Chapter 11: New Co-pilot

"Dr. Banner?" Tony called seeing the man asleep at his side, his hand Tony noticed was holding his own. He wasn't in the least bit surprised. Since he knew that the man did like him. He pulled his hand away from under the others just as Bruce began to wake up. Tony pulled himself into a sitting position now, it hurt just a little but he struggled to sit on his own, pushing Bruce's hands away when the man tried to help him.

"Are you feeling better?" Bruce asked, looking to the pilot now.

"Yeah. I'm perfect. As good as can be after that Kaiju master bastard made me pilot a Jaeger on my own," Tony said as he pushed the blankets off himself as he let his legs hang down from the side of the bed, waiting as Bruce went to get his shoes.

"I need to speak with Fury. Now," he said, headed in the direction of the door. His legs were still pretty wobbly since he hadn't used them in quite awhile. Tony staggered to the door, his feet shuffling along. Piloting the Jaeger on his own was seriously a bad choice. With Bruce's help he was taken up to LOCCENT now where Fury seemed to be a little surprised to see him.

"I need to talk with you," Tony told him, taking him to the side now.

"How are you feeling Tony?" Fury asked him.

"Look I'm fine dammit! I'm fucking fine. I'm walking and I'm breathing!" he half yelled, then forced himself to calm down. They must have all been pretty worried, they didn't deserve him snapping like that.

"I'm sorry…It's just Jarvis…"

"Yes, we know. What happened to him and to the Iron Jaeger, we lost connection with you half way."

"It was Loki. He's the Kaiju master it was his fault and now he has Jarvis. He crashed the Iron Jaeger's visor and took Jarvis."

Fury stood, staring at him. His eyes wide, incredulous. "Come again?"

Tony took a deep calming breath, "The Kaijus are being controlled by a man called the Kaiju master. His name is Loki. Remember that fight the other day? Loki took Jarvis. I need to go after him."

"Let me get this straight. There is a motherfucking Kaiju Master who controls those Kaijus?"

Tony nodded, "That's exactly what I was saying."

"So he took Jarvis? And you want to what? Go after him and find Jarvis?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how to get to him? Do you know how to get ahold of this Loki?"

"No…," Tony trailed off, "But I'm going to find him no matter what. He's bound to attack again. He's insane. He wants to dominate the world."

"You believe he's still alive?" Fury asked he seemed to not believe it.

"You don't know Jarvis. He's got ways to stay alive and I need to save him," Tony said. He was desperate. Once more, it was his fault that Jarvis had gotten into trouble.

"Tony you can't pilot the Jaeger on your own."

A muscle twitched in Tony's jaw his hand clenching at his side. He would need to find someone to team up with and right now, he didn't want to ask anyone for help. He also didn't think that any of the other pilots would help him after his whole unfriendly escapade with them. It was just like Jarvis had said. He would have needed to gain the friendship of the other members for times like these. If only he had listened.

"There is no one here compatible with me," Tony said straight up.

As Bruce stood back he wanted to offer himself up for the position of being Tony's co-pilot. But that was too much of a far cry. He was an expert of Kaiju and Kaiju parts and all things science-y along with a tad bit of medical stuff. He wasn't combat material.

"Steve's partner Bucky had a fracture on his leg. He can't help to pilot the Amérique. So maybe you can try asking Steve?" Bruce offered.

"It's not going to work," Tony said.

"Combat test first thing tomorrow. We'll see if it works then," Fury muttered. They would want to get down to business quickly and destroy that Kaiju Master.


That evening Tony headed to the mess hall on his own. The absence of Jarvis only made it more obvious to him how very alone he was. He looked at the people around him; they were all in pairs or groups. Even with Jarvis gone, to them it seemed like nothing. The world just kept on moving and only he was the affected party.

Tony collected his food and sat down at a table alone. He wasn't surprised when both the pilots of the Arachnehawk walked away from his table. But what did surprise him was when Steve Rogers sat down at his table. The pilot of the Amérique settled into a seat across from him with a small smile.

"Hey," Steve said.

Tony looked up, giving a wan smile, "Hey. You don't have to join me for dinner you know?"

Steve gave him a tiny smile, "I'm not joining you for dinner. I just felt like sitting here today."

Tony remembered what Bruce had said about Bucky's leg being fractured. He finished up the warm soup before he asked, "How's Bucky? I heard he was injured."

"You heard right. He got his leg fractured when the monster came crashing at us. Bucky got trapped in the wreck of the Amérique I'm lucky I managed to save him," Steve said taking a bite of his food now before he continued, "They say he won't be moving around for quite a bit while his leg recovers. So I guess the Amérique won't be deployed for awhile."

Tony noticed Steve looking at him now.

"I…heard about Jarvis. Fury told me about it," Steve said approaching the subject cautiously.

"Being Marshall doesn't give him the right to tell everyone everything," Tony muttered, "What else did he say?"

"He told me that you wanted to go after Jarvis. He also mentioned that you needed a co-pilot and he told me about the combat test tomorrow."

"I don't need a co-pilot," Tony said almost immediately, then he shook his head and corrected himself, "You don't have to come if you don't want to. I can do this on my own which I would very much prefer."

"I heard you tried to pilot the Jaeger on your own," Steve reminded him, "Look where it got you."

"Well then maybe you've never lost something precious to you before," he said and taking his tray he got up to leave.

"Look, Tony," Steve said grabbing the man's shoulder and turning him around to face him, "I'm just saying that you should take care of yourself. If Jarvis were here, that would be what he wanted too right? I'm not trying to say that you're weak or anything. I respect you as a fellow pilot and my senior but we all know you can't pilot the Jaeger on your own so…at least let me help you."

Tony had never felt more grateful before, Steve was willing to help to save Jarvis. They would be able to get the mission done sooner than he had expected, "I accept your request as my co-pilot then," he said and he left.

Steve stood there, a half smile on his face as he watched Tony walking away. He shook his head. Tony truly didn't know how to pick his words carefully. But he could feel as the man's shoulder relaxed beneath his touch and a glimmer of thanks that crossed his brown eyes even though he wouldn't say it out loud, Steve knew that Tony was grateful for his help.