A/N: Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments and support for this fic. I truly appreciate it. :D It seems you all approve of the Steve/Tony smack down... and particularly of Fury and his taser. LOL You're all so mean. ;) I love it.

The whole Steve/Tony thing was coming to a head and it needed to come out. Of course, what will come of it now it is out there, well, you'll just have to read on to see.

As you know, writing action isn't my most fave thing, it's sooo much easier to just watch it rather than describe it but this is a story about action heroes, so I have to bite the bullet, I guess. :D I hope it all makes sense to you.

My apologies to anyone who is from Cuba about the liberties I've taken with the landscape. I needed some specific landscape to make it work, hope it isn't too far off the mark.

Okay, here we go, hold on tight...

Chapter Sixteen

Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and Bruce stood on the loading bay of the shuttle which had taken them to hover above the city of Havana. They were all standing on the edge, the wild winds buffeting them as they looked down.

"Are you guys seeing this?" asked Steve in disbelief.

"You mean the giant bees and flies attacking the city?" Tony asked. "Yeah, we're seeing this. I guess our albino has more than just praying mantises up his super villain cape." He wiggled his jaw as speaking caused him pain, a bruise already forming from his fight with Steve. Cap was also looking a little worse for wear too , sporting a split lip. Tony tried not to think about that fight while he had an even bigger one to deal with right then.

Bees and flies as big as a car were zipping all around the Havana cityscape. The bees were shooting laser beams from their eyes just like the mantises had done, but they also had the added danger of their stingers becoming harpoons as the bee would curl it's abdomen so that the stinger was pointing at whatever it wanted to destroy. The stinger would shoot out and impale whatever was in the way and then explode just as another stinger would appear at the bee's tale. The flies had the obligatory laser eyes as well, but they had a more confronting secondary line of defence. Tony watched in disgust as they flies would vomit as they flew over things and drop some kind of material on the helpless people and buildings below. He could see the stuff hardening almost immediately and didn't like to think what else it might do. Whatever it was, it was making short work of the tanks the Cuban army had rolled out to defend their city.

"Tony Stark, do you know where these creatures are being controlled from?" asked Thor urgently.

"Jarvis is working on it," said Tony.

"In the meantime these people need help," said Steve, gripping his shield more tightly and taking a step closer to the edge.

"I think I should sit this one out, guys," said Bruce apologetically. He pulled a face. "The other guy has already half-destroyed a city this week. Havana has enough problems."

"Your beast is a mighty weapon, Bruce Banner," said Thor encouragingly. "I would fight by his side any day."

"And I appreciate that, Thor," said Bruce, "but you're a demi-god and not as fragile as a human. I'm pretty sure I'll do more harm than good."

"You'll be fine, B," said Tony blithely, "we need big, buff and bad-tempered, he's our heavy hitter."

Bruce looked down at the warzone going on below them and gave a regretful shake of his head. "I can't, it's not worth the risk. I'm sorry, guys."

"It's okay," said Tony, "we understand."

Bruce turned around to get out of their way and Tony smiled at him before giving him a hard shove to the chest. Bruce's eyes went wide as Tony's push forced him to step backwards and promptly fall off the end of platform. The physicist tumbled through the air in free fall, Bruce's outraged cry drifting up to them. "Son of a bitch!" he hollered.

Steve shook his head at Tony's antics. "Bruce isn't going to be happy with you for that."

Tony smirked as his helmet visor slid down into place. "That's the plan." He jumped off the end of the platform, waiting a few seconds and allowing himself to free fall before engaging his thrusters. Bruce was still somersaulting through the air, but he was transforming as he went, giant, green muscles splitting his shirt at the seams. Tony knew he was going to pay for that stunt later, but he didn't care. The Hulk was a necessary part of the team, no matter what his reluctant alter ego might think. They were already down two team members in Hawkeye and Black Widow and they needed all the help they could get. The Hulk hit the ground with a thud that rattled bricks in buildings and shattered glass. Tony watched as the Hulk hauled himself out of the crater he'd made with his landing in the middle of the street and let out a roar in his direction. Tony immediately decided to give the guy a little bit of room and headed up in the air and over a few streets, looking for bugs to squish. He didn't have to look hard, the skies were practically black with the bees and flies. Darting between the metal creatures, Tony skilfully took out dozens with his repulsors but knew from experience it was a short term solution. There was no doubt that these things would be re-forming just as quickly as they were being destroyed. "Jarvis," he barked, "have you located the signal yet?"

