W-O-W. I was not expecting so much support on this! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I mean, REALLY! You have no idea how much that means to me! Thanks to you all, this is turning into a three-parter (probably four-parts, but we'll see how part three turns out)! Things are gonna get a bit tense (er?), so I won't keep you with my psychobabble.
Just...thanks again, a thousand times, everyone!
Disclaimer: If I owned MARVEL in anyway, let me just say the subtext would be a lot more apparent (like it's not already).
2: PULSATE
"You sure you want to stay back?"
Bruce only managed a half-nod as he turned away from the computers. "I can be a lot more useful here," he said as he motioned to the updates on the screens.
The layout of the area was on a set of virtual screens, with the energy points seeping out glowing thermal red and yellow. The original perimeter had apparently been shoved back after having everyone pull back; the hole, or crater, had expanded nearly double in the past forty-eight hours. Dr. Banner volunteered (for obvious reasons) to stay in the armored trailer outside of the perimeter to feed information to the others and keep them updated on the energy source. The SHEILD agents, who had originally been assigned to monitor the levels, were now solely on backup to keep an eye on the base, in case the things – whatever they were – broke through.
Steve nodded, picking up his shield. "If anything gets out of hand—"
"I'll let you know."
Another nod at the response. He touched the device around his neck. "Stark, how clear are we?"
There was silence on the other end, and then, "I've only seen four – nope! – five." Steve could hear Tony firing from the suit. "Back to four."
When Steve glanced to Banner, the doctor just nodded, giving the notion that he had everything under control. Returning the sentiment, Steve left the trailer to meet Clint and Natasha standing outside. Natasha had her arms crossed over her chest as her eyes scanned over the border, squinting from the gust of wind that continually smacked them all in the face. Even beyond the perimeter, there was silence. Clint's head turned up as Stark came into view, landing in front of them.
"So how far in is the gap?" Natasha asked, focusing on him.
The Iron Man suit clanked as the faceplate pulled back to reveal Tony's face. "About half a mile. Couldn't get close enough to tell the size, though. Whatever that energy is, it's scrambling my system."
"You going to be able to do this?"
Tony shrugged at the Captain's question. "Just means I can't use my navigation – everything else still functions." He worded the answer how Steve meant the question, to which he received a passive okay as a response. "From a distance, anyway," he quickly added.
Not giving the eldest a chance to respond, Clint cut in: "Anyone have any idea how we're going to go about this?"
"Well, given that those things are coming from an apparent hole, I say we drop down and cut it off at the source," Steve said as he subconsciously adjusted the black belt around his more stealthy uniform.
"Uh, problem there." They glanced to Tony. "Been over it and you can't even see the bottom. Dropped a high res measure down it while going over it, though. Speaking of which, Banner, you get anything back from that?"
Dr. Banner's voice broke over their devices. "Only for a second. Whatever's down there causing the electromagnetic interference is much stronger than it is outside. I lost it about one-hundred and twenty-nine meters." Tony whistled. "If it's straight down, there's no way anyone's going to jump down there for a peek."
Tony nodded in a deliberate manner, sight focused on Steve. "You were saying?"
"All right," he drew out, making sure to make eye contact. "Then we find another way in."
"That would make sense," Natasha said, turning her body towards them. "Why they haven't been interested in really breaking through the barrier: those things are guarding the opening." The men exchanged glances. "Otherwise, they would just be pouring out of the gap. They're waiting for something."
"Then we stop them before whatever they're waiting for happens. Stark"—they made eye contact again—"eyes from the sky. You see anything that looks like an entrance, make it known."
"I'm on it." His thrusters turned on and he shot to the above.
"Means we're on foot," Clint commented, taking out his bow. "In and out."
