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Everything was a blur. There was murmurs around him, making incomprehensible words. The thought's in his head were unclear, slurred, almost as if being blocked out. It created tension in his head, being stretched, and molded like putty, or being in a blender. Nothing made sense. Nothing was clear. His thoughts were distorted. His personality was being ripped apart, and something else entirely was shoved in. The memories that he had once held dear—his parents, friends, accomplishments—all flushed down a mental drain. The Avengers, once a team to him, now a threat. Thoughts were now orders, all coming from a computer. It was like his entire identity was now just programming on a screen. It was the worst, yet most numbed feeling he had ever felt.
HYDRA 'heads', and soldiers were all around him, strapping wires to his head, and limbs. He didn’t even feel the shock anymore—he didn't know that he was screaming through the gag. It took two years—almost three—to get to this point, but they have finally broken him. It didn't take too, too long, as he was already broken in many ways. They unmade him, and put him back together the way they wanted, like a toy. But no toy is perfect. He'd sometimes snap out of it, screaming and crying for the Avengers to save him from becoming a Winter Soldier. They had a quick fix, unfortunately. Putting him back in the chair, and electrocuting the life out of him, before repeating ten specific Russian words—Her, television, robotics, man, night, alone, beer, dresser, pool, and iron. It's different for everyone.
His voice was losing against the gag, and his eyes were screwed shut so tight, that when he opened them it took a minute for his eyesight to come back. Really, it wasn't him seeing through his calculating brown eyes, it was the Asset. The Asset, as in the codes behind his new identity—it's what given him his Winter Soldier thoughts. HYDRA doesn't call him the Winter Soldier, just Asset. He wasn't quite at soldier level.
The Asset didn't know when the pain stopped, let alone started, only the body reacted to it. The Asset was programmed to not discern the feeling of pain, or emotion. It was like HYDRA had just shut that part of his brain off. They could stop his brain from feeling it, not his body--which led to the Asset involuntarily shouting out in pain, or passing out. Pain held him back from completing assignments, or missions. Pain is a weakness to HYDRA, and they couldn't tolerate that.
"Alright, shut it off," One of HYRDA's head ordered, opening a journal with a star on the front. The woman to his left quickly pulled a lever, which had shut off the machine. The screams that echoed through the room quickly vanished. He was now choking on the gag, desperate for some air—he settled after a couple seconds. "Her, television, robotics, man, night, alone, beer, dresser, pool, iron. Good evening, Asset." The head closed the book gently. Some of the other soldiers roughly pulled off his restraints, and gag. The wires also came off.
"Ready to comply," The Asset murmured, his dead brown eyes staring straight ahead.
"Assess, inform, repair," The head pronounced, pulling a gun from the woman beside him.
HYDRA is smart. They only took away his memories, not knowledge. They could use him for many things.
Asset opened his mouth to speak, and did what was told. The head smirked. This was the first day the Asset did so without hesitation.
Today was the official birth of the Asset.
Today was the official death of Tony Stark.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Alright, we done? 'Cuz I have to go do something that's not this," Tony said, standing up from the table. The Avengers rolled their eyes, looking back to their Captain, Steve Rogers. "Stark, you have to take this mission seriously," Steve warned, narrowing his eyes at the exiting genius. "We all need to know our parts, and yours just so happens to be the most crucial." "I already know my part, Capsicle," Tony smirked, halfway out the door. "Take out HYDRA agents, gather the files of the Ultron incident, hard and computerized, and report back to SHIELD." Tony informed, glancing over his shoulder. "Piece of cake." "Stark, you'd better not fuck this up," Nick growled from inside the meeting room. "When do I ever?" Honestly, the Avengers were expecting Tony to easily sink in the information, and leave, so they didn't even bother to follow him. They all partially still blamed Tony for the entire Ultron incident, making them not trust him half of the time, while Wanda simply hated him. She couldn't help it, he was the cause of her parents, and brothers death. Granted, it was pretty much her fault too, as she gave Tony the nightmare of what could happen without security. She knew that, and she blamed herself, too. Tony, obviously, didn't have anything else to actually do, he just didn't want to be in that room for any longer. He managed to keep his composure, but the glances that Wanda kept throwing at him were pushing him closer to an anxiety attack. He knew that she could kill him with a flick of her wrist, and he didn't doubt that she would. Tony raised a hand to his chest, over the arc-reactor, taking deep breathes. He ignored the feeling of the metal scraping against his lungs, and the pain that came along with it. SHIELD agents were ignoring him, some of them looking at him with distaste. His mind was reeling with thoughts about the nightmare... because what if it became a reality, and Ultron was his best try to save them? Outside of the SHIELD base his car was already waiting for him, and he could feel himself missing Happy. He missed the way things were before Afghanistan, where he was busy drinking, partying, not a care in the world, and envying Cap by himself. Though, he knows it's better now. He's actually saving people, not deliberately trying to blow them up. Tony zoned out as he drove back to the tower, which was now named the Avengers tower, instead of Stark tower. After the New York battle the Avengers had moved into the tower, giving him little privacy with secret projects. Everything was okay, even though not all occupants trusted him. JARVIS was gone, now FRIDAY was in his place, nowhere near as advanced. God he missed JARVIS. "Hello, sir." FRIDAY's electronic voice greeted him. Tony mumbled a 'hi' and went straight to his lab. He trusted Bruce. A lot. He had made the guy a lab beside his own, so they could talk and work. The big guy has his own room in the tower, just in case someone gets on his bad side. It was Visions idea, and Tony has to say it was a good one. It's saved the tower once already, and Bruce was grateful. "FRIDAY, lock all doors to my lab, and don't let anyone in without my permission," Tony said, sitting down at his desk. FRIDAY did so without replying. Tony instantly went to work, he picked out his suit he was using at the moment, and just observed it. Not too long ago he was on a mission with the team, they were taking down yet another HYDRA base, and he got literally blown out of the building. Multiple sensors, missiles, and even his repulsers we're currently offline. Don't even get him started on his flight power. "FRIDAY, get the lab set up for testing," Tony said after a couple hours of working. FRIDAY began to ventilate the room, and DUM-E already had the fire extinguisher, and a camera focused on him. "Alright, test number one. I have, hopefully, successfully repaired mark forty-five, and added a couple more specs--missile re-routing, and scanning sensors for injuries. Put the date and time on screen. Let's go," Tony said directly towards DUM-E. Of course, Tony started off by testing the reaction towards extending his arm out, which the suit complied, completing the first step. The suit had engulfed Tony, and the mask was online. Tony could help but smirk, even though the bots couldn't see it. "FRIDAY, you there?" "Here, sir." "Great. How's the flight power, and repulsers?" "Online, at ninety-seven percent." "Okay," Tony instantly went into flight, shooting a repulser at a target he had set up before hand. "Scan the room." The scan came up clean, which was correct. There was no one except him in the entire floor. Of course, there was a couple people below him, but that was expected. "Missiles?" Tony asked, not wanting to fire any quite yet. "Online, fourteen currently ready for combat. Two missiles are at four percent, a small explosion would occur." "Okay," Tony could feel his heartbeat speed up in excitement. "Now to test the new specs, scan the people below us for injury." Of course, the suit responded, giving a red light from the eye slits, lighting the room. Tony saw that the people below him were fine, one was sick though. Poor guy. "Missile re-route." Tony sent out multiple missiles aimed at the stair, which was probably a bad idea, but they weren't very powerful missiles. Just a small explosion. Tony quickly scanned the missiles, and called them back to the suit. They turned abruptly, and landed at his feet, not exploding. "DUM-E, once you put the camera and fire extinguisher away, clean the missiles up. Don't make anything explode." Tony said, pointing his metallic finger in the way of the bot. Tony was about to step out of the suit, but an explosion threw him back into the wall. Thank God for the cement walls. DUM-E instantly sprayed Tony.