Okay, this storyline just kept circling in my head, so I had to write it out…Hope everyone is enjoying it, and in case there was any confusion; Eliot is really Piotr Rasputen, and Natasha is really Illyana Rasputen. Oh, and I gave the Maggie from the early X-Men comics powers she could control, maliciously at that!
Oh, and I don't own anything other than the story, Boo for me.
Eliot's face drained of all color. He could not find his voice, and his mind was screaming at him to do something, anything! He wanted to hit something, someone, he wanted to fall apart. The raw pain he hoped never to feel again clutched his gut. Natasha…his Illyana…was kidnapped, again.
"How long?" He whispered.
"Two weeks." Everyone avoided Eliot's eyes as Fury delivered the information.
Eliot's temper cooled, he rallied within himself for the control he had held onto for dear life for so long, and finally pulled out of his metal form. Katherine slipped beneath his arm to press her body to his. She knew exactly what he was feeling right then, and wanted him to know that he wasn't as alone as he felt. Sophie's hand touched his shoulder as Parker grabbed his hand. Hardison clapped his hand on Eliot's back and Nate squeezed the shoulder Katherine was standing beneath. He broke out of his reverie to find his team…no, his family, standing with him. Even Logan was leaning against the ropes beside Nathan and giving him a small grin, which he knew meant that the older man was on his side.
"How did you let it go on for this long?" Eliot asked.
"You know Natasha…she likes her space, and she was going under-cover again. So we gave her the seventy-two hours she asked for to get herself established…we gave it an extra day, and then we started looking for her. She was gone." Fury sighed, frustrated by all of the dead ends he kept running into. "We finally figured out that the guy we were after was one of…Ikol's many aliases."
"I am sorry, my young brother in arms," The large blonde man spoke to Eliot again. "It seems that we had not defeated him as soundly as we had thought." He looked like an abashed puppy. Parker made a small whimper at his distraught face.
"Why did you wait this long to come to me?" Eliot seethed.
"Well, if it hadn't been for Clint going through Nat's room," Tony laughed, "I don't think we would have even known where to start looking!"
Eliot's face turned red, then suddenly cleared as an evil smile appeared. "I think I'll let Natasha deal with you for that one."
Clint visibly swallowed and glanced around the room, the other men on his team giving him odd half-smiles. Eliot cocked an eyebrow and stared hard at the man who had yet to utter a word.
"Bannon." Eliot said the name as command, he had noticed that the man seemed ill at ease with the sudden turn in conversation, and knew he would be the easiest to get to talk. The man looked up cautiously and stepped closer, still keeping his distance from either group. He sighed and stared hard at Clint who sent him a pleading glance.
"What. Is. Going. On. With. My. Sister?!" Eliot growled. "And why is Clint suddenly everyone's joke?"
Clint sighed and did what the others on his team never thought he would; "We've been…Natasha and I have been dating…she said she was going to tell you after this assignment."
Bannon looked grateful to have the mutant's attention off of him and tried to fade back into the background. He knew his nerves were shot from the events of the past two weeks and anything could set him off.
Eliot's knuckles turned white as he gripped the rope he was leaning over. He seethed, his chest rumbling with a low growl. Sophie reached around him and, to the shock of Fury's team, moved to plant herself between Eliot and Clint.
"Eliot." Sophie's accent soothed the man as she spoke, calming him with her tone as much as her words. "Right now, let's focus on getting to your sister. She needs you, and I've never known you to get distracted from someone who needs you."
Katherine smiled at the older woman thankfully. She glanced at her team on the floor and noticed how Tony had placed himself in front of Clint. She was glad that despite all of the ribbing and tension within the group that they had all become their own family. With a pointed look to her dad, Katherine phased herself and Eliot out of the ring; she waited while the rest of his crew climbed from the elevated matt and turned her attention to Nate.
"We will be needing Eliot for this mission. I'm sure that once you contact Xavier he will help you with Mrs. Greggs. We'll work on getting her son out from under…Ikol's control as well."
"Yo, look," Hardison said, pulling Parker closer to his side when she stepped towards Katherine. "We're a team. We can help y'all out with this. I mean, we can stay in the background. But where our boy goes, we go!"
"You don't understand this situation." Fury replied levelly.
Eliot stepped up to the older man, the threat emphasized by his scowl. "I said…do not talk to my team that way again!" His voice remained pitched low, which only made the words more menacing. "Next time I won't hold back from hitting you."
"Hey," Tony stepped up, hands up, palms out. "Uh, we all know just how dangerous Goldilocks' brother is…and we, uh, well, we figured out your teams…uh, con." Suddenly Tony looked nervous, yet excited. "It was a really good plan, too…do you all do this kind of stuff a lot?"
Eliot rolled his eyes at the other man's antics. He was not surprised by Hardison's next remark.
"Yo, man. This is what we do! And how the hell did you get our plan anyway?" The young man asked, as an after-thought.
"Oh," Tony replied easily. "It was kind of easy once I realized yours was the tech signature that Natasha had programmed Jarvis to impede…" Eliot's sigh cut him off.
