A/N: Okay so thank you to everyone following this story, I'm glad you all like it so far! This chapter took me a loooooong time, with more o's than an entire universe could hold because it's largely Steve's POV and it's hard to write...
Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, whose glorious characters are treated better than fanfic stories treat them.
There's a Lost Girl in Those Eyes
The elevator shakes to a halt, the lights dimming before flickering weakly. They hear with sickening clarity when the bulbs vacillate finally and give out in an audible click.
The circular light in Tony's chest, once a comforting sight as it had been keeping a constant stream of light guiding their way to safety, begins to fade.
Steve, Tony and Thor were trapped. If the self-proclaimed genius, and no one could really dispute this, had been awake he would have taken out the control panel and hot wired their way down into the lab. It seemed electricity was still working, as the dim lights lining the top panels of the elevator kicked on dimly, giving little light or reassurance.
Unfortunately Tony Stark was lying crumpled in the corner of the elevator with Steve holding him upright, arm wrapped around his back.
The pounding above of the Hulk and an evil robot going at it with all their worth was getting steadily closer, gradually making Steve's heart beat fast, words caught someplace between his lead-filled stomach and sweaty brow.
In the lighter grades of shadow Steve could make out, Thor was holding out a hand, arm straight and braced for-
"Thor, no!" Whatever damages the hammer would make, Thor could be responsible for the elevator to drop almost sixty floors.
The god blew out a frustrated sigh, not seeing another way out.
Stark certainly wouldn't survive that drop without his Iron Man suit, so they had to proceed with extreme caution. The man was barely alive now, fingers twitching every so often, breathing shallow and irregular, pulse much the same, cardiac arrest.
He had fallen unconscious as soon as the light from his reactor had given its final flicker, taking most of Steve's hope of saving him with it.
Stark was too quiet, this isn't good. Steve knew the timeline.
Pepper warned him before almost every mission that Tony could only withstand three minutes without the reactor keeping the shrapnel in stasis before it would be too late.
Two minutes to go.
Everything had happened so fast that now in the standstill of the elevator and their irregular breathing, reality came to slow motion.
The hammer suddenly broke through a foot of metal and burnished wood paneling. The elevator gave an annoyed rattle.
We aren't falling.
The light filtering in through the hammer-sized opening like sunlight through breaking clouds, dust motes spiraling around them from the insulation fluff the hammer had displaced, showed they were floors below the fighting.
The Hulk's roar tore through the calm, as if egging them on. Steve picked Tony up and followed Thor, who'd with bare hands ruined what was left of the sleek, sliding door for safe passage.
The elevator, finally having enough, slid in sparks and scraping metal down, whoosh thump.
Steve's shoes and Thor's leather boots clapping on the smooth shining tile meant they were moving. There's still a chance, hold on Tony!
"Rogers," The god halted, leather squeaking against tile. The staircase door faced them, with the floor number stamped above the small viewing window.
LVL. 19
They were a floor above the lab and salvation, for Tony had made it a habit of storing spare reactors there. If they'd been at SHIELD, a team of medics would have met them already with a spare reactor, even if Tony hadn't needed it. The Hellicarrier was well equipped and trained for this, as they had to be.
"Once we get Stark stable, we should try to contact SHIELD," Steve whispered as they descended spiraling stairs towards the eighteenth level.
"What of friends Natasha and Clint?"
"Hawk and Widow can handle themselves. Besides, Widow would do more than murder us if we let Stark die from a little shrapnel." His words were only easy flying because they'd successfully walked through the door into the lab which occupied the entire floor, and his nerves stopped buzzing like sound in his ears, anxiety calming.
The elevator opposite the stairs they came out of looked harmless with its sleek chrome door, not like the wreckage it likely was having crashed into the lobby.
Steve hoped the receptionist hadn't gone home yet and had called the authorities. Mrs. Walls knew to call SHIELD if anything at Star Tower looked amiss and if JARVIS stopped responding.
For once Steve was glad for Fury's nosy protocols.
