Tony casually meandered his way down the hallway, clipping on his Mark VII bands as if they were cufflinks for his latest Armani suit. Heading towards the surveillance room's staircase, he paused in his steps, hearing a familiar low feminine voice violently hissing somewhere further down the corridor. Shrugging, Tony changed his course to make his way toward Natasha.
Turning a corner, he found a curious sight. The female SHIELD operative had captured Danny Fenton in his borrowed uniform, threatening him at gunpoint. The boy was silent as Natasha continued to interrogate him with his arms raised in the air.
"Threatening minors now, are we, Romanoff? It's good to see all those years of intense training has finally paid off," chuckling to himself Tony ambled over to the pair, "Hey, Dan-Dan. Long time, no see."
Jumping with a start, Danny whirled away from the assassin-turned-agent, before rolling his eyes in a tired manner.
"Oh great," he muttered to himself, "Here comes the heartless Tin-Man."
Tony ignored him, switching his gaze to Natasha, who was staring at him incredulously as he went to stand next to Danny.
Her gun still locked on the ghost-hybrid, she growled out, "I watched that boy die, Stark. He went down to the basement with Bruce and he never came back up."
Waving a hand at her, Tony drawled, "Oh, did I forget to tell you? I'm sorry, it's so easy to overlook Fury's little minions – you all just blur into one."
Tony saw Danny glancing at him confused but he simply smiled in response.
Natasha's eyes seemed to be attempting to incinerate him with the heat of her glare, "How is he here?"
"Uh, does it really matter?" Danny hurriedly cut in, lowering his hands to fiddle with them nervously, "After all, I'm just happy to be – er, alive. You know, with whatever happened that I don't seem to remember…" Danny petered off.
Tony looked bored, "If you didn't notice; the basement had a panic room. You know, the one with the big metal doors and DNA-recognition panel?"
Danny looked lost, "Wait, what about the portal?"
Tony gritted his teeth together and forced his mouth not to move, kicking Danny in the shin lightly, "When you went against Bruce, idiot. Did half-dying kill off half your brain cells too?" He whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
Tony received a blank look before an expression of understanding bloomed across the boy's face as he rubbed his leg, "Oh. Oh! Right! Yeah, I was hiding from the big scary green-guy in there. Totally safe. No blood-thirsty ghosts or anything after you in there!" Danny began to nod furiously, as if to help prove his innocence.
Natasha wasn't falling for it, "What are you doing here then?"
Danny hesitated, watching the gun slowly redirected itself back at his head as the silence dragged on.
"Interning!" Tony chirped up finally, "He's working as my assistant – a job you proved to be horrible at. Company loyalty really does go a long way, Natasha, an aspect of your personality you should really consider working on – anyone can act like a mindless drone for, after all."
Natasha's jaw clenched, before gesturing at Danny with the gun, who flinched in response, "Huh. Then why is he wearing one of our uniforms?"
"Uh, because it's Bring-Your-Intern-To-Work day?"
Tony thought he heard Danny groan.
Natasha opened her mouth to respond, when she was cut off by an approaching Clint Barton.
"Come on," Clint grunted, "We're heading top-deck. Everyone's waiting," Pausing, the archer glanced over at Danny, "Who are you?"
Danny gestured to talk when he was cut off by Tony, "Danny Fenton, my newest intern. He'll be joining us down in Vatican City," the self-proclaimed philanthropist replied cheerily.
"Wait a minute, I can't go down there!" Danny exclaimed, ignoring the gun still pointed in his direction by Natasha, waving his arms erratically.
"He's right, Tony," Clint stated, "You can teach him how to be your latest protégé when we get back. We don't have time to babysit; besides, if he really has nothing to do, I think I still have some field reports that need filing."
"Hey!" Danny cried, put out.
"No can do, Hawk-boy, I believe in a more hands-on approach to teaching. Don't worry, he won't get in the way, Danny'll be as quiet as a ghost." Tony replied with a thin smile.
He felt Danny stiffen next to him.
"I think you mean 'mouse', Stark." Natasha had dragged her eyes away from the tall teenager to give Tony a furious look.
Tony's smile twisted itself into a dark leer, "Do mice still squeak when dead?"
/ / /
Danny was thankful as he was offered the oxygen mask from a stationed officer, heading out of the elevator into the thinning air. The wind ferociously whipped his hair around him, snapping painfully into his eyes. He spotted Tony up ahead, making his way over to a group of SHIELD officers carrying his suit.
He was lightly shoved in the shoulder by Clint in an effort to keep him walking. Looking toward where the marksman was pointing, Danny's eyes widened, "Whoa," he whispered through the breathing apparatus, in awe at the shiny black jet parked in front of him.