~~~~~ "You're gonna get killed someday, Tony." Rhodey said, handing Tony a shot of scotch. When Rhodey went to check up on Tony after he heard about the new mission tomorrow, he found him unconscious on the ground, in his suit, next to burnt ground. He instantly knew Tony had blown something up. Knowing Tony, though, he wasn't going to be badly hurt from a little explosion in his suit. "It was a small explosion, Rhodey." Tony showed how small by his pointer finger, and thumb. "A small explosion which knocked you out," Rhodey scolded, taking a sip of his drink. Tony shrugged. "Had worse." "You wouldn't know," Rhodey said. "You were unconscious." "You're too uptight, need a massage?" Tony asked, teasing. "Shut up, Tone," Rhodey half heartedly growled. "I had to break your glass doors to get in," There was a couple silent moments. "So, what's the next mission?" "You coming?" Tony asked, realizing Rhodey wasn't present at the meeting. "No," He took a swig of the drink. "So, you have to tell me what's going on." "Just the standard get in, get it, get out," Tony informed him, arching his back to stretch. "What's your orders?" "Oh, I'm the most important part," Tony smirked. "I get the honour of getting the files," "Good," Rhodey said seriously. He wouldn't admit it, but he was worried the team was going to kick Tony off the missions. He didn't know that Tony was worried, too. "Be careful." "'Course."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Tony had no idea what was going on. People were running, shooting, blowing things up, and screaming. He was way above the trees of the forest where the HYDRA base was. Tony could faintly see Captain America punch out a couple agents, and reflecting bullets with his shield. The whole team seemed to be doing amazing, even capturing a couple Agents to interrogate. Let's just say they didn't have the element of surprise as they planned. Tony landed in front of the front door of the base, ignoring the people who were shooting normal guns at his suit. He simply let FRIDAY take care of it, and walking into the base. No one was there, it was deserted. Papers, and files were scattered on the floor, the writing on the black boards were fairly wiped away, and the computers were completely turned off. Sighing, Tony let the suit open, and he stepped out, telling FRIDAY to keep watch. The suit immediately replied by keeping its arm pointed towards the exit. All in all, Tony felt pretty secure in the building. He flipped through the files that were scattered around, just briefly reading the first few sentences. There was a couple about the raids the Avengers have been doing to their bases, and information on the individual Avenger members. He basically took all of it, shoving it into a bag he had carried on the back of he Iron Man suit. Yes, he looked stupid flying with a school backpack, but it was definitely worth it. He came across the Ultron files, decided it was time to look at the computers. The suit walked over to the computers, and injected a hard drive that was connected to the suit finger. All of the computers immediately turned on, giving more light into the room, not missing one crevice. Tony's eyes flickered across the screens. HYDRA knew more than SHIELD knew. "FRIDAY, download everything," Tony ordered, looking uneasy. "Even if it's porn, download it." "You really think we would have porn here?" A french feminine accent voiced from behind him. Tony turned cautiously, and the woman cocked the gun, aiming it at Tony. "Eh, don't know how the bad guys get off." "Anthony Stark," The woman said, ignoring Tony's last comment. "We've been waiting for you." She smirked. Tony's suit immediately fell to the ground, shaking likes its been electrocuted. "Sir! Sir! S-Sir! S-S-Si-!" FRIDAY called out, shutting down. "What'd you do to my suit?" Tony immediately asked, feeling a panic rise in his chest. "You underestimate us, Anthony." She said, taking the safety off of the pistol. "We know more about viruses than you think." Crap, Tony didn't even think about that. "You do realize we're the Avengers, right?" Tony asked, trying to bluff his way out of the situation. "I don't think they're going to be happy with whatever you're trying to do to me." The blonde simply smirked. "They don't care." Tony didn't realize the man creeping up behind him until he felt the prick in his neck. The last thing Tony registered was being dragged away.~~~~~ The battle still raged on. People were screaming, cussing, and crying out as they get struck by the Avengers. Everything seemed to be going great, as Steve witnessed, and things got progressively well until everything was over. The team frantically regrouped, keeping their eyes out for a certain flying man. "Anyone see Stark?" Steve finally asked, looking over his shoulder. "He could still be gathering files," Wanda suggested, biting her lip. "Kind of taking a bit long," Sam grumbled. "Didn't he go in there at the beginning?" Steve nodded, fully turning towards the HYDRA base. The team seemed to tell what he was thinking by his body language, and all migrated towards the base. Everything was calm inside, completely abandoned. Clint took note of the lack of files, and Natasha noticed the lack of a billionaire. She could feel an unease shiver her body. They continued to look around, calling out Tony's name, desperately waiting for the mans grand entrance. "Steve," Natasha murmured, almost knowingly. "Ah, the Avengers," A woman's voice snarled from behind them. "You really do look as goofy as you do on the T.V. in real life." "Where's Iron Man?" Steve asked, changing into Captain America like a switch, or a façade. "You mean Tony? Oh, he's just... floatin' around." "What'd you do?" Clint asked, narrowing his eyes. "He's your weakest link. I did you a favour." "Favour?" Natasha asked sceptically. "HYDRA doesn't take prisoners, just missions," She smirked. "He was mine." Natasha instantly aimed her gun at the woman, who didn't even flinch. "Where is he?" The woman shrugged. "Someone down the river. Possibly being ripped to shreds by the rapids." All of the Avengers minds instantly went to the river not too far from the base, they remembered how deadly it looked. "No," Natasha called on her bluff. "You're lying." "Am I?" Just then the suit fell from the ceiling, ripped to shreds. There was blood caked on the metal, covering all of the gold. The faceplate was torn off, showing it was empty. Clint almost smiled. "Where's the body then?" "Already told you, down the river." She paused for a second. "Probably at the fall... probably sunken to the bottom, scattered around, being eaten by the fi-" The woman was cut off by Natasha firing her gun. "I don't believe you." She growled, watching as the blood dripped from the woman's stomach. She fell to the ground in a heap of pain. She didn't look shocked, nor sad. She looked smug. "Go l-look," She laughed. The Avengers all grimaced, all for different reasons, yet Natasha still kept a poker face. "But just k-know... you won't be h-happy. Cut off one head," She mumbled, feeling her own life drain away. "Two more shall take its place. H-Hail HY-" Natasha shot her in the head before she could finish. Nobody talked for a good minute. "We'll start at the river, spread out." Natasha ordered, not giving Steve enough time to object. "We won't stop till we find Stark. Vision, call SHIELD, tell them we need a search party. Clint, and Wanda, you two search around the base. Steve and Thor, you guys search the river. I'll look around the forest. Go." Everyone obliged, not speaking a word as they set off in their orders.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
