Summary: It was as if someone had looked under every rock and pulled the bigger monsters out of their holes for a meeting.
Notes: Sorry for the delay. I've started a new job and it's hard to find time to write. This is a short one but we're coming down to the end.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextThe conference room looked like any other conference room James had ever seen. It was the attendees that didn't fit the bland background. It was as if someone had looked under every rock and pulled the bigger monsters out of their holes for a meeting.
Some of the attendants had been part of his crash course in the 21st century. The big guy in the nice suit whose every gesture screamed organized crime had to be the Kingpin and the twitchy kid sitting next to him was Harry Osborne. There were more than a few people who reminded him of his keepers at the Red Room, mad science types who were talking about explosives. The door opened and a stunning woman in white joined them at the table. The Hellfire Club had sent Emma Frost.
He didn't know all the faces, but if you were gathering up the powerful and dangerous, this room was a good representation. There were only two exceptions. The first was seated to the right of the empty chair at the head of the table. He was wearing normal clothes, pants and a polo shirt but it was Thor, it couldn't be anyone else.
The second was a little boy, playing quietly in a corner building a tower with blocks. Everyone was very carefully not paying any attention to him, although Thor was giving him the occasional glance.
James took a seat next to the woman who set off the least red flags. She looked bored, more interested in her cellphone than the people around her. When he sat, she did give him a once over. He hadn't worn gloves, so the bare metal of his cybernetic hand was exposed, Erik's suggestion. "Are those cybernetics? Who did them?"
"I don't remember." Maybe he should have lied. It had always driven Erik and Howard crazy, how the Soviets had gotten something so advanced.
"Too bad." She slid her thumb across the screen of her phone and checked the time. "Looks like Bad Horse is running late."
He thought about the recording function on his phone and switched it on. Erik might want to hear it all later. He was about to ask her about the Bad Horse comment when the doors opened. Their hosts had arrived, Loki striding towards the head of the table with Victor Von Doom at his heels. Thor looked like he was playing dress up in business casual but Loki looked normal, Loki blended in.
He sat at the head of the table and took in the people sitting around it. "Thank you for coming." There was a projector sitting in the middle of the table and Loki uncapped it. "Doctor Foster, are you with us?"
Jane Foster had found Thor after all. The way she was dressed, in what looked like silk with her hair pulled into a tight braid, James was willing to bet she was in Asgard. "I'm here. Thank you for coming everyone." She took a sip from a goblet, and James was sure it wasn't water. "For those of you that don't know, I'm an astrophysicist and two years ago I hit Thor with my van."
People laughed but James didn't think she was making a joke. Someone had made her up, put color on her cheeks and covered her dark circles but she was running on empty. "It was our first confirmed contact with aliens but not the last. Darcy, can you roll the video?" Jane dissolved into footage from the Battle for New York. "The devastation in New York was in the tens of millions and believe me when I tell you we got lucky. I can't tell you where Tony Stark got the bomb," Somehow, she had gotten Tony's helmet cam footage of the Chitauri fleet. "But if he hadn't blown the fleet, that is what was coming for us."
The video ended and Jane came back on screen. "I am sitting here, helping the man that did that to us. It wasn't an easy decision and it's one all of you are going to have to make. Loki, will you show them what you showed me?"
Loki rose from his chair and started opening up his shirt. The buttons were fake, the shirt was done up with snaps. Loki had been tortured, James had known that coming in, but no one else had. The gashes and burns on Clint's diagrams had healed to puckered scars and some of the flesh was mottled, new skin mixed with old. It was the way someone with an advanced healing factor looked after they'd been flayed.
"I would have done anything necessary, to survive. I expect any of you would have done the same, to a planet of strangers, to save your own life." There was something wrong with his hands. At a bare minimum, they were numb. "He would have sought you out eventually, after he had laid waste to the great kingdoms of the Nine Realms. He is merely arriving early. For that and that alone, I apologize."
It was a nice speech but James thought everyone was too busy staring at the roadmap to breaking a god to be paying much attention. Doom reared up in his chair, suddenly furious. "Loki, put your shirt back on before these fools flee from the sight of your suffering. Doctor Foster, go on."
The Chitauri fleet was back on the screen. The angle was different, somehow, and it was a still picture. The room seemed to come alive again, at least a little bit. There were low murmurs of conversation and the woman let out a low whistle as she took in the magnitude of the fleet. "We dodged a bullet there."
"This photo shows a fleet approximately 600 light years from Earth." The chatter died out immediately. The woman started texting again, very fast.
