Chapter Text
Tony Stark's life was currently (unnervingly) good. You see, the world had been kind of peaceful; no big catastrophes (nature or people), no major financial problems (thus his company was sill doing good) and no crazy super villains (ones that he and his team couldn't handle, that is). So you get why Tony was slightly twitchy about his life at the moment. Though he couldn't be bothered that much, since his life was freaking good.
He hadn't believed he could ever again think that way after their final break-up with Pepper, but he genuinely could. They had afterwards made up with his CEO and were now back to close friends. The Avengers had one by one moved to the Avengers Tower (formerly known as Stark Tower) and they had quickly been morphed into a family of their own. For the first time in a while, Tony felt that he had a real family and a real home to top it off. He hadn't reduced to alcohol, sex and partying after the break-up and nowadays barely even went out in the evenings. He preferred to spend it with his new family (oh God, it sounded weird admitting that they indeed were a family (even after a rocky start and living barely three months under the same roof)), having movie nights and eating and/or drinking together. It was nice, really.
But having people he could trust didn't mean that he could slack off, so Tony still liked to work his ass off in his workshop. He was a busy man (he did run (partially but whatever) a company big as an empire, consult SHIELD and do designs for their appliances, take care of all the press and financial stuff considering Iron Man and the other Avengers, run the economy of their household and his team mates' equipment and also work on some of his own projects, designs and blueprints, some for his company and some for other parties), which often led to one of his comrades nearly bodily dragging him to eat, sleep or shower (and sometimes (nearly always) it was a mix of two or possibly even three of them). But it was okay, since it made Tony feel important, and proved the fact that he had people who had his back.
And even though sleeping was still an issue with the nightmares about Afghanistan, Obie, the wormhole and various other things, it was every time a bit easier, like he was finally healing. So, you could say that Tony Stark felt better than in years. He hummed happily the last notes of "Highway to Hell" as he took the screwdriver from his mouth and eased four screws before popping the metallic hatch open. He was lying on his workshop's floor, from waist up under a relatively small aircraft. His workshop had some spacious areas for projects like this, so the aircraft fit just fine. This one had initially been SHIELD's, but the two agents had taken it with them as they had moved in to the Tower (there weren't many agents altogether in SHIELD (or anywhere, for the record) who were willing to compromise the safety of their genitals only to oppose the two in something like this. The pair had a wicked imagination), and Tony had noticed a glitch a few days back when they had had a minor scuffle with Doom (in which the Avengers had totally kicked ass). He snaked his hand holding a tiny flashlight past some wires to take a look at the circuit board. Everything looked just fine. Maybe the engine then? But he could have sworn it looked like a technical malfunction. Then what about the wiring-
"Tony?" The engineer jumped and hit his head against the aircraft's hard, metallic belly. He hissed a litany of curses as he squirmed away from under the ship. His angry glare was met by a warm and somewhat amused look from his fellow genius.
"JARVIS, you're supposed to tell me when someone's about to barge in!" Tony whined, holding his forehead and casting a sour look towards the ceiling.
"My deepest apologies, sir. I didn't realize you did not fathom at the first five times I informed you." Oh, that sass. Tony wasn't sure whether to be proud or disappointed in himself for creating something like JARVIS. I mean, one should've realized that an AI with a personality (and a Tony Stark to learn from) would at some point become traitorous and cheeky. But J was still his baby. And hey, that would explain why his music was gone. Oh, and right, usually when talked to, you should somehow acknowledge that the counterpart has said something.
"Um," he came up with. Nice one, Tony. Getting wittier and wittier with age.
"Tony," Bruce repeated, eyeing the billionaire now with concern. "Should you go and get some sleep? JARVIS told me that you haven't slept for about 54 hours." Well that too could explain his sudden nothingness. And it wasn't often that Tony Stark didn't have the sass. He snapped his attention back at Bruce when he continued,
"I think it's best for everyone's security, yourself included, that you don't tinker with battle gear half-asleep." Huh, it was actually a pretty good idea. But sleep deprivation or not, he still had work to do. Fury was already waiting for the blueprints for the new propeller to magically appear on his desk.