He wasn’t necessarily coherent, per say, but he could definitely tell that he wasn’t back at SHIELD. Tony could vaguely tell that the people surrounding him were speaking French, some giving orders, or cracking jokes—he could tell by the laughs the men hollered. A chill ran up his spine, and his body betrayed him by letting out a pitiful shiver. The metal laid upon his wrists were no help, whatsoever, so he decided to open his eyes. Which didn’t necessarily work, but it did alert the people around him of his consciousness, unfortunately. More orders were spat out by the mysterious men, and Tony could feel the table he was lying down on heave up into a chair. Almost groaning, Tony forced his eyes open, and waiting for them to adjust, squinting. Through his blurry vision, he could see the man in front of him put his hand up, and wave his finger around, obviously checking for vision, and reaction. "W-Who-?" Tony was cut off by a coughing fit, a painful one at that. He could feel the arc-reactor scratch at his lungs again. "Bienvenue, Anthony Stark, à HYDRA." The man said, pulling Tony up to his eyes by the hair. Tony, with all his might, resisted the urge to cry out, or even make a face. It took Tony a couple of seconds to translate it in his head, as he only drabbled a bit in the French language. Welcome, Anthony Stark, to HYDRA. "Well," Tony croaked, cracking a small smirk. "That was one hell of a boring welcoming committee." Tony's head swung to the side from the man's backhand, cringing. No mercy, Tony thought to himself. "Gag ce chien. Nous n’avez pas besoin de sa contribution pour aujourd'hui." The man spat, turning towards the HYDRA soldiers. Honestly, that was too intense French for Tony to comprehend. Much to Tony's panic, the men came forwards to Tony, and forced a cloth into his mouth, ducting taping it there. Tony got a faint idea what the man had ordered, now. The man sat down at a stool that he pulled out from behind him, simply staring at Tony. He took in the older mans features, and smirked. He wasn't going to last a week here, he thought, not until we teach him how to be the perfect soldier. Tony looked around the room he was in, finally, and it looked fairly up to date. There was multiple flat screen computers on a couple small desks, television sets were across the room, and it even had a small fridge. The only thing that scared him was the chair that was set across the room. It had multiple wires coming from an object that looked an awful lot like a helmet that comes half across your face. There was restraints on the arm of the chair, and at the legs. Tony could faintly see little bits of electricity spike from some of the wires, probably from an overloaded circuit. The thing looked like a death trap. And Tony already had, yet another, idea what it was made for. "I see you're take the time to admire the room, no?" The French man said, almost smiling. His eyes seemed to shine with victory and glee, Tony hated it. "We had to move to a smaller base," He said, almost casually. "We had decided on a more homey-feel, your precious Avengers wouldn’t suspect a thing." Tony glared at the man. He already hated him so much more. "I am Jacques Blanc," Finally, a name, Tony thought to himself. "But you won't have to remember that, just call me Master." Kinky, Tony smirked through the gag. "Take that smile off your face before I decide to shove you in the chair without preparations." Of course, Tony didn’t show his fear, he didn’t even know what would happen without preparation, so he couldn’t let the threat scare him too much. "As I was saying, you call me Master, do as I say without hesitation, and no punishments. "You won't remember half of the punishments, but-" Another man cut in, he didn’t have an accent. "You'll still have the scars." "Chief," Jacques greeted, giving the man a bright smile. "Jacques," Chief greeted back. "When did the Asset wake up? You were supposed to start writing your report as soon as he woke." Asshat? Tony thought, somewhat offended. Did he just refer to me as Asshat? Tony continued to observe their conversation. "Sorry, I will get right on that," Jacques looked sheepish. "The Asset had woken a couple minutes ago." Oh, Asset, not Asshat. "Get on the report, Sergeant." Jacques nodded and immediately picked up a file that had big, bold, red letters that said CLASSIFIED. The chief walked over to Tony, squatting next to the makeshift chair. Up close Tony could see the under eye bags, wrinkles and dull grey eyes. "Anthony Stark, couldn’t wait until you got here." The man admitted, small bit of admiration in his eyes. "Mass murderer, the Merchant of Death... Iron Man." The man seemed hesitant at the last name. "It's a pleasure to have you here." Tony looked away from the man, looking for possible escape routes, and weapons. There simply was none. He flexed his arm, hoping for his suit to come barreling through the wall, and crashing into the HYDRA men. Nothing happened. Immediately, Tony knew that FRIDAY was completely shut down, and Stark Industries was hacked through his own suit. "We met once, you know." The Chief said, giving Tony a bone-chilling smile. He immediately thought to Yinsen, but pushed those depressing thoughts aside. "I went to your Stark Expo, once. I had just so happened to catch you without your bodyguard." Tony couldn't remember. "Pretty sure you were hammered, if you can't remember. You mumbled some mumbo jumbo about palladium, and took off in your suit." Tony weaved through the heated crowd, gasping for air. He hadn't touched a drink the entire night, but God did he want one. Somewhere in the crowd Happy was urgently searching for his boss, tossing aside anyone who was getting in his way. Meanwhile, Tony glanced back to the object in hand, and grimaced. It was getting closer to three thirds of the way there. Sixty-three percent blood toxicity. "Hello, Mister Stark, are you alright?" The man asked, gripping his arm, as Tony was leaning too far forward. "I-I'm alright. Just had a couple too many drinks," Tony bluffed, giving a sloppy smirk. "Ah, yes, the drinks are fantastic here." The man huffed out a big laugh. "So are the girls." For the first time that night, Tony wholeheartedly laughed. "Of course, it's not a good party without a bit of-" Tony was cut off by his stomach turning sharply. "God, I hate palladium." He mumbled, eyes dazed. "Sir?" "Can't miss out on the party," Tony urged, speed walking away from the man. "See you around..." "Parle. Michael Parle." Oh, him. Michael smirked, seeing the recognition flash in Tony's eyes. ~~~~~ Fury sighed, uncharacteristically sad, staring down at the unmoving form. The man's body was completely torn. He was missing a leg, and arm, his face was scraped all along the left cheek, and the arc-reactor was completely crushed. It was obviously Tony Stark, it had his goatee, and arc-reactor, two of the main things people notice first about him. Fury cares, he truly does. Even if people think otherwise. He helps the Avengers the best he can, and helps Tony get motivated to save his own life. No matter what people say about him, he wasn’t completely heartless, and so detached he couldn’t like the billionaire. But yes, he was sometimes a huge asshole. As annoying as Tony is, he liked him. He cared for him. Seeing him like this was heart-breaking, and disturbing. "Damn," Agent Martin said beside him. "That's... damn." "How are we going to tell the Avengers?" Another, Agent Mary, asked. "Don't know," Agent Martin croaked. "Don't think we'll have to, 'cause they’re headed this way." Fury informed them, looking up at the incoming group of superheroes. Everything went downhill from there. Wanda threw up, and started crying, along with Vision, who can't really cry, nor vomit, but he did hug her. Steve looked down sadly, tears streaking down his face, and a snot ridden nose. Sam was holding in his sadness, waiting to get home to let it all out. Thor has gone through many deaths, as he just looked down sadly, a couple tears running down his face. Regret was imminent in the air. However, Natasha and Clint were impassive. They know how sneaky HYDRA is. They both walked up to the body, squatting down to his level. It only took a couple of seconds before they both exclaimed the same thing, at the same time. "That’s not him."