The Osbourne kid looked a little green. "Doctor Foster, are you saying there's more of them?"
"I'm saying the fleet Tony Stark blew up was the vanguard. The bulk of the alien army is intact and they're on their way." No wonder she looked tired. James wondered how long she'd known about this, how long she'd been in Asgard, how long she'd known her home was doomed. "Their intention is to conquer Earth and use it as a foothold to the rest of the worlds connected by the Bifrost."
The image on the screen shifted again, this time to Google Maps. It was a global map, dotted with red pins. "These dots represent every mutant, metahuman and vigilante who consider themselves on of the Good Guys, from the Avengers down to the girl who can talk to squirrels." Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Doom twitch. "Everyone agrees, it's not enough. Even with help from Asgard, it's just not winnable. Earth will fall and we'll give Thanos a foothold to attack the rest of our galaxy."
In the silence that followed Jane's explanation, Loki finished fumbling the snaps of his shirt closed. "And that brings me to the reason we invited all of you here." The number of pins on the map doubled but these pins were blue. "The groups represented in this room have significant resources and extensive infrastructure. I am giving you an opportunity to save your world and it will be your only opportunity. You cannot seduce Thanos or subvert him. You cannot negotiate with him for your people's lives or even your own. He doesn't lust for flesh or wealth or even the glory of victory. The only thing Thanos loves is death and it is a gift he plans on bestowing to everyone on this planet."
Frost was the first one to find her voice. "Victor, how long have you known about this?"
"Two months after the Battle for New York, Odin appeared in my solar. Latveria has been preparing for war since that day. We are committed." Doom's face was a literal mask but his body language was expressive enough if you were well trained. Doom was desperate. "My people made an independent study of the data. We had no choice but to concur with Asgard. Unless we present a united front, there is no way to win. We've put together the data for you on a server."
There were tablets on the table for people to access the data. James flipped through the documents quickly, trying to wrap his head around the scale of this. Starting right around the time, Doom had dropped off the radar. Reed Richards had reached out to SHIELD, concerned that Doom was planning something big while SHIELD and the rest of the New York crew was distracted. The emails had gotten increasingly plaintive as the months went by. James had read them all, preparing for this meeting. Reed had been right but James didn't think this was what he'd had in mind.
"RAID is at your disposal." One of the science types had found his tongue and he looked like it was Christmas. "I'll call a meeting when I get home and get you a list of all the pet projects we have going on with significant destructive potential."
Loki raised a hand to stop him. "If you agree to work with us and we find you are colluding with the enemy in a futile attempt to save your own life, I will end you. Be clear, the survival of this part of the galaxy is at stake. All your petty quarrels must be put aside until the battle is won."
Emma Frost shoved her chair back and the sound of it scraping against the floor silenced the room. "How long do we have?"
"Six months, by our best estimates." Doom didn't sound afraid. Maybe he was immune to her mutation, maybe living with this for over a year had burned all his fear away.
"What on Earth were you waiting for?" Her anger was a physical force, he could feel it rolling off her.
"Proof. We were only able to get that image a week ago, when the fleet entered the far edge of Heimdall's gaze. Or would you have taken me at my word, Lady Frost?" Loki smiled at her.
"No." She looked at each person sitting at the table then took a card from her bag and slid it across the table to Doom. "We'll be in touch."
When she swept out of the room, the meeting started to break up but James stayed in his seat. He'd come here for Erik, with no real expectations. He'd been planning on using whatever crazy scheme Loki shared to gauge Erik's reaction, see what kind of man he'd become. Instead, he'd found the bad guys plotting to save the world.
James bit back a hysterical laugh. He was staying, he had to stay. Erik would need him here. He'd walked in here convinced there was nothing he could do to wipe the red off his ledger but apparently he'd been thinking too small. Against an outside threat like Thanos, what were a few hundred executions duly authorized by the Soviet government? There would still be hell to pay but it would be about who they were, not what he'd done. Steve would probably get a kick out of it, he hated bullies. If James saved the whole world, who could say anything about his past?
The woman snapped the keyboard of her phone shut. "Do you have some kind of apocalypse fetish?"
"No, but killing is something I understand." He flexed the fingers of his cybernetic hand. "I'm good at it."
"I'm sure you are." The woman gave his arm a pat that was closer to a grope and gathered up her things. "We're in. My superiors will be in touch."
James was sure he was smiling like a maniac because Thor was looking a bit disturbed. "Do you find this amusing? Do you value your existence so little?"
