The building was collapsing. Well, it was. Natasha said that you could only say a building was collapsing officially when the building was literally falling in on itself. According to Shield, the building was having minor difficulties. But in Steve's opinion, when a building is standing with the help of four main pillars, and one of the pillars had fallen down, that constituted a building falling down. Whether it was written in the Shield handbook or not.
But now wasn't the time for debating whether or not Shield were idiots, because the structure was dangerously close to crossing over into Shield's 'collapsing' category, and Steve's first priority was to help the people inside, rather than catch the criminal responsible.
The camera crew showed up in small numbers at first. With the headline:
Building collapses
But then the famous Captain America showed up, and people started to guess there was more to it than meets the eye. A fair assumption to make of course. How many times does Captain America show up to a firefight? Not including the time when Thor put tinfoil in the microwave.
"Captain!" Clint called over the comm placed firmly in Steve's ear.
"What? I'm busy." Steve asked, wrenching a tap off the wall, watching as the clear water spurted into the air and redirected it onto the flames using his Shield. Trigonometry at its best.
"We've got the guy who did it. No one special. He's being taken back to Base." Clint said, and Steve sighed indirectly, not really paying attention to what Clint was saying, because his eyes had just met that of a charred human.
Half crushed under an iron beam, the person was caked in black ash, and large red burns that radiated heat. The charred human was lying next to shattered urinals. Steve gulped as he drew closer. He should be used to this sort of thing, but it always killed him when he saw innocent dead people.
"Is there anyone alive left inside the building?" Steve asked, turning away from the body and kicking over a clump of concrete.
"Nah. Just you." Clint said and Steve sighed for the second time. He was about to make a jump out of the window to save from finding a safe stairwell, but he was interrupted by scuffling coming from the opposite side of the broken room.
Curiosity getting the better of him, Steve walked over, careful not to trip over the rubble as he went. Putting his shield onto his back, he bent down and lifted up a large piece of granite. He threw it aside and peered into the room the huge chunk of rock had unveiled. He gaped as he saw what was inside.
Ten people, all talking nonchalantly all crowded into the room, apparently not at all baffled after the building collapsing.
"Hello?" Steve called, and each head turned to face him. Steve couldn't help but feel like he was being x-rayed. "Are you alright?".
A man walked up and spoke broadly, his wine he was holding slopped over the dust plagued floor.
"Yes, we are quite alright. You?"
"Me?" Steve asked in disbelief.
"Well who else would I be talking to?" The man chuckled heartily as he pulled another glass of wine for God knows where and gave it to Steve. Steve accepted it out of courtesy.
"Didn't you know about the explosion?" Steve asked, watching the man who had offered him the drink.
"Explosion?" Apparently the man was none the wiser to the fire, or the explosion that had almost pulled the building apart.
"Yes, about half and hour ago." Steve said. He felt strangely welcome with these new people. They weren't rash, they didn't seem uptight either. They just seemed like pleasant people.
"Steve, get out of there now." Clint's voice cut across the comm, which made Steve jump.
"Why?" Steve asked. He didn't care what Clint thought. He didn't need him.. He wanted to be happy, and carefree... Like these people.
"Trust me, get out." Clint said sharply. And Steve grinned sleepily, not wanting to leave the room, and then it went dark.
Black engulfed the room, it was all Steve could see, and he could hear.
"Hello?" He called into the room hopefully. No one replied.
"Clint? What's happening?" He asked, but Clint didn't reply.
Crouching low on the floor, Steve began to feel his way around the room, cutting his finger on a shard of glass as he fumbled around in the dark.
Suddenly, he was falling. Straight down, tumbling into an abyss of more blackness. Then a fire sprang up. In front of him, beating him to the flames was Bucky. Falling into the orange. Steve yelled and stretched out his hand, but Bucky couldn't reach it. Then he was sitting on a train.
The gentle rocking of the old locomotives carriages were soothing, and Steve soon found himself at his destination, though he had no idea where that was.
"Hello?" Steve yelled, pulling out his gun from his belt. He was starting to feel uneasy, more uneasy than before when he was falling.
"Hello." Steve whirled around as a voice replied. He pointed the gun at where he estimated the new speakers face would be.
"Talk." Steve spat, and the other voice laughed. "That's laughing, not talking. Open your mouth and let words come out. Who are you?"
"No one you need concern yourself with." The voice replied soothingly, and Steve blinked. "However, if you want my advice, five steps to your right is a door. That will lead you outside." Steve blinked again. "I'll see you soon."
"Wait-" Steve yelled into the darkness, but he didn't expect a reply. Looking around, he took five steps to his right.
Once he'd done the instructed footsteps, Steve felt around in the darkness until he hit something wooden, and cold.
Sighing a sigh of relief, he kicked it open, and a dazzling white light penetrated his retinas as he blinked. As his eyes adjusted, he took in what lay behind the door.
A long table, adorned with hundreds of different types of food. From standing where he was, Steve could see the largest roast turkey he'd ever laid eyes upon.
"Welcome!" A figure sat at the opposite end of the table, waving his arms ecstatically.
"What is this?" Steve asked, cutting the chase as he shut the door behind him.
"Dinner." The man replied simply, and gestured for Steve to take a seat.
"S... S... Steve..." Steve almost punched the air as his comm roared back into life and Clint was speaking.
"Hello? Clint?" Steve said eagerly, ignoring the man on the other side of the room.
"Steve, you have to get out of there now. It's an Extremis base, they were testing it there. Something went wrong. There's a cloud of gas causing hallucinations, you need to get out of there now." Clint said hurriedly, and Steve laughed. It explained a lot.
Steve stood up and started making his way to a door he'd just spotted.
"Where do you think you're going?" The man asked.
"Well, you're just a hallucination. So I figured I could just.. Leave." Steve replied, and he carried on walking towards the door. The bullet narrowly missed his ear.
He pulled his shield off his back and in one slick movement threw it straight at the mans head. Not looking at his victim, Steve caught the returning shield. Turning around, he replaced his shield back on his back and withdrew his own gun. Pointing it at the fallen mans head as he drew closer.
"Talk." Steve spat.
"It's a hullcination?" The man shrugged hopefully, and Steve sneered.
"You nearly shooting me is not a hallucination. Now talk. The bomb. Who was it?"
"I thought Hawkeye had caught the criminal?"
Steve froze.
"Clint!" He yelled into the comm, but again, there was nothing but a dull fuzz.
"Yeah... I guess he wasn't a small time crook after all." The man laughed, falling back onto his elbows and tilting his head back.
"What? Who did it? Who are you?" The torrent of questions were spilling out of Steve's mouth like word vomit. "Clint said something about Extremis. Talk, now." An arrow planted itself in the mans head.
Looking wildly around, Steve caught sight of who'd shot it.
Hawkeye was perched on the window ledge. The window ledge that was scattered with broken glass.
"What?! I- urgh." Steve gave up smoking and resorted to sulking as several Shield agents swarmed into the room.
"Your comm went down. People were getting worried." Clint said, walking over and turning the mans head to the other side lightly with his boot. "No great loss."
Steve sighed. Next time there was something going on with Extremis, he didn't want to know.
Ta-da! I know it was short, but whatever it was only meant to be a one-shot. What do you think?