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Nothing much else happened after the whole meeting with Michael Parle. Michael had simply talked some more about Tony's physical state, and yapped on about some of the achievements Tony is not too happy to have anymore. The man loved Tony Stark, mostly for what his father did, but he let it show he wanted Tony to comply so badly without hurting him. Of course, Michael knew that wasn't possible, so he sent Tony to his own cell, as they prep for something Tony absolutely dreads. But for now they simply shoved him into a cell, locked the door, and threw the key away. Figuratively, not literally. Tony stared at the concrete wall opposite of him, tapping his fingers onto the floor matching the walls. Everything in the cell seemed so homemade to Tony—the bed was made of badly cut wood and had no mattress, the light bulb on the ceiling dangled, loose from the actual ceiling, and the toilet was broken in multiple places. Honestly, Tony felt a bit closed in inside the room, and just wanted something to distract himself with. He had called the guards outside of his room to get him some tools to fix the toilet, but they declined not so politely. As in they continuously banged their guns the cell bars, and shouted at him to shut his mouth. Now, that’s hard for Tony to do. Whenever he feels his nerves, and heart rate go up he just talks it out. He rambles on, and on about anything that he see's or thinks about. He could go on for hours about why coffee was better than sleep, how a laptop was made, JARVIS and FRIDAY, and practically any topic about himself. He seems to just keep going without tiring. It probably helps with the amount of caffeine he ingests into his system. Apparently Tony talking was a no-no, but the guards yelling was completely okay. So, all in all, when you tell Tony Stark to shut up, it usually doesn’t work. And it sure as hell is not about to start now. "You know frowning gives you wrinkles," Tony chirped, analyzing the young man at the cell door. He didn’t seem too experienced with the whole guarding thing, as he seemed to zoning off at the boring walls. "Yeah, the wall is very interesting, very chic." Honestly, he knew antagonizing the HYDRA guards was not a good idea, but has anyone ever said he had good ones? "Shut up before you get us both killed," The man, more like boy, growled, looking lightly over his shoulder at Tony. "Sour Spanks does have an inside voice," Tony smirked, nodding his head. "Thank God though, you were giving me a headache when you started shouting." "I mean it, Stark." "Would they actually kill me for talking?" Tony asked, seemingly deep in thought. "I don’t think they'd have gone through that trouble to snatch me just to kill me. Logic." "I'd kill you." The boy mumbled, glaring at the wall again. Yet again, silence washed over the guard and Tony. The guard beside the boy seemed to be dozing off, which the boy didn’t even bother to wake him, and neither did Tony. Overall, things were fairly peaceful for HYDRA at the moment. At least that’s what Tony thought. "I still think you should give me some tools, someone could cut a-" Tony began, but stopped as soon as the boy hit the bar. "Shut your fucking mouth." "That kind of language is above your age, kid." Tony quipped, almost scolding. "If Captain America doesn't speak it, neither should you." "He's not my hero, I don't like him. Why would I want to be like him?" The boy asked, raising an eyebrow, tossing a glance over his shoulder. He's got a point. Tony was silent for a couple of moments. "I thought every kid your age had him as their hero." He admitted, going back to tapping the floor. The boy sent him an annoyed look. "HYDRA, right. Captain Spangles is probably hated here, huh?" "Probably more than SHIELD." Silence. "What's your name, kid?" "Not a kid." The boy mumbled, looking visibly deflated by the nickname. "'m eighteen." "Oh, wow. Definitely not a kid," Tony said sarcastically, running a hand through his increasingly greasy hair. "What's your name?" The boy didn’t answer. "You gonna make me guess? Fine, Randy? Randall? Jeff? Luke? Austin? Tyga? Bruce? Paul? Clint? Steve? Nick?" Tony didn't realize he was saying their names until the boy spoke up again, finally. "You miss them. The Avengers, I mean." The boy observed, much to Tony's horror. "They're not going to come for you, whether you like it or not." "Why's that, Eric?" Tony took the chance to guess a name, but the boy didn’t react to it. "You're dead, Stark." Tony almost felt his heart stop, or even his arc-reactor shine a little brighter. The uneasy feeling in his stomach came back full force, making him stop talking all together. He knew what HYDRA was capable, and he knew that they were able to fake things fairly well. Somehow, Tony still had hope for his friends that they would see through HYDRA's lies, and props, and come and get Tony. He already gave up on saving himself, there was practically nothing around him that could possibly help with him escaping, and with his suit, industry, and FRIDAY all down, he knew he couldn't get those to help him either. God, this was like Afghanistan all over again, but completely different. There he had advantages of being underestimated, and no one knew the full extent of Tony's skills. Now, however, everyone knew about the suit, SHIELD, the Avengers, what Tony could do, and he was always with guards. Worst part, he didn’t have Yinsen. Instead an eighteen year old boy who would totally kill him. One thing was the same. Hopelessness. ~~~~ "How did you both know after a couple of seconds?" Steve asked, looking at the data about the blood of the dead body. It was completely different from Tony's, so Agents had called there was a possibility Stark was still alive. "He looked too young." Clint admitted. "The arc-reactor was slightly too much to the right, there was still veins from the palladium poisoning. He has thicker eyelashes, darker brown eyes-" Natasha looked around the shocked room. "He just didn’t have that Stark vibe." Natasha indulged in a small smirk. "I wonder who that poor man is then..." Wanda couldn't help but croak, still recovering from her breakdown. It was a couple days ago they had found the body and proclaimed it wasn’t their cocky man of iron, and everyone was still recovering. SHIELD has put a limit to the amount of time they are going to search for the man, simply because they didn’t want the Avengers to slack off. Though, they weren't sure if the Avengers were going to go behind their backs looking for the man. But for now, Fury has sent a couple of search parties to not return until they found him, or it reaches exactly a year from then. The Avengers will only look when they have missions for HYDRA bases, that's something Fury made very clear. "Probably an ex-HYDRA agent," Clint guessed, shrugging his shoulders. "Yeah," Steve agreed. "Maybe a volunteer." He suggested. "Volunteer?" Thor couldn’t help but ask. "A volunteer to undergo surgery, and-" Steve began to explain, only to be cut off by Clint. "And get killed?" Clint snorted, hitting Steve lightly on the shoulder. "This guy have a deathwish?" "You don't know other people's stories," Natasha said, almost scolding Clint for making fun. "He could have been at a low point in his life. Too scared to go out other ways, so volunteered to HYDRA to do it for him." "It's possible," Fury agreed, putting his hands behind his back. "Now, everyone should go home and get some rest, you have been here all day