Chapter 9 — Thor Pt 2
A/N: I'm trying something different with this chapter by disregarding all sense of continuity, tell me what you think!
Bruce Banner wakes up slowly and already knows he's just ended his year-long streak of no incidents. Only the other guy could leave him this lethargic. Plus, he's standing in a crater of crumbling cement, buck-naked.
He should've stayed in India.
A pile of clothes drops down beside him, sending up a puff of dust that has Bruce coughing as he yanks on a baggy pair of sweatpants. He pulls on the t-shirt and rubs his eyes. Aw man, he broke his glasses too. He'd been able to hold onto that pair for years, even through a few incidents, but it seemed as though they couldn't survive meeting Toni Stark. And yes, Bruce definitely blames her for all this. Her and her dramatic speeches and secret plans.
"Are you okay, Dr. Banner?" Asks a low, familiar voice. At the edge of the crater, a blond head peeks out at him.
Bruce squints at the blurry head, and then the empty warehouse around him. "Oh, I'm just dandy. Had a nice nap and everything."
"It did not seem very pleasant for you."
The doctor shrugs, too exhausted to feel strongly about his lifelong ailments. "It's not."
He rises to his feet, and Thor steps over the ridge of the crater, deciding that it's safe to approach the doctor. Bruce squints at him some more. "Are you okay? You look a little…ruffled."
The Norse God pauses to give Bruce a bright grin. "Fear not, friend! Under different circumstances, we would be parading around the city to celebrate our glorious battle! Alas, such merriment shall have to wait." Thor beckons to the doctor, and the two of them begin to climb out of the crater that the Hulk left behind.
"Right," Bruce says slowly, trying to piece together what he could. Toni leaving the base. Then, the attack that brought out the Other Guy, but between those two things… Bruce looks at Thor again, realizing what was different.
"Hey, uh, Thor?"
"Yes, doctor?"
"Where's the, uh...?"
"WHERE IS IT?!" Loki bellows once more, lifting Nick Fury up by the collar of his jacket. "Where is the scepter?"
The director only curls back his lip into a bloody, triumphant snarl. "It is my great pleasure to inform you that I have no idea, asshat."
Behind him, Maria Hill and Phil Coulson are on their knees, held at gunpoint. Neither of them had answers either. Loki snarls at their blank faces, baring his teeth. "If none of you have what I want, well, then I have no use of you little—"
A loud beep drowns out the alien god's declaration, and a large glass monitor flickers, then a glowing blue logo appears on a black screen. A smooth, captivating voice drifts out of the intercom system.
"Hey there Loki. I hear you're looking for your stick."
He releases the mortal abruptly, leaving Fury to collapse onto the floor beside Maria Hill. Loki glares at the screen, then his eyes dart around, searching. He scoffs. "You do not know what power you are meddling with, woman."
"Oh, I'm beginning to. No wonder you think you can rule the world with this thing."
A loud crash reverberates from outside the conference room. Men shouting, gunfire, alarms blaring. The ship is still a war zone. He may have their commanders, but the agents are still fighting.
Loki is losing this battle.
He growls at the screen again, and the crushes three monitors with a wild sweep of his arm. He beckons to his men. "We're leaving."
"Sir, what about the scepter?" One the mortals under his command questions.
Loki breezes past them headed towards the deck. "It is not here."
"Thor, I don't think SHIELD realizes what they have here," Toni says slowly, her eyes magnetized to the sight before her. She pulls up a chart from a nearby monitor. "Nobody knows what it is, and yet they brought it onboard with Loki anyway."
"Loki does not seem terribly upset to be parted from it," Thor frowns. "But it is the source of his newer powers."
"It's got similar readings to the Tesseract, too. Thor, this—this can't stay on the ship."
"I agree, Antonia. But it is in SHIELD's hands now, is it not?"
"Just because a baby's holding the car keys doesn't mean you should let 'em drive."
"Car… you mean your metal carriages? What does that have to do with—?"
"Let me reiterate. Just because a mortal baby has its hands on a—a sword—doesn't mean you should let them play with it."
"Ah, a metaphor! And in this scenario, the sword is a scepter, the baby is SHIELD, and together we are parents?"
"...Sure thing, Papa Thor. Now, I think we should confiscate this dangerous weapon before little SHIELD tries to use it like a toy. Or, worse, Loki tries to take it back."
"Where does Loki fit into the metaphor?"
"He's the maniac that left a sword in the hands of our, uh, child."
Thor pauses, eyeing Toni with new worry in his eyes. "You think he did this on purpose."
Toni shifts uneasily and looks down. "Yes, I do. Trickster God, right?"
