(A/N) Yes it's short I apologize in advance for that but instead of working on this chapter last night I started on the Budapest fanfic. That would be something I wouldn't post until this is done, and I still have a few things planned for this so enjoy this sort little chapter.
When the EMP arrived Bruce started having second thoughts; there were so many things that could go wrong and every one of the possibilities went through his mind. Obviously there was the fact that Justin Hammer, who was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly after the Avengers left, was smarter than Tony gave him credit for and thought around an EMP. But there was also the fact that they would have to remove the reactor while they set off the pulse to make sure that had no chance of being damaged, and with the state Tony was in removing the only thing that keeps him alive out of his body for the third time could have consequences. But when he weighed his options they were clear as day. It was either do nothing and Tony dies for sure, or try this and there is a chance he would survive. He knew that a small chance was all something needed to work.
That left him holding the arc reactor in his hands ready to pull it out and store it in the faraday cage that Fury had provided, apparently the threat of an EMP attack was well thought of leaving them very prepared for the procedure they were about to do. Something also that Clint was very prepared to do to since he volunteered an arrow that had an arrowhead that would create a EMP small enough to take out electronics within a ten foot radius since everyone on the helicarrier could take out New York City if they felt the need.
"We're going to have to do this quickly." Bruce warned the three in the room. , Barton, and himself were the only ones present giving them space. "Once I have the reactor safely locked inside set of the EMP. Don't waste anytime we have less than two minutes to pull this off before the next attack."
"Then let's get this done already." Clint kept his thumb over the manual activation for the arrowhead.
"Count of three." Bruce announced. "One, two three." He pulled the reactor out swiftly causing Tony to flinch slightly but not much else. Instantly Bruce stored the reactor and closed the lid tightly. "Set it off."
Clint pressed the button which quite undramatically set off the pulse. The light above them flickered off but they were prepared and were in one of the rare rooms on the helicarrier with a window giving them all the light they needed. Other than that there was no sign that anything had happened to at all. As the reactor was reattached to Tony's chest they waited for when the next attack would occur if the robots inside him hadn't been destroyed.
"How much longer until we know." Clint asked setting the arrow back in his quiver.
looked at his watch. "We should know in the right about now."
They all watched Tony with knots in their stomach. He was unnaturally pale and his eyes were half open as he barely clung on to consciousness though was too incoherent to speak or do anything at all. Sweat covered his body making his clothes stick to his skin. In a few words he looked like hell and now they watched to see if the torture was over.
At three minutes since the last attack Tony's body tensed but no pain came to it. Sighs of relief were let out as Tony's body went slack and his eyes slipped shut seemingly falling unconscious.
"Go get the nurses outside and bring them in here." ordered Clint. "I need to see the extent of the damage those things made."
Clint nodded and left the room quickly to be replaced by two nurses that brought a mobile heart monitor and a defibrillator they luckily didn't use. After a quick look over the medical team wheeled Tony out of the room to the one that they had set up for him.
"That is something I never want to do again." Bruce muttered as the rest of the Avengers entered the small room.
"Is he going to be okay?" Steve asked watching as Bruce nodded slowly. "Are you okay? You're looking a little green there doctor."
"I'm fine." Bruce sighed leaning against the wall trying to ignore how shaky he was. He was always in fear of the other guy coming out of nowhere when the slightest thing happened. Though he had a good lid on his alter ego on normal day to day situations like Tony constantly trying to set him off when they were working on finding the Tesseract. His anger was something he was used to controlling. But the fear of having one of his only friends die a painful death like that was something else. Words couldn't describe how thankful he was that his team let him just rest there and get himself under control.
"We should go check on Tony." He said after a while. Not even waiting for the rest of them to object Bruce left to go and find . He spotted the doctor filling ordering nurses around. When he saw them waved them over.
"Where's Tony?" Natasha asked.
"He's with our best trauma specialist." He let out a tired sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I wanted to tell you this myself. In an attempt to save itself from any further damage Tony's body put itself into a coma."