Broodmare

Clint sat next to Natasha in the co-pilots seat. He was anxious, his knee was bouncing as he nibbled on his cuticles.

“What’s going on?” She asked softly.

“I… I want to tell Kate. I mean, I’ll ask for permission, and if he says no, I’ll respect it but…” his voice hitched. “I promised no secrets. She’s…. She’s like my surrogate pup, y’know… and after what all went down with that piece of shit Alpha of hers…” he trailed off softly. “I promised one thing, Nat. No. Secrets. And this…. This is the mother of all secrets. I’ve got a pup that, for all intents and purposes; defies the laws of basic science, and to top it off my pups got a small platoon of siblings.” He let out a humorless huff of laughter. “This is the epitome of what I swore I wouldn’t keep from her.”

Sam walked up to the cockpit. “Sooo, you lot thinking what I’m thinking?”

Both looked at him curiously. “Scott. Lang is going to want to bring Cassie because Cassie is about the same age as the older pups and you know how he is about…”

Clint started cursing under his breath and they looked at him for an explanation. “Dr. Pym. First he’ll have to get permission from Maggie and then he’ll have to tell Pym something plausible to get him to bring her because the only people that Maggie or Scott trust to watch Cassie are Maggie’s husband, Hope…”

“And Pym.” Fury grumbled, causing them all the jump. “Shit.”

“Is that bad?” Sam asked cautiously.

Fury sighed heavily as he sat across from Sam. “It’s complicated. See, Tony’s father Howard used to work with Pym back in the day, but they parted ways on bad terms. But even when they were feuding Pym always had a soft spot for Tony and his mother Maria. ” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know he had… has a soft spot for Tony on the count of when I took over as Director I was given full access to all files. I wanted to know as much as I could about all the players on the field. After the plane crash Rhodes and Potts weren’t the only ones that sent out search parties… in fact, we need to tell Pym so he can call them off.”

“Really? After all this time?” Sam asked.

“Yeah,” he shook his head. “Howard Stark was a brilliant man, intelligent, well learned, a genius of no equal in his time… he was also a shitty Alpha, an abusive husband and criminally neglectful of his one and only pup. A pup that had the gall to be born an Omega.”

“Yikes.” Sam muttered.

“Yikes indeed.” He shook his head slowly. “Pym never did anything overt; that would have tipped his hand and Howard was just petty enough to go after him. But it was the little things that he did that helped Maria get by. A donation here, a luncheon there, an invite to a science fair for Tony...sometimes even things that kept Howard out of the states for a week or two to give her time to breathe.”

“And when he was presumed dead?”

Fury let out a derisive snort. “S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be a shadow organization. You know, the kind that no one knows about unless you work for them or are running from them?”

“People know about us now.” Natasha pointed out.

“Now. Not ten years ago.”

“That’s right.... I think I remember that day. The whole facility went into lockdown because Pym managed to hack through all the checkpoints and got all the way into Fury’s office before the

alarm was sounded.” Clint recalled, sounding almost nostalgic.
    “So… Dr. Pym is going to need to know about this development.”

“Yes. He won’t let Cassie come to Wakanda without knowing why.”

“And you want to ask about Kate.”

“I have to at least try.”

“And we’re going to have to let Strange and probably Wong in on this in some capacity--” Fury let out a groan. “So, Strange, Wong, Pym, Maggie, and Bishop … am I leaving anyone out?”

    There was a long pause.

    “Lucky?”

    Fury gave him a truly dubious look. “Your dog?”

    “C’mon! They are kids and they’ve never seen a dog and Lucky loves kids…”

    Fury let out a heavy sigh. “I won’t deny that. Besides, Lucky might be a good distraction for everyone at this point.” He went to stand and paused. “Now, someone get the comms back up and working and Wilson; go check on your boy. He’s been staring at the box since he got back and we need his head in the game.” He ordered before storming off.

   All three looked over at Steve who was sitting on a couch against the side of the jet looking at the box in his lap as though it held all the answers to the mysteries of the world.

