In which one would think that it's Pepper who is going to save Tony, but it's not
Pepper called her suit Rescue for a reason. That reason was her husband. It seemed like she was always jumping in to save him. Now that was not to say that he couldn’t protect himself. He had saved her almost as many times as she had saved him. Usually things panned out so neither of them really needed rescuing. Usually they worked together. Usually Tony didn’t go on crazy missions without telling her.
“You better have a damn good reason for my husband is buried under that building,” Pepper snarled angrily as she landed in front of the SHIELD director.
“Ask Rogers, we just got here,” Fury replied. He was the only person in history that Pepper couldn’t melt with her glare. Pepper turned her sweltering glare to the super soldier standing a few feet away talking to some agents. He ducked his head a little as he caught her look. He dismissed himself from the conversation and walked over to Pepper.
“Before you start verbally assaulting me, we think he is alive,” Steve blurted.
“He damn well better be. What happened?” Pepper threw hands in a vague gesture to all of the ambulances and police cars mixed in with the black Suburbans.
“We got intel about a group of mercenaries that were doing illegal human experiments, along with human trafficking. Normally that is a police thing, but the people had advanced tech so we took it. Our goal was to neutralize the mercenaries and extract the civilians that were being held captive. We got here to find the mercenaries were gone. We started getting the victims out. We thought we got everyone, but Tony went back in to do one last sweep. Then a bunch of explosions went off and the whole building came down,” Steve gave the whole report with distressed resolve.
“So why are we not moving the rubble to get him out?” Pepper demanded.
“We don’t have a location on him, and if we move something wrong it could cause the whole structure to shift, and collapse and quite possibly crush him. Clint and Natasha have a 3D render going and they are running simulations on what can be moved.”
Pepper frowned and turned her gaze to the massive pile of rubble. Tony was under there somewhere.
A small rough tongue lapped Tony’s cheek and woke him up. Why was his helmet gone?
The light from Tony’s chest ark allowed for a small amount of visibility.
“Meow!” The kitten pawed his face.
“It’s alright little guy,” Tony scratched its chin gently with his armored finger, “Look. We are both still alive.”
Tony was so grateful that that the kitten had survived. He had been alerted of a life signature and gone to check it out. He had discovered the tiny black kitten hiding in the corner. He had just picked it up when the whole building had come down on top of them.
“Mew!” The cat meowed quietly and rubbed its cheek on his finger.
“I’m telling you little guy we’re fine,” Tony assured the cat. He wasn’t exactly sure why he was lying to it. It couldn’t understand him. The truth of the matter was Tony was pretty sure he wasn’t fine. The kitten mewed again, and rubbed on his face.
“We’ll be fine,” Tony whispered, more talking to himself than the cat, “We will be perfectly fine.”
“Mrow,” The kitten head bonked him.
“Suppose I can’t just be calling you cat,” Tony muttered, “I’ll call you Midget.”
The kitten mewed its approval.
Tony flopped his head back, and closed his eyes. Pain was starting to become more and more apparent, and it was to dark for him to try to figure out what was wrong.
Midget nudged the large metal man with his nose. He didn’t respond. Midget pawed his forehead. Still nothing. Midget liked him. He smelled nice… or he had smelled nice before the sky had fallen. He had been the first person to come neer Midget that didn’t reek of death. Now though? Now he smelled of blood, and sweat, and fear. Midget mewed loudly. He wanted the man to wake up, and talk to him. Midget sniffed him. He was still alive, so why was he so quiet? The cat sniffed the fresh blood running down the man’s face. Midget decided this man needed to be cleaned up. He lapped his tongue against the man’s face. The acid taste of blood forced him to stop. Human blood was nasty. Midget was getting nervous. He was lonely. He nipped the man’s cheek.
“Mmmh,” the man moaned.
Midget mewed happily.
“I’mawake…” The man slurred.
Midget mewed again.
The man lifted his heavy metal gloved hand and stoked Midget’s back.
He purred.
Tony smiled weakly at the sound of the tiny kitten’s purring.
“See, it’s okay to be happy,” Tony mumbled to the cat. The kitten nudged him. Tony finally made an effort to move. Laying around wasn’t going to help him or the cat. The kitten mewed loudly and batted his cheek.
“Alright buddy, I’m getting up,” Tony started to sit up, but fell back with a gasp of pain about halfway up, “Ah-ha… Sorry Midge I don’t think this is going to work…”
The cat sat back on its haunches and gave him a look of what could only be described as one of concern, and displeasure.
“Sorry pal,” Tony gave the cat a pat. “You might have to get out of here on your own.”