waiting for the test results." "I can't go back until I know who he is," Steve admitted, a light blush on his cheeks, but eyes daring for Fury to object. "I could stay here, go to sleep, you wake me up when you find out who." Steve was now ordering Fury, and he didn't like it one bit, so he took a step closer to the captain. "Sorry, I'm not running a bed and breakfast, Cap." Fury glared. "This is SHIELD, an agency, we're not here to cater you. Now go home and rest." Steve glanced back at the team, and they all seemed to have a conversation with their eyes. "No." ~~~~~ Steve glowered as he munched on what was left of the banana he was given by Natasha, eyes cast far out of the tower's main living room window. He could see everyone living their own lives, minding their own business, and having fun. Steve couldn't help but feel a bit envious of those people. Tony was still out there, and yet all they were doing was eating fruit back at the Avengers tower. All thanks to Director, Steve thought bitterly. Natasha carefully watched Steve as he scowled, eating a banana, looking out the window, letting out a traitorous smirk. It was a very uncommon sight to see, and Natasha has never seen someone so upset whilst eating a banana. The two things were rarely linked together. Her smirk getting bigger, she laid a hand on the frowning upset man, letting her eyes wander over to the window. She took a deep breath, ignoring Steves glares. "Stop acting like we're friends," Steve couldn’t help but mutter indignantly. "You helped Fury throw me out of HQ." ~~~~~ Sighing for the umpteenth time in an hour, Tony glanced back over to the hormonal teenager, who was glaring at the wall still. Nothing interesting had happened for the entire time Tony was in the cell except for talking to Carl? There was other HYDRA agents coming and going down the hallway, but no talking. Tony could feel his butt becoming numb from sitting on the floor, as the bed doesn’t provide enough room to sit—he may be able to lie down, but sitting on it was definitely not an option. The lack of conversations, sounds, and entertainment had led to Tony having mental conversations, and playing games by himself. Just like when I was younger, Tony thought, trying to comfort himself. If I could do it when I was six, I can definitely do it now. Tony's younger life was filled with learning, and exploring his interests. Howard had taught him to do a lot of things, mainly mechanical, while Maria was there for Tony emotionally. He had always tried to impress Howard by inventing new toys, and even building a circuit board when he was only four. Even with all of his attempts to gain Howards approval Tony could also see the underlying layer of disapproval in his father's eyes. He knew his father tried his best, but Howard's heart was set on finding Captain America, not so much on finding approval on his own son's accomplishments. Could you blame him for having a bit of resentment towards Steve when they had first met? Without knowing he had single handedly taken away Tony's childhood, but Tony managed to shove away those thoughts for the time being with the Avengers—even though they had fought often, mainly about the little things. The Avengers were something amazing brought to the world just in time. They had saved citizens many times, and yet they were still getting harassed for being uncontrollable. Tony found himself wondering how the Avengers were dealing with the press without him... "Grab him!" Tony was forcefully brought out of his travelling thoughts by the cell door opening, and two guards gripping his forearms with bruising grips. The teenager seemed to be thrown aside like trash, as they dragged the man out of the cell. The guards stopped in front of the HYDRA head, whom Tony didn’t know the name of. The HYDRA head kneeled in front of Tony, gripping his face roughly. "You're about to have the time of your life!" Tony gave him his best bone chilling stare, unflinching.
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This was definitely not a good way to leave the world. Not at all. His labored breaths kept being scraped by the arc-reactor metal, and it was even more frightening with the fact that was currently lacking a certain arc-reactor. His chest no longer glowed, and his skin was as white as sheets. Sweat trickled down Tony's face, and falling into the gaping hole inside Tony's chest. Michael was currently investigating the arc-reactor, holding the full thing in his hands. Tony couldn't help but let the fear practically leak out of his eyes as he had flashbacks to Stane. This time, however, he didn’t have a backup reactor. Tony was screwed. Michael stared at the reactor fondly, brushing his calloused fingertips over the front as if trying to memorize it. Even when he had yanked the entire thing out of Tony's chest, he seemed to be rather gentle with it—if that was even possible. Tony knows Michael practically swoons over him, but he also knows HYDRA will sacrifice anything to get the upper hand. Even if it is a living soul. For all the time that Tony has been at HYDRA he had been a bit let down with the lack of maniacs doing experiments. Steve had made it sound like these men were complete savages, but they seem to be civil enough to not let the other prisoners know whats happening to their cellmates. Though, Tony wasn't quite sure if that counted as civil anymore. "I have heard you had built the first arc-reactor in a cave with a bunch of scraps," Michael smiled, glancing back over to Tony, who was feeling his consciousness slightly falter. "Not gonna lie, when I had first heard about the shrapnel in your chest, I was expecting you to get it removed immediately. Not just have your weakness reachable, even with the armor." He walked towards Tony, ignoring all the HYDRA heads who were observing their 'conversation' with not so hushed whispers. "We could have simply drove a knife straight through," Michael shoved part of his finger into the arc-reactor slot. "Here. You ever get scared about that? Me, I'd never let one of my men walk out the door with such obvious weakness, let alone myself. Tell me, Tony. Do you want to get killed?" Tony tried to bite back his fear, but that seemed to be impossible now. The pain in his chest was growing phenomenally, and Tony could almost feel the bits of shrapnel flooding to his heart. Panic kept rising in his throat as quick as the sweat dripped off his face. He couldn’t lie, he did know that the arc-reactor seemed to be a bit of a weakness, but he didn’t really have much against death anymore. Everything seemed to be happening so fast, and he wanted a break. Don't let if fool you though, if Tony wants to live, he is sure as hell going to make it out of there alive. Even if he has to go through torture first. He didn’t know if he even wanted to make it out alive, though. That's his dilemma. "W-Wouldn't call it a weakness," Tony rasped out, wincing at the spike of pain at each word. "I'd s-say more of a blemish." He lied, squinting his eyes up to Michael. "Ah, but blemishes can leave scars." "Only if you deal with them w-wrong." "And you're dealing with it correctly?" Damn, Tony couldn’t help but internally curse. "Listen Tony, you're about to die," Michael said with sympathy, which Tony almost believed, if he weren't HYDRA. Tony tried to ignore Michaels death grip on the arc-reactor, but he couldn't help but bite his lip when there was cracks appearing on the arc-reactor. Yep, he broke it—somewhat. "I don’t want us to end on a bad note, and quite frankly, arguing does nothing good in a relationship," Michael popped the arc-reactor back into Tony's chest, making him gasp, yelping out at the same time. There was several moments of just Tony getting his breathing back to normal, and he slumped in the chair. If there was one way that Tony didn’t want to go out, it was definitely not by the same thing he was living by, he had already gone through that misery. It was something Tony really didn’t want to think back to. "Oh, H-Hun," Tony purred, ignoring his stutter. "Arguments mean we're close, don't you think? Pretty sure a little bit of arguing is okay for the relationship, I'm just n-not so sure about the whole 