Work Text:
Brooklyn was the same kind of lonely shipping town that always seemed to spring up along the trans-galactic shipping lanes. Held together by dust, nostalgia and whatever mining facilities that the planet could support, it wasn't the type of place people would expect the heir to one of the galaxy's largest shipping empires to land.
Which was for the best, when Aunt Peggy had first received coded messages that tracked back to Brooklyn both she and Tony had assumed it was a false lead. Now, with Peggy ill from some unknown pathogen, Tony was praying that assumption was wrong. He didn't know how long Peggy had left before the pathogen either did irreparable damage or killed her, but everyone agreed that Dr. Erskine was the best biochemical Doctor this side of the Galaxy.
Tony was trying his best not to think about the fact that if the Doctor hadn't contacted Aunt Peggy then she probably would have never gotten sick. Aunt Peggy would have done something to piss off Pierce the new director of the Galactic Defense forces. And with Stane, one of Dad's most trusted confidants in his pocket Pierce would have gotten to them anyway. Tony tapped his fingers against the prosthetic heart unit installed his chest.
He needed to focus, worrying about Stane and Pierce wouldn't help him find Erskine. Right now he needed to forget about being Tony Stark and concentrate on the old infiltration lessons he'd gotten from Aunt Peggy and her crew of commandos.
He pulled on the gray coveralls that most long-haul spacers wore. He usually preferred the Stark standard jumpsuit with its compression that helped offset gravitational changes. But that kind of tech was too expensive for this kind of world. "Jarvis how are docking procedures going?"
"Very well," Jarvis replied, his calm accented voice programmed to mimic Aunt Peggy's cadence immediately helping calm Tony's nerves. "They haven't flagged our ship as suspicious and monitoring their systems shows activity regarding what bribes they plan to take from us. It appears you were correct about packing those crates of freeze-dried ice cream."
"Everybody loves ice cream, and unlike liquor nobody is going to notice if the proper taxes aren't payed on the shipment. If I was an actual shipper I could claim it as a loss without raising eyebrows."
Jarvis hummed a non-committal reply. "I also submitted the report about our faulty fuel system as the reason for our unexpected landing."
"Good." Once he had all Velcro properly closed, he left the bunks in the back of the ship and slaughtered through the living quarters to the door that led to Jarvis' position in the cockpit. "They have the capability to run the kind of scans we need to worry about?"
Jarvis turned to look in Tony's direction. The sight of Jarvis' Christmas colored metal casing and large, camera aperture eyes were almost as calming as his voice. Of all the people in Tony's life Jarvis was the one who was always with Tony. "No signs of any ship wide scanning devices, as long as nobody comes aboard, we shouldn’t have any problems passing the ship off as an old stock model Planet-skipper."
Tony's smile was all predator. The Iron Dark was the fasted and most agile ship he had ever designed. Repainting it and adding the excess parts to make it look like and old clunker had been a sin against good engineering, but at least it had worked.
"They given the okay for me to go into town and find an engineer?"
"Not yet, there was a flash on the monitor in front of Jarvis. "It appears they have finally decided how much they want for a bribe. Once the appropriate credits have been transferred and goods handed over they will most likely allow you to debark."
"Make sure you haggle, I don't want them to think we've got a lot of money. It would bring the wrong kind of attention."
Jarvis gave him a thoroughly unimpressed look, lips pressed thin and eyebrows arched. "Who has been running the Stark family shipping yards for the past decade sir?"
"You, Jarvis."
Jarvis shot a look at where Tony's heart prosthesis was hidden under the coveralls bulk. "I know you don't like black space flights sir, but I assure you that I will not let you come to harm again."
Tony squeezed Jarvis' shoulder. "You can't make promises like that, Jarvis."
The predatory smile Jarvis gave him was a perfect match for Tony's own. "I will burn this rock down, before I let them take you again."
Tony felt his heart swell in a way that had nothing to do with his prosthesis. Thank God Jarvis had been willing to come with him on this mission.
*
Leaving behind the port, Tony made his way deeper into the town. Miners and metal workers filled the repair yard that filled the space around the port. The comforting chatter about stardrives and tensile strength was enough to relax the last of Tony's nerves. Nothing like mechanics talk to get him feeling more in control. Jarvis was scanning everything he heard for suspicious words, so Tony just had to stay calm and act like he belonged.
His Earbud hissed to life. -Sir, it appears they have accepted our story about a crack in our Palladium fuel tank. None of the men who came to pick up their bribe showed any interest in coming in to investigate things further.-
-Good, so I just need to fail to find a competent engineer for a few days while I work on figuring out where Erskine is hiding.-
-Please try to avoid getting into any bar fights by insulting the engineers you speak with-
- You just don't like it when I have fun. -
-On the contrary, sir. I don't have a problem with your having fun. I merely dislike the trouble you seem to find at every turn. I cannot hack into an old-school jail if you get tossed into one. -
-That was only that one time-
There was a moment of quiet on the other end of the line. Then, - Only one that you remember, sir-
Laughter burst out of Tony. Gaining him a few odd looks from the grease monkeys, he passed by. He gave them a chipper wave, that got him an annoyed eyeroll.
God, he loved Jarvis' sense of humor
*
The local saloon was teaming with miners. Clustered about in different parts of the bar. All watching each other warily. The room went quiet when Tony came in, but once they got a good look at his grease covered coveralls they went back to their drinks. The din taking over the room. Too loud. Far too loud. Lifting his hand, he ran it through his hair. Using the movement to camouflage his nudge he gave to his earbuds - triggering the program to filter out anything that couldn't be translated into clear speech.
A lot of talk about mining, some about stupid space tourists and shitty food. Even more talk about the shitty liquor. Nothing really interesting, until he caught a whisper. 'Did you hear where they were keeping him?"
"No, haven't been able to find anything yet. I can't believe that he was stupid enough to volunteer to be one of Erskine's Guinee pigs."
There was a harsh bark of laughter. "I don't know why not. You knew how he felt about being a burden."
"He wasn't a fuckin-"
"Besides, Erskine wasn't the problem. Nobody knew Schmidt was going to backstab us all."
"Yeah, well."
Erskine, maybe it wouldn't take as long to find the scientist as he thought. -You getting this J?- He whispered.
-Yes, sir, scans are still running. Do you want me to go ahead and cause a failure in the fueling system?-
-Not yet. Let me get a look at what we're dealing with.-
-An analysis of the transmission shows that the voices are most likely coming from the back of the room, possibly in a separate room-
-Thanks, J-
Tony sauntered up to the bar. "Give me a pint of whatever is on tap."
The bar keep gave him a look out of the corner of his eye. "How are you paying?"
Tony dug through his pockets, making a big show of dropping a couple credit coins on the bar at a time. Until he was finally able to scrape up enough to cover the pint.
The bar keep got bored of watching him about half-way through the process. Moving on to other patrons. Good, Tony sucked at stupifage but this at least he'd learned from Aunt Peggy. The more trouble you gave somebody when it came to getting their money, the less important you seemed. After all, if you had money you would use a credit chip, not a hand-full of coins that were barely in circulation anymore.
