A Flash From The Past ~ An Avengers Reacts Story

Fifteen ~ Tony

"Alright," Hayden said, drawing everyone's attention to their voice. "We're going to start another memory now."

"Still me?" Tony asked, hoping for a change.

"Yep, still you," Kylie said and Tony sighed. "Sorry."

"You know what," Tony said, "It's ok. At first this seemed like the most ridiculous thing ever, but I can actually see how it will help the team in the future. They are obviously doing this because they know something we don't, and it could be anything. Maybe we need this. It will give us insight on each other, and we can learn some pointers for the future. So I don't hate them for this."

"Wow," Hayden said.

"Yeah, wow," Kylie copied.

"Thank you," Hayden said, "We didn't really think any of you would get it, just complain."

"I want to complain," Clint said, "But if Tony isn't complaining, I'm not going to."

"Alright," Kylie said, "Let's actually start the next memory now."

They turned their attention to the screen and it lit up to show Tony sitting in a car in his lab surrounded by holograms. JARVIS was telling him about someone, but that wasn't the important part of this memory. Tony looked tired and worn out, and the people watching noticed.

On screen, Rhodey walked down some stairs and typed in a pass code to enter the lab.

"Tony," He called, "You gotta get upstairs and get on top of this situation right now. Listen, I've been on the phone with the National Guard all day, trying to talk them out of rolling tanks up the PCH, knocking down your front door and taking these." Rhodey motioned to the row of Iron Man suits as he walked towards where Tony was sitting. "They're gonna take your suits, Tony, okay? They're sick of the games. You said nobody else would possess this technology for twenty years. Well, guess what? Somebody else had it yesterday. It's not theoretical anymore." Rhodey had walked up to Tony by now, but he faltered when he saw the empty look on his friend's face. Reaching a hand to Tony's shoulder, he said, "Are you listening to me? Are you okay?"

Tony smiled sadly at Rhodey, patted him on the arm and said, "Let's go." He reached to get out of the car, and almost made it, but he fell to his knees as soon as he got out.

"Hey, man," Rhodey said, rushing over, "Hey, hey. You alright?"

"Yeah, I should get to my desk," Tony said, trying to push off of Rhodey.

"Your desk?" Clint frowned, "Is that all you can think about?"

On screen, Rhodey helped Tony across the room.

"See that cigar box?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Rhodey replied.

"It's palladium," Tony said, moving off of Rhodey and to his desk. Tony opened the box to see identical cores to go into the arc reactor in his chest, struggling as he did. Tony pulled the arc reactor out, and it ejected a used palladium core, the core rotten and smoking.

"Is that supposed to be smoking?" Rhodey asked.

"If you must know, it's neutron damage," Tony explained, "It's from the reactor wall."

Rhodey took the arc reactor from him and picked up the palladium core, looking like it was crumbling.

"You had this in your body?" Rhodey asked, concerned, but Tony just turned away. "And how about the high tech crossword puzzle on your neck?"

The screen then showed the side of Tony's neck, a mixture of squared lines in a criss cross pattern across it.

"Oh my god," Bruce said, "You said it left a mark, but you never said it was that bad."