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Steve couldn’t believe how badly this was all going. Sure Hydra had been a problem but they’d been handling them.
And now this.
Hydra had managed to kidnap Reed Richards and his team and forced him to build them an interdimensional machine by threatening his fiancée. None of them had known what Hydra wanted to do with the machine until now.
The Avengers had been overpowered shortly after attacking the facility, Steve hadn’t been able to get through to Bucky who was completely under their control currently, and the team was locked up in cells beside the Fantastic Four.
Red Skull hadn’t been able to resist a monologue, gloating about Hydra's victory.
It turned out that they wanted to pull a Tony Stark from another universe to turn into their personal mechanic.
That was a horrifying thought. Before his death, the arrogant billionaire had created a number of horrific weapons. And that had been for the military. Admittedly he hadn’t been aware that Stane was selling them to Hydra too, but Stark had never been especially moral.
He’d been a pain for SHIELD and the Avengers for years as he didn’t cooperate when they asked for help or funding. Howard would have been disappointed to see his son so against helping the organisation he helped create.
It had been a blessing and a curse when he died during an attack on Stark Industries. They didn’t have to worry about him anymore, but at the same time, the military didn’t get top-of-the-line weapons.
And now, if Reed’s machine worked, Hydra was going to have exclusive access to Stark’s weapons.
“What were you thinking?” Natasha demanded from Reed while they were powering up the machine.
Reed glared at her as he held an injured Susan Storm in his lap, his teammates scowling at her. “I was trying to protect my fiancée. Your Captain’s willing to do just about anything to protect his friend over there but when someone else does the same it’s suddenly wrong?”
Sam and Scott looked away while Clint kept his eyes on the activity past their cells.
“Bucky’s a victim too!” Steve argued, glancing at his blank-faced friend standing guard. He still hadn't managed to save him, but he knew he could break the brainwashing. He just needed time with his friend. Steve knew he'd remember him, he just knew it.
“And you’d put him above the world any day,” Reed snapped. “You’ve done it before.”
Several people shifted uncomfortably at the reference to Project Insight. Steve had to admit, he had been distracted by Bucky during that entire thing and he hadn’t focused on completing his mission.
Hydra succeeded in a lot that day as a result.
Their attention was drawn back to the centre of the room as the machine was turned on.
“Time for Hydra to gain a new Asset,” Red Skull smirked and a blinding flash of light went off.
When it faded and they’d blinked the spots of black from their eyes, they saw two figures lying on the floor in the middle of the room.
Clint cursed under his breath as Tony Stark groaned and forced himself upright, clutching his head. He looked the same as any other time Steve had seen him. Expensive suit and styled hair, sunglasses firmly in place and a pricey-looking watch on his wrist.
His eyes were drawn to the other figure as the teenager shot upright and looked around in a panic. Why was he here?
“Hmm, seems like we need to narrow down the focus a little. We grabbed whoever was close by,” one scientist said casually and the teen’s eyes snapped to him.
Steve wished that they could do something. Who knew what Hydra would do to a kid like that?
“What’s going on?” the boy asked fearfully, eyes darting around the room. They landed on Steve and his team briefly and widened before moving on.
“Ah I am glad you survived your trip,” Red Skull moved into their line of sight. “I was concerned we would go through a few attempts before we got a living Tony Stark.”
Both Stark and the teen froze when they saw him.
“What the fuck?” Stark muttered, hand wrapping around the watch on his wrist for some reason.
“Apologies Mr. Stark,” he smiled widely. “It must be confusing. You see, we require your assistance, but the Tony Stark of our world met an unfortunate demise. So we needed a new one.”
The teen had paled as Red Skull spoke, glancing between Stark and the grinning man.
“I’m flattered,” Stark said dryly.
“You should be. Hydra has high standards for their Assets. We didn’t mean to pull the child with you though.” He studied the teenager thoughtfully.
To Steve’s surprise, Stark moved slightly so that he was blocking Red Skull’s view of the kid.
“Like fuck I’ll be your asset,” Stark sneered.
Steve wanted to shake the man. Too overconfident for his own good.
“I’m sure we can persuade you,” Red Skull smirked.
“Good luck with that,” Stark scoffed and suddenly pulled his hand down over the watch. It smoothly transformed into a gauntlet of some kind. There was a strange whining sound before a blast of energy hit Red Skull dead on from Stark’s outstretched hand. “Move kid!” he ordered.
