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a-man-outof-time · 2 years

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Red Zone // Steve, Tony, Sam, Sharon, et al.

[Start date: August 4, 2019]

All Avengers and affiliates:

I've just been made aware that a group of highly-trained, possibly enhanced operatives infiltrated the CDC in Atlanta less than an hour ago. Our most recent intel confirms that they've stolen the smallpox sample housed there and are currently headed westward. Our best guess right now is that they're planning to use it as a bioweapon.

Agent Carter and I are preparing a jet to track the operatives and recover the smallpox sample. This is an all-call to anyone who can assist us. Wheels up in 15; we will rendezvous with anyone who can't be here by then.

Sam Wilson

---

Steve looked up from the message and quirked an eyebrow at Sam.

"You didn't sign it 'Captain America.'"

"Let's see if I earn it first," Sam said.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this jittery with nerves; he usually handled them better, but now he couldn't settle, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he continuously looked from Steve to the Quinjet and back. It wasn't just the stakes of the mission that had him on edge, but the hard fact that this was going to be his big reveal as Captain America.

"It's not too late for me to give this back to you," Sam said. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the shield magnetized between his shoulders. Steve smiled and shook his head.

"I got an upgrade," he said, raising his left hand to indicate the circlet around his wrist. "It's yours."

Sam breathed a laugh and shook his own head, still a little incredulous, then saw Sharon exiting the Quinjet and walking toward them.

"We're all set, Cap," she said to Sam. Then the smirked at Steve. "What are we supposed to call you?"

Steve shrugged. He still hadn't thought of a call sign. He probably should have posed the question in that massive text chat since everyone seemed to know about his night job now.

---

“Well, clearly he’s outgrown the campy patriotic superhero stuff,” Tony said over the comms. He’d invited himself into the channel since he was already en route with an armor. “Has to have a bite to it — I’m RSVP-ing, by the way, if it wasn’t obvious — yeah, think dramatic Oscar-baiting one-word movie titles. Dissident. Maverick. Rogue. Nomad. Something like that.”

---

Matt felt the burner phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out, smirking as he listened to Steve's text.

"On our way out for that HYDRA mission. You still in?"

Oh yeah, he was in. Foggy was going to be pissed with him for leaving the office early, but the offer to go out and punch Nazis was just too inviting.

[That depends, do you do pick ups?] He sent back.

---

"Isn't Rogue one of the X-Men?" Sam asked. Sharon laughed in response.

"I like Maverick," she said. "Very Top Gun."

"Great," Steve said. He was newly occupied with his phone. "Throw them around, see what sticks."

He finished typing out a message and then looked up at Sam and Sharon. "We have someone to pick up out of Hell's Kitchen."

[ Steve's text to Matt ] We'll be there in 20. Let me know on which rooftop we can drop a line.

---

[Matt | @Steve Rogers ] I'll be there. How about Fogwell's Gym?

---

[ Steve | @Matt Murdock ] perfect

---

Sharon and Sam exchanged a glance. They'd long ago figured out that Steve had been running with the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, but none of them had talked about it in any detail.

"That's a team of six," Sam said. "Against an unknown number of possibly enhanced people with a potential bioweapon."

"Six of us fought an alien army," Steve said.

"I'm pretty sure first responders were also there," Sharon said, but then she looped an arm through Sam's. "More people may come. And even if they don't, we're some of the best of the best."

She tugged on Sam, and he followed her with a laugh toward the jet. Steve smiled and fell into step behind them.

"You riding with us, Iron Man?" Sam asked over the comms.

---

"You riding with us, Iron Man?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got my own ride. I’ll race you there,” Tony said, and not entirely in jest. If he did get closer before the others, then he could have JARVIS start gathering on-site intel on the place and how many hostiles awaited them.

“By the way, for future reference, I’m worth like, at least twelve super people.”

---

[Peter I @Steve Rogers] Suiting up, just warn me when you are in NYC and I’ll hitch a ride. You don’t even need to land.

---

[ Steve | @Peter Parker ] We're en route toward Hell's Kitchen. I'll leave the door open for you.

---

[Logan I @Steve Rogers] Just send me coordinates to meet up with you. I had some enhancements added to my bike.

