Tesseract Sickness - For Thor

[starkingenuity]

>> Several hours after Fury came to Stark Tower to inform Tony that Barton's had a relapse of his mind control and that it's spreading like a disease, Tony's with SHIELD and Thor's gone home to question Loki.

Tony frowns into his coffee as if a scowl alone could make it heat back up.  He's been looking at the same charts for over five hours now,

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[asgardhero]

"I would like to see you travel through worlds faster."

Thor paces through the doorway into the room where Stark sits with his papers and instruments spreading across everything... but otherwise he is alone. And it is a strange thing, to find him this way. For even though the man always gives the impression that he is merely tolerating the presence of anyone he happens to be with, he is very rarely without company.

Palms are spread on the table and Thor leans toward Stark. "Loki is gone." How much he wanted it to be untrue is neither here nor there. "It seems there there is not a prison that can hold my brother when he does not wish to be held." The words are tight and bitter on his tongue and Thor knows his face will show his distress. He would not bother to hide it if he could. He straightens, crossing his arms over his chest. "But the tesseract remains in the Allfather's possession." His eyes flicker to the screens showing the SHIELD agents in the basement.

"Untouched. Contained. Guarded. I saw it with my own two eyes."

[starkingenuity]

After stilling the urge to reach up with both hands and push Thor's frown into a smile, Tony rocks backwards in his entirely too comfortable SHIELD provided chair and closes his eyes. He hums under his breath, lulled by the music of the arc reactor that sings its songs in his brain. He hears it when he sleeps sometimes and it's a comfort.

No. Tony Stark is rarely alone. There is Jarvis if nothing else to keep him company and while Tony does have contact with the AI through his phone or his net work link, he's left his artificial butler at home for today.

Things are too heavy.

"So we have a missing mass murdering alien and a device safety locked away that is still causing everyone to be--"

A klaxon shuts Tony up and he turns back to his monitor. It's Steve. Steve with brilliant blue eyes standing up slowly to stand in the middle of the room.

"Cap!  Cap, don't do this to me!"

[asgardhero]

Despite any thoughts to the contrary on the other man's mind, Tony's words only serve to make Thor's frown even deeper. Loki may have killed but his brother always has his reasons and Thor does not think that death was ever an intended outcome. Each death was a message, served a purpose, not done because Loki actively enjoyed or courted them.

At least, he hopes this is so. Otherwise his brother is no longer the person he ever knew or loved. The thought that it may be so is a deep ache in his chest that Thor does not have time to address as his attention is turned to the moving picture of Steve. He comes around the table, behind Tony, to see better.

"How many?" he asks quietly. People, but specifically, them. Avengers.

[starkingenuity]

Tony doesn't answer. He's too busy dancing around the other man, behemoth that he is and standing right in the way, to pull up views of the cell that Steve's in. The image blows up and there he is, about half life size, standing there. Waiting for direction.

Tony sucks in a breath.

"Bruce. Talk to me."

"Still here. The Cap--"

"I'll get back to you Banner."

Tony shuts off the feed and drags his hands through his hair. "Me, you, and Dr Jekyll there. The rest of the facility is like them now."

[asgardhero]

Thor decides not to point out that It is Dr Banner, not Dr Jekyll, on the other end of the line. He only stares at Tony and hears those last words. The rest of the facility? All of the agents that SHIELD has in this building infected within one Earth day?

And the three of them. The Asgardian, the Hulk, and the man with the metal heart.

The seat that Tony left a moment ago is filled by Thor. "What is this?" He looks at Tony. "The tesseract has not been touched and Loki could be anywhere in the heavens, impossible to ask even if he happened to know." Thor feels wildly out of his depth suddenly. It is easy to take action when there is action to take, but this? He knows enough to know it is not a problem to swing a hammer at, though if his brother were here he might feel better swinging Mjolnir at him. "Can you not fix this? How was Barton fixed before?"

[starkingenuity]

"They just-- I don't know. Came out of it." Tony hadn't been there to see any of it. Natasha dealt with Clint. And, come to thing of it, with Thor's doctor friend. "I didn't--"

The reports! Well. Thor is in his seat now. What is he meant to do? Lean over the big guy? Evidently so. Tony actually shoves him by the back of the chair and the wheels on the bottom of it help, out of the way so that he can access SHIELD's files. He smirks. Encrypted. Of course they are. But how stupid do they think him to be?

"When are they going to learn that they can hide nothing from me? Jeez and this is ridiculous. Child's play. Not even trying to-- there we are. And--" Tony groans. Clint snapped out of his trance. "No fucking help."

Tony groans.

"I'm going down to talk to them. C'mon, Tonto."

(OOC: Now better since I'm home))

[asgardhero]

Thor lets himself be rolled instead of relinquishing his newly acquired seat. He hardly hears Tony muttering to himself as he stares across the room and thinks, elbows on the chair arms and fingers linked under his chin. Loki's whereabouts were a question that Thor could not allow himself the luxury of stewing over right now; Earth was important, he had promised to protect it, and Loki...

But what if Loki's disappearance had to do with this? He shook his head to himself. Loki would not come back to Earth--even Thor could see that such a move would be stupid, too bold, only serving as a stroke to an ego.

