There's something to be said about security. About safety, there was something to be said about how unprepared security systems and security guards were for the threats they were facing in the modern-day. I mean, I wasn't exactly prepared to be ganged up on by a legion of super hot, as in literally on fire, super soldiers. So I wasn't going to be judging these folks on how bad they did here.
What I will be judging them on is being kidnapped.
Because there wasn't just a lack of scientists in the compound, there was a lack of anybody but myself. Cleary, the bank heist was a smoke screen for this. But I'd dealt with that so quickly that I'm honestly surprised they could've run off with the people, their equipment, and even a section of the ship before I got here.
I didn't bother to enter the ship, I just landed outside, on the grass while I searched throughout with the usual visionary powers I possessed.
It wasn't long till Stark and his friend Rhodey flew in.
Stark wore his standard armor, at least in appearance, while Rhodey looked ready for the 4th of July. I decided I had more important things to worry about than the Colonel having a mid-life crisis and deciding to rebrand to the War Machine of America, so I let them arrive without comment.
"We heard about this as soon as you ran off to deal with the bank robbery," Stark said, the faceplate of the armor sliding up so we could look at each other properly. "Thanks for leaving your suit on my head. That was a sudden… and rather terrifying surprise."
"You're welcome," I said, the short reply telling the man I wasn't in the mood. It was concerning just how little evidence of who attacked was left here. The camera footage was erased, they didn't even leave bootprints, claw marks, or heat marks. No marks identifying who they were.
"Bruce stayed behind since we were sure it was already too late for any Hulk smashing to matter here."
"This can't be the work of the Ten Rings," I tapped my foot against the ground. I went on to explain my experience in the bank, with the two helpfully connecting this to what they knew about the Mandarin's other attacks. It was easy to see that the Ten Ring had been using people as the bombs, not merely the carriers. "There's no way a human terrorist group, no matter how powerful could get this done so fast. With timing so precise either."
"Yeah, this looks like someone teleported the section of the ship out."
"But that's not likely," Rhodey exclaimed, his distress clear to me as I heard his heart race up. "If the Ten Rings could teleport things like this. Why would they bother with the whole superhuman suicide bombs?"
"Which means we're not looking at the Ten Rings for this…" I continued, having already conceived of the same notion myself. "Even though the Mandarin contacted me to take responsibility. They're working for someone or with someone else. Brainiac is an option if we missed a piece of his tech. A sorta remnant AI could be mucking around."
"What about Doc Ock?" Rhodey asked me as if I hadn't considered the more obvious option first. "She was the one trying to summon him. She did disappear after the battle."
"Not too likely, I'm told that they found her dead body lying in an alley with her spine ripped out."
I winced at the rather nonchalant manner Stark gave us that information. I didn't like the bitch, but that felt like it was a rather painful way to die. Especially given the force involved in doing so while snapping the bone from the nape of someone's skull.
I could've done it, which wasn't something I liked knowing now that I thought about it.
Octavius had been a thorn in my side for a while, her ambitions made her a danger to the universe. Her alliance with Brainiac just made that threat an eventuality if the Doctor was never properly addressed. I would've had to kill him eventually.
Still… the idea of killing folk never sat well with me.
"Anyways," I said instead of voicing any of my thoughts. "There's not going to be a lot of places they can just plop down a lab like that. What are me best chances?"
Stark blinked at me, I could even see him start mental calculations in his head. It went by quickly, especially for a human's mind.
"I'm pretty sure even you aren't fast enough to find this sorta place in any sort of time just flying about. With a teleporter, there are thousands of locations off the top of my head above ground. But for all we know, they've set someplace underground or in a volcano."
"Fuck," I muttered running my hand over my face. There was a heat in my chest, metaphorically anyway. "Fuck!"
Louise had been part of the people taken with the Cities. There was something rather annoying about needing to rescue your friends over and over again. I briefly considered the merits of putting a tracking chip in myself and everyone I knew but threw the idea away for more than one reason. Outside of the amorality of doing so to my friends, it could've been hacked and I didn't need the possibility of people figuring out where I am at all times.
It would totally be used against me.
I kicked the ground, stabbing with the tip of my toes with enough force that it came back up covered in mud. I half-heartedly tried to rub the dirt off onto the grass but only found that a lot of it was stuck to the material in the same way paint would be. Heat started to raise in my eyes, but before anything could come from that emerging power I took a deep breath and calmed down.
