Precious Cargo, Part Nine: The Final Confrontation
Summary:
Tony gets into trouble at the local Christmas market — and unfortunately, Morgan is with him.
(In case you missed it: Part One // Part Two // Part Three // Part Four // Part Five // Part Six // Part Seven // Part Eight)
As the Quinjet streaked back towards Tony’s former ersatz jail, Tony filled the others in on what
they’d be facing.
“The guy in charge has some kind of stealth technology. Now that I know that, Rhodey or I should be able to smoke him out, but —”
“— be hyper aware,” Nat finished.
“Yeah.”
“Stark?”
Everyone turned and looked at Nebula, who was currently holding Morgan, her face radiating both insecurity and a touch of distaste.
“I believe your child has defecated. She is — leaking.”
“Oh, crap.” Mortified, Tony plucked Morgan from Nebula’s arms. At once, the baby started to cry, visible drops of her urine plipping onto the deck plate and Tony’s armor-clad feet. “Sorry, Blue. Didn’t exactly have any diapers available back there.” Then, off Rhodey’s smothered chuckle: “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, buddy. Did you by any chance —?”
His mouth still twitching with mirth, Rhodey tossed his friend a half-packed duffle. Tony activated Expert Daddy Mode, making short work of the clean-up; even so, by the time he’d finished, his ears were uncomfortably warm.
“This is new,” Nat observed after Tony had returned his daughter to her babysitter-of-the-moment with a few more mumbled apologies.
“What?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you blush before.”
“Oh.”
“Living out here — starting a family — it’s really changed you, hasn’t it?”
Tony didn’t feel all that different. Sure: he was definitely suffering the consequences of being older and less flexible. And sure: he had a tighter handle on his personal mess now thanks to Nolan and the guys in AA. But Nat was implying something else — that, in fact, he had become a better man too. And given the black thoughts that were roiling in the back of his brain, he wasn’t sure that was the case. “A little,” he eventually allowed. “But not completely.”
“We have reached Stark’s estimated coordinates,” Nebula said, interrupting the heart-to-heart. “And indeed, there is a structure down there that meets his description.”
Tony’s face hardened. “Time to rock and roll.”
--*--
Casper had apparently used the time after Tony’s escape to surround his position with a sizable defense force of true believers. Thus, as soon as Tony, Rhodey, and Nat leapt from the Quinjet and plunged into the moon-lit timberland below, they were met with deafening weapons fire that pelted against gold-titanium alloy and tore through oak and maple branches, filling the air with wooden debris and brown, desiccated leaves. And when they hit dirt - thankfully with everyone, including Nat, in one piece - it took almost two hours to fight their way into the house.
It was just enough time for the stims to start wearing off.
Tony could sense the crash coming, and he cursed his decision to prevent addiction by preloading the suitcase armor with one emergency dose. Damn it, no matter how much his creaky bones demanded it, he couldn’t go night-night. He had to find this crafty fucker and collar him before he screwed with anyone else.
“Got anything, War Machine?”
“Nothing yet,” Rhodey radioed from the other side of the house. “And I’m trying all the EM bands.”
Tony growled impatiently and yanked open the basement door. “Come on, you arrogant prick,” he taunted, his shout echoing down the flight of steps. “Come out, come out wherever you are. You wanted to ‘convert’ the Avengers. I know you didn’t turn tail and run.”
There. At the base of the stairs, Tony spotted a subtle distortion in the infrared.
“Gotcha!” he crowed, loosing a barrage of low-level laser fire. After ten seconds, Casper’s stealth net sparkled with electricity and collapsed. “Tag. You’re it.”
“Congratulations, Stark. You’re better than average at hide-and-seek.”
“Nah, not really. Your supplier just sucks at cloaking your heat loss.”
“Perhaps.” Casper shrugged and reached into his pants pocket. “But he is very generous — especially once I informed him I was going after you.”
“If you’re planning to hit my kill switch, I’ve got some bad —”
Before Tony could finish the gibe, a heavy projectile screamed up at him from the dark and slammed into his chest plate, launching him through the wall at his rear. Once again, his HUD went nuts, lighting up with dozens of crimson alerts. “Catastrophic damage to power plant detected,” intoned LOBOS. “Auxiliary power at 20%.”
“Shit!” His old suit absorbed most of the momentum of Casper’s missile, but the residual force still left Tony choking on vomit and gasping for breath. “Shit!”
“Tony!” Rhodey hollered in Tony’s ear. “Are you all right?”
Acid burned in Tony’s nose. “LOBOS!” He gagged, and more fluid dribbled down his chin. “Fire whatever you can give me at that bastard!”
All around Tony, a cacophony erupted. And then — there was relative silence. Only the sound of crumbling drywall disturbed the unexpected calm.
“Tony! Nat and I have him. Do you read?”
“Auxiliary power at 5%,” added LOBOS. “Shut down recommended.”
Panting, Tony struggled to his feet, opened his helmet, and lunged at the man in Rhodey’s grasp, propelled by a blind, towering fury.
“Jesus, Tony —”
“Tell. Me. Why,” Tony seethed, pressing his gauntlet against Casper’s temple, “I shouldn’t fry your God-damned cervello right here.”
Rhodey grabbed Tony’s arm. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Take it easy, Tones.”
Beyond listening, Tony powered up the repulsor in his palm. The reactions of his teammates were simultaneous.
“Tony! Tony, stop!” “Tony, stand down. We need him alive.”
A long, tense moment passed. Then something clicked, and Tony slumped and turned away. Nat was right, of course. He needed to know who Casper was, where he’d gotten his tech, and how he’d breached SI security. That necessitated an interrogation — not a summary execution.
Suddenly overcome by a wave of dizziness, Tony rubbed at his forehead with his metal fingers. “You were wrong before, Nat,” he murmured. “I’m not good. But I’m trying.”
“Auxiliary power at 1%. Shut down imminent.”
“You and me both, LOBOS. Open the suit.”
Tony was unconscious before he hit the floor.
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