'ripping my heart out, literally' thing." "I put it back," Michael quipped. "Broken." Tony finished for him. "No," Michael whispered, putting his face closer to Tony. "I put it back with scars, so you can always remember not to piss of HYDRA." "I've got to say, this is a fairly abusive, manipulative relationship," Tony said, trying to stall. For what? He wasn't quite sure. "I wonder how your wife feels." "Don't have a wife," "Girlfriend?" "Shut up." "Husband?" "No." "Boyfriend?" "Shut up, before I accidentally scar your heart more," "Y'know, that actually explains why you're so bad with relationships." Tony retorted with a faint smirk on his face. Before he knew it, he felt his head snap to the side from the impact of Michaels fist. Tony opened, and closed his jaw, feeling the pain radiate through his. Lordy, he does have a mean swing, Tony thought to himself. He positioned his head to look up at Michaels face, which was a basically spelling frustration, and annoyance, and he swung the back of his hand at Tony. The billionaire hissed in pain, gritting his teeth. "Don't piss off me either," Michael growled. "I think it's about time you get your first lesson, don’t you think?" Michael gingerly ran his fingers through Tony's hair, almost affectionately—que Tony's cringe—and without warning, he furiously grabbed his hair and pulled back. It was a quick, swift movement, and Tony felt his neck give a little pop from the unpredicted harsh movement. Michael then put his hand on Tony's neck, squeezing. "This is going to be so much fun." Michael whispered. "Now tell me Tony, do you want to get killed?" Michael repeated his question from earlier. When Tony didn't answer Michael continued on. "Then don't scream until I tell you to." ~~~~~ Wanda was anxious, her leg was bouncing up and down, and her red magic was unconsciously swirling about just above the floor. No one could blame her, as they felt the same way. Things seemed to be continuously building onto Wanda's conscience—her parents death, brothers death, Sokovia, Ultron, and now Tony—and she had no idea what to do about the entire mess. Everyone forgave her for the entire Ultron incident, and unleashing the hulk, yet the team, including herself, never really forgave Tony for Ultron. Wanda didn’t even tell them it was partially her fault for giving Tony the nightmare, but she didn’t know if she could say it out loud quite yet. Wanda still felt terrible for it. She was cut out of her buzzing thoughts when Clint gingerly put his hand onto Wanda's shoulder. Wanda looked up at him appreciatively, and finally stopped with her magic. "They should be here any moment now," Clint assured, glancing back to the landing pad outside of the Avengers tower. "Tony should be here any moment now." Clint knows that there is a possibility that Tony might not be with the returning SHIELD group, but he couldn’t help but assure Wanda so. The communication between the SHIELD search team had been completely destroyed—Fury suspected a new terrorist—so they couldn't actually assure SHIELD, and the Avengers that when they get back they would have Tony. Before the search team left a couple weeks ago, Fury had told them if they couldn’t communicate don’t come back till they have Stark or if they have a major problem. SHIELD had caught sight of that teams jet from worldwide security, and immediately called the Avengers—they wouldn’t be able to hide it when Natasha was visiting everyday anyways. So, now the entire team was waiting at SHIELD for the search party returned. There was a big chance Tony wasn't there, but they all didn’t want to chance it. They all kept saying that they needed Tony for the upcoming press conference. "Yes, he will be alright," Wanda said, trying to reassure herself. She didn’t know why she was feeling for him, but she was. She supposed, even with all the hate directed towards Tony, that she had grown close to him without actually talking to him. She couldn’t deny that it was nice that Tony had invited her to the Avengers tower, and even forgave her... damn. "Yes, he shall," Thor interrupted, walking towards the two. "Tony has always been strong willed. He will probably march in here with a grand smile placed upon his face." "Exactly," Clint agreed, keeping the doubt out of his facial features the best he could. "Agent Barton, as much as we all miss Mister Stark, you must take into consideration-" Vision began, but got quickly cut off by Natasha sending him a glare, and putting her hand over his mouth. They all were too caught up in comforting each other they hadn't noticed the search party rush into the SHIELD headquarters. Some men were being carried, or hunched over the supporting agents, and there was no Stark in sight. Wanda glanced over the SHIELD search party and felt her heart completely sink to the bottom of her stomach. "Can I not just use my magic to find him?" She was beginning to get desperate towards the Avengers, and Natasha just smiled sadly at her. "That would wear you out too much." "We're the Avengers," Wanda couldn’t help but mutter bitterly. "We should have found him a long time ago." "We're trying." Steve whispered, voice filled with grief, but no less hope. ~~~~~ Tony was screaming. It didn’t matter what Michael said about no screaming, because what he was doing was way more painful than death. Tony could faintly hear himself internally screaming for death. Michael was electrocuting him in the chair, yet Michael told him that it wasn’t going to do anything to Tony but hurt him. Tony guessed that the chair wasn’t quite ready for whatever was going to happen later, or he wasn’t ready quite yet. Possibly they had to break him in first. Michael watched as Tony's body twitched violently beneath the chairs electrocutions, and how his chest rose quickly. Tony's face was of pure agony, and his screams didn’t help his situation. Michael had expected him to scream, so he let him. The sound was like music to Michaels ears. "When are you going to start the birthing of the Asset?" A HYDRA head asked, leaning towards Michael. Michael watched Tony for a couple seconds longer before turning to the HYDRA head. "I think we shall start soon. He still has a lot of fight left in him, so we might have to break him in a bit more." "What about the serum?" "We still don’t have it yet. But we will in a year or more. Doctor Hicken is working on it, and testing with some unimportant people." "Is Anthony Stark important?" The HYDRA head couldn’t help but ask. "Of course," Michael grinned, showing too much teeth. "He will be the Asset, after all."
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"Where has Iron Man been for the past month?" A female reporter asked, holding her pen next to her notepad. Her gaze was locked onto Steve as he took a nervous gulp.
"Uh, he's been on solo missions." Steve licked his lips.
"What sorts? Is HYDRA back?" The reporter pushed, her face contorted into a determined frown.
"HYDRA has been back for a while now, ma'am." Steve informed her, ignoring the glare that Clint had sent towards him. Not the right thing to say, Steve scolded at himself.
"How come he hasn’t come back yet? Long mission?"
"Erm..." Steve tried to think of an answer, but was luckily saved by Natasha cutting in.
"Mr. Stark has been dealing with many missions, all at the same time. He simply hasn’t had enough time to come back to the public eye." Natasha lied, glancing over to Coulson, who was standing off the side in the audience. "Next question."
"If I may, Black Widow," The reporter kept pushing, talking over the chaotic audience. "He's Tony Stark, I didn’t think he did many off to the side missions? At least without making any publicity stunts,"
"You'd be surprised," Natasha told her calmly, yet Clint could tell the reporter was getting under her skin. "Tony has taken care of many terrorists, and bad guys on his own. He does more than just sleep around, dance in the suit, and sometimes kick a greater force's ass. He takes care of the team, provides a home for the team, fights for the little guys, and has his own small wars he has to deal with. He's a better Avenger than the presses think."
"What kind of wars?" The woman asked, looking increasingly intrigued.
