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Bundled up in a heavy parka, Pepper watched from several blocks away as the first full scale test of Arc Shield technology was conducted in Fairbanks, Alaska. The isolated city was one of the few US cities to adopt SI's arc reactor as an alternative to the coal and oil fueled generators that had powered the city for generations and they agreed to test the Arc Shield on the suspicion that while their location wouldn't deter space-born invaders it would leave them low ranked in terms of the military's defensive priorities.
Pepper watched as a beam of bright blue light shot up from the Reactor and bloomed. The shield spread until the entire city, forty square miles was inside the glowing blue dome. Overhead several helicopters opened fire, aiming to hit the shield but have the bullets pass over the city if the shield failed. For twenty minutes the bombardment continued while people stood in the streets, heads craned back to watch the flashes as the Arc Shield repelled first bullets and then missiles. Dozens of SI scientists poured over their equipment gathering data on the shield's effectiveness.
"Energy consumption is higher than projected but I think we can call this a success," the project leader reported as explosions lit the sky like fireworks.
"How do you feel about travel?" Pepper asked May Parker. "I could really use a PA I trust to double as a babysitter while I'm selling the world on Arc Shield technology and I don't want to leave Nettie behind for a month roughly?" Pepper's voice rose turning the statement into a question.
May glanced over at Peter. "Go," he said. "I'm Spider-Man, I can handle taking care of myself for a month."
"I'm feeling less than reassured," May replied.
Vision put a hand on Peter's shoulder. "I will see that he maintains a healthy diet," the synthoid offered.
"I won't do his laundry but I'll make sure it gets done, same goes for homework." Rhodey grinned, "You can call my mom if you need babysitting credentials."
"I don't need babysitting," Peter protested. "I'm seventeen! I got early admission into college and I'd be considering moving into the dorms if not for the Spidey-stuff and my internship."
"I will keep you informed of any Spider-Man related incidents," FRIDAY chimed in. "I can also promise to notify you of curfew violations and wake him up in a timely manner."
"Traitor," Peter huffed. "Should I tell Ms. Potts about-"
A loud burst of static from FRIDAY's speaker cut him off. "I rescind the offer to monitor Peter's bedtimes," she said.
May laughed, "It's good to have neighbors. James, Peter doesn't actually have a curfew but I do expect him to let me know when he's out with friends as opposed to out as Spider-Man."
Rhodey nodded. "One of the Avengers always keep an ear out when Spider-Man is patrolling," he assured her. "We'll know if he's overdue and both the Avengers and Defenders are ready with back-up if he needs it."
"Thank you," May replied. "I know it but it's still good to hear that he isn't on his own." Peter grumbled to himself and May ruffled his hair, adding, "Even if he rarely needs the help."
Pepper stood in front of the subset of the Sokovia Accords committee specifically tasked with preparing the Earth for Thanos' to invasion. "Powered by one of Stark Industries' full scale Arc Reactors, the Arc Shield can protect an area of forty square miles. The Arc Shield technology can successfully repel up to six forty-two petajoules blasts an hour, that is the equivalent of six hydrogen bombs. Because the Arc Shield is an energy shield it restores itself over time, damage will be in the nature of overloads and blown circuitry rather than weakened walls; repair teams will be small and they won't need to be exposed while they're working."
May played with Nettie in the conference room down the hall while checking with the airports to make sure their itinerary was on track.
"Ms. Potts would you have time to schedule a stop in Wakanda?" T'Challa asked, catching Pepper as she left the meeting. "I hope you would be open to speaking with our engineers about integrating the Arc Shield technology with Wakanda's existing geothermal power supply?"
"I'd be happy to," Pepper agreed. "Given Wakanda reputation for technological advancement, your willingness to adopt SI tech is excellent advertising. But you have to realize that one of the Arc Shield's limitations is that it needs to draw a lot of energy quickly to repel larger explosions, the Arc Reactor is one of the few options for power generation that can respond to the sort of instantaneous demand the Arc Shield creates. Even so the Shield's greatest limitation is too great a demand, an extended bombardment for example."
"You mean more than six hydrogen bombs in an hour?" T'Challa asked dryly.
"Precisely," Pepper replied. "Incorporating the Arc Reactor into an existing power grid might allow us to boost the base power level consumed by the shield."
"My engineers would be happy to attempt to improve on what you've developed," T'Challa said.
"They wouldn't be engineers if they weren't," Pepper agreed.
May joined them, Nettie balanced on her hip.
The little girl immediately held out her hands to her mother, "Were you a good girl?" Pepper asked and Nettie nodded enthusiastically, the pendant on her choker bobbing with her head.
"There was a projector in the room," May said with a droll smile.
