I am now going to use the two stories I am currently working on (this one and I Just Wanna Be Okay) to tell you when the opposite story will be updated at the latest.

So, true to my word, I Just Wanna Be Okay will be updated on March 31st, next Thursday, at the latest. Until then, please enjoy the second chapter to Avoiding War.


IRON MAN

SCENE ONE


A desert, with mountains in the background, a group of cars kicking up clouds of dirt and sand in the distance.

Tony immediately tensed, Pepper putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. The Asset's eyes narrowed on the mechanic, but not menacingly. What had happened in this desert that made him tense upon immediate sight?

The song Back In Black by AC/DC begins to play, as the screen switched to show the front of the head, army vehicle, which had an soldier sitting on the roof in the gun seat.

Most of the Avengers, Pepper and Rhodey rolled their eyes.

"Yup, this is Tony." Steve sighed, with an exasperated smile. Tony, comforted (if only a little) by the familiar song, grinned and bobbed his head to the music, while Quill listened in apparent interest.

The words Kunar Province, Afghanistan appeared on the bottom of the screen.

"This is Afghanistan?" Bruce said, quietly.

Tony, who was no longer grinning and looked rather sick, nodded, not tearing his eyes from the screen.

The screen showed the three army vehicles passing, then changed angle so they were passing a man with a goat. It showed the back of the last vehicle, before switching to inside it, where a radio was playing, the source of the music.

It switched to show an army man, looking almost awkwardly around the car, before casting his eyes downwards. Then it cut to a square glass of alcohol, ice clinking together inside it, resting in a hand. The screen went up and focused on another soldier, who was looking at the person next to him nervously and then turning his gaze forward.

Tony swallowed, his throat going tight. He began to unconsciously tap the Arc Reactor in his chest, the Asset immediately picking up on the nervous habit and automatically storing it to memory. His Handlers liked to get every tiny bit of information out of him before wiping him. Perhaps that was why he was here? To tell HYDRA of their enemies weaknesses?

Now we see Tony, in an expensive suit and sunglasses, the source of the tension.

Steve frowned. "Why are you there?"

"I used to make weapons," Tony explained. "This was just after a demonstration and they were taking me back to where I was staying."

The soldier's gaze returned to Tony, briefly making eye contact with him before quickly looking forward again.

"I feel like you're driving to a court-martial," he said. "This is crazy. What did I do?"

"Probably something stupid." said Natasha. Pepper nodded, causing Tony to give her a betrayed look.

"I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me." continued Tony, "What, you're not allowed to talk?" When he got no answer, he said to the soldier next to him, "Hey, Forrest!"

"You shouldn't talk to soldiers like that." said Steve disapprovingly.

"I think these guys are new." Sam objected. "And Stark's pretty intimidating at first. I think it's nice of him to try and defuse the tension like that."

Steve blinked. "Are you with the army?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, been for about a year now."

"I'm a Colonel." Rhodey declared.

"Dear Lord, there's three of them!" Tony exclaimed, dramatically throwing his arms into the air.

"Four," Ross sniffed snobbishly, "I'm a General."

Sam, Steve and Rhodey gave him small frowns, looking him up and down almost in confusion. He looked like one of those guys that bought his way to the top.

"Aren't you Thaddeus Ross?" asked Steve. At Ross's nod, his frown deepened. "The guy that was the cause for major destruction in New York a couple years ago?"

"What?" said Ross, taken aback.

"You unleashed the Hulk." Steve said pointedly. "If you hadn't shown up, none of that would have happened."

At Bruce's surprised look, Steve shrugged sheepishly. "I've been looking at old newspapers and news clippings on the YouTube. The Hulk Event was one of them and, when I asked about it, Hill debriefed me on what happened."

Ross growled. "That monster-"

"Shut up." Coulson cut him off, sending him a glare. "Banner's movie-thing is after this one, so we can talk about it then."

"We can talk, sir." said the young soldier.

"Oh, I see," Tony said, "So it's personal?"

The screen cut to the one driving, "No, you intimidate them." she said.

"Ah, a female warrior!" Thor shouted, causing Jane and Clint, who were on either side of him, to wince.

Steve smiled. "I must admit, the gender equality is much better then it was back in the forties. Women weren't even allowed to be apart of the police, otherwise Peggy Carter would have joined the Howling Commandos."

The Asset winced, his head starting to pound. He rubbed it with his flesh hand, momentarily distracted from the film.

"Good god, you're a women." said Tony, lowering his glass. "I honestly, I couldn't have called that."

