7. Bloodaxe

Fury was frowning. That really wasn't anything new, but the recent events especially had set him clearly even more on edge than usually.

"Two more Asgardians?" he repeated sternly, "And you waited until now to tell us?"

Thor looked almost uncomfortable. Steve didn't remember seeing the Thunder God quite like it ever before.

"I had assumed you would know," Thor said, "You people usually do."

Fury's frown deepened, and Steve suppressed a smile. Thor had just… what was it that people said nowadays? Burned? Yes, Thor had just burned the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and got away with it.

"We have had other things to worry about as well," Fury said, "We would have hoped your people would keep closer tabs on trips to this world after Loki. But no matter, tell me more."

"I know very little," Thor admitted, "I was hoping to get more insight from you."

"Well, you won't."

"I do know they have been in contact with a man named Henrik… no, Heinrich Zemo."

Steve frowned at that.

"Heinrich Zemo?" he repeated, "Why does that sound familiar?"

Fury pressed a few buttons and then stopped to glance at some other screen. Apparently the news from New York didn't lift his spirits at all.

"The commotion is centred around Stark's Tower," Fury said, "Nothing major yet, but I have my field agents there ready."

"Is Tony in trouble?" Steve asked. It wouldn't be the first time, but at this point it was probably even less welcome than before. Tony was without his suit, and had just been severely injured. Of course, he did have a bunch of tricks up his technologically modified sleeve, but one's technology and luck could only go so far…

"We don't know yet," replied Fury, "I'll have to keep this brief. Our latest records of a Heinrich Zemo are just historical facts. The Zemo family line hailed from Germany before it disappeared in the Forties. The last known man in the family was Heinrich."

"So it can't be him?" Steve said, "Wait… Zemo…"

He could feel a mild headache building up. His time in ice had put some of his memories to hibernation, but now they were waking up again.

"From Castle Zemo?" he finally said, "In… Bavaria, was it? I was there during the war, disabling anti-aircraft forces."

Fury made a couple of quick searches and nodded.

"Yes, you were. It was a fairly small operation. This Zemo was affiliated with HYDRA, but according to our records, he was quietly swept under the rug and then killed. He had no descendants."

"So it's probably a fake name, and finding the Asgardians through Zemo is not likely?" Steve said and sighed, "Sorry, Thor."

Something beeped near Fury, and Fury looked at the New York screens again.

"I have to focus on this now. Rogers, Thor, get yourselves here as soon as possible. This conversation isn't over."

"Will do," said Steve, and the screen went blank, "Well, looks like we're getting back in business."


The rescue vehicles were driving around with determined purpose, kind of like very loud, huge ants. The Stark Tower had smoke coming out of the broken windows, but otherwise it was in deceptively good condition. The reinforced walls and windows had held for the most part, but it was clear to everyone who knew what was going on that the inside of the tower was a mess. The few employers who had been in for the moment had been taken out to the ambulances that were waiting outside, blue lights flashing the threats of migraines in Tony's overstressed head. Tony felt very tired. He had parked his car against at least five regulations, but he really didn't care if it was double-parked sideways halfway on the pavement and had the passenger's door still open hazardously. Right now he just cared that his staff was mostly okay and that Pepper had been out of the tower when it had crashed and burned. She had been just as quick to return to the scene as Tony had been after hearing about the explosion, and was now firmly in Tony's embrace. They were both equally determined to keep each other safe.

"Are you okay?" Pepper asked for the fifth time. Mostly because Tony hadn't answered in the first four.

"I will be," Tony choked out this time, "I'm just glad there were no casualties… mostly anyway."

He cast a look at one of the stretchers, where the patient was completely covered. He would have some bad news to deliver to some family. Pepper hugged him tighter.

"What happened?" she asked.

Tony stood silent and wondered how much he could tell her. He didn't want to keep secrets from her, especially since she was the person he trusted the most, but this…

"An attack", he said, "They got away. I'll tell you more once there's less chaos around here."

Pepper looked at him in the eyes as if searching for confirmation, and then nodded.

"We'll get this sorted out," she said and sounded more determined than Tony felt. It made everything a little better. Tony managed to smile.

"Yeah, we will. But that means someone has to do damage control at Stark Industries as soon as possible."

Pepper frowned.

"You want me to leave you already?"

"No, I don't want you to, but someone has to go there, and I'm pretty sure these paramedics won't let me go without checking me first."

