That night after a quiet dinner, the decision had been made that the Avengers were shipping out to New York. They had to prepare for the worst. So two assassins, one soldier, and one gamma radiation specialist left in a quinjet under the cover of the darkness.
As the team flew away, Tony gave a final wave from the rooftop and then shoved his hands in his pockets. He couldn't help but think of his favorite one-eyed director as he watched the quinjet fly away, the SHIELD logo reflecting off the lights from his home.
"JARVIS, how much does Nick Fury want my head on a plate right now?"
"You are currently number ten on SHIELD's Most Wanted Criminals list. Are congratulations in order?"
Tony made a face. How insulting. He had to be more of a threat than number ten .
Internally groaning and moaning about double digits, he moved to go back down to his workshop. He was staying behind with Loki. They still had some planet-hopping to get to.
He rubbed his neck as he descended the stairs, quite in tune with all the aches and pains of his body. If the rings under his eyes had anything to say for it, the only place he should have been at this hour was in his bed. But maybe he could get a few more hours of work in after coffee.
"It has been approximately 44 hours since you last slept, Sir."
"Nagging me, now?"
"Ms. Potts expressed her concern."
"Mm-hm." He leaned against the kitchen counter, tapping the coffee machine with his finger. With a few clicks and chimes it was soon brewing coffee to his wishes. "Pepper isn't here."
She was probably boarding her flight to Greece right now, settling into first class. The generosity of Tony Stark's bank account was endless.
"Before she left, she expressed her concerns by putting a ten hour lockdown on the workshop."
Tony's brow twitched in more than a little irritation. He slapped his palm to the coffee machine to stop the brewing cycle, having used a little more force than needed as he glared at the building around him.
"'She expressed it by putting a ten hour lockdown' - who owns this house, buddy?" he asked, annoyed.
"You do."
"And who gets to say when Tony Stark gets to work in his own goddamn workshop - No, wait, let me guess. I bet it's the guy named Tony Stark. "
"Sir."
"No, it's all right, J, just let this woman run my life. Hey, here's an idea: let's let her schedule my meals, too, since she's got sleeping down. Maybe she can set my calendar, dress me-"
"I was under the impression you used to pay her to do that."
"Shut up, JARVIS." Tony ran a hand over his face. Maybe he was tired. Maybe she was right.
Accepting defeat, Tony grumbled his whole way up the stairs, deciding he would never give Pepper administrator passwords again. She was probably smiling her pretty little head off about this at this very moment, sipping wine and going to Greece on his money. Maybe she meant the best, but micro-management was just as much of an enemy to Tony Stark as Amora was. Being sleep deprived only made him all the more ticked off about the situation.
Still, he knew Pepper wasn't going to be the only one on his case tonight. He had Loki to deal with, who would be wanting to leave soon. He could show up any moment demanding to depart, but Tony decided that he would just have to sit his pretty ass down and wait. There was one essentric billionaire who was going to take a long, hot shower and then go the fuck to sleep. If Loki thought he could stop that, he was in for a rude awakening.
The bathroom was full of steam by the time he was done showering. Toweling off just enough that he wouldn't soak the sheets, he abandoned any thought of clothes and fell into the soft mound of pillows and blankets that waited for him. If heaven was real, it was right here in his bed...
...Or maybe he was in hell, because the dreams he had must have clawed their way out of the fiery inferno itself.
First it was Afghanistan. It had been a while since he had dreamed of water boarding and caves, when the the hole in his chest had been brand new and powered by a goddamn car battery. He had odd thoughts of blue lights and a box that said he had a heart, but then he was back in the cave in a suit that was too heavy. Gunshots, running down dirt halls-
Don't waste your life. Yinsen.
Then the arc reactor was gone. The hole in his chest was empty, a man he trusted was betraying him. Thoughts of Pepper passed by and then he was on a roof, holding on for dear life. She pressed a button and an oversized arc reactor blew a brand new hole in his life where Obadiah Stane had been. The man had been nothing less than a father to him and he had killed him, killed him...
