A/N Standard stuff, still don't own anything.
Natasha was in her element. This is what she was made for, these men may have had decent training, but they were by far inferior in skill. She was taking them down with single blows. Blow to the neck of the man to her right; quickly followed by jab at the man to her left. A calculated kick to the man behind her brought him down with bulging eyes and gaping mouth as his newly broken rib punctured his lung.
She was sweeping through the half dozen men around her. Next to her was Clint, an equal number of men attacking him; single jabs bringing them down as well. Natasha couldn't help but feel a rush of excitement, finally after days of hard luck and events going against them they had the upper hand! And there was to be no mercy on her part.
Natasha heard Steve yell, turning she caught a glimpse of the man coming up behind Clint with his gun raised, "Clint! On your rear!" He reacted without hesitation. Twisting Barton grabbed the man in front of him by the neck, using him as leverage he raised his knee up to his chest and used his full force to brink his cocked foot up into the sizeable man's gun hand. The man cried out, nearly dropping his weapon. Clint grabbed another man on his right, bringing the two men in his grasp together he smiled as he heard the crack that emanated from both of their skulls. Clint turned to the man behind him who was once again bringing the gun up, this time he drove his foot at an angle against the man's femur, snapping it and finishing him off by jamming three fingers into the man's larynx, silencing him.
"I'm going to ignore that comment about my rear." Natasha smiled as she took out two more men.
Both jumped out of the way as roar emanated from Banner as he transformed into Hulk, "About damn time Bruce!" Clint laughed as the men who had moments ago been trying to kill him took off out the door, "Don't let us hold you back, it is time for a game of cat and mouse!"
Thor turned to the snorting green giant, "Comrade, our leader and fellow team member have been taken, we will need your help to retrieve them. Will you make our way clear?" Hulk gave a snort, followed by a roar that shook the walls of the cave.
Hulk burst through the door ripping the door and parts of the wall off as he forced his heavy bulk through the doorway. He was quickly followed by Thor, Natasha and Clint. Screams were echoing through the halls, along with the crashing and roars of Hulk several yards ahead.
A door burst open, cutting off Hulk from the team of three, and a dozen men poured out. The three didn't wait, each taking on several men at a time. Once again Natasha felt the thrill of excitement as one by one the dozen men fell, leaving a heap as they fell on top of each other.
Natasha saw Thor pause, "I have had enough of this." He declared, he reached out with his hand. That was all the warning Natasha had before she threw herself into the next man who proved more difficult to take down.
There was a crash, rocks were falling down on top of them, and then there was an extra opening in the wall. In Thor's hand was his unmistakable hammer, how he had been unable to summon it that quickly Natasha did not know, but she was grateful.
The hall was oddly silent as the final rocks and debris fell. The echo of Hulk's roars were growing more silent as the distance between grew. Thor's heavy breathing soon became the loudest sound within their immediate area.
"How long has it been?" Natasha's sudden question startled Clint who had been attending to the small wound on his forearm.
"What?"
"How long has it been since that man walked into that room?" Natasha repeated.
"Uh, I don't know. 15 or 20 minutes why?"
"We have to get Tony and Steve now!" She shoved past Thor, the familiar edge of panic she had felt these past days returning.
"Why?" Clint asked, clearly alarmed at her odd behavior. "What's happening?"
By answer she took out a folded piece of dingy paper. Clint took it as he quickly followed her, Thor right behind. As he read his brow furrowed in confusion. "What is this?"
"That," Natasha gestured, "Is Tony's actual plan."
"What do you mean actual plan, he told us the plan, and it blew up in our faces." Clint was frustrated she could tell and Thor was quick to copy Clint's mood.
Shaking his head the blonde god handed the paper back to the still jogging Clint, "I do not understand Miss Romanoff, if this is the means of escape Stark intended to use why would he tell us of another?"
