Oh no
Tony got on his feet once the helicopters began to fly away. There was glass scattered around the floor together with bits and pieces of concrete.
“Peter!”
The genius could only stare as the attackers flew away, how did this happen? With an angry roar he kicked a piece of wall away jumping as a hand touched his shoulder.
It was Pepper.
“Tony, you are hurt.”
He frowned but suddenly he got aware of the blood that was running down the back of his neck. With an annoyed huff he wiped it away, “doesn’t matter.”
Pepper shook her head; she also had a nasty cut on her forehead, “doesn’t matter? Tony your house just got destroyed and we need to get out of here.”
Tony growled but nodded, “Jarvis?”
“The authorities have been notified Sir, there will be an ambulance here in about eight minutes.”
Tony sighed in relieve the AI sounded a little muffled since most speakers were destroyed but at least he was still talking.
It calmed him a little and Pepper was able to pull him outside. She was limping and Tony had to support her at some point. Together they sat down on the steps that led to the house and waited.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Peter woke up he had one hell of a headache and the hope that everything that had happened was just a very, very bad dream. The merman slowly opened his eyes and noticed that he was at least underwater.
It didn’t make his situation much better though. He was kept in a large cylinder that was filled with seawater and that was so narrow that he couldn’t properly move his tail.
As he looked around he saw a few humans walk around in lab coats that were either talking to each other or looking at strange machines.
It was strange and scary and the merman felt completely overwhelmed with the situation and began to touch the cool glass that surrounded him.
“Ah you woke up, good.”
His head spun around and his eyes locked on a tall human with weird looking facial hair. The man eyed him with a smirk on his lips slowly walking around his prison.
“If you wonder my name is Dr Zemo I am currently leading this little operation here, I am glad to call you my guest.”
Peter looked at the man and if he had had any hair on his body besides his head, they would have stand up by now. The boy took a deep breath and hit the glass.
The human flinched and the others turned to look at him. As most merpeople Peter was incredibly strong so it took him three hits until a tiny crack appeared in the thick glass.
Zemo wrinkled his nose, “stop it or I will make you stop.” Peter bared his teeth posing more confident than he felt and hit the glass again, making the crack grow.
Zemo shook his head, “shock him.” A man in a lab coat walked up to him and pressed a button on a tiny remote. A scream tore from the boy as electricity hit the water.
His body shook violently until the man let go of the button and Peter sunk to the bottom of the cylinder. Peter still shook like a leaf in the wind as he looked up to the humans, “you are cruel creatures.”
Zemo chuckled, “we are humans and you are a fish with a human face and we will do with you as we please.” The man turned to his colleague, “start the program.”
The man cleared his throat, “of course Sir, but what about the Doctor?” Zemo frowned, “what Doctor?” Peter’s eyes widened, they had taken Bruce too?
“Doctor Banner, he was protecting the specimen and so they kind of took him too.”
Zemo shrugged, “kill him we have no use for him.” Peter got up immediately, “no!” The two looked at him and Zemo began to smile, “excuse me?”
Peter swallowed and put his hands on the glass, “please don’t harm the Doctor he didn’t do anything wrong.” Zemo seemed to think about it, “well if you behave and cooperate I might let him live.”
The merman nodded, “I will but I want to see him every day.” The human sighed and waved his hand, “alright,” he agreed and began to walk away, “see to their needs.”
Peter watched him go and even though he didn’t knew it was possible his heart sunk even lower.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce woke with an equally bad headache but sadly enough he was used to it. He sat up slowly rubbing his eyes before taking a deep breath and opening them to look around.
The Doctor sat on the cold hard floor of a rather plain room. It was too small to pace in it but large enough to not feel claustrophobic and while a cot was standing at the wall someone had decided to place him on the floor.
Bruce got up and walked up to the door which was unsurprisingly locked. With a sigh he sat down on the hard cot and rubbed the bump on his head where he got hit.
It still hurt but he was not dizzy, which was a good sign. The genius ran a hand through his hair as he tried to process everything that had happened in such a short time.
Bruce studied the plain grey walls as the door opened and a man in black combat gear entered. He had a riffle in his hands and a mask covered half of his face as he looked down on him, “come.”
Bruce didn’t need his PhDs to know that it was a bad idea to argue with a man that could kill him probably faster than he was able to name all of his titles.
He got up and let the man guide him into a big room that was filled with different lab equipment, computers and cabinets. It almost looked like a chemistry lab if not for the long glass cylinder in the middle of the room.
“The fish wants to talk to you,” the man behind him stated and Bruce simply nodded to signal that he understood.
Carefully he walked up to the cylinder eying the scientists around him form the corner of his eyes before he finally focused on Peter.
The merman looked uninjured aside from the ugly bump that looked like Bruce’s. The boy’s eyes lit up as he spotted the man, “Bruce! You alright?”
The Doctor smiled and put a hand on the cool glass, “I am but how are you? Aside from trapped.” Peter chuckled and let himself sink to the bottom of the cylinder so they were on eyelevel with each other.
“I am alive and so are you, they wanted to kill you.”
The last part of the sentence was whispered and Bruce now noticed that a few of the scientists were watching them with growing interest. The man cleared his throat, “it is alright Peter you are in a worse position then I.”
The boy shook his head, “no I am not, they won’t kill me but I made a deal to keep you safe.” Bruce’s smile fell at that, “no Peter that was a mistake now they own you, I am not important but you are.”
