Agent of the Ages Trilogy (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter Two

3rd Person POV

Bruce and Tony were in the lab, Natasha and Clint were training and Steve was in the infirmary. Fury and Maria were in the control center breathing down everyone's neck. The air on the Hellicarrier was stifling, everyone was too tense. Suddenly an agent called, "47 percent match!"

Fury sighed, this wasn't the first partial match they had gotten. Fury turned to Maria and asked, "Should we go get Stark?"

Maria seemed to deflate a little, "Why don't I go get Bruce?"

Fury shook his head, "Same place."

"Fine, but after this we need to either separate them or make Rodgers heal faster." She said, walking out. She walked slowly, not at all happy about what she was about to do. The lab doors slid open and Tony looked up hopefully. Maria nodded, "47 percent, it's probably not her."

"But it could be." Tony chirped, standing from his chair and walking quickly to the control room.

Maria sat down in his seat and sighed, holding her head in her hands. She said, "I hate doing this to him."

"And I hate seeing it done, but someone has to ID her." Bruce said.

"But he gets so hopeful just to be crushed again, we need someone else."

"Steve." Bruce suggested instantly.

"He's still in the infirmary."

"He'll be out soon, his injuries are healing fast as ever." Bruce told her, glancing over at her depressing state. "Tony may get crushed every time, but he always bounces back as long as he has some way to keep looking for her. When we get her back none of this will matter to him anymore."

"I know." She said, sighing and standing. "I better go check on Rodgers."

Bruce nodded and stood as Tony walked back into the room looking quite crestfallen. Maria hesitated in the door way as Tony said, "It wasn't her."

Bruce nodded and said, "Don't worry man, we'll find her. I could use some help with the equations for the computer search-"

"Her level!" Tony exclaimed running out, almost trampling Maria in his hurry.

Bruce followed behind him at a slower pace, Maria was running after Stark though. Stark burst into control center, "Fury!"

"Stark?" Fury asked, turning to face him.

"Her level, Nadia, why didn't I think of it before!" Stark rambled pacing.

Fury grabbed his shoulder and made him stop. "Stark slow down."

Tony took a deep breath and said, "Pepper and I gave her her own level in the Stark tower for her ninth birthday that you were too busy to even stop by for. Anyway, I also created her own version of Jarvis, which I named Nadia. Nadia and her level is the key, we can find out why they took her in the first place! Maybe even find her!"

"Let's go." Fury said, already on the way to the landing platform.

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The elevator doors opened and they were faced with a steel wall, the doors didn't even look like they were there. Tony said, "Nadia, Cassie's been kidnapped."

Nadia's voice rang through the level, "Implicating Missing mode."

They could clearly hear things moving and opening inside the level, but the steel doors never opened. Fury's voice sounded, "How do we get inside?"

"To open these doors without Cassie's finger print you need a combination of three finger prints from the following names; Anthony Stark, Steve Rodgers, Bruce Banner, Thor Odinson, Nick Fury, Clint Barton, Natasha Ramonoff, or Maria Hillman. For full access Anthony Stark must be a part of the combination."

Fury sighed and took off a glove, as he pressed his finger to the glove he stated, "Nick Fury."

Maria did the same, "Maria Hillman."

Tony hesitated, but followed, "Anthony Stark."

The steel doors opened and Nadia said, "If would please take a seat on the couch, or stand if you wish. Cassie left a video for Anthony Stark in case of emergencies like this one."

No one sat, but all three moved to where they could see the flat screen. The screen flickered to life and there sat Cassie, sitting behind her desk smiling. She said, "Hey Tony. I'm assuming since you're watching this I'm missing. First of all I want you to know that I know you will find me, and I will hold out as long as I need to, you will see me again. Now we get down to the bad part."

She visibly tensed and leaned forward onto her elbows, sighing. "In the vault behind my painting, which should now be opened, I have documents. They will look random to anyone but you. They are bank statements, purchase receipts, records of my actions and anyone I hired. Let's just say I was helping out their communities, which I was, just not in the most legal way."

"Next in my desk, the bottom left drawer is removable, behind it is a black folder hardly noticeable unless you know it's there. That is a record of my latest work. Fury assigned me a top secret mission that should be heard by no one except you, Fury or Maria. I guess it really doesn't matter anymore though. My assignment was to take out an underground villain before he could resurface, it was supposed to be easy."

"It turned into much more. I took him out and people came after me, higher ranking people. I've been ripping the rug out from underneath them so to say for the last two months, taking down anyone I could. I ruined all their business, put the money back into the community in anonymous donations. I've all but destroyed any weapon distributors, though I'm afraid I might be pissing off the wrong people."

"And finally, inside the couch is the very reason I believe I must have been kidnapped. Recently, I stole a hard drive off a hacker, after I killed him. I knew what was on the hard drive and what he intended to do with it, I couldn't let that happen. On the hard drive is the very thing the Secretary of Defense himself would kill for. It's an encryption algorithm that unlocks anything in less than 2 minutes, even government documents and all our national security secrets. You should know the combination to the safe."

She sighed, "I never told you Tony because I was dealing with people you've dealt with before. I couldn't have you stepping in and putting yourself in jeopardy on my behalf. That's also why I haven't been home often, I couldn't lead them to you and Pepper. I'm sorry, but it had to be done. I love you and I know everything will work out. After all, we are Starks."

The screen went black and Tony instantly started collecting everything. He grabbed the file and the documents first, setting them on the coffee table. He moved aside the middle couch cushion and was faced with a number pad, the screen showed six underscores, six spots for numbers. Tony only had to try one combination for the safe to open, he quickly stuffed the hard drive into his pocket.

Maria asked, "What was the combination?"

Tony smiled slightly even in the distress his mind was drowning in, "The first time she accidentally called me dad, she was horrified. She hid in her level for almost four days. Now, she says it was the best accident that ever happened. The date was the combination."

They all started out the door and Tony asked, "Nadia? Is there anything you think might help us?"

"I've done all I can." Was her only reply before shutting everything down again, shutting off the lights making them leave.

Tony's only thought as they took the elevator back down was, What did she get herself into?