A Matter of Pride - Chapter 1

More wonderful Steve and Tony bromance and another excuse for me to kick Steve's butt. I had to take a break from the fluff and feel-good stories in Avengers Sitcom and 5 Avengers and a Baby. I love those stories and I love writing for them, but it's time for a change in pace with a little angst and action!

Steve flinches and holds his breath as he tries to stifle a groan when he attempts to get his arm into his button-down shirt.

"Back from your mission, Spangles?" Tony asks when he saunters into Steve's room and immediately walks over to the coffee pot in the kitchenette to pour himself a cup.

"You know, normal people knock," Steve frowns. He's tired and sore from being thrown through a couple concrete walls and he simply doesn't have the patience or the energy to deal with Tony right now.

"Since when am I considered normal people?" Tony waves his hand up an down himself. "I am considered quite extraordinary, you know."

"What are you doing here, Tony?" Steve turns his back to the man when he winces as he forces his sore arm back to get his other sleeve of his shirt on.

"I just finished up with another boring news conference with Pepper and I stopped by because Fury required my genus to examine a new AIM weapon an undercover agent was able to smuggle out of some super secret base," Tony answers with a scrutinizing eye from behind his coffee cup. "What's that?" Tony points to Steve's shoulder when he catches a glimpse of a dark, purple bruise.

"Nothing," Steve quickly walks over to the closet to retrieve his leather jacket.

"Steve…" Tony frowns and walks after Steve, serious for the first time since he walked into the room.

"It's just a bruise, Tony. Nothing I can't handle," Steve assures and grabs his jacket out of the closet and Tony shoots him a look.

"Fine," Tony crosses his arms, keeping an eye on Steve. Steve is suspicious to say the least. It's never that easy to get Tony off a subject that he wants answers to. "Put your jacket on and we can go."

"I have to grab my gear from the back room. I'll meet you back at the Tower," Steve starts back to the back bedroom.

"I can wait," Tony shrugs and paces through the small SHIELD quarters. "I want to hear about your mission. I can give you a ride back home too. I drove the Ferrari in today. Way smoother of a ride than that two-wheeled antique you rode in this morning."

"You're being ridiculous," Steve shouts as he walks down the hall. "I don't need any help, Tony. I can drive myself home."

"What are you talking about?" Tony calls back.

"I know what you're trying to do and I'm fine, Tony," Steve walks back into the main living area with his jacket on and his backpack in his hand.

"Hm, very sneaky," Tony huffs and waves his finger at Steve. "Leaving the room to put on your jacket."

"Tony," Steve sighs an exasperated sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose. "You're being paranoid. Thank you for worrying about me, but please, go home. I will see you later."

"Fair enough, Spangles. I'll see you back at the Tower," Tony nods and pats Steve on the shoulder and Steve immediately pulls away, inhaling sharply in pain.

"Busted," Tony glares and points at Steve.

"That was just mean," Steve doubles over, holding his sore shoulder.

"Take your jacket off," Tony orders.

"What? No," Steve frowns and straightens up his posture.

"Stop being a stubborn, old man and take off your jacket. Here, I'll help you," Tony starts to help pull Steve's jacket off.

"Tony, I told you, I'm alright. I don't need your help," Steve shrugs away, but Tony manages to pull the jacket away.

"You can keep saying you're fine, but it's not going to change that fact that your not, Steve," Tony glares at the man. "Shirt off next."

"Do you know how crazy you sound right now?"

"Do you know how frustrating your bullheadedness is right now?" Tony shoots back.

"My bullheadedness?" Steve raises a brow at the equally stubborn Billionaire.

"Yes. Yours. Now take off your shirt!"

"No!"

"Take it off, Steve!"

"Am I interrupting something?" Bruce smirks with his arms crossed, leaning against the frame of the entrance to Steve's room.

"Steve's hurt and being a stubborn jackass and not letting me help," Tony tattles and Steve frowns at him. "What? I'm not above tattling to 'mom'."

"I'm fine and I don't need any help," Steve grabs his jacket back from Tony.

