A/N: Hey! I told you it wouldn't be as long between updates this time. AND this one's longer than the last one. AND Iron Man 3 comes out in a week! Good times, right?
Chaos was a good way to describe the scene in the lab. Chaos and fit, half-dressed men. Steve, Thor, Clint, Rhodey, and Happy were doing the heavy lifting involved in building new force field generators under Jane's direction—while Tony offered unwanted advice every three seconds, of course. Tony was mostly focused, however, on Pepper. Betty, as the only biologist in the room, monitored Pepper's condition, while Tony worked on the suit. Bruce was monitoring the situation with the cracks Tony warned would form in his heated speech. Some of the pre-existing fissures were opening up and some strange figures were appearing and disappearing. Natasha was helping monitor the situation and Coulson had his phone glued to his ear coordinating SHIELD response teams.
"Here. Drink this," Darcy said, holding up a glass of water with a straw for Pepper to drink from. "You have to stay hydrated to keep your muscles from cramping up."
"They're cramping up anyway," Pepper said after a long sip.
"Speaking of muscles, there's a very nice display around here, don't you think?" Darcy said, smirking.
"I do have to agree," Pepper said with a tired smile.
"I'm right here," Tony said from his place on the floor, attempting to get the metal boot off Pepper's foot.
"Even yours has some pretty nice arms on him."
"Thanks, Darcy. That means the world," he told her sarcastically as he freed the armor from Pepper's leg with a groan of effort.
"God, that feels good," Pepper gasped.
"You know, she usually says that in a completely different context," Tony said, eliciting a glare from Pepper.
"Ugh," Darcy said, her mouth twisted in disgust. "Thinking of the two of you having sex is practically like thinking of my parents having sex."
That got a glare from both of them and Darcy grinned in reply.
"Well, that certainly got their attention," Betty commented. "Darcy, if you don't mind, I need to ask Pepper some questions to test her mental abilities.
"Absolutely," Darcy replied quickly stepping away from them.
"Say that again. He's doing what?"
"Problem, Son of Coul?" Darcy asked the man yelling questions into his phone.
"Not necessarily," he replied. "Apparently Spiderman is assisting our teams in the subway, and by assisting, I mean doing their jobs for them."
"Did he just say Parker's in play?" Tony asked, momentarily distracted.
"I told you he said there were Skrull on the subway," Darcy reminded him.
"Whatever. Tell him to get his ass over here. I could use him," Tony said.
"Who is Parker?" Coulson asked.
Darcy raised an eyebrow. "You're like the last one to know this, but he's Spiderman," she told him.
"Well, that kind of raises more questions than it answers, but we don't have time for that right now," Coulson said before turning his attention back to his phone. "Agent Dugan, I need you to pass a message along to Spiderman."
"Tony, this room's protected from interference, right?" Bruce hollered, rolling in a chair between computer monitors.
"Of course it is," Tony yelled back.
"Then what—Thor, could you put your hammer in the hall?"
"Excuse me?" Thor asked as the room came to a pause.
Bruce looked around at everyone's shocked faces and coolly continued, "It's throwing off a lot of interference, and if it were farther away, it would help considerably."
"Of course," Thor said, though he still eyed Bruce warily as he moved to do as asked.
"That could have gotten ugly very quickly," Darcy muttered to Natasha as the redhead came close.
"It'd be an interesting fight, that's for sure," Natasha replied. "Darcy, I need you to do me a favor."
"Coffee? It's kinda my specialty at the moment. Be right back."
"No, Darcy, it's not that," Natasha said, stopping her with a firm hand on her arm. "I need you to go back to SHIELD and get James out of the infirmary."
"Geeze. What did those guys get up to last night that landed Bucky in medical?"
"It's long story, but what happened last night had almost nothing to do with it," Natasha explained quickly. "Agent Hill sedated James to keep him from coming here with us."
"Well, she is kind of gung ho, but why do you want me to go get him? You could go, and I can stay here and help Bruce," Darcy offered.
"You'll be a lot less conspicuous than I would be while SHIELD is in crisis mode. And…I'm not entirely sure James would come with me," Natasha replied matter-of-factly.
Darcy sighed and said, "Okay. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to spring Eric while I'm at it, if he's not in a 'let's jump off a building' frame of mind."
"Good idea. I already talked to Happy. He's going to drive you," Natasha said, motioning the aforementioned chauffeur over. "Here's my security access card. It should get you anywhere you need to go."
"I'll be right back, then," Darcy said, heading for the door with Happy.
"Hey, hold on a sec," Steve called after them about the time they reached the door.
"I'll go start the car," Happy said with the hint of a smile as he continued walking.
"What's going on?" Steve asked when he reached her.
"Oh, it's not a big deal. I'm just going to spring Bucky and Eric from SHIELD medical," she answered.
"Medical? Why? Clint and Natasha didn't say anything about him being hurt last night."
"He wasn't. He apparently just ran afoul of Maria Hill."
"Oh. Well, she did seem a little..."
"Batshit insane," Darcy finished for him.