"She did what?!" Hardison's voice rose a couple of octaves in indignation.
"Uh-yeah, to keep you from finding information on the Avengers…Fury's team…" Eliot turned his head to hide his guilty smile, "I asked Natasha to use Tony's system to block your access to it."
"Man…that's just low." Hardison rolled his eyes.
"We need to get going." Fury said, glancing at the clock on the opposite wall. "Ikol's gala event will be starting in an hour."
"Wait." Parker gripped Eliot's arm as she looked at the rest of the Leverage crew. "We aren't seriously going to just sit here, are we? I mean… it's Eliot's sister. We have to help."
"Parker." Sophie said, reassuringly. "We won't be letting him do this on his own. He has his…old team with him…they probably have a plan…" Suddenly Sophie's eyes brightened with an idea, and she turned her gaze on Nate. A silent conversation followed, leaving Nate with an almost evil grin of his own.
"This…Ikol guy…" He started slowly, "He know's your faces, right? He knows you'll be coming for him because of Natasha, right? Well…why don't you let us run our con on him to distract him?"
The Avengers stared at Nate in confusion, turning as the door opened and another strapping blonde man entered, a shy smile on his face.
"Capsicle…" Stark smirked, "Nice of you to finally join us."
"Hey, Lo—" He cut himself off as he saw the Leverage crew, and glanced towards Eliot.
Eliot grinned in spite of himself at his friend. "Steve…Yeah, it's been an…interesting afternoon." He walked over and shook the other young man's hand. "This is my team, Nate, Sophie, Hardison, and Parker. They…well, let's just say that my secret's out. We were just discussing Ikol." He stressed the word slightly, hoping that Steve would get his hint.
"Oh, I was just at the building. He's presenting some new VP…?" Steve looked to Fury for an explanation of the term.
"Vice President of the company." Eliot explained. "Basically his second in command…do you know who it is? At Steve's negative response Eliot let his shoulders droop a bit, until he heard Hardison laughing.
"Seriously, man!? You know I am that good! She was our plan G, dude! This is why you don' need to be missing the update meetings!" Hardison walked across the floor to retrieve the backpack he had come into the gym with, and withdrew a slim laptop. Punching a few keys a woman's picture came up in one of the windows. "Here's your new VP, Emma Frost!" His wide smile slowly faded at the look on his friend's face. "Eliot?" He asked in a small voice.
"Call the Prof. NOW!" Eliot commanded, tossing his phone to Logan.
"We can't go in now." Eliot's voice filled with an emotion the Leverage crew had never heard before; defeat. "Not with the White Queen in there."
"Eliot…are you serious…" Nate hardly dared to breathe. "It's the White Queen?"
Eliot nodded to his boss, a man he viewed as a father or brother depending on the situation. "We may need Maggie for this one. At least warn her that Emma is back in play." He whispered. Nate nodded and stepped away, phone already pressed to his ear.
"Dude." Hrdison spoke up, his tone comforting. "She isn't going to be there for the first half hour…maybe a little longer if I stall her plane."
Eliot's face turned hopeful. "Then we'll have to go in as soon as the event starts."
"Let us do this, Eliot." Sophie quietly pleaded. Parker planted herself in front of him, not budging.
"I can go in with…Katherine. Between the two of us, there won't be any way this could go badly. And besides that, Sophie is the CEO's date. It would be weird for her to cancel that now, wouldn't it?"
The Avengers looked shocked and appalled at the announcement. Parker merely smirked childishly at them, enjoying that they had come out with more information that the other team did not have. Eliot looked like he would be sick.
"What do you mean, Sophie is his date?" He asked in a low voice.
"I hooked him last night at the little preview of the event. We had a couple of drinks and he asked that I accompany him tonight." Sophie voice was proud as she shrugged, not seeing it as a problem. "This could help us, I may be able to find out where he has Natasha." Nate rejoined the group and put his arm around Sophie's shoulders.
"Sophie, you don't get it…" Eliot looked at his friend sadly. "This…guy…he isn't just a…guy…he's…"
"He's a mutant, too?" Parker asked.
"No…" Eliot stared helplessly at the tall blonde man with long hair. "They…they aren't mutants…they aren't even…human."
The large man approached the now-apprehensive Leverage crew and smiled his broad child-like grin that somewhat resembled Parker's. "My friends. We are from Asgard. I am Thor, it is a pleasure to meet you."
The Leverage crew stared, all but Parker slack-jawed. The blonde girl looked confused.
"Thor?" She asked Nate.
"The Norse god of thunder." He replied, not taking his eyes off the large man.
"Well, that certainly explains…nothing." Parker was becoming frustrated. "Weren't the gods part of mythology?"
"We are now just known as such." Thor explained. "We came to Earth for some fun and got named gods…it was a rather fun game."
"Thor!" Eliot interrupted, not amused. "Your brother…?"
