When he wakes up, Tony takes a moment to admire the fact that their captors have succeeded in capturing the Avengers. It's a feat not many can manage - and he's not quite sure how this gang of thugs has.

After mentally congratulating his kidnappers on their achievement, he notices he is the only one awake. Clint lies slumped against the wall, Natasha draped over him like a curtain; somehow more peaceful in unconsciousness than she ever is in sleep or wakefulness alike. Steve is chained to the wall alongside Thor, an alarming red stain on his temple. Even Bruce is there - though how that was managed without angering the Other Guy, Tony can't quite figure out.

It's good he's the only one awake. That means that maybe he can get them out of here without all of them being none the wiser. After all he doubts the Captain or Thor will remembered being restrained if Tony removes the chains before they wake. And then it will just be easy to escape.

Well, he hopes. Usually he would be much more confident, but these people have captured the Avengers; a feat which JARVIS should've been able to prevent before it even became an issue. Particularly if these were just standard issue thugs.

Even as he thinks about releasing Steve and Thor from their chains without being noticed, Natasha stirs, a slight flinch which has her jerking back to wakefulness - a far cry from her earlier (forced) slumber. She grabs a hold of Clint for a moment as though she thinks he is any enemy before remembering herself and releasing him. Her dark eyes flicker around the cell, as surprised as he is that they were all captured, and even more so by the fact that they have all been put into the same cell. These people are either very stupid or very good.

Tony knows which one he would prefer.

Feeling her move, Clint's eyes snap open and he too scans the cell for any kind of weakness, his astounding eyesight missing nothing. After only a few moments he slumps back into the wall. Both assassins exchange a look.

"No way out then?" Steve asks. They had all noticed him wake up -even Tony, who still jumped. Pretences needed to be kept, secrets needed to be hidden.

"Not yet. There are no security cameras either though."

"But they've taken all my weapons," Natasha says, patting herself down. She couldn't believe that they'd managed to find all of them - even she wasn't sure how many weapons she had concealed on her at any time, only what they were, how the utilise them, and how to get to them in a fight. She felt naked without her weapons - she hasn't been this defenceless since Clint had brought her in to SHIELD. The helplessness was only relative of course; she doubted Pepper Potts or many other women knew the same level of martial arts as she did.

"Mine too."

Tony says nothing.

Thor startles next, mumbling something about Mjolnir and Loki. "Where are we friends?" he booms.

"We're not quite sure."

"Who have we managed to anger lately?" Tony asks sarcastically.

Bruce begins to shift on the floor before snapping upright. His eyes meet Tony's, surprisingly not green, even though Tony can see the terror and anger hidden behind the brown irises.

"What are the merits of getting Bruce to Hulk, to get us out?" Steve asks, trusting either Bruce or Natasha to provide him with a suitable response.

"Zero. I can't access the Hulk; I think they've injected me with something." Bruce twists in pain. "Well these guys are better than the army."

So all in all it doesn't look great - Natasha and Clint are weapon less (if far from harmless) and Bruce is drugged to the gills and even Steve Rogers is injured. These guys must be the good kind.

He hopes they're not too good - the kind that manage to hack into JARVIS and find his secrets files, buried beneath miles of junk and random projects. Those files are some of the best kept secrets in the world, particularly since the others have Tony Stark nosing around their systems.

He shifts slightly and realises they aren't.

But he's not going to go out guns blazing. He'll see if any of the others have any decent ideas - but if it comes down to revealing himself or having one of his teammates injured - or worse - he knows what he'll do.

They wait for another half an hour, sharing possible exit strategies, thoughts about their captors (which include increasingly large amounts of swear words) and side long looks.

After half an hour though Thor starts getting antsy, wondering why he couldn't simply try to break the chains. This time he tries for where they are attached to the wall and then twists and pants as he is electrocuted.

Tony hadn't realised that was possible for the God of Thunder.

He can sense even Natasha becoming worried, though she's hiding it from most of the others admirably.

He's not sure yet. Should he intervene?

No. Not yet.

It's not until their captors are storming into the cell with the intent of taking Steve that he moves.

He looks at the eight dead men in disgust. Perhaps they weren't as good as he'd thought.

"What the hell was that?"

Tony looks up from the bodies to see Clint gaping, Bruce's eyebrows disappearing under his hair, and even Natasha looking visibly shocked.

"We're escaping."

"I can see that."

"Well, we'll have to get a move on then. Someone will probably have heard that." He advances towards the chains holding Thor and Steve, pulling out a set of lock picks from the sole of his shoe and getting to work.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

"All over the place. Mainly at SHIELD."

"Why did you learn how to do that?"

"Billionaire you know. I did get kidnapped quite frequently as a kid. Better to be able to get myself out of it."

The team cannot think of a reason to counter with - and right now they don't have time to. There are another four men advancing. Again, before Natasha gets close enough to break their necks, there is a muffled bang and the team turns to see Tony holding a gun.

"Where did you get that from?" Steve asks, for some reason finding it the most pressing question of all.

"Where did you learn to shoot like that?" Clint is both impressed and suspicious. He knows the kind of training that ends up with that kind of technique and he's trying to find out what else he's missed about Stark.

"Around. Training."

Clint doesn't believe him.

It's when they reach the entrance door (twelve dead guards, thirteen questions and six doors later) that Tony finally snaps.

"I've been trained since I was a kid to be an assassin."

"You were what?"

"Trained as an assassin."

"Why?"

"It was my mother's family business."

"What did Howard think?"

