’s face turned grim suddenly, “something like that.” He turned again, “I like to blame the Soviet’s for that one.”

Tony’s face lit up with recognition, “Code-name: The Wasp. Janet van Dyne?”

Hank smiled wistfully, “That’s her. We were on a mission when I lost her, it’s why I don’t use that tech anymore. And that’s why I can’t let my tech get in any one else’s hands.”

“You know, I read that mission report,” Tony hedged. “The Quantum Realm is an interesting concept, no guarantee it’s a death sentence though.”

Hank huffed, beginning to look frustrated, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No, seriously. I saw the plans for the tunnel fuelled by those particles? If we could keep it stable, I bet we could pass back and through.”

Hank stopped shifting then. He frowned at the tabletop in front of him, eyebrows scrunching deeper by the second. “The tunnel might overload with that level of power needed.”

Tony hummed, hand rising to scratch his beard. He hadn’t expected this turn of events, he mostly expected to try and recruit Hank into being Ant-man again, but this was all so much more interesting. “You need to right components, and maybe Arc tech might help in the energy department.”

Tony walked over to another holo table, “J?” The Quantum Tunnel blueprint popped up then, Tony snorted, “Did you just add ‘quantum’ in front of everything?” 

He then flashed a hand gesture that pulled a fresh blueprint up, I’m thinking you could add a reactor here,” he pointed while murmuring.

Hank walked over then, “Well, don’t Stark it all up. I can figure this all out myself, I don’t need your help.” 

Tony raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t stop sketching down his take on the tunnel as Hank watched.

“Can we leave alreadyyyyy?”

Tony was slumped against the hangar wall, waiting for his unwanted guests to accompany him. He was slouching for maximum effect, which was an achievement considering he was fully suited in the stiff metal embrace of MARK II.V.

If Tony had had it his way, the mission would’ve been completed at least a week ago. But no. His team-mates wanted a piece of the glory so he had to wait. 

Steve approached, seemingly deliberate in his glacial pace, “Tony.”

Tony rolled his eyes, imitating Steve’s exasperated tone, “Steven.”

Steve’s serious facade crumbled rapidly, being replaced with an amused smile, “Thank you for letting us join you on this mission. You’re too kind,” he said with an amused huff. 

“Well, I’m a sucker for my fans,” Tony said indulgently as he pushed the straighten his stance. 

“Rhodey!” he shouted over Steve’s shoulder, “T minus 5 minutes or I’m piloting!”

Jim flew in swiftly then, landing in front of Tony, “Not a chance.”

Steve snorted in response, walking towards the plane’s entrance. 

-

The base was abandoned. Almost eerily so. There were laptops left open, dusty old mugs, and even jackets strewn about. As the group walked through, they simply observed their surroundings with mixed emotions. 

Rhodey and Tony walked together, trailing behind Steve silently. They had a detached sense of curiosity, observing the dusty remains of the famous ‘Camp Lehigh’. Steve, however, get the nostalgia of revisiting his old stomping grounds. Especially with them being in this state of disrepair. 

They attempted to silence their chatter, to give Steve the metaphorical emotional space to process his surroundings. Tony and Rhodey used their palm repulsers as flashlights, pointing and observing their surroundings. They tried their best to suppress their snarky comments… They were unsuccessful.

“Damn, who left their dishes, that is nasty,” Rhodey commented with his palm raised and pointed towards a side table seemingly abandoned outside. Steve snorted in response, seemingly snapped out of his emotional moment.

“Where are we heading, here?”

Tony straightened up, striding forward to assume the leading position, “Well, there was an operation called ‘Paperclip’ that started around 1945.” Tony started walking towards a storage building near the barracks.

“The SSR pardoned and recruited over 1,500 Nazi German scientists and engineers as federal employees.” He yanked the door open, a large cloud of dust surrounding them before settling and clearing their obscured view. He raised his palm to illuminate the hallway, all the desks and chairs having long crusted over with think layers of dust.

Steve sucked in a sharp breath, muttering to him, “Yeah, that’ll end well.” 

Rhodey snorted, “And it so very clearly, did end up well.”

“You guessed it, Rhodey-baby. It did not end well.” Tony turned his head rapidly before setting his sites on a location. He led them swiftly down a straight path through hallways. The three men stood admiring the SHIELD crest on the wall. Tony began walking first, breaking away from the group and leading them down another hallway.

"Arnim Zola ended up using his position to start re-developing HYDRA within our government,” Tony said, grunted with exertion as he shoved aside a heavy shelving unit, revealing a door.

