Chapter 2:
The Quinjet landed on the deck of the Avengers tower with a woosh. The entry hatch opened, and Thor, Natasha and Bruce walked out. Tony was still at the front of the Jet, giving commands to JARVIS.
"And uh, think of going at Mach 6 cruising speed, land and wait for return. Might wanna play some music to soothe Barton, he's not gonna like not having Natasha with him. And connect every call from his phone to the Jet's speakers, he'll need to tell his family."
"Approved and ready for departure, sir." JARVIS gave a chime to signal that he was ready.
"Thanks man." Clint was still lying down on the bench, his eyes closed.
"All good Barton, don't flat-line out there." Tony made to walk out, but found his path blocked by a woman, wearing a black dress, maybe in her mid-thirties.
Agent Maria Hill was standing at the entry hatch, holding a screen. Tony was taken aback, as he stared at Agent Hill. "Uh, anything wrong, Hill?
"Cho's cancelled her visit, Boss." She held up a screen.
"Uh, actually, I'm not the boss. Cap is. Uh, Cap?" Tony called out to where Thor, Bruce and Natasha went. Steve walked out from behind Tony, who jumped.
"Jeez! You planning to go fonduing with Barton or something?" Steve ignored Tony's remark, and took the screen from Hill's hands.
"Anything new, Agent?" He walked with Agent Hill towards an elevator.
"The enhanced you were talking about, Pietro Maximoff. Twins with Wanda Maximoff. Rough history, both orphaned at 11, experimented on by Strucker. We're not sure if Wanda is enhanced, but we assume so."
"Your assumption would be correct, Agent Hill." Steve did not show any expression on his face, except maybe a small degree of determinedness. Hill saw this and frowned.
"Are you okay, Rogers?" Steve looked up at this, and shook his head.
"Yeah, I'm... fine." He handed the screen to Agent Hill, and walked towards the elevator, closing the door behind him, leaving Hill staring at him. Strange.
"You noticed anything about Cap, Bruce?" Tony walked into his lab, with Bruce behind him, wearing a white lab coat.
"Oh, you mean the sending Cho back to Seoul incident? Yeah, that was kinda weird." Bruce sat down and took off his glasses cleaning them with a cloth.
"Not just that. He was sitting in the Jet until Barton was about to go. He only came off when Agent Hill wanted him." Tony was staring at the floor, deep in thought. Something was up.
"Huh. I mean, it could just be him deep in thought. He has his own world from the forties, anyway, maybe he was thinking about that. We can't really blame him." Bruce put on his glasses and looked at Tony. He didn't look worried at all.
"Come on Bruce! Man goes missing for half an hour, not replying, and suddenly shows up looking in tip top shape. Later, he orders something that he doesn't know a thing about, bringing Barton closer to death. Then he stays on the jet until he's forced to leave, just cause Hill's calling him." Tony counted off of his fingers, recounting each event, then glared at Bruce. "You can't deny something's up."
"You're right, I can't. But this is a man who was alive during World War 2, I don't think we can ever really know what's going on inside his head." Bruce shook his head, and made to walk out of the lab, but stopped dead in his tracks. His and Tony's earpiece was beeping. Tony touched it, and Natasha's voice came out from it.
"Guys?" Tony and Bruce looked at each other, puzzled.
"Yeah, we're here." Bruce replied before Tony opened his mouth.
"We need you down here. Something's happening to Steve."
On the floor of the living room in the Avengers Tower, Steve was groaning. He was lying down on the floor, with strange gurgles and yells of pain coming from his mouth. Thor and Natasha were standing on the sides of Steve, trying to help him up, but he just moved away from them. Bruce and Tony ran towards them from the elevator, and gasped at what was before them.
Steve's nerves were all visible and popping out, a deep purple colour. His screams were echoing off the walls, and a strange purple light was visible coming from his chest.
"Cap? Cap!" Tony held out his arm, reaching for him, but Steve just moved away. "What's wrong with him?"
"We don't know, he just dropped right in front of us as we were walking up to the couch." Natasha, was looking extremely worried, trying at every second to grab at Steve.
Suddenly, he stopped. His screams became silent. He lied down on the floor, breathing heavily. Then he looked up at all of his comrades, the six Avengers. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face, for the first time since he went missing, showed emotion. But not an emotion they wanted to see. His face was screwed up in pain, and his eyes showed horror.
"Run… NOW!" It was a growl, but it seemed to cause him a great deal of pain. He bent back down, shaking his head slightly, and then fell down, quiet. Everyone around him looked shocked and horrified, gazing at his still body.
"Steve! Steve, look at me!" Natasha fell down at the floor, holding Steve's shoulder, trying to lift him up.
Without warning, she was punched across the face, as she went flying backwards, crashing into the bar behind them. Steve jumped up, and made straight for his shield, which was lying a metre or so from him. Tony shouted something indiscernible, with a loud crash somewhere below them. There were more noises of commotion as Thor jumped.