"Was?" Pepper sighed. "I'm surprised such old tech capture her attention."
"Well, most two years aren't brand conscious," May replied. "It had a power cord thus it was worthy of disassembly."
"She is very like her father?" T'Challa asked, his voice catching in his throat.
"Oh, May, could you have legal draw up some non-disclosure forms and have them sent to Wakanda?" Pepper asked. "Standard collaboration clauses. Your Majesty, you'll explain that the Arc Reactor is completely off limits but if they can improve on the Shield technology… forty square mile patches aren't good enough for what's coming."
"I will make it clear," T'Challa said.
"Also Wakanda, naturally, will be expected to pay the full price for the Arc Shield technology," Pepper continued. "Your country has been notorious refusing to take in refugees since the 1940's when it was finally confirmed that Wakanda was not actually a myth."
'No little thanks to Howard Stark's thieving habits.' T'Challa thought to himself. Before Howard Stark had taken the myths of Wakanda and their miraculous metal seriously, people who went looking for Wakanda were seen as on par with those who sought El Dorado or Shangri-La. After Howard took the vibranium he stole and made it into a shield for a national icon people took the old myths much more seriously. By the 70's Wakanda's location was common on world maps. But by then Wakanda technology had developed a field the generated a deep, almost instinctual feeling of dread and revulsion in those exposed to drive would-be visitors away. Developing and Installing the field generators on Wakanda's borders had been the last great accomplishment of T'Challa's grandfather's reign.
Pepper dropped her personal shield then turned to smile at the interviewer cowering behind her. Across the room one of Pepper's assistants set down the bazooka he'd just fired at them. Backstage, Nettie laughed and squirmed in May's arms, trying to crawl on her shoulders for a better view. "Again Mommy! Again!" the toddler shrieked happily. Pepper smiled at her daughter.
"I wasn't expecting a live demo from you," the interviewer admitted. "Tony, sure but…"
Pepper's expression turned sphinx-like, "The personal Arc Shield was one of Tony's last gifts to me. I thought it appropriate to borrow a little of his style to present it."
She turned her attention to the cameras, "One of the hardest thing about being involved with one of the Avengers was the frequency with which I found myself in situations where I was helpless. Watching while Tony flew a nuke through that portal, knowing that nothing I could do would improve his chances of coming back. The all too many times when I was taken hostage by Tony's enemies. It wasn't until after Tony was killed that I figured out that it wasn't on him to find a way to make me feel less helpless, but that didn't stop Tony from trying. The personal Arc Shield was Tony's way of giving me the means to protect myself.
"In light of what's coming, I wanted to shared that with the rest of you. Stark Industries has been working for the last few months on a way to scale up the Arc Shield to make it into a defense for our cities. Two months ago we performed a successful test of a forty square mile shield."
"But SI isn't offering to just give away the Arc Shield technology is it?" the interviewer asked.
"Of course not," Pepper replied coolly. "Stark Industries has employees to support. What we are doing is putting the money from each Arc Shield sold, less time and materials, into a fund to pay for the materials needed to set up additional Shields in populations centers where they can't be afforded. SI will donate the time needed to install those reactors."
"What about the Arc Reactors already in service, will that be a factor in deciding where the Arc Shield technology is installed first?"
"It's a factor," Pepper said. "Half the work and three quarters of the cost are already done when the Arc Reactor is in place. Unfortunately the Arc Reactor technology has been most widely adopted in remote communities or where there was was limited existing infrastructure. The Arc Reactor is the size of a walk in closet and it provides power comparable to the Hoover Dam. It's become the preferred energy source on many islands communities, as well as in the Canadian Territories and Australia replacing coal and other fossil fuel burning generators. We've donated a number reactors to communities in Sub-Saharan Africa to help combat their energy crisis.
"However while the Arc Reactor is most useful in remote and developing regions of the globe, the Arc Shield will do the most good in regions of high population density. We don't have the time or the resources to cover the entire globe in Arc Shields, thus our priority has to be on making them available to as many people as possible."
Nettie scowled fiercely at the child gate keeping her out of the cockpit of the SI jet then reached for the latch on the back of her choker.
"No," Pepper said firmly. Nettie pouted but when Pepper didn't relent she sighed and toddled off to search through her toys.
Pepper went back to studying the world population density and proposed Arc Shield sites, trying different scenarios to balance the cost of the ones she was sure they'd have to donate against the profit from the ones they could sell. "Send SI sales reps to LA, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale and Chicago to start with. Dr. Pym has all but finalized plans to use San Francisco as the test case for minimizing cities, I'll have to talk with him about how much of the bay area will go with it to determine if and where we should consider the South Bay for an Arc Shield site. Start quietly reminding people that New York might have the Arc Shield in Stark Towers but the city is more than four hundred square miles, not forty," she dictated. "At some point we're going to have to bring up that areas right outside of of the shield's boundaries will suffer heightened damage because the arc shield repels, it doesn't absorb damage but if we bring it up too quickly it could look like we're attempting to blackmail the rest of the city into purchasing their own reactor."
