Hydra Born Connection [1]

{6}

Peter slowly blinked his eyes open, but quickly shut them groaning, the bright lights hurting his eyes. Natasha, who was sitting next to his bed noticed, "Peter? Bud, are you awake?"

"Friday," he mumbled, "dim the lights." Friday complied and Peter opened his eyes, looking over a Natasha. He surveyed the med bay, "What, wh-why am I here?"

Natasha furrowed her brow, "Do you not remember? You landed on the balcony around 1 a.m. last night. You're arm was badly bleeding and so we brought you here to stitch it."

"But why are you sitting with me?" Peter asked, confused, "Where's Ton-oh." Peter looked away, blinking back tears, "I remember now." He replied hoarsely.

"What happened Peter? If you tell us we might be able to help." Natasha placed a hand on Peter's shoulder and he looked back at her.

"C-can we go to the living room to talk?" He questioned.

"Of course," Natasha handed him a folded pair of jeans and a science pun t-shirt. "You know the way there, I'll leave you to get changed." As she left, Friday slid a white privacy covering over the glass.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not even ten minutes later, the elevator dinged and Peter stepped out. Natasha, Steve, Bruce, and Rhodey who had all been staying at the tower were sitting on the couches. Peter went and sat in chair across from them. "Hi." he said.

"What happened last night?" Rhodey asked, skipping right to the point.

Peter sighed before recounting everything that had happened from when Evil Dude attacked them until he landed on the balcony. He glanced over at the glass door and was relieved to see there were no bloody handprints anymore.

Everyone was silent.

Eventually Steve spoke up, "We have to find him."

"Yeah, no kidding. But how?" Rhodey replied.

"Can we track his suit?" Bruce inquired?

Peter shook his head, "The EMP he was hit with would have fried the wiring. And if they're smart, which they are since they were able to capture Iron Man, they would have removed the tracker. We could try tracking the implant in his arm, but that one might be destroyed as well. Other than that I don't know of any other GPS devices he has."

For a long while everyone just stared at the floor, their hands, or out the window. "Oh my gosh..." Natasha said quietly. Everyone looked at her, "Who's going to tell Pepper?"

"Do we have to? Can't we just wait till we have a lead on Tony or something?" Bruce asked.

"Of course we have to tell her. Who knows how long it will take to get a clue on Tony's location." lectured Rhodey, "Besides, you know Pepper, if we don't tell her she'll figure it out. Then she's going to be sad and angry."

"I can do it," Steve said standing.

Peter nodded, "Thank you Mr. Steve."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As it was, Pepper was still angry on top of being heartbroken. But she wasn't angry at any of the Avengers. Her fury was directed at the despicable humans who had the nerve to kidnap her husband. That evening when she was finished with meetings for the day, she rode the elevator up to the living room area. When Pepper stepped out, she saw Steve and Natasha cooking dinner and Peter, Bruce, and Rhodey staring intently at computers, seated around the dining table. Steve looked over at her, "Hello Miss Potts."

"Hey Steve, any leads so far?" She inquired, looking over everyone.

"Possibly..." Peter muttered, "The last known location of Tony is the middle of 53rd street. After that, wherever they put him, the walls are either blocking the signal or the tracker was destroyed. I'm guessing both."

Pepper stood behind Peter, looking at his computer screen. "Were there any security cameras that would have seen the vehicle or it's license plate."

"Yes there were." Peter replied glumly, "Unfortunately the vehicle didn't have any license plates and the car was a black Toyota Rav 4, one of the most popular cars in New York. There's literally hundreds of thousands of them registered here."

"Facial recognition from the cameras?" Pepper tried desperately.

Rhodey shook his head, "Tinted windows and masks. These guys are real professionals."

Pepper sighed in defeat and took a seat next to Peter. "This isn't going to be easy."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Authors note:
Hello everyone, I had a hard time figuring out what to do with this chapter. I have great ideas and plot points, but the stuff in between always worries and gets to me. Hopefully this chapter wasn't bad.
Lots of love,
Siri