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cap_ironman2010-12-25 09:43 am
cap_ironman_fe) wrote in cap_ironman2010-12-25 09:43 am
Happy Holidays, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brilligspoons!
A couple of our very keen participants submitted fics too large for one post, so will be multiple posts; I'll try and make the linking as clear as possible. Today's is a three-part extravaganza. I hope you're all having a lovely day!
Title: Engaging the Enemy
Author:tsukinofaerii
Beta:penumbren
Rating: PG-13
Universe: Marvel Adventures AU
Warnings: None.
Prompt: AU in which villain!Tony pulls Steve's metaphorical pigtails to get his attention!
Summary: Iron Man is one of the more persistent villains that the Ultimates face, with a special fondness for one Captain America. As Steve starts to findout more and more about him, the lines between hero and villain begin to blur. Sometimes, you don't have to be on the right side of the law to be in the right.
Word Count: ~23,000
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
"We keep running into each other like this. Maybe it's fate."
"Or maybe it's that you keep kidnapping me." Steve struggled against the ropes that held him trussed like a Thanksgiving turkey. They flexed like nylon, but were stronger than any restraints he'd ever been in. "You'll never get away with this! The Ultimates will stop you!"
"I kind of think I already did." Iron Man didn't look down at Steve as he tapped away at a computer. Alarm lights flashed red overhead, glaring off of his armor and fragmenting in the places where Steve had managed to dent it. Scientists lay collapsed at their stations, rendered unconscious by the vibrational frequency Iron Man had played over the speaker system. "In... oh, sixty four point three two seconds, give or take a nanosecond. Man, you'd think Fury would have updated his security systems by now. It's been three days. That's government agencies, for you. Always behind the gate."
"They'll rescue me!"
"Yeah, yeah, they always do. In the meantime, let's talk." Iron Man turned around and leaned his hip against the console. With the armor, it was hard to tell, but his body language seemed over-casual, as if he were trying too hard. "So, how'd you get into this whole superhero thing? I know you were a big hero back in World War Two—I was a huge fan as a kid, still have some collectibles in storage—but how'd Fury get you to be his lackey? You seem brighter than that."
"I'm not a lackey. I'm saving lives." Steve's muscles bunched and strained as he fought to get free, but the ropes didn't have any slack at all. "Look, is this really necessary?"
"Are you going to let me finish uploading this virus, or are you going to try and stop me?"
Was the man even real? "Of course I'm going to try and stop you."
"Then yes, absolutely necessary." He crossed his arms and looked Steve over, the blue lights in his eyeholes visibly scanning. "All tied up is a good look for you. I'd hate to let it end. Do you work out?"
While Steve sputtered and blushed, the computer behind Iron Man let out a happy beep. Upload complete flashed over its screen, above a smiley face with jagged teeth. He turned, looking it over. "Well, Cap, now you've officially lost. Files corrupted. Irreparable. Destroyed. Obliterated. How about that?"
"You'll never get away with it!"
"You already said that," Iron Man reminded him, running his foot along Steve's hip. He stepped over Steve's legs to kneel over his thighs. "Try something different. Come on, be creative."
Embarrassed annoyance wasn't the usual emotion Steve felt when dealing with bad guys, but Iron Man made it almost normal. Besides, the way Iron Man looked at him, as expectantly as a faceplate could, was kind of cute. "Fine. What are you going to do, now that you've caught me?" He held up his bound hands pleadingly. "Some sort of torture? Wicked experiments?"
This close, Steve could make out blue eyes behind the glass eyeholes. "Well now," Iron Man said in an unmistakable tone, planting a hand on the edge of the console and leaning forward, "torture sounds like a good idea. I have this little cabin in the Philippines where we can—"
Intruder alert! Intruder alert!
"Damn it," Iron Man cursed. He leaned away, and Steve reminded himself that it was wrong to feel disappointed that he wasn't going to find out what they could do in the Philippines. "That's probably your friends come to rescue you."
"Again," Steve added helpfully, squirming into a slightly more dignified position.
"Again. For the fifth time," Iron Man agreed. A metal finger touched Steve's lips before he could correct him. "The first time doesn't count. I didn't realize you were trapped in that crate."
Steve tilted his head back. "A lot of comfort that was, when you dumped it in the bay," he groused, rolling his eyes. Hard linoleum dug into his hips, and his tailbone ached. Something sharp pressed into his nether regions. He shifted, trying to avoid being prodded. "Are you going to run away yet? This is uncomfortable."
"Not yet." Surprisingly warm metal touched Steve's forehead as Iron Man covered his eyes. A hinge squeaked dimly, and then his mouth was covered with someone else's. There was the scratch of facial hair of some sort and, faintly, the taste of breath mints.
He planned this, Steve realized, even as he kissed back. No tongue, which disappointed him a little, but it was only their fifth intentional abduction, after all.
"Get away from him!" Jan's voice yelled over the intruder alarm. "Again! And we mean it this time!"
"Are they kissing?" Spider-Man asked overhead, sounding offended. "I thought we all got the 'No Fraternizing with the Supervillains' speech. If it was only me, I'm making a report to HR."
Iron Man yanked away and slammed down his faceplate just before Steve opened his eyes. He backed away from the Ultimates, palms up and repulsors charged. They were arrayed in front of the exit, Thor and Hulk at the back as the last line of defense.
"You'll never catch me, already won, blah blah blah. See you next week." He slapped something on his hip, and a high-pitched squeal cut through the air. The heroes yelled and slapped their hands over their ears. In a second, Iron Man had blasted through the ceiling and took off.
As soon as he was gone, the noise vanished.
Luke climbed to his feet and helped Jan up, rubbing an ear with his free hand. Steve shook his head to try and clear his head.
"Storm's waiting outside," Luke explained tiredly, raising his voice over the ringing in all of their ears. He went over to the nearest downed scientist, checking for damage. "Man, you've got to find some other way to flirt. This is getting ridiculous."
"Verily, it doth appear that the Iron Avenger hath a crush upon thee, good Captain," Thor agreed, nodding sagely. "Perhaps if you were to give in to his blandishments, he could be swayed to the side of justice."
Steve gaped. "Did you just suggest I seduce a villain?"
"I think he suggested you let yourself be seduced," Spider-Man suggested. He dropped down from the ceiling, touching Steve's shoulder. "You were looking kind of cozy there when we came in. Lean forward so I can get you untied."
Thor looked away awkwardly, toying with the head of his hammer. "Many a foe has been felled not by the strength of arms, but by the tenderness of a lover's touch." His eyes lit on Luke, helping the fallen. "But lo, the vassals of our allies are in need of aid." Eagerly, he put Mjolnir on his hip and went to help.
Look, a distraction, Steve translated to himself sourly. "Iron Man kissed me," he insisted weakly. The argument fell flat, even to him. "I didn't want it. It was all him."
"Of course it was," Jan soothed. "You only kissed back because he started it. Completely against your will. Was there tongue?"
"No— hey!" The first knot came free, and Steve could roll his shoulders. Spider-Man hesitated, as if thinking about leaving him restrained, but went back to work when Steve glared. "It wasn't like that!"
The floor creaked as Hulk dropped into a sitting position, legs stretched out in front of him. Of all of them, he was still rubbing his ears with a pitiful expression. "Hulk's ears hurt."
"Oh, come here." Jan grew until she could lean over Hulk's big green frame. Her hands cupped the side of his head, rubbing gently. "Is that better?"
"Big girl have nice hands," Hulk rumbled, closing his eyes.
