Funny fact: For some reason, I wouldn't stop typing 'Brunce' instead of 'Bruce' so if you see a 'Brunce' on this chapter I'm so sorry haha!
Holy crap, longest chapter ever!
Transcript by 'archangelraphaelsdaughter' and movie belongs to Marvel!
Emma Reneé Evans, aged thirty-two, was fuming.
She had just finished talking with Tony over the phone, her daughter's father that stupidly took their ten-year-old on a dangerous mission that involves Norse Gods and a cube filled with energy that could destroy a country was very sorry that Primrose was in that damn Helicarrier with him – and Emma did hear the regret on his voice – but that he had no choice and he assured her that the mission was going well.
Emma didn't care. Her daughter was somewhere in the sky, above the ocean, on a top-secret mission surrounded by dangerous people, including Bruce Banner himself. Emma didn't hate Dr. Bruce Banner, she knew he wasn't a bad person, but she also knew what type of monster he had inside, ready to come out at the slightest provocation.
And that made Emma extremely anxious.
Tony had passed the phone over to Primrose, and the little girl had happily told her about how excited she was to be on an air-ship and that Fury looked like a pirate for real. Her daughter's innocence could mean that nothing terrible had happened, yet. Emma told Primrose that she was on her way back to New York City and that she was going to return as well. Before the little girl could retort, her dad interrupted her and agreed at once.
When the phone call was over, Emma called Rhodey. They have been texting and talking with each other more often, it all started after Tony's disastrous birthday party three years ago and their friendship had solidified beyond how they used to be around each other.
The two talked, Emma asked if he could help her with Primrose, but Rhodey regretfully informed her that he was on his way to Hong Kong to fight against Ten Rings allies. That worried her, he was going on his own? Rhodey told her that War Machine had this, making her laugh. The two have been growing closer to the point of flirting.
May 4th
Early Morning
Primrose yawned while her head rested against one of the desks inside the laboratory her dad and Dr. Banner were at. Tony had told her to go to sleep but she refused to, she already slept last night after meeting the rest of the team but her dad told her she didn't sleep, she only napped for four hours. But still, she refused to go to bed because she wanted to be part of the mission as well, although she didn't tell her dad that, she wanted to feel important.
He gave up telling her to go to bed since she had his stubbornness.
She watched as Dr. Bruce held a scanner in hand, drawing over the length of the scepter, its image relayed to the screen and he attempted to maintain the view of as he operated the device. He adjusted the drape of the cord that connected it to the computer resting on the surface of the bench he was working on so that it did not hand off the blade of the weapon.
"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract," the Doctor stated as the clear display depicted the scan beneath an expanded view of the gem set at its head, as well as the Cube, "But it's going to take weeks to process."
"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster," her dad began from across the corner that held three computers analyzing the data provided, as well with touchscreens that he was working with. Primrose keenly noticed that the large base that was connected with three thick cords to SHIELD's mainframe had a background sporting the 'Stark Industries' logo as her dad entered the desired specifications and ran the computer, "we can clock this around six-hundred teraflops," he informed.
Bruce chuckled at the technology he had brought with him, "All I packed was a toothbrush," he remarked.
Primrose chuckled at him, "I didn't even bring one, Dr. Banner, so you're doing better than me," that comment earned a smile from Bruce.
"I told you to bring essentials," Tony quickly lied, making Primrose give him a look as he crossed the area, "You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime," he offered to the doctor, unconcernedly lifting a slim prod from one of the tables he passed by, he fiddled with it as he coaxed, "Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it – it's candy land."
"Yeah, Dr. Banner! My dad has a lot of workshops and labs you'd love!" Primrose said, lifting her head from the desk as she offered a friendly smile. Tony nodded, agreeing with his daughter.
Bruce looked between the two Starks, "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke Harlem," he declined with a glance down as Tony circled around to his side before the two focused on the display of readings.
"Well, I promise a stress-free environment," her dad continued, moving behind Dr. Banner to his other side, "No tension, no surprises," he said as he suddenly jabbed him on the side, startling Primrose when the zap of the electric discharge briefly sounded as Bruce yelped an 'ow!'.
"Daddy!" Primrose scolded urgently as Tony narrowed his eyes, leaning closer as Bruce met his gaze while holding his side.
At the same time, Steve walked inside and glared at him, "Hey!" as her dad wondered a small 'nothing?' at the lack of any shade of green in the other's irises, "Are you nuts?!"
"Jury's out," Tony quipped towards the Captain to Bruce's laughter as the other turned back to the computer.
Primrose watched them with a tense expression, now that Steve was here she became quiet. She didn't know how to act around him yet.
Tony turned back to Bruce, ignoring Steve, "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums," he leaned closer to that his daughter couldn't hear him, "...huge bag of weed?" he questioned in admiration.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked angrily.
"Funny things are," her dad replied with a gesture of the prod.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny, especially when you have your daughter in the same room," he cast a glance towards Bruce, "No offense, Doc," he added.
"A-Ah, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle," he looked at the eccentric billionaire at his side, "...pointy things."
Tony smirked and breathed out a chuckle as he stepped away, stating, "And if I knew that Dr. Banner here could change into a beautiful green monster full of rage at the slightest of pinch I wouldn't have done it," he gave Steve an odd look, Primrose didn't know if it was of teasing or hatred, "You're tip-toeing, big man – you need to strut."
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve inserted.