Heaving Stark onto a lab table, he wasted no time in racing over to the cabinets lining the wall and fishing for a useable reactor. It had to be a triangle, he knew, for the others would do more harm than good.
Grabbing one, Steve turned to see Thor had already ripped the man's shirt off, waiting to eject the device. Pushing down his urge to look shocked that Thor knew how to take out the reactor, Steve lobbed it towards him.
In one deft movement much too graceful for an Asgardian warrior, Thor had the malfunctioning device on the floor and the new one sliding into the open metal cavity in Tony's chest.
They'd seen it done before, when Tony had been ripped from his suit and Magneto had taken the reactor with it. After Stark had passed out from the pain and shock, Natasha out of nowhere assaulted the mutant, performing her trick of clamping her thighs around her neck, throwing like a professional baseball player the reactor to her always waiting partner, Clint, and he had put it back into Stark's chest.
A few seconds of baited breath and the team collectively gave sighs of relief when Stark jerked awake.
That wasn't happening now, however, for the billionaire was still unconscious on the large lab table, pale and unmoving.
This guy is going to give me a heart attack. Which was normal for their on and off friendship. Usually one of both of them ended up in-hospital after a mission, but this was too much.
"He still does not wake." Thor rumbled. He looked just as worried for their friend.
Lights began flicking into life, the white dull security lights fading out to be replaced with fluorescents, computers whirring to life. "-tion with my systems." JARVIS' automated, accented voice filled the lab with deafening hope.
Steve whooped, almost falling to his knees and catching himself on the edge of a nearby stool. "JARVIS, can you contact SHIELD?" His moment of relief over, Captain America hurried over to where Tony had been remaking his old uniform and punched the manual override to get the glass to slid open.
"Captain Rogers, Mr. Odinson, there seems to be a malfunction with my systems."
Thor raised his eyebrows, looking to the high vaulted ceiling, "There is something amiss with Stark's friend."
"JARVIS? You told us."
"Captain Rogers, Mr. Odinson, there seems to be a malfunction with my-" The silence stretched for too long, but the Captain didn't think on it. JARVIS wouldn't be of any help; whatever blast Anna had emitted was powerful enough to knock out all of Stark's security systems.
Which also meant the manual override for every entrance out of the Tower wouldn't work, because Stark was a paranoid guy with too much time on his hands and an obsession not to leave anything half-assed.
The Tower was on protocol 13-F, full lockdown.
"Captain,"
Thor's words were unusually loud- and Steve's lungs made their final drop into his stomach, a drop he heard because the Hulk had gone quiet, the constant sounds of fighting above them ceased to the point Steve could hear the fabric and Kevlar of his suit rubbing against his t-shirt as he pulled it on.
His breathing was so loud Steve thought it would alert Anna to their whereabouts. He refused to stop breathing, as hard as it was to continue as the reality of the situation ached in his chest.
The computers were still on.
Steve moved towards what Stark rarely used as an office desk, more to deposit old equipment he'd later tweak. There sat two prototype earpieces in a metal and velvet lined case, set to their secure channel only the Avengers and SHIELD used.
Desperation had long since passed- Steve didn't care if Anna was able to listen into their frequency or whatever robots could do in 'the future' he had been catapulted into by being what Star had once called a 'capsicle'.
Steve didn't care if Tony called him that and only that for the foreseeable future, if only the guy would wake up.
Holding the delicate invention in his palm, it's worth a shot, the Captain turned the ear piece on. Static, snippets of words and then a long beep. Steve waited, and hearing nothing else turned on the two-way option to all frequencies someone might be listening and spoke, "Stark is down, I repeat Stark is down, does anyone copy?" He kept eyes on Tony as he spoke. "JARVIS has been shut off, there's no getting in or out of Stark Tower, we need assistance. The Hulk is keeping the threat contained. Does anyone copy?"
The Captain motioned to Thor to stand by the elevator shaft while he positioned himself at the staircase door, because if Anna was listening, they were the only lines of defense at the moment and Steve had a member of his team to protect, when it looked like Tony would be unconscious for a while.
