Chapter 20 – Avengers Assemble

The Helicarrier was quiet. Agents moved around in silence, making repairs and doing their best to keep the damaged craft stable. Only one hour had taken its toll on everyone.

On the bridge, Fury had gathered the remaining heroes. Captain America, Iron Man, Archangel, Sif, and Carrie all sat around the conference table in silence, each bearing their own looks of moroseness and sorrow. Even Stark, the normally witty inventor, had nothing to say. Agent Hill stood in the corner, looking just as awful.

Natasha was not present, as she was busy tending to Agent Barton. Fury, understanding her dilemma, made no attempt to stop the Black Widow. As for Claire Voyant, nobody had seen her since Coulson died. She had been telling the truth when she said no one would be able to find her.

Everybody looked up as Fury strode in, carrying a stack of cards. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket."

He through them across the table, and everybody saw that they were bloodstained. Soladat closed her eyes tightly, trying not to cry. Carrie's eyes were already red from crying earlier, and seeing the blood forced her to turn her head away. Steve looked down at the cards, and suddenly felt sick.

Fury noticed. "Guess he never did get you to sign them."

Fury looked at the group, and gave a pitiful sigh, looking down. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Lewis, Hikesh. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye."

Fury gave a dark chuckle. "Maybe I had that coming."

He paused for a moment, staring out at the bridge, watching the BridgeTechs carry out their duties. He stared back at the group, looking remorseful.

"Yes, I admit it." He said, and everyone looked at him confused. "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."

Stark visibly tensed at those words, and Fury noticed.

"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."

Fury sighed. "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

Tony suddenly stood up, and looked livid. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he just shook his head and left the room. Fury watched him go, and sighed.

"Well, it's an old fashion notion."

Soladat got up next, and looked at Fury hard. Her eyes were red, and she looked absolutely broken. She shook her head at him.

"I'm sorry, Nick."

And with that, she left as well. Sif noticed how upset Fury seemed, and spoke up.

"Do not blame them." She said, and Fury was surprised by how sincere her voice sounded. "We have all been through a lot in these past moments. The loss of friends can take its toll on anyone."

"Coulson was a good man." Steve said.

"And a good friend." Carrie mentioned, and Steve gave her a smile, and looked back at Fury.

"But we can't keep wallowing on losses." He said. "His killer is still out there, and he needs to be brought to justice."

"Aye." Sif agreed. "As long as I am standing, I will make sure Loki faces judgment for his crimes."

Fury smiled in appreciation, but then frowned. "It may take a lot of persuasion to get everyone else to play along, though."

ooooo

Bruce groaned and blinked, squinting as light shined in his eyes. Slowly, he rubbed his head and sat up, and looked around to see he was lying in a giant pile of rubble in an abandoned building. He looked down to see that he was also completely naked.

"Oh, shit…" He murmured.

"You fell out of the sky." A voice said, and Bruce turned around to see an aged security guard. Bruce sighed in guilt.

"Did I hurt anyone?"

"There's nobody around here to get hurt." The guard remarked, and then chuckled. "You did scare the hell out of some pigeons though."

Bruce laughed. "Must've been lucky."

"Don't count on it." A familiar voice said, and Bruce looked over to see Hikesh, who was now in his normal form, standing nearby with his arms crossed.

"Your uh… friend here put you to sleep after you crashed." The guard said. "You were awake when you fell."

Bruce smiled sheepishly. "You saw?"

"The whole thing." The guard said, smiling. "Fell through the ceiling. Big and green and buck ass nude. Your friend came through a few feet away. Blasted you with some kinda green light, and you just dropped dead."

Bruce looked over at Hikesh. "Thanks."

Hikesh shrugged. "I just did what was necessary."

The guard took out a pair of trousers, and tossed them to Bruce. "Here."

Bruce caught them. "I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size, fella."

Bruce slipped into the pants, and nodded at the guard. "Thank you."