---

Sam and Sharon took the helm for final flight checks.

"We know you are," Steve said frankly to Tony over the comm. Sam saw Sharon playfully roll her eyes, and he snorted lightly in response. If Steve sensed their silent ribbing, he didn't address it, even when Sam leaned over to smirk at him.

"I have Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Wolverine confirmed to rendezvous at Fogwell's Gym in Hell's Kitchen," Steve told Sam, completely straight-faced for about half a second before he cracked a smile.

Sharon released a blunt, "huh," and Sam turned back around to face her.

"What's up?"

"Unless one of you weighs 350 more pounds than I'd thought, we're over on weight," she said.

Steve's frown was almost audible. "Will it slow us down?"

"Not at all. Even once we're full up, this jet can still go supersonic with no problem."

"Probably some leftover gear I missed," Sam said. "I'll unload it when we get back."

---

Sam was really hesitant to respond to Captain Falcon's message about the mission - none of the Avengers really knew he was staying at the compound, and he thought it might we weird to just Show Up without warning. Still, he suited up and talked to Karolina about joining. They only had a few minutes to decide.

He wanted to walk right up to the team very confidently at the quinjet and say 'we're ready for the mission!' but then once he saw Sam, Sharon, and Steve getting ready, he panicked. Somehow in that moment, he looked for a place to hide, which led to an alternate entrance.

So instead of making a grand entrance for the first time as Sam Alexander, Black Nova of the Avengers, he was stuck inside the storage compartment with Karolina.

"Oh man...I think we're heading off soon. I'm so sorry, I panicked. Everything was happening so quickly!" He hid his face in his hands out of embarrassment.

Worldmind assured him that this sort of thing happened a lot to Richard when he first started on his own, but that wasn't very comforting.

---

Karolina gave Sam a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Hey, it's okay Sam. As long as we're on the plane, we're good."

She shot him some fingerguns. "Plus, hiding from adults? kind of my specialty."

It was hard to see him in the dim light of the storage compartment, but she resisted the urge to use her powers. The adults would absolutely notice if she suddenly went full rainbow brite inside the plane, and she didn't want to risk getting kicked off the mission. She wasn't exactly a trained superhero like the rest of them were; they probably wouldn't want her coming along if they knew.

Karolina already couldn't help but feel out of place next to Sam, in his shiny Nova uniform. It wasn't like she had a superhero costume she could throw on when they got the call, so she'd just gone in her yoga clothes. She'd have to try and get a uniform if this whole hero thing worked out; punching Nazis in leggings and a sweatshirt full time seemed kind of lame.

"You know, I've never really done a mission like this before." She said. "I mean, I used to beat up bad guys with the other Runaways, but they usually came to us."

---

[ Steve | @Matt Murdock @Logan @Peter Parker ] ETA 2 minutes

With final checks completed, they departed the hanger and jetted for Hell's Kitchen. Steve shot off quick ETA texts to Peter, Logan, and Matt, then headed back to the bay door. They were violating several air traffic regulations with this maneuver, but it was the fastest way to pick up the rest of the team and get going. At Sam's signal, Steve opened the rear bay door and dropped a braided steel ladder out the back.

---

A light thump on the roof moments before a red and blue clad figure crawled in from the top of the opening and across the ceiling. “I always am up for punching Nazis. Thanks for inviting me to the party.”

---

Matt could hear the jet from almost five miles out, as it flew into Manhattan. Whatever military grade rig the Avengers traveled around in didn't seem to be much quieter than a regular plane, and the ETA text Steve sent him as they were closing in on Fogwell's gym made the vigilante laugh.

The vibrations from the engine seemed to shake the air itself, vibrating the glass in the surrounding buildings as it came to hover above Daredevil. Another costume had shown up to wait with him, no doubt answering the same call from Sam. He wasn't much of a talker, it seemed; the two of them exchanged a curt nod, but otherwise waited in silence.

Matt climbed into the jet and greeted Steve with a pat on the shoulder. "Thanks for taking me along," he grinned. "This should be interesting."

"Thanks for inviting me to the party."