"You done throwing a tantrum?" Stark asked me, even going as far as to tap his left foot. "Because we do have to inform the families that their loved ones are either dead or kidnapped. Then we got to figure out where they took-"
"-I know," I told him in a quiet voice, a hint of anger still peeking through. I took another deep breath and ran my hands through my hair. "I know we've got things to do. Excuse me for getting just a bit fed up at the possible death of my friend… and the kidnapping of billions of people."
There was just so much shit that had gone down in a couple of minutes it was just unreal. It made me realize that I'd need to tell Louise's parents, it was probably better that I did than Stark. For one reason alone, I was already here, was her friend, and had even had dinner with her parents not a day ago. There was something insulting about the idea that I'd not tell them myself.
Not that I particularly wanted to tell her parents that the fancy job she'd gotten, the one that Louise clearly only got due to me, had put her in trouble once more. That would just go over swell.
It was then that I heard the purring of a car come into the compound, I could hear the heartbeats of two people in the front of the car. I couldn't make out their conversation, it was just mumbling through the car. Nothing I was as good with interpreting as I was with the heartbeats, those were simple to recognize.
When they got out of their car, I turned to Stark.
"We got company."
"I know, the security system is back online," Stark informed me with a trademark grin. "So I needed to buzz them through."
We waited for them to come over to us, I didn't bother asking Stark who these guys were. I could already see it was Blonsky and Professor Sterns, the two weren't exactly kitted out for heavy combat, but Sterns was packing a stun gun and Blonsky a pistol I wasn't personally familiar with.
"Oh, that is a rather exact cut?" Sterns couldn't help but note as he came into sight with the massive hole into the ship. "I wouldn't like to be on the other end of-"
Blonsky lightly jabbed the other man with the tip of his elbow, stopping the Professor from, continuing that sentence. It was timed nearly exactly when I turned my eyes to them, so much so that I think Blonksy was protecting Stern from embarrassing himself.
There was a closeness to the two that I wouldn't have suspected given how the marine had once knocked the other man and I off the road and proceeded to shoot at us with a grenade launcher. But I guessed things must have happened behind the scenes that I wasn't aware of yet.
"Gentlemen, what can I do for you?" Stark asked, taking the lead in talking with the duo. Probably the best, I wasn't sure how to unstick my mind from the razor-sharp focus of analyzing the scene before us.
"It's not you, Stark. We're here to talk to Mister Doyle," Blonsky responded, grabbing my attention as he pointed his fingers toward me. I frowned, annoyed in having to shift my attention away from a real problem to deal with whatever issue these two were having. "See, we've been tasked with investigating the series of bombings that the Mandarin has taken credit for over the last few months. And we're aware of the threats he's not just made against you, Doyle, but from what I overheard on the radio have already attempted. That's why we're here, to ask you some questions. See can we meld our resources to stop this insane loon before more people are hurt."
"Did he just say insane loon?"
"Not, the time, Stark!" I barked out, before shifting over to talk with Blonsky. "I haven't gotten far enough into my own studies about the Mandarin and his Ten Rings Organisation sadly to be helpful. At least nothing that you wouldn't have access to."
Lucky for me, it was time for Colonel Rhodes to come into play.
"I was actually told to share this with you, Doyle. It's just I didn't want to come up to and drop it all on your head, but we've got a few holdings of theirs in our sights that we'd like your help to hit."
I thought about it for a second. The sight of me dealing with a conflicted region like that. Sure, I had planned on popping over there for a bit, but there was something in the back of my mind. Something telling me I needed to stay here for now.
"I think that's a bad idea," I said instead. "Those holdings are going to be pretty small right?" At Rhodes's nod, I continued; "Then they are going to be useless for me to look into right now. Instead, I've got to check into places with a size capability for the Bottled room to appear in, where scientific equipment is being brought in en mass and that has a pretty good security system. And to top this list of requirements, to have teleported the entire room, this area would've had a massive power surge. Unless you're telling me that the Ten Rings' holdings in Pakistan have such facilities?"
"Not as far as SHIELD is aware," Blonsky interceded, taking the moment that Rhodes blinked to offer his two cents in. "I don't think you're right regardless, since there could be clues in those other bases. But there's a link that SHIELD's not shared with the US government… for some reason…"
As Blonsky looked up, I followed his gaze. There was a satellite in orbit, watching us. It was very clearly pointed at our area, almost like we were being watched. This had to be some sort of coincidence though, Blonsky's eyesight couldn't be that good… could it?
"For some reason?" Rhodes asked, repeating the man's last statement as a question. This time Sterns picked up the end of the conversation, not distracted by the sky like I or Blonsky were.
"Tell me, what do you know about Advanced Idea Mechanics?"