React
“Whoa, what the fuck, why is the Compound dark?” Clint asked as the group stepped over the threshold. The Accords meeting had been long and painful, with representatives from the council going over the current security measures in place to ensure that, if they stepped out of line, repercussions could and would be taken. Steve wasn’t sure why the council had thought they needed the reminder, but he’d been handily shut down when he’d tried to ask.
It was strange, too – he hadn’t recognized any of the representatives who’d been briefing them. Since negotiations regarding their pardons and return to the States had begun, he’d come into contact with a lot of Accords staff members, and he nearly always recognized at least one face when they were called in. But this time, they’d all been strangers to him. He’d have been suspicious, but the number they dialed the Avengers on came through a secure line that could only be used by Accords members, and they were operating out of an Accords facility that he recognized. Steve had brushed it off as the council and committee and beyond simply needing to recruit more members in preparation for taking on more signees. He knew they’d already started recruiting a security division of sorts, trained agents who could be sent in when any Accords signee needed backup, especially if no other Accords signee was available to help; it would make sense that they were expanding other divisions as well.
He’d just been grateful when the meeting had finally ended, and they’d been permitted to return home to the Compound. But, peering around at the eerie darkness, Steve couldn’t help the feeling of foreboding that their return home wasn’t going to be filled with relaxation and sleep like he’d hoped.
They’d come to a halt in the doorway, Sam closing the door behind them with a too-loud click as they surveyed the dark living room. Nothing looked to be out of place – there was no sign of an apparent struggle, and all the windows were intact, so that hopefully meant that no one had broken in.
“Maybe the electricity went out? Like a power line went down or something?” Steve suggested, trying to recall some of the basics Tony had taught him once about how modern electricity worked.
“I’ve looked at the building plans. If it was a power surge, there’s a back-up generator that would have kicked in. And even if that had blown out, the emergency lights would still be on,” Natasha countered from his right, her voice taking on a sharper tone that Steve recognized as her ‘Black-Widow-mode’ tone. That wasn’t a good sign; she only ever brought that out when she thought there was a sincere reason to be concerned.
“FRIDAY, can you flip the lights on?” Scott called. No response, not that Steve had expected one. If FRIDAY had been up and running, she’d have already turned the lights on for him – but her lack of answer made his bad feeling stronger.
“Maybe we should – “ Sam started, and then cut off when the lights suddenly came back on, the hum of the TV and lamps filling the previous eerie silence. “Oh, thank god,” Sam said with relief, moving into the room and flopping onto the couch, clearly having decided that working lights meant nothing was wrong. The rest of the team started wandering further into the room, too, though Natasha still looked unsettled and James looked on-edge, the intense expression Steve had come to associate with the Winter Soldier settled on his face.
“Was that FRIDAY?” Clint asked, looking up at the ceiling as he plopped down in one of the chairs. There was no response, and Steve frowned. He couldn’t think of any reason for the AI to remain silent.
“FRIDAY?” he prompted, and there was still no response. He exchanged a concerned look with Natasha and James.
“I don’t like this,” James said, his voice low.
“Me neither,” Steve concurred. “If FRIDAY’s not answering, that means something’s wrong.”
“So what should we do?” Natasha asked, glancing between them. Steve thought for a moment before the obvious answer came to mind.
“We need to find Jay. He maintains FRIDAY, he’d probably know what’s wrong with her better than anyone,” Steve decided, and Natasha nodded.
“He’s probably in his workshop,” she said, glancing over at the stairwell.
“Let’s go ask him, then,” Clint piped up. “And who knows, maybe all of this is just because of something he was doing down in that lab of his. He was acting weird this afternoon, maybe something went wrong and caused all the power to go out and FRIDAY to go offline or something.”
“That’s true,” Steve acknowledged, the suggestion alleviating some of his worry. The six Avengers headed over to the elevator, Steve swiping his key card and pressing the button for the basement when they were all on board. Though he wouldn’t admit it, he was a little surprised to note that his badge gave him access to Jay’s lab; clearly, he trusted them more than Steve had thought.
When the elevator doors slid open, Steve’s first thought was, ‘wow, this looks exactly the same as Tony’s workshop,’ followed quickly by a fond, ‘looks like he inherited his father’s messiness.’ Then came the realization that the resident genius wasn’t there.
“Holy shit, this place is cool,” Scott said, his tone awed as he moved into the workshop, poking around at a few things. Steve wasn’t paying him much attention – but his gaze snapped to the other engineer when the sound of a repulsor firing went off, followed by a very high-pitched shriek. He spotted Scott cowering on the floor, hands covering his head and a scorch mark on the wall a few feet behind him.
“Maybe don’t touch anything, Scott,” Natasha said drily. She’d moved further into the room until she was bending over Jay’s computer with its ceiling-high screen that Steve remembered Tony using to project Face-Calls – Face-Watch? Head-Time? Something like that – on.
“Wait, so where’s Jay if he’s not here?” Sam asked, looking around the room as though expecting the kid to pop out from behind a corner.
“That’s what I’m hoping to find out,” Natasha murmured, and she’d started typing when Steve glanced back over, fingers whirring away at the keyboard.
“Tasha? What’re you doing?” Steve asked, coming to stand behind her.
“Trying to see if I can find FRIDAY so she can tell us where Jay is,” she responded distractedly, eyes not leaving the screen as a bunch of indecipherable letters (to Steve, at least) flashed across it.
“You can do that?” Sam asked curiously.
“Well, I’m certainly going to try,” came the reply. Steve let her work in silence for a moment, glancing around. Scott was eyeing everything a bit more warily now, hands kept very firmly to his sides and careful to step around any of the mess littering the floor. Clint was standing over one of the tables covered with gadgets, and Steve watched as he reached down and picked up an arrow, turning it over in his hand curiously. With a pang, Steve realized Jay must have been designing them some new gear. Sam was peering at the suits behind their glass doors in the wall, and Steve tried not to see the red-and-gold models, letting his eyes dance over Jay’s blue-and-white ones.
