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Natasha Antonia “Toni” Stark is the only daughter of Howard and Maria Stark. She is the heiress to the Stark fortune, the major shareholder and ex-CEO of Stark Industries.She remembers when she was younger, when she’d just taken over the company and Obie had been her front, because nobody ever wanted to invest in a company where not only an promiscuous, heretic alcoholic had the final say, but oh, no, that wasn’t the worst. No, the straw that broke the camel’s back was because Toni Stark was a girl.No one wanted to invest in a company whose CEO was a proven alcoholic and female.She remembers, after Obie’d died (read: been killed) when she stepped up to fully take the reins of the company, how the stock had immediately plummeted, even lower than it’d been when SI had announced that they’d stop making weapons.Toni hadn’t slept for more than two hours at a time for months before she’d managed to somewhat convince the public that SI was reliable, she’d single-handedly invented the StarkPhone models 2.0 to 8.0 in those few months,and she’d kept improving on them, kept coming up with new codes, new appliances, new tech to satiate the public. Single-handedly. (R&D are idiots. Toni stands by that fact.)But it’d been worth it to see SI’s market price slowly rise, their stock prices slowly climbing as Toni fought tooth and nail to keep her company, clawed her way back up to the top and beyond, before the lack of sleep caught up to her and she’d collapsed, before JARVIS’d diagnosed her with palladium poisoning.At least she hadn’t pawned off a failing company to Pepper. Pepper deserved so much more than that.But, yeah, she remembers how hard it was to bring the company back to its former glory, remembers the burst of ecstasy when they’d surpassed what SI had ever been under Howard.Toni’s the mastermind behind everything SI does. Sure, Pepper runs the Fortune 500 company for her now, but Toni builds the tech.Natasha Antonia Stark has many secrets, most of them being ‘she has PTSD’, ‘she’s pretty screwed up’ or ‘she has shrapnel -and an Arc Reactor- in her chest’. But her biggest secret, the one kept closest to her (not functioning by itself) heart, is that she is Iron Woman.And Iron Woman is an Avenger.Sure, she’s a S.H.I.E.L.D. ‘consultant’, but she’s hardly ‘hero material’. At least, that’s what her file says. Iron Woman yes, Toni Stark not recommended.So, yes, no one knows that Toni Stark is Iron Woman.Well, no one knew.First, S.H.I.E.L.D. found out. This is, of course, long before the Avengers are formed, and by the time the Avengers come together, Toni has somewhat gotten used to agents passing her in the halls and nodding ‘Iron Woman’.So now both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers know that she’s Iron Woman. And that’s all the people who she’s comfortable with knowing. The public will never know who Iron Woman is, not if she can help it.Of all the Avengers, the first one she meets is Steve Rogers. Well, Captain America.She’s there when he thaws out, is the ‘agent’ assigned to show him around, familiarise him to the world. At least, Iron Woman is.Toni doesn’t tell Steve who Iron Woman is ‘til he finally gains her unwavering trust, and then she’s shocked to find out that he’d suspected all along.Toni Stark and Steve Rogers had been dating long before Iron Woman was revealed, so it’s not much of a surprise when, a few months down the road, Natasha Antonia Stark becomes Natasha Antonia Stark-Rogers.They get married in costume, which is only permissible as theirs is a small, tiny celebration that not even S.H.I.E.L.D. knows about. (Although, seriously, they're an intelligence agency. How do they not know that two of their most famous agents are married?) It is a few months later when the Initiative is finally called in.It’s because of some guy with gray skin and six fingers on each hand, who calls himself ‘The Other’, and because he takes the Tesseract.One by one, the Avengers report in, Natasha Romanov sent to call in Bruce Banner while Coulson brings files to Toni Stark for review.The current situation is that The Other came through the portal created when the Tesseract went haywire, clutching a golden sceptre that seems ill-fitting on him, and he uses it to take control of the Tesseract's leading scientist, Erik Selvig, and one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top agents and marksmen, Clint Barton, A.K.A. Hawkeye.Nick Fury himself goes to call in Captain America, drops in at his dingy one-person apartment that doesn’t look lived-in at all (and actually isn’t -it’s just for show, not that S.H.I.E.L.D. knows) with the file on the Tesseract and the Initiative.
Steve is not surprised at all.
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Not all of the Avengers are present at first. Steve comes immediately when called in, and Bruce comes under threat by Black Widow.Only three of the six Avengers are actually present on the Helicarrier, and when the aircraft ascends, Steve is hardly surprised -he’s spent majority of his time in this century with Toni, the world’s most futuristic thinker and engineer- and can't help but think that Toni would be so scandalised at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s tech.Where is Toni anyway? He knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. would've called her in, whether as an Avenger or as consultant.Chances are, she refused for the heck of it. Knowing Toni, though, she'll come in soon enough. Probably with some big, dramatic entrance.The moment Banner comes aboard, the first thing he asks for is for S.H.I.E.L.D. to calibrate all the spectrometers they have access to for gamma rays while he roughs out a tracking algorithm, which are terms Steve only barely understands because he’s spent so much time around Toni.When Dr. Banner and Agent Romanov make their way to the lab, Coulson turns to him, a slightly awestruck, sheepish look on his face. He pulls out a stack of cards, and as Steve catches sight of his shield on the top one, he immediately remembers Toni throwing out teasing jibes about Coulson when they had been watching all the old Cap movies that Toni’d insisted on watching. Fanboy being one of them.Coulson asks him to sign them, and he shrugs, flushing slightly -he’s still not used to fan worship; he never knows how to react to it.“I mean,” Coulson hems. “If it’s not too much trouble.”Steve smiles bashfully. “No, no it’s fine.”“It’s a vintage set,” Coulson states proudly, fingering his cards. “It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but…”Steve allows his lip to twitch upward, mouth shifting into a lopsided grin, slightly amused and not really sure how to react to such hero worship. He knows that Toni has an entire hall full of Captain America memorabilia, although none of it was collected by her; it was all Howard. He’s never found it in himself to visit the hall, though. He’s already unsettled by the people screaming “Captain America!” every time he heads out in costume. He doesn’t need to see the largest collection of Cap memorabilia in existence.He doesn’t mind signing the cards for Coulson, though. The agent is quite likeable, despite his stoicism and unshakeable nature. Even Toni likes him, although she goes to large extents to hide it. He extends a hand for the cards, and Coulson is about to hand them over when the agent seated at the monitors that are tracking The Other calls out a sixty-seven percent match, which rises rapidly to a seventy-nine after a cross-match."Location?" Coulson barks, cards not forgotten but safely tucked away in his breast pocket."Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding," the agent replies tersely.Fury turns to Steve. "Captain, you're up."When the Quinjet gets to Germany, the first thing Steve sees is The Other peeling off a mask that had allowed him to fake the look of a human. It is when he starts shooting that the Quinjet flies low enough and Steve takes a flying leap off the back, landing and rolling to disperse his momentum, coming up shield-first in front of a civilian who is just about to be hit with the ray from The Other's sceptre.The Quinjet makes an about-turn and the machine gun locks onto the alien."Drop the weapon and stand down," Natasha's voice comes over the speakers of the jet.The Other growls, low under his breath, before firing off an unexpected shot at Steve that catches him by surprise, knocking Steve off his feet, but Steve simply pushes himself back up, flipping around and sweeping his feet in an arc, knocking The Other off his feet.Natasha watches from the Quinjet, frowning as she studies The Other.Suddenly, the intercom system flares to life, blasting ACDC’s Shoot To Thrill, before cutting off as a semi-robotic voice blares over the speakers. “Agent Romanov, miss me?”A blur of red and gold speeds through the air and lands in front of Cap. It’s Iron Woman.Not much of a surprise; Steve’d expected her to do something dramatic to announce her arrival.The armoured Avenger powers up her repulsors, firing once at The Other, a warning shot before the miniature missile launchers in her pauldrons rise up, locking onto the alien. “Make your move, Creepazoid.”The Other’s gaze flicks from side to side, before he raises his six-fingered hands in the universal sign for surrender.Toni shrugs. “Good move.”It is when they have The Other subdued that Steve and Toni acknowledge the other.“Ms. Stark,” Steve greeted, a slight, imperceptible smile pulling at his lips, tempted to add a ‘Rogers’ to the back of his statement and barely holding back.“Captain,” Toni replies, deadpan, although Steve has spent more than enough time around her to be able to discern the slight grin in her voice.It is when they have The Other safely sequestered on the Quinjet that Toni, Steve and Natasha relax ever so slightly. Mission accomplished.Thunder booms overhead and Natasha stiffens slightly. She's always hated flying the Quinjet in the rain. "Captain, Stark, might be some turbulence ahead."The jet suddenly rocks violently, before the sound of metal ripping echoes through the interior of the jet.Steve and Toni lurch sideways, both grabbing onto the fabric grips on the ceiling to stop themselves from faceplanting."I take it that was not what you meant by turbulence, Agent Romanov," Toni deadpans once she gets her balance back.Natasha shakes her head, frowning. “Where’s this coming from?”The question is answered barely a moment later when the door of the Quinjet rips open and a blur of silver and red swoops in like a fury from hell, lightning crackling and thunder booming in its wake. The blur resolves into a man, bulky and even more muscled than Steve, who grabs hold of The Other by the throat, bodily lifting him out of his seat and tossing the alien out, following right behind the plummeting cargo.Toni raises her faceplate, gaping at the guy before rolling her eyes. “And then there’s that guy.”Then she snaps her faceplate back on and prepares to jump out after him, delayed when Steve places a firm hand on her armoured shoulder.“An Asgardian?” Natasha mutters.Steve pulls himself up to his full height, straightening for battle. “What’s the deal with this guy, Agent Romanov? Think he’s a friendly?”Toni shrugs his hand off her shoulder, turning to face him. “Doesn’t matter. If he frees Creepazoid or kills him, the Tesseract’s lost.”She pivots back around and her repulsors fire up.“Stark,” Steve interrupts. “We need a plan of attack.”“I have a plan,” Toni replies, and Steve dreads what’s coming next, because even though he can’t predict what she’s going to say, he’s pretty sure it’ll be calculated to annoy him. He can hear the smug smirk in her voice, after all. “Attack.”The she jumps out of the jet, leaving Steve staring at the spot where she last stood, groaning.“Why am I not surprised?” He mutters to himself, grabbing a parachute from under the Quinjet seat and pulling it on, preparing to jump out after Toni.“I’d sit this one out, Captain,” Natasha warns. “These guys come from legend. They’re practically gods.”Steve shrugs. “There’s only one God, ma’am. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.”
Taking a leaf out of Toni’s book, he leaps off the back of the plane before Natasha even has the chance to reply.
