the coming wave

——————————

To: Fury, N. J. Director , Coulson, P. Field Officer, Hill, M. Field Officer
From: Romanoff, N. A. Field Agent
cc: Barton, C. F. Field Agent
Subject: Avengers Initiative [CONFIDENTIAL]

The man being paraded as ‘Captain America’ does not seem to be a hoax. We’ve been unsuccessful in our attempts to make contact.  

Awaiting further instructions.

- Natasha.

——————————

To: Fury, N. J. Director , Coulson, P. Field Officer, Hill, M. Field Officer
From: Barton, C. F. Field Agent
cc: Romanoff, N. A. Field Agent
Subject: Re: Avengers Initiative [CONFIDENTIAL]

Like Nat said: mission failure :(  

We figured out the roster at the gala, but their powers don’t seem to be obvious. Also, Banner was there!! :0

Let us know what’s up. 

clint ➶

—

There’s no doorbell per se at the mansion. JARVIS takes care of that. He keeps watch and alerts the relevant parties. But, that generally doesn’t stop people from looking for one. 

So when Agent Coulson walks up, resolute and purposeful, he looks for a doorbell. And rather than calmly alert him of his presence, JARVIS starts recording. He records for at least 30 seconds before scaring Coulson and his crew with his omnipresence.

It really undercuts the intensity of the approach, and quickly get filed into Sir’s playlist of funny SHIELD moments. 

JARVIS then waits several minutes before actually relaying their presence to Sir, hoping to further upset the power balance—As per FRIDAY’s suggestion. 

JARVIS found that following his and his sister’s infiltration of both SHIELD and government databases, they found themselves greatly displeased with their presence. Not only did he find them greatly inefficient, he found that the prejudice against Sir was too large for them to look past.

And JARVIS knew full and well that he was the most rational in their family—apart from Ms. Potts and Col. Rhodes—but he found himself turning a blind eye to the secretive work done by his precocious and prideful sister. And as time passes, he finds himself more grateful for that, because when combined with his own efforts, he knew their little family would be protected.

Tony struts through the halls of the mansion, looking for all intents and purposes, bored. In reality, he had his glasses on and was currently checking the whereabouts of his team. 

He knew, form January 1st onwards, that this day was coming. If he never had to look at Coulson’s mildly amused face ever again he would be a happy man, but he knew he wasn’t that lucky. No, he’d been waiting. And preparing, to an extent. 

Unfortunately, each change he made was ripple in the pond and he didn’t know what awaited them now that Loki wasn’t apart of the equation. It could be an innocuous difference, simply another goon in his stead. Or it could be damaging, it could be one of Thanos’ children who wouldn’t pull their punches in the same way.

The fact of the matter was: the Earth wasn’t ready. Not like he’d hoped. When he came back, he was broken, tired, but optimistic. He was planning and when he was made aware of his ‘team’ he was even a little hopeful. But then, the mansion alone took a better part of a year. Corralling his team for their HYDRA missions was a pain and everyone seemed to have a million side missions to take care of. Including himself, he’d underestimated what keeping the title of CEO would do to his schedule, especially considering the patents he insisted on pumping out.

He was happy, yes. But he wasn’t near where he wanted to be in terms of disaster preparedness—although he doesn’t think he ever would be.

He had some basic sensors for extraterrestrial activity, thanks to Ivan. He had drones, not many, but they could serve some use. He had a team, of course, and he was confident in them. There were some wildcards though. Hela and Loki had an incredible amount of power in their arsenal, but they’d yet to really make their allegiance known.

Thinking of Hela and Loki made his mind shift towards something of more importance. Why was Coulson here? Previously, he’d only showed up when their base exploded and that wasn’t possible because the Space Stone was currently locked up in the sub-basement. Along with the Power stone.

Tony hummed. The containment had seemingly worked (no one had come to attack him), but he supposed this would be the ultimate test. Why was Coulson here and was Thanos coming? Where would they target if they couldn’t detect any stones? Would they come here at all?

Tony tried to reign in his thoughts as he turned the final corner, keeping the important facts at the forefront. Tony turned the last corner and snorted at the sight that greeted him. Bruce stood looking awkward in his lounge-wear. It looked as if he’d just woken up only to find 3 secret agents standing in the kitchen.

