The Old Hydrokinetic (MCU AU)

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Manhattan, New York [Stark Tower Periphery]

–Bruce Banner–

PUNCH.

It was nothing like he had thought it would be. In the beginning, before he lost all hope of ever becoming normal again, he had silly thoughts. Thoughts of gaining the Hulk's abilities without the accompanying mad rage, of things he could accomplish with the powers that the Hulk wasted on destruction, of how he could advance virtually every single field of science he could think of if he could just study the Hulk's physique in more depth.

Well, now he had it.

SMASH!

Total control of the Hulk or at least for now. See, he could think better and clearer than when he was just plain old Banner but even now, he could feel the Hulk, just sitting in the backseat, allowing him to have control for now, albeit reluctantly.

SMASH!

Yup, there was the favourite saying of Hulk. Every time he punched something into oblivion, the Hulk cheered from the backseat, shouting so loudly that it echoed in his mind. Sure, not the end of the world and way better than it was before when he was just drowning in mindless rage, so much rage that his mind shut down on its own but it was a little incessant as he continued to reap alien lives.

That was another thing he noted, was that he gained perfect control over his body within an instant, allowing him to fly. Not just jump really high but actually fly! With the shockwave generated by his feet just slamming together, he could generate enough thrust to lift his giant body up from the ground.

For steering, his hands were more than enough as just his fingers snapping together generated enough air pressure for him to turn. Numbers continued to pour in from every single sense, and the senses were so sensitive, he could hear when the next big lizard thing was going to come out of the portal, allowing him to react by quickly finishing off any Chitauri that existed away from the portal and then flying straight to the blue hole in the sky, just in time for the lizard's nose to come in and his fist to crash straight through it.

It was all very visceral and he was kind of surprised that he did not feel much about it, not anymore. The logical part of his brain screamed about brain chemistry, and alternate personalities with varying chemical composition and whatnot but the other side of his brain, was just enjoying it all for now.

The sheer freedom that came with becoming the Hulk, it was intoxicating. Backhanding yet another Chitauri into meat paste, he jumped, uncaring of the property damage to the streets, or to the streetlights as he regularly used them as weapons to take care of entire squads in a single throw. They were usually a single use that way but eh, he was sure that Stark had more than enough money to reimburse everything, and worst case scenario, SHIELD surely has more than enough money to rebuild everything.

In between his gallivanting around the city, as he felt the air breeze across his bulletproof skin, he felt something. A shiver ran along his spine as, for the first time, he felt something other than rage and elation in Hulk's voice as he spoke from the backseat of their mind.

UH-OH.

Before he could ask the Hulk, the sky itself darkened. He looked up and his eyes widened as he saw the massive cloud of water around the city glowing blue. He lost focus as he found his face kissing a glass window, his hands carving a groove through the flooring of the building as he stopped himself.

Then, he jumped, as all his instincts told him to get away from this place at once, as fast as he could, and yet, even as strong as he was, he was not fast enough to get away in time, as he saw a massive mass of glowing blue just coming down from the sky.

"Shit!" He exclaimed before he was drowned in millions of litres of water coming from the sky. He was genuinely afraid that even the Hulk's skin would not be able to take that much pressure but quickly, he found out that it was not crushing, at all.

Instead, it created a small bubble of air around him as water, surrounding him, brought him down to the floor, before whisking him away in a certain direction. He couldn't see as there was still glowing water in front of him but he could see things that came into the pocket of air he had around him. He could see that he was being transported along a city road, as the markings on the road were clear.

He could also see things like cars, trucks, and even ruined Chitauri ships being pushed away from his path before he came to a stop, the bubble staying in place even as the water flew.

He was confused for a moment before he heard a voice speak directly into his ears, "What are you doing here?" it sent chills down his spine because he now knew, so did the Hulk, that the old woman was infinitely more dangerous than he was, someone he should stay away from.

The next moment, he was flung out of the water wave, and despite the height his ascent reached, he was not concerned about that as his eyes were glued to one thing and one thing only.

The massive wave of glowing blue that spread as far as his vision could see, presumably ferrying people away from the point of impact as fast as she could.

"Hulk!" His neck snapped to the side as Stark flew by.

"What? What is happening? What is the ETA?" He said as he flew side by side with Staerk, only needing a feet click every couple seconds to keep up with the man of Iron, which was actually kind of nice if he had a couple more seconds to think about it but alas, he only had the goddamned nuclear weapon on his mind as Stark and he flew to the Stark Tower.

In the background, he could hear the thunder grumbling as Thor presumably did his job and destroyed the Chitauri that were pouring out of the portal because he could not imagine an operation of this size allowing Weber to focus on anything else.

"Okay, One! We need to talk about this transformation of yours later on. Two, Weber said something about the sceptre. I have located it and Jarvis is currently running scans on it to see if it can do what I think it can do." Tony's face plate slid off as both of them landed on the now ruined penthouse floor balcony, walking into the bar section talking with each other.

"Which is?"

"Breach the containment around the cube."

His brows furrowed for a second before he spoke out loud, "Jarvis? Chances of energy backlash in the form of arcs of superheated plasma?"

There was a moment of silence before Jarvis replied, "...Very high, Dr.Banner."

He nodded and then turned around, heading to the sceptre which was being scanned by scanners coming out of the wall. He stopped as he felt a metallic hand land on his arm, which was huge by the way, making Tony look so small in that suit. "What are you doing? Even you wouldn't walk away from superheated plasma."

He shrugged off the hand and swiped the sceptre away from the scanners, "Well, someone has to try."

Tony's face looked complicated as he tired, once more, "But Jarvis hasn't had time yet to-"

"ETA for the nuke?" He asked the man and he shut up as Tony realised there was no point in them talking.

Then, without any word, Tony's faceplate slid on his face and he rocketed out of the penthouse, rattling the walls.

"Jarvis, please tell me he is not about to do something stupid." He said as he jumped out of the balcony, to land on the roof, a dozen feet away from the machine that was responsible for so much death and destruction.

Jarvis spoke from comms he had swiped earlier from Tony, "Sir is running on critically low energy reserves and the chances of him safely making it back are very low, Dr.Banner."

He sighed as his shoulders dropped at the statement that just made his fears come true. Tony could not do this because they did not know the optimal point of entry. Any backlash would just vaporise Tony's entire body. He could not carry the Nuke into the portal because, despite his newly gained ability of three dimensional movement, it was not as smooth and fluid as Tony's repulsor aided flight so it could set off the nuke early on.

