The loud clunk of his boots, his shaky breaths, and the howling wind seemed to be the only things Tony could hear. The cold seeped past his armor, and seemed to make his veins freeze. Moving was hard, he didn't know how far he could get before he collapsed. Of course, the cause of his looming collapse was going to be either cold or pain… Probably both.
There were different kinds of pain that burned through him, however… It wasn't just the cuts on his body, or the injury on his chest.. It was the pain in his heart from what Cap- No. He didn't deserve that name -What Rogers did to him.
That bastard… He lied.. He betrayed me. Tony thought, a lone tear falling down his bloody cheek. Why wouldn't he tell me?! Did he think I didn't care about how my own parents died?! Why would he just leave me here?! Did our bond mean nothing to him?!
Tony didn't know why he even tried to think about it when he knew the truth. If Rogers cared about me, he wouldn't have left me here to die in this damn frozen hell.. He wouldn't have shoved that stupid shield in my chest. He thought sadly.
He could only hope that FRIDAY had enough time to send out a distress signal… But he couldn't just sit around and wait for hypothermia to claim him. EVen if FRIDAY had called for help, how long would rescue take?
Tony took another breath… They seemed to be getting harder and harder to take. His mind was going sluggish, he needed to do something before… "C-c-computers…" He croaked,"T-They… Zemo u-u-used them… I-If I could…"
He just needed to get back down to the computers, that was it. He could contact the Compound, Rhodey, hell he would even call Ross for help at this point. He didn't care, he just needed to get home.
Tony's drowsy eyes looked around the gray, snow covered compound for several moments before he finally caught sight of the stairs. With his suit broken, that was the route he would have to take. But… Even the probably 10 feet between him in the stairs seemed like it was over 500 miles.
"D-d-don't stop…" Tony slurred, his vision clouding at the edges, but he pretended that was just snow. "Keep… G-g-oin.."
He placed his hand on the wall, took a few tiny steps, and moved his hand further along the wall. Repeat. Place, step, place, step, place… He couldn't focus on anything else, his mind was like molasses.
In the end, this proved to be his downfall. His tiny steps brought him over a fragile piece of the ground, which instantly started to shudder under the sudden weight. Tony was too focused on his routine, he didn't realize what was going on below him until it was too late. He looked down, eyes widened, and the beginning of a swear on his lips just as the thin concrete fell.
Tony fell with it, the rubble hitting him as he fell on something that instantly shattered. Instead of snow, he felt liquid hit his skin. It smelt weird… And burned. Instantly Tony started to cry out in pain, thrashing around as the strange liquid seemed to attack his body from the inside. It hurt, it burned so bad… It felt like every molecule in his body was being ripped apart and torn back together.
It was too much, his already damaged body couldn't take it anymore. The pain was too much, the cold stung so bad, he didn't even try to fight as the darkness overcame him…
When Tony's awareness began to return, he felt something cold against his neck. He groaned, shifting a bit and blinking his eyes open wearily. He saw something white and gray… And Fuzzy. What the..?
As he blinked more and his vision cleared, he realized that the white fuzzy thing he was seeing was a dog. No.. Wait.. It was a wolf.
Tony cried out in surprise, slapping at the animal's face before he realized what he was doing. The wolf jerked back, yelping in surprise, and scurrying out of the HYDRA hideout through a hole in the wall.
Tony quickly sat up, but not in fear of more animals… Instead, he was focusing on the strange feeling that seemed to be going through his whole body. He couldn't describe it, but it was like something warm, tingling, and foreign was slowly settling in every cell in his body; It started in his hands and went to every other part of him.
The feeling took a minute to settle down, and then Tony felt like everything was back to normal. "What… What was that?" He questioned, looking down at his hands and then back at the hole the wolf had run through.
Memories of what happened before he fainted came back, and Tony's brown eyes quickly looked around the room. He was indeed sitting on shattered glass, but he didn't see any of the liquid that he knew hit and burned him. In fact, there were no burns at all… There was no sign he had even been hit with it.
Tony knew he had more to worry about. Even more pieces of his suit had torn off, to the point there was almost nothing attached to him anymore. He could see crushed pieces of red and gold metal under the rubble.
Panic gripped his chest again. I don't have another suit… I'm vulnerable.. He realized in panic. I can't stay- I need to run!
Without thinking, Tony jumped to his feet and then ran out the same hole that the wolf did. He wasn't thinking straight, he just wanted to get away from the hellish place no matter what the cost. I wanna be safe! I wanna go home!
