After Tony checked them into a near by hotel (Loki using his Luke form) Loki had placed Sarah on the bed and cast a light sleep spell over her before sitting down with Tony, who quickly demanded an explanation. Loki gave in and told him everything he knew about Sarah and her team (leaving out Peter being Spiderman). About the Other world and the Order. Shadows and Personas. By the end of the explanation Tony had cleared the mini fridge and had ordered half a bar from room service.
"I was right. I was better off not knowing." Tony sighed as he glanced over at Sarah. "How much longer will she stay asleep?" He asked as he turned back to Loki. "Another hour at most. I can wake her now if you want." He offered. "No. Let her sleep." As much as his mind screamed at him not to trust Loki with Sarah Tony couldn't help but look at how long the two had been around each other. After all Loki had confessed to being Sarah's friend Luke Son and judging by the way Sarah had been holding onto him when Tony had found the two he doubted Sarah hadn't known it was Loki the whole time. "I knew it was Sarah who helped me when I passed out a while back but to hear about the other things she's been doing. I can't believe she hid all of that from us." Loki smirked at Tony a little. "As I recall Sarah wasn't the only one in that tower keeping everyone from finding out what she was up to." He was right. Tony had helped Sarah by lying to everyone or saying something to get them off the track they had been on. "So what made Sarah cry this time?" Tony needed to change the subject before his thoughts on it get out of hand. "I fear your friend the Captain may have gone to the Other world after seeing the state Sarah was in after learning the man her team had been trying to save was found dead the other morning." "Steve's gone to that world!?" Tony couldn't believe Steve would do something so stupid as that with out bringing back up. "Why didn't you tell Sarah the other night?" It was only because Loki hadn't given him reason to yet that Tony wasn't trying to attack him. "You saw how she was last night. Even if I had told her she was too lost in her own guilt to hear anything being said to her. Besides, by the time I found out the door to that world was gone. It didn't matter if I told her or not since she wouldn't have been able to reach that world until tonight. I would only have added to her pain thus most likely rendering her unable to go after him tonight." Tony leaned back and thought hard about everything. "So this door only appears at a set time in this ally near the docks and it stays there for a set time before vanishing? Am I right?" Loki nodded. "How long do you think Steve has in that world before he ends up like that Alban guy?" Loki thought for a moment before shrugging. "That's one thing Sarah and her group never figured out. Could be days, hours, who knows? They try to get to them before they've been in that world too long but the last time. They faced Shadows far stronger then they were use to. A Shadow isn't like a mortal. It takes far more power to defeat one Shadow then it would to best someone like you as you are now. But like with your team it seems Shadows come in many different power levels. And only those with Personas, like Sarah can take them down." Tony sighed, that wasn't what he had been hoping for. "I guess it more or less depends on the Captain. If there is something he is denying about him self he could find himself face to face with a Shadow of his very own." That made Tony worry. Given the time Steve grew up in Tony knew there was a lot of stuff Steve refused to talk about as well as things the guy would just push to the side. He was seeing a therapist in hopes of dealing with things like that but from what Tony had heard it was a slow process. "Just had to go it alone didn't you Steve. And you say I'm reckless." Tony sighed.
When Sarah woke up she barely even flinched at the site of Tony sitting with Loki. She went straight to working out how to save Steve before he ended up like Alban. "Yu is out of the question given his leg, as is Akihiko cause of his ribs. Peter is still good so he'll be able to come. Mitsuru may have to be called in to provide aid. Maybe Yosuke could help out as well." Sarah was pacing before the two men as she tried to plan out the rescue team. "Don't forget about the two machines Sarah." Loki reminded her. "Right, Aigis and Labrys. I'll bring them for sure. And Alice. With any luck she'll be able to track Steve down. Loki I want you there as well." "WHAT?" Tony couldn't believe she was asking him to go with her. "If Steve does have a Shadow Loki can move Steve to the safety of the shield the fairies create around Alice. Besides Loki has been to the other world so he is use to the effect it can have on the body." Though he wanted to argue back Tony could see why she wanted Loki there. Alice would have to focus on monitoring the battle as well as each person with them, and the rest of them would have to focus on the Shadows. Just like her mother. Sarah can talk a person into working with the devil if she so wanted to. Tony mused. "Loki go inform the team of what's happened as well as what is needed of each of them. If anyone argues tell them the matter is not up for debate." Loki gave a short nod before disappearing. "Anything I can do to help?" Tony asked. Sarah looked at him in though for a moment. "We could use better protection in that world. Got any armour we might be able to have?"