Clint noted his wonderment. Coming to stand next to the teenager, he said, "That's the SR-71, otherwise known as the 'Blackbird'. Fastest manned-jet ever built – unless you're Stark. They've been publicly retired, but SHIELD's managed to wrangle their hands on a few," Clint smirked, adjusting his quiver, "With some minor alterations, of course."
Danny stood there, still gaping at the jet as Clint walked past, crossbow in hand, hoisting himself inside the Blackbird.
Looking around the landing-stretch, he watched Steve talking to Nick Fury, Jane and Thor standing farther away, whispering to one another, oblivious to the outside world. Averting his eyes at the private moment, he followed Clint into the plane.
/ / /
Bruce winced in sympathy when Danny smacked his head against the ceiling of the Blackbird with a dull thud, the half-ghost grasping at his head with a growl of pain.
He bit his tongue as Danny sent a glare at the curved ceiling before confusion won over, "Danny? What are you doing here?"
Clint didn't glance up from inspecting his bow in the seat opposite Bruce, "Tony," he simply said as Danny collapsed next to Bruce rubbing his forehead, muttering about headaches and coffee mugs.
"Oh."
Silence encased the three as they waited for the other Avengers to join them. Looking over at Danny, Bruce watched as the boy began to wring his wrists in a way not dissimilar to his own awful habit, his eyes shifting as he glanced around the contained space nervously.
As Bruce was about to offer Danny moral support, Thor entered the jet, his oversized hammer in hand. The demi-god stood tall and strong, but did not reach Danny's tremendous height, easily missing the ceiling that had attempted to knock the boy's head off. Steve followed soon after, dressed in his traditional stars and stripes suit, shield in hand.
Thor stalked in proudly, seating himself next to Clint,and Steve next to him. The Asgardian let out a sound of surprise as he noticed Danny watching him warily.
"Good day, mortal-child! I am Thor Odinson, of Asgard! Heir to the throne, and soon to rule across all the nine realms of Yggdrasill!"
Danny looklooked like he had been struck by lightning with Thor's forward and friendly behaviour (not that Bruce could blame him). He coughed uncertainly, "Er, I'm Danny Fenton of Amity Park. I don't really think I'm the heir to anything – but I do have a few collectables…"
Clint's eyes snapped up when Danny mentioned his hometown. Bruce eyed the archer speculatively.
The captain inclined his head in Danny's direction, "And I'm Steve Rogers. Pleasure to have another comrade on board. You are here to help us, right?"
Danny shrugged half-heartedly, "I didn't really get a choice – Tony just sort of forced me here."
An awkward silence filled the room at Danny's statement, before Thor piqued up happily, "What is that delicious smell? I believe it holds strong similarities to the beverage you humans call 'coffee'."
Bruce watched Danny turn pink and discretely sniffed at his hair.
/ / /
Natasha stepped into the narrow jet's walkway and scowled. Just as Tony had promised, there sat Danny, chatting away with the captain. The boy cut his own animated rendition of Apollo 12 when she strode past him into the cockpit.
Flicking switches, she called back, "Buckle in, boys. The moment Tony gets here, we're leaving."
Natasha rolled her eyes as the kid began to look around frantically for a non-existent seatbelt.
Metallic clanking was heard from the back of the Blackbird. Natasha craned her neck to see Tony standing in the entranceway in his full Ironman regalia, an appraising look on his face at seeing Danny next to Bruce.
Casually slouching in the seat, Tony stretched his arms out behind his head, nearly hitting Danny in the face with a glove. The kid batted the hand away with a frustrated look as he turned his head, refusing to make eye contact with the gleeful billionaire.
The cheeky smile slid off his face as he looked at Natasha, "Let's go."
/ / /
"You want me to what?" Danny cried exasperatedly.
"Just jump out of the plane. We'll get the advantage of scoping out the place while the others land the jet," Tony crossed his arms as he called out over the howling wind. The platform at the back of the jet had been lowered – easily enough room for a soldier to escape from.
"I can't just jump out without a parachute, I'll die! Give me one of those!" he gestured above Captain America's head at the wall of stuffed camouflage bags.
"Pepper would have done it," Danny thought he'd heard Tony mumble before he called over the howling winds, "How about this? I'll give you the parachute once you jump out of the plane!"
Before he could say no, Tony placed a metal hand firmly on his chest and shoved. Danny felt himself slip on the angled platform, his sturdy SHIELD-appointed boots not able to hold up to the tempting kiss of gravity, and with a stumble and a yelp, Danny fell into the bright blue of the sky.