The snow slammed against him again, wind howling at him angrily. He was only able to run for a few moments before he tripped against something under the feet deep snow. He landed face first into the snow.
Tony whimpered, desperately trying to drag himself further away from the hideout. But… It was so cold. Too cold… Too cold… I need to...
That strange feeling suddenly returned, but it was much stronger than last time. He then cried out, his bones seeming to break apart and pull back together in a completely different form. What is happening to me!?
His wide brown eyes looked down at his hands, watching the fingers shrink and gray and white fur emerge out of seemingly nowhere. He groaned, but it quickly was replaced by a growl. He squinted his eyes shut, whimpering in confusion and pain.
Then, after what felt like an eternity, the feeling was gone again. The cold seemed much less harsh now, even with the wind brushing through his fur. Wait… Fur?
Tony froze, opening his brown eyes. Instead of hands, he saw paws… Wolf paws. What!? He jumped to his feet… But he was on all fours. Tony whined, looking behind him and seeming the body of a wolf connected to his head.
What happened to me!? He wondered, but whimpers were the only thing that escaped his snout.
Tony forced himself to calm down, taking deep breaths as he thought. Don't worry about it right now. He ordered himself. Think of the positives. You're not going to freeze to death anymore, you're warmer. Now you have the chance to get to find safety.
Taking one more deep breath, Tony then started trudging through the snow. Despite the confusion at his new form, he knew that getting to somewhere safe was much more important.
It felt like hours passed by before Tony finally caught sight of some type of building. By then his legs (all four of them) were burning, and he wanted nothing more than to fall into a deep sleep.
He crept closer to the house and noticed that there was more than one. The first looked like a normal house, but just a little farther from it was a barn.
Tony sighed in relief, trotting over to the fence. He was able to slip under it with ease and then walk up to the barn. He looked up at the lock, seeing that it was unlocked made him sigh in relief. He nudged the door with his snout, and quickly scurried in.
The second he walked in, the air was instantly warmer. He quickly nudged it back shut, and then jumped as something let out a frantic cry. He whipped around, seeing three horses in individual pens freaking out at the sight of him.
"Oh shut up…" Tony growled, once again it only came out as small barks and yips.
He ignored their frantic noises, and stumbled over to the pile of hay nearby. The legs finally gave out, and he crashed into it with a sigh of relief.
Then, the weird feeling returned. Tony tried to ignore it and fall asleep, but the next thing he knew the hay was poking on his bare, human skin.
What? He thought again, bringing his hand up to look at it. Sure enough, it was a human hand. He looked behind him, seeing his human feet and-
"Oh shit!" Tony exclaimed, realizing that he was completely naked. He quickly looked around, and saw what looked like a blanket stacked by some horse supplies.
He jumped up, grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around his lower half. Once his areas were covered, he let out an awkward chuckle. "I wish I could say that this is the weirdest place I've been naked in…"
The genius turned his brown eyes back to the horse, noticing that all three of them were staring at him. He frowned, and asked,"What are you looking at?"
The horses huffed, but kept an eye on him. Tony noticed the blankets on their backs were exactly like the ones he was wearing. Oh great, I'm wearing a horse blanket. Could this day get any better?
He moved forward, gently holding his hand out towards the closest horse. They had brown spots over their white coat, and gentle eyes that seemed to stare at Tony curiously. Neither of them moved for several seconds, and then the horse pressed his nose into Tony's hand.
Instantly, the avenger gasped in surprise as the strange feeling returned to him. Once again it flowed through his whole body just like before with the wolf. Tony quickly pulled his hand away, looking at it in awe. An idea came to his head, and he clenched his fists, concentrating hard.
Tony felt his bones click and move again, the fist he had previously been clenching turning gray and hard. He stumbled a moment, before falling back onto all fours. This time, not as a human but as a horse.
The genius gasped, taking a few nervous steps on the hooves before shutting his eyes and concentrating once more. The hoof quickly turned back into the gray and white paw of a tundra wolf as he changed into the other form. Finally, he took several long seconds to focus and then returned to his first form, his human self.
Tony then gasped, as if he had been holding his breath the whole time -and stumbled backwards against the empty stall. He brought his hands back up, rubbing the skin, and looking up. "I… I can shapeshift?" He croaked.
"What does that mean?" He heard someone ask, and turned his brown eyes to the source… At first he thought maybe it was some person who had wandered in… But instead it was one of the horses that was talking to him.
And with that, Tony hit his quota for how much he could handle in one day. He grabbed the blanket again, covered himself completely, and crashed to the ground; completely unconscious.