Tony stared at the little message, his heart starting to pound. It was short--barely two sentences--but the words were swimming on the screen in front of him.
They're coming tonight. Be ready.
"Friday," Tony asked, his voice wavering, "who sent this message?"
"I can't track it, boss," Friday said. Tony swore, getting up rather aggressively and leaving his lab.
"Get everyone to come to the living room, Friday," he said, jogging to the elevator.
After only a few minutes, everyone was gathered in the living area, awkwardly watching as Tony paced back and forth. Morgan, still frail and very low-energy, was curled on the couch next to Pepper, a thick blanket wrapped around their shoulders. Although the color had returned to her skin and she had started smiling again, it still made Tony angry every time he saw her.
Someone had nearly killed his kid. And if that was what they had done to Morgan, who had no superpowers, it made him sick to imagine what shape Peter must be in.
"Tony," Natasha finally said, "why are we here? What happened?"
"Where's Clint and Sam?" Tony asked. "Everyone needs to be here."
"On their way back from a mission. They land in about an hour," Cap said.
"Fine, we'll just catch them up when they get here then," Tony said. "Friday?"
The message appeared on the television and Tony took a couple steps towards it. He pointed at the words and turned to face the team. "I just got this message a few minutes ago. It's untraceable."
Bruce frowned. "Who's 'they'?"
Tony heaved a sigh, tearing his hand through his already messy hair. "I don't know. But..." he said, pausing as he glanced at Morgan, "if I had to guess, 'they' is the people who have my kid."
Morgan's eyes widened with fear. "You think they're coming here?" she asked, her voice impossibly small. Pepper rubbed her shoulder reassuringly, pulling Morgan closer as Tony took a deep breath.
"I know we've been kind of taking it easy while you get better, but if that's what's happening Morgan, we need to know what we're up against." Tony said. "I remember you mentioned an electric man?"
After a long moment, Morgan nodded, her chin quivering. "He always wore a hood, so it was hard to see his face. He could make electricity with his hands, but usually he had to use some sort of conductor."
Tony glanced at Bruce, who pulled out a pad of paper and started jotting down notes. "Was there anyone else?"
"There was a man that I saw only once. He had these weird metal arm things coming out of his back."
Natasha's brow furrowed and she sat down next to Morgan. "Did you catch his name?"
"No," Morgan said. Nat sat back, clearly thinking very hard about something.
"Is that it?" Cap asked Morgan.
"Well, there was this one guy..." she started, a small smile appearing, "he was the first one I saw. I scratched his face so bad it left scars."
"That's my girl," Nat said, and Morgan giggled. However, in a matter of seconds her smile was wiped from her face. She turned to Tony with a panicked look.
"Dad, he--he told me that the time for heroes and billionaires is over. He was threatening you," she said quickly, her breathing fast and irregular as she looked at all the people gathered around the room, "all of you!"
"Hey, hun, calm down," Pepper said gently, placing a hand on Morgan's leg, "you're safe. We're all okay."
"No, you don't understand!" Morgan shouted, jumping up from the couch and backing away from Pepper. "They're planning something! We need to do something better than just sit around!" She spun around as Tony reached out and touched her shoulder.
"Morgan," he started.
"No," she said, her voice dangerously low, "don't 'Morgan' me. I'm not going to relax about this! You still haven't found my brother, and now I tell you there are people who want to kill you and you aren't taking me seriously!"
"We are taking you seriously," Rhodey said, stepping forward and crossing his arms, "but we have to be careful with how we deal with this. If these really are the people who have Peter, we need to use them to find out where he is, and we can do that more effectively if we take a step back and work out a plan."
"Like what?" Morgan challenged.
"Isn't Peter's webbing a good insulator for electricity?" Bruce jumped in, looking right at Tony. "If we do it right, we could take this electric man right off the playing field pretty quickly if we use some of the batches you synthesized."
Tony nodded, deep in thought. "Yeah, that would work. Do you think there's a way we could engineer a sort of web... grenade maybe? That could keep up from having to get up close with this guy." Bruce rubbed his chin, adding the idea to his notepad.
