The Plunge
The Avengers alarm went off, and that in itself was no cause for heightened concern. That was fine. What wasn’t fine was that Sage wasn’t in the tower, a matter that also was not, on its own, worrying. The problem lay in the fact that Sage had not checked in for three hours. Tony was hoping and praying fervently that she’d just forgotten, currently having too much fun with her girlfriend to pay them much thought.
His chest felt tight as the armour assembled around him, and a glance at Loki’s face as he donned his own made him sick to his stomach. So help him God, if some psycho messed with their daughter, he’d murder the bastard with his bare hands.
---
When Sage woke up, she nearly screamed, because she couldn’t see. Her breath sped up and her chest started heaving as she registered the blindfold covering her eyes and the dirty rag stuffed deep in her mouth as a makeshift gag.
“Uhhh, boss? I think the kid’s waking up.”
Sage only just managed to avoid whipping her head around at the sound of a voice. Oh god, she was going to die.
“Oh yeah?” A gruffer voice spoke up from the other side of her and farther away. “What gives you that impression, McLaren?”
“Think she’s having a panic attack, boss.”
No, really? Sage wanted to snark at the man’s worried tone, clear sarcastic thoughts breaking through her fog of panic. I thought this was a natural kidnapping response.
“McLaren, we kidnapped her, you blithering idiot. Of course she’s panicking.”
“Well, yeah, but-”
“For the love of everything holy.” Sage flinched hard as something metallic flew through the air and clattered to the ground beside her. The gruff man stormed over, his footsteps heavy and his breathing loud. “McLaren,” he growled, the sound of his voice reflecting differently, indicating him crowding the other man’s personal space. “If you don’t want the girl panicking, force some Benadryl down her throat to make yourself feel better. It doesn’t matter, because as soon as we get the word, I’m killing her, remember?”
Sage’s breath caught, and her tenuous control over her powers snapped. She heard air begin to swirl around her at different speeds, heights, and directions and choked on a sob. She’d moved straight through an anxiety fog to panicky tornadoes. Shit, this was bad. Shit, shit, shit.
“Boss…”
The other man swore and his footsteps approached her. “Of fucking course Tony Stark adopted a kid with goddamn powers. Christ.”
Sage felt a sharp pain in the side of her head, and promptly fell unconscious.
---
Tony was just about done with this fucking guy. Guy in question fancied himself a supervillain, but oh boy did he have a lot to learn. If he didn’t suspect the douchebag of kidnapping their daughter, Tony would ask Loki to give him some pointers in style, because honestly.
The guy was wearing a dark cloak - ala Emperor Palpatine, if Tony had to wager a guess - and he kept hurling fucking garbage at them. Tony figured the guy could animate plastic, so it made sense, sort of. But come on. He could only blast so many garbage bags with his repulsors before the smell even started to permeate his air filters. Was garbage burning even legal in the state of New York? (Spoiler alert - no.)
They were slowly running out of garbage in the immediate area - speaking of Pietro, how was he still able to breathe, let alone speed around when encased in that garbage bag? He looked like some kink model. Anyway, back to the situation at hand. Tony had a sickening feeling that soon this guy would start grabbing nearby girls by their boob implants.
“Seriously, can’t anyone get close to him?”
“Tony, I am fighting trash bags with a fucking bow and arrow. Shut the hell up.”
Tony scowled at Clint’s snappy response. He just wanted to take this guy out, go home, and find out that Sage had been safe this whole time; was that too much to ask?! He made up his mind and just flew straight for the guy, only pulling up short when he shrieked stay back and threw something on the ground in front of him. Tony peered at it quizzically, barely resisting the urge to tsk when a holoscreen burst out of the device. Tacky, he thought, before everything in him ground to a halt at the sight of what the screen displayed. No. God, no, please-
Sage was blindfolded, gagged, and her face was streaked with tears. Something must have happened off screen that frightened her badly, because suddenly tons of mini tornadoes surrounded her. Tony had never seen that happen before. A man entered the screen, stomping toward Sage and picking up the wrench that laid beside the chair she was bound to. He knew what was going to happen a split second before it did, and shouted, stretching a hand toward the screen, and hearing his no echoed by the rest of the team as the man beaned her in the side of the head and she slumped forward, unconscious.
Loki roared with fury, racing toward the man, only to be wrapped in a garbage bag.
“Don’t.” The guy said, peering out from under his hood, eyes meeting the eye holes in the suit. “None of you come any closer.” He had a soft voice, and he refused to speak loudly, but everyone was strung tight and listening carefully. He smirked after glancing around to ensure that he had the attention of every one of them. “That’s so much better, thank you.” His midwestern accent had a vague southern lilt to it, and you know what, Tony knew he hated West Virginia.
“You’ll want your girl back, I assume, and though I’m not inclined to give her to you, I can be persuaded. However. One wrong move by a single one of you, any of you moves a step closer, and I give my men the signal. Upon my word they shoot her through the skull on this live feed, and you have no choice but to watch. If you’re especially bad, I’ll even turn on the sound.”
“Don’t you dare.” Tony ground out, fighting to keep his voice steady, even as his eyes drifted back to the video of Sage, slumped in the chair, dead to the world, but still breathing - for now. “What do you want?” He asked begrudgingly, because these psychos always wanted something, and dammit, if it got Sage back, he would deliver the moon.
“World peace.” The guy said, his eyes twinkling with a malicious glee. “But for now, I think Loki Laufeyson in magic-dampening chains would suffice.”
Tony felt the blood drain from his face as he turned to look at his husband. “I- you can’t- I can’t-”
“You can, and you will. Otherwise you’ll never see your daughter again. It’s your decision, Mister Stark, but you have half an hour to decide.”