Hide & Seek
Rachel got home late that night parking in front of her small house a bit outside of New York. It was a modest house that she used to share with her sister before she moved out suddenly with no explanation, but that was neither here nor there. She walked inside and greeted her overexcited dog before placing her bag of medical supplies on the counter and collapsing onto the couch. Honestly she couldn’t believe she had just treated Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Rhodey, and whoever the kid was. It was extremely painful not to ask for a picture but she had to be professional. She bit her lip, she knew she couldn’t tell anyone and it ate at her. It would be a crazy flex to go from ditzy middle of the class Stark Industries nurse to treating the CEO and getting paid quite nicely. Her tiny little rescue dog Lola jumped onto her lap and she turned on the tv, absentmindedly stroking Lola’s fur. Rachel slowly fell asleep from the exhausting day when she was awoken by a knock on the door. Anxiety filled her as she stayed quiet, it was eleven at night why would anyone knock on here door?. She lay still on her couch hoping the person at her door would just go away. The knocking didn't stop it just kept going until Rachel thought her whole door would come down with the amount of pounding her door was taking.
“ Hello?” Rachel replied to the banging at the door, getting up from her couch and slowly cracking the door. A woman in a black suit and tie with a slicked back brown and pink ponytail stood in the doorway, her arms crossed.
“ Hi. We need to talk.” the woman said, pushing herself in.
Rachel felt her hear pound as the woman shut the door and pulled out a pistol into her right hand. Fear pulsing through Rachel; she looked around for her phone to call 911.
“ What do you want? Money?” Rachel asked breathlessly while she fumbled with a flower vase, spilling the flowers all over the floor and holding it up threateningly.
" Ha, you wish. But I'm actually looking for something a lot more valuable than that."
" Well then whatever you want you can just take it and leave and don't want any trouble. Just take what you want and leave."
The woman just stared back at her with a confused and disappointed look washing over her face. " You really don't get it? Wow and I thought I couldn't take a hint. I don't want any one of your precious belongings, I want something worth more than that. I want some knowledge only you possess".
" Fine, w-what do you want to know?
“ Simple, I know you went over to the Starks today to treat some injuries. Was there a boy there?” the woman asked while she played with the pistol in her hand, not at all fazed by Rachel’s flower vase.
“ Wh-what? Why? How did you know that?” stuttered the red head.
" Darling I have my ways but I need you to tell me if you saw a boy there. One with slightly curling brown hair." The woman said, twirling her pistol in her fingers like it was a toy.
" Why would I tell you that?"
“ Because he’s in danger.” the woman snapped. “ He’s in serious trouble.”
“ I can’t- why should I trust you?” Rachel asked, her small stature backed into a corner as the woman approached. Was the kid really in trouble? It had seemed weird but she trusted Stark, he saved half the population why would he kidnap a kid?
" Well it seems like your best bet is to comply because you know, I have a gun and all you have is a silly little vase. Which will do you no good up against a gun." The woman said, Rachel’s eyes full of fear and confusion. The woman frowned and took a deep breath then began to talk again.“ Look I know you think he’s some sort of hero but you’ve heard the rumors, you must have you work there. He’s crazy.” the woman snarled as she examined her pistol.
“ That's bull crap. He seemed-he seemed okay.” Rachel stammered, her stuttering tick coming through.
“ I’m sure he did, and I’m also sure he paid you well to keep your mouth shut. But it won’t be worth it if you die protecting a kidnapper.” the woman said, suddenly aiming the gun at Rachel’s head. Rachel's flower vase felt slippery in her hands while the woman smiled and pressed the gun to her forehead.
“ There was- there was a boy there.” Rachel stammered, regret in every word. She didn’t want to die but she had promised to keep it a secret.
“ And his address?” the woman snarled.
Rachel faintly pointed to a stack of papers on the counter and the woman marched over, shuffling through them before grabbing one triumphantly.
“ What are you gonna do?” Rachel asked weakly as the flower vase slipped out of her grip, shattering on the ground.
“ I’m gonna send him a christmas card.” the woman laughed and just as quickly as she had come she left. Lola bounded out from under the couch where she was hiding as Rachel leaned against the wall to calm down. What the hell was that about?