"Steve," Bruce frowns at him, not moving from the door frame and blocking him in and Steve finally surrenders when he knows he's not going to be allowed to leave until he lets Bruce look at him.

"Shirt," Tony points at him and makes him sit backwards on a chair. Steve gingerly slips off the sleeve on his injured shoulder to reveal an angry looking purple and red bruise covering his whole shoulder and part of his arm.

"What the hell hit you?" Bruce winces and runs his hand down the bruise to palpate for any broken bones.

"A wall or two," Steve grips the back of the chair and holds his breath as his muscles spasm against Bruce's touch.

"Sorry," Bruce frowns. "I think you fractured your shoulder blade."

"That's not fine, Steve," Tony scolds.

"It'll be healed by tomorrow," Steve groans as he shrugs on his shirt again.

"Yeah, and we'll leave you alone tomorrow, but for now you're not riding your motorcycle home," Tony insists.

"I'm not leaving my Harley here," Steve works on getting his jacket on and walks out the door. "I'm perfectly fine to drive."

"God he's frustrating," Tony runs his hands down his face.

"Well, you two have more in common than you realize," Bruce smirks.

"He needs to learn how to accept help," Tony crosses his arms defensively.

"He does," Bruce agrees. "And you need to remember that Steve's a big boy and can make decisions on his own."

"You know how much I hate when you try to be logical when I just want to be annoyed?"

"Steve grew up in another era, Tony," Bruce shakes his head at Tony. "Men took care of themselves. They didn't complain. They didn't show weakness. They didn't ask for help. It was a matter of pride."

"Well, he needs to get over it," Tony huffs and walks out of the room.

"I don't see that happening," Bruce shrugs and calls after Tony as he walks down the hall. "I'm flying out in about an hour on a Doctors without Boarders trip. I'll be back in a week. Try not to kill each other until then, will you?"

"No promises," Tony waves his hand as he continues to walk.

Tony makes it back to the Tower and immediately changes out of the stuffy suit and into a more comfortable pair of jeans and his favorite Metallica shirt. He wanders into the kitchen and orders in some Chinese on his phone when Steve walks in.

"Made it back in one piece," Steve grins cheekily. "Told you I was fine."

"Hm, took you twice as long to get back," Tony checks his watch.

"I took the scenic route back," Steve grunts as he pulls off his jacket and Tony steps forward to help him, but Steve shoots him a look.

"Why do you not want me to help you?" Tony throws his hands up. "I'm a very helpful person, Steve.

Steve is about to answer when JARVIS' voice announces over the Tower's communications. "Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Director Fury is calling in."

"Tell him he's going to have to hold, JARVIS," Tony stares Steve down.

"Delay that, JARVIS," Steve shoots him a look back. "Send him through. It could be an emergency, Tony."

"Fine, but don't think you're getting out of this conversation."

"Stark," Fury's face appears on a screen on the wall.

"Do you miss me already, Nick?" Tony asks with his usual lack of formality with the Director of SHIELD. "I've only been gone for about an hour."

"Stow it, Stark," Fury snips and gets straight to business. "That weapon we had you come in to do a consult on - our agent reported back just a moment ago that they have more than he previously reported. A lot more. We need to nip this in the ass now before these things hit the street. Widow and Hawkeye are out on another mission, but I want you to Assemble the rest of your team and take care of this, Stark."

"You're looking at the team right now, Fury," Tony points between himself and Steve. "Thor is off world and Bruce flew out on a humanitarian mission this morning."

"We'll work on gathering everyone, but in the mean time, you two are going to have to take care of this on your own. I trust that won't be a problem, gentlemen."

"No sir," Steve shakes his head. "No problem at all." Tony eyes Steve with a disapproving frown when he doesn't tell Fury he's injured.

"Good. Now once you infiltrate the base, our inside source says that there will be a control panel in the weapons warehouse that can trigger a system overload, causing the facility to blow. That's our plan to take this base down, Avengers. GPS coordinates are being uploaded to the Quinjet, You move out immediately," Fury's transmission ends.

