Sorry this took so long, haven't been able to get at my desktop for a while. One more chapter to go, plus an epilogue!
Disclaimer: Nothing be mine. Thanks to Marvel Universe Wiki, Marvel Comics Database and Marvel Ultimate Character Guide for the background info.
Tony wasted no time as the creature roared again, bracing his stance and concentrating hard on the Uni-beam in his chest. It whirred into life and a surge of energy blasted forward, hitting the creature square in the chest and knocking him off his feet, flying back through the doors it had just burst through. Logan immediately followed, Cable and Cage on his tail, storming into battle with a furious yell. Tony turned to the rest of the group.
"You three." He pointed to Reed, Johnny and Matt. "Help Logan try to beat that thing. Sue, do what you can but your main priority is keeping Pepper safe, got it?"
The men nodded and followed after the sounds of fighting. Pepper looked up at him.
"What are you gonna do?" she asked.
"I need to find Blake." He said. "If they try to involve him in whatever they're doing, if it's what I think they're doing, we're all done for."
"Tony!" a voice hollered from behind them. The trio turned to find Peter sprinting towards them, Punisher hot on his tail. Tony immediately raised his gauntlet, aiming it at Punisher's advancing form, but Peter shot a ball of webbing out and knocked his hand away, slowing to a stop and panting in front of him. "It's ok." he said. "He's with us."
Tony looked at Punisher, scrutinising him as he approached. "Where's Natasha?"
Peter shook his head. "We got separated when I found Punisher, she went on ahead to find Don."
"I'm sorry." Punisher said when he reached the two of them, shaking his head. "I had no idea what was going on. I thought I was just rounding up criminals-"
"Save it." Tony said. "Explanations after this is done, alright?"
Peter nodded and his head snapped towards the sound of a body being flung against the wall. "I guess I better get started then, huh?" he grinned and ran through the doors.
Punisher hesitated and pointed back over his shoulder. "Your God of Thunder is down there. Keep heading east." And then he was gone, guns drawn, firing at the Robert's mutated form.
"Remember what I told you." Tony said to Sue, and then before she could reply he was off, flying back along the corridor at breakneck speed, blasting doors in his path, some with guards behind them. He had to stop when he came to a door that his repulsor wouldn't break through and he scanned the space behind it. A mass of red heat signatures appeared on his HUD. He was definitely in the right place. "This is gonna get messy." He muttered as he charged his Uni-beam again.
He released the energy after a few seconds, blasting the heavy doors wide apart and revealing a huge room, Blake in the centre, hooked up to a similar contraption Tony had been with around forty guards surrounding him, who all span to face him as the doors flew open. Not giving them a chance to sound an alarm, he set about the untidy job of neutralising them. A few managed to get good shots at him that knocked him back a little, but in the end they didn't stand a chance, each falling to the ground like flies around him.
Tony shook his head, this was the part of his job that he hated, but it had to be done. These men, following orders or not, were in his way, stopping him from helping the world, whether it wanted to be helped or not, and he didn't have a choice. After the last guard fell, he hurried forward onto the platform that Blake was strapped to, noticing Mjölnir in its cane form lying a few feet away in an enforced Plexiglas container.
"Don." Tony withdrew the portion of his armour around his face as he approached Don's limp form and began unhooking the repulsor tech surrounding his hands. "Don, can you hear me buddy?"
Don groaned and scrunched his eyebrows together as he opened his eyes. "Ugh, my head is killing me."
"Yeah, it'll do that to you." Tony agreed, ripping the cuffs from Don's hands and crushing them. "Can you stand?"
"Gimme a minute Shellhead." Don said wearily. "Make yourself useful and get Mjölnir out of that box. Carefully. She's just as weak as I am in this form."
Tony nodded and crouched next to the transparent container, placing his hand over the top of it and concentrating the repulsor beam to the surface of his gauntlet, creating an immensely hot furnace, melting the Plexiglas as though it were butter. Once a big enough gap was created, he reached inside and withdrew the cane, handing it to Don who pulled himself to his feet with it.
"Why aren't you transforming?" Tony asked.
Don snorted derisively and shuffled towards the door, Tony helping. "We've been disconnected for too long. She's not nearly powerful enough to transform on her own, I need to re-charge."
As they neared the doors, a piercing claxon sounded throughout the entire facility, and shouts came from behind them through another set of doors.
