Chapter 1: Mystery Man

"Tony that's it. That is it." Pepper Potts seethed as she stomped down the stairs to the garage where her current employer and pain in the ass sat on the floor. "I have stood by you when any other logical woman would have quit, but this is it. This makes the thirty-fifth meeting you have missed since you assigned me as acting CEO. If your enemies don't kill you, your self destructive habits will."

To Tony's credit he didn't cringe away when she began her rant. However he also didn't look up from his current task-which was fiddling with his newest design for the repulsors. Once he noticed she had stopped though he looked up to see Pepper looking at him as if the words hadn't been created to properly express whatever it was she was feeling. Tony felt it was necessary to step in at that time.

"Pepper." he started placatingly, "I'm fine."

And as if that gave her the words Pepper suddenly frowned deeply and began again, "Tony, I won't always be around to take care of you. You need to take responsibility for yourself at least. Look at you." She made a gesture to his general self to which Tony gave himself the once-over and found nothing wrong.

"What?" he asked indignantly, "What's wrong with the way I look?"

Sure there was some grease here or there but it was hardly anything unusual.

"When was the last time you ate Tony? Or slept for that matter?" Pepper asked and Tony simply shrugged.

"I eat enough. And I sleep when I'm tired." Tony answered nonchalantly.

"Jarvis?" Pepper prompted and the AI instantly answered with a decidedly disapproving, "Mister Stark has been awake approximately thirty-nine hours and his diet has consisted of two granola bars and an excess of espresso."

Tony petulantly mumbled "Traitor" under his breath.

"Tony, Jarvis is just concerned about you." Pepper countered sternly, "You need to learn what it is to be responsible or you'll continue to worry those closest to you."

Tony took a deep breath. He was well aware of his self-destructive tendencies, but he was fine. He had Pepper and Jarvis and even Happy and Rhodey. Regardless he knew he'd never hear the end of this if he didn't give in just a little.

"Responsibility?" he frowned at the taste of the word alone, "I don't know what it means to be responsible; my parents didn't let me have a dog."

Pepper puffed out in frustration, "Then adopt a dog Tony. Or something. Maybe being responsible for the care of another will even teach you to take care of yourself."

"Miss Potts," Jarvis interjected, "there is a Mister Jones of Omnitech here to see you. He's waiting in your office."

Pepper paused to frown at Tony with a pointed glare. She looked like she had more to say. However without a word she turned on her heals towards the stairs she'd entered from. Undoubtedly Tony would hear from her later.

"Phew." Tony let out a breath as the elevator doors shut, "thanks for the save there J."

"Miss Potts' has quite a valid argument, Sir; it would be in your best interest to put some effort into your own care."

Tony frowned as he began tapping the hologram once again. "Come on Jarvis. I save the world every other day. How is that not responsible?"

"As you say Sir." If it was possible for a AI to have sarcasm Jarvis had it.

A few minutes later there was a beep and the hologram he had previously been playing with was replaced with a stern looking Nicholas Fury.

"Fury." Tony cooed, "To what do I owe this honor?"

"Cut the crap Stark. We've got a mission for you. Report in at the helicarrier in five minutes for your briefing. And don't be late."

"Aye-aye captain." Tony did a mock salute and was rewarded with a unamused look from the other man.

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"Our intel has collected that highly unethical and illegal experiments are going on in this facility." Fury tapped a small screen and on the holographic table a location lit up before it zoomed in.

"New Mexico?" Tony yawned theatrically, "Bohr-ring. Why don't you send Point Break? He'd love it there."

"Thor's busy. This isn't a vacation Stark. I wouldn't even be sending you if the rest of the team weren't already deployed on other missions."

Fury gave Tony his one-eyed no-nonsense glare.

"I need you on this mission." he spoke slowly, "Whether you want to go or not isn't my concern."

"Now was it so hard to admit you need me?" Tony quipped airily, "So, what proof do you have that this illegal activity is even happening?"