"Like the Mandarin. They attacked his own home, so it was personal." Clint says as if it were obvious.
"If he's so great," She asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "Then why did you all treat him like shit?"
All of the Avengers were a bit thrown off by the question, and no one had an answer for her. So, of course, Vision tries to come to the rescue. "How could you possibly know what happens behind closed doors?" Wrong thing to say, pal, Steve said internally.
"Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair, also, I wouldn’t say friends, but mutual 'frenemy' with Miss Virginia Pepper Potts," The Avengers couldn’t help but feel dread rise in their stomachs. "As much as we usually don't get along, Pepper, I, and the rest of the world want to know what's going on."
Steve sent a panicked glance to Natasha, who didn’t seem to be able to come up with a reply. As good as she is as an agent, there is just some things that are impossible to do... well, excluding Tony. The Avengers, who had just realized, couldn’t help but admit that Tony was the one for the press. He was the main face of the Avengers for the press. As much as Captain America did speeches, and was a dancing monkey back in the forties, he wasn't used to press conferences. The Agents were somewhat equipped for public speaking, but they weren't very trained upon it. Wanda is kid, Vision was practically a British, mature baby, and. . . everyone needed Tony for this. They may not have realized it way back when, but Tony handled the press a lot better than the rest of them.
"So, I'm going ask you again, Captain Rogers," Christine narrowed her eyes at the man, who was looking nervously at Natasha. "Where has Tony Stark been?"
Yeah, yeah they were screwed.
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Tony couldn't help but sigh down at the collar around his neck. From what he had eavesdropped from the guards, is that if he makes any wrong choices, they basically taser him through the collar. He hasn't tested out the hypothesis, however he did not plan to. He would rather someone else test it out for him, yet he doesn’t really want to see that either. He doesn’t know what he wants, except for his team to come find him. That thought felt like a lost dream to Tony, and he never really believed in it anyways. His body was already becoming accustomed to having shackles on his body, as his torso was slumped down, and his back was almost always arched forward. All to avoid injury, or furthering the burning sensation on his wrists. All of the other captives seem to be the same way he was, all learning how to be a good prisoner, with the least amount of pain. If you Tony that he was going to be in the situation a couple months ago he would have laughed in your face, saying something about 'Iron Man protects me' or something like that. He thought that his time being a captive was well paid, back in Afghanistan. To be fair, Tony was beginning to think, that he should start expecting the unexpected. As villains will always come up with new ways to shove your words back into your mouth, and continue until you've choked. Then they would throw your body in a lake for the rest of the fish to feast. He tripped over the chains around his ankles, cursing his uncoordinated steps, as the guards viciously pull him back up. Although he couldn’t see them—they had nicely put a blindfold over his eyes—Tony could tell that they were smirking. HYDRA always seemed to enjoy other people's pain, they were usually the ones who were causing it ninety percent of the time. Tony stumbled his entire way as the guards pulled him along the seemingly long hallway, with way too many twists, turns, and stairs. Tony's body was still aching from his last session with the chair, he had been in it twice, and he just felt pain. As much as Tony wanted to believe they were just doing it for pain, he couldn’t help but think that they were testing him out, or setting him up for something bigger. Something more permanent. Tony didn't really want to think of all the possibilities his chattering brain could come up with. "Arrêter!" Tony heard Michael growl, and he tried his best not to flinch. "Ah, how have you been, Tony?" Michael ripped off the blindfold, ignoring the way Tony squinted his eyes at the sudden light. The French man was smiling happily, looking down at Tony with admiration. "Don't worry, Tones," He flinched at his old nickname from Rhodey. "You're not going to be sitting in a chair today, in fact, you're probably not gonna sit much today." To be honest, as much as Tony hated it, this line intrigued him, more than scared him. "Come on in, let me personally show you our gym!" Michael swatted away the guards, and threw his arm around Tony's shoulders. He was a great deal taller than the Stark, making him bump into Michael's armpit, but Michael didn’t seem to care. Tony peered at the scenery through his eyelashes... The punching bags were beaten, obviously worn, or got hit too many times by the wrong person. There was a ring in the center of the big room, almost like a wrestling ring, but didn’t have the borders around it. It confused Tony, but he just blamed it on his brain being scrambled by the chair. There was a couple of people training inside the room already, looking incredibly fit, yet beaten to no end. Tony almost thought they could all pass as starving, if it weren't for the holes in their shirts showing the muscle underneath. They didn’t look at him, nor even glance, they all focused on beating their punching bags, lifting weights, working out, or taking instructions for fighting. Sticks, and swords were across the room, along with an archery area that Tony thought Clint would absolutely die for. There wasn't much else, except for, what looked like, a shooting range as well, and treadmills. Tony already knew that the entire team would absolutely love this gym, not like they don’t like Tony's gym, but he didn’t put much thought into his gym. Adding a mental reminder to upgrade his gym when he gets back to the tower... if he gets back to the tower. "Alright, Tony, we're going to start off small, you're going to workout for about a half an hour, then I'll give you further instructions." Michael smiled, looking down at Tony's clothing. "Oh, you can't work out in that. Gardes! Apportez cet homme quelques vêtements appropriés!" Guards immediately came to Tony's side, gently pulling him out of the gym, shoving some cloth into his arms, and pushing him into a random, small, open room. Tony guessed it was a change room. The guards left him to it, but obviously standing close to the door, ready to slam through and stop him from leaving, or ending his life right there somehow. He peeled off the skin tight clothing he has had on for the past month, almost doubling over by the smell that had invaded his senses. There was a layer of... something, over Tony's skin, acting as a second, grimy skin. Tony guessed it was from the lack of showers he has had in the past months. The guards never seemed to care though, never bothering him with a shower. Everything was awkwardly done, too. As they had not bothered with taking off his shackles. Thankfully, his pants, and shirt both had zippers, and were able to come off fully. The pieces of cloth were thin, yet cleaner than his other clothing, and Tony immediately shoved them over his head. The pants were just regular pants, a bit too tight for Tony's taste, but they were better than the dirty clothing he had on earlier. As the for the top, Tony was not impressed. It was a basic tank top, but it was way too short. Short as in crop top short. He couldn't help but think that Michael, or the guards, had purposely gave him more feminine clothing, or they just liked the way it looked on guys. He had to admit, depending on the person it could look good on them, only if they wore it confidently, and strutted it. But for Tony, he felt too exposed, and has never personally been into the whole shorter-than-necessary-clothing choices. Tony knocked on the door glumly, feeling awkward of the way his shirt fell over his arc-reactor, barely covering it. The HYRDA guards immediately swarmed into the change room, and clamped their arms around Tony's. One specific guard continued to just look at him, making Tony increasingly uncomfortable. As much as Tony liked the look on the girls he would sleep with, it didn’t feel right when he wasn't into it. He was already familiar with the concept of 'just because I like sex, doesn’t mean I want to fuck everyone', and Tony could definitely apply that to this moment. To Tony, sex was only done correctly if both parties are into it, otherwise it is rape, and Tony is definitely not into it. Eventually the guards pull him out of the change room, and bring him back to the gym, and shove him towards Michael. He seemed to be happy with the guard's choices of clothing, and lead Tony to the right side of the gym. Oh boy, by the end of working out, Tony definitely just wanted to sleep, but that wasn't what Michael had planned. ~~~~~ "So, have you planned the funeral yet?" "Shut up, Fury." Clint growled, not in the mood for Fury's manipulation. Though, he could tell that Fury was simply curious, as he had already given up on looking for Tony. He seemed to be living the life as his SHIELD teams were looking for the certain billionaire, and it pissed Clint off. He was pretty sure it was annoying the rest of the Avengers. "Calm down, Agent," Fury said, walking to Clint's side. "I need to know when to invite Stark's friends." He continued, a hint of grief in his voice. "You won't have to." "Clint, you're an agent. A damn good one. You already know what this whole ordeal will end like." "Yes, I do," Clint snarled, turning away from Fury. "We'll find him. We have to." ~~~~~ Tony steadied himself on his feet, heading spinning in circles from the blows. If Tony knew that they had fighting matches with other, more brainwashed, prisoners, Tony would have asked from something more to wear than just a crop top. Tony guessed that this is a way of trai— A painful blow was giving to the right temple of Tony's head, and he came crashing down. Welcoming the black that was swarming his vision.