Thor had the same problem as he did and the only other one who could fly and do everything effortlessly was the one who was making sure that people were out of the city, as fast as possible.

The wave had left the area now, moving all the people out of the way. By his calculations, she should be out of the preliminary blast zone within another 5 minutes, with all the people she met on the way, which was phenomenal and nearly impossible to believe but even so, they did not have five more minutes.

So, taking a deep breath, he aimed the tip of the sceptre to the bottom of the machine and began pushing, as Tony began his task for the day.

"I hope it's worth it," He muttered as he pushed, as arcs of blue zapped at his skin, darkening it black and blue, which began healing but then the arcs came again, and again, peeling off layers of his skin as he continued to push.

His arm twitched as the arcs continued to bombard the same place over and over again, as he saw Tony's form coming into the sky, straight towards them.

"Thor! Now!"

There was a deafening sound of thunder along with a war cry as dozens of lightning bolts came out of the sky and struck the portal, destroying any Chitauri that were coming through and also the stragglers in the sky, clearing the path for Tony and the missile.

"Come on. Come on. Come on." He muttered as Tony came close to him, as the optimal path was to run parallel to the beam of energy that was opening the portal.

He watched as Tony's suit scratched the edge of the roof as the missile rocketed up. He watched with bated breaths as Tony finally entered the portal, along with the missile.

He was sure that others were celebrating but his focus was on something else.

"Jarvis?"

"Communications lost, sir."

"...F*ck"


If you guys would like to support me or read upto 4 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.

I run snippet polls on Patreon, with the winner of the fic getting 2-3 chapters over the weekend.

 

[MrJohnAshwood]

Thanks for the update! Damn she's powerful although I hope she shares some of her backstory after the crisis Is averted

 

[transhumansage]

wait where are Black widow and Hawkeye?

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Manhattan, New York

–Samantha Weber–

She made sure to wrangle every single living being in her senses, into the living river she had created as she was ferrying the entire population around Stark Tower out of the blast zone. Despite her best efforts, she was certain that it was not going to be enough.

Even she was not strong enough to transport an entire city's worth of people within minutes, especially since the nuclear bomb coming their way was due to detonate any minute now.

Her senses were spread thin as is, as she had to keep watch over every single human, children or adults, to make sure they did not end up drowning or scraping themselves against the wall of water because it might look fluid to them but they were very much solid. If someone tried to ram their way out, they would find that the wall of water would be just as hard as concrete.

She had to admit, in all of her long life, she had never exerted herself as much as she was doing now. It was refreshing, to go all out for the first time in…ever, basically. Still, she knew she could do more but she was unsure if the humans would survive it. She had to be extremely careful with all of them lest she accidentally break some of them.

Despite all of that, her senses were keeping track of everything happening behind her. The last of the water had already left Manhattan, as she looked at Thor floating mid air

Her eyes narrowed as she saw Stark rocket off, towards the direction of the nuke and the Green one heading to the roof, right where the contraption that started this whole thing was.

Stark was now heading back as the Green One was getting slightly injured by something, which she did not think was possible because he was just so much more durable than anyone she had come across yet.

Her eyes widened minutely as she processed everything, as Stark was coming in with the missiles, Banner was getting more and more injured. So, that's how they were going to play it.

She kept an eye on them and slightly increased the speed of the wave, just in case. She grunted a bit as her wave hit a gridlock of cars, just stuck, as she had to rescue numerous injured, stuck, as well as unconscious people and assimilate them into the river. Meanwhile, a massive air bubble was being created at the centre of the river, just in case the very air around them became poisonous in mere moments.

The moment Stark entered the hole in the sky with the missile, she safely deposited everyone on the ground, redirected the flow of water to the nearest water body and the drains and then dropped her focus before shooting towards the contraption that was keeping the hellish hole in the sky open.

To not just close the portal and push back the invasion but to do something, even at the cost of his own life, to deter anyone else from coming in, by sending in the strongest possible weapon humanity had at its disposal, Stark had earned her respect.

She would not let his sacrifice go in vain.

The moment she reached the roof, her eyebrows shot up as she finally saw what was happening to the Green One. His arms were charred beyond recognition as he was holding onto the sceptre, having already punctured the sphere she thought invincible and was just barely a moment away from plugging the flow of energy that was keeping the whole thing going.

The blasts of energy that came from the contraption clued her in as to what was hurting him as she decided to spare him the pain and summoned water from the ocean, creating a ball of glowing water, that she intended to chuck at the sceptre, giving it the final push necessary when the Green one, spoke, nay, roared back at her.

"NOOOO!"

She reared back a bit at the desperation and intensity of it, even as it was mixed with pained grunts as the contraption continued to punish the Green One.

"Why?" She found herself asking, keeping an eye on the hole in the sky. The second she saw an explosion, she was going to close the hole. After all, the problem with destroying the machine was not the machine itself but the sphere of unbreachable energy around it.

No matter what she did, she could not get the energy to budge, leaving her with no other option than to mitigate the fallout and remove the civilians from the area. Now that she could breach the energy, she could very easily dismantle the machine from the inside and that was what she planned on doing, no matter what.

Because no one, no human, no matter how pure their intentions, should be allowed to have a contraption so devastating in nature. No, she was going to crush the remains and throw them in the ocean once this whole invasion was done.

She was all out of trust for humans and yet, even she was a bit surprised by the words that the Green One spoke next, clearly in pain and yet, determined to push through till the end.

"H-He, Tony W-will come b-back," The man said with clenched teeth as he held the sceptre in place, not pushing or pulling it back.

She raised an eyebrow at the sentiment, admirable and naive as it was, "Be realistic, Stark is long gone. He cannot survive an–" Her neck snapped up as she heard more than felt the explosion as a small sun bloomed in the darkness beyond the portal.

Moving with haste, she floated towards the contraption, ball of water in hand when even she had to instinctively shield herself as a primal roar full of anger and fear was directed at her. The Green Man was now covered in a shroud of green, so much so that she could see his hands being healed in real time.

She raised an eyebrow as the corrosive shroud made contact with her shield and she had to supply energy to maintain the shield lest it crack from the energy. Very impressive. She could see that this was beyond what the Green Man had ever done before and to do so for a comrade, a friend, she could understand his feelings and yet, she knew what had to be done.

So, pushing through the shroud of green, she contained the energy blasts and thrust the orb of water at the sceptre, the one that was also glowing green now, having been affected by the outburst of energy from the Green One, all the while she was subjected to a primal roar.

