Lay Down This Armour.

Eight

A month of hearings on whether Tony Stark was to be indicted became a media sensation. It was all everyone was focused on. To the company's fortune, it seemed that SI stock holders mostly sympathised with the billionaire. The younger population now saw him as an intriguing enigma. He was no longer the snarky and brutally witty and flirtatious playboy he once was and it showed on his televised appearances. In that man's place was a steely calm and stoic man who moved with a deliberate and graceful swagger instead of the energetic hurricane they knew. The Avengers had put all their support and damning evidence behind their teammate. Tony himself was secretly convinced that they were doing it to ease their consciences or some kind of survivor's guilt complex. The state had done all in their power to have him tried as an enemy combatant and terrorist. They had called upon witness after witness to attest to the atrocities he had done. He had been surprised when Justin Hammer had been called to the stand. Tony had decided to not break into mockery and sweet toothed vitriol like he would have done years back. The prosecution seemed to be disappointed as they had counted on riling him up to make him lose the sympathy behind him. His defence team had been pleased and had gone to rip Hammer's testimony to shreds. He had to fight the urge to let the pacing killer at the back of his head loose when Hammer had passed by him as he left the chambers. Pepper had put a grounding hand on his arm, sensing his restlessness. She was now an expert in sensing his disquiet in much the same way he sensed Bruce's. The thought brought forth bitter humour to his mind. He had been quick to accept Bruce and the big guy. Now he knew what it was to constantly war for control of his body with an inner darkness. But he didn't see the Hulk as a monster. Big Green had been born to protect. The Mechanic had been born to destroy and lay waste. He was the one who housed the true monster in his mind, waiting for its next fix of warm blood splashing across its face. If the prosecution had been expecting to destroy the public sympathy for Tony, their hopes definitely dashed when the man himself was called to testify. With a clinical detachment akin to some trauma victims, he had recounted what he remembered of HYDRA's procedures on him. The HYDRA files corroborated all he said. His mutation was not brought up as it had been redacted. Human experimentation was public knowledge, but he had the right to not disclose his natural biological makeup. To the defence team's relief, he had managed to retain his brown eyes throughout the testimony. The luminescent blue would have invoked fear in a number of people. The grand jury finally decided that he had been as much a victim and had suffered enough.
The team had noticed how peaceful the whole period had been and were actually hoping that it would stay that way. Of course it turned out to be too much to ask. After the verdict and dismissal of the proceedings, Tony had put his shades on to cover the change in his eyes as he tapped into all the cctv around the area. They filed out and he had Pepper in arm. They had just exited the building and reporters were still at bay when one of the cameras he was controlling spotted a sniper.
' Shooter!' he shouted as he swivelled holding Pepper against his chest, turning his back to the snipers direction, his wings ripping his shirt and jacket as they spread out in their expanse. He hoped his wings covered his team enough and metal hitting his wings confirmed his hopes. Another projectile hit his exposed hip area and another the back of his thigh. Natasha noticed the bullets hitting his flesh. Pain and anger coursed through him and the beast demanded release. His growl was heard above the ensuing chaos by the team and they knew he was fighting for control.
' Tony. Stay with us, alright. You have to let me take Pepper back inside,' Natasha spoke. She took a hold of Pepper and she, Steve, Clint and Sam retreated into the building. Bucky immediately took off in a low run towards the building the sniper was purched on and Tony flexed his wings to leave the ground as he began his own hunt for the man from the sky. It was a hunt by two of the most honed predators the world knew and both knew the prey was not getting away. The sniper was fast and agile, leaping from roof to roof, but he was not good enough. The Winter Soldier was on his trail and was too distracted by him to not see what waited for him ahead. The Mechanic swooped in and grabbed him by his throat. He flew away from the safety of the roof and hovered over a fifty story drop.
' Who sent you?' the question ice cold.
' HYDRA. I am just a mercenary, man. I have no allegiance to them,' he rasped.
' You took their blood money. That is enough allegiance to me,'
'Mechanic,' Natasha's voice came through the comms in Tony's ear,'you need to hand him over to SHIELD agents waiting down here. He will be dealt with accordingly. You have my word,'
' I will deal with him, myself. His colleagues will know not to take a job after me and mine again,' stubbornly.
' Dammit, Buck. I know you are with him. Talk him out of this,' Steve said to his friend in the open comms.
' This is not Bucky,' came the cold and short reply.
'Shit. We have two triggered assasins and no one to reason with them up there,' Clint was heard.
' Mechanic,' Pepper spoke through a probably borrowed comms device,' you know what happened today right?'
' We were exonerated,' he deadpanned.
' Right. People know and believe that HYDRA is the bad guy, not you. You are free, but if you drop that piece of scum you will have to be detained and Maria will be upset that her daddy will be locked up. Do you want that?'
' No. Need to protect her,'
' Exactly. So you need to hand him over to the agents so that you can protect her better. Come on down here, love,'
He exchanged looks with the Winter Soldier and they came to a silent agreement. The Soldier went on his way to start descending to the ground while Mechanic flew back to the government building with a mercenary by the scruff of his protective vest. Ten feet above the agents, he let go of the mercenary who fell like a sack of potatoes from the height. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it was intended to hurt.
' He just couldn't resist could he?' Sam mumbled. Tony walked up and into the building to the waiting team and Pepper, a trail of blood following tracing his path. His wings retracted. Clint removed his jacket and offered iy to Tony.
Your clothes are wrecked. Wear this,'
Tony, still quiet as his alter ego was receding, removed his shirt and jacket and accepted Clint's offering. The team knew Tony to have always been toned due to his engineering. Heavy lifting of equipment did that. Now he was a smaller ripped version of the serum altered soldiers. He was a machine, built for endurance, agility and speed were Steve and Bucky were built for strength and brute force. He was a knife to their boulder.
Bucky appeared soon after. Steve looked at him.
' All good?' he asked.
'Yeah. The transition is almost seamless now,' he answered.
' At least one of you is managing it gracefully,' Pepper said as she rubbed Tony's back soothingly. It was clear that he was still in limbo between personas due to the silence.
' I have had over a year to deal with it. He will get there,' Bucky assured her. Tony glared at Pepper, and she laughed.
' I know you are standing right there, but you are not speaking. Talk and I won't act like you are invisible, as you seem to think. Come on, our ride is waiting. I am sure Vision, Bruce and Rhodey are close to popping veins in worry back at the base,' leading him away. They were out of earshot when Sam spoke.
' Makes me wish for a missus of my own. If you have one as centred as Pepper, you sure are a lucky dude,'
' And one would not be lucky with the likes of me?' Natasha asked seriously.
' Uh. That's not...I didn't...' Sam sputtered under the dangerous green gaze. The group laughed at his expense. Natasha smirked, happy that her mission at stirring him up had been accomplished.

