Nathan Porter let out a sigh, signing off on the stack of papers before him as he walked through the halls of the hospital. Nurses and doctors walked past, nodding their heads in hello. Some rushed past with patients on gurneys, ready to go into surgery.
"Strange!" Nate called out as he saw the doctor standing up ahead. He walked toward him as he watched Stephen Strange fiddle with his watch. "You getting ready for something?"
"Patient was coming in with moyamoya disease, we plan on doing some scans and everything. Probably going to have to go in for extracranial to intracranial arterial bypass,"
"That's a pretty complicated procedure,"
"Those are what I do best," Strange sent Nathan a wink. "I'm sure you could've done it in your prime."
Nathan let out a sigh, shaking his head as he looked back at the man, unimpressed.
"I honestly don't know who is more insufferable: you or Stark. Hopefully you two never meet and I never have to find out,"
"Stark is a douche-bag, I'd put him in his place," Strange sent his friend a wink before walking off down the hallway.
Now alone in the waiting room at the front of the hospital, except for the few nurses that walked past every few moments, Nathan took the moment to bring out his phone, smiling at the sight of his little Aurora as his background. His smile dropped into a frown when he saw there was no missed text or call from Audelia yet.
They hadn't spoken since she was in the lab, looking for the cube, and that worried him. She said she'd keep him up to date on what was happening, and there's was no way they hadn't found the cube yet. It was nerve-wracking, knowing something could've happened and he had no idea.
The front doors of the hospital busted open as Nathan turned around at the gust of wind and the familiar sound of Audelia's armor behind him. She landed on the ground, her mask lifting up as nurses, doctors, and patients alike stopped in their tracks in shock.
"I'm going to take it that this," Nathan gestured to her suit. "Isn't a very good sign."
"Phil is dead," the statement made Nathan pause for a moment as Audelia swallowed the lump in her throat, determination clouding her eyes. "Loki killed him, and now he has the scepter and the cube."
"Where's he at, then?"
"On top of Stark Tower, Tony's heading there now," Audelia explained. "He means to open a portal to space. He has an army waiting on the other side."
Audelia paused to watch Nathan, letting the information sink in as he straightened out, his face turning serious.
"Any idea on how many?"
"We're going to try and stop it before it starts, but it's unlikely. We don't know how many Loki has,"
Nathan quickly turned around to face two of the doctors behind him and the security guards standing around.
"I need you to alert all the nearby hospitals that we've got incoming, they need to prep the trauma units. Notify all police stations and fire departments in the vicinity, we need to be able to reach any survivors immediately,"
The policemen and the doctors nodded their heads quickly before running off to follow Nathan's orders. He turned back to face his fiance, who gave him a nod.
"The team will be here soon, Tony and I are going to try and find a way to stop him from opening the portal. If not, containment is going to be our best bet,"
"Strange is here, along with a couple other highly ranked surgeons," Nate told her. "I'll have them prepared and ready for all incoming patients. I'm going to assemble the ground units, head out in case there's anyone who can't be transported and needs medical attention on the scene."
Deli's face softened at his words, worry clouding her eyes as she took a step back from him.
"If you're going out there...be careful, please. Aurora needs her dad,"
"I'm not the one that could be flying around in a hunk of metal shooting down aliens," Nathan joked, a sad smile on his lips. "She needs her mom, too, Deli."
"Her mom has a job to do,"
"Well, so does her dad," Nathan backed away from his fiance. "Go do your job, Deli. I'll see you when the fight is over."
Without a second of hesitation, Audelia's mask came back down over her face as she flew out of the hospital doors once more, papers flying everywhere. Nathan let out a small smile as he watched her go before turning around, barking out orders to all those standing around him.
Inside Stark Tower, Tony Stark had his eyes trained cautiously on Loki across the living room as he poured himself a small glass of scotch. Loki had a smirk on his face as he turned to look out the windows of the living room to the sky.
"The Chitauri are coming...nothing will change that," Loki turned to face the man at the bar. "What have I to fear?"
