Salut! So my exams just finished and I decided to give you this little chapter. It's a bit different: there's action. Hope you will like it!

Thanks for all your reviews! I love them !

Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers, unfortunately :(

Trust me

You've got to be kidding me, Tony couldn't help but thought when he saw the three humanoids creatures in the middle of the street he had just spun in.

Half an hour ago, Fury had called; there was an attack of unknown creatures in Dallas. He ordered the team to suit up and go, saying a quinjet was on its way to the Tower. Tony, as usual, had suited up and gone ahead to analyze the situation and get a report to the rest of the teams about what they were up against.

Unfortunately, Tony wasn't in a good mood that day. Fury had pissed him out of his mind the day before and he still hadn't completely calmed down and gained total control of his emotions again. Moreover, Pepper wouldn't be back until Friday, which meant he had to wait four whole days before he could talk to anyone about what he wanted to do, what he needed to do. To top it off there was a stupid attack by freaking creatures Fury couldn't even describe, because eye witnesses didn't do their fucking job well, which meant he had to interact with the team when he just felt like locking himself up in his lab with music blaring in his ears, a bottle or two of his best scotch and his wonderful projects to work on.

He was starting to think someone hated him out there.

The moment he arrived in Dallas he flew to the place Fury had indicated. The quinjet was just leaving the Tower with all five of them and they wouldn't be there for the next twenty minutes. That meant he had to deal with it alone for now. First things first, find those creatures to see what they looked like. Second, find weaknesses. Third, kill. Easy as pie, he smirked, taking a sharp turn to his left. They were in this avenue according to witnesses.

He slammed head first in the first one.

He bounced back and crashed into a car that had been abandoned in the middle of the street. Groaning, red flashes feeling his visions, he sat up and looked up to see what had caused his fall.

There was nothing.

"Jarvis, heat sensors please, I have a bad feeling about this." Immediately his vision swam with blues and yellows and reds and there it stood. A humanoid form, with two legs and two arms, and what could only be a head on a chest. It was a few feet in front of him and seemed to be moving. Turning.

"Fuck." He had slammed into its back and it was now turning in his direction. No need to stay there any longer. Thrusters sparked to life and he flew higher, hoping he'll be out of reach. He needed to find a way to make it visible. The others wouldn't be able to do anything if they couldn't see it.

"Stark, you copy?" Rogers' voice sounded in his ear. Great, time to tell them the wonderful discovery he made.

Which made him think. How did the witnesses see it in the first place? He frowned and turned back to his natural vision, flying over where he knew the creature was. They were on the floor when they saw them obviously. He flew down and stopped the thrusters to stand on the sidewalks. He looked up, moving sideways, trying to find any…

He smirked. A small default really but his eyes were used to looking for the smallest detail in the biggest machinery. So what seemed to be a flickering flying metal conception of about an inch long? It was all too easy.

He raised his arm. "Tony? Tony! Dammit Stark!" Clint's voice was on edge, borderline panicking. Tony rolled his eyes and chose to make them squirm a little bit more. Just enough to see if this would work. It couldn't hurt them. He aimed carefully and fired his beam.

The screech the thing let out was enough to make him wince and raise his hands to cover his ears – realizing too late how useless the gesture was. But what he wanted happened. Colors moved along the body, flickering before resting on what the genius assumed to be its natural color. The freaking things were like chameleons, completely disappearing in their environments.

He watched amazed and horrified the creature. If its form was that of a human in its shape, it wasn't one at all. Instead of fingers he had grey claws about the size of his legs, looking too sharp for his liking. The arms were covered with thick dark green scales and were about twice as big as him. Its torso was covered by a dark grey fur which stopped suddenly at its shoulders, neck and top of its legs. Those were covered with the same scales as its arms and its feet were prolonged by four two-feet long claws. On its back here was a strange mix between scales and fur except in one small place – where he had hit it. Probably one of its only weaknesses.