"Hawk and Black Widow copy, we have a situation of our own here Captain."
Hawkeye! He sounded pissed but alive. "Thank God, are you two okay?" If Anna had been wreaking havoc here, there was no telling what Doom was doing to SHIELD, and something was obviously going on by the way Hawk spoke, as if he was trying to whisper but his voice was echoing off something on the agents end.
"We're fine. Doom decided to send his friends to SHIELD."
Thor kept glancing at the elevator door… concentration etched in every line on his frown. Did he hear something? Steve got distracted, "Can you get out?"
Steve walked over to join Thor, hearing it too. Something was slowly scraping on the inside of the elevator, sounding close to a truck's emergency brakes hitting slick blacktop.
"We're headed to-"
Steve didn't hear whatever Hawk was trying to say, shoulder to shoulder with the God of Thunder, straining to hear if the grinding had stopped. It was back to eerie silence before Clint's voice was back in the Captains ear. "Captain, don't share any vital info, I'm afraid this channel isn't secure anymore."
"Affirmative." There was a soft click-click-click, unquestionably not sitting right with either blonde Avenger. They stepped back as one unit, Thor's hammer up. There was no use telling Nat and Clint anything else or keeping the line open if someone really was listening. Steve began thinking Anna was. "Don't worry about anything except getting to safety. Contact us when you're out."
"Got it, Widow and Hawk out."
Steve switched the comm link off.
Nothing happened for what seemed like hours before a gigantic long scratch too loud to be natural shook the seamless door open, revealing an empty, dark shaft.
Steve wasn't ashamed to admit Tony's painful groan from behind made him jump.
"Stay here, Thor." Steve instructed, backing towards where Stark was half-sitting on the table, eyes trying to focus on Steve's movements like the world was tilted.
It made sense that since Tony had checked out, his lopsided grimace turned into a full frown when he saw Steve wearing the Captain America clothes.
Not just his old red, white and blue stuff either- it was the suit Tony had been designing for him, based off of old photos of the Cap in action during the Second World War. It was covered in dark muted patriotism and more Kevlar than what Tony referred to as "Steve's Spangled Tights". He held the shield in one hand, the other stretched out resting on Tony's shoulder.
He flinched at the contact.
"Stark?"
Once words were spoken, Tony leapt off the table, hand on chest, it was there and glowing and he was okay. The two men he had to thank for that stared unblinking at him, waiting for further reaction.
Tony remained stone still when faced with the sickening crunch sound high in the elevator shaft that was clearer now the door had opened.
Springing into action after he remembered what the hell was happening, Tony headed for one of the three suits lining the walls.
As it moved in whirrs and clicks around his body, the Captain sprouted off orders, "Thor, find a way to close those doors, Iron Man try and get JARVIS running again-"
"On it."
"-and contact Widow and Hawkeye,"
"WHOA,"
The iron Man suit was beeping erratically, with Tony inside it but not moving.
"Tony?" He let his concern show for a millisecond, and scolded himself. It was not the time to be a friend; it was time to be the team Captain, and God help him if his emotions got one of them hurt. "Iron Man, is there a problem?" Steve couldn't see the man's face, faceplate down and not rising as usual when Tony spoke to them out of combat.
Tony didn't register the change in Steve's tone, he was too busy trying to eject the suit and failing. His helmets interface wasn't appearing, everything remained dark. It was powered up, and in a lock.
Someone had uploaded a virus into the systems and locked his suit! "FUCK, this isn't happening. Cap I'm not going anywhere." The speakers conveyed worry and defeat almost as well as a human; it gave Steve shivers for the first time since hearing the Iron Man voice. He was dealing with too many robots lately, it began to wear on the Captain.
"You're…stuck." Steve's words became the harbinger of bad news… Stark shouted in warning at the same moment something crashed from inside the elevator and pinned Thor against a concrete wall on the other side of the lab.
