"You've been compromised, you just don't want to see it," Clint said in frustration. Natasha spat something at him in Russian that he didn't fully catch. "And you won't tell me anything – why not?"
"It's not mine to tell, Clint," Natasha said, sighing. She sat on the weightlifting bench and looked at her first friend in SHIELD. "But I trust them. Despite Fury's reservations, I actually spent time with them, as an ally. I got to see a side of them that he hasn't. Tony might be eccentric, but he's surrounded by people with their heads on straight."
"But why not do the assignment as Fury ordered?" Clint wondered, adding weight to the bar for Natasha to lift. "Why not write his bogus report?"
"The one he wrote himself? Because it wasn't true. Stark's no more a narcissist than I'm a blonde." Natasha let herself fall down to get under the bar and started her first set. Clint was her spotter, watching her like the hawk he was to keep her safe. Since ignoring his own orders, he'd started considering Natasha the sister he never had. She'd even have fit in at the circus he grew up in. "Fury's playing a game with Stark, and until I know what it is, I'm not getting involved."
"You think he's got something bigger planned?" Clint asked.
"Fury's trying to start the Avengers' Initiative," Natasha revealed, lifting the weight without strain. "Us two, Stark, Banner and even Thor have been slated. Thor only if we can get him back to Earth. He's thinking a few others, but you might not like it."
"He wants Bobbi, doesn't he?" Clint sighed. "She won't go for it; she likes her undercover work."
"Yeah, well, she's divorcing Hunter, so who knows what she's up to," Natasha said, still confused by Clint's relationship with the Mockingbird. And her relationship with the mercenary that never seemed to shut up. He was good in a fight, but he loved the sound of his own voice.
"Don't see what she sees in him," Clint mumbled under his breath. Neither did Natasha, but she wasn't going to agree with Clint in this mood.
"I didn't see what she saw in you," Natasha said smartly. "This is boring, want to spar?"
"What, feeling out of practice because you couldn't find a decent partner with the Starks?" Clint's tone was teasing, but his eyes were showing his mild derision for the Starks. He'd let go of it eventually, he was sure, but until he had a full explanation from Natasha, he wasn't going to be a happy bird.
"You haven't been paying attention to the news, have you? Starkette's boyfriend is the Winter Soldier, I had a better sparring partner than you are," Natasha said, a carefree grin on her face. Clint went pale at the mention of the Winter Soldier, but if Natasha wasn't worried, he shouldn't be either. He trusted her to make her own decisions, and he supported her for it. Even when he wasn't fully on board.
"Is he still acting as the Winter Soldier?" Clint asked, getting a headshake. "Well, there's that. Still, if he even seems like a threat, I'll shoot him. Show him who's the best sniper."
"It's definitely him, Clint. He shot a scientist through me," Natasha grumbled, tapping the spot on her hip. "C'mon, spar with me. I haven't seen you since Amsterdam."
"Amsterdam was a shit-show," Clint said, wrapping his hands. "We never should've been sent in, not with Agent Walters' team already there!"
"Who picked the op?"
"Sitwell," Clint said, already ducking under Nat's swing. They fell into a familiar rhythm of swing and dodge, until Natasha changed up her pace and sent Clint scrambling backwards to avoid a kick. Natasha grinned as he danced back, bobbing and weaving exaggeratedly to make her laugh. This was the freest he had ever seen her, and he was glad for it, even if he still didn't think very highly of Tony Stark.
Line Break
"What in the name of God are you doing?" Tony asked, looking at Grey's computer over her shoulder.
"Minecraft came out today! Gods I used to love this game, I downloaded it in art class. Played it so much I'd see the pixilation for hours afterwards. Started freaking out in dark rooms about Endermen. Granted, I think that's when my anxiety started getting bad. This would be a fun VR game." Grey didn't look up as she spoke, too busy directing her character to mine coal.
"Virtual Reality? You had that?"
"Nothing like what you have. But do you know what we could do for gaming with our VR tech?" Speaking personally, Grey wanted to see Dragon Age in VR.
"You want us to partner with what, Nintendo?"
"PlayStation, actually. Have your department invent me something cool, and I'll have my writers give us a cool X-Men storyline for a video game, and we'll have mom get us a contract," Grey said.
"How does your mind work? You see connections everywhere," Tony said shaking his head.
"They're not connections, dad, it's the future, I'm not having brilliant ideas, I can see what people already created. I give you that idea, you make it work, we profit, and wow, I really have turned into a capitalist, haven't I?" Grey made a disgusted face, that caused Tony to laugh. Grey paused her game and closed the computer, turning the face Tony fully.
"Grey, you donate ninety percent of your salary to a half dozen charities and food banks. The money you do spend on yourself all comes out of your trust fund, which you keep trying to deplete by donating. You have had access to this much money for almost two years, and you've already donated two billion dollars. I'm surprised you haven't been sainted."
"Because I'm stealing ideas from people from the future – you know that makes me a terrible person. I'm literally plagiarizing my life. And you can't say that it doesn't matter, because it does. I'm profiting from other people's ideas."
"Or, think of it like this. You're advancing technology by five years. By giving us 2020 ideas in 2012. Those same people that were smart enough to think of it the first time, will think of something better, with better technology."
"I still feel grimy," Grey said eventually. "But I suppose I'll get over it. Yeah, VR games existed, but they were expensive, so I didn't have one. I did see a super cool VR gaming floor thing that I thought was cool. The floor moved multi-directionally, so the user stayed in the same spot, while feeling like they were moving."
"I can invent something like that, but I think what I'm going to do instead is give the idea to the intern labs, and see who comes up with the best idea," Tony said, pulling out his phone and drafting an email. "Gotta get these interns doing something fun before they all leave."
"Oh, was this the last batch of Stane's interns?" Stane's administration didn't have a diverse selection method for R interns. Thankfully, interns were only kept for a year before they were through.
"Jennifer was the only good intern he selected," Tony said, nodding as he typed. "And sent. I'll have you a prototype in a month."