"You think I'm not?" Tony questioned. He turned to pose to him, grabbing a bag of blueberries from a desk, "Why did Fury call us in? Why now – why not before? What isn't he telling us?" At the three gazes fixed on him, he finished logically, "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
Primrose tried to think of an answer to that, but Steve replied first.
"You think Fury's hiding something?" the blonde's brow furrowed as he voiced his thought.
"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets," Tony declared as he tossed a couple of berries into his mouth, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?" he asked, turning to face the doctor who had resumed working.
"Aah," Bruce dithered, glancing between them with wide eyes before looking down again, reminding Primrose of a startled puppy, "I just want to finish my work here, and–"
"Doctor?" Steve prompted, interrupting him.
Bruce cast his eyes to Tony before sighing, sending a glance towards Steve before removing his glasses, "A-A warm night for all mankind – Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube–"
"I heard it," the Captain nodded.
"I didn't," Primrose inputted, receiving a look from her dad to keep silent.
Bruce looked at her before stating, "Well, I think that was meant for you," he said with a point at Tony as he turned his head to face him. Her dad turned his head away and offered him the blueberries as if they were a treat for answering a question correctly, Bruce reached into the bag and grabbed a few, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the Tower, it was still all over the news."
"Dad..." Primrose whispered, when he looked at her she glanced down at the berries bag, signalizing she also wanted some, he quickly walked to her and let her take as much as she wanted.
"The Stark Tower? That big ugly–" both Tony and Primrose sent him a challenging look, and Steve paused his insult, relaying in the presence of the tower's designer and his daughter, "–building in New York?" he finished.
"It's not ugly!" Primrose defended, making Steve cough uncomfortably.
"It's powered by an arc rector – it's self-sustaining energy source," Bruce explained as Primrose kept looking at Steve, upset at his insult as she chewed on the berries, "That building will run itself for what, a year?" he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, clarifying as he rolled them up.
"It's a prototype," Primrose declared proudly, making her dad ruffle her hair.
"I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now – that's what they're getting at," Tony excused smugly, elaborating it to the soldier.
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Bruce wondered.
Primrose did find that strange, her dad was really good at working with energies. And he has been in contact with SHIELD for four years now – why didn't they call him? This was getting strange, she no longer felt like she was on a pirate ship but on a conspiracy theory.
"I should probably look into that," Tony began as he circled around Bruce again, checking his phone, "once my decryption program finished breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."
Primrose gasped, "I knew it! I saw you put something under that desk!" and all she got was a wink from him.
Meanwhile, Steve gaped at him, dazed even, "I'm sorry, did you say–" he objected.
"JARVIS had been running it since I hit the bridge," Tony said, returning his cellphone to his back pocket, "In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" he offered the blonde.
Steve ignored the offer, "Yet, you're confused about why they didn't want you around," he derided.
Primrose wanted to tell him that he was wrong, but she remained silent as the adults talked.
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony drawled as he withdrew his blueberries back to himself, "Historically, not awesome."
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve announced at the two, he glanced at Primrose as well to make sure she was paying attention, "This is a man who means to start a war, and, if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed," he met both of their gazes, asserting, "We have orders – we should follow them."
"Following's not really my style," her dad retorted as he tossed several berries into his mouth again.
Steve adopted a longsuffering expression as he remarked, "And you're all about style, aren't you?"
Primrose didn't agree with that, her dad has saved a lot of people and almost died trying.
"Of the people in this room, which one is a, wearing a spangly outfit, and b, not of use?" her dad quipped at him, and Primrose didn't want to snicker the way she did but she couldn't help it.
However, she didn't like the disapproving look Steve gave her afterward. She didn't even know him that well but she felt like she was being reprimanded by a teacher.
"Steve," Bruce beckoned before he could reply, "tell me none of this smells a little funky to you."
He turned his gaze back to Tony and swept his eyes down the length of him before returning them to his face with a dissatisfied expression, "Just find the Cube," he ordered as he turned to march out of the lab.
Tony maintained an impassive stare at the familiar disappointed look, exhaling once the Captain exited.
"Are you okay, daddy?" Primrose asked at once, her tone full of worry.
He looked at her and smiled tightly, nodding, "Me? I'm fine, honey. I'm just surprised, that's the guy your grandpa would never shut up about?" her dad scoffed, before turning to his screens and manipulating the data astride the scepter as Bruce adjusted his glasses while he read the information on the small screen he was carrying – he crossed the room to another large suspended interface as her dad continued, "Wondering if they should've kept him on ice."
His daughter frowned at that notion, "Dad, that's mean..." she didn't like the way Steve talked with her dad, but wishing him to practically stay dead wasn't right either.
"You're right Prim, sorry I said that," Tony quickly told her, but without actually meaning it.
"The guy's not wrong about Loki," Bruce inputted as he modified the view of the strands of the radiation signatures, "He does have the jump on us."
"What he's got is an Acme dynamite kit – it's gonna blow up in his face," Tony predicted as he passed where Bruce was working and analyzed the touchscreen he had set up before, "And I'm gonna be there when it does."
For someone who was talking about a cartoon's dynamite, her dad's statement sure didn't sound fun at all.
"I'll read all about it," Bruce stated, sliding a compressed file to the edge of his screen, the data transferred to the one Tony was working at.
She watched them work, and Primrose couldn't help to see how in sync her dad and Dr. Banner were. She was impressed. Her dad never had a workshop helper, except for JARVIS and DUM-E, but they weren't human – her dad didn't play well with others. So seeing him actually get along with a stranger was a refreshing moment to see.
