Welcome to New York!
Chapter Nineteen- The Beginning.
Nobody stood in their way, not a single agent was brave enough to get un their way. Steve took the lead, agents moving out of the way as soon as they saw the uniform. The uniforms of Rosetta were common place, similar to the SHIELD standard issue, but there was no mistaking the red, white and blue or the star that emblazoned Captain America's chest.
The heavy thud of footsteps on the walkway alerted the engineer to agents trying to board. It wasn't for the first time that week either, he was in charge of SHIELD's latest aircraft, one of only three in the world. Agents had been filing in and out all week, desperate to get a look inside, like kids in a candy store. Of course that had all gone sideways when the Andraste went to battle stations; still he stayed at his post.
"Hey, you guys aren't authorised to be in here," the engineer said without really looking. He turned and then scrambled from his seat and immediately regretting his words once he saw who it was that had boarded.
"Son, don't," Rogers said with an exasperated look.
As a man that was technically still in his early twenties, the Captain shouldn't have been able to carry that much authority in two words, but somehow he did. Nobody dared question the actions of Captain America, the living embodiment of righteousness. Maybe it was the fact that he was from a different era, it was something that he would usually speak to Lucie about but he wasn't quite ready to ask for her help.
Clint stepped by everyone, settling himself in the pilot's seat and completing the usual pre-flight checks. Flicking switches and checking dials and screens. It wasn't difficult to find his way around, SHIELD tended to use the same contractors to build their equipment and when you had been in SHIELD for as long as he was, it was easy to recognise the different styles.
Natasha and Lucie strapped themselves into their seats like they had done dozens of times before, neither one of them speaking as they tightened the straps and waited patiently to take off. There was nothing more they could do while they sat on the tarmac. It had been six months since their last mission together; a nine day placement in Madrid that had left them with a generous sun tan and a couple of bruises and scrapes for souvenirs. Still, they fell back into the familiar routine of operating on next to no information.
Lucie toed a heavy duffle bag under her seat and to secured it with her feet, offering only a wink to the man in charge of the aircraft they were commandeering.
When Steve had asked her what was inside the bag, it was Natasha who answered. "Toys," she had said with the kind of seriousness that put Steve on edge. Whatever it was that Lucie had went to retrieve, she hadn't had time to change into her gear.
"Promise we'll bring it back in one piece," it was an empty promise but at the very least it would make him feel better.
Reluctantly, the engineer who had been working in the cockpit, stepped away and into the aircraft hanger. There was no promise of dinner or putting in a good word to his boss, they weren't necessary. Rosetta's reputation proceeded itself and with Captain America on board, he wasn't brave enough to contradict them.
Steve followed their lead, settling in his seat and buckling the harness in place. It was another practice that was familiar to him and also completely alien. As strange and unexpected as the whole Loki situation had been, he was beginning to feel settled in the ability to return to active duty and for the first time he felt like he was doing what he was supposed to. If he concentrated, he could have made himself believe that they were on a military transport like during the war, the only difference was the cockpit and the women sat in front of him.
"We're clear," Clint announced.
Immediately, both Natasha and Lucie set to work. They unbuckled their harnesses in unison and pulled out the bag that Lucie had pushed under the seat. They pawed through the bag and pulled out far more weaponry than Steve had expected. Lucie pulled out several belts lined with more knives and dumped them on her seat and carried on digging through the bag until she found what she was looking for, her gear neatly rolled for easy storage.
"If you don't want to see anything, then I suggest you avert your eyes," Lucie warned, kicking her sneakers towards the back of the quinjet and loosening her belt on her cargo pants.
Steve turned away, awkwardly trying to find somewhere to look in the small aircraft where Lucie wasn't in his eyeline. He would have looked away even if she hadn't asked but he appreciated the warning.
Being in her gear felt like a second skin and it was easy to slip back into being a professional. With each weapon she donned, she felt more and more prepared. There was none of the usual jokes or banter between Rosetta, the stakes too high for them to joke, the wounds too recent.
