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cap_ironman2010-12-26 11:31 pm
cap_ironman_fe) wrote in cap_ironman2010-12-26 11:31 pm
Entry tags:
Happy Holidays, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
manic_intent!
Title: The Love Which Came in from the Space
Author:![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
snowynight
Universe: complete AU
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: mention of past torture
Beta:jazzypom
Summary: Tony set his feet on the police flagship Avengers for revenge, but he never expected to find something more on board.
Word Count: 7201
Disclaimer:Characters and situations are the property of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. No profit is being made off this fan-written work.
Author's notes: written to the prompt: “I don't want to set the world on fire “ Sadly, it is not a pirate AU, but it has space pirates in it. I hope you like it.
At the Mars space port, Tony accessed the virtual interface to look for the captain of the orbital police flagship “Avengers and almost immediately noticed him. He stood out from the crowd not only because of his crisp captain’s uniform, but also because of his good look. He must be alpha-modified.
“Captain Rogers? I am Tony Stark. I want to join your crew,” Tony smiled winningly, “I am the best engineer you can think of. It is an honour to work with me.
"Why do you want to join us?" Captain Rogers asked after a long moment.
"Kill pirates, obviously."
"Our jobs are to save lives, not to kill."
"If you say so."
"Why do you hate pirates so much?"
"For the time they stole my dog." Tony smiled easily. He did not want to think about the time his heart was ripped out from his body. “You will know that your best move is to cooperate.” A civilized voice said. Struck to a bed, Tony could only witness how the machine arm tore open his body. Pain and fear led him into unconsciousness. When he woke up again, he was hooked to a machine.
“I’m sorry, but it is a big decision to make.” Captain Rogers said after a while. “We’ll keep you in mind. Until then...”
Tony smiled, “Sure, keep me in mind. I’m sure we’ll meet again.”
A few days later Tony received a message from Captain Rogers, inviting him to the conference room of the Avengers. Rogers looked at the screen, which contained a message Tony already knew by heart. Captain Rogers seemed vexed by it and said, “It seemed that we’ve been thrown together. This is an order from the Headquarter that you be appointed as our engineer.”
Tony smirked."It 's settled then."
Captain Rogers looked at him and held out his hand to shake. "It seems that we've no choice. Welcome to our team. I hope you’re prepared for it."
"I won't disappoint you." Tony shook the hand and felt relieved. He could finally get on the best ship the orbital police had. It was another step to reach his revenge.
The week afterward was relatively uneventful. Tony got to know his department and his colleagues. Jan was the navigation officer, with a love for the old class scifi holovid and could get them to everywhere they wanted. Don Blake spoke in a soft voice and was always polite to a fault. It was hard to imagine that he was the weapons control officer and electronics warfare officer but Jan said, “Wait to see him at a fight, and you’ll know why he is nicknamed as Thor.” Hank was the sensor officer and obviously holding a torch for Jan. He stole a glance at her when she didn’t notice and Tony once saw him sighing at a photo of her. They were a good crew who loved their jobs, and clearly respected Captain Rogers a lot. His subordinates were highly motivated and well disciplined. Overall, Tony enjoyed his job. He checked with his department early in a day, had meal in the officer mass, and worked on his personal projects. When he heard people talking about space pirates and especially AIM, he joined mostly to listen but mostly he kept to himself.
The period of peace did not last long. They received an order to go to Titan and there they received a distressed signal. They followed the signals and the sensors picked up a larger ship opening fire at a smaller ship. . Captain Rogers ordered the the larger ship to cease fire. When it ignored the order, Captain Rogers opened fire at it. Don Blake shot the ship laser at the the larger ship and it returned fire. Hank transmitted and interpreted the sensor signals in a quick bolt of speech, and Jan skillfully navigated them out of danger, but the ship still sustained damage. During the fight Tony mostly focused on repairing the damaged shield and engine, but he kept up-to-date information of the fight. When the fight ended and the pirate ship surrendered, Captain Rogers went to him and said,"Great work." Tony said nothing as he was still trembling with adrenaline. Rogers patted him on his shoulder then went on to other colleagues.
"Time for a celebration!" Jan shouted. When they made the announcement, Tony can heard people rejoiced. The occasion was at the deck and everyone wore their best clothes to the party.. Drinks were passed around, laughter and shout surrounded the room They threw a party with the supplies at hand . Don Blake sung an old Norse song under the persuasion of others, and his voice was surprisingly good. People clapped their hands to the rhythm and sung along to it. Tony spent sometime making small talk,, fulfilling his social responsibility and then he retreated and took a seat at the corner of the room when no one was noticing. He felt the ecstatic atmosphere, and in the past he would be the spirit of the party, going along with them. However, he felt weirdly dissociated. He was exhausted to his bones, and needed some rest.
Captain Rogers was last seen at the centre of the party dancing with Jan, but when the music ended, Tony saw him walking straight to Tony, holding two glasses of drink, sat by him and hand one over. "It's a great party."
Tony sipped from the glass and said grudgingly, "Yes, you are right."
“Why don’t you join the crowd?” Captain Rogers asked.
“Same reason as yours, I suppose.”
Captain Rogers changed the topic.”What do you think about the ship?”
“Great ship, great crew.It’s great working here.”
Captain Rogers smiled with apparent pride. “Are you tired? I think I need to retire.”
“I need some fresh air anyway.”
They left the room discreetly and walked in the corridor. Rogers waved him good night just outside Tony‘s room.
The next few days Tony were busy with the ship. He thought of a way to enhance the engine performance by 10% and implemented it. The work was not as straight forward as Tony expected because of a glitch in the engine but he succeed. Finishing a day ‘s work, he went to the entertainment room and played a game of three dimensional chess with the computer. Tony started the game with two knights defence, and pushed his pawn. The computer responded by moving the knight. Tony took the pawn and followed up with a fork trick. After he had finished the game, Captain Rogers said from his back, startling him. “I don’t know you played chess.”
“I play less now. Too busy.”
Rogers asked, "Care to play a game with me?" A small crowd started to gather around them.
Tony debated what to say, but Rogers looked so hopeful and he didn’t want to refuse him in public.
Tony let Steve took the black and Steve started the game with Queen’s gambit.
“Not bad” Tony said, and declined the gambit with Laskar’s defence.
Steve stared at the board, then played Pc6, a safe move.
“You are not pushing me for a draw.” Tony then continued the attack. Several moves later, “Check,” he smiled
"You annihilated me." After three games of straight loss, Rogers threw his hands up in defeat and laughed.
Tony smiled, "You are a good player."
“I demand a rematch,” Steve smiled, despite his public thrashing, he was not a bad loser.
"It's a deal, then."
“We have a diplomatic mission, to attend a social event at space station ND367. Follow the dress code.” Rogers announced.
Hank sighed. “Not again.”
Jan smiled, “But you looked so good in dress uniform.”
Hank blushed.
Don Blake asked, “Why are we needed?”
“It didn’t say.” Rogers answered apologetically.
It’s not good. Formal events were Tony ‘s element, but experience told him that you needed to know who’s who for them to be considered useful. “I will check out the participants,” he offered.
“Thanks. I’d appreciate the help.” Rogers said, sounding relieved..
The formal event was as boring as others Tony attended, but Rogers in his dress uniform was a sight to be behold. The blue jacket complemented his blue eyes and nicely stretched to show the muscle underneath. Tony ogled him discreetly. He might as well enjoy it s long as Rogers seemed to be oblivious to it. In fact, a lot of men and women made advance at him. They looked at him through their eyelashes, laughing just a bit too long and their hand just lingered for awhile even after the dance stopped. Tony would take the time for harmless flirting back then but Rogers seemed unaware. The obliviousness was endearing.
Rogers looked around and seemed to find his target. He walked straight toward Tony and whispered, “I hate these kind of functions.”
“You look pretty enough for it, though.” Tony said, then regretted the flirting. It came too natural to him.
Rogers smiled awkwardly. “Thanks?”
Tony was about to comment further when the sounds of explosion and screaming spread. Rogers immediately stood into action and ran to the source, shouting, “Take cover!”
Far away he could see Jan, Hank, and Don Blake running to catch up with him. Tony never knew that you could run so fast in high-heels .
Tony knew better to get in the way of professionals He found himself stealing glance at the direction Rogers went but most of his attention was focused on heralding the guests to a safe place outside the room.
After the confusion and chaos, Rogers returned, looking a bit tired and clothes ruffled. Tony asked, “What’s the matter?”
Rogers replied, “An extremist group infiltrated the party and wanted to make an example of them.”
“So it was the reason we came here.” Tony realized.
“Our boss moves in mysterious ways.” Rogers continued, “I needed to talk with the planet police. but after that, I want to discuss something with you.”
“For what?” Tony asked.
