Without ceremony Nick Fury stepped into the suite from the stairwell that led from the roof. His good eye scanned the room and it’s occupants with a suspicious half glare. “Where’s Stark?”

“Sir, we have an unauthorized guest in the main suite,” JARVIS reported. “Shall I execute security protocol nine-nine-one-seven?”

“Relax, JARVIS,” Tony said, waltzing back out the elevator a few short seconds after the door beside it had opened. “It’s just Captain Sparrow and his band of pirate misfits. You here for the Shawarma party, Eyepatch? Because I think the captain’s chair has already been filled for the day.”

Rolling his eyes - eye? - Fury walked further into the room, followed by four other agents, and looked around. “Somebody going to tell me what’s going on here, or am I going to have to guess?”

“Did I not just say the words ‘shawarma party’?” Tony inquired, looking around the room at the others as if seeking their acknowledgment that he had in fact already said such a thing. “Also we were about to introduce Stevie-boy here to the wonders of Star Wars - which reminds me, your plans to get him reintegrated into society? Not so great. The guy doesn’t know the different between Chewbacca and Spock.”

“I’m fixing to Chewbacca your ass,” Fury answered bluntly.

Tony arched an eyebrow in a facade of surprise. “Was that a threat? Was that a Star Wars themed threat? Why, Nick Fury, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

Choosing to ignore Stark Fury crossed to the center or the room and gave his attention to Steve, Bruce, and Natasha instead. “Alright, which one of you three is going to come clean. Rogers, Banner?” Turning to face Natasha specifically he crossed his arms. “Agent Romanova?”

Bruce, who had risen slowly when the agents had entered, stared at Fury with a face of pure innocence that even Tony envied. “Is there something specific we should be coming clean about, director?” he asked, completely relaxed and non-threatening as he stood with his head slightly tilted and his glasses in his hands.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Fury replied. “First off I’d like to know where Thor is.”

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There was a brief silence. Steve rose to his feet and glanced up at the open skylight. He slipped his hands into his pockets and shook his head slightly.

"Should have known that the lightning would have given it away." He could feel Bruce and Tony quickly exchange glances. Natasha remained stoic as ever as she took a sip from her wine glass. He looked back at Fury. "We didn't want to tell you but considering the circumstances-"

"-Steve." Bruce cut in, but Steve continued, his voice calm and unwavering.

"The fact of the matter is Thor was here. You see, I was on my way to see Stark here about my bike. He's been putting off fixing it for weeks now. I think he finds the thought of me taking a cab in the 21st century amusing. In any case, I happened to choose the exact wrong moment to come because Stark here was playing with his high-tech, modern-day toys... illegally, of course." He gave Tony a pointed look, then glanced at Bruce. "Sorry, Doc. You can't baby him forever. He's a grown man. He needs to own up to his mistakes."

Quickly catching on, Bruce sighed and clapped a hand on Tony's shoulder.

"You're right, Steve. But I have to say that it wasn't entirely his fault. I didn't exactly try too hard to dissuade him from his illegal experiments."

"You see sir, Stark was trying find a way to look into the different realms by hacking into different systems across the world." Natasha stood up from her chair and folded her arms across her chest. She raised her eyebrow. "Unfortunately, he was reckless as usual and Thor came down to warn him off because there was some sort of disturbance in Asgard during his experiment."

"A disturbance in the force, if you will." Steve added. Bruce snorted, but quickly stopped and resumed a stony expression. Steve grinned in the doctor's direction and raised his eyebrows at Natasha. "Contrary to what Mr. Stark may believe, I understood that reference."

"That wasn't a-"

"-in any case," He picked up his sandwich and walked towards Tony. He stood next to him and turned back to Fury. "Take it easy on Stark. Even genius billionaire playboy philanthropists make mistakes sometimes." There was a clear, heavy irony in his voice. He took a bite of the sandwich and offered it to the inventor, one eyebrow quirked upwards.

"Schwarma?"

For a moment Tony was actually completely thrown off guard by Steve’s apparent confession, as well as by the fact that Bruce and Natasha seemed equally willing to play along and throw him under the proverbial bus. It took about three seconds for him to get over it, though, and his usual devil-may-care expression quickly returned with a vengeance, accompanied only by a look of betrayed annoyance.

As the soldier stood by him Tony stared at Steve with a carefully veiled, searching expression. His chocolate brown eyes flickered, mostly with annoyance, but also with a grudging respect for the other man’s actions. He wouldn’t admit it, but while irritated he was also impressed. He only smirked when Steve offered him the sandwich but made no move to take it.