The vigilante nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized there was someone on the ceiling above him- Spider-man, if he had to guess. He should have picked up on the that, but the background noise from the jet must have been messing with his radar sense.

"Fuck, kid, you scared me."

---

"Thanks for coming along," Steve said to both Matt and Peter. He nodded to Logan as he also boarded the jet, then pulled the ladder up and secured the bay door. "Iron Man flew ahead to scout out what we're up against."

He scanned the occupants of the jet. If they hadn't all met, they had at least all heard of each other, or so Steve was fairly certain. And it was a solid team. He returned to his seat and invited the rest of the team to buckle in as Sam gained altitude and hit the throttle, heading westward.

---

Matt buckled in with the others and spent the majority of the flight trying to tune out the roar of the jet engines in his ears. God, he never remembered how much he hated flying until he was stuck having to do it. At least he'd get to punch some Nazis at the end of this.

He tried to focus in on his teammates, and the steadiness of their heartbeats. Sam and Steve were as calm as ever, though he supposed that was to be expected from seasoned heroes. Spider-man was a bit more jittery, and Logan...well, Logan was pretty much impossible to get a read on.

It was the two extra heartbeats Matt picked up on that really caught him off guard. There were only six of them in the cabin, and yet he clearly heard the telltale sounds of eight people on board the jet. They were fluttery, nervous sounding, and coming from the other side of the wall- cargo hold maybe?

"Ah, fuck." Matt muttered. This could be a problem.

He unbuckled himself and made his way towards the front of the plane, where Sam was driving. Keeping his balance was a bit difficult, given their current speed, but he found his footing fairly quickly.

"Hey, oh Captain my Captain," Matt said, leaning casually over the back of Sam's seat. "You've got two stowaways in the cargo hold."

---

Sam jerked around and raised his eyebrows at Daredevil.

"Um. Excuse me?"

He glanced at Sharon, who immediately unbuckled and strode back to the cargo hold. She drew her sidearm on her way there, and she could hear someone else -- probably Steve -- coming to join her. She wasn't too worried about two stowaways given her present company, though, so she opened the cargo hold.

Inside, she saw Nova and a teenager she didn't recognize.

"Hi." She returned her gun to its holster and propped his hands on her hips, trying and failing not to smile. How very on-brand. "Were you planning on staying in here the whole time?"

---

They were about 20 minutes out from the eastern California border when Sharon swore loudly and turned in the copilot's seat to face the rest of the team.

"Social media feeds and local news stations are starting to report a rapidly spreading illness." She locked eyes with Steve. "Like 28 Days Later rapid. No one's sure yet what it is or how it's spread, but people who were complaining of flu-like symptoms this morning are now covered in purulent red rashes, in a whole lot of pain, and experiencing symptoms similar to anaphylaxis."

She watched Steve raise his chin slightly, as he often did when he mentally transitioned into full battle-readiness. Illness was one thing she knew could be a sore spot with him, but he hadn't had so much as a head cold since 2011, so as far as they knew, he was in the clear.

A lot of them might not be, though. And Sharon, for one, hadn't expected a biological weapon to already be in play, if that was what this was.

"Tony," Steve said, "what do you see on your end?"

___

“I wouldn’t get super excited about whatever’s spreading on the ground,” Tony said. Social media highlights and headlines flashed across the HUD, lingering only long enough for Tony to get ahold of the situation, which didn’t take long. “I think that’s just previews. I was able to tap into their communication channels and I’m using that to triangulate their current location.”

Tony sent them the coordinates he had.

“From what I gather, the plan is to launch the sample onto the thermosphere, just past the Kármán line, then use the Earth’s rotation to spread the contagion. The entire planet could be vulnerable in a matter of hours.”

---

With a definite location to aim for, Sam poured on the speed toward the coordinates Tony had provided. None of them were particularly surprised that the bad guys were hiding in a mountain, but the plan Tony related was more than a little rattling. As they approached the coordinates, Sam was almost underwhelmed by the face of the compound as it came into view: it wasn't much larger than a standard storefront. He was nevertheless willing to bet that a good portion of it was underground.

"Ste--uh" -- Sam wracked his brain for the field names Tony had thrown out earlier -- "Nomad. Grab the gas masks out of the hold. Let's stay ahead of this."