Pepper sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. But couldn't it-?"

Tony quickly kissed her.

"I'll call you as soon as they're ready here."

Tony hated doing this. He didn't want to leave Pepper hanging and push her into work while there was all this going on, but he wanted to keep her safe. Yes, the Extremis incident had made him fear for her more than he probably should have. Or then just enough. And in any case, Tony had to get back into his tower to make sure everything was fine, and Pepper would not be okay with it. Not to mention this whole attack had gods and Guardians involved, so trying to explain it here would just be idiotic.

So, as much as it hurt him, he watched Pepper go away again, and then he submitted to the nosy paramedic who wanted to check him for injuries. After giving him a rant about such severe exertion so soon after the surgery but finding nothing wrong except for a couple of bruises, the woman moved on, and Tony was left sitting near an ambulance and watching the smoke and the cars rolling by. He felt oddly empty and lost. It wasn't his preferred state of mind.

"Tony," said a voice that was usually annoyingly peppy, but was now almost appropriately sombre, "That man, the Executioner, left his weapon in there."

Tony looked at Jack Frost, who had been standing on the sidelines, probably because Tony was fairly sure he was the only person around who saw Jack. Now he had inched his way to Tony's side and tugged at his sleeve like a kid lost at the mall.

"What about it?" Tony whispered and tried very hard to look like he wasn't talking to himself. Most of the people around were farther away, but one never knew...

"It was wrong, when I kicked it away it felt so... angry," Jack frowned at his own words, "I really don't want anyone taking it."

"What were you planning, then? Taking it yourself?"

"Well, yeah. It's magical, so North could probably make sense of it."

Tony sighed.

"Well, go get it then. No, hold on. I'm coming with you. I need to see... well..."

He waved his hand vaguely towards the direction of his tower. Jack thankfully didn't need further explanations.

The rescue worker at the door tried to stop Tony, but Tony was quick to cut any fatherly chastising short.

"Look, your people just said it's safe to go in as long as I use the stairs. I really want to see what was done to my workplace and my home."

The rescue worker opened and closed his mouth, but then reluctantly let Tony pass. He didn't seem to find it odd that Tony held the door open just a little longer than necessary.

The lobby looked surprisingly good. The elevator doors were a little bit blackened, but it was obvious the elevator hadn't been at the ground floor anymore when it had exploded. It was eerily quiet. It just wasn't normal for the lower floors of the tower to be so empty. Tony walked briskly to the stairs that had survived the explosion very well.

"It's almost all the way up," Jack said, "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Just because I'm not Iron Man doesn't mean I'm suddenly in a terrible condition."

"Yeah, but you were just shot in the lung a couple of days ago."

"And you don't have body heat. What's your point?"

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Fine, let's just go."

They trudged up the stairs, and the air seemed to get steadily thicker the closer they were to the top. Tony could feel his lungs protesting, but it wasn't so bad that he would need to start complaining. Especially to the snarky winter kid who at the moment was his only company. The floor Jack and the Executioner had used as a battlefield looked terrible, and Tony took a second to mourn his state-of-the-art computers that had been reduced to sad piles of junk. Jack immediately ran to where the Executioner's weapon lay.

"It's still here. Thank the Moon..."

It was a simple axe. The kind of axe that looked very good a cleaving things in half, which in Tony's opinion meant it was a very well-designed axe. Jack looked very uncomfortable standing near it, and Tony figured it had something to do with the anger Jack had apparently sensed emanating from the weapon.

"So, aren't you going to take it?"

Jack shook his head.

"No way, I'm not touching it. Maybe... hmm..."

He tapped his staff against the floor and ice started growing out of it. It was fascinating to see such blatant disregard to the laws of nature in effect. Jack just seemed to spread coldness instead of moving around heat. Jack waved his staff and the ice moved like solid water – which it of course was – to encase the axe in a big rectangular block. Jack titled his head thoughtfully like an artist appraising his own work and then tapped the staff against the edge of the block.

The block grew dozens of tiny legs that seemed very ready to move. Tony stared.

"Did you just make that thing alive?"

Jack stared back at Tony like he had gone crazy.

"What? No, of course not. I'm just moving the ice. It's not really alive; that would be stupid."

"Oh, okay. Because that would be the thing that broke my suspension of disbelief."

"Man, your sarcasm is so obviously defensive right now," Jack said with the certainty of a person who was very familiar with humour as a defence.

