"Nothing Gold Can Stay"
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Crooked souls trying to stay up straight
Dry eyes in the pouring rain
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
-"Shadows Prove the Sunshine", Switchfoot
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Chapter 1
"Damn it," Tony Stark snarled in a mix of fury and desperation. His heart was flying and painful in his chest, practically banging against his rib cage, and his stomach was roiling with fear, of a strange foreign sense of helplessness. Not that he would ever admit to feeling that way, of course. He was Tony Stark, billionaire playboy philanthropist, damn it, and would sooner die than admit he was scared.
The smell of electricity filled the air and the floor seemed to tremble as Tony's companion landed beside him. Tony barely heard the swish of a cape on the ground, distracted as he was.
"What in Odin's name?" Thor breathed, and the utterance only made the inventor's heartbeat skyrocket realizing that even the god of thunder was thoroughly taken aback. Smoke drifted lazily between them, acrid and choking, as they surveyed the scene of destruction laid out before their astonished eyes.
Glass crunched under Tony's shoes as he came out of the shattered living room, cursing under his breath. "Everything's wrecked." He didn't want to sound like he was whining—he was a grown man, after all—but this was his house, his tower, and now it was in shambles. Thoroughly. "Jarvis?"
There was no answer. The walls stayed frighteningly silent, and it was then that Tony felt like truly panicking.
Whoever—or whatever—had attacked had managed to take out his AI, the tower's first line of defense.
"Perhaps your invisible butler merely cannot communicate to us," Thor offered hesitantly, still looking around at the mess. "It appears a mighty battle took place here, after all."
"Way to state the obvious, Goldilocks," Tony snapped, abruptly in no mood to deal with Thor's Asgardian mindset. He bit his tongue to stop himself from continuing, however, stopped himself from stating that the only reason why Jarvis wouldn't be responding to his master's call would be his utter scrambling and/or destruction. Thor wouldn't understand the technical terms, after all—he still thought that Jarvis was magic.
But as obvious as Thor's latter statement was, however, Tony had to agree with it. The fight that had torn through Avengers Tower had clearly been desperate and brutal. Tony and Thor were only about halfway up the different levels and most had moderate to extensive damage. Walls dented or completely crushed, doors hanging off their hinges or splintered all over the floor. Windows had been smashed, glass glittering in the dim light.
And the bodies. Most of them dead.
They blended into the shadows like some type of ninja, so obscured that Tony had almost tripped over one of them. Not a bit of skin showed through their black garb and there was nothing to identify them by, no way to tell if they were AIM or Hydra or some weird alien race that the team would very soon become acquainted with. Necks were cracked, congealing blood puddled on the floor, bones were snapped or shattered. The sheer brutality of the injuries startled Tony, making his stomach burn with bile.
"It's like a cornered creature lashing out," Thor said as he went his own way, and Tony could only agree with him now. For once Thor had explained something completely accurately. "Who was here when they attacked?" Tony demanded to himself.
The team all came and went as they pleased. Tony was the only permanent resident in Avengers Tower but all of them knew without having to ask that his home was open to them all if they needed it. Therefore Tony usually had a surprise guest or two show up at all hours and any day, and he didn't know who to expect when. Sometimes it was Bruce, back from whatever self-imposed exile he had set for himself and settling himself into one of Tony's many labs. Other times it would be Clint or Steve. Clint was usually by himself but sometimes Bucky would be trailing after Steve like a silent black thundercloud.
"Anthony," Thor's voice boomed out in the grim silence, startling Tony from his thoughts. The Asgardian's tone made his stomach clench. Thor had left the main room and had wandered into the stairwell to the right.
"What? What is it?" Tony hurried to reach Thor's side, hoping that maybe he had merely found one of the team unconscious somewhere below—but Thor was staring down with a truly frightening look on his face over the railing.
"Oh shit," Tony muttered, the blood draining from his face.
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"They took Cap?" Clint demanded thirty minutes later. The Avengers—minus their captain—stood in the decimated remains of the tower. Jarvis was still down and the lights were flickering on and off.
"And managed to upload one hell of a virus into my security systems," Tony said darkly, tapping away at a computer in hopes of getting it going again. "It looks like it scrambled Jarvis to bits, locked him out of his own domain. I can't fix the virus yet, it's going to take days." He smacked his palm against the table in frustration as the computer kicked him off again, cursing under his breath. "And I can't get the security tapes going at all to see what these bastards were after."
"It appears that they were after Steve," Natasha said coolly from where she stood near the door. She was appraising the damage done to one of the bodies that Tony and Thor had brought in for analysis, her expression devoid of emotion. "The security going down must have alerted him to the intruders, he was able to defend himself, after all."
"They may have been after Steve, yes, but he may also have been taken simply as a bargaining chip," Bruce spoke up quietly. "There are countless objects in here that our enemies are desperate to get their hands on."
"As much as I would like to believe you, Bruce," Tony said, turning away from the table, "I don't think they were after my stuff. No, they were after Cap."
Natasha looked away from Thor's unnaturally grave expression. "How do you know?"
Tony turned to Thor, eyes dark. "Show 'em."
And the room, already quiet, went completely silent as Thor slowly brought out Tony's evidence.
The white star glinted dully in the light as Thor laid Steve's shield out on the table. Its color was splattered with blood and paint had peeled away from the force of bullets. And there, directly in the center, a perfect circular indention caved the once-proud star inwards.
Captain America's indestructible shield was dented. Broken. And left to sit in the destruction of the fight as proof that the intruders had taken one of the Avengers' own.
Clint cursed and spoke what they were all suddenly thinking. "We're in trouble."