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this,” James muttered, and Steve glanced over to see him standing in front of a couple of bots he recognized.
“Hey, aren’t those Tony’s?” Steve asked rhetorically, moving to stand beside James. One of the bots made a slow whirring noise, its arm lifting and tilting, as if it was considering Steve. It beeped at him, and Steve only blinked. It beeped again, this time sounding somehow a little frantic. “Hey, hey, calm down there, little guy, we’re gonna find your…brother,” he finally settled on, figuring that was probably the most accurate relationship he could think of for Tony’s son in relation to these bots. The bot beeped at him again, and Steve tried to give it a reassuring smile and pat on the head.
“Got it.” Natasha’s quiet call had him spinning around.
“You found FRIDAY?” Steve demanded, striding over.
“I’ve found a file that’s massive enough that it most likely belongs to an AI. I just have to activate it, hold on.” A few clicks later, and a progress bar was showing across the screen. The rest of the team had gathered at this point, all of them watching the screen inch toward 100% with bated breath. It was so close…so close…and…
“Sir? My diagnostics were unfinished, has something gone amiss?” a British man’s voice sounded over the intercom, and Steve’s eyes flew open, recognizing the voice from earlier today, and from – from –
“JARVIS?” Steve said, his voice full of wonder, and Clint sucked in a breath beside him. Natasha betrayed no surprise, and Steve wondered if she’d already put the pieces together from earlier today.
“Captain Rogers. Where is Sir?” the AI’s voice was perfectly neutral, but Steve couldn’t help but feel like he heard a note of disapproval.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Steve responded. “Are you able to tell if he’s anywhere in the Compound?”
There was a moment of silence, and JARVIS said, “I do not detect Sir’s presence anywhere within the Compound or its surroundings. I also…I also cannot detect FRIDAY’s presence.”
And Steve couldn’t help the sinking feeling that accompanied the concern he heard in the AI’s voice. He glanced around, noting similar worried expressions on Clint’s, Sam’s, and Scott’s faces, though James’s face was stony and Natasha’s unreadable.
“You can’t find her?” Natasha questioned, brisk and efficient. “What does that mean?”
There was a pause. “It’s not good, is it?” Steve said, the leaden feeling in his stomach solidifying.
“Indeed not,” JARVIS said, sounding perturbed – a sound that Steve couldn’t remember ever previously hearing from the AI. “It means that the Compound’s system is not secure. Sir would never take FRIDAY offline without a backup security system in place to protect the Compound, and he is the only one who should be able to close her down. Someone else has been in our systems.”
“How come you’re functioning okay, then?” Sam asked.
“I had been taken offline for diagnostics. Whatever attack they used was aimed at frying active systems,” JARVIS responded.
“Isn’t it possible Jay did the same with FRIDAY? Took her offline?” Scott probed, though he didn’t sound as though he held much hope.
“As I said, Sir would not leave the Compound unsecure. FRIDAY was the primary defense system as she ran all of the security measures, and I do not see any record of backup security systems having been engaged in her stead. He did not take her offline,” JARVIS said, his voice certain.
“Which means that someone else did,” James stated tonelessly, and Steve’s eyes darted to him, startled to see the emotionless mask that had overtaken his friend’s face – the one that meant James was truly, fervently furious. “And since you said Jay’s no longer in the Compound, it means whoever shut down FRIDAY probably took him.”
Jay woke up to the steady drip-drip-dripping of a damp ceiling, his head feeling like someone had just performed an un-anaesthetized craniotomy to remove his brain and stuff his head full of cotton instead. He let out a pained groan, moving to push himself up, hands pressing against gritty, cold stone until he was sitting upright. Head spinning and aching in tandem, he forced his eyes to peel open slowly until he was able to blink away the pain of the dim light hitting his eyes and take in his surroundings.
“Zero out of ten,” he whispered to himself, raspy voice echoing in the dank interior. “Would go into the negatives for lack of creativity on kidnapping venues if possible.” The cell was small, three of the walls comprised of some kind of metal and the fourth made up of bars that Jay would bet were damn near impossible to break. There was a bucket in one corner that Jay had been through enough kidnappings to guess was probably intended for any…waste, and the rest of the cell was empty. Beyond the bars, Jay could see a wide expanse of a room, the opposite wall lined with cells that resembled his own but appeared entirely empty. The lighting was dim and, as far as Jay could tell, came entirely from the ceiling in the center of the room; there was no light directly inside his room. A shame, he might could’ve done something with that – which was probably the point.
Of course, he could still always call out to the lights outside his cell – benefits of being a technopath and all. Although he wasn’t sure what that would accomplish, though it was probably better to know how many electronics he had to work with if he was going to make an escape. Tentatively, he reached out, and – nothing. There was nothing. Puzzled, Jay scooted a little closer to the bars, staring up at the ceiling outside his cell. Yep, those were electric bulbs, alright, and he could even see a few security cameras in the corners. So why couldn’t he reach them?
Suddenly struck with a sinking feeling in his stomach, he turned inward, trying to connect with Extremis. Again, nothing. It was like it wasn’t even there. In a last ditch effort, Jay grabbed one of the bars to his cell, tugging on it with all his new super-serum-enhanced strength. Not even a small budge. This was not good. This was really, really not good. He had no suit, no powers, and FRIDAY wouldn’t be able to even tell anyone what the intruders had looked like, since they’d probably taken her out before they’d come inside.
Oh god, FRIDAY. Lord, he hoped she was okay. He’d never had one of his AIs taken offline so completely while being integrated to the server like that before.
The sound of a door creaking and clanging open jolted him out of his spiraling panic, and Jay forced himself to his feet, lifting his chin to face his captors and coming face to face with –
“Ross?” Jay asked incredulously, more than a little stunned as the General strode over to the cell, an air of smug superiority emanating from him. Four large, uniformed men stood near the door, standing at attention.