Jack pulled a gleaming ball of glass from his pocket. Tony recognised it as a similar snowglobe as the ones Santa Claus used. He also remembered Jack using one when he had broken into Tony's tower for the first time. He tossed it to the floor and it burst into a rapidly swirling wormhole that would make physicists scratch their heads.

"Well," Jack said and saluted playfully, "I'd love to stay and help you, but I've got work to do. The sooner I get this thing to North the sooner we'll get answers about that guy. See you around."

"Sure. Don't forget your Luggage, Freezewind."

Tony watched Jack and the walking ice cube take a step towards the portal. He felt the barely noticeable pull of the wormhole that made his legs move automatically towards it. His tower was busted, but the people were safe. As long as they weren't around him, clearly. But Tony was left without his best gadgets that could help the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. with this ever-growing mess. He was hurt, beaten, and stuck, and he hated it. With that in mind, he made his decision in the second it took Jack to step all the way through the portal. Tony lunged forward after the boy, catching a hold of his arm just before the portal closed behind them.

It was a strange feeling, walking a step that took him thousands of miles through a swirl of colours and light. It was over way too fast for the human body to process, and Tony only had time to think that walking through a strange portal definitely wasn't his brightest idea – and that he should have learned that by now seeing how he had already almost died by flying through a wormhole. Then he was on solid ground again. The room he had materialised into was cosy, with a fireplace and a very plump couch as well as walls lined with impressively high and stuffed bookcases. Not that Tony had much incentive to appreciate nice rooms at the moment. He felt like someone had tried to carve out his insides with an ice cream scoop and he couldn't trust his legs to walk without giving out. He felt Jack trying to squirm free from the hold he had of the boy's bony arm.

"Hey! Let go of me!" Jack snapped, tugging his arm even though it was clear he was physically much weaker than Tony.

Tony let go, and Jack stumbled backwards. The boy glared at him chillingly.

"What the heck are you doing here anyway? What made you think it was a good idea to follow me through? You were supposed to-"

Jack was interrupted mid-rant when a bunch of... something small scurried past their legs in a hurry. They jingled and bumped into each other and grinned widely beneath their pointy red hats. They gathered around the ice luggage, and Jack was quick to shoo them away with a swing of his staff.

"That's not for you guys! Get North here if you really want to help! We have a problem."

The pointy things looked disappointedly at Jack, who crossed his arms and raised his brows.

"Go, or I'll make garden gnomes out of you all!"

That got their attention. They jumped over each other and clambered away. Tony stared after them, a string of deduction taking him to a conclusion he in retrospect should have seen coming when he stepped into the portal.

"I'm in Santa's workshop," he said wearily, "Aren't I?"

Jack turned his attention back to Tony and his face darkened again in anger.

"Well, duh! What did you expect? You jump after me in a portal and now you're in a place you really shouldn't be in, and-!"

"Oh, like you're a poster boy for responsibility!" Tony snapped, "I'm here because I'm not about to sit back and wait while people are actively trying to kill me and my friends!"

Jack took a deep breath. Tony shivered when the temperature in the room dropped considerably. The pointy things that Tony now assumed were Christmas elves returned, tripping over and almost getting tangled in a long trail of power cord one of them was carrying. They were followed by much larger and softer footfalls, and the doorway of the room was obscured by the mighty form of the Santa Claus.

"Jack? Elves said you were back."

Santa's – or North's, as the Guardians called him – eyes fell on Tony and he folded his arms. Tony remembered that the last time he had seen the man he had been wearing a coat all the time. Now his sleeves were rolled up, and Tony saw the man's burly arms were tattooed quite thoroughly. Well, that was one more thing the popular depictions left out of the jolly old man.

"Jack," North said sternly, his bushy eyebrows furrowing, "Why did you bring Mr. Stark with you to workshop?"

"I didn't!" Jack exclaimed, "He grabbed me when I was going through a portal!"

"That's right, I did," Tony raised his hands diplomatically, "And I'm sorry. I just really need some answers and I think you people are the only ones who can give them to me right now."

"You are trespassing in my home," North said, "Is not very nice."

"Hey, Frost trespassed in my tower first."

Tony was fully aware that it wasn't the best thing he could have said in his defence. Somehow being around the Guardians made everyone act a little less grown-up at times. The Santa Claus sighed and rubbed his bearded face in obvious annoyance.