"Nah, I've got some work to catch up, Brucie," Tony told the resident doctor, smirking and attempting to crawl back under the craft. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Bruce was faster and grabbed his shoulder, yanking him up.
"Come on, Tony. Time for a little nap," the glass-eyed genius said as he pulled Tony to the elevator with him. Despite his struggles and whining, Bruce's grip didn't loosen until they were on his floor, and Tony was lying in the bed. Exhaustion took control almost instantly and Tony started drifting to sleep when Bruce quietly begun babbling science to him, to get him to relax. Nevertheless his actions, the billionaire wasn't even slightly mad about the fact that he had just been walked and tucked into bed like a five-year-old. Instead, he smiled a little before promptly falling to unconsciousness.
The next day proceeded as smoothly as the previous ones. A couple of board meetings in the morning and noon, a business lunch and then the propeller designs. He had finished repairing the aircraft before the clock had even turned 5 PM (it had been the wiring, just so you know) and decided to take a look at the common floor. The kitchen (thus coffee) was there and usually at least one or two of his team mates liked to hang out there.
The elevator pinged open and the genius saw Hawkeye, Captain America and Black Widow sprawled on the living room's couches and armchair. Clint was playing Gang Beasts (and loosing against Natasha), the stream being displayed on their enormous TV screen, and Steve was reading an old looking book (and not so stealthy watching over his comrades, the mother hen he was), occasionally glancing at the game on the enormous TV screen.
"Yo," Clint called, not sparing a glance at Tony in favor of the game. Tony walked closer to the trio.
"Hi, Tony," Steve smiled at him, lifting his eyes from the book to look Tony over (mother hen). Natasha greeted him with an unfeminine grunt and diverted her attention fully back to the game.
"Hey." Tony leaned his hands against the back of the couch containing the two SHIELD agents.
"You free this evening?" the captain asked, shifting his eyes back to the book in his hands. It seemed rather interesting. Tony pondered the question for the smallest of moments.
"Nothing I couldn't postpone." He still had some paperwork and software designs in line, but they could wait. "Why? Are you asking me out, Cap?" The engineer wiggled his eyebrows, grinning, and Steve rolled his eyes good-naturedly.
"Movie night!" Clint chirped from before him, furiously hitting the buttons on his joypad. Tony inwardly grimaced. He would soon have to buy a new one at this rate.
"Sounds good. Whose turn is it to pick the movie?"
"That would be me, my dear friend," Thor boomed from the doorway. His tone was warm and slightly amused as he approached the other occupants in the room. "I wish to see more of the great battle between the mighty mortal lady and those repelling creatures. They are even more horrendous than the bilgesnipes of Asgard!" he finished with a faint shudder.
"So, Alien then." They had watched a few previously, and Thor seemed to enjoy (to say at least) them. "Anyone up for pizza?" A chorus of positive replies. "Okay, good. JARVIS'll place the orders whenever you're ready. I'll be in my workshop till then. See you!" Tony said and took off before he could hear what the other Avengers had to say. He took a quick detour to kitchen, poured two cups of coffee (freshly brewed, because JARVIS was awesome like that) and then continued to the elevator. He had taken to portions of coffee in purpose, as it occurred when he stopped by Bruce's lab. He made a beeline to where the scientist was perched over a table.
"What's up, Big Green?" Tony greeted as he nudged the mug against his friend's arm. Bruce lifted his head and met Tony's eyes.
"Thanks." He took the drink, smiling faintly. "Nothing much. I was just checking some results," the genius continued as he stared intently at the computer screen. Then he took off his glasses and looked back at Tony. "So, what brings you here?" The billionaire smirked and turned to lean against the table.
"Movie night. We're watching another Alien. There'll be pizza too. You interested?" Tony took a sip from his coffee and craned his neck to glance first at the papers on the table and then at the scientist himself. Bruce hummed happily and smiled, also gulping down some of his drink.
"Sure. I'm not that busy anyway." Tony smiled at him and turned to leave.
"Nice. Later then," he said as he stepped into the elevator.