"Uh huh – or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us," Tony responded as he examined the information he received.
Bruce permitted an incredulous scoff before enlightening, "Ah, you see, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed like a nerve," he glanced at Primrose and smiled sadly, "It's a nightmare. And for someone that brought their kid to work I'd think that a situation where everyone would have to suit up would be your highest concern" he paused for a moment before turning directly to the ten-year-old, "Hi there, we didn't talk much. Can I ask you a question?"
Primrose looked at her dad, who nodded affirmatively and nodded with a shy smile.
"How do you feel about being in the same room with a monster?" he asked her with a tired tone.
Tony looked between the doctor and his daughter with a worried look.
Primrose, however, remained calm, "I'm not in a room with a monster, all I see is my dad and a man called Dr. Banner. Now, if you wanna see a monster, I do a great impression of Stitch when he crashed his ship on Earth. Wanna see it?" she quipped at him, making Bruce stare blankly at her before his lips lifted to a lopsided smile.
"Nah, thanks, kid. Maybe some other time," the doctor told her with a genuine tone, making Primrose grin.
"You know," Tony began, proud that his daughter was able to avoid answering the uncomfortable question, now that the tense mood was gone, "I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart," he shared, abandoning his monitor and advancing towards the other man as he tapped his arc reactor in indication as he explained, "This stops, this little circle of light and..." he paused as he looked at his daughter with a sad smile, she looked back at him with a downcast frown, "...I lose everything," halting, he faced Bruce now, through a clear screen. The doctor met his gaze though he worried his hand over another on, "It's a part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege."
Primrose suddenly wanted to leave and cry without her dad seeing it. Instead, she decided to keep calm and continue hearing their conversation, hoping they'd change the focus of it into science or the Tesseract. She didn't like the theme of this discussion.
"But you can control it," Bruce countered.
"Because I learned how, because I wanted to be alive for my daughter."
"It's different," the doctor objected as he shook his head, "As much I respect that, you can still control it. I can't, I tried," he finished, resuming his work.
"Hey!" Tony interjected, dragging his hand along the bottom of the touchscreen on Bruce's side to minimize all of the data, "I read all about your 'accident'. That much gamma exposure should've killed you."
If that was true, then Primrose thought that Dr. Banner wasn't as normal as he thought he was – even after being exposed to the radiation. Maybe there was more to this meek looking doctor than he was telling.
"So you're saying that the Hulk–" Bruce cut himself off and averted his gaze with a smirk at the name the media had adopted, "–the Other Guy, saved my life?" after seeing Tony silent, reinforcing his point, he continued with an ironic tone, "That's nice – it's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"
"All lives matter, Dr. Banner..." Primrose weakly stated, looking sadder as the two talked.
Bruce gave the girl a thoughtful look, how much he wanted to tell her she was wrong, she was being naive. But how could he? He couldn't be mean to children, hell, he was in this Hellicarrier because of a little girl that he thought needed his medical assistance. Children were innocent to his eyes, even the Other Guy could see that. So Bruce didn't say anything – opting to let Tony keep the conversation alive.
"As my daughter sweetly says puts it, all lives matter," the genius shrugged, "Except, of course, the bad guys' ones, right honey?" he didn't need to look at his daughter to see her exasperated expression, "Besides, I guess we'll find out why your Other Guy decided to keep you alive," Tony mused.
"You may not enjoy that," Bruce retorted.
"And you just might."
Loki smirked, no, he smiled.
Everything was going as he planned, as usual. The so-called 'Avengers' were all in the same place, the beast was amongst them, the Odinson thought he had everything under control as always and the child thought she was safe.
And he thought Odin was a bad father. Loki actually pitied the girl, her father had been careless enough to bring her into a suicide mission. How pathetic could Midgardians get?
Nevertheless, she was only a pawn, they all were. He's been watching her, she was nothing like Stark. She was no genius, but he saw how sharply keen her eyes were. Although the little girl did not possess an intelligence quotient enough to make her a genius – she was filled with emotional quotient, which made her an easy target for what was about to come.
Stark would regret bringing her with him, he would weep, he would be angry at him. Loki didn't care, Stark would have nothing – because Loki was going to take his everything.
Now, he had to focus.
They sent the Black Widow for the interrogation.
Primrose was now next to her dad and Dr. Banner as they surveyed the list of SHIELD's secure files, JARVIS had finally broken through the layers of firewalls but an 'ACCESS DENIED' alert flashed on the large screen.
"Oh. What do we do now?" Primrose asked curiously.
Her dad smiled, "We try again. JARVIS needs a challenge," her dad casually said.
"This is not good," Bruce mumbled, shaking his head, "If they find out..."
Tony shrugged as he sat back on a worktable, patting the table and smiling at Primrose to sit next to him, which she excitedly obeyed. She loved sitting on places other than chairs. Bruce just watched her, amused.
A few minutes later, Fury strode into the lab as the two geniuses talked with Primrose inputting her own comments, "What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" he asked accusingly, making Primrose drop her smile and stop her legs from swinging.
"Uh-oh, not good," she mumbled.
"Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you," her dad responded, one leg crossed in front of him whose ankle he rested his hands on, as the other hung off the edge of the surface. He was as nonchalant as he could be.
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury said, having come to stand before the billionaire. Even Primrose felt intimidated.
"We are," Bruce quickly retorted as Tony idly tapped his phone against his knee with a smirk, "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit–" he pointed to one of the monitors behind the Director, who turned to observe with hands on his hips, "we'll have the location within half a mile," the screen rotated a model of the globe on one side as the analysis of the Tesseract and its gamma signatures were shown on the other. And alert in the center notified them that the search process was at forty-six percent.
