Chapter 9 – Trouble in Germany
A/n – Here's the next chapter for y'all. Here's where we really get into the action and here comes some Steve/Toni interactions.
XxxBellaBellaxxX: That was part of the reason that she trusted him yes but she had other slightly more personal reasons for it. Might be something else that brings them together because I've decided what to do but thanks for the suggestion. Yeah, the Iron Man movies will be the most different for obvious reasons.
Paisley25: Technically I've already replied to your review but I just want to say thanks for the feedback and questions and chatting about headcanons with you is really influencing future parts of this story.
MelodyPotterSnape: Thank you, I'm glad you think they're well portrayed.
Brooksk1313: Thanks because focusing on the friendship is my intention. There will be hints of relationships but I'm trying to make this about team connections. Toni will figure it out by the Thor movie but I don't promise immediate redemption for Loki.
LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: When reading your review I was torn between laughing and being extremely flattered. It was flattering in an entertaining way. Loving that Toni is your female role model
Shadow The Assassin: Glad you like it.
The DarkLady55: There will be no Piper/Toni break up within this story because Piper isn't even there but there will probably be inevitable Steve/Toni and Bruce/Toni undertones. If I write a sequel of the aftermath (which I might, haven't decided yet) it may become more orientated to one of those couples.
youwannabekate: Yeah it is hard to write them as there is no natural stopping point but whenever they have a particularly long convo or there's not a big gap between dialogue JARVIS is pausing the movie even if I don't specifically state it. Me neither, it's going to be so fun to write.
Stiles Holmes: I'm glad you've come to like fem!Tony :)
Harm Marie: That's good, I'm glad
The scene switched back to the underground laboratory where Selvig was working. Several boxes were being carried in by scientists as Selvig directed, "put it over there."
"Where did you find all these people?" Selvig asked Clint.
"SHIELD has no shortage of enemies, doctor," Clint clarified from the other side of the glass wall.
"They don't exactly attempt to stop themselves alienating people so yes they would have enemies," Toni scoffed.
"Is this the stuff you need?" Clint inquired holding up a handheld computer screen which displayed the information they had on iridium.
"Yeah, iridium," Selvig confirmed, "It's found in meteorites. It forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get hold of."
"Well it would be," Bruce said.
"Especially if SHIELD knows you need it," Clint said darkly.
"Well, I didn't know," Selvig exclaimed before noticing that Loki was approaching and smiling, "hey! The Tesseract has shown me so much. It's more than knowledge. It's truth."
"Which is precisely the problem with it," Clint said surprising them all. He was generally brooding silently whenever a scene showing the controlled version of him was displayed. "It takes away your sense of judgement," he continued, "and you believe whatever it wants you to."
"I know," Loki said with a sinister smile, "what did it show you, Agent Barton?"
"My next target," Clint replied coldly.
"Tell me what you need," Loki said.
Clint walked over to a case sitting on the desk and pulled his bow from it instantly making it battle ready with a simple flick of the wrist. "I need a distraction," he stated, "and an eyeball."
Natasha flinched at the mention of the eyeball. Some of the SHIELD agents who had been working clean up on the scene in Stuttgart had told her what they had found attached to one of the bodies.
Back on the helicarrier the face-trace was still on-going as the Agents worked around it. Coulson was standing next to Steve and was obviously in the middle of a conversation with him, "I mean, if it's not too much trouble."
"No, no. It's fine," Steve said clearly slightly bemused.
"It's a vintage set," Coulson continued after an awkward silence, "It took me a couple of years to collect them all."
"Oh Phil," Toni sighed exasperatedly but it wasn't unkindly. She knew how much those cards had meant to him.
"Near mint," he kept going as he hadn't been stopped, "slight foxing around the edges, but…"
He was interrupted by an insistent beeping from the computers and one of the agents running the face-trace turning to tell them, "We got a hit, 67% match," then he turned back to the screen and added, "wait. Cross match. 79%."
"Location," Coulson said quickly slipping back into business mode.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Königstrasse. He's not exactly hiding," the agent replied pulling the footage up on the screen.
"And that should have been your first clue to spread out a bit more and look for other reasonable targets in the area," Toni sighed at the incompetence of SHIELD in general.
"Captain," Fury said, "you're up."
Steve nodded in recognition and made his way out of the control room.
The scene changed to show the building in Stuttgart with cars approaching the doors as music played in the background. Inside men and women in posh outfits mingled to the sound of the violins. The music continued to play in the background as Steve walked through a metal door in the helicarrier and into a room that contained his new uniform in a glass case. Also shown was a scientific research facility which was being patrolled by guards. There was a distinct striking sound and the guard on top of the building looked down to see his colleague fall back with an arrow in his chest shortly before another hit him causing him to fall from the building.
Clint flinched with every arrow that hit its target and Natasha knew that her friend was cursing his good aim. She didn't want to draw attention to his suffering so she simply placed her hand on his arm and tried to be reassuring.
The quinjet carrying Steve flew towards the building containing Loki as Clint made his way to a sealed door within the scientific facility. Loki walked down the hall of the building swinging his staff like a cane as he peered over the balcony he could see the curator begin his speech. Once he reached the main area where the party was taking place he flipped his staff over and hit one of the security guards in the face with it. Stunned gasps came from the crowd as Loki grabbed hold of the curator and dragged him over to the ornate table in the centre of the room.