He had to wait another five minutes for the bartender to get finished with his other patron. Before he scraped together the money Tony had left on the bar and pouring out a pint that was made up of ninety percent head. He didn't even look Tony's way when he dropped the glass on the bar.
Tony wove in and out of the tables, making a point of trying to get a free seat at the larger tables. Any table that was made up of people with only one logo on their coveralls were a good bet. The minute he looked like he was going to try and sit at their table they suddenly closed ranks.
Each time he moved a little further back into the room, until he was in the part of the room that Jarvis had pinned as being the most likely spot to find Tony's whisper brigade.
There was a small table shoved into the corner nearest the bathrooms. Two people were sitting at it. Leaning close to each other so that they could whisper. Everything about their body language said they wanted to be left alone. Even Tony, with his poor people reading ability could see that. Still, he wasn't going to listen. He grabbed a chair off of one of the nearby tables, whose residents had pointedly not wanted him to sit with them.
He dragged the chair over to their little two seater table and shoved it into place. "So know any good shipping stories from around these parts?" He asked just a few hairs louder than was socially appropriate. Enjoying the muffled groans he heard from surrounding tables, much more than the glares he got from the people sitting at the table with him.
One fellow as tall, ruggedly handsome with short cropped hair and smooth, dark skin. His scowl wasn't nearly as impressive as the tables other resident. Small, just barely taller than Tony, with a pretty mouth that was pulled into a dark scowl. Lank hair fell into his eyes, while a streak of grease covered most of his right cheek. His eyes promising murder if Tony didn't move things along.
Tony tipped his chair back until he could see around the corner. All of the people at the surrounding tables were busy with their drinks and discussions. Which meant he was as safe to talk as it was possible to be in such a public location. He slid a view screen onto the table. Visible was the transmission the company had received from Dr. Erskine. He left it on the table for them to read, while continuing his earlier discussion, still just a touch too loud to be appropriate. "Things just keep getting nastier out there. Stark tech is just not what it was cracked up to be when I signed on." -Jarvis chuckled in his ear - "Last long term run and I got a link in my Palladium fuel injector. And here I am on this backwater stuck for another couple hours because I got to refill my palladium. Just my luck my ship is going to sprint another leak. Like I want to have to deal with the decontamination protocols again."
The shorter man kept his eyes on Tony while the taller man picked the tablet up and began reading through it. "You two wouldn't happen to know a mechanic that could take a look at my fuel lines?"
The taller man puts the tablet back down on the table and pushed it back towards Tony. "I'm Sam, this is Bucky. I'm sure he'd be glad to take a look at your fuel system. Right Bucky."
Bucky shot a look Sam's direction. They shared a long, telling look. Before Bucky got up from the table. He still looked like he wanted to pull Tony's spine out with his teeth. The feet of his chair squealed against the bar floor. "Come on, let's get this taken care of."
Tony drank the last dredges of his Beer. Somebody with his apparent lack of funds wouldn't go around leaving a beer half-drunk on the table. "Thanks man. I don't have much money, but if you want to take a look through Cargo, as long as it isn't too big I can write off whatever you want as lost in transit."
Bucky didn't stick around to listen to his whole spiel. Heading for the door at a good clip. Tony aimed a wink at Sam. "You coming?"
"Nah, I got to get back to work." Sam nodded towards the bar.
"Well, thanks for the hooking me up with your buddy. If I come into some money I'll have to stop back by and leave a big tip." He headed for the door, wondering how Bucky planned to find his ship. He didn't have to wonder long. Bucky leaned against the wall just outside of the bar. A ring of smoke circled his head.
"That doesn't seem safe. Last time I checked smoking in a high oxygen region of stations was frowned upon."
Bucky shrugged. It's Vape, safe enough."
"As long as you are okay with getting poisoned knock yourself out."
"Awful high and mighty for a guy that just admitted to having sub-par Palladium shields on his ship."
"Toche." Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. Now that he was cracking jokes Bucky looked a lot less like he was going to take a chunk out of Tony's hide.
They traded barbs and small talk the rest of the way back to Tony's ship. -Jarvis, we're coming in. Can you get the ship opened up?-
-Yes, sir-
The doors hissed open as they approached. Gaining Tony a suspicious look from Bucky. Probably thought that he was walking straight into a trap. It said something about this friend who he was trying to get back that he followed Tony into his ship anyway.
Once they were both inside, the ship's door closed with a hiss. There was an almost unheard snick of a knife being freed from a sheath. A ripple of tension snaked its way up Tony's spine. He didn't like people with weapons so close to him. Not since he'd been taken by the Ten Rings pirates and held for months. -Sir, - Jarvis' voice came through Tony's ear pieces - Your heart rate is elevated. Respiration shallow. Are you safe?-
"Jarvis, can you come out here?" Tony asked loudly enough that Bucky could hear him clearly from where he was standing behind Tony's back.
"Slowly, hands where I can see them." Bucky added.
Jarvis came out, his hands reaching up towards the ceiling. It did little to make him less intimidating. Even with all of Dr. Cho's knowledge in Bioengineering, he was still a larger than life figure.
It had taken Tony a while to get used to Jarvis' new body and he'd been the one who had helped Jarvis design it.
Tony heard a soft cuss behind him before there was a rush of breeze and a knife hurtled passed his head. "No!" He tried to grab it, but the knife was faster than him.
Thankfully not faster than Jarvis. The android plucked it out of the air, like it was a circus trick. Most likely something he had learned from Clint. The ex-galactic Carnie like to come up with new and flashy ways to give Tony a heart attack. And Jarvis was usually his willing accomplice.
Tony gave him a narrow eyed look that promised a talking to when they were alone, and not being threatened by a trigger happy spacer. Jarvis just raised an amused eyebrow in turn. An affectation that he had most definitely picked up from Tony himself.
There was another soft snick of a sheath being opened behind him. This time accompanied by the buzz of an electro gun being charged. That was just about the limit of Tony's patience. Mr. Small, dark, and murderous had already tried to kill Jarvis once, he didn't see any reason to let the guy take a second shot. Particularly no one that was likely to electrocute them all if it went wrong.
Still moving slowly and making sure to keep his hands up, Tony twisted to see Bucky. "I hope you aren't planning to fire an electro gun in my metal fucking ship."
"Get that thing under control." Bucky didn't even seem to have noticed that Tony had moved. His eyes were glued to where Jarvis still stood unmoving in the small hallway that connected the ship's cockpit to the living quarters.
"He is in control. In case you're too thick to notice the only time he moved was when you tried to skewer him. Which by the way, is totally unacceptable behavior after I graciously invite you into my home." Tony made a wide gesture indicating the whole of the living quarters, Also, forcing his jumpy companion to take his eyes off of Jarvis to make sure that Tony wasn't trying anything.
"Sir" Jarvis' disapproving tone made it clear that if Tony were to look around, he'd be met head on by the disappointed look Jarvis had gotten from Pepper.