    Sam sighed and cleared his throat. “Once more into the breech.” He muttered as he walked away.

    “I think I’m going to take a stress nap if that’s okay with you?” Clint asked Natasha softly.
    Natasha reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “I’ll look into the comms, you should get some rest.”

------

    As the others helped situate the detainee's bubbles in the quinjet Hope paced beneath it with her hand in her ear. “Babe, we’re done on our end. And you… you sound breathless… you didn’t end up fighting… oh… I don’t know if that’s better or worse.” She said with a shake of her head. “Just be careful, Cassie and I both need you around… love you …”

    She signed off and walked around the back of the jet and saw that Thor looked a little upset.

    “You do not mean to take these scoundrels to Wakanda do you?” He seethed, the air around him crackling.

    Maria had her hands in front of her as if to placate him. “No Thor, you misunderstood me.”

    “I don’t think he misunderstood you, Agent Hill.” Pietro grumbled, his arms were crossed defensively.

    “You asked if we wanted a ride back to the castle. A ride that would require you to fly this quinjet; with all of its cargo, to Wakanda.” Wanda pointed out, her eyes glowing red.

   “To think that you would allow these … these heathens anywhere near those that they terrorized…”

   “Hulk no like this idea.”

   “I’m going to side with Hulk here.” Pietro nodded.

   Hope turned on her heel and stormed up to them. “You what?!”
    Maria groaned loudly. “It was never my intention to allow our prisoners to have any knowledge of our destination. They don’t exactly have window seats guys.”

    “The Lady Wanda, Hulk and myself will be staying behind for the last stage of the plan.”

   “I can run Hope to the catacombs.” Pietro offered and Hope nodded.

    “No need to take trash near punies.” Hulk growled.

    ‘Punies?’ Maria thought quizzically as she threw her hands up in the air. “Fine, fine. It was only an offer.”

    “We politely decline.” Thor said as he crossed his arms.

    “Okay, fine. I apologize for offering. In hindsight it was a bad idea.” She shook her head ruefully as she headed up the quinjet ramp. Once at the top of it she turned to face them. “I’m going to contact Director Fury and inform him of your impending arrival, our new guests, and that I've fucked up.” She added with a wry grin. “Good luck everyone, thank you for your help, and…  I'd say ‘stay out of trouble’ but… yeah… see you lot around.” She said with a wave a the ramp closed.

    When the ramp closed she turned sharply and started barking out orders. “Get Fury on the horn. I've just about got my head ripped off by the Avengers and that’s not normal. I want to know what to hell is going on in Wakanda that’s got them all defensive.”

-----

    Pietro turned to Wanda and gave her a tight hug. “Be careful, sister.”

   “I will try.  I have both Thor and Hulk. If nothing else, they can protect me.”

    Pietro pulled away and looked down at his shoes. “It should be me,” he grumbled.

   Wanda laughed, playfully punching him in the shoulder. “You protected me when we were young, it’s my turn to take care of myself and others.” she ruffled his hair when he grumbled in protest. “Wear your hood up, have Hope hide behind your neck, and zip it up to your chin so that she doesn't get shredded by the wind.”

    “Yes mother, whatever you say, mother.” he mimicked under his breath while doing exactly what she had told him to do.

    She cuffed him upside the head. “Stop that. I worry about you, I just want to take care of you.” She said as she straightened his shoulders and double checked his hood, and then tweaked his nose for good measure.

    He swatted her playfully as Hope approached them.

   “Ready?”

   Pietro turned to Wanda anxiously, his gut was in knots, and he couldn't put his finger on why.

“Yeah, yeah, get in my hood, behind my neck. We’ll only be a few seconds, but I don’t want the wind sheer to rip you to shreds.”

  Hope nodded.  “I don’t want that either.”

