Sometime during the hours that followed, Stark's clean up team arrived, making quick work of cleaning up the missed glass shards then putting in the new, thicker shatter-proof glass. Tony paid extra for the framework replacements just to make sure he'd never have to worry about someone breaking in again.
It was around half five that afternoon when the familiar sound of a suit landing entered the house, and it wasn't a suit Tony had control of.
"JARVIS, get Banner up for a minute. Rhodey just got here," Tony said, making his way out to greet his friend, a smile on his face as the man stood long enough to get out of the suit. "Rhodey, I owe you so much for coming off your tour to come down here."
"Tony, you know I'd do anything for you," Rhodey said, hugging the engineer tightly. "And besides, I'm getting kinda fond of Loki. He's making you happy, so he's good in my books."
"I'm glad. Come on, the team's waiting," Tony said, leading Rhodey inside.
"Have you called anyone else in?" Rhodey asked.
"A couple of friends of Steve are due to get here within the next couple of hours," Tony said. Rhodey nodded, smiling as he was introduced to each of the Avengers. Thor was last to greet him, still feeling unsure of one of the three newcomers.
"I am Thor, of Asgard," the Thunderer introduced. Rhodey nodded.
"Rhodey," he said. "You're Loki's brother, right?" Thor nodded. "Do you have any ideas whatsoever about what all this is?"
"None," Thor confessed. "If I had ideas, I would not be here waiting for answers."
"Well do you have anything so far other than this guy clearly isn't a human and just vanished without a trace?" Rhodey asked.
"We're still waiting on Fury for those answers, but I do have faster equipment working downstairs," Bruce said. Rhodey nodded.
"Fury is going to take forever, I can feel it. I never liked the bastard anyway," Rhodey said, shaking his head. "Do you mind showing me this stuff, Bruce? I want to see if I can make sense of anything."
"Sure. Follow me," Bruce said, leading Rhodey downstairs.
"Have JARVIS call when the others get here," Rhodey said. Tony just nodded.
"Was there any blood found around the room when you got back?" Natasha asked. Before Rhodey had arrived, they'd been discussing possible clues. Only the window was broken, and there were no signs of a clear struggle, so it'd obviously happened pretty fast.
"None that I saw, no," Tony said. "Unless this guy cleans up after himself. Though if that was a case, I wouldn't have had to pay for a new damn window to be fitted with extra security."
The team were starting to draw blank on their ideas. In order to get new theories, they were relying heavily on any information Fury and Banner could give them from their research, though they were now relying more on Banner than they were Fury, because Fury clearly didn't care.
By the time six rolled around, JARVIS was informing them of someone flying over the house, and everyone turned in time to see someone land right outside the large living room windows. Steve was smiling as the mechanical wings on the guy's back folded down and into a backpack he had strapped over his shoulders. He pulled the goggles from his face and smiled in at them all, waiting patiently for Tony to open the balcony-style doors to let him in, rather than making him go around the front.
"You guys are the Avengers, huh?" he mused. "I'm Sam."
"Great to see you again, Sam," Steve said, quickly hugging the man. "This is Tony, Natasha, Clint and Thor. Bruce is down in the workshop with Rhodey."
"Pleasure to meet you all," Sam said, nodding once. He looked at Steve. "No sign of Bucky yet?"
"No, but he'll be here when he can. When he says he'll do something, he does it without much hesitation," Steve said. Sam nodded. Rhodey and Bruce soon came up to greet Sam, and Bruce had some papers in his hands.
"What's that?" Tony asked, taking the papers from his friend.
"Readings from an unknown power source," he said. Everyone's attention quickly fell to him. "Whoever took Loki is not from around here, and from the readings Thor provided for us from all eight of the other realms read, this guy isn't from one of those either. Natasha was right. He's from outside the Nine Realms."
"Fuck," Tony cursed. "Have you found out where he's gone yet?"
