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Mr. Stark had been gone for a month. A whole miserable month of worrying and missing and seeing his face on the news just about every morning as every lead the Avengers had of him turned false and the man still being missing. Penny just wished there was something she could do to help, but May and Ms. Potts had both told her to just focus on school and patrolling, to not seek out trouble while Rhodey and Vision looked for Mr. Stark. As well as members of the UN, and the FBI, and the CIA, and literally everyone else.
What could she, an untrained teenage girl (who while extremely strong was, once again, untrained) do to find her mentor? Nothing--apparently--was what. So that's what Penny had been doing; Nothing. And it sucked. It sucked knowing Mr. Stark was out there somewhere, probably hurt and alone, missing Rhodey and Ms. Potts--and maybe her too--and she was doing nothing to help find him, even though she knew that if the same thing had happened to her, the man wouldn't rest until she was found.
At first, Penny had been okay to wait, to sit back and let the Avengers handle finding her mentor, however antsy and discontent it made her. But then two days had turn into two weeks, and now that two weeks had turned into a month, and still no Mr. Stark.
Despite the absence of her mentor, Happy had continued to drive her to the compound every other Friday so she could fix up any damages to her suit. Which was why she was now in the back of his car, staring forlornly out the window at the city which had turned into a forested highway, indicating that they weren't far away now.
Happy had been silent the entire ride, save for a curt greeting when he'd first picked her up, which was normal for him, but the silence in the car was different. She didn't quite know how to describe it other than that she could tell Happy missed Mr. Stark too, and that he kept glancing back at her through the mirror.
They arrived at the compound within the next few silent and sad minutes. Happy pulled up the car outside, and while the compound had always made her stare no matter how long she'd been coming, it seemed much less impressive with Mr. Stark gone.
The bodyguard escorted her to Mr. Stark's lab, reminding her gruffly not to blow anything up, which dragged a faint smile out of her, though it was barely there. And then he was gone.
"Hey, Friday," Penny greeted the AI once the elevator doors had closed on Happy, "How've you been holding up?"
Despite the AI being, well, an AI, Penny made the effort to talk to her whenever she came over. After all, she must be missing Mr. Stark too, as evidenced by Friday's soft response, "I am well, Penny. I've been very busy without Mr. Stark here to help. And you?"
"Fine," she responded stiffly, "Uh, let's just get started."
"Very well. What would you like to work on today?"
"Um, pull up the Spider-Mark 1 schematics," she ordered, beginning to take the suit out of her bag, "And scan the suit. Identify weak points and we'll work from there."
Friday did as told, and Penny spent close to an hour fixing and repairing her suit, the whole time fighting down bile. She was working in Mr. Stark's lab, using his materials and his resources, to work on his suit--and he wasn't even there. Because he was kidnapped. Because he was most likely hurt and it had been a month and every lead had turned up false and he was probably dead and--
"Shit!" Penny exclaimed, leaping back as she burned herself working on the wiring of her suit.
"Penny, are you alright?" Friday asked, concerned, and then she was crying.
Silent tears slipped out of her eyes and down her cheeks, hot against her face, and she wasn't quite sure why. Except for that Mr. Stark was gone, that she hadn't seen him in a month, that Friday was the one checking up on her and not him, and that she couldn't lose someone else. After Ben...she just couldn't. Couldn't lose someone else she cared for so much, someone she loved.
It took a full ten minutes for her to calm down, Friday talking her through breathing properly and playing calming sounds, but it would never come close to way Mr. Stark had calmed her down from panic attacks. To the way he would hold her hand or hug her, his hand often wading through her hair. And it always worked, it always calmed her down, because he was Mr. Stark, and he always knew what to do.
And now she had to know what to do. She wasn't quite sure what, but it came over her then. She had to find him, had to help. He was her mentor, and she'd done nothing to find him. She couldn't--she wouldn't be able to sleep--not that she had been well anyway--until she knew he was okay again.