The only reason the Green One was not blasted off the roof was because she was sympathetic to his pain and also because it helped that he was holding the sceptre in place. She watched as the water, under her command, turned itself into a stream and flowed along the length of the sceptre, finally reaching the end, before turning back into a orb and then pushing the sceptre along with it, finally reaching the and stopping the flow of energy to the hole in the sky.

The containment unit disappeared as she looked to the side, to see the Green One turn back human, unconscious as the hole started to collapse in on itself.

She smiled a bit as the dozen chitauri she had kept secured for experimentation later on, dropped dead like flies as the explosion ballooned in size.

She was about to fly off but then her eyes narrowed as she saw Stark dropping through the portal at the last moment, just as the wave of explosion was about to come through the portal. He was dropping uncontrollably so it would seem his suit was not functional but it had clearly helped the man do his final task.

And yet….

She looked to the side, at the now shrunken down man and looked up at Stark, "I suppose it was worth it, then."

With a negligent motion of her hand, a tendril of water shot out of the nearby sewers, latching onto Stark's form, forming a small ball of water that slowed down as it reached the ground, finally depositing the suit on the ground as she saw the rest of the rag tag group that Fury had assembled here, converge on Stark's position.

The man's heartbeat was weak, weaker than it was before but he was unquestionably alive.

They had removed his faceplate when she dropped down from the sky, the Green One's deflated form dropping alongside her as she stepped forward. "Step aside," She ordered Thor as a small drop of water fell from her eyes, as she collected it and then, flicked it towards Stark's downed form.

The effect was immediate, as Stark woke up with a gasp, sitting up when the Captain stopped him and pushed him down.

"W-What just happened? How did I–Ugh," Stark grunted mid sentence as the rest of them looked in concern and alarm. She concentrated and then sighed, realising the root of the problem.

With a flick of her hand, water shot out and infiltrated the little crevices on the suit before it was all dismantled and in some places, crushed before Stark was lying down with a full body suit.

"O-okay, what is happening?" He said in between pained breaths, his hands clawing at his chest or rather, his reactor as she bent forward and placed her palm on the circular reactor, water surging under her palms before she pulled and Stark, perhaps on instinct, reached forward as well, trying to save what he thought was life saving equipment.

He was pushed down by the water as she removed the reactor, and then–

KRA-KOOM!

Her left hand shot out as a shroud of water appeared around her, stopping the lighting strike that would have killed Stark and then worked on getting the metallic housing out of his chest, not before removing the little pieces of shrapnel struck in his chest, before, finally, her teardrop finished its work and healed the hole in the man's chest, leaving him hale and healthy again.

Stark was clearly astonished as to how that happened as he sat upright and continued to touch his chest as if ascertaining whether it was a dream or not.

Meanwhile, she, turned back and walked out of the encirclement as the shroud disappeared and she, with it.



If you guys would like to support me or read upto 4 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.

I run snippet polls on Patreon, with the winner of the fic getting 2-3 chapters over the weekend.

 

[minitune001]

Did Weber just more or less unravel the whole plot of Iron Man 3 and Avenger's franchise!?

Iron Man 3's plot was Tony dealing with the PTSD that accumulated as a civilian that was exposed again and again to major life threatening situations. He desperately clings to the identity of Iron Man to stay sane.
In Age of Ultron, Tony tries to deal with that all the trauma again by building himself an army of Iron Man to act as a comfort blanket.
In Civil War, Tony this time clings to the idea of government oversight to try to make some sense of the world that seems to keep slipping out of his control.

Without the need to keep the Arc Reactor in his chest all the time, Tony can finally step back from the whole situation and focus on his identity of a scientist and an engineer. He can finally take the time to unwind and recenter himself without the constant neon glow reminder of his trauma stuck to his chest.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Manhattan, New York

–Tony Stark–

"What the f*ck just happened?!" He shouted, almost hysterically, as he lay down on the ground, inspecting his chest and the removed Arc Reactor, as if it were a dream his brain had conjured up in the last moments of his death. An experience that most people mistakenly called as heaven.

There was a moment of silence between them as Cap finally said, "We won."

And just like that, all the tension left his body as he collapsed on the ground, "Argh, let's not do this again, ever."

There was a round of chuckles and he joined in as he looked at the ruined parts of his suit, the ripped apart Arc Reactor that was still functioning and then, his gaze went to..

"Hey! What happened to him?" He pointed at Banner, snapping upright, not feeling tired in the slightest, at least physically. Mentally? It was a whole other story.

Thor waved him off, "Not to worry. Banner is safe, he is just sleeping."

"Are you sure?" he asked, just to be safe before collapsing once more on the hot pavement, the heat not even bothering him a little bit as he continued to admire the clear blue sky, without the giant gaping hole in the sky, with pitch black darkness on the other side.

No, it was not even the darkness that worried him, no, it was the things that hid in the darkness, that made darkness their home, that worried him. Flashbacks of his brief time on the other side of that portal came to mind as he struggled to shake those dreadful thoughts off his mind. Looking at the semi-relaxed members of the team around him, he said, "I don't know about you guys but my doctor says that I need to eat a ton of food after my surgery, especially the impromptu miracle that I just went through. You know what? Let's all take a vacation, not together, but let's take a couple of months off to relax, on me? Alright? Pick any destination that comes to mind."

Cap, leaning on his shield, which was being used as a cane, replied, "Job's not done yet."

He sighed in misery and then took the offered hand as he was pulled up from the ground. He looked down, suddenly feeling quite embarrassed about the unisuit but he did not let it show on his face as he said to Cap, "Yeah, I suppose so. But after that? It's beaches and margaritas, Baby! Jarvis?" He said and in the end, spread his arms wide apart, and looked around him.

He swore to all that was holy that he heard literal crickets in the background despite them not being a thing in Manhattan and he was pretty sure that even something as dumb as insects would have fled the region.

His eyes twitched as he heard Barton chuckle and mutter, "Performance issues?" He was about to give them a piece of his mind before he heard the sound of repulsors begin activated as he turned around, just in time for a piece of metal to slam into his chest with an audible thump, with parts expanding around it to form a full Iron Man suit around him in seconds.

Huh, he wondered why he was not pushed back this time. During their initial testing, the final prototype would send him skidding back a couple of feet, even if he was bracing himself against the blow. Now? Now, he barely knew that the suit was coming, was completely unprepared and despite that, he barely moved at all.

Hmm, something to think about later on. For now—

"Avengers! Assemble!" Huh, it does feel nice to say it. It has a nice ring to it. He offered both his hands to the Spy siblings, and Thor chucked Bruce on his shoulders like a sack of potatoes and held onto Cap with the other hand as they both rocketed up and dropped down on the penthouse, where dear ol' Loki was resting against a wall, awake and looking at the city in a daze.

