Shattered

Chapter 2

Tony is touching down on the outskirts of Belarus when he gets the call from Clint. "Hey Legolas, long time no see. How's farm life?"

"Quiet. Peaceful. Would stay that way if our so-called indestructible team didn't get into trouble every five minutes." Then, more serious -"You got anything?"

Tony casts his eyes over the helmet's interior display. "We've tracked Wanda's energy signature to a supposedly abandoned facility, emphasis on the supposedly. No prizes that our bad guy of the week has chosen it as their latest set-up."

"Team's inside?"

"Just got a track on Wanda, but they better be. I already got Vis, he's back at the Compound."

"He ok?"

"Nothing Cho and I won't be able to fix. How far out are you?"

"Coordinating with Hill and New S.H.I.E.L.D. now. We got enforcements coming to you, only a few hours out."

"Hours? I'm not sure we have hours."

"Tony, no. Do not go in there alone - you wait for us."

"We don't know how much damage they could do if I wait." Tony swallows back another round of anxiety as he recalls Rhodey's last instruction - to hurry.

"We're down everyone but us - you're not helping anyone if you just hand yourself over to them as well."

"Bold of you to assume they'd get me."

"Whoever it is just took down all active Avengers in one attack. Stay. Put."

Tony sighs, making sure Clint can hear it through the comms, but decides not to argue. Tony misses having Clint around, with the man's sly humor that occasionally boards on childish (much to Tony's delight), but Tony has been on enough missions with him by now to recognize when Clint gets shoved into the background to be replaced by Agent Barton.

"Alright, alright, staying put."

"Any other information from Vis? About who attacked them?"

"Just that they were prepared enough to make Vision redundant and somehow managed to get Wanda too." Tony bites his lip, considering that. The others aren't a picnic to take down either, but at least attacking them comes with more straightforward measures. Take out their equipment; incapacitate the human element. Tony's spent countless hours in his workshop running scenarios where that might happen, and building more and more safety features into his team's equipment so it doesn't.

And as usual, there's a variable he hasn't seen coming, something he's missed, and now his team might pay for it.

"We're on our way," Clint's voice says in his ear, and Tony forces himself to calm his breathing again. The team was taken - not killed. If whoever attacked them wanted them dead, he would have found bodies back in Berlin. There'll be plenty of time later apart whatever this unknown enemy used to compromise Rhodey and Sam's suits, to paralyze Vision, to get Steve down.

Whatever they used to incapacitate Wanda.

That's the one that worries him the most. Because the others are physics and biology, things he understands, numbers he can run through F.R.I.D.A.Y. Wanda's powers are incomputable, just like wormholes and alien armies and the unknown threat he knows is coming but can do nothing to prepare for. He already tried to prepare for that, to give the world its own suit of armor, to keep it and the very few people he's let close to his heart safe.

He gave them Ultron instead.

He tries to reassure himself that maybe (although he'll never admit it out loud) that Steve has the right idea. Put their faith in individuals, build up a team, fight whatever's coming together. New York was a close thing, far too close, but since then their numbers have grown. Even if Bruce is nowhere to be found, Tony finds it hard to believe that Thor wouldn't rejoin them the second Earth was threatened again. Rhodey's officially joined, Steve recruited Sam, and as disastrous as Ultron was, at least it produced two heavy-hitters for the team in Vision and Wanda.