Ah, well, in that case. Perhaps Loki would.

Thor looks up, blinking himself from his thoughts as Stark moves. He stands automatically. "To talk to them?" Two large strides catch him up and he grabs the man's shoulder as he reaches the doorway. "No. You cannot know that you are truly immune. Contact with them is madness."

[starkingenuity]

Tony shakes his head. "If I'm infected, I was infected this morning and there's nothing to be done." Tony does not pull his shoulder away from Thor's grasp, he just turns to look up at the towering man and smiles a little sadly. "Clint infected everyone, near as I can tell, at the meeting. People that came into contact with anyone that was in contact with him...

Thor, even you should be able to tell how bad this is. Luckily, Tony is pretty sure that no one's actually left the vicinity. Save for Thor and Tony. They had crash landed in a cafe. Fought in a forest. Hopefully they did not spread this.

He takes a moment to slowly unbutton his shirt to reveal the hum of the reactor. "Your brother couldn't turn me," he says, trying to maintain a proper cockiness. "He tried before we defeated him. I can only guess that Banner's not turning because the Hulk won't let him. Thought the same for Cap too but-- Listen, I have to do this. You have to find Loki. I don't think I can fix it without him."

[asgardhero]

The sight of the machine in Tony's chest, the glowing circle that Thor knows is connected to the man's heart, is a shock. It isn't as if he had never seen the blue light through the shirts he wears but this is different, somehow. The skin around it. The slight sound of it, like the vibration of another voice in the room. A heart of metal.

There is little thought connected with the dropping of Thor's fingers from shoulder to arc reactor. He stops, hesitates with a glance at Tony, and then gently, so gently, he lays his fingertips against the metal and light. Then he's turning, leaving Tony in the doorway as he starts down the hall. "It is worrisome that Steve has turned. He shares blood with Dr Banner, does he not?" Blood, of course, being Asgardian for 'I read something about science in the files and boiled it down.' "If this is the case then we cannot count on the Hulk keeping Dr Banner from the influence.

And Loki. My brother could be anywhere."

[starkingenuity]

Tony finally breathes when Thor's fingers leave the reactor. He's always very nervous about that, having suffered beng without it attached enough in his life, thank you. Heart attacks are frightening, no matter who you are. He nods at the Asgardian, the corners of his lips spiking up for a moment in a smile. Something must be wrong with him. He's starting to understand the man with the blond lion's mane. Their eyes meet from across the room and Tony's smile snaps off, prematurely aborted. His gaze drops and he does up the buttons of his shirt almost too quickly

[asgardhero]

"I have the phone," Thor still says the words with an unnecessarily awkward inflection, as if he doesn't like the shape of it on his tongue, "yes." Miraculously unsmashed, even; he pulls the white iPhone from the back pocket of his denims even as Tony is already going on.

"Wait. Please." A hand is held up. The smile that Thor had caught out of the corner of his eye is already forgotten, pushed to the back of his mind because Thor expects smiles regardless of who he is with, because Loki is heavier on his thoughts.

Thor, Odinson, does not panic. But the thought of burying this place like a tomb... and all his new friends within it... is not one easily swallowed. "No."

[starkingenuity]

Tiny lowers his head towards his chest and laughs. "Okay, but if we accidentally turn the world to smurfs, I am hereby blaming you, big guy

[asgardhero]

(ooc: I really do laugh when you typo his name as Tiny. Every time. ^^)

The search is fruitless from the beginning, though Thor tries his best to be optimistic. He thought he knew his brother, the man his brother had been if not still was, and went to those places where he might be drawn. Each one is a dead end. Before he had left the finding to SHIELD--he is much better suited to the containment than the search. But he still spends hours flying

[starkingenuity]

(Ooc: damn my phone!  I never catch them all!)

Waking with a start to find himself in the middle of being moved, he realizes quickly enough not to freak out who it is that has him. "You tell anyone, Thor, and I will cut off all of your hair and make it into a wig for Cap."

Like Samson, that great mane must be the source of the god's miraculous powers. Or so Tony thinks as he shifts his cheek on the other man's shoulder.

"And I can walk the rest of the way. No. No, actually put me back. I was working and--"

No Loki. Thor looks exhausted too. And Tony smells like pizza. That's pretty horrible actually. 

[asgardhero]

Thor is getting good at ignoring the things that come out of Tony's mouth, the way he once had would do with his brother when Loki would speak merely as a form of defense. The two are not so dissimilar in some ways. Thor tries not to think about that now, now that he suspects

[starkingenuity]

No they are not dissimilar and isn't that the rub?  The brother, playful and wicked and sometimes unkind from Thor's past is a bit more sexualized and squishy and bearded is somewhat embodied in the quick tongued genius with the metal heart and the desire to throw himself at things likely to be deemed suicidal by the best of men. He is brave but he is also stupid and the combination is not one that suits his philandering side.

Luckily. That is not his only side.

With large brown eyes and their forestlike lashes settled on Thor, Tony can only think of one thing to say and that is not one of his smartest moments:  "I'm just going to get up when you pass out."

It's a challenge because TONY knows best. Tony is the boss. Tony does not take no from thunder gods with hands the size of his skull.  It's just the exhaustion making him so fussy.