Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers, Doctor Who, Sherlock, or Torchwood
The Bridge, when Sherlock and John entered it, was teeming with activity. Behind him, John paused, his hand slipping from the detective's as he took a sharp intake of breath at the vast technological superfluousness of the Helicarrier's control hub. Sherlock felt a spark of interest, drowned out by a wave of disillusionment as he strode towards the riotous gathering around the circular table.
At first glance it appeared that everyone was trying to outshout the other, but as Sherlock wedged himself between the now unsuited Tony, and Steve (John's presence reappearing at his shoulder), it became apparent that it was merely the effect of each person jostling against the others that amplified the argument between Fury and Rose Tyler, who were standing off against each other, a sizable gap between them and the rest of the group. The only people standing truly apart were Thor and Jane, who were about a metre away, leaning solemnly against a computer terminal, watching with wary, thoughtful eyes, their arms intertwined.
"I'm not going to say this again!" Rose yelled, her voice taking on a scratchy timbre as it grew louder, "You turn this thing around, and go back for them!"
"And I'm not going to say this again!" Fury roared back, his chest heaving as he glared down at the blonde woman, "We are not going back! They will shoot us out of the sky!"
"The Doctor wouldn't leave any of you behind!" she shouted back, ignoring how he rolled his eye at her; Sherlock couldn't help but admire her perseverance, she may not have been that bright, but she would definitely put up one hell of a fight, "In fact, that's the whole reason he's still there!"
"You heard what they want to do to Banner!" Tony interjected; he was holding himself stiffly, his arms winding and unwinding uncomfortably around his chest, and Sherlock gestured for John to do something comforting, which the doctor obeyed with a strange expression on his face, "We can't leave the big guy there, he'll suffer, then we'll all suffer."
"I know-" Fury snapped, but Steve cut him off, bypassing him completely to meet the eyes of the Avengers and the women.
"I doesn't really matter what they're planning," he explained firmly, waving away the piercing glare that Donna sent him, "What matters is that we've got two soldiers in enemy hands. We need to come up with a plan to retrieve them."
"Thank you." Rose corroborated, raising a hand to Steve, and staring meaningfully at Fury.
"Soldier-boy's got the right idea," Donna added, "If you try and leave Bruce and the Doctor there…believe me, I will kick up one hell of a fuss and you'll wish one of us had never been born."
"Sir, it's your call, but if Donna here's not scared, we shouldn't be either." Clint stepped forward, his expression stony and determined, "After what I've seen within the base, I'd like to have a chance to greet those guys myself."
"We've defied orders before," Natasha continued determinedly, her eyes meeting Clint's in silent agreement over the table, "we're willing to do it again. I for one don't want to let it get so close to an actual invasion this time."
"So it's agreed?" Steve verified, waiting for each member of the group to nod their assent, while Fury spluttered in the background and Rose shot him dirty looks, "We need to find some way to take Bruce and the Doctor back. Rose, Thor… you both know a lot about extra-terrestrials, so you're our first port of call for that. The rest of us, Tony, Clint, Natasha, Thor you can help with this too, we act as ground troops-"
"I want to help."
The group fell silent, and Sherlock swung around to glare at John, who had spoken up and was now looking momentarily overwhelmed by the eyes of the superheroes he had spent mornings watching on the news. The detective bit back his frustration; he had told John they would help, but honestly…he didn't want John on the battlefield. He didn't want him anywhere, but there was no arguing with him.
"You are?" Steve asked, peering at John, and his jumper, warily, and Sherlock could see the counterargument forming. Just one, if the soldier could come through for him, Sherlock would be in his debt forever.
"Oh, yeah um sorry…Dr John Watson." John cleared his throat and answered awkwardly, offering his hand out to shake and then withdrawing it quickly; he looked every bit the fluffy civilian among the gold-plated pigeons, "I'm a soldier…I was attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers, I, uh, served in Afghanistan for a while…I won't get in the way."
"You don't look like a squaddie." Tony sniped, snapping his mouth shut when Sherlock glared at him. Steve on the other hand, looked John up and down with a new appraising glint in his eye.
"Good to hear it soldier-"
"John is a Captain." Sherlock interrupted, earning a surprised glance from Steve. John apologised under his breath, but the detective noticed how he stood a little straighter, and his shoulders squared proudly. Steve fitted a pleasant smile.
