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They might be key components in keeping his civilian identity rock solid, but there were times when Tim Drake really hated his knee braces and crutches. Yes, they slowed him down and prevented him from escaping sympathetic society mothers and oily businessmen but the worst part was that he was unable to run screaming from Tony Stark. He’d agreed to attend this fundraiser for Senator Hardin as Tam’s plus one in an attempt to make up for his behavior the past several months and Tam was having way too much fun torturing him in creative and inventive ways. She knew how much Tim hated the idea of Tony Stark, but she’d made sure that the two of them were sitting at his table. They had reached the soup course and Tim allowed himself to think that maybe Stark wasn’t going to show, but it was a false, false hope.
“Why if it isn’t Timothy Drake! How’s the old man doing? He was a bit over the top with the spending a while back, which coming from me is saying a hell of a lot. It is Tim right? I swear there’s a new Wayne kid every time I turn around and you all blend together after a bit,” said Stark as he appeared like a particularly bad dream.
He already sounded intoxicated and he badly needed a shave. Tam looked like she was regretting her decision to reserve the table, which probably had something so do with the ridiculously flashy and ostentatious suit he was wearing. At least when Tim wore that much red he looked good. And those were some really big gold cufflinks.
“Bruce is doing fine at the moment Mr. Stark,” said Tim as politely as he could while scoping out potential exits. “You ought to know how it goes, all the talk of him being a selfish, airheaded buffoon not worthy of his father’s legacy makes an impact sometimes.”
He’d scored hit and couldn’t help feeling like he’d won something.
“Yeah, well I suppose I get it,” replied Stark with a wince. “I dealt with the hate by making an awesome flying robot suit, saving the world, and kicking general ass, but that’s not everyone’s solution. I’m just special I guess.”
Tim smiled slightly as he thought of Bruce and Oliver, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
“I’ll be honest with you kid, I’ve been watching you for a while,” said Tony with a much different, more serious attitude than the one he’d started out with. “You’re doing an excellent job over at Wayne Enterprises, but you don’t really have much experience in that area. I look at you and tend to see myself, dead parents, intelligent, control of a massive company at a very young age, and devilish good looks.”
“Thank you, I guess, Mr. Stark,” said Tim. “Is this going anywhere any time soon?”
“I was wondering if you’d like to spend a couple of months as my assistant,” Tony said as he toyed with is fish fork. “It wouldn’t be very glamorous or involve company secrets or anything like that. You’re a Wayne first and foremost, but I’d rather not have you end up like me if I can help it. It’d be a bit of a softer introduction into how a business as big as Wayne Enterprises or StarkTech works and I’d like to give you that opportunity.”
Tim was stunned for a second but it was slightly hilarious how much Stark was sounding like Bruce. He hadn’t interacted much with the man before and might actually start to like him if he kept this up. He could learn on the job at Wayne Enterprises, but was getting overwhelmed balancing that with his extracurricular nightlife. He couldn’t fully focus on both at once which wasn’t fair to anyone. Tim didn’t really want to go back to school, either for high school or college, he’d spent too much time already trying to fit in with kids his age who didn’t have his life experiences and trying to write history papers before he ran out on patrol. What Stark was offering could help him out a lot, but he’d have to think about it seriously for a while and then have a talk with Bruce. Stark was an Avenger and affiliated with SHEILD. Batman and the rest of the Justice League would have to be okay with him basically taking a deep cover position in potentially hostile territory. The Justice League was mostly independent of government control, the U.N. didn’t really count as an effective governing body, and they preferred to keep it that way. If he did this, Tim would have to be extremely careful, but he could learn a lot.
“I’m honored Mr. Stark and it sounds like a wonderful idea, but I’ll have to think about it.”
“I didn’t expect anything different Tim, and please call me Tony. We should be friends.”
With this Tony handed Tim a business card with only his name and cell number.
“Text me if you’ve got any questions or make up your mind,” he said with a smile. “I’ll be waiting.”
The conversation turned to more general things and Tim found that he was actually starting to like Tony. He still didn’t like the Iron Man aspect, and he most likely never would, but he was beginning to see Stark in a different light. The difference wasn’t nearly as extreme as the one between Brucie and Batman, that would be nearly impossible, but Tim was beginning to think that the crutches preventing him from running away screaming might be a good thing. He should have known better than to get caught up in the conversation. Honestly, with both a Stark and a Wayne at the same gala, it was a genuine surprise they hadn’t yet been invaded by aliens or something else completely random.
