Guys I have to thank you all so much. The support and interest that you show in your reviews is just wonderful. Some of them have genuinely made me sit with a huge grin for ten minutes or break into a little dance. The fact that some of you have actually taken the time to review more than one chapter is heart-warming. Thank you so much.

This chapter is a fair bit longer than the last two and I was up until 2am last night continuing it because your enthusiam is fuelling my own. I literally have so many ideas for where this story is going and so much motivation to make it as good as it possibly can be. I've planned out about the next five chapters, but there's definitely going to be more than that.

I'm sorry it's taken me longer to get this chapter uploaded, but the end of my first year of Uni is approaching, so I'm juggling essays and exam preparation at the same time. Your reviews and feedback are really helping me to find the time amid other work to keep writing though, and I hope to have chapter four up within the week.

I also feel I should clarify that this is set after the film. Thor has returned from Asgard and the six of them live together in Stark Tower. As for Loki, well, I suppose you'll just have to keep reading.

If you have any questions, suggestions or anything hit me with them in either a review or my personal messages.

Enjoy chapter three, and remember review still equate to me physically worshiping you!


Chapter Three - Explosive Complications

Walking through the large double doors and out onto the bridge, Steve found it as busy as usual. Even if Bruce hadn't already told them that something was amiss, it was clear from the electric, almost frenzied atmosphere that inhabited the place.

The imposing figure of Nick Fury stood firing off orders from the central platform. Various agents in blue S.H.I.E.L.D uniforms were shouting responses, including a perplexed looking Maria Hill who was trying to coordinate them.

Steve followed Natasha and Bruce to the central table on the higher platform, where the two remaining Avengers were waiting for them. Neither was actually sitting down though. A frown marred Thor's features and Hawkeye remained impassive, as he often did when weighing up a situation.

Fury's midnight black trench coat billowed as he turned and walked towards them. Climbing the steps, his scowl eased slightly at seeing that the rest of the team had arrived.

"Gentlemen," he greeted them, 'and Lady of course." Hawkeye saw the briefest hint of a smile grace Natasha's lips, but it was gone so quickly that he knew the others wouldn't have noticed it. It had been a while since the last time someone called her that.

"How is Stark?" Fury addressed Steve.

"He's still unconscious, but the doctors think that because he received no serious blow to the head he'll wake up in a few hours."

"Good. We're going to need him." The director's gaze swept across them like a diligent force, meeting each different coloured set of eyes in turn. "There's been an incident at Stark Tower. We think it happened while you were out securing the building this morning, and Miss Potts was at a conference across town. However, our system only picked up a relay from one of Stark's security vaults a few minutes ago. Just before I sent Doctor Banner to find you both." He said turning to face Steve and Natasha.

"You're saying this happened at the same time as the earthquake earlier?" Bruce probed, before adding; "If that's actually what it was."

"Potentially, yes." Was Fury's response.

"Do you think the two could have been engineered to coincide with each other? That it wasn't actually an earthquake – just something designed to attract our attention." It was Natasha's turn to inquire.

"Our agents are currently still out in the field investigating what happened this morning. If we get any new intel you will all be the first to know. What we do know at the moment is that as the Tower is privately owned, and Stark likes to keep it that way, S.H.I.E.L.D has no internal cameras, and no access to his computer mainframe. In short, we don't know if anything has been taken. There is the possibility that this could have been a group break in, and that the perpetrator may be hostile. If they have overridden his system, there would have been no warning that we had picked up the security breach. That means if they haven't found whatever it is they're looking for, they may still be in the building."

"So you want us to go in and find what was taken, or apprehend the person responsible if they haven't left?" Steve asked.

"Exactly." Fury replied. "We only know that the vault being tampered with that was picked up by our system is one of Stark's highest in security."

"But who would have the ability to take down Tony's automated security without it being relayed back to his suit?" Natasha questioned, her expression grim.

"I don't know," Fury answered, "We could be dealing with a serious threat here. It is vital that you all suit up again and fly out there now."

~A~

Being the only one who hadn't changed out of his suit to clean it up, and had instead stayed by Tony's bed, Steve was ready to fly out straight away. As the other four Avengers went to suit up, Steve found himself with a few spare minutes.

The medical wing wasn't too far from the central control room, and whether it was guilt that moved his feet or simply the desire to check on his teammate, Steve found himself heading towards Tony's room before he had even considered what he would say if the other man had woken up.

The carefully chosen words that were forming in his mind were premature, as Tony was still unconscious when he reached the room. A nurse was checking his vitals, and jumped when she turned to see Captain America closing the door.

"Oh! Um, Captain!" She seemed flustered by her unexpected visitor.

