Lucifer stood on top of their building, watching the city transition from day to night. The city that never sleeps, they called it. He smiled to himself at the thought. It made New York a fitting place to begin his crusade—waking nightmares were all the more inescapable.
The sun was just disappearing below the horizon and Lucifer watched it creep lower and lower, leaving Stark Tower glowing like a beacon over the city. Tonight was the night. Tonight, everyone would know just who they were up against. Tonight, they would strike fear into the hearts of millions. Tonight, the Apocalypse began.
Loki shed his Asgardian armor and traded it for something less conspicuous. The suit was expensive, made of fine material and fit him rather well but somehow it didn't sit right. He assumed that wearing Midgardian clothes would be liberating but somehow the absence of all the leather and metal was uncomfortable.
With his new outfit on, he walked out into the living room where Moriarty was already waiting, dressed similarly. He was sitting on the couch, drinking a cup of tea and didn't look up when Loki came in. Ever since they met, the tension had stretched tighter between them. It was almost childish the way they treated each other over the last few days. Loki would play his tricks and in return Moriarty would mess with his mind and they fought back and forth, trying to gain the upper hand.
Lucifer mainly stayed locked in his study or perched on the roof, deep in thought so he rarely interfered in Loki and Moriarty's disputes.
Loki eyed Moriarty carefully, sitting down on the opposite end of the couch. Neither of them said a word; Moriarty sipped his tea and Loki watched him suspiciously.
"Don't stare too long," Moriarty said, setting his cup down on the saucer. "You might give me the wrong impression." He finally turned his gaze on Loki, his deep brown eyes glinting with a spark of madness. Loki pursed his lips but kept himself from looking away, not willing to let Moriarty win out so easily.
"Whatever impression I give must be interpreted by you. If that's the first conclusion you draw, I'd say that speaks more to your character than mine."
"That's assuming the impression—"
The door to the study swung open and Lucifer strode in, interrupting Moriarty. "I think we're going to skip the clever chit chat this evening, boys. We have an awfully big night ahead of us." He adjusted the cuff link of his suit and smiled another one his haunting smiles. "Shall we make our debut?"
The three of them stood outside the entrance of Stark Tower, necks craned back trying to see the top. Other people brushed past them, some going in and some going out of the building but all of them in hurry. The rush of New York streets clamored behind them, every passerby unaware of exactly who it was they were shoving past.
"Are we ready, then?" he asked, looking from Loki to Moriarty and then back up at the tower.
Loki nodded but Moriarty only shrugged. "I'm certainly prepared. It's him I'm worried about." He jabbed a thumb at Loki. "Last time you were here things didn't exactly pan out for you, did they?"
Loki bristled but Lucifer held his hands out to quiet them both. "You have exactly fifteen minutes. I suggest you be ready when the time comes." He disappeared with the soft whistle of wings, every person on the street too immersed in their own business to bat an eyelash at the spectacle.
Moriarty and Loki glanced at each other before walking through the double doors and into Stark Tower. The main lobby was mildly busy; there were a couple receptionists on duty and a steady flow of employees filing through, going about their business as usual.
"Best of luck, mate," Moriarty said, flashing Loki a smile before continuing on his way. Loki gritted his teeth and watched him walk past the front desk toward the elevators. He bumped into a security guard, apologizing profusely as he pocketed the officer's key card.
Loki turned away and inspected the lobby. Of course, with Stark, everything was lavish. The building was decorated smartly and the whole thing breathed efficiency. The room had a cavernous ceiling, extending into two floors with a massive chandelier hanging from the center providing an elegant ambience to the lobby. Loki identified the camera nestled in the corner and looked back and forth from it to the room, estimating its scope.
His fingers tingled with prospect of using magic and he stuck them in his pockets in case anyone happened to be paying attention. He took a seat in one of the chairs in the waiting area and checked the time. Nine minutes left.
Moriarty rocked on his heels as he waited for the elevator to arrive, humming the Bee Gees. When the doors opened he stepped inside and pressed Floor 88. A ping sounded, requesting clearance to reach the top floors. He swiped the card he'd just stolen and the elevator began to rise.
