stargraven | Entries tagged with marvel

[FICLET] Let it Out
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games ( stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (554 words)
Universe: Ultimates
Bingo Square: First Date
Challenge: Location, Location, Location (living room of Ults Tony's penthouse)
Content Warning: Major Illness (Ults Tony's cancer)

Another couple of lines that I thought might barely amount to the hundred words, but grew.

I don't really know much of what the canon shows of Steve's and Tony's interactions in regard to Tony's cancer/treatment. So I'm just taking the kernel and running with it. All's fair in war and fanfic, right?

Ask for help, Tony reminds himself. Accept support. You do not have to do everything alone.

Steve looks and smells shower-fresh when he walks through the door; he was probably sweat-soaked and pounding the pavement 45 minutes ago.

"Morning. Thanks for coming." Tony gestures toward the breakfast spread Jarvis left laid out on the sideboard.

His stomach is reasonably steady today. He can take in the savory, grease-rich smells without it sending him to the toilet. Consuming the food would be a different story. It's his home and only Steve here right now, so he doesn't have to bother with moving some around a plate.

He gets a little side-eye when Steve starts filling his own, but it's more acknowledgment than question. Steve understands Tony's good days-bad days spectrum, and knows what it means when Tony provides a meal but skips it himself.

Steve picks up a slice of bacon and chews it down in three deliberate bites. Tony takes it for the tacit prompt that it is.

Ask for help. Ask. Tony silently prods himself again.

"I wondered if you might accompany me to an... engagement."

Steve raises his eyebrows. "Speaking appearance? Charity gala?" He sounds unconcerned. He's leaving Tony the opening, but that's clearly as far as he's planning to go in pulling him through it.

"Nothing so interesting or glamorous, I'm afraid."

"Those usually aren't. I go anyway." Steve shrugs, and continues methodically working his way through his mountain of scrambled eggs.

"You do." Tony takes a breath. Lets it out. "Hospital," he grumbles. "First session in the new round of chemo."

Steve's fork pauses minutely, but he takes the next bite.

"I'm tired of going alone," Tony blurts. Lets it out. "Tired of coming back alone. Tired of seeing everyone with a family member or a, a partner, to meet them when they get through."

Steve sets his plate down. It's not empty. "I can be there."

"You really don't have to." Tony studies the floor. That is to say, he's not actually seeing much of anything, but it saves him from looking at Steve.

"Nope. But I'm going to be. It's a date."

Tony sighs. "It's an appointment, Steve."

Steve sticks his jaw out. He presses the point like it's an opponent he's wearing down with footwork and stinging jabs. "It's an event that takes place at a specific time on a specific calendar day. That little square -- it's a date."

Steve is... For a hard-bit old soldier, Steve has a sideways sense of humor. It surprises a little huff out of him. "Really, darling, that's your idea of what makes a date?"

"It is today."

"The appointment's not till tomorrow."

"Then it's my idea of a date tomorrow, too."

Tony doesn't need to be graceful. Or gracious. Or confident, or put-together, or in charge. That's the essentiality of Steve.

He gives in, with watery eyes and the ghost of a smile. "I'll try not to vomit on you till the third one." Uncouth. Foul and indelicate and only being realistic.

"Been up to my elbows in worse messes."

"This is... well, it's not a combat operation, Captain."

Steve's head goes up. "The hell it's not."

Good lord, how he blazes. Tony's heavy-taxed heart skips a beat.

"The hell it's not, Tony. This is goddamned war."

[FICLET] Pretend to Be His Darling
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games ( stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (301 words)
Universe: Ultimates
Bingo Square: Touch-Starved
Challenge: Fairy Godmother (wish granted for Jaz - "Ults!SteveTony: Tony who keeps calling Steve "Darling," and Steve who's convinced he can not stand Tony")
Content Warning: Steve's Internalized Homophobia and use in his thoughts of homophobic slurs (albeit relatively mild ones)

Well, we needed the Touch-Starved square for the current blackout-in-progress again, and my brain supplies fodder for this all too easily. This one's a little internal monologue for Ults Steve, as a granted wish for Jaz. I pretty much live in Ults vol 1, where Steve's still not long out of the ice and has A Lot to figure out, about himself, the world now around him, and definitely his feelings about Tony. He's got some major denial going on here, including his internalized homophobia, and thinks of Tony in derogatory terms for being gay or at least bi (not specified). For this small ficlet, I kept that to fairly mild words, not that it makes the sentiment itself any less ugly.

Stark was vile. Callow, coarse, loose. Bent. Everything Steve couldn't stand and would never be.

