Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 40: Siege

Chapter Forty

Siege

Milky Way Orbit

Mr. Doom-and-Gloom on the other end sounded menacing enough. Luckily, Tony had his way of dealing with bad guys. Again, his mind drifted back to that memorable day when he offered Loki a drink, his lips twitched and curled up into a smirk. He fought Loki, stood up to him when he was in the very depths of his madness, spreading destruction and chaos on Earth. This guy with the booming voice and cruel tone could most definitely not intimidate him. Hell, he spit in the face of The Other too! Who the hell did this guy think he was? He obviously did not know who he was up against. Tony knew exactly how to deal with death threats.

'Yeah?' he spoke up after only a moment of pause. 'Dear god, overcompensating much? I mean I get the appeal, deep growly voice, emphasis on every slowly pronounced word. It gives a scary impression, but there is a point where it becomes too much, you know. You probably also have the face down to it, thin lips, dark eyes. I bet you even have the expressive eyebrows going for you. Can you move your eyebrows separately? Wait, you're some lizard, right? You're totally missing the expressive eyebrows. That must hurt. The eyebrows are kind of important. Not as much as the outfit, but I'm not even going to doubt for a second that you're wearing black on black on... metal maybe. Do you have spikes on your armour? You sound like the spikes on the armour kinda guy. I'd really hate to burst your bubble, buddy, but those are not as intimidating as you might think.'

There were a few moments of expected stunned silence on the other side. Then Tony heard snickering, but that did not come from the other ship, he would recognize Loki's voice anywhere.

'You insolent fool, you dare...' spoke the guy from the other ship again, voice angry.

'Yeah-yeah, spare me,' Tony interrupted. 'You threaten me, I insult you, then you threaten me again, it's a boring game of tennis... although you probably don't know what tennis is. It's a sport... okay, so maybe you don't know what sport is either.'

Loki's snickering turned louder. It sounded like he was holding back, like he was biting his lips to not laugh out loud. It made Tony grin. He could already feel adrenaline pumping in his veins, so it was not hard to keep the ball rolling.

'Killing you will be the first thing I do!' snarled the man from the other side. 'I will make your death slow and painful and you will beg for my mercy!'

Tony simply started to laugh, because really? Really? This fucking bastard really had no idea who he was talking to. He had never been more confident that the threats were empty. Sure, he could kill him, but there would be no begging, not ever. What sort of pain was he supposed to be afraid of? There was nothing left that Tony had not dealt with before.

'Listen here Big Bad Wannabe,' Tony said then. 'I don't care what you think we took, I don't even care if we actually took it or not. But tell you what: you set one foot on my ship and I will fucking obliterate you. I'm not gonna make you beg, you just die. Plain and simple. How's that for a threat? Hope you liked it.'

And with that he cut the communication line. Well, at least he had the last word. Then he noticed that Loki was still quietly laughing.

'Enjoying yourself, dear?' he asked.

'Stark,' he said. 'You're insane and I love it.'

He was about to answer when all warnings flared up again right before a new shot shook the ship's body. Now he knew that they won't be shot down, so these were almost harmless warning blasts.

'Okay so... they're gonna attack, so be ready everyone,' he said, focusing on the task at hand again.

'Did you actually steal what they want?' Juyu asked then. 'I thought we only took maps.'