But what made him catch his breath in drowning horror was its face. It was some kind of bared red skin, strips of flesh seeming to fall from it, a green liquid dripping from them. It had empty eyes, just big white balls with red vessels crossing them. Its nose consisted in two holes on some sort of gross bulge. And his mouth was some big hole, with what seemed like six yellow one-foot long fangs, without any lips. It was drooling a thick yellow dribble on its torso and chin.

His empty stomach threatened to raise to his lips. He didn't know who had created that thing but, oh God, that person was crazy. He got the whole invisible thing perfectly: the poor creature must be afraid of its own reflection. Seriously. It was disgusting.

"Stark!" The scream Bruce let out, frantic, frightened, panicked, brought him back to earth.

But then the raging yell the creature let out managed to drag his attention back to it and he gulped. Sightless eyes were on him, the monster leaning towards him, hands stretching to him. "Crap."

He kicked in action his thrusters and flew away, thanking every god he knew that he was too fast for the thing to catch him. "We have a fucking problem," he finally said, activating the communication. He flipped back on his heat vision and almost rammed head on into another creature. He swung to the side and avoided it to go higher and higher until he could watch the city from above.

"Stark what's going on?" That was Steve. His voice was calm and yet he could hear the worry in it.

But that wasn't what captivated his attention right now. No, it was the sight in front of him. In between buildings, masses of red humanoid bodies were moving in front of his eyes. He counted fifteen of those and he started feeling sick. What kind of person was the creator of those monstrosities? He turned around slowly, expecting to find more of them, only to end up sighing in relief. He could see only two more. Seventeen.

It was seventeen too many.

"Man of Iron, are you still with us?"

"Yeah," he breathed out. His brain was already calculating possibilities, probabilities, formulating plans while looking over the city, noticing how those creatures didn't seem to be heading towards the most populated area. They were staying where they were, turning in circles. Do they even have brains? He wondered distractedly. Why were they moving like that? What was even the point of that attack?

"Stark?" That was Natasha this time. Okay he needed to focus, really now. It was getting ridiculous if they kept saying his name while he didn't say anything when he should be. But hey, he was trying to figure out how to take down those things and he was the only one who would do it because he was the only one who'd seen them and… Let's face it, I do the best plans, he complimented himself with a smirk. "Stark!" Oh right, focus. He had to work on that.

"Yeah, yeah, there's seventeen of those. They're not pretty and they're invisible." It didn't sound as good as it did in his head. Oh well.

A snort – Clint, his mind supplied. "That's kinda contradictory, Tony."

He rolled his eyes and flew over the streets, looking lazily around, forming his plan. "There's a weakness – found it and used it – makes them visible." He didn't care much about detailing how he turned things that shouldn't exist because they were way too ugly and horrible into visible ones. If he knew what they had looked like, he wouldn't have done it.

"Where is it?" Natasha, always so down to business. He could picture her checking her guns, eyebrows set in a thin line, face emotionless. No fun whatsoever.

"Its back. An inch long, piece of metal floating in the air." He narrowed his eyes when he noticed something wrong – or better something wonderfully great only a genius like him could find it. "Jarvis, check signals around the area – all types."

"You have something?" Bruce. Breathing slowly and calmly, relaxing while checking he had a set change of clothes in the quinjet. There was no need for the Hulk to get out too early. Tony checked how long he had until they got there. Ten minutes. He needed to do something about the speed of the quinjets, it was way too ridiculously slow.

"Maybe. You all have good sight? – shut up Clint."

He pictured them all – Clint smirking, Bruce rolling his eyes because it didn't matter whether he had good eyes or not when he was the Hulk. Thor would be frowning, while clenching and unclenching his fingers around Mjolnir, his mind getting ready for the battle ahead. Steve would be stapling his boots on and pulling on his gloves, thinking fast to find the plan that will make everyone on the team stay safe and protect the innocents. Natasha would be narrowing her eyes, glaring at empty air wishing it was him because he'd asked something stupid. "Tony, what do we need to know?" Steve asked, sighing.