Getting inside the perimeter required it to be shut down from the control panel, which Bruce manually deactivated to allow them to pass by. Though not able to be seen, the barrier put up around the perimeter was done with infrared lasers, which would slice anything trying to pass – granted, it did not protect higher than twenty feet, making it easy for Stark to fly overhead. Dispersing made it more likely to find a secondary entrance, so the three moved in separate directions. The fact that it was quiet, other than the wind, was unnerving. With the creatures guarding whatever entrance, it kept them on their toes. Clint's boots barely even crunched as they stepped on fallen brush on the semi-hard soil, at least letting him know that he would hear anything before it would be able to sneak up on him.
"Anyone seeing anything?" Steve's voice cut across the air.
"Nothing yet," Natasha responded.
"I see a lot of sand." Tony's voice.
Clint snickered before talking. "Nothing on this end."
He glanced around; the harsh heat meeting the ground caused the distortion when the light bent at the dense median, only allowing him to see so far. No one could be seen, his vision blocked, not only by the distortion, but the mounds of hard sand and brush. Keeping ready, he kept forward, eyes continuously darting around, watching for the slightest bit of movement.
Something darted around the corner of his eye.
When he shot around, whatever it had been was gone, disappearing from view. Now walking close to backwards, with an arrow drawn, everything was on alert. As he stepped back again, he failed to feel ground below his heel. Glancing behind him, he was staring straight down into a black abyss.
The hold was massive, and that very well might have been an understatement.
It was easily over fifty feet in diameter.
A moment of distraction was too much and his attention snapped to a long-limbed creature charging at him, using its arms much like a primate to propel itself forward. Just as he pulled up his weapon, he was tackled from the side by a different one. His weapon flew from his hands, but his attention on it was only a second before bringing it to the thin, gray thing on top of him. Able to reach down, he unhitched one of the knives from his strap and dug it into its side. Its eyeless face screeched and it brought down its long, thin, claw-like hand, slashing the archer across the face.
A grunt left his throat and he pulled the knife, still embedded into the creature's side, up and out. His head snapped to the side, seeing the other one charging once again. Adrenaline shooting through his veins, he forced his arm up between his and the creature's body, jamming the knife under the thing's jaw and through its face.
It did not even wail as it collapsed.
Shoving it off, he rolled to the side right as the other one jumped down in the spot where he had been, its claws digging inches into the soil. Jerking its head to him, it released another screech, sharp and jagged teeth bared. While he scrambled to get to his feet, he called out, "I've got contact, over here!"
Right as he was an arm's length from his bow, his ankle was snatched and he was pulled backwards. Now dangling upside down, he used his other leg to kick the creature under the jaw. Its response was to swing him around. Changing his grip on the knife, when he was close enough, he shoved it into its long leg. Another screech left its throat and it threw him backwards, skidding across the ground and over the edge of the opening. His weapon fell from his hand, disappearing below as he reached out to grab the edge.
It was a straight shot down, however far that might have been. Clint dug his fingers into the hard soil, trying to get a better grip to pull himself up, but the soil began to crack. Just as he managed to start hoisting up, the edge broke off. Reflexes kicked in and he was able to pull a spear-tipped arrow out and jam it into the edge, leaving him to dangle above the dark gap. Using his other hand, he retrieved another to jam it in and use them like picks to climb up the wall. Moving faster than the pieces of soft rock could break off, he rounded to the top. As he reached the opening, the creature had been waiting for him. He was unable to knock its hand back when it reached down to put its hand on his face, its long fingers grabbing his head as though it were a piece of fruit.
Suddenly, the creature released a loud shriek as its back was fired into. It was not given a chance for reprieve before it was hit again, sending it lurching forward into the hole, releasing its grip on Hawkeye as it fell. His arm was caught in mid-fall and he thrown back onto the ground. He turned just in time to see Tony's suit begin to lose power. The jets spurted and gave out, sending the man freefalling behind the creature. By the time Clint was able to scramble and get back to the edge, his ally had disappeared into the abyss below.
No time to contemplate.
