Chapter Text
Six months after the invasion of New York, the Umbrella Academy is brought to the attention of the Avengers.
An alert comes in courtesy of the SHIELD systems Tony may or may not have had JARVIS hack into (really, it was too easy) that barely gains his attention. Something is happening in some lab in Ohio that they've been keeping an eye on for shady activity or whatever. It's been intiltrated by some new group of heroes with some stupid sounding name. This is not news to Tony, new heroes and villains and groups and organizations were popping up at least once a week since the invasion, they were rarely ever of any interest and could easily be left to Fury to deal with. But he's bored, so he opens the file relating to this 'Umbrella Academy'- seriously, that name is so childish, even by his admittedly immature standards- and starts skimming through it and
WHOA. Wait. He stares at the pictures of the supposed heroes, trying to process what he sees. Those are children . Actual, literal children. In sleek black suits somewhat reminiscent of what Nat wears in battle and domino masks. They can't be older than twelve, maybe thirteen, if these pictures are at all recent, and a quick check of the date of upload confirms that these pictures are from a robbery turned hostage situation back in September.
He backs out and reads the alert more closely. The lab in Columbus houses some shady organization doing some sort of dangerous research that he really does not care about right now. The Umbrella Academy, these child superheroes with actual powers, are conducting an infiltration to get this research and destroy the lab for their leader/father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves- a man Tony has only met a handful of times but who he has always found thoroughly discomforting, and now it seems like he had been right in that assessment. But the infiltration has gone horribly wrong and now there's reports of fighting and gunfire and explosions all around the compound and Tony has read enough.
"JARVIS, get my suit ready! And call Rhodey!"
" Yes, sir ."
Less than two minutes later they're suited up and on their way to Columbus. Tony quickly explains the situation and then jokes that Cap is going to be so jealous that he doesn't get to play the hero this time, then makes a note to JARVIS to remind him to start research into ways to make their jets faster and more efficient with less fuel.
They arrive at the lab in an hour. The fight is still happening and whether or not that's a good thing is a debate neither of them want to have, but the lack of any SHIELD agents being a bad sign isn't something they have to debate at all. Slow, incompetent bastards.
War Machine goes to handle the perimeter while Iron Man heads inside to find the kids. It's easy to find them, just follow the sounds of gunfire and shouting.
Bodies, unconscious or dead is hard to tell, litter the floor of what might be a testing area or maybe a cafeteria, also hard to tell but it doesn't matter. What matters are the four kids still fighting and the two he can't see anywhere among the chaos.
First things first, take out the bad guys and protect the kids. Avoid the tentacles coming out of that boy's stomach and try not to get hit by the things the other two are throwing.
It takes all of six minutes to knock out or otherwise incapacitate the bad guys and secure the room. Being unexpected helps, it's clear these guys had been prepared for the Umbrella Academy's attack but they didn't expect Iron Man to swoop in and start blasting everyone.
The second the fighting is over, two of the boys start bickering over what just happened while the third pops out of existence for a second and reappears near them, and the forth- the one who had tentacles coming out of his guts- no longer has tentacles coming out of his guts, is soaked in blood, and looks sick to his stomach as he limps over to the group.
Tony lands in front of the bickering boys and interrupts their bizarre argument about whose fault it is that everything went wrong.
"Okay, cool it, children. You can have your petty teenage arguments later. Right now I count four heads when there's supposed to be six, where're the other two?"
The tall blonde boy crosses his arms in a way that is way too similar to Cap but somehow far more egotistical, and holds himself up with self determination that would be impressive if he hadn't had an obvious nosebleed and various scrapes, cuts, and bruises. "Who's asking?"
The brown haired one speaks up next to him and practically snarls, "That's Iron Man, you idiot." Tony notes the bleeding gash on his forehead and decides to check for a concussion later.
The blonde drops his arms and takes a less arrogant stance. "Oh."
Tony smirks behind his mask but drops that himself as he pops the helmet open to show his face. Kids probably feel more comfortable that way, he figures. "Now that that's outta the way, do you know where the other two are?"
The tentacle boy finally finishes limping over- sprained ankle, likely. "Klaus was the lookout. He tried to warn us of something but something cut him off, Allison went to check on him but then the guards attacked us."
"That's good. Now, where did they go?"
The kid hesitates for a second, seeming to think, but points at a door in a corner leading to some hallway, most likely leading to some kind of back entrance that they used to get in.
"Thanks, Calamari. Now you guys stay here-" he points specifically at the teleporting kid, who's looking dizzier than he had thirty seconds ago, adrenaline wearing off is a bitch isn't it- "And I'll be right back with your friends, savvy?"