"Because Tony knew they were listening. He gave that to me this morning before you all woke up. There were several other papers giving me the most intimant details of his crazy ass plan, but I threw those in the fire, I only kept that to show the rest of you." Natasha stopped as she came to a junction, the path that Hulk had taken fairly clear due to the damage; however, she stopped and turned to face the still confused members of her group. "We've heard that ass say that they do not make the same mistakes, they beefed up their security as Tony put it. He knew that, he knew that they would listen in on his plans this time and not just watch. That was why he told me his real plan."
Clint shook his head, "Why didn't he tell Steve or me, I hardly see him going to you."
"There are advantages to being a woman. These men do not see a woman as a threat, I was only kept with you because I was a valuable piece of leverage in their eyes. Tony knew they would eventually use someone to manipulate him, they might have even taken one of you out to see if he had conveyed any information of rebellion. They hardly would have thought that a woman would be the one he would relay his plans to."
"Alright, so this," Clint waved the paper in the air, "is the real plan?"
Natasha nodded, "Yes."
Fear flashed in Thor's and Clint's eyes, "Well then, we need to get the hell out."
"Yes, but first we need to find Tony and Steve." Natasha said.
"Alright, yeah, we were doing that, why did we stop!"
"Because I don't know which way they went. I know that Hulk went that way, but Tony and Steve could be anywhere." Natasha looked down the undamaged hallway.
Thor pointed, "Our leader and comrade are down this way."
Clint looked surprised, "How do you know that?"
Thor simply pointed, sitting just one yard down the hall lay something that was so irrevocably Tony that Clint almost laughed., Natasha walked over and picked up the origami Ironman that sat on the floor, she was frowning slightly.
"I believe we will need to have the both of you looked at by a medical doctor when we leave. It is not normal for the both of you to miss such a clue." Thor was smiling slightly as he passed the scowling Natasha, hammer at the ready.
Clint followed, holding back a laugh as he took the preciously folded piece of paper from her hand and placed it carefully in a pocket, "We will need to save this, I don't think Fury will believe either of us if we claim trail of paper ironman dolls in our reports."
Natasha said nothing as she cocked a gun she had stolen from one of the fallen men and walked after Thor, Clint got the message.
They were traveling further into the burrows of the cave, every now and then they would reach another junction, and each time there was another origami figure. One time there was an origami hammer, then another a man with a separate shield attachment; Clint's favorite was the origami bow it had a string attached as the bow string. When they came to the origami spider Clint laughed at Natasha's perplexed face.
"When did he have time to make these?" She asked.
"How the hell should I know, I want to know where he is hiding these things. There not exactly small." Clint said with a laugh.
Thor looked on up the hall, "I would not worry about that. Stark cannot have an unlimited supply of these paper figurines, how will we know where to go if he is to run out."
"We will have to make due. For now we just follow, but let's pick up the pace boys. We are running out of time." Natasha dashed ahead, only to stop when three men came running down towards them, guns raised. She didn't hesitate, raising her own gun the three men were down before Thor could raise his hammer. "Come on, those are probably not the last three down this way."
The three ran forward again. They came to another junction, stopping and taking care to search for their next lead. It was Clint who found it, he gave a shout, which turned to laughter as he took in the figurine.
It was a man, at first Clint had thought it was of Steve or Thor; however, it was the string wrapped around the figures head that came up and over and ending in a large knot that covered the approximate area where the eye should have been. Clint laughed as Natasha extracted the paper figure from his hands.
"Oh my God! Fury is going to love this!" Natasha scowled at him.
"Quiet Clint, we must be getting close by now."
"Yes; however, I should think that we must think twice about which direction we should take, I fear that the Captain's and Steve's captors are not still ignorant of the Man of Iron's trail of figures." Thor said facing the second hall.
"Why would you say that?" Clint asked, turning to face the same direction. He froze, there laying face down in just the beginning reaches of the shadows was Steve, a bleeding head wound clearly visible in the darkened hall.