"Well, in any case, I had some important news!" said Jack, thankfully diverting North's attention from Tony, "One of the Asgardians Mother Nature told us about attacked Stark's home, and he had this."

He motioned to the walking ice cube. North crouched down in front of it, immediately becoming more serious. His bushy eyebrows furrowed.

"This axe is… very hateful," he said, "And old…"

"Yeah," Jack replied, "I figured as much. I touched it, and it just… wasn't right. That's why I brought it here. Do you know anything about it?"

North thought about it for a moment.

"No," he finally said, "But you did good, bringing it here. Here is safer. And I can start studying it right away."

He looked back up at Tony.

"But he is still here," he sighed, "Is way too close to Christmas. I have no time for dealing with intruders."

If Tony had had doubts of this idea being good before, they now grew exponentially. He was in what he assumed was the North Pole, with no back up and with a disgruntled Santa Claus and an angry winter spirit glaring at him.

"Look, I really don't want any trouble. I just want to do something about this whole mess. And I figured..." he trailed off when North frowned. North had a very impressive frown, the kind that made Tony feel like a little kid with his hand caught in a cookie jar.

"You didn't figure much anything, I think," North said, "You acted because you were desperate."

He paused, and Tony really hoped he wouldn't start reprimanding him any further. This was just getting embarrassing. Luckily, the Santa Claus just hummed thoughtfully and shook his head.

"Well, can't be helped now. Will not hold this against you. I know people are after you. Maybe is good to wait hidden for a while."

"You're letting him stay here?" Jack asked incredulously, "Why?"

"Because is a nice thing to do," North paused thoughtfully again, "But Mr. Stark needs to be guarded. Many delicate electronics in here. Can't let him too close to them."

"Let me guess," Jack said, "That'll be my job?"

North chuckled merrily.

"Jack, I don't trust you with my electronics either. I get couple of yetis to watch him."

Jack whooped and jumped into the air. A gust of wind blew through Tony's jacket and made him shiver.

"But," said North, "You still go with him. Is good to know both troublemakers are in one place."

"Aw, but Noooo-ooorth!" Jack whined, with a perfect whiny teenager voice that would probably work on most adults just because they didn't want to hear it for more than two seconds, "I want to help you with the axe!"

"I let you know if I need help," North said calmly, seemingly unaffected by the whining, "In meantime, stay out of trouble. Both of you."

A couple of giant, hairy things appeared in the doorway at seemingly a wave of North's hand. Yetis? This hadn't been in the official myths either. Jack waved at them.

"Hi, Phil! Hi, Tad!"

The yetis grumbled out something unintelligible. Tony started to really think going through a strange portal hadn't been one of his best ideas.


Amora took a few deeps breaths and immediately regretted it. The Earth's atmosphere was very different from that of Asgard. Mainly, it was filthier, and not much to her liking at all. Really, the only reason she tolerated this place to begin with was because it would lead her to Thor. She had waited far too long to see him again.

Amora hadn't met any man who had impressed her as greatly as the prince of Asgard himself. Thor Odinson was powerful, handsome, and knew his great standing among the Asgardians. She had met him only a couple of times before her studies with her harsh teacher had whisked her away from him. They had spoken but a couple of times, and Thor hadn't seemed to give her much notice. It had made her feel rejected, but she had known that with time, Thor would come to see the light that was her. She had become so much stronger than the pitiful student of a sorceress she had been then. She was beautiful, powerful, and she could bend men to her every whim. And when she had returned from her training, Thor had been gone to Earth. Among measly mortals. Such a waste. Amora wouldn't let such a thing stop her. If navigating this world meant allying with the bitter man who happened to be going places where Thor would most likely show, then so be it.

What she didn't really want to deal with was the man ordering her around like she was his maid. She should have shown him his place, but then she would have lost her new, valuable allies. Especially now, when the man had quite impressively got the glowing, radiating man on his side. And then the Boogeyman had shown up on his own volition. That had put Amora on edge. She knew little of the man who called himself Pitch Black, but she knew enough to know that he was sneaky. One who could rarely be trusted. What he wanted now was anyone's guess. Amora had to stay on her guard.

There were a couple of the Baron's lowly agents waiting for her in the location she had been given and where she had been in a couple of instances. Skurge was standing by her side, like he always was, and he stayed obediently quiet when Amora walked across the barren wasteland they had arrived in.

"You are the Baron's miner?" one of the men said dubiously, "That dress's not for mining."

