Awakening

*Mortem steps out of shadows* Cp is unavailable for this disclaimer, so she has bribed me to do it.

*Mortem stares at audience* Cp owns nothing that JK or Disney does.

*Mortem looks around, and vanishes.*

*Crickets*

Tony's POV

By the time we made it to New York...I was barely able to stay in the air. My meager repairs obviously hadn't been enough, and my left thruster kept dying on me as I swerved through the buildings.

Jarvis had locked down the whole Tower besides the penthouse, and the Mark VII was ready for deployment, even though technically it could use a few more days in the shop.

Scowling as I lost even more altitude as my left thruster flickered again, I flew up the side of my Tower and hovered above the roof.

I knew that if I landed I most likely wouldn't get airborne again.

"Shut it down Dr. Selvig!" I yelled sternly, knowing the man from his files and Penny's description of the man. I hoped that he would take my tone as an order, but had a feeling that it wouldn't matter either way.

"Stark!" The man exclaimed as he spun around and beamed at me. My eyebrow twitched, and Jarvis' scan reported that the man was practically bathing in the Tesseract's energy, along with the staff's.

His face twitched, and I swore that the blue in his eyes died for a moment, before it was back as bright as ever. "You're too late! The Tesseract is almost ready...she can't be stopped now!"

I had a feeling that the 'she' Selvig mentioned was Loki's puppetmaster.

I paled as the top of the device holding the Tesseract started spinning, "Jarvis, report!"

"She's shown us all a whole new world...a whole new Universe. So many things are clear now; so many things have been explained!" Selvig's exclamation bordered on hysteria, and was also starting to creep me out.

"Jar?" I asked as I powered up my right repulsor, I needed to know if this thing had any defences…

"Sir the Tesseract's energy is interfering with my scanners…"

I sighed and praying silently, I let the blast fly.

This was a mistake.

Almost instantly a shield stronger than mine appeared around the Tesseract and my blast was redirected as a massive shockwave and Selvig was thrown backwards.

"Crap!" I yelled, and tried to dodge, but the energy was too fast and I was sent tumbling down towards the ground as my suit flickered.

With some difficulty, I managed to straighten up in the air and regain the altitude.

Icons flashed across my cracked screen and Jarvis said, "Sir, the reflective barrier is pure energy, extremely similar to Miss Penny's shields, and ten times stronger than the ones that you've constructed."

"Yeah," I drawled with a scowl. "I noticed."

I then glanced down, and my screen zoomed in to show a smirking Asgardian standing on my balcony, clearly amused.

"Alright, plan B then." I muttered, and told Jarvis to ready the landing platform. Time to go face to face with the puppet.

I had the perfect mask on as I stepped out of my suit, though part of me really wanted to glare at the dark haired man. My expression was lofty and indifferent as I let the last of the damaged suit fall away from my skin.

As I walked past the 'god' I was vaguely aware that I was still wearing my blood covered clothes, but dismissed it. The blood would hopefully throw Loki off a bit.

I didn't even look at Loki as I made my way behind my bar and poured myself a scotch. Pen could chew me out for drinking later, I deserved it.

Obviously fed up with being annoyed Loki spoke first, breaking the silence. "Please tell me that you're here to appeal to my humanity."

I chuckled, and shook my head, Loki definitely had sarcasm down better than his brother did.

"Hmm? Oh, no." I said simply, acting like I just realized he was there. "I'm having a drink, and then I thought that I'd threaten you."

Loki chuckled and gestured towards the platform, "You should have left your armor on for that, human."

"Easier to drink without it on." I commented, "Besides, it's seen a bit of mileage and needs an oil change. Either way, you have that wonderful glow stick of death…"

I shrugged and threw back the drink, almost sighing as the liquor hit the back of my throat.

"I'm being rude," I said, as I poured myself another glass. "What a drink?"

I offered him an empty glass, and actually wondered what would happen if he accepted...boy that would be funny…

"Stalling me won't change anything." Loki stated and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

"Not stalling, threatening at a leisurely pace." I corrected as I swirled the second glass of scotch. "So, no on the drink? Huh, I would've thought that you would've wanted one after today. I mean, it's been one hell of a day."

My heart twitched in agreement and I slid the scotch back onto its shelf before leaning on the counter, the scotch had been expensive (even for me), and I didn't want it broken.

"The Chitauri are coming; nothing will change that." Loki said with a straight face and I almost rolled my eyes. Yeah, he sounded like a robot.

"I never said that they weren't Puppet-boy." I stated with a shrug as I threw back the small amount of scotch that was in my glass. Shaking my head with a sigh, I looked back down to see Loki's face reddening.

Oops, looks like I shouldn't have insulted him.

"Don't insult me mortal!" Loki hissed and I swore that I saw his eyes flash purple. Raising an eyebrow I dropped the glass into the sink.

"Insult you? I'm insulted that you're implying that I was rude to you!" I exclaimed with an air of arrogance. "After all, why would I insult a little pawn like you? If I wanted to insult someone I would insult your little puppet master."

"Who do you think you are arrogant mortal?!" This time I did see Loki's eye flash, and I replied with a smirk.

"Tony Stark: genius, billionaire, philanthropist, former playboy, Iron Man and most importantly I'm a father; who're you?" I quipped, narrowing my eyes as I asked the puppet master for their name. Loki didn't respond and the purple in his eyes didn't reappear either. I mentally cursed, well there went that plan.

"You can do nothing," Loki stated smugly, and I swore that he was saying prerecorded stuff. No interaction at all. "What do I have to fear from you?"

