The Arc Reactor
Clint kept his eyes on Tony. He was quickly trying to figure out a way to get out of there without scaring Tony when they suddenly heard a whirring sound and Dummy wheeled past Tony and Bucky and doused Clint and Sam with the extinguisher. Sam had managed to put his wings up and shield his face but Clint was less lucky. It took only a few seconds for him to be soaked through. He smiled a bit and said calmly:
“Yeah, it’s nice to see you too Dummy.”
And finally did Tony relax. He smirked towards Clint and whispered while leaning a bit towards Bucky:
“And here we have two wet birds.”
Clint stuck his tongue out and, feeling that the tension had left, joked back.
“Well, at least it’s not green jelly.”
Tony winced.
“Don’t even remind me.”
Sam slowly put his wings down looking around to see if the threat was gone. Just as he thought it was fine, Dummy quickly raised the extinguisher and shot it right at Sam’s face. He spit the foam out and turned to Tony.
“I hope this shit is not poisonous.”
Tony shook his head.
“Calm down. If it was I would have been dead long ago with the amount of times he had tried to put out some invisible fire on me. You won’t die Feathers.”
Clint faked a hurt expression.
“Wasn’t that my nickname?”
Tony was looking smug when he answered:
“Nah. I think Birdbrain is more correct.”
Clint swatted at Tony’s head but the man ducked with more agility than anyone would have expected. Bucky smiled and relaxed. The worst was over. Clint and Sam were clean. It was odd since Sam had been so close to Steve. But Bucky wasn’t going to question that. If Tony felt safe then it was fine.
“Wait. Why aren’t you in bed Tony?”
Tony rolled his eyes.
“I’m fine. Not dying. Could kick your ass any day.”
That made Clint become serious.
“If you pull a stunt like that again I’ll steal all your tools and hide them somewhere. And I’m sure Friday will help me.”
Tony’s head shot up towards one of the cameras. Friday’s voice came out of the speakers.
“Sorry boss but I will help Clint if you try to do it again.”
Tony sighed and Sam felt the need to lighten the mood again.
“Hey Tony. We watched a clip where you talked to Pepper and she said something about you falling asleep naked in the White House. What was that about?”
Bucky shot a thankful smile to Sam when Tony burst out laughing. He swayed and Clint reached out to steady him.
“I… Oh my… She really… Told you. Hahahaha. That was SPECTACULAR!”
Sam smiled.
“How did you manage to do that? I mean, how did you get in there? And, probably more importantly, how did you end up naked?”
Tony laughed even more. He leaned heavily on Clint who was trying to keep a straight face. After a few more seconds of laughing he suddenly gasped and put a hand to his reactor. Clint became immediately serious.
“Tony? You wanna sit down?”
Tony leaned forward a bit and Clint held his waist in a firm grip. Then Tony nodded and the archer helped him to sit down against the wall. Bucky and Sam stood still, not understanding really what was happening. Meanwhile Clint kept his sharp eyes trained on Tony’s face. After a few minutes he seemed to have calmed his breathing. Clint breathed out a sigh of relief. He had never been forced to deal with Tony’s arc reactor problems. Usually either Bruce, Natasha or Pepper had been close by and could deal with it.
“You fine?”
Tony nodded slowly.
“Haven’t laughed like this in a while. Haven’t really had the opportunity lately.”
“How much on a scale of 1 to 10 does it hurt?”
Tony looked up at him.
“Which way?”
“10 is worst.”
Tony closed his eyes for a few seconds and massaged the skin around the reactor. Then he looked back to Clint and answered:
“Around 8.”
Clint paled.
“8?! You were always around 5 or 6 before!”
Tony glared at him.
“Yeah, but before I didn’t have anyone smashing a vibranium shield into the reactor. The socket seems to be fine but I had to change it to an older model for some time before I had the new one ready. I guess I’m just badly bruised up around it. The socket is pushing against the bruises and makes it worse. But it’s getting better now. I just hope I don’t catch a cold before I heal completely. The coughing would make it worse.”
Clint gently squeezed Tony’s shoulder.
“We’ll take care of you. But you should go and shower now. You stink.”
Tony smiled.
“Yeah. We were on our way up to my floor. I need a shower and new clothes. Where were you going?”
Clint glanced up at Sam. But Sam’s face was blank. Tony sensed that something was wrong and looked over to Sam he too. Clint sighed.
