Long time to see, everyone! My sincere apologies for this. Studies and health as always throw a spanner in the works (though to be fair, lack of inspiration also played a role…). Am I happy with this chapter? No. But then, am I ever? I'm totally not sure if I'm making much sense because it's been too long since CATWS, I don't actually know how computers work, yada yada, but. This is fanfiction, where you do whatever you want with reality so. Just pretend it's all fictionally logical XD

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: "Why don't you sit down, Mr Friggason, and all will be explained," J.A.R.V.I.S. said.

Loki shuffled over to the chair next to Tony's, the huge duvet wrapped tightly around his mostly naked frame. Tony held out his hand and Loki grabbed it and held it uncomfortably tightly. Still not feeling well, then.

And while Steve sighed and Phil groaned, J.A.R.V.I.S. started over his presentation, this time lingering on each event in order to explain Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra history to their Jötunn resident.

CHAPTER 43

Tony kept an eye on Loki's face as well as on the bond while the existence of Hydra, from its origins to its very real-looking grasp on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current assets, was explained. At the end of the powerpoint, Tony was sure that A, Loki was too tired to understand the half of it – though it didn't show on his face at all – and B, Loki would base his opinion on the matter on what Tony thought.

That was both a flattering and terrifying prospect. Loki had, after all, commented on Tony's recklessness more than once, and he sure wasn't the only one. Loki was supposed to be the voice of wisdom here. The millennia-old guy who thought complex situations through before acting. Maybe he should have waited until Loki was back to his more energetic, calculating self.

Now the only voice of reason was magically-resurrected and maybe-brainwashed Phil, and it clearly wasn't enough to keep Cap's righteousness in check. Tony didn't want to get himself involved in the mess that was S.H.I.E.L.D. – he had Loki and Asgard and Thanos on his plate already. But Hydra did need taking care of. How could anything be planned inter-galactically if Tony's backyard could implode at any given moment? And Tony suspected that implosion would happen sooner rather than later; with one Stone off-planet and another pledged to be on its way as well, Hydra was getting desperate enough to hire poorly-trained mercenaries.

"Tony, you said Zola was still involved earlier. What does that mean?" Steve had a damn good memory for a ninety-year-old.

"Oh, just that he was a genius that kind of transferred his brain into a supercomputer so he could live forever? No biggie."

Phil scrubbed his face in a 'are you fucking kidding me' kind of gesture, though whether it was because of the facts or the way Tony put it he had no idea. Meanwhile, Steve mouthed the word 'supercomputer' with clear bemusement.

"Also, while we're reminiscing about World War Two relics, it looks like you're not the only super-soldier out there, Cap. I don't have enough info to be sure but it looks like the Soviets got some serum somehow in the Cold War and made what they call Winter Soldiers, like, super-assassins or something? It's the kind of thing I would totally expect Hydra and Zola to be involved in, no?"

"So you're saying Zola is in a computer?" Steve said with a frown. Completely ignoring the very important fact that there were more super-soldiers out there.

"I guess I am." Whether you considered Zola just the software or both the hardware and software didn't really matter.

"Where is he?"

Tony looked Phil's way instead. "Maybe I should keep that information to myself until we can make plans."

Steve sprung up from his seat, kicking the coffee table hard enough to make everything on it spring off and clatter to the floor. The shattering of glass made the whole room pause.

Tony calmy uncrossed his legs and crossed them the other way. "Steve. If I tell you where Zola is, you're just going to Hulk smash the whole thing. Don't you think we should capture and interrogate instead of kill our enemy?"

"Tony. How many times has Zola escaped punishment and made things worse?" Steve passed a hand through his hair and exhaled loudly. He let himself fall back on the couch, making the poor thing groan. "I get where you're coming from, but aren't you saying all of this stems from Zola?" he said, waving at the projection.

"Yeah, but it's not like flicking the kill switch will undo anything. We need more information. Zola might have that. Or he might not. It looks like he might not even be connected to the internet, so who knows, either he doesn't direct much of Hydra anymore, or they use a middleman to pass information along, or our information is outdated and his supercomputer collapsed from old age already."

"And what? You're not going to go there to find out?"

