ANGRBODA ※ Tony Stark [1]

24 - THE PORTAL

TONY'S PLAN WAS SIMPLE: push Loki's buttons, make him go on a rampage and grab his best suit — one that sat in his lab at the Stark Tower — in the process.

He landed on the platform that opened into his penthouse. It didn't take long to spot the God of Mischief. He was strolling around casually behind the windowpane. They made eye contact and a menacing smirk spread on Loki's face.

Tony didn't lose a second, going through the gauntlets that automatically unsuited him. Taking his armour off might've seemed like a crazy thing to do, especially considering the promise he made to Angie a few minutes earlier, but he knew what he was doing.

Loki watched as Tony walked into the penthouse. His fingers tightened around the Scepter in his hand, wondering what the metal man had in mind.

"Please tell me you're not going to appeal to my humanity," he sneered but Tony barely gave him a glance and walked towards the bar along the length of the wall.

"Uh, actually, I'm planning to threaten you," the billionaire let out smugly.

Loki cocked an eyebrow "You should have left your armour on for that."

Tony shrugged as he poured himself a drink "Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. Would you like a drink?"

Loki burst in laughter "Stalling me won't change anything!"

He smirked. As they were speaking, the rest of the team was evacuating civilians. Stalling him changed quite a lot actually.

"No, no, threatening, remember?" he said innocently "No drink? You sure? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that," Loki retaliated "What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers," Tony dropped casually and saw Loki's confused face "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team; 'Earth's mightiest heroes' and all that jazz."

"Ah yes, I've met them."

Tony watched his mocking smirk as he took a sip of his drink "Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that. But let's do a head count here..." he took another sip "There's your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breathtaking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins; and finally, a phenomenal trooper, the last of her kind - literally - who'd love nothing more than to squash you like a bug... and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

Loki had listened to his monologue, seemingly unimpressed "That was the plan."

"Mmh, not a great plan," Tony sniggered "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

While they were talking, Tony pulled a colantotte bracelet from under the table. It was a honing device that allowed him to connect to JARVIS while he was out of his suit and away from his lab. Loki was suspecting nothing at all, but his inattention would cost him dearly.

The God of mischief was too busy puffing out his chest to notice anyway "I have an army," he sneered in a way that aimed to be threatening.

"We have a Hulk."

"Ah! So the beast has wandered back."

Just as Tony was about to quip something just as derisive, the sound of an explosion interrupted the two men, taking the both of them by surprise. It seemed to come from above their heads, from the roof to be precise.

⁂

Thor landed with a thwack on the roof of the Stark Tower. He lowered Mjölnir to his side and contemplated gravely the scene in front of him: Erik Selvig, his friend, was working on a CMS device that held the Tesseract.