Hikesh marched down from his perch, and came up to Bruce. "Now that that is over, we must figure out what to do next. Loki is still out there."

"Right." Bruce said sarcastically. "Can't have that."

"Do you know where we could go?" Hikesh asked.

Bruce thought for a moment, and then looked up at Hikesh. "Stark Tower."

Hikesh blinked, visibly confused. "That building in New York? Why...?"

"Before the lab exploded, I traced the Tesseract's energy signature to Stark Tower." Bruce explained. "That's our best bet at finding Loki, and if we're lucky, the others have found him already."

Hikesh thought it over. "Very well. Let us proceed."

"I can help you get there." The guard interjected. The two stared at him. "You can borrow my motorcycle. Can get you anywhere within a few hundred miles."

"Great." Bruce said, but then frowned. "Where are we exactly?"

"Chemung County." The guard answered.

"Oh, great." Bruce said. "That's only like fifty miles away."

Hikesh nodded, and followed Bruce and the guard out. The guard then looked over at the two, curious.

"So, you guys aliens?"

Bruce blinked. "What?"

"Aliens." The guard said. "You know from outer space?"

"Er… I'm not." Bruce said, and then motioned to Hikesh. "He is."

Hikesh didn't face them. "It's a very long story."

"Huh." The guard said, impressed. He then looked at Bruce. "Well, son, I think you've got a condition."

ooooo

Soladat moved through the Helicarrier, just wanting to be alone. She just lost the man who she had come to think of as her best friend. The man who first convined her to join S.H.I.E.L.D. Soladat smiled, remembering how they met. How she took out all of his men, and then aimed the gun at his head. It took him twenty minutes to talk her out of pulling the trigger.

As Soladat was moving through a long hallway running along the exterior region of the ship, she stopped and glared when she say Claire standing in front of a port-side window, gazing out at the sky.

"You." Soladat hissed. Claire didn't face her.

"Are you here for comfort, Agent Wrekk?" Claire said plainly. "That's not really my area of expertise."

Soladat just marched up to Claire, turned her to face her, and slapped her across the face. Claire didn't even flinch. In fact it didn't heart. She just turned her head back, and Soladat was angry at her utter indifference.

"You bitch!" Soladat hissed. "He was dying, and you were right there! You could have helped him!"

"Could I really?" Claire sneered. "I take lives, Agent Wrekk. I don't save them. When Death comes calling, I prefer not to interfere. I couldn't save him even if I wanted to."

Soladat glared at the hellspawn. "You could have at least killed the bastard that did it."

Claire chuckled darkly. "Believe me I wanted to. But not everyone gets what they want. Not even me."

Claire slowly turned back to look at the clouds. "I've existed for more than century, Archangel. Even after my little change, I still don't know shit."

Soladat blinked at the woman, and looked at her thoughtfully. "How did you end up like this?"

Claire sighed. This was a story she did not like to share. But even in her dark, poisoned soul, she felt that the winged agent deserved some information. Even after all she went through.

"It was nearly a century ago. Ninety-seven years to be exact. I was a young mousy woman, trying to juggle work, a steady relationship, and balancing my checkbook." She explained. "I barely even remember what my parents were like than, other than they were never around. All I had was my sister, Debbie. We were always really close."

Claire sighed. "Things started to go downhill when she met this man. A man named Lester Maddox." Claire's eyes narrowed in hatred as she remembered that man. "He was a bastard. A dirty, lying bastard. I hated him from the start. Always drinking, and he even once asked that I take part in a threesome with him and Debbie."

Soladat's eyes widened, and listened intently. "I tried to get Debbie out of being with Maddox, but she was too engrossed in the life of money and privilege he gave her, no matter how shady."

Claire's eyes closed, and for the first time, she looked sad. "One night, Maddox shot Debbie dead. Why? I don't know, and I don't really care. All that mattered to me was that my little sister was gone, taken from the world."

