Interlude August 2009
Tony moved with such purpose and haste, junior agents cleared out of his way. If his facial expression wasn’t enough to tell them to clear out the fact that he had his gauntlets on and blasted open one of the doors certainly got the message across.
He threw the double doors of Fury’s office open. The older man didn’t even flinch at the bang of the doors.
“How in the fuck could you possibly lose my husband in under an hour?! In a SHIELD vault no less?”
“Watch your tone, Stark. You’re still only the R&D director.” Fury crossed his arms.
“I don’t care! I’ve only had him back for a matter of months! And now he’s gone again.”
“Stark, We’ll get him back unlike last time we know how he disappeared. Complete with video footage.”
Tony stopped pacing. He immediately turned to the halo-screen. “I want to see.”
Fury pushed a few buttons before a window appeared. For Tony, it was like a train wreck he didn’t want to see it happen, but he couldn’t look away.
Steve towards a pillar in the center of the room that both security feeds were aimed at. Suddenly, it began to glow blue. Steve immediately began to retreat, only for the blue light to form a growing sphere of blue light.
The sphere grew faster than Steve could retreat. He was engulfed in the blue light and disappeared. The sphere expanded to the edge of the room before retreating just as quickly into the pillar.
Tony turned to Fury; a lump forming in his throat. “Who all has seen this?”
“As of now you and I.”
“We need our best on this.”
“I agree. Who all do you want?” Fury leaned back in his chair with his fingers pressed against one another in an almost prayer-like position.
Tony paused and raised an eyebrow. “You’re letting me choose? Coulson is the best unit manager-”
“I assumed you’d want project overview?”
“I assumed you’d tell me I had a conflict of interest.”
“I’ll only say this once Stark, or else it will go to your head; I agreed we need our best on this- that includes our technical genius.”
Tony chewed at his lip. “Can I bring in outside experts?”
“Assuming they will pass our background checks, I don’t see why not.”
“I want Pete briefed.”
Fury narrowed his eyes. “What are you thinking, Stark?”
“Pete, gives off similar vita-radiation...and well frankly, how many people with an IQ over 200 do you think I can work with?”
“Harley.”
Tony snorted. “I can’t let him know he’s not Obie’s son just yet. He’d figure it out in the lab and he still needs to be in school to work on his social skills.”
“So that's what he gets from you.” Fury deadpanned.
Tony rolled his eyes. “I also want Banner.”
“A cold day in hell, Stark.”
Tony pulled an overly dramatic fake frown. “Alright, then I need Dr. Pym.”
Fury clicked his teeth. Tony knew exactly what button to push. “Fine, I’ll have agents, track down, Banner.”