AVENGERS
Struggling proved worthless, and in his defense Tony wasn't exactly at the peak of his physical ability. The wound in his leg while painful was not as bad as he first thought, it was still bleeding, but it was not enough to cause panic….yet. Tony counted himself lucky that the bullet hadn't hit anything important, for that he was grateful.
Steve was oddly silent, somehow he and his travel companion had gotten ahead of Tony and his. Tony blamed it at the slow pace that his injured leg forced him to take; although, his new found friend sure made it difficult to fall too far behind. He kept jerking Tony every five steps, but really Tony gladly took the rough treatment allowing the distraction for him to slip his hand into his uninjured legs pants pocket then dropping his prizes several feet down a hall at every junction. It hadn't been easy making those figurines but he was proud how they turned out. He guessed it was his cockiness that allowed him to get caught.
At first he had made sure no one was looking before dropping the origami figure, but by the time paper-Fury was in his hand he had relaxed on his cautions. Tony blamed the blood loss.
Needless to say they hadn't been happy.
"Really Mr. Stark, I would have thought this situation was enough of a reason for you to remain cooperative." Baqi waved a hand, "I was going to wait until we reached our destination but I suppose you need to be reminded that your actions do have consequences."
To Tony's horror Steve was forced to his knees…again, "No! I'm sorry, it won't happen again. Look you don't have to hurt him, you kill him and you lose all leverage. I won't make a damn thing for you and you know that." His pleas were getting desperate, his voice cracking showing weakness. He didn't care.
"Seeing as how that did not work the first time, or the second I believe we can both agree that the Captain's life is expendable." He turned to the four men holding Steve, "Make sure he is properly secured this time." He turned to Tony who was still struggling and letting off a string of curse words, "Why don't you take care of that man's foul mouth."
Tony's struggles increased, he kicked out as he felt a pair of gritty hands grab his wrists. Ok, he was not ok with that. Dirty hands and Tony Stark did notmix! He gave a strangled yell as something was shoved into mouth and tied off with a strip of fabric.
Tony's arms were pinned behind him and his body was being held uncomfortably close to someone behind him, his injured leg had given out and he had to rely on the man's hands to keep him upright.
During his struggle Tony had missed Steve's attempt at freeing himself, the result was two broken noses and a snapped forearm. Tony couldn't help but smile at the miserable look on the injured men's faces, his smile fell when he noticed the small trail of blood starting at a growing stain in the blonde man's hair. He was still on his knees, his eyes dazed and unfocused.
The muffled yell from Tony caused Baqi to turn to him and smile, "Oh it is no use struggling Mr. Stark, like I said your actions will have consequences, and while the Captain's actions back there may have delayed his death you must have known it was inevitable. You have a tendency to ignore orders Mr. Stark, the Captain here can certainly attest to that. You might never see the consequences at home but you will see them here."
Tony struggles more ignoring the fact that his struggles cause his wound to bleed more rapidly. He can't let this happen! No, he has to do something! Tony doesn't hear his cracked scream as the gun is raised once more, he doesn't notice three more men are moved to keep him steady.
The gunshot is oddly muffled in the cavernous hall, Tony lets out a muffled sob, tears are freely running down his cheeks and are absorbed by the strip of cloth smothering him. This isn't supposed to happen, he wasn't supposed to have lost two men he admired and looked up to, not to the same men. This shit doesn't happen to the same guy twice.
Tony drops to the floor, Steve isn't moving. He can't take it, Tony tries to get to his knees so he can go over to his fallen leader. The blood on the back of Cap's head turns his blonde hair red, it reminds Tony of Natasha's hair. Someone grabs Tony before he can reach the man. His struggles are feeble and weak.
His feet are secured and he is now over someone's shoulder, Tony has the vague sensation that this has happened recently in the past. He cranes his head to the side to see a young man take his Fury figurine and throw it down the other hall.
Tony bucks when he sees two men grab Steve, intending to drag him to who knows where. He's not having it, he twists his body and grunts as he falls and lands on his side. He ignores the voice in his head that says he looks ridiculous crawling like a caterpillar towards the dead man. The foot to the gut certainly proves the little voices point, and then he is once again over someone's shoulder.