Tony grits his teeth. "He founded SHIELD. What do you think he thought?" As he says that, he manages to crack open the key code to unlock the door, striding out. "I'll tell you more later. Do I need to tell you that this goes no further than us?"

Even Natasha has to restrain a flinch at the cold, hard look in his eyes.

Without waiting for a reply, Tony strolls out into the sun.

"Africa. They took us to Africa," Clint whines yet again, attempting to ignore the awkward silence that had fallen over the rest of the group.

"Better Africa than the Arctic."

"Why?"

"More people."

The group trails off into silence and continues walking.

Within twenty minutes they are on a quinjet heading back to America. Hill is on it, but Fury is on the line and demanding an answer. Natasha reports their capture simply but with an undertone of harshness, telling them all that she has not forgotten her humiliation at being captured. However when she gets to their escape she falters. It's slight, slight but there. And they work in the lives of assassins. Natasha is almost impossible to unnerve but something has managed - and Tony knows that Fury will not let it drop.

He only hopes that Fury lets it drop for long enough.

The line closes and Tony realises that he's not paid an awful amount of attention to the conclusion of the conversation - he's paid enough of course, he hasn't gotten where he is without it - but the time has flown faster in his thoughts and now all of his team mates are throwing him looks that say he would be being interrogated right now if Maria Hill was not on the ship.

If Maria Hill was not piloting the quinjet Tony still wouldn't have said a word. He promised them answers, yes, but his is a secret which people have died to protect and to find out. He will not ruin that now - now on an insecure aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean - because the Avengers cannot rein on their curiosity for nine hours.

Sometime he wonders how Natasha and Clint made it as spies. He means no offence at all to their abilities as an assassin, but right now they are both far too obvious about their curiosity.

Maybe it's because they don't know that Tony has been trained to find weaknesses like that all his life.

Maybe it's because they actually trust the rest of them (he doubts that, particularly now that Tony's secrets have started unravelling.)

He thinks it's far more likely that it's the first one.

Natasha is a trained assassin, and the first thing an assassin learns is to trust no one.

Tony doesn't trust anyone either.

They finally land on Stark Tower, having managed to persuade Fury that the official debriefing should take place tomorrow. Tony isn't sure whether this means they're less likely to let something slip to SHIELD or if they're more likely to, just to be contrary.

When they leave the landing pad and enter the Tower, Tony heads immediately for the bar. He's going to need a drink for this.

There is an awkward silence.

"So, how long have you been training as an assassin?"

Tony smirks.

"Longer than you have."

"I very much doubt that."

"I don't. I've read your file remember."

"You never let me forget it," Clint mumbles, oddly light-hearted for the conversation topics.

"So I can tell you for definite I beat you hands down."

"How?"

Tony smirks again, seeing through the obvious ploy. He's actually kind of disappointed with Clint for being this obvious.

"When you started you were what - seventeen? Sixteen?"

"Something like that."

"And you Natasha?" He continues, turning to her. "You were eight."

Natasha gives a curt nod. Tony smirks darkly, his eyes hard.

"And you Tony? When did you start?"

"The day I was born." The glass is empty by now. He turns back to the bar to refill it, also a convenient excuse to not answer the questions that were likely to follow on immediately.

"What?" Steve exclaims horrified and almost falling off of his chair.

He has no reply.

Bruce cautiously asks, "Tony, what do you mean the day you were born."

"Mother dearest was an assassin. Father dearest knew about it. Did you really think I was going to spend my childhood watching the teletubbies and going to kindergarten?"

"You're a Stark. That hadn't been expected of you. What was expected was that you would sit at home and make cars and weapons, not learn how to use them!"

"I'm really bad at doing what's expected of me. Just ask Pepper."

"Can we get back onto the more pressing matters please?" Steve interjects. "Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?"

"By no stretch of the imagination."

"Glad I'm not on my own then."

Bruce fixes his eyes on Tony. "Explain, please."

Tony sighs and slumps in his chair, passing a weary hand over tired eyes. "I started training not long after I could walk. I was trained in various martial arts, learnt how to read, write and speak in fourteen languages, learnt how to use multiple weapons, how to crack a safe, aim a gun, diffuse a bomb. Interrogation. All of the things that come with being an assassin."

The team sits there and gapes at him - they can hardly believe any of this. But they've already seen the proof with their own eyes and don't doubt that Tony has no problem with giving them a demonstration should any of them continue to express their disbelief.

"Why?"

Tony turns to Steve, puzzled.

"Why did you learn?"

Tony shrugs. "It was the family business. Howard found out and approved. Voila!"

He walks out of the room without looking back.

The team are frozen in their shock. Even Natasha and Clint look visibly distressed - and that's hard for anyone to do, never mind Tony who they'd thought they'd figured out. This doesn't match up with their image of Tony - with none of their image of Tony's.

"I can honestly say this is now how I pictured my day going."

Natasha turns to her partner, her brows raised. "If you had imagined that then I would both admire your foresight and kill you painfully for not warning me."

Clint winces.

"I'm glad I didn't then."

Steve interrupts, "Is this what the future's normally like?"

"Like what?"

"Completely and utterly mad?"

"We're the Avengers. It's kind of in the job description."

Steve sighs. "Why do I do this?"

"Because it's fun?" At the looks Clint receives he adds, "And it means you're never bored?"

"I think I'd rather the boredom. I think I agree with Tony on this. Let's never speak of this again." With this Steve follows Tony out of the room.

Clint pouts. "That's not fair. I wanted to see if I could beat Tony at sparring!"

This is for NaNoWriMo and I'm not sure if I'll continue this xx Please read and review x