Penny looked around the room, the room that was still littered with traces of Mr. Stark, from the forgotten mugs and the beginnings of projects she prayed he'd be able to finish. She'd start here. She couldn't ask Friday, or Rhodey or Vision. None of them would tell her anything, and Rhodey and Vision were chasing what was probably another false lead at the moment. She checked the watch on her wrist--a gift from Mr. Stark--to discover she only had another five minutes before Happy would be down to take her home.
She had a lot of work to do. And no time.
The teen started at where she thought would be most obvious; Mr. Stark's desk. Well, designated desk. She thought he'd only put the nameplate on it to make her feel more comfortable about her own desk, which had its own spider-themed nameplate that up until now had never failed to make her smile. But almost nothing seemed to make her able to smile anymore, not like she used to.
There ended up not being much, even in the drawers. The only thing that grabbed her attention was a plain, cheap, flip phone. She paused when she saw it, placed atop a stack of papers. Why would Mr. Stark have such a useless phone when he had top of the line ones produced by his own company? Just as she was considering moving on, her senses spiked at the arrival of the elevator, and with no other leads or information, she snatched the crappy phone up and placed it in her pocket just as Happy's face appeared through the now open elevator doors.
"Ready to go home, kid?" he asked.
She nodded.
As it turned out, the cellphone actually had a reason for being something Mr. Stark would keep.
Once Happy had taken her home, she'd rushed up into her apartment. May was working, so Penny set up in the living room, flipping open the phone. The only thing on the crappy phone screen was a contact. Steve Rogers.
"Holy shit," she mumbled. She didn't know that Mr. Stark still kept in contact with the Captain, or why they were using a flip phone when Mr. Stark could most definitely come up with a thousand other untraceable ways.
Now, under other circumstances, she most definitely wouldn't call Captain America. She knew what had happened in Syberia, she knew that he had hurt her mentor. A lot. She didn't trust Captain America, and there was certainly no reason for him to trust her. But Mr. Stark was missing, and he was an expert tracker. The Avengers had been searching for him for a month, with nothing to show for it but a whole lot of worry and grief.
In truth, she was desperate. And desperate people were willing to do a lot.
She pressed the button, the phone vibrating slightly as the ringtone rang through the air. She held the phone to her ear, standing up and crossing her arms, her leg jittering against the wood floor. It felt like forever but was probably a total of seconds before the sound cut out and a voice answered.
"Tony?" asked Mr. Rogers, and she took in a sharp breath.
"Uh, no. This is, ah, Spider-Woman. From Germany?"
There was a pause before he hummed, his voice more hostile than before, "I'm familiar. How'd you get this phone?"
"Well, Mr. Stark's been missing, so I was going--"
"Tony's missing?" Mr. Rogers interrupted, and she blinked.
"You--you didn't know? He's been gone for a month, sir." Mr. Rogers was silent at that, so she rushed to carry on, practically begging. She couldn't lose Mr. Stark, "Uh, Colonel Rhodes and Mr. Vision haven't had much luck, so I went through Mr. Stark's desk, and I found this phone so I just thought I'd call you. See if you could--if you could find him? Please."
The man was silent for so long she thought he'd hung up, but he spoke just as she was pulling the phone away from her ear, and she rushed to put it back.
"Of course. We'll start now. But there's a couple of things I'll need."
"Yeah, yeah!" she agreed excitedly. Anything for Mr. Stark to be safe, "What do you need?"
"Do you have access to the Quinjet?"
She paused, "Uh, I think so. If not, I can hack it."
"You can hack it?"
"It's not that hard, Mr. Rogers."
"...Duly noted," the man said after a moment, "Take that and meet us at the coordinates I'll text you in a moment. Bring whatever footage or leads you have of when Tony was taken. Get our old weapons too, if you can. Can you do that?"
"Yeah," she agreed hesitantly. At least she didn't have school, but May was definitely going to notice her absence... She'd have to leave a note.
"Good." And then he hung up, a string of numbers in a text message his last words to her. That, was, until she saw him again, wherever these numbers led to.