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
“ And I’ve checked all of the possible hideouts for wherever they are keeping their base or whatever but nothing…” Rhodey sighed and set down his glass on the table. It was currently one in the morning and the two men were sitting on the patio overlooking the yard and lake. It was a cool night but Tony barely felt the wind, he just felt numb as he took another sip of Scotch before setting his glass down as well. Rhodey had gone to check on another possible base, to find May but they had no luck. No clues. The only thing the kid had said May said to him was to find Tony, but he had been out of it, barely talking since two days ago when he had tried to tear off his skin like a parasite. The image was burned in Tony’s mind
“ You know I thought…” Tony sighed while staring at the lake. “... I thought it would be better ya know, when we found him…”
“ Yeah.” Rhodey said softly, a mutual understanding passing between them.
“ How long until they need you back?” Tony asked.
“ I dunno, I’ve been helping out with digital and more off hand issues but they’ll want me back soon.” Rhodey responded quietly.
“ Of course they do.” Tony snapped. Rhodey looked mildly offended.
“ You know the state of the world Tones, I can’t just ignore it as much as we want to find May.” Rhodey said with authority. Tony didn’t respond but just took the bottle and poured another glass of Scotch. He knew eventually Rhodey would leave, he had to but it was nice having some help. To have someone who has a drink when as tired as he was he couldn’t sleep. The quiet night air felt refreshing, better than the stale air inside of his lab.
“ I know this can’t be easy Tony, I won’t pretend it is…” Rhodey began hesitantly. “...and if you need help you can always ask.”
“ Help? I already got help, what do you think I need help brushing my teeth?” Tony scoffed. Rhodey rolled his eyes.
“ No, I mean mentally. You barely sleep…”
“ What’s new?” Tony quipped.
“ I’m serious Tony. It’s like five years ago all over again.” Rhodey said, his tone filled with concern as he stared at Tony who continued looking at the lake. Tony just
shook his head a bit. This was nothing like five years ago, nothing like after Thanos had snapped. Anxiety crept in just thinking about the kid dying in his arms, begging for Tony to save him. Tony barely slept for almost six months after that, he had put off mourning until all of his options had been exhausted. Pepper had found him in the corner of his penthouse lab looking at a picture of the kid while silent tears streamed down his face. They decided it was best to get a new start, to try and live a quiet life. The memories never left.
“ I’m fine.” Tony said finally, as if trying to convince himself he was.
“ You weren’t fine a few weeks ago. There is no way you are fine now.” Rhodey said with slight annoyance. Tony didn’t say anything and just downed his last glass of Scotch.
“ Even if I’m not it’s not my mental health that’s the biggest issue.” Tony gestured to the room upstairs where the kid was.
“ Yeah we sure as hell have problems don’t we.” Rhodey admitted and silence fell over the porch once more.
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
“ Ugh I can’t believe you won’t let me come.” Leslie pouted as she took down her hair that was once in a ponytail in the corner of Liv’s lab. She watched the woman tinker with a long metallic octopus arm. Liv looked up with mild humor written on her face.
" I thought you said you didn't want to take on an Avenger?" Liv said back, she continuing to work on her project.
" Well that's different." Leslie said turning around in her spinny chair in Livs direction.
Liv looked up and met Leslie's pouty eyes " And how so is that? Have you changed your mind already?"
" Well no, it's like you're benching me in a baseball game. You are going to go out and have all the fun while I'm stuck here. It's different when you go into battle alone, but now that you are going into battle with your crazy mechanical robot thingamajigs it would be more of a fair fight which I could help with." Leslie said while she took out her phone with one hand and gestures towards Livs project with the other.
" First off these are not just some mechanical robot thingamajigs, they are highly sophistica-."
" Blah blah blah! Like I give a shit about your scientific robotic talk that sounds like a different language. That robotic stuff just gives you extra appendages and your other funny nickname Doc Oc." Leslie said, the final words making her try hard to hold back her laughter.
" Hm yes, how could I forget the nickname you gave me that I will never be able to live down." Liv finished sarcastically annoyed.
" Ha, you know you like it though. It's written all over your face, you like the name Doc Oc." Leslie said, pointing at Liv who was trying to hide her smiling face behind her massive mechanical arm.
" Sure whatever you say Leslie, just stop trying to butter me up, you aren't going on this mission with me." Liv said she poked her face out and looked at Leslie who looked visibly offended.
" Damn it! Why not?! You are ruining my fun". Leslie pouted as she stomped her foot on the floor.
“ Psh Leslie you are such a child sometimes."
Leslie groaned angrily at Livs response " Ahh just get to the point already."