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Thor slams The Other to the ground, grabbing him by the neck and holding him there. “Where. Is. Loki?” Thor grits out, tightening his grip until The Other is gagging in his grasp.Nevertheless, the gray-skinned alien sneers condescendingly at the Asgardian Prince. “Where you will never find him. The Master shall retain Loki Liesmith to the end of his days.”Thor growls, low in his throat. “Lies! Speak the truth, foul creature, or face the wrath of Mjolnir!”Thunder crackles in the background, lightning arcing across the sky, but The Other does not crack. “You do not scare me, Thunderer.”There is the sudden whir of machinery behind them, and a blur of red and gold slams bodily into Thor, knocking the both of them to the wooded area below the mountaintop Thor had landed on.Thor growls in fury, glaring at Iron Woman. “Do not touch me again.”Toni scoffs, rolling her eyes. “Then don’t take my stuff.”“You have no idea what you are dealing with.”Toni shrugs, arching an eyebrow. “Erm, Shakespeare in The Park? Doth Mother know you weareth her drapes?”Thor’s features contort in fury. “This is beyond you! The Other will face Asgardian justice for his crimes against the Realm Eternal.”“He gives up the Cube, he’s all yours,” Toni bites out, voice and expression sobering abruptly. Her faceplate somehow manages to convey her anger, the white-blue of the eye slits gleaming in the shadows of the trees. “Until then, stay out of the way.”Thor turns to one side, looking down at the ground with a displeased expression plastered all over his face.Toni huffs and turns, only to spin back around at a sudden cry from Thor, and catches Mjolnir right in the centre of her suit.Right on the Arc Reactor, in fact.The hammer sends her crashing backwards, smashing a tree to smithereens in her flight path, ending with her sprawled ungracefully on the ground, the air temporarily knocked out of her. A surge of fury courses through her even as she feels the Reactor housing scraping against the broken off ends of her sternum that had been snapped to allow for the Reactor, sending a jolt of blinding agony down her spine.She sucks in a breath and hisses inaudibly, features contorted under the helmet. Dammit, that better not have done lasting damage.The HUD flickers, and now she’s mad. She cocks her head even as the display slowly stabilises. “Okay. Now it’s on.”Thor whirls his hammer in tight, concentric circles, creating a sharp, whooshing sound not unlike the howling wind.She pushes slowly to her feet, sensing Thor’s smug eyes on her. Oh, that’s it.She turns sharply, engaging her unibeam and blasting the Asgardian backwards into a tree, before her palm repulsors whir to life and she leaps towards Thor, armoured boot sending him flying straight through the tree the unibeam had blasted him against.He clambers back to his feet, outstretching a hand and calling his hammer, which he raises skywards. The weapon starts to crackle dangerously, sparks leaping across it’s silvery surface before a bolt of white lightning comes crackling down, and is redirected at her.The electricity makes contact with the suit, and the only thought she has time for is ‘Dammit, thank God I insulated the suit.’When the lightning stops, she sees the HUD flare even brighter than before, the battery display in the corner spiking. Power at 400% capacity, JARVIS informs her.She arches an eyebrow, tilting her head. “Well. How about that.”Then she fires up both the unibeam and her palm repulsors, the combined blast sending Thor flying backwards with an oof.Both of them take to the air, grappling in midair while Toni grabs ahold of the god and crashes him straight into a cliffside, his armour scraping the rock and sending sparks flying.They land when Thor pushes away, grappling in midair again and crashing to the ground when Thor loses his grip on Mjolnir.Thor grabs onto Toni’s wrists, crumpling the metal and sending red warnings flashing across the HUD. Toni estimates another five seconds before the armour gives way completely and Thor crushes her radii and ulnae.Well, she can’t have that. She’s an engineer. Her wrist mobility is one of the most important parts of her, not counting her hands.So she fires the repulsor right in Thor’s face, forcing him to release his grip on her arm and giving her a temporary reprieve before the god’s strength manages to force her to one knee.He raises his hand to call Mjolnir, the hammer flying into his grasp. Thor raises the weapon above his head, clearly intending to deliver what would probably be the winning blow in this battle, but as the god brings the hammer down, Toni engages her boot repulsors, sending her skidding across the leaf-strewn floor, out of harm’s way, and sending Thor crashing to the ground, overbalanced, as he brings the weapon down on thin air.She speeds back, thrusters on full, fist drawn back to deliver a forceful punch to the temple that would have taken out anyone that wasn’t Thor or Steve.Just as Thor pushes to his feet and they start circling each other, a forceful “Hey!” echoes through the air swiftly followed by a blur of red, white and blue that ricochets off Thor’s hammer, the armour and a couple of trees before returning to it’s point of origin.Steve stands on the very end of a broken tree trunk, towering above the both of them, catching the shield instinctively and slipping it onto his arm without abandoning his both metaphorical and literal high ground. “That’s enough!”He leaps down from the trunk, landing in a crouch and straightening.He meets Thor’s gaze, eyes flashing and narrowed. “Now, I don’t know what you plan on doing here-”“I’ve come to bring The Other back to the Realm Eternal! He will face justice for his heinous acts.”Steve doesn’t miss a beat, replying unflinchingly. “Then prove it. Put that hammer down.”Toni’s pulse speeds up slightly. Who knows what Steve’s going to get himself into? The guy obviously has some insane obsession with his weapon. “Um, yep, no! Bad call! He loves his hammer!”Steve’s eyes dart to Toni for a nanosecond, expression exasperated and reading ‘This is already bad enough, Toni.’Thor doesn’t even look Toni’s way. He simply swings Mjolnir out in a forceful arc, this time hitting her right under the Reactor, and Toni swears she can feels something dislodge inside her.The blow sends her tumbling backwards, landing in an ungraceful heap on the ground, limbs splayed. Her breath hitches in her chest, and she suddenly feels as though there’s a weight on her chest, pressing down unforgivingly on her lungs as her breathing shallows, her chest tightening with every breath. Oh shit.“JARVIS?” She chokes out. “Run diagnostic. Now.”“Miss, there is nothing wrong with the Reactor. Your reaction is purely psychological.”And, because she trusts her tech and pretty much nothing else (except maybe Steve), she immediately breathes easier.When she gets back to her feet, it is only to see Thor in the air, hammer raised and bearing down on Steve.Oh, God. Not Steve. Please, not Steve. His suit may be bulletproof and reinforced and basically stronger than Kevlar (she should know -she designed it), but there is no way it’ll hold up against Thor’s hammer. Even her suit barely did, and she has so many layers of protection on the thing that nothing short of adamantium is going to be able to pierce it.But then Steve hunkers down, shield hefted above his head, right in the trajectory of Thor’s hammer, and Toni panics for a moment; who knew if vibranium was strong enough to withstand the force of a magical, godly weapon without denting and most likely breaking Steve’s arm (or possibly smashing him to a grease spot)?But before she can move, the hammer impacts the shield, and her first thought is ‘Thank God, it held.’, before the entire area in front of her bursts into a starburst of light and sound, the resulting shockwave knocking her back down and levelling the entire forest around them, blowing both Steve and Thor back with its force.It is a while before Toni gets her bearings and balance back enough to slowly push to her feet, Steve beside her and Thor a few feet in front of her, both shaking their heads and gingerly standing as well.“Damn,” Toni breathes, blinking rapidly to clear the flash blindness.Steve and Thor have a minor face-off, and Toni can practically feel the tension in the air skyrocketing. Steve bends, scoops his shield off the ground and straightens, still frowning at Thor. “Are we done here?” When they get back on the Quinjet, The Other back in their possession, the first thing Steve does is pull Toni to a corner, pulling the catch that releases the faceplate. “Are you alright?”Toni allows a corner of her mouth to curl into a slight smile, letting down her masks just for a little while. “Fine. The suit took most of the impact. A little dazed, but we all are. You? I know that hammer of his packs quite the punch.”“Fine,” Steve replies, smiling softly at the concern. It’s not everyday he sees Toni visibly express herself. “The modifications you made to the shield helped a lot. The impact was there, but a lot less than it could’ve been.”
Toni and Steve share a soft smile before her guard comes back up, masks sliding back into place along with the faceplate.
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When the team finally gets The Other to the Helicarrier, Fury immediately sequesters him in the glass cell that had actually been built for the Hulk, before ordering Natasha to give Thor a rundown of the events and a tour of the aircraft.The first thing Thor does, though, is demand to see The Other.S.H.I.E.L.D. allows him to do so. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to deny the god of thunder anyway.When they let Thor into the cell where The Other is being held, it is with great trepidation and repeated forewarning not to kill the prisoner.Then he is let into the cell.Thor immediately stalks up to the alien, wrapping a hand around his gray, mottled throat, pressing him against the wall, where he hangs, limp and growling low under his breath."Where," Thor bellows. "Is. Loki?"With every word that falls past the god's lips, The Other's head impacts the wall, until there is a visible trickle of blood trailing from the alien's lips."Where is my brother? Tell me, foul creature, or suffer the wrath of Mjolnir!"The Other simply smiles, gruesomely, grayish-black blood staining his teeth and still dripping down his chin. "The Liesmith is where you will nev-"The alien is abruptly silenced with a sharp, sudden burst of green.Another explosion of emerald light, and a tall, leanly muscled man garbed in gold and green, dark leather and golden armour, a golden helmet with curving horns under one arm, an emerald green cape flowing fluidly, elegantly from his shoulders. He has jet-black hair, dark as night, dark as a raven's feathers, and ethereal, almost glowing emerald eyes even brighter than his cape. “Looking for someone?"Thor gapes, while The Other's growling increases exponentially.“You,” The Other growls. “The Master h-”“Oh, shut up,” Loki replies, snapping his fingers and creating a sharp crack that echoes throughout the cell, and the alien goes unconscious, sinking to the ground with a loud thud as Thor releases his grip around The Other’s neck.Thor stares disbelievingly at the man, before he snaps into action. He rushes at the man, wrapping him in a tight, crushing hug, but the other god simply disappears in another flash of green and appears beside Thor.“Hello, brother,” he manages, before he collapses, Thor barely managing to catch him in time.The armour and cape disappear in a fizzle of emerald, leaving the man garbed in shreds of cloth and ragged trousers, both stained and torn to the point of being unrecognisableRed pools around the man's body, soaking into Thor's cape and tarnishing his armour."Brother? Brother! Loki!"The thunder god cradles his brother in his arms, carefully picking him up and carrying him out of the cell while The Other lies, unconscious and forgotten on the floor with that trickle of blood from his lips slowing to a few drips.Thor barges out of the cell, still carrying Loki's unconscious form."We must make haste to the healing room!" Thor bellows, anxiety written in his posture and voice, hands still cradling the man's head with gentleness that seems impossible for one of his build. "My brother is in dire need of treatment!"S.H.I.E.L.D. treats the man at Thor's request, but the other god is kept under constant surveillance.S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't get to be a secret government agency by trusting everyone they came across. Innocent until proven guilty didn't apply. Try guilty until proven innocent.
So they let the guy in MedBay and treat him, but they don't trust him, and they don't take their eyes off him.