"Yeah, bye Tony," Bruce called at his departing back and Tony waved a hand over his shoulder before the doors slid close. The box descended a couple of levels before the doors pinged open again. The engineer took a long swig of his coffee and stalked over to his workbench. He swiped his hand in the air before him and instantly the room was littered with gleaming blue holograms. Tony deposited his now empty mug on a stand nearby and pulled out a few latest projects of his (the earlier software design and some updates for the Iron Man armor and Natasha's Widow's Bites) and started working.
The clock was starting to near 6 PM when some weird stuff begun happening. First off, there was a flicker in the holograms. And if something was weird then that was. Because it was his design (not to brag but really he had made it fucking perfect) it shouldn't do that. The Tower was self-sufficient so it wasn't the power source either. Hm.
But that wasn't all. Not five minutes after, his music cut off. Like, it first sort of stuttered and then just stopped. Hmmmm.
"JARV? Where's my music?" Nothing. Now that meant that something was wrong. Tony was still frozen in position when the holograms flickered again. He snapped his head back just in time when they vanished completely. He stood up and glanced around him. Something was definitely off. He turned on his heel and skidded to the elevator. It didn't open (most likely because JARVIS couldn't currently open it) and the attempted manual opening by pushing the button like there was no end and trying to pry the doors open proved themselves futile. Shit. Who could be smart enough to get past JARVIS? It seemed to be some sort of a bug or perhaps a radio wave or magnetic field that was messing with his tech. Then there was a loud crash and the lights went out. Nice. Now it was dark as night. Great. Fucking great. Couldn't get any better than this. Luckily though (or unluckily), the emergency lights soon took control and cast the workshop in a dim, reddish light. That was when things got real twisted.
Not twenty feet from Tony, stood an enormous, fucking ALIEN. What the actual fuck? It was sort of human like, two legs and hands and all that, but its skin was pretty grayish, and its face was ugly as fuck. It was clad in some kind of a light armory and looked vicious enough to make Tony run like hell towards his suits. He sprinted fast enough to amaze freaking Usain Bolt, his brain rambling nothing that would help him. This is a fucking dream, there's no way something like that can just break in here, right? Crazy world, huh!
Something that felt very much like a gigantic hand wrapped around his ankle and Tony fell face first to the floor. The impact effectively punched all air out of his lungs and left him coughing and gasping, while he was trying to crawl away. It didn't work, of course, and the engineer soon found himself being thrown over the alien's shoulder. He twisted and kicked, doing his best to get away from the obnoxious creature.
"Let go, you fucker!" he screamed and tried to grab his phone or something to use to either call for help or fucking kill this bastard but he couldn't reach anything. He squirmed, swore and yelled at the guy but nothing seemed to work. He struggled in vain as the alien stepped from the hole it had created on his damn wall and suddendly it was dark again. Then he was dropped to the floor, and he painfully landed on his ass.
"Fucking hell..." Tony cursed, getting up as fast as he could. He felt a small breeze on his skin and heard a sound (a pang and a hiss) very similar to a mechanic door closing itself. No, it couldn't be. Fuck. The too bright lights flared to life and Tony had too raise his hand to momentarily cover his eyes. When he not a long moment after opened them, he didn't want to believe what he saw (or the scientist side of him wanted, but the rest of Tony told the guy to shut up and get a clue of their situation).
He was standing in the middle of a spacious room (definitely a ship, and most likely a space kind), ogling at the gray, ugly aliens gathered around him. There were four aliens to be exact, and the three of them he hadn't had the pleasure to meet just earlier were wearing the same white, medical looking robes. Oh God, this could not be good. The one dressed in armor advanced towards him and Tony took a step back. He did NOT want the alien-guy's filthy hands on him again.
"Stay away from me!" he said firmly, stressing nearly every word he uttered. But yet again, the asshole didn't apparently take 'no' as an answer, as it moved forward, with each step making Tony take one backwards. The engineer's back hit the wall, and he knew it was game over. It was time to fight like a madman. He braced himself to take the alien, but awkwardly fell to the floor on his back when the wall slipped up. Hahaha, very funny. That trick wasn't even clever and you still got Tony Fucking Stark to fall for-
The same gray alien grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged his struggling form to the room behind the raised wall. The said wall slid back after the three other aliens had entered the room, and Tony was now trapped in a smaller, completely white room. He saw a examination table in the center of the room. This was starting to painfully resemble the old and corny tales about alien kidnappings. Oh dear Lord, just kill him already. The alien shoved him towards the table and Tony was sent stumbling to grab its edge for balance.