“Stark,” Fury said sharply, staring at the playboy with an intensity that would have left most normal people cowering. “Is that what happened?”

“Well we all know that no one here is going to take my word over Captain Honesty’s,” Tony said with a look of resignation and a total lack of regret. “Plus my track record speaks for itself, so yes, that’s what happened.”

Fury sighed heavily and put his hands on his hips. “Sometimes I wonder why I haven’t locked you up yet,” he all but growled.

“Because you need me?" Tony suggested. “Plus admit it, Fury, you’d miss me if I was gone.”

“Not as much as I hate having you around sometimes. Don’t you realize that if you mess around with the other realms somebody is likely to get pissed off and come here to blow us all to hell?”

Tony gave no answer, seeming for all the world like the unrepentant child he knew Fury thought of him as much of the time. Even when he was truly at fault in something excuses weren't his thing - he saw no point in offering ones now when he was, for once, completely innocent.

Moving forward until he stood toe to toe with Tony, Fury all but glared. “Don’t do it again,” he warned. “I don’t care who you think you are, if you endanger this planet because you want to play science then I will lock you up. Understand? This isn’t a game.”

Tony’s eyes were hard and his stance was one of deceptively casual relaxation as he listened to Fury without a word, but there was an edge of defensiveness there as well.

“Don’t worry, director Fury,” Bruce said calmly and with a glance at Steve, stepping nearer again throwing an arm around Tony’s shoulder in an attempt to break the tension. “There won’t be any more trouble. You have my word.”

“There’d best not be,” was the only reply. “I’m still trying to convince the council that letting you people go free after what happened with Loki isn’t the most stupid-ass decision I’ve ever made. Do not make me regret this.”

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Suddenly, Fury clapped a hand over his ear.

"Agent Hills, your team can stand down." He listened for a moment, then looked up and glared at all of them with his one good eye. He locked his jaw and turned, the tails of his waistcoat flying behind him. "I better not hear of any more funny business." The elevator doors opened and Fury stepped inside and disappeared.

There was a heavy silence that followed.

Steve moved away from Tony and rubbed a hand at the back of his neck, throwing his sandwich on the table. There was a faint trace of distress in his features as he sat down on the couch and massaged his temples.

It wasn’t until JARVIS checked in with a secure perimeter that Tony relaxed, crossing the room to drop onto the couch opposite from Steve. “Well that was fun.”

“Sir, shall I call and inform Agent Barton that the coast is clear so that he and Thor can return?”

“Go ahead, J,” the playboy answered. Staring at Steve he examined the soldier for a long moment before speaking up. “That was payback for the Star Wars comment, wasn’t it?”

“Tony-” Bruce began, not wanting an argument to spark up. They didn’t need that right now.

“No, no, I’m impressed,” Tony said, and it was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or sincere. “I didn’t know he had it in him.”

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Steve's eyes were hard as he looked up at Tony. He opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but then closed it again and stood up to get a beer. As he snapped it open, the doors slid open again.

"How did it go?" Clint walked in first and scanned the room out of habit. Thor followed closely behind, looking worried.

"My friends, it did not occur to me that my actions might have caused so much trouble in your lives. It was unwise of me to come."

"No, it was good that you warned us." Natasha pursed her lips. "But it's only a matter of time before S.H.I.E.L.D. finds out about Steve's little story."

"Story? What story?" Clint frowned.

"He told Fury that Tony had caused a little bit of ruckus in space and that Thor needed to come down to give him a warning for trying to play with the gods." Bruce said, the corners of his lips quirking into an amused smile.

"Did you, really?" Thor gave Steve a surprised look. The captain stared down at his bottle of beer and shrugged.

"It needed to be done." He paused, then sighed. "We need to come up with a plan to keep S.H.I.E.L.D. out of this. Agents Barton and Romanova can't keep them in the dark forever. It's obvious that they still keep tabs on us. We need to figure out what's we're going to do about this Loki situation. And fast."

“First things first, we need to know if he’s even on planet,” Tony said, rising from the couch again to walk to the bar. Moving the remaining shawarma and beer aside he pulled a screen up. “I had JARVIS start a sweep as soon as I hit the lab. If Loki is here and if he looks like himself and if he’s somewhere in range of any of Stark Industries’ satellites then we’ll find him eventually.”

Bruce approached to stand beside Tony. “Thor, where’s the Tesseract?” he asked. “Loki didn’t get it did he?”

“Nay. The Tesseract is safe within the halls of Asgard. That much at least we need not worry about.”