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Toni walks into the briefing room where the other Avengers are, which also happens to be the control room for the Helicarrier, overlooking at least fifty S.H.I.E.L.D. agents milling about at their computer stations.“Iridium. What do they need iridium for?” Bruce asks, scrutinising the data that they received.“It’s a stabilising agent,” Toni answers without a second thought. It’s practically Engineering 101. “Means the portal won’t collapse in on itself, like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D.”Turning to Thor, Toni shoots him a lopsided, roguish grin. “No hard feelings, Point Break, you’ve got a mean swing,” Toni blurts, before turning back to the previous conversation.“Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as the Other wants.”She walks up to the front of the control platform, looking out on the agents. “Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails.”Toni narrows her eyes, a smirk coming to life on her lips. She raises an arm, pointing out at the milling agents. “That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did.”She covers an eye, looking around at the multiple screens flashing reports at supersonic speeds. “How does Fury do this?”Maria Hill rolls her eyes. “He turns.”Toni surreptitiously places a button the size of a bolt on the bottom of the screen that she’s in front of, making sure that no one saw her.“Sounds exhausting,” she says in reply to Hill’s remark, before jumping back into business mode. “The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kickstart the Cube.”Hill arches an eyebrow. “When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?”“Last night,” Toni replies, matter-of-fact, not even boasting, for once. “The packet, Selvig’s notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?”Steve hides his grin. Of course Toni would manage to become an expert in a field that took most people more than half of their lives to master in a single night. “Does The Other need any particular kind of power source?”“He’s gotta heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break the Coulomb barrier,” Bruce contributes.“Unless,” Toni cuts in with a grin. “Selvig’s figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect.”Bruce tilts his head, lips quirking slightly. “Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.”Toni grins, a true one that lights up her eyes, a hint of white teeth behind full lips, the corners of her mouth pulling up. “Finally, someone who speaks English!”Steve cocks his head, hiding a smile of his own at Toni’s reaction. “Is that what just happened?”Toni extends a hand to Bruce, still grinning. Bruce takes it, both their eyes glimmering with mutual respect for the other.“It’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled,” Toni offers, eyes glinting with barely contained fangirl worship. “And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”Bruce’s gaze turns downcast, smiling self-deprecatingly. “Thanks.”Fury walks into the room, frowning as usual. “Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him.”Toni hides her displeasure well -she’s more than a simple consultant.“Let’s start with that stick of his,” Steve cuts in, breaking Toni’s train of thought. “It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”Fury frowns. He’s read the files on HYDRA and WWII, and it’s not a pretty thing. “I don’t know about that, but I want to know how he used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”Thor cocks his head, brow furrowing. “Monkeys? I do not understand.”“I do! I understood that reference!” Steve bursts out, looking so goddamn proud of himself that it’s adorable.Toni hides her grin, physically stopping herself from walking over and pinching the supersoldier’s cheeks. Her gaze is fixed on Steve, rolling her eyes for good measure while her inner self grins maniacally, giggling (not! Toni Stark does not giggle!) inwardly. When Bruce and Toni finally get to their lab, Toni immediately insists on intruding into Bruce's space, peering over his shoulder at his readings and records while Bruce pores over them. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take us weeks to process."Toni frowns in contemplation. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops."The corner of Bruce's lip curls in a repressed smile. "And all I brought was my toothbrush."Toni smiles, all white teeth and shining eyes. It's rare to ever see her smile genuinely, but science is one of the few things that can make it happen. "You should drop by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it; it's candyland."Now, Natasha Antonia Stark rarely ever makes offers that she means, but this one she does. It's not often that she asks someone to join her in Stark Tower, and it's even rarer for someone (who is not Pepper, Steve or Rhodey) to accept. And she's hoping that Bruce will break the trend.
Come on, say yes, come on, come on.
Bruce's not-really-there smile turns self-deprecating. "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke... Harlem."Oh. That. Right. Well, she's not gonna take no for an answer. It's one of her more annoying (yet somehow endearing) traits. "Well, I can promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises."Then she jabs the electric probe into Bruce's side."Ow!" Bruce protests, but he doesn't do much else."Nothing?" Toni quirks an eyebrow, but, yeah, nothing.Then the door hisses open, and Steve walks in."Are you nuts?" He yelps, panicked.Toni ignores him, instead turning to Bruce. "You really have got a lid on it, don't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"Steve rolls his eyes, used to Toni's attitude. "Is everything a joke to you?" He teases, even though his expression is blank.The two do have an unspoken agreement to try to keep their relationship under wraps. They don't mind letting other people know, but it's just fun to see the others' reactions when they finally do find out.Toni whirls, pointing the probe at Steve. She cocks her head to the side and grins. "Funny things are."Steve rolls his eyes, hiding a grin, and walks out of the lab.Bruce turns back to the sceptre, analysing it. That's the cue for Toni to snap to work mode too, tossing dried blueberries into her mouth as she swipes through the stats and records.Bruce's mumble of "The Other really has the jump on us," startles Toni slightly, although she doesn't let it show."What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit, and it's gonna blow up in his face. And I'm gonna be there when it does."Bruce quirks a bemused grin. "And I'll read all about it.""Uh huh," Toni hums. "Or you could be suiting up like the rest of us.""Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armour. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare."Toni winces at the haunted look in the other scientist's eyes. She sees that look in the mirror almost every day."You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to claw its way into my heart. This," she says, tapping the Reactor. "Stops it. This little circle of light. It's a part of me now, not just armour. It's a terrible privilege.""But you can control it."No, I really can't. Toni wants to say. If I could, why would I have almost died of palladium poisoning?But she doesn't say any of that."I learned how," is what she says instead."It's different," Bruce says, a shadow passing over his face as he buries himself in his work yet again.But Toni knows what the other scientist means, understands what it feels like to have your own work backfire on you, explode in your face and almost kill you, and actually does kill others. She knows, God, she knows so well, so innately, so completely understands.It's a while before Toni speaks up again, and this time she's uncharacteristically subdued. "I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should've killed you."Bruce bites his lip, sighing through his nose. "So what, you're saying the Hulk, the Other Guy, saved my life? That's a nice thought. Saved it for what?"Toni flinches. She knows that state, she's been through it herself, but she's managed to drag herself from those depths(not without help though).She knows what Bruce is going through. "Well, I guess we'll see.""You may not enjoy that.""You just might."Natasha's voice blares over the comm. system just as Bruce opens his mouth to answer. "The Other means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, lockdown the area."Bruce flinches bodily, and Toni lays a hand on his shoulder, but the other scientist shrugs it off.Then Fury marches in. "Dr. Banner-""I know, Director. I heard."Fury turns to Toni, who immediately turns such that Fury can’t see what she’s working on. “What are you doing, Stark?”“Erm. Kinda been wondering the same thing about you, Director.”"You're supposed to be working on the Tesseract, Stark."Toni ignored Fury, tapping idly at the screen, her brow furrowing in consternation. "What is Phase 2?"That's Steve's cue to march in."Phase 2 is where S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Tesseract to build weapons," he scowls, dropping a heavy, cannon-like weapon on the lab table, here it lands with a sharp metallic clang.Toni raises an eyebrow at Steve.The soldier shrugs, a sheepish look appearing for a split second. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little too slowly for me.”Seeing Toni’s raised eyebrow, Steve mock-frowns. “And, yes, Stark, I did know that you were hacking the system.”Fury growls, low under his breath. "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-"Toni rolls her eyes, spinning the computer screen in Fury's direction. "I'm sorry, Nick, what were you lying?"On the glowing screen is a detailed, expertly-rendered blueprint, recognisable as a weapon even to the most technologically illiterate of people.Steve frowns, mouth pulled into a sharp, disapproving downwards curve. "I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." That’s when the entire Helicarrier shakes violently, and klaxons and red lights begin flashing and sounding."Suit up!" Steve yells at Toni, even as he grabs his shield off his back and Toni grabs the briefcase from its place underneath her worktable.The two hightail it out of the lab, rushing out and leaving Bruce and Fury."Agent Romanov!" Fury barks into his comm. "Report to the lab and escort Dr. Banner to-""Where, exactly?" Bruce cuts in. "You kind of rented out my room."Then the Helicarrier begins to plummet, and the wall beside Bruce blows out, knocking the scientist back and burying his legs under rubble, just as Natasha darts into the room and Fury stalks out to run damage control.Bruce's irises are rimmed with green, and the tendons in his neck and shoulders are straining, a green flush staining his throat and creeping across his shoulders even as his muscles ripple and features contort.Natasha blanches. "Doctor. Bruce. Listen to me, you have to fight it. This is just what The Other wants. I swear, on my life, you are going to get out of this, you are going to walk away from this, and never-"Bruce snaps. "Your LIFE?!" He roars, the transformation taking over and his flesh infusing with green as he grows in height and musculature, his button up tearing to shreds with a horrid ripping sound, his pants stretching and ripping at the seams.
