2 WEEKS EARLIER
"Alright Jarvis, give me a sweep of the compound." Tony instructed while standing on a a rooftop, 83.25 yards away. It took a moment to scan the large structure. They were lucky that it was abandoned. Then again a lot of the buildings in this part of Lybia are abandoned
The structure was in the middle of nowhere. It had its own satellite sitting on top of the large building that sat in the middle of a clearing. Surrounding it were several concrete slabs that came to Caps waist.
"How long is this gonna take?" An impatient Hawkeye whispered, perched in a nearby tree.
"Patience, young padawan." Tony replies. Hawkeye looks at Nat.
"Did he just...?" Hawkeye whispers to her. She just shrugs, but she smiles when he turns away.
"Guys we need to focus. Tony, is Jarvis finished with that scan yet?" Captain America spoke in a stern manner. Tony replied almost immediately.
"Alright, Jarvis, how does it look?"
"I have detected several hundred signatures that match those of Chitauri technology, sir."
"Jarvis, hack into their computer systems and download all the files. They've gotta be selling this stuff on the black market. We're gonna need that client list."
Suddenly, blasts of energy exploded near Tony and the others. It took all of them by surprise. Cap flew into the air and landed on his side a few meters away. Nat and Hawkeye were blown out of the tree; Hawkeye shot his grappler and safely landed Nat and himself. Within seconds they were firing back.
Thor simply got knocked off of his feet, stood right back up and threw his hammer. Bruce watched from the newly made Quinjet, unwantingly waiting for the green light he hoped they'd never give.
Tony almost fell 4 stories when they blew the roof he was on. Boy was he glad for his suit. 'Hey it technically is a body guard.' He thought to himself for a moment. Several more blasts zoomed past his head. 'Alright, moment's gone.' He flew into the air and out of the range of their weapons. Or so he thought.
Tony watched the battle below him and sent off a few rockets and missiles towards the dozens of men firing the alien tech. Simultaneously, he was trying to scout them out, but out of nowhere a giant ball of purple, black and blue energy came blazing towards him. The first few seconds of it was gas-like and went straight through his armour. The second wave was pure energy and it completly knocked out his systems.
"Jarvis, emergency power! JARVIS?!" Thankfully Tony wasn't at a seriously high altitude. But the fall into the compound was not painless. He fell through metal, wood, sheet rock, brick, instalation, more wood, more metal and finally crash landed into some wooden crates.
"Tony's down! Somebody get over there!" Steve called out.
"I'm on it!" Clint said, and used his grappler to get to Tony's location. Mat rushed over to take cover behind one of the concrete slabs near Steve.
"Guys! What's happening? Is this a green light?" Bruce asked. No one answered right away. But, he heard Nat's voice and calmed a little bit.
"They ambushed us! There's too many of them." Nat said.
"Bruce, you've got a green light!" Bruce shook his head in the Quinjet. He took a deep breath.
"Here we go." He muttered to himself.
Steve and Nat took cover behind a buidling several feet thick with brick and cement. At least they had a few seconds to breathe. Without warning a big green blur came in and slammed into one of the enemy trucks.
"This had to be a set up." Bat suggested to Steve after she fired several shots.
"We gotta find that informant. He's gotta be working with H.Y.D.R.A."
"You think this is H.Y.D.R.A? They would've been way more discreet. It was way too easy to locate their compound let alone hack into their sysyems."
"Tony had resistance getting in."
"Think about it. Since when does H.Y.D.R.A not have a seperate shielding mechanism?" She was right. It was strange that this was so easy. Too easy.
"We need to abort. Call in the evac." Steve ordered. Nat complied.
"Guys we've been ambushed, evac is on the way." Steve announced.
"No shit Sherlock!" Tony remarked, his voice sounding strained.
"Agreed!" Thor responded while taking down an entire H.Y.D.R.A squadron.
"Tony you alright?" Steve asked over the coms. Tony just got out of the literal whole he was in and took a deep breath.
"Just peachy." Hawkeye just entered the massive room and ran to Tony. They looked around at all the boxes. They had alien technology inside, but on the outside, it read 'Medical Supplies'.
"How ironic." Tony said. Hawkeye raised his eyebrows and gave a sideways nod in agreement.
"What do you say we make some fireworks, huh? Place some explosives and watch from afar with a bowl of popcorn." Tony spoke as he walked around and inspected some of the tech lying around.
"Jarvis, scan the building and find the weakest points." Less than a minute later Jarvis downloaded the info.
"Cap, on my word you need to retreat. We're setting up a little present for our friends outside."
"Understood."
"Sir, I have the weakest points of the structure." J.A.R.V.I.S stated.
"Thanks, buddy. Clint set the bombs over there, there, there, and there. That should do it."
Hawkeye started doing just that. He took the explosives from Tony and began setting them around the room. 'How did he have these in there? What else does he have in that suit?' He wondered.
