control | avengers

chapter 3

The five Avengers that remained stood shoulder to shoulder in front of a hologram FRIDAY had pulled up at Tony's request. It depicted a bird's eye view of the location the tracker had stopped at, though there wasn't much to see from the sky.

"Sam, take us lower. There has to be an entrance somewhere. We need a rough idea of the layout before we knock the front door down singing happy birthday." Tony requested, tilting his head to the side and stepping closer to the live footage from the drone. As its altitude lowered, a hill that he hadn't seen before popped up into view, and immediately he demanded the drone head towards the new sight. His suspicions proved correct, as the drone approached the front of the hill a metal door came into view.

"Perfect, can we go in?" Tony asked as he narrowed his eyes at the door, searching for a subtle entry point. Though none was clear, and the drone simply hovered before the door in defeat.

"Unfortunate. FRIDAY, send me the coordinates, the rest of you can start learning the lyrics to my happy birthday remaster, looks like we're throwing a surprise party." Tony cleaned the brief meeting up with a clap, turning on his heels and exiting the room. The other four avengers trailed after him, no questions asked as they returned to their respective rooms to suit up.

***

"FRIDAY, take over for me." Tony ordered as he span his chair away from the pilot controls, pushing himself up to his feet and casually stepping down towards where the others were sat awaiting their arrival at the destination.

"I have to say Tony, I'm not keen on the idea of storming the area with no idea of the layout. I know they have Steve, but we could've at least waited until we got even a rough layout of the base." Clint sounded his concerns, his eyebrows furrowed as he cast Tony a disapproving gaze.

"He's blinded by his love for Steve, he's like a little teenager running after dumb emotions. We're cleaning up after his mess." Nat teased, lightening the mood slightly as she tossed a playful wink at Tony who merely rolled his eyes and looked away, shaking his head in disapproval at her comment.

"It's only one HYDRA base, Steve could easily take it down alone if he wasn't behind bars. All we have to do is let him out of the cage so he can make a mess." Tony remarked, his hands waving vague gestures in the air as he spoke.

"Anyway, we're landing so if you don't mind, I'd like to get this circus on the road." As his sentence came to an end, the ship came into contact with the ground, and Tony merely pulled a big red lever to open up the back of the vehicle. With a simple double tap to the arc reactor sitting atop his chest, the nano particles within began to unfold and form a suit around his body. He stepped out of the ship as it did, the other Avengers following closely behind, their eyes scanning their new surroundings. Cautiously they made their way over towards the minuscule hill they'd earlier seen through the eyes of Sam's drone.

"Happy birthday to you," Tony whispered as he tenderly knocked on the metal door embedded into the hill, though to no response he took a small step back before lifting a foot and kicking the door off its hinges. He expected to find two guns staring back at him, though the other side was entirely desolate, and immediately a feeling of unease settled into his heart. Though, he unwisely ignored it, regardless of the obvious suspicions he let his feet carry him forward and into the seemingly abandoned lair. Though he hoped it wasn't abandoned, for the sake of finding Steve. There was no way a mere girl had outsmarted him and found his tracker, and decided to plant it somewhere clever.

"Happy birthday to you," Sam continued as he followed Tony through the now empty door frame, cautiously stepping over the broken metal door that lay on the floor. He had his doubts about entering, alike all of them. But he too wanted Steve to be here. He wanted to get his friend, and get the hell home. He couldn't imagine what they were doing to him, wherever he was. What if they'd made him some brainwashed soldier alike the others, and the next time they met he would be fighting him in battle? The fear plagued his mind, enslaving his rational thinking.