So I didn't realize how long it had taken me to write this chapter until today when I looked at the date. That's my bad. On an unrelated note I bought The Avengers on dvd yesterday! And it was good! Again! Still don't own.
The lights just went out."
"Really, I hadn't noticed."
"I mean it Tony, what is going on?" Steve reached out and tapped the small panel near the doorway. Nothing happened.
"The lights are out Cap, the light switch won't work when that happens."
"I know that Tony!"
"Well then why did you try?"
"To piss you off!"
Tony turned to him, "Really? That doesn't sound like the practical thing to do at a time like this."
"And being a smart ass is?!"
"Fair point." Tony turned his attention back to the doorway. When he spoke again it was in a hushed tone, "Where's your shield Cap?"
"In my room."
Tony cursed, "What about your phone do you have that?"
"I hardly remember that I have a cell phone, let alone remember to take it with me in the middle of the night. What about you?"
Tony looked down at himself, taking in the sweats and grungy white shirt he wore. "I didn't know we were going to be entertaining." He mumbled.
"It could be worse, at least you're wearing clothes."
"Look who's being a smart ass now Rogers."
"I need my shield." Steve said changing the subject.
"Well I'm not stopping you." Tony gestured, indicating for Steve to go and retrieve it. Steve shook his head.
"I'm not leaving you here alone Tony."
Tony huffed, "I'm not exactly helpless Cap." He tapped the cane against the ground, Steve wrinkled his forehead in confusion
"What does that mean?" Right, Tony hadn't exactly informed anyone of the cane's extra features.
"Never mind, I'll be fine, just go, quickly though."
Steve watched him for about half a second before he shook his head again, "No, either we go together or not at all. The last time we separated it didn't turn out so well for you, or me for that matter."
Tony scowled at the memory, "Fine," he reached out and snagged Steve's shirt sleeve and led him out of the kitchen. "We need to get your phone anyway, I don't trust you to know how to use the speed dial."
They moved quickly and silently through the dark house, Tony tense as they passed shadow after shadow. When they reached his room Steve went automatically for the bed, grabbing his shield in his hand with a grateful sigh. He turned to Tony, frowning when he threw the phone against the wall, a huff of frustration passing his lips.
"What's wrong?"
"No service. We can't contact anyone." Tony swallowed, his eyes wide as he took in the darkness around them.
NO! He was not going to freak out, not right now. Just take a deep breath and calm yourself…. nope, not working.
A hand landed on his shoulder, causing him to jump. Tony turned his head, Steve was standing next to him, concern flitting across his blue irises.
"It's going to be alright Tony. Just stay calm."
"I am calm. I'm the picture of calm. I'm calmer than Hulk."
"Hulk's never calm."
"Are you sure? Because he seems to be pretty lethargic after all that smashing he does."
Steve shook his head and gently grabbed hold of Tony's shirt sleeve and forcing him to follow him out the door. When they reached Tony's bedroom he diverted Steve's path through the door, he shrugged out of Steve's grip and walked over to his nightstand and snatching up his phone. By the look on his face Steve guessed the phone had the similar problem to his. His guess was confirmed when it too was smashed against the far wall.
Tony turned back to Steve and huffed, "Alright, it's okay, we can handle this. Hopefully there is only one guy because I don't think we should push our luck with more."
He was rambling Steve realized, which was bad, because that meant he wasn't thinking logically, which was really bad. Reaching out Steve placed a hand over Tony's mouth, ignoring the surprised and annoyed looked flashed in his direction.
"Tony, I need you to stop talking for one minute."
Tony stared at him, but he nodded. Steve slowly lowered his hand, smiling when Tony snapped his mouth shut.
"Okay, good. Now, what room is the most secured?"
Tony was quiet for a moment, "Uh, the shop, I guess. But it won't matter because we can't get in without Jarvis."
"How strong is the glass?"
"What? Cap you can't smash your way into my workshop, we would have nothing between us and whoever the hell this is!"
Steve grabbed Tony's arm again – ignoring his yelp of surprise – and started to drag him back outside the room, "We'll push something in front of it. But we are not sitting here waiting for something to happen."
Steve drug Tony out into the hallway, not stopping when he rammed his toe into the door jam. They were just passing the last bedroom door when something slammed into Tony, tearing him away from Steve's grip.
Tony landed and skidded down the hallway – sucking in a breath as he landed on his leg – and his cane went skidding into the opposite direction away from him.
Steve didn't have time to go over and help him, something was slashing towards his head. He raised his shield and smiled in satisfaction when he heard the clang. Using his full force he shoved the person aside, sending them down the hallway towards the stairs. Catching his breath Steve turned to Tony who was using the wall to haul himself back up. He looked up and caught Steve's eye, then he opened his mouth to yell out a warning.
Jerking around Steve barely had time to duck and avoid his attacker. He wasn't quick enough because a stinging pain erupted down his left bicep. Backing up slightly Steve instinctively cupped his bleeding wound with the hand that held his shield, it was because of this that the attacker was able to swipe his legs out from underneath him. Steve landed heavily on the floor.
"Cap!" Steve craned his neck to see Tony trying to make his way towards him, but the shadow moved quickly towards Tony, punching him in the thigh right above his healing wound. Tony cried out and fell to the floor, he looked up into the intruders face, it was still in the shadows so he couldn't see it. That didn't mean he didn't see the knife in the man's hand, dripping small amounts of blood.
