The front of the mountain was very clearly a mess, and Clint had no doubt that the Nat and Steve and everyone else were tangled up in it. Bucky glanced up at it in reference and led Clint and Loki towards a smaller alcove away on the side. They snuck in almost absurdly easily - most of the focus amassed towards the top, which left the rest of the area, for the most part, bare.

"The base is powered by heat from the mountain, but only one of the tunnels directly goes up towards the top." Bucky pointed. "That one down there. It's not usually guarded."

It'll be a good reference for later, Clint thought. He tightened his grip on his bow and nodded towards the tunnel with the most activity. "Alright, Steve is out there; if he knows anything on-"

"Steve?"

"The leader. He's dressed up all patriotic and has a big round shield."

Bucky's face turned white and he ran out into the chaos.

Clint blinked, then paused to glance towards Loki and found he was gone as well.

Clint ran out after Bucky.

...

Hunks of debris tumbled left and right over the fighting field, courtesy of Thor. The problem was the number. If they could coordinate a way to block off the opening...

Steve threw his shield and knocked out three agents in one go. He recalculated while it returned, then grabbed it and spun around to build momentum.

His throw went a little off-course and ricocheted off the top of the entrance gate. Steve stopped in his tracks.

Someone who looked remarkably like Bucky picked up his shield before launching forward and throwing his fist at him.

Steve flinched – but then a bullet ricocheted off the metal palm, and Steve realized he was still in a battle.

Dropping back into position, Steve took the shield and scrutinized his face. "Buck?"

"Steve."

A large lump blocked his throat; he breathed through it before responding. "Where did you come from?"

"Nice place called Brooklyn. I'm sure you've heard of it."

"Bucky." Steve tried to be grave, but he couldn't keep the grin out. He spoke into his comms as he jumped back out towards the fray. "There's a new wave headed from the southeast side. I'm holding them off for now, but any backup would be appreciated." And then to Bucky - "I suppose you've been in hiding under the sewers?"

"I was..." Bucky faltered. "I got captured by Hydra." He grimaced. "And they made me their new pet project."

Steve swallowed his expression, grin and all. "I thought you were dead. I should've-"

"Don't blame yourself." Bucky shouted, jumping over some of the shield-caused rubble. He sent a pointed look towards Steve. Like he was scolding him or something. So Steve stopped – out loud, anyway.

"How'd you get out?" Steve asked instead.

"I was sent on a mission. Under mind control, or something like that ."

Steve's eyebrows raised. "So that was you who barreled me earlier with the arm of steel?"

"Vibranium, actually."

Steve huffed a laugh.

"I was still under mind control then."

Steve ducked under a Hydra agent's lunge and elbowed backwards. He looked a little concerned. "So what brought you out? Hit to the head or something?"

"Some guy said he knew you. Cancelled it out somehow."

"Cancelled it out? Like a memory jog?"

"Something like that. I don't know. But Loki said-"

"Loki?" Steve's shield nearly missed its target.

"Yeah." Now Bucky looked concerned.

"Yeah, I know Loki." Steve grimaced and gestured towards the source of the concentrated lightning. "He's Thor's brother. He's also pretty dangerous. We thought he was dead."

Startled, Bucky looked around to point out the clearly not dead brother, but only grew more agitated.

"Buck?"

"I don't see him."

Steve sent a short, grim look his way and informed the comms. "Apparently there's been a Loki sighting – we might want to be on our guard." He ignored the jumbled cacophony of responses and continued his fighting.

"I didn't imagine him, Steve." Bucky was also trying to reconcile his own confusion by avoiding Hydra agents and simultaneously taking them out. "Clint!" He shouted suddenly. "He was there too. He said he knew you."

"You found Clint?" Steve looked around. "Is he here?"

"He should be." Concern grew to worry, and then sudden relief. "Over there."

Steve followed his gesture to the sour-faced archer, whose arrow supply ran notably low.

"Huh."

They'd have to deal with it when they were in a less-distracted situation, but he believed Bucky. He'd have to check with Clint, of course, but the new information flooded Steve's mind.

Loki was alive.

Loki had his magic returned to him.

Loki knew where a source of unfathomable destruction was headed.

In any event, the information boded poorly.

...

They fought for an exhausting amount of time. There seemed to be an underground battalion of Hydra agents waiting to take their turn at fighting the Avengers, but they also seemed to be letting up, so either less of them were left or they were recalculating strategies.

The sound of roaring complimented the helipad squadron that completely swamped them overhead, and Steve figured they really were in for it.

Until he watched the helipad offense completely miss the Avengers.

One of the helipads made its way to the landing pad while the other four surrounded the base from the sky, and for the second time that day, Steve heard a voice he thought he'd never hear again. The megaphoned crackle boomed its way across the mostly retreating base. Agents rushed inside to barricade.