The teenager hurriedly hit something on his chest and nano-bots crawled out from it and formed a red and blue suit. The kid was fast, using webs of some kind to launch himself to the Hydra soldiers who were just starting to bring their guns up.
The teenager expertly took the soldiers down. He definitely had enhanced strength. Who the hell was he?!
Meanwhile, Stark had stood up and pulled his sunglass off. He tapped something on his chest and nano-bots spread out over him as well, red and gold this time. It formed some kind of armour and he blasted straight at another batch of soldiers, taking them down brutally and efficiently.
Clearly not prepared for resistance of any kind, Hydra was scrambling. The Red Skull staggered upright, apparently genuinely injured from whatever that blast was.
He looked furious, gaze locked on the armour in the air.
“What the hell is going on?” Clint whispered, as close to the bars as he could get.
“That was nano-tech, far more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen,” Reed murmured in awe.
“Is that really Stark?” Sam asked dubiously and Steve had to agree. The armour was moving quickly, avoiding bullets and rapidly taking down soldiers. Once he hit them, they didn’t get up again.
“They made a mistake,” Natasha said, staring at where Red Skull was clearly struggling to come up with a counter to all this.
For a moment Red Skull’s eyes locked with Steve’s, then they slid over to Bucky still guarding their cells. Steve’s stomach dropped as he barked out an order in Russian and the Winter Soldier started going straight for the armour which was back on the ground as Stark took on more soldiers. With a sick smile, Red Skull slipped out of the room.
With how vicious Stark was being, there was no telling how much damage he’d do to Bucky. Especially if he was able to injure Red Skull enough to retreat. In the chaos, Steve’s shouts were lost though.
Stark turned as Bucky moved to attack him. In one smooth movement, he grabbed Bucky’s metal arm and threw him across the room before following after him.
His blows were brutal and precise and Steve couldn’t see much from the cells. He definitely saw when a blast of energy exited the blue triangle on the armour’s chest and ripped Bucky’s metal arm off though.
“Bucky!” Steve cried but it was no use.
Sam and Scott were watching in horror as well while Natasha and Clint looked calculating.
“Crap that’s terrifying,” the Human Torch whispered.
Soon every Hydra soldier was down, bound up tightly by the teenager. Bucky was also down and not moving. The teenager landed next to Stark as their helmets retracted. They seemed to talk for a moment, too far away for Steve to hear. Then the kid webbed up Bucky as well and they started walking towards the cells, dragging Bucky behind them.
Steve desperately hoped that that meant his friend was still alive. That he'd have a chance to save him from Stark.
As they came back into hearing range they realised the two were still talking.
“-always fucking Hydra!” Stark vented.
“I am going to get in so much trouble if I miss school,” the kid stressed and they could see Stark roll his eyes.
“You just got kidnapped by Hydra from another dimension kid. I’m sure May will cut you some slack.”
The kid looked dubious about that.
Everyone straightened up as Stark’s gaze turned back to them. Steve was a bit surprised by the hard, calculating look in his eyes. They reminded him a bit of Nat.
“What did you do to Bucky!?” Steve demanded as they came to a stop in front of the cells. He was surprised to see the kid roll his eyes this time.
“Some things never change,” he muttered bitterly. “I wonder if there’s any world where Rogers cares about anything but his precious Bucky.”
They were all surprised by the venom in the teenager’s voice. Stark reached out and rested a hand on the teen’s shoulder for a moment and he fell silent after another glare at Steve.
“Barnes is fine Rogers,” Stark told him. “Knocked out and a bit bruised up, that’s all.”
“You took off his arm!” Steve shouted in indignation.
“Well I didn’t want him killing me with it,” Stark snapped back. “It was a weapon. I took the weapon away. Barnes is a super soldier and the kiddy gloves don’t work on him Cap. How about you focus on the injured on your team instead of the guy who is healing as we speak?”
Steve took a surprised glance back. He hadn’t really noticed that Nat was sitting down because of an injury to her leg that Sam was tending or that Scott had blood running down his face from a cut above his eyebrow. Clint was also holding his arm protectively in a way that could suggest a break.
Stark shook his head. “Unbelievable,” he muttered under his breath before bringing up his gauntlet-covered hand and blasting the lock on the door. “Who’s most critical?” He directed the question to Clint instead of Steve.
Clint stared back at him for a moment before he straightened up. “Susan. They had her before we got here. Incentive for Richards.”
Stark’s sharp eyes were scanning the woman before Clint even finished speaking. Steve wanted to run out of the cell and over to Bucky but the teenager’s dark glare had him frozen in place.
