Loose Threads

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Tony was having a pretty good day. His newest instalments to the Ironman suit, mark 42, were going smoothly, he had managed to escape two meetings with some stuffy government guys, successfully put fourteen people on hold, and avoid Nick Fury, who was in a bad mood about something or other. Probably something Tony did. Or didn't, who knows.

Well, he had been having a good day. It was just past lunch- in fact, Tony was still eating- when Steve came to find him. The man burst into his lab, dressed in his suit, and knocked Dummy over. The machine gave an offended beep.

"Tony, you're gonna want to see this." That was all he was told until he reached the conference room, a large meeting hall of sorts, one wall covered in screens and the other in windows that could be switched to opaque if the need be.

There were a few other Avengers there, Clint, Wanda, Vision, and Natasha. The big screen was on, paused on a recording of some news channel.

"Steve, If you dragged me in here for another stupid news story about yourself, I'm going to shove your shield–"

"Sit down Stark," Nat said. Tony sat down. Clint nodded at the screen. "Friday flagged this footage for us. It's from some station down in mid-Manhattan, not too far from here. We've already watched the recording."

"Friday, play." Tony ordered. The camera footage was shaky, and took a second to focus. When it did, Tony clenched his jaw. He had been having such a good day. On the screen was a man. Tony didn't recognise him. He was holding a teenage boy against him with a knife to his neck. The boy was shortish, with tan skin and freckles, and strawberry blonde hair that was pulled back into a braid that reached past the top of his shoulders. He didn't look afraid, oddly enough. He looked bored.

"-To the Avengers," The man spit. "If you want the kid to live, come save him. I'll be waitin'. You have an hour or he dies." The man dragged the kid through the building to an emergency staircase and the footage cut out as he began to climb up the stairs, still holding the boy in front of him.

"Friday, run facial recognition on both subjects, please."

"Of course, sir." Two of the side screens came to life, one displaying an image of the man with the knife, next to a portrait that looked like it was from some sort of ID. "The suspect's name is Malik Killigan. He is a former resident of Sokovia and was employed as a construction worker. His only known relatives have been recorded as deceased in the Ultron incident. There are no further records."

The second screen displayed the bored-looking teen. "There are no facial matches in my database for the victim. Facial analysis suggests he is sixteen years of age and of Hispanic descent. He appears to be slightly malnourished."

"Thank you Friday. When was this footage aired?"

"Fifteen minutes ago," Vision stated.

"Well then, what the hell are we waiting for? An invitation? Actually scratch that, that message was an invitation."

Tony and Steve ended up being the only ones to go. There was no sense in sending every Avenger at the tower for what was easily a low-level threat. Tony arrived first, having flown ahead of Steve, who was on his motorbike and dealing with traffic.

"Friday, what are they saying," He asked once he was close enough to see the kid's mouth was moving.

"Activating Eavesdropping Old Man protocol."

"Parker, I swear to God..." Tony sighed. He still hadn't figured out how Peter was able to hack into Friday and change his names, but he knew the other Avengers paid him to give each other stupid nicknames.