"No. That one is still scanning, but so far, it's not even finding traces," Bruce said, frowning. "I'm sorry, Tony, but I have a sinking feeling that Loki isn't on Midgard anymore, which could be another reason why this Heimdall guy couldn't see either of them when he looked for them."
"If it's confirmed that they're not on Midgard, then how the hell are we going to find them?" Clint asked.
"Stark Industries will be the first to build a fucking space ship, that's what," Tony grumbled, frustrated by the situation. "If your machine can't find anything, then we better pray to whoever the hell is listening that Bucky can find something."
"He'll need something to work with when he gets here, so you'll need to find at least a small shred of something. Magic, or a movement signature or something," Steve said. "He can't work on words alone."
"You know this how?" Natasha asked.
"I've watched him work. I was with him in that SHIELD base the last time he was called out to help as best he could as part of his rehabilitation," Steve answered. "He got frustrated because he couldn't find anything on words alone, but he calmed down and very quickly found something after he'd been given a bit of data to use."
"Bruce, please, find me anything you can that's out of the ordinary compared to the data you already have," Tony said, looking at his friend. The shorter man just nodded, disappearing into the workshop again. Rhodey stayed behind this time so he could get in on the conversations and put his opinions in where they were asked for and needed.
Tony could feel himself getting stressed again. At this point, he'd usually hide away in his workshop and do something constructive until his stress had passed, but Bruce was down there working and he wouldn't know what to work on this time. Not while Loki was out there with some maniac who claimed they'd never see the dark haired God again. Tony didn't like hearing threats like that, especially not made about Loki.
It was almost eight that evening when the sound of a motorbike engine echoed around the area. Bruce had come up from the workshop to join the rest of the team for dinner, and Fury was still with Hill and the other team in one of Tony's other rooms. Fury hadn't shown his face since Thor threatened to cut Asgard's protection to get him to stop threatening to leave Tony figure this out alone. Not that it really bothered Tony, anyway.
"That will be Bucky," Steve said, placing his plate on the coffee table and heading out to the front door. Tony got up and followed, remaining by the open front door while Steve went out, greeting a dark haired man with a tight hug.
"I hate road trips," the shorter man grumbled. Steve laughed.
"Good to see you too, Buck," he said. "Come on. The team is in the living room having dinner. Do you want some? We got pizza or Indian food."
"Pizza would be good, thanks," Bucky said, playing around with his hair a bit. Tony gave him a friendly smile when their gazes caught. "Who're you?"
"Tony," he said, holding his hand out.
"Stark?" Bucky questioned. Tony nodded. Bucky nodded back and briefly shook his hand. Tony caught his left hand glinting in the setting sun of the evening, but he didn't comment and he pulled his gaze away before Bucky noticed. "The rest of the team aren't gonna make comments about... y'know.."
"What, the arm? Nah, of course not," Steve assured his friend. "They all briefly know who you are and what happened from SHIELD, and you already know Natasha and Sam. No one is going to say anything. You're here to help us in any way you can, not to deal with ignorant morons making comments. That's usually Tony's job, but he's on his best behaviour while you're here."
"Wonderful," Bucky grumbled. Tony just smiled, shaking his head as he locked up his front door.
"JARVIS, hide all the vehicles outside in the basement if you would," Tony said.
"As you wish, Sir," the AI said. Bucky jumped slightly, glancing around.
"The fuck was that?" he asked.
"My AI. It's a computer system. I call him JARVIS. He's connected up to pretty much everything in this house and everything below it. Below it being my garage and my workshop. I just asked him to hide the vehicles because I do sometimes get kids trying to steal my cars and shit. Your bike is down there too. If you need it, let me know or just tell JARVIS," Tony explained. Bucky nodded unsurely, then followed the two into the living room. Sam and Natasha both gave Bucky a smile when they saw him, and he seemed to relax a little.
"Gentlemen, this is Bucky," Steve introduced.
"Good to see you again, man," Sam said. "How are you feeling these days?"