Not waiting to see what the man would do Tony turned over onto his hands and knees trying to get purchase on the slippery floor so he could reach his cane. He lunged for it when it was in arms distance, but something caught his foot, yanking him back, his hands clawed at the floor as he was dragged away. Tony was flipped to his back so that he was looking up at the glinting knife above him. Giving a cry of alarm Tony attempted to copy the shadow's move and tried to swipe his legs out from underneath, he received a kick to the leg again for his efforts.
Tony only had a moment to realize that the knife was sailing down towards his throat, he grabbed hold of a door jamb by his head and used that with the help of his bare feet to slide himself away. At the same time a red and white disk came soaring through the air, smashing into the shadow's back, causing him to cry out and fall to the floor.
Only taking a moment to catch his breath Tony quickly retrieved his cane, his leg burning in pain as he hauled himself back up and made his way back over to Steve.
Steve was breathing heavily as he grabbed his shield from the unconscious man. He looked up as Tony came over to him. "Come on," Steve said grabbed hold of Tony with the hand on his uninjured arm, "I didn't hit him that hard, he won't be out long." Tony nodded as they quickly made their way into the living room.
Quickly turned out to be not quickly enough because as they reached the top of the stairs to the shop a gunshot rang out, smashing into the glass of the water fall by their heads. Both men ducked as the dove away from the cracking glass, a second shot hit it and the entire thing came down, sending glass and water everywhere. Steve yanked Tony – who had been closest – further away from the flying shards of glass.
"You're one lousy shot you know that." Steve cringed, not the best time to aggravate a man with a gun.
"I prefer knives actually, they are so much more elegant, quieter too." The man's voice was sickly sweet, pleasure forming his tone. Tony and Steve both winced as they slowly made their way to what Tony realized was the open front door. A shot to the right of them quickly changed their course.
It wasn't until the third or fourth shot that missed the both of them by several feet that Tony realized the man was actually herding them around so that his back was to the door and they faced it. Forcing Steve to stop moving away from the flying bullets Tony shifted on his feet so that most of his weight was on his uninjured leg.
"I must say, I wasn't expecting to find Captain Rogers here. Not that I'm complaining, killing both Ironman and Captain America will help pad the resume." Tony shifted again on his feet, the man – whose eyes were still in the shadows – smiled, "That uncomfortable for you Stark." The man said indicating the leg that Tony was keeping bent and off the ground.
Tony swallowed, "Not as much as before."
"Well, I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable as I took yours and the good Captains life now would I." Tony's hand tightened on the cane, "I was rather pleased with the reaction you had towards my little note. It wasn't easy getting that information, you're conversations with the man had never been recorded, but I do have my ways."
Steve shifted on his feet, placing his body in front of Tony. The man chuckled.
"Must you hide behind your Captain Stark? It is so unbecoming of a man of your stature." He raised his gun, "Move Captain Rogers."
"No." Tony reached out and grabbed the shirtsleeve in front of his face.
"Come on Cap, move."
"No, Tony." Tony pursed his lips before taking a step to the right and out from behind Steve. "Tony!"
"Quiet Rogers." The man barked, his gun trained on Tony. "I'm sure Mr. Stark here doesn't wish to see a bullet enter your brain, again." Tony swallowed, his hand tightening yet again on the handle.
"I didn't have a bullet enter my brain the first time. You're all lousy shots!"
The gun turned towards Steve, "I said quiet Rogers!" He cocked the gun.
"No." Tony whispered, his hand tightening further around the handle of the cane, and nearly missed the small whine coming from within it. He realized too late what that meant. Both men looked down as Tony tried to lift the cane and aim it away from the ground beneath both Tony's and Steve's feet. He wasn't fast enough.
The repulsor shot had barely an inch of distance to go, exploding onto the floor and sending Steve, Tony, and even the man in front of them flying in opposite directions, the cane itself soaring away entirely.
Steve had the lucky fortune of landing off to the side of the couch, the floor and shield catching him. Tony, however, was sent careening into the newly purchased glass coffee table, it shattered underneath his weight.
He gasped when a sharp burning pain erupted in his back, just below his right shoulder, he reached behind him with shaking hands, gasping when his fingers brushed against a shard of glass protruding a quarter of an inch out of his shoulder. Tony laid there on his side in the glass, feeling the pricks of the smaller shards cutting and poking into his right arm. Placing his palm on the ground – wincing when more glass dug into it – he pushed himself up into a half sitting position, trying to avoid the larger shards surrounding him. Looking over to Steve Tony was relieved to see him getting up, shaking his head.
Steve noticed Tony, his eyes widening when he saw what Tony was lying in. "Tony!" he cried out, his shield dropping to his side as he started to approach him. The shot and blossoming color of blood on his night shirt stopped him dead.
"No!" Tony watched wide eyed as Steve looked down at his chest, his face crunching in confusion as he realized what had just happened. His body jerked when a second shot hit him in the shoulder, sending him to the floor, his head smacking against the hard linoleum. Tony didn't hesitate as he placed both his palms on the ground – ignoring the pain that elicited – and pushed himself up partway to his feet. His feet slipped in the glass causing him to fall back down, but only to be caught by a hand at the back of his collar. He gagged when his air supply was cut off momentarily.
An arm wrapped around his chest, pulling him flush against the body of the man behind him, forcing Tony to grab hold of the arm to keep himself upright. Warm breath passed his ear, causing him to shudder, but Tony quickly blocked that out as he watched wide eyed as Steve continued to lie on the floor, groaning as his eyes scrunched closed as he fought the pain and impending unconsciousness.