"Well, I wouldn't have said that," Steve replied, reddening just slightly.
"I know. That's why I said it for you," she said as she kissed him on the cheek. "Don't worry. I'll walk in, grab your best friend, and walk out. Everything will be fine."
Steve sighed and nervously bit his lip before he turned back to help the others.
If his dad had actually said something about his behavior the night before, Harry hadn't managed to absorb what it was. Besides, it wasn't as if the whole thing was his fault. There were criminals and possible secret agents involved. It didn't seem to faze Norman Osborn much, anyway. As soon as they got back to the penthouse, the elder Osborn got on a helicopter to go to some meeting on D.C., or somewhere. Harry stopped paying attention to his father's plans a long time ago.
He was sipping his father's best scotch to cure his hangover and the effects of whatever drug he'd been given when his cell phone started ringing wildly. He picked it up and said, "Christ, Parker, it's too early in the morning for this shit."
"You need to get out of town," Peter's voice replied firmly.
"Oh, did you actually get drunk last night?" Harry replied.
"Harry, didn't you feel that tremor earlier?"
"Sure, but that's, like, global warming or something, right?"
"You are not that stupid, Harry."
"Not according to some people," he muttered. "Look, I'm sitting on top of a billion dollar monument to Norman Osborn's paranoia. I think I'll be fine."
"You're sitting on top of a nice, big target," Peter replied tersely.
"Target for what?"
"The…aliens," Peter answered reluctantly.
Harry snorted. "I'm back to thinking you're still drunk, Parker."
"Harry, you know I wouldn't—oh, shit!"
"Pete?"
Silence preceded a few loud crashes and then a sickening hiss, which accompanied the entire building shaking. "Pete?" Harry asked again, this time far more worried than before. Peter's voice made no reply, but a message alert buzzed in Harry's ear. The picture he received was of a screaming, reptilian face. He almost dropped the phone when he saw it.
"Pete?!" he yelled into the phone again.
"Do you believe me now?" Peter's voice yelled into the phone, slightly winded.
"I still don't think they're aliens, but, yes, I'm getting out of town," Harry replied before swallowing the last of his scotch. "What about Aunt May? You need me to get her out, too?"
"No. MJ just texted me. She's already on her way upstate with MJ and her mom."
"What? Why the hell aren't you going with them?"
"I, uh, I kinda got called into work."
"Since when do you have a job?" Harry asked, tossing stuff out of his dresser.
"Well, I sort of took a job with Tony Stark this morning," Peter replied reluctantly.
Harry grasped his mother's locket in his hand tightly. She'd always told him to be careful about his anger. He'd never listened. "Hope he doesn't get you killed, Pete. Have a nice life."
He stormed out of his room with the locket in one hand and his phone in the other. "Carson!" he yelled. "Get the car. We're getting out of town."
The portly, older man appeared out of nowhere as he always did. "I wouldn't suggest such a course of action, Sir," he replied calmly. "It seems the tremors have frightened most of the populace to flee. We will be on the roads for hours."
"We're not taking the roads out of town, Carson," Harry explained. "We're going to the docks."
"You want me to go in with you?" Happy asked her when they reached SHIELD headquarters.
She shook her head. "Don't want to attract any extra attention. We'll be right back. Don't worry."
It irked her just a little to have to tell everyone not to worry about her every ten seconds. She grew up in a house with three guys, two of which had been in the military. She could handle herself just fine.
Natasha had been right about SHIELD headquarters. Lots of agents were running around, but none of them had the time to even notice Darcy's presence. There wasn't even anyone behind the main security desk. She spied the feed of Loki's cell on the bank of screens. He looked as though he were meditating, but there was a smile on his face. That made her shiver.
She rushed to the nearest elevator, using Natasha security card to gain access and headed for medical. The floor was more empty than it had been downstairs, but there were still people running around, moving and securing equipment.
Eric and Bucky were in beds spaced less than six feet apart. They were both awake and struggling against their restraints, and neither of them even noticed Darcy watching them.
"Look, you're just going to have to dislocate your thumb," Bucky told Eric.
"And how, exactly, would you suggest I do such a thing?" Eric asked shortly.
"It's not that hard, you just—"
"Okay! 'How to survive Russian torture' class is now over," Darcy interrupted, moving forward to undo the straps holding down Bucky's arms.
"Am I glad to see you," Bucky said, sighing in relief. "Steve send you?"
"Actually, it was Natasha," she informed him.
"Really? Why would she do that?" Bucky asked, rubbing his wrists.
"You are such an idiot," Darcy muttered, moving to Eric's bed. "So, are you going to run off the roof if I take these off?"
Eric completely ignored her question and said, "The Tesseract; it's active, isn't it?"
"Yes," Darcy replied, releasing his restraints. "Pepper did something rather rash and is holding back the flow of energy, but that won't last very long."
"Pepper…that's Stark's girl, right?" Bucky asked. "Is she okay?"
"For the moment," Darcy replied.
"Well, that doesn't sound good at all," Eric concluded.
"That's why we should go," Darcy told them.