"Captain!" Thor tackled Steve just as he reached his shield, bodying him to the ground. Steve turned over with a such a ferocious force that Thor was knocked off of him. He held up his shield, and struck Thor across the face repeatedly, on and on, five more times, until Thor's face was completely covered with blood. Thor held up his hand weakly, summoning Mjolnir to him. Steve glanced to his right, registering Mjolnir at the last second. He held up his shield, and the hammer clanged into it, sending a huge shockwave throughout the room. Everyone was blown backwards, and the force of the hammer pushed the shield back into Thor's face. Steve looked down at Thor again, and for another strike to his face, but the shield was caught by something.
Tony was blocking the shield, now clad in the Mark 43 Iron Man Armour. His helmet flew to his face, clanking shut just as he gave a repulsor blast to Steve's face, which caught him off guard, knocking him back a few feet. Steve jumped up yet again, and jumped onto Tony's shoulder. Tony flew up using his boot propulsion, but Steve jumped off of his shoulders, and grabbed Tony's foot. He picked up his shield, and hit the boot jet on Tony multiple times, breaking the shell until it flew off of Tony's foot. Steve slammed Tony down, multiple times, and threw him across the room to the windows of the Avengers Tower. Tony pushed using his feet, and the back propulsion activated, flying him back into the Tower, away from the precarious fall into the abyss that was New York City.
Tony landed on the floor again, panting. He saw Banner lying down on the floor, holding his hands to his ears.
"Banner, don't you go green status on me!" Tony made to go towards Bruce, who held up his hand, signalling he was fine. Tony looked back around to where Steve had been moments ago, and saw him sprinting to the balcony of the Avengers Tower.
"Flight systems compromised. Boot propulsion systems offline, sir." JARVIS echoed inside Tony's helmet.
"Then use hand and fin flight systems, damn it!" Tony growled into the helmet, furious. His back and hand flight boosters activated, and he flew straight at Steve, who was about to jump off of the balcony. Tony caught Steve's boot, and pulled him back, smashing him into the floor of the balcony. He then made to punch Steve right in the face, but missed as Steve spun his head to the side, and made a hole in the floor. Steve swiped Tony across the chest with his shield as hard as he could, and shattered the glass on the Arc Reactor with one hit. Tony fell backwards, and Steve struck him again on the chest, caving in the Arc Reactor. He struck Tony one more time on the face, making him go unconscious.
Over in the bar area, Natasha woke up with a start. She stood up, and saw the carnage that Steve had left behind. Bruce was on the floor, holding his hands up to his ears, Thor was on the floor, lying in a pool of blood with his hammer a few metres from his hand. She looked across to the balcony, where Tony and Steve were in battle. She jumped over the bar, running over to Bruce, who looked up at her.
"I'm fine! Steve's going crazy." He pointed over to where Tony and Steve were pointing. Natasha patted Bruce on the shoulder, and then stood up, running in to join the action. She reached them just as Steve hit Tony across the face, rendering him unconscious.
She started at Steve with a kick to his head, which was of no avail as he had his helmet on. She followed up with a kick to his stomach, which he blocked with his hands. She jumped onto his shoulders, and tried to twist his neck around to hit the ground, but he resisted, holding her up. She started punching him on the face repeatedly at a painful angle.
"Stop… it… you… bastard!" She said each word with a punch, until Steve backflipped into the wall, knocking Natasha off of him. She jumped up straight away, and aimed a kick to his cheek. She swung her leg upwards, but Steve caught it right next to his shoulder, and twisted it, slamming Natasha into the ground. He grabbed his shield just as Natasha aimed at him with her gauntlets, launching a tiny device onto him. He held up his shield, and the device attached to it. He looked at it, then quickly aimed for Natasha, throwing the shield with such ferocity that it seemed like a blur in the air. She ducked down, but it was to no avail. There was a crackling noise, and the shield hit Natasha's chest, her own EMP catching her and electrocuting her. The force of the shield knocked her to the ground, and the EMP was so strong that she started shaking violently on the ground, in much the same fashion that Steve had. Steve ran over to her, picking up his shield and glancing down at her, with a horrified expression on his face. He grabbed his shield, and unable to do anymore damage, jumped off of the balcony, and using his shield, slid down the length of the Tower, disappearing into the vast city beneath him. The last thing he saw before jumping was Natasha, unmoving, on the ground.
She lay on the now destroyed balcony, in unbearable pain. Bruce ran to her from the inside of the building, and leaned down to tend her.
"Hey, hey, hey. Look at me. Nat." He looked down, and felt her hand for her pulse, giving a sigh of relief when he felt it still beating. She looked at him, and made a disgusted expression. She sat up with the expression still on her face, then gave an enormous cough, once, twice and more, until she fell onto the ground once more. Bruce shook her, and then gave a wail when he saw that she was in a pool of blood. She had been coughing up blood.
She gave a hard push with her hands, and pushed herself into a sitting position, wiping her mouth as she did so.
"Are you good, Bruce?" Bruce smiled meekly at this, not giving an answer, but gesturing to pool of blood she had coughed up. She spoke into her earpiece.
"Everyone, be advised, Steve Rogers is compromised. I repeat, Captain America has been compromised."
