MADNESS | MARVEL

CHAPTER TWO

It's been two weeks since Fury gave the Avengers the mission to find the psychopath that likes dead roses, and so far, they have come up with absolutely nothing. This frustrated the Avengers so much, especially Tony.

"Tracking algorithm failed," Friday's female robotic voice filtered through the room, the sound of a chair being thrown to the ground following next.

"Run it again!" Tony yelled, kicking the chair away and roughly shoving his hands through his hair, pulling at the strands roughly to wake him up. He'd been awake for over 32 hours now, working straight with no sleep until he literally collapses with exhaustion. "I've tried all the others, this has to work!"

During those two weeks, twelve other murders occurred, all scattered across New York City. The team checked each murder scene for any type of evidence, running scans and checking all possible footage from security cameras located around the areas as well as looking for any clips from reflections off of objects, but so far...they got jack with a side of squat. Each time team members would arrive at the scene hopeful, they would leave angry and frustrated because of the lack of...anything really.

Whoever this psychopath is, they're good. Really good, and Tony hates it- hates her.

"Tony, maybe you should take a break," Banner tried to tell his friend and science bro, worried for his physical and mental health. Tony had the tendency to forget to do anything else other than work when he has his mind set to it, meaning that he forgets the basic needs of a human- eat, sleep and drink. Luckily, Tony always had one of those green smoothies ready at hand, so dehydration wouldn't be too big of a problem, it's the eating and sleeping that's worrying not only Banner, but the rest of the team as well.

They had never seen Tony be so frustrated and angry at something he couldn't figure out, and they were just counting down the seconds of when he cracks.

"I can't, we have to find whoever this psychopath so that we could lock her up in a ditch and let her rot!" Tony practically growled, slamming his fingers on a hologram-key board, skipping multiple slides filled with code.

"I know, but we're not gonna find her if you collapse in exhaustion. When was the last time you slept? Ate?" Banner asked, walking forward so he stood in front of his friend.

"I'm not sure," Tony mumbled aimlessly, his mind focusing on the code and not what his friend was saying.

"That's not healthy Tony," Banner sighed and waved in Steve, who stood by the door with his arms crossed over his chest. "Do it Steve."

"What?" Tony was paying attention now, noticing that Captain America was now making his way towards the playboy billionaire.

"You need rest Tony," Steve said, grabbing his teammate's arm and began dragging him out of his lab, merely rolling his blue eyes when Tony began protesting and fighting to stay in his beloved lab. "Don't make me carry you, cause I will if I have to."

"Friday! Run the new algorithm!" Tony yelled as he held onto one of the concrete walls, projecting the annoying child-like personality that takes over him sometimes... most of the time.

"Running," Friday replied.

"Steve, just let me see if this new one works! If this doesn't work then I'll go to my room and get some rest and work on it tomorrow," Tony practically pleaded, smirking smugly inwardly when Steve sighed and let his iron-grip go. Instead of leaving, he just leaned against the wall, ready to drag the genius out if the algorithm didn't work.

Banner also sighed and shook his head and went back towards hi stable, looking over sheets of paper that scattered the glass table. "What makes you think this one will work better than all the others?"