Split Decision

"Sir?" J interrupted as Tony carefully trimmed his goatee. "Sergeant Barnes has settled in one location."

"About time. Where is he?"

"Sokovia."

He grumbled as he put his razor away. "How much am I into with Taz now, Jarvis?"

"Seven hundred and fifty thousand US dollars, Mr. Stark."

"Bastard has all the luck, uh, with gambling. We've really got to take him to Vegas." After sliding the shaving kit into its custom cubby, Tony turned and grabbed his tee shirt and slipped it on. He bounded out of his private apartment and headed down to his lab. "Let everyone know we've got our target. Looks like the Winter Soldier is still honorable deep down. Should make Cap happy."

"Indeed, Sir. Captain Rogers is displaying excessively good cheer over the news."

"Wonderful."

… …

Bruce looked up as Tony entered the lab. "Are we headed for Sokovia, then?"

"Looks like it." The others filed in behind the genius. "Just have to decide who 'we' is going to include."

"I'm going," Rogers told them. "No arguing."

"Fine, not a problem. But SHIELD doesn't have an agreement with this place, so we can't go charging in there as the Avengers. It's going to have to be a clandestine visit."

"I'd better stay home and hold down the fort. My other couldn't do clandestine if my life depended on it."

"Kara and I will go," Loki offered, drawing surprised looks. Loki rarely volunteered to put his wife in any kind of danger. He shrugged. "I have already built a slight rapport with the man, and Kara has proven her gifts can control him if a direct appeal from Captain Rogers fails. She's not his target; I much doubt Hydra knows enough about her to make it so."

"Makes sense," Tony agreed. "Okay, so Cap, Loki, Kara, and me…"

"Why you?" Hawkeye asked.

"Oh, I don't know…we'll be dealing with a lot of technology since Sokovia is the place where they're storing the energy weapons and I'm our tech expert, maybe?"

"Smartass."

"You started it, bird brain."

"That's enough from both of you." Bruce was really getting tired of people butting heads. It made him angsty. And feeling angsty led to feeling angry.

"What about our guests?" Natasha asked.

"You're not serious?" Tony asked with a grimace.

She frowned right back at him. "I'm serious that we shouldn't leave them alone here."

"They won't be alone, they'll have Dr. Banner," Loki pointed out. "I'm certain he can keep them from causing a ruckus in our absence."

"And if I can't, Darcy will. Besides, Nassar is here and he…"

"Is going with them," the doctor interrupted as he pushed through the small crowd. "I know the area and I speak the local dialects; all of them." Shrugging at the startled looks, he added "And I've accomplished more clandestine missions than the lot of you put together…ah, Mrs. Barton, excepted."

"Mrs. Barton; I think I like the sound of that."

Bruce bit back a chuckle as Natasha glared at her husband. "Don't even go there, Hawk."

"Yes, ma'am."

… …

Loki glanced back at the group in the main passenger area of the QJ. "Don't take your eyes off what you're doing, please." He snapped a glare at Rogers and returned to the instruments. "Things can change in a heartbeat; you don't want to miss anything."

"I'm well aware of that, Steven," he managed mildly – though intentionally using his full name to let Rogers know he didn't take kindly to being scolded by a human. "We do have skimmers and other flying vehicles in Asgard, you know."

"No, I didn't know. How come you didn't use any in the battle?"

"They're neither armored nor armed. Asgard does her best not to escalate warfare beyond that which requires armies to meet face to face, putting one's self within arm's reach of the enemy. It helps to keep the peace."

"Huh. Probably a good idea. Too bad we can't go back to that. There are too many governments that wouldn't honor it."

"Agreed; however, in the other realms, Asgard is the…eh, Kara? What phrase am I looking for?"

"The eight-hundred-pound gorilla," she supplied from somewhere behind him.

"Just so. Thank you, darling."

"That wouldn't work here."

Loki sighed. "So, I've been told, Steve. Repeatedly. Tis our good fortune that the Mad Titan did not have enough knowledge of life on Midgard to realize my plan was impractical." The soldier nodded agreement and checked the instruments once again. "Do you really believe I'd endanger Kara by having her on board if I could not fly this craft safely?"

"Huh? Oh, no. I'm just trying to distract myself, I guess."

"You fear that we shall not succeed in liberating your friend from his controllers."

"Pretty much. He just barely recognized me. Loki, we grew up together; he saved me from getting beat up all the time when I was still a sickly kid. Then after they gave me the serum we fought Nazis together. It's like he was my brother and he didn't really know me anymore."

The plaintive note in Roger's voice signaled just how deeply the soldier was affected. "Yet he saved your life when he had the opportunity to satisfy his directives and do otherwise. Somewhere deep inside he remembers."

A few moments of blessed silence passed before Loki glanced up to see earnest blue eyes focused on him. "Thanks, Loki."

"You are welcome, Steve." Yes, Heimdall was no doubt laughing his backside off at his foolishness; but it no longer mattered. These more than humans had become his friends. Shaking his head at the thought he peered out into the night at the bright lights in the distance that signaled their approach to a fairly large city. "We're almost there."

… …

"And I'm picking up a concentration of energy that can only be our tesseract-based weapons," Tony told them. "Huh; there's a lot more than I'd given SHIELD blame for building. What do you think, Lokes? Did they copy them and build more or did Fury manage to hide them from Jarvis?"

"The latter. Based on the sample I inspected, the tesseract needed to be present when they were activated."

He was going to have to tease J about missing them, then. "Ooookay. There's also a number of anomalous readings. The tech is similar, but the rate of decay in the energy indicates that the sources are a lot older than the weapons SHIELD built. I'm sending the display to the cockpit screens; take a look, would you?"

"Steve, take over." Loki sounded distracted as he studied the readings and then refined them before examining them in minute detail. "This is not good. It seems we have a few very old objects, likely of extraterrestrial origin."

"Oh-eight-fours," the Widow told them over the comm. "I've been following up with SHIELD's network. Apparently, Hydra raided the Fridge."

"Thor mentioned some of the traitors carried Chitauri weapons. Why would one put them in cold storage?" Loki asked.

"Not an actual refrigeration unit, Loki. It's a nickname Fury gave a secure storage unit that was to hold weapons and artifacts too dangerous to use until we could either launch them on a missile into the sun or find some safe way to use or destroy them here on Earth," she explained.

"I see," he returned with a frown that meant he didn't see at all. Tony bit back a chuckle. "Well, then; it seems this may be a bit more of a challenge than I anticipated. Be wary, all. If our enemy has found a way to use these artifacts, there is no telling what we might face." He glanced over his shoulder at the passenger cabin. "The universe is a dangerous place with much that is beyond your understanding…and in some cases, my own."

"That's not reassuring, Taz."

Loki shrugged. "T'was meant to be a warning, not a reassurance."

… …

Raj frowned as he pecked at his own tablet's controls. "There have been reports that some of the older artifacts have been used, and in one case, recovered. It gave the user the power of that Thor called a Berserk." He looked up in time to see Loki's shiver.

"Where is it now?" the god asked.

"Buried under the wreckage of the Triskelion, I imagine. It was locked away in a vault near the labs. The salvage team is largely composed of SHIELD loyalists who are aware of the potential dangers of items stored there."

Loki joined them in the back and Kara nudged him with her knee as he sat beside her. "Shouldn't we have someone there as well? I mean, someone from Asgard?"

"That's a good thought. Just having an Æsir on site to oversee the search would be reassuring."

"I'll discuss it with our visitors," Natasha's voice told them over the comm. "I can take one or two of them there while Hawk stays here with the rest."

"I'll take them. Brianna needs her mom," Clint's voice said.

"You just want to get out of diaper duty."

"I'm certain you'll come to a compromise," Raj told them, trying to keep his smirk out of his voice. "At least with all of our guests, there's no worries about the baby's safety."

"No joke," Clint agreed. "Anybody trying to pull anything here would be in for a nasty surprise."

… …

Signing off, Natasha headed for the observation lounge, leaving Clint to monitor communications. As she suspected, it was full of Asgardians and Ljósálfar. And one human baby…scratch that. Brianna was no more human than their guests. Her breath caught in her throat for a second at that thought before she dismissed it. Bree was healthy, happy, and had a large family – of sorts – who put her safety and happiness as their top priority. A tiny grin snuck out as she spotted the dusting of reddish curls tucked against a long fall of platinum hair. "Practicing, Nyvorlas?". The grin became noticeable to the others as Sif's eyes narrowed and her body tensed awaiting her lover's response.

