fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

I come from a land of ice and snow

Asgard sat atop the branches of Yggdrasil since time began, and little had changed in their society in the years since. Each Asgardian was long-lived into the millennia, their lands were fertile, their people brave and strong. They had their vassals, their allies, and their enemies. Yet even those who opposed them respected the might of the Golden Dias, and the royalty who sat upon it. Currently that was Odin Borson, though he grew weary more easily now and had begun to consider passing the throne to his eldest son.

He had been blessed with many children, but only two that he considered worthy of his lineage and status. His firstborn, Thor, strong and honourable and everything an Asgardian warrior should be. His second son, Loki, was not natural born, though none knew that but his wife. He was different, a creature of magic and mayhem, of sharp intelligence. Both were worthy, but together they would take Asgard to a new prosperity, he was certain of it.

Midgard, where the mortals dwelt, was a land raided every few centuries for stock. It was seen as a breeding ground, much like a corral for cattle. Mortals were lesser, short-lived and weak, they were fit only as slaves. The last raid had taken place when Loki had been but a baby, nearly a thousand years ago, but the mortals that had been taken had been bred and cared for so that a healthy slave population still thrived. Slaves were given a weakened mixture of Idunn's crop with their food, to extend their natural lives to at least a few centuries in order to make them worth the effort to train. They had no rights, but they were taught well that this was their natural position.

All slave children were raised in a central pen and taught the same when small, those that then displayed talent at cooking, riding, hunting, housework, artisan skills, or singing were then measured off to be specially trained for higher masters. Every five years those who could afford to buy a slave, or those of high enough status to simply demand them, came to the corral and chose. Those who were chosen were special, were envied, and those who were not ended up working the fields out in the far reaches of Asgard, the most menial of work.

Anthony and Steven had been friends since they were little and being raised in the large pens together. Both had excelled, Anthony at crafting and Steven at warrior's skills, but neither were chosen when they were five, nor ten, nor even fifteen. Now, at twenty, it was their final chance to be chosen before they would be assigned to one of the meanest farmers beyond the borders of the great capital. Steven woke Anthony as the dawn rose, mingled excitement and nerves on his face.

"Anthony! Wake up, I've got news! I heard the overseer talking to one of the passing guards, and Princes Thor and Loki are coming to the corral today."

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Bruce was more inclined to be charitable to the fact that the two super soldiers had found yogurt, they weren't technically inclined (unless it was weaponry or vehicles in Bucky's case) and this was a pretty long way outside of their wheelhouse. So he paused and glanced down at the Captain, words firm but gentle.

"Captain, you're needed more to explain things to the populace. You need to tell them we've triggered an Asgardian trap, that some people have unfortunately passed, but that we have it in hand now so there's no need to panic. Stress the importance of relying on one another, and friendships in these trying times."

Boosting morale and will to live could only help combat this.

"I can handle extracting the virus itself, and I have Tony watching to assist."

There would need to be a discussion later about how information went out because Steve himself hadn't heard about the happenings either. They were still acting too much like individuals. That had to stop. "I'll handle this, Doctor," Steve agreed. "And when this is finished, we need to come up with ground rules so we can make sure everyone is safe and being looked after. All we have left is each other."

He was getting much too good at rousing speeches. He didn't know what they said about him or their situation but he didn't entirely like it.

When Bucky and Steve cleared out, Tony had FRIDAY transmit ships logs to him. "I was working in the aft, where I thought the power supply was. I'm going to guess it has to be there if I got sick a lot faster than everyone else. You'll be looking for something innocuous. Maybe runed."

Bucky went where Steve went, like a shadow at his shoulder, still far too grim faced to be really recognisable as the Sergeant he had once been, but far more human than he had been only a few short weeks ago. At least in the short week it had taken for the virus to take hold and kill, he had healed up mostly from his bullet wounds thanks to the serum, enough to not have Steve fussing at him when he resumed normal life activities.