The Norse God exhales slowly and nods. "I see. Then you ought to get the scepter as far away from him as possible."
"That's what I need your help with. I have a hunch about where the Tesseract is—I just need to talk it over with Banner, but if I'm right, I need to leave. But I can't take the scepter with me, so that's where you come in."
Thor raises his eyebrows. "A diversion?" She nods. "How exciting. What shall you do?"
Toni gives him a grim smile. "Leave that to me, Odinson."
"Where's the line, Nicky? Where's the line between preventing war and provoking it? Where's the line between protecting us and ringing a goddamn bell to tell the entire universe we have an uncontrollable, unlimited source of destructive power? I don't think you know what a line is, and I'm not going to be a part of your fuck-up any longer."
Fury tries to stop her. Steve doesn't move an inch.
"I'm getting off this death trap before I die on it, Fury. I'm out."
Steve stares at the automatic door as it shuts behind Toni Stark. The room echoes hollowly, and in the persisting silence, he can hear every groan and creak of metal. A brief, overwhelming sense of fear washes over him at the words death trap, but he squashes it in an instant. Surely, Ms. Stark was just being dramatic.
She wasn't being dramatic when she brought up those weapon schematics. But that doesn't justify leaving, not in the middle of a fight. She wasn't even in Stuttgart, so she doesn't understand what's at stake. Steve frowns, frustrated. He didn't like Ms. Stark to begin with, but just—just giving up? That's unacceptable to him.
"Would someone please patch that security breach?" Fury scowls into his comm, and the red warning lights stop flashing on a few of the computer screens. "Goddamn Stark, breaking into my goddamn servers…"
Steve's hands ball into fists as he turns to the director. "How could you let someone like her onto this team?" He demands.
The director's eye flashes in warning, and Steve lowers his eyes. "Because there are no others like her, Captain Rogers," Fury says after a moment. "You haven't been out of the ice long enough to know it. But in today's world? Stark's a valuable asset, even when she pulls shit like this."
Steve looks at the director for a long, unhappy moment. Then he sighs and shakes his head. "I've seen enough of today's world. Stark is part of the problem. Maybe you've seen too much to know it."
Fury gives him an unreadable look, and then he scoffs. "Maybe she's both," he says nebulously and strides out of the lab, leather coat whipping around the corner.
Steve glances at Natasha to see how she was taking this development. Stark is gone, Fury's not even a little concerned, and they still have an alien prisoner aboard their metal death trap of a military base. This is not a death trap, Steve reminds himself hastily.
Romanoff meets his eyes briefly, and Steve doesn't know what to think. The threat of an invasion is still imminent, but essentially, nothing has changed with Stark's departure. She did her job, and Dr. Banner is still working on their equipment, however unhappy he might be with Fury's other projects. Steve, Natasha, and Thor are on standby until they can find the Cube.
Dr. Banner has shuffled off to the far side of the room, putting several bright screens between him and everyone else, but Romanoff no longer seems concerned about him. Actually, she's looking at Steve now.
He frowns at her again, but her expression is still blank. Then she blinks and turns her gaze away from him meaningfully. Steve stares. She does it again, and Steve follows her gaze to Thor. The alien god-ish person is standing near Dr. Banner, but not in a threatening way. He's sort of huddled by the doctor's side like an overprotective shadow.
That's… new. Since when were they friends?
Steve draws near, and Thor stops speaking abruptly. The two of them look up at Steve with wide eyes.
Okay, not suspicious at all.
As Toni flies over open water, her mind races. Not her cleanest exit, but man, did it feel good to yell at Nick Fury. She can still see the look on Steve's face when she called the Helicarrier a death trap. In hindsight, it's sort of a low blow, but a part of her hopes that Cap might listen to her if he quits trusting SHIELD so much. Fury's just as new to alien invasion as the rest of them, and he's going about it all wrong.
Loki isn't intimidated by SHIELD. In fact, he likes to see them try and stop him. Toni took one look at that man's smug face and knew Loki was planning something. That he knew everything he could about SHIELD, and they knew nothing of him. He had agents under his control and he'd be an idiot not to question them.
(SHIELD has Loki's own brother working with them, so why was Toni the only one to question him?)
Clint gave her up when he was turned. It's a logical assumption to make, and from that assumption, Toni can guess that Loki already knows about her. Loki probably knows a lot about Natasha Romanoff and Phil Coulson, too. And Fury. And Happy and Pepper.
Damn it, Pepper.
"JARVIS, can you call Ms. Potts for me?" Maybe she's still in DC. Stay in DC a little longer, please.