It was a rainy day at home in New York. Obadiah was alive again, a sad face on hisdoorstep in a grey city. Police officers were with him. Teenage Tony Stark was in his sweats and a worn MIT t-shirt and it was late, late at night. Something was wrong.
Son, I'm sorry , Obadiah was telling him, but none of it mattered.
There had been a car accident and Howard was gone, Mom was gone, and they had left their son behind raw and ragged and crying; he was actually crying. A car accident. A fucking car accident.
He heard cars piling up on the high way. Screeching tires on black top cried out and Iron Man was rocketing down to Earth, no longer seventeen, and he had all his fire power aimed for a crumpled form of blond and red on the ground. The sun was beating down on them. People were screaming. Tony was a mess of sweat and green eyes, throwing punches, trapped inside himself. The suit was firing off close-range projectiles. Thor wasn't moving. Why wasn't he moving?
Thor's face changed to Jane's. Tony screamed and nothing came out.
Then everything stopped. The heat of the sun was chased away by a cold that started on his brow and swept through his body, chasing out the images of the past. It wasn't long before he was just resting in the darkness, hovering in a comfortable place of sleep that he hadn't found in a very long time. But the images weren't kept at bay for long. They came swimming back through the black sea of sleep, flashes of familiar lights filling his mind.
"Mr. Stark." A woman.
The voice pulled him from the depths and he saw her sitting there at his workshop table, a perfect vision of health. She was actually sitting there, not lying cold on the surface, and she was smiling.
"Mr. Stark, can you hear me?"
Jane Foster watched him with kind patience, her hands folded in front of her. There was no blood and her eyes were clear of the tears he always imagined her with. She was just a scientist, alive and well, wearing white on white against the blues and chromes of his workshop.
"Sit."
He was moving at her offer, sitting like this was real. Like it was normal. They stared at each other from either side of the table.
"Ms. Foster-" he started.
"Jane."
"Jane." He tried to remember if he had even met her in real life. Maybe they had an exchanged an e-mail or two. He wasn't sure.
"Mr. Stark-"
"Tony." He offered. She smiled and he realized why Thor had been such an idiot about this girl.
"Tony." Brown eyes met his. "We have a lot to talk about."
"Do we?" He swallowed and forced himself to bring up reality. "You're dead, kid."
She laughed a little. "I'm aware. But I'm here now, aren't I?"
"It's just a dream."
"If you asked Thor, he would tell you that dreams mean more than we think they do."
Thor the optimist. Tony tipped a glass of scotch down his throat. He couldn't remember when he had gotten that either, but he didn't care. It tasted good.
"Pretend it isn't a dream." Jane suggested when her last comment didn't hit home. "If this wasn't a dream and it was just you and me, what would you say?"
Tony entertained the idea. Mulling over the thoughts in his mind - which felt so heavy, sluggish , not right - he decided on something to say.
"I'd tell you you're brilliant. Loved the paper on multi-dimensional rifts, by the way." She tilted her head in thanks. "You're too smart for Thor."
"He knows more than he lets on, Tony. Don't let him fool you."
One speculative brow rose. "I caught him trying to use a remote control as a phone, once."
Tony laughed a little. Jane did, too.
"Well, he figured out the toaster pretty quick." She looked at her hands, remembering something in fondness. "He used to text me while I was trying to sleep. Over and over and over, until Darcy took the phone away one day and told him to shove it."
"That phone is a masterpiece. I made it. Have you ever tried to design a cellphone to survive lightning? I don't think so." He leaned back, feeling drunk. He didn't think he was, but the softness of his vision said otherwise. When he went quiet for too long, Jane gently encouraged him to talk.
"Is that all, Tony?"
He took in a deep breath. It was just a dream, right? It didn't matter what he said.
"I'd say I'm sorry, I guess."
She waited for more, watching him. He shifted beneath her gaze.