"Are we sure Weber didn't knock a screw loose in his head?" He mockingly whispered to Romanoff who just elbowed him as he flew up to secure the Tesseract, and the sceptre, only to find them missing. The only evidence of the portal machine being here was a spherical hole in the roof with trace amounts of Gamma Radiation in the background.

"Holy Sh*t!" He swore as he immediately dropped down from the roof and landed right in front of Thor who just slapped Loki right across his stupid face, which made the man gasp and then snap upright.

Ugh. He'd hoped that Loki would stay unconscious for a while longer but apparently, that kind of silence was a luxury he would not get, for now. Also, they had other pressing matters to attend to.

"Guys! The Cube, it's missing. So is the sceptre."

"Weber." Cap said, "She took it."

"Jarvis? Get me footage. Motion data. Gamma radiation. Anything." He said out loud as a series of holo screens manifested themselves in front of the bar as a projected keyboard appeared on the counter.

Working his magic with his fingers, he made sure to remind Thor, "Thor, I hope you have something to restrain your brother. We would not want to call Weber again to grab him."

The threat worked as Thor hastily took something from his back and slapped it on Loki's hands as a small cube somehow turned into a full sized hand cuff, with glowing squiggly lines on them. Hmm, nano tech and something else.

Something to analyse later on.

Jarvis cycled through every single byte of data available to him locally, then moving on to other public sources but due to Weber conducting a mass evacuation procedure, there was not much user generated footage that otherwise would have existed due to the dumb people who would risk their lives for views online.

Then came the satellite data, overlapped with residual Gamma Radiation consistent with the Tesseract and the sceptre. Jarvis was able to swipe that data from the SHIELD helicarrier and was able to apply that filter on Stark Industries' Satellites. It helped that this time, they only had to scan a really small area with higher precision, not the entire planet, to get a rough location on the Cube.

"There!" He pointed at the screen as Jarvis mirrored his current display, showing a split second footage from one of the overhead satellites, showing a blurry shape appearing on the roofing for a split second, before the consistent Gamma Radiation disappeared and in its place, a massive amount of the same energy as the one they detected when that massive cloud of water descended upon the city, appeared.

"So, she took both of them?" Romanoff asked and then Barton scoffed, "Can you blame her?"

"Clint," Romanoff tried to chide Barton but he was on board with that, "No, he's right. After all that has happened, I wouldn't trust the government with the Cube, not in the right mindset anyway. Why not let the WMDs remain with the biggest WMD we have ever seen? I see no reason why she would ever use it. She seemed plenty powerful and aloof without it."

"Tony, you know we can't do that. The government–"

"Is not the one who should be playing with mind controlling forces. I, for one, know that that woman would like to be as far away from humans as possible. What use would she have for a mind controlling weapon?"

"The Tesseract belongs to Asgard and no one, not even mortal witches, however powerful they may be, can come in Asgard's path." Thor rumbled, aggressively and he winced as he remembered what happened the last time Thor tried to tango with Weber and he definitely did not want a repeat of that.

Judging by the barely hidden responses from the rest of the team, they did not either. So, the onus fell on him to play the devil's advocate.

"Alright," he raised his hands in a placating manner, the holoscreen disappearing with a discreet gesture, "Let's not jump to conclusions. I am sure that we can talk it out with Weber. Hell, I bet she would even give it to you. Last I heard, she was very against humans tinkering with it so if you can just take it away from our grubby mortal paws, she will most likely give it to you."

Thor nodded and stepped back, relaxing a bit.

He continued, "But for that to happen, we need to talk with her, calmly. I am sure SHIELD can reach her. Now, I hate to ask but the sceptre? Can she keep it? Because I don't think she will be ready to hand over both of them. I don't think that's how negotiations work."

"Yeah," Thor nodded, "Yeah, she can keep it."

"Great. Now, Jarvis? Can you put the One-Eyed Pirate on hold please? I, for one, am famished and Jarvis, being the dear that he is, has already placed an order for us in a nearby restaurant. Only a couple of minutes away."

"How? Weber should have already swept away most people from here."

Jarivs then chimed in, "ETA - 8 minutes. By flight."

Ohhh.

Better wake up Bruce, then.


If you guys would like to support me or read upto 4 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.

I run snippet polls on Patreon, with the winner of the fic getting 2-3 chapters over the weekend.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Bayonne, New Jersey

–Tony Stark–

"You know," he said, chewing on the very chewy Shawarma that Jarvis had ordered for them, "I don't think my palate is suitable for Shawarmas. It definitely makes for a great after battle snack though, full of protein and carbs." He said, slightly defending Jarvis' decision in choosing this specific meal, based on one of his previous comments and on their current dietary needs.

Everyone here could eat meat, they all needed energy and shawarma were known to be packed full of them. More importantly, however, this place was the one place that had the necessary staff as well as the fresh ingredients to get them the best possible food quality.

All other places were closed down because of people just leaving due to mass panic and also due to the very real possibility of the invasion spreading from the Stark Tower as its epicentre.

"It's fine," Cap said, a sentiment that was apparently mirrored by Thor, as well as Loki, whom they had brought with them for the trip because leaving him behind was not an option. Why? Because Thor said so.

In his opinion, beings who can survive a thrashing from the Elder Menace, Weber, herself were more than capable of surviving without supervision for a couple of hours on top of a tower with no functioning elevators or even stairs since much of the tower's overall integrity was shot to hell.

In all likelihood, he would have to demolish it all and start anew, which would not take nearly as long as the first one, courtesy of better tech that he has built now. It should only take a year now, to get the entire building up and running, [plus, he had some new ideas as to what he could do about the Tower.

He was thinking that, instead of the high tower, he would go deep, building a dozen floors underground. It would be best in terms of security as well as privacy just in case he needed to get out of the tower without anyone noticing his suit flying out of the penthouse.

"Eh," Clint said and moved his hand in a so-so motion. The hand was quickly shot down by Romanoff when he heard the chef enter the private room that was offered to them.

"Hello! Hello! I saw you all on TV! How is the food?" The middle aged Middle Eastern man asked them with a blinding smile on his face. He did not have the heart to do anything but shower pure praise on the food, as the man beamed even more, violently refusing any form of payment from them, as they finished the food and entered the streets.