"Ma'am." Steve addressed her. "How is he?"

"Still the same, but his vitals are good. If he's as stubborn as everyone has been telling me he should be awake later today."

"He is." Steve said, the smile that touched the corner of his mouth was difficult to read. The nurse was unsure whether it was aimed at her, or the unconscious Iron Man.

"Please excuse me Captain; I have other check-ups to perform."

"Yes of course. Thank you." Steve uttered as she left the room.

He had been so immersed in his thoughts this morning that he hadn't really take in the damage Tony had done to himself by saving the young boy. White bandages wound round his chest and left shoulder, extending down to the joint of his elbow where an IV line was hooked. Where they ended half way down his rib cage there were several ice packs, beneath which Steve could see bruises the colour of overly-ripe berries. Travelling upwards, there was a small gash that had been taped on the left side of his collar bone, and several minor cuts adorned his face from the impact of the helmet hitting the ground.

Considering the size of the concrete block that had pinned him, Tony hadn't sustained too many injuries – his suit really was well designed; an engineer's dream. But Steve still felt responsible – and not just the responsibilities of his unspoken position as leader. He was the one who had let the boy go, unattended. He hadn't seen, or reacted quickly enough to a change in the situation around him. As easy as it would be to blame Tony's recklessness, this time the genius had been acting responsibly.

Steve was drawn back to their earlier argument again. When Tony woke up he would make a point of telling him to be more careful. He would also tell the billionaire that he had been rash in his choice of words, and it seemed, his judgement.

The click of the door opening broke through the Captain's insight. The Asgardian God entered, his gaze switching from Tony's form, to Steve.

"It is time to leave."

Steve nodded, joining him at the door. As he glanced at Tony once more he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"He will still be here when we return. We can commend him on his bravery then."

Steve looked up to meet Thor's intense blue eyes and nodded again determinedly.

"Thanks." He said as they headed for the jet, suddenly grateful for the Asgardian's understanding.

~A~

Thor sat in the hold area of the jet alongside Bruce and Steve while the two assassins sat in the front, as was their routine. Clint sat in the pilot seat with Natasha aiding navigation. The God of thunder had never asked them personally to define their relationship, but he assumed they were just close friends. Who had perhaps at one point, or maybe even two, been enemies.

When they thought no-one else was truly listening they both often referred to Budapest, which Thor had since learned was a place in the country of Hungary. It seemed to hold a lot of memories for them, and while he only heard snippets of sarcastic or witty remarks, he couldn't see why they would keep returning to it if it was something other than special.

Before meeting Jane Foster the blonde Asgardian had understood the notion of love, but found it to be a subtlety outside the realm of his talents and desires. He held a love for his friends; his family, even Loki had a place in his heart. Despite the destruction he had caused and the hatred consuming him, Thor would always see Loki as a precious younger brother. But this was not the same as the growing feelings he felt towards Jane.

The two assassins were both very much closed books. Hawkeye a fast-paced western and Black Widow a dark thriller. But very occasionally a page would slide loose, to be read.

Thor sometimes saw parallels in the way they looked at each other and the way he looked at Jane. But their faces would revert back to blank canvases, wiped of any expression that could be used as a weakness, before he could judge whether he was trying to read something that didn't exist.

As they landed the jet seamlessly on the helipad of a building opposite the Tower, the Norse God picked up Mjolnir, and decided that now was not the correct time to be musing about potential romantic significances, when there may be a hostile intruder within the walls of their abode.

~A~

The close proximity of the helicarrier's air position to Stark Tower meant that not twenty minutes had elapsed since Fury briefed them, and they were taking the lift to the higher floors. The S.H.I.E.L.D systems had pinpointed the location of the breach as being on the thirty second floor, but as the chances of the trespasser staying on that floor were slim they had each split up and taken a range of floors.

Hawkeye had been assigned floors twenty seven to thirty five, and had no problem with taking the designated floor that the infringed vault was on. He didn't believe that whoever had had the guts to break in to Stark Tower would be foolish enough to hang around the on same level, but unsheathed an arrow all the same as he walked into the open foyer. He made sure it was one with a fine-bladed tip. Lethal from close range.

Keeping his stance in a low crouch he walked slowly further out into the open. His eyes and ears were vividly alert for any movement; his senses fully heightened like the famed bird after which he was named.

The vault door was built into the wall and was neither particularly large nor small. But no attempts had been made to hide it. It was completely on show, as was Tony's style. The billionaire had probably assumed that because his security system was the pinnacle of its type of technology he wouldn't need to hide valuables from any intruders. An assumption that had been proved sorely wrong.

