(Reviews are greatly appreciated!)
Landing in the Atlantic Ocean was high on the list of things that Tony Stark would never, fucking, ever do again.
The icy salt water rushed up to meet him and before he knew what was happening, he felt the crunch of falling meet him with way to much force. He only blinked, watching the screens flicker bright, flashing alarms appearing everywhere with overly dramatic red bold letters like what you see in the movies when something goes wrong with a machine.
At least he hadn't landed on the concrete of some New York street, where he probably would have permanently left an impression of the Iron Man suit in the road. But he couldn't agree that it wasn't as painful, the sudden shock of it nearly knocking him out.
His whole suit shuddered went into a horrific stillness that scared him more than anything else he had experienced in the suit. It reminded him of the time where he had tested the amor for one of the first times, pushing its limits. The ice was like rough, sinister claws running along his back.
Tony couldn't move his limbs, and his body began to feel more and more restricted as he fidgeted, shouting commands, and breathing increasing as nothing happened.
"Jarvis?" Tony breathed in, closing his eyes for a second, not getting a response as the screens went dark, "Jarvis!"
He feels his heart do a flip when the screen finally lit up after his flailing for at least five good minutes and began to respond to his requests. His whole body jerks, overloading and making shrill buzzes almost as if to tell him 'shit, this was not okay' for his suit. Tony flexed his fingers, peering through the two eye-holes and felt the shock of fear run down his spine as he realized he was sinking- he was dying.
The mask lights up after a minute.
"Sir?"
"Jarvis!" Tony almost cried with delight, never so happy to hear his AI's voice before.
"Sir, power percentages at 18 percent approximately-"
"Deploy Mark Code 11.2, and do it quick."
"Sir," The system almost seems to hesitate, "That code is not fully functional, and it would need almost full power to-"
"Now!" Tony lets the frantic tone bleed into his voice, and the AI doesn't say anything as the power in the suit's boots begin to hum. He rockets toward the surface with an almost manic laugh of gratefulness. The dark shadows of water and bubbles suddenly disappear as he shoots, sky rocketing through the water with extraordinary speed.
The blast of breaking through the water is like being punched by the Hulk without an Iron Man suit, and the momentum is really disorienting, but he finds himself in hysterical laughter as sudden cold air and the pasty white clouds come to meet him face-first.
"Freedom!" He shrieks, watching as large waves ripples out from where he blasted out of the greasy ocean. He shivers, feeling the delight of escaping, almost like when he was kidnapped in Afghanistan-
The rockets splutter, and make a growling noise as they die, leaving Tony screaming as he begins to crash downward again. The genius desperately waves his hands stupidly to try and activate the repulsers, but they don't even glow.
"6 percent power, Sir." Jarvis says calmly through his ears. It makes Tony relax a little, but the ocean is nearing, closer and closer. He can't die like this! That would be absolutely ridiculous.
"Help me! Set me to run on the emergency power!"
"Yes, Sir." Stark is glad that the AI doesn't protest and does what he is told to do for a change. His hands burst with energy and Tony catches himself uneasily, swaying as he skims the surface of the ocean, grinning as the New York skyline suddenly is in view.
The sun has fully risen and was descending, making Tony start because he must have been gone for over half a day because it wasn't this late when he flew up with the missile.
The brunette winces when he remembers the strength he had to put into guiding the explosive up, watching as the blue sky was suddenly the dark, star splattered canvas of space. He recalls how his breath caught in his throat when calling Pepper, and how he watched with distant eyes as the portal closed, believing he wasn't going to make it. The black engulfed him as he aimlessly fell.
Well, its a plus to know that he didn't die.
Tony knew the emergency source was going to die out soon, so he flew faster, but it didn't make much of a difference. He needed to reach New York City.
"Jarvis," Tony crumples, voice cracking fully, while having embarrassment rise to his cheeks even though no one is around, "Can you get in contact with anyone?"
The silence is from the system is almost antagonizing.
"Most communications at Stark Tower have been shut off, but I can enter the system database to try and retrieve access to transmit a signal to get you through to the Avengers."
The genius lets a smile tremble on his lips, "Are you telling me you can hack into my data systems just to allow me to talk to them?"
"Yes, Sir."
A bark of laughter rumbles from his throat and it comes out as a garbled sound from beneath his helmet, so he lifts the face-plate and takes a breath of air ecstatically aside from the wounds and cuts and the possible concussion he has. "Sometimes I think I programmed you too well, Jar. Fucking thank you."
"I'm here to serve you, Sir."
The dull ring and snap of a connection alerts him that he was able to enter the security system in a matter of seconds. That was a little scary. He was too good at all of this, he probably wouldn't be alive without the AI.
"Get Steve, if you can." Tony coughs, hacking, which in his mind, is really gross and a sign that he probably needed some medical attention. Immediately. "Okay?"
"Yes, Sir."