Loki was awfully quiet, which was very unusual of him but then again, he did encounter the single scariest woman on the planet, so maybe the event changed him for the good? If so, Odin must take parenting lessons from Weber because she did what Odin did not do in a thousand years or so?

He got a ping from Jarvis that the authorities were now moving back into the city, and the people from SHIELD were trying to make their way into Stark Tower. He had already told Jarvis to not help them in any way, which would add a couple of minutes to their ETA. Even if he wanted to, all Jarvis could do was brute force operate a couple of machines in the upper floors to clear some debris in the path so that the agents could reach the roof a little bit faster.

"Alright guys," He turned around and waved at the restaurant owner, who was also their chef, "the spooks have arrived. We might want to get back before they do anything rash."

All of them agreed as they all went airborne, with Bruce still unconscious back in one of the rooms that was intact in Stark Tower. He wondered what exactly happened for the man to stay like that despite some light shocks not waking him up.

They couldn't risk the spooks trying something on him and them having to clean up the mess left afterwards so he ordered Jarvis to go as fast as possible. On the way, he already located the man, his address, his bank account and transferred a couple thousand dollars for the food as the Manhattan skyline came back into view.

The agents, from SHIELD as well as the FBI along with some UN Forces? Were now halfway through, with them being two minutes away.

"Jarvis, any luck on Weber?" He asked Jarvis about the massive task he had assigned his buddy, to track down someone who could become water itself, submerging herself in a large water body to essentially disappear from every single tracking method on the planet.

The massive Gamma signature she emitted while performing her moves? Disappeared. Apparently, that was only a consequence of her massive, city wide movements. If she wanted to just disappear by herself, no Gamma Radiation.

"None, sir. SHIELD has no digital files on Ms.Weber, nor do any other government agency on the planet. I have begun the frankly impossible task of scanning all the available water bodies for any gamma spikes, in hopes that Ms.Weber might do something drastic with the Cube or the Cube might react to her powers in some way."

Oh, well. "Okay, keep doing it." It was a long shot anyway. If someone like Weber could be found just like that, most of the world's governments would have known about her by now. There was no doubt most of the world was scrambling to look for the single person who turned things around when it seemed like they would lose.

Interestingly, it was not the One-eyed himself who was at Stark Tower but someone else. Alexander Pierce?

Jarvis, as if hearing his thoughts, pulled the file for the Secretary of the World Security Council, an organisation that is responsible for monitoring as well as guiding SHIELD.

Wow, why was this person and this committee completely unknown before this?

Soon, they reached the penthouse and the agents were only two floors from Bruce and 7 from the top, as he dropped the agents and then cut off the flow of energy to the thrusters as he dropped down, courtesy of gravity and let the repulsors re engage as the correct floor before bursting through the window.

No point preserving anything when he was just going to claim insurance on the whole thing anyway. Man, the premiums for the next building were going to be wallet bleeding. The assholes in that industry would never let him get the insurance payout without reducing their profit margins for even a single quarter, ghouls that they were.

The door burst open, as he landed in the middle of the guys' mad scramble to reach the top floor, finding himself face to face with a bunch of high calibre automatic guns, with their safeties unlocked, ready to shoot first and ask questions later.

"Relax, boys," He said, without raising his hands because he was not about to make them think that this suit was not impervious to gun fire, not completely anyway. Like he said, a prototype.

"Mr.Stark," The completely armed agent in the front said, "May I ask why all the elevators in the building are non functional?"

He gave the man a deadpan look that must have been felt even through his metal mask because one of the men nearby shoved him for asking a clearly stupid question.

"I will just ignore that. Also, I am assuming you guys work for the old white guy waiting downstairs?"

He didn't wait for a response before plowing through, "Now, I want you to, very carefully, wouldn't want you guys to trip on your way down, go back down the same way you came up and wait."

The men were clearly about to protest but the whine of his hand repulsors being charged and the subtle glow around them stopped their words in their throats, "Am I clear?"

Man, the sight must have been pretty scary because all the guys' vitals spiked at the same time. Someone spoke into their comms, as the people slowly shuffled behind, keeping a clear eye on him, as they finally left his vision.

He exited through the same window and reached the top floor.

Faceplate open, he took the offered glass of wine from Romanoff and asked the one question that was burning on the minds of everyone here.

"So, what do we tell the government?"


If you guys would like to support me or read upto 4 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Bayonne, New Jersey

–Tony Stark–

"We tell them the truth," Cap replied, with a straight face, too!

"Ehh! Pass! Next?" He snapped his fingers and moved on because it would just needlessly antagonize Weber, which was not something they particularly needed right now. See, Weber was a huge immovable wall and politicians were a wee bit drop of rain hammering on the wall.

The wall wouldn't even notice, unless the raindrop somehow managed to convince millions or billions of other raindrops to hammer on the wall at the same time. That was a possibility that he did not want to come true.

So, "Any other option?"

"No, he is right," Barton said. Before he could interject, the man continued, "We can't let the government have it right now. They would just fight Thor on the Cube, and lengthen and also complicate his return home. Remember, Asgard is a warrior race." Clint not so subtly reminded everyone and he had to agree.

If Point Break could devastate an entire carrier by himself and defeat a pretty significant portion of the army if he wanted to, he did not want to imagine what their Daddy dearest could do, especially since the myths were pretty clear about the considerable gap between Thor and his father.

He could not believe that he was relying on old religious myths to make decisions in the current era.

Romanoff of all people, agreed, "Yes, it could work. We tell the government that Weber is not budging on anything, which she will not, we all know that, and she has only agreed for Thor to take the Tesseract away. The sceptre will remain in her custody."

"Fury will not like that," Cap said.

"Well, then," He turned to the side as Banner slowly rose from the ground, rubbing his head, "Fury can take that up with Weber if he so wishes,"

He snapped his finger at Banner, "He gets it! Welcome back to the land of the living buddy. Had me scared for a second there."

"Where is she, anyway?" Banner asked him, to which Jarvis wordlessly complied, projecting a dozen screens all at once, showing dizzying amounts of investigation and data crunching done by his buddy, all for a single goal.

"It helps that everyone is looking for her so we can just piggyback off of their searches. NO need for any anomalous behavior because they are doing the same thing we would have done if we had hacked them." He said, feeling pretty smug and proud about Jarvis.

"What?" He said, defensively as Cap looked at him judgmentally, "I said, if we had hacked them."

____xx____

"What do you mean you don't know where she is? I thought she was on the team," The elder gentleman asked them, surprised and a little skeptical that they did not have the two world ending things that the government was asking for.