Bruce fussed over him, digging the bullets out and cleaning his wounds as fast as he could before they closed. It seemed it was a bad day for Tony. He had been growling at the slightest annoyance while Bruce was treating him. He had holed himself in Pepper's room straight after. He did not have the patience to mingle with his team at the common floor after changing into comfortable clothing. As it turned out, Pepper wasn't in the mood to indulge the dark cloud over him. She burst in holding a drowsy Nia in her arms, dragged him down to the common floor and plopped him on a couch.
' Holing yourself up in solitude after getting shot at is a bad idea and you know it,' she admonished him in front of the lounging team. He only glared back at her. She put the almost sleeping kid on his chest.
' Hold her. I have to go and make a few calls before I put her to bed,'
As if hearing her mother, Nia snuggled up to Tony's chest and laid her head on his shoulder. His grip around her tightened and he focused on her instead of his dark thoughts. Her heartbeat calmed him bit by bit. Natasha, knowing that now was the time to ask about his captivity without him lashing out, spoke up.
' Tony. I am curious. You never did say how you were able to break the programming at the white house,'
' I was their prisoner. They couldn't trust me but they knew I was the smartest they had. So they had me create my own programming. I refused at first, with unpleasant results, but I realised that they would eventually get me to do it one way or another. So I decided to do it while I could still control the situation. I built a fail safe into the programmming. They expected it and I knew they would check for it. I built an obvious one I knew they would find and buried the main one. They did not factor in that I would at some point see Pepper while on a mission or that she would say words only her and I knew about. Luckily she didn't disappoint when you brought her along,'
' Smart,' Sam chuckled.
' Tell me something I don't already know, Wilson,' he said with an exaggerated, bored sigh.
' Okay good. The arrogant asshole is still there somewhere underneath all that brooding. Thought we had lost him,' Clint said in mock relief.