Amora silenced him and his partner with a look. The partner hadn't even said anything yet, but his eyes told her that anything that might have come out of his mouth would have been lewd at best. Their condescending looks changed to that of nervousness when Amora strode past them. She could have made them fall to her feet and worship her, but right now she didn't want to bother. Besides, there was no need to make Skurge jealous just yet.

The object they needed to retrieve was a piece of very rare, very special, and very hard to obtain mineral. That much the Baron had explained to her. Amora scoffed at the open mine in front of her. Men had covertly dug up a tiny piece of strange, shiny metal that was still firmly in the ground, and the Baron didn't have the manpower to get it loose. She sighed. The Baron was using her for such menial tasks. She would have to talk to the man about this.

She raised her hands and focused. A blast of energy shot into the spot the agents had pointed out to her. She heard gasps behind her, and Skurge moved to guard her back better.

"What the hell are you doing? The boss wants that thing!"

"I think this mineral is far stronger than the rock around it," Amora replied evenly. She flicked her wrist and the now free chunk of mineral levitated into her hand. The two men stared at it, then at her. Amora smiled. Making hapless people swoon never seemed to get old. The mortals here seemed even more susceptible to her allure than others. Although… she glanced at her long, manicured fingers. Her powers did seem weaker here. It must have been because she was so far away from Asgard and its natural magical energy. It didn't matter. Her power was still more than enough to handle things here. And once she found Thor… she smiled to herself.

"Is everything well, Amora?" Skurge asked.

"Yes, dear," Amora replied, "Come, let us go back. And you two, I hope you find something more useful to do now that I have done your job for you."

With that, she held out her hand for Skurge, who took it eagerly and they were on their way back.

The two men left at the secret, tiny mine suddenly shivered when the wind picked up. One of them looked up.

"Looks like a thunderstorm's coming this way."

"What the hell?" the other said, "It was sunny just a moment ago!"

"Hey, that's weather for ya. It's like it sometimes just gets angry."

"Don't be stupid, Don! Weather doesn't get angry!"

The two continued arguing for a while, but never came to a conclusion, even though the man named Don was actually very spot on with his theory on angry weather.

Mother Nature looked at the spot where Amora and Skurge had stood moments ago, and clenched her hands into fists. They had focused on the wrong things all along, and now those two had got away with their power source. She had been too late.


Tony Stark was convinced that he had possibly died and gone into some kind of Nirvana that just happened to look like a Christmas themed acid trip. After some pestering the yetis had agreed to show him around just a little bit, but even that little bit was enough to make Tony completely reform his mental image of Santa Claus. And the new mental image was this: Santa Claus, also known as Nicholas St. North, was a kindred spirit to Tony Stark.

The whole place was filled with inventions of all kinds. The workshop area – even though the yetis didn't let Tony very close to it – looked like a mix between an arts and crafts workshop and a high tech factory. The gadgets Tony saw lying around in every corner of the place seemed to be years ahead of what was seen in stores around the world. The fact that North seemed to have liberally mixed tech and something that would have to be called advanced magic made the things rather hard to replicate for mass production, but that was beside the point. The point was that Tony was like a kid in a candy store. Or a toy store, since this was pretty much what it was. Even though the toys weren't for sale and would be given away for free at Christmas.

Jack seemed to have got used to the shiny bunch of tech, and he was mostly just fidgeting and waiting for North to let him help with the axe, and Tony had to admit that he was curious about it too. But he could definitely wait for a while if it meant getting to examine the wonders of Santa's workshop. The yetis were a pain, though. They were shooting death glares at him all the time and usually physically steered him away from the more delicate electronics.

"Are they always like this?" Tony asked Jack when the yetis had set him down after dragging him away from an especially interesting piece of tech for the fifteenth time.

"Yep," said Jack and hopped over an elf that scurried by, "They're really overprotective of the place, and North. But they're fun once you get to know them."

One of the yetis near Tony growled.

"Yeah, I'm sure they are," Tony said, "What about the elves? They seem… energetic."

"Yeah, they don't do much except cause mayhem. They're fun to freeze, though. It never hurts them. Much."

"That's twisted."

"Maybe."

Tony shifted a little farther away from Jack. Just then, North's booming, Russian accented voice echoed in the hallway they were sitting in.

"Jack! Where are you?"

Jack jumped up, eyes lighting up enthusiastically.

"Over here, North! Did you figure it out? Can I help?"