"I don't think it's just a distraction," Bruce muttered nervously.
He pulled out a device which flickered on as Barton was shown fixing an identical one onto the iris recognition system.
The Avengers (especially Clint) all flinched as they had figured out exactly what was about to happen to the poor man on the table.
Loki plunged the now spinning blades of the device onto the man's face specifically his eye. The crowd began to scream and run for the door as the curator screamed and shook in pain. The copy of his iris was transmitted to Clint's device and the thieves were let into the private room where they retrieved the needed iridium.
"I always wondered how they managed to get some," Toni said feeling more than a little sick. She had seen worse but it didn't make it any easier for her to see something like that. The poor man.
As the guests fled the hall Loki used magic to summon his armour which glowed gold. He walked at a sedate pace wearing a sinister smile as the guests ran as fast as they could. The sirens of a police car wailed but Loki wasn't bothered by their appearance as he simply used the sceptre to overturn the car. Then he created a double of himself with magic to cut off the fleeing people.
"Useful," Natasha admitted grudgingly.
"Kneel before me," he said creating another double as they tried a different direction.
"I said," the real Loki said approaching and banging the sceptre on the ground making all the other sceptres light up before shouting, "KNEEL!"
Scared stiff of what would happen to them if they didn't the party guests fell to their knees. "Is not this simpler?" Loki said with a smile walking through the crowd, "Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."
"The scary thing is that he actually believes it," Clint muttered.
"My brother will never understand the truth of ruling," Thor spoke up for the first time in a while.
An old man in the crowd pushed himself to his feet clearly not impressed by Loki's speech. "Not to men like you," he said defiantly.
"There are no men like me," Loki laughed.
"There are always men like you," the old man said dismissively.
"Look to your elder, people," Loki said raising the sceptre and directing it at the old man, "let him be an example."
Loki fired off a blast but just in time Steve dropped down in front of him and deflected the blast. It flew straight back at Loki and knocked him off of his feet.
"Nice timing Steve," Bruce said appreciatively.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," Steve said matter-of-factly as braver members of the crowd rose as he walked past.
"The soldier," Loki quipped pushing himself to his feet, "the man out of time."
"I'm not the one who's out of time," Steve quipped in return as the quinjet flew in behind him.
"And here was me thinking you couldn't make any good retorts to save your life Steve," Toni joked with a slight smile.
Natasha was shown hitting buttons on the interior of the quinjet as a gun dropped from within the fuselage of the plane. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," Natasha spoke over the PA.
Loki made an attempt to fire at the plane but it dodged out of the way in time. Whilst Loki was somewhat distracted Steve flung his shield at him making contact with his armour as the civilians ran to get out of the way of the fight. The pair threw a few more jabs at each other before Loki's sceptre managed to throw Steve back but he quickly made a recovery.
"This is the bit where it's going to get interesting," Clint said and he wasn't being sarcastic. Mostly he just wanted to see Loki get a little bit beaten up.
Steve flung his shield once more but Loki was ready and deflected it with the sceptre so Steve decided just to charge at him. More blows were exchanged until Steve was once again flung out of the way this time landing flat on the ground. As he tried to get up Loki pushed the sceptre down on his head and muttered, "Kneel," in a dangerous tone.
But Steve just replied with, "not today," and kicked Loki in the face after brushing the sceptre off. Natasha and the quinjet came in closer but Natasha worriedly pointed out, "the guy's all over the place," as Steve was thrown off Loki once more.
Suddenly Toni's voice came over the PA, "hey Tasha, you miss me!"
"Only you Toni," Natasha said with a smile remembering the moment. It had been the first contact she had with her friend in months and she had been relieved to hear that she had agreed to help. God knows Toni didn't trust the government as far as she could throw them.
The display screen on the jet fluctuated before the systems acknowledged that the PA system had been overwritten as 'Shoot To Thrill,' began to play.
"You had to enter to AC/DC right Toni," Bruce laughed.
"Of course," Toni replied, "what am I without my AC/DC?"
"Less annoying," Natasha quipped which earned her a joking glare seeing as Toni knew Tasha wasn't really serious.
"It was quite a shock to me," Steve said giving his two cents on the matter.
The light from Toni's suit came streaking through the sky as she slammed directly into Loki who appeared to be adjusting to the change in noise level. He was left sitting on the steps as Toni landed neatly on one knee before straightening out and opening up the weapons systems of the suit, "make your move Reindeer Games," she quipped.
"You have to give everyone a nickname don't you Toni," Steve said exasperated.
"Yes," Toni said not giving him the satisfaction of her getting upset over his exasperation.
Steve walked up beside her as Loki used magic to banish his armour including the antler like headgear that had warranted the nickname and put his hands up. "Good move," Toni decided as she let the weapons fold back into position.
"Miss Stark," Steve said.
"Captain," was Toni's simple reply.
"And now we get to see all of their interactions again," Natasha sighed although she sometimes found the banter between the pair amusing it could get annoying. Especially since Steve was working off a lot of false assumptions as to how Toni really was.
A/n: Expect bonus Toni next chapter and major changes in the Thor/Toni scene because there is no way that Toni would go barging in there the way Tony did.