Thirty One
Bruce, Thor, Clint, and I sat at the kitchen table trying to remember the night before. Clint Barton turned out to be the drunk guy passed out in my yard. Nobody could remember much. But we had enough to piece together that I had called everyone and a bunch of other people to party and drink with me. We had a small fire and plenty of beer. People were having fun playing beer pong or dancing. I really hadn't minded the shower rod strip pole. Between our four fractured memories, we discovered Hydra crashed the party. Everyone fled and the four of us stayed to fight them off. It certainly explained the hole through the three inch steel doors, our combined bruises and my car in the pool.
"Okay, if we managed to solve all that," Clint spoke, stirring his coffee. "Can anyone explain the dog and pig?"
"Seriously, where do you find a pig in Southern California?" Chimed in Bruce.
"That's what I said!" I chirped.
"I still say we roast it!" Thor pounded his fist into the table upsetting everyone's coffee.
"I'll make more." Barton stood. He threw a wet dish towel at the back of Thor's head. It made a terrific sound as it hit the back of the gods head. All four of us laughed. Any other day and the archer would have been running for his life.
"Tony, what has changed? A month ago an event such as this would never happen." Thor said as he cleaned the table.
"I bet this is because of the whole Hydra mess and Fury being dead." Bruce rambled on.
"No. Lana and I had a fight. I think she's gone." I told them, because I wasn't ready to tell my friends that I had really been fucking a guy who magically changed into a girl.
"Dude, I'm sorry. I really liked her too. Even though I only met her the few times we burst in here looking for Loki." Clint tried to comfort, but only resulted in my cringing at Loki's name.
"Friend, Stark. What is your Midgardian saying? There will be other fish?" Thor tried.
"No, it's there's other fish in the sea." Bruce corrected.
"Have you guys seen some of the fish out there. Some of them are pretty scary." I defended myself. "What are we doing about Hydra?" I changed subjects.
"What do you mean? We kill them, that's what we do." Spoke Clint.
"They've come for us, what's to stop them from coming after our loved ones. Pepper, Jane?"
"You still have feelings for Pepper?" Bruce asked.
"You know, I'm getting tired of this conversation. I'm trying to protect the people I care about from Hydra and all you three can think about is who I'm screwing." I stood, raising my voice.
"I apologize."
"Yeah, we're sorry too." Chimed in Bruce. Clint nodded in agreement.
"Cap probably won't like me saying this, but he and Natasha went off to investigate this. I think we should lay low until we hear something from one of them. The tower isn't safe and obviously here isn't either. I have a safe house that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know about. It's big enough to house everyone plus our extended…family…I guess you could say."
"I agree." Thor also stood, clasping my shoulder.
"Thor, I'd normally say Asgard would be the safest for Jane, but with your brother running around, I think you need to stay on earth."
"Speaking of deranged lunatics, his tracker went dead. It last said he was at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. I don't know if it was still inside him and he's dead, or if the tracker is at the bottom of the ocean and he's running free." Barton stood and grabbed his bow from one of kitchen cabinets.
"Where did that come from?" I asked. I shot Bruce an odd look as he looked like he was watching tennis.
"I stuck it in there when I first got here last night." There was a chorus of 'ah's'.
"Well, where do we start?" Thor asked still dumbfounded by the archer's actions.
"Thor, I know you have to get Jane. Bruce? Anyone?" He shook his head no. "Clint?"
"No."
"Okay, you two can help me get some equipment packed. Can we all meet back here in about two hours?
"I will try, as there is more than Jane."
"Okay, let's go."