“Dr. Banner, we’ve been looking for you since you dropped off of our radar.”

“You were tracking me?” Bruce’s voice was incredulous, but unsurprised. He was truly a bad actor. Tony moved to make himself known.

Bruce looked relieved as soon as he caught sight of Tony, but his attention was caught again by Natasha who swiftly shifted her stance to face Tony. Tony help back a snort at how ridiculous they looked trying to be intimidating.

Tony had seen Natasha snort coffee out of her nose. She was no longer as scary as she tried to be. 

The posturing was also pretty over the top. Coulson was stood stoically, arms crossed. Natasha was standing just behind him and another agent a little further behind. The formation made Tony feel like they were almost protecting Bruce from him and it seemed like Bruce noticed too. He scoffed lightly and moved away from the group towards Tony. The group gave him a wide breadth as he moved, making Tony roll his eyes. 

“Mr. Stark.” 

Coulson said his name like a curse. Equal parts exasperated and annoyed. A reprimand for an imagined slight. Tony wanted to feel insulted, but he realized that they would always treat him as such regardless of what he did. For SHIELD, he was a tool, a means to an end and having that knowledge alone was freeing. They wouldn’t pretend, and neither would he.

He generally respected SHIELD’s mission statement, but he couldn’t bring himself to support their methods of operation. He’d long tolerated them, for the greater good, and they still ended up with dozens of big bads coming down on them. Several of them being preventable. 

Checks and balances were something SHIELD had never been good at. They simply operated in a shady pyramid, and at the very top was Nicholas J Fury, the keeper of secrets. And above him was a nebulous shadow council infiltrated with HYDRA, and above that was,,, Zola. So, it didn’t exactly inspire any confidence. 

And even worse was that now, him and his team were threatening that order. Undermining them deliberately, but without any paper trail. He knew their reckoning was coming, and he fully expected Fury to attempt to storm the gates a lot earlier. They’d been lucky thus far, but with the Gala on the forefront of everyones minds… With a frozen war hero uncovered and mysterious HYDRA-base shaped piles of rubble popping up… He was surprised that Bruce wasn’t enough to get their attention, but Kamar-Taj’s protection must’ve been much more extensive than he realized. 

Tony’s head was starting to hurt simply running through the possible topics of conversation. Any exchange filled with spies and deceit irritated him and made him want to climb into a bottle. It wouldn’t do any good to deal with these people alone and he was infinitely grateful for Bruce’s presence. Bruce had to be the most effective spy and SHIELD repellent he’d ever seen, and his own callous treatment of the Hulk had only made himself more fearsome to them.

The silence extended limply. It was charged, sure, but it didn’t effect Tony as strongly as it seemed to the spies. Clearly, they were chagrined to continue, meaning they wanted something from him. He held the smirk back, he thoroughly enjoyed holding the cards in this interaction—not that he would let it show. He’d been dressed down by JARVIS, Pepper, and Bruce regarding his lackadaisical attitude toward authority. It would apparently not fly any longer should he want to maintain a respectable reputation. Hm.

He observed the three agents. It was curious that they hadn’t brought Tweedle-dumbass with them. Which meant they kept him stashed like an ace and he was around somewhere. He knew JARVIS had probably activated all the mansions defences—if there was one thing he could’t underestimate, it would be JARVIS’ hatred for SHIELD.

Coulson maintained his placid expression while Romanoff looked smug. The third agent was much easier to read. He looked uncomfortable, painfully so. The silence had only been stretched for 30 seconds or so, meaning he was new or they were about to get really annoying. 

Tony sighed inwardly. His brain was throbbing in the background of his thoughts, not yet painful, but making itself known.

“What is it that you needed, Coulson? I’ve got no time for this posturing,” his voice was firm, no sight of his usual flamboyance.

Coulson’s face twisted lightly, “That’s a lot of animosity for someone you’ve never met, Stark.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “What does Fury want from me.”

The unnamed agents brow furrowed, the only one of the three unable to control his facade. Internally, Tony was cursing himself or giving himself away so quickly. In his exasperation he allowed the never-changing face of Coulson become the Phil he knew and he forgot that technically… he shouldn’t know that.

