[DISCONTINUED] The Child of Hope (MCU x Male "Superman" Reader)

Chat at Stark Tower

----- May 4th, 2012 9:41 AM - North Atlantic Ocean -----

== Third Person POV ==

Steve, Tony, and Y/N are gathered at a table. Fury stands on the other side. 

Fury pulls a handful of cards out.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he only ever did get one of you to sign them," he scatters the cards on the table. 

Some are wet with blood.

Steve picks up a few cards. They were cards of him and the signed cards of me.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Think I had that coming."

Fury begins to make his way around the table to the three of them, "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."

Tony stands in silence and walks out. 

"Well, it's an old fashioned notion," Fury adds.

__________

Tony stands over looking where the cylindrical glass cage used to be. 

Steve enters the room from the left, "...Was he married?"

"No. There was a uh- cellist, I think," Tony replies, not bothering to look at him.

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man."

Tony lets out a breath and finally looks at Steve, "He was an idiot."

Tony and Steve slowly move toward each other.

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have-"

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony."

"Right. How did that work for him?"

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?," Steve asks as they walk past each other.

Tony spins around toward him, "We are not soldiers! I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list-"

Tony looks down at the place Coulson fell, there is a dentin the wall.

"He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve tells him.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great but- he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is- this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered....Son of a bitch."