Another of the creatures was running on all fours towards him. He jerked off to the side, bent down in mid-run to grab his bow, loaded an arrow and sent it propelling forward between the thing's eyes. It fell right into the ground and he stood straight, looking for any sign of more. Not seeing any, he did see Natasha stand straight after ripping her blade from a creature's chest, apparently not having been far behind Stark. Faceless relief was exchanged as he turned back to stare down into the hole, seeing only blackness beyond.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Tony hit the ground with a clanking thud next to the now-dead creature.
Groaning, he rolled over, but there was no chance to recuperate from his fall; his system was complete static, followed by darkness as it shut off. He took off the helmet, letting it hit the ground. Shaking his head, he rubbed his forehead as it pounded. Dropping his arm, he took a good look at his surroundings. Green and blue veins ran across the rock walls, emitting a soft glow; which was enough to see. Water laced the floor, which was also traced with veins – the ripples in the water made the veins appear to pulse. He climbed to his feet. Curiosity making its way to his brain, he approached the wall, staring at the veins. He touched the device around his neck.
"Someone tell me they found an entrance."
There was static, followed by a broken response of: "St…rk?"
He brought his shelled hand up to touch one of the veins. It squirmed from the tap. "Interesting," he muttered to himself.
There was more static over the line, "…St…ou…ay…."
It sounded like Natasha's voice, but it faded to more static before it went silent.
The vein began to pulse. Feeling slight warmth, it began to move through Tony's suit, moving from the tips of his fingers down his arms. He pulled his hand back, staring at it, but the slight heat was beginning to grow hotter. He jerked back as the heat became immense, as though it was burning into his flesh.
"Ah, damn it!" he cursed as he forced it off and threw it to the side; the other one quickly met it. His hands and arms were red and blistering, but when the heat began to radiate through the rest of the suit, it was a little more difficult to get off – and the cursing was a bit more vulgar. Steve's voice came over the communicator, asking, in pieces, if everything was all right, but he was too busy dropping his armor. When the last piece hit the ground, he was finally able to respond. "Someone have an explanation as to how a suit, that can't overheat, just overheated?"
There was a pause, followed by static.
He raised his eyebrows.
"Hello?"
More static.
"Eve…ic…ing…."
Tony sighed as Steve's voice was drowned out by white noise. "At least it's not my fault." He kicked his fallen helmet as he moved down the only corridor that was in the room. If he kept following it, he should find a way out; at least he was hoping there was a way out. His only concern was if something were to come his way. Strict hand-to-hand combat was not exactly his forte, much to his dismay.
Figured to be just his luck.
If there truly was not another entrance, he could not think of another way to get out of the cavern – it looked like a cavern – except with a really long ladder…or rope.
He jerked when he felt something crawling in the pocket of his jeans. Knitting his eyebrows together, he pulled out his phone to find a gray, wormlike creature crawling on its case. When his hand touched it, it felt as though it bit down on him. When he jerked his hand back he dropped his phone and the creature was dangling, having burrowed its head into his hand. Using his other hand, he pulled it out and flung it to the ground. It writhed, and then started crawling towards him. However, when it touched the open part of his phone, a small spark shot out and it released a hiss before squirming on the ground.
It fell limp.
He stared at it for a moment, then picked up his phone, eyeing it.
The reasons for the electrical disturbances made much more sense, now.
Keeping it gripped tightly in his hand, he made his way through the corridor. With the veins emitting light, seeing was not an issue, but, whatever those creatures were, he could not help but notice they were the same shade as the walls and the floor; so he made sure he did not touch the walls for any reason. As he neared a larger opening, he heard the familiar shriek of one of the creatures from the surface, which could mean one of two things.
He moved to a jog down the corridor, which dumped him at a fork. A bit of silence, followed by another loud shriek had him taking the left passage. It was relatively short and he came up in time to see the familiar figure of Captain America throwing a creature over his shoulder when it tried to climb onto his back. Grabbing his shield, which had apparently fallen to the ground, the Captain jammed it into its abdomen, basically cutting it in half. Its body went into jerking spasms before losing all traces of life; its fang-filled mouth was left open.
Tony sighed an air of relief. "Please tell me you know the way out of here," he said, as Steve looked over his shoulder to him.