"Yeah, then you get your cube back. No muss, no fuss," Tony reassured before his attention was called to the monitor in front of him when it beeped. A file had been highlighted in red, prompting him to ask, "What is 'Phase Two'?"
Suddenly, a loud clank of various guns being tossed onto a table by Steve as he entered the lab made Primrose jump, "'Phase Two' is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons," he proclaimed to Bruce's slight gaping towards Fury and Primrose's eyes widening with shock, she suddenly felt very scared, "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me," he remarked in apology towards Tony.
"Definitely, not good," the ten-year-old stated, looking at Fury and not seeing him as an air-pirate anymore.
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury quickly justified, his hand raised in placation as he approached the soldier, "This does not mean that we–"
"I'm sorry Nick," Tony interrupted, standing as he swiveled the screen around to display the schematics he had accessed for the development of said weaponry, "What were you lying about?"
"I was wrong, Director – the world hasn't changed a bit," Steve commented disapprovingly.
This was getting out of hand, Primrose remained sitting on the desktop and brought her knees to her chest, hugging them for safety as she tried to control her breathing, now it was not the time for her to have a panic-induced asthma attack.
Suddenly, Thor and Natasha showed up and at their wary entrance, Bruce instantly turned to the agent, "Did you know about this?" he asked her.
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she suggested firmly, glancing at Primrose quickly to make her point.
"Ah ah, I was in Kolkata, I was pretty well removed," Bruce retorted.
"Loki is manipulation you," she insisted as she stepped closer.
"And you've been doing what, exactly?" he sneered.
Primrose watched the two with a sad expression because if this Loki guy was manipulating Dr. Banner then how would Natasha know if he wasn't manipulating her as well?
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha stated smartly.
"Listen, I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," Bruce responded. He walked over to the monitor and pulled it closer by its corner, indicating with his glasses the plans for use of the Cube as he queried, "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
"Because of him," Fury answered as he pointed at the God of Thunder.
Thor furrowed his brows in confusion as he indicated to himself for clarification, "Me?"
She looked at her dad and he looked genuinely confused as he shifted. She hopped out of the tabletop and decided to stay next to him, he instantly wrapped an arm around her neck and placed his hand on her shoulder, rubbing it as a comforting manner.
"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," Fury elaborated as Bruce released the screen and cast his eyes to Thor in amazement, "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
Primrose gaped at Thor, and the Norse God took notice of her terrified look, "My people want nothing but peace with your planet!" he proclaimed at everyone – but directing another friendly smile towards the child.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Nick argued, "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, who can't be controlled."
"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve inserted.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor asserted, "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war!"
"War?" Primrose mouthed with a fearful expression.
"A higher form?" Steve prompted.
"You forced our hand," Fury defended, "We had to come up with something–"
"A nuclear deterrent," Tony surmised as his free hand was in his pocket, while the other wrapped around Primrose pulled her closer, "'Cause that always calms everything down," he added deridingly.
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury snapped.
"I'm sure if he still made weapons Stark would be neck-deep in it," Steve commented, walking behind Fury.
"Wait–hold on, how is this about me?" Tony stated as he unwrapped his arm around his daughter, approaching the Captain. Primrose whined but stayed back.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve retorted.
"Stop it..." the little girl whispered, looking between the two wary that their argument could escalate.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor remarked chidingly.
"Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury objected as he whirled to face the God.
"You treat your champions with such mistrust–"
"They're not my champions!"
"Are you boys really that naive? SHIELD monitors potential threats," Natasha suddenly enlightened.
"What is it about me that bothers you so much? I'm curious," Tony egged the Captain in the background. Primrose couldn't help but the walk to his side, she just wanted him to not do anything silly, like for example, fight Captain America!
"And Captain America's on threat watch?" Bruce asked skeptically.
"He's not your concern, Doctor," Fury interjected as Thor began, "You should have let me take the Tesseract–"
"We all are," Natasha replied to Bruce.
Primrose suddenly felt sick, she backed away from all the argument and her eyes noticed the scepter glowing azure as the voices continued on angrily against each other. Her brown eyes widened, was that causing all this?
"Stop!" she quickly told them, but her smaller voice was unheard.
"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" her dad taunted.
"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack" Steve snapped.
"Threat – verbal threat! I feel threatened!" Tony mockingly called.
"Show some respect," Steve stated.
"Respect what?"
Thor muttered towards the Director, "If I need to put you down, I will, but I will not do it in front of the little girl."
Primrose panicked as she watched the long weapon held on the surface of one of the worktables. The scepter's length ran to seemingly capture the arguing individuals, ethereal blue glow instigating the animosity thick in the air. She was the only one that wasn't angry at anyone in the room, she didn't even care about who was right or wrong at this point, all Primrose wanted was for them to listen to her and calm down!
"Dad–" she tried.
"Not now Prim," her dad quickly dismissed, eyes on Steve.
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor directed towards Fury.
"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce remarked, "I mean, what are we – a team? No, no no – we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're-We're a time bomb," he stated darkly.
"You need to step away," Fury ordered.
Primrose didn't know where to look, she mainly focused on her dad though.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked with an open hand, laying it on Steve's shoulder.
"Your daughter is right here and you want Dr. Banner to 'let off steam'? – Back off," Steve yelled, backhanding the limb away.