"Don't stress your interns, make it two months. There's a whole decade left before I expect VR to make a full appearance."
"Are you glad we're catching up with your, visions?" Was she glad they were catching up with her timeline? Not really. It meant more uncertainty. It meant not knowing what big bad was coming, or which idiot Avenger was going to do what idiotic thing. Like Spider-man. Grey had no idea what happened in the movie she was excited to see in December of 2021, No Way Home, but of course ended up in the MCU before that. Who knew what stupid thing Peter did in the absence of having Tony around. She expected him to break the multi-verse, based on Andrew Garfield's terrible attempt at telling people he wasn't involved in the project. Marvel fans weren't stupid and knew when a trailer was being adjusted to hide things. They learned their lesson after Infinity War, after all.
"Yes and no. It'll be nice to be normal again, but I lived through some bullshit, so I really don't want to live through it again. January sixth, for example. If that happens here I will lose my ever loving mind, hell, if 2016 happens I'm giving up and moving to a witch's swamp."
Line Break
"It might be the smallest Thanksgiving we'll ever have," James said, standing from his seat and holding up his glass. "But I'd like to offer a toast to the successes of the Iron Family. It's going to be sappy, but after Tony's proposal and his vows that were downright Shakespearean, I think I have the right for just a moment. You six rescued me from hell. Protected me from the media, and those that would bring me back just for the asset. I'm so thankful for you, and for this family. And while I still don't want to fight in a suit, I will happily accept a flight suit, if the offer is still open."
"I can make that happen," Tony said, unfathomable joy in his eyes as he looked at his unlikely brother. The man who killed his parents, the man he dreaded meeting above all, now one of his closest friends. James had grown to be more than just the boogeyman in Tony's hidden nightmares. He was his brother, his daughter's protector and future. Tony raised his own glass. "Have you decided on a call-sign?"
"Iron Guardian," James said, uncertainty in his eyes. He knew he got it right when the women in his life teared up at the sentiment.
"I have taken the liberty of updating all the call signs, for you," Bambi piped up through the walls. "Welcome, Iron Guardian."
Grey leaned to the side to hug him, sniffing suspiciously in a way James knew meant she was trying to hide that she was crying. Pepper got out of her chair and walked around to hug him tightly. Jayne simply reached over for a fist bump. Happy and Jim did the same, but Tony reached for a handshake.
James shook Tony's hand with solemnity, knowing there was a lot unsaid between them. There was a lot they didn't talk about, but both men knew they were family – and that was really all they cared about.
"Family, always," Grey said softly, glancing at Pepper, who was legally her mom, Jayne, who was her sister in all the ways that mattered. Jim and Happy, who she trusted and loved. Looking up at Tony risked tears again, but she did. For the first time, Grey didn't mourn her old life, too happy living in her new one.
Line Break
"We can't do anything until Steve is found," Grey said firmly, trying her best to not snap in frustration. She was starting to get antsy, knowing the Chitauri invasion was coming, and soon, but not knowing exactly when. It was already April, and Grey felt like time was running out on her. Natasha had confirmed that Clint was working a protection detail on Erik Selvig, looking at the tesseract, and she was heading undercover in Russia soon; Grey knew the pieces were moving into place.
To make matters worse, the family meeting was at five in the morning, giving James an excuse to go for an early morning run through central park, something he was very excited to do. Grey reached for her coffee and took a long drink, wishing it had weed in it. Or alcohol.
"Sharon's already promised to let us know the moment he's found. But until then, is there anything?" Pepper said, calm in the face of Grey's frustrations. Tony secretly considered that to be his wife's superpower. Pepper was never flustered or anything but calm in the face of both his and Grey's occasional mood swings. Grey's had come less and less in the face of Helen helping find her a medication that didn't give her more problems than it solved.
"I want to spend some time preparing their apartments, set up post-battle procedures, and make sure Helen is settled in New York," Grey said. "I'll need a furniture catalogue, a half dozen people to help set it up, and a ride to Target. Jim, if I put you in charge of making sure your girlfriend is settled, will you handle it?"
"I'll help her out, Grey, it's no problem," Jim said, leaning back in his chair. "Hali's on her way over anyway, she's going to start setting up the medical center upstairs, and make sure there's proper space for the cradle prototype they're working on."
"Now, come on, what are our orders, kid?" Tony asked, knowing Grey had preparation plans in place for months now. It was close enough to time to get started on those measures. The louder ones could wait until they had a reason.
Grey glanced at her tablet and opened her virtual notebook. It was the same notebook from when she first arrived, scanned and uploaded, and expanded on. It was the least organized file she had on her tablet, but that was how she kept everything straight.
"Pepper, when we're gonna want the National Guard at ground zero, at the very least to evacuate people while we handle the Chitauri. We'll have the Margaret Stark foundation on standby." Pepper nodded, writing it all down to make sure it got done. "I want a blood drive in the next week or two, and a fundraiser for local hospitals in the works for after all this. Dad, add some more speed to the suits, much as you can. Happy, I want everyone on a plane here the minute Rogers is found for an extended family meeting so everyone knows what they're doing, whether they're here or not. In the meantime, I need to… do something, I'm sure. After more coffee."
"You just need to charm SHIELD and Fury while telling them to fuck off, and start an intelligence agency?" Pepper offered, a teasing sparkle in her eyes.
"I'm not starting an intelligence agency, I'm stealing one," Grey corrected primly. She felt something vibrate and reached for her pocket, thinking it her phone. No new notifications were on the screen. Something vibrated again, and again against the table. "Not mine."
"It's Sharon," Tony said, looking at his wrist. It was the legacy bracelet. "They found Rogers."
"Well, fuck."
Line Break
Grey brushed her hands off as she danced into the common area of the penthouse. Maybe it was a manic episode from accidentally skipping her meds the day prior (and the day before that) or maybe it was the joy of knowing everyone was coming home.
