Snap Decisions - for asgardhero

[starkingenuity]

Fun fact.  Turns out that you can't actually find a crazed super genius overnight.  As hard as Tony tries, bruises and a dented suit and all, he just can't.  It's a sticking point and he snaps at Bruce for no good reason at all before apologizing with a hit of scotch...and three doubles after he leaves

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[starkingenuity]

There's just no fight in Tony at the moment, though the shock of water and heated breath against his face are enough to remind him that he's human and not some robotic monkey scrawling the secrets of quantum mechanics into the soft skin of his inner thighs. The recognition that had been there before in the workshop when Thor first roused him from his maniacal stupor becomes clearer at the touch of the man. Thor's the lighting rod and Tony the ground. The engineer knows who it is that has him and that tugging song that runs through his aching fingertips won't let him fight it.

Such eyes could not be a shade darker than they are and almost the exact opposite of Thor's brother's eyes. Crisp, cool spring green at one end of the spectrum. Brown the color of soft, fertile soil at the other. The similarities outweigh the differences and it seems as if Stark has been made and fashioned simply to torment Thor with that which he can not have

[starkingenuity]

Who needs a pet when sometimes their heir to a celestial throne looks like a big golden retriever?  Tony's out of his suit and it's stowed and waiting for him to need it again. Maybe he should have kept it on?  Their little wrestling match looks like fun

[asgardhero]

"He smelled when I found him," Thor tells Natasha as he takes the sandwich. "That is why I receive this gold star. You would not have wanted to put up with the stench."

She does not laugh, but to be fair, when she looks at Tony it seems like she very much wants to. Thor just settles into the sandwich, regardless of where it has been. It is Clint who steps through the doors from the locker room with a towel over his head and his suit already on who asks, "well then, what the hell are we waiting for?"

Thor agrees with a nod as the rest of the sandwich disappears. He brushes his hands off and crumples the paper. "Yes. I dislike this sky."

Clint snorts. "I dislike being made into a--"

"Flying monkey."

He remembers. And Steve has shown him the movie, which Thor very much enjoyed. He is not sure how practical ruby slippers are, but he liked the Lion. "Then let us find this Doom."

[starkingenuity]

"I don't like this." Tony's hovering in the air somewhere over the Alps in a nicely heated, environmentally acclimated suit some fifteen hours later when red tape has been cut and Fury's argued with them a few dozen times. He's doing his best to relay everything he's seeing back to the group in the plane Clint is flying some ten kilometers to the west in the shadow of the peaks.

Finding the signal had been difficult, the point of origin spread over a half kilometer through densely packed ice and snow with craggy outcroppings making visibility on the ground difficult from the air. Tony had found Doctor Doom's base, therefore, by accident after he flew straight into it and bounced off. That had been a tense moment of nearly set off ground sensors and electromagnetic interference where the Avengers were not sure if they'd been found out or not.

Doom's floating ship is huge. And familiar. Very familiar. The layout and design is reminiscent of the place Coulson had died. And maybe that's why Tony hates it most of all

[asgardhero]

Thor's own feelings for the aircraft are more neutral--one large machine is much like the next, to him; it is his feelings for the man presumably inside that make him tense and angry.

"That's a lot of electric signals," Natasha said from her spot in the co-pilot seat, leaning forward to run another sort of scan. Thor stood behind her with his hand on the ceiling of the plane. He wasn't looking at the dials, just as Steve wasn't. They were both looking out the forward window as if they could see so far. Thor is bad at standing still and it is a relief when Clint gives the terse sighting of the first spill of machines into the sky. He steps back and claps Steve on the shoulder before hitting the button for the hatch.

He knows that Steve is not much better at not doing, but there is no other choice for him. Thor swings Mjolnir and jumps from the back of the plane. Stark will not have all the glory for himself.

[starkingenuity]

Stark doesn't want all of the glory!

The moment the upper shell of the hovering ship splits like cracking rawhide and dried sinew, spewing out graceful flying tentacle machines like metal squids into the sky, Tony is back on the line frantically reporting that: "The ostrich egg has cracked!  I repeat, the ostrich--  Okay guys, Hawkeye is not allowed to come up with the codes any--  Oof!"

One of the robots collides with Tony and sends him spinning out towards the mountain before he can right himself.

He really doesn't like how these things look both biological and mechanical. Or how the ship itself split like that. But he really doesn't like being out here alone.

"Any time now would be great!" he yells, scattering flares. 

[asgardhero]

The team has fitted Thor with an earpiece and transmitter, but being that he is exposed while he flies the wind is not going to help anyone hear anything the god has to say just now. He is hard to miss in person, however; a flash of red--not unlike Iron Man--and two of the machine-squids that have nimbly maneuvered through the haze of flares explode in a hail of broken parts in front of Tony. A third over his shoulder joins them as Thor throws his hammer to catch it; he drops a few feet in a calculated free-fall before the hammer comes back to him and he's moving again.

[starkingenuity]

Laughter replaces frantically made remarks and the trio still in the plane -- Bruce is back at SHIELD with his entourage of guards keeping the signal steady and watching for pulses -- glance at one another. Cap is the itchiness of the rest and directs Barton to land below the action. Hawkeye and Natasha would try to find a way into the ship and Steve would just focus on keeping the creatures his flying compatriots grounded on the ground

[asgardhero]

The battle is short but good, well-fought with strong companions. Thor is grinning throughout most of it, dashing the machines from the sky by hand or hammer instead of taking the quicker route available to him.

He tells himself he wants to savor Doom's defeat, that it is the only reason he does not call the lightning, but there is a part of him that knows differently. That worries about Stark.

Thor lands far more lightly than the metal man. "Ten." But his count is distracted as he glances up at the looming ship. "But there is only one victory that will count today."

[starkingenuity]

And it's not that Tony hadn't noticed. Thor would never let him win, so it certainly is not the reason for the lack of booming storm clouds over head. And this is worrisome. Is there something wrong with the ship? Thor is more in tune with nature, with the electromagnetic poles of the earth than Tony is and their brief moments of shared souls has given Tony quite a lot of insight into the god. And yet, there is still so much he does not and can not ever know.

He wets his lips, which are turning blue from the cold, and snaps his faceplate back down. "Chief Stormhammer over there's right." He turns to the Captain with a tilt of good and fire engine red. "You can ride Air Thor. Just be careful. He crashes."

Stark takes off towards the dot of the ship that Hawkeye and Widow had lashed onto the underside of Doom's breathing metal ship. He has Jarvis take readings while he waits inside the aft airlock, no sign of their forward party. That's probably a good sign. 

[asgardhero]

The Captain raises an eyebrow at Thor, who is scowling. "I do not crash," he says, the words clipped. "Just do not pull my hair."

The other man wisely does not ask as he puts an arm over Thor's shoulder when the man crouches enough to let him. "Wouldn't dream of it," is his only response. Thor nods and lays a hand over Steve's elbow even as Mjolnir is swinging in his other hand.

It does not take them long to touch down next to Stark. Thor lets Steve go and the man walks past both of them to take point, shield in front of him. Thor looks at Tony. "Quiet never bodes well before a battle."

[youwillkneel]

"That's not always true, brother." He watches the three with delight as each stiffens and turns at the hip to gaze behind them. It is Stark that speaks his name first, that infuriating man he could not turn and who ruined his plan for self redemption by claiming the Earth as his own and freeing her people to serve him happily in the way that they are still made to.

He walks from the shadow across the large gap in the floor used to allow aircraft or Victor's little pets to go and come as they please. That very gap he'd watched the friends of these three idiots leap into from their craft partially concealed and attached to the hull outside.

His green eyes burn with the fire of his true nature scarely hidden behind his soft brow and sunken cheeks.

There is more to him than meets the eye, however. Loki is too proud not to cover the scars on his lips with illusion as he ignores his brother and addresses Captain America. "Did you enjoy your welcoming party?"

[asgardhero]

Steve glances at Thor instead of answering.

Thor, who is standing in shock, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips thin, turns to take a step toward Loki. It's obvious that the anger that should be there is not. Instead it is worry. It is emotion for a wayward brother and not an enemy. He is off-guard.

He is actually relieved.

"Loki. What are you doing?"

[youwillkneel]

"Thor," comes a hiss from the monkey in the red suit and Loki lets his head turn like his chin is a pendulum in an arc from shoulder to shoulder. Brother wants his attention, the sorry sop of a princeling god who does not realize how so very easy it is to toy with his heart.

How many times must he try to kill Thor before those sad, pathetic blue eyes stop looking at him for attention he no longer deserves?

When Tony is ignored or battered off by a large hand that use to help him up onto his mount before the ride into battle, Loki grasps his hands in front of him and moves just a feather's width beyond Thor's touch. His brows stay even but his smile is forever cruel. He can still feel the twine used to stitch them closed, strong like the blade of Laevateinn and just as unyielding. "I am here because I knew you'd find me here."

"Thor--" Stark snaps again but Loki can't be bothered with the tin canned ant.

[asgardhero]

He may push away Stark's restraining hand but when Loki steps out of his reach, Thor pauses instead of following. He may be eternally optimistic but he is not without the capacity for learning and Loki...

Loki has deceived him before.

Thor ignores Stark.

"To what purpose? We are no longer the boys we were, for you to want my attention. Why are you here, Loki? What has Doom promised you?"

[youwillkneel]

The answer is easy and though Loki is Liesmith and Silver Tongue and Deceiver, the truth can often be used to sway the very simple. There is no one more simple than his brother, not even the humans he holds in such very low regard. Releasing the clasp of his hands, he makes a very faint gesture of swayed acceptance and closes his eyes before he forgets himself and plays too much.

"He's offered me retribution." It is not the Earth that Loki wants, not yet. He will get it, he will grasp it in both hands and watch it bleed, but Loki is not looking for such trivial things at the moment. "Oh, my dear brother, don't look so distraught. It's not against you or your servants."

"Servants!?" Stark evidently is itching to fight. The Captain is barely restraining him.

"Pets then, if you prefer that? He is a god, you can't expect him to consider you an equal." He snaps his eyes back to Thor. "Victor will give me what you will not."