"Suit up," Steve nods to Tony and, before the man can say anything, Steve rushes out to grab his uniform.

"So what's the rundown on the weapons you analyzed for Fury?" Steve asks when he boards the Quinjet.

"Hold on," Tony points at Steve as he starts up the Quinjet. "I told you that you weren't getting out of our conversation from earlier. Now what is your deal Mr. I-don't-need-any-help-from-anyone? And why didn't you tell Fury you weren't fit for duty?"

"I am fit for duty," Steve insists, but Tony doesn't believe him for a second. "Look, we're going into a dangerous AIM base where they are manufacturing large shipments of a new and very dangerous weapon. Can we focus on the mission and deal with this later?"

"Fine, but don't think that I will forget or that this is just going to go away. I have the memory of an elephant, Steve. This right here," Tony raises a brow and points to the side of his head. "Steel trap."

"Just give me the intel on the weapons, Tony," Steve rolls his eyes and straps in.

"The weapons are impressive - and that's saying a lot coming from me. In a nutshell, the weapons compress matter, destroying and crushing whatever it hits by creating a mini-black hole. The black hole eventually becomes unstable and on top of crushing whatever it hits, the black hole collapses in on itself creating a devastating wave of concussive energy."

"That. Sounds. Horrible," Steve deadpans.

"But it's seriously cool," Tony grins, obviously fascinated by the new technology and the science behind the concept. "I nicknamed it the 'B.B. Gun."

"B.B. Gun? Seems a little puny for a weapon of mass destruction."

"B.B. is short for Big Boom," Tony smirks, proud of his clever name.

"How does the shooter not take themselves out with the aftermath of the blast?" Steve ignores the joke while he tries to wrap his mind around the horrific nature of this weapon and the potential devastation it could cause.

"That's where the downfall of the weapon lies. The operator has to fire the weapon from a minimum distance and for a certain amount of time. The energy only compresses solid matter so the operator has to make sure that the target is at least 30 yards away for a rapid trigger pull in order for them to not to be caught in the after blast. The longer the trigger is held down, the more matter is compressed and the larger the black hole will be, which creates a larger blast radius. I calculated it out to be about 30 yards per second the trigger is held."

So, basically, don't let them fire the weapons," Steve shrugs.

"That would be a good plan."

"Alright," Tony focuses on the target coordinates on his navigation system. "We're coming up on our AIM base."

"We're still over the ocean," Steve frowns and stares out the window of the Quinjet.

"No sign of an island or anything?"

"Nope. Just blue ocean everywhere."

"Sensors are picking up something down there," Tony studies the readings coming up on the ship's sensors.

"Those coordinates are in the middle of the ocean," Steve glances at the longitude and latitude on the screen. "The base is under water?"

"Crap," Tony grumbles. "Converting to aquatic mode," he sighs and skillfully pilots the ship into the ocean as the aerodynamic jet slices through the water. The once horizontal engine turbines hum as they rotate vertically to propel the ship through the water.

"Looks like we found it," Steve studies the huge, under-water facility in front of them. "Now lets find a way into this beast."

"Right there," Steve points to a grate that caps off a tube leading into the facility.

"That's our in," Tony nods in agreement. "We're going to have to get a little wet. Your shoulder up for a swim?"

"Ready," Steve nods and throws his shield on his back as he punches the button on the Quinjet to open the aqua port.

"It's a long swim," Tony slides down his faceplate.

"I got it," Steve replies, stone faced. "Just get yourself to the grate and get us through. I'll watch your back."

"It's going to take me a minute to cut through the grate. You going to be able to hold your breath that long?"

Steve ignores the man's question and dives through the aqua port and into the icy ocean water.

"Blah, blah, blah, I'm Steve. I don't need anyone's help - especially you Iron Man. I can hold my breath for thirty minutes because I'm Captain America and I just did a 10 point perfect dive into the aqua port. Blah, blah, blah." Tony mocks to himself in a whiney voice as he follows Steve into the water.