Tony could have sworn he heard it make a frustrated huffing sound.
"I know buddy..." Tony felt like he was going to pass out again due to the new wave of pain. He needed his helmet. He needed to figure out what exactly was hurt, and at least attempt to reach the people above them on the surface.
The kitten leapt up onto his chest, and licked his chin a few times.
"I don't think I am going to be able to get up," Tony threw his arms in a haphazard vague motion.
The kitten glared.
Tony rested his head back, and tried to ignore the throbbing pain working its way into his head. The kitten let out an indignant mew, and placed its paws on his chin. Midget began needing his paws on Tony's chin.
"Aw, come on buddy!" Tony protested weakly. The cat didn't let up, "Fine!"
Tony scooped the cat up and forced himself to sit up. Pain exploded through his abdomen; he grimaced, but stayed sitting up.
The cat wiggled out of his hand, and leapt onto his shoulder. It gave him a reassuring lick on the cheek.
"Yeah? Did that make you happy?" Tony laughed weakly. Midget purred, "Alright genius cat, now what?"
The kitten mewed and hopped off his shoulder. It walked a few feet and sat down, and looked back at him expectantly. Tony squinted into the darkness. There were huge chunks of cement toppled on top of each other. It would be hard to crawl out, especially in the suit. The kitten mewed impatentaly. It was obvious Midget wanted Tony to follow him. Tony sighed and pushed the emergency release on the suit, and it folded off of him. Tony blanched and flopped back onto his back in pain, as the suit peeled away. His eyes went blurry as he lay on his back gasping. The suit had messed something up on its way off. Something warm and soft rubbed against his cheek, and snapped him out of his temporary shock. A small warm tongue scraped across the side of his face. He let a smile slip across his lips. He was glad not be alone.
Pepper hovered over Clint and Natasha's shoulders.
"We got movement on the north side of the collapse," A voice spoke over the coms. Pepper was in her suit and and flying to where the call had come from in the blink of an eye.
"Is it him?" Pepper asked as soon as she landed.
"No, it was just that dumb black stay kitten," One of the search and rescue people pointed at a tiny kitten perched a few feet away. Pepper scowled. Stupid cat.
It mewed and rose to its feet.
The lady in the metal suit smelled like Midget's new person. She must be close to him. He had to get her to help his person. Midget's human had passed out not far from the surface of the rubble pile. Midget had tried desperately to wake him up, but had been unsuccessful.
"Stupid cat," The lady grumbled.
Midget was offended. He was the one trying to save the person trapped beneath the rubble. Midget let out an indigent mew. How could these daft fools not smell all the blood just a few feet beneath them?
"Get lost cat!" One of the idiot humans shooed him. Midget hissed, and swatted at their hand.
"Wait a second," The woman spoke up. She stepped quickly forward and grabbed Midget before he had the chance to escape. He let out a small hiss as she examined him, "Guys this little guy has blood on his paws."
The other people gathered around and peered at him.
He needed to get out of this person's hands and back down on the ground. He needed to show these people where his human was.
The woman set him down. Midget ran back down through the gap in the rubble. He needed to check on his person. If he was lucky the dummies figured out what he wanted.
Midget sniffed his passed out person. The man smelled weak and fragile. Midget gave his chin a lick, and curled up on his chest. The man shifted a little and rested his hand on Midget. Midget purred. The rubbled above shifted. Midget just nestled deeper under the man's hand. He could hear his slow labored heartbeat. There was a loud rumbling scraping sound, and the massive slab of concrete that had been above them was lifted away. Light filled the air. It didn't take long for a few people to make their way to Midget and his human. They ignored Midget and went straight to slowly and carefully lifting his unconscious human onto a stretcher.
Pepper was out of her suit as soon as the EMTs had Tony on the stretcher. She climbed into the ambulance with them and clutched one of Tony's hands in hers.
"Hang in there honey," Pepper whispered.
"Rrrow," Pepper jumped. The tiny black kitten emerged out from under Tony's hand that was draped over his chest. She smiled and scratched under its chin. It was the reason they had found Tony so soon. She owed this tiny kitten her husband's life.
Tony woke to find a small rumbling ball of black fluff curled on his chest. Pepper was in a chair next to him.
"Welcome back," She smiled.
"Thanks for finding me," Tony mumbled. He had followed Midget through the rubble as far as humanly possible before finally passing out.
"Don't thank me," Pepper laughed, "You have our new cat to thank."
"I can keep him?" Tony smiled hopefully.
"Of course we can keep him! He saved you," Pepper laughed.
Tony smiled happily, and stroked the kitten's soft fur. He let out a happy purr.