"What's this I heard about Captain America being in the Other world?" Mitsuru demanded. "Sorry guys but it seems for all the care we took trying to keep the world from finding out about this he still found out." "Ok, but what's he doing here?" Yosuke asked as he pointed at Tony. "Hey don't treat me like the bad guy here. After all you're the ones working with Loki." Tony pointed out before adding. "Besides I brought you guys these." Tony then began remove some chest armour from a bag. "Whoa? Where'd you get these?" Peter asked as he took note of the strength of the metal. "They were going to be parts for my suits but changes in plans made them junk to be melted down for something else. Good thing I never got around to it." "You can talk all you want later. Right now Steve's in there and we have no way of know if he's alone or not." Sarah growled at them. "I may not know the Captain as well as some of you but I think he at least would be able to ignore his Shadow for a while." Loki shrugged. "That depends on what it saids." Mitsuru pointed out. "Regardless we need to get to him. Aigis, Labrys are you both ready for this?" The two nodded to Sarah. "Alright then. Tony get back to the tower and figure out a way to keep the others from looking for Steve. Everyone else follow me." Sarah then lead her team, plus Loki through the door. Tony let out a heavy sigh. "Sarah I hope you're as good a leader in there as you appear to be out here." Tony then turned and started for his car, his mind turning over what he could say as a possible reason for Steve still being missing.
With her eyes shut Alice began scanning for Steve while the others waited close by. Loki leaned in a little and dropped his voice to a whisper. "This isn't your fault Sarah." Said person sighed before turning to him. "How is it not my fault? He had to have followed me here in order to find out about this place so it is my fault." She growled. "You can't help what other people do. That kind of power is beyond your reach." He does have a point. If it wasn't Steve it would've been Clint or Natasha. Maybe even Pepper. But that still doesn't forgive the fact that I didn't see him following me. That I wasn't careful enough. I can't let Steve down. I won't fail this time. "I've got a lock on him." Alice called, breaking Sarah of her thoughts. "He's in the same area Mr. Alban had been in and from what I can tell he's alone and unharmed." Everyone was able to breathe a little bit easier with that news. No Shadow Steve, no Order members, and he was safe. For now at least. "Alright let's get back to that area and get to him before anything else. Move!" Sarah ordered.
Steve was leaning against a stone column panting. He couldn't remember a time in his life when he felt as drained as he did right then. "How does Sarah spend hours in a place like this?" He wondered out loud. From the corner of his eye Steve could see four strange looking bird hovering just down the hall to his right. So far all the weird beasts had ignored him, even when he got within a few feet of them. He'd once thought about reaching out and touching the strange lion with a ball and chain but had stepped away from it quickly when he remembered that something in that place had killed a man. Taking a breath Steve pushed himself up right and started walking. He had barely reached the birds when a person appeared before him. They were male holding a large sword in their left hand and in the right a gun, which was pointed at the guy's own head. "Wai-" Steve called but was cut off when the guy suddenly shouted, "Trismegistus!" and pulled the trigger. But rather then his skull blowing up like it should've Steve watched as a strange looking man...beast? Steve wasn't sure what to call it but it appeared over the guy and with in seconds of it's appearance the bird were ignited and destroyed. "Ha! Still got it!" The guy cheered before turning and jumping at the site of Steve. The thing above him vanishing. "WHAO! Where the hell did you come from?" The guy asked. "I could as you the same question." The guy had to be in his early 20s, with dark almost blue hair and a goatee. "Fair enough I guess. Name's Junpei." The guy, Junpei held out his hand after putting away his gun. Steve took the offered hand. "Steve. What was that thing." Steve asked using his free hand to wave above Junpei. "Huh? Oh! That was my Persona." The way Junpei shrugged it off suggested to Steve that it wasn't the first time he'd used such a power before. Junpei glanced around himself before signing. "Man, Mitsuru and Akihiko weren't lying about this place. Hope we run into the fairies they told me about before we get in real trouble." For a second Steve had no idea what he was talking about. "Wait, do you mean Mitsuru Kirijo and Akihiko Sanada?" Junpei smiled at Steve. "Ah you've met them have ya? Been a while since I've seen either of them what with their jobs and all that but they called me up a while ago and left some information about this place and the things going on here. I tried to come sooner when I heard they were working with some chick called Sarah but that didn't work out how I'd hoped it would've." Steve was shocked. "You mean to tell me those two are in on this as well?" Junpei looked Steve over with a raised brow before something seemed to click in his head. "Shit! You aren't a part of their group are you? Oh man!" Sigh Junpei looked to the ground for a few minutes. "I guess it doesn't matter right now what you know. Main thing right now is getting out of here. Cause you sure ain't looking so hot. Come to think about it I'm getting a little tired myself." Junpei wiped some sweat from his brow before walking past Steve. "I might not know what way is out but if we stick together I'm sure we'll find it." With little other choice and a hope for more answers Steve followed Junpei.