Leaving his shield embedded into the creature's torso (for now), he grabbed his head and shook it. "Uh, yeah." He blinked as he brought his hand down. "About a quarter of a mile down." He squinted, as though adjusting to a bright light from shadowed darkness. "I tried to contact you all, but those things ambushed me." As though noticing Stark was standing there for the firm time, he quickly drew out, "How'd you get down here?"
The dark-haired male pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "Expressway. A little more painful, but gets the job done all the same."
Steve nodded as he shook his head again, clamping his eyes shut as he held his temple.
"Everything all right?" Tony asked, approaching him.
The other just nodded. There was silence between them as he seemed to recover, to what Tony assumed had been a blow to the head. Inhaling deeply, Steve brought his hand down and stood straight, head thrown back as he stared at the ceiling. With a sudden change in his demeanor, he brought his head to look dead on at his comrade. The change even had Stark crease his brow.
"Why are you here?" Steve demanded, voice harsh.
Taken aback, but not physically showing it, Tony raised his eyebrows. "Same reason we all are, I assumed."
Steve stepped directly in front of him, staring down at the smaller man. "No. I mean why are you really here?" The tone in his voice was low, almost threatening. "We all know you're not here for us, or anyone else. You're here for you. So what do you expect to get out of being here?" Stark's eyes demanded to shift downward, making him force himself to keep eye contact. "Without your suit, you're nothing – you're pathetic. You keep trying to be the man your father was, but the fact is you never will be. He was a great man that revolutionized the world. And you? You're just a worthless little kid in man's armor."
Tony clamped down on his jaw. For the first time in he-did-not-even-know-hold-long, he was unable to come up with a retort. His eyes quickly darted over Steve's shoulder, then back to the blond-haired man's face.
"How'd you get down here?" his voice came out firm.
The Captain scoffed. "What's that mean?"
Tony moved his vision back to the side of Steve's head, focusing on a small trail of blood that was dripping from his ear. "It's a simple question, really." Back to making eye contact. "How'd you get down here, Cap?"
He snorted, nodding his head as he looked down at his boots. He brought up his hand to run it down his face, an off smirk on his face. In an instant, he grabbed Tony's head and slammed him against the cave wall. He groaned as pain radiated from his head, down his neck and shoulders. Cognizant enough, he forced his knee into Steve's stomach, getting the other to pull back long enough for Tony to rip himself away from the wall; however, when he went to turn away, Steve grabbed his right forearm and twisted it, forcing it against Stark's back. His phone hit the ground with a clack. Pain shot through his arm as his elder kept twisting forcing his shoulder to pop. A quick shout found its way out of his mouth when a harsh jerk caused the bone to snap. Bringing his left elbow back, he caught Steve directly in the temple, making him release his grip.
Managing to kick his phone where it skidded several feet away, he kept his broken arm tight to his chest as he moved to go after it.
It was a long shot, but he failed to see any other viable option.
Hearing Steve's shield scrape along the ground as he retrieved it from the creature's stomach, an unwelcomed yell quickly followed from Tony's throat when the shield made contact with his left hip as he tried moving out of the way. He collapsed onto the ground, the bone feeling as though it shattered, making the feeling in the leg go into numb pain. Without even so much as a second to try and recuperate, the Captain reached down, grabbing Tony by the throat and pulling him up, only to shove him against the wall with his grip tightening. Stark grabbed Steve's wrist, trying to twist it off as his broken arm was left to only dangle at his side. The blood pressure mounted in his head as Steve's grip tightened, his fingers digging into both sides of his neck, completely cutting off his air supply. His right leg kicked from under him, trying to get up high enough to kick the blond away from him, but between the pain from his more-than-likely-broken hip and the fact that his strength was beginning to fail him, he was left resorting to barely hitting his comrade on the face with his uninjured arm; however, when his sight started to close in, he could only dig his nails into the other's wrist.
Flashes of white shot across his vision.
This was it.
He was going to die.
By the hands of his hero – what irony.