"I," Tony said, emphasising the word, "am not going anywhere at the moment. And besides, we need to be careful about this. The moment you or me turn up anywhere near Zola, alarm bells will ring in every Hydra-infiltrated facility, AKA everywhere. And given that there are some big boys with big guns involved, we sure as hell don't want to trigger any alarms."

"Are you saying you know who is involved with Hydra?" Phil asked, eagerly leaning forward.

"I wish. A convenient member manifesto would have been awesome. No, I can't be sure, but there are some pretty strong hints for some. Like, Secretary Alexander Pierce."

"Pierce," Phil repeated breathlessly.

"He has his fingers in so many pies at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if he was the current head of Hydra. Or one of the heads, since if you cut one off many more pop up, right? And that's the crux – we need to cut off so many heads at once that the organism doesn't have enough energy to regenerate anymore."

"No one-manned missions," Phil said, looking at Tony intently as if Tony hadn't just said that A, he wasn't getting his hands dirty here, and B, they needed a world-wide strike that obviously would involve a lot of people working at the same time.

"See, Steve, the Deputy Director of the good side of S.H.I.E.L.D. just said no sneaking off to find Zola."

"I didn't say that. I think we should find Zola to interrogate him," Phil said. "Zola will be monitored, so we need someone specialised in infiltration for that."

"If you're thinking of Nat, let me stop you right there," Tony interrupted. "I know you have a history with her and all, but Hydra are skilled. And Nat already changed sides once. We can't be sure who's trustworthy, and we can't take the risk of talking to the wrong people. Same goes for Clint. We can't involve him."

"I can tell when people are lying," Loki said. Tony had almost forgotten he was there at all, he had been silent for so long.

"Not that I don't believe you, cheri, but can you do that with someone as skilled as a superspy when you look like death warmed over?" Loki's lips thinned, but the emotions coming over the bond weren't anger or hurt, but just gloom and tiredness. "When you're better we can discreetly interrogate them while you lie-detect them, yeah?"

"I'd go myself, but now that I'm Deputy Director my face will be on every Hydra watchlist too," Phil said grimly.

"Even if you weren't, you have another issue."

"And that is?"

"Tahiti?"

"—it's a magical place," Phil tacked on and grimaced. Steve looked at them quizzically. "We need to get other people involved eventually."

"Apart from Bruce I can't say there's anyone else here that we can trust for sure," Tony said. "Can you really say you trust anyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. enough?"

Silence fell. A suggestion came from the least probable corner. "What about Agent May?" Loki asked.

"I would trust her with my life, but if we are rejecting people for being good spies, then we can't involve her."

"I think she would not be involved with Hydra if you are not," Loki countered.

"I'm not involved—" Phil started, frowning deeply.

"How do you know?" Tony asked Loki.

Loki glanced at Phil, hesitating. "Because of her feelings for the Deputy Director," he finally said.

"What feelings?" Phil asked. His eyes were widening, looking intently at Loki for more information.

Tony hummed, getting the gist. "Are you sure?"

"It is quite obvious." Loki sounded certain, and as a millennia-old guy, surely he'd seen more romance than the entire Hallmark database of romance movies.

Phil's face visibly heated. "Melinda doesn't— No. I mean, I'm not her type—"

"You know people don't always fall for what they think their type is, right?" Tony said. He realised he was pushing this issue too much when Phil's flustered expression turned into a glare.

"You of all people don't get to comment on romantic relationships, given your track record. And the fact you have a soulmate literally fallen from heaven."

"Excuse you, my soulmate is no angel, thank God. He teleported from outer space like any sane magical alien."

Loki chuckled humourlessly. "I was hardly sane."

"Whatever. If you'd been, you'd still have teleported, right? And anyway, our relationship isn't the point, we're talking about May here. If she's on our side, then she would be a good candidate for Zola-hunting. She's not going to be on Hydra's radar as much as any of us celebrities." Tony looked at Phil pointedly. "You can bring her in here with a good, very not-suspicious excuse, right?" Without waiting for an answer – it wasn't a question, after all – Tony turned to Loki. "You're sure you're up to lie-detecting?"