The ropes finally dropped away and Steve rubbed his neck, easing some of the stiffness that came from being tied up for any length of time. When he moved, something metallic skittered across the floor under his hip. He reached down and picked it up. It was a finger-sized piece of dark red scrap metal and a half-melted circuit board. Turning it over in his fingers, he could make out an etched mark on the board: a swoosh with wings over the initials SE. This must be from his armor.
Shrugging, he slipped it into his pocket. Maybe it would be useful, but probably not. Iron Man was good about not leaving behind clues.
Winds swirled as Storm dropped through the hole in the roof. "He escaped," she reported. "His armor is now immune to my lightning, and I cannot risk the winds it would take to knock him from the clouds."
"Of course," Steve sighed, letting Spider-Man help him to his feet. "How are the scientists?"
"Doesn't look like there're any real injuries," Luke answered. He and Thor were laying the unconscious people out in a row, using their lab coats as makeshift pillows. "A couple of bruises where they fell and one nasty scrape, but they're all responsive."
"I took the liberty of calling paramedics as soon as I was certain Iron Man was routed," Storm added, bending down to check on a particularly young man. "Pleasant, how he is always careful to leave no casualties. A welcome change from the Wrecking Crew."
"Indeed." One of Thor's big hands smoothed down the hair of an elderly woman before he straightened. "He is a man of honor, and a worthy foe. Or perhaps..." He caught Steve's glare and abruptly ended the sentence, whistling innocently.
Sirens became audible through the hole in the ceiling. Paramedics had arrived. Keeping an eye on Thor, in case he decided to offer up any more advice, Steve said, "It looks like our part here is over. Let's head back to SHIELD and make our reports."
"Urrrgh," Spider-Man and Giant Girl groaned, shrinking back down to her usual size. "I hate writing up reports," Giant Girl added, wrinkling her nose. "We're not even SHIELD agents, why does Fury make us do all that paperwork?"
"That's what the Army runs on. Paperwork and elbow grease." Secretly, Steve agreed. He hadn't liked filling out forms when he'd been in the war, and it hadn't changed just because the era had. But as the team leader, he had to set an example.
Hulk lumbered to his feet. "Hulk no do paper. Make Banner write for Hulk."
Paramedics started filtering in around him. City services were so used to working with the Ultimates that they weren't even nervous any more. One of them even patted Hulk's shoulder and held out one of the pink Barbie bandages he'd come to like. She got a big smile as he leaned down to let her put it on his untouched cheek.
That was one of the many things SHIELD did well for them—civilian relations. They were welcomed everywhere they went, even Hulk, who'd been considered little better than a monster before he'd joined the Ultimates. Steve didn't always like working with SHIELD, but they paid a salary and handled the business end of things. It was better than having no team at all.
Even if SHIELD did require truckloads of paperwork.
The Ultimates left the paramedics to do their jobs, trooping out through the main entrance into the bitter cold. Reporters had gathered, the way they always did, ignoring the weather. They, next to the reports, were the part Steve liked about the job the least.
"Captain America!" a woman with a New York Times badge on yelled. "Can you confirm that it was Iron Man who attacked today? What did he want?"
A skinny dark haired man with a CNN microphone shoved forward out of the crowd. "Cap! Cap! Is it true that Iron Man took you hostage again?"
"Storm! What are you thoughts on what happened today?" A trendily made-out woman asked from the back, bouncing up and down on four-inch heels. "What's it like for you and Giant Girl, being women on a mostly male team? Do you think the Ultimates will become more balanced?"
Packing tightly together, the team followed close behind Hulk, letting him break a path for them through the civilians. No one tried to stand in Hulk's way, and by now they'd learned that nine times out of ten, no one would say a peep. It was that one out of ten that caused trouble.
An oversized black van with the SHIELD eagle on the side waited for them in the street, ready to take them to HQ. Steve let the others climb in first, then took the position as the rear guard. With Hulk, Luke, Thor and himself, there wasn't enough room for decent seats, so it would be a bumpy ride. Maybe it wasn't luxury, but they hadn't signed up for the glamor.
Every pothole and bump in the road made that harder and harder to remember.
Tony touched down in the control room of the Iron Fortress while the skylight entrance closed overhead. He sighed and took off his helmet, examining the chips and dings Captain America had put in his armor. Most of it was cosmetic, but it would take at least a day to repair. Humming cheerily, he started to remove the rest of the armor, piece by piece.
He'd done it. He'd kissed Captain America. That had to earn some villain points. The Mandarin had never kissed a hero that Tony had heard of, and he was pretty sure he would have.
Even better, Cap had kissed back.
While he was bent over working on a boot, the door hissed open. Lethally high heels clicked on metal plate flooring.
"What do you think you're doing?" Pepper demanded. Tony glanced up as she stormed down the main walkway in a smart black business suit. "Do you have any idea how risky that stunt was?"
"Which stunt would that be?" The edge of the ankle plate had bent. Tony frowned down at it. Prying it loose was the only way, and that would probably break the whole joint in the process. After a second of frowning he shook his head and grinned again.
He'd kissed Captain America. He was never going to stop smiling.
"Captain America! Again! It's all over the news!" Pepper lifted her palm computer, which was currently showing CNN footage of the aftermath. "You weren't even supposed to hit the New York installation yet! What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that I happened to be flying by, and Cap was there and looking all shiny and blue," Tony replied absently as he reached for a flathead screwdriver to lever the ankle plate off. He wedged it under the bent piece of metal, working it back and forth. The urge to whistle came over him; he suppressed it. Pepper would kill him, and then he'd never get to see Cap again. "It doesn't really matter what order I hit them in anyway. The plan goes on. I could flip a coin every week and it wouldn't change anything." The armor groaned as he used leverage against it. "Besides, it's good villainous cred."
"Villainous..." Pepper's exquisitely clad toe tapped, a sure sign that her patience was wearing thin. "You seem awfully happy. What happened?"
"Nothing happened. Successful mission."
"Uh-huh." Pepper crossed her arms. "And this successful mission wouldn't have anything to do with you going five hundred miles out of your way to see a certain hero, would it?"
"I don't have any idea what you're talking about." The metal bent, slowly working its way free. Since whistling was out, he started humming tunelessly.
"I don't—" Huffing, Pepper grabbed her hair bun and yanked violently in frustration. "You'd better know what you're doing, Tony. We don't have time for this sort of thing. You have a mountain of paperwork to file—and don't think I haven't noticed that you're signing it Mr. Tony Stark-Rogers."
"Don't worry, Pepper. I've got it all covered." The plate popped off, providing instant relief to Tony's ankle. He picked it up and turned it over, checking for signs that the damage was from anything unusual, then chucked it into a scrap bin behind him. "Next week we'll do a two-pronged approach. I'll create a distraction, and Rhodey can get the real stuff up in Maine."
"If you can get Rhodey to talk to you, after you snatched him up from Edgars," Pepper reminded him. "Not everyone likes being kidnapped, Tony."
"Hey, he's my best friend. I thought he'd be up for it." The last of the armor came off with a sense of regret mixed with relief. He set it up on one of the stands, arranging it so that the light bounced off the faceplate and made it look sinister. He stepped back and examined his work critically. "Do you think I should add horns to this? Maybe some sort of evil-looking symbolism?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Do you remember the cape fiasco?" One of Pepper's perfectly plucked eyebrows lifted. "When people mistook you for Doom?"
Much as he hated to admit it, Pepper had a point. "Fine. We'll stick with crimson and antique gold for now." Frowning, Tony look one last look over his armor. There had to be something that could be done to it to announce here is a villain. Nothing really presented itself—most of the good gimmicks were already taken. He turned around, smiling for Pepper in as annoyingly perky a fashion as he could manage. "So, did you just come to yell at me, or is something up?"