You should be used to it by now, Cap, he thought, almost saying it, before thinking better of it. "I don't know if it's just some kind of invisible/visible switch or if it does something else. Second it'll be…" Something threw him off and he quickly started the thrusters again, swaying for a bit. There was something… Something hit his leg. A warning flashed on his screen. "Burning? What…"

He looked down at his leg and saw it fuming at his calf, as if acid had… He looked down and saw one of the creatures standing to its tallest, head up. The drool…

"Tony?" He flew higher, hoping it would be enough not to get hit again by that stupid spit of theirs. He needed to think fast.

There was no way he was letting any of his teammates near those. He was lucky the acid hadn't burned through the metal but the others wouldn't be so lucky. "Change of plans. You stay away from here."

"What? Stark, we're not letting you fight those things alone. We're a team!" Steve started.

No need for your lecture, Cap. "They can spit acid, Cap. Is your flesh suddenly so wonderful it will not burn?" He asked, ironically. That shut him up. Good, he thought vaguely while trying to find a new plan where he wouldn't need the others' help.

"Get out of there Tony," Bruce said, worry filling his voice.

"I'm fine. I may… Okay I'm working on it, but it's on the way."

"Sir there is a signal ten feet on your right. It seemed to be on the same frequency as the one these creatures are connected to." He loved Jarvis and how he didn't even need to tell him what he was thinking for the AI to know exactly where he was going. "It is moving, Sir."

"Tony, just go away, Natasha is contacting SHIELD, they're gonna send a team better equipped," Steve ordered.

Tony frowned at the message on his screens. Something was wrong. "Jarvis pull up the sewerage system circuit." The map flashed with the signal on it. It wasn't following the lines… His vision turned back to normal. "Five feet… Damn it!" He twisted, turning around to see a two feet wide robot heading towards him.

He flew out of the way and it continued in the direction of the city center. Tony's eyes flew to the creatures – Jarvis pulling the heat sensors automatically (gotta love the man) – and watched fascinated as they seemed to follow it. Now they were moving. Fast. Too fast.

He knew what he had to do at least now.

"Tony!" The yell in his ear made him wince.

"What?" He snapped. Couldn't they leave him thinking and planning in peace?

"What's going on?" That was Clint.

"I have a plan. They're following a stupid signal. Gonna blow it up and hopefully it'll be enough."

"Hopefully? Tony, you're…" Steve finished his speech with a groan, anger slipping through easily while Tony sped up after the robot, not changing his vision back to normal. The DASC (Decaying Acid Spitting Chameleons, thought it was appropriate) were a bigger threat and he didn't want a repeat of the last two encounters. "Stark, it's an order, you come back here now."

"I'm not… Didn't you get it yet? I'm not following stupid orders."

Suddenly all the team started speaking protesting and he sighed as he turned into a smaller street to avoid the two creatures blocking the one he was on. They were starting to grate on his nerves. His day had started badly enough, he didn't need the team screaming at him for wanting to stop a threat.

"I have a plan, guys, trust me, I know what I'm doing." He didn't know what happened but suddenly, it seemed like all protests died on their tongues. Utter silence reached his ears. He frowned, wondering what he'd said to gain this. He took a sharp spin and entered an avenue, following the signal which seemed to lead him there.

He almost slammed into three DASC and quickly changed directions, flying upwards, skimming near one of them. You've got to be kidding me, he thought bitterly as he reached an altitude he dubbed safe enough. They still hadn't answered and he was starting to get more and more annoyed by the second. Two full minutes of silence were really too much.