North's large form came to view. He was carrying with him a shimmering force field that held the axe in suspension. Even from this distance, it seemed to give Jack the creeps. North looked at both of them grimly.

"You both should come with me to my study," he said, "I did find something out."

He led them away from the room they'd been waiting in, and Tony couldn't resist asking questions about the technology around them. To his surprise, North answered most of them good-naturedly and didn't even try to hide any company secrets. Although, Tony guessed that the amicable answers weren't nearly as comprehensive as they would have had to be for him to start replicating the things he saw around him. Not that he wanted to.

"Why is it so surprising that I am inventor?" North asked, probably noticing Tony's slightly amazed expression, "How did you think Santa Claus can make all the toys?"

"I just… well, I never thought about it that way. To be honest, believing in Santa Claus never was on my priority list."

"Well, at least now you believe. We need that."

"Yeah, so I've heard," Tony said, "How did you invent all this stuff? A lot of it is years ahead of what we have elsewhere."

"Lots of studying, ingenuity, and magic," North said simply, "I had good teacher for the magic part, and ingenuity is all my own. My first invention was a djinni. A robot that could do almost anything and work as a transport too. That was centuries ago."

"You created the world's first giant robot?" Tony asked incredulously.

North chuckled.

"Wasn't my greatest idea, to be honest. Pitch corrupted it, and it turned against me. You should be careful with your inventions too."

"Yeah, I've learned."

"Have you really?"

Tony heard Jack stifle a laugh, but decided to ignore that and the subtle scolding he'd just got from Santa Claus. He decided to leave fanboying about the tech for a later time, when there wasn't a possibly evil axe floating in front of them.

Santa Claus's study was just as cosy as every storybook made it sound like. There was a very definite Russian theme in it, though, with the matryoshka dolls and what seemed to be a samovar on the desk. There was also a giant block of ice there, along with a chainsaw. Judging by the already finished ice sculptures near it, North liked to sculpt a lot. Interesting.

North settled behind a desk and let the force field bound axe hover in front of him.

"This is called Bloodaxe," he said and waved his arms dramatically, "Old, Asgardian weapon. It can shoot ice and fire, as well as teleport the wielder to an extent. Is also infected with the bloodlust of its wielder. No one should touch it. It would probably drive them insane."

"Jack touched it," Tony pointed out and Jack had paled even more than usual, if that was possible, "He seems just fine to me."

"Jack is a Guardian, and a spirit," North said, "Don't worry, Jack. Your centre protected you. But you did well not touching it again."

"Yeah, thanks," Jack said shakily.

"What do you know about the buy who wielded it?" Tony asked, "He just wrecked my tower."

North shook his head apologetically.

"I don't know much of him, but is clear that he is a driven killer. And Asgardian, which makes him very dangerous. He is still out there, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he got away. For now."

North stared intently at the almost innocent looking weapon that was trapped on his desk.

"This is getting serious," he said at length, "We have to make sure this doesn't go more out of hand."

"What are we going to do?" Jack asked.

North stood up.

"We call for meeting."

He glanced at Tony.

"And Mr. Stark, perhaps you should inform your Avenger-friends about this too."

"You have reception here?" Tony asked.

"Excellent reception. And free Wi-Fi. All untraceable."

Tony grinned.

"Man, I love this place already."


Author's Note: Wow, so, so sorry to leave you guys hanging for so long. And then give what is basically a filler chapter but hey, setting up character relationships for the win! This chapter really favours Tony and Jack in terms of pagetime, but to make up for it I'll let them be set kind of aside for a while in the next chapters.

But as for why I've been absent so long, well, I had practical training and I had to write a really long report on it for school and during April I decided to quite randomly do the Camp NaNoWriMo challenge. To make matters worse, my sinusitis came back with a vengeance and is only now clearing up. But now I managed to get working on this as well again, even though I am kind of caught up in other writing projects that I'm doing mostly for my own amusement. Buuut anyway, hope you guys aren't too disappointed with me. And yes, I've decided that things will start really happening in the next chapter!

Luggage and "Freezewind" comments by Tony were a reference to the wizard Rincewind and his walking Luggage from Terry Pratchett's Discworld-novels. Sigh. Rest in peace, Sir Pratchett. The world is a less creative place without you.

Also, Castle Zemo and Captain America being in there is a reference to the Captain America: Super Soldier -video game, which is apparently considered non-canon to the films, but I figured it worked here.