" I’m not risking this mission. I am going to get Lyco back, he’s worth more than you.” Liv snapped. Leslie rolled her eyes looking back at her phone.
“ Yeah well I got his address. So you couldn't have done any of this without me” Leslie pointed out, she showed Liv her phone screen that had a picture of an address while she stuck out her tongue for a photo.
“ True, that was impressive detective work. Do you want a gold star?” Liv asked sarcasm dripping of the sentence.
Leslie scoffed at that remark and said under her breath " No I want to go on the fricken mission, you ass."
Liv obviously heard Leslie's remark but decided to move along the conversation “ I can handle myself on a mission just as well as you, thank you very much.” Liv snarled, she tore off a piece of metal on the giant mechanical arm to examine a few wires.
“ I don’t doubt that but with Stark…” Leslie said, her tone uncharacteristically serious. “Do you really wanna fight him? If I get a good shot..” Leslie made a fake gun shot noise. " It would be game over for him. Isn't that what you wanted?"
“ It WAS but now priorities have changed, if we kill him that just creates more issues, I just need that kid back.” Liv responded with finality in her tone. “ And if all goes well he will be out of Stark's grasp tonight.”
--- ------ ------ ----- ---- ------- ----
It was a quiet night as Peter stared at the ceiling, insomnia plaguing him again. Downstairs he heard quiet talking between the redhead women and Tony. The man's name had stayed inside his mind for a lot longer, that was a good sign. As he turned over he groaned slightly as the clock read 10:30. He had a long night ahead of him as his bones ached for sleep. If he slept maybe talking wouldn’t feel so hard, maybe he could have enough of a conversation to remove the pitiful look Tony always showed him. He didn’t need his pity but it was hard to be mad because he had a feeling there was more behind this then just him being kidnapped. And brainwashed. The man looked at him like he was fragile, always unsure of what to do. Lost in thought he heard the door creak slightly as a small girl in a pink nightgown stood there clutching a unicorn plushie. The girl had Tony’s eyes.
“ Hi.” she said quietly as she walked in and came up onto Peter’s bed. Fear gripped him, what if he accidentally hurt her because the numbness came back.
“ Why are you acting so weird?” the little girl asked, her head cocked. “ Daddy said you are sick but you don’t look sick.”
“ I dunno…” Peter muttered as slowly sat up on his bed, praying she would go away.
“ Do you wanna sneak outside? I can show you my new bugs. You have been gone for a long time.” she said matter-a- factly. Again Peter shrugged. He sure as hell wasn’t going outside again, not to look at bugs.
“ I-I can’t. Sorry.” Peter said finally and she looked sad as she lay next to him.
“ Morgan?” a voice echoed in the hallway and Tony appeared in the doorway, a weird expression on his face as he stared at Morgan and Peter.
“ Morguna, leave Peter alone he’s trying to sleep.” Tony said softly as he picked her up. He lightly ruffled Peter’s hair as he hesitated.
“ You good kid?” he whispered. Peter bit his lip, he didn’t want to worry the man anymore though so he shrugged. He ruffled the kids' hair once more before leaving quietly, Morgan chatting away about something that Peter couldn’t focus on. He wished the man was still here, maybe he could sleep if he knew he was here. The last good sleep he had was when he fell asleep on the man’s shoulder. When he swore he felt normal, or as normal as he could feel. As his enhanced senses heard Morgan giggling while Tony put her to bed Peter felt helpless. He just wanted to sleep and he wanted May. But they couldn’t find May, all he heard of her voice now was ‘Find Tony’. He had found him, now what? He needed to find May. Outside he heard a very quiet car pull up, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up as it arrived. He sat very still as he tried to listen for anything weird but after a few seconds he let go of the breath he was holding. He must just be paranoid because he can’t sleep.
“ Peter.” the kid nearly jumped out of his own skin when he saw Tony standing in the doorway looking concerned. Did this man ever sleep?
“ Woah kid, you look like you saw a ghost…” Tony joked as Peter felt his heart race. What the hell is wrong? Outside he swore he heard a trunk shut but it sounded further off, he raced over to the window but the driveway was empty except for Pepper’s car.
“ Kid, what is going on?” Tony asked as he walked over to the window and joined Peter as he glanced out of the window. Nothing.
“ I thought…” Peter trailed off, his breath labored. What if they found him?