"You got caught up in the crossfire. I... I fucked up."
"It wasn't you ."
"The fuck it wasn't." He wasn't ready for forgiveness. "You're over because I got played. Because I couldn't keep it in my pants and she got into my head."
He took another, long drink. The glass was endless and if he already felt drunk, what was stopping him from drinking more?
"Do you want me to forgive you?"
Yes. He wanted to be forgiven. But he didn't think he deserved it.
Don't waste your life, Yinsen had said.
"Nothing will bring you back."
Maybe he would never be worthy.
"You're right, Tony." Jane answered, voice flat. "I will be dead and you will do what you need to do. You'll build. You'll kill things."
He cringed. She really could go toe-to-toe with the best of them.
"We got caught up in a mess." She was leaning forward over the table, forcing him to pay attention. "But you got out of it alive. Don't waste that, Tony."
Again. Don't waste your life.
He put the glass down.
"If you want to make it up to me, bring Thor home. I'll forgive you if you do that." Her request was quiet, but it spoke volumes in the hollows of Tony's soul. "And he will forgive you. Don't worry."
His mind was clearer. He met her gaze and felt all his guilt, but a fire was filling his chest and burning it out.
"It's not about me, anymore," Jane was saying, "It's about Thor." She might have smiled at him. "It's about Loki, too."
Tony's eyes widened in surprise and question, but it was all ending as quickly as it had started. The workshop was gone in a wave of black and the real world hit him like he'd taken Cap's shield to the chest, leaving him sitting straight up in bed, wide-eyed with a cold sweat pouring down his face. He was breathing hard and the sheets were tangled about him, caught up in his fists.
"Stark."
Loki's voice pulled him further into reality and he saw him standing on the balcony, back to him. It was still night. Or maybe it was the next night. Had he really slept an entire day? How long had Loki been standing there?
Tony didn't respond, a little too caught up in himself to form a proper sentence. There was nothing to say anyway, and Loki seemed content to give him the quiet he needed. So he focused on making sense of his mind while the dream was still vivid. A part of him didn't want to lose anything he had dreamt.
You got out of it alive. Don't waste that, Tony.
He cursed under his breath and threw off the mess of sheets that tied him to his bed. He paid no mind to his nudity as he stumbled forward and pulled on a pair of sweats, carelessly tugging a shirt on afterwards. Tony Stark was no blushing maid. If Loki wanted to see it all, all he had to do was turn around.
It wasn't until after Tony was dressed that Loki spared him a glance over the shoulder, as if he was expecting a fully suited Iron Man to stand ready to travel. When he was met with far less than that, his gaze turned back to the night ocean, which was as black as the dark pools in his eyes. Tony noticed the moon's absence as he came out on the balcony, but the stars were flickering in both the sky and sea. For a last look, this was a pretty good one.
Tony leaned forward on the rails with his eyes on the heavens. Loki's remained focused on the black waters below.
"You've rested long enough, Stark. It is time we depart."
Tony nodded. He took in the smell of the ocean salt to clear his mind, breathing deep. He wished life could be simple. His blood pressure would do better without nightmares and visions, and that was without mentioning his habit of rocketing through the skies in a mechanized suit, taking down bad guys. If he had the opportunity, though, he knew he wouldn't give it up for anything.
"I want to ask you a question, first."
Loki glanced to him, offering his curiosity. A quiet moment passed.
"Are you doing this for Thor, or for yourself?"
It's about Thor , she had said.
Immediately, Loki's expression tensed. His answer came only after some time of thought, once he had turned his eyes back to the expanse of the Pacific. His jaw worked beneath closed lips.
"I act in my own interest." His words were well chosen and precisely spoken. "It is currently in my interests that Thor is returned to his natural state."
It's about Loki, too.
The answer didn't sit right with Tony. It nearly screamed bullshit over the the waves below.
"So you can kill him later, is that it?"
Loki's eyebrow twitched.
"You try my patience. What reason have you to care of my motives? Do not presume you are welcome to question them."