"And you are going to electrocute us all over what exactly. A sudden terror involving androids?" Tony continued. Like he didn't know where that kind of terror came from. The Hydra fleet was active in this area. Their troops large, dangerous, and distinctly metallic in origin. All built under Yohan Schmidt's directive.
Given that Aunt Peggy suspected that Dr. Erskine might have been duped into participating in the Super serum experiments in one of Schmit's lacky's requests it wouldn't be surprising if Bucky had problems with androids.
That didn't mean that he could treat Tony's best friend like he was a danger, just because of a little prejudice.
"Do you know what that thing is?" Bucky demanded. Still keeping an eye on Tony.
"I should. I was one of the ones that built him."
"You built that monster?"
"Jarvis is not a monster." Tony made the universal grabby hands motion. "And you really need to hand over the dangerous electrocution device before we all end up unconscious or dead from a misfire."
"Not while he's-"
-I am sorry, sir- Javis' voice came through Tony's earphones, even though he didn't physically speak.
Before Tony had a chance to parse out what exactly Jarvis was sorry for, a force was propelling him backwards to land on the soft seat of the galley's eating nook and there was a clatter as the electro gun hit the bulkhead.
By the time that Tony had managed to get his head back together and force the dizziness from being tossed like a sack of potatoes to subside, Jarvis had Bucky pinned against the ship's door.
It was a move that he had learned from Clint as well, but it wasn't working as well as it was supposed to. Despite the high carbon content of Jarvis bones and the extreme strength that he had in his carbon metal composite muscles, Bucky was still able to force the hand that was pinning his gun arm back, away from the wall. Before desperately scrambling at Jarvis' face to get him off.
Shit, he must be some kind of super. Or possibly one of Dr. Erskine's earlier experiments. Didn't matter. They were prepared for this, as little as Tony wanted to start out their relationship by starting something with the other man. He really needed to make sure Bucky didn't kill them all out of some misplaced conviction that they were working for Schmidt.
The grave clamps were still stored inert, in the cabinet above the dining alcove Jarvis had tossed him into. It only took a minute or two to get one out and active. But in that minute, Jarvis had come close to losing complete control of the situation, Bucky had gotten his hand around Jarvis' throat and was forcing him back. It would only be another minute before Jarvis lost hold of him all together.
"Jarvis, Hulk containment." Tony ordered.
"Sir!" Jarvis went from passively trying to hold Bucky in place to aiming a fast and brutal hit at the cluster of nerves where Bucky's gun arm met his neck.
There was a curse, as Bucky reacted to the unexpected pain. The pause gave Jarvis the chance to pin his arm back against the wall. Letting Tony slam the gravity cuff into place, mashing the button to make it active.
Then Jarvis backed out of arm's reach. Both of them, keeping a wary eye on Bucky to see what he would do next. "Sir. I believe we have rules in place about running full background on anyone you bring into the ship."
The 'And this is why' was heavily implied.
"I didn't want to blow my cover."
Jarvis' voice came through his earbuds. -And it has nothing to do with the fact that you find this Bucky attractive.'
Well, Jarvis had known him for a long time. There wasn't much point in denying it.
"So now that we've gotten to the point where we know each other well enough to know that you hate automatons and apparently very well built AIs, maybe you can calm down enough so that we can figure out what we need to do to help each other out?"
"Get this thing the hell off of me." Bucky hissed, clawing at it with his other hand. It wouldn't do any good unless whatever abilities, he had affected both arms, which he had shown no sign of during his fight with Jarvis.
"I'd love to as long as you're not planning on killing us if I do?" Tony tried to to use his sweet voice. The one Aunt Peggy used when she really wanted anyone to believe she was sincere.
Aunt Angie had always told him that he looked like a constipated toad when he tried. Pepper just laughed whenever he made what she called 'the pouty robot face'. Hopefully it would have a similar effect on Bucky.
"What the hell are you trying to do with that face. Do I look like a complete moron. You kidnap me and tie me to the wall and I'm supposed to buy that you are harmless. Particularly when you bring along that-thing."
Jarvis backed further away from Bucky, not willing to leave Tony alone with the other man, but trying to make it clear that he didn't want to start a fight. "Mr. Bucky. Sir did not kidnap you. You followed him willingly to our ship in order to garner information from us. It is hardly our fault that you didn't expect to find and android here. We are simply here to locate Dr. Erskine and escort him to a safer location as a favor to Sir's Aunt Margaret."
"Jarvis!" Tony hissed. The mention of Peggy had to be intentional. Though for what reason Tony didn't know and didn't like. They were trying to keep a low profile here.
"Unless I am mistaken, I believe that Mr. Bucky is James Barnes, and old acquaintance of your Aunt's. From back during the second Galactic War. He served in her commando unit for a number of missions before going missing in action.
The second Galactic war against Hydra. If Jarvis recognized him from that time period then there was a very large chance that Bucky was actually a Hydra plant. He certainly didn't look like he was over sixty years old. That kind of life extension wasn't something Bucky could have afforded as an actual ship's mechanic. "Fuck!"
Bucky's head swung around, until he was regarding Tony with a nerve rackingly serious gaze. "Margaret, that means you're related to Peggy." He gave Tony another long look. "Howard's brat."
Tony let out a long hiss. Just the mention of Howard was enough to make him want to run. Add to it the fact that they were supposed to be on a covert mission and he'd just been ID'd and he was barely holding on to his panic. "Javis, prepare to incapacitate."
"Try it, I ain't going back to being a prisoner." Bucky's smile was far more terrifying than even Tony's predatory smile.
It promised bloodshed if Tony tried anything. Too bad, Tony wasn't going to be that easily put off. Tony wasn't going to let anything keep him from finding a cure for Aunt Peggy.
Jarvis cut in before Tony could do anything drastic. "Mr. Barnes, We if we can that we can provide you with proof that we are not with Hydra, will you agree to listen to reason. We would prefer not to have to put our mission on hold in order to make sure you are properly contained.
"Jarvis!" Tony snapped. He didn't like where this was going. The scars on his chest itched. A psychosomatic reaction that usually acted as a precursor to a full on panic attack.
"Sir, do you really want to keep Mr. Barnes prisoner here indefinitely. Particularly given the main reason we came looking for Dr. Erskine?"
No, not if it would keep them from getting Peggy help, but still. "We can find another way."
"Just fucking show me already. Then we'll see if I believe you are actually here to help."
Tony knew what he should be doing. He should strip out of the coverall top and let Bucky see his chest, but his hands were shaking and he was starting to pant. If he actually started taking off the top-
Jarvis slowly moved to Tony's side, making sure to stay out of Barnes reach. "Close your eyes, sir. I will take care of everything."
He should be stronger than this. But he was too far into his panic to argue. He shut his eyes and tried to concentrate on the soft hum of Jarvis' systems and the warmth of Jarvis' hands against his chest instead of what was happening. Even with his eyes closed, he knew what Bucky was seeing. The glowing blue of his prosthetic heart glowing from the center of his chest barely obscured a quarter of the combined brands of the ten rings and Hydra covered his chest. The skin raised and darkened by the poison that his captors had used to make sure that he would never be able to get their mark off of his body.