He looked at the map and saw he was two streets away. He needed to get a move on, four blocks left until they were in the downtown. "Guys, whenever you feel like it, you can answer." He flew over a building and reached the right street. Okay. Fifteen feet on his left. He turned and wildly spun on the side when a claw almost nailed him. He sped under the arm and avoided another one narrowly. It was harder than he thought it'd be. Six feet in front of him. Good, you're done, Mister Master DASC.

"Do what you can." Steve's voice and words threw him off completely and he hit the shoulder of the creature in front of him with his arm. It sent him spiraling down and crashing in the ground. He grunted, wincing as his limbs extracted themselves out of the ground. This would leave bruises for sure. "Tony?" He groaned again. He was blaming this one on them. Since when did they start being so accepting of his non-explained plans?

That's when it hit him. He said 'trust me'. He didn't think much about it, because it wasn't the first time he said it when he was trying to make a point on a mission but it was the first time since the Incident. Great, I was thrown off because they decided they couldn't say no to me anymore when I say two stupid words. But he couldn't help but feel grateful for that. They were willing to trust him on this when they had no idea what was going on. It warmed him and at the same time made him scowl. Why they couldn't do that before was beyond him.

A noise above him made him raise his head, catching his attention immediately. His eyes widened when he saw the foot hovering over him, coming down… His thrusters started and he twisted out of under it, speeding not to get touched by one of the claws. He needed to take these things out now. "Jarvis?"

"Two streets down, it's one street away from the city centre, you might want to hurry up, Sir." Jarvis' no non-sense voice and tone made him smile and he pushed his thrusters into full speed. He was right, he needed to hurry the fuck up.

"Tony?" Bruce's concerned voice floated to him as he sped fast next to a DASC (he loved that name as much as he hated the things).

"I'm fine, just got balanced off by your yes." Couldn't hurt being honest, right?

A long sigh followed and he wondered who made it. Steve? Bruce? Clint? He turned into a boulevard and finally saw the robot. He flew on it and hung on it with one hand. He flipped back to natural vision and looked over the smooth metal surface. He didn't want to do something that would send the wrong signal to the monstrosities – destroying their shepherd for example.

"Tony," Steve started.

"Shh! Genius in action here, shut the hell up and admire." He smirked when he found a plate he raised up. Machinery, this he knew. He analyzed every circuit, every wire he could see and made a face. Whoever did it was good but really it was too easy, not worthy of him at all. He sighed and slipped his hand inside the robot, reaching for the one wire that would shut the signal down. He gripped, squeezed and pulled.

And then he was falling. "Shit!" He ripped his arm out of the robot and flew away from it. No way was it going to take him down with it. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked around, seeing the empty streets. A crash sounded and he knew the robot had touched the ground. "You still there, guys?"

"Yeah," Clint answered. "Are they gone?" Oops, he forgot about the DASC. He flipped into heat vision and looked around. The things were completely still as if he had switched an off button.

"Sort of. They're not moving anymore. And they're still playing C-mode." He flew to the nearest one and searched for the 'visible' button as well, the fingers of his right hand twitching as he powered his repulsor.

"C-mode?" Thor wondered.

"Chameleon. They're invisible," he translated, before aiming at the piece of metal. He fired and hit perfectly as he always did. Slowly, colors came back on the hideous DASC which in turn stayed unmoving. He grinned, feeling happy with himself and went to the next one, repeating the operation.

If SHIELD wanted to take them off, they needed to be able to see them. And well, he wanted to see Fury's face when he would catch sight of those things.

When he was done, Clint telling him they were waiting at the edge of the city for the SHIELD unit, he went back to the robot, wanting to examine something he had noticed when he was holding onto it. He landed next to it and kneeled down near the remains and searched for what he'd seen…

There it was. He grabbed the piece of metal, wondering how it could still be intact so much that the whole inscription could be read completely. Hello Stark. He inhaled sharply and making sure no one was around he destroyed the words, wrecking the metal completely. Well this made one thing clear.

Someone was after him.

So? What do you think?

Merci d'avoir lu!

AngelShep