"No, not at all." Right now, James desperately wanted to live to see the future. Maybe he was finally cracking up but right now he felt the best he had since he'd woken up. "It's just that your brother was right. It's hilarious."
"It's better than you know." Loki gestured to a servant who brought him a carafe of coffee. "The woman sitting next to you was here representing Hydra."
The thought of working with HYDRA made his skin crawl but what choice did they have? They needed everyone's help if anyone was going to get out of this alive. "You enjoying yourself, Loki?"
"I am. I am a prince of Asgard and everything I did before my fall I did for my people." Loki looked to Thor. "Almost everything. Nearly killing you was for me. I could have ended generations of conflict and bloodied only my own hands." Loki tugged off his gloves and picked up a delicate cup. "Instead, my brother destroyed the Bifrost and sparked the whole realm into rebellion. When we needed to be at our strongest, he weakened us."
"You were committing genocide, Loki." Loki's fingers had the same mottling of new and old skin, which explained the numbness, and Thor was looking anywhere but at his brother's hands. The rest of the room had been horrified but it was something else with Thor.
"Why help us? Why not let Earth fall and destroy us along with your enemy?" If a Bifrost attack could destroy Jotunheim, why not use it against a fallen Earth? "You seemed all for destroying us last year."
"You misunderstand me." Loki set the cup down, his numb fingers letting go to let it clatter on the table. "There is something on this planet that is precious to me. I could never let it be destroyed."
Doom put his hand on Loki's should. "I told you, I'll take care of it." They were friends, not allies. That was going to make Doom dangerous in the long run.
"Thank you, Victor." Loki smiled and leaned down the table towards James. "Besides, I never intended to win. If your complete annihilation had been my objective, I needed only to follow Hawkeye's advice. Did he tell you how very helpful he tried to be?"
"Yes." That seemed to surprise Loki. Good. "Clint told me everything. I still don't understand. What would have happened if the Avengers failed? Everyone agrees, they barely got their act together in time."
"Why do you think I killed Agent Coulson?" Loki looked at the map, still projected onto the screen. "A sacrifice was necessary. The Hawk and Widow loved him, my brother considered him a friend and Iron Man respected him. All your Captain needed was an excuse to be heroic. I will admit I underestimated Doctor Banner and was unprepared for the Hulk."
"You didn't kill Agent Coulson." He'd had two theories but James tossed the one that involved Loki intentionally missing the heart out. "You have shitty aim."
"The wound was mortal." Thor had considered Phil a friend and they'd let him go back to Asgard thinking he was dead. Marcus was an asshole. "I saw it happen. Loki's blade struck true. No man could survive such a wound."
"Phil Coulson did. I saw him this morning. He was eating pancakes." And grumbling about having to move into Stark's Tower/Home for Wayward Super Heroes.
"Truly, you have seen him?" Thor sounded rattled and unsure. James didn't blame him considering who else had participated in this little sit-down.
"I can take you to him." It was a good idea anyway. Even with the proof Doom had offered him, this was going to be a hard sell. "Just let me make a phone call."
It was pouring when he stepped outside. He stood under the awning and slid his phone out. "Whatever you imagined, it's worse."
"I doubt that." Erik had lived through hell once already and James was sure he had a good grasp on the human capacity for evil but this was different.
"There's an alien fleet on it's way. Their general plan seems to involve killing us all."
There was a long moment of silence, long enough that James worried his phone had dropped the call, before Erik spoke again. "And Loki has a plan?"
"I don't think it's him." There was a mind very much like James' behind the plans he'd been shown, a human mind, someone who'd been willing to go to any length to win a no-win scenario, even if it meant working with the scum of the Earth. "Erik, do you have an army?" There was that silence again. "Please tell me you have an army. We're going to need one."
"Yes, I have an army. We took this place by force from it's previous government." There was that thin line between terrorist and freedom fighter again.
"Good." He would need to go over the plans with a fine toothed comb, compare them to Erik's force estimates. "I think we're going to have to rethink that security gig you offered me. I'm going to send you audio of the meeting and a link to Doom's server." He loved his shiny green phone. It did so many things. "I need to talk to Steve."
"I wish you luck with him, James." Erik sounded sincere and James wondered, not for the first time, what had gone wrong between him and Charles. "I'll review the data and we'll speak tomorrow."
Notes: For my random ramblings, reblogs, and ficlets please find me on tumblr as roguewrld
Bonus points to anyone who knows why the kid playing blocks is there.
This scene takes place in early September, 2013.