"Wait!" Alice shouted to the team as she came to a dead stop and shut her eyes. Everyone waited in tense silence for Alice to finish what she was doing. Opening her eyes Alice appeared to be confused. "What's wrong?" Mitsuru asked. "It's Steve. I'm sensing someone with him but I can't tell who they are." Everyone looked at each other in confusion. "Loki did anyone get thrown in here before we arrived?" Peter asked. "If they did it wasn't through the door I know of." Was the answer. "So they weren't thrown in? Or they were just through a different door?" Yosuke asked. "Doesn't matter. We now have two people to save." Peter was clearly not in love with this idea. "Easy everyone, don't get yourselves overly worked up by this. Alice said this person is with Steve. As long as they stay together we can save them both. So let's just keep moving." Sarah didn't need her team freaking out over an extra person in that world. "Agreed. Let us return to our search." Aigis said. With a nod from everyone the team got back to work, the new armour from Tony working like a dream compared to the old armour they had.
"Tony where is Steve and more importantly where is Sarah?" Tony was being given the look from Pepper as the rest of the Avengers watched on to see what his answer would be. "Sarah's with friends and I'm not sure where the Capsicle is." Tony shrugged. "Tony don't lie to me!" Pepper growled, she had seen him leaving the lab with a bag full of something and just under and hour ago he returned with the bag empty. "I'm not lying." Clint and Natasha shared a look that Tony realized meant he wasn't fooling anyone so with a drawn out sigh Tony took a seat. "Alright, you win. I'll tell the truth." And Tony more or less told them everything. But he twisted as much of it as he could to make the story sound even less believable. Not that he needed to twist much of it.
"So Steve and Sarah along with some other people have gone to another world to fight these Shadows with Loki helping them?" Bruce summed up. "Yeah." Tony nodded looking as relieved as he could. "So Sarah's with friends then and Steve's most likely at his gym with his phone off." Clint sighed. "Tony if you're going to lie to me at least make it believable." Pepper sighed as she headed for the kitchen. Slowly the others left the room until it was just Tony left. He laughed as quietly as he could. "I think that was my best tale yet." He then got up and poured himself a drink.
Steve was trying to wrap his head around everything Junpei had told him. After continually asking for answers Junpei had broken down and told Steve the whole story of the events that happened to his group a few years back. "So then Sarah's going through the same thing?" Steve felt a little bad now. There he had been thinking Sarah was trying to be something she wasn't ready for but in truth she didn't have a choice in the matter. No, she did have a choice. Fight or let people die. Sarah had chosen the same choice Steve would had it been him. "Something like that yeah. But unlike my group Sarah's got some veterans working with her. Mitsuru and Akihiko from my team and some guys from Inaba who have also gone through something like this." Thinking back to the group Sarah had invited to the tower Steve realized that out of all those people only the soccer player and that Luke guy weren't on Sarah's team. And that meant Sarah had people she could trust watching her back in that world. "Sarah, I'm sorry I doubted you." Steve whispered.
Sarah had called a 5 minute break to let the team catch their breath and to let Alice scan for Steve and the unknown person with him. Mitsuru did a check of the teams items while Sarah cast a Media over the group. "Sarah we really need to find a place to replace the items we've used here. I only have a limited number of supplies back in our world left." Mitsuru said sadly. Thinking it over Sarah nodded. "I think I can ask Tony to ordered whatever we need from the shops you guys used. After all with the money he's got it shouldn't be too much for him to buy the stuff and get it to us with in 24 hours." Mitsuru nodded in agreement. "Steve and his new friend appeared to be fine and only a few more levels up. Luckily for us they appeared to have made it to the top floor. Which means we can relax a little with the knowledge that we're almost done here." Alice informed the team, causing them to cheer. Sarah knew she'd still have to answer him when the time came; but for now she was happy to hear that it was almost over. "Once all of you haven your second wind we'll wrap this up." Sarah instructed. "Will you need help in dealing with the after math?" Peter asked. "No. I'll deal with that on my own. But thanks." It was me that he followed, me who let him get away with it. Only fair that I'm the one who explains everything to him. Hang in there for just a little longer Steve. You'll be back in the tower soon. Sarah suddenly couldn't help the smile that spread on her face. I live in a tower with a bunch of people that more or less act like knights. God, I'm almost a princess! A small chuckle left her lips which the others just brushed off as Sarah being happy that they were going home soon with Steve and this mystery person.