"Me too…I suppose that means I can't order you around." He announced, offering his hand for John to shake. John did so, and smirked, self-satisfied.
"Probably not, but I'm not averse to constructive instructions."
"Good."
The two men appraised each other, and Sherlock felt the tension in the room simultaneously dissipate and grow, as impossible as that seemed, as the need to move, to be doing something, vibrated through the group. Natasha and Clint were surreptitiously tapping and scrolling on SHIELD computers, bringing up various schematics and readings, and Thor was still gazing thoughtfully at the ground, his fingers running smoothly over his chin while Jane brushed her hand up and down his arm, but everyone else was holding their tongues, choosing to wait for Steve to continue and lead them rather than shout a mish-mash of ideas and demands at each other.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sherlock noticed Fury pushing himself back into the frame in an attempt to regain control.
"I think you're all forgetting that I am not turning this vehicle around." He growled, and to his credit, Fury didn't quail under the passive-aggressive glares of the group. Tony rolled his eyes with an audible huff, and Natasha leaned over to whisper something in Clint's ear. Rose inhaled raggedly and pinned her arms around her chest.
"I don't care what you do- I'm goin' after the Doctor, and I will find a way to do it with or without you." She said unwaveringly, her lips quivering with pent-up frustration; without taking her eyes off of Fury, she strode to Donna's side and pulled at the woman's sleeve encouragingly, "Donna'll help me, won't you?"
"Too right I will!" Donna assured her, placing her hand firmly over the other woman's in a companionable manner, "You lot may be fine staying safe up here with your guns and your clever laptops," she mocked, directing her tirade at Fury; Tony glanced, an eyebrow raised, at Sherlock, who assumed that this was an appraisal (or admiration) of the woman, and could only return the gesture with a curt nod, "but if we have to walk in there unarmed, we will- because it would be the right thing to do, even if it weren't my Bruce and the Doctor back there."
"And Bruce'd kill me if I let his girl walk into trouble without back-up." Tony added, earning himself a grateful smile.
Fury slammed his hand down on the table in anger, letting out a string of expletives as his eye burned into everyone it could land on.
"I told you! We are not going back for them until we know for sure that we won't be blown out of the sky." He ordered.
"Director-"
Fury cut Natasha off with a swift look.
"What the hell do you all expect to achieve with no intell, no idea what is actually being planned, or any kind of plan as to how to tackle the problem?"
Sherlock bristled at that; he wanted to brush it all up to Moriarty, a desire to hunt him down and finish it as soon as possible, so that life could get back to normal, but he knew that it wasn't. Oh, it was true that he could accept that he was defensive because of the way that John huffed irritably beside him; John wanted to save these people, so Sherlock wanted to keep him happy. But there was also a small part of him that acknowledged the disappointed edge to the usually so animated Tony, and that was detachedly worried about Bruce (who had been so kind, and was so clever), about what this would do to the scientist's already fragile self-esteem, if his DNA was used to hurt anyone. Contrary to popular belief, Sherlock was human…he did care for his friends' emotional well-being, if only in the abstract.
"If you'll excuse me Director," the detective drawled, taking pleasure in the way that Fury straightened out slowly and waited for him to speak (obviously not used to civilians talking down at him, let alone his own staff), "But seeing as I've been roped into this," Sherlock looked pointedly at John, "I assumed that I would be assisting in the 'intell' area…after all, unravelling mysteries and connecting the dots is rather my forte."
"You shouldn't even be here." Fury argued tetchily after a few moments; Sherlock felt that familiar surge of self-importance that usually came with outsmarting the fools at Scotland Yard as he caught the impressive smirk on Tony's face.
"Well it's a good thing we are," John answered for the detective, facing Fury with the same old anti-authority expression that he wore when talking to Mycroft, "A few extra pairs of hands isn't a problem is it?"
Fury shook his head just as Agent Hill strode across the deck and into the midst of the group, shouldering past Clint. She looked disdainfully at Sherlock when he made eye-contact, and he got the impression that the response was the same regardless of who looked at her.
"It doesn't matter how many of you there are, it won't work." Hill reported dully, on edge against the defiance that Rose and Donna practically radiated.
