[A/N I apologize for my little misstep yesterday. Anyhow, after reading your reviews I did some research on the infinity gauntlet, but there are WAY TOO MANY VERSIONS of the story. One with a weird version of the Avengers, one of a by other heroes replaced fantastic 4, one with MARVEL heroes I have only vaguely heard of.. So I figured, why don't I write ANOTHER version, this time with Loki stealing it? Logic!]
Part 13.
We needed a plan. I'd normally just go for it and destroy whatever is in my way, but I knew this required planning. If Loki had what Thor called the 'uendelig gapestokk', or as he was kind enough to translate, the infinity gauntlet, we were screwed. We were going to need all the help we could get, so went to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters with the 6 of us. Thor had already thrown on his armor, Natasha and Steve were suited up and Clint had gotten his Stark custom bow from my workshop (even though we hadn't tested the explosion arrow set yet, so there you go, reason for disaster). So we basically looked like a bunch of weirdo's and Bruce and I were the weird ones out. If you feel weird between a demi-God and a man dressed in sparkly tights, there is something really strange going on.
Fury was pretty surprised when we were standing in front of the new S.H.I.E.L.D. hideout, looking all team-like and ready to kill some aliens. Our suited-up state (well, those of my team-mates, anyway, I wasn't about to walk around in a block of iron) clearly intimidated Fury because he immediately took us serious. He never does that, usually. Or maybe that's just me.
"So, what do we know?" He asked, when we were seated in one of the conference rooms.
"That Thor is incredibly stupid?" I mumbled, looking at him pointedly. Fury wasn't impressed by my attitude.
"Thor took him back to Asgard to put him in prison, it's what he was supposed to do." Bruce reasoned, because Bruce was always so kind to look at the situation of both sides before picking one.
"I think he shouldn't have." I said, raising my eyebrows, "I have got a theory. What if Loki lost the previous war on purpose, so he could come back to Asgard and gain entrance to your.. chamber of secrets or whatever it is you have there."
"I got the reference!" Steve suddenly said proudly, "Harry potter!" We all gave him the same dry, unamused look, and started making plans.
OK, so the real problem was, that we had no idea what we were dealing with. Thor was the only one who knew anything about the gauntlet, and he didn't know much. It was confiscated from a guy named Thanos way before Thor was old enough to understand what was happening. He said that word goes that whoever gets the gauntlet is the only one who can earn the praise and affection of lady Death. We were speculating if Loki wanted said praise from the lady, or if he was just trying to avenge his ego.
"Pride is a strong motivator to start a war." Thor said, his swinging fist enriching his statement.
"But love… is a much more stronger motivator." I said knowingly, looking at Steve from the corner of my eye. He met my eye, and he knew I was going to murder Loki when I got my hands on him, because he had dared to lay a finger on my Captain.
We didn't know what to do but wait. Fury was thinking of hiring the fantastic 4, or trying to find Wolverine, but had chosen not to when he remembered the slow start our team had had last time. So we decided to have Jane check the sky for weird intervals and stuff that I don't know anything about, and we would all be having our sets of armor laying around my house now. Fury dismissed us, reminding us to tell him immediately when something changed or showed up, or when Loki contacted any of us through our minds. When were finally dismissed after an hour of bickering, figuring things out and long, stretching silences where nobody knew what to say or do, Fury decided it was OK to call me back.
"Stark!" He called, and I turned around, eyeing him suspiciously. "Don't forget your cleaning duty!" he said, gesturing to the abandoned coffee cups on the table.
"What? We aren't on a mission yet! I thought you were talking about demolished buildings, turned over cars, stuff like that!" because he had to be kidding. He simply could not be serious and who knows, maybe Fury really has a strange sense of humor.
He just smiled innocently and closed the door behind me, and I felt the self-destructive urges coming back.
"I don't wannaaaa" I whined at Steve, who was desperately trying to fix my drinking problem.
"But I 'wanna'" He said, wrinkling his nose when repeating the messed up form of English. He grabbed a few bottles from the fridge and threw them in the plastic box he had standing on the counter.
"No, don't touch that," I said hurriedly, grabbing my favorite, 400 dollar whine from him. I pouted when he took the bottle from me again, knowing that I couldn't win from his crazy-ass strength and puppy-dog eyes.
"No, Tony, this is going to go, too! And yes, I do know you have a secret stack in the cupboard in your workshop." He said warningly, picking up the box filled with my babies. My. Babies. You don't just.. take away my babies! Except Steve could, because he was strong, and had me completely smitten. God, I'm so pathetic.
I followed him all the way to the container outside, where he dumped them all into. I was almost crying.
"So, Tony, I've talked to JARVIS, and told him to not allow you to buy anything with alcohol in it."
"How am I going to survive this?" I asked, desperately clutching onto his arm.
"Well ,you have me for support? Come on, Tony. Your problem needs to be fixed, and I'm surprised no one told you so earlier. You are aware alcohol destroys your brain cells and makes your tummy fatty, right?" I nodded, "Well I don't want a stupid boyfriend with a fatty tummy. I'm pretty sure I chose for the genius with the abs." I smiled at him and he leaned down to give me a peck on the lips. "Alright, genius, let's get your de-alcoholized ass back inside, before your fragile self gets injured while trying to get his drinks back."
"What are you seeing, Jane?" Clint asked. We were sitting around the table, phone laying in the middle and on speaker mode with Jane on the other end.
"I can tell you that the paranormal frequencies surrounding the star cluster of-"
"English!" I interrupted her, and she let out a puff of air.
"Something has been changing in the sky. I don't know how he is going to create a portal this time. Perhaps with the tessarect again, but I think the Destroyer might have been guiding that."
"The what?" I asked.
"The destroyer," Thor supplied, "He is the guard of our chamber. However, Loki managed to get the gauntlet, that means he managed to get the tessarect."
"Well all I know, is that something is going to happen very soon, judging by- Oh my God!" She screamed, and we all looked at each other questioning.
"Jane are you alright?" Thor asked.
"Yes, but my computer suddenly caught onto something. There seems to be-" I picked up the phone and hung up, surprisingly, for her own good. If Loki knew she was involved again, we wouldn't know how much protection she would need to keep him away from her.
"It's happening." I said, practically feeling the magic surrounding us. "He's here."
[A/N Oh god, this chapter is crappy. OH GOD don't kill me.]