Disclaimer: I don't own the Marvel Universe. Nothing belongs to me except a few OC's

Summary: The Avengers are shorthanded and the team is falling apart. Tony hatches a plan and Rory could be the answer to their prayers, if a certain Norse God doesn't get to her first. Choosing sides isn't easy when the darkness is so appealing. Staying good is hard when you were born to be a monster. Eventual Loki/OC

Chapter 1

"Tony! Watch your back! Yo-"

A full second too late, Tony span around, palms outstretched to deflect an attack. What felt like a fourteen-wheel truck with a drunken suicide bomber trainee at the wheel slammed into the iron-encased man with crushing force. The universe was momentarily transformed into a swirl of slate gray as Tony spun in mid-air, slamming into the concrete with crushing force.

"Hey look, Cap. The sparkles are back!" Tony let out a giddy giggle. The back of his head, the logical, billionaire scientist part of his cortex was recognizing the onset of shock. He was running on pure adrenaline at this point. That and a shot of vodka…okay maybe a few shots. But it was a Tuesday, he was celebrating! Or he had been, before the Construction Buddies…the…the Tractor Weenies, whatever these chumps called themselves went out looking for a fight.

Well, really they were out looking for Thor. But the oversized, drape-wearing Asgardian Thunder God wasn't available at the moment (by that meaning that he was on his home planet, no doubt scrunching his eyebrows pitifully over his megalomaniac troublemaker of a younger brother and doing whatever it was him and his World of Warcraft character pals got up to) so those Avengers that were present had decided to take a message for him, so to speak. They seemed to be having fun writing that message all over Tony in bruises, and possibly a mild concussion.

Currently, they were getting their asses handed to them. But in their defense, they were short half of the team so it wasn't really a fair fight. So they weren't really losing. They just were failing to succeed, as Tony would put in about a week later, still extremely bothered by the unfair odds. Bruce had disappeared in the middle of the night (again) about a month ago, sure to pop up again eventually. Thor, as mentioned above was attending to business elsewhere and Natasha was god knows where. "Level 9 clearance," she'd smirked at Clint the night before, who'd pouted when she'd wagged her credentials in his face and taken off without him, doing god knows what for the ever-mysterious S.H.I.E.L.D.

So far that left Clint, Tony, and Steve. The former was out of explosive arrows and barely staying out of range of the house of a man that was hot on his tail. He was dodging attacks aimed at him by what looked like a demolition ball on a chain by mere inches, and probably wouldn't hold up much longer.

Tony was trying without much success to pry himself out of an Iron Man shaped impression in the street. "Exterminate" he laughed dryly, getting a good look at what'd knocked the daylights out of him for the first time. A gigantic man, in a yellow suit was racing towards him, gearing up for another round of slamming Tony in the concrete. His head, wrists, and ankles were covered in metal armor, which was decorated with round knobs. He looked like the spitting image of a of a Dalek cosplay costume.

Tony would have found that a lot funnier if said Dalek wasn't currently bearing down on him at breakneck speed with ice cold murder glinting in his eyes. Unfortunately his brillaint joke was wasted on Hawkeye, who was too busy dodging a metal dome of doom to afford any distraction, and Steve, who wouldn't have understood the reference anyways, even if he hadn't been taking on two beefed-up blokes at once. One was using his giant hands to rain down shattering blows on captain's shield. The metallic shriek echoed off of the concrete New York intersection, serving as a warning bell to anyone who hadn't had the common sense to get out of the way of the brawl. The other, decked in darker attire, was trying to get at Steve with a crowbar, aiming for any opening he could find as Captain America played defensive to the onslaught of attacks aimed at him from all directions.

From where he was lying flat on the ground, sunk into the asphalt, Tony lifted his head up, trying to get a good look at the giant Dalek-man taking a run at him. At the last possible second he shot off a beam from his hand straight into the middle of the guy, sending him flying so hard he made a dent in a streetlight. At this point any second he got where he wasn't getting pummeled was dumb luck on his part. Without the rest of their team, they were just weak enough to have to play constant defense. That lucky shot may have been just what they might have needed to turn the fight their way. Tony made a valiant effort to get off the ground while ignoring the fact that there were currently three Steve's and somewhere between 5 and 6 baddies in his immediate line of vision.

He sent another blast of energy from his palms at a rather nice convertible parked by where Hawkeye was being battered by another baddie with an over -glorified nun chuck, sending the car flying and flipping through the air. It landed on the metal-head with a satisfying crunch, hopefully putting him out of commission long enough for the Avengers to take control of the situation again.