"Look," Tony said "There's no way you can be useful until your back to full power. Go and find more help. Natasha is running around somewhere trying to find you so just stay out of trouble til she finds you, alright? Don't get caught."
"Yes Mom." Don spat. "Just go and help the rest. I'll be fine."
Tony nodded, morphed the armour back over his face again, and kicked off, zooming back towards the battle.
When he reached the room he'd left the fighting in, he happily saw that the group had managed to push Robert back into the main medical facility he must have stormed out of, throwing everything they had at him. Matt, Luke and Peter were handling the close up contact, using every ounce of strength to bring him down, but the giant just kept batting them away, only getting more annoyed. Punisher was using his multitude of weaponry, but the bullets simply bounced away from the gargantuan mutant. Reed was trying his best to wrap himself around the creature's legs but just when it looked as though he had a decent hold on him, some sort of electric pulse flowed through its body and into Reed, snapping his elastic form back to normal and flinging him away into a corner. Sue, who was off to one side with Pepper under a protective force-field yelled after him in distress.
"Guys, move!" Johnny flew forwards, a blur of orange flame, speeding towards Robert. The rest of the team dispersed just in time for Johnny to throw everything he had at the beast, creating a tornado of flame around it. Robert roared in pain and tried to bat Johnny away, but Johnny dodged his huge fists. As Robert writhed in agony, Cable threw a mental charge at him, infiltrating his brain and tapping into his nervous system, gripping at every single pain receptor he could. Robert yelled again and blindly threw punches through the air.
Tony looked around for Logan and spotted him lying about twenty feet away from where he stood, his neck twisted at an odd angle, indicating it was broken. Tony swore and hurried over to him, kneeling at his head and gently twisting it back into place and holding it there. While he waited for Logan to come round, he looked back over his shoulder, just in time to see Cable flying through the air towards him. Tony ducked as the huge form flew over his head and slammed into the wall, unconscious, his techno-organic eye smashed.
"Johnny! No!"
The heat that had built up with Johnny's attack disappeared instantly, and Tony didn't have to look to know that the monster had broken free of the flame trap as his erupting roar made the ground shake. He felt Logan take a deep breath in and looked down to see the man looking back up at him.
"As touching as this is, ya mind not cradling my head like some kind of-"
Logan's words went unfinished as a solid body collided with Tony's, ripping him from Logan and hurling him across the floor. Tony managed to regain his baring enough to curl his legs and flip whoever it was over his head, flipping back onto his feet and looking around and dodging a familiar looking shield just in time as it sliced through the air where his head had been a split second before.
"You are mine, Stark!" Steve said as he quickly got to his feet, holding his hand out for the shield which rebounded off of one of the medical machines and whizzed straight back to him.
"Tony!" Logan yelled, claws drawn and advancing. Tony held his hand out to stop him.
"Go help the others, I have this." He called back, kick starting his repulsors and hovering a few inches off the ground.
Logan nodded and turned, sprinting back to the fight as Steve advanced on Tony, leaping towards him with the last few feet and tackling him again. Tony pulled the same trick he had before and flipped Steve away from him, sending a repulsor blast in reply. Steve quickly righted himself and blocked the blast with his shield.
Logan, meanwhile, had joined the fight with a renewed vigour. The combined attack from Cable and Johnny had really angered Robert and he lashed out at Peter who was swinging from webbing around his head, shooting off webs to try and blind him. From the ground, Matt was trying to distract Robert, darting around and striking as hard as he could while Luke climbed up the creature's body, wrapping his arms around its neck and securing it in a firm choke hold. Robert roared in anger and grabbed at Luke's arms with his own huge fists. Even with his immense strength, Luke was still struggling to maintain his grip.
"I'm not gonna last much longer, guys." He called out to the group.
Logan quickly assessed the situation and formulated a plan. "We need to get him grounded." He shouted to them. "Parker, web up a little leg trap. Matt, you've got steel cable in that cane of yours aintcha?"
Matt nodded, sensing his plan and, along with Peter's webbing, he ran around Robert's legs, winding the steel cable around them and tugging it tight. Robert roared and stumbled a little, reaching over his head, clawing at Luke whose grip was faltering and trying desperately to get him off. Logan leapt forward, sinking his claws into Robert's chest with an angry yell and tipped him backwards, falling to the ground with a thunderous boom. Luke managed to get out of the way before his was squashed and ran to the side, grabbing hold of one of Robert's enormous arms, dragging it to the floor where Peter secured it before doing the same to the other, held down by Matt.