The arm not holding Tony rose, the gun aiming for Steve again, the warm breath was back on his ear, "How does it feel Stark. After all this time, after you had just started to feel safe, I'm about take two important things from you, your life, and your precious Captain."
Tony swallowed back the flash of panic before responding, "Do you mind moving your head a bit, your rancid breath is fucking annoying." The man's left hand momentarily let go of Tony and then pushed its fingers into the still heeling scar tissue on Tony's leg. Tony gasped, squeezing his eyes shut, the pain shooting down towards his ankle. His leg gave out, shaking as it was no longer able to hold his weight.
Tony opened his eyes and looked at Steve. He was shifting, trying to force himself up, but he was twisting his upper body while using his bleeding left arm for support, the pain caused by the movement and pressure sent him falling back onto the floor. Steve let out a shudder as his eyes finally started to glaze from pain. "Come on Cap, don't do this to me." Tony said, his voice barely carrying over to the struggling man on the floor, "Not again." Tony added in a whisper.
"Well, I have had about enough of this." The gun cocked again, its barrel aiming for the prone body on the floor.
"No!" Tony yelled again, struggling weakly against the arm around him.
A shot sounded, but it went wide as something slammed into the two men, dislodging Tony and eliciting a cry of pain from the other. Tony turned from his position on the floor, staring in utter disbelief as he watched Lady snap her jaw over the forearm that held the gun.
She jerked her head, shaking it back and forth as she growled and sunk her teeth lower into the raving man's limb. Something snapped.
"Fuck!" The man cursed trying to get the dog off of him as he slipped and fell to the floor, Lady still attached. She held on valiantly, snarling and growling as the man tried hitting her with his fist. Lady had grown over the near month of being in Tony's ownership, but she still wasn't fully grown, so she didn't posses the strength to keep up the attack. Tony only took a moment to register Lady being shoved away as she shook herself, she snapped at the arm flying towards her, dodging an incoming blow of the gun, her reaction caused the gun to fall from the man's hand and skid across the floor.
Tony watched it, knowing the man was too distracted at the moment to pay him any mind. But the gun was on the other side of the room, and Tony could see his cane sitting only several feet away from him. He braced himself to stand, but he stopped when he heard a yelp.
"No!" Lady was on her side, a knife sticking from her back left leg. A squelch sounded as the knife was removed, the blade was wiped against the fur on her shoulder. Tony glared at the man who turned to look at him.
His right arm was pressed against his chest, bleeding and crooked. But that didn't stop the man from expertly twirling the knife in his left hand, smiling as he did so. Tony glanced over at Steve, hoping that the man had somehow remained conscious within the past three minutes. Nope. Not that Tony could blame him, there was an alarmingly large amount of blood pooling beneath him. A foot to the gut reminded Tony of what was happening.
He rolled to avoid the second kick, his movements leading him closer to the cane. Tony wasn't expecting the kick to his leg – again – causing him to cry out, he clutched at it briefly. He sucked in a breath, he was really getting tired of the man's repetitive abuse to his already abused leg. The man chuckled above him, Tony looked up, just in time to roll away yet again from a glinting knife, still ever closer to the precious, life saving cane.
The hand closing around his forearm wasn't much of a surprise, being hauled up though was. A wave of dizziness rolled through him, causing him to double over, right into the coming knee, his nose bursting blood as the kneecap made contact. He slid to the floor, groaning in pain. But he was next to the cane now, he had reached his goal. Tony slowly reached out with his hand, but he wasn't expecting the next kick aimed at his chest. He rolled to avoid it, realizing too late that rolling backwards was not a good idea, Tony flailed his arms as he started tipping over the top of the stairs. His hand curled around the gold handle just as his center of gravity reached the edge.
The tumble down was long and painful, he tucked his head beneath his arms to protect his neck, and it was a surprise when Tony heard rather than felt the bone in his right leg snap. He landed heavily at the bottom, automatically curling in on himself, tears leaking as new pains assaulted his body right along with old. He only just managed to catch his breath right as a figure appeared at the top of the stairs.
Not wasting time Tony rolled quickly and painfully to his back, the cane held in both his hands as he pressed the trigger. He was almost disappointed when the man above him dove aside just in time. But Tony didn't wait, he pushed himself up against the wall painfully and aimed at the door to his shop, closing his eyes as the glass shattered and rained down on him.
Tony started to drag himself through the door – wincing when yet again he slid his body over sharp shards of glass – using only his arms as both his legs now were useless. He felt a wave of relief when he saw that Butterfingers, You, and Dummy turn to greet him, still online. Not that he was surprised, they didn't work on the same system as Jarvis.
Butterfingers rolled over to him, Tony patted him, "Hey," he said softly, exhausted, "I need you to flip the manual override. Please." You rolled up next to Butterfingers, followed by Dummy, Please Butterfingers." Something in Tony's tone must have registered in the AI's circuitry because he quickly rolled – faster than Tony had ever seen him move – over to the paneled door that he had refused to open for Tony all those weeks ago. The bot opened the door and clumsily flipped the switch.
"Alright," Tony called from his position in between You and Dummy, "Now I need you to hit the green and red button." Glass crunched behind Tony, he froze.
Tony saw the knife first as he turned, the sight of blood still streaked across the silver caused a wave of nausea to roll through his gut. Grabbing hold of Dummy Tony straightened himself up as he held the cane that was beside him firmly in his hand.