"I'm going to find my gun first," Bucky said resolutely.
"What? Wait? Ugh," Darcy said as he disappeared into another room. "Who gave him a gun anyway?"
"Darcy, is Jane alright?" Eric asked her seriously.
She looked at him for a long moment and said, "You're yourself again, aren't you?"
"I am."
"It's about time," she told him.
"Darcy, I was—"
"Hey! What are you doing in here?" a guard in black fatigues barked at them.
"I'm just talking to my friend here," Darcy replied nonchalantly. "I have clearance to be here."
"This guy is on psych watch; supposed to be restrained. You have clearance to release him from that too?" the guard asked dubiously.
"Um…"
The guard started to reach for his walkie and Bucky quickly stepped up behind him and used his left hand to grab the man between his neck and clavicle. After a moment of surprise, the guard crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
Darcy's eyes widened excitedly. "Oh. My. God. The Vulcan neck pinch is real?!"
"The what?" Bucky asked as he relieved the guard of his sidearm and tucked it into the back of his own pants.
"They didn't have Star Trek in the Soviet Union? There was a loveable, if annoying, Russian character and everything."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Bucky confessed.
"I have so much to teach you," Darcy said with a grin.
"Will you stop dawdling? We have to get out of here," Eric reminded them. "Jane is going to need my help."
"Right," Darcy said, leading the way into the hall. Her phone started ringing before they reached the sliding doors. "Dad, I really can't—" she started to answer.
"Darcy, for once in your life, just shut up and listen," her father cut her off.
"Dad, what's going on?" Darcy asked, stopping in her tracks and causing the two men to stare at her.
"The Guard called," her father told her simply.
"Oh, my God, they're not actually putting you in a plane, are they?"
"Thank you for the vote of confidence, sweetheart."
"You know what I mean, Dad."
"I do. They knew I'm a station chief and thought it best I stay with the civilian population for the time being," David explained. "They did, however, ask your uncle to report for duty. No floods, no explosions, no terrorist attacks, and they're scrambling the Air Guard in New Mexico. I got the impression that boyfriend of yours was kind of important in the military. Do you know what's going on?"
"He's not my—well, his is now, but he wasn't at the time—oh, God, never mind," Darcy blurted.
"Darcy, we have to go," Eric reminded her as she glared at him angrily and mouthed the word 'no.'
"Look, Dad, I can't explain it all right now, but…something is going on, and it's bad, and…Granny didn't fill in that bunker under her house, did she?"
"You're suggesting we hide out in the shelter my dad built to hide from the inevitable Russian invasion?" David asked.
"Well, I'm suggesting you put Clark there, probably with his Xbox so he doesn't hurt himself," Darcy replied. "And, Dad, there's a woman that lives on Angeles Street. Her name is Peggy Carter. She's ninety-five and on dialysis and she's got a niece living with her, but I just have to know she's alright, okay?"
"Alright, Darcy," her father promised. "I'll ask you why that's so important right after I ask you how your job and boyfriend keep you so well informed."
"Hey, you called me, remember?" Darcy reminded him as a tear rolled down her cheek. "I love you, Daddy. Tell Uncle Max and C.K. I love them too."
"I will, baby girl," David promised. "Be careful today, and good luck to that boyfriend of yours, too."
"Thanks, Dad."
She could almost see his smile as the line disconnected. She quickly brushed the tears away and joined Eric and Bucky in the elevator. As the doors closed, she said, "They've scrambled the National Guard in New Mexico. Why would they do that?"
She looked directly at Eric, who solemnly replied, "That's where the Bifrost has appeared in the past. If the Tesseract is being used to manipulate pre-existing fissures, it's likely New Mexico will quickly become a focal point of any invasion from the outside."
"Right," Darcy said, nodding slowly as the elevator doors slid open.
The lobby was mostly empty and Happy was waiting for them inside. "They think the whole thing might be about to collapse," he told them. "We have to go right now."
Darcy heard Happy, but his words didn't move her. She was staring at Loki's face on the security feeds. He was grinning at her smugly. "I'm gonna walk back," she announced quietly. "There's something I have to do."
"Darcy!" Eric called after her as she moved quickly toward the stairs.
"Cap'll hang me if I come back without you!" Happy added.
"I'll look after her, just go," Bucky told them as he ran after her. When he caught up to her in the stairwell, he said, "Darcy, wait up. What's going on?"
She stopped on the stairs and slowly turned to face him. "This is all Loki's fault," she said simply, anger boiling under the surface.
"Loki is Thor's crazy brother, right? He's a psychopath. What makes you think he's going to tell you anything?" Bucky asked.
"I don't need him to tell me anything," Darcy explained, continuing down the steps. "I just want him to know that if my dad, or my brother, or my uncle get hurt or killed because of his stupid, familial vendetta, I will personally stab him in the balls."
Bucky blinked in surprise. "I'm suddenly a little concerned for my best friend's manhood," he told her, following her lead down the stairs.
Darcy chuckled. "Don't worry. I probably like his manhood as much as he does."