"I wouldn't presume," he returned. "We've had no discussions in that regard whatsoever." Sif relaxed as she nodded agreement. "It so happens that other than Volstagg, I am the only one amongst us with any experience with infants. My elder siblings are nearly as prolific as my mother so there are always one or two about."

Volstagg looked up from where he was bent over a chessboard across from Bruce. "Aye, but babies are a…" he paused and glanced at the Álfar. Natasha silently dared him to say 'woman's responsibility' or some such. "…younger man's game. I no longer have the patience." He glanced down at himself. "Or a lap to hold them on," he finished with a guffaw so loud that Brianna's head lifted up and she turned to stare at the big man, a distinct frown on her tiny lips.

Those lips trembled and Natasha crossed the room and reached for her just as they opened and let out a wail. "It's okay, sweetie. The loud man didn't mean to wake you." She shot Volstagg a glare. "Did he?"

"No, my ladies, of course not." Despite his claim that he didn't have patience with them, his voice dropped to a soft, gentle tone. "Shall I send her back to sleep then?" he asked. "I do still manage a good lullaby." He reached out and Natasha frowned. "Trust me, my lady. We'll do just fine together, won't we, sweeting?" A large index finger stroked Brianna's cheek.

The baby stared at him and reached up for his finger. Natasha took that as a good sign and handed her over. "Okay, once she's dozing, we can put her in her crib so I can get back to work reviewing the latest Hydra intel that Olivia uploaded before…" she trailed off, thinking about the critically injured agent's condition before she was taken to Asgard. They'd heard nothing other than there were issues with her treatment – a bad sign. The latest messenger had only been able to tell them that Hill was out of the woods and that Fury was doing better than expected.

Hogun turned from where he'd been smirking at Volstagg's cooing. "Should I return to check on her?"

"No. We have too much on our plates here. I need you to be part of a team to keep an eye on what's found in the wreckage of the Triskelion. There were some artifacts temporarily stored there that Hydra would love to get its tentacles on. From the readings we're picking up from that base in Sokovia, Loki thinks they may have originated in Asgard or one of the outer realms." Hogun frowned at her.

"Actually," Nyvorlas interjected. "Sif and I would be better suited for that duty." He nodded at his fiancé. "She tells me that studying the records of missing weapons and other items that you might call 'artifacts' had become a pastime of hers. And I would easily recognize the energy of any such dangerous objects. We also have our own security team to enforce our collection of them and to protect the ones we've found while we search for others."

Two birds, one stone. They wouldn't need to call in help from another team. "Sounds good. I'm also going to send a Stark Industries employee or two with you. Stark generally gets called in on things like this – we can have Colonel Rhodes make an official request for it, and the ones I have in mind would be able to tell you the what areas of the wreckage you should concentrate on."

… …

Pepper looked up at the young woman and men that Tony had sent to her. "Okay, I have dossiers for each of you. They explain your job titles and pertinent details about the projects you've been working on for the past several years. Tony has been the only one handling them and doing so off-site, so there won't be any reason for the rest of our employees to recognize you."

The woman seemed to be the group's spokesperson. "Thank you, Mrs. Stark. We'll get these memorized and then destroyed, pronto."

"No need to destroy them. I prepared them in the format we use to report to the Board of Directors. If anyone asks, you had it to review for errors before we present them."

"Memorize, then. Wow. Mr. Stark said you were amazing. I guess I thought he was exaggerating because he was in love with you."

"You'll learn that Tony has a gift for understatement. Now, bank accounts. I've taken the libert…" she broke off as her phone rang and looked at the number. Punching the button she told them, "I have to take this. You can wait out in reception." Once the group closed her door behind them, she held the phone to her ear. "What's up, Natasha?" Frowning as she listened, she pulled up the quartet's S.H.I.E.L.D. records. "Okay, two of them had that kind of access. I'll send them up ASAP." Flicking on the speaker to reception, she asked the former S.H.I.E.L.D. technicians back in. "Sorry about that. Are you all ready to go to work?"

Laurel looked at the boys. "Sure. Where do you want us to start?"

"I need two of you, David and Ronald…"

"Um, ma'am?" one of the boys interrupted. "I'm Dave, he's Ronnie. It's kind of important." She stared hard at him. "You see, two of our friends that didn't get out, they were David and Ronald."