"You are proving to be a very hard man to kill Mr. Stark."
"So I've been told," Tony replied, his voice rasping in his throat.
"It is a shame that you couldn't have met my employer. It was his original plan you know. Those idiots were only supposed to take you, and then deliver you to him. But I guess we should have realized that they do not take well to following orders. So here we are, you're not worth the time now." The man continued to step forward, forcing Tony to continually drag himself painfully away. "Still, it is a shame."
"Why don't you just give me a name and I could make a call."
"No, I think the novelty of killing you himself has dwindled in pleasure for him."
Tony sucked in a breath when the man took another step closer to him, his knife rising. There was a whir, and then the man's hand was incased by rubber tipped fingers, both men looked confused as Dummy tightened his fingers around the struggling hand, You rolled up and caught hold of the knife still in the man's hand. It was extracted easily. Then, in what only Tony would recognize as faked clumsiness, You dropped the knife on the ground and rolled over it, snapping it in half as his full weight was pressed against it. Tony laughed. The man growled.
Something beeped behind them. Tony craned his neck, smiling when he saw that Butterfingers had followed his order and pressed the two buttons underneath the switch, he didn't need Tony to tell him to flip the manual override back off.
There was a flicker as the lights in the workshop came back on, a soft whir as the mechanics in Tony's shop started up again.
"What?"
Tony glanced at the man still standing there with his hand held by Dummy, "What, you think I'm stupid enough to put up easily accessible control boxes outside of my home without one inside. Jarvis?"
"I am back online sir."
"Good, call Fury, and Rhodey. And what the hell call the police too."
"Already done, sir. Might I also say that your team is currently en route."
The man growled as he yanked his hand from Dummy, Tony quickly grabbed his cane holding it tightly in his hand as his other tried dragging him away, ignoring the throb that pulsed up through his broken leg and the agonizing shriek from his still impaled shoulder. The foot that came down on his snapped tibia caused Tony to scream. A hand grabbed his throat. Squeezing his throat and lifting him partially up.
Tony clawed at the hand, desperately trying to suck in a breath. It wasn't working, the hand was getting tighter and Tony's vision was getting darker. He flicked his eyes to the left, managing to catch a glimpse of the man's injured arm still tucked protectively against his chest. Tony shot out a hand, grabbing over the bleeding wound and squeezing. With a gasp and cry of pain the hand holding Tony's throat reflexively let go, dropping him to the floor.
The fiery pain of his shoulder did nothing to stop him from trying to scoot away from the man, his hands pawing the floor blindly beside him in search of a weapon. His right hand closed around something.
He didn't have a chance to see what it was before the hand was back around his throat, squeezing and lifting him partially up again.
The man leaned his head closer to him, his body following, "Have a safe trip to Hell Stark."
"Ughh-uhh"
The man smirked at Tony's attempt to speak, "What was that?"
Tony felt the hand loosen minutely, allowing him to speak, so he did, "You….first." The man looked confused before his eyes bulged, looking down as Tony wrenched the partial steel blade still attached to the hilt from his ribs.
He was dropped to the floor, watching as the man above him pressed his hand to the bleeding wound, his breath coming in rattles. Tony started backing up when the man took a step closer to him, he didn't hesitate when he snatched the red and gold cane from the floor, aimed, and fired.
The repulsor shot hit the man squarely in the chest sending him flying backwards, leaving the smell of burnt clothes and skin behind.
Tony sat in stunned silence before chucking the cane across the room. When the smell of smoldering flesh assaulted him he rolled to his side, emptying out everything that had not finished digesting. His throat burned, both from the stomach acid and the bruising crush of hands. It hurt to swallow, to breathe.
Rubbing at his throat Tony glanced over at the smoldering body ten feet away, he looked away, his gaze instead taking in his right leg. He almost repeated his reunion with his breakfast when he noticed the pooling blood and the bulge of his sweats were the bone had broken the skin. Tony let himself fall back to the floor, moaning in pain as the past hour came crashing down on him.
He continued to lie in his growing pool of his own blood – it was small so he wasn't too worried – until Dummy rolled up next to him, gently nudging him. Moaning Tony gently tried to push the bot away, which only succeeded in increasing the pain level.
But Dummy had a point. There was currently a bleeding dog and a dying Captain up in his living room.
"Jarvis?" Tony gasped as he pushed his torso up off the floor, wincing when he noticed the bloody handprints his bleeding hand left, "I need the elevator."
The elevator was twenty feet away with a dead burnt body in-between. Tony swallowed and grabbed hold of Dummy, "Hey buddy, mind lending me a hand?" Dummy chirped quietly before slowly rolling – pulling Tony along with him – past the body on the floor – Tony closed his eyes and looked away – and to the elevator that sat open and waiting.
The trip, however slow, was painful, despite how Dummy carefully maneuvered around the objects blocking their paths. Tony was sweating and breathing heavily by the time they got there. He let go of Dummy, while standing Tony could easily fit him and the bot in the elevator, but he doubted that with him sprawled along the floor it would leave very little room for the robot. So Tony pulled himself into the stainless steel elevator, groaning when his leg caught against something.
"Jarvis, take me up." Tony didn't have the strength to prop himself up against the wall of the elevator, choosing instead to lay there as he inspected his body by the wiggle of several body parts. His conclusion; it fucking hurt everywhere.
The elevator dinged and opened up into the small hallway that led to the living room. Tony sat on the floor of the elevator trying to will himself to get up and go forward, to get to Steve, to make sure he was still alive. Because he couldn't handle losing him again, he couldn't handle losing anyone else he cared about.
