When Loki, Bucky and Clint returned to the common floor, breakfast had basically been broken up and cleaned up. Tony and Pepper had moved to sit on the love seat on the far side of the room. Pepper looked busy doing some type of work on a tablet while Tony was clearly fiddling with Bucky's phone still. Phil, Fury and Hill all gathered at one corner of the TV deep in discussion over the small amount of information they had already learned and how best to deal with it. Thor had taken one of the large chairs, sitting tensely as he looked everyone over. He had no idea what to think of the group and yet, something in him already felt a draw. Like he could trust them to watch his back which, while he knew humans were tougher than they looked, he honestly could not believe that he felt that way. Natasha and Steve were both sitting on opposite ends of the couch, neither looking at each other or doing much of anything. At the trio's entrance, everyone turned to look at them.
"That doesn't seem creepy," Clint whispered, pausing in his steps for half a second but he continued on with Loki and Bucky. The trio stopped by the couch, looking everyone over. Everyone was silent for a long minute. The room filled with tension as they all waited for someone to break the silence. In the end, it was Fury who did.
"Loki," he began. Attention was drawn to the Director. "I appreciate your report and I would like to request Sergeant Barnes and Agent Barton to create one as well."
"Aww... Paperwork," Clint whined. Bucky gave the archer a quick smirk but said nothing. He had expected it after Loki mentioned he had been planning on doing a report. If the Sergeant hadn't been so tired, Bucky would have done it over night so that it would be ready for now.
"What I wrote is as extensive as I could and based on what I remember from the Loki of this dimension and my own," Loki informed. Thor looked up, turning to his brother.
"I fear I have missed this till now. You have mentioned you are from another dimension, what happened to my brother of this?" Thor questioned. Loki glanced to Clint and the archer winced.
"Thanos killed him in order to get the Tesseract which he had taken from Asgard's Vaults," Clint stated. Silence.
"If the Loki of this dimension was dead when you came here, how did it work with other dimensions?" Natasha wondered.
"My consciousness took over the Loki of that dimension."
"So basically, you killed each and every one of those Lokis," Natasha translated. Loki raised an eyebrow, glancing over to Thor quickly to see the thunderer's reaction. Surprisingly, Thor didn't seem phased.
"I prefer to think of it as we melded together," Loki countered, looking back to the spy. Natasha scoffed and shook her head but didn't add to that. Loki had to admit he was surprised. In all the dimensions he had been through, none of them seriously questioned what happened to the Loki of their dimension. It had just been accepted that he knew these things even with him mentioning exploring others. There were many facts of this dimension that were so different. But why?
"I'm curious. Why are you searching for a dimension that can beat Thanos? Why not just keep moving?" Phil suddenly asked. Loki looked to him with an arched eyebrow. He thought he had made that clear.
"If dimensions continue to get destroyed in the fashion that they have been, everything will be destroyed. Winning in one dimensions sends out ripples to the others and give them a better chance of winning as well. It may not completely work. I may have to move on and save other dimensions after this one, but it is a start to save everyone, everywhere."
"So, what is the actual plan on beating Thanos?" Tony inquired. "I mean, there has to be something."
"Our first step is assembling the team. There is a possibility of speeding up the appearance of some of the others, but others need certain events to happen," Clint told the genius briefly thinking of Vision, Wanda, Pietro and Dr. Strange. "After we got the team, we'd either face Thanos himself or collect the stones and hide them in different areas in order to make sure he never gets a hold of them."
"Sounds like a shit plan," Tony huffed. Clint's eyes narrowed on the man. "No, look. You guys came here to 2012, knowing that the main teams won't be around till 2016 or 17. So, why wouldn't you just wait till 2016 or 17 when everyone is around?"
"There was a hiccup in 2016," Clint muttered, shifting uncomfortably. He hated thinking about the fight between everyone over the Accords. Bucky snorted.
"Hiccup? That's what you wanna call that?" Bucky countered. Clint shrugged and Bucky rolled his eyes before looking at Tony and then at Steve. "In 2016, I was accused of killing the king of Wakanda, T'Chaka. During this same time a plan called the Sokovia Accords was being enacted."
"The Accords was basically a list of anyone who would attempt to 'save the world' without government permission. Like Thanos would totally wait for a thirty person group to decide if it was worth taking him out," Clint added with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "It split all the heroes down the middle. Those that signed, and those that didn't."
"Who did?" Tony asked.
"You," Bucky replied. "Natalia."
"Only them?" Hill questioned.
"James Rhodes. T'Chaka's son, T'Challa. And a few more that you guys haven't met yet," Clint continued.
