Heroes Assemble

Chapter 9: The New York Showdown

 Iron Man arrived in the sky above New York City. He made a beeline for the roof of the tower.

"Sir, I've turned off the reactor but the device is already self-sustaining." J.A.R.V.I.S reported.

Tony got to the roof. A device similar to the one S.H.I.E.L.D had in their New Mexico base was there. The Tesseract was in it, and it was linked to a computer system of some sorts. Erik Selvig was also there.

"Shut it down, Dr. Selvig." Iron Man said over his armor's speaker system.

"It's too late!" Selvig said, still under the scepter's control, "She can't stop now! She wants to show us something! A new universe."

"Okay." The iron clad hero stated, unimpressed.

He had aimed a repulsor and blasting the device, hoping to stop this before it got worse. The blast ricocheted off a shield of some sorts. It knocked Tony backward and Selvig against the side of the roof.

"That shield is pure energy." J.A.R.V.I.S reported to Tony. "It's unbreachable."

"Okay." Tony said, spotting Loki on his balcony, robes and all, with the scepter in his hand "Plan B then."

Tony started to descend, angling himself towards the platform he landed on two nights previous.

"Sir, the Mark Seven isn't ready for deployment." protested J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock." rebutted Tony.

He landed on the platform. The mechanical devices started to remove his armor. Loki walked in as he did.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." Loki said as they entered the room.

"Actually, I'm planning on threatening you." Tony told him.

"You should have left your armor on for that." Loki said gesturing with his scepter.

"Probably should have, since you've got the Glowstick Of Destiny." said Tony as he made his way over to the drink station. "Do you want a drink? I'm having one."

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that." Loki said facing the windows overlooking the city then back to Tony. "What am I to fear?"

"The Avengers." said Tony simply, as he poured himself a drink, and snuck a bracelet of sorts on his wrist. "It's sorta what we call ourselves, Earth's mightiest heroes type of thing."

"Ah, yes, I've met them."

"It took us awhile to get any traction, I'll give you that." said Tony, admittingly. "But, let's do a headcount here: your brother, the prince of thunder. A living legend who really lives up to the 'legend' part. A pair of master assassins. A man with breathtaking anger management issues and a genus with a super suit. We'll be joined by an extraordinary team of superhumans. When they come, they'll be coming at you."

"I have an army." Loki stated.

"We have a Hulk." Tony strolled over. "There's no throne, there's no version of this, where you come out on top. Even if we don't win, we will avenge our world."

"How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" Loki asked.

He attempted to take Tony over like he did Erik and Clint. The scepter only met a clink from Tony's ARC reactor. He tried again, only to meet the same results.

"This usually works." Loki was confused.

"Oh, performance issues." Tony tried to be understanding, while also trying to stall. "It's not uncommon. One out of five..."