“ They won’t find you.” Tony said firmly as if reading Peter’s thoughts. Peter took a deep breath, he was just paranoid. Tony’s eyebrows were creased as he looked out the window and at Peter again. Still nothing unusual.
“ Kid. If they want to get you they have to go through me and that’s not happening.” Tony continued, the same finality in his tone. He placed a firm hand on the kid’s shoulder as he tried his best not to freak out as he felt his sixth sense go haywire. It’s nothing, just anxiety because his brain is fried, right? As Tony gently guided him away from the window Peter swore he felt his heart stop as his enhanced hearing heard a stick break outside.
“ What the hell kid, I mean is your whatever it’s called acting up. Your sixth sense?” Tony asked as he tried to decipher what was wrong. Peter dropped below the window as he listened, ignoring Tony’s concerned glare. It was quiet but his spidey sense was going haywire. Tony dropped down by Peter and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“ What’s wrong kid-”
A loud scream interrupted Tony’s sentence and the man stood up fast, his eyes wide.
“ Friday what was that?” Tony asked as the door was thrown open with a frazzled Pepper standing in the doorway.
“ Sir there appears to be an intrudder outside.” the AI said as Peter felt his eyes tear up. Liv, it had to be Liv. She found him. Peter scrambled up but Tony grabbed his shoulder and forced him back down.
“ I swear on my life, kid , you stay. Here.” the man said with a tone more serious than ever. Peter nodded weakly as he tried to calm his racing heart. Pepper stared at Tony.
“ Tony she just launched Happy across the field with a metal arm-”
“ A what?” Tony asked shortly as he launched himself down the stairs and towards his suits. Pepper followed talking the entire way but he didn’t hear a bit of it, fear had consumed him. As he opened the door Pepper pushed him against the wall.
“ Anthony Edward Stark, be careful. I know you weren’t listening to me but Rhodey and Happy are in the lab and the woman, I think she want-”
“ Peter.” Tony finished breathlessly as Pepper nodded. “ Okay you grab Morgan and get out of here, drive as far as you can.”
“ Tony-”
“ Do it. I’m hiding Peter upstairs.” Tony yelled as he ran outside and was face to face with the weirdest woman Tony had ever seen. She seemed to have ten foot mechanical arms and was being hoisted in midair by them. Her hair was in a nest on her head with purple strands going through them and a backpack showed where all of the crazy tentacles were connected.
“ Nice outfit.” Tony snapped.
“ Thanks, but I’m not here for fashion advice.” she hissed as he tried to walk to the lab.
“ Yeah, well what do you want.”
“ The kid.” Liv said as she smiled.
“ Sorry I don’t know what kid you are talking about-”
“ Oh I think you do.” she snarled. Anxiety coursing through him Tony bolted across the lawn to his lab but was stopped as he was slammed against the lab wall with one of the giant arms choking him.
“ Well believe it or not I don’t appreciate brainwashing a teenager” he choked out, wrestling his hands at the metal arm around him trying to break free of its iron grip. I'm his struggle he saw Rhodey slowly creep up to the side behind Liv, holding an arc reactor suit. Liv barely noticed though as she scoffed.
“ You know what makes a good scientist? Challenging science itself. I did the impossible Stark, I controlled a person like a puppet without the old tech of Hydra and the
winter soldier. By myself.” She spit in his face.
Tony weakly tried to grab the arc reactor as he held out his hand as he slowly choked. Rhodey was in no shape to fight and his suit needed repairs, it was just Tony. Liv smiled manically, at Tony slowly gasping for a breath.
“ GET OFF OF HIM!!!”
Out of nowhere Peter came bolting through right at Livs mechanical arm that was chocking Tony. Peter ran up reaching his arms out, grasping the metal arm. Then pushing off the ground beneath his feet into a front flip. Using this momentum he whipped the air away from Tony as he landed on his feet, letting go of the metal arm which flew through the air from his throw. Tony landed back on the ground clutching his neck gasping for breath as he grabbed the reactor from Rhodey, arming himself with the suit. Peter got up and aimed for another attack at Liv, his eyes were almost red with rage.
“ Peter, you gotta go!!” Tony yelled as he blasted the woman.
“ No, I’m not leaving you.” the kid shot back and Tony swore loudly as he dodged another mechanical arm. Liv barely looked fazed as Peter ripped off one of her mechanical arms with a bit of effort.
“ Your efforts are cute.” Liv mused. “ But you are still my little spider.”