Jarvis' voice was calm, his rage carefully leashed. "Trust me, there are very few people in this Galaxy that we hate more than Hydra."
Tony pulled the shirt back down and headed towards the cockpit. "Jarvis, you handle this. I want to do a scan for tech. See if anybody noticed us arriving and has any suspicions." He paused just before he could close the door to the cockpit. "If you have to get rid of him, make sure he won't be found until we're off this rock."
Once the door snapped shut, he allowed himself to fall into the padded warm of the pilot seat. The biogel padding wrapped him in a comfortable hug and loud music filled the space until he couldn't hear anything going on back in the body of the ship.
Barnes was properly contained, and Jarvis could handle himself, he assured himself. He needed to do this scan. It wasn't running away if you had somewhere else to be.
*
He didn't come back out of the cockpit for another two hours, until his own hunger and the smell of Jarvis' cooking drew him out. Long enough to both scan for anybody who was suspicious of the new ship coming into their port. Jarvis had already run the scan, but Tony needed something to concentrate on or he was going to have a full meltdown. They didn't have time for that.
Tony froze on his way out into the living quarters. Barnes was down from his place pinned against the wall. Jarvis gave him a knowing look from where he was cooking on the induction cook top. "I assure you that I removed any electrically powered weapons from Mr. Barnes. We were just about to share a meal and discuss the possible locations of both Dr. Erskine and Mr. Barnes' friend.
Tony edged further into the room, until he could get a look at Barnes. He'd pulled back his hair so that his face was more easily seen.
He also looked a lot calmer. Less like a caged dog. "Sorry about before. I don't like surprises. And I didn't mean to threaten your friend. Though he was some new Android Hydra had cooked up."
Despite the fact that he was probably going to have to discuss being held by the ten rings, he still felt himself relax a little. At least he wouldn't have to worry about Jarvis being taken out on top of everything else that had been going wrong in his life.
Jarvis pressed a supportive hand to Tony's back. "I'll bring the food to you both. Why don't you go sit down, sir."
"Thanks, Jarvis." He wandered around the edge of the room, making sure to keep out of Bucky's reach. Before finally taking the seat across from Bucky. "So how were you able to break Jarvis' hold. That's not something most people can do."
"Sir." Jarvis interrupted.
So that had been a bad thing to ask. Okay, subject change. What would be a good subject change. "So what are we having for dinner, Jarvis?"
"Your favorite. Fruit drink gel with teriyaki protein paste. "
Barnes' face twisted up in disgust. He probably thought that Jarvis was being sarcastic. Sadly, that was actually one of his favorite meals when he was on the ship. Prepackaged, so he didn't have to worry about poison and if Jarvis, prepared it, then it would taste as good as it was possible for vacuum stable food to taste.
Thankfully Barnes picked up the conversation thread before Tony had to figure out something better to talk about. "Jarvis said that you could help me get Steve and Erskine out."
"Steve is your friend?"
Barnes nodded. "He and Sam busted me out of Hydra's holding cell. Erskine helped them do it. According to Sam I was one of the only successful test subjects for Erskine's super soldier Biochem research. Erskine thought we were all dead, till Steve convinced him otherwise."
"If you have held by Hydra for thirty years, why the hell did your friend wait that long to rescue you?" It didn't add up. Tony didn't like things that didn't add up. On top of everything else that had been going wrong today, he wasn't in the mood to be polite no matter what Jarvis thought.
"Si-"
Bucky interrupted before Jarvis could try to intervene. "Stevie was sick, the kind of sick that we couldn't afford to treat. When I enlisted, the only thing I could do was pay for him to go into a crio tube to keep him alive until I could get back out of the army and use my pension to get him to a good doc. I was special forces, with me dead my pay was able to stretch to keep him in crio for almost thirty years, but eventually it ran out."
"And he woke up to find out that you'd be MIA for years. Why did he think you were still alive?"
"Stevie, was always a stubborn idiot. Sam said that he poured over the de-classified records from that time. Then when that wasn't enough, he started talking to every information broker, he could get his hands on. Finally found out about the project Dr. Erskine worked on during the war." Bucky's eyes were distant and he smiled a fond smile. "Sam says he guilt tripped Erskine into helping him find out who the old test subjects were and came to get me like a fucking knight in shining armor."
Jarvis puts the plates down on the table, "He sounds like an amazing man."
Bucky snapped back to the present. "Yeah, I owe him big. We got shot down when we were making our escape from Hydra. Sam and I got out in one life capsule. Erskine and Steve in the other. We haven't heard from them since, and we don't dare send out a wide band transmission, so we've been having to go planet by planet. Jarvis said you had a lead."
Tony motions for Jarvis to hand him a tablet. He uses it to log into his secure server and pull up the letter Erskine had sent. Once the tablet has been locked to its current file, he hands it over to Bucky. They may need Bucky to help them find Erskine, but he's not going to hand everything he knows over without some assurance that Bucky was who he said he was.
*
Tony didn't much care for going out of the ship with only Bucky for company. Back when he brought Bucky in, it hadn't seemed too much of a risk. They had both been playing things closed to the chest and it was unlikely that Bucky would attack him before finding out what Tony knew.
Now with Bucky aware of both his identity and Jarvis, it felt like a bigger risk. Not enough to make him let Bucky leave the ship on his own. Jarvis as always, had been the voice of reason, offering to follow them at a discreet distance to make sure that Bucky didn't try anything.
Still, it took a good deal of self-deception to get Tony to follow Bucky out of them ship and into the port, after the Planet's night cycle fell.
The port was quieter now, without the raucous back and forth of shippers and mechanics, or the ear piercing sounds of machines working to repair damaged ships.
Tony couldn't see Jarvis, but he still wore the ear buds, and Jarvis kept a pleasant patter of words going, to help Tony keep his calm.
Bucky didn't show any obvious signs of sharing Tony's nerves. He strode through the darkened shipyard with a cocky sway to his hips. It was only the nervous way that his eyes darted from shadow to shadow that made it clear that his ease was exaggerated.
Once they got further away from the ship, Bucky took a turn that would take them away from the town's main street and the bar where he had originally met Tony. Even though he was expecting it, the change in directions made Tony weary. He let himself fall a few steps further behind Bucky. Making sure to keep out of grasping distance from Bucky's mechanical arm.
Bucky shot him a narrow look over his shoulder, for the change in location. He didn't say anything though. Just changed his own stride so that he was leaning partially towards Tony. Making sure that Tony wasn't in his blind spot.
- I don't believe that he is planning anything. The area he is heading towards is listed as mine staff housing. - Jarvis said.
That reassurance was enough to get Tony to move out of Bucky's blind spot. The path Bucky took twisted through the skeletons of various old cruisers, stripped down to reveal internal wiring and the bones of their hull.
The lighting here was poor. Only the faint glow from the stars hovering overhead and the occasional motion activated lights. It was very different than the main part of the Port, where travelers were expected to go.
