AN: First off let me apologize for two reasons. The first is the long wait for this update. BUT I have a valid excuse. I left the country for two weeks during the holiday, during which I had no means to write, only arriving back home on the 4th of January. Since then, I have had a lot of difficulty with my internet, which was a problem, because I didn't know how to advance the end of this chapter so that it flows smoothly into the next. In order to do that, I had to watch the movie, which I couldn't because of my internet. Still, I feel really bad about making you guys wait for so long especially after the amazing response this story has gotten.
Which leads me to my second apology. In my last AN I said that this chapter would be filled with action. This... is not true. At all. It's more filler than anything really, and after rewatching the film, I decided that the first bit of real action (confrontation with Thor) is still so far off, I decided that in order to do it justice, it will have to get its own chapter. The reason for this is somewhat embarrassing, but Coulson just took over, no matter what I tried. Then I finally regained the rains of my writing, only to have them taken away by Ironman. So after all that, I was just left with the option of one gargantuan chapter, or to cut it off here, and do two decent ones. I decided for the latter.
Anyway, I hope that's enough groveling from me, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 4 – A call to Assemble
There was a silent tension in the Quinjet, only disturbed by the gentle hum of its engines, as they flew towards S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, the location of which still hadn't been disclosed to Steve and John.
The superhuman and the supersoldier were sitting next to each other, John looking bored and Steve appearing to be lost in his thoughts. Both expressions were only partially true though. Both men were tense, their bodies and minds ready to jump into action at any moment.
However, John was bored; Fury had simply said that a ride would be provided to HQ and that they would be debriefed during the flight. Meaning that it would still be a little while before he could do what he was best at: smashing things to bits.
Steve was deep in thought though. Not surprising really; he had learned only minutes ago that not only had Hydra's power-source and means of mass-destruction survived to this century just like he had, it was now in the hands of an actual god. Sure, John had told him about the Asgardians being real, but it only really hit him now. He had seen first-hand the damage the Tesseract could do in the hands of a mortal man, the thought of what a mythical god could do with it… Steve barely managed to suppress a violent shudder at the mere idea.
Sitting across from them was a middle-aged man in a non-descript suit with a friendly expression on his face. The man was utterly unremarkable in every way, appearing so forgettable and harmless, John had trouble remembering the man's face whenever he looked away; despite having sat in front of the man for the better part of twenty minutes.
The man's apparent harmlessness however was belied by the gun in his waistband, and the fact that he had the clearance to debrief both of them at once in a non-secure location. All of this told Steve and John that this particular agent was pretty high up in the chain of command in S.H.I.E.L.D.
Which gave his friendly expression something unsettling. Nobody that dangerous should be able to come across so non-threatening.
The smile on the man's face was clearly genuine though; the man had had a puppy-look in his eyes the moment he saw Steve, stumbling over his words and looking for all the world like a little schoolkid who just met his greatest hero. Something that was only reinforced when the agent, with an impressive blush on his face, asked Steve to sign his collection of Captain America cards.
John had laughed so hard he cracked some windows in the safe-house, while Steve's blushing and stammering neatly matched that of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. John's laughter had come to an abrupt hold though, when the spy whipped out another set of cards and held them up to John with a hopeful expression on his face.
They had needed to pick up a still laughing Steve off the floor in order to leave.
However after a few minutes of silence, during which neither man had said so much as a single word, the agent still looking awestruck at his two sets of signed cards, John had had enough.
"So, anything more you can tell us about this Loki, Coulson?"
John saw Steve look up from his brooding, while the agent blinked his eyes a couple of times, appearing to be caught off guard. However, the facial expression didn't fool John or Steve for even a second. You don't reach the age this guy had achieved in the world of spies by being caught off guard.
The agent cleared his throat before falling into the same business-like manner he had used during John's and Steve's debrief.
"The target Loki appeared in our world through what appeared to be a portal, created by the Tesseract. How this was possible, we don't know, though Dr. Selvig, who was studying the Tesseract at the time, said that the item itself was most likely responsible. The target then killed multiple agents on site, and appeared to take control of several others, including Selvig. We have also reason to assume Agent Barton is under his control as well."
At this Steve spoke up.
"Who is Barton?"
