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 2
Approximately ten hours and six or seven drinks later, Tony was at a loss for ideas. He'd turned over the issue what seemed like hundreds of times in his head. He'd taken it apart mentally, like one of his inventions. Separated the motor into parts and checked each one to find the lose gear. But there wasn't a lose gear in the motor this time. It was just a shitty motor to begin with.
Fact was, while the Avengers couldn't act as an effective response team without having more members, he couldn't get more participation out of the current members without asking them to give up too much for the team. Thor and Natasha already had lives. He couldn't ask them to give up everything to act as dancing monkeys for Nick Fury's hero squad. And Bruceā¦Bruce took time off because he needed it to maintain control over himself. No one was benefitting from asking him to stick around more often. The Avengers didn't really provide a "stress-free environment" what with Tony's excessive playboy tendencies, two assassins, two gamma ray lab-rat supermen and a Norse god running around.
But above all that, they had to keep people safe. That was what they were there for. As much as he mocked Steve for his moral virgin hero act, Tony felt as indebted to the people as Captain did. Maybe more, because he was fueled by a partially-selfish need to pay back the debt he felt he owed humanity for spending most of his life creating weapons to destroy them.
Tony ran his hands over his mouth, eyes locked on the screen in front of him. For hours, he'd been replaying the briefing file Fury had given him months ago. Hulk, Hawk-Eye, Black Widow, Captain America, Thor, and Himself, suit dented with battle scrapes. The images played over the screen, each clip battling for his attention. There had to be an answer somewhere.
Someone tapped urgently on the glass window to the lab, and Tony shot up straight. He hadn't noticed how long he'd been leaning forward towards the screen until his muscles screamed in protest to the sudden movement. Clint stood with his hands on the glass, a bag of Cheese-Puffs in hand.
"Nice Band-Aid," Tony pressed the buzzer to unlock the door, pointing at the Iron Man Band-Aid covering a slice on Clint's cheekbone from the fight earlier. Tony made sure that the house was stocked with Band-Aids. Only the ones with him on it though. It was his house, after all.
Clint sauntered over to the screen, licking Cheese dust off of his fingers. He gestured to the screen loosely. "You still have these old things?" He leaned in closer on the clip of himself and Natasha, fighting back to back. "Want one?" Clint offered the bag to Tony, who tipped his drink in response. Clint shrugged, as if to say, your loss and dove his bruised fingers in for another handful.
The two men stood in silence for a few moments, watching the screen side by side. "So you're stuck, then?" Clint asked, sending Tony a sideways glance out of the corner of his eye.
"Hey now," Tony gestured at himself, eyebrows raised, "genius here. I'll fix it. You can't rush perfection, Barton and we all know I am perfect."
Clint chose to laugh instead of offering a response. Tony decided to take that as an agreement. "Man, how long have you been watching this stuff? Take a break before your brain fries," The S.H.I.E.L.D agent picked up the remote from the screen off of the table, where it'd been perched on top of a dirty wine glass. With a few clicks, he'd switched it to a news station. Hand still in the Cheese Puff bag, Clint took his leave, throwing a warning to not stay up to late over his shoulder to Tony.
No matter how long he locked himself in his lab, one of the team always came down to check on him. It was one of the nicer things about having the Avengers together, though Tony would never admit how much he liked that they cared enough to pop in and make sure he was okay.
The Billionaire leaned back in his chair, folding his fingers and resting the tip of his chin on them with a sigh. Fine, he'd watch the news. It wasn't like he was getting anywhere with this anyways. He folded his arms and sat back, watching the news broadcast report.
A picture of a swat team in some west coast area flashed on the screen, with a voice overlay of a woman relaying the facts of the event. The swat team was struggling to contain something that was moving too fast for the camera to catch. "Witnesses reported sightings of what is being called "Quick Silver" along the west coast. The species or nature of the recent sightings remains unknown, though police are trying their best to track what they believe may be another mutant sighting in Boston,"
Tony sighed. The outbreak of "superhuman individuals" was spreading. The Avengers were the most prominent due to their rescue of New York City, but groups like the Wrecking Crew and untrained individuals with powers they couldn't control were threating to make it a real issue. The police had tried to contain the mess where the Avengers couldn't but it was getting harder and harder every day.
"Franco County Police forces have chosen to expand their forces by calling in officers from other districts in the hopes that they can hold their own against these mysterious thefts-"
Tony paused as the clip ended and the shot returned to the Anchorman in the studio. "Wait, Jarvis. Rewind that, will you? Yeah right-stop. Right there."
