Brother Avengers

Brother Avengers Chapter 15

-For the first two sections, I listened to the Tron soundrack, track 1.

-For the second section, I first listened to (on youtube) one entitled "Magnificent russian orthodox song, immediately followed by the Captain America Soundtrack "This Is My Choice."

-The story Sif tells is a portion of "Beowulf."

Enjoy!

VVVV

Chapter 15

"Gentlemen,

We must all hang together,

Or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

-Benjamin Franklin

VVV

OCTOBER 25th

10:05 a.m.

55 minutes remaining until destruction of Xavier's School

"That's them?" Logan muttered. Tony heaved a great sigh and nodded, holding the three small black devices out in the palm of his right hand.

"Yep. Green Eyes, Claws, and me," he said, pointing to each one.

All five men stood near the main door of the compound—it was closed, but needed only the press of a single button to slide open. Thick darkness still dominated every room, so they gathered tightly around the glow of Tony's reactor, their arms folded in thought. Loki's silencing spell once more surrounded them—they felt as if they stood inside a very small tent.

"Those look a lot bigger than the ones we have on," Logan noted, pulling down the front of his shirt to show them all a flat, black square the size of a dime stuck to the skin on his chest.

"Yeah, well, these are attached to something," Tony said, picking one up between his forefinger and thumb. "They're on top of little hovercraft—they'll putter around the rooms here and simulate the movements we'd be making if they were still on us."

"What about the heartbeat and the electrical signature?" Steve asked.

"That's where Mr. Loki comes in," Tony gestured to him—he stood just to his left. "They have to be on at the same time for about the space it takes to blink. The information that the old trackers have been gathering about your vitals will be transferred to the new ones during that time—and then they'll start to replicate your heartbeat and electrical signatures and all that, so it'll look like it's still you."

"And all six of them must be done at once," Loki said.

"Um, yeah, pretty much," Tony nodded. "Otherwise the docs might see what's going on and blow us up."

"They might blow us up as it is," Logan observed. Tony sighed tightly.

"Yeah, well, there's no other way to do this."

"Are we ready, then?" Thor asked, glancing around. "We are running out of time."

"Loki has everything we might need packed up?" Logan raised his eyebrows at him.

"I do," Loki answered.

"Okay then," Steve said.

"Yeah, okay," Tony said, shifting, then swallowing.

"Tony," Steve frowned at him. "Are you all right?"

"Sure," Tony said too quickly. "I just didn't get any sleep at all tonight."

"I didn't either," Loki muttered, his eyes starting to unfocus as his brow furrowed.

"Great—the two guys we're counting on are dead on their feet," Logan commented.