Choices

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine: What Else Can Go Wrong?

"Oh Mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law. Law man has put an end to my running and I'm so far from my home." -Styx: Renegade.

-

 Tony and I pant heavily, for we are out of breath from running as we knock on his door. I look behind us paranoid; Tony keeps rapping his fist against the wood a bit louder. Finally, we hear footsteps approaching from the other side.

 "Tony? Monica?" The sleepy Captain America opens the door.

 "Yep, we're coming inside," Tony pushes past Steve. I immediately shut the door and lock it behind us.

 "Whoa, what's going on?" Steve stifles a yawn, still stunned by our uncalled for intrusion.

 "We don't know," Tony answers as he looks around the room in a fit of paranoia.

 "You... don't know?" Steve furrows his eyebrows as he watches my father's nervous behavior. He curiously looks at me as I flop down on his sofa. Usually I would have better manners when being uninvitedly in one's home, yet I am too exhausted from the ordeal and use the fact Steve and I are relatively friends to justify my lack of courtesy.

 "Do you have locks on your windows?" Tony inspects all possible entrances.

 "Yeah, why?"

 "Okay, good."

 "Why do you sound out of breath?"

 "We just ran a mile here. Do you have anything to drink?" Tony sits down on the brown leather couch in Steve's living room.

 "If I get you water, will you tell me why you ran a mile to my apartment at two in the morning?" Steve begins to wake up more.

 "Sure," Tony puffs.

 "You need a drink too, Monica?" Steve asks from the other room.

 "Yes, please," I sit up to be a bit more alert.

 Steve comes back a moment later with two glasses of water. Tony and I gratefully clutch them and take a gulp. Steve pads over to the armchair. His blonde hair sticks up haphazardly, for we woke him from his slumber. He is only adorned in a white wife-beater and blue pajama bottoms. Steve leans forward in the chair, "Now will you tell me what's going on?"

 "You know how Alex was kidnapped?" Tony has already finished half of his drink.

 "What? No!" Steve's eyes widen at the news, "I'm so sorry, when did it happen?"

 "Last week, but Monica found abnormally large foot indentations underneath his windowsill. We don't know what exactly took Alex, but whatever it was attempted to kidnap Monica this time," Tony's voice is low as he has regained his breath.

 "Where were you?

 "At a hotel, there was a press conference today about her. She just screamed and when I ran in and turned on the lights and it disappeared."

 "Why didn't you use your suit?"

 "Neither of us brought them."

 "Why?"

 "Because we shouldn't need them if we're going to be gone for two nights!" I exclaim as I have not come to terms what my life has become.

 "That's true. So what happened after you got it out?"

 "We heard it outside so we ran. The valet still had the keys, but I knew where your apartment is and we just ran," Tony runs a hand through his own tousled hair, windblown from the run.