AN: Sorry for the wait, I had some serious writers block but hopefully that's over. One or two more chapters left, thanks for sticking with me through this story. Hopefully this flows with the movie script, but my memory is a bit fuzzy so events may be a bit out of order.

Chapter Twelve: Becoming a Team

As soon as Tony, Steve, and Bucky are finished fixing the engine, Fury informs them of Anna's injury causing the three to automatically rush toward med bay. In order to reach their destination as quickly as possible, Tony rudely shoved several people out of the way causing Steve and Bucky to apologize to all the people that he shoved. By the time the three reach med bay, Steve and Bucky feel like they have apologized to half of the crew on the Helicarrier and are thoroughly annoyed with Tony Stark.

"Excuse me, can you tell us where Annabelle Barnes is?" Steve asks the nearest medic.

The man motions for them to follow him before quickly leading them to Anna's room. As soon as they see her the three men grow concerned.

"Hello boys." Anna greets quietly before rubbing the sore area on her chest where she was stabbed by Loki.

"What the hell happened to you girly?" Tony questions.

"I found out that I shouldn't mess with a guy who can use a scepter to impale people." She responds sarcastically.

"How bad is it?" Bucky asks while he moves to stand beside her on the left side of the bed while Steve stands on the right.

"I'll heal, you know how my heal factor works. The important thing is stopping Loki and avenging Coulson." Bucky opens his mouth to protest only to have her cut him off. "I'm going to stay here, make sure my wound heals completely and see how I can help repair the damage that Loki left behind. Now you three go see Fury and figure out our next move." Anna commands.

The boys nod in response and head off to meet Fury on the bridge. Once they are all seated at the table Fury stands in front of them.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury states, tossing the cards that Anna gave him on the table before continuing his speech. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. (short pause) Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called The Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes." Tony gets up and walks out. "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

Steve and Bucky nod to Fury before leaving to find Tony. When they find him he is in the room where Coulson died.

"Was he married?" Steve asks.

"No. There was a uh...cellist, I think."

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot." Tony scoffs.

"Why? For believing?" Bucky questions.

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job." Steve defends.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have..."

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony."

"Right. How did that work for him?"

There is a pause before Steve replies. "Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"We are not soldiers! I'm not marching to Fury's fife." Tony argues.

"Neither are we." Bucky starts.

"He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list..." Steve finishes.

"He made it personal." Tony states, basically ignoring half of Steve's statement.

"That's not the point." Steve replies.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Tony wonders aloud.

"He wants to tear us apart." Bucky replies.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Tony realizes as he walks toward the control panel, causing Steve and Bucky to follow him.

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is...this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…." Tony goes silent as he begins to realize where Loki is going. "Son of a bitch."

The three head off to get ready and get Natasha. Once the team is all gathered in the hanger area they approach on of the Quinjets.

"You guys aren't authorized to be in here." The young pilot states.

"Son, just don't." Steve demands, causing Bucky to laugh quietly.

-Meanwhile on the Helicarrier-

"Sir." Agent Hill says as she approaches Director Fury.

"Agent Hill?"

"Those cards, they were in Coulson's locker, not in his jacket." She states.

"They needed the push." Fury states as he watches Stark and the Quinjet takeoff. "They found it. Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything."

"Yes, sir." Hill responds.

"Director Fury." Anna calls from the entrance to the bridge.

"You should be in med bay."

"I'll be fine sir; I need to talk to you about what happened with Loki."

"Later Ms. Barnes, right now we need to focus on getting communications back up."

"What can I do to help sir?"

-Back in the City-

Tony stands behind the bar in his penthouse in Stark Tower with Loki on the other side of the bar.

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki asks mockingly.

"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing." Tony informs nonchalantly.

"Yes, I've met them." Loki states with a smirk.

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; [Loki turns away and Tony slips the homing bracelets to his newest suit onto his wrists] a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins; two mutants with extraordinarily powerful abilities, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." Tony informs.

"I have an army." Loki brags.

"We have a Hulk."

"I thought the beast had wandered off." Loki states.

"You're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it." Tony warns.

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki questions before putting his scepter to Tony's chest, only to be cancelled out by the arc reactor. He tries and fails again.

"This usually works!"