"With all due respect, Secretary Pierce," Romanoff began, "She left right after the battle, destroying the machine that opened the portal, and taking both the sceptre and the Tesseract with her. As for her being a part of the team, it was never the case. The only reason she even came was because she knew about the Cube and wanted to stop it from being used." It would seem that Romanoff knew about Pierce and how the person was the head of a body that had the sole power to regulate and order around SHIELD.

Meaning they had immense power, on par with the Heads of state of the strongest countries on the planet, and yet, they were relatively obscure. If he had not seen the man and had that not prompted him to do his own research, then he might have never known about a group of people, unelected, who held more power than most militaries worldwide, running an organisation with a budget exceeding that of most countries.

It made sense for Romanoff to know about people like these. After all, beyond her job as a super spy, she was an assassin beforehand and knowing the real shakers and movers of the planet probably helped a lot, either to make sure she did not end up biting more than she could chew or to know who to kill if things went sideways.

Pierce scoffed at Romanoff's statement, "You expect me to believe that, Agent Romanoff? You were all working together with her and now you are telling me that–"

"They are speaking the truth, Secretary," a rather familiar voice spoke in the lobby, one that made him smile and finally look up from his phone where he was performing research on the members of this World Security Council, just in case he needed some leverage on them in the future.

The One-Eyed was back on the scene.

"Fury," Pierce turned around, clearly surprised as Fury came onto the scene, with his very own contingent of armed men, swarming the lobby as well as the exterior of the building.

"Pierce. They are telling the truth. The matter of the fact is that Weber, she bows to no one, listens to no one but herself. And as of today, is completely untraceable. Rest assured though, we know her usual places and have already begun the search for them. I will make sure to inform you when we find her."

Pierce clearly had more to say, but taking a look around, he realised the conversation was better suited in closed offices so he just nodded and left, taking his merry band of mercenaries with him.

Once the lobby was clear, Fury ordered his agents to clear the area as he then turned to them, and sighed.

"Okay, Stark. Tell me what you know."

"What?" He played innocent. No need to tell them about his–

"I know that look on your face. I know when you have something that makes you so smug. So, spill,"

"Fine," He sighed and waved his hand, the projector in his phone showing the globe. A wave of something passed over the globe, which then narrowed their search to a few countries. Another wave passed over that area, before a single dot emerged, in a country called the Maldives.

"That is as far as I can get her. We don't really have anything more precise than this, well, the ones I can access are not equipped for more than this." He said, with a Cheshire grin on his face. He fully expected someone to ask him how he did it but unfortunately, he was not with company who could speak his language.

Bruce stayed upstairs, unwilling and uncomfortable being in the presence of so many guns, which was fair. But that meant he was stuck with people who were not interested in the same stuff that he was.

"Good enough," Fury said before turning to Romanoff, "I want you to report back to base. I am sure all of you are exhausted and have done more than enough for the planet. The rest, I can handle. I assume you will be coming," Fury turned to Thor who looked surprised for a bit before nodding in confirmation.

"Very well. Come with me. I don't think she likes company but I have just the man who can soften the blow for us, I think." While that was not very reassuring, he knew that Weber would not kill him, especially after reviving him and turning him into basically a superhuman with her last move.

So, he said, "Hey! Whoa? Where are you guys going? I am coming with. I have some questions as well.

Fury's sigh was like music to his ears.

____xx____

Maldives

"You know," He said, having to shout over the sound of the helicopter blades, "I thought she would be in one of the better beaches when I heard she was here but then again, I should have known she would choose something like this."

They were currently hovering about an island, very large, but completely uninhabited. The thing was, this island was not this large, just a day ago. In fact, it was so small that sometimes, the sea swallowed most of it, rendering it unusable for tourist purposes.

It was also near the edge of the touristy chain of islands so no one really came here for any purpose since it was so far out of the way. Which made it the perfect place for Weber to make her base.

As of today, this island, if it could even be called that in the past, was larger than most of the tourist spots in the country, creating a mystery for the locals but certainty for them.

For they now knew where Weber was.

Then, he looked down as his phone buzzed and beeped at the same time, "Aha!" He showed it to Thor, Loki, Fury and another agent, "I was right. She is here, or rather, the Tesseract and the sceptre are here so she must be here."

The Gamma signatures matched, so he was right.


If you guys would like to support me or read upto 4 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Unnamed Island, Maldives

–Tony Stark–

The helicopter slowly touched down, along with a bunch of rectangular pads, one for each one of them. The rotund agent from SHIELD simply stood up on one of them and he had to raise an eyebrow as a long rod came out of those platforms, and then two belts, as Fury and the agent seamlessly stood on top of them, holding onto the handle for support.

"What?" Fury asked everyone, who was giving the apparently mobile scooter odd looks, "Unless you want to walk all the way there, I suggest you get your asses on the scooter."

"Actually, sir–" The agent began talking in between, "-they are called the–"

"I don't care about that, Agent Eric. Just get us to the damn woman, will you?" Fury snapped at the agent, who shut his mouth and began moving in the opposite direction. He exchanged looks with Thor and shrugged, before getting on the scooter, followed by Thor and Loki. He gave the scooter an alarming look as it creaked a little bit when Thor, the walking talking hunk of muscle that he was, stood on top of it.

It still held, though Thor's scooter was noticeably slower than the rest of them, including Loki's who did his best impression of a little kid at Thor, smirking smugly, provoking Thor into just pushing the handle head, as if that was going to increase the speed of the poor motor that was audibly struggling to pull Thor's immense weight at the same speed with which Agent Eric was moving.

He made sure to keep a safe distance between himself and Loki, though, no need to relive those moments once more. Realistically, he wouldn't be able to do anything to the alien God, aside from bruising his own hand if he tried to punch Loki, since he did not have his suit here.

Not even high above, floating mid air, waiting for anything to go wrong because if anything did go wrong, he was sure that having even an army of suits would not change a thing. It was kind of liberating knowing there was nothing he could do if the one person who saved the city and most likely the state would turn on them because there was nothing he could do.

The funny thing was that it did not evoke the same amount of despair and helplessness in him as it would have if he had been facing the same enemy with his suit, the Chitauri in this case. He learned something new about himself today and he did not know how to feel about it.

The scooters, they treaded on uneven terrain, crossing significant distances in a relatively short period of time because they were all going on a straight path. Perks of this place not even existing in its current state days ago, as there were no trees, no rocks in their path.

Mid way through, he really wondered if landing the helicopter right in front ofWeber would have made any difference? Because she most likely knew they were coming and if she stayed, it meant she was okay with them approaching her.