"I already said- we'll keep trying-" Rose insisted, but Hill turned her head towards her with a sharp movement and stared her down.
"It won't work because they've gone." Hill explained; there was a collective intake of breath, only just masking Steve's curse.
Sherlock wasn't shocked; of course they had gone. They had Bruce and now they had another Timelord, they would have copies of anything they needed for their plans (which had been explained on the way back to the Helicarrier) to work; there was no need for them to stay in the Northern base now that they had been discovered. Moriarty wouldn't have allowed it even if this 'Master' had wanted to.
"How did they go? Why didn't you stop them?" Donna demanded, looking desperately between Fury and Hill.
"Hold on," Rose said accusingly, "If you've got the technology to scan the base and know they've left, why didn't you pull the Doctor and Bruce out of there when we had the chance?"
Fury ignored both of their demands, and pushed past them, pulling Hill to the side.
"Are you sure?" he muttered, but the Bridge had fallen silent, making every word ring off of the metal interior.
"Certain Sir, our monitoring systems caught traces of them leaving, and all power readings have been terminated." Hill reeled off, and Sherlock caught Steve exchanging glances with Tony. The game had changed, which meant that any plans the soldier had formulated had dissipated with Hill's words.
A warm pressure on his arm caught Sherlock's attention, and he realised that John had taken it upon himself to lean into him. The looked up as Sherlock shifted beside him, and gave a strained smile; the detective couldn't help but respond with an involuntary quirk of his lips. His eyes lingered on John's and those few moments drowned out the rest of the Bridge, fading away only as Hill marched away to order around some more agents, and Steve began addressing Fury again. A thought occurred.
"This plan," Sherlock said loudly, causing the others to turn half-heartedly to him, "to create an army of Hulk-esque creatures and move from planet to planet before taking over Asgard, could that work?"
"People've had weirder plans." Rose muttered; Sherlock shook his head and brushed her off with a sweeping gesture.
"I mean the science." He stressed, beginning to pace until he remembered that he was in a confined space, and that everyone else was watching him; he turned to address Tony and Fury respectively, "Could the science work?"
"It wouldn't be the first time someone's dipped into genetic manipulation." Tony noted, his eyes tracing the floor sadly, skittering about with nothing solid to focus on.
"And SHIELD's been working on interdimensional travel since Thor's first visit." Natasha added, "Miss Foster's our expert in that area."
Sherlock nodded swiftly, absorbing the information before wheeling around to face Jane Foster, who looked up, as if surprised to have been brought into the discussion. Thor remained impassive, gazing into the middle-distance.
"That research is all theoretical." Fury asserted, but Sherlock made a frustrated sound and made as if to wave him away. Tony too was waving his hand dismissively at the Director. John left Sherlock's side to stand near Jane in a show of solidarity.
"Jane, you were telling us about your research in the base." He said encouragingly, glancing at Sherlock as if to warn him of what would happen if he wasn't gentle with the woman. The detective had to push away the notion that this woman, however frail she may look, was hardly about to crumble under his scrutiny.
"Well yeah…I've been trying to replicate the Bifrost," Jane explained, her hands making round-about movements already, "SHIELD's been funding, my research into interstellar travel."
"And is it working yet?" Sherlock demanded quickly, snapping his fingers impatiently despite the irritable look that John sent him; he needed data.
Jane shook her head, her light brown hair floating lightly about her face as she did so.
"The quantum mechanical side of it is entirely theoretical," she answered, and she let out a small nervous laugh, "and we haven't got the capability to make it work so far…but all of the information's on the SHIELD databases."
"Which can be accessed from any SHIELD base." Natasha interjected exasperatedly; Sherlock closed his eyes and exhaled despairingly, as her point sunk in. It was Tony that swore this time, but it was drowned out by Fury's expletive.
"Well that's just brilliant." Donna exclaimed, throwing her hands up and running them through her ginger hair.
"I don't know why we didn't wipe that base off the face of the planet when we abandoned it." Clint commented from within the rabble.
"How could you be so stupid?" Rose intoned, her voice laced with disbelief, "Anyone could have hacked those systems!"
"HUSH!" Sherlock's voice echoed off the walls, and the back and forth of jumbled exclamations ceased; he opened his eyes again, focusing in on Jane, "Now…could this information be utilised as the Timelord intends?"