Tony came a cross something peculiar. It was an odd shaped piece. It was spherical, with four little indents evenly spaced all around it. Tony thought it was interesting so he reached for it. But, before he could grab it a bolt of white hot energy blasted him across the room. He landed on another box full of 'Medical Supplies'. But the tech inside were weapons. One was full of spear like weapons, which nicked Tony on his left side.
"STARK!" Tony barely heard Clints voice. He couldn't understand what anyone was saying. He closed his eyes tightly. He suddenly felt as if he was floating. He could've sworn he heard a large explosion. He thought he felt it too, but when he opened his eyes, he woke up to Dr. Helen Cho looking at him dead in the face.
"Uh, hello."
"My apologies Mr. Stark. I was just examining your injuries."
"Uh, huh. Sure you were." He grasped his head as he the Doctor left the room. She must've went and got Steve because he entered only moments later.
"How do you feel?"
"Confused. Aches everywhere; You know, like a piñata would at a child's birthday party. What the hell happened back there?"
"One of their devices detonated while you were in close range. You were injured. Don't worry, just a few stitches."
"That's good to hear."
"That was a good call on those explosives. They followed us as we retreated through the building to the other side. Took care of all of them." Steve said crossing his arms over his chest.
"And the Neanderthal that double crossed us?"
"We're looking for him. You sit back and work on that data J.A.R.V.I.S downloaded. We're gonna need that client list." Tony gave Cap a mock salute, and as Dr. Cho walked back in, Steve let his smirk show just a little.
"Ok, we got the scans back, and everything looks good. Well except the cut of course." Dr. Cho studdard.
"Hm mm."
"We need to work on new training excersizes when we get back. Get some rest Tony. You'll be fine." Steve said and walked out of the room. Yeah, fine.
ONE MONTH LATER
"Okay, Tony, go ahead and step on the scale." Bruce was careful with his tone. He and Steve helped Tony out of the wheelchair and onto the small metal platform. They waited until Tony had a good grip on the handles before letting go. The instant Tony's hands started shaking, Steve moved to hold his hands just above Tony's waist, but not touching him. Tony would just yell in protest; they could hardly blame him.
Bruce hooked Tony up to the vitals monitor and began running the tests. He was glad the machine Tony invented could perform multiple medical tests at once. Makes it easier on Tony. After Bruce clicked a few buttons and received the information he needed, he nodded to Steve. Steve grabbed a hold of Tony and started to help him back into the wheelchair.
Pepper watched from the observation window in the next room. She had her hand over her heart nervously. She hated to see Tony like this. Tony was always this strong, protective figure in her life. It was hard to see him so... she couldn't bare thinking about it. His condition was only worsening. They all knew it.
They've had experts from around the world come in and take a look at Tony, but none found anything. They would give a diagnosis that Bruce and Dr. Cho would dismiss. Eventually they just left, at a loss. Bruce and Dr. Cho were hard at work studying his illness. If that's what it was.
"Yeah, I got it!" Tony's voice snapped Pepper out of her thoughts. She hurriedly walked into the room and stood at the doorway. He got agitated from Steve and Bruce helping him into the wheelchair. Pepper walked over and kneeled down in front of Tony. Steve and Bruce stepped aside to give them some space.
Tony's thin arm went up to hold his head in exhaustion. Pepper held his other bony hand in both of her soft ones. She didnt say a word. She just sat there with him knowing that nothing anyone said could comfort him right now.
After a moment he looked up at her with tears in his eyes. That sight made tears instantly fill her own eyes. She understood what he was trying to say; his eyes revealing everything. She knew he was in pain: physically and mentally.
Pepper stood and took a hold of the wheelchair. She leaned over and placed a soft kiss on Tony's forehead. She noticed how sunken in Tony's cheeks were and it crushed her. She could tell he lost more weight. Pretty soon he won't have any to lose.
"I've got him from here, you guys." Pepper said softly as she started to take Tony out of the room. She looked behind her for a second and mouthed a 'thank you' to Bruce and Steve.
When they had both moved out of their sight, Bruce moved back to the machine to check the results. Steve stayed still for a moment thinking about his friend, looking on as they walked into the spacious room. He was really worried about him. They had all grown a lot closer the past few years; like a family. He wished it was a person doing this so he could punch them in the face. Steve turned and walked over to stand in front of the machine Bruce was inspecting.
"This isn't good." Bruce said almost to himself.
"What is it?" Steve asked, worry clear in his tone.
"He's lost another 7 pounds. His vitamin B, his iron, all of it, they're all dangerously low."
"What does that mean? What's happening to Tony?" Bruce did that nervous tick he did with his mouth and hands. He stepped away from the machine and moved to look at the security cameras. He saw Pepper and Tony in the kicthen trying to get him to eat, didn't look like Pepper was getting anywhere.
"Bruce!" Bruce turned around to find Steve only a few feet away.
"Tony's dying."
TO BE CONTINUED...