The screen showed the women soldier, who was beginning to smile, before cutting back to a still-talking Tony.

"I'd apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here?" the screen showed the young soldier, now named Forrest, also starting to smile. "I thought of you as a soldier first."

"I'm an airman." the driver corrected.

"Well, you have, actually, excellent bone structure there," Tony said, "I'm kinda... having a bit of trouble not looking at you now. Is that weird?"

The airman, Forrest and man in the front began laughing, causing Tony to grin.

"C'mon, it's okay, laugh!" encouraged Tony. "Hey!"

Wanda and Pietro shared a strange look, but Pietro shook his head and Wanda, biting her lip uncertainly before steeling herself, returned her attention to the screen.

"Sir, I have a question to ask." said the man in front, twisting in his seat to look at the billionaire.

"Yes, please."

"Is it true you went twelve for twelve with last years Maxim cover models?"

"All twelve?" Quill asked, surprised. Drax, Gamora, Groot and Rocket just looked confused, but they all shrugged it off as a lost cause.

"Do you even know who I am?" asked Tony. When Quill shook his head, Tony gaped at him before turning away, crossing his arms over his stomach (the Asset guessed that it was because of the Arc Reactor that he couldn't do it with his chest; that must mean it can cause him pain or make him uncomfortable).

"Now I'm just offended." said Tony, making most of the people around him roll their eyes in exasperation.

Tony removed his sunglasses. "That is an excellent question. Yes and no, March and I had a scheduling conflict but, fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins."

The screen showed the grinning airman, before going back to Tony. "Anything else?"

Forrest raised his hand, making Tony raise his eyebrows. "You're kidding me with the hand-thing, right?" Forrest immediately put his hand back down.

"Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"

"Yes," said Tony, "It is very cool."

"Well, that's nice." said Betty, smiling.

Tony shrugged. "I do nice once every century or so."

Forrest grinned excitedly and pulled a small camera out of his pocket, handing it to the man in front.

"Alright." said the man in front, as Forrest and Tony leaned towards each other, Forrest throwing up a peace sign.

"I don't wanna see this on my MySpace page." said Tony.

"MySpace? How long ago was this?" Clint asked.

"Barton, this was 2008." Tony explained. Steve, Quill, Rocket, Gamora, Groot, Drax, Thor and the Asset decided not to ask what the hell a MySpace was.

"Please, no gang signs."

Forrest immediately put his hand down. Tony glanced at him.

"No, throw it up, I'm kidding."

Steve rolled his eyes. "You just love to mess with people." he tried to look disapproving, but couldn't help the amused smile tugging at his lips.

"Yes, Captain. Yes, I do." agreed Tony, slowly nodding his head as if he'd just given the most wisest advice in the world.

"Yeah, peace," said Tony. "I love peace. Would be outta the job with peace."

Scott snorted. "You seem to be doing just fine, in my opinion."

The man in the front seemed to be fiddling with the camera.

"Come on!" said Forrest impatiently. "Come on, just click it! Don't change any of the settings, just-"

The car in front of them exploded.

"Oh my god!" Hope gasped, many others jumping in their seats. Steve was on his feet, having a brief flashback of the war. Gamora and Natasha both drew weapons, and the Asset probably would have done the same if he'd had any. Tony seemed to be having trouble keeping his hands from shaking, and Rhodey's face had gone oddly blank.

There were screams and a brief shot of a wide-eyed Tony, who'd fallen back against his seat, before the vehicle came to a stop.

"What's going on?" asked Tony, sounding panicked. "What have we got?"

"Contact left!" said the airman, loading her gun. The airman kicked open her door and hopped out, gun in hand, but was immediately shot down.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Rocket asked, starring at the screen with wide eyes.

"Middle Eastern Group, call themselves the Ten Rings." explained Tony quietly, deciding to ignore the fact that he was talking to an alien raccoon with a giant gun.

"Jimmy, stay with Stark!" the man in the front shouted, before exiting the vehicle.

The young soldier, now Jimmy, gripped Tony's shoulder and pushed him onto the floor of the car. "Stay down!"

From Tony's position, he could see the man that was in the front putting his gun on the hood of the car. The front window smashed as the man was taken down.

"Oh no..." Betty muttered, putting her hands over her mouth, starring at the screen with wide eyes. Bruce gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze, allowing Betty to hide her face in his shoulder and ignoring, with effort, the deadly look Ross sent him.

Tony gasped, looking away. Jimmy picked up his gun.

