The Dead

[starkingenuity]

It might seem counterintuitive for the most connected person on the planet to be the last to know something is happening, but when Tony Stark is working, Hell could swallow the world up and he would make an off handed, disinterested remark that he would have to check the AC. Up in his hi-tech Tower, where he had meant to spend the week finishing up boxing the more precious pieces of unfinished projects, Tony had gotten himself caught procrastinating the only way a man like him is capable of procrastinating: by rebuilding hardware to help him finish a gadget rather than packing that gadget away.

FRIDAY had already been installed in the compound Upstate, though she never left his back pocket really. Tony didn’t hear her alerting him, therefore, when people started dying. How could he with the sound of heavy metal playing and the grinder in his hands?

Tony had stayed in his mostly disassembled, partly reassembled lab for thirty-two hours before deciding he was hungry enough to stop making do with granola bars and dried fruit and call in some pizza.

The alerts on his phone are terrifying when he finally sees them. The number of missed calls leave his mouth dry.

Despite everything, Tony’s first thought is to call Steve Rogers of all people, even before he puts the armor back on. He has no idea that Captain America fell with the rest of the country he loved hours ago.

Comments

[starkingenuity]

The Tower would not work. It’s hard to defend. He knows that very, very well. But this building? That might be doable.

“Have you gone door to door asking for a cup of sugar yet?” There might be survivors here. Or the place might be crawling with the dead. Being in the middle of New York isn’t exactly ideal but it’s a good place to start.

[endof_theline]

Bucky thinks that if they have at least one good stronghold, they can defend it. Maybe something more underground would help, but for now a safe house is- well- the safest place. This apartment only has one small window, and it's already boarded up. Bucky worked quickly once he got back here.

"I did. Most people were out. There is a man, a woman, couple upstairs, I told them to lock all their doors and board up the windows if they could. Everyone else was out as far as I could tell." No one had attacked him, so that was a plus.

Now that they're formulating some kind of plan, Bucky has that to focus on. The grief can wait till later.

"Should we bring them in here? Have them stay together?" Or maybe they're just safer where they are for the time being. He isn't sure.

[starkingenuity]

“Not here,” Tony says. “I don’t like sharing my things.” He means the space. It’s already cramped in here with the two of them. “But we can clear out the floor. If the other units are empty, there will be plenty of room for everyone else.”

At least, until they find something better.

Tony tilts his head towards the door. “Think there’s a penthouse?” What? He does have a standard of living to uphold.

[endof_theline]

Bucky raises an eyebrow at the comment, wanting to remind Tony that this isn't his. Not his place, not his things- but it isn't really Bucky's either. It's Steve's, and now the two of them are here in his stead. He hates it.

"Yeah. Alright. I can do another run through just in case." And if anyone has turned, well... they'll have to deal with that as well, so that others can survive.

He's not sure about the penthouse, so he shrugs. There's a larger apartment on the top floor so he figures that's probably considered one. He feels a little tapped out with answering questions right now- even talking in general.

[starkingenuity]

“Armor first.” It’s not really like Tony to be so safety focused but Steve Rogers had a little ding on the neck, possibly from one of the Pym Particle brigade, and now he’s a roving dead man. Tony genuinely does not want to be alone. He’d take anyone over that.

Barnes, unfortunately, is the only one he has right now and he’s better than nothing.

At least the stairwells are quiet. Tony taps the reactor in his chest to glad his arms and legs in armor, holding the helmet under one arm. It leaves his torso exposed but if they are attacked, he can protect himself quickly. It beats trying to climb steps in plate mail.

There is a red streak closing in towards them as they step back out into the air. The smoke is intense. So is the smell of death.

The suit coming towards them is one he’d made with Steve’s fighting style in mind. It’s a little taller than his regular armors but it will still fit Barnes well.

[endof_theline]

Bucky gives a single, quiet nod, heading back out with Tony- back up to the roof. He listens for any disturbing sounds along the way, but it sounds eerily quiet for an NYC apartment complex. He really hopes the people he instructed to stay actually stayed.

The sounds of the city from above are eerie as well. It feels like a nightmare, and god he's so damn tired of those.

It's quite alarming to see the red streak in the air. Mostly because Bucky doesn't want it being followed. It seems like these zombies don't have enough thought to fly anything, but that's just wishful thinking. They don't really know anything about this infection, aside from that it's bloodborne and it's turning people into... something else. Zombies.

"Will my.... metal arm fit in that thing?"

[starkingenuity]

Tony obviously has a penchant for standing with his hands in his pockets. It’s more nonchalant than he actually is feeling. Rocking back on his heels, he turns his head slightly to glance at Barnes. His gaze shift over his body, literally eyeing him up. “Same size as the real arm. The plates shift.”

He never had Rogers try the suit on. He’d just gone a little overboard with building after Pepper left him.

“Two steps back,” he warns just as the armor lands, reverse thrusters making it a gentle one, and unfolds itself. The red is brighter, but the suit is mostly blue, with the arc reactor star shaped. Tony does look at least partially sorry for the armor’s design.

