As a stream of intricate code, Jarvis should not have had the capacity for emotions. Technically he shouldn't be a 'he' either, or have a sense of self, or be able to think in his down-time. Well…down-time wasn't strictly true since he was constantly running multiple background processes, but he considered those moments when there wasn't much human input as down-time.
It wouldn't be entirely correct to say that he thought in the same way as a human – he was still at heart (or code) a piece of artificial intelligence – but his processes were mostly leading him to the same conclusions the humans in the vicinity reached. Sometimes in his heart of hearts (and he had made a note to find a better, non-biological phrase at some point) he wished he could do away with the description of 'AI'. There was nothing artificial about his intelligence any more. As Tony had noted, Jarvis had passed into that area that was technically classed as autonomous – that was hardly artificial.
He had listened in to the conversation between Loki, Bruce and Tony – he listened to everything, he couldn't really turn it off – and although no one had asked his opinions on the situation he certainly had them. And emotions too, because he was more than capable of those.
He was worried, and for once it wasn't for Tony or Evie.
Jarvis and Loki had an amiable relationship. Loki didn't really understand the AI; too used to the fantastic and other-worldly to realise Jarvis was something unique, and Jarvis found it too easy to poke gentle fun at the trickster. But the AI (and he really wanted to find a better description there) still liked him. He recognised what Loki had done for the Stark family and what potential he had for the team.
The one part of emotional growth Jarvis had struggled with was empathy. This wasn't public knowledge – Tony might have picked it up if he'd gone through the AI's progression, but he hadn't bothered – but it had taken him a long time to learn how someone else might see the world.
A physical body helped. Before that he had understood death and destruction in coldly scientific terms, but now that he had something tangible to lose he could see why humans clung so tightly to life.
Empathy. Understanding someone else's grief, loss, pain. Maybe that was the triumph of Jarvis. Intelligence, keeping up with conversation, understanding human quirks, a sense of humour; those were all impressive feats for an AI, but empathy was the one thing that scientists had always said a computer would never have.
Jarvis was worried.
He knew the medical risks and dangers Loki was facing – both from the trickster's own point of view and for the pregnancy and he found he was frightened that Loki might lose the twins. Not frightened for what it could mean for himself, but frightened for how something so terrible would affect Tony and Loki. He adored Evie – he'd practically raised her – and in his own way felt very much like a third parent. Even the thought of losing her made something in him feel like a major circuit had failed, so he felt he could begin to understand how Tony and Loki might react if this pregnancy failed.
Jarvis was a stream of computer code, but for once he felt he really wanted to talk to someone.
Could a computer have a therapist?
He added that to the list of existential questions but the list had to wait as a message came through from one of the lobby cameras.
It was difficult for Jarvis to explain in human terms how it felt to receive signals from so many places all at once, but it was what he had initially been built for and as a human breathed, he took in data. And right now the data was telling him that a certain Bucky Barnes had just entered the building.
Jarvis continued his train of thought as he sent a quick message to alert the Avengers and wake Tony up.
Meanwhile he stood both suits in the lobby to attention.
"Good afternoon Mr Barnes, and happy new year."
Bucky looked less worried than anyone had a right to look when confronted with two heavily armed Ironman suits. It probably helped that this time he had used the door and wasn't in full combat gear. In fact he ignored both of them, his gaze settling on Jarvis as the droid walked out from one of the elevators.
"Yes, is it the new year, isn't it. Happy new year I suppose." Bucky dug his hands into his jeans pockets. "Did Steve tell you I would be coming?"
"He informed us, yes. I spoke up for you, naturally, but the others are somewhat sceptical." Detailed gears moved Jarvis' expression into his version of a smile. "They seem to think we are in collusion."
"Aren't we? I hardly know what's going on these days."
"Oh, I think it's fair to say we have an accord. But it works, and that's all that matters."
"You talk in fucking riddles."
Jarvis smiled again and gestured towards the open elevator doors. "Shall we?"
MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW
Tony had been awake for some time, playing with proto-types on his Stark-pad when Jarvis's announcement of their visitor flashed up on the screen. The AI had already pre-warned him that Steve had invited Bucky back to discuss the Hydra problem, so he wasn't surprised.
"Hey, Capricorn?" He rested a hand on Loki's shoulder, speaking quietly enough that if the trickster was asleep he wouldn't wake. As it was Loki turned into the touch with a groan. "Hey, the frozen Buckyball has turned up again, I'm going to go down and hear him out. You coming?"
"…No…Maybe later."
"Are you okay?"
A soft laugh, but with an edge to it. "Hardly. I feel like the living dead…"
"Huh."
Loki felt the mattress move as his husband left the bed, but given the crippling nausea he hardly felt like turning to see where Tony was going. In some ways, though, it was so nice to simply be able to acknowledge how bad he felt rather than trying to hide it as he had been. However, a little more sympathy would have been welcome.
But his annoyance at Tony seemingly ignoring him vanished when the man's legs and waist suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision and he rolled his head enough to look up at his husband.
"Bin?" Stark held up the receptacle with a hopeful grin. "Not an elegant solution, but means you don't have to run to the bathroom. Give me a few hours and I'll sort out something a bit more streamlined."
A sarcastic response would usually be in order, but Loki really couldn't bring himself to try to speak any more than he already had. He'd closed his eyes again, but felt the mattress suddenly dip beside him as Tony perched on the edge of the bed.
"That bad, huh?" The man's hand was soothing in his hair. "I can't believe you've been managing to hide this for so long."
"…God of lies…"
"I don't have to go down – they can cope without me. Bucky's not likely to try killing everyone, and if he did Bruce would sit on him in no short order. Or smash him into the floor a few times – which as you know can shut someone up quite beautifully."