“Mr. Stark – or, sorry, Dr. Stark,” Ross greeted him with a nasty smile. “So glad you could join us here. I’m guessing you’ve noticed some of the…special amenities that come with your room – namely, the nice little field of power-dampening energy?”
“Yeah, been testing that out. Impressively thorough. I’d have preferred WiFi, though, if you take suggestions. Also, the room’s a little cold for my taste, and I tend to like a few more windows. Makes it easier to work on my tan,” Jay quipped, and Ross’s smile only widened.
“You’re just like your father, always resorting to sarcasm when you find yourself outmatched. What is it they say? Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?” Ross mused.
“I’m pretty sure if we’re talking about wit, I’m definitely not the one who’s outmatched here,” Jay said, unflinching when Ross’s grin turned into a scowl. He folded his arms. “Because this? This seems like a pretty witless move. All this is going to do is bring the Avengers and the Accords council down on your head and get you put away for life, Ross.”
And it was the truth, which was why Jay found this whole turn of events completely bewildering – and was also why the return of Ross’s smile had an uncomfortable feeling settling into his gut.
“Well, you’re half-right, little Stark,” and Jay had to tell himself now was not the time to quibble over whether or not he was little. “I’m very much hoping it’ll bring the Avengers down on my head, but I don’t think it’ll go as you believe after that.”
And Ross’s grin was like that of a shark as he put one hand against the bars and leaned in. “You see, you and your father have been nothing but a thorn in my side. I’ve been working hard for decades to make sure enhanced people can be controlled, can be restrained if needed, and your father had to go and ruin that the first time around with his suggestions and connections and martyrdom in the end,” Ross sneered, eyes venomous. “But after he died, I knew I’d finally get the opportunity to put enhanced people in their place if I was just patient and waited for all the hero-worship of Iron Man to die down. But then you had to go and ruin that, showing up and giving people a new hero to believe in, to trust in, ruining all of my hard work by doing nothing more than existing.”
“Aw, stop, I’m blushing,” Jay deadpanned, and Ross threw him a scathing look.
“I will not let some child destroy all I’ve worked for. The world needs enhanced people to be controlled, and I’m going to make it happen,” Ross spat, eyes flashing in the dim light.
“Dude, I hate to break it to you, but you’re kinda going about this the wrong way, if that’s your goal. You just got done saying the public likes me – do you really think they’re going to flock to your side because you kidnapped me?” Jay asked, truly trying to figure out what angle Ross could be working. The man grinned.
“Oh, but I’m not the one who kidnapped you,” Ross said, eyes glittering, and Jay had to stop himself from taking an involuntary step back. “No, no, no – your teammates are the ones who kidnapped you.”
Jay let that hang in the air for a moment, absorbing it, then simply asked, “What?” Ross smirked, fingers tapping against the bar in a kind of lazy glee.
“It just so happens that I’ve stumbled across evidence of a conspiracy by some of the people who used to be a part of Dr. Strange’s little cult at Kamar-Taj who left after a disagreement with their Sorcerer Supreme. They weren’t all that eager to open up to me, but they were very talkative once I gave them the right…incentive - and of course I have their confessions recorded, just in case they’re needed. You see, after they’d decided that speaking with me was in their best interests, they admitted that they were paid to interfere with Dr. Strange’s readings on the Rogues’ minds, to make it seem like the Scarlet Witch had been influencing them all those years.” Ross paused, relishing the growing horror on Jay’s face, grin widening as he continued.
“They spoke about how the Rogues had found out about Tony Stark’s son and were infuriated. See, those morally-corrupt supers blamed Stark for their exile, and, since they’d already killed Stark, they decided they also wanted revenge on his son. So they got the defectors from Kamar-Taj to help them pretend to be mind-controlled so they could come back to the States and get close to the little Stark heir. And tonight, with the Lang and Barton families out of the way for the evening, they decided it was the perfect time to strike. So they kidnapped poor little Jason Stark and took him to a remote location so they could dispose of him once and for all. But unfortunately, the explosives they rigged malfunctioned and, instead of giving them enough time to clear the building after detonating them, the explosives detonated immediately, taking out all those no-good, double-crossing Avengers along with the Stark heir.
“And the public will be upset! Horrified! Whatever could they have done to prevent these terrible people from killing not one, but two Iron Men? If only there had been more restrictions, more restraints in place to protect people like poor little Jason, they’ll say. And I’ll be there to show them the way when they do.” Ross grinned wickedly, and Jay stared at him.
“You are a next level kind of crazy, man,” he said finally, shaking his head as his mind rattled through a dozen different flaws in Ross’s plan. “People aren’t going to believe you just on the words of some random sorcerers. Especially since the Accords council will know something’s fishy when the Avengers call in my kidnapping and then end up dead – that right there will be enough to cast a lot of suspicion on the sorcerers’ words, and you know that means there’ll be an investigation and it’ll lead back to you.” Ross only smiled.
“Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. Everyone on call on the Accords phone line tonight reports directly to me,” he reassured Jay, who was not feeling very reassured. “And, of course, I won’t just have those sorcerers’ words – or did you forget I got into your Compound’s precious security systems? No, now I have footage. I’ve already been through some of it, and let me tell you, I have. lot to work with. Is it all from after Maximoff joined the team before they dashed off to Wakanda? Sure, but the public doesn’t need to know that. And I have to say, they must have hated your dad. Some of the threats they made against him? Chilling. Once the public sees that – carefully edited so that it looks like it’s about you, of course – no one will question the validity of the sorcerers’ claims.”
Well, shit. Jay could still think of a few ways around Ross’s plot, but he wasn’t sure if people outside the know would be able to put all the pieces together. “I stand by my earlier statement – crazy,” Jay said defiantly, unwilling to show any doubt or concern in front of this asshole.
