Manhattan ⇻ The Avengers [1]

chapter sixteen

Alison found everyone in the main room, which she supposed could also be considered the briefing room (but that really didn't matter at the moment), looking devastated.  She sat in between Steve and Tony, the silence making her extremely uncomfortable.

However, moments later, Fury threw a deck of bloodied trading cards directly in front of her, causing the pyrokinetic to flinch, "These were in Coulson's jacket. I guess he never did get you to sign them."

Steve gingerly picked up the cards, the blood staining them getting on his hands as Fury continued to talk, "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. Maybe I had that coming.

"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 stood up, ready to storm out of the room when Alison spoke quietly, stopping him in his tracks, "He wasn't wrong. The world has always had heroes. You're one of them Tony, and so are you, Steve. We decided to come here because we wanted to be heroes. Gen wanted to be saving the world again. Winter wanted to see Steve. But I also think that she wanted to make up for what Hydra made her do. I think Kae just wanted to help us, even if she doesn't want to admit it. And I- well, I wanted to meet new people, to be on a team."

Tony turned to look at the girl who had her face lowered, eyes locked on the bloody cards in Steve's grasp. But he soon turned back and walked out of the room.

Fury sighed, "I guess it's an old fashioned notion."

When Steve set the cards down and left the room as well, Alison picked them back up, focusing as hard as she could until fire trailed from her hair, down her arm, and to the cards. She barely noticed when Fury's eye widened, as she was concentrating on controlling the fire. Moments later, the cards looked normal again, the blood having burnt off.

She looked up at the director, "I'll try to get them signed for him," she stood and left the way that Tony had gone.

"Those weren't in his pocket when he died," Winter's voice rang out from inside Alison's head, making the younger woman skid to a halt..

"You're back!" she exclaimed, then paused, searching her head, only to find that it was not just Winter that had woken up, "How long have all of you been back?"

Kae was the first one to reply, "Not long a-"

"Since Fury was making his speech," Gen interrupted.

"So I can just go back and one of you can deal with this?" Alison asked as she started to walk again, her hopes high.

"No," Kae replied, her voice firm, "Your the best one of us to deal with this. You have a way of making us feel better. I'm sure that you can do the same for him."

Alison sighed, but knowing that she was probably right, continued walking to where she assumed the man had gone. She found him in the room where Loki's containment unit had been. Now there was only open sky across the rails.

"I'm sorry," She told him, "He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot," Tony ground out.

"Why?" Alison asked quietly, going up beside him, "For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job," she responded, "and more importantly, he was doing what he thought was right."

"He was out of his league," Tony argued, "He should have waited. He should have..."

Alison set her hand on his arm, "There isn't always a way out, Mr. Stark. Sometimes there is and sometimes there isn't."

"How did that work out for him?" Tony snarled, pulling out of her grip.

"Not well," she allowed, "Sometimes people don't survive wars."

"We. Are. Not. Soldiers," he seethed pacing around, "I am not marching to Fury's fight!"

"Neither am I," she said, looking out below the helicarrier, "I don't like fighting. I like saving people. I did that today. It's what you did today. It's what he tried to do today."

"He made it personal."

"Yes, he did."

"That is the point!" Tony exclaimed.

"What point?" Alison asked as she finally turned to face him, confused with the change in topic.

"That's Loki's point," he reiterated, "He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart," she realized, "He figured the explosion would get rid of us for long enough. He got rid of Thor, didn't he? Down the hatch made for him. He took out Dr. Banner using the scepter. He used Clint to get to Natasha."

She then noticed Tony looking at her weirdly, "I may not be in control all the time, but I do pay attention. I was studying to be a forensic scientist... with a few psychology courses."

He stayed silent for a moment, then started up again, "He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.

"Right," Alison encouraged, "his act at Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva," she laughed as he said this, "He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..."

...

"Sonofabitch!"

Language, Tony! I really liked this version of this scene. I try to keep everything as cannon as possible (You, know the version where Steve does the line "Is this the first time you've lost a soldier), but I tried that and decided I liked this better. Also, this is the last Alison chapter for a while. Don't know who exactly is going to be in control next chapter, but I will be getting to writing the first part of the Battle of New York. Until then, you can go check out my other books: Íroas (which will be updating next week) and Colors (which will be updating the week after that). As always, I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I'll see you all again on Monday, July 24th.
~ Aria

PS. Those were totally shameless self-promos, because I'm very proud of this series. :)