Peter felt his blood freeze as she stared at him. She looked even scarier than she ever did before. Liv was suspended in the air by four mechanical arms protruded from her back. She stared into Peter's soul as he met hers with terrified angry eyes. He wasn't going to go with Liv, he would never go back to Hydra willingly. Even if he had to spend the rest of his life in confusion with his fractured memory, it would be way better than being with Liv in Hydra.
Tony looked unnerved as he flew into the air to send a barrage of flares from his suit which exploded into the air, filling it with a thick smoke making it hard to see. Then aiming out his hand to send a wave of blasts into the smock.
Liv looked unfazed as she danced around the blast with her metal arms. Finally through the smock one of the arms flew through the air and collided with Tony. Tony caught the hand part of the metal arm as it snapped it's four metal prongs at him trying to grab ahold of him.
It was a push for power, Tony grabbed onto two of the metal prongs of the hand part of the metal arm, with Liv pushing back against Tony. They were at a stalemate. They both knew they had to stay steady to hopefully overpower the other one.
Liv pushed back with her metal arm, pushing Tony on the ground making his feet slide behind him as he continued to push back. Tony knew if he lost his balance or stopped pushing the metal arm would wrap around him, trapping him, so he was determined to not lose this.
“ Kid. Leave, get out of here. NOW.” The words fell out of his mouth pushing back the arm as he saw the frightened teens face looking up at Liv.
“ Schnappen.” Liv looked at Peter and began to speak as Peter looked back mortified.
Peter stubbled backwards at the first word, he needed to leave but didn't want to leave Tony. Peter started to make a run towards Tony who was still pinned up against a tree, but Liv swung a mechanical arms threw the air. It collided with Peter's stomach, sending him flying through the air and hitting his back on the ground hard.
“ Peter…” Tony called, he fumbled against the metal arms grip and ingaged his thrusters.
“ Waise.”
Peter barley heard the second strange word come out of Livs smirking mouth. The only reason he noticed the word was because he felt the numbness start to rise inside himself. What was happening? Peter thought as he got back on his feet, looking for some sort of weapon around. Then it hit him, his web shooters were in the garage. Tony had taken them off of him and mentioned he put them away with all of his other tech stuff. Peter needed to find those, he made a bolt for the garage.
“ PETER!!” Tony yelled desperately, he was stuck in the fight against the metal arm, which was determined to grab ahold of him and crush him. He saw the frightened kid run towards the garage, stepping only a foot inside to grab something then darting back outside only to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
“ Allein.”
Peter finally realized what Doctor Liv was doing as his head began to explode with pain making him want to scream. She was using the trigger words, he barely remembered her ever using them because she never really needed to with him being brainwashed. Peter could feel the voices and numbness clawing at his own soul, screaming for power to over take him. To give into the trigger words, to listen in and feel numb with no more pain. Just numb. Peter didn't want that though he wanted to be free and to fight, Peter got to his knees and covered his ears desperately trying to not give into the voices.
“ Blood.”
“ PETER DON’T LISTEN TO HER!!!” Tony yelled, pulling all the power out of his suits into his arc reactor sending a single large blast out from his chest. Making Livs arm retract for him as he flew high into the air so she couldn't reach you and grab him. Tony swiftly flew by Liv blasting her arms, hitting one of them making a chunk of the metal fly off. He flew in for another attack but he faintly heard in the distance a loud bang.
That little distraction was just enough time for Liv to grab a hold of Tony's arm and fling him through the air towards the lake by the edge of Tony's house.
" Thirty One"
Peter let out a gut reaching scream, squeezing his eyes shut not wanting to give into the numbness that was fighting against him. He could barely hear anything or see anything as his vision became very blurry, he needed to get out of here before she said the final word, otherwise it would be game over and he knew that. With all the strength left in his body he stumbled to his feet with his hands still covering his ear and he ran. Just ran and didn't stop, not caring where he was heading to as long as it was away from the words he was hearing. Peter made it pretty far before a metal arm yanked back one of his legs, dragging him back in the direction of danger.
Peter shot a web from his web shooters that connected to a tree, grabbing a hold of the line. Yelling, kicking, and screaming to try escape the arms grip around his leg as his grip slipped from the web with the metal pulling him ever so closer to Liv. Peter was dragged to the foot of Liv then hoisted up by his leg into the air upside down in front of her, hanging mid air only a few inches away from her smiling face. Peter still squeezed his ears not wanting to give in to the numbness now flooding inside of him, taking control over him as his body. His limbs snapped and flailed around in the air without him telling them to, the numbness was finally overtaking him. He felt like he could no longer fight the explosion of pain on his head that demanded control.