"Wait too long and they'll think you were trying to hide it," May pointed out.
Pepper rubbed her temples. "Always a balancing act."
Nettie took a board book and returned to the childproof gate. She tried to use the corner of the book as a screwdriver to remove the obstacle from her path. Pepper watched Nettie begin to make some progress with an increasingly melancholy smile.
"Where did you just go?" May asked as she shooed Nettie over to her mother and set to fixing the gate.
"The revolution in baby proofing that isn't happening," Pepper sighed. "Watching Nettie, I was just thinking how Tony would have definitely taken that as a challenge, not to mention how he'd have redesigned everything to be friendly to coffee-deprived adults stumbling into the kitchen at the ungodly hour of ten o'clock."
"Not a morning person?" May asked wryly.
Pepper shook her head, "According to Tony, four am was a fine time for heading to bed and the hours between six and noon were an obscenity that could only be faced with at least two oversized mugs of coffee. Of course Tony and I would probably be quarreling about the ethics of chipping Nettie like a pet too."
There was a small "Eep" from the speakers.
"FRIDAY?" Pepper asked.
"Oh nothing," FRIDAY said quickly. "Nothing you want to know about. Amadeus…"
"After Nettie's in bed," Pepper said sternly.
May and Nettie were watching Pepper's presentation in Amsterdam when the attack came. A wild looking man suddenly swung down from the rafters and grabbed May by the hair. May ripped herself free and shoved Nettie into her stroller.
"Iron Buggy activate," FRIDAY announced. In a flash metal shields raised, turning the stroller into a metal cocoon. Inside webbing wound itself around Nettie securing her against jostling while repulsor turrets sprouted on the outside of the buggy.
The wild man grinned and lunged for May again. He knocked her hand aside as she pulled a keyring mace out of her pocket. May scrambled backwards and the Iron Buggy opened fire on him as FRIDAY took the cocoon up and out of the man's range. "Colonel Rhodes gave me special permission to shoot anyone who attacks my little sis," FRIDAY informed him smugly.
The wild man dodged repulsor blasts and bullets with equal easy. "The child is of no interest. I seek bait for Spider-Man."
May took the chance to get out, onto the stage. The wild man sidestepped another, almost hesitant, repulsor blast and chased after her. Then Pepper was between May and the wild man, the golden glow in her eyes competing with the white-blue of charged Arc Shield. May tucked herself in close behind Pepper, making sure the other woman could shield them both without effort.
"You think a mere corporate drone could give pause to Kraven the Hunter ?" the man laughed.
Pepper's free hand started to glow. "You know, if I were trying to hide my powers I might think twice about handling you," she said. "Played helpless and hoped Happy would get here with the Iron Man armor before I had to give myself away or let you hurt my friend. But I'm not hiding anything." Pepper briefly touched the podium and left a handprint scorched in the metal. "You had better run or better yet, sit quietly until security rounds you up. If you come within an arm's length of May or I… Well, I'm quite certain you'd defeat me in any sort of hand-to-hand contest but you'd have to touch me. My skin temperature is currently at a thousand degrees Kelvin and rising. Grab me and the flesh will burn off your bones in seconds."
Kraven smirked and fired a bolo at Pepper. Her shield expanded and it bounced harmlessly. "Oh, and you have to get past Tony Stark's shield technology," Pepper added. She watched as security guards and police formed a barricade at the edge of the stage while others evacuated the audience.
A moment later Happy took point in the armor, backed by several SI drones. Kraven noted the forces arrayed against him and leapt for the rafters. A repulsor blast caught him in the leg as he fled but didn't hinder him enough to prevent his escape through a skylight.
"I can't let you out of sight long enough for a bathroom break," Happy complained as he scanned the area for any signs that Kraven's retreat was just a feint. When he relaxed Pepper did too, deactivating her shield and letting her powers go dormant.
"To be fair he was one of Spider-Man's," May said as FRIDAY lowered the Iron Buggy back to the stage. "We always knew there'd be some people who would believe Norman's story."
The Iron Buggy cracked open and Nettie's giggles could be heard. Pepper, Happy and May traded a relieved glance. "She had a grand old time," FRIDAY confirmed.
"I'm glad someone did," Pepper sighed as she scooped up her daughter and gave her a quick hug.
