I have come to the realization that in the beginning of the previous chapter Pepper kind of disappears, well I'm going to explain that as she was on her way to the airport and said hi to them when they were going to eat pizza before she left.
Tony awoke in the morning with a pounding headache, but his chest was barely sore, although the rest of his body was a little achey. He looked down and saw the Arc Reactor was still glowing a soft blue on his bare chest, his bare, blister-free chest. Frowning in confusion, he decided to get up and find Banner to ask what he had done. His breathing was easier and his headache slowly subsided as he walked to the elevator, slowly stretching out the kinks from sleep. In short, he felt way better than he had in a long time. But he couldn't help wondering if it was just the calm before the storm.
Bruce was in the main level of Stark Towers, along with Natasha, Steve and Pepper. Tony flinched when he saw Pepper turn towards him, anticipating an outraged lecture on irresponsibility. Instead, she ran towards him and gave him a big hug. Her face was shocked for a moment, before dissolving into a sad smile.
"Did I do something wrong? I thought you would be mad." His voice came out a little hoarse and he realized that he was very thirsty. "Yo Cap, fetch me a glass of water would ya?"
Steve nodded, his eyes wide, and grabbed a glass from the shelf. Bruce only stared at Tony. Natasha turned and walked into another room, trying to hide an expression of shock on her face, and probably going to alert the rest of the team. Pepper pulled back and stared into Tony's eyes, her face was full of worry and relief at the same time.
"What's up? I've go three questions. One, why is everyone staring? Two, why is everyone being so nice? And Three, what time is it? I'm starving." Nobody moved, and nobody seemed willing to answer any of his questions. Tony looked at the others with confused eyes. "Am I…missing something?"
"Tony….oh Tony…. you've been asleep for six weeks." Pepper reached down and held Tony's hand, but her boss's eyes had gone blank. His expression remained neutral, but she could see his inner turmoil.
"I figured out what was happening with your arc reactor, but when I tried to fix it, your body went into complete shutdown." Bruce tried to explain, but Tony wasn't listening.
"Six weeks." His whisper was barely audible, he was mostly talking to himself now, figuring out how he felt about being asleep for six weeks.
"Not quite as fun as it sounds, is it? And I was like that for seventy years." Steve handed Tony his glass of water and attempted to lighten the mood a bit. It didn't work and his joke fell flat on the floor.
Tony accepted the glass, but didn't drink out of it. He slowly turned, pushing Pepper's helping hand away, and went to the elevator. The doors closed behind him, and a collective sigh was released from the people in the main room. The tension had been higher than they thought, but was all released at once when Tony left.
"I didn't mean to break the news like that. It just slipped out." Pepper moved and sat on the couch, head down and shoulders slumped.
"It's okay, he would have figured it out eventually. Especially when he checked the date. Nobody blames you." Bruce comforted Pepper.
"The rest of the team has been alerted of Tony's status." Natasha walked in, followed by Clint, and Thor.
"Is it not a wondrous occasion that the Man of Iron has awoken?" Thor smiled, but he soon grasped the situation. Tony might never be the same, he had missed six weeks of his life, nobody could predict how this would affect him.
The atmosphere in the room was depressed, and slowly each Avenger excused him/herself from the room. Natasha and Clint went to find breakfast, while Thor and Steve received a mission file from SHIELD and went to review it in privacy. Bruce told Pepper he would check on Tony. Pepper stayed in the main room, huddled on the couch, waiting for Tony to come back for her.
Bruce found Tony in his lab, he was blasting ACDC as loud as the hidden speakers would go. Bruce had to yell to get his attention before he would turn it off. Tony was sitting on the floor next to an Oldsmobile he had partially taken apart in the last few minutes. His expression was grim, and his motions jerky and angry. He threw a piece of the car across the room before he noticed Bruce standing there.
"What do you want?" He didn't stand up or even attempt to put on a brave face. He was hurt, and sad, and everyone could tell.
"I just want to know if you're okay, Tony. I know it must be a shock to have missed six weeks, but we can easily fill you in on everything that happened. Just like Steve." His last remark backfired, Tony did not want to be 'just like Steve'.
"I'm fine, I just want to be alone for now. I need to think. Anyways, how did you get access to my private lab?" Tony glanced up for a moment to look at Bruce, and Bruce took this as a good sign.
"JARVIS let me in. He knows about your condition, but I won't come back if you don't want me to." Bruce took a few steps towards the door. He felt like Tony's curiosity was a good thing, but he also felt like Tony would get very mad if he stayed around much longer. Bruce partially blamed himself for putting Tony to sleep on accident, he had lost many a night of sleep thinking about how to correct his mistake.
"No..it's..it's okay, you can stay. There's an empty project table over there," Tony pointed across the room, "You can start whatever project you want over there."
"Okay Tony, thanks. I'll be right back down to start working, I'll just gather some of my other materials from the main lab." Bruce heaved a mental sigh or relief. Maybe Tony would be able to accept the missing days and go back to normal after a while. He left the lab with a slight smile on his face, he could hear the music turned back on behind him, but could tell it wasn't nearly as loud as it was before.