Natasha's features contort in horror, her face paling, and she turns on her heel and runs.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Steve turns the corner to the explosion site, eyeing the damaged engine. "Toni! Engine's down!" He calls, just as a red and gold streak lands beside him."Roger, Rogers," Toni replies over the suit's external speakers, grin evident in her voice.Toni flies closer to the rotors, examining the giant turbine and prodding at the debris. "I've gotta get this super conducting cooling unit back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris."She turns to Steve. "Get to that control panel over there and tell me which panels are in overload position, Cap."Steve throws Toni a look that half confusion and half exasperation. How in the world does Toni expect Steve to know these things? Sure, he's spent years around her, and probably wouldn't have adapted so well to the 21st century without her, but does she really expect him to help her in technology? Nonetheless, Steve vaults over the debris and opens up the engine control panel."What's it look like in there?""It seems to," Steve hems. "Run on some kind of electricity."A corner of Toni's lip curls up. "Well, you're not wrong."Steve can hear the bemused amusement in her tone. He prods at the mess of wiring, shifting them aside at Toni's instruction and inspecting the circuitry with an artist's eye."The relays are intact," he reports. "What's our next move?""Even if I manage to dislodge all the debris, the rotors won't be able to get up to speed. I'll have to get inside and push."Steve blanches, horrified. "If that thing gets up to speed, you'll be shredded!"“Got no choice, Stevie. Just stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage the mag-”“English, Tone!”Steve can almost hear Toni rolling her eyes. “Hit that red lever when I say so!”At the other end of the Helicarrier, Thor is fighting the Hulk, and Natasha is dashing off to subdue Clint.The redhead jumps into the archer's path, landing in a sharp crouch and pushing to her feet. "I can't let you past, Hawkeye.""Get out of the way.""Can't do that."Clint growls, arm reaching to his quiver. His biceps bulge as he clips on the arrow and draws back the bowstring. He aims.And he shoots.The arrow whistles past Natasha's head, fletching carding through her hair even as she ducks, barely avoiding being grazed.She curses.Goddammit, she'd hoped there would be a part of Clint still somewhat conscious. But the arrow was clearly aimed to kill.And Hawkeye didn't misfire. Ever.She strikes out, leg sweeping out in a wide arc from her position on the floor, but Clint steps backwards fluidly. Dammit, they were partners in everything, they both knew each other's moves, no matter whether Clint was being mind-controlled or not."Bozhe moi, Clint," she mutters under her breath. "I don't want to fight you."Then there's a flash of green and Loki appears between them.Clint's eyes narrow on the Trickster while Loki simply snaps his fingers and the archer goes unconscious, the blue leeching from his eyes.Natasha stares at the god, fury sparking in her eyes. "What did you do to him?""Take away the mind control," Loki replies, unshaken, raising an eyebrow as if there were nothing else that he'd have done.Natasha purses her lips and nods tersely, before grabbing Clint's unconscious form and dragging him to his quarters before S.H.I.E.L.D. could get their hands on him and strap him down while Loki simply disappears in another flash of emerald.It is only later that Natasha remembers that Loki had been seriously injured and unconscious, tied down in Medical just a couple of hours ago.Toni's callused yet dexterous fingers work at the control panel, rewiring the engine and bringing the superconducting cooling unit back online. The moment the system whirs back to life, she's off, repulsors speeding her through the air to level with the rotors. She stretches out an arm, gauntlet lasers engaging and cutting through the debris like a heated knife through softened butter, sending the fragments spiralling down and out of the way.The engine freed, Toni squirms her way between the blades, boot thrusters firing up as she plants her gauntleted palms on the side of the blade in front of her. Her boots flare with white-blue energy as they increase in power, the rotors starting to spin, slowly at first, then all at once.Before she knows it, she's caught in the rotation, which goes faster and faster with every second that passes. "Steve! Lever! Now!"There are grunts that travel over the comm, muted thuds and flesh impacting metal, gunfire, the distinctive reverberating echo that only vibranium produces. Dammit."Cap! Steve, hit that lever, please, gonna be Toni puree in about five seconds!""Little busy here, Tone!" Steve grunts back, just that bit out of breath.Toni feels a pang of guilt -it takes a lot to get Steve breathless- before the panic overtakes it. God, oh God, no, she doesn't want to die like this.She can see the headlines already. "Billionaire Toni Stark dies in freak propeller accident."Yep. Not something she wants as her legacy. Or on her tombstone.Seriously, she was not having "Toni Stark, wife, friend, daughter, pureed to death in an engine" as her epitaph.Then there's a loud thud from Steve's end of the comms and her heart leaps in her chest, all thoughts of herself pushed from her brain.Not Steve. Please, not Steve.Then the rotors slow down and the suit slips from between the blades, centrifugal and g-forces failing as the blades slow. The suit's repulsors stutter to life and bear her aloft. She flies down to Steve, repulsors blinking on and off, sending her on temporary freefalls before they kick back in.She finally drops down beside Steve, landing awkwardly and off-balance before she regains her footing. footing, Steve's hand on her armoured shoulder stabilising her even as one hand clutches his side, which is bleeding badly.“Got hit,” Steve grunts, still pressing on the wound. “Should be healed in a couple hours, I’ll be fine.”“You better hope so, Cap,” Toni says brusquely, lifting the faceplate and frowning at the injury. “Or I’m dragging you back from the afterlife to kill you again.”Steve shrugs, grinning and pecking her on the lips. “Be my guest.”Then Fury’s voice blares over their comms. “All agents on deck! We have the Hulk on the loose! Does anyone copy?”Toni scowls at the ground while Steve hits the comm. button. “This is Rogers. I copy. Iron Woman and I are on our way.” They reach the Hulk after Thor, and the first scene they see is Thor being flung around by the Hulk before he regains his footing and stretches a hand out for his hammer, Mjolnir speeding through the air into Thor’s hand. Thor whirls the hammer a couple times, creating a soft whooshing sound not unlike the wind through blades of long grass. He swings the weapon in a high, overhead arc, smashing into Hulk and sending the green guy crashing to the ground.There’s a loud roar as Hulk topples, before he clambers to his feet and swipes at Thor, fist impacting Thor across the cheek and sending the god flying to the other side of the room.“Try to think, Banner! We are not your enemies!” Thor bellows even as he swings his hammer behind him in preparation to attack yet again.Toni winces as the first blow hits, and before Thor can land a second hit, Iron Woman charges into the fray. “Don’t! I can do this! I can get Bruce back!”But Thor’s gained too much momentum to stop the swing, and Toni balks at the hammer coming down on her head -the suit’s already beaten within an inch of its life, it’s scratched and banged up and dented in such a way that it’s pressing in uncomfortably on her. The suit’s not going to be able to take much more abuse. And it almost definitely won’t take being whacked by a big heavy alien tech hammer. The suit barely stood up against Thor the last time.Whoops. Bad move.She flinches. It’s not like ‘Billionaire Toni Stark smashed to death by giant alien hammer’ is going to make much of a better headline than ‘Billionaire Toni Stark dies in freak propeller accident’ would.Then there’s a blue streak in front of her, and before she can process much else, there’s a shockwave that throws her, Thor, the Hulk and the blue -oh, wait, it’s Steve- back, and all four of them are knocked to the ground harshly, and Steve lets out a short yelp that he quickly smothers.Steve? Her brain yells. Steve!There’s a short groan in front of her, and she scrambles upright and extends an armoured hand to pull Steve to his feet. Steve stands, then clutches at his side, the blue darkening.Right. Injured.Thor is just getting his footing back, and Hulk growls, low under his breath, pushing to his feet and roaring defiantly.Toni shoots Steve a sharp look, wondering if she should take him to S.H.I.E.L.D. medical, but Steve shakes his head and jerks his chin towards Hulk, and, well, he doesn’t look half bad, so Toni goes over to Hulk, a slight stumble in her step -her motor skills don’t seem to agree with being almost shredded in an engine as well as being blown backwards twice in a day.She halts in front of Hulk, lifting her faceplate and grinning at the big guy. “Hey, Big Green. Do you know me? Actually, if Bruce’s met me but you haven’t, does that technically mean that you know me too?”Hulk cocks his head at her in confusion, stumped. “Metal Woman no run? No scared?”Toni lets her grin grow wider. “Nope. You’re cool, you know. And even if Bruce doesn’t like you, I do. But right now we really need Bruce, so can you please let Bruce come back?”Hulk grunts, still staring at Toni.“Come on, Big Guy, you can do this,” Toni cajoles.Hulk stares at her, and Toni can see the cogs turning in his head. “Small Man like Metal Woman. Small Man say no smash. Hulk no smash. Hulk like Metal Woman. Hulk let Small Man come back.”Toni frowns. “Sma- oh, Bruce.”Then the Hulk begins shrinking, green receding and muscles deflating, skin fading back to Bruce’s pale skin tone, and then the scientist is standing in front of them, eyes -brown eyes- blinking open for a split second before they roll up into his head and Bruce collapses, Toni rushing forward and catching him just in time.“Bruce? Bruce? You okay?”The unconscious form in Toni’s grasp stirs slightly, and brown eyes blink open slowly, lethargically. “Wha- What happened? How am I back?”Toni smirks. "That would be me.""How-" Bruce frowns."Jolly Green likes me. What can I say? I'm Toni Stark."
Behind her, Steve stifles a chuckle.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Come on, Brucie bro, let's get you back to the lab before Fury decides to be an asshole about everything."Bruce struggles to his feet, and Toni slings his arm over her shoulder, supporting him while Steve tags along behind them at Bruce's request -the doctor wants to take a look at the soldier's injury once he's regained some sort of focus and awareness.When they reach the lab, Bruce makes his way slowly to his station, prodding sluggishly at the monitors, trying to recapture The Other, who had been rescued by one of his brainwashed agents while the Avengers had been out, busy handling the trouble caused by the attack.Steve levels a stare at Toni, wondering just how injured the woman was underneath the armour and why she hadn't removed it yet."Stark," he starts. "Take off the suit and let Dr. Banner look you over. You took quite the beating in that engine. Are you okay?"Toni shakes her head with a whir of machinery, crossing her arms. "No can do, Rogers. I do what I want, when I want to."Steve scowls at Toni. God, she can be so stubborn."Come on, Stark, will you cooperate for once? At least take off the helmet.""No," Toni replies, and Steve can practically hear the pout in her voice."Big woman in a suit of armour," he starts, jibing, prodding. "Take that off and what are you?"Toni releases the catch that holds the helmet to the torso of the suit, pulling the headpiece off vehemently, her dark, untamable waves of hair tumbling down around her shoulders, messy and flyaway, strands of dark hair in her face and eyes. A gauntleted hand rises swiftly and swipes the strands out of her eyes as she shakes her head violently, her eyes, dark and piercing, landing sharply on Steve, narrowed in mock-disdain. Her eyebrow is arched, elegantly and judgemental.Her expression all but screams 'Are you kidding me now?'Even Bruce takes a step back from the shit that is about to hit the fan."Erm," Toni begins, eyebrow still arched and tone condescending, although she can barely keep the fondness from her voice. "I'm your wife, idiot."Steve grins, stepping forward into Toni's space and kissing her, a light, soft press of lips to lips, chaste and loving."Got you to take off your helmet," Steve says after he pulls back, grinning widely, carding his fingers through Toni's mussed hair.Toni scowls lightheartedly, amused smile destroying the austere look. "Master tactician indeed."Bruce simply stares at the pair, and when they turn to look at him, all he does is shake his head and close his eyes, saying, "I don't even wanna get into this."