"Yes." It wasn't a lie, but Tony wasn't convinced Loki really knew what he could or couldn't do in this state. "Agent May is much easier to read than the Black Widow," Loki added.

"Okay. Fine. We can bring May in for supposedly unwell Asgardian babysitting duty, or something. Like, what if I have to work in the lab and there's no one to protect Loki from more kidnapping attempts? The rest of the Avengers have other important business to attend to, I'm sure. So obviously, Phil would put his best agent on the case."

Both Loki and Phil glared at him, but they didn't reject the excuse he'd served them on a silver platter. Really, why was he doing all the work? And speaking of work…

"I do actually have to go to the lab. I have to make a portable offline J.A.R.V.I.S. with a hacking system that accommodates a whole range of old-school hardware connectors, because I don't think Zola's computerised self comes with USB."

Tony stood and gestured at Phil and Steve. "You're on nurse duty." He practically ran out the room with three people calling after him with varying amounts of exasperation. Once in the elevator he said to J.A.R.V., "I'm counting on you."

He didn't have to explain he was talking about Loki. The answering "Of course, Sir," had a softness to it that said it all. Only then did Tony manage to breathe easier and concentrate on this next mission.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Despite his attempts to the contrary Loki had dozed off, and the sharp knock on the door had him sitting upright in an instant, the knocking now coming from inside his own head as his headache flared. Loki waved a hand at the air, not yet certain words could pass his throat until he had drank some water. J.A.R.V.I.S. reacted instantly, and the door swung open as if on its own accord.

Agent May strode in. They eyed each other, and she crossed her arms. "Apparently you need a bodyguard, so here I am. I hope you don't expect a nurse, 'cause I'm not the mothering kind."

Loki cleared his throat. "Why hello, Agent May. How nice to see you again." His voice sounded pathetically raspy.

"Cut the crap. What am I here for, really?"

He cocked his head. "What do you think you are here for?"

"I said, cut the crap. You're you, and this is Stark Tower. You don't need me."

"I cannot agree more. Unfortunately I have also been overruled—" His sentence finished into an incontrollable bout of coughing. While fortuitous, he couldn't have planned it better himself. Despite her not being the 'mothering kind', Agent May immediately handed him the glass of water.

"So you're not faking it, huh." She took the chair propped against the wall that Bruce often used and sat down, arms crossed and legs spread, affecting a sense of both superiority and boredom.

"By Yggdrasil, why would I want to pathetically lay here all day?"

Agent May shrugged. "If you're trying to escape something worse."

"Do you mean like being held hostage by insane Midgardians, perhaps? I would think appearing vulnerable would be the last thing anyone would do."

"Yeah, well, you're not anyone. So who knows."

Loki let a smile slowly creep up his face. "You're clever. I like you."

Agent May only looked taken aback for a fraction of a second. "The feeling's not mutual."

"Liar."

She scoffed. "I hate narcissistic megalomaniacs. Why do I have to deal with them all the time now, seriously?"

"What megalomaniacs are you referring to?"

"You, your boy-toy, Fury. The list grows day by day."

"Just three? How disappointing."

"Why, are you looking to get rid of the competition? Don't worry, I'm sure another one will pop up soon, you all seem to attract each other like magnets. Two weeks ago I was minding my own business on the other side of the country, and the moment I was reassigned to Phil, I got three megalomaniacs nagging me within days. Obviously I lost my luck somewhere when I flew over the Rockies."

"I'm surprised Deputy Director Coulson doesn't make your megalomaniac list."

As expected, Agent May immediately bristled. "Don't you dare act like you know Phil."

Loki smirked. Time to get to the point; he was tired. "Do I detect tender feelings for your superior?"

"Wha— Hell, no. You're not good at reading people, are you?"

Loki simply maintained his smirk, despite the attempt at defamation of character. He was, after all, right. Agent May had just lied, it was plain as day. His instincts had been correct. Not that he had doubted it, but he had confirmed it for Tony's sake.

Loki propped himself up more and grabbed the tablet Tony had abandoned on the bed when he left for his workshop. Not for work, though – Loki could feel how intent Tony was on his side of the bond, like a presence pressed up against his mind. He had no doubt J.A.R.V.I.S. was relaying this conversation to the workshop via his many eyes.