"I'm still working on it, sir. I'm having trouble locking down the position. It's as though it's moving."

"Hurry," said Tony as he watched a block of buildings crumble, dust and debris flying off them as people below scurried to safety. "This city doesn't have much time." He looked around to see Thor dropping Steve into the thick of the bugs and once again Steve was leaping from creature to creature in midflight, slicing their heads off as he went. Meanwhile, Thor swung his mighty hammer above them all and the air became thick with electricity as lightning flashed across the skies and the very heavens themselves rumbled death. Tony would be lying if he said he wasn't just a little envious of having such power at your fingertips. A fleeting thought crossed through Tony's mind that he had to have a closer look at that hammer of Thor's one day. He just knew he could learn something from it. Tony was forced back into the present as he narrowly missed being impaled by a stinger. He rolled out of the way just in time and unfortunately crashed through an apartment window at the same time. The joints of his armour whirred and clicked as he shook his head and stood up. The terrified family were all huddling under a table and looking at him in wide eyed disbelief. Tony cleared his throat. "Ah, sorry about that, guys. Lo siento."

A little boy popped his head out from behind his mother's protective grasp and grinned a gap toothed smile at Tony. "Te queremos (we love you), Iron Man."

Tony inclined his head and gave him a little salute. "Back at you, kiddo." Tony ran at the window, heading out the same way he'd entered, launching himself into the fray once again.

The Hulk was now standing on top of a two-storey apartment block simply pulling the creatures out of the air and tearing them to pieces. It was an impressive sight, just as was Thor diving through the mass of buzzing bodies and destroying them with his hammer. The army below was trying to help them, shooting up into the air, but they may as well have been using pea shooters for all the good it did. Tony shook his head in frustration even as he dispatched more of the bugs with his unibeam. "Jarvis, I'm not kidding, I really need to know where that signal is coming from!"

"I have it, sir," said Jarvis triumphantly. "It was indeed a moving target, which was why I was having so much trouble."

It appeared that albino man had a pretty big bag of tricks with how he put out this controlling signal. "Show me," Tony ordered Jarvis. Immediately the screen in front of his face zeroed in on one of the flies, illuminating it amongst all the other metal insects. "Right," said Tony grimly, "nuclear explosives on board?"

"Unfortunately yes, sir."

"I'm on it." Tony jetted towards the mechanical fly as fast as he could.

In the next instant Steve suddenly leapt on the back of the signalling fly and raised his shield, ready to slice it in two, unaware of its importance and danger.

"NO!" Tony screamed. "Cap, no!"

Steve hesitated, shield raised and looked over at him just as the fly seemed to somehow work out that it was in trouble. It shot up in the air, Steve still clinging to his back and Tony took off after them.

Tony speed after them. "You're sitting on the signalling device," he said fiercely to Steve, "and it's wired with a nuclear device again. Whatever you do, don't set it off!"

"Wasn't planning on it," grunted Steve as they tore up the sky, quickly leaving the city behind them.

"Thor, Hulk, Cap and I have the signalling device and we're going to disarm it," Tony informed them as he made sure he kept up with the fly with Steve as impromptu jockey. "Hang tight."

"Make haste, Tony Stark," Thor advised him. "I fear the beast is not only destroying these flying vermin."

Tony could hear the Hulk roaring in the background and grimaced. "On it."

"This thing isn't slowing down," Steve noted as they raced through the sky, the ground flashing far below them at a terrific rate. Below them now were craggy cliff faces and mountain ranges. At least they weren't in a populated area anymore, which was one good thing.

Tony caught up with the fly and leapt on the back of it, facing Steve as they both rode it now. He pulled the back plate off and immediately saw the bomb planted inside. This time round Tony knew exactly what to do and pulled all three blue wires at once. The bomb was immediately disarmed, but it seemed like the oversized fly had a few more moves in its repertoire. It suddenly reversed, causing Tony and Steve to fly off the front of the creature. As they spun through the air, Steve had the presence of mind to hurl his shield at the fly and managed to cut its head off. The head and body separated, each starting to tumble towards the earth.

