Age of Heroes

Trapped

The lights of New York City shown like fallen stars between the shadows of the skyscrapers. Their brighter cousins reflected back from light years away. The sun had just risen in a spectacular rainbow of red to violet all of which Daredevil missed. However, the dawn on the rooftop was far from dark to the blind Avenger. The smells and sounds of the city painted their own picture in his head. The smell of the emissions from cars did its best to hide the nicer smells of the city, like the perfume worn by a passerby, and the smell of fresh baked pizza. To anyone watching he looked far from the guardian angels that most of the Avengers were seen as when they flew above their city. He looked more like a gargoyle perched on the rooftop glaring unseeing at the city he protected. He listened for any clue that his city was in danger.

Beeeep, went the horn of a Taxi across the city.

Meow, growled an angry alley cat as it escaped being kick three blocks over.

"Hey watch where you are going!" someone yelled.

"That will be ten dollars." followed by the click of a cash register.

The sounds of the city told the tale of thousand of untold stories but Daredevil didn't have the time to examine them all. The rustle of feathers on leather caught his attention.

"Do we have a problem, Hawkeye?" ask Daredevil without turning.

"Man that's creepy. I mean how did you know it was me?" Hawkeye's voice was light as he spoke almost joking. "Well, if you count that a real life dragon is going to attack at any moment I would say yes we have a problem. If you are talking about you and me. Stay away from Nat, from now on, and we will be fine." The last line was half joke half threat. Suddenly their coms beeped to life.

"Alright team we are getting readings of dimensional disruptions near the Avenger Tower. It looks like she plans to hit us directly. Thor, Hawkeye, Captain America and Daredevil will be ground support. Black Widow has the jet and I will cover your team from the sky. Good luck and try not to die." Daredevil and Hawkeye took off across the roof tops. It was only a short run to the tower since it had been a good a place to wait for an attack as any, when they had no idea where the attack would happen.

"Something's wrong. Tony, the tower's gone dark," muttered Hawkeye as they stepped into the entrance of the Tower.  While "gone dark" meant the power was off in a normal building, for the Avenger Tower it meant all the windows were covered with shielding so not a single stray ray of sunlight could pierce the gloom.

"Karen and Foggy were in there," said Matt, worried for his friends. While the dark was no obstacle for him, whatever had caused it might have done far worse things inside.

"Tony?" asked Clint again but all that replied over the com-system was static.

"Looks like we're on our own," Matt said starting a jog into the building to find his friends.

"Hold up. It is pitch black in here," said Clint as he nearly smacked into a glass sliding door that had been left open in the darkness.

"Do you want to hold my hand?" asked Matt sarcastically,  angry for having to waste time.

"No just give me a sec. I won't be much use if I run into a wall or fall down a flight of stairs."

Matt waited until he heard the crack of a glow stick before he continued into the dark heart of the building. A sudden ear splitting shriek exploded from up ahead, bouncing off walls making it sound like it was coming from all around. Heart hammering, Matt bolted toward the source. The swearing, as Clint slammed in to various things behind him, told him the Avenger was following. The high pitched noise came again and this time it was cut off half way through as it turned into... laughter? It was coming from the Avengers training room. Matt slowed as he approached the automatic doors where open. The room, which had been designed with training sessions with the Hulk in mind, was cavernous and by the clanking sound his boots made on the floor made out of some kind of metal.

Bump-bump-bump- bump came the sound of hearts from in the darkness.

"Watc..."Clint had also realized they were not alone but he could only get out part of the warning before Matt was tackled. Arms wrapped around his neck strangling him and nearly throwing him backwards.

"Karen I can't breath," said Matt gently, carefully loosening the hug.

"Sorry, I was just so worried for you after Steve told us someone is out to kill you," she said sheepishly. "Besides..." she finished more reproachfully "I deserve some payback after you lied to me for so long." Matt prepared himself for the sting of the slap that Foggy had given him after he learned he was Daredevil. Foggy had thought he was no better than the law breaking criminals that he fought, when he first found out, and despite his best efforts to hide it, the accusation had hurt.

"I can't believe you have been a Superhero this whole time and never asked me to be your sidekick! Now that I know, there no way you're stopping me," Karen said with glee. Conflicting reactions fought for domination in Matt's brain. Should he be worried for Karen's health and sanity, or his own for that matter,  or happy that she liked him for who he truly was and their friendship could continue.

"Matt is that you?" came Foggy's voice from the other side of the danger room.

"Foggy are you OK?"

"I'm fine. Just can't see a thing in here..." Clint finally found his way into the center of the room huffing and puffing bringing with him the glow-stick arrow. Foggy came toward the source of the light.

"Why are you guys in here? What happened?" said Clint asking the important questions.

"Did Dragon bring you down here?" asked Matt on high alert. If it was a trap they had run right into it but as far as his super-senses could tell they were alone.

"What?No," said Foggy sounding confused, "The Avengers brought us down here."

"What? That makes no sense," said Clint frowning hard. " They are the ones that told us that Dragon was attacking here. They would have sent you to one of Tony's safe houses in the Caribbean."

"They said that we would be safe here. They said it was Hulk proof and that even a dragon would have a hard time getting in. Besides they told us the attack would start in Hell's Kitchen."

"%$#$!," cursed Clint loudly. What had happened clicked for Matt a second later. "Tony you are going to get your team killed," spat Clint at no one in particular. Karen let out a gasp. Matt could feel the whole of one wall heat up. Then with a clang the automatic metal doors slammed shut. Matt, with the help of the other three pulled pushed and hit the door until they realized that the door was doing more damage to them then they were doing to it. They were locked in.

"What going on with that wall?" Matt asked pointing to the wall that was giving off more heat than metal should.

"There is a twenty foot Tony Stark on it. It appears to be a screen." answered Foggy.

"Don't bother to leave. There is no way out. I made sure of that myself," boomed twenty foot Tony.