Tony pressed play on the remote. "County Police forces have chosen to expand their forces by calling in-"
He rewound the clip again, "Chose to expand their forces by calling in-"
"Expand their forces-"
"Expand-"
That was it. That was fucking it. Tony let out a wild whoop, exalted after hours of careful consideration. He drew his hands against the holographic screen, emptying it of everything but his screensaver, and then swiped again, pulling up a web browser.
"Jarvis, call Fury and tell him that we need to talk." He let out another mad giggle. Oh, he was brilliant. He was so, so brilliant.
"No."
"But if you would just lis-"
"No. You swagger into my office every couple of months and waste my time rattling on about some stupid-ass idea that does nothing but cause me grief. Hell no."
"Can you just-"
"HELLL No. You've got two of my best agents, a Norse god, an overstressed rage monster that could level this whole city in a matter of days if you rub him the wrong way, that suit that I should have taken away from you years ago because the government is still on my ass about making that technology public, and the only successful super-soldier that S.H.I.E.L.D ever produced. You've got your little playhouse with your happy fun pals and ya'll laze around for weeks and then flounce out every few months or so and get in my way, undermine my orders and then wreck the city leave my agents to clean up after you and you want me to give you an unstable teenage mutant to train and add to that clusterfuck you call a team?" Fury was standing up now, the area around his eye patch turning purple with pent-up rage. His face was so close to Tony's that he could see the spit sitting on his bottom lip. "I repeat: HELL. NO."
It was safe to say that the meeting hadn't gone quite as Tony would have liked so far. He'd imagined that Fury would totally see the logic in his idea, and then there would be a nice press release, a party, maybe a parade, and they would find someone to add to the team and then suddenly the Avengers would be back to kicking ass. Not so. While it had taken Clint, Tony, and Steve about a half a day to nurse their bruised egos and get over their latest pathetic attempt at saving the city, Fury was still quite livid about the whole deal.
But the thing was that Tony had thought this out before he came in to talk to Fury. At least three members of the avengers were completely human and totally mortal. They were going to need someone young to hand the reins to at some point. Natasha and Clint weren't going to be much use when they were 90, right? This was going to be something they'd have to do eventually, right? Why not make that decision now, when Tony was capable of keeping up with a younger new team member and they desperately needed some extra help around? Plus, one more superhero on the Avengers was one less mutant causing destructive negative media for all of them.
He'd gotten up early, only had one glass of wine, and even picked up a coffee for Fury as a brib- uh, erm peace offering. Too bad the head of S.H.I.E.L.D had eaten a whole bowl of grumpy-oats for breakfast this morning and didn't want to hear it. But then again, when did Fury ever actually listen to what he wanted? Never. Except, of course when he was using Tony as a pawn to get to something else. Then he was all ears until everything blew up in their faces and he ran off with whatever he wanted out of the deal and disappeared until he needed Tony again. Come to think of it, why did he even come here? I don't even like Fury.
"What would you even do with a teenager, Stark? I shudder to think of the kinds of things you could teach a kid in a high-tech super tower with an alcohol supply that'd put any liquor store to shame,"
"Hey hey hey!" Tony poked a finger at Fury, casually withdrawing it quickly when Fury narrowed his eyes, "This isn't about me. It's about protecting people,"
"No, it's about you wanting fresh meat to torment me with, and I'll be damned if I give you access to S.H.I.E.L.D files so you can just do something we're both going to regret."
Tony sighed, deeply, like the long-suffering hero that he was. That's what he got for trying to play nice. Tony patted Fury on the cheek with mock affection. What Fury didn't know is that Tony could hack into his entire spy network at any given moment. He'd been trying to dodge a bullet by asking but obviously he was going to have to take things into his own hands here. "Okay, Patchy. Whatever, sorry to bother you," he smile sweetly at Fury.
Casually, he reached over to the coffee he'd placed next to Fury's computer when he'd first entered the room. "I'm taking my coffee back. No caffeine for Grumpasaurus Rex," he teased lightly. Leaving Fury stunned and more than a bit suspicious, Tony grabbed his briefcase and exited the room with a jaunty wave, leaving the tall black man to fall into his chair, holding his temples with a deep sigh. He was too busy being confused by how easy it was to get Tony to back down to notice the small probe crawling into the USB slot on the side of his computer.
Like Tony said, he could hack the mainframe any time he wanted to.
A/N: Yes! This is early because I have no patience. Thanks for my lovely beta LadyofMischefandDeduction and to you for reading. Chapter 3 should be out in a few days, and it introduces the OC, Rory, which is exciting, no? Reviews are mucho beuno c:
