"Ummmm … is that the Tesseract?" Clint asked, pausing just inside the door to the workshop; his eyes narrowed in suspicion and who could blame him after his experience with the glowing blue sphere? Of course, that didn't occur to Tony until after he'd asked Clint down to help with the experiment he was currently running.

"Oh, yeah, hey, sorry 'bout that. Can you come over here?" Tony didn't even look up from the device he was building, so intent on his new obsession.

"What the hell are you doing, Tony?" Clint demanded.

"Portals to other dimensions. Wibbley wobbley stuff. Hard to explain. I need your hand," He reached out and snagged Clint's wrist, dragging him over to the table. "Put your fingers here."

"Oh, hell, no. I'm not messing with that again." Clint shook his head.

"Don't wuss out on me now. I need someone who's had Tesseract energy in them to key off of. Didn't work on me, so…" He took advantage of Clint's confusion to press his palm down onto a scanner. Clint felt a spark run up his arm and yanked back. The lights flickered and Dum-e whirred, emitting a worried whine. Tony checked the readout flying past on the screen just as the Tesseract pulsed and a circle of blue flared out, leaping right at Clint. "Okay, that's probably not good."

"Tony!" He shouted as the energy ran down the length of his body from his head to his toes. "What the fuck …"

"Give me a second here, I think it's centering the program around your …"

The whole room spun on its axis, nausea welled up in both men, and everything changed.

….

"Target acquired. Working my way over there."

William Brandt calmly swirled his martini – mango apple something he'd picked up off of a tray – and wound through the black tie fundraiser attendees, most of them decked out in their glittering finest. Not that this ever got easier, but at least the mark was known to be an easy pick-up; the man had more sex videos on the internet than even Paris Hilton and liked a very specific type of guy. That was why Carter was playing backup and Ethan was in the van – seemed that Ethan and Tony Stark had a history, an antagonistic one to boot. So that left Brandt or Benji, and, well, Brandt did say next time he got to seduce the rich guy, so here he was, at a society function, dressed to the nines, and getting ready to come on to a billionaire playboy.

Stark was surrounded by hanger-ons, groupies who vied for his attention and people who wanted his money; he deftly handed them with humor and a smile, sipping his drink as he slipped out of the group, blue eyes scanning the crowd. They skated over Brandt, paused and zeroed in, widening a little as the full force of Stark's charm was turned on him. The relieved smile took him back, but Brandt rolled with it, stopping to lean against a post and wait for Stark to come to him.

"He's on the hook," Ethan said in his ear. "Remember what I told you; don't get in over your head or move too fast. We need time to get in and out of the lab, so drag things out. Stark can be a head rush if you're not careful."

"I think I can handle it," Brandt murmured, covering the words with a sip of champagne. "You find those blueprints."

"Thank god!" Stark had to make four more stops before he came to where Brandt stood. He finished his drink in one gulp and grabbed another from a waiter hovering just behind him with a tray. "Nice suit, by the way."

"Thanks," Brandt nodded, letting his eyes rove over the man's trim form; he certainly wasn't hard on the eyes, that's for sure. He'd better tamp down on his reaction or Ethan would give him hell about it. "Amazing what some money and a good tailor can do."

"Let's get the hell out of here," Stark caught Brandt's wrist and tugged him along in his wake, parting the crowd as he moved determinedly to the exit doors.

"Umm, Will, slow down, dude," Benji's voice sounded worried. "Ethan's not even in the hall yet."

"Tony Stark." The woman materialized in front of them, her ginger hair piled artfully on top of her head, her sapphire blue dress elegant and expensive. Pepper Potts, Stark's right hand and current CEO of Stark Industries. "You are not leaving yet. The Premier is on his way and we need him to make this deal work."

"Pep, I've got to take care of this" Stark tossed his head towards Brandt. "I need to …"

"I know, Tony, I've heard it all before." Her voice held an edge of anger as her eyes flashed over Brandt's body, then ignored him; Will caught the surprise that flitted across Stark's face at Pepper's reaction. "If we lose this contract …."