Tony was sad. Sadder than he had ever been, more so even than when he had been captured by the Ten Rings and tortured. He didn't even have the strength to hide it. But he could tell, in the deepest part of his mind, that he would overcome it. It would just need time. He sighed and turned on his music again as Bruce left. Tony stood up and walked to where he had thrown the piece of his car, he gently picked it up and resumed his position on the floor next to the car.
He was so absorbed in his work that he almost didn't notice the alarm. JARVIS quickly shut off the music though, alerting Tony to a problem.
"Sir, it appears there has been a series of explosions nearby the tower. I'm calculating patterns right now. I suggest you suit up."
"Duly noted JARVIS. I'm on my way." Tony pushed his feelings to the back of his mind and focused on the new threat. As soon as he was in his suit and connected to the com system, he could tell this was a big problem, but not too big for the Avengers.
"Thor, get somewhere high up, we need lighting. And Hawkeye, you too, watch the edges and alert us to any more explosions. Black Widow you stay with me and we'll cover the ground. Hulk, you know what to do." Captain America was already on the ground and had dealt out all his orders when Tony flew down in his suit.
"Didn't you forget someone?" He said, back to his normal self, although there was a hint of jealousy for the team that he had been left out of for six weeks. Everybody seemed to have formed such tight bonds that Steve's orders were mostly unnecessary. Everyone's actions seemed planned before the attack had even started. Tony frowned under his mask, how could he ever build such good relationships with his team if they had a six week head start?
"Tony! We didn't think you would come out, we can handle this. It's a small threat, these aliens have been attacking just about once a week for a while now. They are really easy to take down though." Steve proved his point by turning and killing a few of the insect like creatures with ease.
"Okay, then I'll just help you, the more the merrier right?" Tony didn't wait for an answer though, he flew off and began using his palm blasters to clean the streets of the city. Steve had been right though, less than half an hour later they were done, every beast was slain. They reconvened at Stark Towers.
"Great job everybody, who's up for a snack?" It was almost lunch time and everyone agreed with Steve about the snack. Tony quickly took off his armor and caught up with them at the pizza restaurant that was his last memory. Images of himself falling to the ground and memories of a dull pain came back as they crossed the street. His hand unconsciously reached up and touched the cold metal circle beneath his shirt. He shook his head and caught up with everyone else. He focused on being his normal self again, he didn't want to have anyone worried over him.
"So would anyone like to get me up to date on what's been happening for these past weeks?" They were all seated around their usual table when Tony dropped the question.
"Sure Tony." Bruce said, he didn't want to anger Tony since he was acting so normal now. "Not much happened, we've been fighting these little guys for a while, but no major attacks or invasions while you were out. I should warn you that we had to alert SHIELD that you were asleep, but we haven't told them you're awake yet, we decided you would need a day before dealing with Fury. I think the rest should be told by Pepper, she's been basically running your business so she'll know more about that." Bruce finished his explanation and Tony looked thoughtful. Maybe if he decides he didn't miss much then he'll be able to recover faster, Bruce thought to himself, studying Tony's movements.
"Okay, I guess I have to go talk to Pepper then. But I'd like to talk with you again later Bruce about what you did to make me sleep." Tony sounded fine, thoughtful, maybe a bit quiet, but fine.
Tony sat at the table, munching his pizza with the rest of the team. They left the restaurant a little bit later and went back across the street to the tower. Tony noticed a few nervous glances his way, but shook them off with a confident smile. He wouldn't show anybody his feelings, he hated being looked at with pity and sorrow.
Pepper greeted them and congratulated them on a job well done. Then she turned to Tony and he saw her eyes light up when she saw him acting so normal. He asked her about the company after giving her a big hug. She told him the stocks were fine and nothing had happened while he was out. The company was fine. This reassured Tony and now he wore a real smile. He spent the rest of his day in the public lab with Bruce and the occasional visitor.
Everybody went to sleep at a normal time that night, even Tony, who was allowed to sleep in his own bed again, although Bruce had insisted on giving him a few tests in the morning. He also had to worry about his meeting with Director Fury, they hadn't contacted SHIELD yet, but it was inevitable, and all they could do to make Steve agree to wait until morning. He couldn't fall asleep at first, but slowly he slipped off, his body tired from so much exertion after six weeks of sleep. No sooner had he fallen into a deep, dreamless sleep, than he was awoken sharply by the sound of breaking glass. He shot up in his bed, eyes wide in the darkness and still half asleep.
"JARVIS? Lights please." His voice was groggy and tired, he felt a breeze and saw one of his windows was broken. The lights turned on as JARVIS received his command. Tony looked around his room, he knew something must have flown in the window, something very hard, since it was extra-thick glass. He thought he heard a step behind him and whipped his head around, just in time to be stabbed by a needle and put to sleep. Again.
Tony felt like he was dreaming, but it felt so real at the same time. Images flashed across his mind. Images of death and decay, bloody bodies and stinking pits and flies. A buzzing noise that wouldn't stop. He felt himself being carried and thrown onto the ground. He rolled over and sat up, only to have the ground reach up and hit him. There was dirt everywhere and the persistent buzzing, like a hive of bees or a snare drum line passing by. His face and chest was pounding and his arms and legs felt like they were a million miles from his body. All he could see was red, permeated only by the soft blue glow of his arc reactor, but even that faded in the end. Slowly the images passed away, along with the sound, and his mind entered the black abyss of sleep.