He landed about two miles away from the compound, then stood and turned to face the team: his team, for the moment. Sharon stood to his left; Steve, bizarrely, was among their motley crew, waiting intently for Sam to call the shots.

"Nomad. Winter Soldier. Wolverine. Iron Man. Secure all the bioweapons and personnel you can find. Bonus points if you find an antidote. Thirteen will lead Daredevil and Spider-Man in evac until hazmat arrives. Nova and Lucy" -- he made deliberate eye contact with each of them -- "you're with me on air support. If Iron Man's team calls for back-up, you're on point to back them up."

(God. He hoped that was the right call. Both of them could fly faster than he could, and he'd be damned if he separated them.)

"Y'all ready?"

---

“Almost,” Tony said over the comms, adding a small pause for suspense. “First I’d like the record to reflect that I came up with Steve’s new field name.”

Hopefully that would add some levity to this whole thing. Tony could tell Sam was nervous — or, at any rate, he expected him to be.

“Now I’m good. Team Iron Man and the Ironettes, I will be seeing you on the ground.”

---

“If you are all done being fangirls about each other . . “ Logan rolled his eyes at the comments. “If we run into any loose or exposed bio-hazard should leave it to me.” He’d yet to find something that could slow him down for long.

---

Matt made a face when Steve handed him the gas mask, but accepted the item without comment. Cutting off his sense of taste and smell was going to put him at a disadvantage out there, but he guessed anything was better than being dead.

"Nothing like a bioweapon to keep things interesting." He sighed.

"Thirteen will lead Spidey and Daredevil in evac until hazmat arrives."

"On it." Matt said, popping the billy clubs from the holster on his leg. He snapped the two ends together with practiced ease, and activated the cable mechanism inside. Between buildings would probably be the fastest way to move down there.

"Spider-man and I can swing down- I'll take Agent Thirteen."

“First I’d like the record to reflect that I came up with Steve’s new field name.”

"I dig it, not much of a Nomad when you have a team though." Matt laughed.

---

"Nova and Lucy, you're with me on air support. If Iron Man's team calls for back-up, you're on point to back them up."

"Aye aye, Captain." Karolina said, giving Sam an awkward salute. As nervous as she was, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement at the sound of her codename being used by actual superheroes.

She pulled off her bracelet and let the familiar warmth of her glow calm her nerves.

"Sorry if I'm blinding everyone in here." she added, trying to keep the glare to a minimum.

---

Sam was a bit nervous. He knew his helmet would filter everything, but bioweapons were serious... He would be staying in the air with Karolina and the other Sam, so he was comfortable at least. Worldmind scans better while he's in the sky anyway. He can keep watch and scan for threats the ground forces may not pick up on.

Honestly, the most comforting part of all was seeing his heroes in action again. He trusted Sam's plan. He trusted the smaller teams.

"We won't let you down, Captain Falcon, sir!" He smiled.

---

Sam smiled back at Nova and tried not to think too hard about the last time he'd flown with Riley. How blasé they'd been.

"I know you won't," he said. He dropped a hand on each of their shoulders as he followed Nova and Lucy (LSD in his head, but he could rib her on that later) out of the jet.

"Let's hit the skies."

---

Sharon looped an arm around Daredevil and watched Sam and the teens take flight, then tightened her hold on instinct as he rappelled them both toward the center of town.

"Hazmat should be here in about twenty minutes," she said over the comms. "Then we can back up the ground team."

They could have used hazmat twenty minutes ago, by the look of it. People covered in scarlet rashes were pounding on locked doors begging for entry, presumably because their families or landlords had locked them out. Others were laying across benches or tucked into alleyways, too sick to stand. Possibly unconscious.

Sharon quietly decided that everyone was alive until proven otherwise.

"Spidey, can you head to the hospital, find out what you can? Daredevil and I will try to shelter these people."

---

Steve raised an amused eyebrow at Matt as he pulled on his gas mask and they disembarked the jet.

"Sam technically isn't a captain, but here we are," he said to Matt.