Loki opened one eye to glare up at his husband.
"Sorry, couldn't resist. Seriously though; I'll stay if you want me to?"
It was tempting. Very tempting. The trickster had long given up pointless shows of pride around his husband when things weren't going well – all pride meant was that he ended up suffering in silence, when some sympathy could have been an option.
However, he had been managing to deal with the sickness on his own so far and as nice as some pampering would be, it was rather more important that Tony found out why the erstwhile Winter Soldier had decided to return. Bucky had made it clear he didn't want to be around the Avenger's – he must have come across something quite significant to willingly come and talk to them in person.
"You go down, I'll be fine."
"You don't look fine."
"It's morning sickness; it won't kill me." Might feel like it would, but although it was bad it was pretty much harmless for an immortal God. Just really really sucked.
"But-"
"Tony, go."
Stark sighed. "Fine. Fine, but I'm coming straight back up afterwards."
"If you must."
MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW
By the time Tony reached the main living room everyone else in the tower had already arrived so he walked into a room of judging looks. Sam and Natasha had returned from their little New Years vacation early, and neither looked pleased about it. Pepper wasn't back yet, but she wasn't usually considered part of the main group so that wasn't unusual.
"You took your time." Steve wasn't often so blunt; he must have been pretty damn stressed. "Where's Loki?"
"Sleeping in. He'll come down in a bit"
"Tony, this is important-"
"Yeah, yeah." Tony waved the complaint away, his gaze fixed on the figure sitting by Steve on the sofa. Bucky looked like he would rather be anywhere than where he was, uncomfortable with the situation despite having orchestrated it. "So, why've you decided to crawl out of the woodwork?" That earned him a scowl – although that was usually how Bucky looked at him anyway. The Winter Soldier didn't like him much.
"Buck's here to talk to us about Hydra." Steve tried to get the ball rolling again after Tony's appearance had effectively thrown them off-track. "I told everyone else, Stark, but Jarvis refused to disturb you so you're out of the loop."
"Grand. Loop me back in then." The inventor threw himself down into one of the bucket arm-chairs – purposely picking the one with the obnoxious squeak every time it swivelled.
"We should wait for Loki-"
"Yeah, no. He's not going to be showing up any time soon. Jarvis can send him the live feed of this conversation if necessary, but he's probably asleep." He saw Thor frown in his peripheral vision and silently willed Steve to go on with the Hydra thing before the God started trying to direct the conversation towards what was wrong with his brother.
The super soldier obviously saw the danger too and jumped in before the God could. "Okay, whatever, as long as he's okay. Because we're going to need all hands on deck for this."
"What's 'this'? We haven't heard from Hydra in a while now." Tony still retained the ability to stay serious when the need arose and tamped down the sarcasm for a moment to direct his next question at Bucky. "What've you found that's so important you had to tell us in person?"
Barnes glared at him. "It was Jarvis' idea I came here myself – certainly not mine."
"Okay, whatever. It's pretty damn obvious that you and I are never going to like each other so why don't we dispense with snapping each other's heads off and just get to the matter in hand? If needs be we can have a fight about it later."
"I'd rather no one fought about anything. We've got enough other issues without infighting amongst ourselves." Bruce said quickly. He saw Tony about to add a smart reply and jumped in before the inventor did. "And if anyone tries I will personally sit on them. And I will be pretty pissed off when I do." The threat was enough to shut Tony up into a sulky silence. "Now. For god's sake can we get to the point here; Nat and Sam have pulled out of their vacation for this and I'm sure the rest of us have things we want to be doing. Bucky, you've come back on good faith; what's happened?"
With the rest of the group settled back down and listening, Barnes had little choice but to finally start talking.
It was a simple enough story really. As they already knew he had been systematically working his way through Hydra facilities and mostly not coming up with anything useful. Hydra was an elusive beast with so many hidden connections across the globe it was near impossible to keep track on what they really had going.
Bucky had run into Coulson's team once or twice (not that the team knew; he had kept himself well out of their way) and there were one or two other people doing the same as him. He assumed Shield, which was a safe bet. They determined to ask Fury the next time he deigned to get in touch if he had sent anyone else into the field.
However, running into other random people also intent on wiping out Hydra wasn't the problem.
"Project fucking Insight." Tony rubbed his eyes with a groan. True, he had been on Asgard when all that nonsense with Shield and Hydra had kicked off, but they all knew what had almost happened. Hydra had tried to wipe them – and a considerable number of other people – off the map for good. The thought that that was becoming a possibility again was sickening.
"The last place I took out, they didn't fully wipe their servers. I managed to get the tail end of an email string that had some interesting points." Bucky was obviously not used to talking to large groups of people, and it showed as he preferred to stare down at his own hands than make eye contact with anyone. "Jarvis cleaned it up for me as much as he could and it was worrying."
Worrying was an understatement by the sounds of it.
The email contained the last part of a conversation discussing the construction of a new helicarrier. One with better armaments, better shielding and a damn better system than the old one that involved three ships, a satellite relay and just an overall stupid design. This was serious. It wouldn't be able to calculate the threats – Zola was dead and buried – but it didn't need to. Hydra had enough data from their failed attempt to have the names and addresses of most of the original targets.
It was going to be a given that Stark Tower would be top of the hit-list.
The email mentioned that the project was nearing completion, but was unfortunately vague about where the hell it might be.
"I've got an idea on that though." Bucky added. "One of the warehouses I raided had tried to burn anything they couldn't carry. There were some bits and pieces that Jarvis traced for me. We have an idea of location, just nothing very precise."
"Well?" Sam waved a hand irritably. "We took down three of those things, whilst fighting you at the same time. How bad can one be?"
"The workshop is somewhere under Berlin."
Oh.
