Meet and Greet
Bruce stood next to Tony, an arm around his middle, chewing on one of his thumbs. He was intrigued by the Asgardian technology, same as Tony, but he was really more interested in the transportation technology. The Biforst, the Tesseract, sky-walking. It was one thing to project an illusion of something that’s not physically there, but to physically transport something between one place and the next without the help of Scotty… It was extraordinary. There were so many implications for that kind of research, the most obvious being transportation of people and things. Pollution would be sliced in half, reducing rates of illnesses like cancer and respiratory problems. Money would be saved as efficiency was increased, no more waiting for phone calls and emails, simply send a person or the needed records or supplies there. In the blink of an eye. Security for valuable, high risk people would improve as time spent in unsecure transportation routes diminished.
Bruce shook his head as Tony tabbed out the last command on his tablet and waited for the progress bar of death to inch along. He’d tried to help the world once before, and he had succeeded. But now he was on watch lists and lived with the knowledge he could be even more destructive than he was helpful. Not to mention all the things he’d lost.
He smiled and fist-bumped Tony when the man demanded positive reinforcement for his genius. Perhaps it might be better to leave alien technology alone. At least until humans had acquired the background knowledge to anticipate some of the accidents sure to happen.
“Awesome!” Tony fist bumped the ceiling as well, probably in lieu of JARVIS. “The Asgardian space Viking tech has successfully been linked into the satellite GPS network! This calls for a drink.”
“No, Tony,” Pepper said from her perch at the breakfast bar. “It’s only three.”
“It’s the afternoon,” Tony countered, spreading his arms in a gesture that said ‘and your point is?’ “And it’s celebratory.”
Pepper turned a page of her report. “No, Tony.”
“How about later, Tony,” Bruce offered. “Like after dinner or something.” Not that he could really partake. Alcohol didn’t affect his heart rate directly, but it did lower his control. “We’ve got guests coming after all.”
“Right,” Tony said. “Guests who can teleport. Who are here to watch an alien war criminal who can also teleport. How did this become normal?” Tony asked the room at large, again waving his arms. Bruce collected the tablet when it came within easy reach. Normally Tony was careful with his technology, but he had been known to get caught up in his theater and lose some tech to a particularly passionate gesture. Bruce glanced over the tiny red dot hovering over a picture of Stark Tower displayed on the tablet, before glancing over at the two brothers. Thor had either relaxed or got tired of standing, and sat next to Loki now. But the two might as well have been on different worlds, for all they’d shut each other out. The trouble for Earth had started as a brotherly spat between the two, and Bruce worried for what might happen to Stark Tower should they pick up their family bickering again.
“Don’t look at me,” Steve said to Tony in his Father Time voice, glancing over the top of his newspaper. “My life stopped being ‘normal’ years ago.”
Bruce sympathized.
“Excuse me, sir, the Vigil’s car has arrived.”
“Finally,” Thor said, pushing to his feet.
“Like you’ve been the only one suffering,” Loki snapped, following him.
Then again, Bruce thought, maybe some family bickering wouldn’t be too bad on the fine china.
He followed the general migration to the kitchen as the elevator shifted to the center of the universe. He laid the tablet atop some of Pepper’s paperwork, murmuring a soft apology, since there was no other place on the counter except for the small area inhabited by Natasha’s tea. Pepper waved it off as fine, distracted by noticing Tony pouring his sixth cup of coffee. Bruce frowned. Apparently Tony noticed, since he made sure to slurp extra loudly.
Bruce smiled to himself. Before meeting Tony Stark, he’d been sure there was no other individual who would have been worse for his mental health and the safety of everyone in proximity. And he’d been proven right. The man had poked him with a stick intending to bring out the Other Guy. But he’d also been charmed by Tony. He agreed with Pepper, Tony was basically a man-child with lots of money and even more expensive toys. But he was also aware of his failings, and Bruce respected that.
The elevator dinged and three people stepped into the penthouse. All three looked hard and suspicious of the world, the first wearing leather, a goatee, and a tattoo that gleamed against his coffee colored skin, the second having long dark blond hair drawn back in a queue and a long tan trench coat, and the third looked a bit like a male Snow White, black hair and white skin. All three of them were weighed down with weapons, not to mention the large ‘clanking’ bags the last two carried with them. Bruce decided he’d let Clint and Nat shake their hands first.