Fifteen minutes after they left the ship, they pass the last of the vivisected ships behind. The miners lived in a series of tenaments that crept up the side of one of the planet's tallest mountains. Stacked on top of each other the buildings were little more than shacks, made out of the remains of abandoned ships and the pale gray wood from the trees that line the mountain.
Bucky climbed up to the fifth level of buildings with Tony close on his heels. They stopped at a small door jammed in the narrow gap between two larger shacks. If Bucky hadn't been with him, Tony wouldn't have even realized that there was a building here.
Bucky knocked a careful pattern. The door swung open a moment later. Sam's smiling face greeting them. "Oh good, I thought you'd been kidnapped again."
Bucky muscled his way past Sam and into the narrow hallway. "Shut up. I wouldn't get kidnapped by somebody that little."
Sam snorted, giving Tony a wink. "Don't mind him. He has a problem admitting that he's short."
Bucky's growl echoed back down the hallway. Tony managed to force an amused smile. He did not want to go down a narrow hallway into an unknown room with two people he barely knew. To many bad memories of the tiny hallways that had made up his kidnapper's lair.
Was there another way that he could get the information? His mind raced, searching for other possibilities. Sam watched him with a steady gaze, not rushing him in even though having their secret hideout open had to be a risk. That helped him calm down.
It was Jarvis' calm voice that got him moving. -I have landed just overhead sir. I'll be able to watch everything that is going on through heat scans.-
Tony took a deep breath and headed into the shack. Keeping as much space between himself and Sam's wide shoulders as he could in the narrow space.
Sam gave him a few moments to get further down the hall, before he followed. Even with the distance having somebody at his back still makes Tony's skin crawl. The narrow hallway is only a few yards long. Funneling them into a large boxy room lit with only a few electric lights strung to the ceiling. A large fan brings a small trickle of air into the windowless space.
One side of the room as completely taken up by a kitchenet. The other side had a set of bunk beds crammed into the corner. Which only left a little space to walk around the table in the center of the room.
Maps and disassembled electronics littered the table. Even from the hallway doorway, Tony recognized parts of various security systems.
"So, this is our headquarters. If you want to let Sam in, we can get started."
Tony took a few, careful steps into the room, keeping his back to the wall. Sam obligingly headed to the opposite side of the room to give Tony some space.
"I'm impressed you managed to get Bucky to let you help. He's not exactly good with people." Sam said.
Bucky ignored the jab, in favor of spreading a few of the maps out on top of the mess covering the table. "He knows Peggy."
"Your old army friend?"
"She's my aunt." Tony interrupts. "Bucky said that he'd help me find Erskin for her, if I helped you both find your friend Steve."
Sam looked back and forth between them for a long moment before seemingly coming to a decision. "I'll put some coffee on while Bucky puts together the data we have. Tony go ahead and take a seat on the bunks. We're low on chairs."
Tony considered staying with his back against the wall, but the bunk was backed into the corner, and would let him see all of the room. So there was no reason to stay where he was. He didn't want to have to explain his reasoning to Sam. He doubted Bucky would handle Tony's blatant distrust well.
Even after the way he'd reacted to Jarvis. The bed was covered with a faded quilt, made up of the rough fabric usually used in shipper's uniforms. Tony found himself running a thumb over the raised seams to keep himself calm, as he watched Bucky rifle through his maps and Sam start a kettle of water to boil.
-Sir, there hasn't been any movement for the last few minutes. Do you need any help? - Jarvis asked.
He didn't want to make it obvious that he was still in direct contact with Jarvis, so he tapped his ear bud twice. Their own personal signal for everything being good. Neither Bucky or Sam seemed to notice the move, but Tony wasn't able to relax until Sam handed him a mug of coffee with a smile. If they thought he was a threat, now way would Sam be that nice.
"So, let's get this underway. I pulled together all of our data." Bucky said, while absent-mindedly taking his own mug from Sam.
The maps had been arranged on the table so that they made up a fairly accurate representation of the habitable areas of the planet. The map was made up of various sheets with obvious differences in both the detail of the areas rendered as well as the notes written along the edges. Various areas had been crossed out with blue and green marks. "What do these stand for?" Tony asked, motioning towards the maps colored sections.
"Green are areas that we've been able to fully clear. Blue are areas that we have been able to partially clear. We're fairly sure that Steve isn't in the locations, but we weren't able to do eyes on surveys of the whole areas."
"Any sort of digital surveys we can corroborate against?" Tony asked. The lack of digital printouts was conspicuous.
"No, we were able to bribe our way into looking at the surveying records. But each companies maps differed so much that we couldn't rely on the data," Sam motioned at the hand-drawn maps. "Only supervisors have access to personal computers and tablets outside of work. Between the unreliable records and the fact that we didn't want to be caught carrying tech we shouldn't have, it was easier to create accurate data by hand."
Tony chewed on his lip. He needed to get Jarvis down here. The android had the capability to digitize the hand drawn maps and generate a three dimensional model. More importantly, he'd be able to compare that model against the deep scans that Tony had run before they'd landed the ship in port, but how could he convince Bucky and Sam to read Jarvis in, when Bucky had barely managed to stop freaking out whenever Jarvis moved to close to him, back when they were on Tony's ship?
- I've received the data sire. Analyzing it now. -
It took a few long, akward minutes of Tony acting like he was analyzing the scans he'd taken of the maps, before Jarvis was finished creating a digital model. Hopefully Bucky and Sam weren't familiar enough with the software to know that the rendering would have taken even a human as smart as Tony a few hours.
Jarvis could do all of the calculations in his head, without having to import them into rendering softward for mapping first. Which sped things up expodentionally.
The three do projection rose up from Tony's tablet to hover midair over Bucky and Same's hand-drawn maps. Jarvis had managed to keep their colors. But additionally gold threads wove throug the map, showing the areas that Jarvis and Tony had been able to map through their planetary scans.
It was impressive how closely Sam and Bucky's map mirrored Tony's original model. From having to work by hand, and rely on word of mouth, they had done an amazing job. There were only two areas that were very different.
One was a large, almost perfectly circular section in the center of the planet's only real town.
The other was a series of tunnels that branched off from one of mine's that Sam and Bucky's map had labeld as abandoned. Tony's scans showed a different story. An entire network of tunnels and rooms ran around the city's furthest edge. "What do you know about these two areas?" Tony asked
Sam had been watching the way Tony manovered the map, and it only took him a few false starts while until he was able to zoom in and out with ease. He tapped the round area at the center of the city first. "That's the Spinder's teratory. We weren't able to get much information about it. She's very clear about what she does to people who share her private information.
Rotating the map, Sam zoomed in on the other end section that was outlined in gold. "Bucky you mapped this part of the town. You have any idea who might be behind this? "
Bucky shuffled through the hand drawn map, running a finger over the lines of notes at the edge of the map. "No, that mine was registerd to one of the original prospectors who staked claim on Brooklyn. He supposedly never struck any veins, and eventually shut down the mines. There are rumors that he killed himself inside the mine so most of the locals don't have anything to do with it. Nobody mentioned new buyers or seeing anybody coming or going from that area."