"Just leave him." Someone says, "If the others are truly following they will eventually find that. By then we will be long gone. We will have plenty of a head start. In twenty minutes time we will be gone."
Tony registered only some of what was said, his neck turned as the last glimpses of the motionless body vanished in the gloom. There were many things going through his head, one being that unless his team found them and got them out in twenty minutes time they would all be dead.
AVENGERS
"Cap!" Clint ran ahead to the downed man. He slid to a stop and dropped to the man's side, Natasha was right beside him and gently – with his hand cradling the bleeding wound – rolled Steve onto his back. Natasha reached out with a hand and laid two fingers on the man's neck.
"He's alive!" Clint blanched, and shucked off his dirty jacket.
"The insides somewhat clean." He gave as explanation. Natasha took it and started ripping out strips of the inner lining.
"You two go on." She ignored both of their angry protests, "You need to find Tony, the only reason they left Steve here in the open is because they were in a hurry. Something else is going on here, they don't just want suits, if they did they would have just killed the both of them seeing this is obviously a worthless cause." They hesitated, "Go! Find Tony, you have less than 15 minutes, Thor can get you out."
"How will you get out? You are many things Miss Romanoff, but you are certainly not able to carry a man twice your size back through this cavern in the remaining time we have available." Thor turned to Clint, searching for support.
He shook his head, "No, she's right. We won't be able to find Tony if we also have to carry Cap here." Clint stooped and grabbed something from a small concealed pouch on his right leg. "Here, take this. Tony gave it to me before we left. He said that I should use it if I were ever in the need of getting to ground level."
Natasha studied it, "What is it?" She handled it delicately, "It's not going to explode on me is it?" Clint shrugged.
"Maybe, Tony was very vague on the consequences." Barton said with a grin, "Use it wisely!"
Natasha scowled, "Not exactly the best time to be making jokes Barton."
"I do not understand, what is this object?" Thor held the silver item in his hand. Natasha took it back from him.
"It looks like a whistle, but let's worry about this latter, you need to go now!" She said with a useless push to Thor's back.
Natasha watched them disappear into the further reaches of the shadows, she sighed and looked down at Steve. Now that she knew he was alive she could see the unmistakable rise and fall of his chest, however unsteady.
Quickly she cleaned the area around the wound, once the blood was mostly cleared away Natasha realized that it was not in fact a bullet wound as she had assumed, or it wasn't in the way she would have thought. The bullet must have just missed entering into his skull, it instead has carved a deep groove into the side of his head. That was good, this was something she could work with.
As she was poking and prodding the wound she heard a faint groan, Natasha looked down in surprise, she had not thought with a wound like his that Steve would wake up anytime soon. But then again he was a man filled with regenerative cells.
"Steve," she said softly, "you're going to be alright, I'll get you out of here."
"N'tsh?" Steve slurred.
She smiled, "Close enough."
"Tony?"
"Clint and Thor went to go find him, don't worry they'll get him." Steve shifted, tilting his head back slightly to look at her. She smiled again.
Natasha raised the whistle for Steve to see, "What do you think Cap? Tony made this for Clint. Barton said that Tony didn't tell him what would happen if he blew on it, only that it will help get him off of high rooftops. Want to see what it does?" Steve looked weary. "See you on the other side Cap." Taking a breath Natasha blew.
It didn't make a sound, Natasha frowned, it hardly seemed likely that something of Tony's design wouldn't function correctly. She tried again, and again no sound. Natasha almost threw it down the hall when the walls began to shake.
Steve gave a yelp as a rather large rock landed two feet from him, Natasha threw herself over him, protecting his injured head. With one final rumble Natasha felt rather than heard the wall three yards behind them burst, sending rocks and other debris their way.
Something snorted. Something rather big snorted, and then roared. A very familiar roar. Natasha turned, gaping as she took in what was there in front of her.
