Invincible

Tony shoved his hands on the side of the desk, sending the chair spinning across the room. He artfully dodged DUM-E who seemed to be enjoying rolling around in the middle of the lab and generally getting in the way as usual. He retrieved the drink that was the initial reason for this - admittedly fun - little jaunt and returned to the repulsor that he was working on.

“DUM-E, what the hell are you doing?” DUM-E whistled gently in reply. “Just stay out of the way.”

Tony found his drink with his free hand, eyes still fixed on the intricate wiring he was tinkering with, taking a swig. It was this exact moment that DUM-E, trying to win his creator’s attention, tapped him on the shoulder.

Swallowing is decidedly difficult when being scared by something you built, which is how Tony ended up coughing and spluttering.

“It’s not too late to become a wine rack." Tony snapped at the little robot. "Thor has probably broken something by now and if you do anything like that to me again, you will be dismantled to replace it. Understood?” 

DUM-E whistled mournfully and rolled into a corner so as not to incur his master’s wrath. Tony turned back to analyse the damage DUM-E had caused, and that is when it happened.

The pain was unreal. He didn’t even know what had caused it, he had only hiccupped. It felt like his lungs had been beaten to a pulp. It felt like he had been hit in the chest with Mjolnir, and this was speaking from personal experience: Thor didn’t believe in using less than full strength when training, and he had tested the Iron Man suit to its limits on more than a couple of occasions.

“JARVIS, I’m dying. I’m dying and it is all DUM-E’s fault!” he moaned at the room at large.

“Shall I call Dr Banner, or is it just another cold?” JARVIS retorted in his cool, crisply accented voice. The pain came again and Tony cried out.

“If you’re not going to help I’ll find someone else, damn you.”

Tony stumbled toward the lift and slumped against the back wall as it travelled up toward the penthouse; where it was most likely that someone would be around. Another wave of pain hit on the way up that left him gasping for breath, sprawled in a heap on the floor.

~~~~~

Natasha was sat on the worktop of the bar watching the proceedings. Tony had escaped to one of his many labs earlier after the fun had started and Natasha strongly wished that she too could get away, but, unlike their billionaire host, she had nowhere to go.

Clint and Thor were arguing about what was the strongest thing on Earth, with Clint suggesting numerous things that could, possibly, theoretically, be stronger than Mjolnir, but Thor refused to budge on the matter as usual. This was an unofficial holiday with the Avengers now. Whenever Thor was able to escape Asgard, he found Jane and took her to see the sights of any of the cities they were near. It was Steve who suggested that since Thor was here so rarely they all met up when he was on Earth.

Thor was just about to demonstrate the power of Mjolnir when the lift doors opened. She didn’t look round, expecting Tony to swan out and make some snarky comment on the proceedings. When he didn’t, she jumped deftly off the counter, immediately taking a defensive stance: something is always wrong when Tony doesn’t comment, and Natasha was readying herself for an intruder, someone who had somehow managed to get through JARVIS and the numerous level of security around Stark Tower. It was a genuine shock for her to see Tony curled up on the floor and whimpering.

“Tony!” she exclaimed, making Clint and Thor turn their heads and rush toward the lift. “What’s wrong?”

Tony’s head snapped up when he heard Natasha’s worried voice. Of course she would deny all accusations later, but it was nice to know that she cared enough to be worried about his wellbeing. What worried him most right now was that, although the latest spike of pain had abated, he now had a burning pain that wouldn’t go away, and was getting steadily worse with each hiccup. It was also getting hard to breathe, and he was scared of how much more of this he could take. Thor, Clint and Natasha weren’t doing much to help, crowding around him like this, doing nothing when he was so obviously in pain.