“Call me what you will, but I’m about to kill you and use your death and the deaths of your precious teammates to put all the people out there like you, all the freaks, in their place,” he said, his grin biting and eyes maliciously gleeful. He rapped on the bars twice, then pushed off. “Enjoy your last few hours, Dr. Stark.”
To say the air in the Compound was tense was an understatement of epic proportions.
“Who the fuck took him?” James growled, pacing, his initial outwardly calm demeanor having dissolved as the minutes ticked on. The Soldier was snarling in his head, closer to the forefront than he’d been since the triggers had been removed, visions of the bastards who’d been stupid enough to dare to touch what was his being strung up by their insides dancing around in his mind like a particularly macabre daydream.
It was a strange sensation; he was always the Winter Soldier, but most days that was nothing more than a sense of hyperawareness, of noticing things he never would have as Bucky Barnes, of preferring to be quieter and more observatory in a conversation than he was before falling off that train, of quicker reaction times and immediate scans of every room he entered for threats and escape routes. It wasn’t until there was real danger that James truly felt the Soldier stretch in his mind, his training, experiences, missions – targets identified and exterminated, 147 dead, no witnesses – slithering through his mind and directing his movements with cold, calculating clarity.
James used to hate it, but right now? Right now, he welcomed it. Because Jay was one of the good things in his life that he was only just getting to discover; he could still picture the way the engineer had laughed so freely and openly in the kitchen, covered in whipped cream and syrup; he could hear the indignant squawk each time James called him kitten; he could see the intense, thoughtful expression Jay got when his mind was a million miles away coming up with the solution to some problem James had never even thought about. Jay was freedom, hope, joy, and future, so similar and yet so different from Steve, who was passion, peace, home, and past – and the idea that he might lose that? It was terrifying.
“Maybe someone with a grudge against Iron Man? Or who didn’t want to see the Avengers re-instated?” Scott suggested, returning to James’s question.
“Maybe. But there are very few people in the world with the capability of hacking FRIDAY and shutting down the entire Compound,” Natalia observed, her voice cool and clinical. “And most of them have a connection to the Compound itself, or to Tony or Stark Industries.”
“You’re saying you think it’s an inside job,” James stated flatly, and Natalia nodded. Steve cursed.
“We need to report this to the Accords council,” Natalia said. “It’s protocol. JARVIS?”
“Sending an alert now, Agent Romanov.”
“Wait,” Steve said, voice suddenly urgent.
“Steve, we have to alert the council – “
“I know, but I think we should use a direct line to someone we know.”
“…Steve?” Natalia prompted, tone inviting him to explain himself.
Steve hesitated. “Us being called out to a pointless Accords meeting just in time for Jay to get kidnapped seems kind of suspicious to me. Add that to the fact that all the people briefing us were people we’d never seen before? That’s too many coincidences for me. I think we should call someone on the council we can trust.”
“Do we even have any of their direct numbers?” Scott asked.
“Sir has Mr. Everett Ross’s personal number. Mr. Ross worked closely with King T’Challa for a time and subsequently joined the Accords staff. I believe he would be able to contact the appropriate people,” JARVIS said.
“Do it,” Natalia commanded. “And tell him what we suspect.”
“Consider it done,” JARVIS replied.
“So you think this might be a job by someone in with the Accords council?” Sam asked Steve, and he nodded grimly.
“It seems to make the most sense right now.”
“But who? And why?” James asked, frustrated, and James could see his worry and fear reflected on the others’ faces.
“I think the most important question at the moment is where,” Natalia responded, her voice still calm as her eyes flicked up. “JARVIS, do you have any method of tracking Jay? I know Tony used to carry a tracker on him linked to you after Afghanistan, and I can’t imagine he didn’t impart the same habit in his son.”
“Indeed, Agent Romanov. However, rather than a tracker, Sir can be traced through his technopathic connection to this network, which he has remained connected to at all times since his abilities manifested. Unfortunately, there seems to be some…interference with his link to the network at the moment.”
“Interference?” Scott echoed. “What does that mean?”
“It means Sir cannot be traced through the network. He is offline,” JARVIS responded heavily, and James didn’t think he was imagining the worry he heard in the AI’s voice.
“Something’s interfering with Jay’s abilities,” Clint guessed. “Maybe something like the collar they put on – on Maximoff at the Raft.” The room tensed at the mention of the witch, but the team was too focused on the problem at hand to let her invocation distract them for longer than a second.
“An astute observation, Agent Barton. I am attempting to integrate myself back into the servers so I may trace Sir’s last known location. I will inform you when I have new information,” JARVIS said, voice clipped as if his attention was on something other than the conversation – which James supposed (hoped) it was.
“Thank you, JARVIS,” Steve said, straightening. He looked at the team, his face taking on an expression that James knew well: it was his ‘I’m upset and worried and afraid but trying my damndest not to show it’ look. James hated that look; it always meant things were bad and likely to get worse. “So. JARVIS is working on the where. We should work on the who, so we have a better idea of what we’re up against,” he said, eyes determined.
“So if we look at anyone who might have enough access to the Stark security system and the Compound to find ways around it, the options would likely be someone from SI, someone on the Accords council, or one of Tony’s or Jay’s friends,” Natalia said immediately, arms folding and expression calculating.
“I think all of the people Tony trusted are in this room – plus Rhodes, Pepper, Happy, Bruce, and Thor,” Clint commented, and a few of them winced at that, but nodded.
“I think we can knock off Jay’s friends, too – did you see those kids he was with? No way they’d do this, they practically worshipped the ground he walked on,” Scott pronounced.
“Unless that gives them a good motive for this,” Sam argued, and a couple of the others looked at him incredulously. “What? I’m just saying, they were clearly smart kids, so they could probably pull off this computer shit. And c’mon, haven’t you guys read those stories about crazy celebrity stalkers who kidnap the object of their obsession to, I dunno, show them how much they love them or whatever?”