"I, I…I don't know, we couldn't, not yet-" Jane stuttered, her eyes moving rapidly, as if she were piecing together too much information for her mouth to keep up.
"If it can be imagined, then the Timelord can achieve it." It was Thor that broke the litany, his deep voice solemn and hopeless; Sherlock's eyes shifted to the blonde god, whose expression focused and sharpened as his attention finally caught the people in the room, eventually landing on the detective, "The people of Galiffrey were known for their aptitudes in both science and magic…if the Master had possession of SHIELD's scientific knowledge, then I have no doubt that he will be successful in wielding it."
Sherlock stepped back to rest his weight on his heels, nodding in understanding. He clasped his hands together under his chin, inwardly cursing the lack of room to pace, even as John moved past him towards the table again, brushing his hand over the detective's shoulder in a show of support. He needed a few moments to process with this added certainty. With the little hope they had had, there were options; with the certainty that the Master could, and very well might succeed, there were few.
"So the Master has a good chance of making a move against Asgard." Steve verified cautiously; he was eyeing the rest of the group, who were bristling at varying degrees. While Clint and Natasha were relatively calm, if not tense, Rose and Donna were at the other end of the scale, their chests heaving as they became more and more frustrated with the turn of events and lack of actions.
Thor nodded grimly.
"Once he has had his way with Earth, yes, getting to Asgard will be no hardship." He confirmed; his hand rubbed across his face agitatedly, "I am unsure as to how the armies of Asgard would hold against many creatures with the strength of Dr Banner."
"Well this officially throws any plan of action that I might have had." Fury sniped, turning away from the group to stare out at the darkened sky.
"We don't need a plan!" Rose snapped; Sherlock paused in his thinking to watch her, the way that her face seemed to radiate fury and her eyes burned, "There's, what…ten of us here willing to fight, so let's fight!", her eyes fell for a moment as she visibly tried to think of what else would be of any use; her face lit up in victory for just a second as she announced, "and I bet I can convince Loki to help! A little bit of magic wouldn't go amiss now, would it?"
At this the Avengers' all looked away from each other, blatantly biting their tongues. Sherlock could see why; the man that he had spoken to in the hall wasn't one that made friends easily, that much was clear. Fury turned on his heel and glared around the room, as if just at the moment noticing who was missing.
"Now that you mention it, where the Hell is Loki?" he asked, bewildered, and then turned back on his agents, "Somebody go and find Loki, and get him where I can see him!"
Meanwhile, Steve had taken the reigns again.
"Rose, I know you want the Doctor safe, but you saw what happens when we just barge in." he said calmly, his hand extended in a gesture of restraint; it was obvious how overwrought the soldier was, his whole presence screaming out exhaustion and overwhelmed, "I want that too, but right now I have no idea where to start."
"The beginning always helps." Clint chipped in from the side. Steve motioned for him to come forward, but Sherlock cut him off with an exclamation of realisation. The detective's hands extended and Steve's mouth clapped shut, as he made an almost twirling motion in his excitement.
This was brilliant, this was absolutely excellent. A Challenge!
"Oh! No, no, no…the beginning's the very last place we need to start!" Sherlock announced, letting out a hearty laugh.
"If you're just going to spout nonsense-" Donna snapped. John tripped to Sherlock's side placing a hand on his arm to pin him in one place and looking imploringly at Donna.
"Just hear him out, alright."
Sherlock jittered under John's hand (he needed to pace, he needed to move), but took the lack of speech and argument as his cue.
"We know the Master's plan, and we know that they've moved their base. That's the beginning, that and how they're doing it. But that doesn't matter!" Sherlock insisted, refusing to feel disheartened by the confusion and dull expressions on the faces of everyone watching him, "We need to work from the end backwards! There's no point knowing why or how, what we need to do now is find the way to stop them from achieving what they have told us they're going to do!"
Tony was the only one nodding with some kind of understanding.
