Kidnapped
Tony slowly opened his eyes. His head was throbbing and he felt like utter crap. For a terrifying split second, Tony couldn’t remember how he came to this place and what happened before he blacked, then everything came back to him.
Tony remembered everything, the UN meeting, driving to the airport with Happy, a black ops unit swarming his car… Tony cursed, immediately coming to the obvious conclusion that he had been kidnapped.
If only he had had his nanite Iron Man armor on him. Yes it wasn’t exactly stable, Tony was working on that before someone had rudely kidnapped him, but it would have at least given him a fighting chance against whoever these kidnappers were.
The mechanic scanned the room he was in. All of the walls were colored a blinding white except for the one directly in front of the only piece of furniture in the room, a hard beige bed. The unique wall was made out of glass, allowing Tony to see a concrete podium type thing in the middle of the room. As if whoever put him here wanted an audience for an evil monolog.
Lining the walls along the big circular room were cells identical to Tony’s. The most frightening fact about this place wasn’t that Tony recognized the people in the cells next to him, nor was it the fact that someone dressed him in blue prison garb while he was knocked out. The worst thing about this place was that Tony had been here before.
Right as Tony connected the dots, the metal mechanical doors swished open and Ross strode into the room. “Stark-”
“What in the everloving fuck Ross,” Tony demanded, his face full of angry shock.
Ross, who was dressed in the same suit from the accords-hearing he had attended prior, walked over to the front of Tony’s cell. “Well Stark, maybe you should think twice before betraying me in front of the council, threatening civilians' freedom.”
Tony stood there, flabbergasted by the audacity of this madman, before snarkily replying, “So you seriously don’t think that people won’t connect the dots?” Tony chuckled, ”You thought that your career was toast before Ross, but after this, you get <i>nothing<i>, nada, zilch.”
Ross walked over to the podium. “This is beyond the UN, because in a week’s time, the UN will be irrelevant.”
Tony looked over to Ross with an inquisitive expression. What was this guy’s MO? He was always sort of a pain in the ass, but Tony had never pegged him as batshit insane.
“Nobody will know that you're missing in the meantime, because my men hacked into your twitter account,” Ross puffed up his chest in pride as Tony rolled his eyes. Pepper had set up that account, but he really couldn’t give two shits about it, so obviously it wasn’t that hard to hack into.
“As far as the public knows you’re spending the next month building a new suit, but of course, in a week's time, that won’t matter.”
“I’m sorry. What’s happening in a week’s time?” From defeating countless supervillains and having his fair share of kidnapping, Tony knew that when they were put in a position of power, guys like Ross loved to gloat, or rather evilly monologue, revealing their top secret plans.
“In the upcoming week, Hydra will come out of the shadows once again.” Tony tilted his head. ‘Huh, well that was certainly unexpected.’
“But this time,” Ross continued to monologue, “We won’t rush our reentry to the public. You super heroes and enhanced, who cause so much destruction and prevent the world from becoming secure, will be properly dealt with beforehand.”
“No longer will menaces to society be galavanting around, causing destruction and calling it saving the world. Because with Hydra there will be no threats, no evil to defeat. Freedom is a small price to pay for security.”
“Wow, Ross, you’ve really fallen off the deep end?” Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, “Hydra? Seriously? You think the American people, let alone the world, are going to stand for that. Your organization is a PR disaster. They’re literal Nazis.”
“Fear is a powerful weapon. Once I round up all of you so-called super heroes, including the ones who are less known or have secret identities,” Ross gave a pointed look towards Tony, “I’m going to kill you all on live TV.”
“Once the public watches me kill the very heroes that were supposed to be invincible, all defiance will be replaced by fear, as the common people realize that there is nothing to stop Hydra from making the world truly safe. In a few years, I’ll be known as a savior.”
Before Tony could straight out laugh in his face, a raspy yet defiant voice rose up from the cell across from him. “You’ll never get away with thi-,” Steve suddenly erupted into a coughing fit, “Even without us, the spirit of freedom and justice reigns among people, people who even without superpowers you will find hard to subdue.”
Tony took in his old friend, now former friend’s appearance. Steve, looked like how Tony felt: utter crap. What startled Tony was the fact that Steve didn’t have the usual bruises and split lips one would expect from normal kidnapping bad-cop interrogations. He instead looked like he was battling cancer.
The famous Captain America biceps were a fraction of the size they once were. His beard, which Tony only knew he had grown because Friday had kept regular tabs on the rogue avengers, was patchy and thin, as was his hair. Steve’s eyes were bloodshot and his skin looked as if it hadn’t seen the light of day for quite some time.
Steve’s wrists, ankles, chest, and thighs, had metal bars keeping him in place on the wall of his cell. On a table next to him, laid a feeding tube. Tony couldn’t quite comprehend the situation at hand. A million questions flitted through his mind.
That metal was obviously vibranium, because how else would they be restraining Cap? And how did they get their hands on that much vibranium? How had they even captured Steve? And what was Ross doing to him?