A man walked up to them and laughed, “that is so sweet.” Bruce turned around and frowned at the man, Peter tensed. The stranger was not dressed in a lab coat or combat gear but in an expensive looking suit.
“And you are?”
The man laughed and offered his hand to Bruce, “ah sorry I forgot my manners, my name is Dr Zemo and you are mister Banner right?”
Bruce gave him a quick handshake, “Dr Banner.” Zemo smiled and turned to look at Peter, “he is magnificent isn’t he? A creature perfectly adapted to the sea and still so human. It is glorious.”
Bruce clenched his fists as he listened to the obviously mad man, “what do you want to do with him?” Zemo grinned, “with his help we will create our own mermen, a new class of super soldier.”
The Doctor chuckled and took his glasses off to clean them, “you are crazy, this could take years, decades even and there is no guarantee that Peter’s genetic material is suited for humans.”
Zemo turned to look at him with an quirked eyebrow, “you seem to know a few things about that matter, Doctor.” Bruce shrugged, “I did major in genetic engineering.”
Zemo frowned and turned around to his team, “why didn’t anyone tell me this? He is useful I need to know things like this.” Bruce exchanged a look with Peter who simply shrugged, humans are weird.
“So what is this little organization of yours?” Bruce asked as Zemo turned his attention back to him. The evil man smiled, “we are called Hydra, years ago we immigrated into this country to slowly take it over from the inside. With him,” he nodded in Peter’s direction, “we will have even better chances of success.”
Bruce sighed, “I don’t think you will succeed, there will be people who will fight against you, who will do everything to stop you.”
Zemo let out a dark laugh, “and who might that be?” Peter bared his teeth at him, Tony fucking Stark you asshole he thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony was quite pissed. The paramedics had forced him into the ambulance and had driven him into the nearest hospital. They hadn’t even listened to his protest and Pepper had made it even worse.
She had told them to ignore him and now he was strapped to a hospital bed wearing a neck collar and fighting the sedative they gave him.
On any other occasion he might have enjoyed the warm fuzzy feeling in his body and the calming effect of the drug but he had no time to lie around. The genius slowly blinked and stared at the ceiling, plain, like every hospital.
“Mr Stark, can you hear me?”
The genius blinked again but because of that stupid collar he couldn’t turn his head to see who was talking to him, “what?” Well it was not his most eloquent reply but the person walked around the bed to look down on him.
It was a man of colour with an eyepatch and a face that told Tony that he didn’t smile very often. He looked rather grim his hands clasped behind his back, “you must have really annoyed them if they tied you to the bed.”
Tony concentrated on moving his tongue and lips to form words, “who are you?” The man smiled at him; well at least a corner of his mouth moved up, “my name is Nick Fury and I came to talk to you about your little guest.”
Tony knitted his eyebrows together, “Pepper?” The man shook his bald head, “don’t worry Miss Potts is save and taken care of I am talking about your other guest.”
Tony hated the effects of the drugs and in his frustration he pulled on his restrains. Fury watched but didn’t comment since someone called his name.
“Director Fury we don’t have much time, Coulson cannot keep them away much longer.”
The voice was female and none Tony had ever heard before. Fury nodded and turned back to Tony, “now listen Stark, we know that you had a merman in your pool that got stolen by Hydra, we offer you help to find him.”
He put a business card on his nightstand and turned to leave before the genius was able to say something. Tony wanted to scream but the exhaustion and drug took over so he slowly fell into a deep dreamless slumber.
Tony woke up again in the middle of the night, feeling groggy and a little sick. He rubbed his eyes realizing that his hands were free now and grabbed the cup of water from his nightstand to down it in one go.
The collar had also been removed and he felt a lot better. His entire body of course ached and his ears were still ringing but that would go by and he had more important things to do.
Tony picked up the phone on his nightstand dialling Happy and ordering him to bring the car and some clothes since his old ones were in shreds and awfully dirty.
As he put the phone down he eyed the business card but didn’t took it, instead he got up and went into the bathroom.
It didn’t take Happy long to come, he brought a pair of pants, some underwear, shoes and an Iron Maiden shirt that Tony liked.
Tony quickly changed out of his hospital dress into the clothes and together they left. The nurse at the front desk did protest but Tony was in no mood to listen so he simply left a message to Pepper and walked out.
“Whereto, Boss?”
Tony closed the door of the car and thought about it playing with the business card until he put it back into his pocket, “Malibu I need to look at Jarvis data.” Happy simply nodded, he worked for Tony long enough to not argue with the Boss’s decisions.
Once they arrived at the house Tony exited the car and walked into the ruins of his home. He was a little surprised that it had not fallen down into the sea.
“Jarvis?”
“Welcome home Sir.”
The genius exhaled and walked to the stairs that led to the basement. They were covered in shards of glass and Tony had no hope that his cars had survived the attack but there was something more important than them down there.
“Good thing you are up, I need your help.”
Tony walked through the remains of the glass door. To his surprise DummE rolled towards him beeping excited. Tony smiled at his bot, “hey boy glad to see you alive.”
As expected the cars were wrecked, at least the one that was still inside, the rest had fallen through a gigantic whole in the wall.
“Sir I must advice you to leave, the structural integrity-,” Tony rolled his eyes and cut the AI off, “skip the lesson Jarv I am here because Peter got kidnapped, or fishnapped and I want to find the bastards that did that.”
The AI sighed, “alright Sir I how can I help.” Tony grinned and rubbed his hands, it was going to be a long night but at least he had a goal, for the first time in what felt forever he had something or someone to work for.