[A/N Uh.]
Part 21.
It turned out that I had blacked out at some time. I shouldn't have refused medical care, Fury told me the moment I came by in a (unmoving) car. I was planning on disagreeing, but when I tried to sit up and felt sore spots on my- well everywhere, I decided that maybe a bit of medical care would have come in handy, even with my serum-healing. I did manage to sit up entirely, a couple of pillows having been shoved behind my back by an assistant. Fury offered a bottle of water, which I gladly took and drained in a go.
"How long have I been out?" I asked, placing the glass on my nightstand and wiggling my legs experimentally, testing how sore they were. It turned out that I was healing quickly, because I could already wiggle my toes which I had been unable to do just minutes before.
"Not long. 10 minutes at most, we are still at the crime scene." I raised my eyebrows, ignoring my headache to be able to emphasize my point.
"So crime scene, that's what it is now?" I mumbled. "This isn't CSI, Fury," I had a moment of internal pride that I had managed to come up with a modern times reference, "This is war Fury, just like last time. Just because there are less parties involved doesn't mean you ought to treat it differently. There might be just one man's life at stake, but this man does represent 1/6 of humanity." I said warningly, finally being able to stand on my own feet without losing my balance or hurting myself in a too obnoxious way. Fury considered me for a moment, eye following my movements in an unsettling way.
"There hasn't been a sign of Banner yet. We are still busy looking."
"I want to help."
"Rogers, look at yourself. Do you really think that there is any way in which you can be helpful?" Fury asked sceptically. "You don't even have your shield." He spat, still angry about that or so it seemed.
"I think you are underestimating me, sir." I said, "I think you forgot the importance of the Avengers. Every Avenger. We can't work while one of us is missing, we have a dynamic that is irreplaceable, strong, that can only be produced by these exact 6 people. When Loki defeats us, is done toying with us, he has all the freedom he wants to play with his gauntlet of infinity. And you know that you damn well need us to protect the Earth, so maybe you can come off your high horse and actually start helping with looking for Tony, or at least stop pretending to be doing so." I hoped out of the car, startled by the bright sunlight, quickly making an escape before seeing Fury's reaction. I wasn't sure I wanted to, really.
I was still wearing one of Tony's shirts, which I had slept in and which was way too small for me. There was a ton of skin exposed and I probably looked like a kid that would just not let go of their favourite PJ's. My jeans were ripped at all sides and it wasn't an outfit particularly suitable for rescue-working, but I didn't let that stop me from striding over to start throwing around pieces of what used to be a tower. Thor arrived too, armour back on and a big smile on his face. His smile didn't seem as relaxed as it normally did, and even though there seemed to be a permanent orbit of peace and relaxation around him, the worry for Bruce was evident on his face.
"Thor, can't you feel where Mjolnir is?" I asked, throwing what seemed to be a piece of my own bed away and onto the truck where the real rescue-workers were dragging the breakstone onto.
"I'm afraid I can only pull Mjolnir towards me, which wouldn't result into finding Bruce." I looked at him incredulously.
"Are you kidding me?" I dropped my piece of wall onto the ground. "Thor, I'm absolutely sorry to say this, but you are a class one idiot." I grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him around for a bit. "If Mjolnir flies towards you, it would destroy everything it breaks through to get to you, wouldn't it?" Thor nodded, mouth hanging open sheepishly and I almost expected drool to come out of it, "That means the hole your hammer leaves in its wake will lead us directly to Bruce!" I smiled, and Thor gave me a big grin in return.
"Brilliant, brother!" I let him go instantly when he held his hand up to summon the Asgardian weapon, and everybody turned in the direction of the racket the hammer was making breaking through layers and layers of collapsed floors until finally landing in Thor's strong grip. I immediately ran towards where the hammer had surfaced, followed closely by Thor. He told me to move back, and when I did, he used his crazy-ass God-strength to move remove layers and layers of rumble, exposing a dark curled head which could belong to Bruce.
I started moving planks around more carefully now, together with Thor, and managed to drag a fully naked Bruce out. Thor threw the naked professor over his shoulder with no shame, walking in a pace that even I couldn't match up to without a bit of jogging, to dump him onto a stretcher unceremoniously. The medics were a bit shocked to see that we had done what the other people should have been doing in last 20 minutes or so, in under a minute, but did cover up Bruce to preserve some of his dignity, and they went to work on him.
"Was he breathing?" I asked Thor in panic, because the ambulance had driven off, presumably to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters because whatever Fury might be saying, he didn't trust Bruce to be anywhere else, even in his unconscious and battered form.
"Yes he was, be calm, brother. The big green guy would have never allowed him to die." Thor smiled at me, clapping me on the shoulder, and I sighed in relieve, glad that we had all come out of this relatively scar-less.
Both Bruce and Natasha were back from the hospital the next day (Natasha was extremely pissed that Fury had made her go there in the first place) just in time to read the next note that Loki had left behind. We were all sitting around the kitchen table (Still on the chairs that Thor had appointed us months ago, because we had all grown attached to our own chair in a scary way), Natasha with a sour face and Bruce with an ice-pack against his head. Thor was looking at the rolled up piece of paper eagerly and Clint was eyeing Natasha in a worried way. I had called Pepper, too, got her up to date on everything and she was sitting on Tony's chair, not quite able to fill the empty space Tony had left behind but doing a decent job at filling in for him. Clint looked at me pointedly, cocking his head towards the note and I rolled my eyes, removing the green silk ribbon from around it.
"The city that God despises." I read out. I raised an eyebrow, getting quite agitated. "Loki doesn't know what he's talking about, God is incapable of hate." I said stubbornly, throwing the note back onto the table. Natasha rolled her eyes at me, snatching the note from t table to stare at it for a while.
"I know what this is. The city that God hates, that is Amsterdam. I am a hundred percent sure, it's one of the nicknames for the capital of the Netherlands."
"What, he has him in Europe now? Are you sure? I mean, this could be any city he's talking about."
"This is a specific nickname for the city, Steve." Natasha rolled her eyes again. "Besides, the first hint said Mad Star Me, which is an anagram of Amsterdam, see?" She said smugly, laying the three hints out on the table. "Amsterdam is famous for its Freedom, The open homosexuality, The drugs and most importantly, prostitution."
"You are right." Pepper breathed, looking at the hints. "He is keeping Tony there for the irony, I'm sure. The city practically screams Tony." Pepper looked up at me and shrugged, "Or well, what Tony used to be before he got smitten by our Captain." I smiled slightly, happy that we had found out where Tony was being kept, but not knowing what would happen now.
"This hint was too obvious." Clint murmured, scanning the scraps of paper, "I think he got tired of waiting. I think he finally has the gauntlet under his control entirely, and that he is looking for the confrontation." Clint said, and we looked at him in alarm because what he was saying was making way too much sense.
"He was just keeping us distracted by creating a puzzle, while practicing with his glove!" Bruce mumbled.
"If he has the gauntlet under control, there is no way for us to survive this" I moaned, rubbing my face and way, way too tired of these games. "There is no one that can help us against a gauntlet of God-damned infinity." Thor shook his head.
"There is one person," He said mysteriously, "who is dying to get his dear glove back." He looked around the group, eyes narrowing, "Thanos." And the name carried such a weight, that the silence it left behind was ear-shattering.
[A/N wooh! Almost there, ALMOST THERE. Bear with me, guys, there's cool stuff on the way. And a planned sequel! Yay, right?:)]