The Japanese Minister smiled politely at Pepper, "While Kyoto is on the list of cities being considered for Dr. Pym's technology and the early polls of the population are favorable, we are very interested in your Arc Shield for Tokyo. As it is our capital, it would ill behoove us to run."
Pepper nodded, "D.C. and London said much the same."
"I understand it would take more than twenty units to shield all of Tokyo. I recognize that your company's efforts will necessarily be distributed across the globe. Therefore, we would like our first unit to shield our center of government. By the way, how much experimentation have you done with multiple reactors? Is the area shielded additive or multiplicative? Can the Arc Reactors and Shields reinforce each other?"
"I must admit we haven't had the opportunity to experiment with the effect of two Arc Reactors in close proximity," Pepper said.
"Then allow me offer Tokyo as a testing site… As soon as you can install two reactors for us."
In Bangladesh Pepper and May woke up to a garbled whining coming from their phones, computers, Nettie's stroller and in fact every device FRIDAY could access. They woke up to an empty crib. The slates were frozen half-extended into it's defensive mode, Nettie's favorite baby blanket lay on the floor where it had been dropped.
Pepper's first call was to Rhodey. He and Captain Marvel immediately flew out to start the search. "The homing beacon in Nettie's choker is deactivated," Pepper told Rhodey quietly. She was clinging to Nettie's baby blanket with a white knuckled grip and blinking constantly to keep tears at bay. "That means her power suppressor is offline as well."
Rhodes looked sick as he thought about what might have happened if the kidnappers panicked when they saw evidence of Nettie's powers or if they couldn't figure out how to control her. He didn't say it, all they could do now was focus on getting Nettie back. It wouldn't help anyone, especially not Pepper, to voice the fear that Nettie could already be dead. "We'll find her."
Vision was tasked with determining what had happened to FRIDAY and to learn what the AI had seen as they all knew that the only way Nettie could have been taken was by going through her big sis. On opposite sides of the country Amadeus, Peter and Harley joined Vision's efforts as soon they became aware of the situation.
Amadeus threw his phone across the room angrily. Peter glanced up from his work station. He knew Harley hated the other boy flirting with his 'sister', that Harley was afraid that Amadeus might look at FRIDAY as some sort of dating sim to be played with but if he really liked her...
"Let's face it, this is magic," Amadeus exclaimed. "If it made any sense FRI would have handled the attack better."
Vision considered it for a moment then nodded gravely. "I am making progress," he said. The gem on his forehead glowed.
Director Everett Ross called Pepper as soon as he heard. "I've called a special session of the Accords Committee, we've designated a sub-committee: Colonel Rhodes, Ms. Hudson from Canada and Special Commissioner Shapandar from India to be on standby so any action can quickly be approved. Of course, once a course is decided on it will need to ratification by the larger committee within forty-eight hours of implementation."
Pepper nodded and smiled weakly at his officious addendum. A forty-eight hour window made it likely that any approvals would be rubber stamps after the fact. They weren't simply throwing the rule book out for Nettie but she could see that everyone wanted to do what they could to bring her daughter home safely.
Maria Hill joined them in the early hours of the morning with a team of experts.
"No signs of tampering with the lock or the window," a female agent who had gone to an effort to make herself not look like Natasha Romanov reported. She carefully kept her head ducked around Pepper in case her disguise didn't hold up under scrutiny. "We're considering portals, either magical or technological, as an entry method. There are indicators for either possibility."
T'Challa arrived shortly after Hill and her agents. "Okoye is skilled in tracking digital traces and Aneka has some mystical sensitivity. I would like to offer their services," he said indicating two of his retinue. He sadly eyed the baby blanket Pepper still clung to like a talisman.
Pepper bit back the urge to scream at him that he could take his guilt and stuff it. That if he'd cared as much about Tony as he did Zemo and Barnes then she wouldn't need his charity, Iron Man would have been there to protect his daughter and his world. If Tony had of been alive she wouldn't have been hauling a sixteen-month-old around the world to sell people on supporting Stark Industries' efforts to prepare the world for the coming invasion. "Thank you for your help," she said stiffly.
The story led the news in the US and around the world the next day.
In one of the most secure facilities in the world, located in an isolated corner of Nevada the four renegade Avengers were immediately drawn to the TV screen when Tony's image appeared. The media had largely moved on from stories about the billionaire-hero in the two years since his death. As the reporter spoke a blended collage showing Tony, Pepper and Nettie appeared in the background. Seeing their faces together it was easy to see Tony in his daughter's dark curly hair and mischievous smile and Pepper in her clear blue eyes and the shape of her nose but what Steve saw most of all was the reminder that there were no pictures of Tony with his daughter.