Bruce let the two of them go and jogged down to where Tony had told him that he had been working, immediately starting to scan the area for anything that might indicate where the trap was originally laid.

"It doesn't affect me," he said, voice conversational even if the topic wasn't particularly lighthearted. "The Other Guy prevents it."

“Figured as much,” Tony said, oddly feeling a lot better than he had when Bruce first came to visit. “Same with Tweedles Dee and Dum. Whatever you three have in your blood, it’s doing wonders for whatever Asgard has to throw at you. We’re lucky about that.” He leaned forward, having FRIDAY zoom in on something odd stuck into the center of the wall. He had tools laying around and the arc reactor sunken in directly beneath it. He’d been using it like a hook for his light actually.

Tony groaned.

“Right there. Whatever that is, that’s got to be what’s causing the problems. I nearly had my face on it for the last few days. I tried prying it off of the wall to start to see what was underneath to ground the reactor but it wouldn’t budge.” And perhaps Bruce had seen the children hooking an end of a rope to it for skipping or making tents on over the last week or so of travel around Earth and then back to this moon.

Bruce had seen the hook before now as well, but he hadn't thought of it as anything unusual, though he had also tried to pry it from the wall in order to make it safer for anyone walking down here so they didn't catch themselves on it. Damn it, why hadn't he seen the tiny runes etched onto the side? Why had he just left it?

"It's probably stuck on with the same sort of magic to prevent tampering. If you couldn't get it off with your tools then-- well..."

He thought that maybe the Other Guy would be the only thing strong enough of ripping it from the skiff and crushing it, but that was a terrible idea. He couldn't control the Hulk, the creature could well destroy the whole ship and then kill more people outside. There was a reason that he hadn't even used that power with the Avengers yet, though Tony had been trying to push him to use it against Loki when everything went to hell and back.

“Seal the area off. There’s only three people here capable of going into that room unprotected. And that’s fine. The reactor has been installed and-- Think of it like Star Trek, Banner. You don’t want to go into the plasma reactor, right?” He was sounding better, having something really meaningful to work on was evidently agreeing with him. “I don’t think we need to remove it. Just keep people away from it. Unless other people are getting sick?”

He was a little out of the loop. Mohinder sat with him from time to time but it wasn’t always that easy to get real information out of the Indian. The man could talk, but he was mostly introspective about it. Tony tended to tune him out after awhile.

“Hey, by the way, I’m still a little mad that you thought I was dying and you didn’t come to see me.” He wanted to put that out there. “What if that was my dying wish? To see Bruce Banner one more time?”

"Then you need to find better life goals," he replied wryly, a hint of sass showing through now that they had actually identified the issue and could hopefully isolate it. "But if you want to know, I didn't come because I thought there was limited time and I wanted to use every second of it trying to save you."

He didn't have many friends, any really, and he counted Tony among them somehow. They just got on despite being so very different.

"I'm concerned about just locking this room up, we have no way to know if that will keep it contained once we have to use the skiff for a prolonged period again to get wherever we're going."

Okay, so that was nice to hear that Bruce was working tirelessly to try and find a way to help him. It wasn’t something Tony regularly or even irregularly expected anyone to do. He had been on his own for so, so long, afterall, even surrounded by other people, he’d been alone. Much too proud to say a thing, he cleared his throat and sat back, arms crossing over his chest as he tried to puzzle this one out. “What’s the other option? Removing the whole room? That just puts more people at risk by leaving it here, in the open. The people who were sick, it was all proximity or did they actually touch it? What about the people that walked the level above it?”

Tony didn’t have the answers, only the questions he was trying to act like a thought experiment for Banner, a sounding board. It was actually how they would find that they worked best, laying out a clear path of checks and balances for their geniuses to bump off of like pinballs in an arcade game.

“I have a lot of scrap metal on board. We can have Rogers weld it onto the ship. No one would be able to get in there then.”

