~Iron Family~

Not Ready to Say Goodbye

"Hey, don't throw knives!"

As soon as Happy and Peter left, chaos had ensued. Bucky was now throwing knives at the dartboard he'd gotten, the darts lying forgotten on the floor where they were quickly eaten by Peanut. Morgan had taken every single toy in the whole compound and brought them into the kitchen, where they crowded the counters, flooded the floors, and trashed the table. Steve and Sam were on those little exercise balls with handles and chasing each other with plastic baseball clubs, while Harley tried to give Peanut an indoor bath. It smelled worse than wet dog.

Tony groaned. He wanted to hide up in his lab until it was all over, but he knew that wouldn't be fair to Pepper and Bruce, who were trying to keep everyone in line like tired babysitters.

About twenty minutes after Happy and Peter left, Tony got an alert from FRIDAY.

"What is it, FRIDAY?" he asked with a sigh as he did the third round of dishes. They certainly had a lot of people, and cookies.

"Itsy Bitsy Spider Protocol has been activated."

"What happened this time?" He sipped from his coffee mug, staring out the window as Steve and Sam took their chase outside in the snow. Steve rammed into Sam, knocking them both into the snow.

"Vitals show he has been shot with tranquilizer. Happy's contact link has also gone dark. Would you like me to play the last known message?"

"What the--" Tony spit out his coffee all over the toys on the floor and started coughing. "Yes! Now!"

"Tony!" There were sounds of struggling. "Get off me--TONY! They took Spider-Man and the kid! I repeat! They took Spider-Man and the--"

A sickening punch, then the line went silent.

Tony dropped his mug in the sink with a crash, sprinting across the foyer to his lab where his suits were.

"Tony?" Pepper called in confusion.

"I'll be back, honey!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Just an issue!"

He slowed to a walk as Pepper's reminders that he didn't have to do anything alone and how she wanted to be included flashed through his head. Her angry expressions when he made big decisions without her: taking in Peter, Morgan's haircut, the pony...

She deserves to know.

He glanced over his shoulder, where Pepper, Harley, Morgan, and Bucky were staring at him now. He gave himself a little shake and approached her.

"Honey?" he started softly. "I need to speak with you privately...up in my lab. It's urgent."

A look of confusion crossed her face, but she followed him post haste.

He crashed into his lab, not caring what he knocked over. Switching on his computer and diving for the keys, he brought up Spider-Man's suit tracker. He knew it would go offline before he would have a chance to blink, so he took a pad of paper and scribbled down the location.

"Tony, what is going on?" Pepper looked scared.

"Just a sec," Tony breathed. Just as he'd suspected, the screen suddenly fizzled. TRACKER OFFLINE was now plastered across the page. Tony put the location into the computer, bringing up the address.

It was the Stark Tower.

He cussed and rubbed a hand over his mouth.

Saberling had just bought that tower.

***

Naturally, Pepper had totally flipped out. She became really distraught, yanking her hair out and screaming her concerns as she demanded he let her help, but he set her down gently in the chair across from his desk.

"I'll bring him back," he consoled. "Just do me a favor and keep the kids calm until I get back."

Pepper gave a scared nod, but she didn't cry. "Be careful," she breathed as she kissed him.

"Always," Tony said with a smirk.

"You'd better bring Peter back in one piece," she warned as she neared the door.

As soon as she left, Tony went back into rampage mode.

"FRIDAY, section off all traffic around the tower!" Tony roared as he ran over to one of his suits. "I want a status on Peter now!"

"Mr. Parker, Mr. Hogan, and Mr. Spider-Man are unable to be connected."

He glanced at his red and green suit, wishing he could punch Steve in the face. He'd have to settle for the new one he'd been working on. It wasn't totally complete yet, but it was fully functional and he would rather use that than the painted suit, flying in to the rescue looking like an idiot. And also IDIOT was painted across the front of the helmet.

"Just hold on, kid," Tony announced as he called the armor to assemble. "Dad to the rescue."

He paused before he climbed into it. "Wait. I need a plan. And backups."

He opened the window and stuck his head out.

"STEEEVE," he yelled. "WANT TO COME ON A MISSION??"

"SUUURE!" Steve shouted back, sounding very far away. He slammed his exercise ball into Sam's face, knocking him unconscious. He sprinted back inside and was in Tony's lab within thirty seconds.

"What's the mission?" he asked eagerly.

"Please, Steve," Tony whispered. "This is serious. Some people kidnapped Happy, Spider-Man, and... and Peter."

Steve gasped, both hands flying to his head. "Noo! Not my little nephew!"

"That's right, and my son. Now, if we want to find them, you're going to have to help me."

Steve nodded earnestly, grabbing his shield from a nearby table. Tony had been trying to get the marks out of it from when it'd skidded across the pavement after being used as a sled, and so far he'd been pretty unsuccessful.

"So," Steve started, suddenly becoming serious as he squinted at Tony's monitor. "Do you know where they are?"

"Yeah, that's the bad part. They're at the Stark Tower, which is now the Saberling Tower."

"But I thought you were totally convinced that they were good guys?"

Tony huffed angrily, crossing his arms. "Yeah, okay? I was wrong. I'll say it: I made a mistake. Now can we please move on so we can get back to rescuing Peter? He could be hurt, or--or worse."

Steve nodded, a bag of Doritos suddenly in his hands. "How are we gonna get in and find them?"

Tony sighed. "Well, I only saw it for a fraction of a second, but Spider-Man's tracker was coming from the center of the tower, so it shouldn't be that hard to bust in and search for him. But, unfortunately, that means that they aren't concerned of who sees him, which means the entire company might be evil. Not just the CEO."

Steve scratched his head. "That's bad. Are we gonna get more backups?"

"No," Tony shook his head. "I'm not sure how bad it is yet. I would have FRIDAY get me a visual, but there aren't any cameras near there that could tell me if there are a lot of people guarding them. I'm not even sure if Spider-Man is in the same place as Peter."

"And Happy."

"Yeah..." Tony rubbed at his eyes, taking in a shaky breath as the reality crashed over him.

Bad guys had kidnapped his foster son.

He was in physical, mortal danger.

No matter how much he loved Peter, he legally wouldn't be allowed to stay with Tony anymore after this.