"Avengers, me, my daughter and her little friends, Xavier and his team…" My list would have continued but I decided that he would get my point. "Not counting everyone else, you'll have your hands for with the Avengers. I mean, sure, we're still ironing out the details, but it's sorta like a team thing. They're worse names I suppose." I stated as I slipped the metal bands for the Mark VII out of the cabinet drawer and slipped them on. At least I hadn't left them in the lab.

"Ah, I've met them. You're daughter too." Loki stated, his smug look never faltering.

"Oh, I'm very aware of that." I replied, pushing off the counter and strolling back down into the living room. "I must say, wonderful job getting us all worked up. Didn't take much to get a reaction, but I still think you should do a head count. Let's see, there's your brother God of Thunder, the super soldier, a legend that just might manage to live up to that legend. Then you've got a man with unimaginable anger issues and a very large Multiple Personality Disorder*. Throw in a couple of master spies who double as assassins from time to time, and the other random powerful beings scattered about."

I took a breath and shook my head at Loki, "And you should get an award, because you managed to piss off every single last one."

While I could technically deploy the Mark VII at any time, I was enjoying trying to irritate Loki too much. It was so much fun!

"Well, that was the plan." Loki said as he followed my every move.

"Not really the best plan there," I commented, "because when they all get here, and I have no doubt that they will, they'll all be gunnin' for one person: you."

"I have an army!" Loki stated like it was obvious, and in reality, it was.

"And we have a Hulk!" I rebutted, 'and Death, Hel, Pen, and a very insane little girl.' I added in my mind.

I strolled towards him and literally had to swallow the urge to punch him for what he did to Pen...I was getting that urge a lot today.

"I thought the mindless beast had wandered off." Loki replied with a smirk, and I had to re-swallow the urge.

"Things that wander off have a tendency to wander right back." I stated, irritated that he called Bruce and Hulk a mindless beast. Sure, Hulk was slightly more animalistic, but he wasn't mindless...most of the time.

"But that's not the point, you're not getting it." I said, continuing my little spiel even though I knew it really wouldn't make that much of a difference. "There's nothing here for you. There's no throne, no version of this where you come out on top. You won't be king! You might have an army, your army might be too much for us to handle. Maybe we won't be able to stop you right away, but you better know. If you can't save the world you'll be damn sure that we'll avenge it.

"You don't seem to understand the storm you've walked into. Personally, Loki...I'm sure the hell glad I'm not you." I was being completely honest, though I still eyed the man wearily as he stepped forward.

My shield was still on, and I knew that the staff wouldn't be able to get through, that didn't mean that Loki couldn't give me more bruises on top of my bruises.

"How will your friends have the time to battle me, when they are too busy fighting you?" Loki smirked and the staff seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The scepter didn't pass through my shield, it landed against it and my Arc at the same time. I had reset the shield so that it was more like a second skin. Loki couldn't even see it!

He frowned in confusion and tapped the staff to my chest again. I chuckled, and he scowled at me.

"This usually works." He muttered to himself and I was shocked, he wasn't just a robot puppet!

"Eh, you know, performance issues, they happen all the time." I quipped smugly, point to Team Stark.

Loki's face contorted in anger and I smirked, right on schedule. He lunged at me with a snarl and his hands locked around his neck. Almost faster than I thought I was capable of moving one of my hands gripped Loki's arm and the other punched Loki right in the face.

Ripping away from him as his grip slackened, I twisted around and caught the Asgardian in a headlock.

"Jarvis!" I yelled as I tightened my hold and twisted us towards the window. "Deploy now!"

Loki struggled, but it was pointless, as by the time he tore out of my grip, I had already thrown us into the air.

Once we were in a freefall, I kicked Loki away and spread my arms out wide for the suit's scanners. There was a loud crash and I looked up to see the pod soaring through the air towards me. I glanced over at the Asgardian, who was looking slightly panicked, and imagined how nice it would be if he smashed his face into the pavement…

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be for just as the Mark VII pod caught up to me, Loki lashed out with his magic. The magic crashed into me and sent me spiraling sideways, the pod following me. My leg erupted in burning pain, and somehow I managed not to scream. I glared at Loki, but the magical blast had given him enough momentum that he crashed through a window, back into the Tower.

The whole action had been quick, violent, and I hope that it had hurt like hell.

I scowled as the pod finally read the bracelets and wrapped itself around me. As the metal settled into place the burning in my leg lessoned, adrenaline really was an amazing thing. I just hoped that the damage wasn't too bad.

Twisting in the air, and smiling at the agility of the new suit, I fired up the thrusters just before I hit the ground. Within moments I was hovering in front of the window Loki had crashed into, and I was quite pleased to see that the Asgardian was extremely disheveled.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention." I growled, feeling much better now that I had the Mark VII on. "There's one more person that you managed to piss off."

I flew closer and yelled, "Me!"

Before he could even twitch, I blasted him with my repulsors and he went flying back into the depths of the building.

However, my smug smile disappeared as Jarvis said, "Sir, the Tesseract and central Arc Reactor just spiked. I'm getting extremely high readings of concentrated energy coming from the top of the Tower. It seems that the Tesseract has succeeded in opening a large, stable, interstellar wormhole."

As if in response, the whole Tower shook with the force and I could literally feel the shift in the air. Glancing up, I saw bright blue beam in the sky giving way to a large rift right above the city.

Instantly, what I assumed where the Chitari poured out of the wormhole and I narrowed my eyes as I engaged my suit.

It had begun.

Soooo...I know not a lot of Penny in this chapter, but oh well! Tony, you rock! ^.^

Hope you enjoyed it,

Review if you feel like it! (please feel like it^.~)
Cp