As Hope shrunk Pietro looked over his shoulder and bit his lip. He’d tear the world apart for her. He wondered if that’s how proper Alphas and Omegas felt about their young… they hadn't exactly had a traditional family and having Magneto as an Alpha…

   He shook his head sharply when he felt Hope tap him on the shoulder in her much smaller form. “Yeah,  I'm ready.” He said as he turned on last time to check on her.

   She wasn't his entire world, that was sick talking, but the thought of her  getting hurt… he shook his head harshly before setting off in the direction of the catacombs.

******

    Rhodey dropped to the floor in a sweaty half exhausted heap. He was tired, he still wanted to tear every member of the Ten Rings to shreds, but getting to take an acetylene torch to the breeder and the table had been cathartic in a way he hadn't expected it to be. There was also an element of relief he had felt when the torch had easily cut through this metal of the breeder. It was stainless steel and not vibranium. Vibranium had to be cut with special lasers that belonged exclusively  to Wakanda. It wasn't much, but he knew it was something that would help T’Challa sleep at night.

    He turned his head to the side and looked at the heap of metal and wood beneath him and smiled. But it was quiet. He hadn't seen or heard from Lang since he shrunk the axe and then shrunk himself.

    “Lang? You out there man?” He called out weakly. He couldn't help but jump a little as Scott seemingly materialized next to him and grew to normal size. He would have yelled at him but Lang had his hand up to his ear and was talking to someone.

    “Yeah, honey, we’re almost done… breathless?” Scott took off his helmet and breathed in deeply. “Oh, it's nothing...Rhodes and I have just been bonding… and by bonding I mean dismantling the horror show that was in the catacombs… I'm being safe I swear.” He lower his voice and softened his tone. “I'm not going to do anything that puts my freedom in danger…” He reassured her softly. “Okay, love you, see you in a bit.”

    “You have Hope in your ear?” He asked softly,

    “Always do.”

    Rhodey couldn’t help but smile at that. He had no doubt whatsoever that Lang kept the Avengers comm in one ear and another separate comm in his other ear exclusively for Hope. For all his quirks and idiosyncrasies Lang’s devotion to Hope was a constant in Scott’s often chaotic life: she centered him, and they all appreciated that a great deal.

When he lowered his hand from his ear he let his body relax on the wood chips that had once been a table. “So, that was mildly exhausting.”

    Rhodes lifted his head and looked around. “Lang, nothing has been destroyed. What have our been doing for the last hour?”

    “Oh, about that…” he rummaged around his inner suit pocket and pulled something small out. “You should put these on.” He handed him a now normal sized pair of goggles. “And this.” He said as he handed him a cloth to put one over his own mouth. “Now, just lay back and…” as they both laid back down Scott put his helmet back on, then raised his leg up in the air and brought it down sharply in his heel.

   At first there was nothing happened, but then Rhodes glanced to the side and saw a plume of dust arising and then he saw all of the bookcases, everything that had been on the shelves, everything that had been kept on the walls turn into dust. It was like dominoes. But. So. Much. Better.
When the dust settled he was laughing so hard he was afraid he might have pulled something. He took off the mask and goggles, sat up, put his hand on Scott's shoulder and patted it.

“Did I do good?”

Rhodey stood up and held out a hand for Scott to take. “You did great.” He put his arm around his shoulder and turned around to look at the aftermath of their carnage. “I think we did quite well. Now, let's go get yelled at.”

Scott groaneddramatically as they approached the door way.

“That's the part I'm not really looking forward too.” He groaned.   

Rhodey patted his shoulder reassuringly. “I've got your back on this one,  Lang.”

Scott did a double take at that. “Wha-what do you mean by that?” He asked, trying to keep the optimism out of his voice.

  Rhodes smiled.  “This, Lang, I needed this. Fury can yell all he pleases, but this… this right here,” he made a sweeping motion with his free arm indicating the room. “This ensures that nothing survives. Even if someone were stupid enough to attempt to go through the rubble, this ensures that there will be nothing to find that can be salvaged.”

Scott nodded, seemingly proud of himself.

