Dain did not like being down here in the scary room. When Tony was with him, it was great, because the room was huge, way more room to run than at home and even than at the park. But then there was loud noises that made Dain's ears hurt, and flashing lights that made Dain feel a bit dizzy and suddenly he was alone and frightened and Tony wasn't with him and he couldn't even smell Mommy or Daddy, or even Thor, and Dain could always smell Thor.

Thor smelled like food, mostly. Dain liked that.

Usually, Dain was pretty good with direction. More than once he had gotten himself a bit lost in the park when he was looking for his tennis ball in the bushes, and sometimes he accidentally got locked in the uppy-downey box at home and he would end up in a place he had never seen before, but he always found his way back. This massive room with the many boxes and the scary noises and flashy lights, was very different. It all looked the same, and Dain suddenly realised he had no idea which way to go.

Dain wanted to go home. He wanted to sleep in bed with Daddy (even though that was naughty) and cuddle on the couch with Mommy (even though he wasn't meant to be on the couch) and be fed Pop Tarts by Thor (even though his tummy always hurt afterwards). He didn't want to be lost in the scary room.

The horrible sound stopped, and most of the lights stopped flashing, and that was when Dain heard a different noise. A distant scraping noise came from the direction Dain was facing, followed by a grunt and grumble. Dain stilled, listening again. His ears pricked with sensitivity.

There was another sound. A lower sound of voices. People. People.

Dain put his nose down to sniff. He couldn't smell Tony, or Mommy or Daddy, but it could be them. It could be!

He took off quickly towards the direction of the voices, eyes pealed for his family.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"How far forward are you to getting this security back online, Stark?" Fury leered over his shoulder and scanned over the cryptic coding on Tony's monitor with his one good eye.

"I'm trying." Tony muttered in response.

"Well try harder." Fury pushed Tony's chair closer to the desk, essentially crushing his ribs, before taking off to the other side of the room.

Bruce rolled his eyes and reached out to free Tony, who remained duct taped to the swivel computer chair.

"How's your legs?" Bruce asked, attempting to situate Tony in a more comfortable position.

Tony slapped at Bruce's hands until he left him be, and pouted petulantly at the monitor. "Still numb. I swear, you could pour boiling coffee in my lap I wouldn't even flinch."

Bruce turned back to his computer. "Don't tempt me."

Despite the fact that together, Tony and Bruce had managed to get the thermal imaging back online, the whole of the security system for the Weapons Cache was shot. They could see Natasha, Clint, Steve and Thor as little orange blobs on the monitors in front of them and projected onto the large screen at the front of the room, but only because of the SHIELD tracking devices in their suits.

Tony was desperately trying to help, he really was, but the imaging refused to pick up anything else in the WC unless one of the team moved around the space, making the imaging software follow their movements. It was progress, yes, but really, the progress was not aiding the search for the dog or the intruders whatsoever, and this was a time-sensitive mission.

Fury watched from the other side of the room, as Tony tapped away at the keyboard without looking away from the screen. He was muttering to himself constantly, every so often, making a command to Bruce, before going back to his typing. For a fraction of a second, Tony's face lit up, and Fury stood straighter in anticipation, but then as quick as the expression had formed, Stark's face warped into one of rage and he mashed the keys with one hand.

"For fuck's sake!" He hissed, attracting the attention of several junior agents. Tony caught one unlucky sod looking his way and growled at the kid, sending the poor guy scuttling into the opposite corner of the room. The billionaire looked back at the unhelpful screen, and for all his wealth and intelligence, found nothing more appropriate to say then, "Fuck fucking fuckity shit fuck fuuuuck…Crap."

Bruce rolled his eyes.

Whoever had taken out SHIELD's best security detailing knew what they were doing. If Tony was certain of one thing, he was certain that this was no accident; no coincidence, despite Steve's optimism. Whoever did this knew the system better than Tony did, and Tony had hacked the damn thing hundreds of times. The possibility that this whole thing may have been an inside job, washed over Tony like an icy wave.

Being paralysed from the waist down seemed to be making the rest of Tony's body particularly sensitive, and when he thought about how likely it was that someone had entered the WC through the 'back door', it made the back of his neck prick. He told himself the pricking was the result of his concern for his own life, and not bubbling guilt for losing Dain and leading four of his best friends into this mess, but the guilt seeped through his walls and became harder to ignore.

"Fuck." He said again for good measure.

Fury was getting frustrated enough that he began shouting pointless orders at agents who were completely unqualified for the level of computer sciences needed to even engage in the activity. It made him feel better though. Most of the agents in the room, regardless of rank or experience, simply watched the large screen at the end of the room, hoping something relevant would magically show up in place of the 'BREACHED' warning in red font atop the thermal images of the four Avengers.

Another hacking programme Tony had JARVIS running in the background, popped up in a red window of negative and he attempted to kick the underside of the desk, only to look helplessly down at his unmoving legs. Instead, in his ever-growing frustration, Tony knocked a fist to the table's metal leg, making his and Bruce's computer monitors shake with the impact.

"Did that help?" Bruce asked without looking away from his screen.

"Yes." Tony mumbled, rubbing his stinging knuckles.

"Did that hurt?" Bruce asked turning to him.

"Yes." Tony mumbled again, frowning hard at Bruce's smirk. "I hate you."

"Mmhm." Banner turned his attention back to his screen. He brought up the comm system and addressed the team. "Okay, guys, I can see you entering the WC." Bruce said into the comm.

