Chapter 17.
"I would also like to go down and help Pepper," Rhodey said, as a dozen suits surged toward them.
Natasha rolled out of a blast, throwing a knife at her attacker. Rhodes spun past her, slamming into the back wall. A suit was trying to stab through the power core on his chest.
Steve hit the ground, a cord wrapped around his ankle.
Nat dove, missing him by a few inches. He was dragged backward out of the tower, thrown into the building across the street. Tony.
"Rhodey!" she said, drawing a baton and knocking a suit out of her path. "Get Steve!"
Rhodey had locked arms with a suit, putting everything he had into keeping it at bay.
She would have to do it herself, then.
Nat ran for the windows, engaging her grappling hook, leaping into the air-
A suit hit her, throwing her back inside.
"Damnit," Nat ground out, rolling back to her feet, avoiding a heavy cross-chop. "Banner!"
Nat staggered, shoulder aching from a fresh hit, open to attack.
But the suit she had been fighting was suddenly crushed beneath a massive green fist.
"Go help Steve!" Nat said.
The Hulk nodded gruffly, heading for the windows, one leap away-
A suit crashed into him, sending him rolling back into the penthouse.
They were specifically keeping the Avengers in the tower.
Nat threw a knife, catching the suit in the leg, jamming some gears. The Hulk grabbed it to throw it off – and it clung to him, its parts shifting and spreading over his body.
Another suit landed on him and did the same thing, until he was enveloped in a weird, metal exoskeleton. His eyes burned inside, his frustrated screams shaking the tower. His arms were forced to be still as the metal locked into place.
"Did anybody just see those things eat Banner?" Rhodes demanded.
Nat scaled the Hulk. He was seething inside, preparing to break free – and break the whole tower in the process. Meanwhile, the suits were shrinking, pressing in on him.
"Hold on, big guy, I got you." Nat pulled out a stun chip, sticking it on the most sophisticated part of the suit she could see.
Her chip went off, electrifying the cage.
Nat jumped away as the Hulk broke free. He slammed his fists into the ground, roaring, riding a wave of fury that could bring New York to its knees.
Were those suits specifically designed to provoke him?
And then, mercifully, he melted down into Banner.
Nat dove forward to catch him as he collapsed, narrowly keeping his head from hitting the ground. His skin was scorching hot, flushed, and he was trembling violently.
"It was too much…" Bruce said, terror in his dark eyes. "I had to stop him. I had to stop him."
Nat dragged him behind the wet bar. "Maybe you were right. Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine," Bruce said, a tremor in his voice.
She clasped his shoulder, "Stay here."
He responded groggily, "Sure, thanks."
XxXxX
Steve only saw the suits for a split second.
A cord wrapped around his ankle and yanked him straight out of the window. He got a brief glimpse of Tony hovering behind his army before he soared across the street and slammed into the neighboring building.
Steve dug his shield into the concrete, slowing himself, then tumbling to the ground. He barely got a breath in before he had to raise his shield, deflecting a powerful blast.
Tony.
"Stop," Steve said, rolling away, blocking a laser. "You don't want to do this!"
"You throw a guy off a building twice and he still doesn't get the hint." Tony rocketed forward.
Steve rose and met him, deflecting a punch and thrashing him with his shield.
Tony staggered, but recovered quickly, firing another blast. Steve took it on his shield.
"I tried reasoning with you," Steve said, wishing he had his armor on. "But I can see we're past that. We'll do it the hard way, then."
Tony fired a missile. When it hit the shield, it sent Steve through a wall, into a parking garage. Tony was on him in a second, throwing him into a concrete pillar, getting too close. Steve saw his chance and grabbed him, thrashed him in the chest, tried to get his shield through the power core of his suit.
Tony deployed another missile, producing a pressure wave that threw them apart.
It went on and on. Steve was more experienced in close combat, but Tony had a thousand gadgets on his side. Steve fought to get closer, Tony fought to keep his distance.
Steve kept trying to break through, to reason with him.
"Something has control over you! Someone is making you do this!"
"Wishing doesn't make it so."
Tony was going for the kill.
"Just listen to me!"
"No, Cap, I'm done listening. You think you're right. You can't see reason."
"If you just stop for a second-"
"I don't think I will."
Tony punched him in the face, using his other hand to deliver a powerful repulsor beam to Steve's stomach. He knocked Steve flat on his back, the shield too far away to grab. Steve went for a leg sweep, but Tony grabbed a concrete block and shattered it over his thigh. It was followed swiftly by an intense shock to hit gut. He lunged, trying to get upright, but Tony produced a thick blade from the arm of his suit and stabbed him through the thigh, breaking the bone with an awful crack.
Steve went down, a tidal wave of pain making his muscles give out.
His whole leg went numb, useless, like it had been lopped off.
Steve put his hands up, blocking a punch, a blast.
And then he shouted, "What about Pepper?"
