Of All The Stars

6~ Avengers Assemble

Tony lands on the ring as it rises up and takes his suit off. He looks down to the floor below, watching as Loki walks in pace with him.

"Please tell me you are going to appeal to my humanity."

"Uhh, actually I'm planning on threatening you." Tony said as he made his way to the bar.

"You should have left your armor on for that."

"Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?" Tony poured a drink into a glass.

"Stalling me won't change anything."

"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." Loki looks at him, confused.

"It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earths mightiest heros' type of thing."

"Yes, I've 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; 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, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

"That was the plan."

"Not a great plan. When they come, and they will, they'll come for you." From under the bar he pulls on two honing device bracelets.

"I have an army."

"We have a Hulk."

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

"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. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it." Loki slowly walks up to him, raising the scepter.

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" He taps Tony on the chest with his scepter. PING! Nothing. Confused, Loki tires again. PING! Nothing.

"It should work."

"Well, performance issues. You know?" In anger, Loki grabs Tony by the throat and flings him across the room.

"Anytime now." Tony says to J.A.R.V.I.S. Loki grabs Tony by the throat again. 

  "You will all fall before me." He throws Tony out the window. From behind Loki, an elevator opens and a red pod shoots out. The pod lasers the bands on Tony's wrists. The pod begins to transform into the Iron Man suit. It latches onto Tony. The suit flies up before he hits he ground, nearly hitting a crowd of people. Loki looks up, enraged.

"And there's one other person you pissed off! His name was Phil." Loki raises the scepter but Iron Man fires at Loki, sending him onto his godly ass. The tesseract opens the portal, and the Chitauri start to fly out.

"Right, army." Tony flies toward the portal, shooting down as many beasts as he can. Thor loudly lands on the balcony behind Loki.

"Where is Estrid!"

"She's safe." Loki responds, turning to face him.

"Loki! Turn off the tesseract or I'll destroy it!"

"You can't. There is no stopping it. There is only war! You should know, she is even more powerful than the tesseract, this," he lifts his arms and turns in a circle, highlighting the destruction the Chitauri are causing, "would not be possible without her."