AN: Sorry for the long wait guys, had to get other affairs in order first. This is what I could muster quick enough to give to you guys, hope you enjoy!

"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things." - René Descartes

Chapter Six.

Steve jumped to his feet as soon as the blaring alarm of the tower hit his eardrums, making a lunge to the corner of his room in order to grab his shield. Once that was strapped on, he rushed to the door and pressed his head against the wood for a moment before trying the doorknob. It worked fine. From the second Steve opened his bedroom door, he was welcomed by sprinkles of water raining at his face. The fire sprinklers had gone off. He quickly wiped a hand over his face, placed his shield above his head and ran through the now flooding halls. His socks got soaked instantly. And he noticed that the floor was rumbling. What was that shaking? An earthquake?

He turned his attention to the voices of each Avenger that could be heard throughout the halls of the sleeping quarters, including his own.

"What's going on?" He shouted into the deck of madness, above the ringing and the water spitting past his ears.

"What's happening!" A voice cried from down the hall.

"Fire!" A woman's voice answered, short and quick, so it was Natasha.

"Nah, this is water man!" Clint probably.

"Tony!" Steve called out.

"Turn it off!" Roared the God of Thunder, who could be heard stomping through the halls in an attempt to control the situation, failing miserably. So, Steve thought, he was cause of the floor shaking beneath their feet. Maybe it wasn't so wise to have sleeping quarters on the same floor.

In the mist of this blinding chaos, Steve turned sharply at the corner of one hall and bumped into another person. It was Tony. Finally, time to get some answers.

"Why are the fire sprinkles on?" He yelled over the noise.

"A fire erupted. There was an attack, a bomb in the kitchen downstairs, no time to explain," Tony yelled back, wiping his wet strands of hair of his face. "I need to get the weapons systems back online," he finished, running past the man of muscle. "Everyone else, upstairs!"

"No. Wait, where are you going?"

"The fire floor!"

Steve blinked the water off his eyes, looking on as Tony ran off downstairs. He should follow him. But a hand stopped him by the forearm before he could get a chance to pursue.

"Natasha."

"Come on, Cap. Everyone else is going up to the party deck."

"We should be having an evacuation, not retreating to higher levels when there is potential danger here. There are people working in this building, we should help them."

"Stark has that handled, besides, you're not familiar with the floor plan of the tower yet."

Steve didn't understand her usual calmness through situations like this. The tower had just been bombed. There's a fire on the lower half of the building with people inside. People! Civilians were in danger. Steve couldn't just retreat.

Just then all the lights went out shortly backed up by a blue florescent light. Just as Steve was about to question the light change, Natasha remained two steps ahead of him and answered his unspoken query.

"Stark put all the systems back online," Natasha said, as though she read Steve's mind. She flashed him a knowing smile then nodded in the direction ahead. "To the party deck." Steve didn't protest. And she led the way to the closest staircase and up to the party deck where all the other Avengers had gathered, equally wet from the sprinkles. From their hair to their clothes, half pajamas half casual, everything was dripping wet with water, as was everything else within the general vicinity of fire sprinkles.

Bruce looked particularly shaken, black curly hair even darker and clang to his head like the arms of an octopus. His normally ironed dress shirt was loose and darkened by the water. Clint was clearly upset with being wet with his arms crossed, looking pointedly at the Captain as water dripped from his bristly hair. Thor fared better than most present; he has seen worse water storms. He was the one who excused himself from the group to go outside and check for exterior damage.

"Was that a fire drill or something?" Clint questioned the Captain, obviously still upset for some reason; perhaps it was because of the sudden furious ringing of the alarm that disturbed the entire building so early in the morning.

"No, not a fire drill. The tower has been bombed-"

"What?!"

Steve continued, "Which led to a fire. Tony has assured me that everything is under control."

"This is exactly why I wanted to go back to my apartment, it isn't safe with all of us grouped together, we're like sittin' ducks up here!" Clint argued, still poking his anger at the Captain for some reason.

"Clint," Natasha warned with a deadly look, then changed her expression as Steve drew her attention. "The question I want an answer to is why didn't the alarms go off when the bomb was brought the building? Or at least when it went off? The automated fire sprinkles were set off by the smoke in the kitchen before any computer recognized danger."