"Oh, Christ! I didn't need to hear that," Bucky groaned.
They arrived at the detention area and Darcy used Natasha's access card to get inside. Only Agent Hill appeared to be on duty, and she smirked slightly when she saw them. "Miss Lewis, I happen to know you definitely don't have access to be in this room. How did you get in here?"
Darcy shrugged and looked the taller woman straight in the eye as she said, "I used my infinite powers of persuasion."
Bucky hid a smile very badly as Agent Hill regarded them dubiously and folded her arms across her chest. "And why are you here?" she asked them.
"I want to talk to him," Darcy replied simply.
"Well, I don't' suppose there could be any harm to it now," Agent Hill replied, working the computer console until Loki's face appeared on the screen.
Darcy raised an eyebrow at how easy it had been to convince her. She looked up at Loki's smug face and said, "You probably don't know who I am."
"Of course I know who you are, Little One," Loki replied smoothly. "You're a sister, lover, or friend to all of them."
"Well, not all at the same time, but, yeah, I'll take that description," Darcy replied with an insincere smile. "I just want to know what you think you're going to gain from this whole revenge thing? I mean, you should really watch some of our movies if you want to know what pursuing revenge gets you. If you were in Star Wars, you'd wind up with no arms, no legs, and no Natalie Portman; and you know everyone loves Natalie Portman."
"What's your point?" Loki asked with a smirk.
"I don't really, truly care about much," she told him. "But what I do care about, I care about with everything that I am. You've put my family and people that I love in jeopardy. You're gonna pay for it, I promise you. I just want to know what you think you're going to get out of it? You don't care about this planet, you don't need the Tesseract for anything, you—"
"Darcy?" Bucky asked, reaching around behind for his gun.
"You want the Staff of Burin back," Darcy concluded suddenly. "That was your price, wasn't it? With the Staff of Burin, you could screw the Earth and the Skrull and the Kroods or the Kree or whoever and go right back to Asgard and take the throne because the Staff is the only thing that could even come close to trumping Mjolnir or Gungnir."
"Clever girl," said Agent Hill with a sinister smile.
"What the—"
"Bydd y cywion yn deor," she said, cutting Bucky off before he finished his sentence. The words also seemed to have the magical effect of freezing Bucky in place. His hands dropped to his sides and his eyes went cold. Darcy didn't even have a chance to respond before Maria Hill had her pinned to the wall with one hand on Darcy's throat.
"What the hell did you do to him?" Darcy said, struggling under Agent Hill's grasp, which was unnaturally strong. Then, before Darcy's eyes, Agent Hill faded away to be replaced by a raven-haired psychopath with a sinister grin.
"Words, Little One," he replied. "Just words…with the power to shut him down. They were implanted in him oh so long ago, but are every bit as effective today, don't you think?"
A glance at the screen on the wall told Darcy that the Loki in the box of a cell was suddenly just another Skrull emerging from within.
"Oh my God," Darcy choked out, struggling against Loki's hold on her throat. "Is Maria Hill even a real person?"
"Of course she is, or she was. Not sure she's still real anymore," Loki replied with a mirthless chuckle before nodding off the Skrull. "She wouldn't have been useful at all had she not been real; and she was very, very useful in helping me and my friend switch places."
"He's not your friend," Darcy told him. "He's just using you like you're using him."
Loki bounced her head off the wall and moved in so close she could feel his breath hot on her throat. "You don't know me, Little One," he hissed, his free hand drifting down her torso toward her hip. "But I know you. You haven't been told you're beautiful nearly often enough. Others have so often been preferred above you. You are the last choice."
"I am not like you," she spat back.
"Think that if you will," Loki replied, having withdrawn Darcy's cell phone from her pocket. He crushed it in his hand as he said, "You'll find your fate decided far before mine."
He tossed her in Bucky's direction and Bucky grabbed her and held her firmly by the shoulders. "Bucky, come on. You've gotta snap out of this. You're Sergeant James Barnes. You used to rescue Steve from bullies all the time. That's all this guy is. He's a bully, Bucky. Bucky, come on!" Throughout her pleading and struggling, his eyes remained cold and his grip only became stronger; to the point she was screeching due to the pain radiating from her right arm.
"He won't listen to anyone save myself until I release him," Loki explained as he morphed back into the visage of Agent Hill. "Let go of her."
Bucky released his grasp and Darcy breathed a sigh of relief. "How do you know I won't run?" she asked.
"Well, you're not exactly built for it, are you?" Loki replied playfully. "And, of course, you know him, and his capabilities as a lethal weapon. Come along."
Darcy had to close her eyes and grit her teeth to control her breathing as she followed Loki—as Agent Hill—with Bucky boxing her in from behind. A SHIELD jeep was waiting for them at the back of the building and the guard handed the disguised Loki the keys without a second thought. Darcy thought about screaming, but Bucky was too close and could snap her neck before she got out anything more noticeable than a squeak. She was sandwiched between them in the front as they pulled out into the extraordinarily busy New York streets.