Hulk stood there at the opening, jade eyes darting back in forth. When his eyes landed on Natasha she saw recognition flash in his eyes, she quickly shifted so he could see Steve. Anger flared across his green features.
"Bruce," Natasha said hesitantly, "We need your help, the Captain is hurt and we need to get out of here." Hulk shifted and gave a snort looking down the hall towards the way Clint and Thor went, "The other's are getting Tony, Thor will get them out. Don't worry about them, right now you need to help Steve and me. I can't get him out on my own."
Walking carefully Hulk made his way in the still dusty air towards them, Natasha moved again, allowing Hulk full access to the now unconscious man. With gentleness Natasha didn't know he had Hulk carefully grabbed Steve and cradled him against his massive chest. Then turning to Natasha he held out a meaty hand, she grabbed on and allowed him to lift her up on his shoulder. She settled down at the crook of his neck, a spot usually reserved for Clint, and braced herself as Hulk broke into a run after a whispered, "Hurry," from her.
AVENGERS
Tony blinked as he was suddenly in sunlight. He was still slung over a shoulder, a good thing too Tony believed, he gathered that by now he had lost enough blood to be considered unhealthy. And while Tony had done many unhealthy things in his life he was not immune to blood loss symptoms. Of course there was also the fact that all blood had gone to his head, he shuddered at what the results would be if he were to be placed onto his feet.
He didn't have long to wait, Tony was dumped to the ground and jerked up into a sitting position. The sound of rushing blood drowned out the other people around him. His eyes began to roll to the back of his head, but he felt a slap to his face, bringing him back to the present.
"You don't want to do that Mr. Stark. I would prefer if you would remain conscious for the rest of our journey." Baqi stood and turned, allowing Tony his first view of his surroundings. He was outside, duh Tony, there were several vehicles around him, parked right outside the small entrance of the cave. There were about a two dozen men around him, two of which were standing next to him, their guns trained on his head. Really, was that really necessary? Where was he going to go? After they had left Steve back in the tunnel Tony had lost all the fight within him. He felt emotionally drained, and he felt he had a right to allow a single tear to escape.
No! Tony angrily squeezed his eyes shut, letting only one more tear to fall. Taking a deep breath Tony leaned back, allowing the rock behind him to cradle him uncomfortably and stretched his neck back to let his head rest against the rock as well.
From his position he could see the entrance to the cave of tunnels. It was small, tall and wide enough to allow a man passage, it was not nearly as large as the last cave entrance he had the honor of knowing. Guess I'm at the back entrance. Tony frowned at the slight giggle at the thought of that. Great now he was losing his mind along with his blood.
Later Tony would have put his luck down to the fact that everything else these past few days had been so fucking against him. He had really no warning as a gunshot cracked the air, taking the man standing next to Tony down, quickly followed by the man on the other side of Tony. Not really knowing what to do Tony tipped to the ground and tried rolling down the slight incline that he had been atop of. Three more gunshots rang, three more men fell. It would have been quite hilarious had Tony actually been able to see from his resting place.
He quickly moved to his knees, Tony wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to get away from these men when he was bound but he was sure as hell going to try; if not for him than for Steve. Unfortunately for him the man Tony had come to loathe had other plans for him.
Tony felt a toe at his side as he was swiftly pushed to the ground. Squinting Tony could just make out the glint of a gun barrel.
"Well, at least I will get something for my troubles Mr. Stark." Baqi cocked his gun. Tony grunted in annoyance, no this was not how it was supposed to end for him. He was Tony fucking Stark he wasn't supposed to die in the sands of the desert, he had made sure of that last time.
Tony wasn't quite sure where he found the strength to rise, hell he wasn't sure how he had been able to rise. But the next thing he knew he was using his feet to launch himself at Baqi, gun still cocked and unfortunately ready to fire. Baqi finished pulling the trigger right as Tony launched himself at him, the bullet ripped through Tony's left shoulder. Tony landed heavily on top of the gunman, darkness quickly taking him.