Tony looked at his own screen, where blobs of orange moved slowly into the room. Two at the front of the group; he assumed Nat and Clint, and two at the back on either side- Steve and Thor.

"Can you see anyone else?" Barton asked through the comm. "Dain? Trespassers?"

"Can't you just lock on to any other heat sources?" Romanoff said. "It would lead us straight to Dain, or…whoever else." She paused. "Stark, what the hell are you two actually doing up there? We need help to find him, there's eight-,"

"Miles of weapons!" Tony interrupted with a huff. "I know. Listen," he ran a hand through his hair, aggravated, "I'm trying my best but it's taking time. There are eight miles of WC to look though and at the minute there's no function to lock on to anything other than the tracked agents."

"That would be you four." Bruce took over. "We can track you using the SHIELD standard tracking in the suits but that's it."

"Well what's the fucking use in that?" Barton sighed.

"I'm trying." Tony barked.

He was genius. He should be able to figure this out. Hell, he'd hacked into SHIELD hundreds of times before, he'd even less than two hours ago hacked into the WC himself, so he should be able to get around whatever shit these other dudes were pulling. And that was another thing. Tony now had no reasonable doubt that SHIELD wasn't compromised. All evidence was pointing to the fact that the four Avengers and their dog, were not the only people in the mass expanse of weapons.

Fury was pacing; worrisome enough. But Hill wasn't doing anything, and that was worse.

Tony glanced at Agent Hill where she was sat off to the side frowning at the large screen in the room with all the other agents. Everyone else had given up to an extent. Something about the prospect of Maria Hill having lost faith in an operation, shook Tony. He breathed out heavily in an attempt to calm down, get his raging thoughts in order, and his chest unexpectedly shuddered. Tony coughed to cover the weird sensation and frowned heavily at the screen.

"You okay, Tony?" Bruce asked quietly. Pointless Tony thought, they all had comms in, they could all hear what he was saying no matter how quietly.

"Yeah." Tony swallowed. "Yeah. Fine." He lied, turning back to the screen with a newfound determination. This was his fault, and he was going to fix it. "It's all on us, Brucie-,"

"-Don't' call me Brucie-,"

"- it's all on me."

"Well, it is your fault." Natasha muttered, but the fact that it was a mumbled remark more than a barked insult made Tony smile a little.

"You do care." He grinned.

"What?"

"Nothing." He assured her. "Okay," Tony spoke loudly enough that all the agents in the room, as well as his friends over the comm could hear him clearly, "here's what we're going to do."

"You've got a plan?" Rogers asked.

"Guys, I've got a plan."

"Well thank the lord." Clint murmured. Tony ignored him.

"We're gonna cut the thermal imaging." He announced and a chorus of 'What's?' assaulted his ears.

"Tony, that's all we've got." Bruce said from next to him. "Cut that, and-,"

"Cut that and we have everything else at our disposal. At the minute it's taking up too much, the system is shot to hell and it was shit to begin with-,"

"Hey!" Fury protested.

"-so take the thermal crap out and we can do more."

Hill stood, arms folded over her chest, a frown deep set in her brow. "Banner's right. It's all we've got."

Tony chuckled, grinning despite the situation and threw his arms up in the air. "Live a little, Agent Hill. Get that stick out of your ass!"

Clint laughed over the comm, before an 'ooft' silenced him. Tony suspected Romanoff had punched him.

"Okay, we're gonna cut the thermals, and then, we're gonna do a search the good old fashioned way."

Hill's frown got impossibly deeper. "Without computers?"

Tony looked personally offended at her suggestion. "God no. But," he got a glint in his eyes, "we're gonna have to use our eyes."

Hill glared at him. "Care to elaborate, Stark?"

"Alright, guys, here's the plan-," Tony attempted to stand and address the whole room, only to realise not only could he still not feel his lower half, but he was still securely taped to the swivel chair. With a grumble, cursing Barton for all eternity, Tony shoved his hand under the seat of the chair and it shot up a few more inches, so that his head peeked over the top of his monitors.

Bruce snorted.

"People!" Tony called. "Listen to me, your genius superior, as I inform you of my brilliant plan."

"So modest." Natasha mumbled over the comm.

"In exactly," Tony looked down at his screen, "thirty-seven seconds, I will, with approval, cut the power to the Avengers' thermal imaging, giving us more power to work with for the rest of the security in the weapons cache. That is where you little agents come in."

Hill rolled her eyes.

"I can gain access to the cams in the WC, but we can't run any automatic sweeping programs to look for the dog-,"

"And more importantly the intruders." Fury interjected.

Tony eyed him. "And the intruders. But more importantly, the dog." The billionaire began typing while talking, and Bruce reached under his chair to lower the seat. "Anyway, I can patch through cams to each monitor in here, and if we can get eyes on each monitor, we can search manually. Eighteen seconds is my window. I need answers."

"What do you think, guys?" Hill addressed the team in the WC.

"Do it." Cap replied.

"Sorry, Cap." Fury spoke. "Delta outrank you here."

"Eleven seconds."

"Do it. We don't need to be tracked, what we need is to find out how the hell we've got people coming in a back door, no one was meant to know existed. Do it, Stark." Clint spoke with such authority that Tony didn't even blink before he flipped the switch.

"Done." He declared.

"Alright you fuckers," Fury barked, "get your asses to a computer and start looking. We're looking for intruders. Go!"

"And a, and a dog!" Tony called. "Look for the dog, his name is Dain. He's super cute, but don't tell Tasha I said that!"

"We can still hear you, you dumbass." Clint sniggered.

"God-fucking-damnit!"