It was Anna, looking deceptively innocent while executing a chock hold on the god. Feet bare, pajama bottoms trailing the ground as they were too long for her, and the plain white t-shirt only made her look lost among the three heroes in their suits, and cape, standing dazed at her unconventional attack.
She slid down the elevator shaft?
It connected in Steve's mind what those noises were as soon as it looked like Thor couldn't shove her away. That was odd, the Asgardian useless against a small metal girl, but Steve pushed the reasons from his mind.
"Anna, let him go. We don't want to hurt you if we don't have to."
"Not the time for chivalry, Steve." Stark's voice, filtered by his mask, was strained as he tried to manually override his suit from the inside to pry it off him.
"Rogers. I do not think you have the authority to boss me around. Your ragtag team may have the need to listen, but I do not share their respect. So you will do as I say, or the Asgardian will die, now."
The voice had been wrapped in many, trilling into one long, dark sound, intertwined with the same elements Steve heard in the Iron Man's speakers when Tony spoke. Fabricated words for something to be heard speaking behind a mask.
The monster was saying, if you do not obey me, a worse fate will befall your friends. Ryan Galton got off easy when she died.
Captain America didn't believe that. He couldn't. There is still a girl in there, right?
"What did you do to Stark's suit?"
Stall her, Tony still needed to get himself out of the suit, and Thor looked like Death himself was mocking him for how long it was taking Anna to choke Thor into fainting. For a metal machine, she sure wasn't squeezing too hard to do real damage.
Steve's eyes widened a fraction, hoping Anna didn't notice, or the thing that'd replaced her. She was holding back. Why?
"What is wrong with the suit was not my doing, Captain. He has many tricks; I am only one of them."
"What kind of badass villain talks like that, anyways?"
This isn't the time for your mouth, Tony. Steve ground his teeth. Leave it to Stark to piss the girl off.
"One who cares not for your fate? Either way, he will get what he wants."
"He?"
"Stark!" Steve had enough chit-chat. Thor was turning an abnormal colour, still struggling against Anna's hold.
She threw the god to the side like a rag-doll, a plaything, rounding on the Captain before launching herself, shrieking, into him.
Making contact with his shield, momentum was her downfall, body ratcheting off the domed shield to rebound off a corner of the lab, half her body hitting a glass case, breaking around her.
Twitchy movements brought her legs up and under her prone form, crunching as the bones that should have broken were made right, repairing.
A trickle of blood fell off her pale lips, but otherwise was unharmed. "Rogers." Desperation stopped Steve from his battle with Stark's armour, following the billionaires hurried instructions to hit the latch to manually pull the front breastplate off. Thor had come to himself enough to assist, ripping off the back of the suit and helmet, careful not to take his friends head with it.
Thor did not give Anna the time to speak, already pressed against her; blonde hair mixing with brown, his face inches from hers. He pushed her body up, glass scraping against her arms, bloodied her further by his forced carelessness. Until Thor was happy with the damage did he release her, snarling.
She fell to the ground.
Steve couldn't see what Thor had gone still for when he had been seconds away from bringing his hammer down upon her, "Lady Anna?"
"GO AHEAD! Kill me, Asgardian, now's your chance."
Steve could see Thor's tense shoulder though the heavy metal of his armour and blood red cape. His hair looked in disarray and paler than its sun burnished gold. His fingers twitched against the handle of his hammer, palms squeezing against the temptation to deal with the thing now.
Something stopped him.
"We must leave." Thor grabbed a stumbling Tony, finally able to remove himself from the suit, and made their way to the staircase.
Steve felt the outcry as much as he heard it. What-? It screamed of pain and violence, and a subdued want to just kill everything in the room with its voice alone. What is that?
Steve heard the thumping of his heartbeat, didn't feel the warmth of blood spreading over his head until sparks and dots of white light invaded his vision.
A/N: Okay, so as said in the one-shot I posted a few days ago (if any of you are interested in Supernatural fanfic's, go and read it!) you will get two updates this week! The next chapter will be Doom and Loki focused.
Hope you all enjoyed!