"Oh. I'm so sorry for your loss, Dave." Open foot, insert Manolo Blahnik pumps. "Dave and Ronnie. I understand you both had clearance for the labs where the recently collected artifacts were kept?"

"We did," Dave agreed as his friend nodded.

"We need you to go up to the Avengers' Observation Lounge and join the team that will be headed back to the Triskelion to oversee salvage in that area. Apparently, some of them are extremely dangerous and need to be removed from Earth as soon as can be managed."

Ronnie chuckled. "I don't think you'll need us to get into the lab."

Pepper tapped her pen on her desk. "Obviously. What we do need you for is to show our off-world guests where the lab was. We can't find it on the schematics that Agent Ramos provided just before the complex collapsed." The boy flushed…she couldn't help thinking about them as kids. If the oldest of them was more than twenty-five she'd give up her next four spa days.

"Gotcha. Sorry."

"Meanwhile Laurel and…" she glanced at the tablet screen, "Gary can work on getting apartments for all of you." She handed them each an envelope to which was clipped their SI badge. "These IDs will get you past the military without an Avenger having to pull rank. Inside the envelopes are credit cards and bank information. Give me your current credit and bank cards and we'll have any balances owed paid off, any funds you have in your personal accounts transferred and the accounts closed. While the Division used a holding company for payroll, we don't want to chance it." The four of them lost no time in pulling out wallets and handing over their cards, replacing them with the new ones. "What did you do with your Division IDs?"

"Cut them up and burned them," Laurel volunteered. "There's a crematorium, a half block down from my friend's gym. All of the employees were out gawking at the disaster scene, so I threw them in, closed it and then opened it after the cycle ran to make sure there was nothing identifiable left. Someone's loved one is going to have a few more ashes in the urn. Gross, I know, but practical."

Right. These were S.H.I.E.L.D. employees. There had to be a bit of ruthless in there somewhere. "Good. One less thing to worry about." She stood and they followed her out and down the hall to the elevator lobby. Jarvis had the doors open on the Executive Elevator by the time they arrived. "Gentlemen," she gestured for Ronnie and Dave to enter. "Jarvis will let you out at the proper floor. Good luck in your first assignment. Oh, and don't stare at the Álfar. He doesn't like it."

… …

"Álfar?" Ronnie asked.

They jumped as a voice came from the walls of the car. "The Ljósálfar are a race residing on one of the outer realms from Asgard. They resemble Tolkien's vision of Elves."

Dave swallowed. "Okay, thanks…uh, Jarvis?"

"Yes, sir. Might I add to Mrs. Stark's warning? Do not stare at Miss Darcy. Her fiancé, Dr. Banner does not like it."

"Dr. Banner?"

"He's talking about the Hulk, Dave."

"Oh. Okay. Uh, thanks. We'll do our level best not to stare at anyone."

… …

Ronnie looked around the room as they stepped off the elevator. A tall person with long white hair caught his eye even before a giant, bearded bulk of a man singing to a baby. The tall blonde turned and he could see that it was a guy…with pointy ears. Oh boy. He glanced at Dave who was, of course, staring, and elbowed him before walking towards the group. "Um, hi. Mrs. Stark sent us up. We're the technicians who know the location of the lab you're looking for. Well, what might be left of it, anyway."

The Álfar, at least he assumed, cocked an upswept eyebrow at them. "I expected someone older," he mused.

A brunette woman with an amazing rack laughed. "I expected someone geekier," she retorted.

He flushed. "Ma'am, we were…uh…" he trailed off as he realized he might not be supposed to say they'd been with the Division.

"What? S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't hire geeks?"

"Well, yeah, but we can't look like geeks or the muscle will beat the shit out of us," Dave chimed in.

"Got it. Darcy Lewis," she said, pointing to herself. "I'm the Avengers' social media director. This is Prince Nyvorlas and Lady Sif, they're the experts from Upstairs that will be going with you." A tall woman with long inky hair and dressed in leather nodded. "Um, who's going to fly the SI 'copter?" she asked as she turned to the off-world pair.

"No one." They looked up to where the voice had come from in time to see Agent Barton…well, former Agent Barton, dropping from a spot near the ceiling. "Coulson gave us the codes for a spare QJ stored in the city. He said Fury had it parked there right after the invasion in case we ever needed it."