“I knew you were a civilian but these kind of things tend to happen in our way of work. You need combat training.”
Tony considered the proposal and looked at the ruined ball room. He had to admit the merit in the suggestion . Besides, it could be helpful. “Thanks.”
“I will arrange the schedule with you later.” Rogers said, then left to presumably to talk with police.
Steve held his words and arranged the training several days later. Back at the gym Steve already changed into a sport shirt and shorts. Tony enjoyed the way the shirt just pulled a bit above the waistline to show a glint of skin. He didn’t enjoy so far, as Steve started the training, tackled him down, and knocked him to the ground.
Steve stood over him. “You had good reflexes, but you need to defend yourself more.”.
Tony remained lying on the ground because it seemed easier. “You are a harsh trainer.”
“You will improve when you trained more.”
“If I do not die first.”
“Come on, you should never give up.”
“Easier said than done.”
They continued practice and Tony had a better left hook after the lesson.
“The lesson ends for now. By the way. Do you want a game of chess?”
Tony found the change of topic abrupt, but Steve was probably sorry for him and wanted to let him have a turnaround. He appreciated the effort. “Sure. When are you free, 1900?”
“1900 is fine to me.”
“At...” Tony wanted to say the entertainment room, but the crowd it attracted seemed too much. He heard himself suggesting, “my room?”
Rogers looked surprised, but he said, “Sure why not?”
“See you then.” Tony wondered why he suggested his room. But he would feel better in his turf, knowing that everything was under his control than going to Rogers’ room.
Tony’s room was barely furnished. There were the basic furniture: bed, shelves, chairs and desks, all built only to last for a long time, like the other officers’ rooms. If Steve noticed it was unusually barren and there was a lack of personal items, he didn’t comment. Tony accessed the three-dimensional chess and they started.
Rogers was a better chess player than before, and he nearly drew at the game, but Tony won after all.
Tony smiled, "You are a much better player. Having you been secretly training?"
"Will you believe if I say no?"
"I can pretend to."
Tony moved on to ask about Steve’s other interest, and discovered that he was a painter and really loved old obscure books. Curious, Tony asked for an example and Steve admitted to reading and hating the obscure “The Atlas Shrugged”, a discussion started as Tony read the book too.
“You must have hated it a lot to remembers its name.”
It was horrible. I can’t believe it was said to be a best-seller for a time. ”
“I can’t believe you hated it so much. Was it the prose?”
“The idea. If everyone only cared about themselves, how would the society be?”
Tony argued for arguing’s sake. ”You omitted the point of respecting personal freedom. Surely it was the tenet of any societies.”
“It should not comes at the expense of the poor and the weak. I...”
“OK, let’s change the topic. What books do you really like then?”
The dicussion continued into the deeper night and Tony feigned a yawn to remind Steve the time. "Perhaps we should call a night off." Rogers suggested.
"Good night." Tony said.
They went on three missions. One was without major incidents. One involved jelly like weapons and hula hoops that they agreed to never talk about again, and at the last one they were stranded with a machine which wanted to kill them all.. A bomb was set to explode in minutes and Tony frantically insisted on staying to the last moment despite the Captain yelling at him to go.
Tony was still working to stop the machine and shouted, "We can't let it go!"
"Justice is important, but what 's the worth if you die?" Steve replied.
Tony didn't say anything. I had no life to return to. They did not talk with each other for three days until Steve broke the ice.
“Please take better care of yourself. We worry about you.” Steve said.
“Understood.” He would do better to proved that he could carry his weight.
Overall Tony found the engineers he supervised competent, though a bit unimaginative. and he was building a rhythm with other officers. He shared the same geeky love of Star Trek with Jan, listened to Don Blake’s absurd sounding stories and exchanged about technology with Hank.. He found himself getting closer with the Captain, too. He persuaded himself it was normal considering the missions they went to, and bond tended to feed on shared adventures involving adrenaline, but he could not convince himself entirely.
At the conference room, the officers watched the holovid which brought the usual obscure order. "Your mission, should you receive it, is to travel to Titan. Then you will prevent the spread of rogue technology. After which, you can take a week off."
“What does it mean?”Jan asked
“At least we know why we have to go to Titan. Last time we are only told to stay away from the locals. Turn out it is the most useful part of the briefing.”Hank said
“ At least we have a a shore leave. We definitely need one."
Hank was more pessimistic. “Remember our last mission? We hardly had any time to enjoy a break.”
The rogue technology this time was seriously understated as they faced the infamous rogue infomorph Ultron.
“Oh my god, Ultron! I thought he was dead! Jan said, when she was running to her station.
Hank said grimly, “I know it won’t be so easy.” when he logged on to his.
“Shield up, Aim, fire!” Steve shouted.
“Yes, sir!” Don Blake shouted when he set up the shield and fired at Ultron’s spaceship.
“D6037, a missile was coming!” Hank transmitted the sensor information
Jan said, “received.” when she led the ship away from it
. They got away mostly whole, but bruised and hurt. When they went to the resort scheduled, the officers and the crew cheered. Tony stayed behind for ship repair and declined Jan ‘s offer of a wardrobe do-over. He was surprised that Steve had stayed behind too.
"Why didn’t you go too?" Tony asked.
Steve paused, "I would like to keep you company."
"I have my job and my lab. I will be OK."
Steve said, "I don't want to go anyway."
"You are a bad liar. " Tony smiled, "A game of chess, at my room?"
"Of course."
They easily settled into a pattern of chess and talk, and Tony got to know Rogers better. Soon afterward he caught himself thinking about Rogers as Steve.
One day Don Blake talked to him when they were working on their usual station, “You are making friends with the Captain.”
Tony tensed, but Don Blake continued, “It is a good thing. The good Captain is lonely.”
“He has you all and the ship.”
“It is not enough.” Don Blake smiled and an alert called them to attention, interrupting their talk, leaving Tony feeling confused. Perhaps he was acting too close with the Captain, he should stay away more
It was easier said than done if Steve did not act so friendly and open toward him. He invited him to chess, joyfully debated with him and talked. Other crew might make contact with him, but Rogers never gave up even when Tony acted cooly towards him. Tony could tell that Rogers had a genuine interest in him, without any traps and calculation. Tony set up a barrier to avoid anyone going too far and knowing his secret. He shied away from questions about himself and the reason for joining the Avengers with joke and diversions. But Rogers was being so patient and seemed to be slowly getting through, which was worrying.
To divert himself from the Captain, Tony shut himself in the lab for days, busily working on a project at hand. The result was so close, he could literally feel it, but his eyes threatened to shut. He lay on the table. Perhaps a nap would help. In his half sleep, he felt someone approaching him. A hand was placed on his shoulder. His heart beat uncontrollably and his mind went back to the fateful days. He turned, threw a fist at the person, and hit air. He opened his eyes and saw Steve.
Steve apologized., “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have startled you. However, you should go back to your room to sleep. It will be more comfortable.”
Tony cursed at himself for being so careless. “What time is it now?”
“A time to sleep, obviously.”
“But I nearly made a breakthrough.”
“You will work better with sleep. Go. I can make it an order.”
“OK.” Tony gave up.
Steve escorted him back to his room and met Jan on the way. Tony could swear that Jan winked at them.
It's not good. He had obviously been so close with Steve that the crew were making speculating. In fact, why was he thinking about Rogers as Steve, again? He was slipping up, which he could not afford to. He should have fixed his heart on revenge, not to form an attachment to anyone. Tony decided to keep a distance.
One night, Steve went to him at the corridor. “Hey care for a chess?”
“Sorry, I need to check the fuel booster for the engine.” The excuse sounded lame to Tony’s ears, but Steve accepted it without saying more.
Another night Steve asked if he was interested in a new book he got and Tony refused coldly. Steve seemed a bit hurt at Tony 's keeping distance, but he didn't say anything. Their working relationship remained smooth, and Tony told himself that it was enough.
Days went by and another order came. “You were required to find and apprehend MURDAG of AIM in thirty days. Avoid human contact and you will be updated en route.
"AIM?" Finally, he thought. If he wasn’t already sitting, he would have to take a seat now because of the dizziness he felt because all his time and effort paid off. He could finally have a closure to the past event. Everything would end soon. The relief he felt could kill him. No more screaming awake at midnight, no more leaving the undershirt on at all time, no more hiding. He could return to his original life, to laugh under the sun., to be normal again. He refused to think about the fact that he would have no reasons to stay with the Avengers any longer.
“How do we find MURDAG?” Steve asked.
“He was last heard operating in Europa . I would suggest going there first.” Don Blake said.
“Good idea. Don Blake, contact the Europa police. Jan, set the course to Jupiter. Hank, check the senors for anything unusual.”