Time to interrogate Agent May about her true loyalties, then. "Since you are not required to do much more than sit around, would you mind helping me with my required studies? I am learning Midgardian history—"

"Let me stop you right there. I'm no history expert. Besides, can't Stark drum up a curriculum or something?"

"J.A.R.V.I.S. did so indeed. It is simply that not everything is available in these history books. I am interested in the emergence of S.H.I.E.L.D., you see."

Agent May narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

Loki painted surprise over his features. "From what I understand, relations between Midgard and other Realms will be, if not entirely with S.H.I.E.L.D., at least mediated by it. As an Asgardian I would like to know who I am dealing with; the Allfather certainly will. Would it not be easier if I were to explain Midgardian concepts to Asgard, given my experience of both Realms?"

"Wouldn't Thor be a better choice for that? I heard you're considered a traitor in that Realm of yours."

Loki waved her off. Time to stretch the truth. "Those reports are highly exaggerated. Thor is not exactly a reliable source of information on my supposed treachery. It was him I had a disagreement with, not the Allfather or Asgard – he is hardly unbiased on the matter. Besides, did my brother and I not reconcile before he went home? He is now the one pleading my case in Asgard, since I am likely falsely believed to be an ally of the Mad Titan, even though I was magically coerced."

He certainly hoped Thor had indeed spoken to Odin on his behalf the moment he went back, and not, as was his habit, gone drinking with his friends until he needed to sleep off the hangover for three days straight.

"Fine. But you realise S.H.I.E.L.D. is a secret organisation for a reason, yes? Information is need to know, so if I think you don't need to know, you won't know, understood?"

"Certainly. I am simply attempting to understand the broad strokes that have influenced recent history." Agent May gestured at him to go on; or perhaps, given the sharpness of her movements, to get on with it. "I was especially interested in the organisation that caused the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra."

"Why am I not surprised that the first thing you ask about is Nazis?"

"I am merely interested because of Hydra's fascination with the Tesseract."

"Something you have in common, then."

Loki lifted an eyebrow. "I do believe S.H.I.E.L.D. shared that fascination as well. Are you saying S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra are made of the same cloth?"

Agent May jerked up in her seat. "Don't you dare compare S.H.I.E.L.D. to those arseholes! Hydra— They didn't care about people, they cared about power! S.H.I.E.L.D. is all about protecting people!"

"Ah, my apologies. I only had limited information at my disposal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Hydra organisation was at least centuries old, yes?"

"I think so? I told you, history's not my department." She frowned. "What kind of books have you been reading? Pretty sure Hydra isn't on any college curriculum."

Loki ignored that accurate assessment. "From my readings, Midgardian cults have a tendency to come and go, and rare are those that truly last the centuries, yet Hydra did. Are you certain Hydra was defeated in… What was the name? World War Two?"

"Of course we ended Hydra!" This did not look like a lie on her part, but it was not enough to decidedly rule her true to S.H.I.E.L.D.. "And why don't you ask Captain America about this? He was actually there."

"Was he not lost before the end of the organisation?"

"No. Captain America defeated the head of Hydra, Red Skull, and that ended Hydra itself." Given the information Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S. had found, that was not true in any shape or form. However, what was important was whether Agent May believed this propaganda – and she did, Loki was certain now. What he was not certain about was whether Tony would believe his assessment, since he was still 'unwell'. He would add one more confirmation.

"Are you certain? If an organisation like Hydra persists on Midgard the Allfather will need—"

"Yes, I'm fucking certain. If Hydra was still around do you really think we'd just be sitting around talking about it instead of eradicating them?"

"I see that you are telling the truth."

Agent May glared. "Why would I lie about something like this?" Her frown deepened. "What is this? Why are you really asking about Hydra? Don't tell me you're some sort of fan of those world domination-bent sickos—"

"Let me stop you right there," said Tony's voice from the ceiling. Agent May sprung up from her chair. "He was asking because this was an interrogation, not because he has a rule-the-world hobby."

"One doesn't preclude the other," Loki answered with a smirk.