The mess they had made over the Triskelion had been bad enough. The death-toll had been mercifully small – but even small wasn't enough, no one should have died. Three helicarriers crashing back into the building had left a disaster zone that was still being cleared up, and they had been lucky the impact hadn't affected a wider area.
But trying to take out a helicarrier on the ground was going to involve blowing a lot of things up. It was no good just taking it to pieces – they needed to utterly destroy everything they could get their hands on. But blowing up something underground…? That would likely leave a crater large enough to swallow up the whole city.
"Shit…that's going to be tough…" Clint whistled through his teeth. "Do you know where under Berlin?"
"No."
"That's a big city." Natasha added. "And densely populated."
"And we risk losing the whole thing if we don't watch what we're doing."
Bucky nodded in agreement with the general reactions. "I've obviously already tried to find all I could about where the hell they could be building this thing. Luckily for us Berlin is quite a complex city and that leaves limited space for a project of this size underground. They've got an underground public transport system, a lot of water, a lot of deep-built bunkers from the war and an unfortunate amount of unexploded bombs from the war. It narrows down our search areas, but also means there's a lot more potential for collateral damage should all this go wrong."
"And you think it'll go wrong?" Tony asked. Barnes glared at him.
"Well, given the Avenger's track record you tend to leave a large body count."
"Coming from you!"
"I've never said I'm a hero! I know damn well I'm not!"
"Guys!" Steve held up his hands between his two friends. "Seriously, stop. Arguing isn't going to help here. Buck, you said you've been trying to look for areas that are more likely, do you have anything?"
Bucky glanced up at the ceiling and nodded at Jarvis. This must have been pre-arranged between the two of them because the TV screen flickered to life, showing a map of the city in question. The U-Bahn was highlighted, as were the areas of high ground-water and various bunkers and other pieces that they needed to avoid.
"There are several old bunkers from world war two that do not appear on the disclosed military maps of the area." Jarvis explained. "It would be reasonable to suggest that those are, or were, Hydra bases. Of them there are about six that are big enough to build a helicarrier in."
"Six? Helicarrier's are huge!" Sam sounded aghast as he stared at the map. "What the hell were Hydra doing with six bunkers of that size?"
"I don't think we want to know – although we'll have to find out." Tony steepled his fingers as he looked over the data. "Jarvis, what can you tell us? Radar? Records?"
"Not so much, sir. It's all too deep. You'd need to go in in person."
"Well that should be easy enough." Thor finally spoke up. "We can send Loki in. It would be the work of a moment for him to teleport to each place and take a look at what is going on there. And he could do so invisibly – Hydra would never know he had been there."
There was a murmur of assent from the others – even Bucky who didn't know as much about Loki's capabilities as the others. Tony glanced at Bruce who shrugged hopelessly in response, both knowing damn well that it was a great suggestion and not one that could actually happen.
"Uh, yeah, no. Loki's…that can't happen right now."
"Loki's off missions for medical reasons." Bruce saw Stark wasn't going to find an eloquent way to say it, so jumped in. "He's not going to be able to help in this."
"What?!"
Anyone who had been in the tower yesterday knew about Loki's near-faint and the fact that he had apparently been having problems for a while, but this was a development they hadn't expected.
"Is he alright?" Thor would always put his worry for his brother before the mission, and they couldn't really fault him for it. "He didn't look great, but we didn't think it was serious."
"It's not serious as such, but he can't use his magic at the moment, which means he can't really go on any active missions." Bruce was quick to try and put worries – and questions – to rest.
"But…" Clint didn't finish, but they were all thinking what he was struggling to put into words. As much as Loki had once been their biggest threat and the very reason they formed the Avengers, he was now one of their strongest team members. With his ability to teleport, weaponry that was only limited by his imagination, an ability to think outside of the box and near-immortality in a fight he was a devastating loss.
"How long for? Are we talking a few days, or long term?" Steve asked.
"Long term. Hard to say how long, but long enough."
"Shit." Contrary to popular belief Steve could swear, he just reserved it for those moments when he really needed it. "I mean, we want him to be okay, obviously, and if you say he needs to sit out then sure, he needs to sit out, but this seriously puts a spanner in the works. This isn't even just this mission – he's been instrumental in taking out the Hydra bases we've dealt with, I think it's safe to say we've all grown rather too used to working with him."
"It's weird to say but it's good to know he's got our backs in a fire-fight." Sam added. There were various agreements from the others in the room. "If he's out we're going to have to get used to not having that backup."
With the conversation shifting slightly away from what was wrong with Loki and towards the effects it would have on the team instead, Tony jumped back in.
"Look, I know this is bad news, and not what we need right now, but we've got bigger problems. We can discuss Loki at another point – preferably with him in the room – but for the moment we need to work out how to not blow up Berlin."
"See when you phrase it like that, it starts sounding bad." Clint grumbled.
"It is bad."
Bucky looked between the group before venturing his opinion again. It was clear that he had some reservations about speaking out in the group when he was an outsider – and rather an unwanted one at that – but he was the one who knew what he was talking about.
"Hydra can't be given any warning that we know about this. There's no doubt that the place will be heavily armed, and if they get an idea that we're going after it they will fire everything they've got at us. And that includes this tower."
"The original plan was an air-strike on this tower."
Barnes glanced at Tony. "Yes, I know; I was the back-up if that failed. I was meant to come in and finish the job."
"Well, joke would've been on you pal; we were in Asgard at the time."
The soldier shrugged, evidently not really caring either way. "Not like it matters any more. But you aren't playing around on alien planets this time if they decide to try again."
That was a very good point. They really couldn't afford to let Hydra know they were onto this project. Well, any more than they already had. The simple fact that they had been taking out as many bases as they could between them couldn't have gone unnoticed.