"No, no. You don't understand," When he voiced out that question, Agent Eric was quick to shoot that suggestion down, "She doesn't like being disturbed, at all. She will most likely tolerate us but that is only because she knows that it is the best possible way to get us out of her hair. If we landed the helicopter nearby, with all its accompanying noise and sand blasting everywhere, well, let's just say we would have had to call in rescue after we were done talking."

Huh, he could totally imagine that happening.

"So," he said, jostling a bit as the scooter encountered a small pebble of some kind–man, the suspensions on this thing were terrible or rather, completely absent—, "--What are you? Some kind of expert on the subject matter known as Samantha Weber?"

"Uh-huh," The Agent replied, without elaborating a thing in return. It was actually Fury who continued.

"Agent Eric is the only known SHIELD agent to have survived prolonged contact with her. He is also the one who has talked with her the most since he ensures that anything that Weber needs is provided to her without her having to steal it. Less risky this way."

"Wow," He said, genuinely impressed, and if he was not wrong, even Thor and Loki looked mildly impressed at that. He gave the God of Thunder a look who explained.

"Aye, it is mighty impressive that someone, a mortal no less, was able to stay in the good graces of a witch of that calibre. I would suggest you to never mess that up as that connection is worth more than its weight in gold."

Agent Eric gave the God of Thunder a confused look but nodded nonetheless. He was about to quip about the witch remark made by Thor, only to pause as his phone began beeping, loudly at that. Coincidentally, Agent Eric stopped as well, so did the rest of the scooters as they were programmed to shadow Agent Eric's scooter, who was their guide in this land, the land of the biggest predator on the planet, or so it felt like. "We're here."

__xx__

–Eric Koenig–

He took in a deep breath, the visuals of Ms.Weber singlehandedly holding off an entire horde of aliens too fresh in his mind, as he got off the scooter, the handles and the tread belts disappearing into the small rectangular plate.

His hands felt clammy, and his throat felt dry as he pondered on how he would handle the interaction with her. It felt easy before, since all he knew was that she was powerful, beyond belief, yes, but all he had as an image of that was her killing some people with her water, and using her powers to calm the waves all around her, or to lift things.

Nothing like the feats of strength he saw her performing just a while ago. That really put things into perspective for him, as he exhaled before opening his eyes. He repeatedly told himself that this was nothing new. This was the same woman he had been dealing with for years now, without any incidents whatsoever.

He felt the eyes of everyone on him as he walked forward, towards her, who was currently with a bottle of alcohol in one hand, lounging on a chair, overlooking the ocean. His eyes instantly caught onto the blue glow from the tote bag she had by her chair.

"Did she really put the Tesseract into a tote bag?!" Tony Stark exclaimed behind him, which he expertly ignored and walked towards her. Hands folded in front of him, he asked her, "Ms.Weber, can I assume this is the place you will be using as your residence from now on? So that I can make further arrangements?"

His smile remained in place even as he began sweating buckets, and only half of that was because of the tropical weather and humidity of this place, as she continued drinking and staring ahead. He could feel the tension in the air and before he could say anything else, she said, "Why are they here?"

He sighed in relief as it meant she was at least open to continued communication, which was a very essential thing for their agency as a whole.

Thor took this as an invitation to speak as he stepped forward, "We are here to collect the Tesseract, for it is the rightful property of Asgard."

He internally winced at the demand. Before he could try to smooth things over, he stiffened as he felt something in the air, the water around them growing restless as a result. He looked around, feeling something change, a thing that everyone else noticed as well.

Ms.Weber had put her bottle down as well, and was looking in the direction behind them. He mechanically turned around, so did everyone else as Thor gasped in joy at the sight of crows? No.

They were Ravens.

"Mortal witch," A voice boomed all around them, his hand flinching as he stopped himself from making the motion to draw a gun because he had none with him.

"I am Odin Borson, King of Asgard, and I advise you to heed my son's request. The Tesseract is Asgard's property, and is essential for Asgard's role as the protector of the Nine Realms."

Huh. So the myth about Odin and his Ravens was true then. Minor mythological fact confirmation aside, he stepped behind and aside, creating a clear line of sight between Ms.Weber and the twin Ravens with the glowing golden eyes.

Thor was uncharacteristically silent in all of this as Ms.Weber drawled, "Can you guarantee that the Tesseract will not be seen on Earth again?"

The Raven was silent for a moment before nodding, "I can guarantee that. The Tesseract will be stored in Asgard's vaults for safekeeping. No midgardian shall ever lay its sight on it, that I can guarantee."

"Fine," She said as her left hand snaked through the bag, took hold of the Tesseract before tossing it in the general direction of Thor who fumbled as he caught the legendary artifact. Everyone gasped as she did that, but Ms.Weber was not focusing on them, she was looking straight ahead at the Raven, "Is that all? Or do you wish to stake a claim on the sceptre as well?" She said while holding the sceptre.

"No," The voice boomed once more, "That is your spoils of war. You have a rightful claim of that. Asgard has no need for it and you are better suited to safeguard it from grubby mortal hands."

With that, the Raven vanished in a mist of gold before the presence in the air left as well.

"Huh," Tony quipped, cutting through the tension in the area, "You guys don't have Skype, do you?"

Fury's palm met his face at that. He quietly coughed to hide the snicker that almost came out, before turning to Ms.Weber once more.


If you guys would like to support me or read upto 4 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don't own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Don't sue me.

Anywho, without further ado - read on.

Earth-6161 [May 2012]

Maldives

–Nick Fury–

He watched as the Ravens vanished, taking with them the one voice that Weber listened to. In all the time that SHIELD had been tracking her, she never once listened to anyone but herself, even when she should have.

He barely restrained himself from asking Thor about a way to contact Odin because if the world had any shot of communicating properly with the walking talking calamity that was Samantha Weber, he needed someone she would listen to, and apparently, that would only happen when she was talking with someone of equal power and strength.

That was very much clear, as that was the only reason why she bothered with Thor's request. It galled him to realise that the Director of the foremost intelligence agency on the planet had to rely on half confirmed myths and stories passed down from centuries ago but the situation being what it was, he could excuse himself for it.

In the myths, Odin was said to be stronger, and not just a little stronger but far stronger than any other Asgardian, by far. It stood to reason that Odin was stronger than the current Thor by a very wide margin, and he had to hope that Odin was also stronger than Weber because it somewhat made sense if a literal alien warrior race full of near immortal beings was as strong as he was.

It most definitely did not make sense for a human woman, born of normal parents-he had checked–was anywhere near as strong as Odin himself.

