His head hurt, his ears were ringing and it sounded like someone was screaming.

Opening his eyes tony stared up at a grey sky, no wait that wasn't the sky, it was smoke, something was on fire.

Coughing at a sudden acidic feeling in his throat tony pushed himself up to stair at the building in front of him, smoke billowed from top floor, from where he was it looked like part of the top floor was missing, a wall and- oh fuck, that was Steve's apartment, how the hell.

He looked around suddenly, people were starting to gather, others were streaming from the building itself, he needed to get out of there.

Tony shoved to his feet grabbing his phone from where it had fallen on the ground and he started running not even thinking about where he was going.

He saw a fire truck sail down the road lights and sirens wailing matched only by the ambulance that was a few yards behind it, a cop flew passed him as well before he reached someplace safe, his workshop.

Throwing the door open he stumbeled inside then slammed it back closed, leaning against it and gasping for breath, he was shaking and his legs could barely hold him up,

A part of himself told him he was in shock but there was nothing he could do about it, he could only side down the door until he sat on the floor and drop his head into his hands "ok just breathe, its ok, its ok, just breath"

Distressed beeping and whirring made him look up, DUM-E had rolled over to from his corner of the shop to investigate him, it clicked its claw and beeped again in concern when it noticed tony looking at it, which made him reach out and pet its claw

"It's ok" he tried to sooth and let the bot lift him to his feet.

When DUM-E started nudging his hip he realized the ringing wasn't in his ears, it was his phone going off so he dug it out of his pocket and answered it "tony! Are you ok! What was that noise? Did something explode?! Why'd you take so long to pick up!" it was pepper

"Whoa, whoa, slow down pep, my head is pounding" he could almost see the woman taking a deep breath "what happened tony?"

He could tell from her tone that if he didn't give her a legit answer, she was going to freak out and having witnessed it only once before he did not want to be subjected to it again, "I was leaving someone's apartment and it exploded"

There was a beat of silence in which he was amazed he had rendered the woman speechless and then "exploded?! What the fuck tony, whose apartment? This early, was it a one night stand and do I know her?"

He shook his head, slightly amused as he walked up the stairs leading to the small apartment above the storage area of his workshop "you don't know him" the line once again went silent as pepper tried to wrap her head around the implications of that.

"Was he still there?" she finally asked voice concerned and he sighed, adding another reason to the list of why he loved pepper

"No, no he was already gone to work and no it wasn't a one night stand it, I don't know what it is to be honest but that doesn't matter his apartment blew up, if I didn't get up for class-"

"you stayed the night" she cut him off which he was both thankful and annoyed at, he grunted as he fell onto his couch "pepper" he complained "sorry it's just that's not your MO, there's a report on the news" tony wasn't surprised she was googling it "they say it was a gas leak, just bad luck"

He was already shaking his head "there are so many reasons why that's wrong I don't have enough time to name them all, but the main one is I was in the apartment not five minutes before, there was no gas, and when you count the size and force of the explosion? It was enough to throw me to the ground four stories below the floor, gas explosions aren't that powerful and if they are it would have destroyed the entire floor"

"So you're saying what, someone targeted him? Or you?" tony shook his head again "I don't know pepper it's a theory, listen tell Hill I won't make it to the exam, tell her I'm puking out my ass or something, she'll enjoy that" he heard pepper chuckle sounding far less strained.

"I'll think up some kind of excuse, I always do, will that be all Mr. stark?" she questioned making him smile "that will be all Mrs. Potts"

She chuckled again then paused "be careful tony" she finally said and he smiled a little more "I will pep" he said then hung up and tossed the phone away before pressing his hands to his face with a groan.

The day was so fucked and it wasn't even noon yet.

Maybe he should just go to bed.

Steve was pretty sure he was well on his way to a panic attack, his apartment had just exploded, he didn't know if tony was still in it when it did and it sure as fuck wasn't a gas leak.

Fuck who would blow up his apartment? Moreover, why? It couldn't have been killian not enough time had passed since they broke in.

The shrill sound of a phone ringing made him focus and pull out his cell with numb fingers and stare at it in confusion, a blocked number was trying to call him.