~ Certainly, Ms. Stark. ~
Pepper's photo ID pops up just above Toni's left eye. It's an old photo from a Christmas party, but it's the only photo Toni has of her CEO getting absolutely shit-faced, so it's her favorite. While the line rings, Toni thinks back to just a few days ago, when they first lit up Stark Tower.
Rhodey's congratulatory phone call; Pepper's excited declaration that the reactor was up and running normally; Toni drinking cider in celebration because she's really trying to be good—
I tried. I really tried, and this is what I get? She wishes none of this had happened. She wishes she could've trusted SHIELD the way Clint and Coulson do. She hopes she can trust Thor and Bruce to do as she's asked them.
"What… " Steve resists the urge to demand answers from them. "Um. Have you made any progress with the Cube?"
Bruce's eyes widen further, and he shares a quick look with Thor before blurting out, "We have—the model's locked and—uh, I'm searching for its signature now. When we—when I get a hit, we'll have it—the Tesseract's—location within… half a mile?" He looks at Thor again, uneasily.
"Okay," Steve nods agreeably. Dr. Banner doesn't seem on the brink of an incident, but he does seem incredibly stressed by something, and Steve doesn't mean to push any buttons. "Are you okay working without Ms. Stark?"
Bruce's gaze snaps back to Steve, his mouth slightly open in alarm. "What? No, no, of course. What was the question? Toni's gone. Yeah, that's a shame, what can you do—" he grimaces. "Toni Stark does what she wants, ya know? I know. Thor knows."
Thor gives the doctor a stern look.
"Thor doesn't know. Thor is just a regular guy. I'm just a regular guy. I'm just passing time here. The model's locked on the Cube. It's fine. Everything's fine."
So much for not pushing buttons.
Steve eyes Thor, who's been suspiciously quiet while Bruce has been suspiciously talkative. "So, what is it you know about Stark?"
Thor opens his mouth to respond, but no words come out. His brow furrows, and he taps his fingers against the table nervously.
"I…as Dr. Banner says, am just a regular man. Well, I am also a prince, but since this is Midgard, I do not hold much prestige in your lands. I used to, actually. The last time we had any contact with Midgard, your people were a little less evolved, you see, and they thought us to be true gods—of course, we are not immortal beings, but we do tend to be sturdier than your average Midgardian. There was a time in my youth, actually, when my brother convinced me that Rattatosk was stuck in a great big tree even though he's a squirrel so I climbed the tree to rescue him and when I reached the top, Rattatosk turned into Loki and he went 'Blerrhh! It's me!' and then he pushed me out and I fell more than thirty meters, but it was all in good fun, as we are much hardier than your people, but it just goes to show that we were gods to your eyes—but not you specifically, as I have no idea as the current belief systems of Midgardians, however back then, in those days, yes, I was a god and had the prestige on level with my prestige in Asgard, where I am the crown prince, but now your people do not recognize me as such, and therefore… I am just a regular… guy."
Lord, Steve never thought he'd have to listen to a Norse God talk this much about so little.
Thor shares a look with Bruce, and the doctor shrugs and gives him a weak thumbs-up.
Steve sighs. "What the hell did Stark tell you two?"
"Toni… I think you're getting ahead of yourself," Bruce sighs, pulling off his glasses to rub his eyes.
He looks exhausted but also coiled tight like a spring. That probably has to do with the giant Norse God crowding the two of them. Bruce glances at Thor again with a frown.
"Why is he here?" He gives Toni a flat look. "You didn't actually ask to see—"
"Shut up, Bruce," Toni cuts him off, her voice a little shrill. "He's here 'cause he is. Back to the problem. Selvig's portal designs. With the iridium to stabilize the wormhole it creates, the Tesseract gives off more than enough energy to sustain the portal itself. With a kick from whatever reactor is used—plus the iridium, minimizing heat loss—"
"The Cube would have an excess of energy to release," Bruce nods, adjusting his glasses pensively. "It could cause a meltdown if they're utilizing the wrong reactors, so that could narrow down their choices."
"Hence my tower's reactor." Toni finishes the thought.
Bruce sighs again. "Toni, I don't think—"
"Starkium is—it's essentially synthetic vibranium, Bruce," Toni insists. "No one's ever seen a vibranium-based reactor before, the Wakandans are tight-lipped about it. So that leaves my reactor, and my designs can take on a lot of excess energy."
Her eyes flicker to Thor. Her newest reactor designs could probably adapt to those fancy lightning strikes. "But I don't know how that would affect Selvig's device. I don't know how he could resolve all that excess energy," Toni concludes.