Soladat gaped at the woman. "Well what happened to Maddox?"

"I wanted him brought to justice." Claire said, fuming. "But he was so well connected in organized crime that nobody dared touch him. I wanted revenge. I wanted to make him suffer."

Soladat's eyes widened, and she backed away slightly from the woman. "What did you do?"

"After she was buried, I spent several weeks by Debbie's grave. Then, one night, as I was leaving, he came to me." Claire said, smiling sadistically.

"Who?" Soladat said, confused.

"Mephisto." Claire said. "The creature that I am now forced to call my master. He appeared to me in the form of an old man, with the darkest eyes I had ever seen. He told me that he had those who cheated deals with him, and due to the limits of his power, he could not place judgment on them. So he offered me a deal."

"He offered me the power to get revenge on Debbie's killer and in exchange I would vow to be his servant to eliminate those who had cheated him. I agreed and he gave me a fragment of his powers." Then, Claire's smile turned cold and sadistic. "The moment I got my powers, I went to Maddox's home. He was the first."

Soladat's eyes were wide with shock. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the woman, but at the same time she was slightly scared of her.

Claire continued to speak. "After Maddox, I made sure that the targets I chose deserved death in some way. But as the years went by, I started to grow addicted to the art of killing. I time I started punishing those who wronged me, annoyed me, or just got in the way of things. I turned my duty into an art."

"Art?" Soladat said incredulously. "Taking peoples' lives isn't art! It's slaughter!"

"Don't judge me, Agent Wrekk." Claire said boredly. "You've dedicated your life to killing. Your no better."

"What I do is different." Soladat said, angrily. "I don't condemn peoples' souls to eternal torment."

"Whatever." Claire said. "Call me heartless if you wish. Murderer, psychopath, witch, demon, hedonist. I've been called all of those things, and it never changes anything."

Soladat scoffed, and looked out the window. She crossed her arms, and thought for a moment. Then she turned back to Claire.

"Look, I'm sure playing along with others isn't part of your criteria." She looked at Claire, who looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. "But we need your help to save our world. You can either do that, or crawl back whatever hell you came from."

Claire watched Soladat leave, and sighed, staring back out into the great blue sky.

ooooo

Steve entered the detention cell, and found Tony standing on the ledge and staring down at where the cell had dropped. Tony briefly acknowledges Steve's presence.

"Was he married?" Steve asked.

"No." Tony said, shaking his head. "There was a… cellist, I think..."

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

"He was an idiot." Tony said bluntly, and marched down from his location and moved towards the door. But Steve stopped him.

"For what?" He said, glaring. "For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone." Tony bit back, glaring.

"He was doing his job." Steve argued. But Tony just rolled his eyes and turned away from Steve.

"He was out of his league." Tony rested his hands against the railings, shaking his head. "He should have waited. He should have..."

"Sometimes there isn't always a way out, Tony." Steve said. Tony just scoffed.

"Yeah. How did that work for him?"

Steve frowned at the inventor. "Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

Suddenly, Tony whipped around to face Steve, and he hissed with anger. "We are not soldiers!"

Steve frowned at Tony, who took a deep breath. "I'm not marching into Fury's fife."

"Well neither am I." Steve said back. "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..."

Tony was staring at the bloodstain on the wall. Where Coulson died.

"He made it personal." Tony interrupted.

Steve shook his head. "That's not the point."

"It is the point." Tony said, thinking. "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

Steve shrugged. "To tear us apart."

"He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?" Tony hypothesized, and Steve listened curiously. "That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, but he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

Steve started to catch on and nodded. "Right, I caught his act in Stuttgart."

Tony nodded. "Yeah. But that's just previews. This... 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 stopped short, and his eyes widened in realization. Steve blinked in confusion. Tony's arms went slack.