But his eyes were closing, and he couldn't force himself up. And it felt so good to not think, to not move, and to not breathe. So Tony lay there, with his head pillowed on his hands, and his limbs throbbing in rhythm with his heart.
"Sir, Colonel Rhodes is on his way. Doctor Banner would also like you to know that they are almost here."
Tony grunted, but the mention of Bruce and Rhodey spurred him into action. Slowly pulling himself up Tony bit his lip as he used his left leg to help propel his way out of the elevator and down the hall. It was slow going, he had to stop several times to catch his breath, but he eventually reached the dimmed room.
He passed Lady first, she was alright. The wound was superficial, and the bleeding had stopped. But she still lay there, only giving the effort of flopping her tail once to show her pleasure at seeing Tony. He patted her head before he gently hugged her upper body to his and slowly dragged both himself and her over to the bleeding man on the floor.
Tony stopped with a gasp, his back against the couch with Lady's head against his thigh. His left hand ghosted across Steve's neck, feeling for the steady thrum of blood. He nearly panicked when his shaking fingers couldn't find one, his heart beating wildly as his hand pressed slightly harder into Steve's neck. The action elicited a groan from the man. Tony let his hand fall, relief coursing through him.
"T'ny?" Steve groaned.
Tony patted him weakly on the shoulder, not having the energy to speak. He should stop the bleeding, yeah, that's what he should do, the Cap was bleeding, he should stop the bleed…
AVENGERS
It was odd having the S.H.E.I.L.D. helicopter drop them in Tony's front lawn. There was a helipad somewhere, but Natasha wasn't waiting.
They had been on their way back, a little under an hour till they reached Malibu, when a slightly panicked Jarvis contacted them and told them that he had lost connection to the house. At first Bruce had thought this was some sort of joke Tony was making, because Bruce was certain that if the Malibu house was down then Jarvis would be down.
"There are seven security boxes surrounding Mr. Stark's residence," Jarvis explained, "there are a total of eight. The only one that can fully override my systems is the one that Mr. Stark installed inside his home. The other's only control parts of my functions. Security box Alpha four-one's primary function is the security within the house, not my outward communications. According to security protocol nine dash seven-eight I am to contact Miss Potts, Colonel Rhodes, and the closest member of the Avengers' team."
The group of four had remained silent, not quite sure how to take Jarvis' news.
Jarvis had made a noise that sounded oddly like a huff of impatience, "That means," Jarvis snapped, "That someone has broken through Mr. Stark's security system and has infiltrated Mr. Stark's home."
That had sent them into some form of controlled action. Natasha had ripped the pilot out of his seat taking control while Clint repeated the action with the copilot, they were quickly forgotten. Bruce sat himself down while he began interrogating Jarvis from the headset what was happening.
"I am unable to determine if anyone is hurt at the moment, but by the brief body scans I got of the intruder before I was cut off suggests that there is both a gun and knife on his person."
"Why both?"
Bruce didn't know he had spoken out loud until he heard Natasha's voice through the speaker of the headset, "It means that he's expecting a fight. That could be a good or bad thing."
"Why, would that be bad?"
"Because that means that Tony or Steve could be seriously hurt."
"Or they could be dead." Clint said from her side, "I choose seriously hurt over dead. You can't heal dead people."
"Would not our Captain be able to handle a single man, even with the Man of Iron's injury?" Everyone jumped at Thor's booming voice over the speakers. Bruce looked towards him, not at all surprised to see that he was nearly swallowing the mike for the headset. He still didn't have a knack for the communicator comms that Tony had designed either.
"Yeah, Cap with his super soldier-ness. I doubt a gun or a knife could take the man down." Clint said as he half turned to Bruce for confirmation.
Bruce shook his head, "I don't know. The serum makes Steve near invincible, but a bullet can still penetrate his skin, we know that. If a near miss of a bullet to the head renders him unconscious then I think several bullets or a stab wound to the side can cause some serious damage." Bruce looked at Clint's doubtful face, "He may be a genetically enhanced soldier Clint, but he is still human. There is only so much the human body can take."
"Jarvis have you contacted Pepper or Rhodes yet?" Natasha said from her spot in the pilot's seat.
"I have been unable to reach either Agent Romanoff. Miss Potts' cell phone is currently off and Colonel Rhodes has yet to pick up his."
"Keep trying."
They sat there in the growing silence, Bruce taking deep breathes every few minutes to calm his racing heart. He nearly flew out of his skin when Natasha spoke up.
"Call for you Banner."
"Huh?" He didn't get to wait for an explanation before a hysteric Pepper started screaming in his ear.
"Bruce! I just got the call from Jarvis! Where are you, he says that his-" Bruce cut her off.
"Yeah, yeah I know Pepper. We're nearly there, alright we'll get there." Pepper didn't seem to hear him.
"My phone must have died during the night, I only just now plugged it in!"
"Pepper, hey Pepper." Bruce waited for her to register his calls for her to calm down, when she did Bruce spoke calmly, "We're on our way right now Pepper, we're-" Bruce glanced towards Natasha, "Twenty minutes!" she screamed over her shoulder, "Twenty minutes away. Alright it's going to be okay, Steve's with him."
Pepper was silent for a moment before she took in a watery breath, "I'm going to try Rhodey. Jarvis says he couldn't get a hold of him." She was back to her no nonsense self, Bruce smiled.