“Yes, Captain.” the officers replied. Tony went to his station and glanced at Steve, but Steve avoided looking in Tony’s direction.. Tony told himself it was silly to feel being left out. It was what he wanted, wasn’t?
At the colonial outpost in Europe, you could look and see the black icy ocean stretching to the limit of the sky. Jupiter could be seen high in the sky. The space station dug deep into the ice and was located in a crater. They carefully check the space suit they put on before leaving the ship. Tony felt light and he could see others thinking alike, jumping on the ice. It needed some time to adapt to gravity other than the Earth-like artificial gravity in produced by Avengers . The sheriff received then at the hall, blinking her metallic eyes. “Mild Day, ah? It’s -163 degree outside.” The sheriff said when she shook Steve’s hand. Then she shared intel about the AIM. “We suspect that AIM’s headquarter was on one of the moons but there are too many possibilities. It was opening fire with Hydra in the asteroid belt though.”
“Are the civilians involved?” Steve asked.
“We received a distressed signal from 10 Hygiea base today and wanted to check it up, but... “
“We have to go there.” Steve decided.
They tried to contact the 10 Hygiea base first, and received a blurred SOS. To be sure, they scanned the area with spaceship sensors and found nothing unusual. Then they decided to land.
.Landing on10 Hygiea was smooth. Steve and Tony went to the base with security details and went to the base. They tried to hail the station, but there was no response. Tony tried to remotely connect to the main computer at the station, but it refused access. His sensors did not pick up the usual signals from a space base, neither. They sneaked in and found that the base seemed to be deserted. The lightning was dim. No people and robots could be seen working here, except for some humming of machines. Tony thought he heard some mysterious sound, but he found no signs on his sensor. Some broken equipment lied disrayed on the ground. Tony looked at the lonely pillars in the station and said, “It’s eerie.” Steve agreed and said, “ There is something wrong here. I think we should retreat------”
A robot came out from no where and grabbed Steve. “Welcome here,. I didn’t expect you, Captain Rogers, but you will do.” The same civilized voice in Tony’s nightmare said. MURDAG and a group of AIM robot walked out from the base.
“Stand down. You are under arrest.” Steve ordered. He held up his weapon and struggled against the robot
“You are at disadvantage here.” MURDAG said.
“Really?” Steve then shot. Tony thought Steve missed but then he saw that Steve was aiming at people. He was aiming to bring a pillar down on the robots.
“It ‘s too late. There is a bomb in the station, set to explode in an hour and you all will die.” MURDAG laughed.
“Why?” Steve asked while signalling others to take cover for Tony
MURDAG was obviously too busy talking to notice anything. “I initially planned to destroy Hydra, but you will do too.”
“You want to destroy a planet just to win a feud?”
“It’s a war.” MURDAGe said, then he left the base. Tony hesitated when Steve shouted at him, “Run!”
Tony obeyed.
Thanks to the training before, he ran faster than he did, but it still take a lot of time for him to return to the Avengers.
“What’s happened?”
“A trap. Captain was taken. A bomb. We need to go.”
"But Our captain is still here. We can’t leave him behind. "
"If we don't leave we all will die. He wouldn't want this." He feigned nonchalance.
Jan looked at him sadly. Don Blake wanted to say something, but something on Tony’s face must have moved him. He kept silent.
On their journey back to the base on Mars, no one said anything. Grief and sadness enveloped them. Tony felt empty. He did the right thing, but he wondered whether the price had been worth it. Steve was becoming the most important person to him.Why did he realize it so late?
They landed on Mars and Tony left the ship, feeling empty. They would have to report on the incident, but Tony let others to do the job. He would not want to face the fact yet. Steve was still so alive hours before and in fact who he was seeing now -
"Steve, how come you are alive?" If Tony still had a human heart, it would burst with joy.
“I escaped before it was too late. But we let MURDAG go.” Disappointment was thick in Steve’s voice. Tony rolled his eyes. Did the man know how lucky he was? “We still have a couple of weeks left.” Tony said. He should be surprised how at ease he spoke but he didn’t. Steve was alive. Right now it was the most important thing to him.
The crew was ecstatic to see Steve. Don Blake swapped on Steve ‘s shoulder so hard that Steve visibly winced. There was moisture in Jan ‘s eyes and Hank’s voice sounded suspiciously deep. They all looked at Tony and him knowingly too and Tony wondered what they’d think they know.
At the Conference room, “We needed more intel. We can’t walk into a trap like this again.” Steve said.
“We should be proactive, being ahead of them.” Jan said.
“I will check the infosphere for more information on the feud AIM and Hydra are fighting. It would help.” Don said, before turning to his own work station.
“It should work.” Tony said.
“Do it, then.” Steve said.
Tony left behind and waited for everyone to leave. Then he told Steve. “We need to talk. 1900 hours at my room?”
“OK.” Steve said.
At Tony ‘s room, Tony stared at Steve until he asked, “What’s the matter?”
“I an sorry that we didn’t save you.”
“You made the right decision. I would do the same thing in your position.”
“Steve...” Tony paused. Back on the ship, when we think that you were dead...”
“I’m not.”
“Please don’t do this to us again. ”
“I can’t promise you. It’s a part of our job.”
“Please try.”
They sat awkwardly for a moment, then Steve suggested, “Why not not a game of chess?”
“Good idea.” Tony agreed. He wanted something ordinary right after the day he went through.
“AIM and Hydra were always in an uneasy truce. There were mild conflict but nothing more. What tipped them off?” Jan asked at their next meeting. .
“I discovered why AIM and Hydra are fighting.” Don Blake said “It all started with the Cat’s Eyes.”
“What’s it?”
“I’m not sure, but it is apparently valuable enough that they fight over it. Neither side seemed to get a hold of it. ”
“Then if we leak a meme about the Cat’s Eye ‘s location to AIM, …”
“They will follow it up. Good thinking, Jan. Dismissed.” Steve didn’t even look at Tony.
It’s weird. There was an abrupt change in Steve’s attitude. He cooled off overnight. Tony had invited him over, wanting to talk with him, but he had rejected all. The other officers looked at them worriedly and Even Hank noticed something wrong. Perhaps he didn’t really forgive me, at all. There was also something off with Steve. When Steve bothered to stay in the same room with him, there was something inhuman about them. The gesture, the expression, the way he talked and walked, Did I just suspect him because I was being silly?
But the work still needed to go on. They spread the meme that Cat’s Eye was on Ceres. AIM swallowed the bait immediately and sent people over to there. In fact, the plan seemed too smooth. Tony thought when he landed with Steve at the Ceres space station
When they landed, Tony received a slurred signal from nearby and when he wanted to bring that into attention, robots appeared and arracked them. How can the AIM be so fast, as if they had known our plan? The AIM captured them and brought them to their boss. Tony was surprised to see Ultron there. Is AIM collaborating with Ultron? Tony turned to Steve and saw Steve just standing there. “Steve, what were you doing here?” He pulled at him, but the Steve only smiled, a smile that sent a shiver along Tony’s spine. “You are not Steve.” He finally realized.
“It’s too late you realize this now.” Steve said, just when Ultron said, “Put him into a cell.”
Thrown into a cell by the robot, Tony’s head hit the floor. He shook his head to shrug off the stars, then he saw a figure in the shadow at the corner. Tony looked closer. “Steve?”
The figure raised his head to look at Tony, “Tony?”
Steve didn’t look fine. There were bruises on the places not covered by his clothes, and Tony was sure there were more underneath. . He had stayed in the cell for the whole time, and we didn’t even know. “Steve, are you OK?” Silly question. Of course he was not.
Steve said, “Let’s find a way out of here first. I ‘m working on the security system to no avail. But surely you can do something with it.”
“Let me try.” Tony said. He pulled out an electronic lock-picker from his socks - paranoia had its benefit and attached it to the lock to work out the combination needed. The security system was not supposed to work from inside, but after Tony mentally went over the data in his head., the beeping sound from the locker picked show the all clear. The door was sprung open. Now they only needed to escape.
They ran out of the cell, taking cover in the shadows. At the coming corner stood a prison guard. Steve signalled Tony to take cover, then he pounced on the guard from behind . They struggled for awhile but Steve used his body weight to hold the guard steady. "Tell us the way out."
The guard stuttered, "You.. will... never... escape."
"Don't waste our time." Steve said. Tony bent down to take and hold the guard 's gun to his head. "Talk!"
The guard said, "Turn left, and then go straight to the third corner, turn right..."
Steve knocked the guard unconscious and took away his communicating datapad "Can you contact the Avenger?"
Tony tried to access the information field surrounding the planet with neural implants, but he then said. " It 's blocked. I can get through the fire wall, but it may take more time than we need. "
“We should find a way to get access to the Avengers. They may not know that it is compromised.” Steve said. "But let's get out of here first.
