Chapter Text
Missions weren’t always easy. There have been times where the Avengers were told they were supposed to take down an impossible villain, kill thousands in a single blast, or go undercover to infiltrate the enemy. Always for the greater good. Always for the good of the people.
Tony Stark didn’t feel much at all hearing the plans for their missions. No, the bourbon usually came after they were finished.
Mission debriefs were a regular point of discomfort among the team. They were each told where they went wrong, how they could have saved more civilians, how they could have done their jobs better. Flashing images of the innocents they lost – the lives they could have saved if they were better.
There were lots of times where Tony wanted to drink after a debrief.
What he doesn’t remember is ever wanting to drink during a mission meeting.
“The data was downloaded onto a single hard drive and transported out of the facility in the early hours of this morning.” Fury’s voice was always decently monotone. He spoke with strength and power and not much personality in between. Tony usually appreciated this – it made it feel less real when he was asking them to murder people.
“And they got out completely unseen?” Natasha asked, throwing her pencil in the air and catching it again for the hundredth time. Tony spotted a stain on the leg of her sweatpants when she first planted her feet on the desk. Looking around the room and you would guess she was the least professional one, but Tony knew she would remember more about the mission than the people taking notes once they left.
“Our cameras picked up on the figure, but there is nothing identifiable on them except this,” and the slide clicked to change.
A hologram came from the middle of the table, circling around for everyone to get a good look. A skull with tentacles. Of course it was.
Tony looked over at Steve to see his jaw hardening, but his own gaze was focused on James Barnes. Tony saw James’ metal hand clenching beside him, but his face was incredibly unfazed. Tony had to begrudgingly admire his strength; if he was held captive and tortured by an infamous group that was suddenly making a reappearance, he’s not sure he would hold up as well.
“So, HYDRA is back?” Natasha asked, a boredom in her tone. Tony felt a similar way – it was getting dull by now.
HYDRA would pop up for a week, make a couple of stupidly trivial mistakes and then the Avengers would take them down. Rinse and repeat.
“HYDRA is back,” Fury confirmed. Tony noticed that Fury didn’t seem quite so bored of them; possibly because he wasn’t the one going after them every time. He started doodling a picture of Fury with a metal arm in he margins of his blank notebook. “But the problem isn’t the group themselves. The problem comes in what they now have.”
“And what is it that they now have?” Steve asked. His voice was so forceful and loud and sometimes Tony wanted to punch him the throat for it.
“The data they stole was an entire faculties personal IDs. Their full names, addresses, families.” Tony let himself become interested. He adjusted his glasses if only to give his hands something to do. “And maybe they got lucky, or maybe they had someone on the inside telling them where exactly to go, but they managed to get the information of all of our undercover agents currently out in the field.”
Tony didn’t really know why that would be more significant than any other department if not for the fact it puts a few holes in SHIELD's plans. But when he looked over to Natasha, she had stopped playing with her pencil and her feet were on the floor, so he knew this was serious.
“So, they know every active operation going on through SHIELD right now and you have no idea where this data chip is?” Natasha clarified. She almost sounded disappointed, as if she was the director of SHIELD and Fury was just some random intern.
“Not exactly.” Natasha officially leaned forward. It was getting good, finally. “We surrounded the area before the chip could have ever had a chance to leave. The suspect was not found leaving the scene,” Fury sighed.
Natasha raised an eyebrow, and Tony raised his in tandem, if only to look like he knew what was going on.
“So, you did lose the data?” Natasha reiterates. If Tony wasn’t already aware that Nat couldn’t have kids, he would’ve said she was so good at this look because she was raising a teenager. Then again, she has definitely used that look on him a few times in the years they’ve worked together.
“We have a suspect,” Fury said.
A pause.
“Oh, be a dear and spoil it for me will you Nicky? I’m supposed to be the dramatic one around here,” Tony sighed, leaning back with an exaggerated sigh. Way to leave them in suspense.
Fury didn’t speak, just swallowed and looked down. With a click the image hovering over the table changed.
No one dared to speak. No one dared to look away.
“This is Peter Parker, a-” Fury cut himself off, clearing his throat. “A fifteen-year-old honours student from Midtown School of Science and Technology.”
He let the information linger. Tony couldn’t tear his eyes away from the smiling face of a child in front of him. He was used to this coiling feeling in his gut when he saw children floating above the table. He was used to feeling his mouth go dry – a thirst that could only be quenched by one thing.
He was used to seeing them sit there as a victim. Never in his life had he seen a child sit there as a suspect.
“I know it’s not a pretty picture, but all evidence points in one direction,” Fury ploughed on. Tony wasn’t sure if anyone else was listening. No one looked away from those crinkled eyes. “The story seems to be that there was a trade off between our suspect and Mr Parker. We have multiple sources placing him near enough to the scene that we can't ignore it. Now, I appreciate that this is uncomfortable for some of you-”
Natasha turned her head to face Fury again. Tony knew she would be even more against this than he was, being a child soldier herself. Tony found himself wondering if Steve and James were against it, considering they were both from war times where you were expected to enlist at sixteen.
He didn’t feel the need to speculate about the other person in the room; Clint looked about ready to kill someone.
“It’s a kid,” Steve said, lamely. It was as if he just noticed. As if the image of this teenager wasn’t going to instantly give them all nightmares.
