Who Am I? » [Stucky]

111. Night Flight

“I need to go get him,” Steve whispered with determination, roughly stuffing the tablet back into Tony’s hands and shambled away, hirpling like an old woman; still suspended in tangible pain.

“Are you insane?” Bruce exploded in a solicitous voice, fretful for the health of his friend. “In your state you’re not going anywhere!” Bruce demanded, trying to put his foot down without allowing that anger to coil up within him.

“Bruce… I’m sorry. I can’t waste time… I can’t wait and make a recovery… I need to leave as soon as possible and recover him!” Steve retorted in a far more barbarous voice than he intended. “Because they won’t wait to unravel him like a ball of yarn, until there’s nothing left of Bucky.”

“Tony?” Bruce looked to his pal, seeking for another voice of reason and wisdom.

“Sorry, Brucey…” Tony exhaled. “On this occasion Steve might just be right. We should support his decision,” he conferred.

“Thank you, Tony,” Steve murmured with approval. Bruce looked a little ticked-off.

“But before you go rushing off, to wherever the hell you think you’re going, let us help. I have a spare Quinjet tucked away in a hangar at Newark Liberty Airport,” Tony offered.

“I thought all of them were destroyed with the fall of the Triskelion?” Steve’s forehead creased with consideration.

“I kept one for myself and I worked on upgrading it. It can get you there safe and sound and without detection: I’ve had a built in radar scrambler made. The only way they’re gonna spot you is by eye, if they do. We’ll time the flight at night, so you won’t be able to see the jet against the sky,” Tony explained, rather proud at his updated module of the aircraft.

“Can you kit us out?” Steve requested. “Because honestly, Tony, all I have is my shield and my suit.”

“I I can get you anything you need, Cap. But on this mission I recommend a long range communication device on a closed channel, a PDA and an x-ray scanner and we’ll can get you to the mountain base in no time. As far as manpower goes, there’s one catch…” Tony bit down on his lip.

“What’s the catch?” Sam piped up.

“I’m going to have to run the operation from back here with Bruce. He’s going to have to man the communications and mask them, and I’m going to have to talk you through using hi-tech explosives to infiltrate the facility and help you with schematics if we can send an x-ray probe. Sound like a deal?”

“Tony, that sounds perfect. Apart from I can’t fly a jet,” Steve flaccidly laughed. “I mean, the last one I did, didn’t go so well; I don’t know if you recall-“

“I can,” Sam ingrained himself into the sentence. “I don’t just fly with the wings, I can fly planes too, y’know?” Sam said with atonement, raising an eyebrow at Steve.

“It’ll be a dangerous mission,” Steve deliberated, concern for his companion raising.

“I know… But that’s what I signed up for, right? When I made you that promise. Plus, I’m sure as hell not seeing your sorry ass get beat up again so soon. You could do with a wingman, if not, a buddy. ”

“Speaking of which, Sam,” Tony cleared his throat. “You know when we met last, you asked if I could perhaps repair your wings. I took a look at them and did one better.” Tony displayed a floating image on his tablet, rotating the crafty device and showing off his invention which had been beamed into a three dimensional hologram. “Now these aren’t technically speaking legal after the disaster in Afghanistan, but I assumed you’d want them anyway. If not, I’ll add them to my collection of cool things I don’t use.” He flicked his fingers and displayed the wings. “Now, the wingspan is the same, identical; but the mechanics are reinforced along with the exoskeleton: the plating is made from a lighter and stronger material: meaning they won’t be pierced so easily and don’t bend or snap half as easily: the metal alloy is far more versatile and bends well. I found a way to keep in the submachine holsters from the EXO-seven and they should be easier to detach. The rocket boosters have thrice the power with a new arc-reactor core: meaning it’ll go faster, fly smoother and won’t overheat. You complained the old pack didn’t move fast enough when it came to turning, so the wings now curve as you turn and have tiny boosters affixed to their axis rather than just the pack. The parachute feature remains part of the design, obviously, and I’ve also installed an emergency flare, stashed in the underside of the cartridge. How about that?” Stark copped a smirk; having blurted a load of show-stopping technical lingo at Sam.