"Stop!" Primrose squeaked out as soon as physical violence commenced.
"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," her dad challenged. His blind rage for the golden boy his dad preferred over him was sidetracking him from reason. Not even his daughter could stop years of issues that Howard Stark caused during his childhood.
"Yeah," Steve smirked in taunt of the concept, circling the other, "Big man in a suit or armor," he halted on his other side, "Take that off, what are you?" he asked sharply at Tony, who was staring forward with a tensed jaw.
"Genius, billionaire, father, philanthropist," Tony answered promptly and proudly.
Primrose gaped at him while Natasha jerked her head with an eyebrow raise in a concession of the points raised.
"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve said as Tony's eyes pinched at the corner's of the soldier's declarations, "And I've seen the footage – the only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play – to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you–"
Primrose was now glaring at Steve, how dare he say those things about her dad!
"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony said tersely.
"Always a way out," Steve remarked with a mocking grin, casting his eyes to meet Primrose's for a second, he was surprised to see her glaring at him hatefully – he could see Tony's eyes in her, "You know, you may not be a threat," he looked back at her dad, "But you better stop pretending to be a hero."
"A hero? Like you?" Tony questioned incredulously as he stepped closer, "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers – everything special about you came out of a bottle."
"Put on the suit," Steve dared Tony, whose teeth were grit and eyes were wide, "let's go for a few rounds."
"NO!" Primrose yelled as she pushed Steve away from her dad, her strength didn't allow her to move him a lot but Steve did back away from shock, "I won't let you! You're wrong! My daddy is not selfish! He fights for everyone, for me! You're a liar! You're s-stupid!" she kept yelling, angry tears falling from her eyes. She didn't even know what to say, her little body was filled with rage all at once that all Primrose could do was throw random words at the soldier, trying to hurt him.
Tony instantly grabbed her and pulled her for a hug as Steve watched them with a shocked expression.
"Sssh, it's okay. Calm down, his words mean nothing to me, honey, okay?" her dad whispered gently, patting her head, "Sticks and stone, you know?"
Everyone watched them, they actually seemed to calm down more now that they finally realized that Primrose had just watched everything, Bruce and Fury actually looked uncomfortable while Natasha pitied her. What was Tony's deal? Bringing Primrose here, he should know better.
Thor sighed, saddened that the child was crying, "You people are so petty and tiny," he said, even though he was also part of the argument session.
After recovering, Steve cast his eyes to the others in the area as Tony kept comforting his daughter, she took calming breaths before they were able to separate from each other – Tony inspected her face as he cleaned her tears, "I'm so sorry, that was bad. You shouldn't have seen me acting like that, I'm sorry I brought you here. Are you okay? How's your asthma?"
At that, Steve was intrigued. Because before the serum, he had been asthmatic. He never thought that Stark's daughter could have had it as well. Now he felt terrible after realizing he had just taunted her dad right in front of her, how disrespectful could he get? He lowered his eyes down onto the floor with shame.
"I'm okay daddy, please don't fight anymore" she sniffed as he kissed her forehead.
"You got it," he told her quickly.
"Yeah, this is a team," Bruce remarked, averting his eyes from the father-daughter scene.
At the same time, Fury ordered, "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his–"
"Where? You rented my room," the scientist argued in aggravation.
"The cell was just in case–" Fury attempted to justify before Bruce interrupted.
"–In case you needed to kill me – but you can't. I know, I tried."
The tension in the lab abruptly dissolved at his yelled admission, all gazes fixed on Bruce – even Primrose seemed to halt as she covered her mouth. He averted his eyes from the stares and uncomfortably explained, arms crossed over his chest, "I got low, I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out," he mostly avoided looking at Primrose, damn he felt shitty for saying this in front of a kid but the moment was asking for it.
"So I moved on, I focused on helping others – I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show–" his shoulder shifted as he moved back a step. Primrose suddenly was hidden behind her dad, not knowing why but she saw Thor balancing his stance, his expression showing his internal preparation for combat, "–and put everyone here at risk," Bruce shifted forward again as he growled, "You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"
Fury cast his widened eye to one of the Doctor's hands as he placed his own on the guns strapped to his thigh, slowly moving the fastening forward so to allow him to draw the weapon as Natasha prepared to draw her own firearm at his side.
"Dr. Banner," Steve called, and Bruce's wild attention drew onto him, "Put down the scepter."
Primrose gasped behind her dad's back, but he hid her even more. He felt stupid, so shitty. Here he was trying to jab Banner, trying to see the green on his skin and having a laugh about it when seeing Bruce just holding the scepter with no green on sight brought Tony fear as his daughter trembled behind him. What was he thinking?! After this, he would take Primrose back to Emma and involve her around a pillow fort of safety.
Bruce stiffened before turning his gaze down to his left hand, searching the long weapon in confusion as to when he had lifted it from its stand on the table behind him. The gem shone steadily. His mystification was interrupted by a trilling beep emitting from the monitor across the room, the depiction expanding the image of the world to a precise location, an alert flashing to signal 'ENERGY SIGNATURE MATCH: 95%'
Tony got up but still held Primrose behind his back in a protective manner as the occupants of the room all turned towards the sound. Natasha swiftly returned her gaze onto Bruce as he returned the scepter to the surface of the worktable, "Got it," Fury announced in response to the alarm.
"Sorry kids," Bruce started, giving Primrose an apologetic smile, she gave him a curious look back, "You don't get to see my party trick after all," he walked the length of the lab to analyze the screen.
"You located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.