Tony just shrugged, looking back up to the stars. "It just seems like a lot of work for someone you just want to kill."
"Do not pretend to understand." Loki snapped. "I have turned oceans red in the name of Thor. Cities and legacies have toppled underneath my hand, all for him. I do this because it must be done. Because if Thor's blood will run, it will be by my hand. No other's."
Tony gave him a look, but he turned away at the glare he received in response. Surprise, surprise, he had pissed off Loki again. So he put his best self-preservation instincts to use and let the moment stretch, noting the constellations above to stave off the quiet. He began to drum the railing with his fingers. The idle beat filled the silence and eventually Loki watched his fingers tap the metal. It was the sign he was safe to talk again. Good thing, because a new thought was eating at his mind.
"All right." Tony gave him a sidelong glance, weighing the odds on whether he would survive or not. "One more question."
"You are like to lose your tongue, Man of Iron." Yeah, he had already figured that out.
"Well, if I don't ask now, I might not get the chance." That was the hard truth of being a super-hero. Every time he went to battle, death was there. He had faced it quite a few times and had only escaped by dumb luck and quick thinking. It had taught him to ask the questions on his mind before the battle, not after.
Loki waited with an expectant look and irritation. Tony considered his words one last time before he threw caution to the wind.
"What's with all the touching?" he asked, looking him straight in the eye. "The breathing down my freaking ear, all low tones and crazy seductive eyes. Asking why I trust you. I mean, you're sex on legs, Loki, but are you just fucking with me, or do you want to fuck me?"
He was painfully blatant. Nothing less could be expected from Tony Stark.
Loki gaze quickly shifted to surprise. He obviously hadn't expected the conversation to take such a drastic turn. Score one for Iron Man, Tony tallied, and zero for the Asgardian Prince. It was only when Loki's stare began to bore holes into the side of his face that those pale, thin lips curled in amusement. Even if Tony hadn't been able to see the sly grin, he would have been able to hear it.
"Does it trouble you?" A question was answered with a question and a cool hand predictably brushed up against his. "Are you appalled at my touch, Tony Stark? You've always reacted otherwise."
"I just don't get it." Tony said, letting his eyes wander down to the green ones he faced.
"What is there to 'get'?" Then there were hands on his hips, twisting him so that they were toe-to-toe with each other. "Have we not shared the same bed before?"
"Platonically." Tony pointed out quickly. He had the sudden thought that maybe Loki had lied to him about that.
Loki must have noticed, because the noncommittal hum he made in response didn't help ease Tony's worries. He was watching him shift under the revelation that maybe they had slept together, amusement glimmering in his green eyes. He was catching every minuscule expression that passed over Tony's face. When Loki decided to break the silence, it was a blessing.
"Why do you ask?"
Tony had to think carefully about his response. His eyes started to wander as he considered his answer, glancing over the layers of gleaming gold that Loki wore. He did his best to try and ignore the creeping thoughts of pale skin in the night, hot breath, bodies sliding between his sheets-
His eyes fell on a mended shoulder plate and his attention shifted, curiosity overriding any tangible response he had managed to string together.
"Is your shoulder healed?" He blurted out, expertly derailing the conversation. Good one, Tony.
Loki blinked in confusion, glancing down to the spot Tony's eyes were focused on. As smooth as ever, he nodded. If he was annoyed at his question being ignored, it didn't show.
"For the most part." He paused, thought, decided. "Would you like to see?"
Tony nodded. He didn't know why, but he did, and now Loki was pulling away and expertly unclasping buckles that Tony had only been able to cut through. His jacket fell to the ground in an unimpressive pile of green and black, followed by one piece of armor and then another. Before Tony knew it Loki was just down to the buckles of his breastplate, and that too was removed. It left him in a black tunic on black pants, strangely casual. His skin stood out against the night like snow on asphalt.
Then the shirt was gone too, discarded carelessly between them.
Well, shit.