The ninjas showing up during the entrée caught him off gaurd. They crashed through the giant plate glass window above the table where Tim, Tony, and Tam were sitting and even more swarmed through the doors into the banquet hall. The ninjas moved quickly and silently to Stark, tranqed and zipped him with startling efficiency. There were no unnecessary theatrics, no villainous grandstanding, and no blood. There were however very distinctive costumes. It was certainly the League of Assassins on a contracted abduction and Tim could do nothing to help the man he was just beginning to like without compromising his identity.
“You know,” said Tam after the police had shown up and everyone was on their way home. “It’s certainly nice to see that you’re not the only one that these sorts of things happen to.”
Tim couldn’t help but agree, but also wished with everything he had that he could go to just one party without having to worry about screaming, pain, or the end of the civilized world and that it hadn’t been the League of Assassins that had grabbed Tony. If it had been any other group, Tim would have felt fine leaving Tony’s rescue to his own teammates. The Avengers and SHIELD didn’t know very much about the League and probably wouldn’t be able to get to Stark before he disappeared into the custody of whatever organization had hired the League. God, Tim really hated crossovers, they put people in very difficult situations. He was starting to want that job he’d been offered and he couldn’t leave his potential new boss and bonafied superhero to the tender mercies of villainous ninjas; that went against every tenet of the hero code. He’d have to get involved and maybe even enlist some help.
Tony awoke with a headache and the complete inability to move which freaked him out at first and then just pissed him off. He was in a small dark room, lying on a fairly comfortable bed and hooked up to both an I.V. and a catheter, which was humiliating. He was cuffed securely and could tell that he’d been dosed with a mild paralytic and was not able to move his limbs. Tony tried to curse but found that he couldn’t control his vocal chords in any significant way. He was so screwed. He thought furiously to try and figure out who had gotten him this time but couldn’t think of any group that would have kidnapped and restrained him so quickly and professionally; most of the organizations that he had a history with had a distinct tendency toward melodrama. Tony wasn’t surprised that he’d been abducted considering how many enemies he had collected as both Tony Stark and Iron Man and since he didn’t have any extra special physical abilities unlike his teammates he was the obvious soft target for anyone looking to get at the Avengers. His thought process was interrupted by two men dressed as ninjas who entered the room to change the bags. They said nothing and left quickly leaving Tony alone in the dark once again, but he was starting to feel wonderfully sleepy. As he drifted off, he realized that the ninjas must have drugged him and that completely sucked. He’d wanted to think.
He didn’t know how long he’d been out for and there were no visual clues for him to use, so he began thinking again about his situation. His captors didn’t seem interested in hurting him and they hadn’t made any demands. They were consummately professional and hadn’t made any mistakes as far as he could tell. All that suggested a very well organized and established group. The fact that they had no apparent stake in the matter indicated mercenaries, which would be very difficult for his team to track. It also indicated that his fairly mild incarceration would only last for as long as it took for the trail to go cold. Tony really couldn’t think of a possible solution for this situation. When had the criminal element gotten so smart? The ninjas appeared again, switched out some bags, and left. The floaty feeling came again and he drifted off once more.
As familiar as Tim was with the League of Assassins, he couldn’t claim to be an expert in all their day to day operations, so found someone who was.
“Hey Red. Come to break my nose again?”
Pru was just a bald and rude as she had been when he’d seen her last, but she doing good these days.
“I actually came to ask you a couple questions about how the League does contract kidnappings, but I’d be willing to break it for you if that’s what you really want,” Tim said with a small smile. “The League kidnapped Tony Stark from a fundraiser yesterday evening and his team won’t be able to get to him in time I think. You willing to help a guy out?”
Pru thought this over for a moment.
“What the hell. I haven’t got anything better to do at the moment. Why not? I helped pull a couple of similar jobs when I ran with them,” she admitted with a wince. “They’ll hold him a couple of days, maybe a week at a burn location, usually pretty close to the abduction point, to wait for the trail to go cold. Transporting hot merchandise is risky. Then they’ll transfer him into the custody of whatever organization hired them. It’ll be neutral ground and very secure. With such a high profile target, they’ll use a crack team and security will be top-notch. Your best bet would be to grab Stark once he’s being transported in the custody of whatever organization wants him. They’ll be feeling confident and they won’t be nearly as good as the League, otherwise they wouldn’t have spent the money for a team. You want me to come along? It’ll be easier to spring him with two.”
She cracked a beer and offered one to Tim who hesitated a moment and then accepted.