Behind them, the jet automatically shimmered out of sight as the retro-reflective paneling kicked on. He could barely see Karolina against the clear, brightly-lit sky, but both Sam's were clearly visible shades above them. Much of the team were people he'd only worked with once or twice in the field, but the gist of it was familiar. He wasn't reassured by that, necessarily, given the circumstances they were working against -- but he felt competent. Capable. Like he was doing what he was supposed to be doing instead of skulking around looking for trouble.

He nodded at Tony as they approached him, then at the double steel doors beyond.

"Lead on."

Between the four of them, opening the front door was almost insultingly easy, as was dispatching the guards who'd been waiting for them. Almost, but it seemed unlikely that a group that could break into and out of the CDC in the time they did it wouldn't have had at least an inkling who was going to pursue them.

"Cap," Steve said, "it's a set-up."

Sam was silent for a fraction of a second longer than Steve would have expected, but when he answered, he was definitive.

"Support team, get back to the ground team. Nova, Lucy, and I will land when y'all rendezvous. What's it looking like in there?"

"Too easy," Steve said. They were making suspiciously good time now as they drove deeper into the compound. "We're following the breadcrumbs for now -- "

"I'm losing you," Sam cut in, and the connection was indeed garbled. "Keep going. We're right behind you."

They made it to a reinforced door deep in the facility, the minotaur in the labyrinth. For the hell of it, Steve tried to open it, and -- confirming his suspicions immediately -- it opened. The door was barely ajar before something exploded at their feet, emitting a cloud of scarlet gas. Immediately after that, a booted foot came down hard on the back of Steve's knee, followed by a backhand to the face that felt like getting hit by rebar.

Had to be Rumlow; Steve remembered the gear from over a year ago. Rumlow meant HYDRA.

HYDRA meant Tony was in danger.

---

Tony grabbed ahold of Rumlow and flew him straight against a wall with all the force of his irritation at the fact that he seemed to be one step behind them rather than one step ahead.

”Stark — can’t see your long face but I definitely feel it,” Rumlow croaked out with a pained laugh. ”Not a fan of surprises, are you?”

“I saw you coming from a mile,” Tony said. He activated one of his wrist rockets (more extreme than what he’d been using so far, but then again, Rumlow did land pretty hard on Steve, so...).

Error message.

He already had his fist pointed at Rumlow, so turning the dud into an armored punch was easy.

“You guys can handle this low life,” Tony said over the comms, then flew upwards. “Secure your masks. I’ll make sure that this funky smoke doesn’t sneak outside.”

And then, only to Steve, while JARVIS ran diagnostics on the armor’s electronics, “I didn’t actually see him coming,” Tony said.

Hopefully Steve would understand the source of Tony’s anxiety without him having to phrase it. Rumlow was on every most-wanted list on Earth; he should have lit up on the HUD like a Christmas tree. And he hadn’t. JARVIS, or Tony himself, could be compromised.

---

Steve's hand flew to his face as soon as he was hit; the blow hurt, but worse was the chilling fear that the gas mask might have come unseated. It hadn't, but now he couldn't see for the smoke that filled the room.

"Me, neither," Steve hissed into the mask. Even if the room wasn't already flooded crimson, he'd be seeing red. Shield now in hand, he ran toward where Tony had slammed Rumlow to the wall.

"Wolverine," he said, "who else is in here?"

"Just me," someone said -- a familiar female voice, even muffled by what had it be a mask, from clear across the room.

Against his better judgement, Steve whirled toward her voice. Rumlow was Cynthia Schmidt's muscle; she was undoubtedly the ringleader of this operation.

He heard something click shut -- a briefcase? A computer? -- before she spoke again.

"Can't stick around," she said. "Give Iron Man my regards."

Behind him, Rumlow took a few heavy steps. Steve spun back around, activated his shield, and was smugly satisfied to hear the distinct whir and buzz of hard light against Kevlar.

"Like hell you can't," he growled.

---

There were a lot more people outside the compound than had been there when they'd arrived 25 minutes ago. They must have been hiding a ways away and only mobilized once the heroes had split up.

"Sam? Where did this come from?"

"No idea," Sam said, clearly pissed. "I didn't think to scan infrared or UV in the middle of the day. They could have been cloaked the whole time and I never caught it."