And Stark just wouldn't stop touching him. He hated it. Hated it. A hand in the small of his back while they walked. Or cupping his shoulder, with that stifling extra squeeze. A slap to Steve's chest to punctuate Stark's latest vulgar joke, when he'd made himself laugh and wanted Steve to join in. One to Steve's ass, once. Once. Steve had rounded on him in a heartbeat, teeth bared and fists at the ready, and Stark had faded back across the room, deceptively fast on his feet.

He hated that Stark's hands were warm. He hated every time it made him remember how cold he felt. It was fine. Easy enough to fix: work up a healthy sweat on another long run, or power-lift another hefty round of weights in the gym. No such thing as training too hard, or being too fit.

He didn't want Stark to do it again. The ass slap or any of the rest. He did not. He didn't need the excuse if he wanted to punch the guy. Feel his knuckles make contact with the brittle jaw under that sissy-looking line of facial hair. Man should grow a goddamned beard if he was going to.

...a way to touch him back, the voice in his head whispered. No, he did not want to do that. That was the voice on the wrong shoulder. The voice he would turn from, without fail.

He might despise Stark, but they were teammates. He didn't have to like the man. He could tolerate him. Put up with all his patronizing, proprietary ways. Every unwanted finger laid on him. Every shoulder bumped against him. Every hated arm around him.

Pretend to be his darling.

[FIC] Having a Shield Day
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games (

stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (1299 words)
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: Shield
Challenge: Camouflage (emulating the prose style of Ryan North)
Content Warnings: See content warnings (spoilers) in ao3 end notes.

Crack/parody reader-insert fic inspired by Loran's mention of making a reader-insert fic fill for the New Shoes challenge. And then Rob Liefeld got in there, and it became satirical, too.

Having a Shield Day on AO3

[FICLET] One-Winged Bird
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games ( stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (422 words)
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: Dreams
Challenge: Petvengers
Content Warning: Major Medical Event (non-graphic); Possible Permanent Disability

I know just a few basic things about strokes because of small degrees of separation from two people who have had them, and I checked and based a couple of things on information from this web page by Johns Hopkins Medicine. Please pardon any gross medical inaccuracies.

The one-winged bird is based on one of my African Grey parrots, Scarlett. I adopted him three years ago when his owner of 23 years had to be moved into a care home for Alzheimer's Disease. Around fifteen years before he came to me, he went through a terrible infection on his left wing, and despite efforts totaling around 100 pages of vet records that were passed along to me, the end result was a wing amputation. He's a beautiful, brilliant bird, and brings me heaps of joy, and also sorrow that he has lost his birthright of flight. I can only dream of having Tony around to build Scarlett a new wing. If, of course, I wasn't being a mean Team Kill person and leaving Tony in the hospital with prognosis uncertain.

"Las' night," Tony slurs out, blurred and mushy and fenced in by the half of his mouth that won't move, "dreamed... 'f a one-winged bird."

Steve's at his bedside; has been for the past six hours, since the terrifying, unintelligible phone call, and the finding Tony collapsed, and the rushing him to the hospital, and the whisking away by doctors, and the unbearable evening in the waiting room hearing no word and being able to do nothing but repeat to himself, over and over again, "No news means he's alive, no news means they're busy making sure he stays that way, no news means it's not the worst."

And once they'd had Tony stabilized and settled, damned if Steve hadn't pulled both the "Tony Stark funded this entire wing," and the "I'm Captain America" cards to write himself the open-ended visitor's pass. He doesn't know which had carried the weight to override their rules and protests, and he doesn't care.

He holds Tony's hand, the one on this side, the one that can feel and squeeze and isn't sickeningly still and slack.

"One wing, Steeevh..." Tony forces out again, like it's the most important thing in the world, and Steve doesn't know if it's one of those nth-level leaps of association galaxies beyond 99 percent of human intellect, or a brilliant mind reduced to imbecility. All he can do is speak endless, emptily encouraging words, and repeat Tony's name like if he says it enough it'll keep the seed of Tony's self intact, and use the paper bib attached to the hospital gown to soak up the trail of spit welling from the dead side of his lips.

Tony's good eye falls shut; the other is slitted, the lid slightly open in an unnerving, lifeless stare. They've told Steve that evaluation and therapy sessions will begin as soon as tomorrow; that the first and most important healing is what his body and mind will be working to do for themselves in the next few hours; that there's no predictable time frame for recovery from a stroke.

If there's one single, sure factor, it's that Steve will be here.

He keeps hold of Tony's hand; he brushes back a few strands of hair; he dries the damp from both their faces.

