-
"Don't wear out your slippers, grandad."
-
Tony, Steve and Nova were now in the main room sitting around the table while Fury stood in front of them. Nova winced slightly when she touched her cut lip.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury placed the bloody Captain America cards on the table, near Steve as he picked one up. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the vocation 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. 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 that idea. In heroes."
Tony stood up suddenly and walked out as Nova followed. The two stopped walking and stood, looking over the hellacarrier.
"Was he married?" Steve asked, a little bit away from them.
"No. There was a cellist, I think." Tony answered.
"I'm sorry." Steve apologised. "He seemed like a good man."
"He was an idiot." Tony scoffed as Nova down to him.
"Why? For believing?" Steve questioned.
"For taking on Loki alone." Tony replied as the three all walked towards each other.
"He was doing his job." Steve defended.
"He was out of his league." Tony scoffed again. "He should have waited. He should have..."
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony." Steve tried.
"Right, I've heard that before." Tony mumbled, walking past Steve.
"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?" Steve quizzed as Nova and Tony spun back around.
"We are not soldiers!" Tony raised his voice slightly before pausing. "I'm not marching into Fury's fife."
"Neither am I." Steve stated. "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done. Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-"
"He made it personal." Nova interrupted.
"That's not the point." Steve dismissed.
"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Nova continued.
"To tear us apart." Steve answered.
"Yeah, decide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Nova explained looking between the two men.
"Right. I couldn't his act in Stuttgart." Steve joined in.
"Yeah, that's just the pressures. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right?" Tony chimed in as he and Nova walked backwards. "He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies, with his name plastered-" Tony paused and looked to Nova who had just pieces everything together.
"Motherfucker." Nova mumbled as Tony muttered a 'son of a bitch'.
As they went to walk, Steve grasped the woman's shoulder causing her to turn to the blonde. Raising an eyebrow, she crossed her arms.
"You got a suit?" Steve quizzed.
"I got a little something up my sleeve." Nova nodded before walking back to her room in the carrier.
Nova grabbed a gun from her bag as well as multiple knives, slipping them into her suit. As she left the room, she bumped into Clint and immediately held him to the wall.
"Hey!" Natasha yelled, coming towards the two. "He's fine now. Broke the spell."
Nova only nodded and continued to walk as Clint looked to Natasha confused. His eyes scanned the suit and it clicked in his brain.
"Poison Onyx." Clint whispered.
"No. Venom." Natasha stated, before following the woman.
The three of them met up with Steve and advanced towards a small jet where someone tried to stop them.
"Son, just don't." Steve stated as Nova chuckled.
"Don't wear out your slippers, grandad." Nova joked as Natasha let a small chuckle slip her lips.
{722}