Eh quietly sighed in relief as the Tesseract was tossed to Thor who promptly encased it in some Asgardian contraption because that damned thing was now responsible for creating not one but two very powerful human women who did not listen to any prison of authority at all. Why would they? Their mere presence was more than enough to upend the very authority structure of the planet.

It would make less sense if Carol and Weber actually did decide to listen to the politicians of the planet. As long as Odin came through with his promise of keeping the Tesseract away from humans, he would consider it a net positive, a rare thing in this positively shitty show.

He locked eyes with the Asgardian God who got his message, a rare thing, grabbed Loki and flew off with his mystical hammer. He bored holes into Stark, waiting for him to do the same but alas, tact and Stark were rarely uttered in the same sentence. So, with a sigh, he stepped forward, keeping an eye on the Sceptre's yellow glow which was now stowed into the bag.

Borrowing Stark's words, he really could not believe the audacity of this woman, to keep not one but two world ending artifacts in a simple tote bag with a little lady opening a can of tomatoes pasted on it.

"Ms.Weber," He began, aware that Tony had pointed something at him, likely a camera. Resisting the urge to shoot that thing off, he continued, "The world is very nervous right now, because of your actions that day. Don't get me wrong, I think they are grateful for your help but–"

"Am I supposed to care?" The bored drawl of the woman made him stop entirely, fists clenching as he thought of how he could proceed with this. Tony's barely muffled snicker did not make things easier on him.

"You should care," he went with that angle, playing up her heroic feats, "The world now knows you exist and more often than not, people are more scared of an unknown danger than they are of a known one. The people in power, they are shaken right now. I think we can both agree that the world would get a moment of relief if they get some sort of guarantee from–"

"I agree." He blinked owlishly at her. He did not expect to hear those words until after he had nearly begged and grovelled at her feet because the truth of the matter was that he had nothing, nada, zilch. No leverage, no stick, no carrot, nothing she wanted, no one she cared for save for Agent Eric and even if he dropped dead right now, she would not care much.

She continued, "I agree that they are scared, as they should be. As for your guarantee," he tensed, so did Tony and Eric as Weber took out the sceptre from the bag, the darkening skies and the yellow glow on her face making the whole scene straight out one of the many horrific flashes that his imagination had been providing him ever since he came to know that Weber was now in the possession of a mass mind control tool.

"--I suppose they want this now?" She brandished the sceptre towards the sea and he had to actively stop himself from flinching when a ball of energy shot out of the sceptre, creating an explosion in the sea nearby, showering them with small drops of water.

"It would help," Tony said, drawing everyone's attention towards him. The man shrugged, stepping forward, trying to act casual but he could see the way his fingers trembled and the way he took very short steps forward. Tony was scared, as he should be, as were all of them.

"I mean, you come onto the scene, totally unannounced. Look all badass, hold off an entire alien invasion, create a floating ocean on top of Manhattan and then ferry almost a million people out of the city–they are still people who have yet to reach their homes, by the way– and then disappear with two of the most important things the world has seen by now. I mean, I don't blame the old fucks from being outright terrified of you."

Tony then sat down on a rock after flashing a smile at everyone.

"So, you would have me bow down to old men with too much power at their helm?" Weber asked Tony, finally turning around to make eye contact, which made the man falter in his words.

Credit to him, he picked off a moment later, waving off the very notion, "Pfft. As if. No one will ask you to do that. Even if you wanted to, the second you appear in front of them–well, let's just say their assistants will be running out to get new diapers by the crate. But getting a tool of mind control, mass mind control apparently back in the hands of the people the majority of the population trusts, barely, would be a good thing. I think?"

Tony finished with a nervous smile aimed at Weber. He remained silent and signalled Eric to remain silent as well because as much of a smartass as Tony was, he would not be doing this without a plan. That would be too risky and reckless, even for Tony.

Weber smiled, which invoked a sense of dread in him, instead of relief, and then turned around to look at the sea, picking up the half empty bottle of alcohol. Good Lord, were they dealing with a drunk Weber all this time? He really hoped she could not get drunk because dealing with a sober version of her was the biggest pain in his ass.

"No." He exhaled in resignation, knowing that it was coming but disappointed all the same.

"Okay," Tony continued, without missing a beat, "What can you do then? You can't just expect the world to forget that a lady capable of wrecking cities exists on the same planet that normies like me live on, breathing the same air and drinking the same water, can you?"

Weber sighed, "Tony Stark, it is not my concern what people think of me. I would have been dead long before you would have been born had that been my mindset. Also, no, I will not be handing over something that is just as dangerous as the Cube to the government. I have seen what you people did with the Cube. Lastly, I do not care about the old fucks who govern the planet, as long as they leave me alone."

She then turned to stare at them, eyes glowing, "Take that message to your masters. Now, leave, before I make you leave."

"D-Director Fury, I really think you should leave now," Agent Eric said and he turned around to look at the man in surprise, only to be hit with the sight of their helicopter, the one they relied on to be their ride home, suspended right above them, held together by water. With wide eyes, he nodded.

_____xx____

Triskelion, Washington D.C.

"And that is how I am sure that we or anyone else on the planet, will not get the sceptre from her hands," He finished, waiting for the cacophony of shouts that arrived not a moment later from the people who were supposedly the top diplomats from their respective countries, supposed to be representing the planet as a whole.

"Director Fury! The decision regarding the Sceptre might have been out of your hands but you had no right to let the Asgardians take the Cube away. It has been in SHIELD custody for decades now." Pierce spoke, with a disappointed tone.

He clicked his tongue, as if that was in his hands, "May I remind you all to read the official report once more. The decision to give the Cube to Thor was taken by Weber, at the behest of Odin."

Councilman Singh interrupted, "You were there, you could have—"

"I could have done what?" he asked, the room becoming silent at his question. He was aware of the bitterness present in his tone, of being reminded of the helplessness he felt that day.

"Weber listened to Odin. She actually agreed after a single sentence from Odin. The same Woman who would massacre all of us if we were to presume to order her around. So, no, I don't think the decision was in my hands. Now, she has expressed her intent to continue her current arrangement with SHIELD, of non interference and I intend on continuing it. Should you have any other ideas–well, you people are the only ones who can fire me. So, go ahead,"

With that, he stormed out of the room, waving his hand to shut down the call, not caring about their opinions at all because he knew what it would be. Just a tantrum thrown by the people who had never once in their lives expected to be as helpless as they are now while dealing with a human.


If you guys would like to support me or read upto 4 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.