Toni nods approvingly. "Good choice. I knew I liked you for some reason."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Natasha walks into the lab, trailed by a sandy haired, gray eyed man in a S.H.I.E.L.D. issue black vest with a quiver slung over his shoulder, collapsible bow in hand.“Guys,” Natasha announces, gesturing to the man. “This is Agent Clint Barton, codename Hawkeye.”Toni starts. “Hey, aren’t you the mind-controlled-by-Creepazoid guy?”Clint flinches visibly and Natasha glares while Steve sighs, already used to Toni being emotionally crippled and wincing on Hawkeye’s behalf.Toni catches the flinch and winces as well. “Uh,” she hems. “Sorry? If it’s any consolation, no one died.”Natasha glares even harder, but Clint smiles weakly at Toni and nods.Steve simply strides over to the man and holds out his hand. "Hawkeye, huh. Down for the Initiative? Welcome to the team."Clint eyes Steve's hand suspiciously for a while, as if the other man is going to judo throw him the moment he takes the proffered hand. Finally the archer seems to relax and shakes Steve's hand, eyes grateful.Natasha relaxes ever so slightly, while Thor pats Clint bracingly on the back and Steve stands off to one side and Toni and Bruce immerse themselves back in their work.When Clint leaves the room, Steve turns to Natasha."How-" he begins, only to be cut off."Thor's brother, Loki," Natasha replies. "He did something, took away the mind control. But I can't be certain that he didn't tamper with anything else."Thor nods at the explanation, accepting it immediately. "Aye, my brother is well-versed in the magical arts, and his seiđr is most powerful. It would be but child's play for him to remove the mind control on the archer."Natasha nods tersely. "But I can't be sure that Loki didn't mess with Clint too."Thor frowns, tilting his head. "Rest easy, fair Widow, for Loki did not tamper with the archer, in neither mind nor body. I sense no trace of seiđr on the man but for the little used to disperse the control."It is only then that Natasha relaxes, that almost imperceptible uncoiling of tense muscles, tension that remained unseen till it was already gone. It is amazing that she trusts Thor's word with nothing to back them up, but it's hard to disbelieve someone who's fought back-to-back with you and saved your life.It doesn't hurt that even with his heavy battle armour and regal bearing Thor radiates cheer and a sort of pure innocence, as if the horrors of the world are yet to touch him.Natasha nods once, grateful, and then turns and follows Clint out of the room. out the door.There is a pulse of green energy from beside Thor, and Loki fizzles into existence yet again. Thor, Steve, Bruce and Toni whirl around, shocked at Loki’s sudden appearance. Not even Thor, who grew up with Loki, is used to the Trickster popping up out of nowhere, although he is the first to get over his shock.“Brother,” he acknowledges, and Loki grimaces slightly. “Are you well? The Allfather received word from the Mad Titan, Th-”Here, Loki flinches bodily, physically reeling away from Thor, hissing, “Do not utter that foul creature’s name!”Thor nods once, tersely, and continues. “The Allfather received word that you had been captured, and held prisoner in some forsaken place. I had wanted to set out immediately, but for the Allfather’s command. I am no match for the Titan, Loki. No one being is, save the Allfather himself, and even then the match is tenuous.”Loki shuts his eyes, visibly composing himself.“I hear about your captivity, Brother, for the being had borne a scrap of your cloak, sullied by blood.”“I am fine, Thor. I care not for your concern. I care for naught but myself. You know this, Thunderer. All of the Realm Eternal knows this.""And yet you would remove the control on the archer with nary a request.""I know what it is to have your will taken away, your very mind invaded, Odinson," Loki snarls. "Do not think to speak as if I were but a mere child.""I meant not to imply as such, brother, but simply to express my thanks.""Well, your thanks is unneeded, Thunderer. Leave me be."Thor flinches at the frigid tone and draws back slightly. Loki makes an aborted motion towards him, almost as if he's reaching to comfort the other god before he pulls back abruptly and disappears in a flash.Thor frowns as his lips twist into a rueful expression that looks so pitiful that Toni's half-tempted to walk over there and pat him on the head.She restrains herself and turns back to helping Bruce trace the Tesseract, Steve ending up patting Thor awkwardly on the back before taking a seat on one of the hard plastic chairs in the lab and fishing out a notebook and pen while Thor simply stands in the centre of the room and looks horribly lost, before he pulls himself together somewhat and marches stiffly out of the room. It’s a few hours later when the monitor that Toni and Bruce are running their scans on beep, and shakes the three Avengers still in the room out of their daze.All three had been exhausted, Steve still recovering from his wound, Toni working herself to the bone to repair the damage that the engine had done to her suit and Bruce simply trying to shake off the haze that came with transformation into the Hulk.Bruce had been huddled in a corner, curled up on a chair and leaning against the wall, somewhere between sleep and barely-awake, while Steve simply sat in his chair, notebook and pen laying forgotten in his lap, arms crossed and head bent, chin to his chest, already asleep. Toni was curled up like a cat on a chair right beside him, head pillowed on Steve’s shoulder and hugging her knees, which were drawn up to her chest, shielding the Reactor. Her dark eyes were blinking lazily, subconsciously, much like Bruce’s were, both scientists dozing, drifting in and out of sleep.The beep from Toni’s and Bruce’s scanners jolt the trio out of their dreamlike state, and Steve’s head immediately jerks up, while Toni and Bruce startle awake, each bolting upright in their respective chairs.“Right,” Toni starts, startlingly coherent (She’s not a morning person by a far stretch. Steve usually has to either physically wrestle her out of bed or coax her out with promises of freshly-brewed coffee.). “Tesseract.”Bruce nods once, tersely, and he immediately darts over to his station, skimming through the readout with speed that somehow only scientists seem to possess.“Oh God,” Bruce whispers as he gets the location of the cube. “It’s in Manhattan.”Toni flinches sharply at that. Her home, Steve’s home. All she can think of is, “Thank God Pepper isn’t in Manhattan right now.”
They assemble the others one by one, Steve going to get Natasha and Clint and Toni goes to find Thor.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The door slides open in front of Steve, opening up into a bare, impersonal S.H.I.E.L.D. room. In the centre of the space stands Natasha, who looks up on Steve’s entrance. “It’s time to go.”“Go where?” Natasha questions stoically, but the glint in her eye says she’s already made a pretty good guess.“Tell you on the way,” Steve replies, sharp, to the point. “Can you fly one of those jets?”Behind Natasha, emerging from the bathroom and wringing a towel between his hands, is Clint. “I can.”Steve turns to him, appraising, before glancing at Natasha, questioning. A slight nod from the redheaded assassin, and Steve turns back to the archer. “You got a suit?”Clint nods affirmatively. “Hm.”“Then suit up.” “Hey Point Break,” Toni calls as she falls in line with Thor, who’s pacing the halls. “Ready to cook us up some alien pancake?”“I am afraid I do not understand your meaning, Lady Natasha.”Toni sighs, rolling her eyes. “Just call me Toni. Also, I meant, we found the Tesseract and The Other. You coming?”Thor stiffens at mention of the gray-skinned alien. “Aye. I will be glad of the chance to -what is your Midgardian saying? Ah, yes- to pound his head in.”Toni grins. "Well, that can be arranged.""You will not fight my battles for me, Thunderer," comes a voice from behind the pair.Behind them, in one of the doorways that flank the Helicarrier corridor, stands Loki, arms crossed and leaning against the doorframe. "If anyone is to end The Other's life, it will be none other than myself."Toni arches an eyebrow. She's not sure how much she can trust the Trickster God -he's the Trickster God, for heaven's sake-, but at least she can trust in his rage, and in his need for vengeance."Two gods are better than one." She says, cocking her head to the side. "You're in, then?""Oh yes. And believe me," Loki scoffs. "The Chitauri are nothing. It is their master you should beware. But he will not be part of this battle, of that you need not worry. Midgard is far, far beneath him."Toni feels like she should at least be a little offended by that -she's the leading, well, almost everything on Earth, and that Earth is beneath another alien race is almost like a personal slight-, but for once she keeps her mouth shut, because the fact that Earth is inconsequential on the galactic scale is actually true.“Alright then. Reindeer Games, Goldilocks, meet you guys at the S.H.I.E.L.D. hangar in, say, thirty minutes.”She turns and leaves, intent on getting to the lab and doing some last minute tune-ups to the suit -she’s not going to head straight into battle with compromised, trashed armour. Contrary to popular belief, no, Toni Stark is not actually suicidal. (At least not anymore.) Toni breezes into the lab, suitcase hanging from her fingers as she settles in at her station, soldering iron and welding torch in hand.She activates the suit, the armour unfolding itself from the case. She picks up the helmet, welding torch at the ready even as she tilts the headpiece towards her, hammering out the dents and welding together the jagged edges of the few gashes that the suit’d sustained.She looks up at Bruce, who’s in the corner, still immersed in his readout. The scientist makes no move to indicate that he’s coming to the battle.“Hey, Doc,” Toni comments. “Ready to kick some alien ass?”“Not coming,” Bruce mumbles in reply. “You know that, Toni. You don’t need me.”Toni frowns. Bruce is perhaps even more self-deprecating than she ever was, and that’s saying something. Toni’s the queen of self-esteem issues. “No, Bruce. We don’t want the Hulk rampaging around. We want you. You, Bruce, not whatever else you think is wanted.”Bruce turns his head slightly so that his side profile is visible. "Thanks, Toni, but we all know that having the Other Guy on the field is just about the worst idea ever.""We need you, Bruce, we're already seriously outmatched here. And it's not a bad idea to have him out there, Bruce. He's not the mindless creature everyone thinks he is. I should know. He likes me, remember?"Bruce frowns, worrying at his lower lip. "I'm not sure how good an idea that is, Toni. What if I can't keep him in check?""We need you," Toni says softly.There’s a pregnant pause before Bruce’s calm voice, soft and barely audible, filters through. "Thanks, Toni, but I find that hard to believe."At this point in time the suit had been more than repaired, and Toni didn’t have much of an excuse to stay in the lab any longer. She knows that if she spends any more time in the lab, Bruce’ll probably suspect pity on her part and there goes any chances his self-esteem making a comeback.“Right then,” Toni says, muted.
She turns and leaves the room.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Bruce lifts his head ever so slightly as Toni enters the lab, metal suitcase in hand. She sets the armour down by her lab table and picks up the welding torch, flicking the on switch.It strikes Bruce how at home Toni looks with the torch in her hand and the armour in front of her.She doesn't wear a welding mask, and Bruce is tempted to call her out, because that isn't exactly the safest way to go about when holding open flame, but who is he to preach about safety?He shakes his head to clear his thoughts and turns back to his reading.Tesseract: unlimited energy source.
Currently in hands of hostile who calls himself 'The Other'.
Dr. Erik Selvig and Agent Clint Barton codename Hawkeye compromised.
Hostile wields glowing sceptre with apparent ability for cognitive recalibration and control.
Location of Tesseract: Unknown Manhattan.
Hostile is said to have reason to lead an army to attack Earth. According to Asgardian Thor, army is said to be comprised of an alien race called the 'Chitauri'.
Bruce's reading is abruptly cut off when Toni speaks up. "Hey, Doc. Ready to kick some alien ass?"Bruce shuts his eyes. Toni knows well enough how Bruce feels about unleashing the Other Guy. "Not coming. You know that, Toni. You don't need me."
No one needs me. Not anymore.