They followed the directions, pass the corridors, knocking out more guards. Tony recalled the design plan of the station and tried to guide them to the back door of the station. On their way they passed through an area of living quarters. When they passed one of the metal doors, MUDOA went out of a living quarter just in front of them. . "Stop, you prisoners!" he shouted.
Steve knocked MUDOA out. Tony aimed the gun at MUDOA 's head and said, " We can use him as a hostage."
"Good idea." Steve took the gun from Tony's hand and held it at MUDOA 's head. He held MUDOA up and they continued the way out.
When they are about to leave the base, Ultron's sound voiced, "Give up now, humans."
"We have your partner." Steve said.
Ultron said, "He was only a pawn to me."
"So you tailored the feud between AIM and Hydra?" Tony asked.
"Getting rid of the rivals will only make Ultron getting stronger"
"When do you start to control MUDOA?"
"From the very beginning."
Did it It mean that Ultron planned his kidnapping too. “Does it mean you have a part in my kidnapping?”
“Your talent will be useful to Ultron. That you escaped is only a glitch.”
Tony saw red. He was about to run to Ultron when Steve pulled him aside. "Don't!"
"The Captain made a good suggestion. Surrender." Ultron said.
Steve said, "Never!" Just then a loud sound was made. The door was broken open. Everyone paused for awhile in shock and a familiar voice said, "Calvary to the rescue!"
"Jan?" Tony asked.
"Attention, we had the base surrounded. The smart choice is to surrender to us, now."
"Ultron never surrenders."
"You have no choice." Tony heard Don Blake’s voice coming out of a giant with a hammer, who appeared with security details behind him.
Ultron would not surrender so easily, so the fight was intensive. The giant rushed to the robots and use his hamer to cash open. their heads. The security details fanned out, took cover and shot the robots. One of them tried to attack Tony but Tony stepped aside, shutting it down with his gun. Guns were shot, people were hurt, and the fight only ended when Steve threw a metal cover at Ultron and incapacitated him.
"Ultron will never be caught!" Ultron laughed, then his body was suddenly still.
"He escaped through the infosphere." Tony said.
Steve said, "We will meet him again. The next time we will be prepared."
They locked MUDOA and the minions into the cells and reported back to the Headquarter. The debriefing at the conference room is awkward. Jan said, "We should have known it was a LMD." just when Hank asked, "What happened just then?"
“How did you know? Ultron's LMD is so sophisticated that I would be deceived too. " Steve said, then he told his story.
After the time that MUDOA captured him, he put Steve into a lab and hooked him to a machine, which connected to a lMD exactly like him. From MURDAG's talk, he knew that it was designed to infiltrate the Avengers' computer system. Then he was thrown into a cell. He tried to escape several times but failed until Tony came.
When Steve finished his story, he asked, "How did you find us?"
"We know there's something wrong when you two hadn't returned." Jan said. Don Blake continued, "We discovered unusual signs in communication and started to suspicious of the LMD. When you two didn't return, we scanned the area and determined that you were ambushed. So we planned a rescue."
"I need to check if the LMD damaged the system." Tony abruptly said.
Steve said, "You haven't been checked up yet."
"You too, Steve. Go to the infirmary, now." Jan said.
"Yes, Madam." Steve replied.
At the infirmary, Tony tolerated the doctors' check up and protested when the doctor ordered him to stay overnight. He argued that he had a job to do but the doctor was insistent. Finally Tony made a bargain with the doctor that he could stay at his room. He returned to his room, took a bath, and then tried to work.
Someone had been so considerate to set up firewalls to avoid him from access to his work, , but Tony hacked into the system and found a back door. He started to work. .
Tony didn't see Steve for three days. There was so many things to check up. He needed to assess the damage the LMD did to the system, the protocol leak and repair the ship. He was not avoiding Steve, and anyway, Steve was avoiding him too. He only interacted with him when he needed, just like when he was a LMD. Maybe we should check over him again. Tony told himself that it didn’t bother him, but he found it increasingly difficult to convince himself. Beside another thing troubled him. Should he continue to stay at the Avengers? He told himself he should because Ultron was still at large, but he wouldn’t deny there was more to that.
This night Tony worked at his office until a sound caught his attention. He looked up and saw the signal from the door. He had a visitor, Steve.Tony debated whether to ignore it, but Steve was being particularly stubborn The door kept buzzing. Tony finally gave in and granted Steve access.
"I know you are not resting." Steve said.
Tony reminded himself that he should not feel as guilty as a child being caught by his mother. "I am, technically."
"Working in your room doesn't count as rest." Steve said.
Tony asked, "Do you just come here to complain about my rest habit?"
"Yes. I mean no. We need to talk." Steve said.
Tony asked, "Why do I start to dread the words?" but he let Steve go on, "Why do you avoid me?"
"I am not. I am just busy. The system..."
"Did I do anything wrong? Did the LMD...?"
"It did nothing to me."
"But you’ve been acting weird ever since. I understand that I may not be the right person you want to talk to, but..."
“Steve, it was you acting weird.”
“But... perhaps we should start from the beginning.”
“So what should we talk about?”
“Tony... Do you still want to stay with us? Considering what you have gone through...”
I love the job here. It is very challenging.” Tony said honestly.
“It was one way to put it.” Steve said, “Tony...”
Tony asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Have a good night. There will be a mission briefing tomorrow.”
Tony was weirdly disappointed. “Good night.”
Next day, Steve delivered the mission briefing at the conference room as usual. “We need to negotiate with the Asgard group a week later. We will act as a mediator.”
Tony asked, “Did it say more?”
“It only said we should use our best judgement.” Steve replied.
Considering the potential pitfalls of a diplomatic mission, the briefing was definitely unhelpful. “I hope we can get more information.”
“It’s our usual complaint.” Jan said, “But Don Blake will be right at home. Maybe you can shed some light then.”
Don Blake said, “I will put an ear to the ground.”
“You are one of the Asgardians?” Tony asked.
Don Blake said, “It’s been months since I last returned and I will catch up with my brethern there.”
Asgard was famous for its core values of war and emotion. Tony felt surprised that Don Blake had this hidden side. “It ‘s great.”
“We can go to Asgard now so we can let Don Blake associate with his family more. “ Steve said,
“But will we be welcome?’
“There is always time for a feast and guest in Asgard!” Don Blake laughed.
They arrived at Asgard in a few days and received grand welcome. They were assigned quarter and a big party was held at a grand hall, just as Don Blake said --- “they didn’t need any reason for a celebration, actually”, Don Blake winked, just before he was pulled aside for a drink. Tony walked among the guests and a big man put a drink right after his nose. “Drink, my friend!” Tony sipped from the glass and found it really strong. “Thanks.” he coughed. The the man moved on to another target.
Near the end of the party, Jan came to Tony and said, “Sorry, but can you bring Steve back to a room?
“He seems to be drunk. I think the liquor is too strong, even for him.” He pointed to a corner where Steve slumped.
“OK, I will help.” Tony walked to Steve and tried to raise Steve, “Steve, time to go now.”
“But the party wasn’t over!” Steve slurred.
“”It is for you. Go now.” Tony helped Steve up and let Steve leaned on him. They stumbled back to Steve’s room.
Tony led Steve to the bed and said, “Bed now.” When he was about to leave, Steve clung to his arm.
“What’s the matter?”
“I had something to tell you...”
Tony can’t help but fascinated. “What do you want to say?”
“I really... really like you, like a lot.”Steve said.
Tony’s heart beat faster. He wanted to ask further, but Steve had fallen into sleep already.
The next morning at the breakfast, Steve seemed embarrassed. After then he pulled him aside to a corner of the corridor, “I must have caused trouble to you last night.”
Tony felt disappointed. It was drunk talk, apparently. “Well, it’s nothing big, until you count the part you did a strip-tease in the middle of the hall ..”
Seeing Steve’s horrified expression, Tony smiled, “It’s a joke. You behaved well.”
“You really scared me there.” Steve looked relieved. “by the way...”
“What?”
“I recalled telling you I like you....”
“It doesn’t matter...”
“It’s true. I still feel so.”
“Really?”
“Well, I can understand if you don't feel like this, and I hope it doesn't affect our working relationship." Steve's shoulders slumped, turned and was about to leave.
"Stop!" Tony shouted. Steve turned back to him, looking hopeful and confused. "I... I like you too. But why? Why me?"
"You are a good guy, smart, and attractive. Why wouldn't I want to date you?"
"But you don't know much about me and I can't..."
"Tony, I asked for a date, not a disclosure. " Steve said, "You have your secrets. Maybe one day you'll share. Maybe not. But I respect it."
Tony hesitated. Should he go for it? He was naive enough to think love could solve everything, especially when Ultron was still at large and there were still obstacles before them but Steve looked so hopeful here. Perhaps he should take a chance.