Tony drank the sight in with one long look. He hadn't been lying. Loki was sex on legs, carved from alabaster like some Greek sex god. A Greek sex god that was standing on Tony Stark's freaking balcony like he owned the place. Maybe he did.
Tony forced his eyes to go to the wound on Loki's shoulder, ignoring the knowing smirk that was trained on him. Loki hadn't lied. The wound was looking pretty good, and that almost pissed Tony off. It shouldn't look this good this soon. What should be a mess of stitches and angry, red skin was just a purple-blue bruise around a silver, pocketed scar. It was a small indentation and nothing else. Damn Asgardians and their healing factors. They were just as bad as Steve.
"As if it hadn't happened."
Tony hummed his response and reached out, touching the bruise with care. He could hardly believe it, and now all he wanted to do was run tests on Loki that Steve wouldn't let him run on his serum enhanced body. Loki moved only lightly underneath the pressure.
"It still mends within." He warned.
Tony noted the injury and was a bit more gentle, but his focus was waning. His eyes were sweeping down Loki's chest, noting other silver scars and imagining what had happened. A man with an axe, maybe an arrow or two, an accident while brawling with a younger Thor... His hand bravely brushed over a scar on Loki's sternum.
Loki let him touch. Encouraged him, even. Moments blurred together and Tony was suddenly aware that he was dangerously distracted. He had to get it together.
Then there were lips pressed to his temple and he knew it was too late.
"Touch them." Warm breath danced across his face. Tony inhaled through his nose, letting himself be flooded with the smell of leather and clean skin. "Touch them all, Stark, I care not. But I expect recompense for your exploration."
"What do-"
Cool hands slipped underneath his shirt and Tony sucked in a breath, surprised. Fabric moved and suddenly foreign hands were tugging his shirt off his head, which was deposited among all the other clothes. Tony's bare chest was exposed to the night air and he felt it, but his immediate attention was on the pair of cool hands spread out on either side of the arc reactor.
"I, uh..."
Loki wasn't listening. He was looking at the device in his chest, hungering for the knowledge of it. The blue light washed up to touch his face, casting odd angles of shadow.
"It keeps you alive." he decided.
Tony swallowed. The cat was out of the bag; Loki knew the big secret.
"Magnet." he explained shortly, forgetting he should probably lie. "Metal shards in my chest. Keeps 'em from tearing through my heart."
"Hm." Loki traced a finger over the raised seam between flesh and metal.
Tony thought about reaching up and guiding his hand away, but then Loki was leaning down. There were lips on his collar bone, a hand slipping around to his lower back, and a tongue, and oh-
The night progressed far different than expected. Hungry hands explored the curves and folds of new bodies, nails biting into flesh the same as teeth. What remaining clothes they had were tossed haphazardly around the bed. Skin rubbed against skin, flesh rocked against flesh, and everything blurred together. It was a trainwreck. It was hot, it was dangerous, and it was everything Tony needed. It was everything Loki wanted.
Laying in post-coital glow, Tony stared up at his ceiling. Loki's arm was stretched out over his chest, his head on a neighboring pillow as his breath came and went at an easy, steady pace. He knew there were green eyes staring into his skull, but they were lazy at best. Whatever bloodlust that had once resided there was long gone.
Tony ran a hand through his hair. He wasn't the type of guy who got weird about taking someone to bed. His history was littered with nameless men and women who had filled his nights in the days before Iron Man, but this was different. This was Loki. Thor's brother, an enemy to Earth, and the poster boy for death and destruction and lies. He was a master manipulator - the master manipulator. His lies were weaved through history and Tony just couldn't get the thought out of his head that he had just been caught up in one.
He refused to be played again. Even if he and Loki went to hell and back together, Tony Stark would tear down the world before someone controlled him again.
"Do try not to think so hard." Loki propped himself up on one hand, elbow burrowing into his pillow. "You may hurt yourself."
Tony snorted, looking over to him.