[endof_theline]

Bucky isn't really paying attention to Tony's body language right now. He's busy trying to figure out what their odds are in all of this. Bucky lays low, he's good at it. Tony is flashy suits and armor. The two don't seem like they'll mix. What choice do they have, though?

He gives Tony another quiet nod when he says the plates will shift. He curls his metal hand into a fist at his side, then shoves his hands into his pockets as well.

When the armor lands, he looks it up and down. Flashy. Red and blue, with a star.... he looks at Tony. "Did you... you made this for Steve?"

[starkingenuity]

“I made a lot of things for Steve,” Tony says, grumbled under his breath, before he walks around the armor to carefully check it out. The thing is solid enough, though he can’t remember the last time he had taken it out for calibration testing. Tapping on the star, the suit splits down the center like a cocoon.

Perhaps it’s not the most inviting thing for a man previously locked in various cryo chambers.

“FRIDAY will figure out the way you move and adapt. But you’re both boxers. It has a lot of that built in.”

[endof_theline]

Bucky eyes Tony, feeling a knot forming in his throat. They were friends- Tony and Steve. Bucky came along and messed everything up, and here Tony was with a suit of armor for Steve. If only...

He swallows thickly, pushing that grief back down again as Tony starts working the suit open. Bucky eyes the suit now, instead of watching Tony, another wave of anxiety hitting him. He has to get in that thing and it'll close around him. He could be stepping into his own death here.

Dramatic and paranoid.

"How am I gonna figure out how to work this thing? I'm not- not real good at technological things." And he's been avoiding it like the plague, still so stuck in the past, in so many ways.

[starkingenuity]

That does get a little lift of the lip from Stark. “You just do. You’re wearing it. It’s fool proof.” The system is intuitive. There are built in stabilizers. It’s been trained. The armor has muscle memory of a sort, all programmed and calibrated. “And like I said. You’ll have FRIDAY. She won’t let you fall.”

Tony can’t afford letting Barnes get hurt right now. Not even if it would make him so very pleased to see. This is the first time in the last hour that Tony remembers that he really doesn’t like Barnes. That he killed his mother. That it matters, even if Rogers didn’t think so.

Tony can’t rub the bridge of his nose or muss up his hair in the half armor he has on but he wants the tactile distraction just the same.

“You can give it verbal commands too, if you can’t figure something out. Like a search bar.”

[endof_theline]

Foolproof for someone who knows how to work things like this, but he barely even knows how to use a computer. And that's being generous. It would be great to hear what Tony is thinking on the inside, because all of that information would be useful to him, but all he gets is fool proof. Not very helpful.

"So I just tell it what to do and it does it?" He's still extremely hesitant about this. It almost feels like letting something else be in control of him again, even if Tony says he's the one giving commands. "A search bar?"

Does he know what that is? Vaguely.

Mostly he's just circling the suit, knowing he has to put it on, but feeling wildly uncomfortable about it.

[starkingenuity]

Rolling his eyes, Tony huffs loudly under his breath and gestures to the open armor. “Just get in.” There’s a reason Tony doesn’t teach, though MIT has been on him for years. The occasional talk he gives is bad enough. Someone always complains, usually because he can’t help but be superior to just about everyone. His brain is wired differently. “You’ll see. It’s intuitive.”

And he doesn’t have to try and figure out which words Bucky knows the meanings of.

The inside of the armor is dark, and hardly inviting. Tony isn’t claustrophobic and he takes for granted what it must be like for someone to be enveloped in armor. The fear would only be temporary of course. Once the helmet is in place, the face mask comes to life and the view is better than the regularly binocular vision of a standard human.

[endof_theline]

Bucky is about to narrow his eyes at Tony, but he catches himself before he does so. Tony doesn't deserve that. No matter what happened, he has every right to be angry, to be short with him- and he really hasn't even been.

Bucky's grateful for that, now that he has a moment to think about it.

"Intuitive..." he mutters to himself, coming back around to the front of the suit. He presses his lips together, then gets into the suit, eyes on the other man once he does so. He doesn't know if he's claustrophobic or not, but he hates this, so maybe he is. It wouldn't be surprising, considering he went from cryo, to being strapped down in a machine, or tossed into a small, dark cell.

His breathing speeds up as he looks over at Tony, trying not to freak out. "I don't know if I can do this."

[starkingenuity]

Is that…panic? Tony doesn’t intend to be heartless but he also revels in Barnes’ dismay and discomfort. The gauntlets around his hands and arms dissolve so he can tap the chest plate on the other armor and watch it zip itself up around Barnes. “Sure you can.”

The armor closes quickly, bathing Bucky in black for almost a full five seconds before the helmet’s dim blue light flashes on and the screen spread across Bucky’s vision. “Hello, Sergeant Barnes. Please give me thirty seconds to calibrate to your specifications.” FRIDAY is professional, even if Bucky is panicking.