"Antoinette Evelyn Stark was kidnapped from her mother's hotel room in Bangladesh late last night," the reporter said. "To the best of our knowledge there has not been a ransom demand, no group has stepped forward to claim responsibility. The Avengers, currently led by Tony Stark's life-long friend, Colonel James Rhodes, were called in as soon as the kidnapping was discovered. This has led to speculation that Iron Man's enemies are the primary suspects, rather than earlier enemies from Tony Stark's Merchant of Death days."
"Shit," Clint breathed softly. "She's not even a year and a half."
The reporter continued, "Tony Stark himself was kidnapped twice as a child prior to the three months he was held hostage in Afghanistan before emerging as Iron Man."
"Tony would have built something to find her," Steve said guiltily. None of the others disagreed.
A tall man with a goatee strode through the chaos enveloping Pepper's hotel suite and somehow failed to draw any attention despite the ostentatious red cape fluttering grandly around him. He walked right up to Pepper without a single challenge. "Ms. Potts," he said.
Pepper shook her head and blinked, "Dr. Strange? Where? How?"
He blithely ignored the half-dozen weapons that were pointed at him as the room full of agents suddenly noticed his existence. "I met Dr. Stark, oh fifteen years ago at a charity dinner. I wished to offer my help."
"Tony made a good impression?" Pepper asked a bit inanely as she tried to decide if the cape was moving on it's own. The cape's hem brushed against her hands, still tangled in Nettie's blanket and for a moment it felt like a comforting hand placed on top of hers.
Strange shrugged, "He insulted my intelligence, I did the same to him. It was the only conversation worth remembering from the entire, painfully boring, night."
"How did you get past the security perimeter and why am I not arresting you?" Maria Hill demanded.
"The answer is one and the same," Strange declared loftily. "Magic."
"You're an unregistered superhero," Hill replied, unimpressed.
"I am no such thing," Strange gave her an offended scowl. "I do not make a practice of confronting garden-variety terrorists in crowded market places. I am entirely happy to leave such things to those authorities who have trained to deal with them. And in return I expect them to leave rogue sorcerers to me." He glanced down his nose at Hill's operation. "Although I suppose, in the interest of what you might call inter-agency cooperation, I could leave you a phone number. I'd rather not learn about incidents where magic is used to commit a serious crime from CNN a second time.
"Now this room reeks of forbidden magics. Would you kindly get out of my way while I see if there are any traces left uncorrupted for me to follow?"
Dum-E trundled up behind Harley and and nudged him with his arm. "I'm trying to get her back," Harley said batting the robot arm away. "Both of them."
Dum-E nudged him again and produced a squealing beep.
"What?!" Harley demanded. "I'm busy!"
Dum-E picked up a pen and, in a shaky hand, wrote, "GPS. 55-12-16."
"I know you want to help but we already know about Nettie's tracker and…" Harley trailed off as he blinked at the number Dum-E had written. "And that's not the tracker we know about!"
Dum-E tilted his camera to the side in a distinctly knowing way.
"Vision!" Harley exclaimed turning to the holographic interface linking the Malibu lab with the New York lab. "I think Nettie has a second GPS tracker."
"You are certain the tracking device is Miss Stark?" T'Challa asked. "I find it difficult to believe that her mother and Colonel Rhodes would be unaware of it's existence."
Okoye straightened, "The tracking device came online in the same window when the girl went missing. Aneka's investigations into the dark arts she sensed in that room also point us toward Latveria."
"Doom has stated many times that he would consider any military, intelligence or humanitarian interventions into his country to be an act of war," T'Challa reminded himself. "Even given everyone's fervent desire to see Tony Stark's daughter reunited with her mother they may draw the line at starting a war."
"If I may?" Okoye requested formally. "Victor von Doom's extremely delicate pride is a well know fact."
T'Challa's eyes widened, the two of them shared a sly smile. "If we can take the girl back without allowing it to become public knowledge that he ever had her…"
"He will chose to save face and not admit that he was incapable of foiling us," Okoye finished. Then the smile fell from her face. "Your heart demands that you save her and I know you well enough to know you will go, whatever I say. You pursued James Barnes when I recommended against it. You did not ask my opinion before offering sanctuary to him and his allies."
"I thought you had become fond of our guest?" T'Challa said.
"Now that he is free of HYDRA's conditioning and has had the breathing space to know his mind, I find him open to instruction and even with one arm he is a challenging sparring partner," Okoye replied. "I would not allow fondness for him to sway me from my duties. But at the same time I cannot countenance leaving a sixteen month old child in the hands of a man who would steal her from her loving family... And you will go even if I could."