Tony had been in worse scrapes than this, probably a million times, but it was a little different than Afghanistan. For one thing, his captors were familiar with his work--which, who wasn't?--which was unfortunate, because it meant he was always under close supervision, never had a true moment to himself, and thus couldn't make anything to break his way out of here. Well, he had the beginnings of a bomb already, but it was slow going, as evidenced by how long he'd been in this stupid office building.
He wasn't sure quite how long, the time being kept from him, but he was sure it had been at least a month by now, not that his internal clock had ever been any good.
But what was different about this place compared to Afghanistan, was that he had a family now. A family he missed terribly. He had a fiancee, who's bright eyes and witty jokes never failed to make his heart melt. He had his best friend, practically brother, who had been there for him for years, always ready to help, even when he'd been a snot-nosed kid in college. And now he had his own snot-nosed kid, who was smart and sweet and always made him smile.
And he missed them. He missed them a lot.
The man often found himself thinking about what his family was doing. How was Pepper getting along? Was she scared, or was she used to this from him? A part of him worried if this was the final straw to drive her away from him, and he prayed to anyone he did and didn't believe in that it wasn't.
What about Rhodey? He doubted the man had even taken a second to look after himself in his search for Tony, much like after Afghanistan, flying around in his suit instead of going to physical therapy like he should be. Tony would have to make him new braces when he got back.
And Penny? Well, he just hoped the kid hadn't come searching for him. These were some pretty dangerous guys, after super solider serums and nuclear weapons, and the girl fell right in the 'enhanced we'd like to kidnap and experiment on' category. If she got caught looking for him...it wouldn't be good. But Happy should be keeping an eye on her, so she'd be fine. Hopefully.
Tony flinched at the BANG! BANG! against his door, the metal in the wall opening up, revealing the usual sight he was met with. An entourage of armed guards wearing tacky emo armor. The guard that had stood in his cell all night yawned, as though this were the most boring thing in the world, and left, his shift of babysitting the billionaire over.
"Morning, Stark," greeted Hudson, the leader of the group. He had light brown hair and a frustratingly charming smile that really only made his face more punchable. Tony didn't say anything in response, just gave him a glare from underneath his greasy hair. Hudson rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue in annoyance, "Take him to the workshop. I'd like to have this finished by next week."
"Yes, sir," a guard responded, and Tony was forced to his feet and herded out of the dark and dirty room into what would be a bright and slightly less dirty room. His 'workshop,' though it didn't hold a candle to his one at the compound. It wasn't nearly as crude as the cave in Afghanistan, but he would call it barely better than a high school workshop, which wasn't really saying much.
The hallway to the workshop was long, filled with many what used to be conference rooms and offices transformed into a special little terrorist base on the edge of Switzerland. Once you got past the murder and the torture and the white supremacy of it all, it really wasn't too bad. The food was decent at least, a little dry though.
Tony's mouth quirked at his own humor, and he hoped it would be enough to get him through the day. Humor was a useful tool, one he used well, but he was running dry after the amount of time he'd spent in this place. It was barely enough to keep him from reminiscing of Pepper. And Rhodey. And--
The lights suddenly flashed, the fire alarms on the wall screeching as the glaring on and off, and he wished he could cover his ears at the blaring sound, but unfortunately they had to stay crossed on the back of his head. He could move his elbows a little though.
The hallways then turned dark as the lights turned off, the only thing on being the fire alarm that was blinking lazily occasionally, but still screechin overhead. He hoped this place was actually on fire, and that it wasn't a drill or something, but something told him it was a little bit more.
He was right.
Barely a moment later, as the guards were muttering to themselves confusedly, a much-too-familiar-shield came streaking out of the dark hallway, bouncing off of at least three guy's heads before streaming back to its holder. Those hit dropped to the floor, and really, Tony did want to get out of here, but at what cost? Steve's smug face wasn't really worth it.
Still, he took the opportunity, elbowing the nearest guy as Steve came rushing out of the darkness, his shield that he somehow had held in front of him threateningly. It was all Tony could do not to break down and have a panic attack at the sight, instead letting the adrenaline begin to run through his body as he continued to fight.