"Stark set all systems offline, remember? Including defenses," she reminded him.

Steve frowned. "That's not like him." It was a dumb move. "I only asked him to take the weapons offline." Tony was smarter than that, why would he leave them all completely vulnerable like that with himself included?

"Mr. Rogers, there's an incoming call from the kitchen. It's Mr. Stark," JARVIS notified the Captain.

"Go ahead, Jarvis."

Everyone on the party deck could then hear Tony's voice; it was like he was on speakerphone. "Who the hell ordered pizza? Our bomb turned out to be from inside a pizza box, which was left in the kitchen."

Steve gazed the room. Everyone was just as confused as he was except…

"Clint?"

"I was hungry, okay? And ordered pizza like any normal hungry guy would, I didn't think it was such a big deal. It's not like I knew it would be a bomb pizza."

"To let a stranger into the Tower at a time like this... Not a big deal?"

Tony swore on the other end of the receiver.

"Why didn't we have an evacuation?" Steve turned his attention back to Tony, putting aside Clint's slip-up for now.

"It was a low level threat explosive. It was a warning, not an attack. I've initiated a low level response due to the low-slung severity of the attack, but nothing more. Whoever was in charge of getting that bomb in here was giving us a message I have yet to crack. I'll see you guys in a bit. Oh by the way, Cap you mind questioning Clint before I get there?"

"Sure thing, Tony."

The call ended with a beep. All eyes were on Clint.

The archer turned his head from one Avenger to the other; mindful not to make any sudden moves that would put the team off, knowing they were already on his case. He kept his hands down, in loose fists, but at his sides. "I know. This looks bad," he muttered.

"It does Clint." The Captain confirmed, but he wasn't ready to jump to conclusions. It wouldn't be fair. "Just tell me when you ordered the pizza and the events that followed."

"I ordered the pizza before going to bed, thinking I'd warm some up in the morning. Maybe some of you guys would like that kind of breakfast too, I don't know." It was too early to put congruent thoughts together. Way too early. Was the sun even out yet? "So I ordered two boxes of pizza and when the pizza man got here, he called me to let him in so I just asked Jarvis to open the door and told pizza guy to leave it in the kitchen." Yeah, okay that was irresponsible, Clint thought to himself. But how was he supposed to know a pizza guy could be carrying a bomb in a pizza box? Geez, anyone could be a bad guy these days.

The Captain nodded in understanding as he re-ran Clint's words through his head, "Wait, you ordered two pizza boxes?

Just then, the ground gave a violent shake.

The whole team jolted, nearly thrown off their feet.

Steve was able to keep his balance, as was Clint and Natasha. Bruce hadn't been so lucky. He fell on his bottom.

"What was that?" He asked, pushing his glasses up from the bridge of his nose.

"It felt as though it came from several floors down," Steve noted, breathing heavily as his mind raced. Not again. Not another one.

"The kitchen," Natasha assumed, calculating the distance and the force of the quake.

"Tony," Steve breathed as he straightened himself immediately, "Jarvis, call the kitchen."

"I'm sorry, sir. The transmission is faulted. I'm afraid I can't reach the kitchen at this moment."

Steve and Natasha took off running in the direction of the kitchen, which was several floors below them; nearly over 20 stories below, lots of stairs. The elevators had been out of service since the morning, therefore, it was out of the question. The question, was Tony still with them? Or was the phone call the last time they got to hear his voice?

AN: And there you have it. Chapter Seven is already underway! I promise it won't be as long a wait as Chapter Six was, it just needs a little touch-up's here and there. Thanks for the reviews! It feels good to see some familiar names out there. I apologize for the lack of an update. I know I haven't touched this story since last year. I seem to have taken to writing this story from Steve's POV, mainly because he's the least likely to be Hydra. As always, I love comments:

EvilVampireDucky: Yes! That's just what I wanted. Hahaha.

LostHawk: Chapter 6! Thanks pal, I can't wait to tell you who it is.

Purple Pixie5: It can be! You never know.

Chills10124: Hate to tell you, but Clint's my profile pic. Other than that, I love reading your observations.

Theprogenitorofallthings: Um, I can't tell you yet?

Guest: Ask and you shall receive.