Tony quickly propels himself through the water and catches up to Steve who has already made it to the grate. Steve pulls his shield off his back and keeps an eye open for any sign of patrols or enemy ships while Tony works to cut through the grating. Tony is about halfway around the grate when he hears the familiar ringing of Steve's shield. He turns to see Steve fighting off two AIM agents in scuba gear.

"Crap. Steve!" Tony turns to help his friend, but Steve shakes his head and points back to the grate as he hits one of the men with his shield. "God, Steve," Tony huffs and goes back to cutting the grate with a renewed sense of urgency.

The clanging of the shield continues when Tony suddenly feels the water shift from an explosion. He turns to see Steve hold up his shield and tuck himself behind it to block the blast as he's pushed through the water and hits the side of the underwater building next to where Tony has finally cut through the grate. Steve flinches after his shoulder hits the solid wall, but quickly recovers and swims over to the opening with his injured shoulder and arm held close to his chest. Tony grabs him and pushes him through the tube. The two men swim through the narrow tunnel, fighting against the strong current of outflowing water, until they finally reach the surface. Iron Man rockets out of the water and is soon followed by Steve breaking through the surface with a desperate gasp for air.

They've made their way into a turbine room. Water is flowing across the pool they just surfaced from, pushing a pair of large turbines attached to an energy generator. Steve is struggling to swim to the edge of the pool where a concrete wall rises up out of the water and leads to a walk way.

"Steve!" Tony shouts when he spots Steve clinging to the ladder on the side of the concrete wall as he fights the tide of water. He lands on the top of the wall and reaches a hand down to Steve and Steve is forced to grab it with his injured arm as he hangs onto the ladder with his good arm. Tony quickly pulls him up out of the water and Steve cries out as his injured shoulder is wrenched.

"You good?" Steve coughs as he rolls onto his back after Tony pulls him over the edge of the wall.

"Better than you are," Tony huffs and sits next to Steve. "What the hell was that explosion all about?"

"Idiots tried to attach a small, magnetic explosive to my shield, but it's not magnetic," Steve pants and taps his shield. "I hit it back toward them and it grabbed onto one of their oxygen tanks before it blew."

"That worked out well….kind of," Tony lifts up his faceplate. "You good to keep going?"

"Never better," Steve gives a half-hearted thumbs up, but doesn't move from his spot on the floor.

"Do you want to admit that you could use some help?" Tony urges and holds out a hand to help him up.

"Cut me a break here. I just need a minute," Steve pants. "I just held my breath for about five minutes while fighting two guys with a broken shoulder."

"So, you're saying that you're tired? That maybe you're hurt and shouldn't have gone on mission? That you could maybe use a friend to help you up?"

"No," Steve grunts as he sits up on his own. "I'm saying I'm ready to get this done. Let's find these weapons and get out of here," Steve walks gingerly past Tony as the Billionaire shakes his head in frustration.

"Intel says the store room is this way," Tony leads the way down a concrete corridor lined with lights along the ceiling when Steve suddenly pushes him down a connecting hallway, slamming them both into the wall.

"Ow," Steve quietly groans, but holds his breath when a troop of AIM agents run down the corridor they were just in.

"Hm, shoulder not feeling to hot?" Tony asks the obvious question as the heavy footfalls fade down the hall, but Steve ignores him and peers around the corner to check if there are anymore soldiers before signaling Tony to follow.

The two of them run down the hall and after a few turns, find the section where the weapons are being stored. The room is filled with wooden crates that are undoubtedly filled with 'B.B. Guns'.

"Jackpot," Tony whispers.

"Where's the overload controls the intel said would destroy the base?" Steve dares to peer over the railing to search the area below for any signs of a console or control panel.

"I think it's that panel over there," Tony points to a large, central control panel in the middle of the room. "Think you can hold them off for about 3 minutes while I put the system into overload?"

"Could probably even give you a full 5 minutes if you needed it," Steve smirks.

"Cocky bastard," Tony smirks. "Ready?" Steve nods and jumps over the railing with his shield in hand while Tony flies over to the console.