Sharon frowned. "Who has tech so good even Wolverine and Iron Man didn't catch anything?"

"Tony does," Steve interjected between heavy breaths. Dropping field names wasn't necessarily unusual for him, but Sharon did get nervous when he immediately followed up with, "Does anyone have eyes on him?"

"Is he not in there with you?" Sam asked, landing a few yards away on top of two of the soldiers now guarding the compound.

Steve didn't answer. Sharon didn't have any choice but to let it go as she engaged the nearest guard; questions wouldn't get her inside any faster.

---

Sam didn't wait for Steve to respond.

"Nova, Lucy -- get inside and back them up," Sam said. "Daredevil, Spider-Man, Thirteen -- don't let anyone else into the building."

As far as he'd seen when they'd arrived, there was only the one visible door, but he wasn't going to miss any more obvious details. He deployed Redwing to make sure no one else was flooding the facility. Behind him, gunshots fired, followed by Sharon to him, dual-wielding handguns and gunning down exposed throats and the backs of knees as she went. They locked eyes, and then Sam turned his back to the fray and locked the wings into a shield, where Sharon took cover to reload.

"I've lost sight of Daredevil," she breathed. "I think he might be down."

"Great," Sam snarled. He checked the Redwing interface on his arm and took manual control until he could find Daredevil.

"Spidey," Sam said, "I need you on Daredevil. Get him out of here."

He exchanged another look with Sharon. She nodded, firearms at the ready, and he whirled back around and brought his own weaponry to bear.

"Nomad, Nova and Lucy are coming for you. Confirm."

---

The smoke had gotten dense enough for Tony to visually pick up the patterns of its movement, so he followed it along by flight to the only ceiling vent. By the time he got there, the original idea — completely sealing the place so that the gas couldn't escape at all — struck him as one of those simple stupid risky things he was willing to expose himself to, but maybe not the team who was in here with him.

If he coordinated well enough with the teams outside, maybe he could find a way to air this place out without putting anyone at risk.

“JARVIS, get me data on the wind patterns outside—“ JARVIS never answered. The HUD suddenly went dark and for a split-second, the armor was completely dead in the air, then in free fall.

After crashing on the ground, Tony allowed himself to groan from the pain since now there was really no chance anyone in the team could hear him anyway. His communications were out. Visibility was very impaired — he could only see through the eye slits of the helmet, and without the visual environment provided by the HUD, he started to feel claustrophobic. The air filtration systems were offline as well, and Tony had a limited supply of oxygen. Soon he would have to either let outside air in, or he would end up suffocating.

The HUD suddenly blinked back to life, but it didn’t come with JARVIS’ soothing presence. The words Execute Program? flashed in front of his eyes, followed by an externally inputted YES.

Well, they might have the armor, but they didn’t seem to have him. At least not yet —

Tony cried out in response to a sudden, sharp pain on his right thigh. Without a second thought, he interfaced with the armor to confirm what had just happened. The armor had just administered to him one of its emergency doses of adrenaline. And in the process of confirming that, he had made himself vulnerable just for long enough to be taken.

---

Through the static in his comm, Steve heard Sam say something about Nova and Lucy, but he was still engaged with Rumlow and couldn't quite parse it out. Only seconds later, someone or something crashed to the floor nearby. Behind him, gunshots -- almost certainly Schmidt firing on Logan and Bucky.

"Tony?" Steve shouted over the din.

Static from Sam trying to contact him from above ground rattled in his ear until, suddenly, it went dead. That cleared his head enough to hear the distinctive whine of the repulsors powering up. The first beam pierced the smoke and shot across the room, followed by Logan growling. Steve heard the impact of the second shot as someone hit the opposing wall, but without a vocal cue or disengaging Rumlow, he couldn't tell who.

Rumlow, for his part, was matching Steve blow-for-blow. Steve could see now that Runlow was wearing what had to be infrared goggles over his helmet, and Steve swung at them, hard. His head snapped to the side, one lens splintering under the impact, but he kept at it -- and then Steve heard the repulsor firing up again.