“OK. I agree to a date.” Tony said, “only for a test rum.”
“It's enough for me now.” Steve said.
They smiled at each other."
Author:
snowynightUniverse: complete AU
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: mention of past torture
Beta:
jazzypomSummary: Tony set his feet on the police flagship Avengers for revenge, but he never expected to find something more on board.
Word Count: 7201
Disclaimer:Characters and situations are the property of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. No profit is being made off this fan-written work.
Author's notes: written to the prompt: “I don't want to set the world on fire “ Sadly, it is not a pirate AU, but it has space pirates in it. I hope you like it.
At the Mars space port, Tony accessed the virtual interface to look for the captain of the orbital police flagship “Avengers and almost immediately noticed him. He stood out from the crowd not only because of his crisp captain’s uniform, but also because of his good look. He must be alpha-modified.
“Captain Rogers? I am Tony Stark. I want to join your crew,” Tony smiled winningly, “I am the best engineer you can think of. It is an honour to work with me.
"Why do you want to join us?" Captain Rogers asked after a long moment.
"Kill pirates, obviously."
"Our jobs are to save lives, not to kill."
"If you say so."
"Why do you hate pirates so much?"
"For the time they stole my dog." Tony smiled easily. He did not want to think about the time his heart was ripped out from his body. “You will know that your best move is to cooperate.” A civilized voice said. Struck to a bed, Tony could only witness how the machine arm tore open his body. Pain and fear led him into unconsciousness. When he woke up again, he was hooked to a machine.
“I’m sorry, but it is a big decision to make.” Captain Rogers said after a while. “We’ll keep you in mind. Until then...”
Tony smiled, “Sure, keep me in mind. I’m sure we’ll meet again.”
A few days later Tony received a message from Captain Rogers, inviting him to the conference room of the Avengers. Rogers looked at the screen, which contained a message Tony already knew by heart. Captain Rogers seemed vexed by it and said, “It seemed that we’ve been thrown together. This is an order from the Headquarter that you be appointed as our engineer.”
Tony smirked."It 's settled then."
Captain Rogers looked at him and held out his hand to shake. "It seems that we've no choice. Welcome to our team. I hope you’re prepared for it."
"I won't disappoint you." Tony shook the hand and felt relieved. He could finally get on the best ship the orbital police had. It was another step to reach his revenge.
The week afterward was relatively uneventful. Tony got to know his department and his colleagues. Jan was the navigation officer, with a love for the old class scifi holovid and could get them to everywhere they wanted. Don Blake spoke in a soft voice and was always polite to a fault. It was hard to imagine that he was the weapons control officer and electronics warfare officer but Jan said, “Wait to see him at a fight, and you’ll know why he is nicknamed as Thor.” Hank was the sensor officer and obviously holding a torch for Jan. He stole a glance at her when she didn’t notice and Tony once saw him sighing at a photo of her. They were a good crew who loved their jobs, and clearly respected Captain Rogers a lot. His subordinates were highly motivated and well disciplined. Overall, Tony enjoyed his job. He checked with his department early in a day, had meal in the officer mass, and worked on his personal projects. When he heard people talking about space pirates and especially AIM, he joined mostly to listen but mostly he kept to himself.
The period of peace did not last long. They received an order to go to Titan and there they received a distressed signal. They followed the signals and the sensors picked up a larger ship opening fire at a smaller ship. . Captain Rogers ordered the the larger ship to cease fire. When it ignored the order, Captain Rogers opened fire at it. Don Blake shot the ship laser at the the larger ship and it returned fire. Hank transmitted and interpreted the sensor signals in a quick bolt of speech, and Jan skillfully navigated them out of danger, but the ship still sustained damage. During the fight Tony mostly focused on repairing the damaged shield and engine, but he kept up-to-date information of the fight. When the fight ended and the pirate ship surrendered, Captain Rogers went to him and said,"Great work." Tony said nothing as he was still trembling with adrenaline. Rogers patted him on his shoulder then went on to other colleagues.
"Time for a celebration!" Jan shouted. When they made the announcement, Tony can heard people rejoiced. The occasion was at the deck and everyone wore their best clothes to the party.. Drinks were passed around, laughter and shout surrounded the room They threw a party with the supplies at hand . Don Blake sung an old Norse song under the persuasion of others, and his voice was surprisingly good. People clapped their hands to the rhythm and sung along to it. Tony spent sometime making small talk,, fulfilling his social responsibility and then he retreated and took a seat at the corner of the room when no one was noticing. He felt the ecstatic atmosphere, and in the past he would be the spirit of the party, going along with them. However, he felt weirdly dissociated. He was exhausted to his bones, and needed some rest.
Captain Rogers was last seen at the centre of the party dancing with Jan, but when the music ended, Tony saw him walking straight to Tony, holding two glasses of drink, sat by him and hand one over. "It's a great party."
Tony sipped from the glass and said grudgingly, "Yes, you are right."
“Why don’t you join the crowd?” Captain Rogers asked.
“Same reason as yours, I suppose.”
Captain Rogers changed the topic.”What do you think about the ship?”
“Great ship, great crew.It’s great working here.”
Captain Rogers smiled with apparent pride. “Are you tired? I think I need to retire.”
“I need some fresh air anyway.”
They left the room discreetly and walked in the corridor. Rogers waved him good night just outside Tony‘s room.
The next few days Tony were busy with the ship. He thought of a way to enhance the engine performance by 10% and implemented it. The work was not as straight forward as Tony expected because of a glitch in the engine but he succeed. Finishing a day ‘s work, he went to the entertainment room and played a game of three dimensional chess with the computer. Tony started the game with two knights defence, and pushed his pawn. The computer responded by moving the knight. Tony took the pawn and followed up with a fork trick. After he had finished the game, Captain Rogers said from his back, startling him. “I don’t know you played chess.”
“I play less now. Too busy.”
Rogers asked, "Care to play a game with me?" A small crowd started to gather around them.
Tony debated what to say, but Rogers looked so hopeful and he didn’t want to refuse him in public.
Tony let Steve took the black and Steve started the game with Queen’s gambit.
“Not bad” Tony said, and declined the gambit with Laskar’s defence.
Steve stared at the board, then played Pc6, a safe move.
“You are not pushing me for a draw.” Tony then continued the attack. Several moves later, “Check,” he smiled
"You annihilated me." After three games of straight loss, Rogers threw his hands up in defeat and laughed.
Tony smiled, "You are a good player."
“I demand a rematch,” Steve smiled, despite his public thrashing, he was not a bad loser.
"It's a deal, then."
“We have a diplomatic mission, to attend a social event at space station ND367. Follow the dress code.” Rogers announced.
Hank sighed. “Not again.”
Jan smiled, “But you looked so good in dress uniform.”
Hank blushed.
Don Blake asked, “Why are we needed?”
“It didn’t say.” Rogers answered apologetically.
It’s not good. Formal events were Tony ‘s element, but experience told him that you needed to know who’s who for them to be considered useful. “I will check out the participants,” he offered.
“Thanks. I’d appreciate the help.” Rogers said, sounding relieved..
The formal event was as boring as others Tony attended, but Rogers in his dress uniform was a sight to be behold. The blue jacket complemented his blue eyes and nicely stretched to show the muscle underneath. Tony ogled him discreetly. He might as well enjoy it s long as Rogers seemed to be oblivious to it. In fact, a lot of men and women made advance at him. They looked at him through their eyelashes, laughing just a bit too long and their hand just lingered for awhile even after the dance stopped. Tony would take the time for harmless flirting back then but Rogers seemed unaware. The obliviousness was endearing.
Rogers looked around and seemed to find his target. He walked straight toward Tony and whispered, “I hate these kind of functions.”
“You look pretty enough for it, though.” Tony said, then regretted the flirting. It came too natural to him.
Rogers smiled awkwardly. “Thanks?”
Tony was about to comment further when the sounds of explosion and screaming spread. Rogers immediately stood into action and ran to the source, shouting, “Take cover!”
Far away he could see Jan, Hank, and Don Blake running to catch up with him. Tony never knew that you could run so fast in high-heels .
Tony knew better to get in the way of professionals He found himself stealing glance at the direction Rogers went but most of his attention was focused on heralding the guests to a safe place outside the room.
After the confusion and chaos, Rogers returned, looking a bit tired and clothes ruffled. Tony asked, “What’s the matter?”
Rogers replied, “An extremist group infiltrated the party and wanted to make an example of them.”
“So it was the reason we came here.” Tony realized.
“Our boss moves in mysterious ways.” Rogers continued, “I needed to talk with the planet police. but after that, I want to discuss something with you.”
“For what?” Tony asked.
“I knew you were a civilian but these kind of things tend to happen in our way of work. You need combat training.”