"Intruders!" a nearby AIM soldier alerts. "Sound the alarms! Sound the ala-" He manages to get most of his warning out before a shield slams into his face.

"Your time starts now, Stark," Steve shouts as he watches Tony's back while he works on the control panel.

"Working on it," Tony answers back, but never taking his focus off of the screen in front of him as his fingers fly across the keyboard.

One of the AIM soldiers cracks into one of the crates and pulls out one of the B.B. Guns while Steve is busy fighting off the numerous other AIM agents on the attack with 'normal' weapons.

"Use that thing carefully," A senior AIM Agent warns when he sees his colleague grab the B.B. Gun. "If you miss you could take down the entire base."

"We have an opportunity to take out two Avengers," the agent with the B.B. Gun exclaims. "We have the upper hand here and we can't let this opportunity pass."

"You're jeopardizing the mission," the Senior Agent grabs onto the gun, but the lower ranking agent slams the butt of the gun into this face.

"Status, Tony," Steve grunts after being shoved into the console behind Tony, slamming his injured shoulder into the metal panel.

"I need another 60 seconds," Tony replies.

"You've got 20," Steve shouts when another group of AIM soldiers rushes in.

"Actually, you're all out of time, Avengers," the Agent with the B.B. Gun announces and fires at Steve.

"Anytime now, Stark," Steve yells as he rolls out of the way of the attack. The blast hits a large crate of weapons and instantly crushes the box like it had just crumpled up a piece of paper. Steve picks himself up off the floor and books it across the room and dives behind another weapons crate before the black hole collapses and blows up, sending a shockwave through the room and shattering the crate Steve was behind.

"This would go faster if you would stop blowing things up," Tony shouts back as he ducks behind the console to protect himself from the blast.

Steve quickly grabs one of the B.B. Guns from the broken crate he had taken cover behind and fires at the ceiling above the group of AIM soldiers on the attack, causing a large portion of the ceiling to collapse and cave in on top of them from the after-blast.

"That does make a big boom," Steve smiles and starts to fire at the crates of weapons across the room, causing them to explode, taking out the other crates of weapons nearby.

"No! What are you doing? You're ruining everything!" The panicked AIM agent yells.

"There's no way you're making it out of this base with these weapons," Steve promises and blows another crate.

"There's no way you're making it out of this base alive," The AIM agent replies, seeing that their weapons shipment is lost, he fires at the ceiling and holds the trigger down. Steve quickly throws his shield at the enemy, but not before he forms a huge black hole. The black hole crumples the ceiling of the building and all the surrounding lights, crates, and AIM agents are sucked into the anomaly.

"I got it!" Tony announces.

"Doesn't matter anymore," Steve grabs his shield while chunks of debris fly up into the black hole above them. Steve runs by Tony, grabbing his arm and pulling him forward as the two run back down the long corridor they had come in from. They are halfway down the hall when the after-blast finally hits. The ground shakes and the lights along the top of the hall start to flicker when the shockwave rumbles through the structure, causing the corridor to collapse.

"Run!" Steve orders and the two of them book it as they try to stay ahead of the shockwave.

"We're not going to make it," Tony yells.

"We're almost there!" Steve dares to hope, but the blast is too fast. In an act of desperation, Steve dives and shoves his shield into Tony's back, pushing him forward as the last of the tunnel collapses onto Steve. Tony skids across the floor, but quickly picks himself up to run back toward Steve when the opposite end of the tunnel begins to collapse as one of the large turbines falls from it's base due to the force of the after blast. The turbine falls onto the concrete, crushing the front half of the tunnel, effectively trapping Tony between the two cave-ins as he dives to safety in the roughly 10 foot space between the two piles of rubble.

"Steve!" Tony picks himself up and runs to the side of the collapsed corridor where Steve was buried. "JARVIS, lock onto Steve's communicator."

"I cannot get an accurate lock on Captain Rogers' location. It is possible his communicator was damaged in the blast. However, his vitals do appear to be critical."

"Shit," Tony whispers under his breath as he starts digging. "Come on, Steve. Hang in there."