"You look too cheerful for someone who spent nineteen hours cleaning," James said, glancing up from his book. Grey knocked her headphones out of her ears and beamed at him. "How can you be this happy?"
"It's domestic bliss, James. Everyone's apartments are set up and ready for them, beds are made, drawers are stocked, bathrooms are glittering and filled with essentials."
"You bought them stuff?" Pepper asked as she glided in the room, her heels quickly coming off, in her hands as she exited the elevator. She tossed them to James who caught them and tucked them under the table. Pepper frequently called it her favorite moment of the day. "Of course you did, why would I ask?"
"Little things. After the battle of New York, everyone's going to be exhausted and covered in grime and soot. I got everyone a set of dress clothes, for the debriefing and inevitable press conference, a set of comfy clothes for the house, and a set of pajamas with house shoes." Grey flopped down next to James, content to cuddle into him after her manic episode. "Plus, soaps for the shower, a set of towels, and snacks in their kitchenettes."
"You set it up for everyone?" Pepper seemed skeptical. James huffed a laugh as he finally gave up on reading his novel. He dropped it on the coffee table, a CVS receipt as his bookmark. Grey had a dozen delivery people at her service, but she still preferred to go shopping in person. She liked to say it kept her grounded.
"Loki and Thor are across from each other, as are Nat and Clint. Sam already set up his apartment next to hers. Steve is closest to the communal kitchen for his metabolism. Bruce is closest to the stairs in case he goes green, or wants to work in his lab upstairs," Grey explained, ticking each Avenger off on her fingers. Grey rearranged herself so she was laying down with her head in James' lap. "And Rhodey is up here with us."
"Grey, did you do everything downstairs?" Tony said, creeping in through a hidden staircase behind the bar. Grey flashed him a thumbs up. "I'm impressed. I stuck my head in Clint's to look for you and got curious enough to look around the others."
"I thought she just set them up with basics." Grey flushed, knowing she was underplaying what she did. She might have gone a little overboard, but who could blame her, half of the team wasn't going to have much more than the clothes on their backs.
"Each apartment has a fully stocked bathroom already stocked with shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream and razors. Toilet paper and bath towels are provided, and the ladies have hair dryers, a curling iron and whatever the other one is called." As he was speaking, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper that might have been a target receipt at one point.
"Flat Iron," Pepper supplied.
"Straightener," Grey said at the same time. Tony just kept going like he hadn't heard them. There was a good chance he hadn't.
"Two types of face wash? Because apparently, we need that. Lotion and moisturizer?" Tony checked the list he'd scribbled down, mostly to see if he got all the same stuff. He'd been disappointed to find out that there was nothing new in his apartment. Not that he needed any more stuff. Maybe just the coffee mugs.
"I worked for Dermatology for ages. Of course I went overboard with that. It's all ZO skin, which is my all-time favorite brand," Grey explained. "The kitchens have basics in them. A Keurig and an espresso machine, mostly because I couldn't decide what everyone would want best. They have Costco sized boxes of medium roast and two bags of grounds for the espresso machine. Jarvis has pre-set Kroger orders ready to go to actually put perishables in their individual kitchens."
"Also personalized for each new addition?" James asked, astonished. The family knew that Grey held a special spot in her heart for the members she knew from the Avengers. They hadn't expected it to be this deep, with her knowing seemingly everything about everyone. They shouldn't have been surprised; she did the same for them at every chance.
"Sorta? Nat's list has more white meat than red cause she stated a preference. Steve and Thor and Loki have twice as much to account for their metabolisms. Bruce got tea with a fancy kettle instead of the espresso machine."
"Does he still have the Keurig?" Pepper wondered. She could guess Grey's answer and was right.
"I put one in there, at the very least, he can use it for instant hot water."
"Oh, I'm not done." Tony gave a proud look to Grey, who missed it as she covered her face in embarrassment. "A fully stocked spice cabinet, all the individual cooker things? Like a waffle iron, a rice cooker, a mini griddle. All superhero themed, which means she rushed production on them."
Marvel factories would get production orders for Avengers themed everything ten minutes after the invasion ended. It was in poor taste, sure, but they had to make sure they were first with the merchandise to prevent knock offs. Besides, capitalism was as fast as it was horrible.
"Really?" James moved one of Grey's hands to give her a look. She just grinned.
"You're surprised?" She asked, grinning sheepishly.
"Pots and pans, plates, bowls, cups, silverware. Personalized coffee mugs. One with their superhero identity, a Hogwarts house, and just a pretty one with their initials. Finally moving out of the kitchen, and ignoring the full pantries with non-perishables, the bedrooms have two additional sets of sheets, a bunch of clothes, including their all-new tactical gear we just finished last night." The Iron Family knew that they couldn't show off Grey's knowledge until after the battle for New York, but that didn't stop them from redesigning everyone's suits, including their own. All the suits to wear after the team officially comes together had the Avengers logo on the left sleeve, and a hidden Stark Industries logo. Branding was important after all. "They all have a mini office with a Stark Tablet, Laptop and phone, along with half-dozen blank notebooks and a truly terrifying number of pens."
"I like pens!" Grey defended. No one argued with her. She came home with a new pack of pens nearly every time she went out shopping.
"They even have wall-art."
"A house is not a home if there isn't something hanging on the walls." Her own room was covered in plants. James had a bit of a green thumb, and often brought home plants when he left. He already had a plan to start a garden on one of the few patios in the penthouse. Chenin, however, was banned from the bedroom, as he had a penchant for digging plants up. Grey was still mad about her Aloe plant.
"You should be an interior designer," Tony said, finally putting down his tablet. Grey sat up awkwardly, nearly elbowing James in the crotch as she sent her dad a half-hearted glare. "Or a wedding planner."
"Yes, I'll work that in between being president of a company and a superhero. I'm sure I'll have tons of time for it."
"Why do so much for the apartments?" James asked. "The team will be just as happy with an empty apartment."
"Because I want them to feel welcome," Grey said adamantly. "I want them to feel at home here."