 “So, you got my back, Scott. That's one less thing to be worried about.” As they exited both men picked up their Avengers coms and inserted them back into their ears. Scott let Rhodes do the talking to Nat as they walked up to hallway. He stopped short when he saw an open door. ‘Shit, I left it open.’ He thought to himself as his heart lurched.

He hadn’t exactly been 100% honest when he said he’d been deconstructing the room for the last hour. He had been deconstructing, but Rhodes hadn't been specific about where or what.

One of the upsides of being Ant-man was that he could leave a room and no one really noticed. The room they had been in had only taken twenty minutes or so to destroy in such a manner that a stomp of his foot would obliterate it. Afterwards he had taken Antigoni to what he had decided had been their torture chamber. No, he knew it had been their de facto torture chamber. There was no other use for anything in that room. Everything in that room had been an implement of torture, rape, or humiliation.

So he had destroyed it, much the same way as he had the breeding room. The simple slam of the door would have demolished it… but he had apparently forgotten to slam the door behind him as he had been talking to Hope.    

He looked over his shoulder and while he could hear the intense conversation it his ear, he wanted to make sure that Rhodey had his back turned. With a wave of relief he saw that Rhodes did, in fact, have his back turned, so he jogged up the corridor and slammed the door shut. He winced at the rumble, crashing, thudding he could hear inside.  

  "What the hell was that?" Natasha snapped.

   He put his hand up to his ear to reply. "Nothing." He said, wincing when his voice went up an octave.

   Rhodes walked over to him with narrowed eyes. "Anything I need to know about?" He asked softly.

   "Nothing that you would want to know about, honestly.” He said with a wince.

    Rhodes raised an eyebrow and could practically feel his eye about to twitch. "No, Nat, we’re good here, just some last minute destruction before we head back up."