Her lips pressed together, but Pepper typed a few keys on her computer and turned it around. Official-looking forms filled the screen, with the SHIELD logo at the top. "Fury is catching on to the Cayman Islands project. I've already arranged for our assets to start being funneled through the Swiss account until we find a new dummy corporation, but they aren't secure since the Swiss banks started reporting to US authorities."
Tony took the computer and scrolled through the files. "Eventually, he'll figure out a way to shut down our access to the company resources."
"And we won't be able to keep the Fortress afloat on just the trust fund," Pepper confirmed.
It was a pretty pickle. SE was too big of a company to completely shut it down, and Tony had too many friends on Capitol Hill for Fury to ever get that sort of authorization, but financial matters were definitely their most vulnerable area. "Do we have any dummy corporations available and clean?"
"Three."
He nodded and handed her back the palm computer. "Make three more, and sell off ten percent of SE's assets to them. That will give us enough of a buffer if Fury finds the laundering links. What else have you got for me?"
"Happy's back from that delivery run you sent him on. He says that the autopilot is a little finicky. We drifted a too far north last night. It either needs to be adjusted or we need more people to watch things."
"I'll look into it."
"Right. I'll let him know." Pepper turned sharply and started to stride out.
Tony watched her appreciatively for a moment, then cleared his throat. "Hey, Pep, what happened to that uniform I gave you?"
She paused and slowly turned. "Do you mean the black leather corset with the sterling silver studs and matching miniskirt?"
"Yeah! I hear it's what all the minions are wearing these days."
"I sent them out to be altered. You're about a thirty-eight around the bust right?" Her lips curved in a sweet smile. "Is there anything else?"
Tony coughed and turned back to his armor, blushing. "Nope, I think that's it. Thanks, Pepper."
"You're welcome, Tony."
Steve stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around his hips and another one drying his hair. Steam escaped through the door, keeping his back warm in the slightly chill air. His small, SHIELD-provided room at least had an endless supply of hot water, a luxury he took guilty pleasure in abusing. The room was more like a barrack than anything else, with only a calendar and his shield on the wall, and the bed was a twin that required him to curl up or let his feet hang, but the showers almost made up for it.
He smelled something wrong before he saw it, a light, sweet fragrance that filled the room. Peering out from under the towel, he glanced around, expecting to see Jan or Storm. Everything seemed normal until he looked over at the small desk in the corner and saw a vase full of red roses in front of the computer monitor. A cream card stuck up from between the blossoms, edged in gold, and a big gold ribbon had been tied around the neck of the vase.
Throwing his head towel over his shoulder, Steve picked up the card. No signature, but the inside had been stamped with an outline drawing of Iron Man's faceplate.
Immediately he dropped the card and threw the damp towel over the roses, covering the blossoms completely. Steve picked up the vase carefully and backed slowly out of the room, holding it at arm's length. He left the door open behind him to air the room out while he was gone. SHIELD agents stared as he marched half-naked down to the chemical weapons labs. A couple of times his towel almost slipped, but he managed to catch it.
Stacy, the chemical weapons expert, looked up from her novel as Steve shoved the vase at her. A half-eaten sandwich sat on the desk in front of her, along with a salad—he'd interrupted her lunch. "I found these in my room. Test them."
She blinked at him in confusion, and slowly lifted the edge of the towel. After peeking under it for a second, she lowered it again. Her frizzy blond hair seemed to get frizzier as she stared at him. "Cap, these are roses."
Steve's jaw set. "Someone snuck them into my room while I showered."
"I can see that." Stacy gave him an appreciative once over. "But seriously. They're roses. What do you want me to test them for? Aphids?"
"For anything suspicious. Sleeping gas or—or poison darts. Spiders. Like in James Bond." Steve gave her his best sorrowful stare, the one Jan called his puppy expression.
"... Alright, then. James Bond. Just leave them here. I'll run a few checks, and if they're clean I'll send them back. Is that okay?" Stacy patted his hand and peeked back under the towel. "Who sent them to you? They're really gorgeous. Two dozen long-stems!"
His thoughts flashed back to the card that he'd dropped to the floor. A flush crawled up to his hairline. "Um. I don't know. There wasn't a card. Definitely not a villain."
She clicked her tongue and looked like she didn't believe him, but was kind enough not to press. "Whoever it is, they really like you. I'll check them for anything too stereotypically evil and have them back before dinner. It shouldn't take too long."
"Thanks, Stacy. You're a doll." Steve dropped a kiss on the top of her frizzy blonde head and left her there, along with the Suspicious Roses and his probably contaminated towel. SHIELD agents lined the corridor much more thickly on his way back, little knots comprised mostly of women standing around chatting. .
Maybe they were waiting for a training exercise.
When he returned to his room, the door had been closed. Steve stared at it, but none of the women standing around the hallway looked worried. And if trained SHIELD agents weren't concerned, it was probably nothing. Brushing it off, Steve let himself in.
Nick Fury sat with his feet propped up on the desk, holding the card. "Hello, Cap."
"AH!" Steve jumped, and jumped again when his towel started to slip. He grabbed for it, and shut the door behind him. "General Fury, what are you doing in here?"
"Heard a rumor that there's a good view in section three, thought I'd see what's up." Nick's single eye gleamed evilly as he held the little cream-colored card up between two fingers. "Exchanging love notes now?"
The blush that he had managed to get rid of on the walk back to his room returned in full force. "I already turned the flowers over for testing, sir. It could be innocent."
"Nothing Iron Man does is innocent." Fury played with the card, flipping it over in his fingers. Steve's fingers twitched. He wanted to march over and snatch the card, but respect for Fury's rank held him against the wall. "A little birdy told me what happened today over at the lab. I don't think you realize what you're dealing with here."
"What am I dealing with, sir?" Steve winced as soon as he finished speaking. Tones of voice like that had earned him extra duty back in the war.
Fury just raised an eyebrow. "That's classified. All you need to know is that Iron Man is a villain, Cap. A bad guy. Law breaker." He flicked the card in the air and caught it. "Maybe you think he's some fluffy bunny misunderstood kid, but he's a serious threat to national security. He's cost this country millions of dollars—"
"And zero lives."
Silence froze the air. They locked gazes.
"Alright," Fury said slowly, nodding. "I'll give you that. But that doesn't make him a good guy. He's dangerous, and no telling when he'll decide it's easier just to deal out casualties. I don't know if you think that armor is cute or something, but you've got to face facts. Iron Man is bad news."
"It's not like that!" Steve protested. "He kissed me! I was tied up!"
Fury's boots slammed down on the floor. "He kissed you?"
Uh-oh. "You... didn't know that?"
"I heard something... Edited, apparently." The card dropped from Fury's fingers as he stood, crossing his arms. Even though he was a couple of inches shorter than Steve, it didn't make any difference. He radiated the sort of authority that made Steve instinctively want to salute. "And did you kiss back?"
Honesty warred with embarrassed outage, and lost. Steve lifted his chin. "I don't think that's any of your business, sir."
"You think, huh?"
"Yes, sir." Steve took a deep breath and crossed his arms back. He wasn't a soldier any more—he was a civilian contractor, and Fury didn't have any right to make demands of him. "I can conduct myself in a professional manner, no matter what happens between myself and Iron Man. That's all you need to know."
It didn't seem like Fury would respond to that. He just stared, as if his single good eye could develop a laser and slice Steve in two. Then he took a step. And then another, each one slow and precise, until he was in Steve's face.