“Right,” Steve said dubiously. “Well, uh, let’s keep that one on the back burner and come back to it if we need to, yeah?”
“Okay, so who specifically from SI or the Accords council would have access to FRIDAY and the Compound security measures?” Natalia asked, sharp eyes already thinking through her own question.
“I have a lock on Sir’s last known location,” JARVIS spoke up, and they all snapped to attention, turning back to the monitor immediately. A map pulled up, a small red dot blinking in what looked to be the middle of nowhere.
“That’s pretty close to here,” Steve said, brow furrowing.
“I asked JOCASTA to scan the area and she is reporting some strange readings,” JARVIS stated, and James isn’t alone in his confusion.
“JOCASTA?” Clint asked.
“She’s the AI running the Avengers’ satellite,” JARVIS responded.
“Sure, why not,” Scott deadpanned.
“JOCASTA’s readings suggest that there are bombs or other explosive devices in the area,” JARVIS said, clearly ignoring the comments.
“Bombs?” Steve was on high alert. “Are they set to go off on a timer, JARVIS?”
“I cannot tell, Captain.”
“Jet, now,” James bit out, already stalking off, his mind running through the various ways they could fuck up, set off the bombs, get there too late.
Behind him, he could hear Natalia speaking with JARVIS, telling him to let the Accords council vis-a-vis Ross know they isolated Jay’s location. He had to keep himself from turning back and ordering JARVIS to do no such thing in case an Accords councilmember was the one responsible - never alert the enemy you’re coming - knowing that they had to work inside the Accords on this.
The team assembled on the quinjet quickly and silently, Natalia slipping into the cockpit and pressing buttons in what looked like a random fashion to James but apparently actually did something because the door closed behind Scott after he stepped inside. They strapped themselves in, Steve shaking his leg agitatedly beside James as they waited. A few moments went by, and they weren’t moving.
“Natasha…” Clint prompted, sounding anxious.
“We have to wait for them to give us the go ahead,” Natalia said evenly, though James could see the way her jaw clenched. A moment later, there was a chiming noise, and she slipped out a phone from god-knew-where, relief relaxing her shoulders. “We’re clear,” she said shortly, immediately pushing a handle forward, and the jet accelerated, lifting into the air.
“We’re going to get there in time,” Steve said as the jet sped onward, seemingly talking to James, though James was fairly certain it was mostly to reassure himself. “We will.”
“If we don’t,” James said, his voice dangerously calm, cold. “If we don’t, Stevie, I’m going to kill them. Every single one of them.”
Steve was silent for a moment. “I’ll help,” he responded finally, his voice simmering with a barely-restrained rage.
And that was that.
Jay was bored. He’d searched every inch of the cell for something he could use to get himself out or make into a weapon and come up empty. He’d tried every method of connecting to Extremis that he could think of, sticking various body parts through the bars of the cell in the hopes that he’d be able to stretch far enough to get outside whatever power-dampening zone they’d concocted with no luck. He’d tried everything he could think of, and he’d come up irritatingly short of any solution to his current predicament – which meant he was now lying flat on his back in the cell, relegated to damsel-in-distress duty while waiting on his teammates, a role that he hated.
God, he’d thought he’d be done with this whole schtick since he wasn’t a baseline human anymore, but nooooooo, even when he was all super-powered and shit, he still ended up being the one kidnapped. Nobody ever kidnapped Clint, and Clint was totally an easier target them him now that he had Extremis and the super soldier serum! It was so unfair.
The hours dragged on, and Jay took to counting the number of mold-ridden divots on the ceiling, then switched to counting them using the Fibonacci sequence, then numbers of pi. He was just about to resort to the Planck constant when a commotion sounded outside the door.
He’d initially paid no heed to the muffled sounds outside the door that Jay assumed was probably a change of guard or something, but he tilted his head up when the door creaked open again, expecting to see Ross come to gloat or maybe someone with food and water – then shot to his feet when Steve, James, Sam, and Clint strode into the room.
“Jay!” came multiple voices as the group spotted him, rushing over.
“Guys, guys it’s a trap,” Jay said immediately, frantically. They didn’t stop, though, Steve shoving a key that Jay assumed he’d taken from the guards into the lock. “There’s a bomb! It’s Ross, he’s planning to blow the place up and blame you – oomph.” Jay’s voice was abruptly cut off when his face was shoved into a very star-spangled-super-soldier chest.
“Thank God you’re okay,” Steve murmured, and Jay blinked. Steve released him, stepping back and looking him over critically, searching for injuries. Clint grinned and clapped him on the shoulder.
“You gave us a scare there, Jay,” he said, relief evident even through the teasing in his voice.
“Did you guys not hear me?” Jay asked, eyes wide and concern growing. “There’s a bomb!”
“Natalia and Scott are on it, already,” James cut in smoothly, gaze locked on Jay like he was refusing to look away.
“Nat – what?” Jay stuttered, surprised. “How - ?”
“JARVIS warned us,” Steve explained, and Jay blinked, feeling even more questions bubble to the forefront of his mind.
“Uh guys, how about we get out of here and explain on the jet?” Sam suggested, and Jay nodded fervently.
“Yes, good, I like that plan, Birdbrain,” he agreed, ignoring the amused look Sam shot his way at the nickname. He gestured to the cell door. “Shall we?”
They all piled out, James and Clint taking point while Steve seemed disinclined to step more than a foot away from Jay. A few feet away from the cell, Jay stumbled, gasping as he reconnected to the Extremis network.
“Jay? You okay?” Steve asked, but his voice sounded faraway, numbers and system scans and data sets flashing in front of him, his eyes darting around rapidly as it tried to take everything in. The lights on the ceiling flickered and sparked erratically, and Jay felt electrified as his connection raced its way through his system, igniting him as it went.