The helmet snaps shut and he flies off before they have a chance to say anything. He's three seconds down the hall when he sees blood leading down another and there he finds a full grown man trying to strangle a little girl. He shouts and grabs the man's attention, the man's fingers slip just a little and the girl kicks him hard in the balls. He lets go and she falls back, coughing her poor lungs out, and Tony shoots the man with his blaster and shoots him again for good measure. His unconscious body joins the pile of possibly dead but hopefully only unconscious bodies of his comrades.
The girl- Allison, he thinks tentacles called her- coughs for a few more seconds then tries to stifle her own pain as she half crawls half knee-walks over to a curly haired boy who is laying in a bloody mess on the floor. Tony lands beside them and has JARVIS survey his injuries- two breaks in his lower right leg, a break in both bones of his lower left arm, a very sprained right wrist, badly bruised ribs, a face covered in fresh bruises including one very swollen eye, a split lip, a broken and bleeding nose, and a gamut of other bruises and cuts all over his body.
"He-" she tries to force herself to talk but it comes out ragged and harsh, and she falls into another coughing fit.
Tony places a gentle hand on her shoulder and surveys her injuries as well- bruising from the strangling, a broken arm to match the boy's, less severe but still bad bruising on her ribs, two sprained ankles of varying severity, and a black eye and swollen lip of her own.
He needs to get them out, now.
"Shit. Just focus on breathing, sweetheart, don't talk." She nods and tries to comply. "Okay, now, I'm gonna have to carry your friend here-"
Allison interrupts with a ragged breath. "Br-brother," she manages to choke out.
He tries to put that information aside for later, when he has the chance to properly read up on them. "Right, yeah. I'm gonna have to carry your brother, okay, and I'm gonna need you to hold onto me. Like a piggy back ride, alright? It might hurt but you think you can do that?"
She nods again and wraps her arms around his neck with only a quiet whimper- tough girl. Tony very, very carefully lifts the boy up and is relieved when his not-swollen eye snaps open and he lets out a cry of surprise. He knows he's alive and conscious, JARVIS told him that with the injury reading, listing off his vitals as well, but sometimes that information doesn't quite register until he can see it for himself.
He gets them back to the other kids- they're all siblings, aren't they, holy shit- and puts them both on the floor. Tentacle boy and the kid with a knife gripped tightly in one hand and his bleeding, clearly stabbed arm gripped even more tightly in the other both shout "Klaus!" and immediately run to his side. The blonde goes to Allison, but she unsuccessfully tries to wave him off as she can barely sit up on her own. The teleporting one stands shaking a little bit away with concern painting his otherwise surprisingly controlled face.
Tony makes a call directly to Director Fury, which he shouldn't be able to do but still does all the time anyway, and demands that SHIELD gets there immediately, ASAP, ten fucking minutes ago goddammit you slow bastards, you should've been here before me, what's the point of your shitty security if you don't do anything! And he hangs up.
"Help is on its way," he announces.
"I-isn't that w-w-what you're supposed to be?" knife boy asks.
"We're the cavalry. Front lines, all that. Calling in the authorities now, so they can deal with these…" he tries not to swear, "...guys who attacked you."
He has JARVIS survey the rest of their injuries. They all have an assortment of cuts and bruises that would heal easily enough. Tentacles has it the easiest, despite being covered in blood very little of it is his own and at worst he has a stomachache. The blonde has it second best with some bad bruising but nothing much worse. The teleporter does have a concussion to compliment that forehead gash, fortunately one that doesn't seem too bad, as well as a few fractured fingers. Knife boy has a stab wound on his arm that he's actually doing a pretty good job of stemming the flow of blood on, plus a dislocated shoulder on the same arm. No internal bleeding or other injuries that would require surgery. Good, alright, they can wait a few minutes for help to arrive. But with nothing to do but wait, Tony convinces the knife kid to let him pop his shoulder back into place.
Diego, or Number Two as JARVIS kindly decides to inform him, grits his teeth and makes as little noise as possible when his shoulder is popped back into its socket. Just as that happens, War Machine flies into the room holding a very scared looking girl about the same age as the others, but wearing a school uniform instead of the black suits and masks. Her right arm and leg and a bit of her face are pretty badly scraped up, like she had been thrown across gravel.
The teleporter, Five, sees her and says, "Vanya!" He tries to pop over but his powers don't seem to work and he stumbles, gets caught by the arm by the blonde, Luther, or Number One. Vanya rushes over to his side eyes growing wet with tears and sob choking out of her.
"Vanya, what happened?" Five asks as he shakes off the other boy's grip and immediately wraps the girl, who Tony is informed is, in fact, his sister, they're all adopted siblings, in a hug.
"Where's dad?" Luther demands. She just sobs. "Vanya, where is dad ?"
"L-leave her alone!" Diego snaps.
"Something's happened, we need to know what!"
Allison swats her hand at him, apparently trying to tell him to back off.
Klaus, finally rousing from his unconsciousness, lets out a pained and weak, "Hey, Vanny," as Five sits her and himself down next to him and Ben.