For a moment he considered not answering it but then he realized it might be the guy that blew up his apartment and answered it on speaker "it wasn't a gas leak" a modulated but still plainly male voice spoke as the line connected., Steve looked up at his friends sitting around the table, all with wide eyes.

"Who the fuck is this?" Bucky was the first to recover "I'm the one that saved your collective asses last night" Steve and Sam looked at each other "what do you want?" Steve asked, "To save your collective asses, like I said it wasn't a gas leak that destroyed your apartment, it was a shape charge designed to blow out, that's why the rest of the building is still standing and why no one died"

"You sure about that?" Sam asked leaning forward on the table, a sound came over the phones shitty speaker that at first wasn't recognizable "you doubt me? I am positive, no one died," he sounded amused so it had to be a laugh.

All Steve knew was he felt a sudden wave of relief that made him feel five pounds lighter.

Tony was safe, thank god.

"Well forgive us for being suspicious, we have no idea who you are or why you're doing this, let alone what you want for it" Steve spoke mind clearing so he could focus.

"I don't want anything, I'm doing a favor for a friend, you got on someone's very bad side and soon enough they are going to figure out that your still alive and they will try again, although this time I doubt they'll be concerned about casualties"

Glancing up confirmed Steve's suspicions that no one doubted that, hell Natasha looked like she expected it "yeah well thanks for the advice-"

The man on the phone cut off Clint "that's wasn't advice that was a statement of fact, my advice is that all of you disappear, get new phones, tell someone where you're going and go the opposite direction"

There was a pause for a moment then he spoke again "and for the love of god don't buy burner phones all at once at the same store" then the line went dead along with Steve's entire phone, he picked it back up and tried to turn it back on but it wouldn't work "what the fuck"

"The guy is good," Clint said after a few minutes of fucking with the device, which he then tossed onto the table "he remotely killed your phone, completely turned it off"

"Can we trust this guy boss?" Sam stated the question on everyone's mind, Steve couldn't blame him, their asses were on the line more than anyone else's "if he wanted to turn us in he would have done it by now" Natasha finally spoke.

"Yeah but, what does he want?" Jan asked, "I know he said he was doing a favor for his friend but, who? And what does that friend want from us?"

Steve shook his head "I don't know, what I do know is he was right about us needing to disappear" he looked around the table and watched everyone nod before continuing "but that doesn't mean we stop looking around, find out who we robbed we'll find out who blew up my apartment".

They all nodded again and he reached down grabbing his bag and rose from his seat "while you're at it find out who the fuck this iron man guy is" Clint fake saluted "on it boss"

He looked at them all nodded once and then turned toured the door.

It was time to disappear.

Tony killed Steve's phone then sat back and looked at DUM-E who wasn't straying far from his creators side "10-to-1 odds they won't listen to me but at least I warned them" the machine clicked his claw and nodded making tony laugh and pat his strut before sighing.

"We've got a lot of work to do boy" he said before lacing his fingers together and popping his knuckles "first things first, who blew up that apartment" he placed his hands back on the keyboard and started typing.

The remains were still smoldering when a man stepped into the apartment, almost everything was destroyed, if not by the explosion and resulting fire then by the water damage from when they tried to get it under control, some of the kitchen survived so the man walked over and looked around, finding nothing of interest he moved on.

He stepped into the remains of the living room, there was a pile of ash against a wall and when he kicked it, gray ash marring his glossy black shoe, he found a piece of paper, mostly undamaged with dark lines on it in the shape of a young man's face.

It made the man smirk and fold it to place it in his jacket before getting up to leave, almost catching his foot in a bundle of cloth that survived the blaze he bent down once again to look at it.

On it was a barely distinguishable school logo, it was out of place and the man knew it so he picked it up and left the smoldering building, answering his phone as he went.

"He wasn't there, but I think I know where to start looking for him" the man smirked at the shirt in his hand.

A man's voice spoke over the line "good, when you find him bring me his head"

"Yes sir"

notes.

hello lovelies, we have come to the end of this part of the trying times series! but don't worry I already have the first chapter of the next one finished and I will be adding the link to part 2 once I get it posted.

I just wanted to let all of you know that I am very grateful to everyone that has stayed with me so far, I don't believe I would have gotten this far if it wasn't for you guys!

if you liked this last chapter please leave a kudo.

and i'll see you next time!

RD