Chapter 38
Tony arrived the next morning wearing a large pair of burgundy tinted sunglasses and carrying an overpriced latte in his hand.
“FRIDAY, what’s the story—everybody still snoozin’?” He asked his AI as he rode the elevator.
<Captain Rogers, Dr Banner, and Natasha Romanov are currently in conference room one, shall I alert them of your arrival?> The AI answered promptly.
“Don’t bother, I’m almost there and you know how I love an entrance,” he said casually.
The doors opened and Tony strode confidently down to the conference room at the end of the hall.
“Buenos días, Avengeritos,” he said with a smirk as he walked into the room.
“‘Morning Tony…” Steve said distractedly as he looked at the screen Bruce had open, “so these signatures are consistent with the infinity stones?”
“They appear to, but they aren’t anywhere near Loki… they appear to be—” Bruce tapped a few things on the screen, “—on the roof?”
“You sure about that, big guy?” Natasha asked dryly, head resting sideways on top of her crossed arms on top of the table.
“Uh, yeah—it does seem strange, maybe Loki stashed them?” Bruce suggested doubtfully, hands raised in confusion.
“Uhhh, let me guess—the minute I finally get onboard you start questioning the wonder twins?” Tony walked over to the screen, pulling it down to his height so he could adjust the filters.
“Well, last night Loki told me the stones he brought were from a place outside time and space… I mentioned that to Bruce here and he said something about authenticating their signature…?” Steve tried to explain.
“If he brought them from another timeline there’s a chance their properties would be shifted—” Bruce said to Tony absently as they studied the information.
“Reasonable possibility…” Tony answered as he processed the information, “so what’s the deal? These look like the ones we got off the Tesseract years ago, do we think their bizarro origins are throwing off the global positioning?”
“Honestly, your guess is as good as mine,” Bruce shrugged, “but if it were interfering with our ability to locate them then I’d expect the signatures to be bouncing all over the place—but so far, they’d just in this one spot,” Bruce said sounded completely stumped.
“Or it’s like you said, the gems got stashed for insurance,” Tony said flatly.
Bruce heaved a sigh, “or there’s that.”
“Well, sounds like your department Tony,” Natasha said skeptically, “throw on your suit and do a fly by.”
Tony huffed, “what would you guys do without me…”
Bruce and Steve remained to watch the screens while Natasha went to make herself another cup of coffee.
Tony took the elevator to the closest roof access he could get before pressing the button on his wrist tech to cover him in his easy transport suit. He went out onto the limited roof access not seeing anything, then lifted off the ground to fly carefully around the upper level he couldn’t see from below.
As he passed the rebar footholds designed for maintenance workers he reached the top level and dropped down with a metallic clank. He shook his head with a sigh and gently kicked the passed out God of Thunder snoring beside the large radio frequency antenna.
Thor snorted as he stirred and smacked his lips groggily. He blinked his eyes open slowly and furrowed his brow at Tony.
“The Man of Iron…” Thor rumbled absently.
“Come on man, let’s get you inside, team’s got a few questions,” Tony said sounding bored.
“Hm, inside? Am I outside?” He asked dumbly.
“If you consider the rooftop outside then yes, come on, get up and I’ll give you a lift down to the elevator.”
“Mmm,” Thor grumbled as he struggled to sit up, eyes still bleary in the broad light of day.
Tony got him up and managed to airlift him down to the door inside where they went in to take the elevator back downstairs.
In the elevator Tony instructed FRIDAY to power the suit off and back into its original compact form on his arm. Thor leaned against the back wall of the elevator with his eyes closed and a pained look on his face. As the doors opened Tony walked briskly toward the conference room not waiting for Thor who moved slowly to regain his bearing.
“I mighta stayed last night if I’d known we were doing a whole Hangover thing,” Tony said with mild annoyance as he walked into the room.
“Uhhm, what?” Steve asked, perplexed.
Tony huffed irritably at having to explain the reference, “I found our missing bachelor, passed out up on the roof.”
Steve somehow looked more confused then looked down the hall where Tony had come from. Spotting Thor stumbling toward them, he immediately jumped out of his chair, “Jesus Tony,” he said as he rushed to help his hungover friend.
“Language,” Natasha grumbled with a bored mock reproach from where she was once again heaped on the conference table, earning a smirk from Tony.
Bruce looked to Tony for explanation but his friend just rolled his eyes and pointed to where Steve was helping Thor into a conference room chair.
“Uhhhh come again?” Bruce said baffled, “wanna explain how a + b somehow equals… duck?”
“If Tony found’m on the roof, he prob’ly has the stones,” Natasha griped from the table, jaw still rested on her folded hands but eyes now shut as well.
“Ding ding ding! Tell’r what she’s won, Johnny,” Tony said boredly as he dropped into a chair and sipped his coffee.
Bruce looked embarrassed by not figuring it out sooner but went back to check the schematics to be sure the signatures were no longer moving and now in a stable location.
“What happened, Thor? Last night I left you sleeping on the couch upstairs… how’d you end up on the roof?” Steve asked patiently.
“Ahhh yes, I remember now, I woke on there sometime later still quite inebriated… I felt out of sorts, lost in the cosmic scheme, and I thought perhaps if I could summon lightning once more I might feel… as myself again,” Thor explained sounding slightly sad, “but it didn’t work… I brought lightning but no thunder…”
“Well, that’s something,” Steve said kindly.
“No, Rogers… not for me—I am the God of Thunder! I am nothing with just a few flashes of light… something is wrong, but I know not how to fix it…”
“I’m afraid the extent of my knowledge was a few miles back, but maybe Bruce could run some tests? Or perhaps your brother—”
“Ah yes!” Thor said enthusiastically, face lighting up, “I had completely forgotten, my brother always had fine council, I shall seek his advice. Thank you, my friend, for always getting me where I need to be,” he smiled warmly and clapped a hand on Steve’s shoulder.
Steve chuckled softly, “any time, just maybe don’t go climbing rooftops in the middle of night again next time, yeah?”
“Sound judgement, I shall try to remember that,” Thor said absently, mind already elsewhere, “Natasha, have you seen my brother this morrow?” He asked curiously.
“What am I, his keeper?” She grumbled irritably.
“I am not aware—are you?” Thor asked with a puzzled look, “you seemed to control Loki and Sylvie’s comings and going’s of late and—”
“Ugh, no Thor, I have not seen your brother. I’m sure he and Sylvie are still sleeping,” she huffed.
“—Or having a little morning nooky,” Tony murmured as he sipped his coffee and texted his wife absently.
Natasha smacked his arm but struggled not to grin with amusement. Tony gasped as if she’d seriously injured him, clutching his arm like it was broken.
Natasha smirked at the response and rolled her eyes, getting up from the table finally with a wince at the headache and mild nausea.
“Fine, I’ll go check on our guests—maybe Loki can conjure me up some kind of magical cure for this hangover,” she sighed and headed for the door.
“Thank you, Natasha, that is most appreciated,” Thor said gratefully as he rubbed at his eyes and slumped down in his chair to nap.
Natasha patted his shoulder kindly as she left and headed down the hall to the elevators.
“I would honestly be amazed if Nat doesn’t interrupt something she can’t unsee,” Tony said sounding somewhere between amused and horrified, “honestly, did you guys see those two last night? Felt like we were somehow all the third wheel…”
“Oh give ‘em a break, Tony, they’re in love,” Steve said with a fond smile.
“Why Captain Steve Rogers, I’d swear by my pretty blue bonnet you’re still a big softy after all this time,” Tony teased with a lilting drawl.
Steve shook his head with an amused smile and rolled his eyes at Tony while he and Bruce chuckled.