After shawarma, the group known as the Avengers, despite what Stark had said about taking a day off, knew they had a long week or two coming up. But the most pressing matter was dealing with Loki. They walked(as they would say, but in reality, they were all limping and leaning heavily on each other) to the tower, where they went upstairs to find one very sore God of Mischief trying to find out how to operate the elevator, while a few Loki-sized dents were scattered on the floor. The billionaire, playboy, genius, philanthropist, somehow procured a set of handcuffs. When Loki protested, Barton sighted his arrow towards a piece of anatomy that would most definitely ruin the god's nights if he loosened, and Ironman repeated his earlier line with a small addition,
"We have a Hulk, do not make me taze him."
Bruce managed not to flinch, and after that, the god obliged. After Loki was cuffed, Clint still had to lower his bow. Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, laid a very gentle, unassassin-like, and very out of character hand on his arm, pushing down until the arrow point was facing the ground. Tony was otherwise occupied, ushering the god into his elevator, trying to talk Steve Rodgers into carrying him potato sack style. Thor was arguing with Stark, saying that his brother deserved more respect. So Bruce was the only one that saw the exchange, and he was a good enough person to not comment.
In the end Tony won the argument, and Steve entered the elevator with Loki thrown across his shoulder. The "Glow stick of Destiny" was still on the roof, and Loki had no doubt that the Avengers would carry out the threats. Natasha's hand was still on Clint's arm, the two engaged in a silent conversation, with certain statements whispered in different languages, to convey more meaning.
"Clint, please relax. Loki is not going to hurt you." the fiery redhead said in Latin.
The archers eyes where haunted, even if his face conveyed no emotion. Natasha had been his partner for over eleven years, and could read him like an open book. The look she gave him was the trademark Black Widow glare. That face was the last thing that many men saw.
"Damn it! If you do not stop blaming yourself, we are back to Budapest and then we have a serious problem. We will deal with this later, just like we had to in Budapest." she snapped in Russian, knowing that her best friend would know that she really meant it, when she reverted to her native language.
"You and I remember Budapest very differently, Nat" he said in English, masking his eyes to a look of indifference, letting the Widow know that she had been successful. But the volume and language alerted Tony to their conversation. His head wiped towards them, but the elevator doors where already closing, so he could not interrogate the two. Thor, Steve, and Loki had been in the elevator with Tony, so the only man in the room still was Bruce.
"Tony has a car downstairs that we can use, he wants to get Loki to SHEILD as soon as he can." He stated, even though Natasha knew full well what had been going on. She was an assassin, and the Red Room had made sure that nothing in a room went on without her noticing. A tiny shudder went over her as she remembered the bastards that had made her to the ruthless killing machine the Black Widow was meant to be. From the glance that Clint gave her, the woman knew that she would be hearing of that rare show of emotions later.
Then the elevator dinged, signifying its arrival, and the remaining inhabitants of the floor shuffled in. When the assassins reached the garage, they saw enough cars to rival any car dealer anywhere. He had cars that ranged from sleek Jags to Jeeps, Ferraris to Fords. Tony was motioning them over to a Jeep that clearly had eight seats. There was a small problem with that, so Natasha motioned for Steve to do the natural thing. They shoved Loki into the back of the car, while the Avengers occupied the seats. No one would want to have an evil god who had just tried to kill them all sandwiched between them.
Thor and Steve sat in the back, because now that the god lacked his scepter, they would be able to deal with him the quickest. Tony naturally drove, and Tasha took shotgun. As Clint and Bruce got themselves situated, Tony paused.
"Hey, guys, I just realized a bit of a problem."
"And what would that be genius?" Nat asked, voice dripping with venom. The adrenaline had long since worn out of her system, so she was tired, filthy, and hurt. All that she wanted was to shower, get her wounds taken care of, and then she wanted to collapse into bed, and if anyone disturbed her for at least twelve hours afterwards, she would shoot them, consequences be damned.
"We have no way to get to SHEILD." He stated. A muffled chuckle could be heard in the back seat, so Clint took the pen he had found on the floor and threw it to the back, where it rebounded off of the back window and then a muffled oomph could be heard, since the pen had undoubtedly hit him in the face.
"My com broke in battle." The cap' said.
"I never got a com." Bruce that time.
"What is this com you speak off?" Thor asked rather loudly.
"I dropped mine when I fell into a window." Clint stated.
"Mine's receiving too much interference, the frequencies switched in some explosion or other during the battle." Natasha's answer came, precise as always.
"And mine was in my suit's faceplate. Well, shit." Tony said regretfully. "Wait… JARVIS, do we have any way to contact SHEILD?"
"Of course sir, right away." The cultured voice of the AI responded instantly.
"Avengers! Where the HELL have you been? Radio silence for two hours? Where the hell are you! Get your sorry asses back to base NOW!" Fury's voice filtered through the speakers of the car, sounding rather, well furious.
"Well sir, all of coms where damaged in some way or another during the battle. And as to where we are, we are at Stark's. And getting to the base, we might have a bit of a problem with that." Steve reported, ever the captain.
"And why is that Mr. Rodgers?"
"Well sir, we have no means of getting up to the hellicarrier, seeing as some of us are rather earthbound." Natasha deadpanned.
The Director sighed. "Thank you for summing that up agent Romanoff. Just find a way to get to that place by the coast. And before you comment Stark, Romanoff and Barton know that place very well. There will be a jet waiting to pick you up in ten. Fury out."
"What place?" Stark asked, confused, a rare occurrence.
Nat had turned in her seat to look at her partner. "Do you think he means.." she trailed off.
"Yep, he does. Thank you Fury for bringing us there. We just have to try to not repeat the Bahamas." Clint mumbled remembering the time that their Quinjet had been hit in the tail with a missile coming back from a mission in the Bahamas. By some miracle, the plane was able to fly up to Manhattan, but then crashed into an abandoned warehouse district.
"I would say that would be hard, seeing as we are in a car, but, witch the people in said car, there is a very high possibility of an explosion." The Black Widow said with a grimace.
"I would ask, but I would like to avoid explosions at all costs." Bruce commented.
"Well I want to know!" Tony whined.
"Shut up and drive Stark. Get us to the Hilton by Battery Park, and then I'll tell you where to go." Widow snapped, at the end of her patience yet again.