Tony was inclined to think that the tunnels at the edge of the cit were a more likely target for Hydra, but if this Spider was a known sympathizer it was possible that Hydra would give up its prefered anonymaty in favor of having a base of operations that had already been set up. "So where do you want to hit first?"
Bucky looked at him like he was a raging lunatic. "With recon. We're not hitting anywhere without knowning what we're walking into. There are three of us and an unknown number of Hydra agents. Not to mention whatever local muscle they may have hired."
"How long to recon?" Tony asked. Already doing the math in his head. If it was a day or two, it would be worth waiting. Longer than that and he wouldn't have a good chance of getting Erskin to Aunt Peggy soon enough to make a difference.
Sam and Bucky shared a look. It was sam that answered the question. "Look, Tony. I get that you want to help. but this is our town we know how things run here. You need to leave this kind of thing to us."
That didn't sound like it meant they were going to be rescuing Erskin any time soon. "How long?"
"At last two weeks. One to do recon. Another to do prep once we know for sure which base we're hitting and who we're going to have to go up against."
"Aren't you worrired about what they're oding to your friend?" It was a pathetic gambit, preying on their fears but Tony was desperate enough to not feel any guilt from trying to manipulate them.
It wasn't like it worked anyway. Sam had the exact same steady, understanding look as when he'd said two weeks. Tony knew that he wasn't going to be swayed even before he opened his mouth. "You've got your Paladium leak ruse. Just stay out of sight while we do the recon, and then you can help us bust Erskin and Steve out. Okay?"
- Sir - Jarvis cut in before Tony could let lose with what exactly he wanted to say to that sit on the sidelines and wait crap. That was the exact same argument Stane had used when Peggy had first started to get sick. Tony had let himself be convinced them. He wasn't going to let it happen again.
"Fine. I'll head back to my ship, but you better not going running in to make a rescue and leave me behind." He reached forward to take his tablet back, using the motion to hid the fact that he was planting a micro-adio transmitter under the table's bottom edge.
Bucky opened his mouth. Probably to complain about Tony taking the map back. Sam thankfully elbowed him into silnce before Tony's thread-bare control could snap. "Chow!" Tony said wave.
No matter what these two said, he wasn't going to wait around. At least the meeting wasn't a complete loss. He had their map and that had narrrowed down the places to search to a much more managable level.
He waited until he was out of the tenaments and weaving among the abandoned old tankers, before he talked to Jarvis. "Once I'm back at the ship, I want you to do a scan of the two areas. Do a full scan, body count, and area mapping. "
"Yes, sir." Jarvis replied
#
Jarvis had a partial scan of the two areas ready for him the next morning when he woke up. "I wasn't able to get a full scan of the Spider's area. She appears to have someone with augmented visual abilities working security for her. I was spotted only ten minutes into the scan. I backed off afterwards."
"What did you learn from your scan?" Tony asked while steadily working his way through a bowl full of fruit flavored protein gel.
"I estimate her compound houses approximately a dozen people and a number of larger animals. I wasn't able to get a close enough scan to guarantee species, but I believe they are most likely canine's used for guarding. "
Made sense. With such a small non-mining population there wouldn't be much need or ability to keep a large crew on site. So the people the Spider had with her were probably the best of the best. The ones worth paying to have on her payroll full time.
"What about the other area?"
"I was able to do a fairly comprehensive scan of the architecture of the tunnels that were built off of the original mine. I was also able to find a bill of sale for the property to a shell company owned by Alexander Pierce."
"Were you able to get a read on how many people are at the base?" Tony asked.
"Most of the tunnels are too deep to get a clear biological scan. I would estimate at least a few dozen, based on the level of traffic in and out of the tunnels.
So the base was most likely heavily staffed and armed. The smart thing to do would be to take their time and do a more indepth scan, maybe be even go to the place in person. Aunt Peggy's life depended on an ever shrinking deadline. Tony was just too reckless to hold back and take things the slow way. Once she was feeling better Aunt Peggy was going to box his ears for going into an unknown base with only Jarvis and two virtually unknowns for backup.
Speaking of Bucky and Sam. "Jarvis, were you able to get any further information about Barnes and Sam?"
Jarvis placed a tablet on the table next to Tony. He had pulled up pictures of Barnes, Sam, and a tiny man with bright blond hair."I was able to confirm Mr. Barnes' ID and that his next of kin was listed as one Steven Rogers who was in chrio stasus up until recently, "Jarvis tapped e photo of the blond. "Barnes was listed as KIA in the war and no further information was listed under that ID. Sam is a Sam Wilson, previously a member of the Air Defence's Search and Rescue forces. Presently listed as retired after an accident resulted in the death of his ship's crew."
"Any signs of either of them having previous dealings with Shield or Pierce?"
"Nothing on record. Though if Mr. Barnes' story is true, he likely had previous run ins with Pierce as one of their assets."
Tony pushed himself away from the table. "We'll just have to hope that he hate's Pierce as much as we do."
Jarvis' face remained impassive, but he modulated his tone enough to make his own dislike of Pierce clear. "Indeed."
"See if you can contact Barnes and let him know what we've found." Tony called over his shoulder as he headed towards his bunk at the back of the ship. He wanted to be suited up and weaponized before he dealing with Barnes or busting into a Hydra base.
#
Bucky and Sam meet them at a small warehouse that Jarvis had picked out as safe spot. It was only a block from the primary entrance to the suspected Hydra base.
Bucky was already in body armor wen he came into the room. His augmented arm was on full display. It shone like chrome and was covered in delicately interlocking metal armor plates. Tony itched to take it apart and see what mad it tick.
Thankfully the murderous scowl on Bucky's face was enough to help Tony tamp down the urge.
Tony himself is in a set of nano-tech armor that mirrors the nano-tech he'd used to create Jarvis' body. The armor was red and gold. All about letting people know when he's present. Bucky wa far from the only one who has a bad reaction to Hydra's android tech, and Tony wasn't afraid to use that kind of fear to his advantage.
Though, in deference to Bucky's obvious dislike of the tech, he'd left the metallic faceplate off of the armor for now.
Apparently Bucky's fear of Android's only worked when he wasn't fucking pissed. He stalked across the warehouse, stopping just inches from Tony's face. "What the hell do you think you're doing trying to bust into a Hydra base without backup? Are you trying to get Steve and Erskin killed?"
"I'm trying to get them out before somebody realizes we're investigating and decides they need to be liquidated." Tony snapped back leaning just a little into Bucky's space. If Bucky was trying to play chicken with him he'd have to figure out some of intimidating Tony. Tony didn't get intimidated. Period. "So if you don't what to help me that's fine. I'll do it myself."
"And get everybody killed trying?" Bucky snapped back.
Sam came up from the side hands out. "Alright guys, let's back this and see if we can figure out a way to get everybody rescued without killing each other."
Tony opened his mouth, to snap, mind already snapping through a list of retorts. The roar of an explosion echoed through the building. The force of it shook the corrugated metal and plastic walls.
-Jarvis- Tony snapped. Ignoring t way that his heartbeat ad spiked at the loud sound. He'd have time to panic later.
