Chapter Text
YEAR 5 | 8:05 p.m.
“ASSET NINETEEN, we believe you have finally reached the point in your training to complete the final step. You see, I have come to debrief you on your first mission without my aid.”
Nineteen sat in a dim lighted room, gaze set on his mission leader and instructor, Javier, who stood and eagerly talked in front of a whiteboard. Around were four heavily armed guards, as well as other men of authority Nineteen had seen too much in his time spent here.
His eyes widened at the mention of the allusive final step he had been preparing for for five years, jaws slightly dropped. “I am ready?”
“Never doubt yourself, Asset. Doubt is for the weak. Doubt… is a distraction.” Javier’s face suddenly became awfully serious. It had to be because of the setting they found themselves in, with authority screaming from every man around them, because normally Javier wouldn’t be afraid to show a little humanity.
He nodded slightly. No emotions showed on his face as his eyes were locked on thin air far ahead, the gesture little but enough. Emotions were a weakness. Just as he had been taught; small body language gestures were always better than words.
Over the span of five years, Nineteen had been taught far more things than he would ever find useful. Mathematics, French, Italian, Japanese, German, Russian, how to shoot precisely while literally soaring through air, and not to forget: the best way to kill a man with a spoon. At this point, he could literally throw five knives at a target with his eyes closed, all hitting the bull's eye.
He could even read people very easily. After a few minutes of talking or even observing, he could read a person like a book. He could figure out their secrets and flaws in a snap, figure out if they are hiding weapons. He didn’t know why Hydra taught him so many things like that, but suddenly he just noticed things no one else seemed to. They congratulated him on that and praised him for being their favorite. Told him he was lucky compared to the other assets. But in reality, no matter what Javier said, he didn’t feel so lucky.
However, he had to comply.
Hydra had trained him to become one of the deadliest men alive. And he had to be, because they did not accept failure.
He had failed once so he knew the torture that came with it. He had accompanied Javier on a smaller mission and refused to eliminate the target; a young woman with tears in her eyes. Now, he simply strode forward with purpose and “dispersed the evidence”, as Hydra often would say. And not once was there a second thought in his mind, telling him to not get any more blood on his hands than there already was.
“You are familiar with the Avengers, correct?”
Javier’s words brought him out of his thoughts and he nodded again. He had done copious amounts of research on each avenger, just as Hydra had ordered him to. He knew infinitely more about them than he did about himself. But it was for the best. They had assured him of that.
Javier took out a manilla folder, something quite common in his mission statements. He handed it to Nineteen. “You will be infiltrating the Avengers.”
The teenager’s eyes widened. The enemy? The Avengers who were the main enemy of Hydra? He looked through the folder, his mind making permanent mental notes of all of the information. Suddenly his gaze landed on a picture of an older man with kind eyes and brown hair. Underneath it stood First Target: Tony Stark in bold letters.
“The Avengers are our prime obstacle to initiate world dominance. They are a plague to this world.” There was a short pause. “With them in the way, there is no possibility for us to succeed in our most important mission of them all. So we must get rid of them, and Tony Stark is the key.”
Nineteen swallowed. Never had he thought that his first mission with only his own aid would be something as hugely important as this.
Javier crossed his arms on his chest and began to pace back and forth. “The Avengers are incredibly difficult to eliminate. We have studied each of the members for decades and it seems that the only way to break them down, is perhaps from the inside. So, tell me, what is Tony Stark’s weakness?”
Nineteen thought for a moment. “Pepper Potts,” he answered.
“Wrong. Tony Stark is a man of many things. The world knows him as a famed genius, a billionaire, an Avenger… a husband, even. But he is also a father.”
Suddenly it clicked for him. “Morgan Stark,” he said, his words coming as he was still realizing it.
Nineteen looked up from the folder to meet Javier’s gaze. He looked proud, as if he was sure the boy would succeed in the task put out for him. But Nineteen had a bad feeling about it going down to his core.
“There is nothing Tony Stark wouldn’t do for his daughter; his own kin. When you kidnap her, he will grow uneasy and restless. Reckless, even. His desperation to get her back will make him unable to think clearly and he will turn against his fellow Avengers.” Javier put a hand on his shoulder. “And that is when you will once again strike with the rest of our team, and disperse them one after the other like animals to slaughter.”
Nineteen’s gaze plastered onto the wood table in front of him. Lost in his own mind, a shadow casting ominously over him in the dim light of the room, he couldn’t help but wonder idly: Could this mission be bigger than himself?
No, he shook his head. I can do this. He straightened himself, determination in his eyes as he stared right into Javier’s icy orbs.
The corners of Javier’s lips formed a slight smirk. “First step: bring Stark’s daughter here. You go out tomorrow night.”
"Maguna! Where are you?"
Tony called to the toddler hiding from him. It was late in the evening on a normal Thursday, and the man was only trying to give his daughter a bath and then put her to bed. Turns out that wasn’t as easy as he had thought.
He stopped for a moment. “Miss Stark?" He listened.
A giggle came from the tiny cupboard under the stairs in their new house. Tony had yet to figure out all the hiding spaces, but it was obvious Morgan had done her exploring.
