My Avengers (1)

Chapter 14

(Stark's POV)

"Tin Man?" her voice rings clear in my ear.

"Yeah kid?"

"Thank you. You know the what-for and all that jazz, so thanks. And uh, keep doing top secret shit that no-one understands."

"You got it."

"Okay cool, so that's all I really wanted to say. Apart from that, I guess it's bye. It's been not fun, and I'll see you assholes in hell."

"Kid? Y/n?"

Nobody else says a word as our ears are filled with the sound of static.

Her line's gone dead.

"Goddamit!" I yell. "Come on! Someone go get her. Someone do something!"

"Mr Stark, resume your task," Fury demands. "We need this engine going or we're gonna hit the ground."

"Fury I know this shit is new to you cuz you never care about anyone but yourself, but why don't you try giving a damn about her for once, and go save the kid?"

"Tony-"

"Shut up Romanoff. Just, please. Someone go get her."

"She is gone, Mr Stark. She is dead. Now resume your task before we all die too."

I'm still pushing the rotor, spinning round and round, over and over again.

"Captain," I say with a sigh, "red lever."

"Uhh, gimme a second Stark," he says through the earpiece. He sounds breathless.

"I don't have a second, Cap. Now pull the goddam lever!"

There's no response from his end.

"For god's sake!"

The rotor is now spinning faster than I can, and the momentum presses me against the metal behind me, but I'm slipping further and further down, closer to the sharp blades beneath me.

"Uh oh," I say just as I fall through the bottom.

"Argh!" Rogers grunts as he finally pulls down the red lever.

"Took your time," I mutter quietly, and I slip away from imminent death.

The rockets in the foot-soles of my suit power me through the air and back into the vessel, where I crash directly into a gunman who'd been firing at Cap.

"Well hey there," I cock my head to one side before punching him square in the face.

"Is there anyone at the hangar?" Fury's frantic voice comes through to me.

"Nope. Captain and I are at the engine," I then turn to Rogers. "Where'd you get your earpiece from? Thought you lost it?"

"I didn't lose it, it fell out. Besides, Thor gave me his."

"Ah, so sweet of him."

"Shut up."

"Whatever you say, old man."

"I've got Barton," says Romanoff. "I'm taking him to the med room, he's gonna be fine."

"Where's the big guy?" I ask.

"Uh....."

"Agent Romanoff, tell me you haven't lost the Hulk."

"No sir, not lost. It's just that um, Loki's escaped. He got out, and got Thor trapped in the cell. That cell is now headed for Earth, with Banner hanging onto the side of it."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, Barton told me of the plan. Loki wanted Banner to change into the Hulk and, now that he and Thor are out of the way, he thinks he's ahead."

"Well, you'll all be pleased to know that Loki just escaped through the hangar," Fury says. "I want you all to report to the command room. Immediately."

The line goes dead.

"Well, that's that," I brush my hands together. "Come on then."

Rogers reaches out and puts a hand on my shoulder, "Stark, about y/n-"

"Don't. Don't you dare," I shrug him off. "You didn't care about her when she needed you to, you don't get to care about her now."

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Save it. I'm sure Fury's gonna have a thing or two to say."

I walk ahead of Rogers, out of the engine rooms and through the corridors. Dead bodies litter the ground, blood splatters the walls.

"Damn," I say as I see one of the corpses. "I thought this dude had a pea brain. Guess not."

The command room is a wreck. There are more holes in the floor than there are places to stand. Windows are smashed, agents are killed.

Fury stands at the table that somehow remains unscathed.

Rogers and I are the first ones here.

"These were in Agent Coulson's jacket," he tosses a wad of cards on the table and looks at Cap. "Guess you never did get around to signing them."

When he picks them up, small drops of blood fall onto the glass.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I've got nothing for you."

I can't believe he said we're 'dead in the air'. Arrogant, insensitive piece of shit Fury.

"Yes. We were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract, however I never put all my eggs in that one basket, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark you of course already know this as you hacked our systems," he says pointedly but I just shrug, "called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Agent Coulson died still believing in that notion."

I lean against one of the chairs and cross my arms, "Y/n was right all along. You were collecting us, like valuable items, so that we could do your dirty work for you. All this bullshit about Shield being protectors.... That's all it is. Bullshit. All it is, is a front. A name you give yourselves to make you seem important when really, all you do is sit back and let us fight the bad guys. The Avengers Initiative. Such a stupid, old fashioned notion."

I push myself away from the table, leaving Rogers and Fury in that room, and I head for my lab.

Time to get to work.