“If he didn’t have the cube then how did Loki even manage to leave Asgard at all?”

Thor hesitated, as if uncertain how to explain. “There are many ways to enter and leave our realm that even Heimdall, who watches and sees all, cannot find. Loki knew of at least one - he would not have needed the Tesseract to flee.”

“If he’s been taken though then odds are the ones who have him are going to head back to Asgard eventually to try and reclaim the cube, right?” Clint asked. “That’s what he was after in the first place.”

“It is likely. But my people have been put on alert. They will be ready if an attack should come.”

“Good, that means the only thing we have to worry about is protecting earth,” Tony said dryly.

“While keeping Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. off our scent until we can find Loki and send him back to Asgard,” Clint reminded.

“Right.”

“Something tells me that of those two, finding Loki is going to be the easy part,” Bruce said.

“Eh, maybe,” Tony replied thoughtfully, glancing at Natasha and Clint, and then at Steve. “Keeping S.H.I.E.L.D blind isn’t that hard if your careful.”

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"Maybe not, but you won't be the one lying to Fury's face." Natasha raised her eyebrow and pushed her fiery hair away from her eyes. "It shouldn't be that difficult, but it's still risky."

"Then we need to move fast." Steve put the bottle down and began to pace the room again to get the wheels in his head turning again. "We need to find out if Loki is even on this planet first. If he is, then our second step is find out if he's working for the big guy or if he's just laying low until he can plan his next move." He suddenly looked up and snapped his fingers, turning around to face the others.

"We need to create a bait."

Bruce slipped off his glasses again and nodded slowly.

"That's perfect."

"It has to be something Loki cannot resist." Natasha slid off of the stool and nodded in Thor's direction.

"That way, if he's here, then he'll make an appearance. But if he doesn't, then it's safe to assume that we should focus our attention in a different realm." Steve looked at Tony. "And I'm pretty sure I know just the man who can help us provoke Loki to come back into the public."

"But we must be careful." Thor gripped his hammer and looked at Tony, then back at Steve. "Anything too public will attract S.H.I.E.L.D's attention."

"We can keep S.H.I.E.L.D. off our radar, but to create a large-scale event that would entice Loki to come... it's going to have to be big enough so that he's going to come running from whatever hole he's hiding in on this planet. And I'm not sure if keeping S.H.I.E.L.D. out of this is even possible."

Tony kept silent as the others debated, his expression thoughtful. Eventually his hands dropped from where they had rested against his lips in and he clapped once. “I know what to do,” he declared seriously. Brushing past the bar he moved to another work station, sliding up another screen.

“JARVIS, activate privacy measure four-six-romeo-delta-juliet,” he ordered, still moving around the room past everyone and flicking up more screens as he went.

“Tony, what are you doing?” Bruce asked, while the others all watched silently.

“I’m about to solve our bait problem,” the playboy replied, somewhat distracted as he began to sift through files on one of the view screens.

“Initiating black-out protocols now,” JARVIS announced, and instantly every window in the room went completely black, effectively shutting out all of the light from the outside world. The only illumination came from the screens and a few low-level emergency lights.

“J, put all the information from project five-four-two-zero-one-two.”

“Sir, are you certain? That file contains the information on the Tes-”

“Do it, JARVIS,” Tony replied. “I need it.”

“Of course, sir.”

Less than five seconds later the screens all lit up with a single file that contained pages of scrolling data, blueprints, and plans.

“Lady and gentlemen,” Tony said, waving his hand with a flourish that sent one of the images into mid air to float as a holographic image. An ice blue cube hung there, swirling on the inside and flickering with lights and energy. “I give you the bait.”

“Wait a minute,” Clint muttered. “Isn’t that-”

“The Tesseract,” Thor said, gazing at the image before looking down at Tony with a hard and suspicious stare.

“Technically no,” Tony said, spinning the image in mid air before looking at the rest of the team again. “But you’re close. I’ve been working with prototypes since you took the real thing home. This one ins’t anywhere near as powerful as yours, but if it works it’ll be able to replace the entire arc reactor that’s currently powering this tower.”

“Should you really be messing with this stuff, Stark?” Clint questioned, staring at the floating cube with more than a hint of distrust.

“According to S.H.I.E.L.D.? No. Probably not. But the important thing right now is we can use it to draw Loki out of his hidey-hole. If he’ll come for anything it’ll be this.”

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"Looks like you were right about Stark after all, Cap." Natasha smirked. Steve let out a breath and glanced at Tony's holographic Tesseract and shook his head.