"I'm getting there," Bucky said, nodding slightly. Steve could hear the machinery in his left arm whirring away as he clenched and unclenched his fist nervously. The Captain gave him a gentle nudge and a reassuring smile, making him relax more.
"You're looking well, Bucky," Natasha commented, nudging the boxes of food a little closer to his end of the coffee table. "Help yourself to any food you want. Pizza or Indian. If you don't fancy either of those, I'm pretty sure Tony will get you whatever you want."
"No, Pizza's good, thanks," Bucky said, leaning down to grab a piece. He hummed lightly at the taste as he took a bite. "This is good shit."
"Tony only seems to like this one," Rhodey commented with a laugh. Bucky smiled. So far, he was alright being around the team.
Steve sat back down in his seat while the rest of the team introduced themselves. Thor was the most humble while introducing himself, and Bucky seemed most comfortable with him as a first time meeting. It made Steve feel a lot better about Thor being here. The God made no effort to comment on or even look at Bucky's left arm and easily made conversation to make him feel welcome and a little calmer.
Bucky sat between Thor and Steve.
"So... tell me more about this... this situation you guys seem to have," Bucky said, trying to get his words strung together through mouthfuls of pizza. He still wasn't completely used to speaking fully again yet, let alone in English, but he was getting the hang of it. "All I got was someone close to Tony is missing and you can't trace the- the guy that took him, who is believed to be dangerous. Am I right?"
"You are correct," Tony said, nodding as he served himself some rice from the box of Indian food. "His name is Loki. The guy that's missing, that is. He's Thor's younger brother."
"That's rough, man," Bucky said, looking at Thor. The Thunderer nodded.
"Do you think you'll be able to find him?" he asked hopefully. Bucky shrugged.
"I'm not going to lie to you, Thor. I don't know. But I'm going to try," Bucky promised. Thor smiled, placing a hand on Bucky's shoulder and squeezing lightly.
"That is all I ask of you," Thor said, releasing Bucky and getting back to his food.
"Tell me more about Loki and what went down last night," Bucky demanded, happily digging in to a fifth piece of pizza.
"JARVIS, find a decent photo of Loki," Tony said, pulling one of his tablets onto his lap from the shelf beneath the coffee table. A few things scrolled really quickly over the screen, eventually slowing and stopping on one of the only good photos Tony managed to catch of the raven haired man. He was smiling happily at the camera when Tony caught him sat reading on the balcony in Stark Tower. Tony handed the device over to Bucky. "This is him."
"He looks nothing like you, Thor, no offence," Bucky said, letting his mind take a mental copy of the image.
"He's adopted," Thor chuckled. "But he is my brother regardless."
"Cute," Bucky said, a small smile pulling the corner of his lips up. He placed the device down on the table carefully, keeping the image up on the screen. "What happened?"
"I'll show you the security footage after we've all had enough food. It's not the best dinner time entertainment," Tony said through a mouthful of food. "Sam needs to see it too."
"Got it," Sam commented. Bucky just nodded.
The large group made small talk and laughed with each other while they all ate as much as they could handle. Thor, Steve and Bucky ate the most out of everyone, and Bucky more than the two of them, even if Thor and Steve were both on their fourth servings by the time Bucky arrived. Natasha and Clint helped Bruce with the dishes while Rhodey and Tony stored any leftovers in plastic containers in the fridge. Tony simply claimed it was breakfast for those who wanted it.
Bucky had slipped out of his leather jacket now, leaving it draped over the back of the couch he was sat on, his metal arm now on show beneath the three-quarter sleeved shirt he was wearing. He seemed a lot more at ease now he'd been properly introduced and included in conversation like it was nothing to be worried about. Like he was a normal person again, just like he had been before the War.
Bruce had gone back down to the workshop to continue with his research down there. He'd taken a mug of coffee with him too.
"You ever had coffee?" Rhodey asked as he sat himself down on the couch opposite Bucky.