The doors slid open, revealing an expansive laboratory filled with pieces of unfinished inventions and broken equipment. A hum of electronics buzzed in the room, and bits of technology whirred. Moriarty picked out the location of the security camera almost immediately, before turning his attention the frazzled young man approaching him from across the room. He was alone in the workshop, probably an intern finishing up some odd jobs before going home for the night.
"Sir? I-I don't think you're supposed to be in here. I d—"
Moriarty held up his hand, showing him the security clearance card, and cut the intern off. "I'm guessing you didn't get the memo."
A look of horror crossed the man's face, his eyes flicking back and forth trying to remember when or where he might have misplaced such a thing. "Um, no sir, I don't think I did."
"That's alright," Moriarty said, patting his shoulder. "I just need to see a couple of things and I'll be on my way, no harm done."
The man nodded, heaving a sigh of relief. "What is it you need to look at?"
"Just a few blueprints if you don't mind."
The intern dipped his head, turning around to lead Moriarty back to a cabinet full of rolled up papers. Moriarty quirked a devious smile at the camera before following the young man back to the cabinets. He pushed his sleeve back to look at his watch. Four minutes to go.
Lucifer appeared in a hallway below ground, several levels below the main lobby. No one was there, not even a security team. Apparently, they figured anybody who had made it this far down either belonged there or would have been turned away already. Lucifer walked down the empty hall toward the solitary door at the end.
It was unlocked, not that it would have mattered either way, so Lucifer walked right in. The computer mainframe lined the walls, little blinking lights penetrating the dark room.
Lucifer raised a finger. "Now, before you set off any alarms, I'd like a few words. JARVIS, isn't it?"
There was silence for a moment. "Yes."
Lucifer smiled. "Nice to meet you, JARVIS. My name is Lucifer and I would very much like to meet your boss. Do you mind pulling up the security footage for him? I have a feeling he'd like to see this."
"So what did you do?" Dean asked, taking a swig of his beer, looking to Tony to finish his story. The team of allies was gathered around the table for dinner. Even those like Sherlock and Castiel who didn't really see the point in eating had found it in themselves to sit in on the occasion for the sake of solidarity. Everyone was still getting to know each other but most of them had fallen into an easy banter.
Dean found himself enjoying the company of some of the others, despite his earlier reservations about joining a team. They had only been there a couple of days so he wasn't sure he could quite label anyone 'friends' yet but he felt like it was on its way. He knew his and Sam's track record for friendships was very sparse and marred by tragedy but this felt like an exception. He felt comfortable here. The weight of everything wasn't solely placed on his shoulders and even after only a few nights, some of the exhaustion had lifted.
"Well, I kicked the little bastard down the stairs, of course. What choice did I have?" The majority of the table laughed uproariously, Tony's story even drawing smiles from the stony faced Natasha and ever serious Castiel. Everyone took the lull in conversation as an opportunity to eat more of their dinner before someone else branched into another anecdote.
"Sir?" JARVIS's voice sounded from above them.
"Yeah?" Tony replied around a mouthful of steak.
JARVIS's voice was hesitant and guarded. "There's someone in the mainframe room. He says he'd like to talk to you."
Tony wiped his mouth with his napkin. "What? How'd he get down there?"
"I…don't know, sir. He's asked me to pull up the surveillance feed for you." The table was very quiet, not even the clanking of silverware broke the silence; they all waited on the edge of their seats for whatever the mysterious stranger had for them to view.
"Well, go ahead, then," Tony said, keeping the nerves out of his voice. JARVIS pulled up several screens in the middle of the table, various rooms of Stark Tower on display. Tony's eyes darted around until he spotted the computer mainframe footage.
A man in a suit stood by himself in the middle of the room, his hands clasped loosely in front him, looking like he all the time in the world. JARVIS turned on the audio and they could hear the hum of the computer banks before the man spoke. "Hello, there. I'm assuming JARVIS has done what I've asked and that I'm speaking to Tony Stark and Co. I would introduce myself but I have the feeling some of you already know who I am. That's right, Sam. Dean. I see you've enlisted a little help," the man said, grinning up at them.
