Assemble
The first text was from Fury.
Is she okay? Was all the man sent. It didn’t matter that her name had not been in the leaked files. He would definitely have recognized her immediately, after all, she had worked so long with him. Tony had looked at it for awhile, deciding how to respond. He had never particularly liked Fury, given how sneaky and annoying the man could be, getting into all of Tony’s stuff and sometimes even causing problems. Also, the pirate was so short tempered. But he also knew the man did care, in his own way even if he tried to hide it behind his walls of stubbornness and avoidance. He knew the man definitely cared about Natasha, even if she wasn’t his agent anymore. Even if SHIELD was basically gone.
Tony could technically lie, but he knew it wouldn’t go over well. Fury would likely find out the truth very easily. He might even have already found it, since the man had a knack for knowing things well before he should actually know about them. Which would make this a reach, an offer to help, and Tony would be a fool to turn that down. He also wasn’t a complete asshole.
She could use some help, he replied.
He knew Fury would appear soon. Probably within the hour. He’d walk in like he owned the place as he always did, and this time Tony wouldn’t even be able to be mad about it.
He got about three phone calls from council members in the next few minutes. All three of them he ignored, not interested in talking to them. They could form their own conclusions. The public outcry that was surging all over the world was definitely going to take care of things for him. He need only wait and watch, and track down the man responsible, and all those who helped, and put an end to them.
It was the next call that caught his attention. He answered it, unable to refrain from his usual form of stress management. “Morning Catnip,” he answered, as the video call popped up on his screens, showing him King T’Challa, Okoye, and a few people he didn’t know the names of.
The warrior women were standing stiffly, as the protective guard for their king. The younger woman not wearing a spear, who had long brown hair and was probably actually a teenager was standing close to T’Challa. He knew T’Challa had a younger sister, so maybe that was her. Tony also knew she was an inventor as well, creating all kinds of wonderful technologies based on Vibranium that he had always wanted to look at and study. T’Challa himself was not wearing his black panther suit, and his expression was quite somber.
He had a distinct feeling he knew what this call was going to be about. T’Challa had told Ross about her letting them go, putting her on the list to be hunted down. But as far as Tony was concerned, Ross would have found out one way or the other, as there had been many people there who had known what had happened, and the king wasn’t responsible for the horrible actions Ross had done. Although he wasn’t very fond of locking people up on an underwater prison for the rest of their lives, he knew that was probably what everyone had expected to happen to the rogues. Torture had not been a part of the accords. But that is what had happened, even before.
A brief memory of Wanda sitting in the cell in a straight jacket, a drug-glazed look in her eyes, and a shock collar around her neck flashed through his mind, and he grimaced. That was more than borderline. They had probably planned to leave her like that until they could find a permanent solution to controlling her powers.
Which, in all reality, could have been never. And they wouldn’t have batted an eye.
“Mr. Stark,” T’Challa began, and man, did he sound tired. Almost as tired as Tony felt. And the rest of the Avengers. They may be well on their way to resolving their Ross problem, but nothing was currently okay about any of this situation.
“I feel I may have to withdraw my support in the Accords,” T’Challa spoke in his near effortlessly regal voice, with his clear enunciation, and charming accent. He was a difficult man not to like, and even more difficult to not be drawn into everything he said, listening with rapt attention.
“Couldn’t agree more,” Tony replied.
T’Challa glanced away, just briefly. A flicker of discomfort entering his eyes. The young woman, probably his sister, shifted closer to him. “This was not my intention. I thought this would help regular people and keep them safe from danger and protect cities from harm. But at the cost of tremendous harm to an individual… I cannot support what is corrupt.”
Tony swallowed hard. Because he had shared all of those sentiments. Protecting the people from the destruction of superheros and supervillains clashing. They had dropped buildings on people – unintentionally, of course, but it had still happened.
They could do better. There was still a way to change things, and be better at protecting civilians and minimizing casualties. Not quite possible to eliminate them – not when you had people flying around in metal suits blasting guns, bombs, and repulsers, or gods that could summon lighting, or giant green rage monsters that simply loved to destroy everything around them. But they could definitely improve. Just not if things like this was allowed to happen.
“We will not let anyone responsible for this get away with it,” Tony said. His voice was firm. The meaning behind his words was quite clear. Tony had killed people before. So had probably everyone in this compound. And while he had tried to steer away from it, there was no way he could just let this go.
Leaving Ross locked in a cell for the rest of his life would be a fitting solution to a pacifist, but no one in this team was feeling quite pacifistic lately.
T’Challa nodded, not looking surprised or disturbed.
“You will have all of our support in tracking him down. I will join you in this fight, to set this right. It is barbaric and dishonorable, to abuse a prisoner.”
Tony could only nod.
His next calls and messages came from reporters. He also ignored them. He had no interest in giving them horrific details that they would use to give themselves more views and ratings as they devoured the story. They were useful in getting the news out, but that didn’t mean he didn’t loathe most of them because he knew most of them only cared about the views of their stories, and not the suffering of the victim.
There was one text that caught his attention.
We will talk soon.
Unknown number. No name. Could not trace it. It made him nervous. Was it Ross, threatening him? Was it someone else? Who else was out there that was missing, that would have a personal play in this.
Bruce?