"That had better be the case, Rogers," Fury growled, "or you're going to be off the team. Finding you in that ice was a stroke of luck, but I don't need your bullshit mucking up my operation. Iron Man is a menace. You keep that in mind, or else. Got it?"
Steve's jaw clenched. "Yes, sir."
The tableau held for another moment before Fury side-stepped and opened the door. It closed behind him with the smallest of clicks that said it had very nearly been slammed. Steve looked at it for a minute, in case Fury came back. When it became obvious that they were done, he stepped over to the desk and bent down to pick up Iron Man's card. Dirty tread marks had been smeared across the back, but the front was still clean. He dusted it off, turning it over in his fingers. The gold-etched faceplate glinted as he turned it.
Iron Man is a menace, huh?
Moving slowly but determinedly, he reached over to his corkboard and selected a red tack, pinning the card directly in the center of the board. Then he went to get dressed. He had a report to write, and then a little bit of research.
Luckily, the report barely took any time to write. Steve had been kidnapped by Iron Man so many times that he had a formula down for it: method of capture plus method of binding plus what Iron Man did while Steve was incapacitated plus length of time captured plus method of rescue equals a passable report. Fury would give him hell for basically cutting and pasting the details in, but it wasn't like it mattered anyway. Steve had been in the Army long enough to learn to recognize busy work.
After Steve finished the report, he opened up a line to the SHIELD databases and typed in a search: Iron Man.
It turned out that classified or not, the internet had plenty of publicly available information on him and his targets. Steve's access let him glean enough to verify what he already knew: Iron Man concerned himself mostly with technical installations and government laboratories. He had never harmed a civilian, and only did minimal damage to SHIELD agents when attacked first.
Steve scrolled down the documents, clicking through what he could find that wasn't blocked. Iron Man had first shown up a year before Steve had been found in the Arctic. He'd seemed to be a hero in the making—terrorists had been one of his usual targets, along with other villains and, once, another man in a technological suit. The media had adored him. Easily a dozen news articles starting with some version of Iron Man Saves the Day popped up in the earliest months. Then there was a lapse in time where Iron Man had been inactive.
After a month of nothing, he'd attacked SHIELD for the first time and files started appearing under classified locks. Some news anchors speculated that someone had stolen the armor, while others thought Iron Man had been bad from the start. Some started calling him Iron Avenger, but the old name seemed more popular. Fury had given a few sound bites about how SHIELD was "dealing with the problem". None of Iron Man's attacks failed; his targets seemed randomized, and he always went in to destroy, never to steal or take hostages.
Six months later, Steve had been found in the ice, and the Ultimates had been formed.
Steve stopped reading there. He knew how things went after that. Iron Man's success ratio had gone down to fifty percent, with the Ultimates foiling him just enough to justify their expenses. But that was it. Stalemate.
Thoughtfully, he scrolled back down to the locked files, opening them up to stare at the password prompt. It was a simple system, probably designed by someone in-house. The cursor blinked at him, waiting for input. After a moment of thought, Steve started typing.
Ten minutes later, he was in.
Classified documents unfolded before him, tucked away in file trees ten or more deep. Steve patiently waded through them. Most of them were speculation or crosslinks of possible connections to Iron Man. Those he skipped—they were probably just someone else's version of busy work. But some of them were direct reports on damage done by Iron Man, written up by people with stars on their chest.
The same reference kept being repeated: Stark Enterprises. Whoever Iron Man was, or whoever he worked for, had a serious grudge against the company. Every attack he'd committed in the first six months had been on laboratories working with patents purchased from Stark Enterprises. It showed up in report after report, going back to Iron Man's first hit, which had been against a private company that had been modifying some of Stark Enterprises old missile specs for modern use. Even after he spread out and had started with less specific villainy, Stark Enterprises was still his target 75% of the time.
Steve stared at the screen and thought about the electronics work in the lab Iron Man had attacked earlier that day.
Thoughtfully, he opened a new search.
An hour later, someone knocked on his door. Steve paused reading just long enough to shout for them to come in. He had a dozen tabs open, cross references in major newspapers and SHIELD intelligence, and a text document open with his notes. He was typing in a new one when Jan draped herself over his shoulder.
"What are you reading? News?" she asked brightly. "Or something about your new boyfriend?"
"It's not news and Iron Man isn't my boyfriend," Steve replied absently as he bookmarked an article. She backed up as he swiveled around in his chair. "Maybe you can help me with something. What do you know about Anthony Stark and Stark Enterprises?"
Jan stepped back and leaned against the wall. She'd changed out of her costume, into a flashy, bright yellow and black dress that showed way too much leg for Steve's approval, and fit tight enough that he didn't want to think about the things he could see. "Well, I know they made my cell phone."
"Your cell phone?"
"Yeah, sure. Here." Squirming, Jan reached into her hip pocket and pulled out a slim little device about the size of a deck of cards. She unfolded it to something the size of a paperback and flashed the screen at him. "Large screen, full keyboard, and you can download music by satellite. It's amazing."
Steve glanced back at his notes, then over to Jan's phone. He had to admit, it looked futuristic, unlike everything else. When he'd first gotten out of the ice and heard what year he was in, he'd expected to see jetpacks in the street. Instead, he'd gotten TiVo. He still hadn't really gotten over the disappointment. "I thought they made weapons."
"Oh, they used to." With a couple of flicks of her wrist, Jan folded the phone up and stuck it back in her pocket. "About two years ago, they started getting into the electronics business. It was a pretty huge thing. Everyone was sure that their stock would tank and they'd never recover. Sure proved 'em wrong. StarkTech is the hottest thing out there now."
Why would a successful weapons company start making cell phones? Still, it corroborated what the internet said. "Any idea why?"
Jan shrugged and leaned back on his bed. "The head of the company was caught up in some sort of terrorist plot. It was all kind of hush-hush, but word is that he'd been taken hostage. When he got back to the states, the weapons end shut down and the electronics started up."
"That's Anthony Stark, right?"
"That's him." Her eyes narrowed as she looked him over. "You're asking an awful lot of questions about this. Is something up? Ultimates business?" A smile spread over her lips. "Or Iron Man?"
The computer screen became the most amazing thing in the world to him. "I don't think so. Just following up on some research I'm doing." Steve made a show of clicking through his links to buy time to stop blushing before he turned back to her. "So. Stark?"
Jan stretched out her legs and cocked a hip, investigating her fingernails. "Haven't heard from him in a while, actually. He used to be all over the tabloids, dating super models and stuff. After he got back from wherever, he sort of dropped off the face of the Earth. Can't really blame him."
"Really?"
Steve's surprised tone made Jan look up sharply. "Why?" she asked. "What do you know?"
In response, he pulled up one of the classified files that he'd found and angled the computer monitor towards her. The title was simple, and unmistakable: Anthony Stark Missing. "Do you mean no one's filed a missing persons report?"
She leaned farther over his shoulder, pressing her cheek to his ear as she read. "Missing since... no sign of struggle... No, I hadn't heard anything about it. The papers just said that he'd gone to ground to recover!" Nails dug into his shoulders as Jan moved his chair out of her way so she could control the computer. "Why didn't the papers report this? This is huge!"
"I think it's connected to Iron Man," Steve admitted, and her eyes lit up. "He went missing just when Iron Man started attacking SHIELD facilities. It can't be a coincidence."
The brightness that had appeared when Steve mentioned Iron Man vanished. Pink lipstick smeared the front of her teeth as Jan chewed her lip. "Do you think Iron Man did something?"