"In this case I believe my heart and head are in alignment," T'Challa said. "Antoinette Stark is not just an innocent child deserving to be saved or even the child of a man I wronged whom I would give much to make amends. She is also the CEO of Stark Industries' daughter. The Nova Empire is offering humanity a new planet, although I find myself wondering why this planet is conveniently habitable and yet uninhabited. They are capable of removing a considerable population from harm's way before Thanos' Armies arrive and with Dr. Pym's aid those who go will be able to take whole cities with them.
"Those who abandon the Earth may save our species and our history if the worse comes. But the Arc Shield is the first thing I have seen that may give those of us who stay a fighting chance, the means to protect our people, our cities and our ability to fight from bombardment by interplanetary ships. The invention is Tony Stark's but Ms. Potts is the one who directed the effort to transform it from personal defense into something much larger. She is the one who directs SI's resources to take it from proof of concept to mass production. If we lose her, we may lose the Arc Shield and any other projects of Dr. Stark's that are still in progress. If we lose her we lose yet another politically savvy and moderate voice in the Accords' legislature. After all the blows she has weathered, some at my hands, I do not know what Virginia Potts would become if her daughter is lost and I do not wish to know.
"So we will rescue Ms. Stark because it is both the right and the practical thing to do. But we be smart about it. And quick," Okoye said. "It would be best if we have her back with her mother before anyone else realizes where she is."
"Mr. Cho, I am trusting you," Vision stated giving the young man a severe look. "If I am not back in twenty-four hours you are to tell Colonel Rhodes that Nettie is in the hands of Victor von Doom. Until then say nothing."
"Huh?" Amadeus said glancing up from his work station. He smiled, "Like any good boyfriend would be, I'm totally engrossed saving my girl. Leave a message, I'll remember to look at it in a day or so."
Vision nodded. "FRIDAY will be well," he assured Amadeus. "We will not have to resort to her back-up programing. She just needs another few days to free herself from chaos caused by the attack."
T'Challa and two of his bodyguards landed powered stealth gliders within a mile of Doom's castle. Silently they broke down the gliders, reducing them to backpacks.
Under the cover of night they jogged to a river that passed under the castle. In medieval times the river in its narrow rocky canyon had made sitting out sieges easier. In the modern day it was a breach in the castle's defenses. The three Wakandans slipped into the river and let it carry them under the castle with the help of only minor use of jamming technology to pass them off as part of the flotsam in the rushing water.
Once they climbed out of the river they made their way through natural caves into the root cellars below the castle. Due to the river, Latveria prisoners tended to be held in towers rather than dungeons.
Vision descended, slowly inevitably through the stratosphere. He turned aside Latveria's radar scans with ease. When energies echoing those that had hurt FRIDAY so badly reached for him Vision scowled darkly. The gem on his forehead burned as he caught the probing energies and twisted them back on themselves viciously.
He sank through the roof of the castle without hesitation. It was between himself and Nettie, it was immaterial.
T'Challa paused at the foot of the servant's stairs to let several robots pass. "Is there anyone living here?" he asked Okoye.
She glanced at the scanner in her hand. "Two. Both with the signal. Upstairs."
"Above the throne room, likely royal quarters," T'Challa determined.
They made their way through the back passages of the castle hurrying when they began to hear a child screaming in terror and outrage. "Give me back my mommy! Give me back my mommy!"
"Cease this caterwauling! Do you not recognize the honor Doom does you? I have chosen you as my heir."
"You have harmed my family." T'Challa and his bodyguards arrived in time to see Vision float through the wall to confront Doom.
Then they saw Nettie, she was suspended invisibly several feet above the floor, her skin was glowing a burnished gold and the air around her shimmered with heat mirages.
The armored dictator flicked his fingers and Nettie floated over to him. "You are in the house of Doom, take care in how you speak to me."
"You will release my cousin," Vision stated. The gem on his forehead glowed ominously. "Immediately."
The air bent and twisted to form a door in reality and a man in blue and red stepped into the room right beside Doom. "You don't want to kill him," he stated as he snatched Nettie away. "Ahhh! Hot!" he exclaimed and tossed Nettie lightly toward Vision. "Not Melodramatically-Named's magic. I neutralized that."
"Who dares!" Doom thundered.
"Oh shut up," Strange said. "I'm trying to talk the angry force of nature out of killing you. Not that I care about you particularly but you're better than the last dictator in these parts and you're better than the chaos that your country will descend into should you die without a clear successor." He turned back to Vision, "Hard as it might be to believe he is the lesser evil."
Vision cuddled Nettie to his chest, "You are safe littlest cousin. You are safe."