At the question, Coulson fell silent for a moment, before giving his friendly smile again. However, there was something lurking beneath the man's eyes, something different about the way he held himself, that had both superheroes noticeably tensing up.
"Agent Barton is also known as Hawkeye and is our most accomplished sniper. I am Agent Barton's handler."
While this in itself didn't really mean anything significant, the tone in which he said it was; it showed that the relation between Coulson and his ward was far closer than usual.
John simply swallowed, not showing any other sign of nervousness, before prompting Coulson to continue.
"Where is this Loki now?"
At this, the spy simply sighed.
"We don't know. We hope the Avengers can find out."
John turned up his nose at the answer.
"Sorry to burst your bubble Coulson, but I'm not really the tracking type."
Steve nodded in agreement.
"I have led only a handful of tracking missions, and most of them were me following the lead of another soldier."
Steve frowned, obviously trying to remember something.
"What was the guy's name? Some Canadian fellow, James, John, Jack? Something like that."
Ignoring Steve's musings, John leaned forwards, his arms resting on his knees. He stared Coulson straight in the eye, though to the man's credit, he didn't flinch, instead he simply kept on giving his friendly/unsettling smile.
"I assume this is where the rest of the Avengers come in?"
Seeing Coulson nod, John immediately continued.
"So what do we know about Loki? I mean, what do we know about the guy himself? When we find him, how do we beat him?"
Coulson frowned, apparently trying to order his thoughts before answering the question.
"The target is of Asgardian descent, though if the myths are to be believed he is actually a Frost Giant, adopted by Odin at a young age. As a result we are unsure as to his physical abilities, though previous interactions with the Asgardian Thor suggest that you are physically superior to him in every way. The Captain may be of similar if somewhat lesser strength, though Loki's durability is undoubtedly higher."
Pausing for a moment, Coulson frowned as he tapped a finger to his chin, appearing to be racking his brain for more information about the Prince of Lies. John barely withheld a snort; he had absolutely no doubt the spy had an entire mental file inside his head which he could access at will.
Every spy worth his salt had them, and as the conversation continued, John got the idea that Coulson was a very good spy. Not the James Bond kind of spy, sleeping with beautiful ladies and engaging in spectacular firefights on the top of a speeding train. No, Coulson was the spy who didn't need to have a firefight with his target: he would simply walk up to them, have a friendly conversation with the person in question, and walk away with all the answers he needed and his target none the wiser.
In short, Coulson was the spy you never saw coming, but who you'd invite to dinner without even questioning it.
The spy, unaware of John's internal musing picked up where he left off.
"The myths and on-hand witness accounts of the target taking control of several of our agents suggest that Loki is either capable of magic, or has really advanced technology. It could be either or both; Thor gave the impression that they are considered to be one and the same in Asgard. Though studies of his hammer have shown it to be what we consider to be magical."
In a world where Hancock had taken to the sky and throwing cars around on a daily basis for over eighty years had led to people taking the supernatural a lot more seriously than they otherwise might have had. This is why, when Coulson mentioned the possibility of Loki wielding magic, neither Steve nor John dismissed it out of hand.
"We don't know the extent of his magical abilities, though we do know that illusions are a large part of it, so be prepared for that. Interestingly enough, he didn't appear to use any of them on his arrival, instead using his superior physiology and knife throwing. As of yet, we don't know why this is the case. We also don't know what he wants with the Tesseract. It is almost invaluable as a power source, so he might use it to grant himself a boost in his abilities, though we don't have a clue as to how that would even work. Or, given the fact that the Tesseract brought him to our world, he might use it as a sort of gateway."
At this, Steve frowned in confusion and spoke up.
"A gateway? A gateway to where?"
Coulson let out another half-smile, though the super soldier could see the worry in the agent's eyes.
"Let's hope that we don't find out Captain."
As John walked across the deck of the ship he had to contain a snort of derision. Seriously? This was the way-too-top-secret base of S.H.I.E.L.D.? A fancy boat? Giving a sigh, John looked around for something to do. As soon as they had touched down, Coulson had excused himself and simply vanished without either Steve or John noticing, going off to do whatever it is spies do when they are being all mysterious-like. Privately, John suspected the Agent was putting his signed cards in the most secure location he could think of. Unfortunately, this left Steve and John stranded on the middle of the deck without their guide.
