strangers are just friends waiting to happen
"Strangers are just friends waiting to happen."
- Rod Mckuen
May 4th, 2012
Steve grunted as his shield returned to his arms after smashing through another row of the Chutari. Thor was behind him, swinging his hammer.
Just as he was about to be smacked into the ground by another hive, a person in a muted blue and red suit flung themselves into the fray. The man systematically descended on the group of twenty aliens, putting his hands through their chests and ripping off their heads almost faster than Steve could track and then he was off, swinging on some kind of rope.
“We’ve got another enhanced in the field!” Steve reported into his comm urgently, following Thor to another hive.
“Well, are they helping?” Stark called, voice muted by wind.
Steve turned and watched as the man landed on top of a building, helping four civilians away before returning to the fight. “Yeah, I think so.” He called back.
“Then I don’t care!” Stark yelled.
“I can close it! Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!” Natasha’s shaky voice said from the Comm system.
“Do it!” Steve yelled.
“No wait.” Stark said, sounding grim.
Steve looked up. “Stark, these things are still coming.” He reminded the man.
“I got a nuke coming in.” Stark answered. “It’s gonna blow in less than a minute.”
Steve felt his heart skip a beat at his words, and then he continued.
“And I know just where to put it.” He said, with grim determination.
Steve’s eyes shot to the sky where the portal was still open, mouth gaping before he gathered himself. “Stark, you know that’s a one-way trip.” He said, trying desperately to convince the man otherwise.
His gut dropped when Stark didn’t reply and he watched with bated breath as Iron Man flew underneath the nuke and flew it skywards.
His heart dropped when Stark scraped the Tower and breathed in relief when he corrected himself. And then he disappeared.
The next few minutes were agonizing as they stared up at the portal, waiting for him to fall back out. The remaining Chutari all fell in unison, Leviathans falling from the sky and smashing into buildings.
“Close it.” Steve said finally, sharing a grim look with Thor. He found he couldn’t watch as the portal snapped shut, staring at the city around him instead.
At Thors shocked sound, he forced himself to look up and couldn’t believe it when he saw the Iron Man armor falling from the sky. “Son of a gun.” He muttered, feeling ridiculous relief.
But then he continued to fall at a ridiculous speed.
“He’s not slowing down.” Thor said, swinging his hammer. But before he could get off the ground that same mystery enhanced person swung forward and caught Stark, smashing into the side of the building before landing gracelessly on top of a car.
Steve ran forward as the man hefted Tony onto the ground, hands running over the armor nervously. Hulk and Thor both followed quickly behind him as they shot towards their unresponsive teammate.
“Is he breathing?” Steve asked the man who, at closer glance, was wearing a suit with some kind of spider scheme.
Thor ripped the faceplate off but Stark still didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
The other man stood quickly, arm poised to swing himself away. Just as he was about to leave, Steve called out. “Who are you?”
The eyes of the man’s mask narrowed. “None of your damn business, Captain.” He spat, before flinging himself around the corner. He paused for a moment perched on the edge of a building and called out, “Hey what color are Loki’s eyes, Odinson?”
“Green.” Thor answered, confused.
“Hm, weird. I could’ve sworn they were blue the last time I saw him.” The man mused loudly, and then he was gone.
Steve returned his attention to Tony slowly, forgetting the exchange, his heart aching.
And then Hunk roared and Tony gasped and all Steve could feel was pure relief. The random man that helped them was the last thing on his mind.
“What the hell?” Tony gasped, blinking. “What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me!”
Steve couldn’t help his sigh at the words. “We won.” He said on another deep breath.
Tony’s head fell back and his eyes closed in relief but he still didn’t get up. “All right, yay! Hurray, good job guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day. Have you ever tried Shwarma? There’s a Shwarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is but I want to try it.” He rambled and Steve snickered a little at his disorganized speech.
“We’re not finished yet.” Thor interrupted, looking over at Stark Tower.
“And then Shwarma after.” Steve heard Stark mutter as he too turned his attention to the Tower where Loki was currently unconscious.
When they all got to the penthouse, Loki was still out cold but when he stood, faced with all of the Avengers, Thor gasped. “The Man of Spiders is right! They are blue! But my brother has green eyes.”
“I am not your brother!” Loki spat, face manic and bruised.
Clint faltered, his bow falling to his side. “Do you mean-“ He started thickly.
”Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Natasha asked neutrally, watching the trickster with a calculating gaze.
“What man?” Tony asked, confused.
“The guy that caught you when you were falling. The other enhanced.” Steve answered slowly, watching the trickster god carefully.
“You get a name?” Stark questioned, also watching the God.
“Is ‘none of your business’ a name?” Steve asked rhetorically, feeling only a little bitter about the exchange.
“Ha!” Tony barked out a laugh that cut off at Steve’s glare.
”He is under the control of the scepter.” Thor answered the two spy’s sadly.
”Nobody controls the great-“ Loki started haughtily before being cut off.
“Alright Reindeer Games, you ready for the shock of your life?” Tony asked, moving forward only to be stopped by Thor.
“What do you think you are doing, Man of Iron?” He asked imposingly.
“Uh, mental recalibration?” At the blank look from Thor, he paraphrased. “Shock make blue go green.” He paraphrased dumbly.
Steve scowled at the rude presentation but he caught Natasha and Clint snickering together before schooling their features.
With Thors permission, he sent a shock through Loki’s body from his suit, the man fell to his knees with a gasp before looking up, eyes shining like emeralds.
“I- how-“ Loki cut off roughly, clearing his throat before looking at Stark. “Man of Iron, I owe you a great debt.” He said reluctantly, lips pinched.
Starks nose wrinkled in distaste. “No debt here. Thank the guy who told us you were being controlled.”
At the word ‘controlled’ Loki snarled, green magic sparking around him angrily.
He paused when Natasha stepped forward, weapons pointed threateningly and sighed. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll have that drink now.” He muttered tiredly with a wince.
May 9th, 2012
A few days later, the news was still running clips from the invasion. Interview about the Avengers and even more about the so-called Spider-Man who had apparently spent over eight hours cleaning up New York, helping civilians to hospitals, reuniting families.
Steve wasn’t sure how he felt about being on show for the world like that but Stark had shrugged and told him to embrace it.
Stark himself was distracted with trying to find out information about the mysterious Spider-Man who had already made a name for himself in New York.
The man had disappeared for less than 24 hours after the invasion before popping up stopping muggings, rescuing cats from trees, and walking old ladies down the street. The people loved him, though most of the public thought he was a member of the Avengers team, though the man had been quoted in an article saying that he wasn’t a superhero and much preferred the term vigilante.
Steve thought that was a stupid thing to say. He had saved Steve, Tony, and hundreds of other people during the battle. And Steve was pretty sure that vigilantism was illegal.
Stark said he’d apparently popped up out of nowhere during the invasion. There was no record of him existing before that point. No CTV footage of how exactly he’d arrived there. According to Stark that was strange, especially with the high tech suit he was wearing. In par, if not better than Starks on from what they’d been able to parse together.
Soon enough, Thor and Loki were returning to Asgard to plead Loki’s case with the Allfather, taking the Tesseract with him while the scepter was left in S.H.E.I.L.D’s safe hands.
They watched the two gods disappear and then returned to the Tower together, with the exception of Natasha and Clint, Tony having invited them to stay as long as they needed. Steve and Bruce were the only ones that took him up on his offer but he had a feeling the others would be joining soon enough.