Bruce leans against the table with his arms crossed. "I'm not sure… but—" He grows pensive.
"What?" Toni presses.
Banner wrings his hands. "An energy barrier. Once the Tesseract gets a kick-start, it could probably sustain its own barrier and a portal. Wouldn't be hard for Erik to build that in, hypothetically."
Toni's face falls. How the hell were they supposed to get through that?
"Again," Bruce breaks into her thoughts, "I think you're getting ahead of yourself. We don't know where the Cube is."
"No, I'm not," Toni says flatly. "If there's any chance that Loki's going to use my tower for this, then I need to evacuate the building." She takes a few quick strides away, distancing herself from the two men.
"Toni?" Bruce grows concerned. "What's going on? Why don't we just tell Fury?"
She looks at Thor instead, and the demigod meets her eyes solemnly. "Keep it away from Fury. Keep it away from Loki. Please?"
They both ignore Bruce as he asks "Keep what away?"
With a slow, meaningful nod, Thor agrees. That's one burden off her shoulders, at least, and she's grateful for it.
Toni inhales deeply, listening as alerts pop up on some of the monitors. A flashing warning, Intruder Alert, Security Breach—
The click of Natasha Romanoff's heels. Toni feels her eye twitch as the redhead enters, eyes fixed on Bruce.
"Romanoff, so good of you to join us," Toni greets her loudly, stepping between her and Bruce. "Quick question, darling, did you know Fury was building an arsenal using the Tesseract?"
"I don't have time for this, Stark." Her voice is curt as always, but there's an edge to her expression that Toni doesn't recognize. "Dr. Banner—"
"So it doesn't bother you at all, huh?" Toni cuts in again, her voice growing loud. She doesn't have to fake this part.
"No," Natasha answers coldly. "We encountered a new kind of threat, and we're adapting to it any way we can."
The scepter is already encased in a shielded container. Thor moves it to the back of the room and waits. It's not the most elegant sleight of hand, but that's why Toni's here. Her voice rises as she speaks.
"Honestly, Romanoff? Don't you think there's a problem here? Tell me. Say it to my fucking face. You know what this thing does. You know what this thing /brought/ to Earth, and yet—and yet you think it's alright to build weapons with this?"
Steve sighs. "What the hell did Stark tell you two?"
"Oh, Toni didn't tell me anything!" Bruce chirps, raising his hand.
Thor scoffs, looks away, and crosses his arms tightly. "I do not know what you speak of," he declares, but as he shifts, his cape shifts and falls off the table, and beneath it is a long, rectangular container. Steve's eyes fall immediately onto it.
No one speaks. Bruce presses his hands into his face.
"Is that—?"
The ringing stops, and the call disconnects. Panic rises in Toni's throat. "JARVIS?"
~ Apologies, Ms. Stark, but I cannot reach Ms. Potts. She is likely still in transit. ~
Toni sighs. At least she won't have to worry this way. "Alright. How's our evacuation doing?"
If Toni's right about her tower, then there's not much she can do to stop it at this point, but she can still minimize the collateral damage from what's to come. Her company has already done a lot of shitty things, but she won't be responsible for any employee deaths today. Letting SHIELD so close to her work was a mistake.
"J, buddy, give me stats," Toni says again, more urgently. "I know we're too far out to get a full read on the power outputs, but—"
~ I cannot reach the tower at this time. ~
Something cold creeps up her spine. "Uh, what do you mean? How is that possible?" Toni demands. She leans to the right and twists between the pillars of a bridge, flying down the West Side. A small indicator blinks on her HUD, measuring the distance to her tower. They should have remote access to the tower's servers by now. "Talk to me, JARVIS."
~ I cannot reach the tower at this time. ~ JARVIS repeats. ~ Ma'am, m-mY senSORs iNdicAte a— ~
The HUD flashes red, but too late—something hits her from the side, beeps twice, and then explodes in a burst of bright white flames.
The concussive force of the blast throws Toni off-course, but more problematic is the HUD—it flickers twice and then goes completely dark, leaving Toni to maneuver with basic mechanical controls.
She curses loudly, twisting her wrists to reactivate the thrusters. With no sense of where she's headed, Toni propels herself in one direction—hopefully upwards—and then aims for a flat, empty rooftop to land on.
The rooftop she finds is flat, but there's also a little garden on it. And she doesn't so much as land, but rather tumble and skid and crash through a vegetable patch before she's out of immediate danger.
But no matter—Toni yanks off her faceplate and pulls herself out of the dirt, painfully aware of how open she's left herself. Her head is still ringing from the blast, but her eyes have adjusted, and she tries to figure out where the attack had come from.