"Son of a bitch!" he said, loading it and opening the car door.

"Wait, wait, wait, give me a gun!" shouted Tony.

"Stay. Here!" Jimmy shouted through the window, before turning around. He barely made it a few steps before bullet holes tore at the cars side.

Tony squeezed his eyes shut, looking away from the screen. Pepper grabbed his hand, she and Rhodey wrapping their arms around him in a protective hug.

There was a shot briefly made from Tony's eyes, before he looked out the window and saw as group of soldiers by one of the other cars. There was a burst of flame, then they were all on the ground, limp. His eyes were wide with horror.

Tony looked out the other window, made a split-second decision, and got out the car.

"ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!" Rhodey screamed, making Tony cringe.

"No, no, go back, go back!" said Sam, while Natasha cursed Tony in Russian.

An explosion went off to his left as Tony stumbled forward, beginning to run as fire briefly blocked him from view. He leaped forward, landing next to a rock and leaning against it for cover.

"What else was I supposed to do?!" Tony asked, seeing as he was still receiving rather viscous glares from those around him.

"Oh, I don't know, DO AS YOU'RE TOLD AND STAY IN THE FREAKING CAR?!" Rhodey yelled.

Negative, thought the Asset, since he has no weapons or any form of training, he would have still been captured and there was still the possibility of the vehicle he was occupying exploding by a stray or direct bullet hitting the gas tank.

Bullets sprayed to and fro as Tony pulled out his phone, a little screen flipping up at the top, and began typing, most likely for help. But not a moment later, a missile landed a few feet away from him, the words STARK INDUSTRIES displayed clearly on the side.

"Holy shit." swore Scott.

"Jesus Christ, it literally has your name on it!" Clint exclaimed.

Tony stood up, intending to run for cover, but he had barely just gotten to his feet before the missile exploded, knocking him backwards with a yell. Tony landed on the ground, covered in dirt and his hair and suit a complete mess.

Tony winced, jumping as pain flared up in his back, legs and head. His chest seemed to be on fire, and he grabbed the Arc Reactor with a shaking hand, squeezing his eyes shut and taking deep breaths through his nose.

"Shit." Rhodey breathed and, seeing as how there was nothing he could do to make the pain go away, pulled Tony into a hug, the smaller man nearly in his lap. Pepper pressed up against him, kissing Tony's forehead.

He blinked open his eyes, a ringing filling his ears and muffling the gunshots. Tony looked down, his white dress shirt beginning to stain red, and he ripped it open to reveal a bullet proof vest, covered in his own blood, the screen slowly pulling away and going white.

"Tony?" said Pepper quietly. The genius wasn't even trying to stop his hands from shaking anymore, and he'd buried his face into Rhodey's shoulder, who no longer looked anger and was rubbing soothing circles on his friends back. The Asset realized he was on the verge of an Anxiety Attack.

"Tony, are you alright?" whispered Pepper.

"Tones?" said Rhodey, but Tony still wouldn't answer. He shared a concerned look with Pepper over his head.

"I'm fine." Tony gasped out after a moment, although he was very obviously far from it.

"Sure you are." Rhodey muttered, pulling the traumatized man closer as he very obviously forced his breathing back to normal.

The screen became clear again, light shinning through millions of tiny holes of what was obviously the inside of a sack. The screen cut to outside the sack, just before it was pulled off to reveal Tony's face, who squinted in the light, face covered in blood.

He looked around, his eyes widening. The screen showed two men, one recording what was happening with a video camera.

The screen went back to Tony, zooming out to reveal himself to be surrounded by people wearing masks and with large guns, the one to his left pointing the barrel of his gun at Tony's head while to his right, a man read from a piece of paper.

"You were taken hostage?!" Steve exclaimed. But Tony couldn't seem to bring himself to give a verbal answer or some sort of witty comment, instead nodding into Rhodey's shoulder. Pepper tightened her hold on his hand.

The screen went black, the words IRON MAN appearing in gold, before turning sideways and vanishing into black.

Silence around the room.

"Well, shit." said Clint.

The Asset couldn't help but agree.


Chappie two is done! I was halfway through writing this and then thought 'I wanna look at funny tumblr pics on Pinterest' so I went on Pinterest and looked at funny tumblr pics. I would have finished this a lot sooner if I had not gone and looked at someone wearing a condom on their foot.

I should so make a tumblr.

But then I'd never update.

You know, at the beginning of this chapter I made a mental note to write something at the bottom AN.

Said mental note is now lost in a mental drawer in a mental sea of mental notes.