Rhodey opens his helmet. "Look, kids, this probably isn't the best time to-"
Luther's eyes snap to him and he looks like he would have jumped up and thrown War Machine across the room if he wasn't supporting Allison. "What happened to our dad?"
Rhodey sighs and relents. "He's… dead. They got to him just before I could get there."
Silence, save for a sob that Vanya attempts to stifle.
Klaus breaks it with a distressed whine. "Oh, shit!" He's almost crying but is stopped with a twinge of pain from his ribs. He waves his better-but-still-not-good arm around limply until Ben takes it. He mutters something that sounds like "I don't want to see him," while Ben shushes him comfortingly, and Tony doesn't worry about if that has something to do with his powers- which would mean ghosts, which would be absurd- or not right now.
Luther carefully lets go of Allison, who can sit up on her own again even if it takes effort, and takes a threatening steps towards War Machine. Rhodey doesn't flinch.
He stops a few feet short. "What the hell do you mean by that?"
"I mean I was late," Rhodey explains, calm and cool. "I'm sorry."
Luther looks ready to launch him across the room when Five interrupts. "Wait, Luther! It isn't his fault, it can't be."
He turns around in a snap. "What? He just said-"
"Use your stupid useless brain for once! God, I can figure it out and I have a concussion."
Luther balls his hands into tight fists but remains quiet.
"Think, blockhead!" Five points at his own head for emphasis. "Dad and Vanya would've been watching from buildings over, they couldn't have known where they were unless they knew about our mission beforehand. They knew we were coming and they planned ahead and they killed dad because they wanted him dead. They played us!"
The gears turning in Luther's mind are practically visible. First his face drops, then his fists, then his head.
There's no chance to deal with that thought, though, as a group of gun-toting SHIELD agents burst and flood into the room, guns trained on the group of children , dammit, Tony is going to have several words with Fury later.
Luther and Diego immediately jump into fighting stances, while Five stands and steps in front his injured siblings and Ben tries to shield (pun intended) both Klaus and Vanya and beckons for Allison to get closer to him.
Tony and Rhodey both whip around and train their blasters and War Machine's shoulder guns at the agents.
"Alright, everyone, let's all just calm down," he reasons. "We've already handled the situation. Put your guns down."
They don't listen. Of course not. They won't listen to anyone except-
Fury walks into the room, the picture perfect bastard as always, the only thing missing is a jacket to billow behind him.
"Stand down, gentleman."
The gunmen stand down. So do Tony and Rhodey.
"The hell was that, Fury? Actually, nevermind, just help the kids, we can talk later."
"Already ahead of you, Mr. Stark."
He gestures and several paramedics come out from behind the group and head towards the kids. Diego prepares to throw a knife but Five grabs his arm, and Luther looks ready to fight but Tony holds up a hand.
"Chill, Meatshield. They're here to help. Promise."
He directs the last statement more towards Fury. Fury returns what he assumes is a glare with a calm look of his own.
"Get them to jets," he orders, and the paramedics begin to herd the kids out of the building, Klaus and Allison on stretchers, Five snapping at them not to touch him, everyone else following with some reluctance.
The second they're out of the room, Tony snaps his helmet open and starts arguing. Well, it's barely a conversation, let alone an argument. It's quickly made obvious that Fury is testing him in some way that he's just not going to think about right now matter how much he wants to, nope, no way, gotta prioritize. So he just chews the director out for being late and for pointing guns at children, even if they are superpowered children, and again for being so late and letting those kids get as injured as they are.
Then he tells him to send them to Avengers Tower. Fury asks him why he should.
"Easy." He holds up a new finger with each number. "One, I have a fully equipped and staffed medical facility that can easily handle their injuries. Two, while they might be in your custody, the Avengers are technically an off-shoot of SHIELD as such they'd still be in your custody. Third, I may not know kids very well but I pretty much am one myself if Pepper and the tabloids are to be believed, and I know that I'd feel a lot safer and be less likely to blow shit up in a cool, high tech skyscraper in the middle of Manhattan than in a sterile, gray, and cold base in the middle of who the hell knows where."
Fury smirks and gives the order to send the jets to Avengers Tower.
"I'll be in contact soon, Mr. Stark." And Fury leaves as the agents begin checking to see who's left alive to be arrested.
Tony and Rhodey fly back to the tower, calling ahead to let everyone who needs to know about the situation.
They get back in just over the hour it took them to get there in the first place. Rhodey heads inside to give a more detailed explanation to Steve and Bruce- the only two other Avengers currently in the tower- and probably submit some kind of report. Tony checks in with JARVIS who informs him the Hargreeves children are receiving medical attention and Miss Potts is keeping an eye on them. With that assurance, he heads to his office and begins a thorough reading up on the Umbrella Academy.