[FICLET] Double DownTeam Kill fill for the
2022 SteveTony Games (
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stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (798 words)
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: Gambling
Challenge: (none)
Content Warning: Implied MCDTried to do the one-hour challenge again, but failed on this one. Went ahead and finished it, but I don't feel like it's a terrific piece. It does fill the square and get us a Bingo line, though. And I've written a few hundred words on demand two nights in a row now... that's something, anyway.
Notes: Early canon before Iron Man's identity reveal. I thought about having Steve/emergency crew remove Iron Man's helmet at the end and find him to be Tony, but felt like it needed to end rather than continue, and also decided to leave it implied that neither of them was making it out of this. Just because, Team Kill, and I thought I was going to be doing more metaphorical deaths than actual, but I'm killing them dead-dead more than I thought I would be.
I don't really know how Tony's meters, scanners, alerts, etc, work in the armor at this point... might have stuff going on that's too advanced for this version of the armor, but didn't take the time to research the canon elements to that degree. Also don't know if there's a warehouse area within some interpretation of "a few miles" of Avengers Mansion, but also just winging it there.
It had seemed an easy call. Tony'd been working in the lab for most of the day, and needed a charge. He'd been about to take off his lab coat and plug in when the report came through: a pair of Doombots overflying a warehouse block a few miles away. No immediate active threat beyond the fact of their existence; they shouldn't be there.
Steve responded from the gym within moments, wrapping his workout and ready to go. The others were out and about, and there was no sense pulling in the full team when Iron Man and Cap were right here and more than capable to go roust two mean, green, interloping machines.
Tony had about four hours of power. No problem. They'd be back in short enough order that he wouldn't be cutting things too close. Sometimes situations just required the gamble, all or nothing, pushing reserves to the redline, and he'd had a couple of close calls. If it took his life to stop a deadly threat, well, that was what being Iron Man was for. But he'd gotten better about not doing that when he didn't absolutely need to.
So it had seemed like such a safe bet, an easy win, with Iron Man swooping through the sky, and Steve racing in by street, crouched low over the handlebars of his roaring bike.
Until the Doombots stopped pulling evasive maneuvers and started shooting, broad green energy beams bursting out in wide arcs, and suddenly, from high in the air, Tony felt his foundation drop out right along with the building collapsing below. Crack, BOOM, concussion, massive cloud of grit -- and a jagged field of concrete and metal replaced the exact stretch of road where Steve had just been riding.
"Cap? CAP???" Tony was screaming, and firing by reflex: the Avengers emergency signal; two full-powered blasts of his repulsor rays to slag first one Doombot, then the other; and every scanner the armor contained, searching out any possible life signs in that mess of wreckage.
He dove down and landed, but it wasn't till he heard the weak, cracking voice in his earpiece that he felt the ground back beneath his armored boots.
"Iron Man... ...hear me...?
Tony's heart pounded in his ears almost loud enough to drown him out, but Steve was there. Alive.
"Steve, thank god. What's your status?"
The signal was clearing up now that Tony was at surface level and the dust was beginning to settle.
"I'm ok, Iron Man. Guess I got real lucky."
"I'll say. Hold tight, and we'll have you out of there in no time. And try not to move around too much, We don't know how stable things are. Don't want you to dislodge anything."
Steve made a wet huff that sounded less like "lucky," and more like a laugh turning into a cough, then a stifled groan.
"Cap?"
"I... well. Pretty stable. Definitely won't be moving much. Actually..." Steve's breath rasped again, too loud. Too thick. "...I'm. Uh. A little pinned down."
Tony went cold.
"How bad?"
"I'll be fine. I heal... you know. Just, can you--"
"What? Whatever you need, Steve. Just tell me."
"--stay? Where I can hear your voice?"
And if Steve was asking that much, that proved the lie, and the truth. He wasn't fine. Probably wasn't going to be fine. Tony's mind veered away from the unthinkable.
"I'm here. Not going anywhere. We'll get you out, Steve. Just hold on."
He was telling it to himself as much as to Steve. Cold-sweating inside the armor, trying to catch his own breath. The emergency crews would be here any moment now. They'd get him out. They'd...
A ping. Tony checked his meters. Power at 3%, wait,
how? Checked the time. How had almost three hours passed?
And the repulsor blasts. And the scanners. Flight stabilizers, after the explosion.
The mansion was a short flight away. He could make it.
He couldn't.
He could... the closest power lines were down, but there were others nearby. He could jack in for a quick jolt. Hurt like hell, but he'd done it before...
Two percent.
...a block or two. Less power to walk than fly. Still be well within comms range. He wasn't leaving Steve alone.
"Iron Man?"
A step. It was heavy. Another. Heavier. Everything looked dim and hazy. The dust cloud must be rising again. His chest hurt.
One percent. It wasn't the dust. The edges of his vision were going black, static that wasn't from the comms buzzing in his ears. Another step. Pavement under his hands. He'd been upright... up was... which way...?
"Iron Man?"
Everything was dark. Steve was in the dark. Couldn't leave Steve alone in the dark.
"...
Steve...?" Had he made a sound?
His chest hurt.
...dark...
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