He talks, so Tony knows he was listening.

"Keep dreaming, Tony. That bird, he'll be fine, because if he needs a wing, I know you'll build him a new one. He'll be flying again soon, and we'll have you flying again, too."

[FICLET] Don't Have to Ask Me Twice (But Feel Free)
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games ( stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (395 words)
Universe: Ambiguous
Bingo Square: Insecure
Challenge: Fairy Godmother

I've been dying (heh) to do some Killer trope subversion, and also wanted to grant a wish for my great and fluffy friend swtalmnd. Turns out she beat me to the punch with the gifting, but fortunately, we're not the kind of friends who care about who finishes first. :O :P And just makes me all the more glad I had already been planning to write her this one.
For the wishlist prompt "anything that makes one smile," with a side of "banter and in-jokes," although the "synonyms for laughter weren't explicitly required. That's ok, just assume a few "chuckles." (speaking of in-jokes...)

It made Tony happy when he finally convinced Steve that it was not an imposition to come to him for help when he needed something, small or large.

"Hey, Tony, could you come help me with something in my bathroom, and maybe, um, bring one of the armor gauntlets?"

That sounded worrisome; he was glad Steve had called. Taking no more time than to grab one of the hand-repulsors, Tony hustled himself to Steve's suite.

Steve ushered him in and led him to the closed bathroom door, shuffling his feet nervously. "Thanks for coming, Tony. It's in there, and it's really big." He looked adorably flustered, and his slightly quickened breaths were making his thin cotton muscle shirt rise and fall in a thoroughly appealing manner.

Tony squared up his shoulders and his focus. "Hmm. Let's just take a look."

He eased the door open and entered with caution, metal-encased hand extended, and in moments, that spider was no more than a smoking hole in the shower wall.

Tony powered down the gauntlet and flashed Steve a satisfied grin. Steve side-eyed the cratered tile, and then Tony, and the smile he returned was sly. "Now I think I need you to help me repair my shower."

"Sure," Tony unhesitatingly acquiesced. Maybe not some guys' idea of a fun way to spend an afternoon, but in his book, there was no bad way to spend time with Steve.

Materials and tools were quickly procured, and several attractively sweaty hours later, Steve's shower boasted smooth, shiny new tile. And just possibly also a couple of other upgrades.

Steve laid the tools in a tidy pile, did that one-handed back-reach, and stripped off his shirt. "Tony, thank you so much for everything today. You've been great. But there's just one more thing."

"Oh? What've you got for me next?" Tony raised his eyebrows in question.

It ought to be a sin, the way Steve batted his lashes as he put forth his final proviso.

"Would you mind helping me try it out?"

Tony, who was never in any multiverse going to refuse that request, followed suit with getting out of his clothes, into the shower, and proceeding to remind Steve just how much it was not an imposition to come asking him for help when he needed something. Small or... Mmmm, mmm, mmm. Just the exact right size.

[ART] Keep Your Hands to Yourself
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games (

stevetonygames )
Work Type: Art
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: Touch-Starved
Challenge: none

Here's a touch-starved Steve, hugging and laying hands on himself when there's no one else to give that to him. Or at least, he's still in the "idiots" stage of "idiots to lovers," and hasn't figured out that Tony would fulfill all his touching needs and need it just as much.

I'm a little afraid the drawing just looks like he's clutching himself in wound-pain, rather than touch-starved pain, but -- at least there's some kind of emotion showing, I think?

Clearly I'm dealing with anatomy and perspectives that are above my current skill level, but then again, I guess that's how we get better, and stuff. No reference except for looking at a photo to get an idea when I was drawing (uh, pun inherent, not intended) a blank for how to do his hair. I mean, all in all -- I've gotten a lot better in the last few months, so I'll give myself that credit.

pencil sketch of shirtless Steve Rogers with one hand spread over his chest and the other arm hugged around himself

[FICLET] A Momentary Re-Spite
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games (

stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (150 words)
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: Truth
Challenge: Time Runs Out
Content Warning: (implied) canon MCD

Work time: 10:19-11:19pm (because I just kept tweaking till the hour counted down)

There was nothing, followed by 75 words in 6 minutes, then swirling burning snippets of phrases that circled the final form of the fill, racing to the end of the hour.

(A rewrite of Steve and Tony's final conversation in Hickmanvengers #44.)

(It seems inevitable and only fitting to have done a Time Runs Out fill for the Time Runs Out challenge.)

(Alternate title: "And Then We Raced To the Spite")

A momentary deadlock, a seeming standstill, before the end.