He raised his eyebrow, deciding to steam forward anyway. Coulson, being Fury’s right hand man meant that he was exposed to any amount of information, but at the same time, Tony wasn’t sure exactly what Fury knew either. JARVIS and FRIDAY steadily funnelled all of SHIELD’s intel to him, and as of right now, they hadn’t been detected. Or.. had they?

“Well, we were in the neighbourhood…” 

Tony kept his mouth resolutely shut, unwilling to fill the silence as the agents hoped he would. Bruce shifted behind him, seemingly impatient. 

“No one believes that bullshit, out with it already,” he grumbled, breaking the silence. Tony tried not to let his exasperation show, but raises an eyebrow at Romanoff’s obvious flinch. 

Coulson meets his gaze steadily, “We were hoping to speak with your entire team.”

“And pray tell me, why is that,” Tony led, smiling drolly. 

Coulson’s face didn’t change, per se, but he could see his jaw tighten. He felt glee shooting through him at the sight. 

“There have been some grumbles within various agencies about your running loose in the world. We only wanted to help you guys out before you run into any legal troubles.”

His voice was practically earnest.. he could almost believe it. He didn’t, obviously, which he made known by snorting loudly. 

“I’m sure that if General Jacobs was privy to any such grumblings, I’m sure he would’ve told me directly during our monthly check-ins, don’t you think?”

Coulson’s jaw worked again. Tony knew that Coulson would know about the council, especially when Rhodey himself had limited all SHIELD interference. So, Coulson was clearly upset that Tony spoke of it. He should expect Tony to bring it up unless…

“What’re you playing at Coulson? We denied SHIELD entrance onto the council maybe a hundred times.”

“When the safety of the people is called into play, especially in relation to extraordinary aspects, in falls under our purview.”

“No means no agent, or should we get you some sensitivity training?” Tony tried to keep his temper in check, but he was beginning to feel the grips of irritation. 

“Fortunately, that’s not up to you,” Coulson said, clearly feeling smug. Tony’s attention was dragged away immediately by the flash of information onto the right lens of his glasses.

——————————

To: Coulson, P. Field Officer
From: Fury, N. J. Director
cc: Barton, C. F. Field Agent
Subject: 

Approval came through, time to move on the mansion. 

Fury.

——————————

Suddenly, Tony remembers a cryptic email he’d received the week before from Jacobs. He fights to suppress the tightening of his posture as he begins to feel like a rabbit with its foot in a trap.

The room was beginning to feel unbearably warm to Tony, who for the life of him couldn’t figure out how he still hadn’t managed to evade SHIELD’s claws even with a decade of foresight.

“I can see from your face, Mr. Stark, that our intent is finally clear,” Coulson adds, Romanoff smirking from behind him. 

Tony took a deep breath, reading through the information FRIDAY was slowly displaying to him, slowly he could feel hope rekindling. 

“What did you think of the accord?”

Romanoff shifted slightly at Coulson’s lack of answer, telling Tony everything he needed. 

“I can see from your face, Agent, that you and your superiors have not signed off on the accord required of all associates of the council? How peculiar,” Tony hummed impudently, hoping to evoke a reaction. 

Coulson didn’t smirk necessarily, but he looked smug before commenting, “All in due time, Mr. Stark.”

Tony turned slightly, leaning towards the exit, “Feel free to not talk to any of us until it is time.”

He raised his arm to gesture towards the door, making impatient gestures to attempt to hurry them out of the door. The three agents remained rooted in their spot, unwilling to acquiesce. 

“Regardless of that, I came down here to meet with our potential team,” Coulson added dully. He was clearly going for apathetic, but to Tony’s ears it sounded like simpering. 

Tony snorted, “There is no ‘yours,” Tony said, voice steely. “You clearly need to head back to HQ and actually read the accord.”

He held Coulson’s gaze until he finally nodded stiffly before sweeping out of the room and mansion with his entourage.

“That’s not going to be a problem.. is it?”

Tony turned to meet Bruce’s eyes, “I need a couple hours in the ‘shop to process that whole interaction,” he grunted before striding away. He could hear Bruce following.

The trip down was silent save for the sound of Tony grinding his teeth. When they finally reached the workshop, Tony collapsed into his work station, grunting on impact. 