"What about the metal arms dude?" Rhodey asked.
Natasha lifted her chin, still deep in thought. "I think I might have an idea who he is. I'll do some digging, and if I'm right I know how we can deal with him."
"Was there anything weird about the man you attacked?" Tony asked Morgan.
"No," she said quietly, "he was always just a regular guy whenever he was around me."
"Still," Bruce told Tony, "we need to be prepared for anything. Normal people don't just go around kidnapping kids and threatening superheroes."
~~~
The rest of the day was spent with everyone working on some aspect of the plan or another. Tony and Pepper were working to ensure no one else would be in the building that night. Bruce was in his lab trying to engineer different types of gadgets, especially ones that could use Peter's webbing effectively. When Clint and Sam got back, they were briefed on the situation and quickly got to work helping Rhodey and Bucky identify and prepare for any possible entry and exit points.
Natasha, Steve, and Morgan were all in Tony's lab at the computer. Nat was digging through multiple encrypted files while Steve and Morgan watched, although the supersoldier was being much more patient with the whole process than the teen was.
"Found it!" Nat finally said, clicking on a file and bringing it up to the holoscreen so that they could all get a better look at it. "Dr. Otto Octavious, genius scientist, worked in nuclear physics and engineering. He was famous for the contraption he wore on his back that allowed him to safely interact with unstable and radioactive materials. Several years ago SHIELD had to do a cover-up on an accident that took place in his lab."
"SHIELD?" Steve asked, "Or Hydra pretending to be SHIELD?"
"What do you think?" Nat grumbled, scrolling through the countless files until she found a picture. She turned to Morgan. "Is this the same guy?"
Morgan's face said it all. She paled at the picture on screen and nodded, her eyes welling up with tears.
Not tears of fear. Tears of anger.
"That's him," she said in a low voice. Nat glanced at Steve, who quickly guided Morgan out of the room with a suggestion of taking a break and finding something to eat. They passed by Tony, who slipped into the lab as the door was shutting.
"Is Morgan okay?" he asked, debating on whether or not to run out of the lab and rescue his daughter from who-knows-what-it-was that was causing her distress.
"She's just upset because we figured out who one of the guys she mentioned earlier is." She swiped her fingers across the screen, sending all the data to Tony before saying, "I know how to stop him."
"Oh yeah? Enlighten me."
"Those arms he wears are controlled by a microchip in the back of his neck. They were fused to his spine in the lab accident, but I'm willing to bet you're able to cook something up that'll interfere with the chip's connection so that he can't control them anymore."
"Not if I want any sleep tonight."
"Oh please. You? Want sleep? Nice try, Stark."
Tony chuckled and sat down at his desk, instantly pulling up large amounts of data and gathering materials. "I'll see what I can do."
Natasha nodded and turned to leave, and as the door closed behind her Tony called out, "And bring coffee please!"
She smirked, entering the elevator.
She had no intentions of bringing that man coffee.
(AN: I know, I know, it's been a solid block of time since I last updated this story *cringes apologetically* and you probably don't want to hear my excuses but here they are anyway :D
1. It was finals week when I started writing this chapter, and so I prioritized studying over writing fanfiction ahaha. The good news is that all that studying paid off!
2. I moved back home, went to a funeral, got my wisdom teeth out, celebrated Christmas, and then proceeded to get a nasty cold before moving back to school. This all happened in a span of about three weeks, and due to being drugged up post-surgery or spending time with family for a lot of it I didn't have many opportunities to sit down and write.
3. For whatever reason, the upcoming scenes have not been cooperating. I've written and rewritten the action sequences countless times, trying to get them right, and it's been taking forever to get the story to flow the way I want it to. Fortunately, it looks like it's all coming together finally!
So there, my excuses for all the world to see! This chapter was originally super long. It was over 5000 words when I realized I wanted to change things up a bit, so now you get this one and then a long one next chapter! Hopefully I can get back into my groove and finish this story soon. Thanks for sticking with me, guys!)