Steve glanced back to the monitor, and shook his head. He didn't want to think that, but Iron Man was a villain. It might have been the only thing Fury was right about. "I don't know."
Next
Title: Engaging the Enemy
Author:
tsukinofaeriiBeta:
penumbrenRating: PG-13
Universe: Marvel Adventures AU
Warnings: None.
Prompt: AU in which villain!Tony pulls Steve's metaphorical pigtails to get his attention!
Summary: Iron Man is one of the more persistent villains that the Ultimates face, with a special fondness for one Captain America. As Steve starts to findout more and more about him, the lines between hero and villain begin to blur. Sometimes, you don't have to be on the right side of the law to be in the right.
Word Count: ~23,000
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
"We keep running into each other like this. Maybe it's fate."
"Or maybe it's that you keep kidnapping me." Steve struggled against the ropes that held him trussed like a Thanksgiving turkey. They flexed like nylon, but were stronger than any restraints he'd ever been in. "You'll never get away with this! The Ultimates will stop you!"
"I kind of think I already did." Iron Man didn't look down at Steve as he tapped away at a computer. Alarm lights flashed red overhead, glaring off of his armor and fragmenting in the places where Steve had managed to dent it. Scientists lay collapsed at their stations, rendered unconscious by the vibrational frequency Iron Man had played over the speaker system. "In... oh, sixty four point three two seconds, give or take a nanosecond. Man, you'd think Fury would have updated his security systems by now. It's been three days. That's government agencies, for you. Always behind the gate."
"They'll rescue me!"
"Yeah, yeah, they always do. In the meantime, let's talk." Iron Man turned around and leaned his hip against the console. With the armor, it was hard to tell, but his body language seemed over-casual, as if he were trying too hard. "So, how'd you get into this whole superhero thing? I know you were a big hero back in World War Two—I was a huge fan as a kid, still have some collectibles in storage—but how'd Fury get you to be his lackey? You seem brighter than that."
"I'm not a lackey. I'm saving lives." Steve's muscles bunched and strained as he fought to get free, but the ropes didn't have any slack at all. "Look, is this really necessary?"
"Are you going to let me finish uploading this virus, or are you going to try and stop me?"
Was the man even real? "Of course I'm going to try and stop you."
"Then yes, absolutely necessary." He crossed his arms and looked Steve over, the blue lights in his eyeholes visibly scanning. "All tied up is a good look for you. I'd hate to let it end. Do you work out?"
While Steve sputtered and blushed, the computer behind Iron Man let out a happy beep. Upload complete flashed over its screen, above a smiley face with jagged teeth. He turned, looking it over. "Well, Cap, now you've officially lost. Files corrupted. Irreparable. Destroyed. Obliterated. How about that?"
"You'll never get away with it!"
"You already said that," Iron Man reminded him, running his foot along Steve's hip. He stepped over Steve's legs to kneel over his thighs. "Try something different. Come on, be creative."
Embarrassed annoyance wasn't the usual emotion Steve felt when dealing with bad guys, but Iron Man made it almost normal. Besides, the way Iron Man looked at him, as expectantly as a faceplate could, was kind of cute. "Fine. What are you going to do, now that you've caught me?" He held up his bound hands pleadingly. "Some sort of torture? Wicked experiments?"
This close, Steve could make out blue eyes behind the glass eyeholes. "Well now," Iron Man said in an unmistakable tone, planting a hand on the edge of the console and leaning forward, "torture sounds like a good idea. I have this little cabin in the Philippines where we can—"
Intruder alert! Intruder alert!
"Damn it," Iron Man cursed. He leaned away, and Steve reminded himself that it was wrong to feel disappointed that he wasn't going to find out what they could do in the Philippines. "That's probably your friends come to rescue you."
"Again," Steve added helpfully, squirming into a slightly more dignified position.
"Again. For the fifth time," Iron Man agreed. A metal finger touched Steve's lips before he could correct him. "The first time doesn't count. I didn't realize you were trapped in that crate."
Steve tilted his head back. "A lot of comfort that was, when you dumped it in the bay," he groused, rolling his eyes. Hard linoleum dug into his hips, and his tailbone ached. Something sharp pressed into his nether regions. He shifted, trying to avoid being prodded. "Are you going to run away yet? This is uncomfortable."
"Not yet." Surprisingly warm metal touched Steve's forehead as Iron Man covered his eyes. A hinge squeaked dimly, and then his mouth was covered with someone else's. There was the scratch of facial hair of some sort and, faintly, the taste of breath mints.
He planned this, Steve realized, even as he kissed back. No tongue, which disappointed him a little, but it was only their fifth intentional abduction, after all.
"Get away from him!" Jan's voice yelled over the intruder alarm. "Again! And we mean it this time!"
"Are they kissing?" Spider-Man asked overhead, sounding offended. "I thought we all got the 'No Fraternizing with the Supervillains' speech. If it was only me, I'm making a report to HR."
Iron Man yanked away and slammed down his faceplate just before Steve opened his eyes. He backed away from the Ultimates, palms up and repulsors charged. They were arrayed in front of the exit, Thor and Hulk at the back as the last line of defense.
"You'll never catch me, already won, blah blah blah. See you next week." He slapped something on his hip, and a high-pitched squeal cut through the air. The heroes yelled and slapped their hands over their ears. In a second, Iron Man had blasted through the ceiling and took off.
As soon as he was gone, the noise vanished.
Luke climbed to his feet and helped Jan up, rubbing an ear with his free hand. Steve shook his head to try and clear his head.
"Storm's waiting outside," Luke explained tiredly, raising his voice over the ringing in all of their ears. He went over to the nearest downed scientist, checking for damage. "Man, you've got to find some other way to flirt. This is getting ridiculous."
"Verily, it doth appear that the Iron Avenger hath a crush upon thee, good Captain," Thor agreed, nodding sagely. "Perhaps if you were to give in to his blandishments, he could be swayed to the side of justice."
Steve gaped. "Did you just suggest I seduce a villain?"
"I think he suggested you let yourself be seduced," Spider-Man suggested. He dropped down from the ceiling, touching Steve's shoulder. "You were looking kind of cozy there when we came in. Lean forward so I can get you untied."
Thor looked away awkwardly, toying with the head of his hammer. "Many a foe has been felled not by the strength of arms, but by the tenderness of a lover's touch." His eyes lit on Luke, helping the fallen. "But lo, the vassals of our allies are in need of aid." Eagerly, he put Mjolnir on his hip and went to help.
Look, a distraction, Steve translated to himself sourly. "Iron Man kissed me," he insisted weakly. The argument fell flat, even to him. "I didn't want it. It was all him."
"Of course it was," Jan soothed. "You only kissed back because he started it. Completely against your will. Was there tongue?"
"No— hey!" The first knot came free, and Steve could roll his shoulders. Spider-Man hesitated, as if thinking about leaving him restrained, but went back to work when Steve glared. "It wasn't like that!"
The floor creaked as Hulk dropped into a sitting position, legs stretched out in front of him. Of all of them, he was still rubbing his ears with a pitiful expression. "Hulk's ears hurt."
"Oh, come here." Jan grew until she could lean over Hulk's big green frame. Her hands cupped the side of his head, rubbing gently. "Is that better?"
"Big girl have nice hands," Hulk rumbled, closing his eyes.
The ropes finally dropped away and Steve rubbed his neck, easing some of the stiffness that came from being tied up for any length of time. When he moved, something metallic skittered across the floor under his hip. He reached down and picked it up. It was a finger-sized piece of dark red scrap metal and a half-melted circuit board. Turning it over in his fingers, he could make out an etched mark on the board: a swoosh with wings over the initials SE. This must be from his armor.