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"Morty?" "No." "Bob?" "Nope." "Vince?" "No." "Jack?" "No." "You'll have to tell me sometime." Tony plastered a smile on his face, as he heard the guards coming down the hall to retrieve him for training. The teenager just smirked back, a hint of fondness in his eyes. "Good luck, you'll need it." The teen said, looking almost sad that he was leaving. "I know."
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Training has been hard, and it was absolute hell mixed with randomized days in the chair. Tony's body always ached, and felt like he was going to drop at any moment. There wasn't a bed inside his cell, at least not a comfortable, yet he always slept like a baby because of all the work during the day. Granted, he always woke up even more sore, but being unconscious was bliss to Tony. He wasn't going to give up, he was going to fight through his time here, just like the ten rings. He knew that he wasn’t going to be saved there, and got out, he could do the same. Right? The teenager was almost always guarding Tony's cell, and he was thankful for that. Tony knew it was a bad concept, but he was getting attached to the boy. Which was absolutely terrifying because he was HYDRA, and he didn’t want a HYDRA kid to think of him like a father. Yet, it was already happening. He could tell that the HYDRA heads were able to identify that as well, as they always snuck glances at the boy when they took Tony away. Now Tony was currently nursing a black eye he had gotten from one of the other prisoners, so far he hadn't won any of the matches, and he wasn't planning to do so soon. He wanted to keep the rest of the prisoners a potential ally in his escape plan... which he hasn’t planned yet. To cut him some slack, he has thought of many differnet ways, but they all ended up with him back in the cell, hypothetically. Tony doesn’t know any of their names, but he noticed, from his practice of subtly observing people, that they all never really wanted to hurt him. They were just following orders, and they couldn’t disobey, that would end with their heads mantled on a wall. So, Tony never fought back, he just let them all win. Besides, they all had bigger muscles, and were a bit tougher than him. Michael took the ice away from Tony's eye, holding it in his hand for a couple seconds. The table between them was a bit small, practically crushing both of their legs underneath, but Michael didn’t seem to really care too much. He was too focused on Tony. This whole thing was beginning to confuse Tony further, as he had not really said anything to Tony, just observed. Not to mention, he took him out of his cell at the middle of the night, without any guards surrounding him. It seemed as if he wanted Tony to not be worried about what he was about to do. Yet, no talking was throwing Tony off more than Tony would like to admit. "Why'd you bring me here?" Tony asked, ignoring the way his voice wavered. "We can't just talk?" Michael asked, looking hurt, but there was something more underneath his features, something darker. Tony just looked at him with a doubtful expression. "Alright, alright, I do have a reason for bringing you here. I've noticed something; for the last week you haven't been training properly. You don't try to fight back against your opponents. And that," He barked out a single laugh. "We cannot have." When Tony didn’t reply, Michael continued. "You know how long you've been here?" Tony swallowed the lump in his throat, not knowing how long it's been. Tony guessed years. "Five months. And we seem to be getting nowhere with you. Why's that? You do know that no ones coming to get you?" "You don't know that," Tony tried to protest. "They're looking, sure, but they're not going to find you." Well, that was the wrong thing to say, as Tony felt a bit more motivated to keep his priorities straight. "You might as well just give in. We can stop all this pain. You can stop all this pain. All you have to do is be our pretty little soldier." "That sounds nice, and all. But man, you suck at this." Tony lazily grinned at him, for probably the first time in months he did it without faking. "You just gave me all the courage in the world to keep fighting. You do realize I've done this before, right? I got out in three months, and took them down." "You don't have the tools." "No, but I have the Avengers." "SHIELD has searched this area twice, and haven't found you. That tell you anything?" Tony tried to push away the feeling of his stomach rolling. "Then I'll get out myself." "I'll put more guards on you. Discipline you more." "Ten Rings tried that, didn’t work." "Oh, but Tony, we're not ten rings," Michael smiled at Tony. "We're HYDRA, we're a lot more elaborate, and creative than a baby 'Industry'." "You'll lose," Tony fought weakly. "We fought a 'God' with an army, and a robot army. Your secrets are out on the internet, too." "You know what? Yeah, maybe so. But you won't have to worry about that, you will be our soldier one way or another. I just thought you'd rather do it with less pain. I guess not." Michael stood up from his chair, gently pushing it underneath the table. He walked confidently to the door, buttoning up his jacket as he walked. He spared Tony one last smile before hitting a button inside his hand, and alarms went off. Tony felt the dread build in his stomach. Straining his ears to listen, he realized the HYDRA guards were coming towards this room, and the button Michael had pressed was a panic alarm. The guards shoved their way into the room, dragging Tony out. As they pull Tony down the hall, they throw him into his cell, and proceed to kick him in the stomach, sometimes barely missing the arc-reactor. Well played, Michael.
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Alright, so, I'm officially going to announce this, and I am so sorry for keeping you all waiting, and possibly thinking this is an update. But, this book, in fact all of my account, is practically gonna be on hiatus. Sorry.More things keep popping up, and I'm going to be swarmed with work from school, and regular work. I'll see you all soon.Thanks for understanding.
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SO, IT'S BEEN FOREVER, EH? Okay, so, if it wasn't obvious before, I'll tell you now, that I fell out of the Marvel fandom for a while... however, now Infinity War is out... (which destroyed me) it had pulled me back into the fandom kicking and screaming. So, because I have no idea how I was planning to write this story, I thought that I might as well just redo it? Not to mention, the writing is kinda trash (My writing hasn't gotten any better though...) The files I had of the story were lost, as I now have no way of accessing my old one drive account... so, we'll start from scratch!! The new, and improved "Converting Memories" will be out soon! (The latest is on May 1st, and the earliest is April 29 aha) Sorry about the big hiatus... but I'm finally back! Yes, this version of the story will be deleted on May 10th!!!!!