"So, I didn't sign," Steve reiterated. Bucky and Clint nodded. "Bucky obviously-"
"I wasn't given the choice if I wanted too or not. I was wanted for 'murder' of a king. You disliked this idea. So, you and a friend of yours went out and found me first. During this time I remembered..." Bucky stopped, glancing at Clint.
"We'll deal with them later. We know they're in cryo and Zemo had to find you to learn their location," Clint soothed before looking to the others. Phil was staring at Clint with an arched eyebrow but decided not to question why the archer was skipping over whatever information they were talking about. "When Steve caught up with Bucky, the accords had been written and signed. Two more people were on Steve's team outside of myself."
"You didn't sign?" Phil curiously called. Clint shook his head.
"I was supposed to be retired. But the reason for Steve needing help wasn't actually about saving Bucky from jail. I also had disagreement with how a friend was being treated," Clint informed, shuddering at the memory of learning Wanda had basically been trapped in the Avengers Compound. "I'll have those details in my report. Anyways, it's during these events or slightly after that many of the remaining heroes gain their abilities."
"Actually, one of the stronger heroes is created at this point," Loki countered. Clint and Bucky looked to him surprised. Loki shrugged. He could give Stephen Strange credit where it was due. While the Loki of this dimension had issues with Strange, he himself had had no problems with the sorcerer. They had become friends in many dimensions.
"I'm just going to wait for the reports. They all better be extremely detailed and in order of events," Fury warned, shifting to walk out. Clint sighed deeply. Keeping things in order might be hard. Bucky on the other hand winced. There was too much of his history that he'd rather not speak of. One of which being the attempt on Fury's life. "From what I hear, I need to start looking into who may be Hydra and who isn't."
"I have complied a list of clear members of Hydra based on the reports that are on Agent Barton's phone," JARVIS suddenly announced. Everyone paused, having forgotten the AI had the ability to do so. "I also wish to mention some points of interest in which the Avengers could potentially be assembled."
"Oh?" Clint asked seconds before JARVIS turned the TV on and showed the reports from AIM and their experiments with Extremis. "Oh shit. I forgot about that."
"What is that?" Tony wondered, getting to his feet to check out the reports a bit better. Clint winced.
"Uh. It's a group that you ended up dealing on your own cause you got pissed when Happy got involved with one of the explosions," Clint stated.
"Explosions?" Natasha questioned. Clint nodded.
"Basically, Extremis was... Is supposed to be the new Super Soldier Serum in which people can actually regrow full limbs and can come back from a ton of shit. The only downside is they 'run hot.'"
"We run hot," Steve pointed out. Clint shook his head. Their hot and Extremis hot was vastly different.
"They can get up to 3000 degrees Celsius just before they explode," Clint corrected. Steve blanched. "The serum was highly unstable and not everyone survived the initial injection. Aldritch Killian used the research from Maya Hansen to develop it. But, neither of them could figure out how to stabilize it. So, Killian came to Stark Industries to try and pitch the idea in order to get funding and support for his little 'think tank.' Pepper, was... Is smart enough to turn him down."
"I can see why," Tony grumbled, suddenly waving his hands at the TV and holo screens opened into the room. Steve and Thor jumped a bit at the sight. "He hasn't done any trials yet, that I can see."
"I believe he starts them later this month. By June he would create a 'villain' called the Mandarin. With this villain, Killian is able to hide his failed explosions as if Mandarin was attacking. But, Mandarin is only a guy, Trevor Slattery, who is an actor," Clint continued. "Pissed off that things aren't going his way, and in an attempt to get Tony to back off, Killian ends up giving Pepper Extremis."
"What?" Pepper called as Tony waved another image over, showing her DNA screen.
"I stabilized it."
"You did. And you also buried the research. I got this from FRIDAY's personal files," Clint informed. Thankfully FRIDAY had been listening in to everything through the phone and had willingly given over all the information the archer asked for. Tony spun to look at Clint.
"FRIDAY? How?" he demanded. Clint frowned, wondering what the genius meant. Then he realized that it was JARVIS right now. FRIDAY wouldn't be active until 2015.
"Uh. JARVIS gets a body and turns into Vision after we face a threat that we're not going to face."
"How do you know you won't face it?" Phil inquired.
"Tony made it." Silence. "Look, just let Bucky and me write our reports. JARVIS can even do his own. After that, we'll start dealing with things."
After writing their reports, Bucky and Clint weren't sure what to do. As much as they wanted to do something, there wasn't much. They knew where the stones were. Well, they knew where the stones that Thanos used were. As for the second set, well. They found the Mind Stone after Wade Wilson used it on the Avengers (Clint is Whom covers this). The Reality Stone was found by Hydra (After Death Comes a Knocking). Soul Stone should be on Niflheim within the Vaults (Clint is Dead). Space Stone should be on the river bed of Clint's Homestead (After This, Never Trust a Rock). And Steve or Bucky should have the Time Stone (Clint is When). They never did find the Power Stone.
