Part 1 - Chp 15
Tony’s part of the plan is almost laughably easy. He’s wanted a reason to test how well his quietly built system works and this is the best possible reason to do so. Figure out the kinks, adjust for the unforeseen--because there’s always a hiccup, that’s just how these things work.
He even gets to wear his armour. The speed and flight are going to come in handy once he knocks their systems down, so he can go to where he’s needed and cover for the others at a distance.
Tony’s pretty sure the only reason Thor is helping them is because he wants Loki to come home and he’s deferring to Loki’s current interests--which just so happen to be what Tony’s interested in. Doesn’t change Thor’s sworn up and down he can neutralize any air threats that Tony’s net doesn’t catch.
Steve’s ready to tell everyone inside SHIELD about Hydra, supported by the newly memory-laden Bucky and his wingman Sam Wilson (Tony really wants a better look at those wings). Romanoff will get to Pierce with Loki as a stealth aide; Barton is going to keep Banner with him and provide cover if they need it. Ideally, they won’t need the Hulk and Banner can stay safely Banner.
Honestly, it should be cakewalk. In and out. While something might slip Tony’s control, there’s more than enough contingencies for if that happens. They’ve totally got this.
Which is exactly why Tony isn’t surprised when--everything else going smooth as it can--Natasha radios in that Loki’s gone missing.
Fuck.
***
Even without Loki, Natasha gets where she needs to be. They get Pierce. Everything SHIELD related gets dumped out for everyone to pick over, fully exposing Hydra in the process and getting the rest of the world sitting up and paying attention to the very real problem of the remaining Hydra cells.
Tony would feel more bad about SHIELD also getting ruined, except he never much cared for Coulson threatening to tazer him considering the electromagnet in his chest and, honestly, Fury greenlighted Project Insight in the first place--fucking creepy as hell.
As far as “I’m not actually dead” announcements go, it’s pretty great.
Minus Loki. That’s not so great. Even Thor is looking a bit worried about Loki’s absence.
Tony and Thor get back to the base he won’t need to stay at much longer--who knows, maybe Loki got bored--but Loki’s not there. Tony searches the whole place, it’s not like it’s a big facility, but there’s definitely no Loki.
It’s on his second pass he realizes that there is also no Tesseract.
“Thor,” Tony asks slowly, “what are the chances your brother would have an interest in a glowing cube?”
Thor frowns at Tony.
“You know. Like… a possible door to other places, possible energy source, can be harnessed to make weapons, that sort of thing.”
“If it is all of those things, I suspect that it would be of great value of him. What are you missing, Tony Stark?”
“The Tesseract is gone.”
“The Tesseract?” Thor repeats slowly, face going blank. “The cosmic cube. You have it?”
“Had,” Tony says with a grimace, stomach dropping as Thor’s face gets darker.
“Stark,” Thor says carefully, hands flexing, “how exactly did you find my brother?”
-end Part 1-