InsaneJournal

WHO: James Rogers and Tony Stark.
WHEN: During this.
WHERE: Grand Central Terminal, AKA the Scavengers HQ.
WHAT: Retrieving one of his lost boys.
WARNINGS: TBD, but there'll probably be feels. James and Tony fail to come without.

The years hadn't been kind to the city he'd learned to call home, but his body had adapted. That proved truer than ever right now. His legs immediately felt like jelly, wobbly and unsteady on paved tiles that didn’t jut out from the ground like a shark’s jagged teeth. His lungs protested at a lack of musty, stale and dust-riddled air, swelled in desperation - and finally took a deep breath. His legs steadied slightly, and through the glare of the midday sun, he could finally see - metal, concrete, steel, glass. Blue skies overhead. All of it fairly untouched, and nothing looked like a big bad wolf called Ultron could blow down - which nagged at something in his skull. But he’d get back to that thought later.

Because frankly, he looked like he’d made love to a sandstorm and forgone a bath for at least a week, even with a daily scrub-down and suddenly it suddenly bothered him. His muscles tensed at the thought, and his father’s shield felt heavy in his hand. And dirty. No, he decided. Well-loved. It was well-loved.

What- what the everloving fuck yes get out find a way out how did ultron not find this place this is not n- SMASH SOMETHING no no no you're not the hulk- He gazed back up at the sky, a perfect shade of blue. A glaring difference to the orange, polluted skies usually overhead. jesus fucking christ on a shingle The voice in his head changed, turned up a pitch, turned slightly whiny, and grew in urgency. MOVE. And he ran.

He knew these streets well, regardless of the structures of gleaming steel, uncracked concrete and shimmering glass that flanked them, and finally burst his way through the Terminal doors, only to find that changed as well. Gone was a smattering of army cots that the Scavengers slept on, or the unexploded piece of ordinance that jutted out of one of its walls like sharp teeth. But there were people in there, all with faces that rang unfamiliar in his mind- and [...] there seemed to be hundreds of them? More people than he'd seen in a lifetime, anyway.

And [...] this felt surprisingly right.