"I could get there faster," Tony inserted as Thor insisted, "The Tesseract belongs on Asgard – no human is a match for it."
"You're not going alone," Steve asserted as Tony turned to the exit, he grabbed the man's upper arm and the other one was holding Primrose's hand, there was no way he was leaving her here.
"You gonna stop me?" her dad retorted, shrugging it off.
Steve was about to taunt him again, but he looked down at Primrose and saw the look on her face, her expression telling him to stop and back away with saddened eyes. The blonde gulped, he was doing it again. Why was Tony so irritable?
Fury watched the almost confrontation, taking note that the little girl managed to stop it from escalating.
"I don't wanna teach my kid that's it's okay to hit old people," Tony quipped, half-serious.
Steve squinted his eyes, "Put on the suit."
Primrose sighed.
Bruce removed his glasses as he surveyed the screen in front of him, the section of the Cube's gamma signature that was recognized highlighted in red in one of the lower corners as the alert percentage increased from ninety-eight to ninety-nine, and then a hundred percent, "Oh my God" he muttered at the location displayed.
Suddenly, a loud explosion resonated underneath them, shaking the lab, but before anyone had time to react to it flames ripped through the engine alongside and up through the center of the floor of the room where they were gathered. Everyone was thrown away, Natasha and Bruce flung through the glass separating the upper area from the space below.
Tony was able to grab Primrose and use his own body as a shield. But she was still shaken. Plumes of smoke started to haze, spreading from the hole they had been blasted from inside as well. Steve and Tony both looked at Primrose with worry, and when the ten-year-old looked at them wide-eyed, but safe, "PRIM! Are you okay?!" Tony asked at once.
"I'm f-fine!" she replied, trembling.
The two men stared at each other in shock from where they lay on the floor, sure they were glad that she was fine but what happened still affected them. Both scrambled to their feet, Steve helping Tony raising Primrose up.
"Put on the suit," "Yep!" the soldier ordered urgently as he reached for Tony's arm, they stood but stumbled, before steadying himself and grasping Tony by the waist as he fell, disoriented, and Primrose by her arm with his free hand – he was juggling Starks – into the door frame, helping them out of the room.
"Daddy! What about Ms. Romanoff and Dr. Banner?" Primrose cried as they were in the corridor.
"Honey, please, I can't–" Tony panicked as he realized he his daughter just suffered an explosion, "OH MY GOD! ARE YOU OKAY?!" he finally screamed as he held her by her shoulders, startling her.
"STARK!" Steve pried Tony from Primrose and shoved him against the wall, "Listen to me, you can't panic right now. I know you're scared for your daughter's safety but you need to focus. You need to suit up before anything worst happens. Do you understand that?" he stated firmly, letting go of Tony after his declaration.
"Daddy, I'll hide! I'm good at hiding, remember?"
"No, I can't leave you alone!" Tony argued, Steve let him go and looked between them sadly.
"Stark, you have to trust her. Without us, this thing will go down."
"YOU'RE ASKING ME TO LEAVE MY KID ALONE IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS MESS?!"
"I'M TELLING YOU THAT IF YOU DON'T GET MOVING, WE WILL ALL DIE!"
Primrose covered her ears, tired of the yelling, tired of feeling useless, "JUST GO ALREADY!" and then she did something Tony would never think she would do: she ran away from them.
"PRIMROSE!" the genius yelled.
"KID!" Steve called out.
She ran as fast as she could, everyone needed Iron Man now, she'd be fine. She was small and she was good at hiding. All she had to do was find an empty room, hide there and stay safe until her dad and the other heroes save the day.
Meanwhile, when Tony was about to go after her when he got the information that the Helicarrier was losing its engines passed over his earpiece, and that if they lost one more they wouldn't be in the air anymore.
"Stark, you copy that?" Fury relayed.
Tony was shaking, his eyes stared hauntedly at the corridor where his baby vanished off to. He couldn't stop seeing her running away, ignoring his calling. Why did she do that? This wasn't Obadiah, there were no Hammer drones after her – this was Norse Gods and magic.
Tony gulped dryly, he wanted to go after her. But now he had to fix the engines so he could have a flying Helicarrier to later find Primrose safe and ground her for the rest of her life.
Also, Emma was going to kill him.
"I'm on it," he finally responded, before turning to run towards the opposite side with Steve.
The blonde was worried about the girl, but he couldn't help to nod at her bravery. Right now he decided to keep Tony focused on the mission, "Attention, Stark's daughter is on the loose somewhere if you see her make sure she's safe," he declared at his own earpiece, dropping out the alert.
Mostly everyone got a copy of that, and Tony gave Steve a thankful nod.
Primrose ran as fast as she could, passing by many running agents and avoiding bumping into some of them too. She found herself halting when she recognized the corridor, so instead of following the path that led to the bridge, where the danger would definitely be, she went towards the opposite side and after leaving the cluster of agents running about behind – she slowed her running and tried to control her breathing when it was almost quiet.
She had no idea where she was, but all the ruckus was happening behind her. Primrose was in an area that seemed safe because of how quiet it was, but strangely she didn't feel safe – at all. The Helicarrier shook and she squealed when her body was pushed into the wall because of the movement, she easily lost balance. When she recovered, Primrose felt her stomach drop. She felt that something wasn't right.
She decided to sit down in the quiet corridor and just try to calm down, she remembered her karate lessons and the breathing exercises her Sensei taught. Closing her eyes, Primrose recalled those lessons and immediately started to feel her heartbeat slow down, ever since she began Karate, her asthma has diminished greatly. She wasn't cured, but the attacks have been shortened to rare nowadays.