AVENGERS
"Well shit. If I had known it was going to be this easy I would have just drug the Cap out this way myself." Clint squinted out into the afternoon sun. He could see Tony sitting 20 yards away with two men standing beside him. He smirked as he weighed the small handgun he had taken from the unsuspecting man five minutes earlier. He wasn't as efficient with a handgun as he was with his bow but he was still the best shot. "This is going to be easy!"
Thor was standing back with him in the shadows of the entrance, "What is you plan Barton?"
Clint pointed to the two men standing next to Tony, "If those two weren't there I could just walk over there and grab Tony, discretely of course, and then you could use you awesome lightning power to blast our way out of here. However; since that won't work we will have to extract Tony very non-discretely. We will have to get to him quick because I don't trust Tony to stay still long enough for us to grab him. So, what do you say big guy you want to lay some waste on these ass-clowns?"
Thor shook his head, "I do not know what that means but I will assist in any way I can to help retrieve a wounded comrade." He tightened his grip on the handle of the hammer.
"Right." Clint smirked and turned again towards the entrance. He raised the gun and shifted his legs to evenly distribute his weight evenly and to steady himself. Three days with very little food and lack of sleep would not help with aim but he had been through worse. He squeezed the trigger, Clint didn't pause to watch the man go down; he took out the next man.
Clint immediately leapt out of the opening ignoring the five men making their way towards him, allowing Thor to take it upon himself to take them out. Clint cursed when he noticed Tony on the ground a good five extra yards further away from him.
"Tony!" Clint yelled, Baqi was standing over him – gun raised – Clint pushed himself to run faster, taking out the few brave men who came at him with a single bullet to the head. Clint felt his heart fall as he watched Tony get his feet beneath him and launch himself at the man holding a gun to him. "NO!" The bullet left the chamber and spat at Tony, going completely through his shoulder.
Baqi lifted the dead weight off of himself, shoving Tony's unmoving form away from him. Two men turned to see Clint approaching them, they were down before they could raise their guns. Clint still headed towards Tony – dodging bullets as he ran – he felt anger well through him as he watched Baqi kick Tony particularly hard in the chest near his broken rib.
Clint closed the distant between the two, directing the attention from Tony. They were in the sand, punches, kicks and gun barrels finding any spot of the other's body to cause harm. Clint didn't expect an extra boot to come crashing down on his head. He rolled away from Baqi, hands holding his head. Shit! That did not go the way he thought it would.
"Well, Mr. Barton," Baqi said breathing hard, "I see that Mr. Stark gathered a few loyal friends since his last visit, shame that we must terminate that now." Clint glanced towards Tony, just in time to see another man swing his gun down and club him in the head. Rage exploded through Clint's thoughts and he was immediately on his feet – not even remotely surprised to see Baqi on the ground at his feet – and his gun taking out three men around him in quick succession.
Something tugged at leg, looking down he realized the man at his feet was trying to grab hold of his leg. Clint rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I'm acting like a six year old," thinking back to his conversation with Tony less than an hour ago, had it really only been that long, he kicked out with his feet, catching the man squarely in the jaw. Clint raised the gun and brought it down hard on the man's head, smiling in satisfaction as he slumped to the ground. A hand landed on his shoulder, Clint spun around raising the gun as he did so, but he stopped when a meaty hand grabbed his.
"It is all right Barton, these men will not harm us anymore." Clint looked around, surprised to see the couple dozen men all on the ground around them. Thor nodded towards the man at Clint's feet, "Is the leader of these men dead?"
"No," Clint poked at Baqi with his toe, "I think Fury will have little chat with the man. That is a punishment worse than death in my opinion." Clint quickly turned towards Tony, "However, I think we should be asking if Tony is alive." Kneeling down Clint released the man's hands – throwing the rope to Thor with instructions to bind the other man – and rolled him onto his back. The gag was next to come off, Clint brow furrowed when he heard the wet rattle of Tony's breath.
