𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐘'𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐋 𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐀C𝐄

𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐗𝐓𝐎𝐍, 𝐎𝐊𝐋𝐀𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐀

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

Nighttime hung over them like a cinema noir shade and the dense air saturated with the promise of rain. Lights were flickering awake as far as the eye could see and beyond the motel was a two-storey apartment, where a lonely man sat playing his sad saxophone, injecting higher eerieness for the night to come.

Steve looked over the ledge cautiously, watching the streets below knowing Osborn's goons could be anywhere. Even after retrieving Stark's body from the desert, Norman had vengeance and the want for Tony's ultimate power. Technically, Osborn was in control of Stark International and SHIELD until next week when the supplanting would reverse. That gave him two days to make a move.

Steve studied to the absolute blackness above, the stars scintillating faraway which were married to the waxing moon. According to Strange, the waxing moon was perfect for the spells to work and contain but to Steve, it reminded him of a long time ago when he used to drape his worn down blanket over his puny body and imagine the tiny holes as the stars millions of miles away. Away from the city, and just floating amid vacuum.

It was on a night like this that he had met his fellow associates on the initiative. Not exactly the friendliest of meetings he had come across but as Stark had mentioned, they had grown to become a huge part of his days. It had soon become memorable, a ground for playful verbal battles. Be it life, death or resurrection, he knew he could depend on them in spite of the discrepancies.

'The skies are clear, Captain,' Thor sounded as he landed over the terrace for the second time that night. Steve had requested for a recon mission in the skies before they commenced the death charge. 'I believe it is time.'

'Mister Strange?'

'Doctor Strange,' the sorcerer corrected, 'and yes, it's now or never.'

As the time drew nearer, the anticipation became less bearable. Steve wanted to curse out loud about Tony's plan B always being too troublesome and why it had to be this way. Why should it always be Tony? Why, despite the baby on the way, he would want to put his life forward instead of facing it in the face? 

'Steady,' Steve called out, adjusting the shield on the ground and trying to place it as far away from Tony's form. The duo tried not to wash away the chalk drawings, balancing themselves between the annular space provided to them.

'Remember, Thor, hold down the potential of the lightning before I activate the Sphere. You're going to dim the lights in half this district and I'm going to bear it,' Strange informed, nodding at him. 'Let's hope this works.'

'It will,' Steve stated unequivocally. 'The world needs it's Iron Man.'

I'm just a man in a suit, Cap. Tricks and toys are my things.

'On my word,' Strange notified, watching Thor and Cap at the same time. 

Thor bounced on his heels, his hands fisting tightly over the Stormbreaker and Steve sliding his arm into the shield's handles. He planted his feet on the ground as firmly as possible, looking back to the unconscious billionaire with brimming expectation. Thor shut his eyes, willing the fulmination to course through him and strokes of electricity playing celestial dances over his silver armour.

'Now.'

A thunderous roar left the god's lips, hovering a few feet off the ground and the whips of lightning buzzing around the trio like a sonic burst. Just in time, flaming golden chakras in concentric states, the Pentagrams of Farallah and the Shields of Seraphim, had come alive on the ground and lifting centimetres in the air in an illusion state. They rotated slowly, trapping the energy from beneath and skimming Steve's and Thor's legs without their notice. The ground rattled as the sorcerer moved his hands to conjure a dark, aimless globule, the Sorcerer's Sphere, as large as the bands he had drawn. It encompassed the four men inside, Thor's blows of lightning providing them ken for the eyes. The sphere was a dark soap bubble, sucking in energies unbeknownst to them.

The next second, Steve felt a sharp clanging and the sheer force of the strongest metal and a god's weapon clashing had caused the current to crackle alive. Strange had even corded down Tony's arms with the Shackles of Sheol, magenta bands that enwrapped him across the waist and the limbs. 

Steve widened his eyes as the arc-reactor radiated as he had never seen it, the triangular structure in the middle vanishing to form one single ray of light. Tony awakened without warning, a shout leaving his lips as the coils to the reactor heated. His eyes were flung so wide, the skin around his chest started to wear off. The scent of burning flesh loomed around the bubble ominously.