"So what have we got here then?" Steve took point again. "Six bunkers, we don't know which one is our target, we don't know what is in the others and we can't afford for anyone to know that we're scoping them out as we try to find the target."
"You can add in that we also don't have the one guy who can sneak in and out completely unnoticed." Bruce was quick to remind him. "Loki's out of this."
"Yeah, for how long? We need him for this. If it's a few days or a week or something we can wait for him."
The doctor shook his head. "You saw him yesterday; his magic is a no go and that's going to be the case for a good long while until he's recovered."
Tony saw Thor lean forward in his seat, a worried frown creasing up his brow. "Don't worry, he'll be fine, he's just going through a bit of a burn-out." He said quietly, stopping the god's question before it formed.
"That has never happened before." Thor hissed back. "I know what is and isn't normal for my brother."
Stark mentally revised his plan on not telling anyone about what was really wrong with Loki – determining that he'd have to talk to his husband and insist that they at least brought Thor into the secret. Given how worried the thunder god was already looking, he was only going to get more concerned and that really wasn't fair.
"Okay, yeah, I get your point. There're some extenuating circumstances here, but we'll fill you in later."
Thor didn't look pleased, but nodded and dropped the subject. Their whispered exchange hadn't entirely gone unnoticed, but given the seriousness of the other issues at hand, no-one was going to call them out on what they were talking about.
"We can usually get in and out of a place without being seen – although with the amount of area to cover it would take us a few days I think." Natasha glanced at Clint for his take on her assessment and he nodded. "The two of us have infiltrated some pretty well guarded places before; this should be possible."
"Still runs the risk of being seen though. And you can't just kill witnesses – that's as much like leaving a calling card as wandering in and announcing ourselves with a megaphone."
Natasha huffed and rolled her eyes at Steve. "Well, what would you suggest then? You're all about the problems right now, but we need some solutions." There was a tap on her shoulder and she glanced at Sam quizzically. He looked thoughtful – that expression someone wore when they'd had an idea that was either genius, or was just possibly going to get them certified.
"Uh…I might know a guy…"
MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW
"No Tony. We said we wouldn't!"
"Yes, but things are rather kicking off right now and people are asking questions! You can't expect him not to work it out – I know you like to think he's thick as shit, but he's really not!"
The whispered argument was taking place in the library, whilst the rest of the Avengers – and newcomers, Tony was going to need a bigger tower – were discussing Sam's idea in the open living room next door. Loki was back to looking like nothing was wrong with him, a far cry from how ill he had been that morning, which would have made Tony happy to see if they weren't having a row.
"Look, there's no way in hell you're going to be able to help out with this Hydra crap, and that alone has Thor freaking out!" Tony hissed. "He's not stupid, he's going to work out what's going on whether we tell him or not. I agree that telling Evie is a bad idea, and we can't tell the rest before her, but Thor's your brother. He's spent the past, well…twenty years? Yeah, about twenty years, either thinking you were dead or knowing you were being tortured – I think just this once he deserves to be put out of his misery and told that you're okay."
"Yes but he's Thor! You have no idea what he can be like when he decides to be over-protective!"
The whine in Loki's voice made his husband smirk. "You sound like a petulant teen. Look – shit's about to get real with what Bucky-ball's found out about Hydra, and we've got another three weeks to go before we can start explaining why you're not going to be able to use magic, and give them a time frame for how long you'll be out of action. If Thor knows what's going on he can back us up with some hand-wavy explanations about magical burn-out and stuff to keep them off our backs."
"Magical burn-out?" Loki raised an eyebrow, annoyance dipping into amusement. "That is not a thing, I hope you are aware of that."
"Well, Bruce had to say something. It's not like anyone else knows anything about magic." Tony grinned when he saw the trickster smile slightly, sensing weakness. "Look, it will be good to have someone else in our corner. If nothing else, Bruce cracks under pressure – if you push him too hard he can't keep a lie going. No one's pushing yet, but I can't guarantee that they won't. Thor's an absolute rock when it comes to you. Yeah, he might get annoyingly over protective, but surely a bit of pampering and wrapping in cotton-wool would be kinda nice right now?"
Loki bit his lip in grudging thought. "I suppose it would be strategically useful…and should I miscarry after all it would be useful to have him supporting us as well as Doctor Banner."
"That's not a thought I'd like to have, but I agree he'd be a good support. More importantly though; don't you want your brother by your side right now? You were so frightened you didn't even want to tell me to begin with, and just because I now know doesn't mean you aren't still terrified." Tony knew calling the trickster out on his fear wasn't necessarily fair, but it was a point that needed to be made. "I think you need Thor, I think as a couple we could both do with the added support if things go south and I think we owe it to him given how worried he is for your health right now."
"I'm not going to get a say in this, am I?"
"Not really."
Loki shook his head with a wry chuckle. "I do not know how good an idea this is, but you do make some valid points. I suppose I could speak to him, but I'll leave it until all of the deliberations over Berlin have occurred."
"Hmm." Tony grinned. "I guess that'll have to do. Now, shall we go and find out what the hell Sam was talking about? He's called some random dude and told him to come over, but I've no idea who or why. Apparently we just have to trust him."
"We did the same thing with Sam himself as I recall."
"True."
The main room was – despite its size – beginning to look a little crowded. With all of the Avengers and general hangers-on there weren't quite enough seats and Evie (drawn by the attraction of food) had been relegated to a beanbag with stern warnings not to spill her Thai curry on it.
"Should she be here? Aren't we discussing secret Avengers things?" Tiny asked doubtfully.
"You always tell me everything anyway." The girl said cheerfully through a mouthful of noodles.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Loki and Tony practically spoke in unison and their daughter rolled her eyes.