"Shut it, Snow White." Loki's lips were a little red from their activities, so the nickname fit. "I just slept with SHIELD's number two most wanted magical asshole. I'm allowed to have a crisis."
"Word choice." Loki advised with an amused grin. Then, a frown brought his eyebrows together. "Number two ?"
"I'm number ten, so consider it a god damn compliment." Tony muttered. His tone was not without a little bit of bitterness, but Loki's finger was tracing the arc reactor again. The reservations were slipping away. He could get used to this.
Just when he was beginning to nod off beneath the comforting circles Loki was drawing, that soft voice interrupted the quiet.
"Do not sleep. We have things to tend to."
"I would have to agree, Sir."
Tony's eyes snapped open. Loki was looking up at the ceiling with idle interest, a single brow arched. JARVIS spoke again before Tony could mouth off at him.
"You have a call from Captain Rogers. I told him you were otherwise occupied, but he insists that it is urgent."
Loki's eyes traveled to Tony, expectant. The Avengers could have only just settled in.
"Fine. Put him through."
A pause. A chime to confirm the connection.
"Tony?" Steve's voice.
"Miss me already?" He asked, folding one arm behind his head. Loki kissed his neck with a wry smile. Bastard.
"Tony, they're here."
Loki's eyes snapped open and Tony was sitting up, untangling himself from his bedpartner. Steve was still talking.
"They're just outside our air space. Huge ships-"
"JARVIS, television."
"-just hovering. They haven't deployed forces."
Television screens flickered to life, displaying the news station broadcasts in a series of boxes. Images showed alien warships hanging in the highest level of the atmosphere like a predator lying in wake. They were the same horde that had invaded New York before; space whales and airborne chariots, all manned with snarling, hive-minded aliens. They were muted for the sake of the information Steve was rattling off and Tony was out of bed, stepping into a pair of pants. Loki, however, remained. His attention was intently tied to the images on the screen.
"How much time do we have? What are they waiting for?" Tony barked, looking back to the TV screens. JARVIS was projecting a live feed of civilian tweets.
"I don't know. They haven't made contact."
"They won't." There was a wash of green in his peripherals and then Loki was fully dressed, standing next to Tony with the scepter in hand. The horned helm had been brought out, including full battle armor. Shit. "Send your forces now. Do not delay. Attack while they are idle. Th- "
"What are they waiting for?" Tony snapped, pulling his shirt on. Loki shot him a glare that spoke volumes on his opinion of interruptions.
"What they wait for is their general, Stark. They wait for the one who has taken my place."
Silence over the comms.
Then it happened, and it happened fast. JARVIS' alarms all went off at once; red, flashing lights and sirens cut through the night and Tony cursed. He pulled his head through his shirt just in time to be met with blinding flood lights through his windows. Those definitely weren't part of his security systems.
Burst of blue light followed gunshots. An explosion rattled down far below them. A woman was laughing and the sillouhette of a huge man weilding an axe emerged through the flood lights, airborne. He flew from beyond and crashed through the windows; Loki cursed and pushed Tony out of the way, sending him to the floor with a million fragments of glass. He caught the man's enormous forearms in his hands like bulls locked at the horns, straining, and then the two disappeared in a flash of green. Tony fell hard on his side and a deafening crack rocked the foundation of his home.
He registered the world moving fast - moving down. The cliff face holding his mansion edge was sliding, breaking, and now Tony and everything he owned was falling with it.
They were attacking him in his own goddamn home. Trying to kill him in the wreckage.
The suit was already speeding his way, bursting through every wall and obstacle between him and the workshop. One gauntlet hit him first - his floor cracked and angled dangerously, sending him sliding straight for the ocean as he grabbed for anything to keep himself from falling - and then the leg braces and boots attached, clamping onto his calves. That was enough.
The rocket boosters initiated and he was streaking through the skies, half-suited. He caught a glimpse of Loki on a roof that wasn't falling into the Pacific, now in close combat with that huge maniac with an axe.