Jarvis took a few minutes to answer. His eyes stared blankly at the wall. Finally, he replied, "It appears the base that we were planning to invade has been blown up from inside."
Tony smiled. Able to breath fully for the first time since the explosion had sounded. The noise and situation sent echoes of his escape from his last kidnapping. Guns, explosions, and a Nanotech suit that had just barely been completed. Doctor Yinsin's body lying where he had fallen trying to protect Tony.
Maybe this time he'd actually get it right end nobody would have to die in the escape attempt. "Well then,we better go back them up." He ran for the warehouse entrance, Jarvis at his back. Ignoring the way Bucky shouted after him. He and Sam would follow or they wouldn't. Tony wasn't going to wait around to find out what they decided.
#
The inside of the Hydra base was about what Tony was expecting. Too claustrophobic, filled with flames and smoke that are only kept at bay by his suit. He had to put the face mask on only a few steps inside. There was no way he was getting anywhere without its night vision scanning and air filtration.
Even with the suit he still couldn't let himself stop long enough to let the his brain catch up to the stupidity of what he's doing. If he stopped, he was going to have an anxiety attack and be no good to anybody. He just had to keep breathing and keep scanning for anybody matching the pictures they have of Steve and Erskin. That's all he needs to focus on right now.
Jarvis' calming voice echoed from the com built into the suit - Mr. Barnes and Mr. Wilson have entered the base and are close on our tail. Do you wish to stop and let them catch up with us?-
Tony considered it, even knowing how close he was to panicking. Before he can make a decision a spate of gunfire comes at them from around the tunnel's next corner. He and Jarvis throw themselves against opposite sides of the hallway.
-Can you see them- Tony asked through the internal system. No need to give the Hydra goons a way to track their location by speaking out loud. The angle was wrong from his position, and he didn't relish rushing the corner even if the armor wouldn't let the bullets do any serious damage, being shot still hurt.
-Not at the moment, sir - Jarvis replied edging closer to the corner. Ignoring Tony's attempts to get him to stop.
A spate of bullets cuts through the wall inches from where Jarvis was standing. That at least gets Jarvis attention, for a second. Before they both hear the clink - clink of a grenade clattering down the hallway between them. It span past until it hit the wall right next to the corner and explodes. The hallway fills with blue smoke.
Bucky strode through the colored smoke like it didsn't exist.His nose and chin were covered with a tight, black mask. A pair of goggles fit snug over top to protect his eyes. He strode past both Tony and Jarvis and lets loose a volley of bullets into the hallway on the other side of the corner. After the first few seconds there wasn't any return fire.
Sam followed in Bucky's wake a few seconds later. He was wearing a similar style of goggles to Bucky, but without the lower face mask. He gave Tony a reckless grin as he made his way passed where Tony and Jarvis were still crouched against oposit walls. Well at least somebody was enjoying the havoc.
Despite himself, the fact that he had Bucky and Sam to back him up, helped calm some of Tony's nerves. It was easier to push himself up and make his way down the hall than it should have been. As long as he concentrated on listening for the noise of Bucky and Sam's guns it was easier to push away his awareness of the encroaching smoke and flames.
They didn't run into any real resistance until they were deep enough into the tunnels that Tony would have been completely lost without Jarvis's directions. He and Jarvis catch up with Bucky and Sam at a large metal door that blocked the entire tunnel. It had the dull sheen that Tony knew from experience came from the tempering process that was most commonly used on ship's hulls. The kind meant to withstand direct hits from meteors.
"Any ideas?" Bucky asked Sam as Tony walked up behind them.
Sam shook his head. "Someboy must wanted to make damn sure nobody was getting into the base."
"Or out." Tony countered, approaching the door.
Turning, Bucky leveled look in Tony's direction. Whatever he was thinking, it wasn't immediately obvious given the fact that his face was completely covered and his body was layered in armor. Which was only fair, Tony doubted Bucky was able to read his body language through the nano suit. "Lucky for you two I was here."
"You've seen this before?" Sam asked.
"Something like it." The doors, he'd blasted through in his first, cobbled together, attempt at a suit had been made of the same material. The thought of being forever buried behind doors like these had haunted Tony's dreams ever since. It was those dreams that had made him figure out a means to destroy the metal in a manner of minutes, rather than the hours it had taken him the first time. Maybe if he'd had this kind of tech back then, Yusif would have survived.
He rested his armored hands against the door, letting the nanobots get a taste of the metal and sent a mental nudge to them that they were allowed to eat. It didn't take long for their networked coding to figure out what was going on. They rushed off his body and spread across the door. Devouring the metal and using it to bolster their own plating. He called them back before they could eat through the entire door. There had to be some soldiers keeping watch on the other side. He wanted to be fully armored before the door gave. There was only a quarter inch of the medal left. Anything with enough force and power could get through it now. "Jarvis, you want to do the honors?"
"Of course, sir." Jarvis backed away from the door, until he was on the far side of the tunnel,then he sprang forward, rocketing towards the door at a speed that kicked a smokescreen of dust from the floor. The door shattered when he hit, launching jagged pieces of metal into the guards waiting on the other side. Screams filled the air.
Tony peeked around the edge of the hole and surveyed the damage. There were at least a half-dozen guards down with various shrapnel woulds. Jarvis had guard by the throat and was using his superior height to keep the man from getting away. "Good job, Jarvis."
"I aim to please, sir. Do you wish to question this one about the current whereabouts of Mr.Rogers and Dr. Erskin?"
The guard did something odd with his jaw and then started to spasm in Jarvis' grip. Jarv stared a the body. "I am sorry, sir, I failed to consider that he would have a means to commit suicide rather than being questioned."
"It's fine.We're still not used to this whole, espionage shit."
Sam came through the door, gun aimed at the down end still moaning Hydra agents. "They usually have a poison sack in their cheek. If you want to keep them alive you have to make sure they can't bite down on it."
Well, wasn't that just gruesome. Bucky followed Sam through the hole. The two of them started forward. Leaving Tony and Jarvis behind yet again.
"God save me from stubborn idiots." Tony said. It was one of Aunt Peggy's favorite sayings when she was dealing with Tony. Usually followed up by Aunt Angie cackling about how Tony had gotten his stubbornness from Peggy herself.
"Jarvis, you have scans of this base. If you were a beating android, where do you think escaping prisoners would go?"
Jarvis took a moment to answer. Most likely compiling data and running probability matches. He wasn't one to bet unless he'd run all the figures first. "If they were unable to make their way through this tunnel due to the door we just came through, their next step would be to find an alternate exit."
"You see any of those on your scan?" Tony asked. Knowing it was a pointless question. If Jarvis had seen one he'd have directed them to the alternate escape route already.
"No, sir. I have a number of possibilities. Areas that appeared to be dead-ends on the original scan. There are at least three that come much closer to the surface than one usually would if they were mining for mineral deposits."
"Three, huh?" Tony's mind started clicking away through the possibilities. Most of them ended the same way. The only way they could hit all three options quickly would be to split up. "Come on, we need to catch up with the others. See what they want to do."
"Sir."