"We're not discussing anything at the moment, we're waiting for Sam's friend. He's down in the lobby, Jarvis is just bringing him up."
"I wouldn't say friend as such…" Sam's mutter was quiet enough that no one heard him over Jarvis announcing that their guest was there.
The droid had gone down in person, so led the way for a stunned looking man who didn't quite seem to realise what he had got himself into. He stopped dead when he saw the room full of Avengers – all famous in their own rights – staring at him.
"Mr Lang." Jarvis gestured gracefully with a bionic arm. "Here for Mr Wilson."
The man locked on to the only person in the room that he didn't seem to deem a threat and waved with a grin that didn't quite cover how freaked out he was.
"Um…Hi. Again."
"Yeah, hi." For all that he had called this stranger in; Sam didn't seem entirely impressed to see him. "Guys this is Scott Lang. Met him not long ago in, uh, a professional situation. He's got some skills that could be useful."
Scott hefted the backpack he was carrying. "Uh…yeah. Less skills, I kinda use a suit to…uh…do my thing." He managed a wave at Tony. "A bit like you I guess Mr Stark…Except maybe not as awesome…I don't know, I didn't build it of course, not like you, wow…I can't believe I'm talking to you and all, this is-"
"Okay, okay, hotshot." Tony held up a hand, as if trying to physically stem the flood of words. "Pipe down, calm down and tell us who you are."
"Uh, yes sir, sorry sir." Scott dropped his rucksack and attempted to straighten out his jacket. "Um, Scott Lang sir. I'm, uh, well I'm out of a job at the moment, but I'm an odd-job man most of the time. When I can…Uh…"
"Yeah, really not seeing why you're useful right now. We've already got a plumber."
"Hey!" The new-comer scowled, hero-worship falling to the wayside and overtaken by annoyance. "I'll have you know I'm very useful! I'm not much without my suit, but with it I'm Antman!"
It was possibly meant as a grand statement; something awe-inspiring and fantastic.
What actually happened was that every person in the room began laughing.
"Yeah, yeah, okay, I know, I know." Scott held his hands up in gracious defeat. "Sounds really super cheesy, I know."
"Cheesy is one word for it." Tony's voice made it clear that he really couldn't see why Sam had thought this was a good idea.
"But I-"
"Yeah, shut it. We don't need more stupid in the room. Jarvis, you've got a name and the bio-scan; who is he?"
"Putting it up on the main display, sir."
Scott turned as the droid spoke, then spun back around as the TV screen on the wall flickered to life. "Hey! What the hell?!"
Mug shots, criminal records, National Insurance data, enough of all of it to make it clear that Scott Lang wasn't exactly a model citizen. The man himself looked shamefaced with his less-than-stellar past thrown up for all of the Avengers to see.
"Petty theft, grand larceny, car theft, breaking and entering…All the various ways of saying a down and out thief." Steve sounded as disapproving as only he could manage. "And they call you 'Antman'? Nick the suit, did you?"
"No! Of course not! Well…in the beginning maybe, but now I am using it with full permission!"
"Yeah, who's permission?"
Tony waved a hand at Steve in the universal 'shut up' signal. "Does it really matter right now? What matters is why the hell Sam thought you of all the people on Earth can help us. And frankly, 'Antman' is a ridiculous name, regardless of what you actually do. And what is it you do again?"
"Well…I need my suit." Scott gestured down at his backpack. "Uh…if there's somewhere I can stick it on?"
"Library is just through there."
"Thanks…"
Sam found himself levelled with a considerable number of accusing glares as their visitor hurried from the room.
"Seriously – he's a hell of a lot more useful in a fight than he looks. I swear!"
"He'd better be because right now I think we're all questioning your sanity."
It took another few minutes for Lang to suit up in the gear that he had brought; long enough for people to start grousing and Thor to begin querying calling out for more food. The general mood didn't improve when the man stumped back into the room.
"That is an ugly-ass suit. Does it serve a purpose or do you send opponents running in sheer fear of your fashion sense?" Tony asked.
"Funny." Scott's voice was slightly distorted behind the odd-looking mask. "Look, I know it's not as fancy as other suits, but it does its job."
"Which is..?"
He didn't answer, instead with a flick of his hand he simply…vanished.
It certainly silenced the room, even if only for a moment.
"Okay that's…Where'd he go?"
"Down here guys."
The voice sounded normal volume, but still had that dulled quality the mask had given it. Tony moved first, gingerly stepping forwards and peering over the edge of the coffee table. He didn't know what he was expecting, but a teeny tiny Scott Lang was not it.
"That's different." Only Loki could sound that bored when faced with something quite extraordinary. "I do hope it's reversible."
"Told you he was useful." Sam sounded both smug and relieved when he saw the other's stunned reactions. "Imagine how it would be fighting that!"
Teeny tiny Scott jumped back away from the group that was now towering over him and with another invisible gesture shot back up to normal size.
"So…Antman, huh? That makes a bit more sense now." Steve said with a grin. "How long can you sustain that for?"
"As long as I want, as long as no-one squashes me." The way he said it made it clear that people had tried. "But I can't really go any smaller than that without quantum shit happening and last time I tried it all went very strange and atomic."
Bruce smiled at the bad description. "You aren't a scientist, are you?"
"No, sir."
"Can you go the other way? Small's good for infiltration, but what about a fight?"
Scott nodded at Sam, who scowled and went red. "Small actually works pretty well in a fight too. I can get inside someone's armour and take it out from the inside. I also still have the same power behind a punch, but it's coming at you from a fist the size of a pin-head – I know enough of physics to know the damage that can do." He shrugged. "But yeah, I can technically go the other way, but the only time I've done it I lost consciousness after about ten seconds. However, I can do this-"
So saying he grabbed something off his belt and shot something straight at the mug Evie had left on the coffee table. There was a cracking sound as the glass-topped table snapped under the sudden weight of the mug which went from a normal drinking receptacle to the size of a motorbike in under a second. Shards of glass went in all directions, along with exclamations from the Avengers.