[endof_theline]

Bucky wants to scream. Giving such a full blown weapon with armor to a broken super soldier who has been tortured for decades might not be the smartest thing. When everything goes black he considers punching right through it, his eyes squeezing shut as panic starts to take over.

It's five seconds and then the darkness is gone, but it doesn't feel that much better. The voice that sounds like it's in his head makes him jump in the suit, and he tries to move his arms.

How does this thing even know what his specifications are?!

"Stark!"

[starkingenuity]

“One moment, Sergeant,” FRIDAY insists, each of the screens coming online showing Bucky far too much information. He can literally see completely around his head, darting eyes switching the view until FRIDAY can calm his erratic twitches by turning down the screen sensitivity. “Weapons will be offline until the security clearance is given, but you can try to walk now. I will need to test your balance.”

Outside of the suit, Tony takes a step back. The lock on the limbs should be just about over and he doesn’t want to catch a super powered punch to the chest.

He vaguely hears Bucky’s voice from inside the helmet, and he tilts his head in front of the other helmet. “FRIDAY, visor up.”

[endof_theline]

One moment feels like another decade of being trapped in a thing where he can't think or move and he does try, but the whole suit seems solid around him.

He's seconds away from thrashing around, but then the visor on the suit goes up, and Bucky looks at Tony with wild eyes. He doesn't even register the voice in his head telling him that he needs to walk around and test his balance.

"Get me outta this thing. Get me out!"

[starkingenuity]

Well. This isn’t going as planned. Tony snaps in front of Bucky’s face to get his attention. He understands all about panic attacks. He often is pretty sure he’s about to die from the simplest of triggers.

“Need you to focus here, all right?”

He doesn’t wait to be acknowledged.

“All you have to do is think about the armor opening. Okay? Deep breath and think about it splitting down the middle.”

No way is he getting close enough to tap the external latches again. Barnes could knock his jaw off.

[endof_theline]

Tony snaps, and it works, somewhat. Bucky's still panicking, but his attention snaps to Tony. He looks a little unhinged, confused- unfocused until Tony orders him not to be.

He takes a deep breath and does what Tony says, then thinks about the armor opening. It splits down the middle and he practically tumbles out, backing away from the armor, nearly backing into Tony.

"Sounded like it was in my head."

[starkingenuity]

“FRIDAY? No. She’s talking to you from a speaker. Like a radio. They’re…” he approaches the armor and points to each side of the split helmet. “Here and here. To give you surround sound.”

Touching the split star, the armor zips back up again and Tony pushes and prods at one of the armored gauntlets before it comes off in his hands. He carries it over to Bucky.

“Here. At least armor up the other arm before we go visit the neighbors.”

[endof_theline]

He eyes the armor suspiciously, gaze darting back and forth to the speakers Tony points out. It's better if he knows the details. If he can see what he's getting himself into. It's just high tech stuff that he's not used to.

Bucky is still tense, but he accepts the arm part of the armor. This is more familiar, at least.

He looks into it, then slides his arms in, and it fits him like a glove. He can move his fingers inside and it doesn't feel as suffocating. This part he can handle at least. Once they secure the neighbors and get ready to head back out, maybe he'll try the suit again.

"It's probably better they see me without the armor anyway."

[starkingenuity]

“Iron Man is still a friendly face,” Tony points out, scoffing. He knows Bucky doesn’t mean it that way. But perhaps it is better just to show their faces. At least they won’t be noticeably rotting away, and hopefully, more trust worthy to the people still living in the building. “Got the weapons switched off by the way,” he reminds Barnes. “So don’t worry about accidentally thinking about blasting anyone. Let’s work out way down. How do you feel about a little B and E for the people that don’t answer the door?”

Personally, he doesn’t need to be on the news kicking down doors.

Not that there is a news anymore. That it a fact pretty hard to sell to himself as reality.

[endof_theline]

"They don't know what's hiding under the armor," he says quietly, eying the gauntlet on his arm, definitely worried about how this thing works until Tony clears it up for him. The last thing he wants to do is hurt anyone living.

Bucky nods, looking at Tony again. "Yeah. We need to clear the apartments." His eyes aren't wild anymore. The panic has subsided. Tony probably hates explaining things to people, but it definitely helps.

"And we should- stick together." As much as they're probably the last people in the world who want to stick together.

[starkingenuity]

“Weird pairing,” Tony says, oblivious to Barnes understanding that or not. “But any port in a storm.” The other man will just have to get use to him and his constant innuendo. A broody ex assassin and a basket case genius ought to make everyone they come across feel very safe and protected.

The process is a surprisingly quick one. Barnes is the muscle. Tony tells FRIDAY to make a note of each layout out as they go. The top floor only has three apartment units, large and well furnished. The Section 8 portion towards the lower floors fits many more units into the same footprint, and the hallways are more narrow and less appointed. They find no one in the first couple of apartments beneath the roof, making Tony frown.

“This is best case scenario, but I was hoping for a cute old Asian couple or a bratty teen to join the group.”