----- May 4th, 2012 9:41 AM - North Atlantic Ocean -----
== Third Person POV ==
Steve, Tony, and Y/N are gathered at a table. Fury stands on the other side.
Fury pulls a handful of cards out.
"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he only ever did get one of you to sign them," he scatters the cards on the table.
Some are wet with blood.
Steve picks up a few cards. They were cards of him and the signed cards of me.
"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Think I had that coming."
Fury begins to make his way around the table to the three of them, "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, see if they could become something more. 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 stands in silence and walks out.
"Well, it's an old fashioned notion," Fury adds.
__________
Tony stands over looking where the cylindrical glass cage used to be.
Steve enters the room from the left, "...Was he married?"
"No. There was a uh- cellist, I think," Tony replies, not bothering to look at him.
"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."
Tony lets out a breath and finally looks at Steve, "He was an idiot."
Tony and Steve slowly move toward each other.
"Why? For believing?"
"For taking on Loki alone."
"He was doing his job."
"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have-"
"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony."
"Right. How did that work for him?"
"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?," Steve asks as they walk past each other.
Tony spins around toward him, "We are not soldiers! I'm not marching to Fury's fife."
"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list-"
Tony looks down at the place Coulson fell, there is a dentin the wall.
"He made it personal."
"That's not the point," Steve tells him.
"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"
"To tear us apart."
"Yeah, divide 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."
"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."
"Yeah. That's just previews, this is- this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered....Son of a bitch."
Tony finally puts it together. Finally figured out where Loki would be.
And he storms out of the room.
__________
Barton is in the restroom and Natasha is sitting on the bed. Steve is suited up as he enters.
"Time to go," Steve tells her.
"Go where?"
"I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?"
Barton enters from the restroom, drying his hands, "I can."
Cap looks at Natasha, who nods.
"Got a suit?," He asks Barton.
"Yeah," Clint tells him.
"Then suit up."
Steve goes to leave before turning back and asking, "Have either of you seen Y/N?"
"I think he went outside," Natasha tells him.
__________
== Y/N's POV ==
I was standing on the edge of the Helicarrier.
The wind pushing against me. My cape flowing as it rushes by.
I look off the edge when Steve appears next to me. We stand in silence for a few moments.
I eventually ask him, "..Do you ever still think about Bucky?"
"Constantly," he says, turning to me.
"I keep thinking.. If maybe I learned I could fly earlier, maybe I could have saved him."
"With the amount of soldiers we've lost in our lifetime, I'm surprised neither off us have snapped yet," Steve jokes.
I smile at that and turn to look at him. He was suited up.
"We goin somewhere?," I ask.
Steve nods, "I'll tell you everything we got on the way."
"Well, you might have to catch up first," I say smirking.
Before Steve responds, I tip myself over the edge and fly.
__________
Fury is holding Coulson's cards, over looking the air deck. Hill walks up behind him.
"Sir."
"Agent Hill," Fury stands there shuffling the cards.
"..Those cards, they were in Coulson's locker, not in his jacket."
Fury lets out a sigh and looks at the cards, "They needed the push."
He sees the quinjet, Iron Man, and Superman take off towards the city.
A voice over the intercom announces, "We've got unauthorized departure from Bay Six."
"They found it. Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything," Fury tells Hill as he walks back from the air deck.
"Yes, sir," She replies, following.
----- May 4th, 2012 11:03 AM - Upper East Side, New York -----
== Third Person POV ==
Iron Man is flying toward the city, his suit losing power. He continues to make his way to Stark Tower.
Selvig, still under the control of Loki, is ready toactivate the device he created with the Tesseract on the roof.
Iron Man slowly reaches.
Jarvis speaks over his helmet comms, "Sir, I turned off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustaining."
"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig," Tony demands.
"It's too late! She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe."
Tony, annoyed, says, "Okay.."
He fires at the barrier around the device, but the Tesseract deflects it. It sends the energy outwards, knocking Selvig out and Iron Man back.
"The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable," Jarvis tells him.
"Yeah, I got that," Iron Man looks down to see Loki on the platform outside the penthouse, "Plan B."
"Sir, the Mark Seven is not ready for deployment," Jarvis warns.
"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock," Tony tells him.
Tony lands and as his suit is deconstructed, he walks through into the tower penthouse, watching Loki carefully. Loki walks in as well.
Inside the tower, Loki walks forward as Tony walks towards his bar.
"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki teases.
"Uh- actually, I'm planning to threaten you."
"You should have left your armor on for that."
"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the uh- glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?"
"Stalling me won't change anything."
Tony walks behind the bar, "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?"
"The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing," Tony tells him, while pouring himself a drink.
Loki walks closer, "Yes, I'm 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," Loki turns away from him and Tony slips a pair of bracelets onto his wrists, "A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend, a man with breath-taking anger management issues, a couple of master assassins, Oh and your other brother, who according to even you, is worshipped as a god amongst other gods, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."
"That was the plan."
Tony begins to walk to the center of the penthouse where Loki is, "Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."
"I have an army," Loki tells him.
"We have a Superman."
Loki stands momentarily surprised, "Oh, I was expecting you to say Hulk.."
"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 well sure we'll avenge it."
Loki walks over to Tony, pointing his scepter, "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"
Loki walks up to Tony, and places the tip of the scepter over his heart. It clinks against the arc reactor.
"This usually works."
"Well, performance issues. You know?"
Loki grabs Tony by the throat and throws him across the room.
"Jarvis, anytime now," Tony whispers.
Loki grabs Tony again, "You will all fall before me."
"JARVIS! Deploy!"
Loki sends Tony crashing through the window, and plummeting toward the ground.
Behind Loki, the Mark Seven suit goes rocketing past and out after Tony. It catches up to him and, locking on to the bracelets, attaches to him and unfolds to a full suit.
Tony manages to stop his fall moments before he hits the ground and flies back up to Loki at the window.
"And there's one other person you pissed off! His name is Phil."
Iron Man fires a repulsor blast at Loki and he is knocked down.
Meanwhile the device has powered up and shoots a stream of blue energy at the sky, which opens into a portal where the Chitauri army waits.
The hoards of aliens begin to fly through.
"Right! Army," he says and flies up.
____________________