“It’s a HYDRA agent,” Fury corrected. “As much as we don’t want to think about it, this is a child with training from one of the most violent groups in the world.”
“So, what? What’s our plan?” Clint asked. Tony shifted in his seat. It looked like Clint had decided he was going to kill someone in this room and as much as he was certain it was going to be Fury, Tony was normally pretty high up on everyone’s lists himself.
“The plan is to talk to him. Bring him in for questioning, get the data, offer him an out,” Fury offered. There was something in his voice that wasn’t filling Tony with much hope.
He felt like he could smell the hangover he was going to get tomorrow.
“For him to be active at fifteen, he was indoctrinated into the group young. It’s very unlikely that we will be able to get through to him,” Clint pushed.
Tony felt the anger radiating from him, the anxiety radiating from James and Steve. But Nat? there was this horrible sense of calm coming from her corner, like she had already seen the ending of this entire meeting and knew exactly what was going to be said.
“He is unlikely to betray HYDRA, yes. Unfortunately, this is something we must accept. I don’t like that they’re training children as much as you, but part of their reasoning for doing so is probably to use our own morality against us-”
“Our morality? Please tell me you are not suggesting what I think you are?” Clint growled.
Steve looked pale but James seemed to be doing a good job of holding back what he was feeling.
“What are you suggesting?” Tony asked, finally turning back to Nat. They met eyes, he stared, and Natasha looked away.
That was when Tony knew.
“If the kid starts attacking, we expect him to be highly trained. They wouldn’t trust this information with just anyone,” Fury said, emotionless. It wasn’t helping this time. Not like it usually did. “We are not only unwilling to sacrifice you for this mission, but that data is essential to ensure the well being of hundreds of families.”
Fury paused, looking around the room. Finally, he met Clint head on. “Hundreds of children will die if HYDRA get their hands on this. It will be unavoidable.”
Clint clenched his jaw, grinding his teeth together. “What are you suggesting?” it came out slightly less aggressive than before, and Fury must have accepted that was all he was going to get.
He continued.
“If Mr Parker engages in combat, the order is to kill on sight.”
Silence.
It lingers.
The first to leave is Clint, chair slamming back and the bang of the door startling everyone else. Natasha is the first to break the remaining silence.
“When do we go?” she asks, quiet.
Fury looks at her for a moment. Tony doesn’t know what the look is supposed to mean but Natasha nods her head before Fury speaks. “He walks to school through the same back alley every day. Tomorrow, at 7:47am exactly, he is expected to be here,” the hologram changes and Tony feels like he can breathe slightly better without having to see those eyes. “This is where you’ll intercept. Whole team; no risks. And-”
A breath.
“And?” James asks, voice surprisingly steady.
“And we just need to pray that he cooperates,” Fury finished, collecting the files from the table and taking his leave.
After the door swung shut the rest of them didn’t move. The alleyway still hovered above the table. Tony was beginning to build himself up to get a drink when Natasha spoke.
“We’ll intercept in two teams. One covers the front; one covers the back. Clint will be on the roof – lookout.” Everyone nods their heads, appreciating that Clint clearly could not be completely in the field for this one.
“Bucky and I will cover the front,” Steve announced, sounding stronger than he looked. Tony wanted to punch him for both that and the stupid nickname everyone seemed to use for James that only Tony was not in on.
Natasha didn’t seem to harbour the same sense of disdain. She simply nodded, “Okay, me and Tony will cover the back. Tony, you’ve got the deadliest long-range weapon outside of Clint,” she said. Tony tried not to flinch at the word deadly used in this context. “It makes sense if you do the main precautionary work. I would say you should do the talking since you love hearing your own voice, but I think we’ll leave this one to Steve,” she smiled. Trying to crack a joke at this moment was brave, and Tony admired the fact that she didn’t care when it failed to land.
“Everyone happy?” Steve asked, standing.
They all made their leave after that. All except Tony and Natasha. They allowed themselves to sit in silence for a few minutes.
“I’m surprised you haven’t run away yet,” she started. She didn’t make eye contact with him, not even when he turned to look at her.
“So am I,” he admitted.
“It’s never nice, is it?” she said, shrugging. “Stuff with kids. Parker should be getting shoved around in corridors and answering AP Physics questions wrong and thinking the world is over because he can’t find a date to prom.”
“Way to bring the mood up, Nat,” Tony sighs, stretching backwards.
She huffs a laugh. “You going to get shitfaced now?” she asks. It's not disapproving, but it's not supportive.
“No,” he lies, before remembering that Natasha is not Steve and won’t give him a lecture about the effects of alcoholism. “I mean yeah, if you wanna join?” he offers.
She declines. “You gonna be okay tomorrow?”
Tony isn’t quite sure if its just Nat being polite, if she’s worried about his mental state, or worried about his hangover affecting the mission. Either way, he replies with a sigh. “Yeah,” he says, standing and walking over to the door.
“You’re a shit liar, Tony Stark.”
“Yeah, well. It’s not fair when I’m up against a human lie detector,” Tony scoffs.
He leaves then, and just before the door closes and the sound cuts out, he hears Natasha whisper, “I like that. ‘Human lie detector’,” and then it’s quiet again. It’s quiet all the way back to his workshop.
The only sound he hears before the end of the night is the popping of a cork and the glug glug glug of a good night sleep.