“Look Tony. We’ll tell you later. Pepper and Bruce will fix some food so why don’t you go and shower and change your clothes and then me, Sam, Viz, Wanda, Nat and Bruce will come up and eat with you there. And we’ll explain everything then.”
Tony had a confused face expression.
“What about the others?”
Once again Clint looked to the others for help and Bucky took mercy on him. He kneeled in front of Tony and said:
“We won’t force you to be around people you don’t want to be close to Jamie. I told you before. No more.”
For a second Tony looked almost like he didn’t understand but then he closed his eyes and leaned his head on the wall. His voice was soft when he said:
“I doubt Steve will try to kill me now. I just had a flashback. It happens. But I won’t freak out if I am in the same room as he. So you can bring everyone up there.”
Suddenly Sam smirked.
“Yeah. And if Steve tries anything Bucky can just punch him again.”
Tony’s eyes widened as he looked over to Bucky.
“You punched Steve?”
Bucky looked kinda proud of himself when he nodded.
“He was talking shit about you. I shut him up.”
Tony looked at him in wonder. Then he nodded and got up with Bucky’s and Clint’s help. They all got into the elevator together with Dummy. On Tony’s floor Friday stopped the elevator and opened the door. Tony, Bucky and Dummy went out and the door closed again. Sam sighed and turned to Clint.
“Smashing a vibranium shield into his reactor?”
Clint shook his head.
“Damn Steve. We need to get him to tell us what happened in Siberia. Bucky blacked out at one point and when he woke up Tony was on the ground and Steve was helping Bucky get up. Something must’ve happened then.”
They were then quiet all the way up to the roof. When they stepped out they went straight to the jet. Both drew guns as they slowly made their way into the plane. The jet seemed clean but then Clint suddenly made a triumphant sound.
“There is an opening here.”
He had moved some of the boxes in one corner and was kneeling over a closed door in the floor. Sam went over and opened it while Clint kept his gun pointed at it. But it was empty. Clint lowered his gun.
“Damn!”
But Sam leaned down and put his hand into the opening. He smiled and pulled his hand out again holding a black fabric. Under it were Hydra uniforms and guns as well as some other uniforms. On a tag on one of the uniforms they saw one word. Ross.
“I think we have our answer to the question about what happened with T’Challa.”
Clint groaned.
“Ross works with Hydra.”
Sam nodded. There was one question that was bothering him.
“You think T’Challa is held in the Raft? Or some Hydra base?”
Clint scratched his head. He was doing his best to use the logical part of his brain. In the end he answered slowly:
“I would say Hydra base. Ross knows that we are at the Tower if he sent the men here. And he knows that if we are here then Tony will be able to break into Raft without any problems. They are keeping him somewhere where no one will find him.”
But Sam smiled.
“Yeah, maybe. But Tony is not a no one. He will find T’Challa. He is most probably the only one that can.”
When they returned to the elevator Friday suddenly played three screens on one of the walls. On one were Steve and Vision. The second showed Pepper and Rhodey in a kitchen. The last one held Wanda, Natasha and Bruce. Steve spoke up first.
“We have information. Ross is working with Hydra.”
Clint snorted.
“No shit Sherlock. We know that already. Clean up if you are dirty and get to Tony’s floor. We talked with him and he wants us to eat there.”
Pepper smiled.
“We are already on Tony’s floor Clint. We bought some broth for him. He should be able to eat it. We got you McDonald’s. It was next to the store.”
Steve looked down and asked:
“Should I stay downstairs?”
Clint felt glad that Steve had thought of that. Sam looked to the screen where Steve and Vision were and answered:
“You don’t have to. Just don’t go near Tony. Bucky has already warned that he will punch you if you try something. And we will talk about something that Tony told us later.”
That got everyone’s attention. Wanda went closer to the screen.
“About what?”
Sam let irritation seep into his voice when he said:
“About someone SMASHING A VIBRANIUM SHIELD INTO HIS REACTOR.”
Steve visibly paled. Wanda’s eyes flashed red.
“You did WHAT?!”
Everyone jumped at that voice. The camera showing Natasha, Wanda and Bruce moved to the door and there stood a very furious…
“Director Fury!”
Fury marched into the room and glared at something that the others guessed was the screen with Steve on.
“You did WHAT Rogers?!”
Clint turned to Sam and whispered:
“Fury has always had a soft spot for Tony. Steve is in so much trouble now.”