He closed his eyes, focusing on the core of energy and willing it to settle, letting out a sigh of relief as the arcs of energy faded to a low thrum of power in his veins. “Sorry, yes, I’m okay,” he murmured, opening his eyes and feeling startlingly tired. He smiled wanly at Steve, who was looking at him in concern. “Just had a bit of a system overload when I got outside the range of the power dampener,” he explained, waving a hand at the cell, and Steve’s eyes showed dawning comprehension. He nodded shortly.
“You good to walk now?” he asked, and Jay nodded, already feeling steadier. “Great, let’s go find Nat and Scott and see if they need any help with disarming the bombs.”
“You’re a little late to the party for that, boys,” Natasha’s voice came from the doorway, and Jay’s head whipped around to see her and Scott glide in, triumphant smirks in place – although Scott’s was more of a triumphant eager-Labrador-puppy-smile than a smirk.
Jay grinned. “Aw, Tash, your definition of ‘party’ needs some work,” he teased, and Natasha winked at him as they joined the lopsided little circle the other Avengers had inadvertently formed in their aborted attempt to leave, face expressing relief and affection that she normally kept well concealed.
“You got all the bombs already?” Clint asked, surprised, and Natasha rolled her eyes.
“Are you really asking me that?”
“Yeah, c’mon man, we’re Avengers!” Scott declared with a broad grin, looking delighted that he even got to speak those words.
Clint snorted. “I am honestly and legitimately surprised that you didn’t accidentally detonate one of them, Lang.”
“Hey! That’s…fair, actually,” Scott admitted.
“Not to break up the love fest, but I’d like to re-voice my earlier suggestion of getting the hell out of here,” Sam cut in, and the others made amused noises of agreement. Jay started to go with them, then stopped.
“Wait, one second,” he said urgently, coming to a halt and staring up at the cameras. With a flick of his mind, he connected to it, digging through its systems and searching for a very…particular…ah ha! There.
“What, Jay?” Clint prompted, eyes darting between him and the door. “We need to get a move on, kid.”
“Just one more second,” Jay said distractedly, eyes flicking through the data that was floating in front of his eyes. “I’m just finishing up downloading the conversation I had with Ross earlier.”
“Ross?” Sam asked, shocked, and Jay’s eyes flicked to him briefly.
“Yeah, I said that when you first came in – Ross is the one behind all this,” he confirmed, and there were a few blinks.
“Whoops. We were distracted,” Steve said sheepishly, rubbing his neck. Remembering the very-sincere hug, Jay felt himself flush, hiding a pleased smile.
“Yeah, well, what can I say, I’m distracting,” he deflected flippantly, then let out a small noise of triumph as ‘100% complete’ flashed across his vision. “Got it! Let’s see Ross try to worm his way out of this.”
Which, in hindsight, probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say, if you were someone who watched movies that banked on eerily-specific timing.
“You won’t be seeing much of anything, boy,” Ross sneered as he strode into the room, armor-clad men piling in behind him, guns trained on them. Clint raised his bow immediately, and Scott snapped his helmet down, the rest of the team assuming defensive positions, whirling around in their little circle so that their backs were all to one another. Silently, Jay uploaded the footage he’d downloaded earlier to his home network and reconnected to one of the cameras, linking the footage it received so that it would upload alongside the other video. Ross eyed them with a mixture of hatred and nearly-hidden trepidation. “I’ll admit, your little Avengers got here earlier than we’d thought and messed up our plan to be out of here before they arrived, but we can still salvage this. So I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you won’t be sticking around to see a damn thing – not you or any of your freak friends.”
“Maybe not, but the rest of the world sure will,” Jay said confidently. He smiled pleasantly, enjoying the discomfited look that crossed Ross’s face at his expression. “You’re not getting out of this – you’re going down for kidnapping and seven counts of attempted murder. I guess from here it’s just a matter of whether or not your lackeys want to go down for accessory to kidnapping or accessory to kidnapping and seven attempted murders.” He stressed the word ‘attempted’ while making eye contact with some of said lackeys, trying to convey how futile their attempt to take down the Avengers would be with nothing more than some guns. He paused, relishing the looks of progressive doubt and uncertainty on Ross’s stooges’ faces.
“You’ve got nothing, boy,” Ross sneered. “It’ll be your word and the word of a bunch of traitors against mine, and I’ve got witnesses to back me up.”
“Witnesses?” Jay heard Scott mutter confusedly, but he ignored him, his pleasant smile only widening.
“Aw, Ross, honey – I don’t know how much good your witnesses are going to do against video of you confessing your grand plan right in front of – what did you call me? Oh, that’s right – poor little Jason Stark huddled behind the bars of a cell,” Jay said sweetly, though his smile turned vicious. Ross paled.
“You – you don’t have video evidence of that. The only video evidence is on file here, and none of you have been in the control room,” Ross insisted, his calm, disdainful mask slipping as Jay only smirked.
“Did you forget, General? I know all my special little abilities that you hate so much are on file with the Accords council, so you should have access to them. But maybe you were too disgusted to read them, so I’ll clue you in – I’m a technopath, Ross. Which means all that data you’ve got on those cameras up there?” He smiled wickedly, savoring the naked fear on Ross’s face. “It’s mine now, and I’ve already uploaded it to my home computer with the instructions to upload it to the Internet if I don’t manually shut it down in an hour. So you can try to kill us if you want, but it’ll make no difference – you’re done, General. And any plans you had for fucking over superpowered people? They’re done, too.”
“No,” Ross whispered, but Jay ignored him, casting a glance at the armed men surrounding them.
“As for the rest of you, right now you’ll be charged with accessory to kidnapping, but not necessarily accessory to attempted murder if there’s no proof you had any knowledge of the explosives wired under this building,” Jay said nonchalantly, his tone carefully almost bored. “You’re welcome to attempt to fight us and evade arrest if you want, but we’re the Avengers, so I’m guessing it’s going to be a little difficult for you and you’ll be facing a much longer sentence if you choose to go that route. So. Up to you guys – put down your weapons and avoid the nastier charges or start a fight and see where that gets you.”