There was a long pause before she let out an exasperated sigh. "Get up here before Fury comes and gets you himself.”

~~~~~~~

    The looks of pure unadulterated awe and wonder on the faces of the pups as they entered the library was something that would keep him warm in the darkest of times for the next several decades.

It didn't hurt that the library was one of the largest private collections in the world.

The pups didn't speak for the longest time before Deus stepped forward and whispered, "God I missed books so much.”

“There are so many," Kamala whispered softly. Nova gave a chirp of excitement.

 "Where do we even start?" Riri asked softly. Miles was to awestruck for words as he looked at level upon level of books.

    T'Challa was guiding them down the stairs to the center of the library when he realized that Winter was not behind them. He turned around and saw that Winter was looking down at Peter and speaking softly. “What's wrong Petey?”

    “Too many.” He whispered softly, as he buried his face in Winter’s chest.

   "Too many books?" Peter nodded into his chest.

    "Can’t read 'em all.” He whispered softly.

    "We don't expect you to read them all, Petey." Winter intoned softly as he readjusted Petey on his hip to hold him closer.

    “B-but how am I ‘sposed to get smart as Bobba?” He asked softly. 

   T'Challa saw Tony go pale as he handed Gwennie to Ellen, but held up his hand. “May I?” He asked softly.

    Tony looked conflicted but nodded.

    T’Challa walked towards them approached them carefully. “Young Peter,  it is not possible to read all of these books.” Winter shot him a withering look that all but screamed 'not helping'.

    “I can’t?” He asked, his chin quivering.

  “No, because even I have not read them all.”

   Peter sniffled and rested his head against Winter’s shoulder. “Wh-why not?”

   T’Challa approached and held out his hands in a silent request for permission to hold the boy. Winter turned his head look at Tony who was at the  at the bottom stairs looking up at them with his hand over his mouth and eyes glistening with love and concern. He nodded, but his eyes never left his second youngest.

   T’Challa took Petey from Winter and put him on his hip. “Jarvis, could you bring up a schematic for the library?" 

   “Of course.” Jarvis said as a hologram of the library appeared before himself and Tony. “I see that you have rearranged your library since the last time we visited. My compliments to whomever it was that gave you this idea."

T’Challa couldn’t help but smile. “The idea came from a good friend.” He said,  knowing full well that it had been Jarvis himself that had suggested the new system. “First, please highlight the fiction from the nonfiction." The schematic lit up half blue and half pink. “See, some of books are works of fiction. They are for entertainment."

Petey nodded his eye alight with wonder. "Now, on top of that, highlight the languages. Make the English language books in yellow." The screen shifted and there were clear lines and entire squares for several languages. "Now highlight the duplicates."

As the highlights shifted he felt Petey lay his head on his shoulder and softly ask.  "Why is there so many duplicates?"

"Because some are in different languages, others have been revised,  and still others are quite old and must be preserved."

"Oh." Petey breathed softly.

"Now highlight the non-fiction books that are either no longer accurate or only partially accurate.”

By the time T'Challa was done the holograms were a rainbow of colors.

"See, you cannot possibly read all of the books, because even I cannot read them all. There are several in dead languages that must be translated first. There are some that are no longer accurate. And there are many that are duplicates. It's okay not to be able to read them all, young Peter. After all, books aren't the only way to learn.”

"But-but, I wanna know everything Bobba knows. Bobba know everything." Peter gushed.

In his peripheral vision he could see Tony’s face drain of what little color it had as he sagged against Winter’s chest. His heart lurched in his chest.  Tony knew and had experienced things that he never wanted any of his pups to know or experience. He could see Winter whispering into his ear and knew that he was doing his best to calm him down.

He kept his full attention on Peter though,  as he didn’t want to cause on upset. "You can never know everything that your Bobba knows because you won’t have the same experiences." Peter looked crestfallen and about to burst into tears. "But that doesn’t mean you can't know as much or even more than him."

Peter gasped dramatically, as though such a thing had never occurred to him that such a thing was possible. "Really?"

“Really." Came Tony's soft voice.

Peter gasped again,  wiggling around in T'challa’s arms reaching out for his Bobba with grabby hands. "Bobba, Bobba." He called out as Tony took him from T'challa, twirled him around and tickled his sides.

"There, all better." He all but cooed into Peter’s hair as he came to a stop. "Wanna read some books?”

"B-but where do we start?" Petey asked with wide eyes.

Tony seemed to hesitate before turning to the schematic. "J, could you highlight stuff by age?"

"Of course, sir." He chimed as other colors all faded and were replaced with a soft gradient rainbow that started in the center and unfurled out. "Books more suitable for younger audiences are in the lowest level,  with age appropriate material going further from there."

"We should start with the baby books for the babies--"Amadeus said as he walked towards the center of the library

Petey and Gwennie squacked that they weren't babies while Nova chirped that he was still a baby, he wanted them to read him the baby books… but it was all background noise for Tony.  His eyes were glued to T'challa; who had walked away from them when his back was turned.  He looked as though he were having an intense conversation with the doctor from the day before. (Had it really only been yesterday that he had met the doctor? It felt like a million years ago.)