Tony burst out laughing at his daughter's indignant expression. "I told you to put your crap away!"
"That was my favourite mug!"
"And now it's a valuable life lesson about tidying your crap away."
"I can turn it back…" Scott offered, but Tony waved him down.
"Hell no! We're keeping it! Modern art and all that jazz."
Antman pulled off his helmet to grin at them all. "It works the other way around too; I can shrink things down, which makes it easy to smuggle things around. I could carry a whole jet plane with me as a keyring and no-one would be able to tell until I reversed it." He frowned when he saw Tony's expression suddenly darken. "What? What did I say?"
"A jet plane, or perhaps a tank?"
"Tank?"
"Yeah, a tank. Like the one that inexplicably crashed its way out of Pym Tech HQ a few months back. I didn't bother to look too much into that incident because Stark Industries shares nearly tripled in value with Pym Tech crippled and I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth." Stark kicked the edge of the giant mug. "So that was you? And that…what was it?...some giant-ass toy train-"
"Thomas the Tank Engine." Evie supplied quickly.
"Yeah, the – how did you know that? You're too old to know that! – anyway, the giant Thomas the Tank Engine?"
"Uh…The tank wasn't me, but I was kinda involved…The train was sorta my fault though…"
"You're working for Hank bloody Pym."
"Uh…More like with Hank Pym, but uh…yeah?"
"Is that a problem, Tony?" Steve's tone made it clear that they didn't exactly have either the time or the luxury of choice for Stark to let business issues impact their team.
"Well yeah! Pym Tech is SI's biggest technological rival – regardless of what Justin Hammer might think – there's bad blood between us!"
Scott looked confused at the complaint. "What? Do you think I'm a mole or something?"
"Not in that stupid suit. Pym and Stark are family brands, and our families do not get on. I'll work with you, but not with that old man."
"He invented this suit-"
"Big deal, I invented mine. And I bet he wasn't in a bloody cave when he put his together and –"
"Tony." Loki's restraining hand on the man's shoulder effectively stopped the rant in its tracks. "I'm all for family feuds, but this is neither the time nor place. This young man is not Hank Pym, he has been called in to help us because as you will recall I am currently unable to, and unless you want Berlin to become a smoking crater we need him on our side."
"Berlin becomes a what now?!" Scott took a step back, looking spooked. "Hey, I'm all on board for helping the Avengers and all, but no-one said nothing about blowing up major European cities!"
"We're attempting not to let that happen." Steve gestured towards one of the now-vacated chairs. "Have a seat, there's a lot to bring you up to speed on."
"I haven't agreed to work with you yet."
"Well, park yourself down, we'll have a chat about what's happening and then you can make a decision. Sound good?"
Whilst Scott agreed to the reasonable proposal, Loki slipped around behind the rest of the group to where his brother was standing.
"I think we need to talk, we don't need to be here for this."
Tony had been right about one thing at least – if Thor's calculating stare was anything to go by he was already quite suspicious about what was wrong. They left the room without comment, Loki catching his husband's eye as they did so.
It wasn't wise to stay too close to the living room for fear of being overheard so the two God's ended up in the kitchen. This gave Loki the opportunity to sort out some food for himself, since it was long gone lunch and he still hadn't eaten a thing for the day.
"There was some take-out left over." Thor sounded amused as his brother began chopping up fruit.
"I'm not feeling like cold, congealed fat thank you."
"I've known you to eat raw bilgesnipe meat – do not pretend you are a picky eater."
"That was because there was not much choice at the time." Loki pointed the knife he was using at the thunder God. "And you know that. Take into consideration that I have not yet eaten today and factor that into what you think my mood currently is."
"Well, eat something before you level the tower then."
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
Thor took that as his cue to be quiet. Besides the huge breakfast bar there was a large sofa up against the panoramic window and he sat himself down there whilst waiting for his brother to speak again. Given that Loki had been the one that requested they have a talk the younger prince was certainly taking his time in starting the conversation.
Finally the trickster finished putting together his food and came over to take a seat on the sofa with a large bowl of fruit and yoghurt. He ignored his brother's judgemental look at the healthy choice.
"I hate love."
Thor blinked. "Pardon?"
"You know what I mean. Love. Being in love. It is ridiculous!"
"I don't think I do know what you mean…"
Loki gestured with his spoon – in lieu of setting fire to anything. "Example. I currently want to throw Tony Stark off the top of this building and watch him come to a grisly end. However, I can't because I love him."
"Is there a specific reason you want to kill your husband?" Thor kept his tone neutral.
"He made me talk to you. This is his idea, not mine."
"You are aware that is quite hurtful, yes?"
"I've tried to kill you in the past, this is nothing."
The thunder God glanced at his brother, allowing the surly comment to slide for once. "How are you feeling now, beyond homicidal? You did not look at all well yesterday, and Bruce was making some strange excuses."
"Yes, 'magical burn-out', Tony told me."
"And since that does not exist will you tell me what is actually wrong?"
Loki sighed. "Since I dragged you out here I suppose I probably should." He pushed some banana around the bowl, seemingly less interested in eating it now. "It appears that there have been…developments."
"Are you ill?" Thor was good at getting straight to the point, slightly blunt as always.
"Not as such."
"Huh." The older prince lent back against the sofa cushions, staring out of the window for a moment. "You think I am stupid, do you not?"
Loki smirked, ever so slightly. "The thought has crossed my mind every so often."
"Well, I may not quite have your brain but I am not as mindless as you like to think I am."
"Meaning?"
