Peter took off his hoodie, and looked at the photo of Gwen one last time, before meeting with Steve again. As Tony fixed his armor, Steve and Peter walked over to the wing with the rooms, to go find Natasha. As they opened the door to her room, they found her sitting on her bed.
"Time to go." Steve stood by the door and spoke to the red head, with Peter standing right behind him, looking over his shoulder.
"Go where?" Natasha asked with a confused look on her face, especially after everything that had just happened.
"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"
As Steve spoke, Hawkeye walked out of the bathroom, drying his hands.
"I can."
Steve looked to Nat, as he had just attacked the entire ship and had helped Loki escape. Nat nodded, a sign showing to trust him. As she nodded, Peter pushed past Steve.
"Hi, I'm Peter." He extended his hand to Clint, who grabbed it and shook it. Clint looked back to Steve, waiting for orders.
"You got a suit?"
"Yeah." Clint nodded his head.
"Then suit up."
Peter stood at the door for a second, smiled at Nat, and followed Steve as he walked down the hallway. On his way down to find the hangar, he found Tony, who was fixing his armor. It seemed all broken, and the paint job was basically non-existent, but Tony continued working. As he watched the man in front of him, he felt an arm grab onto his shoulder.
"Are you ready to go?" Natasha stood behind him, a soft expression on her face.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"You're a kid. I wouldn't expect you to be as brave as you are. I mean you literally fought the Hulk. " Nat took a step backwards, and crossed her arms.
"I have to be. These powers are a gift. And with great power, there must also come great responsibility. My Uncle told me that."
"He was a wise man." Nat began to walk forwards, and Peter followed.
"So, there's no one else you're doing this for? I mean, I know you have your Aunt, but no one else? Best friend, girlfriend?"
Peter's smile slightly faded at the last word.
"Uh, well yeah, I have my Aunt, and my best friend moved to Europe for boarding school after his dad passed. And my girlfri-" Peter stopped himself before he could go on.
"I don't have a girlfriend. It's just not in the cards for people like us. Heroes."
Natasha nodded.
"So why are you so brave?" Peter looked at the redhead, and she smiled at the boy.
"It comes with the job. And I have to be too. I have red in my ledger, and not being brave won't help me wipe it out."
" I can understand that." Peter nodded, and felt someone approaching the two of them on his left. He looked over to see Captain America himself, helmet on and his shield ready.
Peter and Natasha followed the Captain, with Clint catching up soon after. The group walked with purpose. When they arrived at the quinjet they needed, they were stopped as they walked in.
"Hey you guys can't be in here." The technician turned to Steve, who just put his hand up.
"Son, just don't."
The group walked onto the jet, and got it ready for takeoff.
"Steve no offense, but you calling that guy son made you sound really old." Peter put his mask onto his head, but didn't pull it down all the way.
"Well, technically I'm 90, so." Steve smiled, and grabbed onto the wall to keep his balance as the quinjet took off towards New York City.
...
"Can you guys hear me?" Tony spoke into his earpiece, getting the attention of the rest of the team inside of the quinjet.
"Loud and clear." Clint responded, as he continued piloting the ship.
Peter played with his thumbs, nervous about what could be coming.
"I'm gonna set my earpiece so you can hear Loki. Entering the tower now." Tony took off his armor, and walked inside the main room, as Loki walked in through another door.
"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki played with the scepter, as he walked towards Tony.
"Uh- actually, I'm planning to threaten you." Tony responded, grabbing a glass from behind him,
"You should have left your armor on for that."
"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the uh- blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" Tony began to pour his own drink.
"Stalling me won't change anything."
Tony begins to point at Loki, insisting on a drink.
"No, no, no- threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one."
"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?" Loki turned his back to Tony, before quickly turning back around, trying to frighten the man.
"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing."
"Yes, I met them."
"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the Demi-God; A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a teenager with the powers of a bug, a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them." As he was speaking, Tony put on a bracelet that would call his suit at any given moment.
"That was the plan." Loki grinned.
"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."
"I have an army."
"We have a Hulk." Tony snapped back.
"Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off." Loki was trying to rile up Tony, and it was working.
"Yeah- you're missing the point. There's no throne, 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. 'Cause if we can't protect the earth, you can be damned sure we'll avenge it." Tony was standing face to face with Loki now, making him realize how tall the man was.
"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki walked up to Tony, and placed the tip of the scepter against his heart, trying to mind control him. The one problem was, Tony's arc reactor was blocking it.
"This usually works." Loki said, confused.
"Well, performance issues. You know?"
Loki grabbed Tony by the throat, and threw him across the room.
"JARVIS, anytime now."
Loki picked Tony back up, and looked him dead in the eyes.
"You will all fall before me."
"JARVIS. Deploy."
The last thing the team heard was the sound of a window breaking, and then the audio cut to static.
"Stark?" Steve spoke into his earpiece, but there was no response.
The team looked around at each other, confused. Peter only stopped when his spider-sense began to go off, alerting him of something above. He walked to the front of the jet, and looked out the window in front of him.
A blue beam was shooting up into the sky, a portal at the end of it going right into space. What seemed to be aliens came flying down from it, more and more coming by the second.The group sat there, jaws dropped.
"Right. Army."