"I promise. 30 minutes, tops, then I'll be back. You can trust me." Stark gave her a puppy dog look that would melt the strongest heart, but Pepper only glared back.

"20 and then I'm coming in no matter what state you're in." She strode off, heels clicking, grabbing a glass of champagne as she moved away.

He led Brandt to a private elevator not too far away, handprints as a key code, pulling him inside. Once the car started upward with a jerk, door closing, Stark punched a button and sagged back against the wall. "Damn, I know. I'm a jerk. Let's get that out of the way first."

"Okay, you're a jerk." He smiled in what he hoped was a seductive way, fixated on the illuminated button; he'd memorized the building layout and the only thing on the floor they were descending to was Stark's private lab, the very place Ethan was heading right now. "Is that some sort of code, like asking me to come upstairs to see your etchings?"

"No, no, no, no," Benji was chanting. "You're going the wrong way. Turn around. The bedroom's upstairs."

Stark blinked and focused on Will. "Are you flirting with me?"

"Well, yes. I thought that was the whole idea?" Will pushed the stop button, bringing the elevator to a halt; he braced his hands on either side of Stark's head and leaned in. Stark smelled good, whiskey and cedar; there was a spark of heat in Will's gut as he watched the dark brown eyes widen. His lips lowered to Stark's mouth, a gentle brush of skin along skin. "Private drink in the penthouse, show me the view, maybe more."

"Whoa, whoa," Stark pushed him back. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Hey, you dragged me out of the party." Brandt stood his ground, every minute suspended here time for Ethan to finish his part of the mission. "Is this some sort of game? Want me to be more aggressive?" Will slammed his body up against Stark's, feeling the muscles beneath his own, kissing him, sliding his tongue into the warmth of Stark's mouth. For a second, Stark didn't respond, staying still, hands clenched at his side, then he sighed and tangled his tongue with Will's. His hands slid around Will's neck, drawing him in even closer, and their hips came together, melding bodies. Turns out, Stark could really kiss, hot, sexy kisses that stoked a fire inside of him; Will felt his cock stir in interest and he couldn't help grinding himself along Stark's leg. Nothing like realism to sell it, he thought.

"You could have just said," Stark muttered when he kissed his way back Will's jaw and nuzzled against his ear. "You know I'm up for anything."

Will had to laugh at the man; he'd virtually forced Will along without so much as a 'you want to fuck?' and now he was saying Will should have said something? Strange guy. Good kisser, but odd. Well, what did he expect from a genius? "If I remember right, you didn't give me time to say anything."

"Jarvis? Penthouse, please," Stark spoke and the elevator jerked and started moving again. His hands caught at Will's shirt, tugging it out of his pants until Stark could get a hand on bare skin. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Just your timing kind of sucks."

"I'm at the lab, initiating entry sequence," Ethan's voice sounded in his ear, and Will bit back a groan, not wanting the others to hear just how much Stark's touch was getting to him.

"I'd say I'm sorry, Stark, but I'm not." Will's fingers' worked on Stark's buttons then dragged across the expanse of the revealed abs. Mouths tangled again and Will was half-aware of the door opening. They tumbled out into Stark's private living room, an astounding view of the city outside the floor to ceiling windows that he barely had time to blink at before his fingers brushed against cold metal, and he registered the blue glow coming from Stark's chest.

"Stark? We did you go back to calling me that, Clint?" Stark pushed back and stared at Will.

"What the hell is that?" Will asked at the same time, pulling open the shirt to reveal the arc reactor.

"Tony, what are you doing? I leave you alone for five minutes and you find someone's throat to stick your tongue down …." The other man in the room cut off mid-sentence, staring unabashedly at Brandt. "Holy shit."

Brandt stood, stunned. "Who the hell are you?"

"Whoa! Two of you? Seriously, Clint?" Stark's eyes darted between the two men, Clint in his jeans and t-shirt over at the bar, and Will's disheveled look with his well-kissed mouth. "Hey, in my defense, I thought he was you. Just bettered dressed." Stark held up his hands at man he called Clint; the man didn't appear anywhere in the information the IMF had given Will to prepare for the mission.