"Good. It's going to be okay Pepper, I promise."
"'kay," Pepper whispered before she hung up.
Bruce turned to Clint, who was looking back at him, his eyes wide and unblinking. "How far now Nat?" He said turning back.
"Only two minutes less than last time you asked." She snapped, her hands tight on the steering column.
Bruce opened his mouth to say something, but he was stopped by Jarvis, "I am back online."
They all started firing off questions at once, Jarvis had no hope of answering any of them. An ear shrilling noise cut them all off.
"Thank you." Bruce raised an eyebrow at the Tony Stark like tone in his voice, "Doctor Banner, both Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers are injured."
Bruce chewed his lips, "Can you tell me their injuries?" His fingers and knee jumped agitated as he continued to keep himself calm.
"Captain Rogers has two gunshot wounds to the chest, he does not seem to be having any trouble breathing, and a stab wound to his left arm, he has also acquired a concussion. He is at the moment unconscious."
"Alright, that's okay, we can work with that. What about Tony?"
Jarvis was silent for a moment, "Mr. Stark is currently under duress."
"How under duress?"
"It would be in your best interest to get back as quickly as possible."
"No problem." Natasha spoke from the front, pushing the throttle down. The remainder of their fifteen minute trip took less than ten.
They scrambled out of the still running helicopter, leaving the discarded pilot to scramble for the controls. Bruce hit the grass and took off in a sprint, quickly followed – and passed – by Clint and Natasha. The distant red and blue flashing lights at the bottom of the drive barely distracting him from his goal.
The door was open when they reached it. Bruce pushed passed Natasha and Clint as he forced his way into the living room. He haulted to a stop when he saw the state of the room.
Water was everywhere, Tony's water fall was spraying water everywhere, its glass back drop now lying in heaps on the floor. The shattered coffee table was next to catch his attention, the blood streaked across the glass causing him to shudder.
But it was the trail of blood leading from the hallway to the two – or three depending on how you looked at it – prone bodies on the floor that caused Bruce to cry out in alarm.
Tony sat propped against the couch, slightly sagging as his head lolled against his chest, hiding most of the blood that had drained from his nose. One arm was supporting the bloody injured dog almost fully in his lap, and the other resting on the unconscious man beside him, his fingers lying on the joint of Steve's neck.
Clint knelt beside Steve as Bruce knelt in front of Tony, checking his pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the constant drum of a pulse. Bruce put a hand on Tony's right shoulder, ready to give him a careful shake to wake him. When Tony groaned in pain at the contact Bruce quickly lifted his hand away, his eyes widened when he saw the layer of blood now coating his fingertips.
"Cap's alive." Bruce heard Clint say from beside him, he nodded before he turned back to Tony and carefully lifted Tony's head.
"Tony. Come one Tony, open your eyes." Bruce waited as Tony's eyes fluttered and slowly opened.
"Bruce, s'that you?" Tony's voice was rasping, and he winced in pain as he spoke.
"Yeah, Tony it's me." Bruce replied as he catalogued all of Tony's injuries that he could see.
"Steve's down, s'not good."
"No Tony no, that's not good but he's going to be okay." Tony gave a week nod his eyes closing as his head started to fall again. "No, no, Tony I need you to stay awake. I need you to tell me who did this. Where is he?" Tony mumbled something, still not opening his eyes, "What Tony, I didn't catch that."
"He's down stairs with Dummy. " Tony looked up at Bruce, his eyes wide with pain and fear, "I didn't have a choice Bruce. He didn't give me a choice. I didn't want to, I swear." His voice – still weak and painful – sounded like a small child, Bruce nodded though.
"I know Tony."
"What's he saying?" Bruce looked over to Natasha who was standing tense and eyeing the shadows of the room.
"I think Tony killed him," Tony made a painful noise beside him, "try downstairs." Natasha nodded before turning on her heal and heading down the stairs. Bruce looked back at Tony who was flicking his glazed eyes back and forth between Bruce and the departing Russian. Bruce sighed, he could see the potential guilt building within Tony. While with the Ironman suit he had killed plenty of men, and aliens for that matter, it was always with the suit and it was always necessary, but it was always within the suit. Never face to face. And despite Tony's cocky attitude during and after the battles, taking someone's life had never been easy. For any of them.
Bruce touched Tony's cheek causing him to jerk, "Tony, can you tell me where you're injured?" He gave a quick glance to Clint who was working on stopping the blood flow from Steve's wounds, he quickly switched his attention back when Tony began to speak.
"Broke m'leg, fell down the stairs." Bruce looked back, anger briefly flashing when he saw the smear of blood over by the staircase, he quickly squashed his rise in emotions, choosing instead to distract himself by inspecting Tony's leg.
As he was lightly pulling up the bloodied sweat leg to inspect the compound fracture he gently asked, "What happened to your shoulder?" The patch of red had spread to the top curve of Tony's shoulder, allowing a peak of red to be seen.
"Flew 'nto the coffee table."
That explained the shattered remains of the new furniture set. He opened his mouth to reply, partly to satisfy his own curiosity and another to keep Tony awake, but he was interrupted as a flood of people came barreling into the room.
Rhodey was in the lead, as he was the only one who could have let the group of officers in – Jarvis was refusing all entry now – and he was flanked by an imposing figure of Nick Fury and an unsettled group of the Malibu Police Department.
"Tony!" Rhodey flew to Bruce's side next to Tony, gently taking in his friend's appearance.