"I can't say I'm surprised." There was a hint of disapproval in his voice, but admiration as well. He turned to Thor. "Now we just have to set the scene."

"If he's in our realm then he has to be somewhere nearby," Clint pointed out. "If I were Loki, I would want to be somewhere close so I could keep an eye on my enemies."

"Is there any way you can keep S.H.I.E.L.D. off our scent?" Steve looked at Natasha, then back at Clint.

"Not if you put cause a power outage for the entire island of Manhattan." Clint frowned. "Fury would be on us before we could even get the lights back on again. If we don't tread carefully, Stark could actually end up in jail, and that's not going to get us anywhere."

"What if we were to tell S.H.I.E.L.D. about our plans?" Bruce looked thoughtful.

"Doctor Banner, with all due respect, I do not believe it is-"

"-just hear me out, Thor." Bruce said calmly. "We don't have to tell Fury about how Loki has become even more potentially dangerous because of the consequences of his inabilities to follow through with acquiring the Tesseract. We could report to S.H.I.E.L.D. that we suspect your brother is hiding amongst us, biding his time until the right moment comes to attack again. That way, we'll technically be telling them the truth... it might ease them off of spying our activities for awhile, anyway."

"And then what?" Steve looked grim. "We double-cross them and take Loki in for ourselves?"

"I don't think we have much of a choice, Cap." Natasha didn't look entirely happy with the situation either. "Even if Fury knew where we were coming from by not wanting to keep Loki under S.H.I.E.L.D's tight security, the council would never support us."

“You know what would completely solve this problem?” Tony asked, working to clear the screens so JARVIS could lift the privacy blackout. “If Loki were to just show up and turn himself is. Honestly, I’d probably kiss him for it.”

“Since I doubt that’s likely to happen we need to come to a decision here,” Clint remarked seriously. “How are we going to draw him out without S.H.I.E.L.D finding out?”

“If we catch Loki I can return him to Asgard with or without the permission of S.H.I.E.L.D,” Thor said. “It is true that he has done your world much harm, but his judgement will come from Asgard alone. Nick Fury has already agreed to this - if he is a man of his word he will not object now.”

“It’s not Fury we have to worry about, it’s the council,” Clint reminded. “They’re the ones who call the final shots.”

Heavy silence fell as everyone considered their options, knowing that either way they chose this was bound to end badly for someone. “So, are we going to tell S.H.I.E.L.D about this or not?” Bruce asked eventually, looking around at each member of the team.

“I did not wish to risk including them in this, but I fear you are right, Banner,” Thor conceded eventually. “For the sake of all of you they must be told. I can escape the consequences of this council's anger if I must, but that is not the case for any of you, and I do not wish to have that trouble brought down upon your heads. If you will help me draw my brother out of hiding then I will take responsibility for removing him from the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D. In that none of you need be involved.”

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"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Steve said. He glanced at the window for a moment. "You think he's watching us now?"

"I wouldn't bet against it." Clint replied, glancing at the rest of the team. "Look, we better get a move on. Natasha and I are supposed to be back at the office in a half an hour."

"Then we don't have much time. The sooner we get this done, the better. Barton, Romanova, you're in charge of informing S.H.I.E.L.D. Only tell them what they need to know. Stark, Banner, you two have a lot of work ahead of you. Make sure that prototype is as authentic as possible without permanently wiping out a whole city." Steve stopped and turned to Thor with a nod. "You and I will discuss our plan of action tonight. My guess is that S.H.I.E.L.D. will want us to meet at their headquarters so they can keep a tight leash on our project. We'll meet here first for updates about where everyone is at."

Steve moved towards the couch to pick up his worn, brown leather jacket.

"We suit up tomorrow night."

“Look at him telling us how to do science,” Tony commented with a smirk in Steve’s direction. As if the super soldier had any real idea how much work the two scientists were going to have to do to get this thing done in time.

Purposely ignoring Tony and his snarks Bruce shook his head and pushed the other man towards the elevator. “Everybody should probably keep their comms handy, just in case,” he said as he recalled the units that Tony had given everyone weeks ago.

Waltzing into the elevator Tony suddenly stopped and turned back. “Hey, Rogers,” he called, reaching into his pocket and tossing something in the soldier’s direction - a set of keys that tinkled and rattled as they flew. “Your bike is in the garage," he said. "I managed to fit it in between all my illegal activities after all.”

Without waiting for any kind of response at all he stepped back into the elevator car. “Status update on the Mark VII repairs, JARVIS,” he said as the doors slid closed. “Looks like we’re going to have to skip out on the spinning rims again after all.”