"You survived." A woman's voice rang out behind the bright lights that were now trained on him, blinding him without the mask. "But half a suit does you little favors, Iron Man."
Then there were gunshots and Tony dove down as quickly as he could, zig zagging to avoid plasma blasts. He could barely see through the wind, so when the chest plate came to him he was unprepared. It sent him into a barrel roll as it attached and stretched around his torso, catching and tearing on the shirt he wore. A plasma blast him him square in the back, but the suit had clamped shut. He managed to correct himself well enough before they started shooting again, and he continued to evade blindly though the night.
"JARVIS!" The wind whipped away his voice.
With only one gauntlet, his steering was impared. But when he righted himself he was like a star streaking through the sky, traveling up and up until he was back where he started, level with the attackers. Now out of the blinding flood lights, he could see his attackers: five alien sky chariots, all with weapons directly at him. The woman was Amora and she stood on the back of the center one, smiling sweetly.
Someone fired at him and he dodged, returning the gift with a well-aimed missle. They hadn't been expecting his suit to be functioning half-assembled, but now two chariots were on fire and corkscrewing down to the ocean below. Amora screamed something at him, but he was too busy aiming weapons at her face to hear it. He shot at her while she was still mid-sentence.
A flash of emerald and she was gone. Fucking magic. Her entourage immediately began to flee, but Tony picked them out of the skies, watching them fall from the skies like flies.
He was admiring his own handiwork when a yell from behind him rudely reminded him that the battle wasn't over. He turned to see the man with the axe get a good swing in on Loki, who narrowly missed. A few black hairs fell from his head.
He was flying in to help when the suit's helmet rocketed out from the ocean, leaving a trail of salt water in its wake as it traveled up. Tony met it with ease - "Late to the game, buddy." - and powered up a repulsor beam as he rocketed towards Loki and his hulking enemy. In seconds, he was skidding to a halt on the roof, his gloved hand held up and glowing as the face plate snapped down to join the rest of the suit.
"Hey, ugly!" Not his best insult, but the guy looked and that was all that mattered. Tony beaned him straight in the head with a bolt of pure, white energy with the biggest smile he could manage, sending the idiot flying off the edge of the roof. The axe clattered down somewhere in the distance.
When it was clear that the axe murderer wasn't getting back up, Loki straightened. He looked to Tony with nothing short of annoyance.
"I was handling that."
"Yeah, and getting a hair cut in the process." Tony snapped back, flipping up the face plate. He was still missing his other glove. "Who was that?"
"Skurge. Amora's personal body guard." He glanced to the skies. "I assume she fled."
Tony nodded. Only half-listening to JARVIS as the computer listed off the suit's specs, he looked down to his exposed arm and flexed his bare hand. One of the gauntlets must have gotten caught up in all the damage. That was just great.
"Well, if Skurge is fried, we have to get to the others." He shook his head. "I'll need to stop at the tower, first to-"
"Unnecessary." Loki thrust something out to him. "Here."
Tony stared at the offering. There was his missing glove, held firmly in Loki's hand.
"It was damaged."
"It doesn't look damaged." Tony said, taking it up for an inspection.
Loki watched him with mild annoyance. "Be grateful I retrieved it."
"But that guy just came out-"
"Do not question it." He was more annoyed now. "Your cities are under attack and you find it pertinent to insist on how I got this metal contraption? Magic is my tool, Stark. Take it and be grateful."
He was right. Now wasn't the time to fuss, even if this didn't feel right.
"Fine."
Tony took the gauntlet, fixing it on. Once it clicked into place with the arm piece the suit whirred in happy completion. Iron Man was in the game and ready to knock some skulls.
"Current battery levels and reserves are not sufficient enough to complete a flight from Malibu to New York City, S-"
A pale hand suddenly slammed the face plate down and Tony barked in protest, JARVIS glitched, and the world went black and green. All Tony could see was garbled sensor readings as Loki pulled him through a dimensional tear of green fire and magic.