He catches Toni's frown, and he's a little gratified that she actually cares so much about a guy she'd never met till a couple days ago.“No, Bruce. We don’t want the Hulk rampaging around,” she starts, and Bruce flinches. “We want you. You, Bruce, not whatever else you think is wanted.”Bruce appreciates the sentiment, but he can’t have the Other Guy tearing through New York again. The last time that happened, he’d destroyed Harlem, and almost caused Betty’s death.He turns slightly, brown eyes flickering to Toni for a millisecond. “Thanks, Toni, but we all know that having the Other Guy on the field is just about the worst idea ever.”Toni hums and looks up, holding his gaze for just a moment, but a moment’s enough for Bruce to see the sincerity. "We need you, Bruce, we're already seriously outmatched here. And it's not a bad idea to have him out there, Bruce. He's not the mindless creature everyone thinks he is. I should know. He likes me, remember?"Bruce can remember, vaguely, Toni’s voice echoing to him through a haze of green, before he’s back in the real world, waking up in Toni’s grasp. (Jolly Green likes me. What can I say? I’m Toni Stark.)But giving up control still isn’t a good idea, even if Toni could somehow control him. His brow creases, eyebrows pulling together and biting at his lower lip. “I’m not sure how good an idea that is, Toni. What if I can’t keep him in check?” (What if I end up hurting someone again? What if I end up hurting one of you guys?)He sees Toni look up sharply out of his peripheral vision, as if she can hear the sentences his brain tagged on at the end of his statement, before turning back to her work. He expects her to say something patronising, something about how she has faith in his control, about how he won’t hurt anyone, won’t do anything he doesn’t mean.But all he gets is a soft, brutally honest,”We need you.”No one needs him. Bruce knows this, and he stamps down on the little spark of hope that flares in his chest. Toni means it, a little part of his brain murmurs softly, drowned out by the majority that goes, “No! Don’t trust anyone, you can’t trust anyone. You can’t let him out, not after so long of keeping it in.”No, he can’t do this.“Thanks, Toni, but I find that hard to believe.”Toni frowns in the direction of the suit, which, as far as Bruce can see, is pretty much as fixed as it’s gonna get, and he can see her turning replies over in her head before she deactivates the suit, folding it back into the case and picking it up.She turns, suitcase in hand and heading for the door.“Right then,” she mumbles, and then she leaves.Bruce feels a slight pang of regret jolt through his body at the dispirited mutter, and he’s almost tempted to run out after her and tell her that yes, he’d go.But he steadies the impulse. Stay, Banner. Going isn’t going to do anyone any good.But Toni’s correct, another part of his brain, the part that had said Toni meant it when she said he was needed, that part that had allowed hope to flare in his chest. They’re already outmatched, already heavily outnumbered. It’s an entire army against the six of them. Can you really just stand by and watch the only people in the world who have the potential to become your friends get overwhelmed and die? When you could have done something?But Bruce doesn’t know if he’ll end up causing more trouble if he goes, if he’ll end up being the cause of death instead.Wake up, Banner, you know you can do this, you know that the Other Guy isn’t mindless, you know that he has goals too, you know that he doesn’t really mean or want to go against you. He even likes you. He protects you.Bruce knows this, he knows this. He thinks through it. The only times the Other Guy has come out when Bruce isn’t allowing the transformation is when he’s in danger, when he needs him.Harlem, and earlier on when the Helicarrier had been attacked. All because he’d been in danger.
He’s been protecting him all this time.
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When Toni walks out of the lab to the S.H.I.E.L.D. hangar, it’s with disappointment curling through her veins and empathy coiling around her heart.She wishes Bruce had agreed, and, honestly, she’d rather thought he would. There’s still a slight chance that he might, though, and she can’t help holding out hope for that. She understands what Bruce is going through, that self-deprecation and loathing, the feeling that you can’t ever do anything right.But Bruce is a genius, he's smart and he's logical and she really, really hopes he decides to show up.When she gets to the hangar, she's one of the first to arrive, with Steve standing awkwardly beside Loki, who's leaning unconcernedly against the wall, looking for all the world like the entire universe is beneath him.Toni opens the case and the mechanics immediately start whirring, assembling the suit around her in seconds. She strides over to Steve’s side, pulling off the helmet and setting it down before turning to him.Toni knows that this is gonna be a hard battle, it’s a war, six of them against an entire alien race that they know next to nothing about. Honestly, she’s worried about Steve. While she has an entire suit of armour to protect her in battle, all he has between him and the enemy is a thin layer of reinforced fabric and flexible body armour stronger than Kevlar. That’s all he has protecting him.She trusts Steve’s reflexes, sure, trusts his ability with the shield, but she sure as hell doesn’t trust the enemy to not play dirty.So, yeah, she’s downright worried.“Steve?”The super soldier turns to her, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly as he smiles gently. “Yeah, Tone?”She’s worried enough to totally forgo their unofficial pact to shock people with their relationship, and she’s focused enough to be able to pretend Loki isn’t in the room.She presses her lips softly to Steve’s chapped ones, fingers tangling in his hair. The suit makes their heights about even, and she doesn’t have to tilt her head back like she usually does. Her arms sling themselves instinctively around Steve’s neck, twirling the short strands of hair at the nape of his neck between her fingers while Steve slips an arm around her waist and brings the other up to card through her hair, caressing her cheek at intervals.They pull apart too soon, faces flushed from lack of air, grinning at each other softly.“It’s gonna be one hell of a battle,” Toni starts, voice muted. “I- Stay safe, Steve. Don’t do anything dumb, alright?”“I think that’s my line, Toni,” Steve replies, smiling wryly. “But, yeah, it is. You watch yourself, genius.”The genius isn’t scornful, isn’t sarcastic. It’s just love and care and utter sincerity.“Since when do I not?” Toni asks, falling easily into their routine back-and-forth. Then she frowns, lips twisting upwards. “Wait, don’t answer that.”Steve chuckles, smiling amusedly.He presses a gentle kiss to her cheek and sends her one more lopsided grin before pulling up his cowl. Toni watches as his entire demeanor changes, features sharpening and eyes serious, slipping his arm through the straps of his shield.Time for action, then.
She slots the helmet back in place the catches clicking as the locks engage and she becomes the faceless Armoured Hero once again.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Toni’s the first Avenger on scene, because, A, it’s her freaking Tower, B, her suit’s kind of the fastest thing this side of the galaxy. (Not counting the guys with superspeed), and she turns to the Tower, zooming in through her secret Iron Woman entrance and swapping out the Mark VII for the newer, not-utterly-trashed Mark VIII before walking into the penthouse where The Other is evidently enjoying the view of Manhattan before he destroys it.The Other looks up at her entrance, and his lips, gruesome, with that trail of dried blood from his encounter with Thor, pull into a truly horrifying sneer. “The Iron Woman,” he growls lowly. “Tell me, what do you think your measly suit of metal and a few so-called heroes can do against my army of Chitauri? Stalling me will not change anything.”“Nope, nil, nada, not stalling! Threatening!” Toni corrects.The Other sneers even harder, lips twisting. At this rate, his lips are going to unscrew themselves right off. “My Chitauri are coming. You band of weaklings will change nothing. What threat do you pose, human?”“Erm,” Toni hums, pretending to consider the question. “Well, Thor, the god of Thunder, who has already beaten you to a pulp before. More than once, actually; Loki, god of Trickery, Chaos, Illusions, et cetera, et cetera. Who knocked you out with a snap of his fingers, thank you very much; a super soldier, the living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, have managed to piss off every. Single. One of them.”“Good,” the Other scoffs. “Then the plan is going accordingly.”“Not a great plan,” Toni comments, tutting. “When they come, they’ll come for you. You’re missing the point, you know. There is no win, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes, and maybe it’s too much for us. But it’s all on you. Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we’ll avenge it.”“I grow tired of your chatter, mortal,” the Other growls low in his throat. He grabs Toni by the neck, alien strength barely enough to lift the suit and Toni inside it. His arm quivers slightly under the strain and he swiftly brings up his other arm to support the weight before the weakness is noticed. The Other’s arms strain as he lifts the suit even higher before reeling back and throwing Toni forcefully out of the window, shattering through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse.Toni rolls her eyes. You have got to be kidding. A, she can fly. B, does he even know how freaking much the windows cost?She just freefalls through the air for a couple seconds -hey, who ever said Toni Stark wasn’t an adrenaline junkie?- before engaging her repulsors, shooting straight up in the air and leveling with the shattered window. Dammit, Pepper’s gonna her hide.“Well, that was the stupidest move I’ve ever seen,” Toni calls, seeing Creepazoid pivot sharply and jerk in shock. “I can fly, genius.”She powers up her palm repulsors and blasts the alien in the chest, sending him reeling back, flying into the wood-panelled wall, the material splintering under the impact. Toni winces. Oops.Above her, she hears the Tesseract machine whir to life, the sound rising in pitch. Well, time to get her ass in gear, then.She speeds up to the rooftop, hovers above where Dr. Erik Selvig has the portal machine set up, Tesseract glowing in the middle of the machine. “Shut it down, Dr. Selvig.”Selvig looks up, meets her eyes, his own still glowing Tesseract blue, creepy and kinda disturbing. “It’s too late! It can’t stop now. It wants to show us something. A new universe!”“Okay,” Toni mutters. Selvig’s evidently not a good candidate for mind control.She readies the repulsors, and then shoots at the machine. The beams bounce right off.“The barrier is pure energy,” JARVIS informs her. Could’ve done with that information sooner, thanks a lot, J. “It’s unbreachable.”Toni scowls as the device powers up, sending a pillar of blue-white light shooting up into the sky, tearing a rift in the blue, exposing jet black sprinkled with billions of stars, sparkling like fragments of diamond in the inky darkness. She sees sparks of fire in the dark, metal glinting and hears the screeches of creatures beyond comprehension. One by one, aliens, humanoid creatures with wrinkled gray skin and metal grafted into their bodies, their very bones, and, God, it was beautiful, in that sick, horrible way, bronzed metal glinting the sun, their vehicles graceful in the air, twisting, speeding and slicing through the skies, the aerodynamics perfect, the prime of technology.She almost throws up.She’s all for technology, for engineering and biomechanics, but, holy God, she draws the line metal-grafted bone. Her stomach revolts in a way that makes her wonder if shes undergoing another bout of alcohol poisoning before she remembers that she’d sworn off the booze all those years back, before Steve, since that disaster of a birthday party that was all palladium poisoning and patented Toni Stark insanity.She covers the flashback, mind finally registering the sight in front of her. “Right. Army.”She sends her miniature missiles and repulsors ripping through the Chitauri, but they don’t even make a dent in the endless flow that’s swarming through the portal.Behind her, Thor lands, a green shimmer beside the Thunder god announcing Loki’s presence.Steve’s voice comes through the comms, worried and clipped. “Stark! What the hell were you thinking, pulling something like that? You could have gotten hurt! You do not fly off to face the enemy alone, you hear me?”Toni winces at the clear panic in Steve’s voice, at the same time that a bubble of indignation rises in her chest. “Perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Captain. Besides, I needed a change of armour. Two birds, one stone, so I decided, what the hell.”She hears Steve’s world-suffering sigh, before his voice patches through again. “We’ll discuss this later. Right now, we have a battle to win.”Natasha cuts into their conversation, sharp and concise, monotone. “Stark, we’re on your three, headed northeast.”Damn, why didn’t S.H.I.E.L.D. have faster aircraft? She’s half-tempted to upgrade their tech for them, but she doesn’t feel like giving them access to repulsor technology, no matter how much low-grade machinery gives her heartburn. “What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up park, I’m gonna lay ‘em out for you.”The machine gun of the Quinjet engages, firing rapidly at the flying Chitauri while JARVIS forewarns her of the incoming.The Quinjet flies past Stark Tower, taking aim at the Other, whose scepter takes out their right engine. The jet crashes just short of an office building, and the three aboard clamber out, thankfully unharmed.They freeze in their tracks when an armoured, gargantuan beast flies through the portal, emitting a ballistic moaning. It flies straight past them, ejecting hundreds of foot soldiers as it goes.Steve calls in immediately, his voice flooding the comms, and Toni can’t stop a small smile. Steve in Captain America mode is, well, the hottest thing on Earth. “Stark, you seeing this?”Toni swallows, sucking in a breath. Holy hell, how- “Seeing,” she confirms. “Still working on believing. Tell me- tell me if Bruce comes, alright?”“Dr. Banner?” Steve asks, confusion plain in his voice.“Yeah. Tell me if -when- he comes.”“Erm. Okay, then, Toni.”Toni nods, even though Steve can’t see her, making an affirmative sound before turning her attention back to the gargantuan leviathan. “JARVIS, find me a soft spot.”She flies parallel to the monster, a few blocks down, assessing the threat. She turns, taking the corner in a hairpin turn, stopping right in front of the leviathan.Then she fires her missiles at the monster, all of which impact the metallic hide and explode into fiery bursts of flame which leave not even a dent in the metal. It does get the creature's attention, though.The gargantuan beast turns slowly towards her, facing her head on, and Toni freezes."Well, we got its attention," she mutters to herself -or maybe to JARVIS, she's not really sure. "What the hell was step two?"The giant groans, the shriek of metal, before it abruptly turns and charges after her.She flees, speeding towards the sharp pulse of white-blue lightning that arcs through the sky, identifying the one and only Thor.“What’s the story up there?” Toni hears Steve ask Thor, his voice hard, the steel of command lacing through it.“The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable,” Thor replies tersely, tone harsh and low.“Thor’s right,” Toni cuts in, remembering the glow of her repulsors as they’d been completely redirected by the force field. “We gotta deal with these guys.”Natasha’s voice, a touch breathless. “How do we do this?”