After a couple of minutes, Darcy took a deep breath and said, "Your shape-shifting abilities are greater than we realized."
She could see a proud smirk forming at the corners of his mouth. "There is much I have learned since leaving my brother's company."
Darcy shook her head at the sound of Shakespearean jibber-jabber coming out of Agent Hill's mouth and continued, "Then why go to all this trouble? You could just change into the President, nuke Iran, and let the planet go to hell that way."
"That wouldn't exactly get everyone what they want."
Darcy bit her lip and wracked her brain for all of the intelligence reports she'd been through with Steve when they first realized they were about to be invaded. Earth was nowhere near Skrull territory; as a matter of fact, it was lightyears out of their way. Earth was, in fact, the only non-developed planet near Kree space. The Kree; the eons-long enemy of the Skrull.
"The Skrull aren't just doing this for the Tesseract," Darcy concluded. "They want to use Earth as a base to strike at the Kree."
"You really are very clever," Loki told her. "Nick Fury should have hired you as an analyst a few months ago and avoided all this fuss."
"I wouldn't work for a liar like Nick Fury," Darcy muttered as she turned to Bucky. "Come on, James, I know you're in there. No form of hypnosis or mind control can completely erase who you are. If Steve doesn't stir your memory, what about Natasha? Or Natalia, as you knew her. It baffled the Soviet scientists studying you that you trusted her so easily and bonded to her so well."
He actually looked at her out of the corner of his eye and she knew she was on the right track. "I've seen both your files. You could have intersected on a couple of different missions. Did you—"
Loki pulled back sharply on Darcy's hair and said, "If you keep speaking, I'll have to break your teeth."
"This is the best we can do in less than the time it takes to get a pizza delivered," Bruce told Tony.
"The field's only going to hold maybe ten minutes when we get Pepper free."
"Then you're going to have to be ready for whatever comes through that portal."
"And what about you? I imagine alien smashing is probably pretty high on your list of undiscovered talents."
"It's not going to happen, Stark."
Tony cocked his head to the side and said, "I thought you turned green, not yellow."
Bruce's fist tightened as Steve placed himself between them. "Now is not the time, gentlemen," he told them.
Tony set his jaw and turned to pester Peter about the device the younger man was building. Steve looked at Bruce and said, "Jane needs to speak with you about a…science thing."
Bruce sighed deeply and ran both his hands through his hair as he turned to find Jane. Hawkeye smirked as he walked by with extra cabling and said, "Smooth, Cap."
Natasha narrowed her gaze toward her partner and said, "I didn't see you getting in the middle of it."
"Well, I didn't take my stupid pills this morning."
"All evidence to the contrary."
Hawkeye glared at her before continuing on with his cabling. Steve looked at the door and quietly said, "They should be back by now."
"New York traffic is murder at the best of times," Natasha replied encouragingly. "After an alleged earthquake, people will be scrambling to get out of the city. They'll be back soon."
Steve ran his fingers through his hair and sighed deeply. "I-I don't want to be like this."
Natasha smiled slightly and said, "Yes, you do. Everyone wants to be in love at some point."
Steve noted the distant look in her eyes. "Even you, Agent Romanov?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I never wanted it. It just sort of happened."
"Back off, Stark," Peter snapped, drawing everyone's attention.
"You know, you'd probably be less tense if you took your mask off," Tony told him. "We all know who you are."
"Seriously?"
"We have brains, kid," Tony told him.
"And Tony has a pretty big mouth," Steve added.
"Ms. Lewis wasn't exactly helpful, either," Coulson said, sparing a moment from his phone.
"Darcy let me down?" Peter asked, sounding slightly like a betrayed toddler.
"Only after Tony announced it to everyone," Steve explained.
"Well, that figures," Peter muttered before returning to his device.
Tony opened his mouth to respond, but Pepper's voice interrupted, "Tony, stop it. Come here."
He sighed and walked over to her. "Yes, dear?"
"Why did you bring him here?" she asked flatly, as though she already knew the answer.
"You know—"
"Just tell me again, please," Pepper said calmly.
"I-I don't do little," Tony said quietly.
"And?" she prodded.
"Peter already trusts his life to tiny devices of his own design and I needed his expertise to free you from this…thing."
"You needed him," Pepper reminded him. "And Peter came here for you, so let him do what he came here to do."
Tony's face twisted in distaste. "I hate it when you're right."
"Which is, of course, most of the time," she replied with a smirk.
Tony rolled his eyes before softly placing a kiss on her cheek. Eric and Happy chose that particular moment to appear in the hallway. Jane's eyes widened upon the sight of her old mentor before a smile broke out across her face.
"You're here!" she exclaimed, leaving her side of the lab to throw her arms around his neck.
"Jane, I've had some revelations," Eric told her.
"Not the bad kind, I hope," Jane replied with a small smile.
He shook his head. "Thor, I think we'll need your help. Dr. Banner, I think I'll need your eyes."
They went off to their corner of the lab while Happy stood at the door awkwardly. When it was obvious no one else was joining Tony's chauffeur, Steve marched up to the man and in a barely controlled calm said, "Where are they?"
