Tony

"Tony, I really need you to sign these documents. And Nick's on line seven, he says it's urgent," Pepper struts into my office. It's one of those few days I've decided to actually make an appearance at Stark Industries, but it's not for the reason you might think.

Charlie's having Ryan over all day to 'work' on some stupid Mechanics project.

Work is a much safer place to be at the moment.

"How urgent?" I ask, still tinkering with the pen I've dissected. I'm currently trying to make it into an automatic sling shot, except the ink keeps getting in the way of everything. I'm kind of scared to remove it though. The last time I did Pepper's white blouse turned blue, and she told me some very choice words. All in all, I won't be removing it anytime soon.

"Urgent enough for Steve to appear in the waiting room," She tells me dryly. My eyebrows shoot up, and I finally look up at her.

"Capscicle is here?"

"Tony, play nice," She warns, dropping the [papers on my desk. "Talk to Nick while I show up Steve. And be quick about it," She snaps when I go back to tinkering. "Charlie and Ryan are making dinner for us."

"Oh joy," I mutter. "Is it poisoned?"

The looks she shoots me rivals the Black Death, so I shut-up and reach for the phone as she finally leaves the room. I toss the pen to a corner of my desk, before leaning back lazily on the comfy leather ofmy chair.

"Nicholas!" I say with perky fakeness into the phone once I'm comfortable. "You know my consulting hours are only every other Thursday between three and four."

"Cut the crap Tony," His voice is as monotonous as ever. "We have an issue."

"Yeah, uh, Is the old man lost or something? Pepper said he was in my lobby."

"He's there to bring you in. We have a current predicament."

"On a scale of Alien invasion, to Legolas loosing his arrows, where are we specifically?" I ask distractedly.

"Loki's escaped."

I blink for a second, my hands frozen, eyes wide. Then I let out a harking laugh. "Funny Nick. For a second there I thought you said that Loki escaped."

"This is not the time for jokes, Tony. Yesterday after Loki's apology speech was broadcasted, he was guided into a truck, and immediately driven back to SHIELD HQ. Somewhere along the way though, he must've got out. Thor can't find him, although he's still on Earth due to his magic being bound," Nick explains.

"I told you it was a stupid idea to let him give a public apology," I scowl. Great. Way to make this day suckier than before. Nick sighs.

"Just come in Tony," He clips, before the line cuts off. Just in time too. Pepper walks in with Steve.

"Hey Cap," I tell him, hiding my mood beneath a lazy smile.

"Tony," He gives me a stiff nod. "I hope the Director's informed you of our current situation."

"Yup. I told you it was a stupid decision."

"What happened?" Pepper asks, looking mildly concerned. Steve opens his mouth to reply, but I beat him too it.

"Loki's escaped."

"What?!" Pepper's eyes go comically wide. "How?

"We aren't sure yet, Ma'am," Steve smiles gently at her, making me want to be sick. "Fury's called us in to recollect him. HE can't have gone far due to his magic being bound, or something of the sort."

Pepper suddenly frowns. "Oh. I guess you'll miss dinner tonight then," She says. Immediately I perk up.

"Aw, gosh darn," I can't help the smile. "Too bad. We should probably get going though, eh Steve?" I ignore the pointed dirty look Pepper's giving me. Steve looks exasperrated, but rolls his eyes.

"Suit up, and get to base quickly. We'll meet yu there," He tells me, before turning and exiting the room with the stiffest back in the world. I watch in somewhat fascination.

"I swear he keeps a plank of wood under his shirt."

Pepper hits my arm. "Stop it Tony. Sign the papers and get going. I'm going to call Charlie," She mutters, before walking off, her StarkPhone calling JARVIS no doubt. I sigh and rub my temples.

I unlock my computer, the last file I was working on popping up. I look over my design again. I finished it two weeks ago, but I still tinker with it occasionally. It's a female form of my suit. Or more specifically, Charlie's female form of my suit.

I'm pretty sure I've lost my mind. I don't even really know why I've built it. I haven't told anybody. Even JARVIS has been set so that only in emergency situations, is he allowed to make the existence of it known. It's pretty much just been collecting dust in my shop.

It's been two and a half weeks since the Charlie/Loki drama. I still hate her, but something changed that day. I realized just how utterly damn defensless she is, especially with her lack of knowledge. And I realized, that if something happened to her, I'd feel bad.

I'm not all too sure why. I think it's because she's Pep's niece, and if something happened to her, Pepper would flip. In fact, I'm pretty sure that is why I built the suit. But everytime I close my eyes, I see the fear and shock on her face from when I shot the glass, and my stomach never ceases to twist itself into a pretzel of guilt and horror.

I close out the program, as well as a couple other ones I had open. I stand up slowly, stretching my back.

"Hey Jay, suit me up, will you?"

"Right away sir," His classy accent rings out. I spread my arms as he opens a compartment to one of my hidden closets, and when I open them again, my suit flies out and attaches to me, following the beckoning of the small sensors in my skin. My mask snaps into spot as the window opens.

The flight over is quick, and Pepper calls once to confirm that I won't make it. I try and fail to hide my enthusiasm from my voice. I might be worried about Charlie a bit now, but that doesn't mean I still don't find her as annoying as hell. Her little friends included. And it doesn't help that since everyone now knows she's staying with me, that she's been more open to inviting her friends over more often as well. Especially that Ryan kid.

I locate HQ in minutes, and am surprised to see Point Break, Cap, Bruce, and Nick all already outside. I land beside them.

"Party start early?" I question, a little confused as to why they're out here already. Thor gives me one of his solemn looks.

"Time is our enemy. But while it's short, it can be our Ally. My Brother cannot be far, but we must be quick in our search," His voice booms out. Bruce gives me a small smile.

"Tony."

"Bruce."

Nick clears his throat. "We caught sight of Loki up in Halifax, Canada. He appeared to be with some sort of human ally. Your job is to find him, bring him in, as well as his partner. It should be a uick job. Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton are awaiting you guys in the jet."

"No thanks Nick," I think I'll fly myself," I tell him, my helmet dropping low. He lets out a sigh.

"Just follow the protocal," He growls, before turning on his heel.

Steve adjusts his grip on his shield, before turning and leading the other two towards the landing platform. I run a quick check on everything, before blasting upwards.

"Set coordinantes for Halifax. Tell Pepper I should be home by ten. This is going to be an easy sucker,"I mutter as I readjust my fly patter slightly. JARVIS complies, and I switch the suit to an automatic setting.

I pull up the other's on my panel, to see they're several miles behind me. I'm tempted to slow the pace a bit, but then decide against it as I cross the Canadian border.

I would've made a different call, had I seen the bomb before it hit me.

I am so sorry. Life's been hectic, and if I'm honest with you guys, I don't know when I'll be able to update again. And please note, while this story is my backburner fic, I haven't been updating ANY of my fanfiction. I just haven't had any good inspiration lately, and I have a really heavy course load this semester. So I apologize for the inconvenience.

On a completely different note: So the action starts! This story won't go on much longer, probably between 5-10 chapters left, depending on how long I want to draw it out. Anyone have any ideas what's going to happen?