His Super Soldier // Bucky Barnes

Chapter 53

"H-How was Coulson killed?" Maddy asked.

"He was stabbed, my guessing..... it was Loki," Tony said.

Maddy, Steve and Tony were gathered in the briefing room.... everyone looked as if they were in a daze, a look of numb shock washed onto their devastated faces.

"How's your wound?" Steve asked.

"It's healing.... rather slowly if I must say," Maddy sighed.

"These were in Phil Coulson's pocket, guess he never got you two to sign them," Fury replied.... walking over to the table, tossing Coulson's Miss America and Captain America trading cards on the table.

Maddy and Steve pick them up, the cards were stained with blood....

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner and Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye, maybe I had that coming....." Fury paused.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract....I never put all my chips on the number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called The Avengers Initiative. The 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.... well, it's an old fashioned notion," Fury continued.

Maddy watched as Tony quickly gets up and walked off.... she turned and looked over at Steve, who looked rather guilty than normal.

"Excuse me," Maddy replied, standing up and following Tony.

***************

"You think he was married?" Maddy asked, walking into the detention center where Loki was held.

"No. There was a cellist, I think" Tony sighed... giving her a sad look.

"I am truly sorry...he seemed like a good man," Maddy said.... feeling a presence behind her, she turned and looked and saw Steve.

"He was an idiot," Tony replied.

"W-Why? for believing?" Steve asked...walking up to Maddy.

"For taking out Loki...alone," Tony sighed.

"He was doing his job," Maddy stated.

"He was out of his league, he should have waited! He should have...." Tony paused.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Steve said.

"Right! How did that work out for him? Tony replied walking away from both Maddy and Steve.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked.

"WE ARE NOT ALL SOLDIERS! I am not marching to Fury's life!" Tony snapped.

"Neither are we! But he's got the same blood in his hands as Loki does, right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we put together a list..." Maddy said but was cut off.

"He made it personal!" Tony replied... looking at the blood stained wall.

"That's not the point," Steve said.

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live, why?" Tony questioned.

"To tear us apart!" Steve stated.

"He has 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," Tony replied.

"Right! We caught his act at Stuttengard," Maddy said.

"Yeah! That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered...." Tony paused.... quickly looking from Steve to Maddy.

"Son of a bitch!" Tony continued.

"He's gonna open the portal on top of Starks tower, which means.... we need to get there, before it's too late!" Maddy said.

The three of them.... looked at each other before nodding and splitting up.