“ Mein.” Liv finished into Peter's face with a sickening smile.
With the last word Peter stopped thrashing in the air immediately, that was the final piece to taking control over him. Peter's blank eyes glazed over right in front of Liv, who then dropped the boy on the ground. Peter got up like nothing had happened, staring blankly at Tony.
Tony, still fighting agaisnt the metal arm pushing against his own power, activated the core blast. The high powered blast came out of the center of his arc reactor, straight into the metal arm. Hitting the metal of the arm with the blast turned the metal red from the heat, before Liv swung it away out of the path of the blast. Tony refocused his attention on Peter but froze as Peter's dead eyes started on his own.
“ Peter.” Tony spoke as he slowly stood up. He inched forwards and Liv smiled sickly, standing above Peter who's face twitched.
" Complete...the...m-mission" Peter spat out, as his right arm rose up from his side with his finger ready on his web shooter aimed right at Tony.
“ Yes, that's right Lyco. Kill.” Liv spoke through her teeth and the teen shot out a web hitting Tony's helmet to blind the man's vision. Then Peter ran forwards with
vengeance.
Tony frantically yanked off the web then dodged another mechanical arm.
Tony used the nanotechnology from his armor to create a metal shield on his left arm. Before pushing all power to his thrusters flying forwards to slamming the kid into the ground pinning Peter behind the shield.
“ Snap out of it Peter!!” Tony yelled as Peter struggled beneath the shield.
Peter’s eyes showed nothing but anger as Peter kicked Tony off of him. Propelling Tony off him right in the path of a metal arm which smacked Tony in the back sending him across the lawn. Liv followed with a giant smile.
Tony groaned with pain as the kid swung on a tree that landed on top of him fists balled up ready. Tony put up his forearms in front of his helmet to help brace for Peter's punches, but Peter got a lucky shot and punched a dent into his helmet. He saw a car speed off and smiled slightly, at least Morgan and Pepper got out of here.
“ I would say your goodbyes Stark, sadly I’m not here to kill you right now. Even though I would love to, you're not my top priority” Liv spat.
Tony flew up from the ground and sent a barrage of glowing tracking missiles at Liv and Peter Liv was able to block most of them with her metal arms but some hit Peter, making him stumble to the ground but quickly recover.
" Mission… objective…needs...to be... completed." Peter slowly said, eyeing down Tony who was hovering a few feet away.
“ Lyco, stand down. We have to return to base.” Liv calmly said as she grabbed Peter's arm to keep him from bulleting towards Tony.
Tony retracted his helmet, the darkness of the night flooding his senses. It was difficult to see after he was thrown away from all of the bright flood lights around his yard. Stubbornly Tony flew towards the kid. He wasn’t gonna let them take Peter again.
" Come on kid, I know you're in there. Fight it. Fight, you are strong, you can do it just fight it." Tony said softly, eyesing Peter down whose face was still twitching.
“ Oh Stark, don't make this difficult.” groaned Liv as Tony landed in front of them. He could clearly see Peter’s eyes as he twitched slightly, obviously trying to fight whatever Liv had done to him.
“ I won’t make it difficult if you give me the kid.” snarked Tony.
“ Ha I-” Liv was interrupted by a loud ringing gunshot. Silence filled the air as they both whipped their heads around to see a young woman with a streak of pink in her long brown hair and some sort of assassin uniform. She calmly walked into the battle with a pistol in one hand that still smoked a bit from the bullet just fired from it. Her gun was aimed directly at Happy as the man looked startled.
The woman in the assassin's outfit had shot Happy's gun right out of his hands. Right as he was aiming to shoot Liv. The gun flew through the air and landed right in front of Liv’s feet now.
“ I brought you a present.” the woman growled as she tugged out Morgan from behind her back, then aiming her gun right at Morgan's head.
Tony froze as he saw his five year old child make eye contact, obviously terrified.
“ Leslie what the hell!?” Liv snapped angrily.
“ I saved your life. You are welcome.” Leslie said as she tugged Morgan towards Liv. “Besides, I got bored of my field mission.”