"Darling, don't make things difficult. This isn't about you, it's about May. And congrats, May, you pass the test. Phil will be over in a minute. Maybe… mentally prepare yourself to have your mind blown, and not in a good way."

"What—" she said, but Tony ignored her.

"Lokes, how about you go back to resting up, hmm?"

Loki very much wanted to tell Tony he could decide whether he needed rest all by himself, but he knew Tony still had a lot of work to do linked to this Hydra situation, so he acquiesced. Tony would soon enough be back to concentrating on his work, and he would not notice whether Loki was resting or reading. He had only been told the short version of what Tony had found out about S.H.I.E.L.D., and he rather would like to read through the files himself.

There was a knock on the door and Deputy Director Coulson stepped inside. "Thank you," he said to Loki.

"It was my pleasure." Before Coulson could turn his attention to Agent May, Loki added, "I was right. On both counts."

"Both?" It took a few seconds for Coulson's expression to transform. "Oh." The reddening of his face truly did not suit him.

"Phil, what on earth is going on?" Agent May asked.

"Come, I'll explain everything."

It was only after the door closed that Loki felt the wave of exhaustion hit him. He reluctantly lied down again. So much for learning more about the dangers Tony was facing. Though he supposed regaining strength was the best help he could be.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., will you keep an eye on Tony for me?"

"Of course, Mr Friggason. I always do."

The lights of the room dimmed to an artificial dusk, and Loki's consciousness followed.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Tony rubbed his eyes before scrutinising the circuit board once more, Butterfingers holding the magnifying glass for him. He added another tiny dollop of solder, then another. He had to go agonisingly slow and he hated it. Especially with two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stoically looking over his shoulder. Metaphorically speaking. He'd forced them to sit down a couple of workbenches away when they wouldn't stop hovering.

Turns out, when you're bone tired, neither your eyes nor your hands will cooperate. Who knew? Tony had often worked through the night, he'd often worked drunk off his arse, and yet he'd never felt as inept as he was right now. It was like he was working 20,000 leagues under the sea; terrible visibility and water pressure pushing on his limbs.

This better be one hundred percent because Loki had vampired his energy, and not because he was getting older. Tony Stark getting too old to make his own Iron Man suits by hand? Nuh-uh. Not gonna happen. He'd bioengineer himself new eyes and arms before he let that happen.

He was glad when he finally put the soldering iron down. He checked the whole system over, and gave the miniaturised Arc reactor a last loving pat. Since it turned out his Arc reactors were a bit magical and apparently reacted favourably to his touch, well. Why not act like they were a little bit alive, right? "I'm counting on you, Mini-Archie-One," he whispered. Yes, he'd named this Arc reactor, so what?

"J.A.R.V.," he said out loud. "How's it looking?"

"Ready to go, Sir."

"Perfect." He clicked the outer shell of seemingly-strange-looking-external-drive-but-actually-cloned-J.A.R.V.I.S. in place. "Start uploading your Mini-me."

"Commencing upload. Estimated time, one hour and twenty-two minutes."

Tony turned to Starsky and Hutch. "So, I assume you've been briefed?"

May scowled in a very agent-y way. "Do you mean have I been told about the shitshow of Hydra looking like stage-four cancer, or about the stupidity of a one-manned mission to who knows where – or should I say you know where – to, what? Hack into the artificial brains behind pretty much all of Hydra?"

"Yeah, that," Tony said. May's scowl deepened exponentially. "And don't worry, I'm not asking you to hack into anything. J.A.R.V.I.S. will do the hacking. You're just our undercover transporter slash wire-connecter slash distraction. You're a spy, aren't you? It can't be that hard."

"I'm not a damn spy—"

Tony waved her off. "S.H.I.E.L.D.'s a secret agency, you're all spies."

May's mouth had already formed into an angry snarl, scathing response ready on her tongue no doubt, but Phil's hand slamming down on the nearest workbench silenced her. "Stark, can you for once in your life not be a pain in the arse?"

"Let me think… No. Sorry. I don't know how not to be a pain in the arse. Many people have tried to teach me, but for some reason it never stuck."

"Is that reason because you never tried?" May said.

"Melinda, please don't enable him," Phil said.