A smile grew on Tony’s lips as he crept towards the place the eight-year old was hiding.
With a big gesture, he flung the door open and scooped the giggling girl into his arms. “Got you!” he laughed.
“Nooo, daddy! Again!” She shrieked with her arms around her father’s neck.
“Nuh-uh. Mommy says it’s bath time.” Tony looked at her with an awfully bad attempt of seeming serious, to which his wife standing in the doorframe watching couldn’t help but laugh. Morgan pouted dramatically and Tony grinned, walking over to Pepper.
“Hey-“ She was cut off when the girl landed in her arms and she looked up at her husband expectantly.
“Please,” Tony pleaded with puppy eyes. “I’ll bathe her next time.”
“It’s your turn, Tony.”
“Nuh-uh. I specifically remember you saying you’d take her this time as well.”
Pepper grinned. “I wonder where Morgan gets her stubbornness from.” She took in her husband’s appearance with friendly eyes. An expensive tailored black suit with a charming red tie, a rare sight of the man unless he was headed for an important meeting. He looked exhausted and sleep-deprived, dark bruises circling under warm chocolate eyes. His dark hair was a mess, like he had just woken up and rushed off to the Avengers tower without bothering to comb it. Well, because he had. The man had literally only come home to their New York apartment an hour ago just in time for dinner. His chiseled jaw lifted with a proud smile.
On the other hand, she wore a comfortable white shirt and jeans with elegance, and had bothered enough to curl her ginger hair that rested nicely on her shoulders.
Pepper sighed. “Doesn’t seem like I have much choice in the matter, does it?”
Tony’s smile grew and he leaned in to place a soft kiss on her lips.
“Ew!” Morgan exclaimed and covered her eyes with her palms.
Laugher erupted between the two as they leaned back. “But you’re putting her to bed,” Pepper said with raised brows, vanishing into the bathroom with the young girl.
“And I’ll do it tomorrow!” Tony called after them.
Under the sound of the water flowing into the bathtub and Morgan’s giggling, Tony could make out three words from Pepper. “Sure you will!”
And soon enough, nighttime for all youngsters came, a moment where Tony found himself sitting next to little Morgan Stark tucked well into her covers. He was stroking her hair as she breathed softly, eyes closing only for a split second before they opened wide and large.
“Daddy,” she whispered.
“Mhm?”
“Can you sing me a goodnight song?”
Tony’s eyes lit up and he swallowed, mind wandering as he tried to come up with a good song for children he could sing to her. But who was he kidding, Pepper was usually the one who Morgan asked— and with good reason.
“Aren’t you getting a little too old for that, hm, Maguna?”
“Nuh-uh.” Morgan shook her head with a frown.
Tony sighed. There was a pause as he considered it, his daughter’s eyes shining with expectancy, so eager and happy to hear him sing. So, he started humming.
“Livin' easy…. lovin' free. Season ticket on a one way ride…” Tony couldn’t help but let out a laugh as Morgan covered her beaming smile with her covers.
“Askin' nothin', Oh, leave me be! Takin’ everythin' in my stride… Don't need reason, don't need rhyme. Ain't nothin' that I'd rather do…” His voice gradually became louder and louder.
“Goin' down. Party time. My friends are gonna be there too.” Tony rose from Morgan’s bedside, his movements exploding into large gestures of nothing but a guitar solo as he sang with all his voice’s power.
“I'm on the highway to hell!” He yelled rather than sung. “Ooh, on the highway to hell… Highway to hell! I'm on the highway to hell, Morgan!”
He slid to his knees, ending the most dramatic guitar solo the world had ever seen before he fell to his back with an exaggerated sigh. And in the bed was Morgan, giggling even more than she did to Nickelodeon.
Clapping enthusiastically as she watched her father rise from the floor, Morgan’s eyes were lit up like supernovas.
Tony ruffled a hand through her hair. “Is judge Morgan impressed?”
The girl suddenly turned very serious. “Hmmm.” She looked around the room. “No golden buzzer this time, but it’s a yes from me.”
“Yess!” Tony chuckled. He leaned in to plant a kiss on her forehead. “Go to sleep now, okay? Or I’ll never make you any mac n cheese ever again.”
“Daddy!”
Tony was halfway through the door as he spoke again. “Love you tons, Morgan.”
As he closed the door, he could hear her reply that melted his heart every time his little girl said it, and he would once again rub it in his wife’s face.
“I love you 3000.”
Meanwhile, on the edge of the rooftop sat a Hydra agent in a red and black suit, scouting out into the midnight city. The wind was bitterly cold and biting, especially for winter to be, whisking away all heat he had and leaving him shivering and pale, despite that his blood was still running warm.
“Asset Nineteen, you may move in.”
The words came suddenly, despite that he had been waiting for the order for several minutes now.
Closing his eyes, Nineteen released all of his weight and let himself freefall down the building.
Adrenaline coursed through his body until in the last possible second, he shot out a web and swung upwards. A smile formed underneath his mask, because oh how he loved this feeling.
Time to go to work.