Stark Found [completed!]

Chapter Thirty-Four: Just a talk

This took longer than I expected, but given that I had a literal meltdown that nearly sent me on a grippy sock vacation, I'm grateful it's even up.  And I made sure it was a longer one.  Enjoy! XDee

----------------------------------------------------------

Steve

Tony and Pepper joined us in the conference room after only a few hours. Tony didn't seem too thrilled to be there, but Pepper kept a strong grip on his arm, forcing him to stay in a chair.

"Where are Sophie and Bucky? Still sleeping?" Sam dared ask.

Tony lurched forward in his chair, but Pepper held him back. She whispered something in his ear before answering. "They're awake. Doctor Strange offered to take a look at Sophie. He also asks that Wanda join him soon, to see if they can't break that memory block together."

"And let me guess, Bucky's there as her security blanket?" Wade teased. Tony only responded with a glare.

Wanda rose from her seat. "I'll go now."

I nodded. "Right, Stark, we were trying to scan once more to see if we can't find Doom's location. Nothing came up, but we thought it was worth a shot while we thought of a plan."

"There's your problem. You need to leave the thinking to someone who can actually do it." He wrestled his arm away from Pepper in order to walk to the board. "We know Doom is in the past somewhere, in a time machine. The chances of us finding him are slim to none. Our best bet is to stop his plan before he gets back."

"What's his plan, then, genius?" Pietro dared.

"Now is not the time, smart-ass," Tony warned. Even I let out a chuckle. Tony must be really upset if that was the best nickname he could come up with.

I joined him at the board. "We already know that it was Human Torch, aka Johnny Storm who attacked us earlier. We also know that Doom has a history of attacking the Fantastic Four, so it's possible he could've done something to manipulate Johnny into setting our kitchen on fire."

"Our kitchen?" Tony interrupted. Pepper shook her head, face hidden by her hand. Natasha reached back in consolation.

I continued undeterred. "It's possible he could be trying to convince us to go after him. That would leave him to deal with the other three."

"Hold on. He's a human flame, right?" Peter piped up.

"More or less," I answered.

"And Bethany's powers are water based."

"Yes."

"It seems only natural that Doom might have gone after Bethany initially to cancel out Johnny's flames," Peter continued. "And right here – this says that the rock dude was married once. And this photo of his wife looks suspiciously like that robot that's part of Doom's crew, doesn't she?"

What he was saying clicked. "Sophie can manipulate things on a molecular level... And the Invisible Woman would need someone who can see things at that level in order for her powers to be considered useless... Stark, I think he's been gathering people to take out the Fantastic Four."

"If there's four of them, then who's going after the stretchy man?" Wade asked.

"Do you really think Doom is going to let anyone else touch his number one enemy?" Tony countered. He turned to me. "How fast can you get a group over to their home?"

"We could probably run there in less than 15 minutes," I shrugged.

Clint raised his hands. "Hold on, hold on. I love Sophie, I do, but I'm not running anywhere if I don't have to."