'Stark, Fury's really mad at you right now he wants to know why you aren't at the board meeting' Natasha Romanov 's voice said through his comm system.

'Tell him to buzz off, I'm not coming in if he's mad' Tony replied, wincing as he moved his head to talk.

'He'll bite my head off if I do' Natasha's voice protested.

'Well get Thor to do it' Tony replied and looked warily above him.

There was a brief huff and suddenly there was a change in voice, 'Iron Man, I will not do your human work for you'

Thor.

Tony smiled, 'heya Mr Hammer man'

'I am not in the mood for games,'

'Damn and there was me thinking you were'

'Stark, just get your ass here' Steve's voice said suddenly.

'No can do compadré'

'Why not?' all three voices sounded at once.

'Because right now, I'm trapped under a lot of rubble, and hurt all over'

2 hours earlier

Tony Stark had just had an argument with Steve Rogers. It was about something petty. About how Tony was nothing like his father and never would be. It hurt Tony to hear those words come out of his hero's mouth. It hurt more than anyone would ever know. So with those words in mind, Tony suited up and flew around New York for an hour, ignoring every message he got from his friends and Dr. Fury. He flew to the desolate streets of New York. It had only been a day since Loki's army had been neutralised and most of the city's main structure was unstable, take the library for instance, that had been crushed by the chitauri.

'Tony please answer' Steve's voice pleaded over the comms.

'Look Tony, Fury's called a meeting, something about a team building exercise, I do not see the point in it considering how we all worked yesterday, but he said we always need to be prepared and we should know each other inside out, look Tony, Tony please answer, please at least say you've got this message, just say something so I know you're there' Steve's voice said over the line.

Tony shook his head, nope, he wasn't ready to face Steve yet, his hero, had yet again made him feel worthless and like a pile of crap. Tony thought that yesterday's comments were enough, but no apparently he was wrong. Being told you we're worthless is something Tony was used to growing up. He was bullied at MIT for being the youngest, he practically lived in the shadow of Captain America. His father would often like to remind him that Captain America was 10 times the man, literally and figuratively, than he would ever be. But he always looked up to Captain America, at first he thought it was just like how a person would look up to an older sibling, but as he got older, he realised it was much, much more. It was love, he'd fallen for the frozen super, for the man out of his time. And he vowed when the man woke up, he'd take care of him, maybe even be the one that Steve Rogers loved. But it didn't go to plan, instead Steve looked at him with disappointment in his eyes, and that crushed Tony. Oh boy did it crush him.

Tony was flying around inside a disused warehouse, wondering why the Avengers had to go on a team building exercise, the more he thought about it, the more weird it sounded, was Fury doing what he always did? Hiding the truth behind the lie. Was it the case of his secrets have secrets? Tony hoped not, because if it were the case then that meant that someone was after the Avengers and thought that they'd all be weak from their fight yesterday.

Tony smiled, that was it, Fury was in fact lying.

Tony's smile faded as it dawned on him, if someone was after us then wouldn't they be keeping a close eye on us, waiting until we were alone to strike?

Just as Tony was about to fly out of the warehouse after feeling the un-nerving sense that someone was watching him. A bomb exploded, and he was reminded of his time in Afghanistan, but his vision soon blacked out and he became oblivious to the rubble and timber falling on him.

Now

'What do you mean Stark isn't here?' Dr Fury's voice said to the 6 people in the room.

Banner looked down, not wanting to get involved.

Thor pretended to be interested in his hammer, having no interest in being involved in Fury's rage.

Clint was too busy staring at Natasha to give a reason as to why Tony wasn't there.

But Steve and Natasha were listening and so when Steve said 'He stormed out of the Tower earlier'

Natasha quickly supplied 'I'll call him to tell him he's got to be here' and went out of the room and was followed by Steve and surprisingly Thor.

'Thor, Tony said you should tell Fury to buzz off'

Thor snatched the head set of Natasha and spoke into it, using his God voice.

Steve glanced guilty up at Natasha, 'it's my fault he's not here'

'What did he do this time?' Natasha smiled.

'Nothing, we just had an argument'

'What did he do?' Natasha repeated.

'Well actually I compared him to Howard,' Steve said and snatched the receiver of Thor before Thor broke it.

'Stark, just get your ass here' Steve said into it.

'No can do compadré' Tony's voice said.

Everyone had heard this as Steve had accidently pressed loudspeaker. So they all ended up saying 'Why not?' which bemused them at first but it quickly changed as they heard Stark's reason.

'Because right now, I'm trapped under a lot of rubble, and hurt all over'.

'Stark, what happened, where are you and what do you mean by your trapped under rubble?' Steve said into the receiver, just as Clint opened the door. 'Stark's trapped?' he said, alerting Banner behind him.

'Well genius, it's exactly what it means, by the way, Fury's lying, there's no team building thing, well there might be, but it's all a rouse, cause you see- ARGH GOD' Tony's voice screamed and the receiver crackled with static.

'Tony? TONY!' Steve shouted, 'Tony speak to me, Tony, TONY'

Upon hearing the commotion between his Avengers, Dr Nick Fury went into the corridor where they were all gathered, Agent Maria Hill was talking to Natasha when he got out.

'Agent, what the heck is up with the Avengers?'

'Sir, they've had word that Agent Stark is trapped'

'Trapped? Where?'

'They've lost contact with him sir'

'Sir, with all due respect, Tony said to us you were lying about a team building exercise, was he right?' Natasha Romanov asked.

Fury looked at his Avengers and nodded, 'there would've been an exercise for you, but we have recently been informed that one of Loki's helpers, was a super and had a grudge against Stark, something about killing his father or brother, one of the two, and we knew that most people had seen his plunge from the sky yesterday. So to keep him safe we thought it best if you all went away to a safe house. I thought you'd buy the team building thing, but Stark always could see through me'

'So, the Iron Man was right' Thor stated, 'then mustn't we find him now?'

'Hold on Thor' Agent Hill said, 'we need to pinpoint the area and make sure it is safe, we don't know if the perpetrator is there and looking for more of the Avengers'.

'Well what are we waiting for?' Steve said.

'You're right Captain, operation Save Tony Stark is a go' Natasha said.