Seeing nothing of particular interest, John shrugged and walked over to where Steve stood shaking an intelligent looking man's hand. The man appeared to be very nervous, something that John found even odder when he noticed all the nearby S.H.I.E.L.D. flunkies giving the man nervous looks of their own. The oddity was explained though when John overheard Steve talking.
"Mr. Banner, a pleasure to meet you."
"Somehow, I really doubt that Captain. Though I appreciate the sentiment."
Ah, so this was the counterpart to the infamous Hulk. Looking at the shy man, John had to say that Mr. Banner didn't look like he was hiding a raging green behemoth under his skin. In fact, the man looked like he couldn't even harm a fly.
Then again, as John should know, looks could be deceiving.
As John got near the two men, he noticed a redheaded woman standing next to Banner. She was a beautiful woman, with long legs and a shapely body John glanced at appreciatively. However, the woman projected an aura of danger about her, more so than either the super soldier or the rage monster beside her.
Not even remotely close to his though.
"Ah, John. Meet Dr. Banner, better known as the Hulk.", Steve greeted John, placing a hand on Banner's shoulder.
The doctor looked uncomfortable, though John couldn't tell if it was because of the physical contact or the introduction.
'Probably both', John silently thought, as he shook the man's hand and smiled as non-threateningly as he could, recalling his pracitse sessions with Ray.
Apparently it worked, since Banner visibly relaxed after shaking John's hand.
"I'm glad to see that S.H.I.E.L.D. had the presence of mind to ensure that at least someone is capable of removing the Other Guy, should he make an appearance."
The redhead visibly bristled at the veiled insult at S.H.I.E.L.D., though the three men chose to simply ignore it. Compared to each of them, when it came to combat and destructive abilities, she was a non-threat.
"I'm very pleased to meet you Hancock; I am a fan of your work. You did a lot of good in a lot of countries who sorely needed it. I would also like to thank you for… you know… not teaming up with Ross to take me in.", Dr. Banner finished shyly.
John simply grinned at that.
"Don't mention it Doc, the guy was an asshole anyway."
Before Banner could recover from his stunned expression, Steve coughed before retaking control of the conversation.
"Right. Now, before we all go and insult the military leaders of our country any further, let's continue with the introductions shall we? John, meet Agent Romanov, also known as Black Widow."
The redhead held out a perfectly manicured hand, which John shook without a second of hesitation, inwardly grinning when he saw that this put the woman slightly off-guard. She clearly wasn't used to people being completely unafraid of her.
"A pleasure to meet you Hancock", Romanov said in a sultry voice, despite obviously not even trying to sound as such.
John snorted.
"I'm sure it is. Especially after our last meeting. I still can't stand too close to a toaster now, or I risk smashing something to bits out of reflex, you know."
"No, I did not, though rest assured, it shall be added to your file as soon as possible."
John had no idea wether the woman was joking or not, though he wouldn't put it past S.H.I.E.L.D. to have such a file on him. Romanov's expression didn't give anything away, not even changing in the slightest, though both Banner and Steve appeared confused.
"Last meeting? Toaster? John, you two know each other?", asked Steve.
"Budapest." "Budapest.", both John and Romanov answered, though neither broke eye-contact.
Steve looked at Banner, but the doctor appeared even more lost than the soldier did, so Steve simply sighed and turned back towards the spy and the superhuman. Before he could open his mouth however, the deck lurched underneath his feet.
Steve frowned.
"Is this a submarine?"
Agent Romanov spoke up, not taking her eyes of Hancock.
"Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to be a little hard to breath up here."
"Are we diving?", Banner asked in a nervous tone.
John could understand the man's hesitation. Unleashing a monster of destruction like the Hulk in a cramped space like a submarine would almost certainly lead to massive hull-damage. At the depths a submarine could go, the pressure alone would almost certainly kill the crew.
Apparently Steve picked up on this as well, because he turned to the doctor with a friendly expression on his face.
"Don't worry Doc, Hancock will keep you restrained should you lose control of yourself.", he said with a comforting voice.
At that point, Black Widow, who had lost her staring contest with John, spoke up again.