Tony was still fighting Steve, who seemed intent on killing him. While Steve pressed forward, attacking him with lethal accuracy, Tony tried his best to defend himself without harming Steve.
"You don't need to do this, Steve!" he yelled as he dodged the shield yet again, waiting for its return trip. "If you'd just listen to me! Don't you see what she's doing to us? Look at that thing! It was a human once, and she turned it into-"
"No!" Steve yelled, finally managing to connect a punch and making Tony stumble sideways. "I will not be fed lies by the man that killed my oldest friend!" he aimed another punch which Tony deflected.
Tony shook his head. "I didn't kill him, Steve. She lied-"
"You're the liar!" Steve roared, leaping through the air towards him and bringing his shield down smartly into the side of Tony's head.
"Logan!" Peter shouted as he strung webbing around Robert's arms and legs, binding him to the floor. "We've got this, go and help Tony."
Logan was about to answer when Robert gave another roar and his skin began to burn, the heat intensifying with every second.
"What the hell?" Logan muttered, staring down at the yellow skin between his fingers. Suddenly, there was a low hum of static, an electric charge, and Logan's eyes went wide. "Everybody, move, now!" but he barely had time to finish the sentence before tendrils of electricity flowed through him, stunning him completely. Tony watched from afar in horror as Logan, Peter, Matt and Luke were all electrocuted, their bodies standing rigid before falling limp around the monster.
"Looks like you're all alone, Stark." Steve yelled, rushing forward for another attack. Tony dodged it and sent yet another repulsor blast after him, backing away. He looked around to Sue, who was advancing to help him, but he held his hand up.
"Stay with Pepper!" he yelled, turning back to see the huge, hulking form of Robert looming over him, breathing hard and baring his teeth. Tony backed up again and raised his gauntlets to fire, but suddenly found himself unable to move. Robert let out a deep chuckle and bent down, picking Tony up in one of his large hands and bringing him up to his face.
"Tony Stark." He said slowly. Tony struggled weakly in his grasp, staring up at him as he smiled back. Robert's smile fell, and he squeezed his hand tighter. Tony gasped and let out a yell as he felt his armour, his skin, splintering, and then he screamed. He felt his energy being torn away from him. His armour receded back into his body and his ribs cracked. He felt pressure building up around his chest piece and knew it was mere moments before Robert popped it from him. He heard Pepper screaming his name and he managed to turn his head, his eyes widening as he saw two Cape-Killers dragging her to her feet, an unconscious Sue carried by another.
"Let him go." Maria Hill's voice cut through his pain-fuelled haze like a knife and he felt a slight release on the pressure building in his chest, shortly followed by a dull thud as Robert simply dropped him from the thirty foot height he'd been held at.
Gasping for breath, pain like he'd never felt before absolutely everywhere, he tried in vain to get up off the floor. Two Cape-Killer's grabbed him roughly under the arms, hoisting him onto his knees. He lifted his weary head and saw more Cape-Killers rounding up the rest of his team, and a few of the Avengers standing around behind Maria, looking down on him like he was nothing.
"Well, well, well." Maria sighed, walking around his defeated form as he coughed and hung his head again. "You just couldn't do as you were told, could you?" she asked him. "All you had to do was stay dead, and all of this could have been avoided. And I'm equally disappointed in you, Reed." She addressed the scientist, who was secured in a form of straight jacket to keep his powers at bay. "Looks like your entire family is going to suffer after all." She shook her head and turned back to Tony. "But first things first."
Maria pulled out a gun and pointed it against Tony's forehead. Pepper screamed and struggled in her captor's grasp, tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried desperately to get to him.
"Tony Stark." Maria said, loudly and clearly grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. "Who have become a threat to national security, the U.S. government, and the safety of the general public, and under protocol seventeen of SHIELD, I am authorized to execute you." She moved her thumb and pulled back the hammer of the gun, pressing it harder against his head as he looked up at her. "Do you have any last words?"
From behind her, a door creaked open. Every available Cape-Killer drew his gun and pointed it at the doors as Blake walked through it, supported by Natasha and another man. Maria faltered slightly and a quiet intake of breath ran through the crowd and Steve stepped forward, slack jawed.
"I've got a few last words." Banner growled.
TBC