~Iron Family~

Dr. Al

"Steve?" Tony whispered. "I'm in position."

"Copy that!"

Tony had hidden his armor in a nearby building, ready to smash through the windows if he called upon it. He was dressed undercover in an AC/DC shirt and the trusty Avenger disguise-completer, a baseball cap. Right now, Steve should be somewhere at the base of the tower, monitoring for suspicious activity.

Once Tony found the floor everyone was being held hostage, he would alert Steve and they would have an epic rescue mission. The only security this guy had was a bunch of blenders and toasters--how hard could it be?

Tony took a deep breath, then pushed his way through the front doors that had once been his.

The building was empty.

The entire ground floor, which had always been so busy and bustling when it had been in Tony's hands, was entirely empty aside from boxes upon boxes of appliances. There wasn't a single human being in sight.

"Uh, Steve...?" Tony started. "There's nobody here on the ground floor."

"Huh?"

"I mean, there's just boxes of appliances. ... I'm going to go a few floors up and work my way to the center until I find them."

"I dunno, Tony. Something feels...off. Why else would he just let you stroll inside unless it was a trap?"

"They guy's super thick, Steve," Tony protested as he opened the door to the stairs, staring upwards at all the flights. "It was probably an accident."

He started to climb the stairs, gripping the railing for support and putting one foot in front of the other.

This is so stupid, he thought as he reached the third floor, legs already feeling like overcooked noodles. And yet he continued to climb--Peter needed him, he couldn't just give up and take the probably-booby-trapped elevator.

The tracker had placed Spider-Man's location somewhere between floor twenty and fifty, which was super broad but better than nothing.

With every step, he grew more tired and more anxious. What was Peter doing right now? Were they torturing him? Forcing him to blurt out anything he knew about Stark Industries and Spider-Man? The thought was too much, so he just prayed that he would be locked away safely somewhere with a juicebox and dinosaur chicken nuggets.

At last, gasping for breath and clawing at the railing, he reached the floor that had a giant 20 painted on the door.

"Steve," he panted. "I reached the twentieth floor. And...we've gotta...figure something else out, because this isn't... This isn't going to work."

"Well, yeah," Steve made it sound like it was obvious. "I mean, why didn't I go? I could've been and searched up to floor forty by now because I'm so buff. You're better at watching for things anyway."

Tony gritted his teeth as he forced the door open. "We need to have some serious pre-mission planning lessons! This was a stupid idea!" He hesitated, then tapped a few buttons on his watch. "Okay, I'm calling my suit. This is ridiculous."

"Don't!" Steve shouted. "You'll--"

The suit crashed in through the window, bringing in a sucking bought of freezing air. A sharp ringing sounded from the boxes piled around the walls, and umpteen appliances tore out of them, robotic arms pinching the air.

Tony gulped and dove into his suit as fast as he could. "Steve!" he shouted as he blasted through a few. More took its place, and soon he was ankle-deep in evil toasters. A waffle iron with sharp teeth clamped itself to his leg. "You were right! Now there's a bunch of appliances attacking me!"