Later the avengers had gathered together in a common room, mostly quiet as they waited. The news was exploding. There were rumors about who the victim was. Some people saying it was the Scarlet Witch. Others saying it was an unidentified mutant. Surprisingly very few people though it was Black Widow. Perhaps it wasn’t such a surprise, though, considering most people would assume she was too elusive to get captured.
It was only a minor relief.
Fury stalked into the room, very suddenly and very dramatically, making everyone flinch slightly and grab at their weapons.
“Holy fuck,” Tony burst out, lowering his wrist gauntlet and placing a hand over his chest dramatically.
Fury glared at him. Glaring was his only expression, however, and it lacked the usual anger that the man’s eyes usually had when he was actually annoyed. He had come from the direction of the med ward, and not the entrance of the building.
Huh.
The man sat down heavily in a chair, averting his eyes and gazing off at nothing. “I should have offered her a safe house to stay in. I was trying to keep an eye on her.. then she disappeared,” he said aloud.
Clint made a slight noise. “She would have said no.”
Fury nodded. “But I should have offered it.”
Tony understood that guilt. The ‘maybe I could have done something more’ feeling. He didn’t have a chance to respond. A loud crack from the top of the compound had everyone springing upwards, weapons at the ready as the building shook violently.
“FRIDAY?” Tony called, ready to summon a suit at a moment’s notice.
“Bifrost activity. Thor, Bruce Banner, and an unknown woman of Asgardian nature have arrived.”
There was a brief silence as everyone both lowered their weapons and considered that. It meant that Bruce was back. So was Thor. But it also meant whoever had sent that text message was decidedly not Bruce, and Tony now had no idea who it was.
“Let’s go meet them,” he said.
Thor didn’t have his usual energetic, happy attitude. Bruce looked a little worse for wear, mentally. As if he had just spent the last two years in space confused and scared and not knowing what was happening. The woman, who was quite attractive but also rather scary – in a Romanoff type of way, actually – he learned was called Valkyrie. Which he also learned was not actually her real name, but her ‘class’ from Asgard. She did not make an attempt to say what her real name was. Tony decided he wasn’t going to ask. She had a long looking dagger and she wasn’t afraid to use it.
Tony looked at all of them, not quite sure what to say. “Hey Bruce. How was space?” He ended up asking, as his former science bro looked at him nervously and then, finally, broke into a slight smile.
“Hulk enjoyed it a lot. I only got to see the last few weeks,” the man responded. He even sounded different, less reserved and more open. The way he spoke wasn’t as soft, as if he had lost some of that nervousness somehow. “It’s.. good to see you all again,” Bruce added, looking at the time, frowning slightly at those he didn’t recognize. Sam and Scott.
“You too, buddy,” he replied. To his surprise, Bruce pulled him in for a hug.
“Friend Stark,” Thor began, voice unusually subdued. “Heimdall told me what has occurred while I was gone. We have come as soon as we could to help,” he said, anger crackling in his expression. The lights in his tower flickered slightly as static flared from the god, and it took him a moment to regain control of his emotions again, allowing the tower to stabilize itself. Tony was glad he had installed those electricity sensors that would cause the building to reset every time it sensed a problem. Usually a Thor problem.
“Glad to have you here. It’s been a bit since we’ve seen each other,” Tony replied, as Bruce had moved forward into communicating with the rest of the team, and introductions went underway with Sam and Scott. Interesting the Valkyrie followed Bruce instead of staying with Thor, keeping at the man’s side. He wondered what that was all about.
Did Bruce go and get himself a space girlfriend?
They all ended up making their way back to the meeting room. “How much did… Heimdall tell you?” He asked, trying to remember the name of what was essentially the universal spy that could see and hear everything, everywhere, at the same time. According to Thor at least.
“He mentioned one of our team mates was imprisoned and seriously injured by the captors. And that you are going after the ones responsible,” Thor said. The vagueness of the news didn’t surprise Tony that much. It seemed that this Heimdall did not like to give straight answers or explanations to anything, always keeping it at a guessing level.
“Yeah that’s basically right,” he muttered.
“Tony? Who was it?” Bruce spoke, looking right at him. Thor was also watching him, and he silently hoped his tower would be able to survive this next surge of anger and electricity.
“Nat. There was… a fight. The government stepped in to try and get a control on the damage, except Ross was involved,” he said, trying to explain as quickly as possible before there was an explosion. But as soon as he said Nat, there was a flicker of green on Bruce’s face. And as soon as he said Ross, there was a very noticeable increase in green. “He is the reason,” Tony added.
It was the most watered down possibly story he could tell. They could get into details later, once everyone was caught up with the current happenings.
“This Ross has no honor, to torture a maiden, even a warrior maiden, while under his care as a prisoner!” Thor boomed furiously, and the lights went out for a solid minute after he spoke. Bruce, despite being almost as green as a head of broccoli, was still able to speak rationally.
“How is she?”
Tony was about to respond. But then a door opened, startling everyone. Why the hell wasn’t FRIDAY warning him ahead of time of all these intruders in his tower? First Fury, now this.
“I would also like to know that,” a male voice said. Very familiar.
Everyone turned to look. His stomach nearly bottomed out as he saw the face of someone he had never expected to see again.
Holy fucking shit.