The wind tore burned his cheeks and left his eyes watering as Danny tumbled toward the ground, his mouth open in a silent scream; the ground was quickly approaching, speeding towards him faster than he cared for. He muttered a string of curses as he fell straight through a fluffy, wet cloud.
Cartwheeling uncontrollably in the air, Danny watched relieved as the jet zoomed into the cloud cover, and he allowed the blinding white glow to pass over him, transforming him into his ghost-form. A red and gold blur rushed past, giving him a two-fingered salute, before zooming down toward the city below. Frowning, Danny used his gained momentum to race after Tony, promising himself to find a way to get revenge on the older man.
The flat-topped terracotta buildings loomed ever closer, the Basilica towered over them with its domed roof, leaving them in shadow in the late afternoon sun. Danny's white hair whipped off his face as he dive-bombed towards the city centre after the metal-man. He could make out each of the tourists and worshippers wandered about Saint Peter's Square as he hovered to a stop.
Perching himself on the top of the Obelisk in the centre of the elliptical courtyard, Danny saw Tony land on the eastern colonnades nearby, scanning the grounds. He gnashed his teeth in annoyance, ready to gnaw his ear off with lectures.
A piercing scream broke Danny's thoughts. His head twisted sharply, causing it to disconnect completely from his body with a ghostly whip, leaving him to resemble a bemused owl; hundreds of people were fleeing from the Basilica, tumbling out the doors of the façade in hoards as a stampede erupted. Peering through the thick crowd Danny thought he saw a beam of pink light flare from inside.
Leaping down the Obelisk, Danny sped towards the Basilica, skimming over the heads of beleaguered tourists, shrieking at the sight of him. The crowd was not thinning as he headed closer to the row of doors – the escaping tourists and holy servants had jammed themselves in the doorways in their desperation, making a human barricade as they cried out in fear and hysteria.
Looking around hurriedly, Danny bolted towards the nearest wall of the façade, flattened his palms against the ancient stone. Concentrating hard, he felt the cool current of intangibility escape from his pores, spreading out across the wall and making it flicker out of existence; civilians collapsed in piles at the lack of support, before scrambling over one another as they raced each other out of the square.
The Ironman suit whirred down as it landed next to the panting Danny.
"Nice work, Dan-Dan," The metal mask added another dimension to Tony's voice, "Change back and let's go before the others get here."
With a nod and a sharp burst of light, Danny reverted back to his human self.
"Oh, and I got you something."
"Wha—? Oof!" a heavy, camouflaged bag was tossed at Danny's head. Holding it up he saw that it was his missing parachute.
"Don't say I don't keep my promised," Tony said through the mask. Despite it, Danny could hear the laughter coating his voice. He gave another grumble and curse, tossing the bag to the side as he followed the 'genius-of-wit-and-dad-jokes' into the empty hall.
Tony splayed a hand out in front of himself as they shuffled in, his palm whining with white-blue energy that pulsed in rhythm with his arc reactor.
The façade was empty. Stained glass lay scattered across the ground as unfiltered light cast deep shadows throughout the room. Their footsteps crunched as they stepped across the coloured shards, leaving sharp scratches against the polished marble floors.
Tony slid back his mask confused, "Huh, this wasn't much of a welcome party. I expected more from Loki – a parade, perhaps. Maybe even a few elephants."
"All in good time, Stark," A voice sneered from the shadows, Tony tensed, "I have chosen a different approach this time. Subjugation first, then celebration," a tall man stepped forward from the dark, dressed in a golden horned headdress, a green cape swirling behind him in his confident steps.
Danny couldn't help but simper, "So the party's gonna be a fancy-dress then?"
The man growled, "Do not disrespect me, freak! I am Loki, of Asgard, and soon to be ruler of your pitiful planet."
Danny raised his fists, "Not while we're around. We can take you down any time," he said proudly, glancing over to the oddly sombre Tony.
Loki quirked an amused brow, "Oh, I do not plan to fight you, half-breed, I have others to do that for me."
Danny lowered his fists in shock. Others?
A collection of soul-shaking groans bounced off the walls of the façade. Translucent green-skinned creatures glided easily through the thick stone, surrounding the two with ferocious snarls and glowing claws.
Loki threw his head back and laughed, "Do you like my new army, Stark? This one is far stronger than those weak Chitauri you slaughtered! These Draugur's are practically invincible!"
Danny heard Tony suck in a breath with a grimace, "Nice going, kid, I'm usually the one that ends up mouthing off," he muttered, flipping his mask back over his face as he sent an energy pulse at a charging ghost.