Pawprints

Steve and Bruce stared at each other incredulously for a minute before Bruce broke the silence yet again, saying in a panicked voice, "What are we going to do?"

Quickly, Steve jolted out of his reverie and started formulating a plan in his head. "Okay, So..."

Five minutes later, Bruce hurried out of the building. "Doctor Banner, where's Mr Stark?" A confused medic asked politely. Bruce simply dismissed him with a wave of his hand, explaining shortly, "Mr Stark is fine, he's flying out now." As if on cue, a red and gold blur flew out of the building and headed for the compound. Jogging to the rest of the team, Bruce forced a smile. The ever-observant Natasha noticed, and asked, "Where's steve? What's up?"

Bruce lowered his voice and hissed, "You'll find out soon enough, Steve's right behind me. He should be coming out soon." Natasha glanced at Clint, and he shrugged, as if conveying the message 'Let's wait and see'.

True to his word, Steve came running out soon after, donning an old jacket. Reaching his team, he too forced a smile, though it was worse than Bruce's- It looked more like a pained grimace. "Good work, team! Let's head back!" Luckily, Natasha decided not to say a word of his strange behaviour, as they trooped into the QuinJet, deflecting medics and civilians alike.

As soon as Clint got the QuinJet into the air and headed to the Compound, Natasha cornered Steve, "What's going on? You and Banner are acting strangely. Is this about Stark?" Steve sighed- he'd been hoping the explanation could wait until they landed, but Natasha was on a mission for intel. Gesturing to Bruce, he said, "Doctor Banner, it's time to explain what happened."

Rubbing his temples, Bruce shuffled nervously over. "Well, we found Tony in his suit, and...he was...he turned into...the gun made...Just show them." Bruce groaned, giving up on explaining. Steve slowly took off the old jacket, and hidden within the folds was a sleeping puppy.

Looking at the puppy, who was snuffling in its sleep, Natasha slowly made eye contact with Steve, as if to confirm her theory. "Stark...turned into a dog."

As soon as she said that, the plane listed severely sideways. Bruce stumbled, Steve grabbed onto a pole, and Natasha remained as unflappable as ever. "Don't be such a drama queen, Clint." Natasha rolled her eyes condescendingly. "Stark turned into a what?" Clint shrieked.

Rolling her eyes again and ignoring Clint's yells, she turned to Steve. "So, what's the plan? Do we tell Fury? Are we the ones who will take care of him? Can we change him back?"

"Well...I didn't really think that far." Steve confessed guiltily. "But I'm sure we should tell Fury. He and Stark's PR team can deal with the public about the disappearance of Iron Man." Bruce, who had been shyly listening in on the conversation, raised his hand tentatively, "I can run a check on Tony in my lab." Steve nodded his approval, and the QuinJet lapsed into thoughtful silence.

As soon as they landed, Bruce whirled into action. He grabbed Stark, who was thankfully still asleep, and rushed to the lab to do a medical check-up. The rest of the Avengers, Steve, Clint and Natasha, went into a meeting room to discuss what to do.

"We should take care of Doggy Stark! I've always wanted a puppy!" Clint squealed as soon as they entered the room.

"Do you really think we are equipped with the time and energy to take care of a dog, let alone Stark turned into a dog?" Natasha fired back. "With Thor off-world, and no one knows when he's going to come back, who knows when Stark's going to turn back?"

Steve held up a a hand for silence, and pointed out, "I'm going to call Fury first. Let's take things one step at a time.

Standing up and walking to another part of the room, Steve took out his StarkPhone ("Better than any other brand in the world", Stark had said proudly. At that time, Steve had been reluctant to take it, not liking to accept others' generosity, even Stark. But he soon found out that the phone had a lot of amazing functions.) and dialled Fury's number. It had been given to him when he formally became an Avenger.

"Fury speaking," Fury's gruff voice rang from the speaker.

Steve quickly explained the situation to him with military precision.

"Wait, so Stark is a dog now?"

Steve winced at Fury's blunt words. "Yes, he is. And it'll be two months before Thor comes back to help us figure this out."

"Well that's your problem, Captain. Now get your team down to debriefing while Dr. Banner checks on Stark."

"Wait, Fury-" The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D had already hung up.

Groaning softly, Steve rubbed his temples as he turned back to face his team. "Who's ready to babysit Stark?"

Before anyone could answer, Bruce burst into the room, saying breathlessly. "Tony's waking up!"