Stark's little invention

13. Funeral Crashers

        I wake up and of course it's raining outside, it always rains at Funerals in movies. I wish I could just stay in bed all day with my cat, but instead I put on the black dress and get myself ready. I only leave my room when JARVIS tells me Mr Stark is ready to go. I slowly walk out to the kitchen and see Pepper and Tony standing there watching me like I was gonna break.
"Are you ready kid?" Tony asks. I don't answer just give a shrug. We all start to walk out of the kitchen.
"The stairs?" Tony asks, I guess he's feeling bad for me. Well I don't need his pity, I don't need anything from him. I don't say anything just walk to the elevator surprising him and Pepper.
     Happy is waiting in the limo when we get out the door, he opens the door for us. I get in first and go all the way to the end of the seat to look out the window. Pepper sits next to me then Tony.
"Peighton, do you want to stop to get something to eat?" Pepper asks. I can't answer, I just stare straight ahead.
       I don't even realize we've stopped until I look out the window to see the funeral parlor. We go in, and I see two closed coffins with pictures on them. Flowers, pictures, and candles almost cover the platform. I know most of them are from Tony. Mom and dad didn't have many friends. As usual we're late they didn't start without us but everybody that's there is getting restless.
We go to the front reserved seating, and sit down. The funeral director gets up to say a few words. I think Tony is supposed to say something, but I just zone out. At least I'm zoned out until the doors bust open, and the windows all shatter. Gas sprays into the room and everybody starts coughing and passing out. Tony puts his jacket over my nose and mouth so I don't breath any gas in. He grabs Pepper and I by the arms and tries to lead us out, but you can barely see. Thats when another pair of hands grabs my waste and rips me out of Tony's grasp.
"PEIGHTON!"
"Tony help!" I hear people yelling around me it's hectic. I see the sunlight as the person that has me pulls me out through the window. I'm really light headed I couldn't keep Tony's jacket over my face I'm still hanging onto it though.
"Let me go!"
"Shut up or I'll shut you up." As he says that I look behind me to see Tony trying to get to me. He must of breathed in the gas because he's stumbling around and looks about ready to collapse.
"Let her go... I'll give you anything you want. Money, weapons, anything just let me have my little girl back." The man that has me just laughs, he has a mask on so I can't see his face. He throws me in the back of a black van and slams the door shut, but I can still hear Tony screaming my name and a lot of other words too. The yelling stops as the car stops maybe the gas made him pass out.
     "What do you want from me?" I ask trying to hide the panic that's rising in me.
"You'll see." That's the last thing I hear before I pass out from the gas snuggled in Tony's big suit jacket.

~3 hours later shield headquarters~
(TONY'S POV)
     I wake up on a hospital bed,
"Peighton?!" The memories hit me like a brick wall. Pepper is in a bed next to me still knocked out. I get out of bed and almost collapse, but I have to know what's happening. I'm in the pants I had on at the funeral and a plain t-shirt I grab my shoes and walk out of the room. Ahhh shield headquarters should have known I'd end up here. I hear a familiar voice,
"Mr Stark I heard you were awake."
"Mrs June?"
"Agent June," She corrects.
"Why was Peighton assigned a agent that only happens when there parent is a..."
"Yes Rachel, Peighton's mother is an agent of shield."
"Is?"
"We had reason to believe agent Matthews is alive, now we know she is."
"I want to know everything you people know or else..."
"Mr Stark if you will please be patient..."
"Where is my daughter?!"
"I can't, you are unauthorized to know." I'm about to say something I'm probably gonna regret when I'm interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Thank you agent June I'll take it from here." I turn around and confront the man.
"Furry I want to know where my daughter is now, and why she was taken."
"Stark, if we knew where your daughter was we'd have her here by now. Follow me."
"I don't take orders from you."
"Do you want to know why your daughter was taken or not?"
"Lead the way," I say irritatedly.
Once we're in Furry's office he starts talking immediately,
"Open the files on operation 'Rabbit Hole'."
"Operation Rabbit Hole?... original." Furry ignores me as the blinds close and the lights dim. A screen turns on with pictures and headlines, furry starts to narrate.
"Operation 'Rabbit Hole', only five people were supposed to know anything about it including me and Agent Hill. Of the other three, two are dead due to natural causes..."
"Yeah, natural... got it." I cut him off.
"and one is missing." He says slowly and showing obvious irritation.
"June said Rachel is an agent, I'm assuming she's the agent missing, but where does Peighton come into this.
"My guess, leverage."
"Leverage."
"Agent Matthews is one of our most trusted agents. No amount of interrogation is gonna make her give up that information. if these terrorists went to all this trouble to get there hands on Peighton it's because they need her."
"What is operation 'Rabbit Hole'? How did it start?"
"It's a list of confidential informants and former agents and the covers of government officials in witness protection programs from the US and our allies all over the globe. she went to Andzian, a small country between Iran and Iraq. It was supposed to be a quick in and out mission we had to make sure the contents of the list didn't get into the wrong hands."
"How did this small mission get turned into Ray and our daughter being kidnapped? And what about her husband?"
"Protective custody."
"Did he or Peighton know anything?"
"No, her husband and Peighton thought she had a desk job at a government agency."
"How long has she been with shield?"
"Since before you met. When she found out she was expecting she did everything in her power to keep Peighton secret. We set her up in a quiet neighborhood, quiet home, good school. She had a desk job, but it killed her she needed to be more than that. This was supposed to be quick in and out mission."
"So you said... what went wrong?"
"A double agent in Andzia... he got word of the hard drive with the list on it, we don't know how he got his hands on it or if he still had it, heck we didn't even know for certain if he had the list."
"Ray was supposed to terminate him and get the hard drive?"
"Not terminate him. She was supposed to get him back here for a debriefing. Figure out who knows about 'Rabbit Hole'."
      "If Peighton is used as leverage..." I can't even finish the sentence.
"We're getting her back. What do we know about the abductors?" Fury pulls up an image of a man and begins another one of his little lectures.
"This man Amax Jahmar mid thirties, a known assassin and head of a terrorist group, we believe he was hired by the Andzian government to find Agent Matthews, and the hard drive."
"Is she in Andzia right now?"
"We believe that is where they are heading soon."
"Then we need to get a lead on where Peighton is. If they take her to Andzia then it will make this even more difficult to properly handle this."
"We don't have jurisdiction in Andzia. How would you 'handle this properly'?" He says marking his last words with quotation marks.
"I don't know." I say honestly.
"You don't know? Oh that's great..." he starts.
"You know what's great... you sent a woman with a husband and a little girl that love her very much to a country we have no jurisdiction, allies or even a base at and expect for any of this to go over well!"
"Now hold on just a minute! Agent Matthews volunteered for this. And if you really knew her you'd know there was no talking her out of it! That woman is more stubborn than a..."
"I don't need to know anything more about her besides she needs our help."
"And what do you suggest the avengers?" He scoffs.
"Yes."

HEY! SO MY BOOKS ARE ON A KINDA HOLD... I'M HOPING TO UPDATE WHEN I GET CHANCES! ALSO, I MADE UP A COUNTRY CAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO OFFEND ANYBODY BY USING THEIR NATION AS THE "BAD GUY" LOL. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER!!!

(FYI) A BIT OF A SPOILER... I KNOW THE KIDS USUALLY GET ABDUCTED SO IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE PEOPLE THAT DON'T REALLY CARE FOR THE ABDUCTION THING LIKE I AM DON'T WORRY IT WON'T LAST LONG😂😂😂
12/25/19