A/N: I do not know if Coulson will ever come back from the dead (I read that he might for a certain show, or something – you can look up the character on wikipedia) but for this story I assumed that he is dead and not coming back. Also, sorry if Tony's plan is dumb. I tried to think of what I would do if I were him and this is what I came up with.
Ch. 25
Tony finished the armor exactly 28 days after he began working on it. It wasn't his old suit, but he had what he needed, along with a few other modifications that would allow him to inflict some serious damage.
During the time that Tony was making the suit, he continually thought of various things that he wanted to do to Loki.
At first, he had wanted to take Loki out quickly. Strike strong and fast and get the job done. The blow to the team's ego would be tremendous. He doubted that Steve or Thor would be able to cope with having allowed Loki to be killed.
Then, as time passed, he realized that he really missed his toy. SHIELD had yet to figure out his location, so he wouldn't have much of a problem keeping Loki there. The main issue with that would be actually capturing Loki. Tony was sure that the others were with him, watching him, ready to fight if attacked.
But Tony was a genius. It didn't take long for him to come up with a plan.
00
There were a few key things that Tony considered when putting his plan together.
One was that, after Agent Coulson had died, Fury had eventually replaced him with a man named Timothy Ballantyne. Timothy was stationed in New York, but if he was doing Coulson's job, he was likely helping to monitor the area around the Avenger's location. Fury would only put his most trusted agent to that task.
Another was that Fury was likely staying close to the Avengers. They were his stars. He needed them. There is no way that Fury would be too far to keep watch on them.
So, Tony readied his suit and made his way to the next state over, staying out of routine flight paths, or any place that he felt SHIELD would monitor. From there, he turned on his hand held computer. He hacked into the SHIELD database and pulled the coordinates for the Avenger's hideout. He then turned the computer off. Next he would begin his journey to the safe house. Even if SHIELD traced his location from the hack, they would only find an empty space in Oregon.
The flight to Scotland was draining, but Tony was determined to get what he wanted. When he touched down, about two hundred miles from his target area, he turned the computer back on, and forced SHIELD's systems to disconnect. Then he made a phone call. Using the voice modification he had installed on his wrist plate, he pretended to be Ballantyne.
"Director Fury, we've got a report of an object coming into the radius of the location," he said. "It's too small to be an aircraft, even a small one, and it's covered in something helping to absorb the radar. It's trying to avoid detection. It might be Stark."
"Shit. How far is it?"
"About fifty miles out. It's moving quickly and should reach the location within the next ten minutes."
"This isn't good. I'm going to warn them. Keep me informed of anything else that happens."
"Will do, sir."
Then Tony hung up.
00
At the safe house, Steve, Thor and Bruce were attempting to calm Loki down, or at least keep him from hurting himself. With many of his wounds healed, Bruce had scaled back Loki's painkillers. This, of course, led to horrible fits of withdrawal.
A few minutes prior, Loki had been clawing at his skin, screaming something about it feeling like it was on fire. Thor had subdued him, and he and Steve had tied Loki to the bed. Both of them felt horrible doing it, but it was for Loki's own good.
Now, the ex-god was lying there, sweating and panting and begging for relief.
"Make it stop…." Loki called out, "Please…."
"It'll stop soon. You need to lie still so I can give you your shot." Bruce said, referring to the methadone that he had been giving Loki for the past day.
"It's not going to do anything! Please, just make it stop." Loki seemed to be crying, now, and it hurt everyone in the room to see it.
Bruce sighed. "It'll stop in another couple of days, Loki. I promise. I know it's bad now but it would be worse if I wasn't giving you the shots."
Loki groaned. Bruce was about to administer the drug when they heard Natasha and Clint start to talk very loudly. Then another voice that they recognized chimed in. Fury was there.
"We ought to go," Steve said, "Something might be up."
"You guys go. I'll give him the methadone and meet you."
"Okay," Steve replied. He and Thor headed out.
When they walked into the living room, they found Nastasha and Clint looking very worried, and Fury looking very annoyed.
"What's going on?" Steve asked.
"Agent Ballantyne reported that an object was heading towards us, too small to be an aircraft, and it's trying to avoid our radar. He and Fury think it may be Tony," Clint answered.
"I need you to be prepared," Fury said, "He could be here any moment. If he shows up, you'll have to fight."
"Obviously," Steve replied.
The group was soon joined by Bruce, who was also informed of the situation.
00
Tony was only about half a mile from the safe house. He was above a wooded area. He pressed a button on his suit and deployed a small explosive device, which fell to the ground. Tony was high enough to avoid any blowback and to avoid being seen or heard. As it was now night time, Tony was sure that the Avengers would have difficulty navigating the mass of trees.
Within seconds, the Avengers were out of the house, running towards the explosion. They likely assumed that Tony was there and was attempting to cause some type of trouble. From where he was, he could see that Clint, Thor, Steve, Fury and Natasha were on the way. That left Bruce with Loki.
Quietly, he made his way towards the safe house. There were two lights on, one in a room in the front of the house, one in a room off to the side. As it was unlikely that one would design a house with a bedroom directly in the front, he went for the side. It soon became clear that he had made the correct choice. He could see Bruce in the room, standing near Loki, who was lying in bed.
"Well, here goes," he mumbled to himself, before using his repulsor to blow open the window.
The Hulk would have proved a worthy adversary, had Bruce had a chance to transform. However, Tony had the element of surprise on his side. Before Bruce could blink, Tony had stunned him with a high powered taser. Just another one of the little modifications he had made to the suit. The force of it was enough to knock Bruce unconscious.
Tony strode over to the bed. Loki had a blank look on his face, almost as if he were in shock. He probably was. Tony doubted that he had expected any of this. He noted that Loki was tied to the bed.
"Wow, they made this real easy. You can't even try to run," Tony said, as he began cutting the restraints.
Within a minute, he had Loki in his arms, and was flying back towards California.