The Chaos Theory

It all happened too fast. One minute he was talking with Pepper about some boring meeting they had to attend, the next there were alarms ringing through the building as FRIDAY’s voice announced that they had visitors from outer space.

As one could expect, it had to be in a moment like that, that Tony had to feel the weight of that hideous flip phone he always carried with him. How long has it been? One… no, almost two years now. He had to make the call.

But he didn’t want to make the call.

“Boss, I have detected some signals coming from the unidentified ship. Should I try to reproduce their message?”

“Go ahead,” he answered, not sure of what to expect.

“This is the Asgardian refugee vessel. We are preparing for landing. I repeat, preparing for landing. Our crew is made of Asgardian families, we have very few soldiers here. This is not a war craft, I repeat, this is not a warcraft.”

Tony cursed as he recognized that voice.

Just what he needed.

***

After a few calls and the rent of several airstrips, something you could call “the perks of being a billionaire”, everything was set and the spaceship was able to land.

“Stark, long time no see,” smiled Thor as he made his way out of the spaceship followed by his people.

“What happened to you?” asked Stark, unable to ignore the missing eye, or at least that was until he saw another familiar face come into view.

“Oh, yeah, a new haircut… I’m still getting used to it,” was answering Thor, unaware of how he was being completely ignored by Tony, who immediately went to greet Bruce.

“Where have you been? I have been trying to reach you since… Wait, are those my clothes?”

“A lot has happened, and believe me, Tony, I would like nothing more than telling you about how we flew The Orgy through The Anus, but right now I need you to listen to me-”

“Yeah, I shall ask you one last favor, it’s nothing really…” started Thor again, smiling until he saw something that made Tony turn once again back to the ship.

“Is that Loki?” it wasn’t really a question, as he could clearly recognize said man while he walked being escorted by a woman wearing a white armor.

“You were supposed to wait inside,” said Thor making a face.

“Surprise,” smiled the God of Mischief as his companion rolled her eyes.

“I think he is the least of your problems right now,” said the woman crossing her arms.

“Oh, really? He already tried to invade us once… Thor,” he turned to the god, but then thought better about it, “no. Bruce, what were you thinking when you brought him here?”

“Hey,” protested Thor, “I know this may seem sudden, but we are on good terms now. Right, brother?” he asked, again not being paid much attention with the exception of the eye roll he got from his brother in response.

“Like I said, I would love to tell you about… well, everything. But we don’t have time!” insisted Bruce looking up to the sky with a scared expression.

“What do you mean?”

“When we were leaving Asgard, a gigantic ship appeared and was about to attack us. If it wasn’t for Heimdall, we wouldn’t have been able to escape,” explained Thor with pride as he patted the shoulder of whom Tony assumed was said man.

“It wasn’t me,” replied Heimdall, “I didn’t teleport us here”

“Then who was it?”

“I believe I got the answer,” said a voice coming from a golden circle. Everybody took a few steps back as a pair of weirdly dressed men came from inside it. One of them made gestures with his hands and the circle disappeared.

“Ah, wizard. It’s been a while,” greeted Thor smiling, yet Tony noticed how Loki changed into a more defensive stance, like he was ready for a fight.

“A while, yes. If I remember correctly, last time we talked we agreed that you and that adopted brother of yours would leave to Asgard, and I assumed that the arrangement would be a permanent one.”

“Did we? I mean, we sure went there, but… there were some minor complications.”

“How so?”

“Excuse me, yeah… Sorry to interrupt but, who are you?” Tony interjected in an indignant voice.

“Oh, excuse my manners. I’m Doctor Stephen Strange and he is Wong. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Tony Stark,” he said in a dismissive tone. “Now, care to explain what is going on?” Thor was about to answer when he turned back to the increasing number of Asgardians that left the ship, as well as some other weird looking… aliens?

“First, my people need to rest. We have come a long way and need to gain force if there is a new battle lurking.”

“Dumbledore has a point though, I need some explanations too,” interjected Tony looking towards Pepper, “could you please guide them to the main building and make sure they receive proper food and medical attention”

“Sure thing,” smiled the redhead giving the group one last look, “I suppose you will join us too”

“We should probably speak somewhere more private,” said Strange, who once again made gestures with his hands and suddenly they were all sitting down in comfortable sofas.

Without missing a beat, Bruce proceeded to tell them about the giant and threatening ship that was preparing to attack them, which Loki identified as one of Thanos’ ship, and soon were Wong and Strange introducing them to the Infinity Stones and the danger they posed.