"Kinda makes us a target, doesn't it? Take out one building and all of the Avengers is toast," Pepper said cynically. Grey and Tony frowned at her for tanking the mood, but Pepper was mostly unapologetic. "All the known superheroes in one building? One bomb and we're all toast."
"Alright, James," Grey grumbled, looking at her. James swatted her arm, trying to hide his laughter. She tried not to think about the bomb that the World Security Council would sent to New York. "No one is going to target the tower."
"That's goo-"
"No one is going to target the tower while we live here," Grey corrected, remembering the Spider-Man movie. It was definitely higher up on her list, now that she had Peter Parker and his aunt under Bambi's watchful code. She wasn't watching them or anything, she just wanted to be aware of them. Keep them in her peripherals for when the spider bit Peter. "And even then, they didn't do any damage to anything except themself."
"Right. That's not ominous." Grey frowned. She hated it when the others poked fun at her decision to keep everyone's future shrouded. Big temporal tipping points were well warned, but small decisions or any kind of spoiler was kept to herself. Even the various AIs didn't know. All the information was kept in a ten-point locked file, hidden behind every encryption and defense that Stark Industries had to bear. And even then, it was kept hidden in a seemingly mundane file folder, hidden behind a mirror in the HR department, titled Sick Leave Requests, 1997.
"What other surprises do you have hidden away?" Pepper asked, shifting the subject back to the apparently well-stocked apartments just upstairs.
"Happy, Jarvis and I went through and pre-ran the background checks on a few different housekeepers we're going to bring on staff," Grey said, settling back down against James' side. "I figure everyone can do their own clothing - there's an apartment style laundry room on the gym floor and our apartments have their own. Armor and tac suits we'll take care of as maintenance. For sheets and towels and the like, once a week, probably on Wednesdays? We'll have someone collect it and send it out to be done, Happy's managing that."
"Avengers suites, guests, and civilians?" Pepper asked. Grey nodded. "Makes sense, we're already sending out towels at the Stark Industries gym and spa, on the twentieth floor? Are we going to add in whatever medical scrubs and the like Helen's team will need, at medbay?"
"No, actually. Dr Cho requested a specific medical whatever," James piped up. He worked with Dr Cho frequently, giving her samples of his blood and occasionally memories of his time in Hydra. "She mentioned it to me last week. They use a hypo-allergenic cleaner; Hali has sensitive skin."
"Oh. Okay then." It wasn't often someone knew something before Pepper and Grey. They were surprised he knew, and they didn't.
"Unless we can figure out a better system, I'm using the delivery area for groceries," Grey said, reaching over to tug Pepper's tablet from her hands. Tony came over to look at it over James' head. "Because of the mess of metabolisms, for the first few months we're gonna do weekly deliveries. Tuesdays, because that's when I have access to the most coupons. Once everyone is completely in a routine, we'll switch to something that works better."
"Subscribe and save?"
"Amazon does it for things you might want to repeat. James and I get food and whatnot for Chenin and Alpine delivered like that. The litter pads come in packs of ten, so we get those delivered every nine weeks. The wet food comes in a twenty-four pack, and each cat gets one each morning. So, we get those every three weeks, one pack for each cat."
"So, groceries would be like that, once you know how fast you go through something-"
"You can set it up to be delivered the day before you run out," Grey finished. "It's super convenient for budgeting too."
"I'm so glad someone is handling that, can you imagine what SHIELD would do if expected to handle all that?" Pepper asked. James and Grey started laughing, able to imagine exactly what that would look like.
Line Break
"How long does it take to defrost a super soldier?" Grey asked. James nearly spat out his coffee as he looked at her in surprise. She looked at him in expectation, waiting for him to get his wits about him before pressing him for more answers.
"It depends. I was ready to go in under an hour to get ready to move. Steve will be different though. He didn't have IVs keeping him alive. He didn't have any of the stuff I did." Grey seemed to pout, before brightening. James wondered at her ability to turn anything into a positive.
"Cool. That means I can officially say that my boyfriend is better than Captain America." Grey smiled and leaned toward James, brushing her shoulder against his, not caring that she touched metal instead of skin.
"I'll be sure to tell him you said that, punk," James laughed, reaching over to shove playfully at Grey. Grey's laugh turned into a groan as her phone rang loudly. She flipped James off as she snatched it off the table and quickly answered the call. It was quick, just needing final approval on the size of the coffee shop downstairs. Seattle's Best Coffee was moving in. They, of course, were branded as Stark's Best Coffee, because it cracked Grey and Tony up every time they said it.
"Stark's Best, downstairs will have delivery capabilities through the tower!" Grey cheered. "They accepted the coffee bot proposal, and the app!"
"If that means I don't have to keep going six blocks out to get to Central Park's Seattle's Best every morning, I'm all for it," Happy said as he exited the elevator, coffee in hand. "I mean seriously, you have a coffee machine!"
"Yeah, but I don't have a working fridge yet - therefore no milk to make my lattes!"
"And why don't you have a working fridge yet?" Happy asked as he handed out the various cups.
"Because while my dad is a genius, he's also an idiot and has been too busy trying to plan for the invasion to hook up the arc reactor to the tower."
"I'm still running tests!" Tony protested, accepting his coffee with lavender syrup.
"No, Jarvis is running tests. You are getting on everyone's nerves by trying to create a ground penetrating radar robot and keep asking us to hold still to calibrate."
"Actually, Jarvis has finished running tests," Jarvis said. Grey laughed at his use of third person. He was becoming sassier with every passing day; Tony couldn't decide if he was pleased or horrified that his personal AI seemed to prefer Grey's attitude. "And the new technology will do as expected. It will run the tower, completely off the New York power grid for at least the next twenty-five years, or more, depending on updates and optimization."
"I'm guessing that's tech talk for let's get started?" Grey asked, sipping on her coffee. Tony tilted his head to the side and thought things through, his mind running almost as fast as his suit. He started nodding absently before he stood up.