She didn't how many minutes it has been, she felt the Helicarrier shake a lot, once it felt like it was falling down. But then it stopped, did they win? Was it over?
"Prim?!"
The ten-year-old opened her eyes, revealing her brown irises, "D-Daddy?" rising quickly, she used to wall to stand up.
"Primrose?" the voice called again, urgently.
She ran towards the door, blindly in need to see her dad. She wasn't scared of him scolding her from running away, or being grounded, she just wanted to see if he was unharmed.
"Daddy!" she yelled, hoping that he heard her. Footsteps started to approach her from behind, so she looked back and smiled widely when she saw her dad appearing from the corner of a corridor, "Over here!"
Tony looked at his daughter, and relief crossed his expression, "Primrose!" he sighed as he made his way towards her, she met him halfway and the two hugged.
"Daddy, I'm sorry!" she quickly said, tearing up a little bit, "I'm sorry I ran away!"
Tony shushed her gently, "It's okay dear, it's quite all right. Everything is fine now, daddy's got you."
Primrose sniffed as Tony grabbed her hand to suddenly start leading her somewhere, "Where are we going, dad? Is everyone okay?" she asked at once, trying to keep up with her dad. Why was he walking so fast?
"Everyone is fantastic, we're going somewhere to keep you safe. Loki escaped."
"Oh..." Primrose mumbled, but then she noticed they weren't going back towards the bridge, in fact, she realized she was being taken away to the other side of the ship, "Are you taking me somewhere?"
Tony smirked, "Yes dear, I'm taking you home."
"Agent Coulson is down," Fury's voice transmitted through everyone's earpiece.
On the bridge, Hill's minor wound was being treated before Fury's voice transmitted the information. She pushed the medic's hand away, raising her fingers to lightly press on the device as she focused on the report with furrowed brows.
"A medical team is on its way to your location," an agent replied. Natasha's gaze was distant as she listened in while behind her, two agents grabbed Clint's arms and dragged his unconscious body away.
"They're here – they called it."
Steve and Tony stood immobile by the third engine in their suits, cowl, and helmet off, averting their stares to the granting of the flooring at the response. Tony exhaled lengthily as a frown twisted his lips, shoulders slumping. He was saddened by Phil's death, but how was he going to tell it to Primrose? Oh, God-where was she?
"Does anyone has eyes on Primrose? A little girl?"
They all replied with a negative.
Steve and Tony were seated side by side at the hexagonal glass table of the upper level of the bridge; the Captain had removed the top half of his outfit, gloves, and belt to leave him in a blue, long-sleeved, cotton shit over his uniform's pants and boots while Tony had stepped out of his suit to slouch in his chair in a Black Sabbath shirt and dark pants.
"Tony I'm sorry. But I'm seeing security footage of Loki impersonating as yourself, taking Primrose into a Quinjet. She only noticed it was Loki when he dropped the disguise inside of it. She was unharmed but–" Maria Hill informed.
All was interrupted when Tony screamed, filled with pure rage. Even Steve was startled by the genius when he tossed his own earpiece across the room.
"Sta–"
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP ROGERS! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU RIGHT NOW!" he yelled furiously with eyes widened manically. He then pulled at his own hair and stared at his own reflexion in the glass, "Oh God" she was gone. Loki took his baby. This was his fault, he brought Primrose here, "Oh G-God" he gasped for air. Emma was going to murder him, and he going to let her. What was he supposed to tell her? "Shit, shit, shit..."
Steve eyed him warily, "I'm sorry..." was all he said before the two fell into a tense silence, where Steve would pretend not to hear the genius's sobbing.
Minutes later, and Director Fury stood across from them in his official leather ensemble, focusing on shuffling through a number of small items in his hands for a few moments of silence.
"Stark. I'm sorry he took Primrose," Fury began as Maria Hill stood with her hands behind her back next to him, her eyes gazed on the floor before flicking up at him at his comment. She looked sad, she pitied the little girl.
"You're...sorry...?" Tony wasn't being logical, he just wanted to blame someone. But before he began accusing Fury, the Director stopped him.
"Loki is a trickster. It was no one's fault that he was able to trick your daughter into thinking he was the man she trusts the most in her life. She's only a kid, he knew how to persuade her," Nick stated firmly, "Obviously if he wanted to kill her, he'd done it in front of you because he's a dramatic bitch like that."
Tony closed his eyes and allowed himself to take a deep breath, Fury was right. Loki was using Primrose for something, and he had actually killed someone: Phil Coulson. Poor man, again, how was he going to break the news to his daughter, to everyone?
This was a mess. He was going to kill Loki.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Fury remarked when he saw that Tony had calmed down, "I guess he never did get you to sign them, I hope you sign Primrose's when you see her again," he forcefully spun the trading cards onto the table, some of the wet blood splattering from where it had smeared over the glossy surfaces onto the glass. Tony wasn't going to question how did Fury know that his daughter had them as well, he just guessed Phil told him.
Steve sighed as he reached forward, he felt guilty that he never signed them, and now as he thought that Primrose might've actually wanted Steve to sign her own cards as well – just when he thought about he terrible he acted in front of her – made him feel utterly shameful.
"We're dead in the air here," Fury explained as he pinched a corner of one of the cards and flipped it up to face him, "Our communications, the location of the Cube, Primrose's whereabouts–" Tony gave him a dark look, "–Banner, Thor I've got nothing for you."