"Yeah, but I'm not a fan of it," Bucky said.
"What? Now I know you're fucking with me man," Sam said, sitting back and kicking his feet up on the coffee table. Bucky smiled, shaking his head.
"I'm not. I have to be asleep on my feet before I'll drink coffee," Bucky said.
"That's crazy, man. I think you're the first person I've met that doesn't like coffee," Rhodey said. Bucky just shrugged nonchantly.
"Sorry to break up your coffee talk, gentlemen," Tony said, placing Rhodey's mug down in front of him as he held his own in his other hand. "JARVIS, the video, if you please."
"Playback beginning, Sir," JARVIS said, bringing the playback to life on the TV screen. Bucky sat forward in his seat and watched closely. Sam sat up and looked too, frowning at what he was seeing. Tony left the room to busy himself until the video had finished playing. He couldn't bear to have to see it and listen to it again, knowing he'd failed Loki like this.
"That picture you showed me gave me the vibe that he's usually a lot more controlled than that," Bucky said when the clip ended and Tony entered the room again.
"He is. That's what's thrown us off. The guy that took him must've done something to make him act like that. Loki is not known for his breakdowns," Tony said.
"That's horrible, man," Sam said. "Creepy as fuck. The guy that took him sounds like a stalker."
"Don't tell me shit like that," Tony groaned, ruffling up his hair.
"Any ideas, Buck?" Steve asked. The ex-assassin bit his lip for a minute.
"I don't need the sound, but can you take the video back a bit?" Bucky asked, looking at Tony. The engineer nodded.
"How far?" he asked. "JARVIS, listen in on this."
"Just to where the guy lifts his arms to break the window," Bucky said. Tony nodded, and a few seconds later, the video had jumped back. "There! Look!"
"What? What am I looking at?" Tony asked, looking intently at the screen. "What did I miss?"
"You can't see that around his hands?" Bucky asked. Tony looked at him strangely. Bucky rolled his eyes. "Of course. I can see it, you can't. Right. What was your computer's name?"
"JARVIS," Tony answered.
"I've never spoken to a computer before, but there's a first time for everything," Bucky said. "JARVIS, take it back again. Same place. Slow it down just a little and zoom in on the guy's hands please."
"Right away, Sir," the AI responded. The video jumped back again, then zoomed in. When it started to play back, it had slowed down enough to notice the movements more.
"The hell is that?" Clint asked, frowning as he narrowed his eyes at the screen.
"Someone get Banner up here," Tony muttered, watching the intruder's hands moving.
"Thor, do you know what that is?" Natasha asked.
"It is a kind of magic, but none that I have ever seen before," Thor said, suddenly deep in thought. "I don't even think Loki knows of that magic. He'd have defended himself if he did."
"Loki knows magic?" Bucky asked. Thor nodded.
"They're Gods from a realm called Asgard," Steve explained. Bucky frowned. "It's a long story. I'll explain later, I promise."
"Got it," Bucky said, nodding. "But back on point. There's something - magic - around his hands. So that magic must've done something to Loki. If Loki can usually defend himself against magic with what he has, then why didn't he this time?"
"Why didn't we get him here in the first place?" Tony asked, looking over to each of the other Avengers. Bruce soon came up and witnessed what Bucky had seen.
"That's... I don't know what to make of that," the scientist said.
"Take the video back to the very beginning please JARVIS," Bucky said. "Keep it zoomed in on the guy, and keep it at that speed."
The AI didn't comment, just did as he was asked. The video started again and stayed zoomed in on the man. Now that it had been pointed out and focused in on, everyone in the room could see the glow around the guy's hands from the moment the video started, right up until it cut off.
"I do not like this in the slightest," Tony said.
"I don't think any of us do," Rhodey said. "But this gives us all the more reason to push ourselves and find him as fast as we can."
"Rhodey's right. We don't know what that guy is capable of," Natasha said. "Other than turning Loki into a wreck."
"Not helping," Tony complained.