Doom straightened, "It is true," he said. "When I was a boy a great dragon sat on the throne of this country. The dragon demanded heavy tribute from all who lived here to increase his horde, but none suffered as my people did. They starved and fell dead even as they labored for the dragon's benefit and all the rest pointed to us and were more content with their lot in life because at least they weren't us. So I rose up and slayed the dragon. After it was dead I left content in the knowledge that my people would be free only to return years later to discover that the dragon's corpse had given birth to a cerberus.
"The monster's three head fought among themselves, each wishing to be supreme and in their battles my people and those who'd once looked down on them were trampled. So I slayed each of the cerberus' three heads. Learning from my previous mistakes I took the throne myself this time. The world complains of the lack of freedoms Doom grants his people but I have seen what they did with freedom. Under Doom's rule none grow fat… and none starve. No one kills their neighbor to get more, for Doom is there like a stern but loving parent to correct such wrong behaviors."
"Even if I take your words for unadorned proof, nothing you have said excuses taking my little cousin from her mother," Vision stated. Safe in his arms Nettie's skin cooled.
"As this one says, I have no heir," Doom gestured toward Strange. "But this child was revealed to me in a vision. Without her father her intelligence will be squandered." In the shadows T'Challa looked away guiltily. "But Doom shall step in and fill the lack in her life.
"The gods of old have returned to Midgard and found Earth-born gods to challenge them. Antoinette Evelyn has been gifted with immense power, intelligence, grace and beauty. Under my tutelage she will grow into a goddess to be worshipped by the entire globe. As I have done here, she will end war and poverty for the world. Once grown to adulthood under my guidance, she will walk into the quarreling, ineffectual United Nations and put them on their knees. As my protege she will truly unify this world."
Strange rolled his eyes, "Kidnapping is not how one gains a successor," he said as if talking to a very slow individual. "And the last thing the world needs is a megalomaniac with Stark's intelligence."
"Remember that Doom tried to be reasonable," the armored dictator stated as he raised his hand. Strange and Vision both responded without hesitation and a moment later Doom hurled was across the room, his armor denting the wall as he hit.
"Nettie has been separated from her mother for too long," Vision stated as he began to rise toward the ceiling.
"Should I offer a lift?" Strange asked.
"I am capable of returning her," Vision replied.
T'Challa quietly slunk away, his rescue, his penance, unneeded. Bucky met the returning king and his entourage on the airstrip with a division of the Dora Milaje. "You are supposed to be in a cell," T'Challa sighed.
"I was worried," Bucky stated in a flat emotionless voice. He gestured to the Dora Milaje. "So were they. We talked and decided they could guard me here as easily as in the cell. Did you succeed? Is Stark's kid okay? Did you start a war?"
T'Challa grimaced. "I did not cause an incident and I am thrilled by your faith in me, all of you. Ms. Stark is safely returned to her family but I am reminded of what a powerful presence my father was in my life. And that she lacks such a presence."
"Because of you least of the three of us," Bucky stated. "I tried, then, to tell him that I regretted killing his parents. I don't think it came out right."
T'Challa didn't doubt it, even after a year of therapy Bucky still couldn't really express emotion. HYDRA had mind-wiped him every time they'd seen any evidence that there was still more to him than their 'Asset', it had been a survival mechanism to bury any trace of feeling that managed to creep through his conditioning rather than have them try to stamp it out.
"But she still lost her father because of me," T'Challa said. "I had the power to change the outcome and did not. I was too wrapped up in the mistakes I'd made in the name of avenging my father and her father died for that. The debt I owe her is less easily repaid than the one I owe you."
Pepper didn't break down until Vision put Nettie in her arms. But with Nettie back and safe Pepper slid to her knees hugging the little girl to herself as tight as she could and just sobbed, she cried until it frightened Nettie and Rhodey almost toppled his wheelchair trying to lean over and comfort both of them.
"Mommy?" Nettie's voice quavered.
"It's okay baby. Everything's okay," Pepper laughed burying her tear-stained face in Nettie's curls. "I want to just go home," she said without raising her head.
"Everyone will understand," May's tone indicated that they'd better.
"Give me a week or so before you reschedule," Pepper said. Then her grip on Nettie tightened. "How am I supposed to keep this from happening again?" she cried.
"We'll look into that Strange guy," Rhodey said. "If he checks out maybe he can give us some pointers on defending against magic."
"We must speak with him regardless," Vision said. "He saw Nettie use her powers."
Pepper looked up from Nettie and shook her head. "I won't be responsible for people turning to fetal experimentation to get the next generation of super soldiers."