Tony raised his arm and used his repulsors to destroy the body, knowing it would stop the other bees and flies in the city. The head spun down to the earth as Tony grabbed Steve to stop him falling as well. He lifted his arm again to dispose of the head now, but it managed to launch a clump of the metallic vomit at them. Tony dodged it, still holding onto Steve and fired, despatching the head, but he wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the vomitus mass altogether. The material caught them both around the feet. The material hardened around their feet almost immediately just as all the electrics in Tony's suit failed at once. The two of them plummeted to the earth like the proverbial rock. They were spinning out of control and all they could do was hold onto each other as Tony had a brief moment to consider this might be how he was going to meet his maker, in the arms of Steve Rogers. This was an unacceptable way to die in his mind. They were racing towards the ground so fast it was hard to see anymore but just as fast as they were falling and bracing for an undoubtedly fatal impact, suddenly they weren't. The two of them jerked like rag toys as the hardened mass around their feet became stuck in a crevice of a deep valley between two mountains. They dangled there, upside down, securely held in position by the hardened metal around their feet which was wedged into the rock face. Below them was about a four hundred foot drop to the valley floor below.

Tony pushed his visor open, seeing as none of the electrics were working and looked around to assess their situation properly. "Well, this isn't great."

"We're not dead," noted Steve, getting his bearings as well.

"Unless we are dead and this is our hell," commented Tony.

"Don't even joke about it," said Steve dourly. "Does your communicator work?"

"No, everything was taken out by whatever was in that metal. I've got bupkiss."

"Me too." Steve clenched his stomach muscles and did an upside down sit up to take a closer look at the material cementing their feet together. "I think I can get us out of this metal with my shield."

"You can see how far up we are, right?" Tony quizzed him. "Neither one of us is going to walk away from that."

"So, what are you telling me, we're stuck like this, hanging here like two hams until someone comes and rescues us?" asked Steve indignantly.

"That or we pass out from all the blood rushing to our head," agreed Tony, already feeling his face going red.

"I don't believe this," said Steve in annoyance.

"Yeah," said Tony, "it bites the big one alright."

The two men swung quietly in the breeze, only the sound of the wind whistling around them filling the silence for a long time. At last Tony spoke, finally giving voice to what he'd been thinking ever since his fight with Steve. The other man's words had cut deep, mainly because he was afraid they were true. "I do love Pepper, you know. I may not be great at the little stuff but that doesn't mean I don't want to be."

Steve turned his head to look at him in surprise.

"You think I don't know that Pepper can do better than me?" asked Tony unevenly. "That she doesn't deserve better than me?"

Steve sighed. "Yeah, but she loves you and you love her. I don't have any right to come between that."

"You weren't coming between us," conceded Tony begrudgingly. "You were just stating the obvious because you care about Pepper and I can't fault anyone for caring about her." He pulled a face. "Even though I really want to."

"Pepper is easy to care about," said Steve. "I want the best for her and sometimes I think you can do better, Tony, that's all."

"I'm a novice at this relationship thing," Tony admitted unhappily.

"Hey, I haven't had a date in seventy years," said Steve wryly. "What do I know?"

Tony looked at over at the other man. "So, we're cool?"

Steve frowned. "Is that another Frostie the Snowman joke?"

Tony gave a little laugh. "No, it's an expression, it means is everything okay between us?"

"Are you asking for a truce?"

"I guess I can admit you don't completely suck," said Tony, feigning reluctance. The truth was he felt better having gotten things out in the open between them. It was like the worst of the tension between them was finally gone and Tony didn't hate the feeling.

"This maybe all the blood pooling in my head, but I guess you're not as big of a jerk as I thought you were when we first met," replied Steve with just as much feigned reluctance.

"So, it's a truce." Tony thought about that for a moment. "But you get that I'm still going to have to make fun of you on a regular basis, right? You're just too easy of a target for me to resist."

"And you get that I'm still going to tell you when you're being a horse's ass, right?" returned Steve without missing a beat.

"Sounds fair."

"And this conversation, it never happened."

"Obviously."

There was more silence between them until Steve asked an absent question. "So, how long do you think before they find us?"

"Cuba isn't that big," Tony remarked. "How long can it take?" The question hung between them as they both considered just how big Cuba really was.

Steve folded his arms in front of his chest, a resigned expression coming over his face. "We're going to be here awhile, aren't we?"

"Yup," said Tony in equal resignation. He scratched his check absently. "Looks like we've got some time to kill." He looked sideways at Steve. "Eye spy, with my little eyes, something beginning with S-"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Got any better ideas?"

Steve seemed to think about that for awhile and then gave up. "Sky?"

"Nope."

"Shoes?"

"Nope."

"Shoot me?"

"Tempting, but no."

"Skin?"

"No."

"Shield?"

"No."

Steve grimaced. "Why can't you ever pass out when you want to?"

"Just unlucky I guess," said Tony philosophically. "Keep going."

"Shit."

"Getting warmer."