A Different World

what not to do as a kidnappee: a guide by michelle jones

Summary: Michelle Jones gets kidnapped and she is decidedly Not Happy™ about it

Michelle should have anticipated that someone was going to have a big enough problem with one of her pieces at some point in her career that they would hunt her down. However, should have anticipated and had anticipated are two very different things.

It was Michelle's turn to pick up lunch for her and her team, a little tradition they'd started at the beginning of their work on the whole the-government-has-a-whole ass-RAFT-prison situation. There were a lot of files that had been dropped by SHIELD all those years ago, and it had taken them weeks to sort through everything and find information relevant to their project. During times when there was too much to read and they didn't want to put it all on hold to eat, they'd started alternating lunch run days.

Even now, months after they'd finished (and published) their work, the used-to-be-team still alternated lunch-buying days and although it was windier than a goddamn hurricane, Michelle had still volunteered as it was her day to go.

She should have (again, there was that little whisper of both irritation and regret: should have) noticed that she was being followed.

She'd been distracted. Her hair broke free of her braid at the same time a gust of wind nearly knocked over the stack of Thai takeout she had in her hands, so it was all she could do not to drop the food and avoid running into a lamppost just in front of her. Between her hair, her worry about the food, and the stench of what she was certain was dog poop stuck to her shoe, she hadn't noticed the man until he had a gun pressed under her ribs and a tight hold on her arm.

"Get in the car," he hissed.

She hadn't even been able to see the car, but with a huff, she let him shove her into the backseat, only protesting when he dumped the takeout on the ground and slammed the door behind her. After that, it had only gone downhill.

They had barely pulled away from the curb when the man who had grabbed her pulled on a gas mask. Michelle frowned, opening her mouth to ask what the hell he was doing, only for him to toss a canister of something that had to be toxic into the backseat. It started to hiss and although she couldn't see smoke, she could smell the gas it was emitting.

"What the hell is that?" she snapped, coughing as she breathed in the fumes.

Unsurprisingly, the man didn't respond.

It didn't take long for the effects of whatever was in the canister to take hold of her. She coughed again, her lungs shaking with each jolt of her body, but soon enough, the gas won out. When she tried to blink away the burning in her eyes, she didn't wake back up.

* * * * *

Peter was having a bad day. He'd showed up at SI Tower to fix his suit, only to discover Tony had covered his side of the lab in what Peter could only assume were old suit parts. The lab itself was empty, but Tony had clearly been in recently. When he asked FRIDAY, though, the answer was less than clear.

"Boss has left the premises," she replied. When pressed for a less vague answer, she didn't respond.

"Fine," Peter grumbled.

He cleared off his work desk but made sure he dumped everything on Tony's side of the lab. He didn't even attempt to organize it, tossing one thing after another on the floor. By the time his space was clear, he was annoyed and still grumbling. It got worse when he realized he hadn't saved his last notes and FRIDAY hadn't been given access to them in an attempt to keep Tony from realizing what he was planning.