The surprised guards just apparently couldn't come back to their senses at the sight of Captain America--which he really got. Like, that beard? That was a no--and the fight was over in barely a minute, all of them down on the ground.
Tony picked up one of their guns, sniffing as he turned to look at his former friend. Former, "What are you doing here?"
"You're welcome."
"I didn't ask for your help."
"But you needed it."
"I had an escape plan," Tony lied. He had like, 12% of an escape plan. Whatever, it was a plan.
"You've been gone for a month."
"Wow, surprised you noticed."
"Actually--"
The lights flashed back on again, interrupting Steve. They flickered back on to reveal more guards. Lots of more guards, now clearly more prepared to take them down. Though in the narrow hallways, at least their numbers meant nothing. With guns anyway.
"We'll talk later," Steve muttered, bending his knees in a defensive stance.
"I hope not," Tony replied, cocking the gun. The leader opened his mouth to say something, probably along the lines of 'surrender and we won't kill you' when--
"Y'know, you guys really should be nicer to each other," chirped a voice. A familiar voice. And then a web covered the leader's mouth, seemingly sticking his surprised expression in place.
Tony sighed, "Goddammit."
Spider-Woman dropped down from where she'd apparently been hiding in a vent, crouching protectively in front of him, despite how much he wanted the girl behind him so he could protect her.
"Hey, Mr. Stark. How've you been?" she asked, false bravado clear in her voice.
"Well I was worrying a little less, but now... Not so much."
"Aw, that's so sweet," the girl joked, and he couldn't help but smile, her joyous nature infectious. He was still mad though. Absolutely furious that she was here, with Steve, and not at home, "Anyway, I've only been here a few minutes and it kinda drags. Can we leave?"
"Just gotta get through them first, kid," Steve said. And they did. Wilson, Romanoff, and Wanda appeared barely a minute into the fight, and with their combined effort it barely ended up being much of a fight. He had to commend the kid for being a much better fighter than when he'd first brought her along to Germany, but he was still mad.
He waited to say anything until they had made it out of the building, and he blinked at the pale light outside, glad to finally not be trapped in that stupid building. Penny trailed a little bit behind him, clearly waiting to catch him if he fell or whatever.
Tony wanted to say he was surprised at the sight of the Quinjet--the new one, not the old one Steve had taken--but he couldn't say he was. What with the shield, and Sam's wings, it was painfully obvious to him that they'd been by the compound. But why no Rhodes or Vision? Unless...
"Please tell me you didn't hack the Quinjet," he said to Penny as the deck lowered for them.
"I, ah, um, uhhhhh--" the girl stuttered, but Steve cut her off.
"I told her to, Tony. I thought it'd be easier for her to reach us than us her," he explained, and Tony just raised an eyebrow.
"Would someone like to explain what the hell is going on?" he asked.
"Yeah," Sam answered, "We saved you. Boom, end of story."
"Not a very descriptive story," Tony drawled as he entered the jet.
"A better story would be that we've been underground for a couple of months on a mission," Nat started, "Spidey called us, said you were missing and asked for some help. She brought the stuff and we tracked you down."
Tony sighed again, pinching his brow, and he could practically feel Penny's nervousness, "Kid...you--how'd you even get in contact with them?"
"Oh, I found that phone in your lab. I took it when Happy wasn't looking."
"Of course you did," he said, shaking his head, because, really, he should've expected this. Penny was relentless, and frustratingly loyal. A month had been stretching it thin for her, he was sure, and he was impressed she hadn't gone dashing for him the first week in.
"Sorry for hacking the Quinjet, Mr. Stark," she apologized meekly.
"What are you talking about? You have access."
"Yeah, but I had to make it so it wouldn't announce me leaving."
"That reminds me. I'm gonna have a talk with Rhodey about keeping a better eye on you."
"Colonel Rhodes is in Turkey," she responded. Because of course he was.
"Whatever, kid," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as he sat down in the ship, "But I'm still grounding you."
"Yeah, sure. I've never been grounded a day in my life."
"It's only been a few years."
"Shut up."
Tony grinned. He had a part of his family back, and he couldn't wait to see the rest of them back home.