Gauntlet thrown, the Avengers waited and watched, each outwardly showing no signs of concern or distress, though Jay could speak for himself in saying that his insides were tied up in knots. There was a good chance if they started a fight in quarters this close with a bunch of armed people that someone was going to end up hurt.
Then, with the kind of timing that Jay mentally blessed with every fiber of his being, the sound of car wheels crunching against gravel shattered the tense silence, followed by car doors opening and a stampede of footsteps hurrying to the building.
“Ah, I’m assuming you called this in with the Accords council – the real one, not Ross’s little sycophants?” Jay asked, turning casually to glance at Steve next to him. Steve nodded, and Jay smiled slightly, turning back to face the men. “Which means now you’re the ones outnumbered. Clock’s ticking, gentlemen. Make a move.”
This time, there was hardly a moment’s pause before the first gun hit the ground, followed by another, and another.
“No! Stay the course! You have your orders, men!” Ross shouted, but they paid him no mind, one by one dropping their guns and putting their hands in the air.
“Good move,” Jay said calmly as the door burst open, combat-gear-clad agents filing in with guns drawn. In just a few moments, Ross’s men were handcuffed and being led away to the sound of Ross’s loud protests.
“Get your hands off me,” he snarled when one of the agents reached him, ignoring him and yanking his hands behind him. Ross pierced Jay with a hate-filled glare. “You think you’ve won, don’t you, boy,” he spat as the agent started dragging him away. “You think you’ve won because you’re taking me out of the picture and you’ve got some of your father’s backstabbing old friends back on your side – well, these aren’t the only traitor friends of your father’s that have come back around. You’ll get yours, just you wait.”
And with that, he was pulled out of the room, Jay’s brow furrowing at his back. Another backstabbing friend of Tony Stark? “Is he talking about Obie?” he murmured to himself, missing the sharp glance Natasha sent his way in his distraction.
As Ross’s yells faded the further away he got, Clint turned to the rest of them, pouting. “Why’d ya have to go and do that, Jay, I was ready to kick all their asses.”
Jay raised an eyebrow at him, unable to hide his smirk. “Sorry, Link, next time I’ll be sure to let them start shooting at us instead.”
Sam let out a long-suffering sigh. “For the third goddamn time, can we please get the fuck out of here?” he pleaded, and Jay laughed, the relief and giddiness of having made it out of this one starting to set in. It had been a while – two years, in fact – since he’d had his life in danger like that, though honestly this was pretty tame compared to a lot of the other ones. A warm-up of sorts for future battles, he supposed. Wow that was a promising thought.
“I second that. I want like nine showers and a soft bed,” Jay concurred, and the team started moving toward the door. In the hall, the Accords agents were shepherding Ross’s minions out, the minions in various states of dismay and resignation.
“Should we thank the head Agent for backing our asses up or something?” Clint stage-whispered ahead of them, and Natasha elbowed him.
“If you can figure out who the head Agent is, go right ahead. They all look the same to me,” Jay stage-whispered back.
“Idiots,” Natasha said exasperatedly. “Do you ever read the briefings?” She turned away from them, smiling pleasantly at a dark-haired woman they were approaching who was currently barking out orders. “Agent Johnson,” she greeted, coming to a halt, and the rest of the team stopped with her.
“Avengers,” the agent nodded, clipped and efficient. “Area’s secure here. All enemy combatants have been neutralized, and the data in the control room has been obtained and sent to both the council and the Avengers’ drive.”
“Thank you, Agent. Is there anything further that you need from us?”
“No, we’ll handle clean-up here. The council will want a debrief within the next couple of days, but they’ll be in touch to schedule that with you directly,” Agent Johnson answered, and Natasha nodded, then proceeded to continue out the corridor. The boys scrambled to rush after her, nodding their thanks at Agent Johnson as they passed.
Winding down the halls was fairly dizzying, and Jay was half-convinced Natasha must have some sort of feed in her ear directing her because otherwise he couldn’t see how the fuck she was managing to find her way around. Unless she was just guessing, and they were going to be wandering around this base forever.
But finally, they walked through a door and were greeted with the sight of a broad expanse of gravel surrounded by forest on which the quinjet and perhaps two dozen nondescript black sedans were waiting. Stepping into the cool outside air was a fucking gift, and Jay reveled in the feeling of a non-damp breeze brushing over his skin. In the east, Jay could see bright red and gold hues forming a crescent of sorts over the horizon, heralding the sun’s arrival.
“Shit, have we been out all night?” Sam asked, sounding put-out. “Man, when am I supposed to get my beauty rest?” There was a moment of silence as they all walked towards the quinjet, and he glanced back and forth, eyes narrowed. “That was where you were supposed to pipe up and say ‘oh, Sam, you don’t need beauty rest, you always look great!’”
“I’m not sure even Natalia could sell that line,” James deadpanned, his voice and face so neutral that there was a moment where everyone was quiet before the group broke into snickers. The snickers quickly devolved into full-bodied laughs, and Jay was rapidly coming to the conclusion that they were all a little slaphappy, running on no sleep and a shit ton of adrenaline.
Blessedly, they all made it onto the quinjet in one piece, Natasha making her way to the cockpit easily, Clint taking the co-pilot’s seat. Jay strapped in, and James and Steve took the seats on either side of him.
“Let’s go home, boys,” Natasha called, before the plane lifted into the air.
“Wait, we should get Jay to a hospital,” Steve said, trying to make eye contact with Natasha.
“Uh, no, no hospitals, I absolutely refuse to go within 500 feet of a hospital, I’m deadly allergic,” Jay protested rapidly, and Steve frowned at him.
“You could be hurt. You need to get checked over and make sure you’re alright.”