"I need something to work with other than that," Bucky said immediately. "I need-"
"Why the hell are there more new voices in here, Stark?"
"Oh God. That's not him, right?" Bucky asked, looking at Steve. The Captain sighed, closing his eyes for a second then opening them to see Fury walking into the room.
"I don't know how many more people you plan to fit in here, Stark, but-" He paused, eyes seeming to immediately lock onto Bucky as a smirk pulled the corner of his mouth upwards. "Barnes."
"Fury," Bucky muttered.
"What brings you to Malibu? I thought you'd be hiding at this point in your recovery. Things in your head still getting worse?" Fury said.
"Shut up," Bucky spat. Steve frowned and looked between his friend and the Director.
"Fury, if you're not here to do anything other than provoke people, get out," Tony said.
"With all due respect, Sir, I think you should leave," Natasha said. "Bucky's here to help us. He's not here to take shit from you."
"He doesn't need it from me. He gets it from himself," Fury said, further provoking the ex-assassin.
"I swear, I'm gonna leap over this fuckin' table and-"
"And what, James? Kill me?" Fury mused.
"Shut up!" Bucky yelled.
"Fury! Out!" Steve snapped.
"Sir, leave him be and go back to the other team. This is pointless," Hill said as she poked her head around the door. "We're not getting any work done with you provoking people all the time."
"Fine. I'm just pleased to know he's here," Fury chuckled, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he made his way out of the room again.
"I swear, that guy is fucking-" Bucky yelling in frustration cut Clint off.
"Buck?" Steve questioned, seeing his friend gripping the metal arm tightly and holding it down to his side. "Bucky? What's wrong?"
"I'm fine," Bucky said through grit teeth. Tony didn't say a word, just crossed the room and crouched beside him. Bucky jerked away from him, and Tony quickly held his hands up in defence.
"I'm an engineer. I can stop it spazzing like that," he said calmly. Bucky looked at him weirdly for a second, before nodding and moving closer again. "How do I get into it?"
"There's a panel at the top that comes away," Bucky said. Tony carefully felt over the top half of the arm with his fingertips, being careful not to get caught between the plates every time Bucky jolted.
"Why did that even happen?" Natasha asked. "I thought it was designed better than that."
"It was," Bucky said, hissing and pushing down harder, making the muscles in his right arm ripple slightly. "Fury had his fucking science nerds do something to it and now every time I see him, it malfunctions until he feels like he'll stop it."
"I'll make that stop. I can take out whatever he's put in there," Tony said, not looking up from the panel he'd now taken off. "JARVIS, where's the nearest tool set?"
"In the drawer in the hall, Sir," JARVIS responded.
"Give me a second," Tony said, getting up and darting out long enough to grab the small box of tools. He sat himself on the floor, and with eyes as wondrous as a child at Christmas, he started to poke around the wires to find what was causing the system failure. "This thing needs upgrading. That's why he can get into the mechanisms so easily. He planted a bug when he should've been upgrading it."
"Can you fix it?" Bucky asked, looking at him hopefully. Tony nodded.
"I'm a genius engineer. Of course I can fix it," Tony said. "I'll upgrade it another time. Right now there's more important things to worry about, no offence. But I can get rid of the bug so Fury won't have the power to short-circuit your arm anymore."
"I don't care if I have to wait for an upgrade. I just want this to stop," Bucky said. Tony nodded.
"Finish explaining yourself while I'm working. It won't take me long. I should be done by the time you've finished saying what you were going to say before you were so rudely interrupted," Tony said. Bucky nodded, turning his attention to the rest of the group.
"As I was saying; I need a computer of some kind, and I need at least something in the way of data so I can start trying to trace whatever the hell that magic was."
"I'm still running a trace to find that magic," Bruce said. "But now I have more of an idea, I think I'll get it done fast. Give me an hour."
"And what do we do until then?" Sam asked.
"We wait," Tony responded, sighing softly as he sat himself down in his chair.