Shrugging, he slipped it into his pocket. Maybe it would be useful, but probably not. Iron Man was good about not leaving behind clues.
Winds swirled as Storm dropped through the hole in the roof. "He escaped," she reported. "His armor is now immune to my lightning, and I cannot risk the winds it would take to knock him from the clouds."
"Of course," Steve sighed, letting Spider-Man help him to his feet. "How are the scientists?"
"Doesn't look like there're any real injuries," Luke answered. He and Thor were laying the unconscious people out in a row, using their lab coats as makeshift pillows. "A couple of bruises where they fell and one nasty scrape, but they're all responsive."
"I took the liberty of calling paramedics as soon as I was certain Iron Man was routed," Storm added, bending down to check on a particularly young man. "Pleasant, how he is always careful to leave no casualties. A welcome change from the Wrecking Crew."
"Indeed." One of Thor's big hands smoothed down the hair of an elderly woman before he straightened. "He is a man of honor, and a worthy foe. Or perhaps..." He caught Steve's glare and abruptly ended the sentence, whistling innocently.
Sirens became audible through the hole in the ceiling. Paramedics had arrived. Keeping an eye on Thor, in case he decided to offer up any more advice, Steve said, "It looks like our part here is over. Let's head back to SHIELD and make our reports."
"Urrrgh," Spider-Man and Giant Girl groaned, shrinking back down to her usual size. "I hate writing up reports," Giant Girl added, wrinkling her nose. "We're not even SHIELD agents, why does Fury make us do all that paperwork?"
"That's what the Army runs on. Paperwork and elbow grease." Secretly, Steve agreed. He hadn't liked filling out forms when he'd been in the war, and it hadn't changed just because the era had. But as the team leader, he had to set an example.
Hulk lumbered to his feet. "Hulk no do paper. Make Banner write for Hulk."
Paramedics started filtering in around him. City services were so used to working with the Ultimates that they weren't even nervous any more. One of them even patted Hulk's shoulder and held out one of the pink Barbie bandages he'd come to like. She got a big smile as he leaned down to let her put it on his untouched cheek.
That was one of the many things SHIELD did well for them—civilian relations. They were welcomed everywhere they went, even Hulk, who'd been considered little better than a monster before he'd joined the Ultimates. Steve didn't always like working with SHIELD, but they paid a salary and handled the business end of things. It was better than having no team at all.
Even if SHIELD did require truckloads of paperwork.
The Ultimates left the paramedics to do their jobs, trooping out through the main entrance into the bitter cold. Reporters had gathered, the way they always did, ignoring the weather. They, next to the reports, were the part Steve liked about the job the least.
"Captain America!" a woman with a New York Times badge on yelled. "Can you confirm that it was Iron Man who attacked today? What did he want?"
A skinny dark haired man with a CNN microphone shoved forward out of the crowd. "Cap! Cap! Is it true that Iron Man took you hostage again?"
"Storm! What are you thoughts on what happened today?" A trendily made-out woman asked from the back, bouncing up and down on four-inch heels. "What's it like for you and Giant Girl, being women on a mostly male team? Do you think the Ultimates will become more balanced?"
Packing tightly together, the team followed close behind Hulk, letting him break a path for them through the civilians. No one tried to stand in Hulk's way, and by now they'd learned that nine times out of ten, no one would say a peep. It was that one out of ten that caused trouble.
An oversized black van with the SHIELD eagle on the side waited for them in the street, ready to take them to HQ. Steve let the others climb in first, then took the position as the rear guard. With Hulk, Luke, Thor and himself, there wasn't enough room for decent seats, so it would be a bumpy ride. Maybe it wasn't luxury, but they hadn't signed up for the glamor.
Every pothole and bump in the road made that harder and harder to remember.
Tony touched down in the control room of the Iron Fortress while the skylight entrance closed overhead. He sighed and took off his helmet, examining the chips and dings Captain America had put in his armor. Most of it was cosmetic, but it would take at least a day to repair. Humming cheerily, he started to remove the rest of the armor, piece by piece.
He'd done it. He'd kissed Captain America. That had to earn some villain points. The Mandarin had never kissed a hero that Tony had heard of, and he was pretty sure he would have.
Even better, Cap had kissed back.
While he was bent over working on a boot, the door hissed open. Lethally high heels clicked on metal plate flooring.
"What do you think you're doing?" Pepper demanded. Tony glanced up as she stormed down the main walkway in a smart black business suit. "Do you have any idea how risky that stunt was?"
"Which stunt would that be?" The edge of the ankle plate had bent. Tony frowned down at it. Prying it loose was the only way, and that would probably break the whole joint in the process. After a second of frowning he shook his head and grinned again.
He'd kissed Captain America. He was never going to stop smiling.
"Captain America! Again! It's all over the news!" Pepper lifted her palm computer, which was currently showing CNN footage of the aftermath. "You weren't even supposed to hit the New York installation yet! What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that I happened to be flying by, and Cap was there and looking all shiny and blue," Tony replied absently as he reached for a flathead screwdriver to lever the ankle plate off. He wedged it under the bent piece of metal, working it back and forth. The urge to whistle came over him; he suppressed it. Pepper would kill him, and then he'd never get to see Cap again. "It doesn't really matter what order I hit them in anyway. The plan goes on. I could flip a coin every week and it wouldn't change anything." The armor groaned as he used leverage against it. "Besides, it's good villainous cred."
"Villainous..." Pepper's exquisitely clad toe tapped, a sure sign that her patience was wearing thin. "You seem awfully happy. What happened?"
"Nothing happened. Successful mission."
"Uh-huh." Pepper crossed her arms. "And this successful mission wouldn't have anything to do with you going five hundred miles out of your way to see a certain hero, would it?"
"I don't have any idea what you're talking about." The metal bent, slowly working its way free. Since whistling was out, he started humming tunelessly.
"I don't—" Huffing, Pepper grabbed her hair bun and yanked violently in frustration. "You'd better know what you're doing, Tony. We don't have time for this sort of thing. You have a mountain of paperwork to file—and don't think I haven't noticed that you're signing it Mr. Tony Stark-Rogers."
"Don't worry, Pepper. I've got it all covered." The plate popped off, providing instant relief to Tony's ankle. He picked it up and turned it over, checking for signs that the damage was from anything unusual, then chucked it into a scrap bin behind him. "Next week we'll do a two-pronged approach. I'll create a distraction, and Rhodey can get the real stuff up in Maine."
"If you can get Rhodey to talk to you, after you snatched him up from Edgars," Pepper reminded him. "Not everyone likes being kidnapped, Tony."
"Hey, he's my best friend. I thought he'd be up for it." The last of the armor came off with a sense of regret mixed with relief. He set it up on one of the stands, arranging it so that the light bounced off the faceplate and made it look sinister. He stepped back and examined his work critically. "Do you think I should add horns to this? Maybe some sort of evil-looking symbolism?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Do you remember the cape fiasco?" One of Pepper's perfectly plucked eyebrows lifted. "When people mistook you for Doom?"
Much as he hated to admit it, Pepper had a point. "Fine. We'll stick with crimson and antique gold for now." Frowning, Tony look one last look over his armor. There had to be something that could be done to it to announce here is a villain. Nothing really presented itself—most of the good gimmicks were already taken. He turned around, smiling for Pepper in as annoyingly perky a fashion as he could manage. "So, did you just come to yell at me, or is something up?"
