Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 82: Infuriating Mystery

(Avengers Tower)

In a dark room, the only sources of light were the numerous screens that lit up the room. Sitting before the big screen in the middle, Tony Stark let out a small groan as he took a peek at the screen before him. 'Nothing new' With bags under his eyes and disheveled hair Tony looked like he was on his last legs, as his head lolled up and down trying to stay awake.

Just as his head touched his folded arms and it looked like he would succumb to the land of dreams, the voice of his trusted AI spoke up. "Internal Analysis complete, Sir." Tony bolted up right brushing the tiredness out of his eyes. "Results Jarvis"

"Sir, the code that took over the suit and controlled our systems could not be traced and I could not find how it got past our firewalls." *Bang* "How is that possible?!" Tony slammed his hands on the desk in front of him as he turned to look at the suit behind him.

The incident at the mall was one of the most humiliating situations he had ever been in. He couldn't gain control of his own suit! How did Spider-Man do it!? Tony couldn't get the thought out of his head! Which was why for the last 2 days, he had been trying to figure just that exact question out.

He was practically ripping his hair out at all the dead ends he had run into now. The suit had been opened up, manually checked for any device that could have bypassed his systems or error that may have occurred, hell the transmission that connected to the suit was one of two clues they had and it lead nowhere!

Tony's mind was exploding with the burning question that raged behind it. Just as he was about to bang his head into the desk Jarvis continued. "Though comparing the signal code that infiltrated the suit, I have discovered a similarity to the code that hacked our systems that one time you tried to follow, Miss Romanoff."

Tony stopped all movement for a second as the implications ran through his mind, Spider-Man could be linked to the person Natasha met that one time he followed her! After that exact incident Tony had held to his promise with Clint and set about checking his systems to see what had happened.

Much like this time, he had spent days before finally having to give up, though he had created a file on the mysterious hacker that had made it into his system. Tony really, really, really wanted to find out who Natasha was meeting at the time, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

How do you broach to one of the most dangerous women in the world, "Yeah, so I was tailing you with a satellite when you went to the park to meet whoever you usually do, and someone hacked my system stopping me from finding out who it was. Could you possible tell me who it is so that I can do a background check, find out everything about them and possible interrogate them about how they did it? Pleeeeeease?"

Tony had done some stupid stuff in his time, but he wasn't that stupid. He would be lucky if they found any body parts after telling Natasha a quarter of that sentence. He was lucky, but he wasn't that lucky. He would give that honor to Cap, after surviving in the ice for an ungodly amount of time, which shouldn't have worked. Or maybe legolas somehow surviving and fighting in an alien invasion with a fricking bow and arrows.

And Natasha could take down both of them as well, given enough time and equipment. Nope, nope, nope. He let that little mystery die, though he would think about it every now and then. And now! He finds out that Spider-Man also had the help of this mysterious hacker?!?!

They should be working for me!

This new piece of information put Tony on the spot again as he couldn't go and ask Natasha about it, but he was desperate to know! "Damn Russian super spies and their privacy?" Just as Tony mumbled those words the door to the room opened. *Beep* Light flooded into the room as the new occupant flicked the light switch turning on the overhead lights.

"Hiss!!" Acting like a vampire Tony covered his eyes as quickly as he could as he buried his head in the desk. "Turn them off, turn them offffff" *Haha* Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America gave a small chuckle as he moved forward ignoring Tony's words.

Seeing that the light was going to persist, Tony gave a small sigh before glaring at Steve walking ever closer. "Humble and gentlemanly my ass." "Language" Tony rolled his eyes. "No one thinks that's a rude word anymore. I could bring you up to date with swear words if you want…" Steve held up his hand. "NO thank you."

Tony chuckled as he turned back to the screen in front of him. 'What am I supposed to do now?' In front of him on the screen, was the small piece of code that Jarvis was able to keep from deleting itself when it was purged from his systems.

Even if Tony wanted to, whoever made the code, made sure that it wiped itself out after use. Jarvis only just got a small piece of it, and what he had seen was mind blowingly complicated. Tony was sure that Jarvis would be the most complicated piece of code on the planet. But whatever this was leagues ahead of him.

Whatever hacker or programmer made the code was a certifiable genius, though Tony wouldn't admit it if asked. Sending one last glance at it, he spoke to Jarvis. "Jarvis, move this file to the other one. Highest security clearance please." "Right away sir." Jarvis only just replied as Steve came to stand right next to him. He also looked at the code on the screen before them, but had no clue what he was looking at, he didn't even want to try.

Tony turned to look at Steve and this was the first time he noticed the huge bags under his eyes. "Jesus Tony when was the last time you got any sleep?" Tony shrugged as he pulled up his fingers, counting them. It took him all of a few seconds before he shrugged, not giving an answer.

Steve just shook his head at the antics. "So what brings you hear Rogers?" Steve looked around the room for a few seconds as he turned away from him. "Well I was getting a bit bored. I've already spent a few hours in the gym doing my usual work out. And I have no missions from shield, well because you know…"

Steve still couldn't help but grimace as he thought of the situation with shield, not to mention Bucky. He might have been spending a bit more time trying to find him, but right now he had run out of leads and didn't know where to go.

Tony gave a small grin. "You telling me Mr. soldier himself can't find anything to do?" Steve shoulders dropped a fraction. "So you came to give old me a little company?" Just as Steve turned back to say something to that he faltered as he saw the expression on Tony's face.

"Awww." Gushing like a little kid it looked like Tony was about to cry. Steve started to reconsider his plan to come down here. Tony gave another chuckle as he saw the instant regret on Steve face. The light banter between them had livened him up a little and he knew that he wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon.

Chapter end