They stared at each other for quite a while, and Tony could see May visibly reign in her… well, her own pain-in-the-arse behaviour. Given how quickly she stopped scowling once Phil looked her way, Tony guessed Loki must be right about her feelings after all. That woman had odd tastes. But then, she was odd. Undoubtedly a S.H.I.E.L.D. recruitment requirement.

Phil's eyes turned back to him. "Now, Sta— Tony. How about you finally reveal your grand plan so I can tell you whether we're actually doing this or not."

"What do you mean, whether we're doing this? My plan is genius!"

"And last time I looked, I'm still the Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and you're still considered a volatile character who didn't actually pass the screening test for the Avengers."

"That just shows you how flawed your tests are. Now, the plan's simple. May infiltrates the Hydra camp – I'm sure you can both figure out how to do that bit – and goes to Zola. From the files we have, which ain't much mind you, it looks like the supercomputer's somewhere underground. It's an old military camp, so maybe look for a bunker or something. Once you're in, you gotta find a way to plug mini-J.A.R.V.I.S. in. As you can see, I gave you many plug-n-play options here." Tony pointed at the bouquet of cables sticking out of the casing. "I've got no idea if Hydra modernised the interface at any point, so you've got some front-of-the-central-unit ones and some directly-in-a-mainframe-server ones. J.A.R.V. will give you a crash-course on sticking male connectors into their female equivalents."

"Even the nerds only think with their dicks, huh," May scoffed.

"Last time I checked, nerds back in the day were all guys so, duh."

"Is that a floppy disk?" Phil asked.

"I really hope we'll have another option because it will be slow as hell, but yeah, that's a floppy disk, but on steroids, and wired directly into mini-J.A.R.V.. It can even expand to fit the different sizes from the 70s to the 80s. I'd rather we connect directly to a server but hey, we'll take whichever. Some connections are obviously quicker than others, and I doubt you'll want to hang out with Zola for too long. The point is to download a copy of Zola, once he's been incapacitated with a virus. That will be mini-J.A.R.V.I.S.' job. There are two separate hard drives in here, one for J and one for Zola. J will have be able to manipulate Zola's drive, but not the other way around. If mini-J gets in any way corrupted by Zola – let's not forget this is a genocidal AI we're talking about – the device will auto-destruct. So if you hear it ding like an overexcited microwave, throw it away and seek cover. Though I really hope that won't happen, because the explosion should generate enough of an EMP to fry Zola supercomputered-self in the process."

"You're sending me in there with a bomb?"

"Technically anything with an Arc reactor is potentially a bomb. I'm a bomb. And a bombshell, obviously."

"Tony," Phil said with a sigh. "The plan."

"She's the one who interrupted me! Anyway, mini-J does the hacking. There will be a timer right there." Tony tapped the small, currently dark LED-screen. "I've limited the communication of mini-J to visual only. We've got limited space in this thing. It will also tell you if the system's stable, once Zola's in there. Now, this box is off-the-grid, so no internet connection, but it will emit some basic information to original-J.A.R.V.I.S. on a short distance. As in, twenty feet or so. You'll have origin-J on your phone and in your ear. This is a two-manned mission after all."

"Right, except it will still just be me if shit hits the fan."

"If shit hits the fan and there's no discreet way out, well. You'll become Iron Woman." Tony nodded in the direction of the folded Mark V. "It won't be a perfect fit but it will make you bullet proof. Please don't loose it. If it get's taken by Hydra it will have to self-destruct, and you'll have to pay me back. And last time I checked, you're not rich enough for that."

"If I lose it I'll probably be dead anyway, so guess what, I don't care."

"No need to be nasty about it. We're just trying to save Earth from Hydra once again and you're our top operative, you should be honoured." May huffed but Tony continued his exposé before she could start one of her own. "Supposing you get to Zola undetected, there's still the question whether Zola is, one, online, and two, online. As in, connected to the web with his brains scattered all over the world. The moment mini-J is plugged-in he'll attempt to block any of Zola's outward connections, but there's no guarantee. Besides, just entering the building could trigger alarms. Though of course I'll give you an alarm-detector too. Regardless, there's a chance Zola is awake, in which case… Keep him distracted, I guess. Not that it will change much in the long run, but any computational energy he spends on you is less energy he'll have to fight off mini-J. Just don't forget you'll be talking to a murderous genius."

