Chapter Text
Footsteps echoed down the hallways of SHIELD. Agents wearing more subtle weaponry co-mingled with guards fully equipped with arms that could do some damage against those opposing them. A group of two such guards waltzed down the corridor towards a conference room.
Two guards were already standing on either side of the door and the pair already there exchanged a glance. The new guards stood a few feet from the original pair and one of them spoke up.
“We just got a message from command, we’re to replace you, code hyacintho caelum vale .”
At the utterance of that code the two guards stood at a higher attention and relinquished the position to the two newcomers, who posted themselves outside of the room and glanced at each other for confirmation. They held the large weapons in ready mode and faced away from the room, watching the original guards walk away.
After standing at attention for at least ten minutes, the door to the conference room activated, moving into the wall and allowing the rooms occupants out.
Out came the Avengers: Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, and Thor (recently returned for a short time from Asgard).
The two guards fell into step with the Avengers and escorted them towards the waiting Quinjet. As the Avengers bantered and found seats around the jet the two guards walked to the front and entered the cockpit, taking the two seats next to the controls and setting their weapons aside.
Taking the controls, the one guard, now pilot, took off from the landing platform and the jet soured into the sky. Unbeknownst to the Avengers, the jet was not heading back to the tower.
Flying West rather than towards New York, the Avengers remained oblivious.
That is, until a certain hero tried to get into contact with his AI. Shooting a frantic look at the other Avengers, Stark stood up and began to pace, uttering code words that would cause the AI to respond in all conditions except complete restriction between JARVIS and his creator.
Summoning his suit around him, the red and gold medal flew through the air and clicked into place. Everyone else in the Quinjet stood up in alarm at Tony’s sudden actions. Stark, ignoring the frantic questions that his teammates were asking while they were grabbing weapons as well, stepped towards the door to the jet, waiting for it to open upon his command.
It didn’t.
He turned around to look at the other Avengers, who, by now, had grabbed all of their weapons. Natasha glanced at the cockpit and advanced with her guns raised. She shook the handle of the door and discovered that it had been locked. Aiming her gun at the handle, she prepared to shoot, it but was stopped by the jet jolting suddenly to the side and the sound of the jet landing, accompanied by a loud clang.
The ramp of the jet opened and lowered towards the ground. Sending a glance towards the cockpit door, the Avengers slowly crept out of the jet, weapons raised, into a huge, empty (except for the jet), gray room.
Before they could do anything, Tony shouted out in shock as his armor came clattering down around him and he was left standing in a pile of what had been the Iron Man armor. The genius looked down wide eyed with his hands spread out before him. A choking noise sounded from his open mouth. The Avengers all stared at him until Steve spoke up.
“I thought you said no one else but you could manipulate the armor.”
The genius looked up at Steve and the supersoldier noticed a slight glimmer of fear in Tony’s eyes that was usually not present.
Swallowing, he replied, “I thought I was the only one who could manipulate it.”
Thor swung his hammer, Clint raised his bow, Steve took his shield off of where it sat on his back, Natasha added more bullets into her gun, and Bruce backed up to stand next to Tony, who was still frozen amidst the remains of his armor.
A whining sound echoed around the room and became increasingly loud until suddenly, all of the Avengers’ weaponry, including Thor's hammer, were pulled by some magnetic force to the wall.
There they stuck, quivering against the gray surface, when the door to the cockpit swung open and the two guards stepped out. As they walked forward, Bruce whispered to Tony, as the other Avengers got into fighting stances.
“Tony, I can’t transform.”
The genius looked at him in shock but was unable to respond before one of the two guards spoke up, a voice modifier in place.
“Do not worry, Dr. Banner. The beast will be unable to return for a short while, enough for us to get what we came for.”
Steve straightened up. “You’ll never get anything from us.”
The other guard chuckled and Natasha's eye twitched. She recognized the laugh from somewhere but couldn’t pinpoint where she had heard it before.
Whacking the guard lightly on the shoulder, the one who had done all the speaking continued, “We do not require anything physical to ‘get’, as you so put it. We only require information from Thor as to the location of a certain artifact.”
The Asgardian roared and charged the two guards with a cry of “You will never get anything from me!”
Without moving an inch, the guard that had not spoken threw two pieces of gleaming metal at the Asgardian. The metal quickly formed into two bands that wrapped around Thor's arms and legs and pinned him to the wall in the same manner that their weapons had been bound.
The metal moved with Thor's struggles to escape and trapped him. Blue light flickered around the edges and Natasha glanced between it and the light that remained embedded in the chest of one of her teammates.
The spy inhaled quickly and gave unspoken direction towards Clint, who responded with a gaze. The two spies started to approach subtly as Steve made his own advances towards the two masked figures, Tony and Bruce heading over to try and dismantle Thor’s bonds.
The silent figure threw the same things at Steve as he had at Thor while the figure who had spoken the most grabbed Clint’s fist as it made its way towards their helmet.
While he was busy restraining Steve, Natasha had advanced on the second figure. Before she could do anything, Clint vaulted upwards and kicked the mask off of the person who had spoken the whole time. His actions resulted in a scream of rage and a flash of green magic pining the archer to the wall as the trickster god himself was revealed.
Thor screamed out loud in astonishment at the view of his brother, who looked… older than he had when Thor had seen him last.
Using the distraction, Natasha aimed a a kick at the second masked figure. Seeing her attack coming he grabbed her leg and she felt the metal bands that he had flung at Steve and Thor form around her own leg.
Before it could fully form, she whipped both of her legs around his neck in a chokehold and did a backflip off. Natasha fell down to the ground and the metal pulled her towards the wall, pinning her upwards next to Clint, Steve, and Thor. Tony and Bruce paused in their work to look in astonishment at the second figure.
Natasha’s actions had caused his helmet to fall off. Loki gazed at the other in what looked like concern as he straightened up and smirked at the Avengers.
The person standing in front of them, though obviously older (as the… graying hair indicated) and working with a supervillain, was unmistakable.
Tony Stark.