“I’ve been told recently that I need to ‘chill out’ and that that the weight of the world doesn’t actually rest on my shoulders alone, which was slightly hilarious coming from the freaking Batman of all people,” he said. “I’d appreciate the help if you’re willing.”
Pru had spent the last minute smirking with a snort or two thrown in for good measure.
“I’ll agree with that assessment,” she said. “And if I hadn’t wanted to come along I’d have told you to go to hell from the start.”
Tim acknowledged this with a nod and then got right into figuring out who had Tony Stark. Where in the world is Anthony Edward Stark? At least he wouldn’t have to deal with Incan accounting practices or Leif Erickson’s stupid grapes in order to locate his quarry. What group had the stones, desire, and resources to pull this off? Whoever hired the League wouldn’t have gone straight to them as they were kind of a secret and didn’t take just any job, the applicant had to be worthy and in line with the League’s general philosophy. That meant that there would have been feelers put out earlier regarding specialized kidnapping and mercenaries. In addition, it would have to have been an organization well established and wealthy in order to afford the kind of team Tim had seen at the banquet. His best two guesses were AIM or HYDRA and were a bit obvious but logical. He didn’t truthfully think it was HYDRA as they wouldn’t be willing to use outsiders and wouldn’t need to considering their capabilities. That left AIM who were mostly useless but definitely nefarious and wouldn’t be high up on anyone else’s list of suspect when one took into account the finesse involved in the abduction. Those unfamiliar with the League of Assassins would assume that a brand new player had entered the game and would be tragically wrong.
Tony woke again, but this time something was different: he was moving. He didn’t get enough time to really be aware of anything else before he sedated once more. “Well damn,” he thought briefly before going under. “This is really getting old.”
The next time he regained consciousness, he could tell that something was very different. He had a headache again, but he had feeling in his arms and legs and could move them even though they were still bound. The goons around him were dressed differently and were talking, which was a pretty significant change and he was on the floor. After all the time he had spent with whatever costumed professionals had grabbed him, Tony was feeling distinctly unimpressed with his new hosts: they weren’t keeping him completely helpless, they were giving away information right and left, and they hadn’t hidden their organizational affiliation with AIM. It was always AIM these days he realized and everyone knew it was always AIM, so they’d find him eventually but it was going to be hell until they did.
“Mackenzie, he’s up,” said the guy closest to Tony who he named Dude.
“It’s about time,” said a female voice, presumably Mackenzie. “I thought he’d never wake up. Who knows what those creepy, shady, job stealing bastards shot him up with. We shoulda got him ourselves.”
The irony of Mackenzie calling the ninjas shady, creepy bastards was apparently lost on his abductors Tony noted wryly. It wasn’t like they were the ones with a billionaire superhero tied up on the floor of their stupid van.
“Shut up Mack,” said a slightly wheezy voice from somewhere towards the front. “This was a hell of a lot easier and there was nuthin’ left pointin’ back at us so we won’t have ta worry about his superhero buddies for awhile.”
“Dude, anyone think to bring a deck of cards or something?” said the stringy kid across from Tony.
“Shut up Paul, we’re on the clock you dumbass. No fucking cards,” said the driver
“Eyes on the road you fucking moron!” Roared the burly guy in the passenger seat. “Folks with kidnapped windbags in the back need to obey traffic laws. Jesus. You were goin’ to miss that stop sign! What if there’d been cops?”
And then everything seemed to happen at once. The van rapidly decelerated into the stop sign and then jerked violently as someone rammed the front right wheel. Something hit the roof and a tall, bald, crazy looking woman in tac gear appeared in front of the van and dropped something on the hood.
“Fuck, she’s goin’ to melt the engine block! Shoot her!” yelled burly guy.
The bald lady pulled a gun.
“We’re fine!” yelled Mackenzie. “Stay calm. Van’s armored and we’ve got triple layers of bullet resistant glass. We’re cool. Get this van going.”
“You idiot!” shouted burly guy. “We can’t go. Engine block’s half melted and that’s an M107 Barrett. Somebody shoot her!”
Bald lady shot three .50 caliber rounds through the passenger window.
“Fuck, not fair!” Roared the driver and then added, “Gas! Watch out! Fucker’s got gas in the bullets.”
Suddenly a gaping hole appeared in the roof as someone apparently took a laser cutter to it. The gas was making everyone, including Tony woozy so no one knew exactly what was going on until whoever it was on the roof dropped in, knocked a few people the rest of the way out, attached a harness and line to Tony, and fired off two grapples, connecting them somewhere he couldn’t see from his position on the floor and retracting both. And that was how Tony Stark found himself flying up a railroad trestle at a frightening speed. The whole thing had taken about two minutes and he was kind of in shock. It wasn’t until crazy bald lady, “call me Pru,” showed up with a fucking helicopter, because of course she had a helicopter, that Tony got a good look at his rescuer.