"Shit." Thor looked over.
"What is it?"
"He might have a punctured lung, I can't tell without proper medical equipment." Clint looked up at Thor, blinking when he took in a detail he really should have noticed a few days prior, "You're wearing your armor?"
Thor looked confused, "Yes, I have had it on since our departure from New York. Why do you ask?"
"Uh, no reason actually," Clint looked away, then jerking his head back and pointing at the red billow of fabric on Thor's back, "Thor, buddy how do you feel about getting blood on that cape of yours. Tony seems to have lost his jacket somewhere." Thor blinked, but did not hesitate to unclasp the fabric and handed it over. "Excellent, can you untie his ankles and raise them, I wouldn't put it past Tony to go into shock just to make this more difficult. Sorry about the cape beforehand." Thor only gave a small sound of disapproval when Clint used a knife he had found on one of the dead men to cut a strip of cloth to tie around Tony's leg. Next he quickly balled the remainder of the cape and pressed it down on Tony's bleeding shoulder, smiling when it elicited a small whine of pain from Tony.
"I fear we must leave soon. If your estimation of time is correct Barton than I fear we may only have a matter of minutes to get to a safe distance." Clint glanced around, frowning.
"I don't know if we will get very far with him like this." Clint yelped when Thor grabbed him and moved him from Tony's side, "What the hell man!"
"We do not have a choice," Thor motioned toward Tony's bleeding head wound that Clint hadn't noticed before, "He is gravely injured, if we do not get him to a S.H.E.I.L.D. medical bay I fear he will not make it." Thor picked up Tony, gently cradling him to his massive chest with one hand, "Come, we must leave." Thor turned his back to Clint and knelt down to one knee.
Clint stared at him, "Are you serious? You want me to be piggy-backed to rescue!"
"Yes, seeing as it is our only option."
"I am never going to hear the end of this." Clint grumbled as he scrambled onto the god's back and locking his arms around his neck, "Have you ever done this before?"
"No! But there is a first time for everything is there not!" Thor seemed far too excited in their impending travel mode than Clint was comfortable with.
Thor raised his hammer, Clint let a string of colorful words as he felt a ripple of energy run through the air. As a mighty crack sounded and Clint felt an odd sense of being weightless a massive explosion shook the earth around them.
AVENGERS
Hulk, Natasha, and Steve were two miles away from the accursed cave when they heard the explosion. Hulk stopped, huffing as he took in the sight of fireball rising in to the sky.
"Holy hell!" Natasha gasped, "How powerful was that bomb?" Her thoughts were cut off as Steve groaned, she jumped off of Hulk's shoulders and motioned for Steve to be placed on the ground.
Opening his eyes slightly Steve was taken aback to see the rather close proximate of Natasha and – more alarmingly – Hulk. He jerked, which he regretted instantly as his head began to throb painfully. He clutched at it.
"How do you feel?" Steve vaguely heard Natasha, only just making out what she said.
"Ow." Was his only reply. Steve laid there with his eyes closed for a few minutes, trying to get his bearings. He was lying on a soft, grainy surface; sand he reasoned when he grabbed a small handful and allowing the fine grains to escape through his fingers. It was also hot, really hot, the shadow of Hulk's bulk was the only reprieve from the glaring sun.
"Where are we?" Steve asked.
Natasha looked around, "Based on the landscape we look to be in Afghanistan – although it was pretty obvious we were – we must have been in Afghan airspace when we got hit by the storm."
Steve looked up at her in confusion, "What?"
Fear flashed briefly through Natasha's eyes, "You have a head wound, I would think that a bit of memory loss would be a side effect. What is the last thing you remember?"
"Uh, we were flying, somewhere. Tony was complaining about something." Natasha smiled, nodding encouragingly, "Then, then something happened to the plane, it crashed." Steve hesitated, his memories somewhat murky, "I don't really remember, except there was something wrong with Tony's Arc Reactor." Steve grimaced at his building headache, "I can't think, wait no," Steve stopped, squeezing his eyes shut and cursing the fog that was clouding his head. Wait fog, why did that feel familiar, Steve thought harder.
