"Damn it!" Natasha shouted in a sudden outburst. Not an hour ago they had lost Loki, the scepter and the tesseract and no one was doing anything about it. Everyone had retreated to the infirmary to examine any injuries, but all jumped a little when she shouted.
"You okay Nat?" Bruce asked.
She opted not to respond and instead glare at one of the beds. This wasn't anybody's fault, but she wanted to have someone to blame it on. They were way out of their league.
Steve came over and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "We'll do our best to stop what's coming."
She shook her head. "That's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried that we just gave Thanos the scepter and the tesseract. You know how powerful he'll be?"
Tony was quiet, while cleaning some cuts he got. "If he makes it to Earth, we probably won't be able to stop him."
"We won last time when Loki had them," Clint chimed in. Thor nodded his head. "That is true, but Loki was not nearly at his full strength."
"Not to mention, Thanos kicked my ass and he wasn't even actually here. Plus he's huge. It'll be much more difficult to stop him this time around," Natasha murmured.
"I'm sorry, are we all forgetting how we beat them last time? Oh right, the council shot a nuclear missile that I had to take into space where I almost died!" Tony exclaimed, agitated.
"Well we need a plan to get everything back," Natasha stated. "Any ideas?"
They all remained silent.
"Let's all eat and recharge quick, and maybe we can think of something." Steve suggested, though Natasha was fairly certain it was only to make sure she didn't lose it.
"No," she replied. "I'm sorry, but we can do that after or while we make a plan."
"Alright," Steve leaned back. "I'm starting to think you have a plan already, so you take point on this."
"What did you have in mind?" Bruce asked.
She ran out of the room and came back with a notepad. She started to write as she talked. "You probably won't like this, but it's what I've got. So we're concerned about another attack right? We call Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D, put them on alert. Bruce and Clint, you stay here and be ready to fight or assist our agents and first responders in anyway possible. The rest of us well, we go to Thanos before he comes to us and at least get Loki and the rest of what we need back."
Her plan was met with wide eyes and gaping mouths. She stood her ground anyway, raising an eyebrow as if to challenge someone to object.
"I like my part of the plan," Bruce spoke quietly. "And alerting S.H.I.E.L.D is smart too-"
"As long as we don't tell them about how we've had Loki all this time," Natasha finished.
"All we would need is a spaceship," Thor said. "Stark, do you think you could juice up one of the quinjets to be suitable for space?"
Tony was focused now, drawn in to the insanity of this plan. "I don't know. I think so, but it will take time."
Time wasn't something they really had. "What if we had all hands on deck?" she asked.
"If we work round the clock? Late tonight at the earliest."
"Perfect," she smiled genuinely, then turned to her last two teammates.
"Steve? Clint? You guys in or out?"
"Can't say I'm thrilled about going to space, but I'm in," Steve replied without hesitation. Clint sighed. "If this is that important to you, it's important to me. Besides, I think I have quite a few broken bridges to try and rebuild with you."
Smirking, she gave Clint a hug. She finally felt like she had her best friend back.
"Let's get to work people!" Tony shouted while ushering everyone into his lab, "We have a lot of stuff to get done in a short amount of time."
Clint went to get a jet and place it on the landing pad of the Avengers Tower. Natasha was tasked with calling Fury, while the rest of them moved equipment from the lab to the landing where the jet was.
"Okay everybody, back away from the jet. JARVIS, activate House Party protocol."
"Right away sir."
In an instant, an army of different Iron man suits came flying in from the south. Each one with a different look and capabilities. "Very impressive Stark," Thor commended. Tony clapped his hands twice, and gave out orders.
"Okay," Tony gestured to half of the suits. "You guys need to plate the whole jet. I don't want a single piece of metal exposed, got it?" The suits branched off, each unfolding from their original shape and stature, and covering the entire exterior of the jet. "You three! I want you in the engines. If we're going to space, we'll need full power. "The rest of you are going to stay here and stay on alert in case Thanos comes. You answer to JARVIS or worst case scenario, Nick Fury while I'm gone. If Thanos shows up here I want constant updates, understood? Good. Break!" The remaining suits filed into the tower to await further instructions.
Bruce and Steve were absolutely wowed by the technology that Stark had created, and even more impressed by the efficiency and speed in which this enormous task was completed. They had a spaceship. Now off of the phone after successfully alerting Fury, Natasha went to go see what else the boys needed help with. Her jaw dropped when, on her way out she saw what easily could've been twenty Iron man suits standing at attention inside the lounge. Even more surprising, was the sleek gold and red quinjet- well, spaceship now, that was finished.