"Pepper, Bambi, work with New York, figure out the best way to get us off the grid without accidentally blowing something up. The tower is currently taking up a lotta juice, I don't want something to overload when we take it off," Tony said, flicking open a hologram screen to show all the stats of the tower. Pepper nodded and grabbed her tablet, dropping onto the couch to make her calls. "Jarvis, I want you to continue to run tests, we're likely going to do the same for Avenger's Compound, but that's going to have a different energy output."
"We oughta see about cost effectiveness for switching all SI facilities to Arc Reactor power," Grey mused, looking over her Dad's shoulder at the power output levels they were anticipating. "It could lower our budget significantly, and that would mean we could do a round of raises."
"Yeah, but the insurance on it would be hell. I could see a reactor powering a compound – factories and warehouses – if we could find the space for it," Tony suggested instead. "Jarvis, make a note of that for me, when there's less going on."
"Of course, Sir."
"In the meantime, hand over your suits, I'll go down to the lab with Rhodes, and we'll make sure everything is updated and ready to go for when Coulson comes - and Tony, I'll check the waterproofing on your suit." James had his tablet in hand, and was either running tests, or playing the most serious game of candy crush, anyone had ever seen. Grey smiled at him fondly as she shucked her bracelets off, handing them over. The bracelets were what would summon the Mark eight suits. Each pilot got a pair that called the suit to them. Tony, of course, took it a step further, implanting the receivers directly into himself. He was fully able to remote pilot his suit. Grey didn't want that for hers – she still didn't like needles. Pepper was curious but not sold. Jim gave it a hard pass. Grey joked that they definitely had the best friendship bracelets she'd ever seen. Between the legacy bracelets, the Iron Family bracelets, and now the pair for Mark eight, Jim was starting to wonder if he would need an exemption for his working uniforms.
"Yeah, the last thing I need is to drown just before an alien invasion. That might put a damper on saving the world," Tony joked, forcing smiles on his family's face, whether they wanted to or not. For once, Grey's smile actually reached her eyes.
Line Break
If he didn't know he was laying on the rocky ground, Loki would swear to the stars he was roasting on a fire like the hogs that Hogun was so fond of after battles.
Loki wasn't even sure why he was still fighting against the blue flames that licked up his legs and across his chest. The pain would stop when he gave up, right? Or would he burn for eternity?
"Death won't be your escape, Odinson," a dark voice crooned, sounding like it was right there on his pyre with him, but also surrounding him.
The fire reached his heart, and Loki couldn't help the scream that escaped him. Loki screamed until his voice cracked, shattering like glass, leaving him panting, unable to find himself or his voice.
"Give him back to the Other," the voice said, gesturing to the unconscious God on the ground. "A few more rounds against them and he will cave."
When Loki came to again, he was back in his cell - the small sanctuary it was. He hesitantly opened his eyes, but only to check himself over for the newest rounds of burns, cuts, bruises that littered his body. One eye wouldn't open fully, the other was bloodshot, not that he could tell.
Loki's hands shook, making his Seidr impossible to access. Had he been back in his library in his suite on Asgard, he wouldn't have held his books, out of fear he would tear the pages.
And then there was the heat, the never-ending burn that made thinking impossible. A blue haze that was as callous as it was unfeeling. It whispered to Loki, telling him things he couldn't comprehend.
The flames spoke of a war, a fight that was inevitable, a battle that would always bring him back to the heat as he roasted.
"All this, and where did it bring you?" That voice again, the one that had no name, only pain. "Back to me."
"The Tesseract has awakened," someone else said. Loki couldn't open his eyes to see who it was. "It's on a little world. A human world. They would wield its power. But our ally knows its workings like they never will."
There was laughter all around Loki. Multiple voices, laughing. Loki tried to keep his head above the water, but he sank, and the flames rose higher.
"And the Godling?" The voice. The original one. The voice that only promised pain.
"He is ready to lead. And our force, our chitauri will follow. The world will be his, the universe yours. And the humans? What can they do but burn?"
Another swell of blue and Loki lost himself to the haze. He didn't know where, what, or who he was. He knew he was ashes, ashes in the wind.
"Enough," Loki barely managed to whisper to the flames as they rose higher, taller and broader than him, than Thor, than Odin. Stronger men than he would have given up decades ago. Loki didn't know why he still fought. He was dead either way.
"Yes."
Loki sank into the flames, the heat no longer anything more than an exceptionally warm bath and let the blue wash over him like a lover. At first it felt like falling through the void again, then warmth from the fire of a mead hall. Then there was nothing but blue, in his mouth, his nose, his pores. There was no up or down, no left or right, just blue.
"I will take the scepter, and let your army into Midgard," the blue haze promised from Loki's mouth. The man was gone, now only a shell.
Loki was no more - he was an image, a painting hiding the fires of Hel. The blue flames used the scepter that housed them to knock, just once, before the shell of the God stepped through the wormhole.
Thanos smiled.
Line Break
Clint Barton grumbled under his breath as he was shuffled from one desert base to another. He hated this arid, dry heat. The heat waves off the sand fucked with his vision, and he never felt dry with the sweat pouring off of him. He understood why he'd been chosen for the assignment, but that was no consolation.
Clint just wanted this to end so he could catch up with Natasha. She'd been acting differently since she returned from Stark Industries, and he wanted to know why. He didn't think she defected; he trusted her more than anyone else he'd ever met. But something had changed her. And if it was powerful enough to change Natasha Romanoff, then something big was coming. Their half conversation in October wasn't enough to satisfy his curiosity.
Watching a group of scientists was never going to be Clint's favorite mission, but Erik Selvig talked as he worked, and as long as Clint was close enough, he could hear him.
"The Tesseract actually comes from Norse Mythology, you know," Erik commented.
"Like Thor?"
"Oh yes, you were there for that, I guess."
"I was watching his charge for the hammer before he got arrested. He was impressive." Clint rarely considered someone impressive. Especially other soldiers. The last person he'd found impressive was his ex-wife - Bobbi Morse. Although the last he'd heard, she'd married (and divorced) Lance Hunter.