Her lips pressed together, but Pepper typed a few keys on her computer and turned it around. Official-looking forms filled the screen, with the SHIELD logo at the top. "Fury is catching on to the Cayman Islands project. I've already arranged for our assets to start being funneled through the Swiss account until we find a new dummy corporation, but they aren't secure since the Swiss banks started reporting to US authorities."
Tony took the computer and scrolled through the files. "Eventually, he'll figure out a way to shut down our access to the company resources."
"And we won't be able to keep the Fortress afloat on just the trust fund," Pepper confirmed.
It was a pretty pickle. SE was too big of a company to completely shut it down, and Tony had too many friends on Capitol Hill for Fury to ever get that sort of authorization, but financial matters were definitely their most vulnerable area. "Do we have any dummy corporations available and clean?"
"Three."
He nodded and handed her back the palm computer. "Make three more, and sell off ten percent of SE's assets to them. That will give us enough of a buffer if Fury finds the laundering links. What else have you got for me?"
"Happy's back from that delivery run you sent him on. He says that the autopilot is a little finicky. We drifted a too far north last night. It either needs to be adjusted or we need more people to watch things."
"I'll look into it."
"Right. I'll let him know." Pepper turned sharply and started to stride out.
Tony watched her appreciatively for a moment, then cleared his throat. "Hey, Pep, what happened to that uniform I gave you?"
She paused and slowly turned. "Do you mean the black leather corset with the sterling silver studs and matching miniskirt?"
"Yeah! I hear it's what all the minions are wearing these days."
"I sent them out to be altered. You're about a thirty-eight around the bust right?" Her lips curved in a sweet smile. "Is there anything else?"
Tony coughed and turned back to his armor, blushing. "Nope, I think that's it. Thanks, Pepper."
"You're welcome, Tony."
Steve stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around his hips and another one drying his hair. Steam escaped through the door, keeping his back warm in the slightly chill air. His small, SHIELD-provided room at least had an endless supply of hot water, a luxury he took guilty pleasure in abusing. The room was more like a barrack than anything else, with only a calendar and his shield on the wall, and the bed was a twin that required him to curl up or let his feet hang, but the showers almost made up for it.
He smelled something wrong before he saw it, a light, sweet fragrance that filled the room. Peering out from under the towel, he glanced around, expecting to see Jan or Storm. Everything seemed normal until he looked over at the small desk in the corner and saw a vase full of red roses in front of the computer monitor. A cream card stuck up from between the blossoms, edged in gold, and a big gold ribbon had been tied around the neck of the vase.
Throwing his head towel over his shoulder, Steve picked up the card. No signature, but the inside had been stamped with an outline drawing of Iron Man's faceplate.
Immediately he dropped the card and threw the damp towel over the roses, covering the blossoms completely. Steve picked up the vase carefully and backed slowly out of the room, holding it at arm's length. He left the door open behind him to air the room out while he was gone. SHIELD agents stared as he marched half-naked down to the chemical weapons labs. A couple of times his towel almost slipped, but he managed to catch it.
Stacy, the chemical weapons expert, looked up from her novel as Steve shoved the vase at her. A half-eaten sandwich sat on the desk in front of her, along with a salad—he'd interrupted her lunch. "I found these in my room. Test them."
She blinked at him in confusion, and slowly lifted the edge of the towel. After peeking under it for a second, she lowered it again. Her frizzy blond hair seemed to get frizzier as she stared at him. "Cap, these are roses."
Steve's jaw set. "Someone snuck them into my room while I showered."
"I can see that." Stacy gave him an appreciative once over. "But seriously. They're roses. What do you want me to test them for? Aphids?"
"For anything suspicious. Sleeping gas or—or poison darts. Spiders. Like in James Bond." Steve gave her his best sorrowful stare, the one Jan called his puppy expression.
"... Alright, then. James Bond. Just leave them here. I'll run a few checks, and if they're clean I'll send them back. Is that okay?" Stacy patted his hand and peeked back under the towel. "Who sent them to you? They're really gorgeous. Two dozen long-stems!"
His thoughts flashed back to the card that he'd dropped to the floor. A flush crawled up to his hairline. "Um. I don't know. There wasn't a card. Definitely not a villain."
She clicked her tongue and looked like she didn't believe him, but was kind enough not to press. "Whoever it is, they really like you. I'll check them for anything too stereotypically evil and have them back before dinner. It shouldn't take too long."
"Thanks, Stacy. You're a doll." Steve dropped a kiss on the top of her frizzy blonde head and left her there, along with the Suspicious Roses and his probably contaminated towel. SHIELD agents lined the corridor much more thickly on his way back, little knots comprised mostly of women standing around chatting. .
Maybe they were waiting for a training exercise.
When he returned to his room, the door had been closed. Steve stared at it, but none of the women standing around the hallway looked worried. And if trained SHIELD agents weren't concerned, it was probably nothing. Brushing it off, Steve let himself in.
Nick Fury sat with his feet propped up on the desk, holding the card. "Hello, Cap."
"AH!" Steve jumped, and jumped again when his towel started to slip. He grabbed for it, and shut the door behind him. "General Fury, what are you doing in here?"
"Heard a rumor that there's a good view in section three, thought I'd see what's up." Nick's single eye gleamed evilly as he held the little cream-colored card up between two fingers. "Exchanging love notes now?"
The blush that he had managed to get rid of on the walk back to his room returned in full force. "I already turned the flowers over for testing, sir. It could be innocent."
"Nothing Iron Man does is innocent." Fury played with the card, flipping it over in his fingers. Steve's fingers twitched. He wanted to march over and snatch the card, but respect for Fury's rank held him against the wall. "A little birdy told me what happened today over at the lab. I don't think you realize what you're dealing with here."
"What am I dealing with, sir?" Steve winced as soon as he finished speaking. Tones of voice like that had earned him extra duty back in the war.
Fury just raised an eyebrow. "That's classified. All you need to know is that Iron Man is a villain, Cap. A bad guy. Law breaker." He flicked the card in the air and caught it. "Maybe you think he's some fluffy bunny misunderstood kid, but he's a serious threat to national security. He's cost this country millions of dollars—"
"And zero lives."
Silence froze the air. They locked gazes.
"Alright," Fury said slowly, nodding. "I'll give you that. But that doesn't make him a good guy. He's dangerous, and no telling when he'll decide it's easier just to deal out casualties. I don't know if you think that armor is cute or something, but you've got to face facts. Iron Man is bad news."
"It's not like that!" Steve protested. "He kissed me! I was tied up!"
Fury's boots slammed down on the floor. "He kissed you?"
Uh-oh. "You... didn't know that?"
"I heard something... Edited, apparently." The card dropped from Fury's fingers as he stood, crossing his arms. Even though he was a couple of inches shorter than Steve, it didn't make any difference. He radiated the sort of authority that made Steve instinctively want to salute. "And did you kiss back?"
Honesty warred with embarrassed outage, and lost. Steve lifted his chin. "I don't think that's any of your business, sir."
"You think, huh?"
"Yes, sir." Steve took a deep breath and crossed his arms back. He wasn't a soldier any more—he was a civilian contractor, and Fury didn't have any right to make demands of him. "I can conduct myself in a professional manner, no matter what happens between myself and Iron Man. That's all you need to know."
It didn't seem like Fury would respond to that. He just stared, as if his single good eye could develop a laser and slice Steve in two. Then he took a step. And then another, each one slow and precise, until he was in Steve's face.