Fury showed a little more decorum and snapped his eyes around the room, taking in the two injured men, "Barton!" he snapped, one officer jumped hand on his gun, "Report. How the hell did this happen?"
Clint opened his mouth but Tony spoke up, his words slurring, "Shadow man cut Jarvis, n'shot Steve. Bruce, you have t' help Steve."
"It's alright Tony, they're helping him." That was Rhodey, Tony lazily rolled his eyes towards him before they stuttered closed and he gave a weak nod.
"So what the hell happened to 'I have the finest security'?" Fury demanded, ignoring the glares sent in his direction as he sidestepped the pairs of paramedics that came hustling into the room. "I'm having an odd sense of déjà vu right now, add some sand and we might as well be back in Afghanistan." Tony jerked his eyes widening as he flicked his gaze across the room, if only to reassure himself that they were indeed in his destroyed living room. "I'm still waiting for an explanation? Who the hell is responsible?"
"It won't matter Director." Fury spun around at Natasha's voice as she came up the stairs, Tony's cane in her hand, "he has been dealt with." She held up the cane, "With this."
"Are you telling me Stark killed a man with a stick?" Fury said, raising his eyebrows skeptically to the object in Natasha's hand.
"s'not a stick." Tony's weak protest floated up, "it's m'very own repulsor cane."
Fury looked between Tony and the cane, "What the hell does that mean?"
Natasha was eyeing the cane in her hand, after a moment of decision she raised the end and aimed it for one of the floor to ceiling windows along the wall. There was a whine followed by several shouts and curses when the window shattered.
Tony looked over his shoulder slightly disgruntled as a paramedic splinted his leg, "Why d'you do that? Told you what it was, you didn't need to break something."
"Mr. Stark." Tony switched his wavery gaze to the paramedic, "I need you to lean forward so I can take a look at your shoulder."
It took Tony several seconds to comprehend what the man had said, he opened his mouth to say something, but it was at that moment that two other paramedics loaded a groaning Steve into a stretcher. They raised up the collapsible legs and started wheeling him away. Tony immediately started to struggle underneath the hands holding him to the ground, not hearing the jumbles of protests.
"Mr. Stark, you need to stay still."
"Tony, don't get up, stay down!"
"Where you going with Steve?" Tony looked up at Bruce, "They can't take Steve Bruce, he needs to stay here."
"They're taking him somewhere to get help. Steve's bleeding Tony," Bruce said to Tony's unhappy expression, "they're going to stop the bleeding."
"I'll go with him Tony." Tony swiveled his head in Clint's direction, nodding drunkenly as he recognized the voice.
"Don' le' him outta your sight." Tony mumbled as he slumped back his hand curling into the furry head still residing in his lap.
The paramedic beside him sighed before gently pulling Tony forward into a half embrace, ignoring Tony's indignant noise, and took a look at his wounded shoulder. The paramedic huffed.
"What?" Bruce asked.
"He's got a piece of glass stuck in his shoulder, I don't know how big or deep it is so I'm gonna leave it in and let the surgeon take it out." He reached into the medical bag beside him and pulled out a wad of gauze and carefully wrapping the white linen around the still protruding glass.
Tony looked up suddenly, his eyes landing on Bruce, "Hey Bruce, I'm a square."
"…what?"
"I'm a square. I got ouchies on both shoulders and legs!" Tony sounded far to amused by that.
"I would prefer if you didn't have any injuries Tony. If this keeps up I'm gonna have Jarvis lock you out of the lab indefinitely." Bruce said as he flicked his eyes up from his work on Lady's leg, wrapping it up to keep it clean.
"Can't, Jarvis is loyal to me. Tell 'em J." Tony grimaced when he shifted in his spot, his eyes trailing the stretcher that the paramedics were wheeling towards him.
"My primary function is taking care of Mr. Stark, however if that calls for keeping him out of the workshop for his own health then it can be done." The paramedics looked at the ceiling wearily.
Tony glared up at it, pointing, "Pepper's corrupted you."
"Whatever makes you feel better sir."
"Mr. Stark sir, we need to get you to the hospital." Tony swiveled his gaze to them, his lip curling in distaste when he comprehended what had been said. He shook his head.
"No, I don't do hospitals. Not cool."
"You're going Tony." Rhodey said as he placed a comforting hand on Tony's shoulder.
Tony tried shrugging him off but was unsuccessful. With the paramedics help, and Tony's weak protests they were able to lay him down awkwardly on the stretcher, partially propped on his left shoulder to keep him off his right. They started rolling him away when he flung his arms out.
"Wait!" he shrieked.
"What?" Bruce said, his heart racing close to the side of dangerous.
"Lady, she's hurt, she needs help." Bruce sighed.
"Who's Lady?" one paramedic asked.
"Tha's m'dog. Don' mess with her, she's vicious." His eyes were starting to droop.
"She will be alright Man of Iron, she will not leave my sight." Thor spoke from the corner of the room he had placed himself and had remained oddly silent throughout the whole ordeal.
"You got to fix her Bruce." Bruce looked over at Tony as he grabbed his shirtsleeve. He shook his head.
"I'm not a vet Tony."
"It isn't that bad Bruce."
"I wrapped the wound Tony, she'll be fine, I'll have Pepper call that unseemly high paid doctor alright?"
Tony mumbled something before nodding, his eyes still closed. The paramedics wheeled him out, Rhodey following close behind.