"There's no need for that gentlemen. We're not diving. We're going up."
The three men looked to each other in confusion, until a massive shudder ran through the deck. Slowly, four massive turbines rose up out of the water, churning it madly underneath them. Faster and faster they moved up, and John couldn't help but stare as the water fell away underneath them, until they were standing in, what John realized with a start, was a cloud.
"Okay, I'll give them that much; this is awesome.", John said in a awed voice.
He glanced at Steve, who looked equally gob smacked as he did, before they turned towards Agent Romanov. The redhead was already walking away from them, probably to the briefing room, her hips swaying in a hypnotizing manner.
"Come on then gentlemen," she threw over her shoulder with a casual smirk, "the Director is waiting."
As they walked across the grey hallways deeper into the bowels of S.H.I.E.L.D. to where John suspected their command centre was, the superhuman couldn't help but notice the glances their little group got from passing agents. Steve and he usually received awed looks, but both Agent Romanov and Dr. Banner received looks of poorly concealed fear.
John frowned at this. The looks Black Widow received were understandable; the assassin had earned her reputation after all. However, the looks Dr. Banner received were uncalled for, in John's opinion. Sure, he had no reason to fear the Doctor losing his temper and being confronted with his alter ego, a luxury only very few people were privy to. But still, had these men never heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Banner and the Hulk were not one and the same, but treating the former like a particularly unstable rabid animal was almost a guarantee for the emergence of the latter.
John snorted when a smartly dressed lady walked out of one of the hallways on their right, looked up, gave a particularly unflattering shriek upon spotting Dr. Banner, before slumping to the ground, unconscious.
Agent Romanov didn't even break her stride though, forcing the men to continue walking, or risk getting lost in the labyrinth that was the inside of the Helicarrier. John glanced at the Doctor from the corner of his eye, angered at what he saw. Bruce had not taken the fearful looks and somewhat hostile demeanor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel well, hunching further in on himself with each glare. The reaction of the feinting lady had clearly taken its toll though.
Dr. Banner looked absolutely miserable. It reminded himself way too much of the state he had been in before Ray had set him straight.
Falling back a little so he walked next to the gamma scientist, John nudged the man in the shoulder. Bruce glanced up startled at the sudden contact, looking at John much in the same way a rabbit would look at approaching headlights.
"Don't let them get to you. They don't know you, they only know the Other Guy. Which means that those looks aren't really directed at you but at him. And even then, you still got me watching your back. And Steve. And probably Nick too, though he probably won't admit it. You wouldn't be here otherwise.", John said reassuringly, trying to cheer the smaller man up.
A surprised look came across Bruce's face, before the scientist gave a small, tentative smile.
"Thank you, Hancock. I appreciate it. I really do.", the Doctor said softly.
John nodded firmly before looking ahead again, catching an approving nod from Steve out of the corner of his eye. Before John could react they finally arrived at their destination. At least, John thought this was the command station, what with the sea of screens scanning… things, he supposed.
"Welcome gentlemen. Glad you could make it."
Well, that and the ominous presence of Nick Fury turning away from the various screens and going-ons, focusing his eye on them. Next to him, Agent Coulson looked up from a report, gave a smile and a cheeky wave, before turning back to the file in his hands.
Before John could quip something, Steve quietly walked up to Fury, before grabbing a ten dollar bill out of his pocket to hand to the man. They shared a grin before Steve fell back with the rest of the group and spoke up, his voice serious and his stance that of a soldier awaiting orders.
"You sounded very urgent over the phone sir. It would appear that urgency was warranted if our debriefing was anything to go by."
Nick frowned, before stalking towards them.
"Urgent doesn't quite cover it Captain."
Having reached their little group, the Director simply pointed towards a nearby table.
"Sit."
Both Agent Romanov and Steve followed the order with the ingrained habits of soldiers, whereas Bruce obviously tried to do what he was told in order to avoid a confrontation. John though, simply looked at Fury with an expecting expression.
Fury stared back at him for several tense moments, before giving an explosive sigh and pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Please."
John grinned at the spy.
"Now, was that so hard?"
The answering glare had John in a seat within the second.
No matter how invulnerable you are, pissing of the Director of the greatest spy agency in the world was just a very dumb idea all around.