"Son of a bitch."

ooooo

Darcy, clad in her Asgardian garb, marched through the field of flowers to where Mjolnir crashed. After Loki ejected her from the Helicarrier, she was able to escape from the cell by breaking through the weakened glass. Thoughts of Loki's confession buzzed through her head. But she couldn't dwell on personal feelings right now.

She came across Mjolnir, and found it wedged perfectly in the ground, just as it was when she first found it in Puente Antiguo one year ago. She reached for it, but before she could, a feeling of uncertainty came over her.

Darcy found herself clouded with thoughts of doubt. She tried to stop Loki once. She failed, and someone else paid the price for it. Was she really cut out for this?

Suddenly, the hammer seemed to shimmer with light, and Darcy was suddenly remembering her chat with Odin in Asgard one year ago…

Odin gazed down at the young mortal and the weapon she carried.

"You may have stopped the Frost Giants, but your recent actions may have made your own realm a target. Other worlds will now believe Midgard is ready for a higher form of war." Odin explained. "There will always be threats to your world, Darcy Lewis. With Mjolnir in your hands, you might be the only way of stopping them."

Darcy looked wide-eyed. "Me? But I'm just one person! I can't fight a war by myself!"

"With the power of Mjolnir, you alone may have the strength of an entire army." Odin said. "Now you must go, and protect your realm, as I must protect mine."

Darcy looked down at Mjolnir, studying it again. She noticed it flash briefly with energy, and she could almost feel it embracing her touch. Looking determined, Darcy gripped the handle, and looked back at Odin.

"Alright." Darcy said. "I'll do it."

Darcy's face looked determined now. Odin was right. She couldn't let her world suffer. Now with more confidence than before, Darcy gripped Mjolnir, and lifted it up into the sky. The clouds above darkened and crackled with electricity.

Then, a bolt of lightning came down from the clouds and struck Mjolnir, and the electricity traveled down to Darcy's body. Like magic, the damage done to her armor repaired itself, and now looked ready for battle.

Then, jerking Mjolnir forward, Darcy flew off into the air.

"Loki," Darcy whispered, "I am gonna wipe the floor with your scrawny ass!"

ooooo

Natasha undid the restraints keeping Clint down on the medical bed. He slowly stood up, and walked over to the sink to wash his face. Natasha blinked when Steve suddenly came in through the door. He looked at her seriously.

"Time to go."

Natasha blinked. "Go where?"

"I'll tell you on the way." Steve said. "Can you fly one of those jets?"

"I can." Clint said from his point in the room. Steve frowned at the archer, and then looked back at Natasha, who nodded in reassurance.

Steve nodded at Clint. "You got a suit?"

Clint nodded. "Yeah."

"Then suit up."

The three agents quickly left the room, and saw Soladat pass by.

"Archangel." Steve said, and SOladat turned to them. "Gear up. We're leaving."

Soladat's eyes widened. "You know where Loki is?"

Steve nodded. "Yup. It's time to take the fight to him."

Suddenly, Sif appeared, looking at the group with serious eyes. "Your saying you found Loki?"

Steve nodded, and Sif stepped forward. "I'm going with you."

Steve didn't argue. "Okay. Follow us."

"I'm going, too."

Everyone turned to see Carrie standing there. Steve looked unsure. "Carrie, I don't think…"

"Save it." Carrie said. "Coulson died doing what he believed what was right. If I die today, it'll be because I tried doing what I thought was right, too."

Impressed with the girl's statement, Steve nodded. "Alright. Come on."

Soladat stopped Carrie, and looked her down. "You might want to wear something more protective, though. But don't worry, I got you covered."

Carrie nodded, and followed the group into the imminent struggle.

Yes! The Avengers are finally together! Next chapter, the war begins. Duh duh duh! Lol.

Btw, Claire's backstory in this is canon. I didn't make it up. I told it mainly to show that the bitch did have some traces of humanity left in her bitter soul.

Well, read, review, and enjoy life. Later.