“ TONY!!!” Pepper screamed as she ran up to Rhodey by the lab. Tony felt his throat go dry as she screamed.
“ Pep, get out of here.” Tony said his voice horse with anxiety. He couldn’t shoot Leslie because she had a gun aimed right at Morgan's head, it was too much of a risk. His head pounded as he saw Liv’s surprised look turn smug. Behind him Peter’s glazed eyes were slowly gaining life as he fought with every ounce left in him to get out of Liv’s control.
“ She’s a squirmer.” Leslie said with a grin as she pulled Morgan’s hair back as Morgan fought to get out of her grip.
“ Daddy, daddy help me!! It hurts!!” Morgan cried as tears streamed down her face.
“ Honey, I will get you out of here. I promise.” Tony said as the words came out shaky no matter how much he tried to stay calm. Pepper had disappeared into the lab with Rhodey and Happy frozen, his eyes so wide it would have been funny in any other circumstance. The flood lights from the garage cast large shadows making it almost impossible to sneak around.
“ AGHH! NO!!” The abrupt scream filled the air. The source of the scream came from a frantically twitching Peter, fighting against the numbness controlling his body
Peter grimaced in pain as he dropped to his knees weakly trying to gain control over his body by fighting off the numbness.
Tony whipped around as he saw Peter lying palely on the floor shaking. The sight of it caused Tony to stumble backwards as he tried to decipher what was wrong.
“ DADDY!!!”
“ Now now don’t make a scene.” Liv hissed as she slithered one of her metal arms towards Morgan, yanking Morgan ten feet in the air tightly wrapping the rest of the
metal arm around the four year old body.
Peter grunting and wheezing in pain, with one hand gripping the dirt underneath him and the other hand gripping his twitching face. He was on his hands and knees numbly shivering on the ground, his glazed eyes having been replaced with ones of fear and pain. He slowly crawled a foot of two away from Liv. Peter felt like his body and mind were splitting in two, he just wanted it to all stop.
“ WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?” Tony yelled as anger ran through him. He wasn’t gonna let this freak of a woman take anyone else away from him. Peter whimpered softly on the ground as Tony knelt down by Peter and placed a comforting hand on Peter's shoulder.
" Hey Liv, how much do you think we'll get paid if we kill two Stark's for the price of one?” Leslie laughed, disregarding Tony's little meltdown he was having. " What would people say back at HQ? Damn the look on their faces would be-" Leslie bit her tongue as she saw someone out of the corner of her eye, flying towards her.
“ Don’t. Move.” Pepper said while rushing out from the garage in the suit she wore when she fought against Thanos. Aiming a large missile at Leslie’s head as Leslie reluctantly dropped her gun to the ground.
Liv scoffed as she saw Leslie drop her gun " This is exactly the reason I didn't want you coming on this mission"
" Hey I can't help that I get bored easily, besides I've gotten out of worse before." Leslie responded, barely fazed by the fact she had a missile pointed at her head.
" Shut up! Both of you! " Happy yelled as he joined Pepper and stood next to Leslie. Digging into his coat pockets looking for his spare pair of handcuffs.
Tony felt a surge of pride as he watched his amazing wife push the woman to the ground. Rhodey ran out in a prototype of Tony’s smiling as he aimed another missile
at Liv.
“ Even though this hurts like hell you aren’t taking my niece or the kid. Got it?” Rhodey spoke with authority. Liv merely laughed as she snatched Peter out of Tony’s grasp suddenly. The billionaire shot up with surprise as he heard Peter scream loudly grabbing his own head, Peter was pulled ten feet into the air and dangled by his leg upside down.
“ Let. Them. Go.” Pepper hissed as she aimed her other arm at Liv, her blasters ready.
“ You guys honestly think I didn’t come prepared for this?” Liv snarled.
“ GIVE ME BACK THE KID OR I SWEAR SHE’S DEAD!” Pepper screamed now standing overtop of Leslie but Liv barely flinched as she smiled, her face falling for falling for a second.
“ Ha, I wouldn’t bet on that.” Leslie snarked.
Leslie rolled over on her back then kicked the blaster aimed at her forehead off the side. She ducked under Pepper’s aim and got to her feet as more blasts whisked passed her. She took a knife from her belt and threw it at Happy with the knife colliding with his hip. A frantic Pepper blasting in Leslies direction while Leslie leaped and dodged the blasts running towards Pepper. Leslie grabbed a sticky grenade from her belt then slammed into Pepper pushing her to the ground while sticking the grenade to Pepper's metal chest. Leslie swiftly got up from off top of Pepper and Pepper stumbled for a second as looked down at the device that was against her suit. Leslie began to run away with only seconds left on the grenade but was hit with a blast to the back by Rhodey, making her stumble to the ground. She rolled into a somersault quickly getting back on her feet then ran to Rhodey.