"Tony, you had your hands virtually down his pants," Clint said. "So, what, you have some unrequited burning lust for me?"

"Well, you do have a great ass. And arms. And, hey, I wouldn't turn you down," Stark shrugged as if it wasn't important, then looked at them again. "Dudes. This is like penthouse forum time, you realize that, don't you? Seriously threesome action."

"Tony."

"Stark."

The two identical men spoke at exactly the same time.

"Sir, I'm afraid there is an incursion on your private lab level. I have stopped the intruder and taken the precaution of subduing him," Jarvis' voice broke into the awkward conversation.

"The old 'distract the rich genius and break into his lab' ploy." Clint looked right at Will. "So you drew the short straw and had to seduce Tony? Did you get hazard pay for that?"

"Thanks," Stark mumbled. "So, what are you? CIA? NID? AIM? HYDRA? ABCDEFG? Too many damn acronyms."

"Damn it, we have a problem. I've lost contact with Ethan." Benji's worried voice sounded in his ear. "Stark may be on to us." Ya' think? Will thought to himself.

"The question is, who the hell are you? 'Cause you," Will pointed at his look-alike, "sure as hell aren't me. And you," he turned to the man who called himself Stark, "sure aren't Tony Stark."

"It keyed off of you, don't you get it?" Stark turned to Clint. "Opened a portal to another dimension where you were, only you're not you, you're whoever this guy is. And I'm not this world's me, I'm our world's me, so who knows where this world's me is because you are here and he's here, so there's no reason two mes can't be here."

Will had no idea what the man was going on about, and he looked at his look-a-like for clarification, but Clint just shrugged. "No clue. Tony does that sometimes, talks in circles."

"Sir," Jarvis began again.

"Yeah, yeah, you've got this guy's partner trapped downstairs. Just sit on him. We'll get there." Stark walked to the bar, shirt still hanging open, and sat out three glasses, pouring them full of whiskey. "I need a drink. How about you?"

"Sir." Jarvis was getting insistent.

"Jarvis, you don't happen to know where I am at the moment do you?" Stark offered the glass to Will and made the other man come get his own.

"You are in your living room, Mr. Stark."

"Nowhere else? There aren't two of me?"

"Sir, no. But there is …"

"Okay, then locate any and all Clinton Francis Bartons." He smirked at the middle name and the other man punched him in the arm, hard enough to move him, eyes narrowed in warning.

"There are no Clinton Francis Bartons located in the tower nor any of that name in any database I am capable of searching who match."

"Whoa. You don't exist, Clint!" Stark seemed to be having fun at the other man's expense. "Okay. Run facial software recognition on everyone in this room."

Will began to wonder exactly when this had all spun out of control. He was now sure that Stark … or whoever this guy was, cause Tony Stark did not have some sort of glowing circle implanted in his chest … had thought from the beginning that he was this Clint fellow. And obviously the two men knew each other, well past the point where they were sharing private jokes and thinking about shoving their tongues down one another's throats, but not doing it.

"William Brandt, agent of the Impossible Mission Force, team member with Ethan Hunt, Jane Carter, and Benjamin Dunn. Background unknown or redacted. I can keep searching, sir, if you wish, but I will need to access international files that you have personally said were off-limits," Jarvis very smoothly outed Will without hesitation. "Unfortunately, sir, I can find no records beyond Agent Brandt's to explain the presence of the third man. Perhaps a DNA sample from both would be in order? But, sir, I must inform you that you are about to have visitors …"

The elevator doors opened and four armed men stepped out, guns trained on them. Will stepped away, raising his hands; his gun was securely strapped to his ankle, but he couldn't chance reaching for it without a distraction. Clint, he noticed, calmly kept sipping his liquor, fingers tightening around the glass. Stark sighed and addressed them.

"Look. Whoever you are, I'm sort of busy right now. Make an appointment and come back, say, oh, three weeks from Tuesday at 4:27 p.m. I'll be sure to be out-of-town."

The leader of the bunch stepped forward and Stark's eyes widened in recognition as the bald Middle Eastern man smiled back at him.

