#19--May 2, 2019
Prompt: In the middle of an Avengers’ meeting, Tony gets a call from Peter’s phone. He thinks nothing’s wrong until another man answers, demanding he pay for the family he lost. There’s a gunshot and Tony is immediately suited up and in the air towards Peter’s last location. When he returns to the others, he’s holding a bleeding Peter in his arms. Severity of the shot and Avengers’ reactions vary.
"We need to do this quickly," Steve says, leaning over a hologram map of the Hydra base. "Get in and get out. My sources say that this base is small and that they have a lot of intel about the experiments going on in other bases."
There's been a string of bodies showing up all over the US, not long from where the missing person was taken from. Each body shows up from between one and three months, all showing various evidence of the person being experimented on. The Sokovia Accords came to the Avengers for help, who had already been building up sources to search for the Hydra bases who were experimenting on people.
The Accords have given the Avengers the freedom that they needed to still run as a group, though there is still some limitations and guidelines. They have to abide by the rules and send in reports of each mission they go on, and they must go on the missions that the Accords require them to. There are many other different rules that they must abide by, but those are a little more than flexible.
"I think we should do two teams," Rhodey says from beside Tony. "One to distract the guards and one to actually gather the information that we need."
Sam shakes his head. "We can't risk letting them know that we know where they are," Sam points out, and much to Tony's disgust, he actually agrees. "They'll be updating their information weekly and we can leave them running while leeching off the information that they have."
"Sam's right," Natasha joins in. "We need to--" She's cut off by the sound of Tony's phone spouting out Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can from when a Spider-Man fan made Spider-Man his very own theme song.
Shamelessly, Tony pulls his phone out of his pocket and answers the call. "Hey, kid what's--?" His question is cut off by a voice that is very much not his.
"Hello, Tony Stark," Tony's smile turns into a hard line as his face pales. The sudden change gathers the attention of the exasperated Avengers who were looking at him in annoyance.
"Who is this?" Tony asks, priding himself for managing to keep his voice calm.
"Who I am doesn't matter, Tony Stark, but who I have does," the man says.
"And who do you have?" Tony asks as he puts the phone on speaker and slowly places it on the table, trying to sound like his normal confident self even though his heart sinks. From the corner of his eye, he can spot Natasha messing around with his hologram screens and he has an idea that she's trying to trace the call.
"Your little intern, Peter is it?" the man hums into the phone. Tony's face pales as his suspicions are confirmed and Tony can see Wanda cover her mouth with her hands in shock. "I have him here. He's a scrawny kid, isn't he? Doesn't really seem worth your time, if you ask me."
"Good thing no one's asking you, then," Tony snarks back, trying to buy Natasha some time to finish tracing the call and to also defend his kid's honor.
"Big words coming from a helpless man," the man on the other side of the phone says. "I have your kid, Stark, because you took my family from me. And I'm not just going to kill him. This kid seems a little... special. I'm going to see what makes this kid tick. And then I'm going to use it against you. And then I'm going to kill him. Right in front of your eyes. While you stand there. Helpless. How does that sound, Stark?"
"I say it sounds a little sadistic," Tony says, inwardly cursing himself as his voice shakes a little. The man on the other side chuckles. And it's a chuckle that makes Tony's skin crawl.
"How would you like to talk to him?" the man asks, and then, "Go on kid, say 'hi' to 'Mr. Stark'." Tony's jaw clenches at the mocking tone.
"Mr-Mr. Stark?" Tony's breath hitches at the kid's voice. It's weak and groggy and so unlike Peter's usually exuberant voice. And the thing that hurts more? The kid actually sounds like he's trying to sound like normal. And he's failing.
"Hey, kiddo," Tony says in a whisper. "Are you alright?"
"I'm-I'm g-good, Mr. Stark," Peter says weakly. "Are you-are you ok--?" Peter's voice is cut off and Tony has a feeling that the man ripped the phone away from the kid.
"That's enough," the man says sharply to Peter before he returns his voice to Tony. "And our first experiment: How fast can a bullet to the leg heal?" Before Tony can say another thing, a gunshot rings out, followed by a weak groan that Tony recognizes to Peter. "Huh. He's stronger than I thought." The line goes dead. Tony's grip on the table tightens so much that his knuckles turn white. He looks up at Natasha, hoping that she got something.
"I got a region. Southwestern America," Natasha says, plopping down in her chair. "I'm sorry, Tony. I'm so sorry."
"Dammit!" Tony shouts, slamming his clenched hand on the table. The glass splinters.
"Tony, you don't think...?" Rhodey trails off, gesturing towards the hologram map of the Hydra base that holds the intel on where experiments on people take place.
"That the fucker that has Peter is Hydra?" Tony snaps. "Yeah, I fucking do."
End of Part I