"Ah, yes, well, my father went to Jotunheim, where the Frost Giants live, when we were at war with them. When he killed Laufey, their king, he brought his newborn son to Asgard where I am from. He raised Loki as his own, even I did not know my younger brother was a Frost Giant. But Loki has always been power-mad. He has returned to Earth again…this time he is obsessed with your corporate hierarchy." Thor explained.
"Wait!" Nate interrupted, "You mean that Loki the trickster-god is Ikol's CEO?"
"He just spelled his name backwards, what a douche!" Hardison rolled his eyes. Most of the Avengers laughed at the techies description. Even Eliot chuckled at his friend's apt depiction of Loki.
"Yes, well," Nat said, clearing his throat, "Our plan may be the only shot at getting Natasha out alive. Maggie is hopping on a flight right now, she's been in London." He told Eliot, "Angel will be meeting her as soon as she lands in New York, and he'll fly her here. No need to have her name on a plane log and alert Loki." Nate shook his head slightly, rolling his eyes, amazed at how easy it was for him to discuss gods and mutants like they were anyone.
"The Prof is on the way in the X-jet." Logan updated everyone, tossing Eliot back his phone. "Rogue and Remmy are just a block away."
Eliot nodded. "I never thought I'd say this, but, thank God for Rogue and Remmy." The Avengers all laughed their agreement.
"We can send Rogue and Shadow Cat in," Fury decided. "They can use the air ducts and Rogue can take out any guard without much attention."
"What about us?" Parker asked, taking a step toward the one-eyed man.
"You'll stay out of this. It does not concern you any further."
Eliot's fist flew out of it's own accord and landed squarely on Fury's jaw, successfully shoving him back a good foot and a half. "You will NOT disregard my team like that! And they were right, Sophie will have to be there as Loki's…" He swallowed hard, "date."
"And we are not sending her in there alone!" Nate spat vehemently. "Parker will go with your crew in the air ducts, that way they can get out if Frost shows up unexpectedly and Parker can continue on to Natasha. She's good at thinking of multiple objectives, and can surely stay under the White Queen's radar. I have an invite as a potential investor, so I will be on the floor with Sophie. Seeing as Eliot cannot be used as a body guard, I guess he'll be with your team." Eliot could see the wheels turning in Nate's mind as he reworked the plan to accommodate all of the new twists. He wondered briefly, and not for the first time, if Nate were a mutant after all with some sort of mental power to control events. "I'm sure that Natasha will be trying to escape or be drugged. So we'll need two separate escape plans and two routs for each plan." He was mumbling to himself when Parker voiced Eliot's earlier thoughts.
"Are you sure you aren't a Mutant, Nate? I mean, your plans somehow bend the laws of nature to do fall exactly into your little plots!" Parker grinned.
"That would explain rather a lot." Sophie joked quietly.
Nat silenced the girls with a look and finally looked to Fury. "Alright. Parker and…Rogue and Shadow Cat will go in through the air ducts, Parker already found the shaft that will take them into the building from underground. I will keep an eye on Sophie, and watch for signs that her cover is blown," He turned to the woman he loved, "And I will try and figure out whatever tricks, if any, he starts playing…Eliot, I know you really just want to kick his ass right now, but I need you partnered with Clint. I take it from the 'Legolas' nickname that you're an archer?" At Clint's nod Nate continued with the plan.
At the end of his explanation, and a short rehash for Rogue and Remmy when they arrived, even Fury looked convinced that Nate's plan would actually work.
"How are you so sure that Loki will do what you need him to?" Fury asked.
"Because, Mr. Fury, this is what we do." Nate smiled slightly, his eyes narrowing momentarily. Fury's thoughts returned to what Parker had said, and wondered how to ask Xavier for confirmation that Nate was a mutant.
"A' leas' i' will be fun if all goes ta plan!" Said Remmy, his Cajun accent confusing and intriguing Parker. "Ma belle etoile;" He gripped Rogue's hip, earning a growl from Logan and a sigh from Rogue. "Ma Cher will take care, non?" He asked, his tone implying it as a command.
"Ah'll be fahn…swamp-rat." Rogue grinned shyly up at her boyfriend who grinned back.
Parker looked between the couple in confusion. "What did they just say?" She asked Eliot loudly.
Eliot shook his head and translated, "Ma belle etoile means 'My beautiful star' then he asked/told her to take care-be careful-and she said she'd be fine."
"Why did she call him a swamp-rat?" Parker's questions caused Eliot's face to become bright red.
"Because he's Cajun…from Louisiana…where there are a lot of swamps." He replied.
"Ooooh," Parker finally nodded. "I'm glad that your Southern accent isn't as hard to understand as hers is." Parker turned to Katherine and began asking for tips on how to control her powers. Eliot shook his head, his face in his signature 'there's something wrong with you' look he was constantly giving the blonde he now thought of as a younger sister.
The Avengers traded amused looks and the Leverage crew started walking towards the doors as Nate surmised the plan in five word, as usual, and in doing so made the goal seem that much more impossible; "Let's go steal a god!"