Tony considered the proposal and looked at the ruined ball room. He had to admit the merit in the suggestion . Besides, it could be helpful. “Thanks.”
“I will arrange the schedule with you later.” Rogers said, then left to presumably to talk with police.
Steve held his words and arranged the training several days later. Back at the gym Steve already changed into a sport shirt and shorts. Tony enjoyed the way the shirt just pulled a bit above the waistline to show a glint of skin. He didn’t enjoy so far, as Steve started the training, tackled him down, and knocked him to the ground.
Steve stood over him. “You had good reflexes, but you need to defend yourself more.”.
Tony remained lying on the ground because it seemed easier. “You are a harsh trainer.”
“You will improve when you trained more.”
“If I do not die first.”
“Come on, you should never give up.”
“Easier said than done.”
They continued practice and Tony had a better left hook after the lesson.
“The lesson ends for now. By the way. Do you want a game of chess?”
Tony found the change of topic abrupt, but Steve was probably sorry for him and wanted to let him have a turnaround. He appreciated the effort. “Sure. When are you free, 1900?”
“1900 is fine to me.”
“At...” Tony wanted to say the entertainment room, but the crowd it attracted seemed too much. He heard himself suggesting, “my room?”
Rogers looked surprised, but he said, “Sure why not?”
“See you then.” Tony wondered why he suggested his room. But he would feel better in his turf, knowing that everything was under his control than going to Rogers’ room.
Tony’s room was barely furnished. There were the basic furniture: bed, shelves, chairs and desks, all built only to last for a long time, like the other officers’ rooms. If Steve noticed it was unusually barren and there was a lack of personal items, he didn’t comment. Tony accessed the three-dimensional chess and they started.
Rogers was a better chess player than before, and he nearly drew at the game, but Tony won after all.
Tony smiled, "You are a much better player. Having you been secretly training?"
"Will you believe if I say no?"
"I can pretend to."
Tony moved on to ask about Steve’s other interest, and discovered that he was a painter and really loved old obscure books. Curious, Tony asked for an example and Steve admitted to reading and hating the obscure “The Atlas Shrugged”, a discussion started as Tony read the book too.
“You must have hated it a lot to remembers its name.”
It was horrible. I can’t believe it was said to be a best-seller for a time. ”
“I can’t believe you hated it so much. Was it the prose?”
“The idea. If everyone only cared about themselves, how would the society be?”
Tony argued for arguing’s sake. ”You omitted the point of respecting personal freedom. Surely it was the tenet of any societies.”
“It should not comes at the expense of the poor and the weak. I...”
“OK, let’s change the topic. What books do you really like then?”
The dicussion continued into the deeper night and Tony feigned a yawn to remind Steve the time. "Perhaps we should call a night off." Rogers suggested.
"Good night." Tony said.
They went on three missions. One was without major incidents. One involved jelly like weapons and hula hoops that they agreed to never talk about again, and at the last one they were stranded with a machine which wanted to kill them all.. A bomb was set to explode in minutes and Tony frantically insisted on staying to the last moment despite the Captain yelling at him to go.
Tony was still working to stop the machine and shouted, "We can't let it go!"
"Justice is important, but what 's the worth if you die?" Steve replied.
Tony didn't say anything. I had no life to return to. They did not talk with each other for three days until Steve broke the ice.
“Please take better care of yourself. We worry about you.” Steve said.
“Understood.” He would do better to proved that he could carry his weight.
Overall Tony found the engineers he supervised competent, though a bit unimaginative. and he was building a rhythm with other officers. He shared the same geeky love of Star Trek with Jan, listened to Don Blake’s absurd sounding stories and exchanged about technology with Hank.. He found himself getting closer with the Captain, too. He persuaded himself it was normal considering the missions they went to, and bond tended to feed on shared adventures involving adrenaline, but he could not convince himself entirely.
At the conference room, the officers watched the holovid which brought the usual obscure order. "Your mission, should you receive it, is to travel to Titan. Then you will prevent the spread of rogue technology. After which, you can take a week off."
“What does it mean?”Jan asked
“At least we know why we have to go to Titan. Last time we are only told to stay away from the locals. Turn out it is the most useful part of the briefing.”Hank said
“ At least we have a a shore leave. We definitely need one."
Hank was more pessimistic. “Remember our last mission? We hardly had any time to enjoy a break.”
The rogue technology this time was seriously understated as they faced the infamous rogue infomorph Ultron.
“Oh my god, Ultron! I thought he was dead! Jan said, when she was running to her station.
Hank said grimly, “I know it won’t be so easy.” when he logged on to his.
“Shield up, Aim, fire!” Steve shouted.
“Yes, sir!” Don Blake shouted when he set up the shield and fired at Ultron’s spaceship.
“D6037, a missile was coming!” Hank transmitted the sensor information
Jan said, “received.” when she led the ship away from it
. They got away mostly whole, but bruised and hurt. When they went to the resort scheduled, the officers and the crew cheered. Tony stayed behind for ship repair and declined Jan ‘s offer of a wardrobe do-over. He was surprised that Steve had stayed behind too.
"Why didn’t you go too?" Tony asked.
Steve paused, "I would like to keep you company."
"I have my job and my lab. I will be OK."
Steve said, "I don't want to go anyway."
"You are a bad liar. " Tony smiled, "A game of chess, at my room?"
"Of course."
They easily settled into a pattern of chess and talk, and Tony got to know Rogers better. Soon afterward he caught himself thinking about Rogers as Steve.
One day Don Blake talked to him when they were working on their usual station, “You are making friends with the Captain.”
Tony tensed, but Don Blake continued, “It is a good thing. The good Captain is lonely.”
“He has you all and the ship.”
“It is not enough.” Don Blake smiled and an alert called them to attention, interrupting their talk, leaving Tony feeling confused. Perhaps he was acting too close with the Captain, he should stay away more
It was easier said than done if Steve did not act so friendly and open toward him. He invited him to chess, joyfully debated with him and talked. Other crew might make contact with him, but Rogers never gave up even when Tony acted cooly towards him. Tony could tell that Rogers had a genuine interest in him, without any traps and calculation. Tony set up a barrier to avoid anyone going too far and knowing his secret. He shied away from questions about himself and the reason for joining the Avengers with joke and diversions. But Rogers was being so patient and seemed to be slowly getting through, which was worrying.
To divert himself from the Captain, Tony shut himself in the lab for days, busily working on a project at hand. The result was so close, he could literally feel it, but his eyes threatened to shut. He lay on the table. Perhaps a nap would help. In his half sleep, he felt someone approaching him. A hand was placed on his shoulder. His heart beat uncontrollably and his mind went back to the fateful days. He turned, threw a fist at the person, and hit air. He opened his eyes and saw Steve.
Steve apologized., “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have startled you. However, you should go back to your room to sleep. It will be more comfortable.”
Tony cursed at himself for being so careless. “What time is it now?”
“A time to sleep, obviously.”
“But I nearly made a breakthrough.”
“You will work better with sleep. Go. I can make it an order.”
“OK.” Tony gave up.
Steve escorted him back to his room and met Jan on the way. Tony could swear that Jan winked at them.
It's not good. He had obviously been so close with Steve that the crew were making speculating. In fact, why was he thinking about Rogers as Steve, again? He was slipping up, which he could not afford to. He should have fixed his heart on revenge, not to form an attachment to anyone. Tony decided to keep a distance.
One night, Steve went to him at the corridor. “Hey care for a chess?”
“Sorry, I need to check the fuel booster for the engine.” The excuse sounded lame to Tony’s ears, but Steve accepted it without saying more.
Another night Steve asked if he was interested in a new book he got and Tony refused coldly. Steve seemed a bit hurt at Tony 's keeping distance, but he didn't say anything. Their working relationship remained smooth, and Tony told himself that it was enough.
Days went by and another order came. “You were required to find and apprehend MURDAG of AIM in thirty days. Avoid human contact and you will be updated en route.
"AIM?" Finally, he thought. If he wasn’t already sitting, he would have to take a seat now because of the dizziness he felt because all his time and effort paid off. He could finally have a closure to the past event. Everything would end soon. The relief he felt could kill him. No more screaming awake at midnight, no more leaving the undershirt on at all time, no more hiding. He could return to his original life, to laugh under the sun., to be normal again. He refused to think about the fact that he would have no reasons to stay with the Avengers any longer.
“How do we find MURDAG?” Steve asked.
“He was last heard operating in Europa . I would suggest going there first.” Don Blake said.
“Good idea. Don Blake, contact the Europa police. Jan, set the course to Jupiter. Hank, check the senors for anything unusual.”
“Yes, Captain.” the officers replied. Tony went to his station and glanced at Steve, but Steve avoided looking in Tony’s direction.. Tony told himself it was silly to feel being left out. It was what he wanted, wasn’t?