“As a team.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Thor raises his gaze to Stark Tower, eyes narrowed and glinting, hard as steel. “I have unfinished business with the Other.”Loki scoffs, as does Clint."Yeah?" Clint asks, sharpening his arrowheads and inspecting his collapsible bow. "Get in line."Loki simply raises an eyebrow condescendingly.“Save it," Steve says. "The Other’s gonna keep his fight focused on us, and that’s what we need. We got Stark up top. She’s gonna lead us to-”Steve's cut off when a small, single-person aircraft touches down beside them. The miniscule vehicle is chipped and scratched, and when the door slides open, Bruce climbs out cautiously."So," he hems, gesturing vaguely. "This all seems... horrible."Natasha's tone when she replies is contemplative and appraising. "I've seen worse."“Sorry.”“No, we could… use a little worse.”Steve opens up his commlink. “Toni, we’ve got him.”“Bruce?”“Just like you said.”“Well then, tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.” Toni swerves around the corner, the leviathan following, seeing the little congregation of Avengers on the ground, the only people on a virtually empty street.All the Avengers straighten for battle.“I-I don’t see how that’s a party,” Natasha deadpans, shaking her head slightly, her red locks whipping to the side.Toni sees Bruce walk forward, a lopsided, slightly self-deprecating grin on his face.Steve takes a small step forward. “Doctor Banner,” he says. “Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.”Bruce turns his head, still smiling that small, lopsided grin. “That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry.”He turns back, and the Hulk punches the leviathan right in the face, ploughing a track a few meters long in the tarred ground. The giant bends at an awkward angle, armoured plates snapping off, and Toni sends a missile straight into the exposed flesh, bringing the goliath down.The foot soldiers protest, waving the Tesseract-powered weapons while screeching out in squawks.Hulk, with his violently green skin rippling as the muscles under them flex, gives an answering roar, the Avengers gravitating towards each other, backs facing inwards as they form a loose circle.There’s a slight moment to enjoy their minor victory, before Natasha goes, “Guys,” and everyone turns skywards, where at least five more leviathans are pouring through the portal."Call it, Captain.”Steve smiles grimly. "Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority's containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."The archer -seriously, who still uses a freaking bow and arrow these days?- turns to Toni, a sort of sadistic grin playing on his face. “Wanna give me a lift?”“Better clench up, Legolas.”Steve is still giving orders, heedless of the two that aren’t listening. They’ve gotten their orders, and they’re following, that’s all that matters. “Thor, you’ve gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow ‘em down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up.”Toni doesn't bother hiding the small grin that appears on her face -full masks were created for a reason- at Steve taking charge. She's always wanted to see Steve in command, in control, right at home in his element on the battlefield.He turns to Romanov, features serious. “You and me, we stay here on the ground. Keep the fighting here. And Hulk?”Jolly Green roars, turning to Cap.A slight upward twitch of Cap’s lips. “Smash.” Toni drops Hawkeye off at his perch and darts away to take care of the flying Chitauri, the fact that the Other is in her penthouse, wreaking who-knows-what havoc on her building -actually, screw that, Pepper's baby, that’s infinitely scarier-, chews at her insides like a ravenous beast trying to devour her from the inside-out.She pushes the thought aside and focuses on the battle.“Iron Woman! I need you on aerial support! Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back, or you turn it to ash! The Chitauri are everywhere; stick to the plan, Stark!” Steve yells over the comms, voice sharp and with just that edge of panic that tells Toni more about the situation Steve’s in than anything else.Natasha is the only one actually listening to the comms now, as Thor’s lightning’s long fried his, Clint’s too busy with the Chitauri attacking his post to pay attention, and Hulk is, well, Hulk.So when Toni’s voice, scandalised and offended -she’s following the plan perfectly well, thank you very much-, echoes back over the comms, and Natasha is the only one that hears what she says. “Steven Grant Rogers!”The Captain makes a face at the genius’s tone, wincing. “Yes, dear?”Natasha freezes beside Steve, whirling to face the blue-suited soldier. “Excuse me?”Steve averts his eyes and rubs the back of his neck. “We’re kinda… married?”“Svyatyy bozhe,” Natasha exhales. “Kakogo cherta. How did I not know this? How did S.H.I.E.L.D. not know this?”Steve shrugs. “Don’t ask me. But is this really the time to be discussing this, Widow?”Natasha flushes, barely noticeable, and spins around to rejoin the battle. Barton’s voice echoes over the comms, the speech distinct and enunciated by the speakers in the suit. “Stark, you got a lot of strays sniffing your tail.”“Just tryna keep ‘em off the streets.”“Well, they can’t bank worth a damn. Find a tight corner,” Barton scoffs, and even through the comms Toni can hear the singing of his bowstring and the corresponding explosion.Toni cocks her head to the side, remembering the leviathan crashing through the building that she had careened around earlier. "I will roger that."She turns back, registering the Chitauri on her heels as she swerves sharply in between buildings, losing a few as they crash and burn.She dives into a nearby void deck, swooping out the other side and smirking smugly as she hears the majority of her entourage explode.The remainder meet a fiery doom when she speeds through an underpass, diving and swerving rapidly.“Nice call," she comms Barton. "What else you got?""Well, Thor's taking on a squadron down on Sixth."Toni lets one corner of her mouth twitch up in an unseen, mock-offended grin. "And he didn't invite me." The squadron is easily taken care of, between Thor’s godly powers and the suit’s immense artillery, and it’s barely fifteen minutes before she’s zooming through the air again, looking for targets.She passes a group of Chitauri firing on one of their own flying scooters, and sees a flash of bright scarlet, noticing Natasha clinging on to the one under fire, trying to steer the vehicle.She spins, face up and looking back, firing off her repulsors to get the bunch off the Widow’s back before flying low and taking out the foot soldiers, landing beside Steve, back-to-back.Steve is moving lightning-fast, limbs a blur as he takes out the soldiers in their immediate proximity, and somehow they end up facing each other.As if planned, Cap puts up his shield, and Toni fires, the repulsors ricocheting off the vibranium and taking out the advancing Chitauri.She takes off yet again, knocking down the Chitauri scaling the side of the building that Barton’s on. She sees Barton pull an arrow out of his quiver and take aim, the arrow burying its tip into the back of a driver, sending a scooter down for the count, crashing into a leviathan’s head, one which the Hulk is on, ripping soldiers from its back, Thor not far behind.Hulk rips a piece of the creature’s armour from his skin, driving it deep into the giant’s back, and Thor spins, hammer charging with electricity as he drives the armour shard home, sending the leviathan down and crashing into a nearby building.She sees Cap taking on a couple of Chitauri and their bomb, saving an entire bank full of civilians on the corner of Madison, sees the Chitauri firing at Natasha as Clint covers her, an arrow flying towards the scooter that the opponent is perched on, the projectile exploding in its face.She sees Natasha landing on the roof where the cube is, hurtling through the air. Sees Hulk leaping onto her tower too, tossing the Other from where he stands on the alfresco walkway through the very window that the alien tossed her through, the creature crashing into her wall and pulverising it.Oh man, Pep’s gonna have her hide for that.She flies back out again, keeping pace with yet another leviathan, her gauntlet’s laser aimed at the creature’s armour.Miss, we will lose power before we penetrate that shell. JARVIS informs, and her laser attachment switches off, snapping shut. Instead, she turns the corner, overtaking the flying goliath. “JARVIS? Ever hear the tale of Jonah?”
“I wouldn’t consider him a role model, Miss.”
Toni conveniently ignores her AI, flying straight through the leviathan, the thing exploding from the inside out, careening to the ground in a ball of flames, and Toni is flung to the ground, barely regaining her footing before the foot soldiers are on her.She sees Clint shoot his last arrow, taking down the Chitauri sneaking up on him, before grabbing for another only to find an empty quiver. He uses his bow as an excellent blunt trauma weapon, taking down the other Chitauri.It is the swarm of Chitauri on flying scooters that makes Clint reach for the arrow shaft embedded in the body of the dead Chitauri in front of him, pushing the shaft into his quiver and pressing the controls on his bow, switching out the arrowheads even as he takes a running leap off the roof, spinning in midair and firing his arrow, the clawed head latching on and burrowing into the concrete of the building, swinging and riding out his momentum, crashing through an office window and landing (badly) on his side.Toni slowly gathers her thoughts, just as her HUD signals an incoming call from Fury.“Stark,” Fury starts tersely. “You hear me? You got a missile headed straight for the city.”Toni curses up a blue streak in her head, still reeling from the Chitauri’s combined attack on her while she’d been down. “How long?”“Three minutes. Max. Payload’ll wipe out midtown.”Toni feels her heart stutter in her chest, and for a moment it seems that the Reactor’s failing, that she’s going into cardiac arrest. She used to design and produce weapons, she knows what a nuke that powerful could do to a city.“JARVIS,” she starts, breathless. “Put everything we’ve got into the thrusters!”