May took a deep breath, "Then maybe we should let people think Nettie was hurt in the kidnapping, that we used Extremis to save her the way it was used on Tony to allow the removal of the shrapnel in his chest and the Arc Reactor. That her powers were a side effect of a known technology with a lousy survival rate. Make her into another lucky but hard to repeat accident. Like the Serum, for every Rogers or Barnes you get a dozen Red Skulls, Hulks and Abominations."
"In the meantime, the Mind Stone appears to grant me some defenses against magic," Vision told Pepper. "There are more Avengers now, enough that they will not be left shorthanded if I accompany you to your future presentations."
During the flight across the Atlantic, Dr. Strange came on the news as he addressed the Accords' committee. "Ms. Stark was taken by a rogue mage. While I was able to retrieve the child I was not able to capture the mage."
"Who was this… person?" the India representative demanded.
"He was wearing a mask, I did not see his face" Strange replied blandly. Then he looked directly into the cameras his voice darkening. "However I will recognize his magic should he ever attempt to use it for another criminal endeavor. And I will ensure that all those capable of recognizing a magic signature will also be able to identify him and stop him should he continue down this path."
"He-" Vision hesitated. "Told the most untrue truth I have ever heard."
"Who was it?" Rhodes asked.
"Victor von Doom of Latveria," Vision stated. "He wished to raise Nettie to rule the world."
"Latveria? Shit, we won't be able to do anything," Rhodes groaned. "There are already so many sanctions on that country, the UN's done everything but build a wall with 'Abandon all hope' warning plaques around their borders and Doom doesn't care. I'll still tell Director Ross what really happened in private, just because we have to play dumb to keep the country-wielding lunatic from trying to start a war doesn't mean we actually have to be dumb."
"If he goes after our Nettie again I'm saying screw it," Happy declared fiercely. "I'll blow him up myself then confess and be perfectly content to consider any punishment worth it."
Back in New York, the Avengers' quinjet was waiting at the airport and flew them directly to the tower. The Keeners, Rhodey's parents, Hope, Peter, Cassie Lang and her mother all descended on them the moment they stepped through the door, sweeping Pepper and Nettie into a massive group hug. Hank and Paxton watched from the outskirts, relieved to see Nettie back but content just to see her.
Harley had even brought the 'Bots out from Malibu to welcome their 'sister' home and once the humans had their immediate fill of hugs they backed away and let Dum-E, U and Butterfingers have their turn to verify that Nettie was safe and sound. But while the 'Bots crowded around, FRIDAY's hologram wavered, sticking to far wall. Amadeus, sitting right beside her, whispered into his phone. Despite giving the physical appearance of sitting beside her, he knew her 'ears' were microphones in the roof, and his phone, not the image beside him.
"I want her in for a check-up first thing in the morning," Dr. Helen Cho declared. "You too Pepper, I know you've been through a lot yourself."
"Bright and early," Pepper promised, bobbing her head.
Peter hugged his Aunt May, "I should have come after the attack in Amsterdam," he said quietly.
"You would have been sleeping, just like Pepper and I were, when it happened," May whispered back.
Peter shrugged, still half-convinced that his spider-sense would have woken him if he'd been there.
"I'm sorry!" FRIDAY blurted out. "I should have done more to protect Nettie. I failed her and you."
Pepper let Marlena have Nettie and walked over to where FRIDAY's image stood, "You did everything you could. You have nothing to be sorry for," she said. Impulsively she moved to put her hand on FRIDAY's shoulders then remembered that the miserable girl standing in front of her was only a hologram.
"I let him take Nettie!" FRIDAY wailed.
Pepper hesitated for the moment then carefully reached out to the image, moving as if to brush FRIDAY's hair out of her eyes and turn her face up to Pepper's. "Listen to me FRIDAY, you didn't let him do anything. He attacked you and took Nettie from you. It wasn't your fault."
To Pepper's surprise, FRIDAY's image adjusted itself in response to Pepper's action, changing her hair so the long bangs were tucked behind her ear as if Pepper really could touch her. "Your tracker was what let us find her so quickly. Don't apologize, you did everything possible to keep Nettie safe and it worked."
"You didn't like the idea of my chipping Nettie," FRIDAY reminded her. "I thought you'd be mad."
"It worked didn't it?" Pepper said. "I'm not mad, you saved Nettie."
"I told you so," Amadeus said. "Now I'll just head downstairs and let you guys have your family reuni-" He walked straight into the elevator door.
FRIDAY bounced on her toes. "I might have initiated lockdown as soon as everyone was inside," she admitted. "It'll only take me a few hours to reverse it."
"It looks like you're invited to the reunion," Rhodes' mother said with a smile at Amadeus and his mother. Then she held out her arms to Nettie, "Now, I need another hug sweetheart! We're all so glad you're safe."