Sam and Dean tensed. "Lucifer," Sam hissed, clenching a fist. Heads whipped toward him and questions flew from all sides of the table.
"Lucifer? You mean like…Lucifer, Lucifer? As in the Devil?" Jack asked, incredulously, his eyes wide.
"I told you this would be Revelations, Jack. Who did you think would be leading the charge?" the Doctor said quietly, a finger on his lips as he watched the scene in the mainframe room unfold. They all quieted down as Lucifer continued to speak.
"Unfortunately for you, I've made a few friends as well. Take a look around, you might recognize a few faces," he said, pacing back and forth in front of the camera as he spoke to his invisible audience.
The allies looked at each other trying to figure out what Lucifer meant. They all scanned the security footage, looking for anyone out of the ordinary but John spotted it first.
"No. No, it can't be. Sherlock, is that…" He trailed off, unable to form the word. Sherlock had paled and John saw his body go rigid. The others looked at the pair of them, wondering what drew such a reaction. Sherlock's jaw clenched as he watched Jim Moriarty wink at the camera and walk away as if he hadn't shot himself through the head all those years ago.
"That's-he's in one of the restricted access labs," stuttered Bruce, following John and Sherlock's eyes.
"Now, I know what you're thinking," Lucifer continued, drawing the attention back to him. "'Why, you've just offered yourself up on a plate for us. You've walked straight into our base.' True, but tonight we've only come to offer an invitation and let you know that this?" He gestured around him. "This is only the beginning." An intense bright, light bloomed from Lucifer's hands, enveloping him on the screen before everything went black. The entire tower shut down. The allies were still quiet, digesting what happened, no one daring to breathe in the crushing silence that followed.
Lucifer hadn't completely destroyed the system; after all, for the effect to work, he was relying on JARVIS being able to recover power. But the blackout gave them time to act and Lucifer didn't waste time. He approached the camera and reached up to touch it. Ice radiated from his fingertips and he froze over the lens. He wrote in his message before teleporting away.
As soon as the lights went off, Loki sprang into action. He leapt from his seat and let loose the pent up energy in his hands. People screamed and panicked, ducking behind desks and cowering low on the ground. The green light burning from Loki's hands cast an eerie glow over the lobby, illuminating his eager grin. He directed the beam at the floor, felt the power rushing through him, and did as Lucifer asked. He had just finished and quelled the stream of magic when he felt a hand on his arm and was taken away.
Moriarty trailed after the intern who knelt down by the stock of blueprints, muttering about organization and a better filing system.
Moriarty checked his watch again, only a few more seconds. He reached behind him and pulled the gun out of the back of his pants and held it at his side, waiting for the right moment.
"So which plans did you need to look at?"
"I think I'll handle it myself, thanks very much." The power died and Moriarty lifted the gun, emptying the clip into the unfortunate young man. He tossed the gun away and dragged the body over to the corner. Pulling a chair over, he dipped his finger into the pool of blood surrounding the corpse and stepped up on to the chair, spelling out his assignment on the wall. When he was done, he hopped off the chair and wiped his hand on a stray cloth before finding his way back to the blueprints and scooping up as much as he could carry. He felt the hand on his shoulder and the room fell away.
"JARVIS?" Tony asked, standing up from the table and hurrying over to a port on the far wall. No one else moved. Tony pressed some buttons but it did no good. "Come on, JARVIS, talk to me." He pulled out one of the smaller tablets from his pocket and scrolled through it frantically.
After several minutes of scrambling, the Tower hummed back to life. The lights flickered back on and JARVIS's voice came from overhead once again. "We're back online, sir."
Tony didn't acknowledge him. Everyone was focused on the surveillance feed that had reappeared over the table. Even among the hundreds of cameras in Stark Tower, the words stood out. It was short but the message was clear. Etched in ice, scorched onto the floor, and smeared in blood: COME AND PLAY.