At the colonial outpost in Europe, you could look and see the black icy ocean stretching to the limit of the sky. Jupiter could be seen high in the sky. The space station dug deep into the ice and was located in a crater. They carefully check the space suit they put on before leaving the ship. Tony felt light and he could see others thinking alike, jumping on the ice. It needed some time to adapt to gravity other than the Earth-like artificial gravity in produced by Avengers . The sheriff received then at the hall, blinking her metallic eyes. “Mild Day, ah? It’s -163 degree outside.” The sheriff said when she shook Steve’s hand. Then she shared intel about the AIM. “We suspect that AIM’s headquarter was on one of the moons but there are too many possibilities. It was opening fire with Hydra in the asteroid belt though.”
“Are the civilians involved?” Steve asked.
“We received a distressed signal from 10 Hygiea base today and wanted to check it up, but... “
“We have to go there.” Steve decided.
They tried to contact the 10 Hygiea base first, and received a blurred SOS. To be sure, they scanned the area with spaceship sensors and found nothing unusual. Then they decided to land.
.Landing on10 Hygiea was smooth. Steve and Tony went to the base with security details and went to the base. They tried to hail the station, but there was no response. Tony tried to remotely connect to the main computer at the station, but it refused access. His sensors did not pick up the usual signals from a space base, neither. They sneaked in and found that the base seemed to be deserted. The lightning was dim. No people and robots could be seen working here, except for some humming of machines. Tony thought he heard some mysterious sound, but he found no signs on his sensor. Some broken equipment lied disrayed on the ground. Tony looked at the lonely pillars in the station and said, “It’s eerie.” Steve agreed and said, “ There is something wrong here. I think we should retreat------”
A robot came out from no where and grabbed Steve. “Welcome here,. I didn’t expect you, Captain Rogers, but you will do.” The same civilized voice in Tony’s nightmare said. MURDAG and a group of AIM robot walked out from the base.
“Stand down. You are under arrest.” Steve ordered. He held up his weapon and struggled against the robot
“You are at disadvantage here.” MURDAG said.
“Really?” Steve then shot. Tony thought Steve missed but then he saw that Steve was aiming at people. He was aiming to bring a pillar down on the robots.
“It ‘s too late. There is a bomb in the station, set to explode in an hour and you all will die.” MURDAG laughed.
“Why?” Steve asked while signalling others to take cover for Tony
MURDAG was obviously too busy talking to notice anything. “I initially planned to destroy Hydra, but you will do too.”
“You want to destroy a planet just to win a feud?”
“It’s a war.” MURDAGe said, then he left the base. Tony hesitated when Steve shouted at him, “Run!”
Tony obeyed.
Thanks to the training before, he ran faster than he did, but it still take a lot of time for him to return to the Avengers.
“What’s happened?”
“A trap. Captain was taken. A bomb. We need to go.”
"But Our captain is still here. We can’t leave him behind. "
"If we don't leave we all will die. He wouldn't want this." He feigned nonchalance.
Jan looked at him sadly. Don Blake wanted to say something, but something on Tony’s face must have moved him. He kept silent.
On their journey back to the base on Mars, no one said anything. Grief and sadness enveloped them. Tony felt empty. He did the right thing, but he wondered whether the price had been worth it. Steve was becoming the most important person to him.Why did he realize it so late?
They landed on Mars and Tony left the ship, feeling empty. They would have to report on the incident, but Tony let others to do the job. He would not want to face the fact yet. Steve was still so alive hours before and in fact who he was seeing now -
"Steve, how come you are alive?" If Tony still had a human heart, it would burst with joy.
“I escaped before it was too late. But we let MURDAG go.” Disappointment was thick in Steve’s voice. Tony rolled his eyes. Did the man know how lucky he was? “We still have a couple of weeks left.” Tony said. He should be surprised how at ease he spoke but he didn’t. Steve was alive. Right now it was the most important thing to him.
The crew was ecstatic to see Steve. Don Blake swapped on Steve ‘s shoulder so hard that Steve visibly winced. There was moisture in Jan ‘s eyes and Hank’s voice sounded suspiciously deep. They all looked at Tony and him knowingly too and Tony wondered what they’d think they know.
At the Conference room, “We needed more intel. We can’t walk into a trap like this again.” Steve said.
“We should be proactive, being ahead of them.” Jan said.
“I will check the infosphere for more information on the feud AIM and Hydra are fighting. It would help.” Don said, before turning to his own work station.
“It should work.” Tony said.
“Do it, then.” Steve said.
Tony left behind and waited for everyone to leave. Then he told Steve. “We need to talk. 1900 hours at my room?”
“OK.” Steve said.
At Tony ‘s room, Tony stared at Steve until he asked, “What’s the matter?”
“I an sorry that we didn’t save you.”
“You made the right decision. I would do the same thing in your position.”
“Steve...” Tony paused. Back on the ship, when we think that you were dead...”
“I’m not.”
“Please don’t do this to us again. ”
“I can’t promise you. It’s a part of our job.”
“Please try.”
They sat awkwardly for a moment, then Steve suggested, “Why not not a game of chess?”
“Good idea.” Tony agreed. He wanted something ordinary right after the day he went through.
“AIM and Hydra were always in an uneasy truce. There were mild conflict but nothing more. What tipped them off?” Jan asked at their next meeting. .
“I discovered why AIM and Hydra are fighting.” Don Blake said “It all started with the Cat’s Eyes.”
“What’s it?”
“I’m not sure, but it is apparently valuable enough that they fight over it. Neither side seemed to get a hold of it. ”
“Then if we leak a meme about the Cat’s Eye ‘s location to AIM, …”
“They will follow it up. Good thinking, Jan. Dismissed.” Steve didn’t even look at Tony.
It’s weird. There was an abrupt change in Steve’s attitude. He cooled off overnight. Tony had invited him over, wanting to talk with him, but he had rejected all. The other officers looked at them worriedly and Even Hank noticed something wrong. Perhaps he didn’t really forgive me, at all. There was also something off with Steve. When Steve bothered to stay in the same room with him, there was something inhuman about them. The gesture, the expression, the way he talked and walked, Did I just suspect him because I was being silly?
But the work still needed to go on. They spread the meme that Cat’s Eye was on Ceres. AIM swallowed the bait immediately and sent people over to there. In fact, the plan seemed too smooth. Tony thought when he landed with Steve at the Ceres space station
When they landed, Tony received a slurred signal from nearby and when he wanted to bring that into attention, robots appeared and arracked them. How can the AIM be so fast, as if they had known our plan? The AIM captured them and brought them to their boss. Tony was surprised to see Ultron there. Is AIM collaborating with Ultron? Tony turned to Steve and saw Steve just standing there. “Steve, what were you doing here?” He pulled at him, but the Steve only smiled, a smile that sent a shiver along Tony’s spine. “You are not Steve.” He finally realized.
“It’s too late you realize this now.” Steve said, just when Ultron said, “Put him into a cell.”
Thrown into a cell by the robot, Tony’s head hit the floor. He shook his head to shrug off the stars, then he saw a figure in the shadow at the corner. Tony looked closer. “Steve?”
The figure raised his head to look at Tony, “Tony?”
Steve didn’t look fine. There were bruises on the places not covered by his clothes, and Tony was sure there were more underneath. . He had stayed in the cell for the whole time, and we didn’t even know. “Steve, are you OK?” Silly question. Of course he was not.
Steve said, “Let’s find a way out of here first. I ‘m working on the security system to no avail. But surely you can do something with it.”
“Let me try.” Tony said. He pulled out an electronic lock-picker from his socks - paranoia had its benefit and attached it to the lock to work out the combination needed. The security system was not supposed to work from inside, but after Tony mentally went over the data in his head., the beeping sound from the locker picked show the all clear. The door was sprung open. Now they only needed to escape.
They ran out of the cell, taking cover in the shadows. At the coming corner stood a prison guard. Steve signalled Tony to take cover, then he pounced on the guard from behind . They struggled for awhile but Steve used his body weight to hold the guard steady. "Tell us the way out."
The guard stuttered, "You.. will... never... escape."
"Don't waste our time." Steve said. Tony bent down to take and hold the guard 's gun to his head. "Talk!"
The guard said, "Turn left, and then go straight to the third corner, turn right..."
Steve knocked the guard unconscious and took away his communicating datapad "Can you contact the Avenger?"
Tony tried to access the information field surrounding the planet with neural implants, but he then said. " It 's blocked. I can get through the fire wall, but it may take more time than we need. "
“We should find a way to get access to the Avengers. They may not know that it is compromised.” Steve said. "But let's get out of here first.
They followed the directions, pass the corridors, knocking out more guards. Tony recalled the design plan of the station and tried to guide them to the back door of the station. On their way they passed through an area of living quarters. When they passed one of the metal doors, MUDOA went out of a living quarter just in front of them. . "Stop, you prisoners!" he shouted.