Tony’s thoughts were interrupted by Ross continuing his evil monologue. “Ah, yes Captain America,” The man said mockingly, “Your idolized view of society doesn’t quite match up with reality. But I’m getting off topic.”
Ross turned to face Tony. He had a smug smile on his face that Tony wanted to punch right off. “I want to have access to your private server, specifically the one detailing all of the super human people around the world.”
Before Tony could interrupt him and deny he had such a file, Ross continued to talk, “And I know you have one and have been selfishly keeping it to yourself. How else would you be able to recruit Spider-Man.”
“Sorry, no can do Ross, because no such file exists. If you want to find all of the enhanced people, do it yourself.”
“Oh really, you want to deny it. Tell me then, how did you recruit Spider-Man?”
“I don’t know,” Tony thought desperately of a backstory to how he recruited Peter, “The guy’s an avenger’s fanboy in college, he came up to me one day while I was in my armour and wanted to help fight bad guys...” Tony cursed inwardly to himself. That was probably the worst lie he had ever told.
“Truly, Stark, do you really think I’d buy that story? But you’ll be telling me the truth soon enough.” Thaddeus Ross took a Stark phone out of his pocket that began playing a hologram of Pepper making coffee in her old penthouse. Tony was filled with anxious fear until he realized that this was the standard Pepper clip most extortionists used to strike fear in him.
Ever since the whole mandarin debacle, Tony had upped the security on Pepper by 1000%. Only the most trusted people, Rhodey, Happy, and him, knew where she stayed and went. There were invisible drones(thanks to his reflective paneling technology) that followed her everywhere she went.
If anything seemed amiss, the drones would form into the Iron Man armour, but still invisible, and whisk her to an anonymous location that even Tony didn’t know about. In fact, if Tony had put as much security around himself that he had around Pepper, he probably wouldn’t be stuck in the raft right now.
Tony laughed, “You seriously think I’m going to fall for those clips? How stupid do you think I am.”
Ross cursed and walked out of the room. His nearly perfect day hadn’t gone as flawlessly as he had hoped. ‘Patience,’ Ross thought to himself as the mechanical doors sealing the avengers closed with a click behind him, ‘You don’t want to rush Hydra coming out like Shield did. Stark will break eventually and with it, the key to taking down any future threat to world security.’
Ross strode through the hallways of the prison he had worked so hard to create. The man was proud of his operation. His men were efficient, ruthless, and dedicated towards the cause of Hydra, or rather world security. Tony was right after all, the organization of Hydra was a PR nightmare. Ross far preferred rebranding Hydra to what it stood for, security at all costs.
People like Steve Rogers love to idolize the common man, claiming individual freedom was more important than security, or even quality of life. If that naive super soldier, with so much raw power that he refused to use for actual good, actually had a taste of reality, he would realize that the average person, at the end of the day, doesn’t deserve freedom.
Despite the fact that Ross held his men in great esteem, they had captured the avengers after all, he still couldn’t help but feel anger towards them at that moment. They had failed him twice, with capturing Pepper, and gaining access to Stark’s secure server.
Ross stomped through the room responsible for finding intel. He walked up the stairs, onto a platform overlooking the many people busily typing away on their computers. Half of them were scrolling through either reddit or facebook.
The secretary gripped the metal safety bar until his knuckles turned white. Once the group of about 50 people looked up, everyone stopped what they were doing and waited for a speech.
“You all failed me this afternoon,” a murmur went through the crowd, causing Ross to yell, “QUIET!” The room became so silent that a person rearranging their sitting position could be heard.
“Half of you,” Ross continued, “The half that are leeches on society, who do not appreciate this opportunity to make the world a better place, will be fired.” The hackers looked at their boss with wide eyes. “The other half better step it up, find something on Stark, or else this whole operation will be THROUGH!”
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Tony glanced around the room through his glass wall, wondering who else Ross managed to kidnap. There was Cap, who Tony couldn’t bear to look at for longer than 3 seconds. Yeah, Steve could be an arrogant asshole, but he didn’t deserve whatever Ross did to him to make him…
Sam was in the cell next to Cap’s, sporting a busted lip and a black eye. The way he dejectedly sat on his bed reminded Tony of 7 months ago, before Steve broke his friends out. How on earth had they ended back up here?
Natasha was crossing her arms and looking towards Tony with a piercing gaze. As if she was trying to determine whose side he was on. Tony almost scoffed, yeah, like he was going to side with the guy who kidnapped him. Maybe Romanoff only wanted him to think that she was thinking that though. Tony liked to think he had a pretty good read on people’s expressions, but he could never tell with Nat.