"Well that didn't take long."
"Don't sound too optimistic yet Nat," Tony said. He grabbed a bunch of tools, and walked with her towards the ship. "There's still quite a bit of rewiring I have to do before it's go time."
Everyone followed Tony onto the ship. "How can we help?" Clint asked. Tony popped the casing off of the pilots steering and dashboard. "Thor, Clint and Steve take all the unused equipment back to my lab." They left as soon as they knew their part of the plan. "Bruce you can help me speed up the rewiring process, plus we'll need to add a space navigation system. Natasha, suit up. Tell the others to suit up as well once they're finished."
Natasha turned to exit the ship, but Tony stopped her. "And maybe try to figure out where they took Loki." She swallowed thickly, and gave a curt nod before she dashed off the ship.
With Steve, Thor, Natasha, and Tony suited up, they bid a quick farewell to Bruce, Clint and Fury, who had arrived just moments before they were about to takeoff.
"You come back in one piece now," Fury said, his one eye twinkling as he smiled at Natasha. "Let me know what its like, and get those objects back here." In an unusual moment of kindness, he pulled her into a hug. "I'm proud of you."
Clint handed her a duffle bag. "Food for the trip. Who knows how long you'll be. Stay safe, and stay sharp." She smiled, "Always."
The three left behind watched as the loading dock of the ship closed and they blasted off into the atmosphere.
Tony and Natasha were seated in the pilots seats, Thor and Steve seated in the back two seats.
"Can't say I'm too fond of the view," Stark joked. "Fear not, I vow to not let you almost die on this trip," Thor declared.
"So do we have any idea where we're actually going?" Steve said.
"Sorta."
"Sorta?" Steve asked incredulously.
"Thor knows the general area of space where Thanos has been rumored to keep his home base, and Natasha has kind of seen the planet from Loki's dream remember?" Tony explained. "So we have a very vague idea of where they may or may not be."
"Wonderful," Steve grumbled.
As he slowly gained consciousness, his heart started racing. It took him a minute to open his eyes, and he was understandably disoriented when he did. He was back in his cell that Thanos kept him in from before. Loki did what he had to do to keep people safe from both himself and Thanos, but was beginning to question his judgement and regret his decision when Cull Obsidian slammed the cell door open, revealing two Chitauri. Loki took a deep breath before they dragged him out of his cell, back to the place he feared most in all the galaxy.
Titan.
"Thanos and the Chitauri have been known to frequent this section of space. They wouldn't be on any heavily populated planets, unless it was occupied by Chitauri," Thor said as he input the general coordinates into their navigation system. "You follow this path, and we'll be much closer to finding Loki."
"Alright boys," Natasha warned, "you might want to buckle up, cause were jumping into hyperdrive in three, two, one!" Her and Tony simultaneously pushed forward on their controls, and jumped into an entirely different part of the galaxy.
"Oh God," everyone who hadn't been to space before groaned, "I think I'm gonna be sick."
Once everyone had settled, Thor walked over and put a hand on Natasha's shoulder. "You're up. Any clues you remember can be helpful."
"Got it."
Natasha could feel the gears in her brain turning. What did she know about the place that Loki was kept ? Not much. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, losing herself in what she remembered about the dream. Abruptly she asked, "Is it me or is it unbearably hot in here?" She pulled at the neckline of her catsuit.
Tony looked at her warily. If anything, the interior of the ship was barely room temperature. Steve got up from his seat. "Are you okay Nat?"
"Yeah... yeah I'm fine. I just got a hot flash, that's all."
"Natasha," Thor began in a serious tone, "Loki is a Frost Giant. Is the planet he's on hot? Did the planet you saw seem hot?"
Thinking on it, Natasha bit the inside of her cheek. "There weren't any plants or anything. Plus the sky was the color of sunsets on Earth! Orange, red and a little bit of purple."
"Titan," Thor stated urgently. "Thanos is from Titan so it makes sense that the Black Order would go back there."
"Point Break, input the coordinates." Tony urged, "We want to get there as quickly as possible."
Putting autopilot on, Natasha sat back. Why did she get so hot?
A/n: I saw Endgame again and it was SO good. I will never get tired of watching that movie. Anyways I'm being pretty good at trying to pound out these chapters. Two updates in three days is practically unheard of from me haha. Next chapter should hopefully be up tomorrow, or by the end of the week at the latest. Don't forget to R+R and #Don'tSpoilTheEndgame