“I just did.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
She’s on the way to the nuke when Natasha’s voice echoes over the comm. “I can close it -can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down.” She’s breathless and panting, but there’s a note of hope in her voice that wasn’t there before.“Do it!” Steve’s voice is sharp and pained, desperate. It breaks Toni’s heart.She hates to kill their hopes, but she has no choice.“No, wait.”“Toni, these things are still coming!”“I got a nuke coming in. It’s gonna blow in less than a minute,” she explains rapidly, tone rushed and harried. The HUD locates the missile, locking on to it.She dives under the Williamsburg Bridge, grabbing hold of the nuke. “And I know just where to put it.”“Ton-,” Steve’s voice breaks. “D-don’t do this, please. Toni- Toni, please; you know that’s a one-way trip.”Her tongue darts out, wetting her lips in nervousness -she doesn’t want to die, but it’s the best choice; the only choice. “Save the rest for the turn, J.”“Miss,” JARVIS’s voice is hesitant, sad. “Shall I-”“Wait,” Loki’s voice, sharp, concise, to the point, blares through the comm system. “You shouldn't be doing this, Stark. Why should you have the pleasure of taking down the Chitauri? You, who they have done nothing to. I will do the honours, it is nothing less than I have earned. My seidr will easily take care of that measly weapon.”Toni almost sobs in relief at Loki’s words, but she has a reputation to keep up, dignity that has to remain intact.“Alright then,” Toni acknowledges. “Letting go in three, two, one.”She disengages her super-charged maglocks, pushing the nuke forward slightly as she veers off. The missile is infused with a green glow as Loki’s magic takes over, guiding the missile forward and up, turning the ninety-degree angle curve up to the portal, skimming parallel to Stark Tower and into the portal.Toni eyes Loki, sees the tension leave his form as he relinquishes control of the nuke, allowing it to propel itself forward into the portal, and even from Earth Toni can feel the shockwaves of the weapon exploding, the light vibration in the back of her skull when it makes contact.It’s barely seconds later that all the Chitauri around them collapse, leviathans crashing straight to the ground, as do the flying scooters, the aliens themselves dropping dead to the ground like flies in a bug zapper.Toni can’t help the whoop that bubbles up from her chest, exploding out of her throat in a burst of joy, and she lands beside Steve, who slings an arm around her, and it’s only a while later that Toni realises that Steve is actually using her for support -the soldier’s not as unharmed as he’d like his team to believe.“We won,” Steve mumbles disbelievingly under his breath, eyes wide beneath his cowl. The words strike a chord in Toni, and she feels the knot of tension in her chest unravel at the ease with which Steve had said those simple two words. “Alright, yay. Good job guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just… take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.”She’s babbling, and she knows it, but she’s too relieved to really care, and then Thor takes off with a cursory, “We’re not finished yet,” in the direction of Stark Tower, Loki disappearing as well.“Alright then,” she mumbles, giving Steve the chance to grab on to the suit before rocketing off in Thor’s wake.When she lands in the trashed penthouse -dammit, she’s just gotten this up and running-, it’s to the Other hanging limp from Thor’s grasp while Loki glowers at the Thunderer.A snap of the Trickster God’s fingers, and the Other is free of Thor’s grasp, and this time, the alien is being smashed repeatedly into the wall, before a dagger appears in Loki’s hand, the razor blade tracing a weeping line down the side of the alien’s face and throat, the same grayish blood trickling from the open wound dripping from his lips.The Other is whimpering, and Toni can see that he’s on the verge of pleading for mercy, but Thor doesn’t give him the chance. The demigod grabs the gray-skinned creature from Loki, raising Mjolnir high above his head, and Toni realises a second before Mjolnir comes down what’s going to happen.“Erm,” she starts, not really wanting to get between two furious gods and their prey, but then again, she doesn’t want alien guts all over her living room either. “Could you maybe, I don’t know, take this outside? I don’t want to be cleaning up a mess of this scale.”Thankfully, whether it’s pure logic or because both Thor and Loki were raised as princes and therefore taught decorum, the Thunderer takes off again, Loki following closely, landing on the street and throwing the Other bodily to the ground, where Loki’s dagger lodges itself in his stomach, and the Silvertongue bends to retrieve the golden sceptre that rolls out of the alien’s hand.Thor gives Loki a sideways look, and Loki just rolls his eyes. “I crafted the sceptre, Thunderer, and this beast stole it from me. It is rightfully mine.”Turning to said beast, Loki flicks another dagger casually towards the creature while Thor raises Mjolnir.“Goodbye, monster,” Loki snarls bestially right before Mjolnir comes down, spattering gray everywhere except on the two gods, who are shielded by Loki’s magic, and Toni and Steve, who were thankfully smart enough to stand well out of range.
“Now,” Thor says satisfiedly, dusting off his hands. “We are finished. We shall have this shawarma that you speak of, Woman of Iron!”
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The seven of them crash the somehow still open shawarma joint two blocks down, Toni still in the suit and drinking spiced coffee through the mouth-slit, watching the Avengers in various states of wakefulness around her, from Thor, who’s ravenously gulping down shawarma after shawarma, having eaten at least eight -Toni isn’t keeping count- and still going strong, to Bruce, who’s downright snoring in his chair, head lolling back and arms crossed, deep purple bags under his eyes.Steve is leaning back against his chair, his own food limp in his hand as he just surveys the team, as Toni’s doing, occasionally taking bites out of the wrap.Toni extends the offer for the Avengers to crash at Stark Tower, which should probably be renamed ‘A’ Tower, seeing as that’s the only part of her name left standing, and it takes a while for the offer to sink in, before everyone’s piling into the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle they’d commandeered to get here, driving recklessly through the debris-strewn street to the Tower.When they get back to the Tower, Bruce offers to check out all the Avengers’ wounds, since all of them are injured in one form or another, except maybe the two Aesir.Natasha has a trail of blood dripping sluggishly from her hairline, and the sleeves of her bodysuit are torn where she’d landed on the roof of the Tower after taking a flying leap off the Chitauri’s scooters. Her arms are badly scraped, and she has a singed patch of clothing and skin on her lower back.Clint has nicks and scratches all over his back and arms, from where he’d landed on the glass when he’s crashed through that office window. He probably has some broken bones too -heck, all the human Avengers probably do. He’s probably one of the least injured of the lot though, not counting the two Aesir -is it even possible to injure them? (Actually, seeing as the first time they saw Loki, he’d been covered in blood, Toni’d wager yes, but screw that, they’d just fought a battle for the freedom of Earth and come out unscathed. That’s as good as invulnerable for her.)But yeah, she digresses.Toni herself has next to no injuries at all, except for what may or may not be a mild concussion from being thrown around so much, and a shallow gash across her thigh from where the armour had dented after she’d pulled the whole Jonah trick, the inner layer of the metal cracking and slashing her leg. She has bruises all over, and her head hurts like hell, and her muscles are already cramping. Her ribs are cracked, but not broken -she knows how that feels, thank you very much-, and she thinks she may have torn her knee ligament at one point in time, but that’s about the extent of her injuries.Steve is perhaps the most injured of them all.He has a deep gash on his abdomen, from when he’d landed on that car after being blown from the bank, and an extensive burn wound on left pectoral and shoulder. He also has a couple of broken ribs -Toni can see that from the way he’s holding himself, and while Steve heals fast -and she means fast-, that has to hurt like nothing else.Bruce himself simply wraps up all their injuries, not really being able to do much else -he doesn’t trust himself to administer medication in the exhausted state that he’s in- and tells them to go get some rest. He himself flops into the bed the moment Toni allocates the team their rooms for the night.Toni expends just enough energy to get out of the suit and show the team to their rooms and settle them in before she crashes on the nearest couch.She doesn’t remember falling asleep, but she does remember a pair of warm, familiar arms gathering her up and carrying her to bed, comforting and strong, safe.She remembers -although she’ll fervently deny it come morning- snuggling closer into the embrace, barely awake, nuzzling into the well-built chest and pressing closer to the warmth.She remembers a hand coming up to card through her tangled locks, calloused and strong, yet so gentle, so caring, the fingers of an artist. She remembers the feeling of the fingers rubbing gently at her scalp, massaging away the headache that had yet to make its appearance but would soon.She remembers when she’s placed ever so carefully on the soft mattress, when she clings to the warmth and refuses to let go until she hears an amused sigh and the warmth shifts, pulling back the covers and wriggling in beside her, and she instinctively pushes her way back into that comfort and sighs unconsciously in contentment when strong arms encircle her and pull her closer.Toni smiles happily into the shoulder that her face is pressed against, muzzy with sleep, and feels the gentle press of soft, chapped lips to her forehead.The last thing she remembers just before sleep claims her is thinking that the Avengers have great potential to become a family, and that she doesn’t know if she can go back to life before S.H.I.E.L.D., before the Avengers, before Steve.But she doesn’t mind. The sunlight filtering in through the windows is what wakes Toni, shining down on her, bright and cornea-searing. Beside her, Steve is still asleep, and it says something about his injuries that he isn’t awake yet. Usually, the super soldier is awake at the crack of dawn, getting up for a jog or a round in the gym.Toni’s muted, under-her-breath growls as she bats futilely at the rays of light streaking the covers seem to wake the soldier, though, but Steve just pulls her closer and mumbles, “Go back to sleep, Tone.”Toni allows herself to be cuddled, but doesn’t stop glaring at the Sun shining in through the windows as if the rays of golden light have personally offended her.“Steeveee,” she whines grouches. “Turn off the Sun…”Steve chuckles into the pillow that he’s mashed his face into before pulling back slightly so that his voice isn’t muffled by thousand thread-count Egyptian cotton.“JARVIS?” He calls sleepily, trying to clear the grogginess from his voice.“I shall endeavour to turn off the Sun, Captain Rogers,” JARVIS replies dryly, and if an AI could ever sound more deadpan than that, Steve was going to give whoever invented it a million bucks.He settles for pulling the sheets back up around them -Toni has this habit of kicking them off in the middle of the night- as the windows darken and go opaque.“Thanks, J,” Toni mumbles, already halfway back to sleep. She’s still trying to catch up on her sleep -she’d barely slept, approximately nine hours out of the entire week, when Agent had come in with the files on the Tesseract. And she hadn’t slept at all over the course of the attack. “I’ll triple your pay.”“And I shall look forward to having thrice of the nothing I receive,” is JARVIS’s reply, as sarcastic as the woman who coded him.“Sarcastic little shit," Toni mutters affectionately, pressing her face into the mattress while Steve slings an arm over her waist and drags her bodily towards him.“Sleep,” the soldier mumbles into her shoulder as Toni burrows into Steve’s chest and closes her eyes. She’s mildly apprehensive of Steve’s reaction when he wakes fully -she knows what she did, threatening the Other, had been dangerous and unplanned. And Steve’s always had an insane protective streak- but for now she relaxes as the arms of Morpheus gather her back under yet again. When they next wake, it is to JARVIS's tentative, "Miss, Agents Barton and Romanov are asking as to your whereabouts. Agent Barton appears to have located the kitchen and is raiding the cupboards."Toni bolts upright, startling Steve. "Oh hell no! Barton is not stealing my food!"She scrambles out of bed and pulls Steve up after her, grabbing her hair tie and pulling her hair back roughly into a half-bun-half-ponytail."We need to protect the sustenance!" She cries. "Up and at 'em, Cap!"Steve grumbles, tugging half-heartedly at her. "Let the man eat what he wants, Tone. Some people actually do have to have breakfast and can't actually survive on coffee and inventing."Toni pouts, shooting Steve a look that somehow manages to look both annoyed and pleading.Steve sighs, rolling his eyes and failing to hide his grin. He allows Toni to pull him up, wiping the remnants of sleep from his eyes.“Time to save the food, then,” he acquiesces, allowing his lopsided smile to shine through.And Toni abruptly decides that this might just be the best moment in her life.