"So this is what going mad feels like."

Everyone had gone out to the lobby of Stark Tower. Most had bags of some sort on hand (Logan held nothing). Natasha had put on a leather jacket. Clint looked about the same from when Cap saw him before, as well as Thor and Loki. Steve himself had gotten some of the dried food strips he'd seen in the kitchen and a jacket with some type of wool material or other, both which he stored in a satchel pack that was placed inside his shield. Coulson wore shades, although he'd taken them off to address the group. "Is the object secured?"

"If by object you mean that little stick, then..." Tony pretended to search for it among his pockets before finally pulling it out with a smirk. "Don't be alarmed, the world is not yet destroyed." Coulson stared at him, expressionless. "You know, it's really hard to tell your expression with those shades on like that, but, uh, I'm going to go with it due to you being shocked still by my articulate fabulousness."

Coulson turned away from him in what might have been an air of exasperation but took off the glasses. "Is everyone ready?'

"Yes; however, you did not reveal our destination." This came from Thor.

Even with the glasses off it was hard to tell whether Coulson's expression had changed. "I'll get to that eventually."

They walked outside, being greeted by a large blue van.

"Get in." Coulson held the door open and prodded them forward one by one before slamming it shut and entering the driver's seat.

The Avengers were immersed in a worn carpet littered with newspaper scraps and coffee mugs. Three mugs, to be exact. There was a shelf attached to the wall with empty spots and boxes and numerous outlets.

"Not suspicious at all." Stark propped himself in a swivel chair that had been hiding by a darkened corner. "I love the holes in the floor where the seats got ripped out. Where did you even find this thing?"

"It's from someone I know; they let me use it as long as you don't break anything."

Coulson hit the gas with a start, unbalancing Stark and causing the chair to fall over. Coulson adjusted the front mirror to see them more easily. "Did you break something?"

"Not at all, Agent." Tony pushed the chair away as the car continued to lurch through the streets and managed to get himself upright without much loss of dignity. "Where're we headed?"

"Funny you should ask," Coulson noted. "We're going to the underground of your father's old facility."

A strange look came over Tony's face. "Did my father have something to do with this?"

"Stark's place is the best when it comes to distracting invading sensors. Especially as it's an older place. Meaning the city has built over it. We're not sure how far he extended, but it reaches quite a ways north. Possibly out of our territory. There's an opening in Canada; we'll try to exit there. Fury would have a harder time to track you."

"Canada, huh?" Logan leaned back and made himself comfortable. "I guess it wouldn't be too bad going back. Where exactly is this stick drive of yours supposed to go?"

"You mean, where it's supposed to be destroyed?" Coulson glared at the front window as he maneuvered through a back alley, trying to shave off a couple of minutes in the New York traffic. The van seemed like it belonged there. "Somewhere hot enough to burn every last metal and plastic particle, where it can never be salvaged again. Deconstruct the subatomic compounds, if possible. Obviously this is not your normal smelting. No one can trace our path."

Clint stopped whatever he was doing and gave Coulson a dubious look. "First you say SHIELD's gonna ride on our wingflaps all the way there, then you say that no one can trace us? What else do you want?"

"Just because SHIELD will be looking for you doesn't mean that they'll be able to necessarily trace your steps. Fury's probably going to set out a search squadron for the general area."

"We just need to make sure we don't get caught," Natasha summed up.

"Okay, so not as impossible as before." Clint balanced an arrow fletching by his thumb. "Nice."

"Does Canada have volcanoes?" Tony asked Logan quietly.

"You never mentioned our destination. Where is this place that we can burn it at?" Cap was trying not to show his frustration with the sincere lack of knowledge he'd been given, but Loki leaned forward now in anticipation of the question's answer, already planning some way of escape, and Coulson saw it through the mirrors.

"The metal on your arms holds your magic," Coulson reminded him. "Not sure you'd want to lose that." He braked as the van merged back into the main road and turned around fully (as much as he could) to address Steve.

"I'll tell you when we're at less supervised conditions. Until then, make yourselves comfortable. It may take a while before we're there."

"Right," Stark added dryly, spinning one of the roller chair's wheels, "at home sweet underground home."

Thank you for reading! Hopefully you aren't reading this in procrastination to some school project; if you are, you might want to get back to work on that...

Random Note: Thor might have smashed the drive, but given that his hammer is partly electric-bringing, and at it's least the drive might just shatter into an innumerably impossible amount of pieces to find and pick up, it would have not have been the best. Mjolnir's sonic blows also generally have huge power that may or may not destroy Stark's building and cause a collapse, which would be terrible for Stark (not the building fee, the fine of disrupting traffic). Thor, however, was probably not thinking about this. What most likely was running through his mind was how doing such an action would keep his focus off of Loki, and he couldn't afford to lose that, even with the handcuffs.

Thanks for the reviews, guys! If you live in the United States of America, enjoy your Labor Day Monday off!

Quote source: Simon Tam, Firefly, Episode: 'Jaynestown'