Reawakening [2]

Stark Tower

Chapter 8

The helicarrier wasn't that high up as Abi reached it. When she got there Loki had already gone, the engines were back online and Barton was in a med bay after Nat knocked him out. Abi walked in. She must have looked shocking. Blood down one side of her face from her hair line and her lip bleeding. They were healing but like the bruises they would take a few minutes.

Fury was telling Steve and Tony that the cage had fallen with her and Thor still inside. Steve was fearing the worse; she could hear it in his head.

"It's gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of me." She spoke up walking into the room.

"Abi." Steve breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her into a hug.

"I think I'm going to need a change of clothes." She said looking at her ripped jeans and shirt.

"How'd you get back up here?" Fury questioned.

"I flew up." She replied.

"Wait, you can fly!?" Steve exclaimed.

After she told them what happened, they all departed to get changed. She managed to find another pair of black jeans and a black shield shirt. She spotted an old leather jacket in the wardrobe and pulled it on. She was still in the combat boots and she had the black bandana still around her neck. Steve walked in as she finished getting changed.

"You still have it." He said pointing to her neck. "Even after all these years."

She pulled out the necklace from under her shirt. The necklace in question held and engagement ring. More specifically the one Bucky had given her. "I couldn't get rid of it. It's the one part of my past the Russians let me keep. The only part of him I have left." She told Steve.

He nodded. "Fury wants us in the briefing room."

Fury had called Abi, Steve and Tony into the main room and had them take a seat.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket." Fury told them. "I guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury threw a few old Captain America training cards onto the table. They were bloody. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor... I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more."

Fury walked around the table to stand behind the three of them. "To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes." Tony stood up and walked out of the room. "Well, it's an old fashioned notion." Fury concluded.

Thor had finally managed to find Mjolnir in the grass. He slowly walked up to it and hesitated. He thought back to when he couldn't pick it up and felt just as unworthy now as he had then. He reached out his hand and grasped the handle. Surly enough the hammer lifted straight up with its usual balance.

Steve and Abi found Tony in the room that used to suspend the cage.

"Was he married?" Steve asked.

"No. There was a cellist... I think." Tony replied.

"I'm sorry." Steve consoled.

"He seemed like a good man." Abi added.

"He was an idiot." Tony said looking at them both.

"Why? For Believing?" Steve asked.

"For taking on Loki alone." Tony said walking over to Steve and Abi.

"He was doing his job." Steve said.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have..." Tony trailed off.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Abi defended.

"Right, I've heard that before." Tony scoffed.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked.

"We are not soldiers." Tony shot back. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither are we." Abi assured him. "He has the same blood on his hands that Loki has on his."

Steve nodded. "Right now we've got to put that behind us and get this done. Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list..."

Tony cut him off. "He made it personal."

"That's not the point." Steve told him.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Stark asked.

"To tear us apart." Steve stated.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?" Stark said. "That's what he wants. He wants to beat us; he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right, we caught his act in Stuttgart." Steve recalled.

"Yeah, that was just previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered...." He trailed off and Abi and Steve raised an eyebrow. "Son of a bitch." He said before running out.

"Please tell me you know where he's going." Steve said.

"Yep. Loki's at Stark tower. It's time to suit up, idiot." She said with a smile as the pair ran after Tony.

Steve got changed and they went to grab Natasha.

"Time to go." Steve said walking through the door with Abi on his heels.

"Go where?" Natasha asked.

"We'll tell you on the way." Steve replied. "Can you fly one of those jets?"

"I can." Clint said walking out of the bathroom.

Steve looked at Abi. "He's clear." She told him.

"You got a suit?" Steve asked Barton.

"Yeah."

"Then suit up."

They walked to the hangar and climbed aboard one of the quin jets.

"Hey. You guys aren't authorised to be in here." A technician said.

"Son, just don't." Steve warned.

They kicked him off and were soon on their way into the city.