Prologue: The Anti-Aging Project

Tony Stark (Iron Man)

"You may be wondering why we've called you here today," Nick Fury began gravely, looking out at the group of scientists and other intellectuals, which included both Tony himself and his fellow Avenger, Bruce Banner. "The truth is," he continued, "Many of Earth's Mightiest Heroes are getting older, so need to figure out what we are going to do about it. There've been many solutions, such as just finding new recruits or developing an aging solution. But we need to explore several options. If you've been called here today, than you will be working in one of several groups to attempt to find a solution."

"I think I'm offended," Tony whispered not so softly to Bruce.

"Face it, Tony, it's true," Bruce replied. "You don't see any difference in Thor or that much difference in Steve, but the rest of us are getting closer to retirement." Tony hated that it was true, but he had noticed this himself lately. "Let's go get our assignments," Bruce added.

…

Tony stood in the conference room with his fellow Avengers. Bruce sat at the table, reading something about the Anti-Aging Project; Clint stood with his arm around Natasha, the two talking quietly; Thor was laughing loudly at something Steve had said, both of them looking annoyingly young.

"Why do you think we were called here?" Tony tried, hoping for some information. Privately, he wondered if this was something about the Anti-Aging Project.

"Maybe they have a mission for us," Steve offered.

A moment later, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent entered the room, leading Pepper and a woman Tony though was named Jane Foster. Both had strangely blank expressions that made Tony feel suddenly worried.

"Please come with me," the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent said pleasantly. They followed her to a much smaller, emptier room, where she left them, promising that "Fury will be there in just a moment."

The door locked behind her with an ominous click, and Tony began to get a very bad feeling. He hadn't realized quite how disconcerting the room looked. It was very dark, with no windows, and the walls, floor, and ceiling were coated in some strange-textured paint. Stark also noticed a couple of vents which seemed to be letting off some thick, white gas.

"They're trying to poison us!" he yelled, grabbing for the door. He realized there was no doorknob.

Thor ran at the door and tried to use his superhuman strength to force it open, but then a strange look came over his face and he drowsily slumped to the ground, rubbing his eyes. The same thing was happening to all of them. Pepper and Jane Foster had passed out right away, just suddenly dropping to the floor and sending Tony into a panic. Bruce seemed to be unable to transform, as he just turned faintly green and landed on top of Thor, who didn't move. Natasha tried to hold her breath, but she couldn't do that forever, and Clint was already leaning heavily on her, looking sleepy and weighing her down. They both slid to the ground too. The last things Tony saw before the fog of sleep closed over his eyes were Steve pushing desperately against the door, his extra strength all but useless, and a man in green who looked very familiar suddenly stepping out of the shadows and falling down like everyone else.

…

Tony sat up slowly, feeling confused because everything was very bright. He sat on top of a plain white bed and wore only a white t-shirt and shorts. There was a circle of blue light on his chest that scared him a little bit. He looked around, expecting to see his mom or dad somewhere.

The room was full of white beds like his and a bunch of equipment like they had at the doctor's office. On the bed to his left was a boy slightly older than him with curly black hair. Bruce, he thought for some reason. That boy was his friend. On the bed to his left was a younger boy, maybe three or four, with blond hair. Steve, he thought.

He looked around some more. There was a very pretty younger girl with red hair, another boy with light brown hair, an older boy with blond hair, another older boy with black hair, and two grown-up girls, one with dark brown hair and one with red hair. Somehow he knew all of their names: Natasha, Clint, Thor, Loki, Jane, and Pepper. Jane and Pepper weren't lying down like everyone else though. They were talking to some other grown-ups and looking very worried and serious.

"Pepper!" Tony called, since he liked her best. She turned around and all of the grown-ups looked at him. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Oh, Tony," she whispered, sounding sad for some reason. He tried to get up, but some lady who looked like a doctor hurried over and held him down.

"I want to go give Pepper a hug," he protested. "She looks sad and I like her. I don't want her to be sad." He couldn't explain quite why Pepper mattered so much.

"Fury, what am I supposed to do?" Pepper asked the man next to her. He had much darker skin and looked a lot older than her. Tony wondered if his name was really 'Fury,' because that meant angry (he remembered his dad saying), and that man didn't look angry, just worried.

"I was hoping you could take care of them," Fury told her. "Jane will help you, and I'll make sure there is extra security installed for their safety. But until we located the agent who brought you all in, I don't want to risk keeping them here."

"Even Loki?" Pepper asked. Now she looked really upset, but Tony didn't say anything because he knew the grown-ups didn't want him to interrupt.

"Yes. We can't have him running around here either."

Pepper sighed and looked over at Tony. "I guess I don't have much of a choice. I couldn't bear it if something else happened to them."

At that moment, the blond boy named Thor sat up. "Where's my hammer?" he demanded.