"So you mean-"
"I mean that there are a handful of specific things you need to do, nothing more, nothing less!" Sherlock cut across him; there was no time for idle discussion, "First is to find out where they are now; with all your special technology that shouldn't be difficult. Secondly, the science; you need to know how to tackle the genetic manipulations and the interstellar travel on the basis that it is going to happen. It would be better to prevent it, which will become less likely the longer it takes to find them," he glared at the SHIELD agents at their terminals, and with cursory glances at Fury, they leapt into action, "but if we can't do that , then you need a way to shut them down. Which brings me back to working from the end."
It was Natasha that spoke first; Sherlock didn't know whether she followed his ideas, but her face was set and she was shaking her head, walking across the room towards him.
"The Hulk can't be fought, believe me, I've been on the wrong end of his temper." She said, as if this shot down his plans. Sherlock growled irritably, striding past her; he was going to pace, he didn't care anymore.
"Because you've been doing it wrong and you're still not listening!" he tried very hard not to shout, "What do you need to cure a poison?" he asked the group at large.
"An antidote." Both Rose and John replied immediately; there was something so trained about the way they did it, as if both were used to the question and answer routine. They shared a look before Sherlock continued.
"Exactly! And to get the antidote you need the sum of the poison's parts, or at least an understanding of the poison's make-up." He emphasised, and to his monumental relief, it actually looked as if they were beginning to understand; the befuddled expressions had evaporated at least, "You have the data from the original DNA trials, you have the finished result in the form of Bruce, and don't try and tell me SHIELD didn't get hold of a blood sample at some point…work backwards, and you will have your weapon!"
"Like reverse engineering!" Tony exclaimed, and Sherlock turned the full power of his genuine grin on him.
"Yes! The same goes for this interdimensional bridge- if you've got the theory, and the Norse god at hand," Sherlock motioned towards Thor, who straightened up at the address, his face lighting up at the renewed hope, "it shouldn't be impossible for a brilliant scientist like you Miss Foster to achieve that capability yourself. Once you've done that, it's just a case of preventing another from being opened, or shutting it down if they beat you to it."
Jane starting shaking her head and her hands came up defensively.
"I…I'm nowhere close, and that could take years!" she insisted.
"But you're forgetting," Tony assured her, strolling over to swing an arm over her shoulder; he had certainly brightened up over the past few minutes, "You've got two other geniuses here in the form of little old me and Sherlock. That should cut the time by half at least."
"Thank you Tony." Sherlock nodded curtly towards the man before fixing Jane with an imploring gaze, "I have absolute faith in you Miss Foster, John has said that you're the most intelligent woman he's ever met."
John had said nothing of the sort, but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, as Jane seemed to stiffen with resolve, and nodded firmly at Sherlock, and then over his shoulder at Steve. Fury swaggered back into the fray.
"So Captain, so we have any idea how we're doing this?"
Steve's jaw stuck out slightly as he nodded resolutely. Sherlock mused that it was almost possible to see the cogs turning in his mind.
"I reckon so. Miss Foster, if you can work on the science from on the Helicarrier, with Tony and Sherlock until they're needed elsewhere, and then on your own, that would be great." He looked to Jane, who simply nodded, "You don't look like you'd be much use on the battlefield anyway, so it'd be best if you made yourself useful out of the way." He explained, and then gestured for the door, "If you start now, you'll be ready quicker."
Jane agreed quickly, and stopped only to reach up and place a kiss on Thor's cheek before running lightly from the Bridge, grabbing the arm of an agent as she passed and reeling off a list of things that she would need.
Before Steve could continue, Donna broke in.
"You're not shunting me off into a corner, I want to help." She warned him. Steve glanced guiltily in her direction.
"As much as I'd like to do that, we're probably going to need you on the ground. I heard that you can calm the Hulk- Bruce, when he gets angry." he noted; Donna nodded uncertainly and he carried on, "In that case you come with us; the last thing we need if there's going to be lots of them is Bruce getting caught up."
"What about me?" Rose asked; she had calmed, but she was still on edge, her fingers curling and tensing around the rim of the table.
"Can you fight?" Steve retorted, watching for her response. She stood as tall as she could (which wasn't impressive at all really), and Sherlock had to admit that he admired the defiance in her expression.
"Just give me a big gun and I'll be fine." She remarked. Steve nodded in acceptance, and then looked to Fury momentarily. When there was no contradiction, he smiled at Rose.
"Good, then you're part of the back door team."