"Avengers, this is Agent Coulson. We have you surrounded. Please make your way to the entry zone or we will have no choice but to annihilate the premises."

Steve broke into an exhilarated and very relieved grin.

Over the comms he heard Natasha's tinny input. "You think it's actually him?"

The entry door opened and a heavy rope ladder rolled out. A gun also poked out, along with the upper half of a woman. She scanned the field and locked eyes with Steve.

"Yeah," Steve asserted. "And Maria Hill's here, too."

...

The rest of the SHIELD-Hydra agents were either underground or trapped by the time all the Avengers made their way inside. The four helipads circled around the base while the main vehicle took off.

"We'll be cloaked and at a safe altitude in a few minutes. We can debrief at that point. Until then, try not to..." She tried to find suitable words and couldn't. "Just make yourselves at home," she said finally. Shortly after she returned to the cockpit the sound of humming increased in pitch, and an announcement in bright blue letters threaded across the doorway.

Cloaking in progress. A percentage bar increased next to the words.

Wolverine gestured towards Bucky's arm. "What gives?"

Bucky stared warily at his claws. "Were you Hydra tested, too?"

Logan shook his head. "What material is that arm made out of?"

"Vibranium."

Logan shook his claws. "Admantium." He studied the arm for another second or two, calculating. "Want to see which one is stronger?"

Bucky smirked. "Sure, let me just sharpen my fingers into claws real quick."

Logan crossed his arms, but kept his blade-claws out, choosing not to retract them.

Steve fought off his own urge to scowl as a wave of exhaustion rolled over him. "Now that we're all here-"

"Except Tony," Natasha said.

"And Loki," Clint added.

"Exactly." Steve rubbed the space between his eyes. "Now that we have a second to regroup, did anyone see anything? Clint?"

"Yeah." Clint examined his leftover arrows. "Turns out Loki was faking when we thought he died. He helped out your buddy-" he nodded towards Bucky – "but I wouldn't be surprised if he added a little something of his own. He's good with that. And he disappeared after we got to the base, so he could be masquerading as a Hydra agent or invisible or who knows what else. He also knows how to get to the top of the volcano," he added, tensing.

"Again I've fallen for my brother's tricks," Thor said, unsettled. "I shall be doubly prepared to retrieve him." He shifted his position and altered the subject. "I recall that the son of Stark shared his aims to visit the volcano. Last I'd seen he was being chased away by enemy hovercraft."

'Son of Stark?' Bucky mouthed. Steve nodded. Bucky's eyebrows raised.

Yeah, you're in for a shock, Steve thought.

"I thought I heard that too. The volcano?" Natasha asked skeptically. "In his suit? That's a beacon to every Hydra agent in town."

"I thought it was odd that I couldn't hear him clearly. Perhaps it was enemy interference," Thor agreed.

"Maybe," Steve said. "You heard him much better than I could." Even with his enhanced hearing, the only message he really understood was the visual one. "Tony's gotten out of tight spots before. Let's hope he shook them off."

A quiet ding signaled that the helipad had stabilized and switched to autopilot. Both Maria Hill and Coulson stepped out.

"I think we've caught up on the majority of your undertakings given the recent conversation. We're aiming to close in on the mountain and find Tony from here."

"You have a plan?" Clint asked.

"Why didn't we just take one of these in the first place?" Logan suddenly demanded, realizing as he spoke. "If it has cloaking, wouldn't it have been easier?"

"That's not how it works," Coulson maintained.

"I don't see any reason it doesn't work," Logan grumbled.

"The reason it doesn't work is because we're not using it to take it to the volcano, we're using it to distract people who think we're taking it to the volcano."

"Oh. Of course."

Maria returned to the cockpit to supervise the controls. Coulson ignored Logan's comment and continued.

"We have 5 helipads and our job is to make them suspect that Tony's on one of them."

"And if they already have Tony?" Natasha's tone was calm, but her eyes flicked slightly up and down, still trying to figure out some tell that would prove the agent was an impersonator.

Coulson paused. "Well, then we'll have 5 helipads to launch an attack from."

Steve straightened. "Is that all we have for now?"

"Seems to be. Why? Is there anything you'd like to add?"

Steve cocked his head in thought. "No." He nodded at the group and calmly departed.

As soon as Steve was out of the main space, he picked a nice area of wall and slumped against it. He knew someone would wake him up if he was needed.

This chapter is definitely overdue. I dropped off the Marvel-related map for a while, so I hope this isn't too OOC.

Also, I noticed that Steve wasn't one of the character tags so I switched out Natasha for Steve (sorry Natasha). When I originally started writing I had more Nat material but I realize that Steve should probably be on the tags at this point, so that's a change if anyone noticed it.

Thanks for reading! Merry Christmas (and a Happy New Year!).