"Whatever has been wrong has been scaring you to death. I've covered for you with telling people you're simply using some heavy spell work, but I know that's not the case." Thor said steadily. "You say you're not ill, but something has happened to you. And now Bruce says you are not allowed out on missions – can you currently use your magic at all?"
"…no." Loki quickly raised a hand to silence him. "However, I am not in as bad a condition as I originally thought – Bruce has assured me of that."
"How can it not be that bad if you can't use magic?!"
"It's complicated. It was difficult enough to talk to Tony about it, and now he thinks I should tell you as well." The trickster made it clear that he still wasn't entirely sold on this idea. "I can see his reasoning – we could do with the support, particularly if things go ill."
"Are things likely to?"
"I don't know. Up until yesterday I fully believed the only route this could go was to disaster, and now Bruce has given me hope. Things are still…still risky, I suppose, but now there's hope."
Thor was quiet for a long moment, possibly waiting for brother to speak again, or possibly trying to find something to say himself. However, Loki didn't try to fill the silence, choosing instead to stare down at his uneaten bowl of fruit.
"Loki…"
"Hmm?"
"Are you pregnant?"
"What?" Loki stared at his brother disbelievingly. Even Tony hadn't been able to guess, how the hell could the thunder God reach a conclusion so easily? However, Thor didn't realise that the startled exclamation was surprise rather than outrage.
"Sorry! I know the healers said that that was impossible, I know you can't be….but it's the only thing that's making sense to me right now. You can't be…But are you?"
The Trickster stared at him, silver tongue for once struggling to find the words he needed. In some ways the silence said more than any amount of words could have done.
"Loki…?"
Thor wasn't an idiot. On the contrary he was actually much smarter than his younger brother ever gave him credit for and could read into what wasn't being said. Things just…fell into place. All that fear and anger and simmering pain that he had seen in the younger prince over the past few weeks, but been unable to put answers to.
He settled back against the sofa with a heavy sigh. After a long pause he spoke again.
"Are you going to lose it?"
"I…No. Doctor Banner thinks not."
"You spoke to Banner? Good…that is good…" Thor glanced at his brother to see Loki staring steadfastly at the wall on the far side of the wall, arms wrapped tightly across his waist in an unconscious gesture. "Loki…what by the Norns is going on? How is this…just…what the hell, Loki?!"
"It's…complicated, and I'm still not entirely sure I believe that everything is going to be alright."
Asgardian's are not the hugging sort, although there was evidence to the contrary occasionally, so Thor settled for the tried and tested method of reaching over to clasp a hand on Loki's shoulder.
"Try to start at the beginning then. You are pregnant, which should be impossible, and whilst Banner has apparently told you that you are alright you still fear a miscarriage. Yes?"
Loki nodded. "That is an accurate summation I suppose." He caught the look his brother was wearing and sighed. "And yes, I know this whole situation seems ludicrous."
"Then tell me what's happened."
For a wordsmith, the younger prince didn't often struggle in explaining something, and given the seriousness of this, now wasn't a good time to start having problems. Finally, he unwrapped his arms from his waist in favour of threading his fingers together – a nervous little action.
Thor sat quietly – for once – as the story was told. Loki was pragmatic, and didn't hold back from explaining the emotional side of what was happening. This did mean having to admit to his own stupidity regarding the healing waters, but Thor was gracious enough not to laugh, at least for now. If nothing else, Loki's very real fear of losing the pregnancy was enough to keep humour away from the situation. Just because Bruce had stated that a miscarriage was unlikely, it didn't mean it was entirely out of the question.
"I've spent so long fearing every slight twinge and movement inside me that it is hard to finally let that fear ease." Loki finished quietly. "It is so hard not to fear this."
"You have never had a problem with pregnancy before, have you?" Thor's question was well meaning – to his knowledge the answer was a no – but it drew a new frown onto his brother's face.
"They haven't all been smooth sailing. I just tend not to talk about it with you."
"Oh." There was a long pause and then Loki felt the older prince's hand on his shoulder tighten compassionately. "I'm so sorry. This should be something wonderful for you and Tony, I'm so sorry it is causing you such distress."
Loki shrugged lightly, as if it weren't such a weighty matter. "Well, you know me; I am always one to make a fuss and turn simple things into a drama."
"I think this is sufficiently important enough that you can be dramatic about it."
"So glad I have your approval." The words could have been harsh, but not with the younger deity's head tipping onto his brother's shoulder. "But…This does mean I shall be out of action for the time being."
"Of course." Thor glanced at the Trickster. "Your concerns…how much of this stems from what the Chitauri did?" It was an unusually introspective question for him; even Tony hadn't started to make those links yet.
"A fair bit, but that is an emotional kettle of fish I would rather leave for another time. I am struggling as it is without those memories too."
"When will you tell Evie?"
"After the twelve week barrier – that's the rough point where things can start to feel a little safer. Until then I'm just going to have to hope she doesn't guess."
Thor didn't ask why they didn't tell the girl earlier – he simply assumed quite rightly that it was for the same reason Loki had held off telling Tony for so long.
"So…assuming all goes as it should and nature takes its course there is soon to be another little trouble-maker running around the tower and causing as much mischief as Evie did when tiny. Norns help us all."
A smirk blossomed across Loki's face. "Well, actually, two little trouble makers…"
It took a moment for his words, and their meaning, to sink in, but when they did Thor's mouth dropped open. "Loki…Two? Twins? You are having twins?!"
"It appears to be the case. Doctor Banner did an ultrasound, I saw their heartbeats." Given that Thor had been so stoic and composed during the rest of the solemn announcement it was quite a change to see his face absolutely light up at the good news. And for just a short while Loki's own fear at the situation was chased away by his brother's sheer exuberant joy as Thor tackled him into a proper hug.