“So I’m supposed to believe that you are not a bad guy because this Thanos’ guy was the one who send you to attack us? This is great. No, really, this is just what I needed,” it hadn’t really taken long before Tony became unable to stay still and instead stood up and began pacing through the room. He only did stop when he noticed Strange being, well, strange. The man, sitting in a lotus position, had his head moving in different directions, sometimes seeming like it was in more than one place at once. “Strange! You all right?”

“Yes. However, it seems that Thanos already has the Power Stone.”
“Right, but you told me there are six stones, right? So if Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?” he said signaling towards the necklace where Strange said to have one of them.

“No can do,” answered the man pushing his hand away.

“We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives,” explained Wong noticing the tension that had been building between those two.

“And I swore off dairy, but Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me, so...”

“Stark Raving Hazelnuts,” remembered Strange glaring at him.

“It's not bad,” was his answer, not backing down but instead returning the glare.

“A bit chalky.”

“A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favorite,” added Wong, although he knew that his attempts to calm them were futile.

“That's a thing?” asked Bruce clearly confused.

“Oh, I remember, ice cream, wasn’t it? How is mine called?” questioned a really curious God of Thunder while his brother murmured something under his breath.

“Whatever. Point is, things change,” Tony said after a tired sigh.

“Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. This Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos,” replied Strange.

“And still conversely, it may also be his best chance against us!”

“Only if we don't do our jobs.”

“What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?”

“Protecting your reality, douche bag.”

“Okay guys, can we quick cable this discussion right now?” interrupted Bruce this time, being silently blessed by Wong and probably everyone present. “The fact is we have another stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone.”

“And the Space Stone was destroyed in Asgard,” as soon as he spoke those words, all eyes went to Thor.

“And you decide to mention that just now?” Tony asked incredulously.
“Well, it was pretty amusing watching you two argue…” he began to say, clearing his throat when he noticed the annoyed expressions he was receiving, “what I meant to say, is that if it was destroyed then we don’t have to worry, right? Now, we can focus on building a new place for my people and…”

“He doesn’t know?” interrupted Strange, his eyes not focused on Thor anymore but on his brother instead.

“What? Why are you staring at me like that? No offense, but the fact that we both practice magic doesn’t make us inherently friends, you understand?”

“You did mention you didn’t know how you got here, if I remember correctly,” he turned briefly towards Thor, only to see how realization struck his face.

“Loki…”

“Well… ‘destroyed’ is a strong word…” he started saying as Thor grabbed him by his collar, “okay, take it easy, brother. I was planning to mention it… at some point,” he said making the Tesseract appear, which was taken away from his hands by his furious brother.

“I knew I should have kept you away from Earth. Now there are three Infinity Stones here… it’s only a matter of time before Thanos comes and finds us,” muttered Strange. “You and all your people should go.” 

“But isn’t it good? We can just destroy it like we originally intended and everything will be okay, right?” intervened Bruce smiling awkwardly.

“He has a point, we may not destroy your stupid stone but we might as well destroy this one,” agreed Tony.

“Except there is another problem. We don’t know much about its composition. Such items surely require some kind of energy very similar to their own to be destroyed,” explained the doctor.

“I could give it a shot,” declared Thor while letting his brother go to examine the Tesseract, “it might be harder to concentrate all my power towards it without my hammer, but…”

“Right, and if not, Vision technically is one, or at least partly… so he should be powerful enough out,” reasoned Bruce as he measured all the alternatives inside his head.

“Yeah, that's the thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline.”

“What? Tony, you lost another super bot?”

“I didn't lose him. He's more than that. He's evolving.”

“Who could find Vision, then?”

“Probably Steve Rogers.”

“Oh, great,” murmured Strange increasingly annoyed, just what he needed.

“Maybe. But...”

“Call him.”

“It's not that easy. God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we? The Avengers broke up. We're toast.”

“Broke up? Like a band? Like The Beatles?”

“Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms.”

“Oh, you broke up… I know how hard it can be, I mean, Jane and I also broke up… mutually, but still…” commented Thor patting Tony’s back, “you’ll be alright”

“Tony, listen to me. Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not,” continued Bruce nodding towards the blond.

“Oh, right, there is also that,” agreed Thor.

“Well, why don’t we start by this then? I mean, there is nothing I would love more than watching all your melodrama unravel, but Thanos is indeed coming and believe me, you want to be prepared,” interrupted Loki with unexpected seriousness.

“Let’s destroy this Stone then!” smiled Thor, “come with me Banner, maybe I will let Hulk help.”

“You two should just get a room,” commented Valkyrie, as she had been introduced to them, while pulling Loki to also come with them. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who didn’t trust the god.

“You know he’s right, though? Even if they accomplish to destroy the Stone, Thanos is still coming and we might as well get all the help we can.”

“I think we will manage.”