Steve knocked MUDOA out. Tony aimed the gun at MUDOA 's head and said, " We can use him as a hostage."
"Good idea." Steve took the gun from Tony's hand and held it at MUDOA 's head. He held MUDOA up and they continued the way out.
When they are about to leave the base, Ultron's sound voiced, "Give up now, humans."
"We have your partner." Steve said.
Ultron said, "He was only a pawn to me."
"So you tailored the feud between AIM and Hydra?" Tony asked.
"Getting rid of the rivals will only make Ultron getting stronger"
"When do you start to control MUDOA?"
"From the very beginning."
Did it It mean that Ultron planned his kidnapping too. “Does it mean you have a part in my kidnapping?”
“Your talent will be useful to Ultron. That you escaped is only a glitch.”
Tony saw red. He was about to run to Ultron when Steve pulled him aside. "Don't!"
"The Captain made a good suggestion. Surrender." Ultron said.
Steve said, "Never!" Just then a loud sound was made. The door was broken open. Everyone paused for awhile in shock and a familiar voice said, "Calvary to the rescue!"
"Jan?" Tony asked.
"Attention, we had the base surrounded. The smart choice is to surrender to us, now."
"Ultron never surrenders."
"You have no choice." Tony heard Don Blake’s voice coming out of a giant with a hammer, who appeared with security details behind him.
Ultron would not surrender so easily, so the fight was intensive. The giant rushed to the robots and use his hamer to cash open. their heads. The security details fanned out, took cover and shot the robots. One of them tried to attack Tony but Tony stepped aside, shutting it down with his gun. Guns were shot, people were hurt, and the fight only ended when Steve threw a metal cover at Ultron and incapacitated him.
"Ultron will never be caught!" Ultron laughed, then his body was suddenly still.
"He escaped through the infosphere." Tony said.
Steve said, "We will meet him again. The next time we will be prepared."
They locked MUDOA and the minions into the cells and reported back to the Headquarter. The debriefing at the conference room is awkward. Jan said, "We should have known it was a LMD." just when Hank asked, "What happened just then?"
“How did you know? Ultron's LMD is so sophisticated that I would be deceived too. " Steve said, then he told his story.
After the time that MUDOA captured him, he put Steve into a lab and hooked him to a machine, which connected to a lMD exactly like him. From MURDAG's talk, he knew that it was designed to infiltrate the Avengers' computer system. Then he was thrown into a cell. He tried to escape several times but failed until Tony came.
When Steve finished his story, he asked, "How did you find us?"
"We know there's something wrong when you two hadn't returned." Jan said. Don Blake continued, "We discovered unusual signs in communication and started to suspicious of the LMD. When you two didn't return, we scanned the area and determined that you were ambushed. So we planned a rescue."
"I need to check if the LMD damaged the system." Tony abruptly said.
Steve said, "You haven't been checked up yet."
"You too, Steve. Go to the infirmary, now." Jan said.
"Yes, Madam." Steve replied.
At the infirmary, Tony tolerated the doctors' check up and protested when the doctor ordered him to stay overnight. He argued that he had a job to do but the doctor was insistent. Finally Tony made a bargain with the doctor that he could stay at his room. He returned to his room, took a bath, and then tried to work.
Someone had been so considerate to set up firewalls to avoid him from access to his work, , but Tony hacked into the system and found a back door. He started to work. .
Tony didn't see Steve for three days. There was so many things to check up. He needed to assess the damage the LMD did to the system, the protocol leak and repair the ship. He was not avoiding Steve, and anyway, Steve was avoiding him too. He only interacted with him when he needed, just like when he was a LMD. Maybe we should check over him again. Tony told himself that it didn’t bother him, but he found it increasingly difficult to convince himself. Beside another thing troubled him. Should he continue to stay at the Avengers? He told himself he should because Ultron was still at large, but he wouldn’t deny there was more to that.
This night Tony worked at his office until a sound caught his attention. He looked up and saw the signal from the door. He had a visitor, Steve.Tony debated whether to ignore it, but Steve was being particularly stubborn The door kept buzzing. Tony finally gave in and granted Steve access.
"I know you are not resting." Steve said.
Tony reminded himself that he should not feel as guilty as a child being caught by his mother. "I am, technically."
"Working in your room doesn't count as rest." Steve said.
Tony asked, "Do you just come here to complain about my rest habit?"
"Yes. I mean no. We need to talk." Steve said.
Tony asked, "Why do I start to dread the words?" but he let Steve go on, "Why do you avoid me?"
"I am not. I am just busy. The system..."
"Did I do anything wrong? Did the LMD...?"
"It did nothing to me."
"But you’ve been acting weird ever since. I understand that I may not be the right person you want to talk to, but..."
“Steve, it was you acting weird.”
“But... perhaps we should start from the beginning.”
“So what should we talk about?”
“Tony... Do you still want to stay with us? Considering what you have gone through...”
I love the job here. It is very challenging.” Tony said honestly.
“It was one way to put it.” Steve said, “Tony...”
Tony asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Have a good night. There will be a mission briefing tomorrow.”
Tony was weirdly disappointed. “Good night.”
Next day, Steve delivered the mission briefing at the conference room as usual. “We need to negotiate with the Asgard group a week later. We will act as a mediator.”
Tony asked, “Did it say more?”
“It only said we should use our best judgement.” Steve replied.
Considering the potential pitfalls of a diplomatic mission, the briefing was definitely unhelpful. “I hope we can get more information.”
“It’s our usual complaint.” Jan said, “But Don Blake will be right at home. Maybe you can shed some light then.”
Don Blake said, “I will put an ear to the ground.”
“You are one of the Asgardians?” Tony asked.
Don Blake said, “It’s been months since I last returned and I will catch up with my brethern there.”
Asgard was famous for its core values of war and emotion. Tony felt surprised that Don Blake had this hidden side. “It ‘s great.”
“We can go to Asgard now so we can let Don Blake associate with his family more. “ Steve said,
“But will we be welcome?’
“There is always time for a feast and guest in Asgard!” Don Blake laughed.
They arrived at Asgard in a few days and received grand welcome. They were assigned quarter and a big party was held at a grand hall, just as Don Blake said --- “they didn’t need any reason for a celebration, actually”, Don Blake winked, just before he was pulled aside for a drink. Tony walked among the guests and a big man put a drink right after his nose. “Drink, my friend!” Tony sipped from the glass and found it really strong. “Thanks.” he coughed. The the man moved on to another target.
Near the end of the party, Jan came to Tony and said, “Sorry, but can you bring Steve back to a room?
“He seems to be drunk. I think the liquor is too strong, even for him.” He pointed to a corner where Steve slumped.
“OK, I will help.” Tony walked to Steve and tried to raise Steve, “Steve, time to go now.”
“But the party wasn’t over!” Steve slurred.
“”It is for you. Go now.” Tony helped Steve up and let Steve leaned on him. They stumbled back to Steve’s room.
Tony led Steve to the bed and said, “Bed now.” When he was about to leave, Steve clung to his arm.
“What’s the matter?”
“I had something to tell you...”
Tony can’t help but fascinated. “What do you want to say?”
“I really... really like you, like a lot.”Steve said.
Tony’s heart beat faster. He wanted to ask further, but Steve had fallen into sleep already.
The next morning at the breakfast, Steve seemed embarrassed. After then he pulled him aside to a corner of the corridor, “I must have caused trouble to you last night.”
Tony felt disappointed. It was drunk talk, apparently. “Well, it’s nothing big, until you count the part you did a strip-tease in the middle of the hall ..”
Seeing Steve’s horrified expression, Tony smiled, “It’s a joke. You behaved well.”
“You really scared me there.” Steve looked relieved. “by the way...”
“What?”
“I recalled telling you I like you....”
“It doesn’t matter...”
“It’s true. I still feel so.”
“Really?”
“Well, I can understand if you don't feel like this, and I hope it doesn't affect our working relationship." Steve's shoulders slumped, turned and was about to leave.
"Stop!" Tony shouted. Steve turned back to him, looking hopeful and confused. "I... I like you too. But why? Why me?"
"You are a good guy, smart, and attractive. Why wouldn't I want to date you?"
"But you don't know much about me and I can't..."
"Tony, I asked for a date, not a disclosure. " Steve said, "You have your secrets. Maybe one day you'll share. Maybe not. But I respect it."
Tony hesitated. Should he go for it? He was naive enough to think love could solve everything, especially when Ultron was still at large and there were still obstacles before them but Steve looked so hopeful here. Perhaps he should take a chance.
“OK. I agree to a date.” Tony said, “only for a test rum.”
“It's enough for me now.” Steve said.
They smiled at each other."
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