"That had better be the case, Rogers," Fury growled, "or you're going to be off the team. Finding you in that ice was a stroke of luck, but I don't need your bullshit mucking up my operation. Iron Man is a menace. You keep that in mind, or else. Got it?"
Steve's jaw clenched. "Yes, sir."
The tableau held for another moment before Fury side-stepped and opened the door. It closed behind him with the smallest of clicks that said it had very nearly been slammed. Steve looked at it for a minute, in case Fury came back. When it became obvious that they were done, he stepped over to the desk and bent down to pick up Iron Man's card. Dirty tread marks had been smeared across the back, but the front was still clean. He dusted it off, turning it over in his fingers. The gold-etched faceplate glinted as he turned it.
Iron Man is a menace, huh?
Moving slowly but determinedly, he reached over to his corkboard and selected a red tack, pinning the card directly in the center of the board. Then he went to get dressed. He had a report to write, and then a little bit of research.
Luckily, the report barely took any time to write. Steve had been kidnapped by Iron Man so many times that he had a formula down for it: method of capture plus method of binding plus what Iron Man did while Steve was incapacitated plus length of time captured plus method of rescue equals a passable report. Fury would give him hell for basically cutting and pasting the details in, but it wasn't like it mattered anyway. Steve had been in the Army long enough to learn to recognize busy work.
After Steve finished the report, he opened up a line to the SHIELD databases and typed in a search: Iron Man.
It turned out that classified or not, the internet had plenty of publicly available information on him and his targets. Steve's access let him glean enough to verify what he already knew: Iron Man concerned himself mostly with technical installations and government laboratories. He had never harmed a civilian, and only did minimal damage to SHIELD agents when attacked first.
Steve scrolled down the documents, clicking through what he could find that wasn't blocked. Iron Man had first shown up a year before Steve had been found in the Arctic. He'd seemed to be a hero in the making—terrorists had been one of his usual targets, along with other villains and, once, another man in a technological suit. The media had adored him. Easily a dozen news articles starting with some version of Iron Man Saves the Day popped up in the earliest months. Then there was a lapse in time where Iron Man had been inactive.
After a month of nothing, he'd attacked SHIELD for the first time and files started appearing under classified locks. Some news anchors speculated that someone had stolen the armor, while others thought Iron Man had been bad from the start. Some started calling him Iron Avenger, but the old name seemed more popular. Fury had given a few sound bites about how SHIELD was "dealing with the problem". None of Iron Man's attacks failed; his targets seemed randomized, and he always went in to destroy, never to steal or take hostages.
Six months later, Steve had been found in the ice, and the Ultimates had been formed.
Steve stopped reading there. He knew how things went after that. Iron Man's success ratio had gone down to fifty percent, with the Ultimates foiling him just enough to justify their expenses. But that was it. Stalemate.
Thoughtfully, he scrolled back down to the locked files, opening them up to stare at the password prompt. It was a simple system, probably designed by someone in-house. The cursor blinked at him, waiting for input. After a moment of thought, Steve started typing.
Ten minutes later, he was in.
Classified documents unfolded before him, tucked away in file trees ten or more deep. Steve patiently waded through them. Most of them were speculation or crosslinks of possible connections to Iron Man. Those he skipped—they were probably just someone else's version of busy work. But some of them were direct reports on damage done by Iron Man, written up by people with stars on their chest.
The same reference kept being repeated: Stark Enterprises. Whoever Iron Man was, or whoever he worked for, had a serious grudge against the company. Every attack he'd committed in the first six months had been on laboratories working with patents purchased from Stark Enterprises. It showed up in report after report, going back to Iron Man's first hit, which had been against a private company that had been modifying some of Stark Enterprises old missile specs for modern use. Even after he spread out and had started with less specific villainy, Stark Enterprises was still his target 75% of the time.
Steve stared at the screen and thought about the electronics work in the lab Iron Man had attacked earlier that day.
Thoughtfully, he opened a new search.
An hour later, someone knocked on his door. Steve paused reading just long enough to shout for them to come in. He had a dozen tabs open, cross references in major newspapers and SHIELD intelligence, and a text document open with his notes. He was typing in a new one when Jan draped herself over his shoulder.
"What are you reading? News?" she asked brightly. "Or something about your new boyfriend?"
"It's not news and Iron Man isn't my boyfriend," Steve replied absently as he bookmarked an article. She backed up as he swiveled around in his chair. "Maybe you can help me with something. What do you know about Anthony Stark and Stark Enterprises?"
Jan stepped back and leaned against the wall. She'd changed out of her costume, into a flashy, bright yellow and black dress that showed way too much leg for Steve's approval, and fit tight enough that he didn't want to think about the things he could see. "Well, I know they made my cell phone."
"Your cell phone?"
"Yeah, sure. Here." Squirming, Jan reached into her hip pocket and pulled out a slim little device about the size of a deck of cards. She unfolded it to something the size of a paperback and flashed the screen at him. "Large screen, full keyboard, and you can download music by satellite. It's amazing."
Steve glanced back at his notes, then over to Jan's phone. He had to admit, it looked futuristic, unlike everything else. When he'd first gotten out of the ice and heard what year he was in, he'd expected to see jetpacks in the street. Instead, he'd gotten TiVo. He still hadn't really gotten over the disappointment. "I thought they made weapons."
"Oh, they used to." With a couple of flicks of her wrist, Jan folded the phone up and stuck it back in her pocket. "About two years ago, they started getting into the electronics business. It was a pretty huge thing. Everyone was sure that their stock would tank and they'd never recover. Sure proved 'em wrong. StarkTech is the hottest thing out there now."
Why would a successful weapons company start making cell phones? Still, it corroborated what the internet said. "Any idea why?"
Jan shrugged and leaned back on his bed. "The head of the company was caught up in some sort of terrorist plot. It was all kind of hush-hush, but word is that he'd been taken hostage. When he got back to the states, the weapons end shut down and the electronics started up."
"That's Anthony Stark, right?"
"That's him." Her eyes narrowed as she looked him over. "You're asking an awful lot of questions about this. Is something up? Ultimates business?" A smile spread over her lips. "Or Iron Man?"
The computer screen became the most amazing thing in the world to him. "I don't think so. Just following up on some research I'm doing." Steve made a show of clicking through his links to buy time to stop blushing before he turned back to her. "So. Stark?"
Jan stretched out her legs and cocked a hip, investigating her fingernails. "Haven't heard from him in a while, actually. He used to be all over the tabloids, dating super models and stuff. After he got back from wherever, he sort of dropped off the face of the Earth. Can't really blame him."
"Really?"
Steve's surprised tone made Jan look up sharply. "Why?" she asked. "What do you know?"
In response, he pulled up one of the classified files that he'd found and angled the computer monitor towards her. The title was simple, and unmistakable: Anthony Stark Missing. "Do you mean no one's filed a missing persons report?"
She leaned farther over his shoulder, pressing her cheek to his ear as she read. "Missing since... no sign of struggle... No, I hadn't heard anything about it. The papers just said that he'd gone to ground to recover!" Nails dug into his shoulders as Jan moved his chair out of her way so she could control the computer. "Why didn't the papers report this? This is huge!"
"I think it's connected to Iron Man," Steve admitted, and her eyes lit up. "He went missing just when Iron Man started attacking SHIELD facilities. It can't be a coincidence."
The brightness that had appeared when Steve mentioned Iron Man vanished. Pink lipstick smeared the front of her teeth as Jan chewed her lip. "Do you think Iron Man did something?"
Steve glanced back to the monitor, and shook his head. He didn't want to think that, but Iron Man was a villain. It might have been the only thing Fury was right about. "I don't know."
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