Ronnie looked at Dave who shrugged. "Um, Phil Coulson?" he asked. "How could he tell anybody anything after the invasion?"

"Yeah, kid; Phil Coulson. Welcome to Level 7. He's alive."

"Hawk, you don't have authority…"

"Anybody with authority is either dead or Upstairs. If they're going to be handling oh-eight-fours, they need to have that clearance level, Nat."

"Good point. Want to toss a coin for it?"

These people were nuts, Ronnie decided as he watched the infamous Black Widow stroll over to the bearded giant and take the now dozing infant from him. "Nope," Hawkeye returned. "I'm flying. You'll stress too much over Bree's safety when you're away, even if I'm here with her. I'll be okay because I know that no one and no thing will get by you to hurt our baby, and you've got back-up that can kick any intruder's ass from here into next week while you're busy protecting her."

… …

Clint held his breath as Nat gave him her death glare and returned it with one of his own, just to let her know he was serious. "Fine," she muttered and headed towards the elevator with Bree. "I need to work on that data."

"Master Archer, might I suggest that you make use of Sir's Hulkbuster armor? It may be needed to move rubble."

"I'm too tall for it, Jarvis."

"Agreed, sir. However, I am capable of operating it on your behalf."

"Excellent. Just let Tony know. I don't want him getting on my ass about it."

"Already done, sir."

"Doc, you going to come with us? Uh, for the science stuff. If we've got the armor, that's all the muscle we'll need."

"Fine. Darce…"

"Yeah, I know. When you've gotta, you've gotta. I'll keep the bed warm."

Smothering a laugh, Clint looked anywhere other than the now blushing Banner. "Okay, kiddies, let's go. We'll take one of the cars to the QJ."

… …

Tony was staring at his tablet muttering something about 'his stuff' as they came in for a landing behind a warehouse. Kara shook her head and smothered a grin. "Problem?"

"Yeah, Jarvis gave Barton my Hulkbuster armor. My state of the art armor is going to be used to move rubble."

"Did you not use it for such at the Triskelion?" Loki asked.

"Yes. I used it. I hate…"

"Having anyone touch your stuff as much as being handed anything. We're aware. Kara, is there a cure of this OCD your books spoke of?"

"Not really. At least not one that we could get him to spend the time to undertake."

"I am not OCD," Tony claimed. "I just don't want people ruining my work and If I take stuff that's handed to me, I usually lose it."

"Of course."

"Ha!" Kara pointed at her husband. "You rolled your eyes. Don't ever again tell me you don't do that."

"I did no such thing."

"Yes, Loki, you did," Raj told him.

Loki treated them all to a long-suffering look. "Kara is an undue influence. I've never done it before."

Steve stood up and joined them in the cabin. "Okay, we all ready to do this?"

"Yep." Tony piped up. "I'm going to take to the sky and try out my new stealth tech."

"Don't you think you should test it somewhere else?" Steve asked.

"Nah, no time like the present."

"He means he's already tested it backwards and forwards and it's fine," Kara told them when both Raj and Steve shot Tony alarmed looks.

"You're with me," Raj told Steve. "You don't speak the language and you don't have anything to compensate for that. Loki and Kara can go together. Loki, can you make yourselves look like generic tourists? I know your all-speak takes care of the language barrier."

"I can. We'll keep that knowledge under wraps and claim to be lost newlyweds should we be questioned and perhaps use a few broken phrases of their language to get that idea across."

"Excellent. You all have the coordinates, let's get moving."

They stepped out of the QJ and the ramp closed. "See?" Tony crowed as they lost sight of it. "My stealth tech works perfectly."

"Unless someone walks into it," Steve muttered.

"Do you have anything to make people avoid the area?"

Loki frowned thoughtfully as he considered her question. "No, but I can make it look like something else is here. Stark, go ahead and turn it off." The QJ faded back into view…sort of.

"Oh my god, it looks like a garbage truck." Kara shook her head. "I think that will do it."

"Then let us go."

… …

Author's Notes: This one is just to get people in place for the next bits of action and to get my typing fingers working again. 2017 wasn't much better than 2016, but I can't wallow forever. Thank you for hanging in there.