"I'm sorry, the what?" John interjected, his nose crinkled in confusion. Steve grimaced as he began to explain, making sure that everyone was listening.
"The way I see it, there's two approaches to this. There's the front door, the big confrontation; we'll need the big guns for that, the most resilient, which means me, Tony, Thor, Clint, and Natasha, and Bruce if we can get him on side in his state." Steve laid out his plan, his hands moving wildly; Sherlock could see now the military planner behind the otherwise dull façade, "Then there's the back door, the science. Sherlock's suggestions are top priority, we need to reverse the genetics and prevent the space travel, but that's not all. We need to infiltrate their base while the fight happens; all of their databases and their research needs to be destroyed, nothing should survive as anything we don't or won't already have shouldn't be had by anyone. If we can shut down their systems, their control hub, then they'll be powerless, and we might be able to retrieve Bruce and the Doctor depending on where they're being held; for that the less resilient of us, but no less useful, I think Sherlock, John, Rose…you can join the fight only if that's been done and if it looks like we're winning."
"What about Loki?" Rose asked innocently, and Sherlock could see how despite her close relationship with the man, she was horrifyingly blind to the fact that he just didn't care about the Earth or its people at all. Hell, he was probably still swanning about the Helicarrier just because he could.
Steve didn't even blink in response to her question.
"I don't think he'll help, but…on the off chance that he cares enough about his home planet to want to help Asgard, then he should stay with you." He instructed, "Like I said, if your job is done, it would be fantastic to have that kind of magical power on our side out on the battlefield, but until then, you three will need whatever protection you can get."
"Fine." Rose muttered petulantly.
The next few minutes were spent huddled around the meeting table, finalising and embellishing Steve's otherwise fine plan. Sherlock was confident that it could work, so the others went along with it. He had been warned severely by John that he was not to go looking for Moriarty, not to break from the group, or to hunt him down in any way; Moriarty would go down alongside the Master, and Sherlock was not to risk himself taking him on alone. It was only as the group began to disperse, and Tony and Thor prepared to head to the labs, and the others to prepare for when the next location was found, that Sherlock realised what had been niggling at the back of his head for hours.
"Hold on, where's Harkness?" he inquired, looking around the Bridge. He was met by a stony silence, and realised that everyone else was sharing guilty looks. They had obviously forgotten about him too; how that could have happened considering what Jack was like, made Sherlock's head spin.
"Shit!" Tony spat, slapping a hand to his forehead, "How the hell did we forget him?"
"That's what I'd like to know!" Fury yelled, completely ignoring the fact that he hadn't inquired about Jack's whereabouts at all.
"He split from the group to hack their computer systems," Steve recalled sheepishly, "to see if anything new had been logged that we could use."
"Do you think he's been captured too?" Rose asked, her tone laced with worry and her eyes wide and panicked.
"I don't know," Steve replied, with a shake of his head and a self-deprecating shrug, "if he has, he'll be with the others, if not…"
"We won't know until we get to work." Fury answered the unspoken question. Tony, with a sad shrug of his shoulders, clapped Thor around the arm and headed from the Bridge towards the laboratories. Natasha and Clint wandered off together, and Sherlock resisted the pull of John at his arm long enough to hear the alert begin to wail at one of the computer terminals.
In the dark, cramped corner of a rumbling, jolting truck, Captain Jack Harkness was just about able to wrap the arm on which his vortex manipulator was strapped, back around his huddled legs. As soon as SHIELD received that message, they'd be able to track him straight to the Master's next base. Sure, Jack had been dismayed to see the Helicarrier leave the area without him, following the clamour from the rest of the base, but he wasn't stupid enough to break his cover and chase after it. No, the guards hadn't even thought to check the shelter of their IT rooms. That had left him with the opportunity to sneak about a bit, discover that not only was Dr Banner in their hands, but also the Doctor. No one knew he was there; doubtless, the Master assumed that the Avengers had taken him with them. Well, more fool him. If no one knew he was there, no one would notice Captain Jack Harkness scuttling across the icy ground in his dark coat, or clambering into the back of a cargo truck as it pulled away from the arctic base for the last time.
Another long one, to make up for the last interlude.
Is it really obvious that I completely forgot about Jack and had to work around that. It's not my fault, the characters forgot him too. )=