Steve grabbed Rumlow and used his momentum against him to pull him between Steve and glow of the repulsor. The impact nailed Rumlow squarely in the back and sent both men sliding across the floor. Steve took his chance to try to grapple him, but, defying Steve's expectations, Rumlow rolled away from Steve and made for the door. Two more pairs of feet followed him out of the room and down the corridor, leaving Steve and Tony behind.

"Tony?" Steve climbed to his feet and peered through the smoke in search of the armour's glow. "What the hell?"

---

<YES>

All of the projected confidence aside, Sin had only half-expected it to work. She raised an eyebrow when it did, and that was as far as she would go in betraying her surprise.

Getting past Wolverine was easy. A tutorial level in a first-person shooter game, except that her laptop saw through Stark’s eyes and she had more interesting things at her disposal than just guns and grenades. She hummed as she examined her options.

“Interesting.”

”What?” said Rumlow, walking into the sealed room. He tossed all his damaged head gear on the floor. Sin rolled his eyes at the display of temper. Nothing got to him quite like taking a beating from Steve Rogers.

“Stark has offense and defense protocols set up against practically every Avenger,” she answered. Brock leaned over her shoulder to look at the laptop screen. “But nothing against Rogers.”

”How’s that interesting?” Brock barked. ”Inconvenient.”

Sin ignored him. She wasn’t here to illuminate dimmer minds.

---

In Tony’s lab, a back-up server suddenly went online and, as planned, established an immediate encrypted connection with Steve’s communication device.

“Steve. It’s me,” Tony’s voice sounded through Steve’s comm. “Kinda. It’s Artificial Intelligence-me. I’m a security program set up by Tony Stark. If I’m online, that means that Stark has been compromised. I’m here to walk you through disabling the armor and enacting the Johnnie Walker Protocol to render all his mental data unusable.”

---

Externally, Tony didn't respond. Neither did anyone from outside. The silence from the comm in Steve's ear was deafening -- and then the feed clicked back on.

"Steve. It's me."

"Tony -- "

"Kinda. It's Artificial Intelligence-me."

Steve's breath caught. He watched the tell-tale glow of the Iron Man armor in front of him, got the hardlight shield up between them.

"If I'm online, that means Stark has been compromised."

"Tony!"

Steve stood his ground. Tony -- the armor -- raised a hand, palm out.

"I'm here to walk you through disabling the armor and enacting the Johnnie Walker Protocol to render all his mental data unusable." The armor fired. Steve braced himself.

The shield winked out.

"Shit -- "

Steve ducked, rolled, got back on his feet. The armor turned awkwardly, slowly, to follow him, and Steve got the distinct impression that someone or something outside of the armor was controlling it manually. Tactically, it should have been a relief that he wasn't up against Tony's own programming, but it wasn't. Someone was inside Tony's head, stealing his autonomy from him and turning him into a mindless weapon, and that would not abide.

"Whose mental data?" Steve asked the AI in his ear. He hoped the AI meant the version of JARVIS that powered the suit.

"You know whose," came Tony's voice. "I can only hope you promised you'd do this. I may have programmed this before asking you."

Of course he did. Steve circled the armor. For all he knew, Tony was fine inside and only the armor itself was compromised. He had to get Tony out.

"There's a voice-activated code that'll get you started. Repeat after me -- "

"Hold that thought," Steve said. Then he dove for the armor.

Tony's voice continued, uninterrupted, as Steve grappled Iron Man. He couldn't open the armor in here without exposing Tony to the gas that still filled the room; he'd have to provoke Schmidt into taking this outside. To that end, he kicked his legs up, wrapped them around the armor's chest, and leaned his full weight back. Without any control from inside, the armor couldn't correct for the shift, and the two of them crashed to the floor. Steve wrapped his arms around the helmet in an ineffectual headlock, but he needed to make sure Schmidt could hear him.

"I will find you," he growled, "and you'll never regret anything like you're gonna regret this."

Then he released the armor, rolled to his feet, and bolted for the door. He almost made it up the first flight of stairs before he heard the armor in flight behind him, slammed carelessly into walls and ceiling until it burst through the door, up the stairs, and into Steve. Together they bounced against concrete and steel, up and up, Steve's vision swimming as he tried and failed to break free -- but then they were out, careening through a grate and away from the building, away from the mountain, away from the gas.