“Nat, Scott and I will survive but she needs a hospital,” Clint finished.
Stark gave him a sharp nod. “I need to blow that machine before Hydra gets the bright idea to do this again.” He looked at the teenager. “Pete, you need to help them get out of here. Take Barnes with you.”
The teenager didn’t look happy about that. “But Mr. Stark-”
Stark cut him off. “Nope, not happening kid. You get out of here with this world’s Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Your aunt would kill me if I had you in the same building that I was about to blow up.”
“Because you regularly almost blow up with it,” he pointed out dryly.
Stark sniffed. “That’s an exaggeration.”
“You did it last week!”
“I got out in time.” Stark waved a dismissive hand. They were shocked to see his expression soften slightly at the pained look on the kid’s face. “Seriously Pete, I’ll be fine. I’ll set the bombs, erase the plans and then book it. Okay?”
The teenager was quiet for a moment before reluctantly nodding. “Okay.”
Stark spun around, clapping his hands together. “Right, there we have it. Avengers and Fantastic Four, you’ve got to clear out so I can blow evil machine number whatever sky high.”
“You can’t just-” Steve started to protest but the kid suddenly threw Bucky at him and he struggled to catch him.
“Let’s go,” he said sharply while Stark headed towards the machine.
The others looked at each other, bewildered by the turn of events, before following the teenager. Steve didn’t have a choice in the end.
They’d been waiting outside for barely a minute when Stark strolled out sans armour with the building blowing up seconds behind him. The kid darted over to him immediately, relaxing when he was assured that Stark was fine. The billionaire slung an arm over the kid’s shoulders and turned towards the others.
“How badly does Susie need the hospital?” He asked. “Is it ‘we can’t wait for a pickup’ bad?”
Reed looked down anxiously at his fiancée in Ben's arms. Johnny looked equally worried over his sister, pacing anxiously.
“Bad,” Clint supplied, still holding his arm to his chest.
Tony met Reed’s gaze. “I can take her there if we can’t wait.”
“In that suit?” Reed asked anxiously.
Surprise briefly flashed across Stark’s face and he exchanged a look with the kid.
“Yeah. I’ve carried people to the hospital like that before.”
Reed hesitated before he finally nodded. Susan hadn’t woken up at all since the Avengers had arrived on the scene.
Stark stepped away from the kid and let the armour envelop him again. He carefully took Susan from a reluctant Ben and locked gazes with Reed again.
“I got her Stretch. Promise. Not letting anything happen to Susie, even another version of her in the multiverse.”
With that he was gone, blasting into the sky.
“Mr. Stark will save her,” the kid spoke up. “I guess it’s different here but he’s friends with Miss. Storm back home.”
They all zeroed in on him.
“He is?” Johnny asked in surprise.
The kid nodded awkwardly. “Yeah. He’s been friends with Mr. Richards and Miss. Storm for ages. Even before the superhero thing.”
“And that suit?” Natasha asked from where she was sitting.
The kid turned to stare at her. “It really doesn’t exist here?” He sounded so surprised. “You never had Iron Man?”
“Iron Man?” Scott asked in confusion.
“Mr. Stark became Iron Man years ago, way before the Fantastic Four or the Avengers.”
They all stared at him.
“Tony Stark became a superhero?” Sam asked slowly.
The kid bristled at the implied disbelief. “Yeah, and he’s a great hero. So shut up,” he snapped.
Sam raised his hands in surrender at the quick defence. “Just saying it’s weird here, that’s all.”
The kid scoffed. “Yeah well, it looks like you’ve got your head stuffed up Roger’s ass here too so I’m not going to really trust anything you say.”
They were all surprised at the hostility and Steve frowned at him.
“Who are you?” Clint asked before he could say anything though.
The kid shuffled uncomfortably. “I’m Peter. Guess secret identities don’t count for much in other dimensions. I’m Spider-Man back home. Guess that didn’t happen though from your confused expressions.”
Scott shook his head. “No…”
They all stood there awkwardly for a moment.
“So why were you close enough to Stark to get pulled into the portal?” Reed asked eventually.
Peter sighed, looking disappointed all of a sudden. “Mr. Stark just finished a meeting and we were going to his lab to upgrade my web shooters. This sucks, we’ve both been too busy to get lab time in.”
“Why did he blow up the machine when it’s your only way home?” Sam suddenly asked.
Peter shrugged. “Cause Mr. Richards could make a new one or we could just wait for Dr. Strange to find us.”
...Who the hell was Dr Strange?