It was silent for a minute, the ocean breeze coming through the shattered window. Bruce looked over to Natasha who looked back, she still held the cane in her hand, her hand tightening around it when she observed the red stains and broken furniture again.
"Where's the body?" Natasha looked up at Fury, her eyes slightly narrowing before she answered.
"Downstairs in the shop. It's being 'guarded' by Stark's three bots." She shifted on her feet, looking uneasy for once in her life.
"How bad?" Bruce asked.
"Looks like half his skin is melted off."
Bruce bit his lip. He had seen the damage caused by Tony's repulsors before, but that had always been with the non-human entities, and if they had been human they had layers of protection that kept the damage done to their bodies to a minimum. To have a point blank range shot directly on human skin, Bruce could imagine why the usual cool Russian spy looked ready to reunite with her breakfast.
"Well, let's go take a look. We're going to need to get clean-up in here." Fury said as he twisted on his heel and sidestepped past puddles of water, Natasha followed him, if hesitantly.
Bruce looked over at Thor who had meandered his way to the dog who was now sitting partially up, her upper body supported by Thor's massive hands.
"I'm going to go with them." Thor only nodded as he gently soothed the quacking dog.
Glass was evil, was the first thought that popped into Bruce's mind when he saw the shattered door. He was getting really sick of seeing shards of glass with streaks of blood. Tony's blood. He didn't care what Tony said, the moment Pepper got back he was having her replace any breakable items with plastic.
These happy thoughts however were driven from his mind when the rank stench of burnt flesh reached his nostrils, a hand automatically reached to cover both his mouth and his nose. Then he saw the body.
He nearly lost his lunch – or dinner, he really wasn't sure what his last meal was – when he saw the red meat of fleshless muscles peeking out from behind burnt and melted fabric. Bruce looked away, he had seen enough.
"Well, looks like Stark really did a number on this guy." Bruce glared at Fury, that was the understatement of the century.
Dummy came rolling up next to Bruce, nudging him beeping. Unlike Tony, Bruce had never actually learned the 'language of the bots' so he looked towards the ceiling and asked Jarvis.
"He is worried about Mr. Stark sir."
"Oh, uh, he's going to be alright Dummy, promise." Bruce awkwardly patted the bot on the head as it creened out sorrowful noises, You and Butterfingers were soon to mimic Dummy.
Fury gave an odd look at the three bots before he turned back to Natasha, "I'm assigning a detail to both Rogers' and Starks' rooms, they don't leave a S.H.E.I.L.D. agents sight for any moment of the day. I'll also be arranging a transport to get them to a S.H.E.I.L.D. medical facility."
"Yeah, like that's going to go over well." Bruce said with a snort, "What makes you think we're going to make that same mistake again, let alone Pepper or Tony."
"I think we can all agree that Starks security system isn't as well advanced as he brags about." Fury said furiously – ha! Bruce was going to have to tell Tony that one – his hands on his hips.
"I personally don't care." Bruce replied. The two men stood there glaring at each other with Natasha looking on in the background with an amused expression on her face.
Finally she spoke up, "Well gentlemen, if that is all I think I am going to go see how the Captain and Stark are doing." She turned on her heal and marched out of the room, cane still in hand. With one last glare shot at Fury Bruce followed her.
They grabbed Thor and Lady on the way out, the dog being cradled in the massive arms, and they piled into one of the cars parked half-hazardly in the front lawn. It was Rhodey's car so no one thought twice.
Bruce pulled out his cell phone when Natasha hit the highway at ninety miles per hour, he dialed Pepper's number, it rang once before she picked up.
"Bruce! How is he, is he alright?"
"Tony's fine Pepper," she let out a sigh of relief, "however, he was hurt so he is at the hospital right now." Pepper sucked in a breath.
"What happened?"
"He has a compound fracture on his right leg, he also had a chunk of glass sticking out of his shoulder, he says he went flying into the coffee table. Other than that he's okay, has a few new bruises, gonna have two stellar black eyes but he'll be okay." Pepper was silent for a moment, Bruce could imagine her nodding as she took in the news.
"What about Steve? You said he was there with him."
Bruce hesitated, "Steve was a little worse Pepper, he was shot and stabbed. But he'll be alright, he's come through worse."
Pepper paused for a moment before saying, "I'm getting on the plane right now. Happy and I will be there in a few hours."
"We'll be waiting."
Bruce hung up and the car was filled with silence. They traveled that way for sometime, Thor's occasional calming talk to Lady the only thing breaking the silence.
When they were five minutes from the hospital Bruce spoke, "I'm wrapping him up in bubble wrap."
Natasha glanced at him, "What?"
"Tony, I'm wrapping him up in bubble wrap, and tying him down to his bed."
Natasha chuckled, "Well, get in line Bruce because I plan on shoving him into a straight jacket and throwing him in a padded room and throwing away the key."
Bruce couldn't help but smile.
So because my brain can work faster than my rational mind I now have to come up with a bad guy. hmph. I wasn't planning on that when I started this. Oh well, I still want to finish this, so one more chapter, then I guess there might be a sequel, that will probably have much more angst in it, so you know, recovery! Yay! Anyway, I could use some ideas on a bad guy, was thinking I could just throw Hammer in there but that's a little cliche, so no. but I am thinking a business rival, cause you know the business rivals pay the terrorists to kill Tony, i.e. Obadiah Stane, and the super villains send bigs ass alien armies with space whales through awesomely cool portals, i.e. Loki. That's my logic. Let me know, both on the chapter and ideas if you got any, becuase I don't!