With her Widow Bites secured to her wrists, handguns in their holsters and a handful of tricks up her sleeves, Natasha was ready to go. Without a break in her movements she took two ear buds from the small box she rested on her seat and handed one to Steve, demonstrating on herself how to get the best fit before setting to work fitting Lucie's who was busy lacing up her knee high boots, securing a couple of knives in the laces as she tied.
"Encrypting channel three, backup channel twelve," Natasha said, tapping away at the screen.
"Channel three's good," both Clint and Lucie replied monotonously.
Watching them prepare was slightly hypnotic and Steve and couldn't help but wonder if this was how all their missions started. Of all the stories Lucie had told him since he came out of the ice, the other two agents featured the most. The Black Widow and Hawkeye. They sounded like superheroes sometimes, more than human. He would be lying if he said that he didn't feel slightly intimidated by Rosetta.
Steve had given up counting how many weapons they had when Lucie's count reached thirty. A belt around her waist, holsters strapped to both thighs with both handguns and knives, another belt across her shoulders like a deadly sash, once again adorned with blades of various shapes and sizes. Her arms, as far as he could see, were void of weapons but he didn't like to assume. She was more warrior than spy and in that moment he understand how she had become a member of such a prestigious team when she had only just entered her twenties. She was terrifying.
"Dad, you at the tower yet?" Lucie asked, her cell to her ear.
"You better not be on your way here Luce," he warned.
"Just answer the damn question."
"Go home," he ordered, ending the call and receiving nothing short of a growl from his daughter.
Lucie huffed, throwing her the phone across the room where it bounced against one of the walls and then along the ground. She moved to stand beside Clint just as the New York skyline was coming into view.
"Open a channel to Stark Tower," she asked, respectfully not interfering with the controls but still slamming her hands against the empty chair to his left.
She waited patiently for the call to connect via JARVIS.
"JARVIS, open a channel between Dad and all Avenger comms. Now." She ended the call abruptly and then pulled a black bandana over her mouth and nose.
Steve stepped towards Natasha, starting to become concerned with Lucie's building frustration, even if it didn't seem to bother Natasha.
"Is she okay?" he asked.
"She'll be fine." Just her tone of voice told Steve all he needed to know; the subject was not open for discussion.
The suit was struggling to keep up with the demands, glitching left, right and centre from all the damage that had been inflicted on it. Tony tried not to let it get to him, so long as he managed to arrive at the Tower in one piece and trade it in for a newer suit then it didn't matter.
The thrusters jarred and spluttered once Stark Tower came into view, as if sensing that they were nearly home.
"Sir, I've turned off the arc reactor but the device is already self sustaining," JARVIS warned.
"Shut it down, Doctor Selvig."
"It's too late. She can't stop now. She wants to show us something, a new universe!" his giddy optimism did nothing but set off warning bells. Whereas Agent Barton had been tactical and deadly, Selvig was idealistic, he actually seemed excited about Loki's plan.
Tony tried not to hold it against him, understanding that he was still under Loki's control. Deciding that it would be useless to argue with the man, he held up both hands and send out a blast of energy from the suit that threatened to knock him out of the sky.
"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable." As usual, JARVIS filled in the blanks, it wasn't necessary but Tony never felt the need to reprogram the part of JARVIS that reminded him of high school level physics whenever he did something foolish.
"I got that. Plan B," Tony said, looking down to see Loki stood casually on the walkway below.
"Sir, the Mark VII is not ready to be deployed."
"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock," Tony argued, setting himself down with a heavy, metallic thud.
Machinery sprung into action, rotating to extract Tony from his damaged armour as he walked.
"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki suggested with a sarcastic smile.
"Actually, I'm planning to threaten you."
"Should have left your armour on for that."
"Yeah. It's seen a bit of mileage and you've got the glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink."
"Stalling me won't change anything." Loki smiled, as though he couldn't imagine the audacity of the human who had dared believe that he was a worthy opponent for a god.