"We don't know for sure that this will keep it out of contamination range, we know too little about magic and we can't risk it. The only thing we can do is try and find a way to get it out and then bury it several miles away from here, it's the only way to be absolutely certain that nobody else will get contaminated."

Of course, then they had the issue of how to actually get it out of the skiff to begin with. Once they had done that, at least he or one of the super soldiers could carry it to a safe location and dispose of it with impunity, but how to actually get it out?

"It's not like a normal pathogen, we have no idea if it will actually just go straight through any welded metal barricade."

“We also don’t know if the ship needs it to function,” Tony pointed out. “Then again, if you reduce the whole thing to scrap, I could rebuild it. Eventually. It’s sort of massive, Banner, and we have only a few months until we have to play Rescue Rangers. I’m good, but I’m not sure I’m that good without a corps of engineers to help me out with welding guns. We spent two weeks onboard that ship. Only the people directly by that thing got hurt.” And so far, he was the only survivor that had taken sick in the first place. “The vast majority of the ship is fine.”

But maybe Banner was right? In a way, Tony didn’t care. Playing at being a hero was not in the cards for him any more. He hadn’t really settled into that role with any certain desire. And going back to that place?

He didn’t want to. He knew that was a bad attitude to have so he was keeping it to himself, but that didn’t stop it from being true.

"It's unlikely that it's needed to function, not being a trap, they have to be able to disable it if the skiff happened to be used by other races. They have alliances, I believe, with others who aren't mortal."

It had to be a failsafe intended to strike thieves. It was highly unlikely that it had been intended to target mortals as these Asgardians seemed almost to believe that their slaves couldn't possibly be anything other than devoted and grateful.

"I need your help here, Tony, we have to get it out. I could-- the Other Guy could-- but it's far too dangerous. Who knows what else I might destroy or who else I might hurt?"

“You know I love your fancy moves, big guy, but I really think that’s a bad idea.” The Hulk was not as good as Banner was at giving hugs. “So okay. We just cut the ship apart and repair it. Bury whatever that thing is. I don’t think we have enough understanding of how Asgardians work to switch off whatever is doing the damage anyway and render it inert. I don’t know if my armor will protect me. I’m going to guess it’s a no on that front. But you can use the gauntlet to cut it out.”

There was something exciting about someone else in his armor-- He kept trying to outfit Pepper but she’d never taken the bait. This wouldn’t be the full suit, though he and Bruce were about the same size anyway, right, so that wouldn’t matter. But he could attach the gauntlet to the shoulder and still use the repulsor just fine.

“I left it upstairs in my room on the ship. It’s shoved under the cot.”

Bruce was more than happy to agree to the idea of using the gauntlet, relieved to have another option to explore that wasn't trying to control the Hulk in any meaningful way. He felt a wave of self loathing as he turned for the stairs; strength that couldn't be used, couldn't be useful, just to hurt others with. If anyone should have caught this virus it would have been him, but he remains immune like always.

Dozens dead. Children, innocents, and the monster lived on.

He grabbed the gauntlet and headed back down to where the hook was attached into the wall so securely.

"Are you going to talk me through using this? Your armour isn't exactly in my wheelhouse of expertise and I'd rather not blow my own arm off."

There was just something about Bruce that Tony couldn't help but like. He was so complex and so devoid of complexity at the same time. He didn't know what to make of the man, he truly did not. That was probably why he laughed in the earpiece. "Let's start off with some obvious lessons. Don't point the repulsor at yourself. Don't turn the gauntlet inside out somehow. Everything else is automated. It won't be live until you want it to be. Palm contact."

He had to talk Banner into the way to get the device on, but that was little more than a few colorful ways of saying to shove his arm inside. He would need some point to point interfacing but FRIDAY let them both know that Banner had made it easily. She even helped to close the shoulder down so it wouldn't buck at the first use.

