Chapter 4: Best-Laid Plans

I know, I know. This chapter is super late. Please don't hurt me! I have no good reason other than no inspiration. I hit a slump and couldn't write a word for, like, months. But at least I finally posted! Girl and Nutty haven't! So a friend's friend of mine came up with the worst pairing I have ever heard. It's worse than Heimdall/Fury. It's worse than Frigga/Thanos.

Hulk/Jabba the Hut.

I literally had to kneel down on the ground, and I think I threw up in my mouth. But I was thinking that we could do a contest thingy. So you guys send me the worst pairings you can think of, review or PM, and I'll make a poll. Okay? Okay. Oh, and it can be from any fandom.

Steve P.O.V

After Natasha left, Steve was shocked to say the least. After a few minutes, he's managed to do more than blink, and had done some deep thinking. Okay, so Tony was severely hurt and possibly dying from some unknown poison. If they wanted to help him, they needed to find Doom and make an antidote, so why was Steve sitting on his butt and feeling sorry for himself? Tony should be the one sitting on his butt and feeling sorry. If Steve wants to help his teammate, he should be out there tracking down Doom. Somewhat settled, he headed downstairs to collect the rest of his team for a meeting. Whenever Steve normally called a meeting, Tony would groan and procrastinate, but would always be there, albeit drunk or hungover, and crack jokes spontaneously about anything that caught his attention. It always made Steve want to laugh, but he was the team leader, so he doesn't have time to relax when there's a threat. Now, he wishes he could have laughed, just once.

Steve made his way to the elevator and pushed the down button. It didn't take long before the doors hissed open, granting him access with a ding. On the inside, there weren't any buttons. Jarvis was programmed to take the elevator to whatever floor the destination was on. It was a blessing that Tony hadn't programmed Jarvis to play annoying elevator music or hard rock.

He was just outside of the hospital room, when he saw Natasha and Clint leaning on opposite sides of the corridor. Their expressions were tense, so he slowed down and stopped, wondering if he'd interrupted anything private.

"Is everything all right?" He asked slowly, but when a thought occurred to him, he took a few more steps closer to the door. "Is Tony okay?"

"Fine. He's fine and we're fine. We were just talking." Natasha's poker face was as impassive as ever, but there was a slight tenseness in her posture that told Steve that he'd interrupted something important to the two spies.

"Hope I didn't interrupt anything too important." He glanced between the two assassins again as he stepped between them to go into Tony's room. He saw the glance between the two that spoke volumes as they agreed to something, and fell into step behind him.

They quietly entered the room to see Banner sitting next to Tony and looking through some reports. The dark circles under the doctor's eyes did little to dispel Steve's worry. Tony looked much the same, still waxy pale, sunken, and sickly.

"What can we do to take out Doom?" Steve never was one for subtlety, which was expounded by the ostentatious suit he wore to work.

"We can't touch him. He's the ruler of Latveria, so he has diplomatic immunity. If we go after him without justification, we'll have serious consequences." Natasha brought up.

"So what can we do? We need the injection to reverse-engineer an antidote, and Doom has it." It was enough that his friend was injured, but that they couldn't get the guy who did it, pushed Steve way past frustrated.

"We can't do anything. But a covert operation with a seasoned expert would have a pretty good chance of not being caught." Steve could feel his jaw going slack as he looked into the steady gaze of emerald eyes.

"What?" His question was overshadowed by Clint's shout.

"What are you talking about, Nat? I'm not letting you do anything near that psychopath. It's too dangerous, and if you get caught, you're a liability to Shield, so they won't go in and get you." Clint was shouting, and a lilt to his voice betrayed a level of protectiveness that made Steve somewhat awkward.

"Let me? What, I need your permission? I don't think so. Tony's hurt, might be dying. You saw what happened earlier. If the mission saves his life, it's worth the risk." Natasha had her arms crossed over her chest, and glared at Clint fiercely enough that Steve was surprised his hair didn't catch fire spontaneously.

"But what if the mission falls through? Then two team members will be gone. It's not worth it to lose your life. We can figure something else out without you getting killed or worse." Clint glared back.

Steve sat back throughout the argument, almost shocked speechless by what almost seemed like a lovers quarrel. But he had to agree with Clint.

Bracing himself to deal with an angry woman spy, he interjected. "I agree with Clint. If you do get caught, it endangers all of us, and most especially you. You aren't going to Latveria."