"Mr. Stark. Please give us your new weapon. I know you are smart enough to not leave it lying around in your lab …" he glared at Brandt … "so if you will kindly tell us where it is, we won't kill your current boy toy." With a nod from him, two of the terrorists grabbed Clint by the arms, pointing a gun to his head. Will was surprised that the other man didn't fight back, just stood quietly.

"Should we call the others or can we have all the fun?" Clint asked, grinning.

"Thor wouldn't forgive us if we had a fight and didn't invite him. Jarvis, tell the Avengers to assemble."

"Avengers, sir? I'm sorry, but I do not recognize that term."

Stark jerked in reaction to the statement. "Guess it's just us then. Damn parallel dimensions."

Clint launched into action, breaking the hold and spinning faster than Will thought anyone could, grabbing the gun as he went, landing a solid kick in one of the men's groin, taking him down then he moved on to the other man, who was staring at his comrades still form. Will acted too, a roundhouse punch to the nearest thug, sending him crashing to the floor. To his astonishment, Stark took out the fourth, classic boxing moves and some martial arts mixed in; nothing in the file he'd read said anything about Stark being able to defend himself on that level of skill. Of course, it hadn't mentioned the glowing circle either. That left only the ringleader who held a small device in one hand, waving them off with the other.

"Very impressive, but you can stay right there or I'll activate the detonation device. Push this once." He did, "and it locates the cube. Twice, and it starts a self-destruct sequence, one I believe you, Anthony, created yourself." A soft hum filled the room, a blue glow emanating from behind the bar. "Ah, there it is. Hiding in plain sight?"

"You do know that Obadiah is going to turn on you, right? He has no intentions of letting you have the weapon." Stark stood rooted to his spot, glaring at the villain. "But then, you are Raza, leader of the Ten Rings, and believe you can do anything you want. Well, you're about to find out you can't."

Will knew those names – Obadiah Stane, Stark's friend and mentor, Raza, Ten Rings – and he felt like he'd walked into the middle of the third act of a play; he just hoped Benji and the others were working on a rescue for Ethan and sending help here.

"So you do know what your supposed friend is up to? That he's sold you out to the highest bidder? Poor Tony Stark, kidnapped and killed by terrorists." Raza wondered around behind the bar, looking for a way to open up the compartment that held the tesseract. "I expect him to double-cross me, do not worry. I have a back-up plan all in place."

Will didn't miss the by-play between Stark and Clint, the silent communication of two men used to working as a team. Was he seriously starting to believe the crazy parallel dimension thing Stark was spouting? That these two had come from another world, one where Tony Stark could kick ass and already knew about Stane's black market sales? Even as he wondered, Clint caught Will's eye, a clear signal of something about to go down, and Will tensed.

"You know, that cube is more trouble than it's worth. There's a Norse god with an alien army in the market for it who could stomp you flat in a blink." Stark strolled over to the bar, sat his glass down and poured more over the ice. As he passed back by, he ran a hand under the edge and a door popped open in the front, revealing the item they were all seeking. "Now I'm betting that you're not going to blow up the golden goose, so let's make a deal instead."

Clint reached for the cube, almost making it before Raza spoke. "I said I had a back-up plan." He pushed the button again, an unholy smile on his face. "For a glorious statement to the cause, I'll will make the sacrifice. Most of Manhattan gone in a blink, you and Obadiah with it. The ultimate checkmate, wouldn't you say?"

The cube whined, quiet at first, but growing quickly to a piercing howl. It tumbled off the shelf and across the floor; Stark struggled with Raza for the remote, probably thinking he could stop the explosion if he could get his hands on it. Clint reached for the cube at the same time as Will; maybe they had time to get it away from here. There was a helicopter on the roof, but that was a long shot. Raza got the upper hand and shoved Stark back; he fell into Will and they both went down, Clint and Will's hands touching the cube at the exact same moment.

A wave of blue spilled across them and the room froze, jerked like an old celluloid movie catching on the spool, a fission of energy running through Will's body then they were falling into blueness, the three of them drawn into the center of the light as the world went bright around them.