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Steve looked slightly dumbfounded as he stared at the keys in his hand for a moment. There was a hint of wariness, and then he recovered just in time to see Natasha and Clint wave good-bye to Thor.

"Wait, could you tell me how to get to the garage?"

"Keypad in the kitchen. Have a good night, Cap. Good luck." Natasha tilted her head, and patted his back before slipping out the door to the stairwell with Clint.

Steve let out a breath and jingled the keys in his hand.

"We should head out." He nodded to Thor and paused in front of a bright blue, glowing keypad on the kitchen wall. Technology always made him nervous, though he was never willing to admit it. Of course, Stark was always more than generous enough to point this out to everyone whenever he got the opportunity to in public. And it was now becoming painfully apparent as to why he was such an easy target for Stark's little games. Steve frowned.

"I can never remember which of these buttons..." He jabbed a random code in. All of a sudden, the glass sky roof whirred above their heads and lowered slowly. Slow, seductive Marvin Gaye music filled the room. Thor exchanged glances with Steve. The lights began to dim.

"What... what is that sorcery?" Thor suddenly stepped forward and watched in awe as a disco ball descended. "It appears to be... shiny."

Steve's brow furrowed.

"I don't know. But could be a grenade in disguise. You better stand back."

"I do not know this 'grenade' that you speak of. Does it play music?"

Feeling that it was best to ignore him, Steve turned back to the keypad. Without thinking, he pushed in another familiar code. Suddenly, a high-pitched beeping sound rang through the room. Without warning, the glass ceiling exploded. Both of the bewildered men covered their heads as the tiny shards of glittering rain fell to the floor and bounced off of their arms and shoulders. There was a moment of complete silence.

Thor straightened up slowly.

"Ah. A grenade. I understand now."

"We'll take the stairs," Steve muttered as he picked his way through the glass and made his way to the door that Clint and Natasha had disappeared through. "I'm sure Stark can have one of his robots clean up this mess later. We've got work to do."

---

The next night came quickly. The streets of Manhattan were packed with people pushing each other on the pavements and hurrying to the next subway station. The noises that once made Steve irritable and uncomfortable now calmed him. As long as Loki was still laying low, the island of Manhattan would go on as usual. As they pulled up at the bottom of Stark Tower, Steve slid off of the motorcycle and unzipped his leather jacket. Thor followed him through the double doors, pulling his hammer out of his coat as they walked silently up to the next set of doors. Steve pressed the button and stepped closer to the speaker.

"JARVIS? It's Steve and Thor. We're here."

“Access granted. Welcome back, sirs,” JARVIS replied, opening the doors for them.

“I still do not understand where this JARVIS hides,” Thor muttered as he followed Steve into the posh elevator car. “Nor what his purpose is.”

Upstairs in the suite neither Tony nor Bruce were anywhere to be seen, but the mess from last night had been cleaned up and everything seemed in order.

“Mister Stark has asked me to inform you that he will be down as soon as he can. Meanwhile he requires that you do not attempt to enter the laboratory. He also wished me to inform you that the code to enter the garage is five-five-seven-two-two, since you seemed to have misplaced the information last night.”

Behind them the secondary elevator that came from the labs dinged and Bruce stepped out, looking tired but satisfied.

“Hey, guys.”

“Banner,” Thor returned the greeting by offering his hand, which Bruce took.

“Agents Romanova and Barton have arrived.”

“Let them up, JARVIS,” Bruce replied. That done and with a lopsided grin he glanced at the other two men. “You guys made a mess last night, huh?” he asked, completely good natured in his teasing. “Looked a little like a war zone this morning.”

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"I'm sure we'll never hear the end of it from Stark." Steve shook his head, but there was an amused look on his face. He knew Bruce meant well. It was ironic that the soft-spoken scientist was one of the people Steve felt the most comfortable around these days, given the fact that at any moment, he could... well...

"This grenade... I do not like it. It pretends to be pleasing to the eyes, and yet it blazes with no warning." Thor shrugged off the borrowed coat and gripped his hammer with a grim look.

"Did someone say grenade?" Clint stepped out of the elevator.

"Tony must be up to his tricks again." Natasha followed him into the living room and placed a hand on her hip. "Speaking of which, where is he?"

"Make yourselves at home, he's on his way." Bruce walked into the kitchen and began to pour wine into separate glasses. "The prototype is giving him some trouble."

"Trouble? We don't have time for trouble."

"Relax, Cap. He'll get it done. When he comes up, you can brief us."