"Right. My team and I are done for the day - you have things from here?"
"Not here, up there," Clint said, nodding his head at his bird's nest. "See you tomorrow, Erik."
Clint was thoughtful as he watched the cube from a distance. Until he wasn't. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, but nothing surrounding Clint had changed.
The Tesseract was calm, but the longer Clint stared at it, the less that became true. It was emitting a haze, similar to the heat rising off the sand in the desert, but this was blue. A flare erupted away from the cube, and suddenly Selvig's computers lit up of their own volition. Clint sounded the alarm that brought the scientists back, before calmly settling down in his nest to watch.
It took forty minutes for Erik's team to return and see the problem. Then it took three hours and ten minutes for Erik to sound the alarm for evacuation. Clint kept one eye on a computer screen that was measuring the output of the cube - once it went critical his orders were to get Erik and get out, everything else be damned. Until then, Clint half-listened to the chatter from the radio as everyone else left.
The SHIELD base was evacuating. But one helicopter landed, delivering people instead of taking them away. Director Fury and Commander Hill stepped out of the bird like it was a simple walk in the park. And to them it might have been.
"How bad is it?" Fury demanded of Phil Coulson, who met them on the ground.
"That's the problem, Sir, we don't know." And Fury hated not knowing things. So he followed Phil to an elevator, and down the twenty stories to the sublevel where they kept the worst stuff. Like the Tesseract. "Doctor Selvig read an energy surge about four hours ago."
"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to go to test phase," Fury pointed out, refusing to say that he also hadn't authorized it.
"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room," Phil said. "Spontaneous event."
"It just turned itself on?" Hill asked, her mind racing through the reasons for that. But she wasn't a scientist. She could guess all she wanted, but she'd never get it right.
"Where are the energy levels at now?"
"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down we ordered evac." Phil left out the fact that he'd nearly panicked when he saw the energy levels. Not for himself, but for fear of the agents still in the compound. Phil had a sinking feeling that they weren't going to get everyone out before the Tesseract caused the compound to implode.
"How long to get everyone out?" Fury asked, knowing where his top agent's mind was.
"Campus should be clear in the next half hour," Phil said.
"Do better," Fury encouraged. Phil nodded before turning to do as ordered. Things could be left behind, people couldn't.
Maria followed Fury down the worst flight of stairs she'd ever encountered. It led down a reverse silo, taking them deep underground. She swallowed hard to get her ears to pop before speaking up, "Sir, evacuation may be futile."
"What, you think we should tell them to go back to sleep?"
"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance." Fury pondered that for a minute as they continued their hike. Passing a door with a retina scanner made up his mind.
"I need you to make sure all the phase two prototypes are shipped out." Maria valiantly fought the urge to roll her eyes.
"Sir, is that really a priority right now?"
"Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on," Fury said. He wasn't cold, not like everyone thought he was. But he was in charge and had to maintain a steady persona. "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of phase two on a truck and gone."
"Yes sir," Maria said, taking the order for what it was. An excuse to keep her out of the silo and away from that specific danger. She grabbed the two agents guarding the outside of the silo. "With me."
"Talk to me doctor," Fury ordered, his one good eye taking in the entire room at a glance. There was one SHIELD agent working on getting things packed up and ready to move. Fury accepted the drive with all the Tesseract readings and tucked it securely into an inside pocket. With no server farm secure enough to send it to, all the backups of this information were now solely on that drive. Should anything happen to the silo, as long as Fury was found, they wouldn't start at zero. "Is there anything we know for certain?"
"The Tesseract is misbehaving." Misbehaving, as if it were a toddler refusing to eat their broccoli. Misbehaving, like a teen skipping their homework to better play video games.
"Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury asked, half hoping Selvig was trying to make a joke. In order to misbehave there must be a basis for good behavior, which implies a conscious decision. Could a blue cube misbehave?
"No, it's not funny at all," Selvig said. "The Tesseract is not only active, she's behaving."
He couldn't describe it, none of them could. There was a conscious thought process behind the surges and ebbs in energy. The cube wasn't just going through something, it was reacting to their tests, lashing out when poked.
"I'll assume you pulled the plug?" Fury half-asked, half-ordered. Selvig actually rolled his eyes at that.
"It's an energy source. We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level..."
"We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space."
"We don't have the harness." This was the reason Erik preferred theoretical studies. No one telling him he needed something, or that they had a say in what the universe did. "My calculations were far from complete. And she's throwing off interference. Radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."
"That can be harmful." Fury immediately thought about the cleanup effort still happening in Harlem from Bruce Banner's takedown of the Abomination. Not to mention the fact that Banner himself was attempting to hide in Calcutta. "Where's Agent Barton?"
"The Hawk?" Erik scoffed. "Up in his nest, as usual."
The Avengers
Clint was thinking. On watch, that was often all he was able to do, so this was a familiar comfort. What wasn't familiar was the direction his thoughts were going in.
Clint could read the panic on the scientist's faces as they worked. None of them worked toward evacuation, they were all working for preservation. Saving strings of data to be shipped to servers or clouds. Saving notes and samples turned from physical items into lines of code so another team could pick up where this one likely died. The scientists were waiting for the Tesseract to explode and kill them all.
The archer knew he would die in this line of work. If not from his time as an agent, his time as a thief, or a carnie, Clint expected to die young. However, Clint did not necessarily want to die today.
"Agent Barton, report," Fury's voice came over the radio. Clint did not sigh, though he wanted to. He slid down the rope he had for that purpose and waited for Fury to continue. "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."
"Well, I see better from a distance." Clint didn't add that the Tesseract made all the hair on his body stand on end and he couldn't think too close to it.
"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?" A scientist warned that Tesseract energy was spiking again, causing a flurry of activity.
"No one's come or gone. And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs." Clint watched Erik move around the workstations the way a bee moves around flowers. "If there's any tampering, sir, it isn't at this end."