“Fast forward 30 years. Hold on stay back.” Tony held his palm up scanning the elevator before lumbering over and entering the code JARVIS suggesting. Rhodey and Steve followed silently behind him when the elevator’s doors opened and he entered swiftly. They turned towards Tony with raised eyebrows. Tony lightly taps the door close and clicks the one option on the panel.

“Fast forward 30 years. 1972. Zola gets a terminal diagnosis, but feels like his work isn’t done quite yet.” The elevator hums loudly, thudding as it settles on the basement level. The doors creak open as Tony and Rhodey raise their palms in caution. Steve adjusts his shield and widens his stance.

“No life forms?” Rhodey asks, his arm faltering from his offensive position a he turns to look at Tony questioningly.

“Nothing organic,” he remarked, walking forward confidently. The automatic lights followed Tony as he walked forward, prompting the other two to follow hesitantly. 

Tony turned in a semi-circle to face the two, “200,000 feet of databanks and all the vintage tech you can imagine.” 

“Tony.. What is this?” Steve looked off-put at the site of the room, “Why do you need a secret base within a secret office of a secret base?”

“Just watch, and be ready.” Tony approached the central desk slowly, a USB ejected from the shoulder of his suit. He swiftly stuck the drive into an adaptor. The computer began coming to life, the main display beeping and blinking slowly. 

“I don’t know how he did it. But the bastard persevered,” Tony murmured to himself, watching the screen.

INITIATE SYSTEM?

Tony typed slowly, narrating his query so the other two could keep up, “Y, E, S.”

“Wait, Tones,” Rhodey tried, stepping forward as he heard the rapid beeping of machines and watched the remainder of the technology in the room come alive rapidly.

Steve approached steadily, placing a hand on Iron Man’s shoulder, “Should we have done that?”

Iron Man straightened and turned towards Steve, “JARVIS cut the systems ability to communicate with any external sources. He can’t send any signals out nor access any connections.”

Steve tilted his head, “He?”

“Rogers, Steven. Born 1918. Stark, Anthony. Born 1970. Rhodes, James. Born 1968.”

Steve squared his shoulders, feeling immediately tense at the familiar accent, “What is this?”

“I may not be the man I was when you took me prisoner in 1945, Captain,” the computer screen flashed to show an old photo of Dr. Arnim Zola, “But I am the same.”

Steve gasped, “Zola?” He approached the screen before turning his head apprehensively to Tony, “Is this what you meant? He made some sort of recording?”

Tony opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by the harsh buzz of the camera whipping to Steve, “I am not a recording. I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain.”

Jim sucked in a breath in the background. The three men stood stock still, waiting for one of the others to make a move. 

“I don’t believe this,” Steve whispered, looking pale. He’d known, logically, that HYDRA was alive. Tony had said as much, and as ridiculous as it was, he went with it. Somehow, though, being faced with the reality was blowing his mind all over again. 

“Accessing archive.” The computer screen switches to old footage of Johann Schmidt and then the original SHIELD founders. “HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.”

The camera then panned towards Tony, tilting ominously. 

“SHIELD put up a meagre fight… HYDRA was always two steps ahead.” The lenses seemed to zoom in a mocking fashion. In and then out.

The computer screen then switched to a feed showing HYDRA killing Howard and Maria Stark. The feed was overlaid with the official report showing the deaths claimed as accidents. The feed seemed to artfully avoid showing any identifying features of the assassin other than the gleaming silver arm.

“HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise.” The camera shifted back to Steve then, taking in his dubious expression.

“We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum—“ Steve smashed the computer screen suddenly, letting out growl of anger.

“As I was saying…” Zola continued nonchalantly from a different screen.

Tony snorted at that, “Yes yes. It’s all very insidious and scary Zola. Now just give me a second here-…” Tony continued muttering to himself as he approached the back of the desk. 

“What do you think yo— enough! Get away!” Dr. Zola screeched, and continued to do so as Tony unleashed JARVIS on Zola’s system. Systematically, JARVIS pulled intelligence from the servers, sorting away pieces of Zola’s conscious and firewalls to prevent any contamination on Stark servers.

“What have you done to the connection?” Zola asked rhetorically in the air, as he seemed preoccupied in preventing the hostile takeover of his servers.

“Where do you have Bucky?” Steve rumbled, his grip on his shield tightening. 

Rhodey quirked a brow, “don’t destroy anything else yet, buddy.”

Dr. Zola cackled though the scene, which came across as a crackling staticky sound. 

“Sergeant Barnes.” He stated, sounding eternally pleased and a little giddy, “My own pet project, the fist of HYDRA.” The screen flashed quickly through mission reports, pictures, orders, and finally landed on a grainy image seemingly taken from a CCTV of the Winter Soldier, standing at parade rest.