The Doctor had envelopes in his hand, as well as a clipboard laden with papers, and a tablet. T'Challa was shaking his head and stroking his goatee. The doctor nodded,  handing him everything and said something that made T'Challa look up sharply before retorting something with just as much heat as what had been said to him. The doctor nodded before walking out and closing the door behind him.

"Hey," Winter said softly as he came up beside him. "Do you wanna go--"

"I'm going to read my kids their first kids book in freedom … if it's important…” He breathed shakily.

"If it's important then he can come and get you...ok?"

Tony nodded as he walked down the steps a little faster than normal. He approached the kids with a genuine smile on his face as the kids were following Deus around as he and Ellen were picking out books.

Ellen turned around and smiled warmly. "Oh good, you're here. It's only fitting that you get to read them their first story."

Tony swallowed hard against the lump in his throat as nodded and stepped forward. The pups parted like the red sea. Nova clambered into his lap, while Riri and Miles snuggled up close with Gwennie and Petey in their laps, nestling against his sides looking up with such love and adoration in their eyes.

Tony cleared his throat as Kamala shrunk down so that she was small enough to climb up Miles side and curl up on his shoulder and lean against his neck. Even Deus pulled up a chair behind the couch, Winter pulled one up too. He shrugged when Deus raised an eyebrow. "What? Don't judge me."

"Okay, so where do we start?" He asked, turning his head to Ellen.

"With a classic." She said as she handed him an over large book titled: Green Eggs and Ham.

"Wow, are all books this big nowadays?” He asked only half joking.

"I believe that the book is designed that way for schools so that at reading time all the children can see the pictures." Jarvis intoned.

"Ah,  makes sense… okay, here we go--"

------

Maria sat down at her station and tapped at the screen until it said it was attempting to contact Fury. Normally she would have just let this go… but this… this entire whatever was going on was getting weirder and weirder with each and every passing second, and she felt like she deserved some answers.

The Avengers were good people,  a little over zealous at times, but at the end of the day they were good people. They were heroes. Getting a little over zealous once in a while was to be expected from one of them every now and again…. But half of the team? All at once? That was not normal.

The screen blinked and Fury answered the call looking….frazzled and distracted.

"Agent Hill, you wished to speak?"

She blinked rapidly, clearing her throat. "Yessir. I… I just got done talking to the second team of the Avenger."

This made him sit up a little straighter. "Were they successful?"

"Yes, Thor was able to get actionable intel in regards or the location of the surviving members of the Ten Rings. Hope snooped around and found some dangerous characters, and Wanda immobilized the runners while Thor ‘lobbed’ them out to Hulk and Pietro secured them.”

“Good, good. How many were there?”

Maria winced at that. No one wanted to be the one to tell him the answer to that question. “They returned with a total of 18 captives.”

“EIGHTEEN?” He all but bellowed.

“Eighteen terrorists. Eight members of the Ten Rings, and ten terrorists, or wannabe terrorists. They weren’t officially members of an terrorist sect, but they were already terrorizing their families and neighbors.”

Fury seems deflate at that. “Hmph, better out of circulation before they even start.” He shook his head sharply. “And that was all of the Ten Rings?”

“Yessir, between Wanda and the Warlord, they managed to get them to admit that everyone else; including their leader were all wiped out. The only ones left were the three that went back start the clean-up; and Pietro already dropped them off.”

“Excellent. Take them back to the Helicarrier and have them processed… is there anything else I need to know about?”

She paused for a second.

“Agent Hill?”

“Well...  It's just… there was a minor altercation with the second team…”

“Define altercation.”

She sighed heavily. “We were dropping off Shuri and the Dora Milaje, and picking up the terrorists and I offered them a ride back to the-” She trailed off as Fury reared back sharply. “Oh boy.”

“Yeah, ‘oh boy’,” Fury muttered under his breath as passed his had over his head. “Look, Hill…” he pursed his lips and shoot his head. “I don't have permission to let you in on everything, but I promise you… I promise you when I do get to tell you what’s all happening… it will make sense… I promise you.” He looked as though he had aged a decade in front of her eyes.

“Okay, I understand.”

Fury shook his head. “No, Hill.  You don't, and I hope you never have too.” He said with a shake of his head.

He paused before adding.  “See to it that no one talks to the prisoners. Make sure they have access  to food, water and a bathroom.” He shook his head sharply, “but I don't want them talking to  anyone. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Good.” He shook his head again before asking. “Anything else?”

“No sir,  I'll relay your message to the crew. Also,” she winced a little. “I hope that whatever is happening … I hope it's over soon.”

Fury groaned.  “Me too.  Fury out.” He said as he ended the transmission abruptly.

Maria sat back feeling as though he had given her answers and more questions at the same time.

Someone cleared their throat behind her and she turned around and saw a couple of agents standing behind her looking anxious for their orders. “Oh, tell the guards to disregard anything they hear from the prisoners. Make sure they have access to food, water, and a bathroom.” She shook her head sharply. “And if they get to randy… .sedate em.”