When the dial gets through he hears the shifting of voices in the background. He can make out some of the conversation between the two, but it is muffled and distorted by static to an extent.
"Captain Rogers," The British voice says considerately, almost tiredly.
...
"Yes?" Tony feels his heart drop at the sound of Steve's voice.
"I have has a request of your presence-"
...
"Not now Jarvis," The blonde sounds angry and maybe even...sorrowful. Tony can't figure it out, listening to the fuzzy transmission intently.
"Jarvis. No-"
"It is very urgent Captain," The AI claims, seeming upset by Steve's disrespect.
"Not. Now."
...
The call is broken and both AI and creator seems to cave in for a moment with the same exhaustion.
"Fucking," Tony is now just really pissed off, "Shit, Steve."
He wipes his brow, flitting across the skyline and reaching the city finally. The suit is suddenly weighing him down as power grows weaker and weaker.
He needs to return soon.
Why couldn't have Steve just picked up the phone?
Tony is stressing his limits and finally has resulted to walking down the broken streets of New York, constantly looking up at the sky to see if the portal almighty have somehow reopened, of maybe never even went away.
It seemed to haunt him.
The streets were now just broken, gray cement shards scattered around, ripped from their surface horrifically. Trees were shattered, half of the buildings destroyed and over more than two-thirds receiving some form of injury.
Some buildings were reduced to rubble and some had no scratches whatsoever. Tony could identify the scorch marks in the ground as the repulsers blasts, which seem to be quite affective judging by how much was destroyed by them.
It seemed like the battle with Loki had been over a year ago than less than twenty-four hours. The city seemed so weak and horribly boring with no people populating it, even if they were screaming and running for their lives.
Tony only glanced at the buildings, recognizing almost each one if them even though he hasn't eaten at them before. He limped, catching his breathe every few moments with tears swelling in his eyes at the pain that was getting to him.
He slipped and rested against a street-pole, staring blankly at the restaurant ahead. It was smaller than most, but seemed like one of those nice, quite and cozy places you would take a person out on a really simple date for.
It served something called 'shwarma' which sounded pretty weird, but good. He noticed the Iron Man sized hole he had ripped through on its short roof when he had been tossed backwards earlier in battle. Well, he'd pay for that.
"Jarvis, remind me of this place. Looks good, should I take the team out for it later?"
"Sir, I-"
"Yeah, yeah I'll do that. I'm sure they will like it. Have we ever eaten out together? I don't think I have with anyone in the group. Take a note, remind me."
"Dully noted, Sir."
Stark Tower was in full view now, and Tony tried to increase his pace as he stumbled down the sidewalk, his suit spitting out little bolts and shards as he walked. His ribs seemed to have a hard time letting his lungs breathe, but he didn't falter as he approached the doors on the Tower.
Tony mindlessly looked up to sadly notice that the only thing left on the Stark Tower letters was an 'A' but it seemed cool. He might keep it like that.
The door opened without question, Jarvis playing a part in that, as well as the working lights flickering in to shine dimly on the inside. The genius hesitated when entering the elevator, stepping in with caution as he suit moaned in protest.
He had to rebuild. A lot.
As the levels went quick and the light grew and faded, he knew that they were in the family room at the heat signatures Jarvis told him about. The words got stuck in his mouth awkwardly, uncomfortably.
What was he going to say? What was he going to do? What would the others say? And what would their reactions be?
Tony cringed as the floor reached its level and the doors parted smoothly. Time to make an entrance. He was sure they could hear his heavy footsteps by now, especially when he slammed the front hallway room door open as he approached the family room.
He could hear their voices die down after what sounded like a heated argument. The team seemed to tense with fear which made Tony wear a small, soft grin.
"Intruder?" Bruce's voice is in a stammering whisper, but the genius can still hear it. He senses that everyone has shifted into battle position, and he step-falls into the family room. Every face in the room dropped, even Natasha for a first.
He can't hold back the overwhelming smile that spreads over his face almost idiotically. Steve goes deathly pale, gripping a piece of marble that he seemingly tore off his nice kitchen counter, while Thor and Clint seemed dumbfounded by his miraculous return.
Natasha has her emerald eyes wide and drawn back, revealing a little shock and stunned at his trashed image, and Bruce continuously rubbed his eyes like he could t believe this and thought it was a dream.
Tony goes for the casual return, like 'I have been here the whole time' routine.
He notices his files scattered in the table with other important information, many including pictures of today's battle and Tony. Was that what they were discussing? His funeral or something? Wow.
He couldn't be brought down though, grinning through cracked, dry lips at his team, though in fact looking like was hit by multiple buses.
"Guys," Tony begins, voice cracking. He wipes his face and draws back the hand with disgust when blood and dirt coat his fingertips, "There is this really cool shwara joint right down block, we could walk there so, hey, you all wanna go...what are you all looking at? Did you seriously think I would die that easily?"
Tony always remembered the moment he said that so clearly because Steve's face was so fucking priceless.