Now, Loki, Bucky and Clint discussed the idea of collecting both sets. It would likely be best to do so. Even if Thanos never found the second set, it would be too dangerous to leave them be. There was no telling if he wouldn't be able to collect them if they collected the first set. It was just a matter of finding everything. Especially the Reality Stone. Clint seriously didn't want to risk Hydra choosing one of the realities in which no one remembered the real one.
As for everything else. JARVIS had been able to compile a good enough list of events that apparently the only real threat that they couldn't stop as of that moment was the Convergence and attack of the Dark Elves. Course, Fury planned on, as silently as possible, collecting all the known Hydra agents. Especially those that knew Clint knew about them. So, Rumlow's STRIKE team and Sitwell were his first line of attack. Sitwell had already been arrested after seeing the video of Clint being taken, but Fury needed to get him away from the option of being near any agent of Hydra. The only good place they had to arrest all these people and keep them was the Raft. But again, it needed to get cleansed before they could do anything.
So for now... All they could do was wait. It wasn't what Clint or Bucky had expected when they first agreed to come back. They had almost seemed to think they could get nearly everything done ASAP. Though Loki was right. They needed Strange to be Sorcerer Supreme. But while Bucky and Clint had nothing to do, secretly, Loki began to use this time to do research. Admittedly, he was looking into those who might be able to handle the Infinity Gauntlet but now, he was also trying to get the specifics of the spell he used. There was no way he wanted to find out that he had already lost before he hardly began.
Tony (mostly Pepper) was surprisingly willing to allow anyone who wished for it to stay in the tower. Even without Tony's redesign after the Battle of Manhattan, there were enough rooms to house everyone. Steve refused, heading back to his apartment in Brooklyn. Clint also refused, intent on protecting his Bed-Sty apartment before the building could get into too big of an issue with the Russian Tracksuit Mafia that he had dealt with once or twice. Bucky refused due to wanting to be with Clint. Same went for Natasha. Course, both of them had the main reason of trying to convince Clint to go and talk to Laura. Phil, Fury and Hill refused in order to keep up appearances at S.H.I.E.L.D. Once Hydra had been dealt with, Phil mentally planned on taking up the offer. So, all that remained was Loki and Thor.
"We could stay with my Lady Jane," Thor suggested, looking to Loki. The trickster rolled his eyes.
"No. I shall not stay with her," Loki retorted as Bucky and Clint snickered a bit behind him. Thor all but pouted at him. "I will remain here. Be it with Mr Stark and Miss Potts or with Clint and Bucky."
"Brother," Thor very nearly started to whine. Loki crossed his arms over his chest, giving the thunderer a look that all but told Thor to 'try it.' Surprisingly, Thor seemed to understand and backed down. Loki sighed in relief. He had already proven that he could trick the AI into thinking he was still in the tower. But actually dealing with people watching him at nearly every hour would be difficult.
"Well, everyone is welcome to come back and stay with us. Our doors here will always be open," Pepper reminded. Tony smirked, turning to open a holo screen with the redesigns he had previously made with the tower. He'd make sure they'd all be comfortable once they came back.
"Thank you, ma'am. I will keep this option in mind," Steve mentioned, very nearly bowing to her.
"Who knows what's gonna happen. For all we know, we'll all be back before the end of the year. Though, I would suggest the possibility of opening up a larger place for everyone as there are going to be more of us showing up," Clint informed, staring at Tony who paused in his work. The genius frowned before pulling up the information for the compound. It made sense when he really started to think about it. There was no way there would be enough room for the few names that had been mentioned already. "We'll figure this all out and get the threat under control. It shouldn't be all that hard anymore."
He should have known better then to say that.
Darius is doing good. Visited his school today to discuss actually putting him in rather than leaving things to online learning. Have to wait a week due to topic choice and me feeling uncomfortable with the idea of possibly putting the teachers in a hard spot. They're going to be talking about families and I really, really, really don't want the teachers or even parents of the other children asking about death. It was bad enough when Darius announced it to his current classmates. And it was certainly devastating to all the teachers and children that had been attending when Clint attended. But yet again, it was reinforced by the teachers there that when Clint actually went to school that day, he did not sound emAT ALL/em like he had croup. That is what cause of death says it is though. Just wish the docs warned me that it could be life threatening if it got worse and I regret every day not getting him checked a second time.
Sorry for the depressing note... (BTW, for those who may not know, Clint is my five year old son who passed away in 2018)