May crossed her arms and smirked. "I think I've got plenty of experience talking to arsehole geniuses now, thanks."

"Glad I could help," Tony sneered back. "Phil and I will be in your ear for as long as we can, but if J.A.R.V.I.S. finds that the connection needs to be cut for security reasons, you'll have to cope on your own."

"Don't worry, Stark, I'm a big girl. My codename isn't Cavalry for nothing. I'm the big guns people call in when they're in over their heads."

"Good for you."

Phil clapped his hands twice. "Children! Are we done here?"

"Sure. I've explained the bulk of it. On a scale of one to ten, is my plan genius or what?"

Phil rolled his eyes. "Just tell me where Zola is."

"Camp Lehigh, New Jersey."

Phil fell back into his chair and started laughing.

"What?"

"That's where Captain America trained before he was, well, Captain America. And it was the first S.H.I.E.L.D. facility."

Tony shrugged. "Ha. Zola even has a sense of humour, who knew."

"That's a disturbing way of putting it," Phil grimaced. "Anyway, S.H.I.E.L.D. should still have some old schematics of the camp before it closed down…"

"I have already looked into that, Deputy Director. It seems Hydra already erased this information," J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them.

"Where's the fun in having a cheat-sheet anyway, right? So, Phil, are we go or no-go?" Tony asked before taking a sip of his now room-temperature coffee. He winced, but caffeine was caffeine, and it was the only thing that kept him standing right now. He really didn't have the energy to keep arguing over this. His plan was good, god damn it—

"I need time to look this over, I can't just authorise—"

"Don't be so uptight, Phil, the plan looks good," May said. Tony did his best not to gape. Holding a coffee mug in front of his face helped quite a bit. "And if it isn't I'll improvise. You know I'm good at that."

"Melinda, I can't just let you stroll into a Hydra facility without—"

"Are you saying you don't trust my judgement?"

Damn, that sharp eyebrow of hers could nip any rebuttal in the bud. He wouldn't put it past her if that eyebrow could kill, period. Phil was obviously left speechless.

May turned to Tony. "When can I leave?"

"Does tomorrow oh-eight-hundred work for you? J.A.R.V.I.S. still has quite a few things to brief you on."

"Fine. In the meantime I hope I'll get some real expensive food as reward for maybe dying tomorrow."

"Of course, Agent May," J.A.R.V.I.S. said before Tony could react. "Only the best for our top operatives." Now J.A.R.V. was making fun of him. As if he hadn't called May their top operative just to butter her up.

"My Tower has become a goddamn hotel," Tony grumbled. He stood up and went to plonk his mug down in the sink for U to wash up. "Well, I'm off to bed, I'm wiped. Listen to J.A.R.V., don't touch things you shouldn't touch, and I'll see you when I see you."

"Sir, Mr Friggason and you both require nourishment."

"Fine, send something up. Then I'll sleep for…" Tony checked his watch. "Not even fifteen hours. Damn. Don't make me wait on that food, J.A.R.V., or I won't be awake enough to swallow."

"Of course, Sir. It will be served in ten minutes."

With a nod at Phil and May, Tony stepped into the elevator, leaving the two in the workshop, at the mercy of J.A.R.V.I.S.. Tony felt his way along the bond – Loki felt not quite asleep. Perhaps J.A.R.V.I.S. had woken him to warn him of the impending dinner. Tony sent a soft, short ping up the bond, and received a similar tug in response, followed by badly suppressed curiosity.

Despite himself, a smile crept up Tony's face as he exited the elevator. Fine. He'd stay awake a little bit longer to inform Lokes of the plan.

I spent a lot of time on MCU wiki's for this, I hope I ended up making sense and capturing the most important bits… And somehow I keep bring Agent May from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. back even though it wasn't in my original plans at all (but then none of this Hydra-slaying was in my plans either, haha). I will try to end this tangent swiftly and get back to main track of trying to get Thor back down to Earth (Are you listening, Heimdall? Can you please kick Thor down the Bifrost for us? Thanks!)

Spread the Luv!

LL