Lay Down This Armour.

Six

'How does it feel, Mr Stark? To feel all that power running through you? Shhh. The pain will pass. That is just the serum doing its work, and if all goes well, its also activating that beautiful recessive gene of yours,'

' All that screaming. I would have expected you to be a little more tolerant of pain. I guess you are really just a spoilt brat after all. Bear with us. This is necessary to understand how you are interacting with the serum. I know vivisection is not exactly appreciated, but I consider it necessary to...understand what it is we study. Yakov, tighten the restraints. I don't want him breaking loose when he is wide open like this. Would be such mess,'

He thought he knew what pain was. He was wrong. He wished for death. It chased him away. Something about it not being time yet. He wished to pass out. The darkness refused to stay for long. All he knew now was pain, anger, and resentment that swallowed him whole.
' Bambino. You need to wake up my love. You need to wake up now. Its okay, you will be safe when you wake up,'

Everyone in the common room stilled when the lights started to flicker.
' Peter, take Nia to Pepper and stay with them,' Rhodey instructed.
The teen left just as appliances started to short circuit.
' Friday. What is going on,'
' Mr Stark...distressed...shutting...me down...containment...failure,' the AI then went quiet. They descended into darkness.
' Shit. He is gonna kill us,' Scott swore.
' Noone is getting killed. Scott and Hope, scout him out. Don't let him see you. Bucky, Natasha and I will keep him busy. Ben and Reed, you are containment should we fail. Sue, you are the last resort,' Steve ordered,'everyone else, hold your ground, here. Hopefully he doesn't make it up here. If he does, then we will have a problem,'
' We just came from a mission and he just has to throw a tizzy,' Clint grumbled. Scott and Hope were already in their miniature sizes. Wasp went into the vents and Antman was in the walls. They got to the containment floor. It was eerily quiet. It was dark and they could not get any hint of movement that suggested were Tony could be.
'I can't see him,' Scott whispered in their comms.
' Same here,' Hope reiterated.
' We will have to flush him out. Don't draw attention to yourselves,' Steve said.
' Copy,' Scott said as he moved back. His back hit a wall he knew should not be there. He turned and realised it was a huge combat boot. He looked up further and saw a silhouette of a man looking down at his position.
'Guys. He found me,' he squeaked.
' We are coming in. Get out now!' Steve shouted. Scott ran as fast as his little feet could as the two assasins and Steve ran in. All three of them had improved eyesight so it wasn't difficult to spot him. He immediately went for Natasha and the deadly dance started amongst the four of them. Tony took all three of them on in a way Steve never saw coming. Holding his own against two of them, he expected, but this was ridiculous. It was as if he knew all their moves before they did. It dawned on Steve then. He probably had studied all their fighting styles and they knew nothing of his. Natasha was soon thrown out of the door to where Reed, Ben and Sue were. Sue ran to her and dragged her further away.
'I never want to do that again,' she groaned.
' Guys. Steve is out. I can't hold him off much longer,' Bucky grunted.
' We have to lure him to the common floor. There is more space there,' Natasha said as she struggled up.
' Copy,' Bucky said.
Sue, Reed, Ben and Natasha resurfaced in the common floor.
' Clint, Johnny get ready to distract him.
A few moments passed before Bucky flew past them and crushed a table under him.
'Shit,' Johnny swore as he lit up. Glowing and predatory eyes landed on them. Clint started shooting his arrows in fast succession, all of them swatted away as Ben lunged for Tony. He had him in a bear hug strong enough to contain him but not injure him and he was not happy about that. He roared in frustration before going quiet.
' Tony. Its me, honeybunch. You have to snap out of it, man,' Rhodey said from behind Bruce.
He was met with heavy breathing. A pop was heard and Johnny's lit up figure helped them see what had happened. Tony dislocated his shoulder and slipped free of Ben before toppling him to the ground. He fluidly rolled to his feet, snapping his shoulder back in place before charging.
' Okay, I didn't mean literally snap out, man,' Rhodey groaned.
Reed tripped him and as he fell, wrapped himself around Tony's body.
'He won't be able to pull anything. Now get Pepper here,' Reed grunted as he wrapped himself further around the livid, thrashing man.
'He just dislocated his own shoulder. Man that is just fucked up,' Clint breathed.
' Not really,' Natasha grunted as she sat down,'freeing himself any and every way he can. We are lucky Reed can adapt to whatever he might try pulling,'
He let out a another rage filled bellow from the floor.
'He is probably still in whatever dream scenario he was trapped in in his sleep,' Bruce said.
' Well, we need to snap him out of it fast,'
Pepper ran into the room. She knelt next to the men on the ground.
'Tony. You are safe. You need to wake up,'
He stilled at her voice.
' That's it. I will be right here. No need to be scared,'
He shook his head violently.
' No. Not real,' he rasped.
' Come on, Tony. You made a mess. Who else cleans up after you. You know this is real,'
To the shock of everyone watching, the blue in his eyes gave way to the brown. The lights came back on. Still no one dared to move and break Pepper's hold on him.
'Hey stranger. Haven't seen those eyes in years. Still beautiful,'
She looked at Reed.
' Let him go. Its fine,'
He slipped off Tony and Pepper took his head into her lap.
' See. All real,' running her fingers through his hair. He broke down and wept on her lap. His old team, never having seen Tony break down, felt lumps form in their throats. Tears slid down her face as she spoke soothingly to him. Fifteen minutes later, he passed out from exhaustion on Pepper.
' He is down. You can take him,' she said.
' Don't you want to take him with you?'
' He wouldn't take it well if he knew I took such a risk. He knows he is not well yet and expects me to behave accordingly,'
' Fine. But I think it's time we add another element to his rehabilitation. He won't see it coming,' Natasha said,' but only if you are fine with it, Pep,'
' I think I know what you are saying. Its been three weeks since he gave himself up. I think its time,'