By the time they catch up, Bucky and Sam are in the middle of yet another firefight. This one seemed to be giving them more trouble than the previous ones.
"Fuck!" Sam cursed as he dodged a series of bullets that peppered the area he'd been standing a few seconds before.
"Anything we can do to help?" Tony asked. Expecting to be told to stay out of the way. Instead, Sam looked passed him to where Jarvis was standing. "Can you take out a Hydra android?"
Jarvis stepped forward. "I can, but while I am doing that I will be unable to properly defend myself from any other threats.
"We'll keep the rest off your back, if you can take it out."
Tony bit back the instinctive urge to snap that androids weren't its. Now wasn't the time. "You want me to back you up?"
"Not yet, sir. I'd prefer to keep you in reserve in case the matter is not as simple as Mr. Wilson believes." He didn't wait for Tony to confirm, instead springing forward, into the line of fire. The clang of metal on metal was only interrupted by the occasional weapons fire between Bucky, Sam, and the Hydra goons."
-Sir, I believe Mr. Wilson's estimates were overly optimistic - Jarvis said through Tony's earbud.
Tony blew out a breath, glad to actually be doing something and used the suit's power to shoot forward at almost the same speed as Jarvis had managed.
The problem was immediately evident. While the original body might was an old stock model android, somebody had tricked it out. Every punch Jarvs landed began to regenerate almost as soon as it landed.
The only tech that could recover that fast was nano-based. And given that this was one of Pierce's bases, the tech was probably based on Tony's own design. Fucking Stane, selling off Tony's tech to trash like Pierce and Hydra. "Is it trying to eat you?"
"I have been able to keep it from doing so yet, but I believe that has more to do with the fact that my Nano-tech is a few generations newer."
But even a few generations Tony had already started building in learning algorithms. Eventually the nano-boats would figure out how to cannibalize Jarvis' tech. Tony's own tech was different enough from Jarvis' that if they combined attaches it would make it harder for the android's bots to mimic either of them.
Hopefully one of them would be able to figure out how to get passed the nano-bots and disable the android itself before it figured either of their systems out.
With that thought in mind, Tony concentrated his blows on the android's head section, trying to get through the bots and into the chassis that housed the things brain. Jarvis, who could hit harder, kept his blows scattered, trying to disable its arms and legs so they could both stop dodging the android's flailing blows.
Gunfire came from further into the base. Out of Bucky and Sam's line of sight. It forced both Jarvis and Tony to jump away, giving the android an unfortunate chance to heal. "Keep them off our backs!" Tony yelled.
He heard few meaty thumps from down the same hallway that the gunfire had come from. There was no more gunfire. Tony went back to ignoring the thugs, trying to figure out a way to disable the android.
Unfortunately, that break had been all the android's nano-bots had needed. When he landed his next hit, the bots hit back biting through Tony's armor and into Tony's skin.
He screamed! Javis broke away from his next attack to pull him away from the Android. The nano=bots tried to follow them, but weren't able to get more than a few feet from the android's body. At least not yet.
"Fuck!" Tony shook his arm, trying to stop the stinging pain in his hand. "You figured out a way to shut him down yet?"
"No, the only way is to take off their head, but the nano-bots are protecting it." Jarvis said, confirming what Tony had already guessed.
"Ready to go again?" Tony asked.
"Sir, I don't think that is wise. The nano-bots have already figured out how to cannibalize your armor. A further attack will only make them stronger."
"So what are we supposed to do? Take its head off without touching it?" Tony retorted. How would they even manage that?"
Something whistled through the air above their heads. A second later the android's head flew off. The thin metal disk that had done it, imbedded almost an inch into the far wall.
Jarvis and Tony turned, to look behind them to where the disk had come from. It was the same hallway that the earlier gunfire had come from. A tall, blond man stood in the hallway. He was dressed in the same coveralls, as the rest of the Hydra agents, but he wasn't wearing the standard face mask.
Still, Tony wasn't taking any chances. He forced himself to his feet, bracing to attack. Jarvis' hand on his arm stopped him. "Sir, I believe that this is Mr. Barnes' friend.
"This guy?" He had to be at least two heads taller than the image that Jarvis had found of Bucky's Steve. And that didn't even begin to touch on the fact that he had to be at least a hundred pounds heavier. All of it muscle.
"His biometrics match." Jarvis said.
At the same time as Steve said. "You know Bucky?"
This was just too weird to deal with right now. Tony needed to concentrate on the real reason that he'd broken into the base. "Have you seen a Dr. Erskin?"
There was a shuffle from further down the hall. Doctor Erskin came into view. He was older than the pictures Peggy had of him. His hair graying and his face wrinkled, but he was definitely the same man.
At least he hadn't turned into a completely different person along with Steve. Tony pulled off his faceplate. "Doctor Erskin. My name is Tony Stark. My Aunt received a message from you a few weeks ago. I came to get you, because I need your help."
He stepped forward, only to have Steve block his path. "Doctor Erskin?" Steve asked.
Doctor Erskin came closer, squinting at Tony. "You are Howards son, yes?"
Tony nodded, making sure not to move closer. He didn't want Steve to think he was a threat. He knew all too well how hard it was to tell your friends when your enemies when you first escaped captivity.
"Is Peggy with you?" Erskin asked.
Tony glanced around at the dead bodies that littered the hallway. "Can we talk that once we're somewhere a little safer?"
Steve gave Tony a mulish look, but Erskin took the change of subject in stride."Did you come through the big door at the front of the tunnels? We were trying to escape when they sealed us in."
"Yeah - "
"Buck!" Steve yelled. Tony turned to see Bucky and Sam come through the hallway, passed the android's decapitated body. "Steve!" Sam shouted in reply. He ran forward to pull Steve into a tight hug. Bucky was close behind.
The three of them turned into a mass of arms, legs, and body armor. Doctor Erskin watched with a look of fatherly pride.
The sound of oncoming footsteps echoed down the hallway. Steven and the other two jumped apart.
"Come on, we need to get out of the tunnels. Jarvis can call the ship once we're back above ground." Tony and Jarvis took the lead now. With Steve and Erskin sandwiched between them, Bucky, and Sam.
They made their way back towards the entrance. Steve stops just long enough to pry the metal disk he'd thrown through the android loose from the wall.
#
Once they were safely out of Brooklyn's airspace, Tony finally felt safe enough to explain Aunt Peggy's situation to Erskin.
"You say that the poison is causing her to lose her memory." Erskin asked, his eyes glued to the medical files that Jarvis had pulled up on a tablet for him.
Tony scrubbed his hands through his hair, trying to keep calm. Even talking about the possibility of Peggy dying. "Yeah, progressive memory loss and loss of motor function, the doctors say it is early onset dementia, but that doesn't explain how fast it is moving."
"I can't promise that I can fix it, but I believe I have seen something similar. The process to reverse the damage should be similar." Erskin said, squinting at the brain scans.
It wasn't a guarantee, but the calm way Erskin said it. Like he never even considered that Peggy might die, was enough to let Tony breath again. Everything was going to be okay.
#
Fin