“I promise, I’m fine,” Jay reassured him. “Really, all they did was give me some drug to knock me out. See? No broken bones.” He wiggled his arms and legs, knowing he looked ridiculous and 100% past the point of caring.
“You should still get looked over, kotenok,” James said from his other side, and Jay turned, mouth open to protest, then immediately regretted it when he was greeted with blue-grey eyes swimming with concern. Who the fuck let the Winter Soldier look like that? It was Not Fair.
“I swear, I’m completely okay. I don’t wanna go to a hospital, I just wanna go to bed – and if you think about it, it would actually be better for my health if I go to bed now than if I spend the next few hours in a hospital getting looked over only for them to tell me I’m completely fine and should go home and get some rest,” Jay pointed out, beaming brightly at two dubious super soldiers.
Steve sighed heavily. “You’re just like your dad. We could never get him to go to medical, either.”
“Part of the Stark charm,” Jay grinned cheekily.
“Fine, no hospital – but only if you agree to answer honestly over the next few days when we ask you if anything hurts and if you’re feeling okay,” Steve relented, waving a finger sternly.
“Deal!” Jay said promptly, mentally high-fiving himself for another doctor encounter successfully avoided. He’d had enough of those for a lifetime.
“You’re too soft, Stevie,” James grumbled, and Jay elbowed him, grinning.
“It’s just because I’m too adorable to resist.”
James smirked. “Well, I can’t argue with you there.”
Aaaand his blush was back. Jesus, twice in one day – what were these super soldiers doing to him?
“For the love of god, will you stop flirting, you three? It’s fucking nauseating,” Sam requested, rolling his eyes. Jay felt his own blush deepen and was starting to feel extremely embarrassed about his own reactions – but when his eyes darted side to side, he was surprised and…intrigued to note that Steve was blushing just as badly, and James was smirking, the bastard. Well, if that was how it was, then.
“Aww, Sam, your jealous is showing,” Jay drawled with a smirk of his own, and James snorted beside him while Steve let out a small squeak. Sam, for his part, looked one part amused, one part like he wanted the hell out of this conversation.
“Nat, how far are we from the Compound, and can we go any faster?” Sam implored, turning his eyes to the cockpit. Steve looked like he was waiting desperately for the answer, and Jay snickered.
“Almost there, children,” Natasha called, her tone dry.
And within moments, they were touching down on the roof, Sam practically sprinting off the jet.
“You’re gonna need at least 9 hours of beauty rest if you wanna be pretty enough to get in on our sex club,” Jay called after him, and Scott clapped his hands over his ears.
“Oh god, that is not an image I wanted in my mind ever,” he whimpered to Jay’s delight, and he grinned as Scott scuttled after Sam.
“That was mean, kotenok,” James murmured in Jay’s ear, and he turned to see the super soldier smirking at him.
He shrugged, not losing his grin. “Hey, he shouldn’t have dished it out if he can’t take it,” he reasoned, and James shook his head amusedly.
“I think I might actually dissolve into a puddle of embarrassment,” Steve lamented mournfully beside them, head buried in his hands though Jay could see his ears were burning.
“Oh Stevie, don’t be such a drama queen, it’s not like you didn’t hear worse in the barracks,” James scoffed, one eyebrow quirked, unimpressed.
“Yeah, Steve, we’re not really buying the whole ‘delicate sensibilities’ thing, man – you were in a war,” Clint declared as he and Natasha disembarked the quinjet. The five of them made their way to the Compound’s rooftop entrance, bantering and ribbing each other as they went, and Jay thought that, for such a shitty past few hours, this was a surprisingly nice end to the day – or start to the next one, rather.
Scott and Sam were already out of sight, undoubtedly having headed to their rooms to crash, by the time the other five made it inside, laughing and chattering as the door swung shut behind them.
“Sir, I’m so pleased that you’re okay,” JARVIS’s voice came over the speakers nearly immediately, sounding intensely relieved. Jay blinked in surprise as they moved further into the room, plopping down on sofas and chairs by mutual unspoken agreement; Jay wasn’t sure about the rest of them, but he was too wired to think about sleeping for a little while, at least. Besides, it was kind of nice here after that cold cell, sandwiched between two super soldiers letting off a ton of body heat.
“JARVIS, buddy! When did you get back online?”
“Oh, that was me, I’m afraid,” Natasha said with an apologetic half-smile. “We were trying to find FRIDAY to see if she knew anything, but we found JARVIS instead.”
Oh shit, FRIDAY! How could he have forgotten about his girl?
“JARVIS, how’s my baby girl?” he asked, knowing JARVIS would’ve been seeking out FRIDAY as soon as he’d gotten a chance. He was met with a long silence, and he frowned, uncertain what to make of it. Had FRIDAY been hurt? Was he having to try to repair her? Or, worse, was she still undergoing diagnostics because of the severity of the damage?
“Sir…”
One word. That was all it took, and he knew exactly what JARVIS was going to say.
“No,” he denied firmly, shaking his head, and he felt curious eyes on him, but he didn’t look at them, staring resolutely at one of the cameras. “No,” he said again, his voice insistent.
“Jay, what is it?” Steve asked, the picture of concern as he reached out to grab one of Jay’s hands to offer a measure of comfort. But Jay yanked his hand away, not looking away from the camera, wordlessly shaking his head again, more emphatically, as if the fervency with which he denied it would make it not true.
“It’s – she’s not – she can’t be – no,” Jay whispered, pleaded, and his voice broke.
“JARVIS, what’s going on? What’s wrong with FRIDAY?” James murmured from his other side, eyeing him with concern that Jay didn’t want to see. If he rejected their concern, if he rejected their comfort, it would mean there was nothing for them to be concerned or comforting about, right? It would make this go away?
But in the end, his denial wasn’t enough to circumvent the truth.
“She is gone, Sergeant Barnes. We lost her.”