Leslie’s eyes were wide as she ran and slid on the ground, under Rhodey’s blast. Jumping up she grabbed another gun from her holster and used it to punch the metal suit without backing her hand. She hit Rhodey in the shoulder making a large dent in the metal as Rhodeys knees buckled underneath him as he yelled in pain.
Leslie could see that Pepper was smart enough that she was able to unstick the grenade from her suit and threw it at Leslie. The grenade landed about ten feet away from her, right next to Rhodey, not noticing the grenade in his pain.
" Oh no! RHODEY LOOK OUT!" Pepper screamed in a panic at the grenade landing only three feet away from him.
Leslie had barely any time to react as the grenade would go off any second now. She ran and grabbed a scrap piece of metal off the ground that had fallen off of one of Livs metal arms and used it to help shelled herself from the inevitable blast. The explosion threw Rhodey into the ground because the prototype's flight stabilizers were not well done and he crashed to the ground. Pepper lay against a tree, her helmet retracted to show blood seeping out of her nose. Leslies body was flung into the side of the garage and dented the side of it with her impact.
“ Friday, get vital readings from both suits.” ordered Tony in a shaky voice as a quiet silence filled the air. Anxiety filled him as he couldn’t see Rhodey clearly as he was launched out of the flood lights. Peter was still hanging upside down and had gone very quiet, feeling light headed as all the blood in his body rushed to his pulsing head.
“ Vital signs stable sir.” the AI reported and Tony released the breath he hadn’t noticed he had been holding.
Liv’s face quivered slightly as she looked at Leslie who was still, blood pooling out from under her hair. “ You’ll pay for that.” Liv spat, looking at Leslie who was facing head down on the ground barley moving.
“ Don’t take my kids.” Tony responded with vengeance as Morgan's face still had tears streaming out of it.
“ Fine. Fine, you know what? Which one do you want?” Liv asked, her tone oddly calm.
“ What?”
“ You can only save one and you can’t harm me because your friends are down and with one extra squeeze or toss she is dead.” deadpanned Liv.
Tony hesitated. She was right, as much as he didn't want to admit it to himself he was backed against a wall. He can’t cut off her arms because by the time he rips it off the other kid is dead. He can’t blast her or bomb her. He glanced over to Happy but he was laying on the ground as well, obviously down from the blast. Besides, bullets wouldn’t be wise in this scenario because even if he used the one on his suit the moment she saw it the kids would be dead.
“ You realized I’m right.” Liv spoke back as Tony stood deep in thought. His heart pounded so loudly in his chest he thought it would burst as she used her mechanical legs to climb up, now on top of Tony’s house.”
“ They are just kids.” pleaded Tony as his voice quivered a bit. He couldn’t lose either of them. He wasn’t letting either of them die, not again.
“ Maybe. But still, in five seconds I’m going to throw them both so hard and so fast they would die of brain damage with certainty. A little more dramatic than squeezing them like a pimple.” Liv finished, she used her metal arms to climb to the roof of Tony's house onto the roof. Dangling the two children from the highest point.
“ No I’m not-”
“ One.” Liv spoke with venom as she dangled an unconscious Peter and a terrified Morgan in the air even higher. Tony felt his eyes sting with fear. Even as a genius he didn’t know what to do. Anything he did would be seen by Liv and they would be dead.
“ Two.”
His mind was racing as he locked eyes with Morgan’s terrified youthful eyes. He had been in a dark place after Peter, she was one of the reasons he got out. One of the reasons he didn’t go off the deep end with paralyzing guilt and grief.
“ Three.”
As she spoke his eyes swerved to Peter’s lifeless body. The boy was the only reason he had ever even wanted or been in a place emotionally to have kids. As far as Tony was concerned that was his kid, blood be damned.
“ Four.” Tony’s heart clenched as vital warning signs popped up showing an extreme peak in anxiety. He glanced at Morgan’s beautiful face and she let out a yelp of pain. Peter’s hollowed and scarred features swung limp in the air as he remained motionless.
“ Five.”