Tony relented. He stood there, still as stone.
"What?"
"Pepper. Your robot almost killed her when it activated."
Tony staggered backward, his laser powering down, the helmet of his suit disengaging.
Steve tried to pull himself up, but his leg was broken. It flopped around. He watched in wonder, in horror, as the anger drained out of Tony. His eyes. It was his eyes.
Tony had gray rings encircling his irises, like plumes of smoke.
He looked at Steve and seemed to see him for the first time. Fear and confusion laid bare on the battlefield.
"Tony…?" Steve said.
Tony shook himself, having a hard time focusing.
"Cap?"
Just like that, in a split second, Steve knew he was right. Pepper was right. Something was wrong with him, something was making him act like this.
And then the moment ended, the gray smoke faded.
Tony plunged the blade toward Steve again.
Steve caught it, the razor edge digging into his palms. Tony put an impressive amount of force into the weapon, enough to slowly drive it towards Steve's chest – toward his heart.
He pushed harder, harder, until it was touching Steve. It pressed into his shirt, made his ribs ache, breaking the skin and burrowing into bone.
Crack. It fractured something.
Steve put everything he had into holding him back.
And then Tony was tackled, thrown sideways.
Natasha.
She rolled away and tossed a stun chip. Tony deflected it. She had a second one flying right behind it, which landed on his abdomen. Tony seized up as electricity raced through his suit. His helmet crackled, smoked, and the faceplate popped off.
He fired on her.
Nat rolled back, drawing her guns.
"Stop," Steve said. The words were weak.
Nat fired explosive rounds, each bullet hitting his suit like a tiny missile, narrowly missing his open helmet. Tony surged into the sky, his suit faltering ten feet up, and then racing out of sight.
"Let him go," Steve said, though the point was moot.
Tony was gone.
"I saw something in his eyes," Steve said.
He tried to get up again, but the pain was too much, even for him. Blood rippled out of his thigh, darkening his pants, forming a pool on the concrete.
Nat crouched beside him, put her hand tenderly on his cheek, "You have a nasty black eye. I'm surprised you can see anything." She cut the bottom of his pant leg and used it as a tourniquet, securing it on his thigh above the gushing wound. "It's already slowing down," the noted, taking a long look at her bloody hands. "He almost killed you – again."
"His eyes," Steve repeated, feeling lightheaded.
Nat dragged him upright, sliding under his arm to help him stand. "What do you eat for breakfast, bricks?" He gave out on the first step. She eased him back to the ground.
"I'll be fine," he said, groaning as he straightened his leg out in front of him. His femur shifted around, the broken parts of it grinding together.
"You're in shock," Nat said. "Stop moving your leg. It's making a gross sound."
He chuckled, grimaced. "I just need… an hour or two."
Rhodey joined them, and together he and Nat got Steve upright. His lightheadedness was rapidly fading, the bleeding almost at a standstill. But his leg was still useless.
Outside, Bruce was topless, wearing the stretchy pants Tony had made to withstand the Hulk. He said, "Clint took Pepper to the hospital. It looks like that thing stepped on her when it left the basement. It doesn't look good." He looked Steve over, wincing, "Neither do you."
"Thanks."
Nat directed him to a nearby car, "Come on. We're going to the hospital, too."
"I don't need a hospital."
"You're not indestructible. And you're too weak to fight back, so stop whining."
Steve put his hand out, catching the hood of the car.
"Stop being a baby," Nat said, shoving him.
"Wait, I saw something." Steve shied away from her touch, which stirred some ribs that had been pulverized. "Tony had something in his eyes. Gray smoke."
Bruce said, "What, like mind control?"
"We still haven't found the scepter," Rhodey said.
"That doesn't matter right now," Nat insisted.
Steve forced himself to stand straight, to look in her eyes, to show her how much he meant it. "It does matter. It matters."
Her jaw stiffened. "Right now what matters is getting you to a hospital – and finding Stark before he kills someone."
He faltered.
"Get in the car," Nat said, softly now. "Bruce, can you take him?"
He needed to keep an eye on her. She was the biggest wildcard right now. Her tone, her aggressive posture, told him that she was the last person who needed to find Tony.
Steve said, "Can you take me?"
Nat had expressive eyes. She was somewhere between protecting him and kicking his ass. She seemed to know what he was doing, and why, and yet she still relented.
"Fine. Now please get in the car before I break your other leg."
Steve settled into the passenger's seat, one hand braced on his thigh. She was right about him being in shock. It was fading. He felt each bump like sandpaper on a raw nerve.
Nat put her hand over his.
"I guess we're even now," Steve said.
When they were in the middle of the disastrous fall of SHIELD, when they were hiding out with Sam after nearly dying in a bunker, Nat had asked him if he trusted her to save his life. He said he did, and he meant it. Trust like that was foreign to her. It came naturally to him.
She glanced at him, giving a small smile. "No. I don't think we'll ever be even."