Chapter 39-Meteor
By: MysticFantasy
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prompt provided by Muldoon22.
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"Those challenges were stupid and dangerous and we need to find more!" Clint declared.
"Aye. They were most challenging." Thor agreed.
"Oh no! You are not doing anymore food challenges and possibly putting yourselves in the hospital for eating something too spicy." Natasha warned.
"Like when Cap ate that meteors dust?" Clint reminded.
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"Tony! You have to get up there!" Clint shouted as he kept his eyes on the distant ball of fire that was flying toward the planet.
"Easy for you to say. You don't have a woman who's threatened to kill you for the next stupid stunt you pull."
"Then who else is going to get up there and stop this meteor from crashing into the city?!" Natasha demanded. "Thor's not here so you're the only choice."
"Get off my back woman!"
"Sir!" Jarvis practically shouted.
"What is it, Jarvis?!" Tony asked.
"Sir, Captain Rogers has just taken your suit and has flown off in it!" the AI answered.
"HE WHAT?!" the three Avengers shouted.
"How did he even fit into the suit?!" Tony demanded.
The three were silent when the heard the familiar sound of the Iron Man suit. They looked out to the sky and sure enough saw the familiar smoke pattern left behind by the suit.
"Get him on the comm!" Natasha ordered.
"Can't. He's too far out of reach!" Tony replied.
Natasha stared up at the sky as the smoke trails began to fade.
You moron. What are you doing? she thought to herself.
She didn't have to wait longer than a few seconds to put two and two together.
"He's going to try to stop that meteor." she said feeling a little weak in the knees.
"Even if he succeeds, I don't think his body can handle the return trip." Tony said.
"Why?!" Clint questioned.
"He's bigger than me and being in the suit like that...it won't provide as much protection for him as it would for me." Tony explained.
"But he'll survive, won't he?!" Natasha asked, trying not to let her voice sound as worried and fearful as she felt inside.
Tony lowered his eyes and stayed silent.
"Tony, will he survive?" Natasha asked more firmly.
"I don't know." he answered softly, almost in a whisper.
Natasha felt her breath shake a little as she stared back up at the sky.
Please be ok. she thought.
A sudden white flare followed by a colorful explosion caused them all to cover their eyes. When the thundering noise of the explosion ended, they looked back up and saw the remains of the meteor burning in the atmosphere.
Almost like a day time meteor shower.
The distant sound of people cheering could easily be heard but the three were very concerned about their captain.
"Jarvis, talk to me." Tony said. "Is Steve still alive and in one piece?"
"Captain Rogers is still alive but his systems are failing, sir. The Iron Man armor took a considerable amount of damage during the explosion. Shall I attempt to operate the suit and bring Captain Rogers back to the tower?"
"Yes!" the three answered.
They were silent but after about two minutes they soon heard the sure sound of the red and gold armor getting louder and louder.
"There!" Clint shouted.
Natasha almost felt relieved when she saw the familiar armor appear and grow closer to where they stood on the outer balcony of the tower.
"Sir, Captain Rogers has stopped breathing and his heart rate is growing weaker." Jarvis announced.
"Have Dummy bring the med stuff up here." Tony ordered as the AI piloted the suit to land on its feet but once it touched the ground it fell to the ground.
"Steve!"
The two men managed to turn the armor around to lie on its back and Tony manually removed the helmet to reveal Steve's unconscious and slightly pale face.
"Steve!" Clint called as the original operator removed the torso piece of armor. "Come on, buddy. Wake up."
Natasha stood back, feeling her entire body shake in worry and fear that grew worse with every passing moment that Steve didn't move.
Dummy appeared a second later with a cart holding a variety of instruments she was sure weren't needed for this occasion.
Clint right away grabbed the oxygen tank and placed the mask over Steve's nose and mouth. A quick turn of the knob and a small miss told them the oxygen was flowing.
"Come on, super soldier. Wake up." Tony said. "The world doesn't want to lose you again."
Natasha went over and dropped to her knees, staring at Steve's motionless face the entire time.
Please, wake up. she pleaded silently.
A small twitch of Steve's eyebrow alerted them and suddenly his whole body moved as he gasped, taking in a large amount of air as he did.
A coughing fit erupted from the soldier as relieved looks appeared on the others.
"Let's get him to his room." Tony said. "He's freezing."
With it just being the three of them, it hadn't been easy or quick in getting Steve into a change of warm clothes or into his bed but they managed to do it.
Though Clint vowed he would give Thor an earful for being away because his back would be sore from carrying someone larger and heavier than him.
Once the soldier was lying in a warm bed with the oxygen mask still in place, Tony went to assess the damage his armor had taken and Clint gave Natasha space to keep watch over their captain.
But the archer knew better. He knew that Natasha was going to give Steve an earful when he woke up. He wished he could hear it but he knew he would also get told something even though he didn't do anything.
So for the next two hours, Natasha sat quietly on the edge of the bed. Watching as Steve rested and warmed up from his ordeal.
Part of her wanted to yell and curse him out the second he woke up and realized where he was. But another part of her just wanted to tell him how worried he had her.
How scared she had been when Jarvis had announced that Steve had taken the armor and flown to try to stop, how worried she was for his life, that he might not make it back in one piece.
Having stopped breathing had been bad enough and she didn't want him to ever do it again.
She wasn't sure what she was going to do when he woke up. But it looked like Steve wasn't going to let her make up her mind since he was waking up.
He moved his head toward her a little and slowly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times before lightly smiling at her.
"Hey." he greeted then was shocked stupid when Natasha suddenly slapped him.
"Don't you EVER do that again!" she practically shouted.
"N-Natasha, I had to. I needed to do..."
"Don't! Don't you even start with saying that someone needed to do something. Yes, that's true but you didn't have to be that person!"
"What else could we have done?" Steve questioned. "If we hadn't done something, the city wouldn't still be standing."
"But you didn't have to cram yourself into the Iron Man suit and fly off like that." Natasha stated. "You're always doing things like this and don't even bother thinking about the people who care about you."
"I do too."
"Then why did you take off like that without telling us?!"
"Like I said, I had to do something and I didn't want to see anyone hurt or killed. Especially y..."
The soldier paused which made Natasha freeze.
"What?" she questioned.
"I didn't want to see you hurt." Steve finished.
"That's why you did it?! Because of me?"
"Yes."
Natasha raised her hand and Steve shut his eyes in fear of another slap to the face. He'd never before admitted any kind of emotions of affection toward any woman.
Steve slowly opened his eyes when he felt a gentle touch on his cheek. He looked up at Natasha with confusion in his eyes.
"Next time, just tell me." she said before kissing his forehead.
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"I still don't know how you got in the armor but next time you do that, I'll seal you inside it." Tony declared.
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A/N: There you go Muldoon22. As promised. :D