The vault door was ajar, and after sweeping the floor thoroughly twice and feeling satisfied that there was no-one but him here, Hawkeye lowered his bow and pushed it further open. He didn't know what had been in there originally, but what now remained was a small pile of papers. If someone had purposefully broken in and come looking for something, why would they leave these behind?

Taking the pile out and walking across to the desk in the centre of the large glass window that covered an entire wall of the floor, he opened the communication link with the others.

"Hawkeye to Captain. The thirty second floor is clear. The vault was open when I got here, but there were still some papers inside. Whoever did this clearly didn't stay for the after-party. It seems strange that they would take the entire contents though." He finished setting the papers down on the desk and picking up the top sheet.

It was Natasha who answered him.

"-Wkeye, -ther floors are all clear, we're com– -wn to -eet you-"

"Natasha? Something's interfering with the communication system."

"-Ld your –sition-" Was all he got before the link crackled even louder and then cut out completely.

Taking it out of his ear, he stared at it. That had never happened before. He put it down on the desk next to the closed laptop and picked up another sheet of paper, turning it over to read the back. It seemed to be some kind of thesis on energy.

Upon hearing light footsteps he hastily put it back on the pile and raised his bow – the arrow was still set for release. Natasha's fiery red hair appeared at the top of the stairwell alongside the lift. Her gun was drawn, the safety off and she wore an unusually apprehensive expression which immediately relaxed at seeing Clint mirroring her tense stance.

She clicked the safety back on and holstered the gun, while Clint lowered his bow and sheathed the arrow.

"Have you been running?" He asked and she immediately slowed her breathing, a mildly irritated look crossing her face.

"Something was interfering with the communication link; I only heard the first part of what you were saying." She evaded.

"You weren't worried, were you?" He returned, a sly smile curling one corner of his lips.

"Worry is for people of weak constitution. I hardly think I qualify as that. There's never been interference like that on our line before and I came because I was the closest one to you. The only thing anyone would need to be worrying about is if whoever did this was on any of the three floors above you which you failed to check."

She had him there.

"I checked them on the way down to you. They're clean. Nothing else seems to have been touched except on this floor."

"I don't know how much was in the vault before, but these are all that's left." He handed her a few of the papers. "It seems strange doesn't it? That they would leave anything behind and didn't touch anything at all on the other floors."

"I suppose it depends on what they were hoping to find in there." Suddenly she noticed the laptop. "Have you checked that?"

"That was my next move."

"Getting slow in your old age."

"Getting impatient in yours."

They both shared a smirk before Hawkeye lifted the lid and pressed the power button. The screen loaded instantly.

"However was here used this. They actually managed to hack the password." Natasha sounded slightly disbelieving.

"I'm starting to think Fury was right when he said this could be a serious threat." Clint returned as Thor and Steve arrived, flanked by Bruce - still in human form.

"Everywhere is clear. Whoever was responsible is definitely long gone." Steve announced.

"I gathered that from the lack of tremors." Natasha mused dryly.

"I was told only to let the other guy out if anyone still here was dangerous." Bruce said slightly sheepishly. "I'm sure there are other things Tony wants to be spending his money on apart from repairs."

Steve stilled slightly at the mention of the Iron Man, before quickly reminding them of their purpose.

"What did you find?" He asked Hawkeye, pointedly glancing at the papers.

"They're papers on energy. Whoever broke in here left them behind for some reason." He passed them to the Captain as Thor stroke over to look inside the vault.

"There is little sign of a forced entry." The Asgardian announced. "There is this though." He added tracing his fingertips along a grey line barely a shade different to the colour of the vault. It ran the perimeter of the rectangular door, but was probably almost invisible to mortal eyes. Bruce crossed the room to take a look at it, adjusting his glasses as he did so.

"This looks like a heat signature," he mused, "but the size and colour are all wrong."

"There's something else as well." Clint addressed Steve, who was pacing just in front of the desk studying another paper. "I think someone might have accessed files on Stark's computer mainframe. It must have been encrypted by more than one password but they've managed to log in to it."

Natasha bent over the desk and clicked on the menu to check the download history.

"He's right, someone's been downloading files. It looks like they exported them."

"Check what that folder contained." The archer instructed, leaning over and gripping the desk with his left hand. The smooth wooden surface of the underside was interrupted by an odd shape that his fingers brushed. He recognised the feel of cold metal that shouldn't have been part of the wood at all. Swiftly bending down he saw the discrete diamond-shaped metal object attached to the underside of the desk. A red light in the centre of it was blinking faster and faster.

Leaping back up he yelled "BOMB! EVERYBODY DOWN!"

He had only begun to dive toward Natasha before the rush of fire and light ignited the floor.