She turned the glare to him, and he half-expected sparks to be shooting out from the metaphorical burns he got. "But it would save Tony -."

"That's an order."

Natasha fell silent at this, and nodded curtly before turning heel and walking away. Clint stared after her, breathing heavily through his nose, before nodding at Steve and walking away too. Steve was left thoroughly confused in the company of Banner. Having nothing either better or else to do, he sat next to Banner, who pushed his glasses up and smiled tiredly.

"Is he any better?" Steve asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"No. But on the plus side, he's not any worse." Banner smiled half-heartedly.

"Any more … episodes like the one earlier?" He hoped not, one was bad enough.

"No. At least he's got that going for him."

Steve nodded. He was glad, but still felt ashamed that he had wasted time when his friend needed him. What if another seizure had happened and Banner was the only one around? He had to remember to remind Jarvis to alert him if something happened so he could come down and help. It seemed like Banner wasn't going anywhere, and Steve was still worried, so he made his seat comfortable and settled down to watch over a sick man.

Tony P.O.V

"Ugh." Tony said.

His head felt like a tiny Thor was inside it, banging away with a regular-sized Mjolnir. He was laying on a hard, cold floor. Wincing and staggering to his feet, rubbing his head while he looked at his surroundings. It was dark, but it looked to be his tower, except that it was dark and empty of furniture.

"Jarvis? Hello, buddy? Do you think we could get some lights on in here?" He called out, relieved to be there. "And ready the medical bay. I want to find out what Sparky injected me with."

Nothing responded.

"Jarvis?" Something felt wrong. Why wasn't Jarvis responding?

Tony looked around. It was cold, and rapidly getting colder. Blowing on his hands and rubbing his arms, he set off to find someone else or an exit. He was dizzy and weak, so he stumbled as he walked, and pounded the Arc just to make sure it was working every now and again. He was just getting to the Avenger's common room, when a door hissed open, and Pepper walked out.

"Pepper!" He called out, happy to see someone at last. "What's with all the lights? This is some crappy mood lighting."

She scowled at him.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry." He stopped a couple of paces away from her.

"You're always sorry, Tony." Her voice was off, cold instead of warm, and her eyes were the same.

"Yes, I am. What do I have to be sorry for now?" He was clueless to her behavior.

"You don't think about others, Tony. You coop yourself up in your lab for days at a time. You are irresponsible, childish, and I can't take it anymore. Goodbye, Tony." She glared at him again, and he started to say something to her, but was interrupted by another voice.

"Your father was a much better man than you. I can't believe that you're his son. He would have let the other guy crawl over him. You never do anything for anyone. I bet that you liked building all those weapons. I bet that you built the suit just so that you could kill people in the name of your country. You're a disgrace, to Howard, and to the Avengers." Steve was framed in another doorway, arms crossed and glaring at Tony.

"I can't believe that I used to think of you as a friend. But now I see. You're just a self-serving, egotistical bastard who thinks that he's God's gift to the world. You drag others along in your self-destructive ways and expect them to thank you and kiss the ground at your feet. I never should have moved in here." Bruce was in another doorway.

"How does it feel, Stark, being called out on all your shortcomings? You're pathetic. You feel wronged by dear, old daddy because he never loved you. You sleep around because you think that no woman in her right mind would commit herself to you. You act brash and arrogant, because on the inside, you know you're nothing special. You really thought that building the suit and joining the Avengers would somehow atone for your mistakes. Oh, no. You can never escape." Natasha was leaning against another doorway with Clint standing behind her.

The room was spinning, all their words were spiraling into a blur. His breath came short, and stars burst across his vision. But most of all, he was stunned by who he thought were his friends turning against him. It serves me right, he thought to himself. It didn't sound like him, though.

"Anthony Stark. I wondered when I would get to see you again." Dread filled him at the voice coming from behind him.

"I believe that you should run." Loki smiled, in full battle gear with the scepter gleaming blue wickedly.

He gasped out a breath, and started stumbling away. This was, by far, the worst day he had ever had.

Hope this makes up for the long, long, long wait. I hope to post more chapters soon. If you favorite, you get to sit next to Steve and Bruce. If you follow, you get to save Tony from his delusions. If you follow or favorite me, then you get my undying loyalty and free cyber cookies!