Tony felt like he was in hell. His body ached and he could feel numerous cuts and bruises all over his body. He opened his eyes and squinted, it was dark and the air had a reddish hue to it. He tried to move, but realized he was strapped to a chair. His hands were tied behind him and his ankles were strapped to the legs of the chair. He blinked a few times until his eyes adjusted and his vision cleared a bit. He could tell in the dim light that he was in some kind of cave. An acrid smell hit his nose and he flinched, resisting his sudden urge to throw up. He couldn't appear weak to his captors.
Suddenly he saw, or really, sensed movement in the dim cavern in front of him. Footsteps were approaching his chair, he tried to get out of his bonds again, but only knocked over the chair. He hit his side on the dirt ground and the world turned sideways. A light was traveling down the hall in front of him, it was getting steadily brighter as it neared. Tony had used all his strength in knocking the chair over, so all he could do was wait for the light to approach. His breathing was ragged and he could feel his heart beat like the pounding of ocean waves.
"He wasn't awake last time I checked, what makes you think that he is now?"
"I heard him move I tell ya. Anyways if he is awake then we can bring him to the boss." The insect like whispers carried down the passage to Tony's ears. He didn't like the thought of meeting a boss in his current state.
He didn't have any more time to think though, because at that moment the two guards turned a corner and revealed themselves to Tony. They were short and hunched over, with multiple arms sticking out from their brown think hides and wings protruding from their pock marked backs. Tony thought that they looked like giant cockroach frankensteins, just the same as the ones he had fought with his team the other day. He didn't know how long ago that had been. It felt like ages though.
The guards immediately noticed that he had knocked over his chair and was awake. They hauled him up, causing him to let out an involuntary moan as his head swam, and untied him from the chair. He didn't even have the strength to speak, although about a thousand smart remarks were running through his head, mostly involving giant bugs from space. They re-bound his hands together but left his legs free, they expected him to walk. He would have, too, but at that moment his legs decided to stop working, and he only slumped to the ground. Eyes half closed and brain half functioning. They kicked him and one bent down to slap his face. Tony could tell they were yelling at him to move, but he couldn't. They seemed to come to a decision and Tony felt them lift him up and start carrying him down the tunnel. All he could think was 'I'm being carried by giant cockroach bees' and then he slipped from consciousness.
When Tony finally awoke, he found himself in a much cleaner room with a cot and a little sink in it. The walls were still a brownish color and the floor was dirt, but it was much better than being tied to a chair. He realized he was wearing only some dirty army pants, there were little brown stains on them that made him think of blood. Tony got up and splashed his face with the water from the sink. He flinched when it hit his face in a burst of ice cold. He heard a rattle and the slide of metal on metal and turned in time to see food being dropped into his room through a slot in the door. He had just enough time to lunge at the food and catch it before it hit the ground. It was a semi-rotten apple and an uncooked potato. Tony thought this was odd, but then he remembered he was being held by cockroach people and they probably didn't know what humans ate. He ate the apple anyway, and attempted to eat the potato, but it was so repulsive that his stomach would not keep it down. He gave up after that, laying down on his cot, he decided to wait for his meeting with the boss that he vaguely remembered from what seemed like the previous night, but could have been days ago. Tony was having a hard time keeping up with time.
Sitting on his cot, Tony wondered if the Avengers were searching for him now. He didn't know how long he had been down in that hell hole. He had been waiting for what seemed like hours. Being the inventor that he was, he wasn't used to not having something to do. He had spent a while washing all the grime and dirt out of his cuts and attempting to clean his hair, but he hadn't gotten very far when the water stopped coming. He had mentally scolded himself for using up his only water.
There was a clang and Tony saw the door slowly begin to open, he knew this was his chance if he wanted to escape. He hid behind the door and when the guard entered his room he slipped around the door and out into the hallway. He didn't look back but ran to the right as fast as he could. He turned corner after corner and climbed stairs when he came across them. From his surroundings he found that he was in a network of tunnels and caves deep beneath the surface. He had been cold in the clammy air before, but once he started running he warmed right up. He turned a corner after a particularly long flight of stairs and was blinded for a moment as sunlight hit him. Once his eyes had adjusted he saw that the light came from an opening in the tunnel ceiling, and through it he could see clouds on a blue sky.
This sight refreshed Tony and gave him new energy, he ran for another fifteen minutes and found a staircase labeled 'surface', it was the first written word he had seen in the entire compound. He slowed down and began ascending the stairs. His breathing became more normal and his brain seemed to catch up because he was suddenly suspicious of his easy escape. He hadn't run into any guards at all. Then he remembered how Steve had said they were really wimpy enemies and pushed the thought aside. He had reached the top of the stairs.
Thank you for reading and if you review then I'll torture tony some more :}
Also, i need to know if you want him to escape or if there should be an army at the top of the stairs... So review and tell me!