"Hey, I know what you're thinking, and this is really not my fault. She—"
"Where are they?" Natasha asked, anger boiling just under the surface.
Happy stepped back slightly and gulped as he looked at her. "She wouldn't come with me," he answered shortly.
"What do you mean she wouldn't come with you?" Steve growled.
"She said she had something she had to do and then took off for the basement," Happy explained. "You know how she can get; she was pretty damned determined. Your friend went with her!"
"You mean Bucky?" Steve asked.
"Is that his real name?"
"Your name is Happy," Natasha reminded him flatly. "And his name is James."
"Why would she go down there?" Steve asked, looking between Happy and Natasha.
"She was in a hurry, and she doesn't really seem like a fan of explanations," Happy pointed out.
"That's true," Natasha agreed.
"I'm sorry, Happy," Steve apologized. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just a little on edge."
"It's alright, Cap," Happy replied, moving away and eyeing Natasha warily.
Steve quirked an eyebrow as he followed the other man's trajectory and said, "He's built like a fighter from my day; why is he so afraid of you?"
"He's seen me at work," Natasha replied flatly, without looking at Steve, "and I put him on his back within five minutes of meeting him."
"That's not very polite," Steve said with a hint of a smirk.
"He was being a bit sexist at the time; he had it coming. James will take care of her, you know."
"I do," Steve replied gravely. "I just…I don't want to give Loki the chance to do what he threatened, and she just walked right into his path. Why did she do that? Why does she always do that?"
"She may have just wanted to give Maria Hill a piece of her mind. I know I'd like to," Natasha said with a grumble.
"General, I hear you," Rhodey said loudly into his phone, attracting everyone's attention. "I will report as soon as possible, Sir."
"What's going on, Rhodey?" Pepper asked as he snapped his phone shut.
"They've scrambled the entire Air Force; Reserves, Guard, everybody. I have to report for duty," Rhodey quickly explained.
"Go. See you out there," Tony said extending his hand to his friend.
"You got it," Rhodey replied, clasping Tony's forearm before heading out the door to the staging area where his suit was located.
"The Air Guard," Steve breathed.
"Captain?" Natasha asked.
"Darcy's dad and uncle are in the Air Guard," Steve replied quickly as he moved toward Jane and Eric. "Dr. Selvig, did Darcy know about the Guard being sent into all of this?"
Eric allowed himself to be distracted only as long as it took him to notice Steve's deadly serious expression. "She did, yes," he replied. "She was more than a little upset."
"Wait a second," Jane said, looking around. "Where is Darcy? What has she done?"
"She went to SHIELD's basement to yell at Loki for putting her father and brother in added danger," Steve explained. "JARVIS, could you please locate Darcy for me?"
"Of course, Captain."
"What's going on?" Clint murmured to Natasha.
She whispered her reply as everyone's attention turned toward Peter, whose mask was shoved on top of his head like a stocking cap. He gingerly attached his device to the preexisting wiring on the back of Pepper's neck and stepped away.
"You sure this is going to work?" Tony asked him.
"Nope," he answered honestly.
"You're not instilling me with a whole lot of confidence here, Parker."
"Hey, the scientific method is trial and error," Peter replied, turning to the older man. "You asked me to create something perfect on the fly and that's just not how I generally roll."
"It doesn't matter now," Betty said, cutting off the impending argument as she stepped onto the platform. "Look, Pepper, you've put your body under an enormous strain with all of this. Add in electric shocks to the cerebellum, no matter how miniscule, and we're looking at dizziness, nausea, and loss of consciousness."
"Okay," Pepper said slowly.
"No, not okay," Betty replied, shaking her head. "Pepper, you might never wake up."
"Are you serious right now?" Tony asked, standing next to Pepper and looking across to Betty.
"Tony, you've known me almost all my life, is this the sort of thing I would joke about?" she asked incredulously. "The mind is a funny thing. None of the things I listed may happen, but given the circumstances; I think a persistent vegetative state is a real possibility."
"Oh," Pepper said quietly.
Tony was, for once, utterly speechless. His mouth hung open slightly as though waiting for words that never came while his eyes glassed over with unshed tears.
"But you're the famous Pepper Potts," Natasha said, stepping toward them and breaking the silence. "You've kept up with Tony Stark for more than ten years. You've kept him relatively sane and given him something to live for. Honestly, you were the only thing I was worried about when it came to getting close to Tony Stark, and I'm frankly still in awe of you. You'll get through this."
Pepper smiled weakly as a tear escaped her eye. "Thank you, Natalie."
Natasha genuinely returned her smile, "You're welcome, Ms. Potts."
Pepper turned her head in time to see Tony brushing away an errant tear. "No matter what happens, I believe you can fix it. I have faith in you," she told him.
Tony smiled slightly before kissing her softly. "That means everything. I hope you know that."
"I do."
"Alright then," Tony said stepping off the platform and stretching his hand toward the device Peter was holding. "Give it to me."
"You sure?"