Wanda was slumped down on the floor next to her bed. She wore a straight jacket and shock collar, no doubt to keep her powers under control. Tony wasn’t the biggest Wanda fan, he could never truly forget the trauma inducing vision she gave him, but like Cap, she didn’t deserve this
Next to Wanda’s cell was Scott Lang, or Ant-Man as he liked to be called. Tony only remembered him because he had gone through hoops to get that guy and Clinton house arrest so they could see their families. The guy seemed nice enough, Tony knew he was a criminal but he certainly didn’t act like one. At the second, the Scott guy had his face and hands pressed against the glass, wearing some of the most pitiable puppy dog eyes Tony had ever seen on a grown man.
Speaking of dads, Clint was pacing around his cell angrily muttering to himself. He looked about ten times angier than the last time he was placed in this prison. Every couple of pacing circles, the archer would angrily bam his fists against the glass in an attempt to break it. His knuckles were bruised and bloody.
Much to Tony’s horror, when he tilted his head at an angle in order to see who was placed in the cell next to him, he saw his best friend. Rhodey was laid on his bed, still passed out. Like Sam, and probably himself, Rhodey looked beaten up. His bruises were more prominent than Sam’s though, indicating that he had recently arrived.
Vision was placed in the cell directly to Tony’s right. He had some device stuck on him. It was a dart, filled with some weird liquid that was draining into the android. Whatever that liquid was, it turned Vision completely gray and probably prohibited his powers. Wanda and Vision were staring at each other like lovesick teenages through their glass walls.
Tony had a million questions. How had Ross managed to capture Vision? How had he managed to capture any of them? How was he doing this behind the entire Government’s back? Were they in on this? Was this another Hydra situation?
Tony’s questions were interrupted by Clint’s voice, “The futurist!” Tony groaned inwardly to himself, “Finally getting a taste of his own medicine.”
“Oh get off your high horse Barton, I opposed Ross after he was against your house arrest. I tried to kick him off of the accords, how was I supposed to know he would completely fly off the handle.”
“All I know is that I can’t see my wife and kids,” Clint started breaking down, “I don’t even know if this evil monster killed them or not.” He started wildly pacing again.
“They took me during my house arrest too,” Lang admitted from his cell, “With my ankle monitor, I didn’t even have a chance to escape.” He sighed defeatedly, “All I wanted to do was to spend time with my daughter, now I’m stuck in prison yet again.”
Tony turned to Vision, “Well now that we’re sharing, how did they even kidnap you? You’re supposed to phase through things right?”
Vision held up his arm to his face, in order to take a closer look at the dart that had subdued him. “It appears to me sir that the liquid in this dart has gone past my phasing and has prohibited my abilities. Judging from its power, the liquid originates from the mind stone.”
“Well take it out then!” Tony cried, already growing frustrated by this predicament. Usually, if he was in this situation, at least he could count on Rhodey or one of the Avengers for backup. Now his only super powered friend not kidnapped right now was a 15 year old kid from Queens.
“I’m afraid I cannot sir,” Vision replied way too calmly for someone who had just been kidnapped.
Tony grumbled as Natasha spoke up, “So Stark, how were you kidnapped?”
“Mr.Ross’s golden child right here folks!” Clint piped in, which he opted to ignore.
Tony sat down on his bed and put his face in his hands with regret, “I was with Happy,” Natasha nodded in remembrance, “Driving to the airport from that, uhh, boring accords meeting. Black ops soldiers swarmed my car, I didn’t have my suit on me since I’m building a new one right now. Next thing I know, I’m here.”
“Any chance that Spider-Man knows you're missing in the next few days and will break us out of here?” Natasha seemed almost hopeful, Tony really didn’t want to squash her hopes, especially considering that crazy kid would be the one to break all of them out of prison, but there was also no way in hell he was involving the kid in this madness yet again.
“Nope,” Tony replied fervently, “No way we’re involving the ki-guy in this. College students like to be independent and all that jazz. You know, just between you and me, Spider-Man lives in Brooklyn, but patrols Queens so he isn’t suspicious.”
“Okay,” Natasha said measuredly, “Do you have any idea where Ross got all of this Vibranium? Probably Wakanda, but who would be the sellers? I know T’Challa would never sell to a place like this.”
“I have no idea,” Tony admitted. Suddenly, he was hit with a realization. The mechanic’s gaze wandered over to Steve, who still looked sick as ever, feverishly calling out his best friend’s name.
“That’s how Ross and his goons took you out, huh?” He looked over to Wanda, whose collar certainly looked like it was made out of the metal. Then at Vision, no dart could pierce his vibranium skin except the magic metal itself.
“We were raiding an old Hydra base, Steve thought it was being repurposed as a human trafficking ring.” Nat leaned to one side and turned her face. “It was so much worse. We tried to fight back as best we could, but Ross somehow concocted a drug that made Steve, despite the serum, pass out, and a form of vision’s drug that works on Wanda for a short period of time.”
“There were just too many of them. We have to get out of here.” Natasha glanced towards Steve, “They’ve been doing medical experiments on him,” Tony could practically feel Natasha’s desperation and fear, “He won’t last long and neither will the world if we don’t stop Ross.”