Steve gasped, suddenly his thoughts were filled with hundreds of scenes; a crashing plane, a cold cave, a terrifying dream; the dream! Oh, God! Steve rolled to his side, vomiting out what feeble amount of stomach content he had, giving a shaking reply to Natasha when he realized her feat had been in direct path of his morning meal.
Steve gasped, "Tony." He looked up at Natasha, panic coursing through him when she didn't react, "He was shot. He and I were taken down a hallway, I heard Hulk, did you guys get Tony? Where's Tony!" Panic was coursing through him. He was their Captain, he was supposed to protect them, they weren't supposed to be the ones hovering over him asking him if he could remember what had happened. And despite their rocky beginning Steve had begun to rely on Tony. Steve may have been their leader, but Tony was the glue that kept them from falling apart, the stress of their lives was enough to break any person – no matter how strong. Tony was the one who could break that tension, he always seemed to know how to make each member of their queer team relax, even Natasha. Steve didn't know how they would be able to survive without him, they wouldn't be the same team if they lost Tony, they wouldn't be the same if they lost any member of the team.
Steve suddenly realized that Natasha was talking to him, "…nt and Thor went after him Steve. They will get him, I wouldn't be surprised if they were not heading our way right now."
Nodding Steve looked past her towards Hulk, he frowned, "Hulk wasn't with you when you found me was he?"
Natasha looked up from her work on his wounded shoulder, "No, it was just the three of us. Why?"
"How, how did we get to him then?"
Natasha smiled and held up what looked like an old fashion silver whistle, "Tony made a Hulk-whistle." At Steve's confused look she laughed, "You know, like a dog whistle. No offense." She added when Hulk gave a snort.
Steve smiled, "Did he really?" Natasha nodded, "Typical Tony. How did he do that?" Natasha shrugged her shoulders.
There was a crack of thunder. Startled Natasha looked up, relieved when she saw a glint of silver. Thor landed with one of his customary thundering sound effects, Clint was quick to disembark from his back.
"Never, ever again! Worst experience ever! And I've been bitten by a Black Mamba!" Clint pointed at Natasha who was trying to hold back a laugh, "Not a word!"
"Miss Romanoff, we were able to find Stark, but he has been badly injured. We must get to a S.H.E.I.L.D. medical bay or he will not survive." That was when Natasha noticed that parts of Thor's dingy armor were covered in blood. She helped Thor lay Tony on the ground allowing her a better view of his injuries.
Steve's desperate voice came from behind her, "How is he?"
Natasha shook her head, "Not good Cap, we need to get out of here now!"
They all turned towards Hulk when he gave a roar. The wind was starting to pick up, billowing waves of sand around them. Squinting Natasha could make out the familiar rotors of a quinjet. She felt relief, Fury always seemed to have perfect timing. Because indeed she saw Fury himself jump from the still hovering craft and run over to them.
"About damn time Fury!" Clint yelled, "We need medics now!"
Fury did a double take at the sight of Tony, he turned and motioned; a swarm of people came out of the craft, instantly surrounding Tony and then Steve.
"What the hell happened?" Fury shouted over the still turning engines.
Natasha waved a hand signaling that she would tell Fury later. First she had to go take care of Banner who had just returned to himself.
The medics quickly bundled Tony into the craft, shouting orders and pressing down to staunch his bleeding.
Steve followed them, his own team of medics poking and prodding him. But he didn't take his eyes off of the disappearing gurney that Tony was one. He had a feeling that the real fight for survival had only just started for him.
A/N Yay to those who guessed right! Yes that was not Tony's real plan. Go figure. And yes you do not get to know what it is, but brownie points to those who guess it (I don't think it is that hard, but hey I made it up!) And for those who have ever seen Whose Line is it Anyway will know that the points truly do not matter! LlL0506 out!