"Now that we are all seated, let's continue.", Fury ground out tersely.
"Our primary objective is retrieving the Tesseract. It is far too powerful to remain in the hands of a villain. This ties in nicely with our secondary objective; the apprehension of Loki. The third objective is to free the agents under Loki's control. At the moment, the location of all objectives is unknown, though we are sweeping everything that has a camera and a satellite connection for any sightings of Loki. He shows his face somewhere, we will know. Which means that we are forced to wait until he slips up, other than that, there's not much we can do from here. However, we do have the means to track our primary objective thanks to Dr. Banner here and his expertise on gamma radiation.", Fury said, inclining his head to Bruce.
The Doctor seemed relieved at the news that he had been selected for his intellect rather than for his… smashing.
"If all goes well, locating our primary objective will also lead us to the location of Loki and/or the location of the men he has under his control. Once we have Loki, we have a chance of getting our boys out from under his control, though he is believed to have made use of several unaffiliated mercenaries."
There was a small pause as everybody digested the news.
Then Steve spoke up.
"So how do we track the Tesseract? Do we have somewhere to begin looking, or –"
"I think I can shed some light on that.", a cocky voice interrupted him.
As one they turned to the entrance of the command centre, where a smartly dressed and groomed man was leaning against the doorframe, a smirk on his face. Seeing the gazes of the world's most powerful and dangerous people directed at him simultaneously, the man simply began to grin even wider.
"Tony Stark, and you're all at my service."
There was a stunned silence, before it was broken by the confused voice of Dr. Banner.
"I don't think the saying is supposed to go like that."
John leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, an amused expression on his face as he watched how Stark took over the entire meeting, completely sidelining the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. with one witty remark after the other, at one point gleefully pointing out that one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. flunkies was currently playing Galaga. It would seem he wasn't the only one who enjoyed tweaking Nick's nose.
Between the two of them, Nick had started to look the worse for wear, a muscle under his eye twitching madly, and his fingers creeping steadily towards the gun in his waistband. Coulson apparently couldn't decide between amusement because of the billionaire's antics, or dread for what actions the Director would resort to in order to put a stop to said antics.
Deciding to head off a potential bloodbath, seeing Steve getting increasingly frustrated with the man's upheaval of a serious meeting as well, John loudly cleared his throat.
Stark whirled around at the sound, peering intently at the superhuman, a grin growing on his face. John's hearing picked up the small sigh of relief from Agent Romanov when the playboy's attention shifted away from her. Hearing the muffled snort of Steve, John figured he had heard it as well.
By now, Stark was standing next to him, looking down at him with childish glee. John silently groaned and prepared for a headache. Sure, the billionaire was entertaining enough when he was harassing someone else, but when that someone else turned out to be you, the humor was quickly hard to find.
To be fair, John hadn't minded the help of Ironman when mopping up the various terrorist factions in the Middle-East, recognizing the drive for redemption in the man and respecting him for it. But up close and personal, Stark was simply too… excitable for John's tastes.
"Yes, Mr. Mystery Man? Finally decided to share your tantalizing secrets?", Stark leered down at him, fingers twitching with the need to be busy, to impose the whirling mind of Tony Stark on the world, by the creation of whatever technology the man could come up with, completely disregarding wether or not it's 50 years ahead of its time. Or even be possible in the first place.
John shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The elder Stark had been fascinated with him, and being part of the Scientific Strategic Reserve, had been present at some of the test performed on him. Apparently it had made an impression on the man, because for the rest of his life, Howard had begged John to let the man all but dissect him in pursuit of granting the human race the benefits of being whatever it was that Hancock was..
It appeared that the younger Stark had inherited the same inclinations, though he was more interested in weaponizing John's enormous strength. Naturally John had refused, causing a rift between the two men, though it had been somewhat mended during their stint of bringing world peace to earth.
John shifted again, before answering.
"No, I simply wanted to ask a question."
Stark simply raised his eyebrows, making a "go on" motion with his hand.
"Why are you here?"
Stark's face fell, mock-gasping and placing a hand over his hart.
"My God, if I didn't know better, than I would think that it sounds as if I am unwanted here!"