"Give me this and only this, Tony. Would you ever have told me the truth?"

Tony laughed; he cackled and whooped, joy and madness in cacophony.

"Sure, Steve. Sure. Some day when we were both old and grey, or when I was, and you were cured and your eternal golden-shining self, and we'd had a few good decades together because I'd found another fucking way."

He snarled, twisted lips and bloody bared teeth.

"And it was finally the right time to say 'I told you so,' when you would have had to at least think about everything you'd be saying you wished you never had if you said we shouldn't have done it."

Steve roared, bursting with the all the fury of those never-lived decades of spite.

Time started up again, and a shadow fell, and then their time ran out.

[FIC COLLABORATION] last night of sadness
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games (

stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic -- wynnesome (outline); Loran_Arameri (author); Aimily (beta/editor); Kiyaar (posting prep - title/summary/tags)
Universe: Ultimates
Bingo Square: Matchmaking
Challenge: Pass It On
Content Warnings: terminal illness (cancer); MCD

"A fluffy deathfic collab." Brainstorming in the Discord, my original idea was this:

What if there's a fic where tumor-Anthony kills Tony. Like becomes a boy, and then murders him.
Or else, Tony dies of the cancer and Anthony murdering him is the form in which he perceives/experiences it?

After some expressions of pain from a few people (yay!), Loran suggested, "Ant could come collect him? Like friendly?"

She felt she could and would like to write a fic to explore that idea, and I said I could outline it. So the collaboration began, under the original working title "Sweet Reaper," and turned into this fic.

OUTLINE for last night of sadness:

-- After Steve's canonical death, Tony's cancer returns.

-- This means that tumor-child Anthony is back, too.

-- Father and son are joyfully reunited, and talk through their anger and trauma at the way Reed had effectively destroyed Ant and tortured Tony before (Reed literally and brutally tore their family apart).

-- Tony does die of the cancer, but it's a happy kind of dying because Ant then serves as a benevolent reaper, taking him to some type of soul-world afterlife, where they are both reunited with other-dad Steve, and all is beautiful and happy.

-- Tony and Steve get an eternal "five more minutes" together, and Ant is more real in this plane than he could be as a tumor child.

-- It's "dying as a happily ever after."

-- Other canon points/references to be included by Loran as she finds relevant.

[FICLET] The Date Not Taken
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games (

stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (483 words)
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: First Date
Challenge: Time Runs Out

Work time: 12:34-1:31am

In Tony Stark: Iron Man #4 (2018), Tony causes a furor by posting a dating profile that's open to both men and women. He later reveals that this was purely for the purpose of bringing down the servers of rival tech firm Baintronics, the owner of the Make-A-Match app, by overloading them with as many responses as possible. As soon as that's accomplished, he takes down the profile and publicly announces that he is "off the market." In the comic, he then starts dating Janet van Dyne. In this ficlet, Steve sees the profile and thinks it's his chance with Tony. This is a pretty fluffy piece -- by Team Kill standards.

"You're the one who posted the profile."

"You're the one who answered it."

The whole world had been buzzing. Trending. Tony Stark's Make-A-Match profile had been open to both men and women.

"I... um... it was supposed to be that overload-of-service error thing, right? The more replies the better? So I was one more."

"You mean, DDOS?" Tony asks drily. Then softens."You didn't know," he says, and it's gentle with just a drop of pity. "You didn't know it wasn't real."

It had been do or die, Steve had thought. Some moments are turning points. You jump, or you lose your chance, like that poem with the two paths. Steve has always been one who prefers any regrets to come from his actions -- not from his failure to act.

He gives a curt shake of his head. His lips are pinched. Of course he's embarrassed. Tony's being kind about it, but that's just as much worse as better.

"Steve." Tony's hand is on his shoulder. He battles the urge to shake it off. He wants to want to. But he doesn't. "If I wanted to let you know I was interested in you..." Tony sighs, and then his hand, the warm grounding weight of it, is gone. "I'd be man enough to take the risk and tell you myself."

A flash of anger sizzles through Steve. "So you think it was cowardly of me to do it on the site, is that what you're saying?"

"Dammit, Steve." Tony shoves a hand through his hair. "I'm saying I'd have made a move. Like you did. You saw an opportunity and you took it. It's not your fault it was a--"

"A lie?"

"A pretense, a ploy... With purpose, but yes, a loud, very public lie. I lied to the world. I wouldn't lie to you."

"It's fine, Tony. I get it. I know you had good reason. I'm sorry I made a fool of myself."

"You didn't--" Tony sighs again. "Look, for what it's worth? I'm genuinely flattered. More than that -- honored. You're the best, Steve. None finer."

"Only as fine as you." Steve blinks an extra few times.

"So we're... okay, right?" Tony asks. "You don't hate me? Still friends?"

"Friends, partners. Avengers. Always."

Tony holds out his right hand, and Steve clasps it, but instead of shaking, Tony pulls him in. The hug is short but close, with a firm stroke down his back. It could be salt in the wound, a reminder of what he can't have, but it's not. It's just Tony. When they step back, they're both smiling, and it aches but doesn't cut.

"Thanks, Tony. See you 'round?"

"See you 'round." Tony grabs his suit jacket off the chair and turns, gets a few steps away, and looks back over his shoulder. "I'll tell you what though, Steve. It would have been a hell of a first date."

[ART] Liars' Paradox
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games (

stevetonygames )
Work Type: Art
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: Lies
Challenge: Time Runs Out

Work time: 9:28-10:25pm

I think there would be potential to polish up this sketch a lot further, ink it, and pen in the lettering. But using the challenge hour, I was able to make these pencil head sketches (from references) of both Steve and Tony.. (I just noticed I forgot to tidy up the placement of Steve's ear after working out the rest of his head shape and features... oh well, this is the challenge result... *points back to the first sentence, saying that there would be potential to polish this up further*)

The Liars' Paradox can take a variety of forms, but the upshot is that the statements create a mutual contradiction - a paradox. I find it an appropriate representation of the major conflicts Steve and Tony have had in their 616 canonical relationship.

Pencil head sketches of Iron Man and Captain America, captioned with a version of hte Liars' Paradox statements

[Edit] I took about five minutes to tidy up that ear a little because it was driving me crazy. The original version is still the official fill, meeting the challenge time. But here's the touchup. And also the Cap reference image I used, screenshotted from my phone (mirror-flipped for the direction I wanted him facing on my page). So pretty. Sadly, I don't know who or where this art is from. The Iron Man reference I used is one of Valerio Schiti's armor designs.

Pencil head sketches of Iron Man and Captain America, captioned with a version of hte Liars' Paradox statements

comics portrait of Captain America - artist unknown

[FIC COLLABORATION] Last Wish
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games ( stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic -- wynnesome (outline); Hollyandvice (author); Loran_Arameri (beta/editor); Bill_Longbow (posting prep - title/summary/tags)
Universe: MCU
Bingo Square: Superhealing
Challenge: Pass It On
Content Warnings: MCD

My role in this collaboration was to create the outline for the fic Holly wanted to write.

OUTLINE for "Last Wish"

-- Steve's healing factor has malfunctioned or been sabotaged by villains (up to author if any details of HOW are given, or just establishing this to be the case), and all attempts to repair it have failed. He's now very badly injured or ill, and it's pretty certain at this point he's going to die of it.

-- Tony wants to be by his side. Steve wants to die alone, and has locked himself into a room with Tony on the outside.

-- Tony keeps begging Steve to let him in. Steve keeps begging Tony to leave. Tony reminds Steve that he has the entire building's access codes, and can enter any time he decides to do so. Steve begs him to respect his wishes and not come in anyway.

-- Tony struggles with the decision to respect and stay out, or go in the room.

-- Steve eventually falls silent.

-- Tony finally decides to go in, and Steve is gone. Probably a breath too late.

-- And we get some image almost like the reverse of the day they found Steve in the ice and thawed him and he was laid out looking tattered and beautiful but (they thought) dead. Here Steve is, laid out looking tattered and beautiful, and now... dead.

[FICLET] Double Down
Team Kill fill for the 2022 SteveTony Games (

stevetonygames )
Work Type: Fic (798 words)
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: Gambling
Challenge: (none)
Content Warning: Implied MCD

Tried 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...

[ART] HydraCap is Just That Evil
Team Canon fill for the 2021 SteveTony Games (

stevetonygames )
Work Type: Art
Universe: 616
Bingo Square: Evil Twin
Challenge: Camouflage

Inspired by Verena's fun with blankfacejpg-style comics, I had a final-hour lightbulb-flash to do one of my own for Evil Twin, with a meta on HydraCap from Civil War II: The Oath. I constructed the comic by drawing the squares and writing the text on paper, taking snapshots of that with my phone, assembling in MSPaint, and then digitally drawing in the figures. Except the last big blankface circle - that one was on paper also. So it's multimedia homage comic collage!

homage to blankface.jpg comic with HydraCap from Civil War II: The Oath