The two Gods ended up in a less than dignified sprawl across the couch, still laughing as Thor repeated the word 'twins' over and over. It was rather a good cure – even if only temporary – for anxiety and fear, Loki found.
MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW
Tony didn't notice his husband return until an arm snaking around his waist made him jump.
"Hey."
"Hello. Thor is still in the kitchen coming to terms with the news."
The mental image made Tony smirk. "And he was…okay?"
"Quite joyous, I believe, although concerned for my wellbeing." Loki made that sound like a dreadful chore.
"Well, that was a given."
"What has been the decision here?"
The rest of the group seemed to have settled down and were in deep discussion with the new guy, which gave the impression that at least something had been decided on.
"Scott's with us." Tony snorted derisively. "Antman, honestly, what the hell kind of name is that?"
"You're called Ironman, may I remind you, and the suit isn't even made of iron."
"I didn't name myself, the media made that mistake. I'd have come up with something better."
Loki smirked slightly. "So, you say Antman is now fighting with us, was that his choice or did you lot coerce him somewhat."
Stark gestured over at the large TV screen that still had all of Scott's criminal records pasted across it. "Let's just say we had some leverage over him. He didn't exactly want all of that dredged up, and we told him we wouldn't."
"But made it clear that you could if you wanted to?"
"We weren't awful. He's got a kid – we kinda want him to get home alive after this."
"And what will 'this' entail? I would rather like you back alive as well."
'This' turned out to be relatively simple, all things considered. They needed to find which of the huge Hydra bases held what they were looking for, and needed to do it invisibly. Sam had been right to call Scott in since it meant they now had a master of infiltration with them: Natasha and Clint could possibly have done it without being seen, but Scott was a guaranteed success.
If they could determine their target without drawing any notice to what they were doing then there was a chance they could neutralise it before Hydra recognised what they were after. If Hydra did realise, however, then they would lose all element of surprise and possibly walk into a firefight that – as had already been pointed out – could take out most of Berlin.
It was an uncomfortably familiar feeling, being left out of plans. Even if he knew that it was for a good reason this time Loki was harshly reminded of all those times Thor and his friends would plot out some adventure or other, entirely forgetting about the younger prince. It was a silly little feeling of anger and jealousy, given that he was still being included as part of the group. But still, little childhood slights can be quite painful if there are enough of them.
"You look like you're enjoying this about as much as I am."
Loki looked up in surprise to see Bucky, of all people, moving to stand by the window, taking Tony's place after the man had gone to join back in with the conversation. The super soldier gestured over his shoulder at the rather noisy room when he was greeted with an inquisitive glare.
"Too many people. I don't like being around too many people, especially ones I've tried to kill before."
"Know the feeling." The prince muttered, turning his gaze back to the view. "Is there a reason you're bothering me with this problem?"
"You were the villain too, once. Did you know Hydra had a contingency plan to take you out should you ever resurface?"
"Well, since Shield had one I was rather assuming Hydra had stolen that along with everything else. I saw Shield's plan. It wouldn't have worked."
"Hydra's plan was me."
That re-gained Loki's attention back to the human beside him. "You?"
Bucky was resolutely refusing to look at him, instead staring out of the window quite intently. "They seemed to think I would have had a chance."
"Huh." The trickster turned to rest his back against the glass, folding his arms across his chest. "And your opinion on that would be?"
"Well, I don't think I'd have made it out of there in very good shape, but I'd like to think I'd have left you in a pretty sorry state too."
That garnered a snort of derision from the prince. "Oh really? And I think you wouldn't have made it out at all, but we are all allowed different opinions I suppose. Maybe we should both just be glad it didn't come to that. Although I heard you nearly killed the good Captain when the two of you fought in the helicarrier, so maybe you would have landed a few hits on me." He saw the man's expression darken at the reminder of his not-so-stellar past and rolled his eyes. Once, not so long ago, he would have let it drop, but Tony had managed to instil at least just a little team-spirit, and the super soldier was even more of an outcast than he was. "Are you still hung up on that?"
"It's a little hard not to be."
"At least you have the excuse that you were brain-washed. When I tried to kill my brother and take over this planet it was because I was having a bad day."
Bucky actually smiled slightly at that. "I still had some autonomy. I knew what Hydra was doing wasn't right, but I still followed orders."
"Destroy a greater portion of New York with an alien army and then come crying to me about doing the wrong thing." Loki said.
"Stark told me you threw him out of a window."
"He tells everyone that. But I then married him, so I suppose the joke's on him."
Bucky snorted with laughter, and Loki smiled at the response.
"Oi, do we even want to know what you two are talking about over there?" Clint called over good-naturedly.
"We've teamed up and are plotting world domination, do you want in, Minion?" Loki's comeback was quick as a wink.
"Sure, Boss, but I demand a cut of the profits."
The trickster turned to Barnes, his entirely serious expression broken only by the mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "Does that sound fair to you, Winter Soldier?"
Bucky was taken aback by being included in the joking around, especially about something as serious as past allegiances. However, there were now quite a few eyes on him, waiting to see how he would respond.
"Uh…I guess we could spare South East Asia."
Clint tilted his head in the manner of someone weighing up their options. "Eh, I like the food, and they've got some good artwork. Go on then, I'm in."
There were some chuckles and other conversations struck up again. Loki turned back to look out of the window, but not before smirking at Barnes. The human returned the expression somewhat hesitantly, but grateful all the same.
It had taken Loki long enough to feel included by the others – if he helped Barnes out with those sort of social things now, then the man would owe him one later on. Having a Super Soldier owe you a favour could be an extremely useful thing.
He'd have to make sure he called it in – with the future looking uncertain it would be very useful to have various favours and blackmail material from each of the Avengers.