"Can't you turn this thing off?" Steve shouted.

"Then confirm the order with your name, and that should do it," Tony's AI said.

"Without the data deletion part," Steve said.

"This is the only way. Where did I lose you?"

Steve shook his head, tried to inhale any of the rapidly thinning air that whipped around him. He'd lost his mask at some point while they'd ping-ponged around the stairwell. Up here, he wouldn't need it.

He pulled his hands free and reached for the manual release on the side of the helmet. The face plate dissolved to reveal Tony's face. Tony's eyes were unfocused, unseeing. His jaw was slack, his brow relaxed. He was bleeding from several cuts across his forehead, his nose; he looked like he may have bitten the inside of his mouth hard enough to draw blood as well.

"Tony." The wind whipped Tony's name from Steve's lips.

Steve wrapped a hand around the back of Tony's neck, the other around Tony's jaw. Tony's expression didn't change, but he released Steve, forcing Steve to scramble for purchase before he fell away. Their flight slowed, then stopped, until they were hovering well above the battlefield -- a safe distance away from Schmidt and Rumlow to escape.

He had to trust Sam would catch them. Even if he could get back to earth safely, he wouldn't do it without Tony.

"Hey," he said. His voice sounded thin. Tony's eyes were so dark.

"There's a voice-activated code that'll get you started," came Tony's voice.

"Tony. Please."

"Repeat after me."

Could he force Schmidt to land them? Where was Sam? He had to get Tony out of the suit!

"Don't."

"Activate Johnnie Walker override. Authorization: the first Avenger."

But the longer Steve stalled, the more Schmidt would get from Tony. She'd already shut down their comms, his shield. Given enough time, she would had access to everything Tony had access to, every wirelessly-enabled device on and orbiting the planet. He had no idea how far she'd gotten already, but he knew Tony would never forgive himself if Steve didn't do this.

"Don't make me do this."

"Walter Wolf. Rivendell. Eleven. Pyxis. Larghetto."

He had to. Tony had asked him to.

"Then confirm the order with your name, and that should do it."

Steve's chest, head, everything hurt. He couldn't breathe, and he couldn't pretend it was the altitude. He hoisted himself up enough to press his lips, dry and quivering, to Tony's temple.

"Activate Johnnie Walker override," he said.

He felt the armor shutting down against his chest, under his arms, as he tore each word out of his own throat and sobbed it back to Tony.

"Confirm override," he said.

He forced his head up to watch Tony's eyes. Nothing had changed. He crawled his numbing fingers around the back of the suit to reengage the face plate.

"Steve Rogers."

The repulsors cut off, and then they were falling. They were too high up even for Tony in the suit to survive the fall, much less Steve with no parachute and no shield, so Steve clung to the armor with Tony inside and closed his eyes against the wind. He didn't see Nova and Lucy coming until they each tried to take hold of him and Tony, but Steve refused to let go, forcing them to descend in an awkward tangle until they were low enough to drop Steve and Tony without injuring them. Hitting the ground was like flipping a switch; Steve was back in action, singularly focused on nothing but getting Tony out of the armor.

"Steve! What happened?" Sharon said from somewhere both nearby yet incredibly far away. He was already manually removing the armor as he answered.

"Schmidt. Did you get her?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "Wolverine and Winter Soldier got her, Rumlow -- and Clint." That caught Steve's attention. He jerked his head around to look up at Sam as he lay his ear to Tony's chest.

"Is he okay?" Sam and Sharon exchanged a look that Steve didn't care to decipher. He could hear Tony's pulse, but Tony's breathing was too shallow, too quick. He rose to his hands and knees over Tony, his back to Sam and Sharon. As long as Clint wasn't dead, Steve could follow up with him later.

"Come on, Tony."

Steve pinched Tony's nose and closed his mouth over Tony's. Tony's chest rose with Steve's breath, then fell almost still again. Steve gave him another breath; same thing. He sat up and started chest compressions and didn't stop until several pairs of hands pulled him to his feet and toward the Quinjet.

#red zone #discord import #avengerofgold #flylikeafalcon #luckyagent13

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