“He wasn’t easy, I’ll award him that compliment.” The screen switched to a video of Bucky on a chair, outfitted with an immense amount of tech. He was surrounded by numerous men in lab coats, their expressions representing something akin sadistic curiosity. 

Bucky is crying before he’s shoved backwards and the chair is turned on, shocking him. The video cuts off and switches to another CCTV style video which shows the Winter Soldier marching with perfect posture and a semi-automatic rifle held over his shoulder.

“But it didn’t take long to create the fist of HYDRA,” Zola finished, sounding immensely pleased in himself.

Steve growled again, fists coming down to slam onto the desk with a thundering sound. “Where is he?” he just barely spat out.

“And why would I tell yo—” Zola’s voice slowed and deepened as the monster blinked out of life. 

“And that would be JARVIS’ virus compromising his system.” Tony said, popping out from behind a server.

He re-approached his armour, entering it swiftly, and walking back over to his teammates. “He was stalling, trying to send a message out. I’ve got all the data stored here and the IPs of wherever he tried sending distressing signals,” Tony clapped Steve of the shoulder, “Let’s get outta here soldier.”

“Wait,” Rhodey said, walking towards Steve. War Machine reached down and grabbed Steve’s discarded shield, offering it to him, “Let’s destroy these servers first, yeah?”

Steve quirked a small smile as he grabbed the shield, “My pleasure.”

“Well, that wasn’t so hard was it?”

Hank frowned back at him. 

They’d been working on perfecting the tunnel for a few months now. Hank had been working non-stop this whole time, while Tony consulted as much as he could, or as Hank would say—as much as he allowed. 

Unfortunately, Tony had been entirely pre-occupied with Avengers and SI business. He’d been pulled in every possible direction for the past few months, dealing with the shifting HQ, the fall-out of their first mission, and SHIELD. 

SHIELD was becoming a problem of their own, really. Which was largely the fault of the Avengers practically sprinting onto their radar. First, the Tesseract goes missing—and while they couldn’t prove it—it was briefly detected near Tony’s Malibu lab. Next, Camp Leigh was  completely decimated, the only thing remaining being expertly wiped cameras and carefully burned files, which admittedly was a little suspicious. 

All together, this lead to Tony’s current situation, which was essentially a very non-subtle tail. He’s sure they thought they were being subtle, and maybe 2008 Tony Stark wouldn’t have noticed, but he was older, wiser, and better researched—and had the significant technological advantage of two revolutionary AIs.

The additional caution he’d had to adopt was another roadblock in the winding journey that was Tony’s relationship with Hank.

Hank and Tony’s relationship had definitely bettered with more time spent together. Hank’s grudge had been mostly towards Howard, who Tony couldn’t be less like. Another unexpected development was Hank’s interest in FRIDAY and the reveal that he’d been working on AI of his own. Tony knows that no such AI came to fruition in the future, so he felt less hesitant in showing off a little. 

They’d made significant progress on the tunnel thus far, but Tony had anticipated that they could’ve finished earlier had Hank actually taken Tony’s advice and suggestions seriously. And Tony had been gearing up to tell him that when they met next, only to be stunned at the presence of Janet Van Dyne at Hank’s side.

Hank huffed a laugh, looking happier than he had fo the entirety of the last 6 months, “No, I guess it wasn’t too hard.”

Janet smiled a little brighter, “Tony! I hear you’re responsible for my rescue from that dreadful place!”

She leaped forward gracefully and wrapped her arms around Tony’s neck squeezing him tight. He huffed a laugh as he wrapped his arms around her back. 

“It was the least I could do, Jan. The usual haunts hadn’t been the same without you.” They slowly untangled and Tony then took the time to really look at her, “How is it possible that you look so lively. Aren’t you meant to be a couple years older than me?”

Tony smiled sweetly at the scowling Hank who made a move grab grab Janet back towards his side and away from Tony. 

Janet harrumphed at that, patting Hank’s chests placatingly. “That’s the remarkable thing! Time passes so differently in the quantum realm, it felt like only a handful of years to me.” 

Hank grimaced lightly, “she’s practically only five years older than Hope.” He waved his hands in the air a little, “There’s still quite a bit to figure out!”

Tony crossed his arms, leaning his hip sideways onto the lab desk beside him. He looked at the couple with a critical eye as he considered the logistics in his head, “I’m assuming you need my help with creating a paper trail and identity for Ms. Van Dyne.”

Hank raised an eyebrow, “Well, I was hoping or FRIDAY’s, but yours will do just fine.”