'Stop!' Thor ordered to the sorcerer, knocking out the implants from the shield to the chest battery. Thor tossed his Stormbreaker beyond the sphere, willing the energy to leave before it harmed Stark.

The shackles disappeared, along with the containment sphere and the pentagrams which vanished to a soft mist. There was a salinity heavy hanging in the air, the chalk dying out with a sizzle. The candles around them dimmed out with a twist of Strange's wrist and he walked forward to the table, peering in.

'Did it work?' Rhodey murmured, pushing past the trio and seeing it for himself. He pressed two fingers down on the artery in his neck, feeling the slow recuperative beats of his heart. But his eyelids remained shut, not breaths leaving him. 'He's alive but - '

'Doctor,' Steve asked Stephen. 'What's going on?'

It didn't work, was all that Steve could think. It wasn't even the failure that pounded into him, it was the fear of declaring it to the hoping woman who stood beyond the doors. The woman who wore her heart on her sleeves, believing in Steve's words.

'It should've worked,' Thor said in a quiet voice, 'we did it right, did we not?'

'We did.' 

Strange breathed out, stumbling away with a hand over his temple to think. Exhaustion of conjuring and siphoning three spells at the same time was attacking him, but his head was in deep in thought.

'Strange, why didn't it work?'

'Look at him,' Rhodey sighed. 'He's conscious but unresponsive.'

'It's his mind,' the sorcerer noted. 'I need to get into his mind.'

'But this should've worked,' Steve pointed out. 

'And it didn't!' Strange bit back, his voice dipping to a whisper. 'Not all the way through. It's inevitable.'

'Enough of your tricks, wizard,' Thor called out, summoning the Stormbreaker to his side and staring him down. Strange stood straight, unafraid of the bulky god. 'Do not mince your words and tell what you must.'

Strange spun on his heels, standing behind Tony's head. He placed a hand over the side of his temple, pressing his thumb down into space between his eyes. 

'Step back. All of you,' he ordered to them under his breath. When all of them denied him of his request he sent Steve a pleading look. 'You can trust me, Captain. He just needs that nudge.'

Steve was doubtful. 'You sure about this?'

'I am,' replied Strange. 'Once I trigger the hippocampus to restart and the drive starts to unpack in, he'll be awake.'

Maybe hope wasn't lost. He sent the sorcerer a barely noticeable nod, stepping out of the way. Rhodey and Thor glumly followed suit, their attentive eyes peeled on the wizard with more than just tricks up his sleeves. Strange pushed a small smile on his face. 

'Cognitive recalibration, huh, Stark?'

∞

'What do you think is happening in there?' Nat asked in a soft whisper as she rested behind Elle, a stair above her. Elle was deep in thought, shaken awake when Nat brought up the question. There were loud bangs and drumming from beyond the door and it was starting to bore them to no extent.

'Elle?'

Elle looked over her shoulder with a mischief in her eyes. 'Are you sure you want to hear what I'm thinking?'

'I think I do.'

'I think they're taking turns smooching Tony,' Elle said, trying to control the brimming hilarity. Nat burst out laughing. 'Waking him up Snow White style.'

Nat spoke between convulsions of laughs. 'Whose smooch do you think worked?'

'Steve,' said Elle in a heartbeat. 'Definitely. Tongue and all.'

'It's probably Strange,' Nat clucked her tongue. 'They both have that... tension in them. Passionate tension.'

'Jesus Christ, Nat.'

'What?'

'I'm a bad girlfriend,' Elle mumbled between chuckled, placing a hand over her cheeks. 'But I really wouldn't mind if Steve Rogers kissed Tony. It's not cheating if it's Captain America.'

'I would sell a limb to watch it.'

'Give me a bell when you do. I want that action.'

She cocked a brow. 'You are a bad girlfriend.'

Elle sighed. 'I know.'

∞

[ ;) ]

edited!