Connections

Tony collapsed on the sofa in the common room, and glared at the world outside the window of Avengers Tower. Steve, after Tony had been so kind as to let him in the lab when he claimed there was an urgent matter, had forced him out the workshop with the excuse that ‘he wasn’t taking care of himself’. (There’s a bed in the lab, he has food, he was absolutely friggin’ perfect, thank-you-very-much.) Bruce, unfortunately, had agreed with him, probably because he hadn't been inside the workshop yet, and had asked JARVIS to alert him if he re-entered it - not that he would, since he didn’t have an override code yet, but he didn't want to have the Hulk out over something ridiculous like that.

“Sir, you have an incoming call from Director Fury.”

“I just sat down.” He momentarily considered just ignoring the call, before sighing. “Whatever, just answer it. I’ve got nothing better to do.” He put an earpiece in, knowing not to trust the silence in the room.

“We’ve got a new mission, I need to know if you’re up to it.”

Tony held back his confusion. “Why?”

“We’ve been asked to assist the X-Men.” He paused for a moment. “I just need to know if you’ll be able to work with them and the team at the same time, since they are… old friends of yours.”

Tony smiled slightly at that. He hadn’t seen the X-Men since before the Avengers had joined him in the tower - he’d spent so long trying to make sure everything was in place for them, he’d forgot almost everything else. This could be his chance to work out if he could tell them… Well, everything. He still didn’t know if he could trust them, what their opinions were of mutants.

“Fuck it. I’ll do it.”

The Avengers were called into SHIELD a few hours later, and were almost immediately led to a meeting room away from the rest. He had (for once) arrived an hour or two earlier from the rest of the team, trying to find out what the hell was so important that the Avengers were called in to help.

Tony sat silently as Fury explained the mission to the others, tapping on the reactor absent-mindedly, only half listening as he told the team about Magneto. Apparently, from what he’d found from the files, he’d got the shapeshifter Mystique into some high-up politicians position, someone who had access to one of the meetings concerning mutants. And from what Xavier could find out, they were planning a large-scale attack on… well, humanity as a whole. How convenient that the Avengers were formed now and could help.

Well, he was screwed.

He glanced at the faces of the Avengers. It was impossible to think they really were a team. They hardly knew each other, even after staying together in the tower. How were they supposed to work together on something like this? Hell, what even were their opinions on mutants anyway? God, two spies, a supersoldier, and scientists, how would they agree on something as controversial as mutants?

“Stark! You listening?” Fury interrupted suddenly.

Tony smirked, mask falling back into place easily. “I got it. X-Men, evil magnetic dude, humanity about to be destroyed. Easy.” He felt a small sense of triumph as he saw Rogers biting back a retort, and choosing to instead roll his eyes.

Fury ignored him. “Be in the hangar in twenty, the X-Men will be arriving soon.” He nodded in dismissal, and Tony gave him a sarcastic salute as he stood up to leave.

God, he wasn’t prepared for this.

He stood slightly apart from the others as he waited, wanting to stay slightly separate from both parties. The X-Men were due to arrive in the Blackbird within the next few minutes, and he couldn’t help but feel slightly worried as he saw the grim faces of the other Avengers. God, this could be the time they found out about everything.

He suddenly felt the Blackbird approaching from in the distance, and he smiled slightly as it drew closer and landed.

The plane opened, and he gave a small nod to Xavier, who was first to exit, followed by Jean and Scott, their hands joined.

“Glad to see you had a safe journey, Professor.” Fury held out a hand to the Professor.

“Nice to see you too, Nicholas.” Tony had to stop himself from smirking at their greeting. He was sure Xavier was the only person to ever call Fury that, and it was so rare to hear him in civil conversation. Natasha gave him a cold glare for a moment, making sure he was the only one who noticed, seemingly able to guess what he was thinking.

Xavier glanced at the Avengers. “I think introductions are in order?”

Fury nodded, and gestured to each of them  I in turn. “Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark and Clint Barton. Thor will be joining you later on.”

“A pleasure,” Xavier said simply, “Scott Summers, Ororo Munroe, Jean Grey, Bobby Drake, Logan and Rogue.” Both sides nodded politely, and Tony almost immediately moved to talk to Xavier as the others introduced themselves properly. “It's good to see you again, Tony.”

He couldn't help but smile warmly. “It's been too long.”

Clint gave him a slightly curious look. “You know these guys?”

“We’ve met a few times,” he answered simply, “Howard thought Capsicle here might have had a form of the X-Gene, which would have explained how well he reacted to the serum.” Bruce started to interrupt, so he quickly continued. “He was wrong, obviously. He didn’t, the gene can't just disappear, and nobody could have done anything about it if he did have it. It was just a theory he had.”

“So none of the experiments people have been working on would have had an effect?”

“None that I've seen.” Tony turned to Clint after a second. “Why are you interested?”

“I saw a talk show discussing whether we are mutants, since we show so many similarities. Did some research into them after that.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

Bobby scoffed. “Yet you’re not hounded by the government because of your abilities. And you're not being forced into registration and testing either.”

Tony glanced at Xavier and Fury, as if to say You should have known this would happen.

“Bobby,” Xavier began, but Steve interrupted.

“I mean, the kid’s got a good point. I don't know much about this whole mutant thing, but it doesn't seem as if you're that different to us. It isn't fair for you to have to go through all that.”

Bobby smiled slightly at him, seeming slightly calmed by his words.

“I don't see what's wrong with mutants being monitored.” The room turned to stare at Natasha, who shrugged dismissively. “A lot of you still can't control your abilities, or don’t use them right, it's no wonder people want to keep tabs on you. And even now Magneto is trying to destroy humanity because of some people’s views.”

“That doesn't mean we all have to be hunted like animals!” Rogue yelled, her face flushed an angry shade of red. Logan moved slightly closer towards her, glaring at Natasha.

“That's enough,” Bruce said quietly. There was a hint of green in his eyes, and he noticed Natasha and Fury move their hands instinctively to the Icers at their side.

“We came here for help,” Ororo reminded them calmly, “Not for an argument.” Her eyes flicked to Tony as he forced himself to take a breath. God, he couldn't lose it here, not with all the Avengers around.

“Stop!” He stepped between the two teams. “Let's not do this now, alright? Look, let's split off, have a talk with our teams, maybe come back together when we've all cooled off, and discuss the mission later.”

Scott glared again at the Avengers. “Not likely. We've been here ten minutes and she already wants us dead.”

Apparently the stress was too much for Jean (which was unusual - it was always her who stayed calm and in control when they were younger, while he was the opposite). A surge of power pushed against them all, sending most of them to the floor.

Tony and Jean were left standing.

He hadn't meant to let it happen, he was sure, but obviously his ability had blocked the surge.

“Everyone okay?” Steve asked. A couple of people nodded, but the room stayed silent.

Tony was surprised. When they were younger, Jean wouldn't even struggle to knock him down with her powers - So when had it become possible for him to block them? How would he explain that?

“Stark?”

“Yeah… I'm fine.”

He turned back to Jean, and even from there he could see her hands trembling and her nails digging into her palms, drawing small specks of blood. He started towards her, but Scott saw where he was looking and pushed himself off the floor, and took her hand leading her back to the Blackbird. Scott sent him a grateful look, and he stopped himself from following after the two.

The others got up one by one, the X-Men turning back to the plane, while the Avengers stormed from the room. And all Tony could feel was that he was standing between two teams of people, and he had no idea on which one he belonged.

As he walked out the room into the suit he called, he could finally feel Xavier’s eyes stop following him.