"No, no, no. Threatening. No drink, you sure, I'm having one," Tony corrected. He poured himself a drink, a decanter of scotch that he kept around for special occasions.
Just out of sight were two bracelets that easily could have been mistaken for watches. It had been part of the new specs for the Mark VII, a way around having to carry the clunky suit everywhere with him in a briefcase or something similar.
"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that," Loki declared, surveying the New York skyline as if imagining what it would be after his glorious victory. "What have I to fear?" he asked.
"The Avengers," he said it so casually that it confused the god in front of him. Tony Stark was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Still, he poured himself a drink, stalling for time. "It's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. Earth's mightiest heroes type of thing."
Loki smirked at the threat, thinking it more pathetic than anything else. "Yes, I've met them."
"Yeah, it takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that. But let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demigod. A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breath-taking anger management issues. A couple of master assassins and you, big fella, managed to piss off every single one of them."
"That was the plan."
"Not a great plan."
"Tell me, in your headcount as you call it, did you include the young Agent Stark?"
Tony froze, trying not to let the mention of her spark a reaction. By all accounts, something had gone on in the detention centre, he just didn't know what and Lucie wasn't likely tell him any time soon. He hoped not, he wanted her as far away from it all as humanly possible.
"I imagine that you know very little of your daughter's career but let me assure you, it has been quite extensive. How does it feel to know that you raised a killer?"
"Don't believe that we won't come for you." For once, Tony kept his mouth shut. Everything in him wanted to destroy the man in front of him but instead, he ignored the jibe and tried to keep to the task at hand.
"I have an army."
"We have a Hulk."
"And here I thought the beast had wandered off."
"You're missing the point. There's no throne There's no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but its all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth then you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."
"How will your friends have time for me, when they are so busy fighting you."With a menacing look in his eyes, he lowered the sceptre so that the sharp point was resting over Tony's heart. The metal clinked against the arc reactor and the god waited. Nothing happened."It should work."
Tony didn't know what he had been expecting, being brainwashed by Loki wasn't something that he had considered. He had heard that Barton was free of the mind control so at least he knew that it wouldn't last forever. Who knows that Loki could have made him do.
"Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five-"
In one fluid movement, Loki swung up to take Tony by the throat and threw him across the room like a ragdoll.
"JARVIS, any time now," Tony winced as he lay on the marble floor of his penthouse. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but he was starting to think that a sprung floor would be a better idea if he was going to be thrown around as if he was nothing. He pushed himself up so that he was almost standing with a grunt only to have Loki's hand at his throat again.
"You will all fall before me."
"Deploy!" Tony called as Loki lifted him once again, this time launching him through the glass and into freefall.
From behind Loki, a panel opened and out flew a scarlet pod fuelled by a rocket that knocked Loki to the ground, crashing through the glass in search of a signal to attach itself to. Lasers scanned, trying to confirm a connection to the Colantotte bracelets that Tony had slipped on earlier while trying to stall Loki.
Panic started to roll over Tony as he desperately tried to trust his own creation, keeping as still as he could. The Mark VII wasn't ready but he hoped that it would be close enough that it would stop him crashing into the New York sidewalk. He sighed with a grateful smile as he felt the Iron Man armour begin to wind its way around his body, the helmet snapping into place mere feet from the ground.
People on the ground watched in horror, it was too close for them to call and there was a collective gasp of relief when the thrusters kicked in and once again Iron Man shot for the skies, or rather, to his own penthouse. The thrusters suspended him gracefully in mid-air, making the pose look some what elegant.
"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil."
Loki raised his sceptre to fire at the metal man, beyond furious that he had survived. Instead, Tony raised his hands and fired pure energy at the god, knocking his feet from under him and sending across the room with a painful looking twist.
There we go. We're in New York and Loki is still trying to make things personal so why not push the buttons of the most emotionally unstable person on the team?
Let me know what you think!