"The Avengers," Tony looked up from his drink to Loki's face. "That's what we call ourselves, sorta like a team. Earth's mightiest heroes, that sort of thing."
"I've met them,"
"Yeah," Tony let out a short laugh, sneakily reaching under the table as he fastened the wristbands of the Mark 7 armor to his wrists. He took a split second to look at the display screen on the counter, seeing a message from Dell that said she was in the lab and booting up her Mark 4 armor. "Takes us a little while to get any traction, I'll give you that, but let's do a head count, shall we? Your brother, the demi-god. The super soldier, living legend, who kind of lives up to the legend. A man with breathtaking anger management issues. The super hot love of my life who looks wonderful in purple and gold, might I say, followed by a couple of master assassins. And you, big fella, have managed to piss off every single one of them."
"That was the plan-"
"Not a great plan," Tony interjected with a wag of his finger, taking a sip of his drink as he walked around the counter. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."
"I have an army,"
"We have a Hulk,"
"I thought the beast had wandered off-"
"You're missing the point," Tony interjected once more as he descended the steps toward the god. "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. Because if we can't protect the earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it."
Loki let out a short laugh, stalking toward Tony with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"How will your friends have time to fight me, when they're so busy fighting you,"
Tony's eyes widened slightly as Loki's placed the scepter into the middle of his chest, but the brainwashing effect never took hold. Even the god seemed confused as he attempted the move one last time, gaining the same outcome as before.
"This usually works,"
"Well, performance issues aren't uncommon. One out of five-"
Loki grabbed hold of Tony Stark by the neck, tossing him across the room toward the floor to ceiling windows. Tony groaned, struggling to his feet.
"JARVIS," Tony choked out as he got to his feet. "Any time now."
Loki was on him in a second, holding Tony by the throat once more as he sneered.
"You will all fall before me,"
"Deploy! DEPLOY!"
The window shattered as Tony Stark was sent flying out of it, falling toward the ground at an alarming rate as glass fell around him. He tried to maintain his cool as he held out his wrists, the pod containing his suit behind him locking on as it opened up, enveloping the billionaire in his suit just before he hit the ground.
Loki turned to face the broken window as Tony, now clad in the Mark 7 armor, flew before him in the air.
"There's also one other person you pissed off,"
The god turned at the sound of metal behind him.
Audelia Motter stood just outside the elevator, glaring at the god before her as she held out her wrists, the same bracelets on her body as the Mark 4 version of her suit enveloped her body. Her gaze never strayed from the god as the mask closed over her face, the suit coming to life.
"His name was Phil,"
Loki moved his scepter to shoot at the woman as both Tony and Deli fired at the same time, their blasts hitting him in the side and throwing him to the ground, the scepter falling out of his reach. Audelia took off into the air, flying through the broken window to hover beside Tony.
"Well, that was quite the dramatic entrance,"
"I learned from you, didn't I?"
A loud, whirling sound caught their attention as their gaze was averted to the sky. The control device on the top of Stark Tower was activated, a blue beam of energy shooting into the sky from the Tesseract as a large, gaping hole expanded across the sky.
The aliens, the Chitauri, began their descent into the city from the portal above the tower as Audelia and Tony stared up at them.
"Right...army,"
◼ ◼ ◼
I love Tony and Deli. I truly, honestly do. Now, I will never love any characters the way I love Lottie and Steve but I love them.
Also, yes, we have to talk about the Spider-Man news. Yes, Sony pulling out of the deal is a huge mistake on their part and I hope they see the backlash and the drop in stocks and realize what a mistake they'd made and strike a deal with Marvel. But I've also read many reports that say that negotiations are still ongoing between Disney and Sony so there is still hope! A new Spider-Man movie wasn't even planned for the next 2 or 3 years so there's no telling when a deal could happen! The first deal happened so unexpectedly that Spider-Man was thrown into Civil War so last seconds, so there's not telling what might happen. Keep your fingers crossed!