"Positive," Tony replied as Peter placed the controller in his hand. "Bruce, remember you're going to have to ramp the power up slowly or—"
"Or the whole place goes up," Bruce finished as he took his station behind the force field generators. "I remember, Tony. Let's go."
Everyone took a whole step back as Tony fired the first volts of electricity into Pepper's brain.
"The suit barely registered any interruption," Peter reported.
"The field is still intact," Bruce added.
While they had a brief sciencey conversation, JARVIS said, "Captain Rogers, I have been unable to locate Ms. Lewis via her cell phone signal. I'm now attempting to find her through facial recognition and CCTV feeds."
Steve and Natasha exchanged a worried glance as Peter loudly said, "It's not about voltage, it's about frequency. Stark, just keep hitting the button."
"You okay, Pep?" Tony asked, looking at her.
She nodded and said, "I know it's not your strong suit, but just trust him okay?"
Tony took a deep breath and pressed down hard on the controller in his hand. Peter looked at his computer screen and said, "Here we go! It's working! Dr. Banner?"
"I got it," Bruce replied, slowly pushing forward on a nearby lever.
Pepper let out a blood-curdling scream and Tony held his breath as though he was in physical pain. The floor began to shake and everyone started looking for something to brace themselves against. Moments later, Peter yelled, "We got it!" and Bruce shoved the lever the rest of the way up. A shockwave radiated across the room, knocking everyone off their feet.
Steve groaned as he stood back up. "Bruce?" he called out.
"Yeah," Bruce replied, pulling himself up to look at his computer screen. "The field's holding. We're safe for the moment."
Steve sighed in relief as JARVIS quietly informed him, "Captain, Ms. Lewis has just arrived in the company of Agent Hill and Sergeant Barnes. She appears to be unharmed."
Steve smiled to himself as he pulled Coulson to his feet. "Thank you, JARVIS."
"My pleasure, Sir."
"Captain, there's probably something you should know about Agent Hill," Coulson began.
"Pepper?" Tony called out, crawling over to where she had collapsed in a heap of blue metal. "Pep, are you awake?"
He looked over at Betty, who looked up from a tablet in her hands and said, "Her vital signs have returned to normal, but that doesn't…" She let her voice die rather than finish the sentence.
Tony pulled her body into his lap and said, "C'mon, Pep. You've gotta wake up now." He withdrew his hand from the back of her head to find it covered in her blood. "Oh, shit."
Steve knelt down next to him and said, "Head wounds bleed a lot, Tony. It doesn't mean—"
"Will you please listen to me?" Tony said, ignoring Steve completely and holding Pepper's face close to his own. "Natashalie is right. Most of the good I've done in my life, I've done because of you. So you have got to wake up, you hear me? Wake up, goddammit!"
"Oh, God, will you just shut up and kiss me already?" Pepper groaned.
Tony laughed loudly as he unceremoniously smashed his lips against hers. A communal sigh of relief spread throughout the room. Betty's knees started to buckle before Bruce caught her in a tight hug.
"I fucking love you," Tony said when he broke away for air.
"Thank you…I think," she replied with a raised eyebrow.
Their joy was short lived, however. Heavy, metal blast doors suddenly covered the only entrance to the room and main lights went out, leaving only the emergency lights to illuminate the room.
"What the-?"
"The field's unaffected and holding steady," Jane announced. "That's why we gave it an independent power supply."
"JARVIS, what the hell are you-?"
"Sir, several security protocols are being overridden."
"By who?"
"SHIELD agent Maria Hill."
Everyone's attention suddenly focused on Coulson. He took a solemn breath and said, "That's what I was trying to tell you earlier, Captain. The word came down from the World Security Council yesterday afternoon; Maria Hill is the new assistant director of SHIELD."
Natasha's eyes widened as her gaze narrowed. Clint openly shook his head. "You have got to be shitting me! I'm more qualified for that job, and I'm not qualified at all!"
"It was the Council's decision and Director Fury didn't exactly have any leverage to argue the point," Coulson told them.
"I don't really give a rat's ass about your office politics," Tony told them as he helped Pepper into a chair as Betty pressed a compress against the back of her head. "Why the hell is she breaking into my building?"
"And what is she doing with Darcy?" Steve added.
"I have absolutely no idea," Coulson replied honestly.
"Enough of this," Thor growled, extending his right hand toward the door.
"Wait, don't-!"
Tony's protestation was drowned out by a massive, resounding thud that filled the room and shook the floor. When the sound died out, Thor glared at Tony. "Precious few things can stop Mjolnir from reaching me," he stated flatly.
"It's vibranium," Tony told him. "The same stuff Cap's shield is made of."
"How did you get that much vibranium?" Steve asked dubiously.
"There's a small country in Africa sitting on a ton of the stuff," Tony explained. "I built them a school, they gave me vibranium doors. Seemed like a fair trade at the time. Parker, get her out of this suit. I'm gonna get the doors open."