"Hnnng – hnnnng."
And some noise was invading his ears.
"Hnnnng – nnnnn."
What was that sound? It was aggravating.
When his vision started to come back into focus, he realized that it was him, sucking in breath after breath with his hand clutching his throat. His head pounded as blood rushed to it and he tried to sit up from the fallen position he found himself in. What he saw in front of him was Steve holding his head with his eyes clamped shut, looking as though he was in an immense amount of pain. Tony groaned, rolling over to try to get to his feet. The Captain began hitting his head against the stone wall, yelling as blood started top drip down his face.
"Stop." Stark's voice sounded so distant in his ears and he had to use the wall to support himself as he stood, trying his best to ignore the pains shooting through his back and down his leg. "Come on, Cap."
Damn.
Was that really coming from his throat? His vocals did not seem bent on being any louder. When he tried to get close, Steve pushed him back, causing him to fall back to the floor. "Don't!" he shouted at him. "Stay back!" His bashed his head on the wall again.
Tony traced the ground around him, his eyes landing on his fallen phone. Lying down, he stretched, reaching out to pick it up; but Steve was not standing in the water that laced the ground. A groan left his throat when he went to stand, so, instead, he nearly crawled to his ally. Taking the only chance he had, he swung his right leg out, making him trip and fall to the ground, which he took full advantage of. Before the blond even had time to register what was happening, Tony lifted up the phone and sent it crashing onto the rock. Sparks shot out as a small electrical current from the shattered pieces made its way through the water, shocking them both.
It was not much, but it seemed to be just enough.
From Steve's ear, a thick, gray, wormlike creature, just like the one prior, oozed its way out, falling into the water, making a sound as though it were deflating. It writhed on the ground for a few seconds before going completely limp, dead. Pushing himself to the wall, with his good arm, Tony grabbed Steve by the front of his shirt, pulling him against the wall with him. His back hit it with a wet thud and he could hear the other's panting breaths matching his own.
"Electric currents," Tony said through cringing pants as he rolled his head to look at Steve sitting next to him. The Captain's hand was on his chest over his heart. "That's why it's causing the distortions." He let his head fall back in front of him, now getting his breaths to slow down.
For the next few minutes, the two just sat there, trying to calm down. Finally, Steve groaned and moved to stand up. "Come on." He pushed himself up using the wall. "We've gotta let everyone know, so we can get rid of these things." Once he was up, he held his hand out to help Tony to his feet. The Iron Man reached out and, when he grabbed the other's forearm, he was hoisted up. He stumbled from the pressure on his wounded hip and, seeing him cringe, Steve offered his support, despite Tony's words telling him he was fine. "I broke your arm and nearly shattered your hip." Tony did a half-nod, not denying it. "Least I can do is help get you out of this hole."
"Could buy me a drink – a little informality never hurt."
He smirked when Steve chuckled.
"I'll do that, too, then."
"Yeah." Stark's titter was cut short from inhaling sharply as Steve looped his left arm around his neck and wrapped his arm around the Iron Man's back for better support. A few steps later and the pressure walking was putting on his hip and pelvis became too unbearable, causing him to falter, but when Steve went to help him, Tony stopped him. "Let's keep this PG, all right?"
"I can always leave you." When Tony seemed to contemplate the idea, Steve acted to let him go. Response kicked in and he kept himself up by hooking his arm tighter around the older gent's neck. He told Steve to shut up when he laughed.
"Don't laugh. This isn't funny," he said in a joking tone that only belonged to Tony Stark. Steve shifted to hold him back up. "Now, come on. Onward, Starbright."
Steve rolled his eyes as they began moving forward again and he made sure to keep as much weight from pressing on Stark's broken bone without the other man noticing he was doing it.
Moving fast, I know, I know. Normally, I'd drag something like this out for a freakin' 12 chapter novel (I wish I could say that's a hyperbole). But, for the sake of my own sanity...anywho! Things are gonna get interesting in the next chapter (or two?). Keep a lookout for it!