Tony wasn't sulking. He was merely avoiding everyone he knew by hiding in his workshop and acting generally ill-tempered.
"That isn't sulking," he explained to Jarvis for the third time.
"If you insist, sir. How, may I ask, would you describe your current behavior if not in that fashion?"
"I'm…You know, I don't remember programming you to be so inquisitive."
"I don't remember the last time you worked on my programming at all, sir."
"If that's a hint, I'm ignoring it." He dropped his voice to a grumble, "Insolent son of a…"
After shedding the Iron Man suit, he began throwing things around, looking for something to distract himself from his thoughts.
He was digging through a pile of scraps when he came across one of the crazier prototypes of Captain America's shield. He stared at it in anger for a full minute, trying to decide how best to destroy it. He picked it up, still debating which method to use, when a piercing alarm went off overhead. He dropped the shield in surprise, briefly wondering if Steve had somehow rigged it with a security system before realizing that was a ridiculous idea.
Outside the workshop, some SHIELD personnel ran by looking concerned. He had just decided to ignore it when he heard Fury's voice on the intercom: "All higher ranking agents are to meet in the hanger, Iron Man, that includes you."
"Oh, great. Something goes wrong and now he wants me?"
"Shall I prep the Mark VI again, sir?"
"If it makes you happy, dear."
When he arrived at the hanger, SHIELD agents were running every which way. He had seen so few of them in the halls before he really had to wonder where they'd all been hiding before now.
"Stark!" Fury surprised him from behind, as usual. "I don't remember calling you here, I said Iron Man. Now get your butt into that shiny-ass suit of yours and get the hell down here, now!"
Tony turned around and headed back, grumbling the whole way. "Great, now the damn computer is going to get smug. Bastard, I hate it when he's smug."
The next time he arrived at the hanger, only Fury and his two pets, Hill and Coulson remained. "Took you long enough, do you realize we have a situation, here?"
"Oh, is that what that noise means?"
"I don't have time for your mouth, Stark. If I wanted it, I would ask for it. Here's the deal: the paint factory that exploded earlier was apparently built on a sinkhole waiting to happen. Now, it's collapsed and taken the Avengers minus you with it."
"So what, you expect me to help them after you convinced Captain America not to include me?"
"Yes, that is exactly what I expect, do you have a problem with that?"
They locked eyes, or in Fury's case, eye. Tony gave in. "No problem."
"Good. Now I heard you've already been there so I won't bother giving you directions. We'll be joining you by helicopter shortly, there should already be several SHIELD agents on scene. Do what you can to help, but DO NOT MAKE IT WORSE. I don't care what went down between you and Captain America, do you understand?"
"Yessir." He struck a mock-salute and headed out for the paint factory.
Back in the hanger, Fury powered up the helicopter. "Well, this should be fun. Hold onto your butts."
It was pitch black when Steve came to. That alone wouldn't be reason to worry too much, but he quickly realized he couldn't move his arms or legs, and in fact one of his arms had no feeling from the elbow down. He could move his head from side to side, and there seemed to be air enough to breathe but when he tried to shout he found his chest was too compressed to get enough air. Still, Steve had been in tighter spots in WWII, no need to panic. Somewhere above his head something heavy and metal groaned as if under strain.
Courage. He had courage. That was what everyone always said. He'd been accommodated time and time again for it, but right now it was hard to remember why. Steve didn't feel courageous, he felt downright scared. Because things were bad, and he knew it.
"Okay," he whispered aloud to calm himself, "Assess the situation. Positives: I'm alive, I don't seem to be concussed, and most of my limbs seem to be intact. I can't reach my intercom, but SHIELD knows where we are."
He wondered how long they would wait after receiving nothing but radio silence from them to send someone to investigate.
"Well," he figured, "I'm not alone. Black Widow was right next to me when we fell, and the Hulk was nearby. Hawkeye might have escaped, and if so he could contact Fury and let them know what happened. I bet help is already on the way."
There was more groaning, and this time something big moved somewhere off to his left.
"I just hope it hurries."