The last one sniffed the air, he would say shamelessly, but the kid looked like he was actually smelling things. Bruce locked eyes with a pair of the most startling steel grey eyes he’d seen, the kid giving him a quizzical look before moving on to the two gods.
“Nice to see you, Phil.” The first man said before turning to address the rest of them. “I’m Samuel King. I work for the Vigil--basically doing Phil’s job. These two are Niko and Cal Leandros.” He pointed first to the blond, and the kid. Bruce realized they both had the same grey eyes. Brothers, most likely, rather than cousins. “I’m their liaison. Cal here is your gating expert.”
“Wait, this kid?” Tony said.
“He looks like a lost boy band member.” Clint added.
Cal grinned at Niko. “Hear that, Cyrano? They think I’m pretty.”
Niko rolled his eyes.
Thor frowned slightly. “You are a skywalker?”
Cal stared at him for a moment, mouth slightly open, then snorted. “Yeah. Yeah, I got Jedi powers. Totally.”
Bruce looked the two brothers over. They were both young, not even out of their twenties, but clearly packing more experience under their skins than most people of Bruce’s age. Of course, he wasn’t a very accurate measure either. He wondered what had happened to them. They certainly looked human, but so did nearly everyone else in the room.
“I need proof before I condone this,” Nat said, assessing them with her spidey senses. Bruce may not be a huge fan of Spiderman’s spidey senses, but he wholeheartedly believed in Nat’s. Both his hearts did.
Samuel looked at her, then raised an eyebrow at Phil, who shrugged. “You wanna?” he asked the two brothers.
Niko was clearly the civilized one, the kid flashing a slightly crazy smile before Niko nodded. “Fair enough,” he said. “Cal?”
The kid sighed dramatically, unslinging his duffle bag. “This is work, Nik,” he complained. Bruce smiled. The kid was an even bigger shit than Tony. “There’d better be pizza after this,” he said, pointing a finger at Niko’s rather impressive nose. Then he disappeared. There was a scene in one of Bruce’s favorite childhood movies, The Sword in the Stone, where Merlin convinces the other characters he actually is a wizard by disappearing. Bruce felt a bit like Sir Ector as he tried to figure out what had just happened.
“Ya happy now?”
Bruce spun around with everyone else to see the kid sprawled all over the common room couch.
“Or how about now?” he asked again from the stool next to Pepper. Nat darted in between him and Pepper, who squeaked and clung to her. “Or now?” the kid asked for the third time from next to Thor and Loki. He ended his tour of penthouse back by his bag, hands still in his pockets. Bruce was convinced. He was also slightly dizzy.
Steve crossed his arms. “I have no problem with this. He seems more than adequate to watch Loki.”
“Excellent!” Thor said with relief Loki met with an agreeing sneer of his own. Thor pulled a key out from a pocket and unsnapped the cuffs before anyone could say anything. He flexed his wrist and stretched like a cat while everyone stood frozen.
Loki flexed his own fingers and inhaled deeply, eyes closed. “That feels better.” And teleported.
Tony swiped up the tablet as it pinged with an update. Bruce leaned over to see a display of northern Finland.
Cal leaned his head back on his neck and groaned. “I take it back,” he said. “This is work. Gimme that.” He stomped forward and swiped the tablet out of Tony’s hand, then grimaced. “I hate cold,” he announced before a silver sheen outlined him again and he disappeared.
In the awkward silence that followed, Bruce decided he’d never been very understanding of Sir Ector before. It was difficult to run a castle by yourself, have an idiot son, and then have someone waltz in and say they were going to change everything. The rest of the Avengers glared at Thor, who rubbed the back of his neck, a slight sheepish expression on his face. Bruce watched Samuel and Niko study the room.
“Can I have that drink now?” Tony asked.
Pepper resettled herself. “No.”
“Fine,” Tony said, scrubbing at his face. “While they’re out, how about we show you your rooms,” he said to Niko.
Niko shifted his weight, settling into a firmer stance.
“Before any of that, I have some ground rules. These are non-negotiable. Any violation of them results in termination of our contract.”
Samuel pinched the bridge of his nose, waving when Phil glanced at him. That was interesting. The kid was obviously as volatile as Tony, but Niko was a force of nature. Like Pepper. Got it.
“First,” Niko continued, giving the Avengers a hard stare, “all mirrors in common areas that cannot be covered will be removed.”
Bruce really hoped that was specific to mirrors and not all reflective surfaces. Stark Tower was half glass after all.