Tony's eyes remained downcast until they drifted upward to stare into the middle distance, Fury continued, "Lost my one good eyes," he braced his palms on the surface of the table as he shook his head, saying, "Maybe I had that coming."
He refocused his gaze onto the two before him, Steve laying the card back onto the glass, "Yes," Fury admitted as he began to circle the table, "we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract," he paused by one of the seats, resting his hands on top of the backrest as he elucidated, "I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier," Tony cast his eyes down to his lap as Steve's head tilted towards Fury with attention.
"There was an idea – Stark knows this," the Director started as he resumed walking, Steve turning his head slightly to note Tony's seat as the billionaire lifted his head minutely, "called the Avenger Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more," Steve's brow furrowed, averting his contemplative stare as Fury continued, "To see if they could work together when we needed them to – to fight the battles that we never could."
Tony turned his head to observe Fury in his peripheral as he turned his thumbs over one another in his lap, deeply thinking about Primrose's safety while trying to pay attention at the same time.
"Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea," at Fury's statement, Tony tensed in his chair, "In heroes," that was enough for Tony, he stood from his chair.
His gaze shifted from the distance and his thoughts to his surroundings before he strode out of the bridge.
"Well," Fury mused as he watched Tony's exit, folding his hands behind his back, "It's an old-fashioned notion."
The paneling of the floor fitted together over the hole through which the glass cell had fallen, Tony stared into the middle-distance as he stood on the edge with his phone near his ear, "Yes, I know. I know–Emma, I'll get her back. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry Tony, just bring our baby back safely!" Emma cried on the other line, she was fully sobbing at this point.
"I will. I promise I will and then I'll never bring her with me to work, I promise. Even if I have to leave her with her friend's parents if you're unavailable."
"We have babysitters, Tony! This is why we hired them!"
"I know! But we had to leave in a rush! Emma–I gotta go, I have to think."
"Okay just, tell me as soon as you got her back, please Tony" Emma sighed tiredly, Tony tensed at her voice but nodded.
"Don't worry, I'll have JARVIS text you," he promised before he hung up the phone.
Sighing deeply, Tony looked around the destruction with panicked eyes as footsteps echoed through the room as Steve entered, the soldier actually had overhead the conversation but decided to give the genius some privacy before making himself known. He at least now knew the name of Primrose's mother. Emma.
Crossing his arms over his chest and leaving on the railing adjacent to the other, Steve asked him, "Was that her mother?"
Tony almost rolled his eyes, "Yes."
Steve nodded, and then made another question, "Are you two...?"
"Divorced? No, Rogers, we aren't, we're not even together, welcome to the twenty-first century. If you really wanna know, we hooked up once eleven years ago and then my daughter was born. There, you have it, playboy Tony Stark finally made an oopsie and had a kid with a stranger almost ten years younger than him, you wanna talk about it? How about I invite you over tea after all this shit is fixed?!" he quipped at Steve with a snarl, making the other shift uneasily.
"I didn't mean–"
"I know what you meant," Tony cut in, his tone dismissive.
They were both in uncomfortable, awkward silence for a few seconds. Steve decided to change the subject as he cleared the throat, "Was Coulson married?"
"No," Tony answered, his tone calmer, "There was a-a cellist, I think," he added after an afterthought.
"I'm sorry, he seemed like a good man," Steve said, sounding genuinely sad.
Tony huffed in aborted, mocking laughter, turning to him, "He was an idiot," the genius stated.
"Why? For believing?" the blonde asked with a frustrated brow.
"For taking on Loki alone," he reasoned, allowing his arm to fall to his sides as he stepped back from the slight drop.
"He was doing his job–"
Tony scoffed as he moved down the stairs, "He was out of his league – he should have waited. He should have"
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Steve consoled, having lowered his arms and walked down the steps as well.
"Right, I've heard that before," he responded as his mouth twisted in a sour smirk as he moved past the Captain.
"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked.
"We are not soldiers!" Tony insisted as he whirled around to face him, eyes slightly widened, "I lost my daughter, do you consider a ten-year-old a soldier?!" he yelled.
Steve sighed at the argument, "You didn't lose her, we'll get her back," he stated firmly as he watched the other man's gaze drift past him.
"I'm not marching to Fury's fife," the billionaire declared.
"Neither am I – he's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does," the Captain said, "But right now, we've got to put that behind us and get this done," he watched as Tony turned and noted the blood stain on the concrete wall where Coulson had passed away, "Now, Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list–"
"He made it personal," Tony suddenly proclaimed.
"That's not the point–"
"That is the point. That's Loki's point," the genius asserted, "He hit us all right where we live. Why?"
"To tear us apart," Steve speculated.
"Yeah, divide and conquer is great," he agreed with one arm propping up the elbow of the other and his finger worrying his mouth in thought, "but he knows he had to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants," Tony concluded, "He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it – he wants an audience," he stepped around Steve in vigor, staring determinedly at his deductions.
"Right," the blonde drawled, "I caught his act in Stuttgart."
"He pretended to be me to kidnap my daughter, all on camera! And this is just the previews," Tony surmised with a point as he continued, "This is this is opening night and Loki, he's a full-tilt diva," the genius turned to the blonde on the raised steps and gesticulated, "He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a-a monument built to the skies with his name plastered–"
Tony halted in his description, arms outstretched, immobile, as Steve raised his eyebrows at the character, and location, depicted.
"Son of a bitch," Tony cursed as he trotted down the stairs.