John simply inclined his head at the table behind Stark's back. The man turned around, and was met by the glares of both Steve and Agent Romanov, an irate Nick Fury, who was currently gently being manhandled by a softly murmuring Coulson in accepting a cup of coffee, and the red-faced agent who was at this moment most definitely not playing Galaga.
"Ah.", Stark said, swallowing uncomfortably.
John spoke up again, hiding his smirk.
"So, what are you doing here?"
Fury also added his two cents, having waved off Coulson after accepting the cup of coffee.
"I also would like an answer to that Mr. Stark. Especially since you were not, in fact, invited for this meeting."
At this Stark swelled up with pride.
"Why, I am here to help of course!"
A flat silence was his only response, causing the man to sigh in exasperation.
"And I wanted to meet Hancock.", the man admitted, muttering under his breath, though being in the presence of both superhumans and superspies, the comment was heard by all. As evident by the numerous smirks now present.
Fury simply sighed, before fixing Stark with a single-eyed glare.
"Well, now that you are here anyway, would you mind lending Dr. Banner a hand in setting up whatever it is he needs in order to track the Tesseract?"
Stark positively beamed.
"Of course!"
The man bounded over to his fellow scientist, who was looking very flustered being in close proximity to such an… excitable person.
"Just tell me what you need. I was thinking some spectrometers, by StarkTech of course, along with some generic scanners set to some wavelengths closest approaching the output of the Tesseract. Again, we are definetely using StarkTech, this shouldn't be a problem. After all, I built it."
Bruce simply opened and closed his mouth a few times like a fish out of water before closing it with an audible clap.
"Erhm, yes… yes, I was, ehh thinking the same thing. But we would still need an algor-"
"Yes! An algorithm is definitely the next step, otherwise we would be stuck doing calculations for ages! Well, you would, I would probably be done this afternoon. But an algorithm should rule out a few places indeed. Well, don't just sit there, come on, we have science to do!", Stark interrupted, almost physically pulling Bruce out of his chair.
"Oh, ehh… yes, well, that is to say… what?", the flustered Doctor managed to stammer, before he was suddenly on his feet and being pushed out of the command centre.
Fury let out another sigh, before turning towards the Black Widow.
"Agent Romanov, please escort Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark to the lab."
The spy was already moving to get up out of her seat when Stark's voice floated back to them.
"No need Director, I know the way!"
Fury visibly sagged in on himself, tiredly closing his eye.
"That's what worries me."
Coulson was already at his side with another cup of coffee.
There was hung an odd sort of silence around the table after Stark had left, his personality filling so much of the room it now seemed empty without him. The lull in activity was quickly shattered though, by a shout coming from one of the agents sitting at the screens.
"Sir!"
Fury turned towards the agent, giving a nod to indicate the man could speak.
"We got a hit sir, facial recognition is 79% match!"
There was a sudden flurry of activity on deck as the information was sent to the rest of the screens, who immediately began to try and find anything more. Fury's voice cut clear through the noise however.
"Do we have a location?"
The agent turned back to his screen, rattling off the relevant information.
"Yes sir! He's in Stuttgart, Germany, 28 Köningstrasse. He's not exactly hiding sir."
Fury nodded before turning back towards the table where John and Steve were still sitting.
"Captain."
Steve stood up, his posture strict.
"Hancock."
John got to his feet as well, his face set in a serious frown. The time for joking was over. He gave Fury a sharp nod, which was acknowledged by Fury's own.
"You're up."
AN: So, Coulson is awesome, and Stark arrives earlier on the scene than in canon, lured by the potential and mystery that is Hancock. Expect a chapter from his POV sometime soon. As you may or may not have noticed, I don't really like Black Widow. If you asked me why, I honestly couldn't tell you, her character just rubs me the wrong way. Don't worry, this won't turn into a bashing fic, she will simply be less gushed over than in almost every other Avengers fanfic out there.
Next time is the team's first meeting with Loki, and some characters' thoughts about their fellow characters. After we get that out of the way we can FINALLY get to the action. Until next time! :)
Fun Fact: Thanks to advances in motion capture technology Mark Ruffalo got to not only play Bruce Banner, but also the majority of Hulk's part. This marks the first time Banner and the Hulk were portrayed by the same person.