She risks a glance at the projectile still clogging up the shifting plates of her suit. Then she looks again, panic threatening to take over her mind, and rips it out of her suit. It's not quite an EMP, but something to disrupt her guidance systems.
Something she designed.
"For fuck's sake," Toni whispers to herself, staring at the blackened remains of an arrow in her hand. She tosses it aside just as Hawkeye drops down onto her rooftop. There's a zipline above him, already anchored in place.
"For fuck's sake," Toni repeats, louder and squeakier, taking a step back from the agent. "How'd you know which rooftop I'd land on? There's something freaky about your understanding of physics."
Clint doesn't react. Toni didn't really expect him to, but she hoped. He reaches back to grab another arrow, and Toni sticks the faceplate back on. The HUD reboots, and she leaps out of the path of Clint's next arrow in the nick of time.
She powers up the thrusters, but just as she takes off, her boots are disabled by two arrows lodged in the joints of the suit and Iron Man stumbles back to the ground.
Toni grits her teeth, feeling the spot where she bit her cheek. "Oh, you want me to stay a while? Okay." A trajectory predictor materializes on Toni's screen, and she cranks up the power output from her left gauntlet.
He draws his bow again. Toni feels her palms prickle with heat as she aims.
"Let's dance, bird-brain."
BOOM! The three men flinch at the noise, but the explosion is far away. There's a view of the bridge from this lab, and agents are running around frantically, but no further explosion is heard.
Bruce is already checking security footage around the Helicarrier. "There's been a breach in quadrants four and six, but—no serious structural damage." He looks at Thor and Steve worriedly. "We're in quadrant five, though. Thor, I can't help if they get here—I'm—I'm no help if they—if I'm—"
He collapses to his knees, breathing heavily, but not quite green yet.
Steve looks on in alarm. "Banner, are you alright? Thor, can you—?" He asks with his eyes. Can you handle him?
Thor eyes him gravely. "This was not part of the plan."
"It is now!" Steve says firmly. "If Banner can't hold on, you're the only one that can keep him from destroying this base."
"Aye," Thor agrees promptly and drops something into Steve's arms. "You were not part of the plan either, I fear, but I think Ms. Stark may have misjudged you. I will keep Dr. Banner from this vessel. You must keep that away from Loki."
"Oh my god, they're like right outside," Bruce comments loudly, scrolling through cameras as Steve searches for the quickest route out of here. "Thor, I think I'm triggering myself. Aw jeez, do you see all those guns? You're bullet-proof, right?"
Steve feels his heart squeeze. He should help. He needs to help them, help the agents… but there's a different weight on his shoulders now. Or rather, in his hands.
He can hear Thor's booming voice as he leaves. "I will be fine, my friend, as shall you."
"Good. That's g-good. I th-think I'm gonna—goonnnnaaaaAAARRRGGGHHHH!"
Toni staggers to her feet, gasping for breath. Her suit's only partially functioning, with at least three new arrows jamming up essential gears. But at least she has time to breath now, instead of holding it all in. Her friend, her silly sharp-shooter field agent not-lover not-ex circus boy. He came at her with everything, and Toni's still not sure she did the right thing in hitting back.
Hawkeye crash-landed somewhere in the building across the street. Her HUD's a little fuzzy but she can still see his vital signs.
He's alive, she's alive, but this stupid fight isn't over yet.
"That was fun," Toni says flatly.
~ Indeed, Miss. ~ JARVIS replies, and his voice is music to her ears.
"Let's go home, J."
Taking a deep breath, Toni tears out the custom arrows from her boot thrusters, carefully checking the output levels before firing them up.
The city below her is lively but peaceful. There are a few cop cars around the building she fought on, but she was able to keep the damage down. No casualties besides the tomato patch.
Toni has an awful, gut-wrenching feeling that it won't stay so peaceful here. "JARVIS…. Did we shut down the reactor?"
~ Actually, yes. And the device is offline according to my systems. ~
Her heart leaps. "And how accurate are your systems at this time? Clint's been messing with your servers," Toni reminds them both. She twists around a building, and the tower comes into view.
It looks…
It looks fine?
The video feed appears on the corner of her HUD, and JARVIS is right. ~ No, Ma'am. The reactor has been properly shut down. Selvig can be located on the penthouse floor, along with an unknown object on the terrace. It is offline. ~
Toni brings herself to a slow stop, hovering over the upper terrace. Below, she sees Selvig and a machine. She cuts the thrusters and drops down onto a platform, but doesn't take off the suit.
She steps into her penthouse, feeling strung tighter than a bow. Something's wrong.