The frown on Fury's lips deepened. Tony almost felt like he wasn't going to get an answer before Fury pressed the smaller screen again and a holographic video appeared.

"This," Fury stated, "was intercepted in an encrypted message sent last night."

Without any delay the video began.

The room that the scene opened into was a metallic room swept in a pale, fluorescent light. A harsh light that made everything seem alien and unreasonably unpersonable.

In the lab a man was strapped to a metal table, IV's stuck into his arms most likely keeping him sedated but just conscious enough to feel and react to everything done to him. They had cut the man open, pealed his flesh back and dissected his organs like he was a middle school frog experiment. Tony looked into the eyes of the man on the table. They were brown like his own and Tony felt all too much like that man on the table-like Tony was back in that god forsaken cave.

Tony watched a woman in a labcoat step in front of the camera blocking his view of the man.

"The test subject has recovered from the first test series with surprisingly short intervals between procedures. Growing all organs, within an hour of their dissection." the labcoat spoke dispassionately.

Red gloves, starkly vivid against the bright white lights, were discarded as the labcoat spoke.

"Ma'am, I suggest we move on to the heart." one of the assistants advised and the one in charge frowned at that.

"We discussed this. The heart and brain are too important. We aren't going to risk killing the subject before the tests are done. Our benefactor wants the subject alive."

"Of course Ma'am."

The video paused on the woman's disgustingly passive face.

"I hope you understand now why we're not waiting for the others to get back."

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The flight to New Mexico was filled with Tony's usual pre-battle adrenaline. He kept thinking about what he had seen and heard and been told. The man was a complete enigma. In this modern day for SHIELD to have nothing on anyone was incomprehensible. He was either a master of eluding the government or whoever had captured him had made sure that he didn't exist and wouldn't be missed. Tony had thought a lot, however all he could see when he looked into that man's eyes was himself. He saw the cave and the captors and hours, days, weeks, months of torture.

At that moment Tony felt a protective rage. A dull roaring rage he molded into purpose. He was going to save that man-he was going to save him no matter what.

The sound of Iron Man's metal-incased feet landing on the cracked New Mexico dirt was the echo of a hero's determination.

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Bruce lulled awake to his own personal version of hell. The cell he was kept in by his captors was dark. The kind of darkness that was not only present in the absence of light but in the soul. Bruce instinctively took a few shuttered breaths when he heard the loud bang of the door at the end of the hall slamming shut.

He heard the dull thud of military issue boots against the cement echoing down the hall and felt nothing. Over the months he had become a battered shell that was left when the torture ended and they left him. He was never scarred, but at least the pain and the powerlessness used to linger in his head. Now he felt hollow and listless to his very core. Even as the steps came down, down towards his prison he felt no fear because deep into his very bones he had lost the will to live.

The footsteps stopped in front of the metal door. Bruce was assaulted with the sudden onslaught of light as the door was jerked open. From the silhouette he heard a harsh voice give a clipped command, "Get up."

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Tony let out a string of curses as he banged his metal incased fist against a lab table. Gone. They were all gone. He had missed them!

"Dammit! God DAMN IT!"

"Stark. Report." Fury's voice never sounded concerned but at that moment it was as close to it as it ever got.

"We missed them." Tony spoke into his built-in headset with a defeated anger to his voice, "They saw us coming. Everything's gone."

"We'll send in a SHIELD team to gather all they can. See if whoever was there left any bread crumbs to follow."

Hello! What to say? Well, let's start with Tony and Pepper don't have/have never had a romantic relationship in this story. I have dissected parts of another one of my stories into this for the torturing of Bruce so if you want to get a closer look into what kind of things might have gone down in that lab you can read "Shadows of a good doctor's past". Or ya know you could just read it because Bruce angst and team angst for Bruce is the best-especially when you throw a pinch of science bros in.

I hope you liked this chapter and I already have the next chapter written out and am working on the third! However I am in love with readers that comment and tell me what they thought so please feel free to press that comment/review button!

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