Clint wasted no time, not even hesitating to sprint over to help out Steve, who was looking more outnumbered by the second. He ran past each of the giant hulkmen that were battering Steve's shield and slapped each on the back, hard. Tony propped himself against a nearby mailbox with one hand, clutching his side with the other. He tilted his head to one side, puzzled. Did Clint really think that giving them tiny pats was going to-

Beep beep…beep beep…BOOM!

Oh. Tony didn't have any time to react as the hand-detonator bombs went off. Surprisingly, instead of blowing them to bits, it sent out an electric jolt and a ton of smoke, which was apparently laced with some chemical, because both of the thugs slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Tony flipped back his Iron Man Helmet, revealing his face. He threw his arms up in a gesture of victory, letting out a wild whoop. "Yeah! Go Avengers!" Clint returned his whoop, hopping up to slap Tony on the hand. Though they were both winded, and Tony was positive he was going to have bruises for weeks, they weren't getting their asses kicked anymore, which was something to celebrate in Tony's book.

"I wouldn't celebrate if I were you. There's no reason to be proud, guys. We barely won," Steve cut in, slumping to the ground next to the two unconscious members of the Wrecking Crew. He let his shield fall to the ground next to him, rubbing his temple roughly. Tony's Dalek was still bent into a lamp post, moaning quietly. There was no sound from the wrecked car as of yet.

"We were missing half the team! What'd you expect would happen?" Tony retaliated. "Why are you always such a party pooper, Cap? The glass is half full! Live a little!" Thor and Hulk were the two big "smash-em-up" guys on the team- not that Tony couldn't hold his own. Dealing with the Wrecking Crew was something that took more brawn than brains. With the odds, Tony was surprised they'd all come out of it without someone needing to be put in the hospital. Any day he wasn't dead was a celebration, in his opinion. Leave it to Steve to make it into a serious issue though.

"Seems like we're always missing half of the team these days," Clint added solemnly, looking at the utter wreck around him.

"Oh no, Clint. Not you too. Don't tell me you're with him!" Clint responded with a despondent look at the destroyed street around them. Tony hurried to defend his views. "You and Natasha have to put S.H.I.E.L.D first, and we knew that when you guys started that that was how it was gonna work unless there was another world domination plot in the works. Thor has his other kingdom to take care of and that's totally not his fault. And Bruce is just…Bruce. It's not their fault but – shit." Tony fell silent. He would never admit that Steve was right but…Steve was right.

They'd used to be a team – what happened?

Tony sighed and gave Steve a hand up. Neither of the two men said a word, but words weren't needed. He could see his determination mirrored in the super soldier's blue eyes. They'd been barely winning their fights as of late and something needed to be done about it. Tony hauled Steve to his feet – something he'd never be able to do without his suit. Over his shoulder, his eyes met Clint and the two exchanged grim smiles. It took a lot for Tony to admit that he needed help and god damn it all they needed help badly.

Whatever it took, they'd fix this mess.

Clint came to Tony's aid and the two of them helped the limping super soldier down the street. They left the moaning Wrecking Crew for Fury to clean up. No doubt he'd been watching the whole pathetic fight and hadn't missed the fact that the Avengers had won by the skin of their teeth. No doubt it wouldn't go down well with the director that his best response team had basically got the crud kicked out of them.

The three men walked off together, headed to the tower they'd all come to see as home. For a long time, the only sound on the empty street was the metallic hiss of Tony's boots scraping the sidewalk and the thump, tsss of Steve limping down the deserted street. Clint, who was generally silent as a cat as a general rule, let out the occasional sharp intake of breath as Steve's heaving sides slammed into his own fresh bruises.

Tony Stark didn't do pathetic, and right now, they were pathetic. He couldn't stand the thought of being bested by those dunce caps. A glance at his teammates sent his blood boiling again. He'd make sure this was fixed, and he wouldn't sleep until he had a plan to do so. As the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist of the group, it was only natural that he would be the one to solve the problem.

"Jarvis?" The words sounded unnaturally loud in the dead silence of the street. He winced as his words bounced back at him in echoes. He felt bad breaking the solemn brotherly hero silence-thing that they'd had going on but this was important.

"Yes, sir."

"Has Pepper found my stash of alcohol in the lab yet?"

"No, sir. The fridge is still fully stocked."

"Good. Make sure that it stays that way, Jarvis. It's gonna be a long night"

"Right, sir."

A/N: Thanks to my wonderful beta LadyofMischiefandDeduction for checking this over for me. Next chapter will be up Friday or Saturday. Reviews are always appreciated, loves.