"Well, performance issues. Not all that uncommon, one in five..." Tony mocks, causing Loki to grab him by the throat and throw him across the room. "Jarvis, anytime now."

"You will all fall before me." Loki states holding Tony up by the throat before throwing him out the window only to have Tony's suit launch after him and attach to him during the fall.

"And there's one other person you pissed off! His name is Phil." Tony states before blasting Loki with energy from his chest arch.

The portal above opens fully and Tony looks up at the army that begins to pour into the city.

"Right, army." Tony states before going off to fight the army.

As he continues to fight the army the others are closing in on the Quinjet.

"Stark, we're heading north east." Natasha says over the com.

"What, did you stop for drive-thru?" Tony questions sarcastically before getting into hero mode. "Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

After taking out the aliens that Tony lined up for them, Natasha and Clint fly the jet toward Stark Tower, where they see Loki fighting Thor. Loki is quick to fire magic at them and the jet is soon spiraling out of control to crash land on the ground a few blocks away.

"Definitely don't plan on flying again for a long while." Bucky states before they look up to see a giant flying snake like creature come flying out of the portal surrounded by more aliens. The creature flies over the group and releases more aliens.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve questions over the com.

"Seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Steve question while sharing a confused look with Bucky.

"Just keep me posted." He replies before flying up next to the flying creature, "Jarvis, find me a soft spot."

-Meanwhile with Thor and Loki-

"Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?" Thor shouts to his brother.

"Loki, please listen to reason." Loki's wife echoes in his head.

"It's too late. It's too late to stop it." Loki replies, more to his wife than anything as his eyes begin to water.

"No. We can, together." Thor tries to convince him, causing the small possibility of Loki changing his mind to disappear as Loki remembers why he started this crusade to begin with.

"Sentiment!" Loki hisses to Thor as he stabs him in the gut.

-On the ground-

"They're fish in a barrel down there." Steve states, looking at the people on the ground.

"We've got this." Natasha announces to Steve as aliens surround the group.

"You think you can hold them off?" Steve asks, looking for a way to get to the cops on the street.

"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure." Clint states before they start fighting, leaving Steve an opening to get to the nearby cops.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" Natasha calls to Clint as they fight of the warriors.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently."

-With Steve/the police-

"Does the army know what's happening here?" The Police Sergeant asks his fellow officers.

"Do we?!" A young officer replies.

Both jump slightly when Steve suddenly jumps down and lands behind them on one of their cars.

"I need men in these buildings. There are people inside that can run into the line of fire. You take them through the basement or through the subway; you keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th." Steve informs the officers.

"Why the hell should I take orders from you?" The Sergeant responds.

Suddenly a couple of Chitauri warriors attack Steve from behind, causing him to turn and fight them off easily. The officer then repeats what Steve told him to the other officers who are around.

Steve then leaves to regroup with the rest of the team and Thor arrives soon after. The group quickly discusses possible tactics, but are interrupted when Banner arrives, followed shortly after by Annabelle.

"Anna what are you doing here?" Bucky demands.

"I'm fine Bucky, besides, I wasn't about to let you guys have all the fun."

"So, this all seems horrible." Bruce comments after a short pause.

"I've seen worse." Natasha replies, referring to being chased around in the helicarrier by Hulk.

"Sorry." He replies sheepishly.

"No, we could use a little worse."

"Stark, we got him, Banner, just like you said. Anna's here as well." Steve informs.

"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you." Tony responds.

The team watch as Tony comes flying around the corner of one of the building, one of the giant alien creatures following him.

"I don't see how that's a party." Natasha deadpans.

"Tony, why do you always have to have such ridiculous ideas?" Anna questions before getting into a fighting stance.

"Dr. Banner, now might be a good time for you to get angry." Steve comments.

"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." Bruce states before turning toward the creature, transforming into the Hulk and slamming his fist into its face. This causes it to buckle and its tail end to tilt straight up.

"I got it." Tony calls before aiming his laser at it causing Steve to grab Natasha and protect her with his shield while Anna uses her wings as a shield.

The group then forms a back to back circle and Hulk roars at the enemy warriors who shriek at the loss of their comrade.

AN: there you are, a new chapter; hopefully I will update within the next week, hope you enjoy.