He was short, probably around Tony’s height, lithe but muscular, and had some great thighs. He couldn’t tell much more than that as he was wearing a cowl, gas mask, and cape. Tony couldn’t even see the eyes, only flat white disks, but the skintight, armored costume had a general red and black theme going on.
“Hey,” said Tony. “Thanks for the assist, I’m assuming it was an assist, you’re not taking me away for nefarious purposes are you? Cause that would be so not cool.”
From the cockpit Pru snorted and said, “You’re up Red.”
Red, the dude currently engaged in cutting the harness and bindings off Tony sighed and said,
“I’m Red Robin, no you don’t get my real name some of us like our privacy, and that’s Prudence, who you already met.”
He didn’t seem inclined to say anything more.
“How’d you find me?” Tony demanded. No one knew anything that was the whole point of the mercenaries. “And do I even know you cause I’m thinking through all the badass women and men I know and you aren’t any of them and you really don’t look like SHEILD.”
Red Robin, seriously what was up with that name? It sounded like fast food, turned his creepy white lenses on him and said,
“I’m familiar with the ninjas who kidnapped you. Once I knew that the rest wasn’t too hard to figure out. And you don’t know us at all really but heroes have to help each other out its professional courtesy.”
“So you’re superheroes? Huh. Thought I’d be rescued by a different set to be honest.”
“Red back there’s the superhero,” said Pru. “I’m just a psycho with a special skill set. Spent a while trying to kidnap and then recruit that dude back there. Fucker broke my nose and sent me on a redemption arc. The bastard.”
Tony didn’t exactly know what to do with that information.
“So what are you going to do with me,” he asked.
“Drop you out of the helicopter with a parachute and let you find your own way home of course,” said Red Robin.
“I already did something similar wise guy and somehow managed to save the President of the United States. You gonna make me do it again?” asked Tony. “Cause you seem nicer than that.”
“He’s got you there Red,” said Pru. “You going to make the nice genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, superhero walk home?”
“Alright, alright,” said Red Robin with a smile. “We’ll leave you at a swanky hotel in Atlanta and tell the wonderful Ms. Potts to come pick you up. And we will be gone.”
“And don’t come looking for us rich guy,” said Pru. “Really don’t. Red’s people are insane, violent, and paranoid and I’m not worth the mess you’ll find if you look too hard at me. If you want to know what you owe us for the rescue, it’s that. And trust me we’ll know if you go digging.”
With that, Pru landed the helicopter on the landing pad of a very nice hotel and Red Robin shoved a room key into his hand.
“You’re already checked in under the name Carmen Sandiego. Room number 504B. Enjoy the view.”
Red led him down the ladder, snagged two attendants, gave them a few instructions, and disappeared back inside the helicopter. Tony still felt slightly unreal as he was directed inside and watched them fly away.
Two hours later the Avengers and Pepper were there to pick him up.
“Ok what happened Tony? No one knew anything for days. We had nothing, no clues, no proof of life, nothing!” said Pepper. “Everyone’s been going crazy and then I get a call on my personal cell phone that I should head down to Atlanta of all places and pick you up.”
Everyone was standing around in the extravagant room looking expectantly at Tony waiting for a story.
“I spent most of the time drugged and paralyzed. All I know is that AIM hired an outside organization to abduct me and I was rescued by a member of the spandex crew I’d never seen before, I’m assuming it was a guy I couldn’t really tell, and his partner. They were some crazy badass fighters and had some really insane ideas about how to rescue a guy.”
“So are they the ones responsible for the van full of unconscious AIM thugs by that one railroad bridge?” asked Steve. “That was some good work.”
“Yeah, that was probably them,” said Tony. “I most likely won’t see either of them again, but I’ll deal.”
A week later, Tony’s new assistant was chasing him down for a signature.
“Mr. Stark I know your robots are important, but I really need to go over this with you,” he said.
“Tim, I told you to call me Tony.”
“Of course you did Mr. Stark, but you’ll have to earn it. Are you really going to make the cripple stand around and wait Mr. Stark? Captain America would be so disappointed.”
Tony had the distinct feeling that he was being handled but found that he kind of like it. Red Robin and his partner might be a mystery, but he had more pressing concerns: like figuring out how to get Tim to call him Tony.