“Care to explain, J?”

Bruce startled at his tone, he sounded more serious than Bruce had ever heard.

“Apologies, Si-,” “Actually I don’t want to hear it, call Rhodes, will you?”

Bruce watched silently, almost scared to interrupt and beginning to feel bad for JARVIS.

The phone rang dully through the still room before the line clicked and Rhodey’s greeting rang out. 

“Guess who I just had a fun little meeting with?”

“Listen, JARVIS told m—”

“Yep! You guessed it! The newest members of our council, SHIELD!”

There was a pause that hung in the air, the mood tense. 

“Well, technically Nick Fury applied as liaison for the World Security Council and I figured a known enemy was better than an unknown,” Rhodey finally added.

Tony huffed, “Thanks for the heads-up Jim, I was able to be my very suave and collected self in the face of that information since you were kind enough to give me a heads up for.”

Bruce snorted, “He’s exaggerating Jim, he was fine… But they did ambush me, so they now know my whereabouts.”

Tony groaned, banging his head onto the desk, “I forgot about that.”

Silently, a screen popped up which showed a collection of emails sent by Nick Fury, floating silently. Bruce watched it, waiting for Tony to lift his head and see the screen. 

“Tony stop being bitchy to JARVIS and look at what he’s showing you,” Rhodey snapped, which jolted Tony up.

Tony looked at the screen and read through the emails, immediately looking more chagrined, muttering a quick, "Sorry J" and sitting up straight once more. 

“Wait, what do the emails say?” Bruce asks, confused.

“They just show that there was no activity that suggested this move and therefore Tony is overreacting by freaking out at J,” Rhodey responds pointedly and despite it being an audio call Bruce and Tony can easily visualize his expression. 

Tony, once again, looked put out at the accusation, but made no move to defend himself. 

Bruce coughed then, ready to change the subject, when the tell-tale sound of a portal bursted through the room. The two of them, long  desensitized, simply turned towards the golden light.

Stephen strode through purposefully, looking harried in a way they associated with certain people. 

“We have a situation,” he grunted and without waiting he turned and swept back through, expecting them to follow. 

“So he, once again, gave her too much information and she jumped the gun?”

Tony looked distinctly unimpressed, but Loki seemed unaffected by the scorn in all of their faces. 

“You would think that he’d learn his lesson,” Stephen grumbled.

“Do not speak of me as if I do not stand before you,” Loki started, taking several steps forward  before being stopped by the decapitated head on the ground. He looked down as if seeing it for the first time, the pleased smile slowly slipping back onto his face.

“I simply removed an obstacle before it could hinder us, you once again overreact,” came the scornful voice, for the first time.

Tony looked across to Hela who stood much like a petulant child, arms crossed and hip popped. He sighed deeply before looking over to Stephen, trying ardently to ignore the lump on floor. 

“So, Fury managed to sneak into our humble little council through the WSC,” he stated primly. 

“I was wondering when he’d make his move, they were entirely too quiet.”

“Yes, well, here they are, loud and irritating,” Tony huffed,  “They don’t know this, but they just toppled over the domino that will lead to their demise.” 

Stephen smiled then, sharply, “I should like to see how that plays out.”

Bruce, who’d been silently watching the interaction play out, seemed to finally tire of the bit. “I’m sorry, yes it’s funny to carry on as if there isn’t an actual carcass on the ground, but please can we deal with this?!” 

Tony sighed, turning to observe his surroundings. They were in a tea room in Kamar-Taj, assumedly where Loki and his sister found Stephen. Loki and Hela stood on one side of the room, separated from everyone by the still-bleeding-head of a vaguely familiar alien.

“So.. who is this again? Sort of looks like Thanos’ second cousin.”

Loki sighed, “It’s Corvus Glaive, one of Thanos’ children.”

“We were on Sakaar, searching, and found him on the street,” Hela began, lifting a leg to kick at his head, “He was recruiting, until he was not any longer.” She finished with another kick and a pleased smile. 

Stephen, Bruce, and Tony recoiled in sync as the head rolled towards them.

Stephen flicked his wrist to create a portal under the head, removing the carcass, but not the pin of blood on the linen rug.

“You realize that was an act of war, right?”

"Yes, well, we might as well get it over with."