"At this end?" Fury repeated as a question. Clint managed to keep the surprise off his face. Had he figured it out before anyone else?
"Well, yeah. The cube's a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides." The look on Director Fury's face said that he clearly hadn't thought of that, and now he was mad about it.
"No, not yet," Erik pleaded with the readings on the computer. The Tesseract was... doing something, Erik didn't know what, but he knew it was a very bad thing.
Further upstairs, Phil Coulson wobbled in place as the ground under his feet shook. Agents and contractors alike stumbled around until they got used to the movement. Phil glanced at the ground, knowing it was coming from the Tesseract in the silo. He turned his gaze upward, hoping that they wouldn't face casualties.
Maria Hill didn't move as the building around her shook. The agents still loading Phase Two equipment into the various trucks around them didn't let the movement affect the rate at which they loaded the vehicles. The moment one was loaded, it took off, tearing out of the garage to speed up the ramp and out into the desert. Maria would see them all again on the Helicarrier. She'd ordered it.
The Tesseract was vibrating at a frequency that few other things in existence could match. It was waiting until the power built up enough to shoot a ray, a funnel away from itself. The blue wave of light looked like an eye as it opened to reveal a cluster of stars no one recognized. Had anyone had the presence of mind, they'd have been thrilled at the knowledge that they were looking at a different part of space.
Four agents, armed with automatic rifles approached the man left on the ground after the light faded. He looked like he was aflame with blue fire, left over from traveling through the Tesseract. He stood, a manic look on his face as he saw where he was, not that he knew the specifics.
"Sir, please put down the spear," Fury said, hoping to avoid the death of his agents. Unfortunately, that seemed to remind the unknown man that he had a weapon. Clint tackled Fury out of the way as the man fired a beam of blue light at them both. It caused a toolbox to explode and roll away.
The man leaped with strength that was inhuman. It carried him fifty feet to the first agent. The shots that rang out did nothing against the armor the man was wearing. The first agent died, a spear through the heart. Two more fell to knives, thrown with perfect accuracy to their throats. A doctor fell as her workstation exploded, just as the assassin took on the fourth agent. Clint had to throw himself out of the way of another blast. It took less than two minutes for nearly everyone in the silo to be killed. Five men still lived, one of them the assassin.
The assassin, whomever he was, was a mess. His armor was filthy, and his hair was greasy. He looked beaten, abused and worn. But that didn't stop him from sprinting across the room, just as Clint struggled to his feet.
"You have heart," the assassin said after a brief struggle. He placed the tip of his spear to Clint's heart, and a blue haze seemed to float into the archer. His eyes turned solid blue, then faded to the same color as the gem in the spear. The same color as the Tesseract. They glowed with power, even as Clint holstered his gun.
Fury watched with horror and pain as the assassin turned to take another agent's mind. But the director shoved it aside and tucked the Tesseract into a case designed for it. All the while, Fury wished he had Goose to make this easier.
"Please don't," Loki said as Fury stood to leave. "I still need that."
"This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury said. Nick knew the excess energy of the Tesseract had formed an unstable black hole at the top of the Silo. He also knew that it would explode sooner or later. He would hope to stall long enough.
"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else." There was a pause, for Fury to turn around and look at the intruder. Vivid blue eyes, a tremor in his hand, but a steady calmness in his voice that belied anything else. "I am Loki, of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."
"Loki, brother of Thor?" Loki's face crumbled, as if hearing the comparison was painful, but shouldered on.
"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury explained.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki said, a half-smile on his face.
"Are you planning to step on us?" Fury almost couldn't believe the audacity of the Asgardian.
"I come with glad tidings! Of a world made free."
"Free from what?"
"Freedom." Nick officially checked Loki's "crazy" box in his head. This man was little more than a madman, coming to do damage to repair imagined slights. At the sign of Clint watching the space behind Fury, the director knew he had little time left. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart..."
Loki spun and captured Erik's mind the same way he had Clint and the other agents.
"You will know peace."
"Yeah, you say peace, I kinda think you mean the other thing." Clint turned his head, fully watching the blue light coming from the top of the Silo.
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Clint said, walking to Loki's side. "This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."
"Like the pharaohs of old."
"He's right. The portal's collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before it goes critical."
"Well then." Clint shot Fury in the chest the moment Loki looked at him. Fury fell back, stunned, not dead, and the four men were able to take the Tesseract's case and leave. As they left, Loki stumbled, finally letting his wounds affect him out of the enemy's sight. Clint supported him with a light hand on the back just as Erik took the Tesseract case.
Fury gasped through the pain of getting shot point blank, even with a kevlar vest on. He watched as Clint lead them out of the silo.
"I need these vehicles," Clint said, his voice full of command as he walked past Maria Hill.
"Who's that?" Maria asked as Loki climbed in the bed of the truck. Selvig climbed in the passenger seat.
"They didn't tell me," Clint answered. He didn't make it into the truck before Fury was able to get on the radio.
"Hill, do you copy?" Fury demanded. He was pulling the bullet out of his vest, looking at it with disbelief. "Barton's turned!"
Maria tucked into a roll, just as Clint turned to shoot her. They exchanged shots until Clint was able to get in the cab of the truck and pull away. The other agent climbed in the car next to it, and peeled out after him, driving right on his rear bumper.
"They have the tesseract! Shut them down," Fury ordered as he stormed out of the silo, his coat flowing out behind him. Maria jumped into an open truck and tore after them. Noticing the chase, a few other cars jumped into the chase. Loki destroyed one, taking out two others in the crash.
A surge from the collapsing portal nearly tripped Fury as he ran. The same surge knocked Phil Coulson to the ground, along with two agents with him, carrying out phase two weapons.
"Okay, let's go. No, leave it, go!" Phil ordered. He wasn't about to see one of their agents lost because of a replaceable weapon.
Maria pulled out of a shortcut and cut off Barton. Using the emergency brake, she spun her truck so they were nose to nose and tried to slow him down. They traded more gunfire, Maria shooting through her windshield, Barton reaching out his window.
