Dead Memories

48

Chapter Forty-Eight

Tony was nervous, well actually, looking at all the signs and red flags his body was throwing up, maybe worried was a better word. Concerned, tense, distracted... yes, that was all him. His tower was attacked before, but never with such ease. Bruce, Thor and Vision were their heaviest hitters and they went down first. Well, not really down, but they were taken out of the fight without much fanfare. It left Tony's brain buzzing with the wrong sort of chemicals. He didn't even bother taking his suit off, because he needed to feel a little bit safe right now.

Oh, and it was Loki who did it. Wasn't that just the best news? Not the new red-head, no, a much worse version, because apparently dimensional travel and intergalactic portals were not enough for this crazy world, no, time travel had to be a thing that someone was actually capable of doing. Tony knew all the theories, all the crazy and not-so-crazy ideas on how it could be done, but experiencing it was different. It was like the thing with wormholes. You know they could exist, but it was a different matter when one opened up right above your city, pouring aliens and flying whale-monsters.

Tony was not having a good day.

'He's just asleep,' Strange said sitting next to Bruce, who was still out like a light. 'But I can only guess how long it will last.'

'Can you undo it?' Wanda asked him.

'I could try, but I'd rather not risk waking him too... forcefully,' Strange said.

Yeah, the last thing they needed was an additional mess by the Hulk. Tony was glad his tower was still standing considering the damage that was done in the last few days. They needed a new headquarters, this was not working out.

'Are we still going after the Darkholders right now?' Pietro asked. He calmed down since Wanda joined him, but he was still very short-tempered. Tony knew what was going on in his head, did he ever, so he gave him and Wanda space, letting them deal with all of this together. They definitely didn't need Tony all up in their business.

'As soon as possible,' Barnes said. 'This is a setback, but we're still in the exact same situation. Hell, this just means we have one more reason to act now.'

'Are we not going to talk about this big damn elephant?' Clint asked. 'We just got schooled... badly, by some crazy old future Loki, and we are still planning to help him.'

'That is exactly the future we are trying to avoid, my friends,' Thor spoke all of a sudden, just a few steps behind Tony.

He was a bit on edge, so no wonder he startled.

'You are way too big to be walking this quietly,' Tony told him. He turned to give him a glare, but he fell silent when he spotted the Leah girl next to him. Talk about things he only saw in horror movies before. He was about to open his mouth to ask what the hell happened, but he was cut off by Barnes.

'Where's Steve?' he asked. 'And Loki?'

'My brother wished to have a word with him,' Thor said. 'I'm sure they will join us shortly.'

Barnes frowned, Tony frowned, even Natasha and Barton frowned... they must've made quite a sight, but Thor didn't say anything else. It was quite a feat considering all the frowning that was happening at once.