"Hey! Learn some manners! At least buy me dinner first-" He turned around just to have one of the aliens clad in white yanking his chin up. The three were somewhat shorter than Muscles over there, but they were still taller than Tony. It irked him. "Let go of my face, you ugly son of a-" he was once again cut off when the creature tightened its hold, so that the iron grip forced Tony's mouth to stay open. He grabbed the hand holding his chin but it was once again a fruitless effort. Another one came and also took a look into his mouth, rambling something in gibberish to its apparent colleague. Soon the thing let go, and Tony's eyes were being studied instead. For the love of God, even the alien's eyes were fucking hideous. The alien seemed to be content with what it saw and it completely let go of the engineer's face and babbled something to its friends. Tony had the time to sigh in relief before his clothes were being ripped off of him.
"Hey! What the fuck!? Stop it, you lunatics!" His breath was starting to quicken. They are gonna prod at the arc reactor when they see it, oh my fucking God. They're gonna fucking take it out and freaking take a look. He kicked and screamed at the aliens stripping him, but it didn't take long before he was stark naked (hahaha) before the four aliens. At least he had managed to bruise one's face (and his foot at the same, but anyway).
One of the white clothed aliens took a hold of his hands as the other ran its own up and down his body. It didn't leave an inch (not an inch) untouched and after finishing groping the squirming Tony, it diverted its attention to the reactor embedded in his chest. Oh God. Tony felt the color drain from his face. They were going to take it out. When the thing reached its ugly finger and touched the surface of the reactor, Tony couldn't quite suppress the tremble that rocked his body. He was seriously going to throw up. The alien glanced at Tony's face. Then it took a final look at the reactor and removed its hand from the device. Tony felt like he could breathe a bit easier again. The thing said something to the others again and the two started pulling Tony with them, the tallest one in the armor following closely behind. Tony didn't really feel like fighting back and he knew it wasn't going to work on these guys, so he moved with the flow. It was easier for now.
One of the walls slipped up again, revealing a long hallway. They walked for a while, past metallic/mechanic doors until they took a turn to right. The door (with some yellow markings in gibberish painted on it) whooshed open and Tony was led inside. He was settled in the middle of the small room once again, and he decided to show his defiance by scowling at his captors. The alien that had led the way took a gadget from the wall that looked a lot like a hose and pointed it at Tony. The genius didn't have time to react before a cold shower of liquid (that was a lot like water, though he wasn't entirely sure) was sprayed on him (so it was a hose). He tried to cover his face from the stream, but the creatures were persistent on (most apparently) cleaning him up. When the procedure was done, warm air started to blow from a went above him. He stood there still, trying to get rid of the coldness on his skin, to the moment until the current stopped.
He was pushed out of the room and they walked some more, before turning now to the left, entering a very alike door as the one previously. The room was a lot bigger and contained long shelves. One of the aliens wandered around the room for a while, in the end apparently finding what it came for. It dumped a plain-looking, dirty white shirt and a pair of pants into Tony's arms, gesturing at the garments with a grunt. He could dress up by himself. Perfect. He quickly pulled the clothes on, appreciating the feeling of something covering his skin (he usually didn't mind being naked, but this was something different), and the cloth was clean and soft despite how ugly it was (there was a lot of ugly going on here with the space monkeys). His small bliss didn't last long though, as the things jerked him to follow them once more.
They walked further along the hallway and turned into another, a bit narrower, hallway. The doors were half as big as the ones on the preceding hallway and it was just as quiet as everywhere else. The only sounds were their footsteps and the faint humming of the spaceship. They stopped before one of the doors and the armored alien pressed his hand against a smallish, glowing screen next to the door. So the 'soldiers' were in charge, huh? The door slid open with a small hiss and Tony was shoved into a tiny, white room (cell, his brain corrected correctly) with two mattresses on the floor. He had to blink twice when he saw his apparent roommate sitting on the mattress to Tony's frontal left. The engineer's stomach dropped. Holy shit.
Loki.