If They Knew All About You

The Spider's Lair

It was 3 am by the time Tony returned to the Compound. He had spent over an hour cleaning the penthouse, 40 minutes of that outside on the balcony at sub-zero temperatures scrubbing the floor on his hands and knees. A pool of the kid's blood had been half dried and half-frozen to the tiled floor of his balcony that seemed almost like a punishment for his foolishness. He also learned why you're not supposed to clean glass windows in winter. The damn cleaning product just kept freezing to the window front and actually enlarging the splashes of red, the bloody handprints the Spiderling's had left when he had been knocking on the penthouse windows.

That damn kid.

It had taken him multiple attempts to get rid of the blood. Granted, the windows weren't exactly clean, but at least the traces of blood were gone. Now it only looked like someone had unsuccessfully tried to remove a couple of bird droppings. For now, that had to be good enough. The construction team he had hired was supposed to arrive by 7 am and he didn't want to deal with any stories that were bound to make their way into the tabloids if the workers were to show up on his floor and find blood all over the place. Postponing the construction would have been an option but he needed to get out of the Compound. That peace and quiet away from team-building exercises and Super Soldiers' reproachful glances, he needed that badly. That was a priority he was not willing to postpone.

He didn't bother to use the main entrance when he arrived at the Compound. Their usual running routine would kick off just before 6 am. So it was unlikely that any of them would be up and about at 3 am, but Tony was not going to take any chances. He let FRIDAY guide the suit through his emergency door right into the lab.

"Alright, FRIDAY, pull up the video files from the Tower as well as the analysis we did on the Spiderling in February. See if you can tell what side of the building he climbed down on."

His suit had retracted itself and he sat down at his desk. The holographic keyboard popped up right in front of him.

"The files are being processed right now, Sir."

"Do we have access to any of the security footage from the streets around the Tower so we can see which way he went?"

Queens might have been the obvious guess, but there was always the possibility that the kid was clever enough not to go where Tony would definitely check.

"Sir, there are cameras that could have picked him up. However, we do not have access to those recordings, officially."

"Okay, let's not break any laws until we hit a dead end. Tell me -"

A strong knock on the door silenced him mid-sentence.

"FRI?"

"Captain Rogers is asking to see you, Boss."

"Blank!"

At once the files and calculations about Spider-Man's past movements that FRIDAY had projected in the middle of the room disappeared along with the keyboard.

"Good girl, open the door for the good Captain, would you."

"We have intel from Switzerland. We're leaving now!"

Tony's eyes widened and he shot up from his chair.

"Is it the same weapon signature as it was today?"

By the time Rogers had made it halfway through the lab to stand next to him, Tony had reached into the large bottom drawer of his desk for his go-bag.

"What?" Rogers shook his head in confusion. "No, it's intel on Bucky. We have footage of what is probably him and also a few eyewitnesses lined up."