As Peter and Tony traded places, Jane looked up at a security monitor and said, "Um, guys…"
They all looked up at the screen just as Maria Hill pulled Darcy into Tony's private elevator with James following close behind. "Darcy's afraid," Steve breathed, staring at the image. "Something's wrong."
"Look at James," Natasha said. "I've seen him look like that before. It's not good."
Steve's eyes flicked over to his friend's face. Bucky did indeed look dead behind his eyes. "Oh, God," he whispered.
As soon as the elevator doors slid shut. Maria Hill transformed to the form of a fallen, vengeful god.
"Oh shit!" Tony yelled. "JARVIS, shut down the elevator!"
"Sir, my protocols have been completely overridden. I am unable to—"
"Shut the hell up!"
"Tony, you gotta lock it down!" Bruce yelled, seemingly in a state of near panic.
"It can't be locked down more than it already is!"
"What it are you two talking about?" Steve bellowed.
Bruce took a deep breath and said, "The Staff of Burin is downstairs in a secured vault."
"Maria Hill would have had access to that information," Coulson pointed out.
"Yeah, that's not the problem," Tony explained. "The problem is that no one but Darcy has access to that vault, and now that psychopath has Darcy."
"Why would Darcy be the only one with access?" Steve asked, confused.
"Because she's Frodo," Tony replied as though it were obvious.
Steve just blinked at him.
"I'm pretty sure that blank expression means he hasn't read or seen Lord of the Rings yet," Clint pointed out.
"She's the last person who would want anything to do with it," Bruce clarified. "It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time."
Steve looked at the screen and then at the closed doors. Before he could get his plea out, Tony, focused on the computer screen, said, "I'm working on it, buddy."
Loki, Darcy, and James emerged from the elevator onto the main floor of Stark's penthouse. "I can see you all now," Loki began; "all scrambling about trying to stop me. You won't succeed. This SHIELD contingency was very well designed, with the help of one Natasha Romanov, I believe."
Natasha flinched at the mention of her name. "I—"
"It was a good Idea at the time," Pepper said as Peter removed a piece of armor from her leg.
"You know what? I really don't have time to be insulted right now," Tony said, hurriedly clacking his fingers against the keyboards.
"Thor, come help me," Steve requested as he desperately pushed at the metal door.
"You can't force it open," Tony informed them without looking up from his computer screen. "Bruce couldn't get through those doors if he was having a really, really bad day."
"We have to do something!" Steve protested.
"Not everything can be solved through strength of character, Steve," Tony yelled back.
"They're in the central elevator," Coulson informed them, his eyes glued on the screen
"I-I can just down the power to the central elevator," Bruce yelled.
"Do it!" Tony ordered.
"No, don't!" Thor shouted, effectively stopping Bruce in mid-motion. "Loki is as a feral beast at this moment. If you corner him, there is no knowing what harm he will bring to Darcy or the captain's friend."
"So we just let him have the Staff?" Bruce yelled back.
"What does this staff do that has you two so worried?" Pepper asked, rotating her now free arm.
"Well, I'm not sure what it does to everyone else, but I didn't like what it did to me," Tony replied without looking up. Suddenly, another heavy door came down in front of the vibranium doors. "You have got to be fucking kidding me! How insane did you people think I was going to get?" he shouted at Natasha.
Loki's unsettling cackle filled the room. "You have trapped yourselves and you don't even know why you must stop me," he said. "This must be so frustrating for you."
"Cap, you can force this door up. Use your shield as a lever," Tony said before returning his full attention to his screens.
"I know my brother has not been terribly informative about the Staff of Burin," Loki continued as he and his unwilling entourage exited the elevator into the hallway leading to the vault. "He never much cared to listen to what his own father was trying to tell him. He just wanted to fight and claim the throne for his own."
Thor contritely looked down at his boots and said nothing in his own defense. Jane touched his arm supportively and laced her fingers through his.
"Fear," Loki continued, "is the most powerful force in the universe. You should know that even on this pathetic excuse for a planet."
"Parker, I need one of Pepper's gauntlets," Tony said calmly as Steve wedged his shield beneath the steel door.
"The staff isn't a weapon as your puny minds perceive such," Loki said, forcing Darcy's face in front of an iris scanner. "It is a harness; a harness for the most powerful force in the universe. Imagine the fear you felt when you were left alone in the dark as a child. Imagine that fear focused and amplified and multiplied by millions," he finished as he forced Darcy's hand onto a spindle-like device. She yelped as blood trickled from her finger and the vault doors opened to Loki.
"This could get loud," Tony warned them as he placed the gauntlet palm down on the console. "Cap, get ready to run."
Everyone steeled themselves as Tony activated the gauntlet. A short whir preceded a pop then a crackle as the computer console sparked out. The lights briefly went out before coming back on at full power and the two sets of blast doors started sliding out of the way. Steve took off and Thor summoned Mjolnir to his hand. There was a chaotic noise and shuffling until Jane's scream pierced the air. Their attention shifted in unison to the security monitor where Loki was nowhere to be seen, Darcy was bleeding on the floor, holding in her stomach, and James was looking at the gun in his hand in utter shock.