"We're clear upstairs, sir," Phil said through his radio, just as Fury burst through an upstairs door.
"You need to go," Fury said as he leapt into the helicopter, just as the ground gave way beneath him. Fury watched from the air as the portal created a sinkhole easily five hundred meters across. He knew search and rescue was going to take days, days he didn't have.
"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" Phil's voice came through Fury's radio. The helicopter was down, in flames behind him. His pilot was dead.
"The tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?"
"A lot of men still under," Hill reported, climbing out of her own car. She was alright, if buried. "I don't know how many survivors.
"Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue, looking for that briefcase."
"Roger that," Hill said, shaking dust out of her hair.
"Coulson, get back to base. This is a level seven," Fury said. Phil and Maria, and any SHIELD agent that was listening grew serious. "As of right now, we are at war."
"What do we do?" Phil asked.
Fury knew that Loki was a threat that SHIELD alone couldn't handle. He considered his options and decided. With the tesseract in the hands of a hostile alien force, it was time to call in the Avengers.
Line Break
A train rumbled past, but Natasha didn't notice as she was struck across the face. She was tied to a chair in a black dress, barefoot. She rolled her head back to look at the men surrounded her, her chest heaving with her breath. Pretending to be a frightened, weak woman was exhausting. Natasha wanted a distraction, a gun, or a margarita, in any order.
"This is not how I wanted this evening to go," the man said in Russian, leering at Natasha.
"I know how you wanted this evening to go. This is better, trust me," Natasha replied in the same language.
"Who are you working for? Lermentov, yes?" He asked. Oh, he knew who she was, she was infamous. But he didn't know why she was coming after him. One of his goons tilted the chair back, successfully making Natasha feel slightly nervous, even if she was acting more than she was. "Does he think we have to go through him to move our cargo?"
"I thought General Solohob was in charge of the export business?" Natasha asked, fishing for more information.
"Solohob? He's a bagman. A front." Well Natasha already knew that she wanted to know who else was involved. "Your outdated information betrays you. The famous Black Widow. And she turns out to be simply another pretty face."
"You really think I'm pretty?" Natasha asked. She would take the compliment, even if the man giving them was nothing more than a mark.
"Tell Lermentov," the man in charge said as his goon grabbed Natasha's face, holding her still. He continued without pause, "to move the tanks. Tell him he is out. Well, you may have to write it down."
Natasha watched as he grabbed some instrument from his tray and prepared to pull her teeth. Her only thought was about how unsanitary it was to do this without gloves. What if she caught an infection? The goon left not holding Natasha blinked in confusion as his phone rang, loudly.
"Yes?" he answered. "It's for her."
"You listen carefully-"
"You're at 114 Silensky Plaza, third floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I'll blow up the block before you make the lobby," Phil Coulson threatened, before the Russian could get anything else out. He hesitated, but brought the phone to Natasha so she could hold it between her jaw and shoulder. "We need you to come in."
"Are you kidding? I'm working," Natasha said, unphased by the interruption, even if she was secretly glad for it. This was a very boring job.
"This takes precedence," Phil said.
"I'm in the middle of an interrogation, this moron is giving me everything!" Natasha said.
"I don't give… everything," the Russian said. Natasha looked at him like he was an idiot. "Look, you can't pull me out of this right now."
"Natasha, Barton's been compromised," Phil said lowly. Natasha's face cleared of any annoyance.
"Let me put you on hold." Natasha gestured for the Russian to take the phone, and the moment she was close enough she kicked him in the groin, bringing him to her level so she could stun him with a head butt. He collapsed to the ground at her feet. She quickly took the two goons out while still attached to the chair. It wasn't her first time, and she doubted it would be the last. Normal kids played musical chairs. Widows in training fought with chairs. Phil just waited, bopping along as he listened to Natasha do what she did best – make men cry.
Shattering the chair freed her and took out the first goon. As the arm of the chair was still tied to her wrist, she used it to smack around the remaining goon, before she heard the Russian groaning as he started to stir. She stood him up, knocking his head into a railing, wrapped his leg in chains, and tipped him down the same shaft he was threatening her with not five minutes prior. She grabbed her shoes, a cute pair Christine had bought for her, and the phone, and left the building.
"Where's Barton now?"
"We don't know."
"But he's alive?"
"We think so. We'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first we need you to talk to the big guy."
"You want me to bring in Stark?"
"No, I have Stark, you get the big guy," Phil clarified. Natasha understood he meant Banner. She got the mission parameters and headed back to where she'd be picked up by SHIELD. On her way, she called Grey for reassurance about Barton. Thankfully, she picked up on the first ring.
"You know my hours are between eight and eight, right?" Grey asked dryly.
"Clint's been compromised," Natasha said tersely.
"You'll get him back with bruises and a touch of PTSD, nothing a good meal and some therapy won't fix. Luckily for him, being an Avenger also comes with mandatory therapy." Natasha could hear Grey sigh. "Does this mean what I think it does?"
"Coulson said the Tesseract was taken," Natasha said, not caring that it was classified intel.
"So, Loki is on-world. Hmm. Well, it gets me out of the golf trip. Thanks, Nat. I'll gather the others," Grey promised. "Have fun in Calcutta!"
Grey ended the call, and Nat wondered why she hadn't already recruited Banner, if she'd known where he was the entire time. She'd have to ask her the next time she saw her. Unless Christine was there; Natasha had priorities.
All the way back in New York, Grey sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. Maybe she'd ask Bucky to braid her hair. Something to keep it out of the way while they worked. And afterwards, she'd need a haircut, keep it short enough to not be a problem. But first, she had an alien invasion to deal with.
"Bambi, initiate protocol Light The Beacon."
"The beacons have been lit, Grey," Bambi said. Grey could hear her phone go off with the alert. The Legacies, the Iron Family, and the Avengers' Initiative had all been alerted. Everyone would make their way to the tower.