"Now you just point and click. Well. Stretch your hand out. The beam activates automatically. Keep your fingers curled if you want to keep from blowing off your foot."

"Weirdly enough, I think I'd like to keep my feet, at least for now."

Bruce found that he got on with Tony too. It wasn't hard to see the man beneath the arrogance and fast talking, the one that obviously just wanted friendship and to be acknowledged, and giving him those things made him a nicer person in general. He didn't have many friends, but he thought that he would count Tony as one.

He angled the repulsor at the hook and let loose an initial blast, which didn't do anything other than make the hook glow slightly with the heat.

"I'm not sure it's strong enough, Tony."

"Analyze," Tony requested and FRIDAY spat out a lot of very interesting data that Tony had Bruce standby for. He sucked on his teeth, wishing they had more toothpaste because he was getting some gnarly breath, and shrugged it off a moment later. "So okay. Cut it out. You're going to have to take most of the wall north of the reactor. Try not to hit that all right? Limited resources and all?"

He zoomed in on what Bruce was doing, taking him through how to work the gauntlet. Phrases like: 'pretend you're a cartoon character lasering open a gem case' might have come up in that discussion.

"Wider berth. There's going to be a main access line right below where you are. Cut over six inches-- Can you just eyeball six inches? Because I want you to know that six inches on most people is nine on me."

"So, what you're saying is, three inches, then?"

Bruce managed not to laugh, saying it innocently, but there was an amused smile on his face that FRIDAY reported to Tony even though he couldn't see it for himself with the view pointed at what Bruce was actually doing on the wall. It was precision work, not exactly easy for his first time with the gauntlet, but he was smart and careful so eventually the section of wall fell to the floor.

"Got it. Right, what I need you to do is get hold of some people and take everyone to the village east of here for the night. When everyone is gone, I'll go west and bury it, that way we don't risk contamination as I carry it out."

That quick wit got a snarking huff from Tony, but he loved it all the same. Banner could keep up with him. That sass probably outshone even Pepper’s and she’d grown very sassy over the last few years since becoming less employee and more… He didn’t want to think about her. Tony kiboshed that thought immediately.

Instead, he put Banner on hold (and had FRIDAY play some hold music into his earpiece) to get in touch with his second favorite super soldier. “Rogers, gotta clear out the main village and move everyone half a mile away. Banner’s taking part of the hull with the problem child away to bury it in that no man’s land to the west.” They hadn’t really figured out why nothing had grown in there, or why there were no animals there, during their flyby but Tony thought it was because of the huge shale deposits and lack of water. Tony theorized that there used to be a massive lake in that location at one point that likely had gotten drained by the irrigation system. The water table was incredibly low, however, so Banner would find a safe place for the object that caused so many of them to be sick.

The blond lifted a hand to his ear and glanced at Bucky, murmuring an approximation of what Tony had said. “We’re on it. We’ve cleared most of the southern village out and can relocate everyone there. Tell Dr. Banner to give us an hour.”

Tony did, leaning back against the pillows with his ankles crossed. “So while they’re doing that, I want to clarify that sometimes length matters less than width.”

Bruce had no doubt that Steve and Bucky would be highly effective at getting even reluctant people to move to another village for the night. People were already idolising Steve and looking up to him, and nearly everyone was nervous around Barnes. Sad, really, because the man was gentle now if gruff, but his reputation had sown the seeds of fear among people here.

He got himself comfortable when Tony passed on the message about the time it would take, sitting on one of the chairs that had been left down here for renovating crew to sit on during breaks.

"So what you're telling me is that you're short and fat down there? Three balls instead of two."

There came another scoff, perhaps a snort. Tony didn’t surprise easily, but when it happened, it tended to happen big. “Excuse me? That’s harassment, Banner. I want that on the record. FRIDAY?”

“I always record everything as a default setting, Boss. Need that changed?” the AI responded cooly, to which Tony rolled his eyes, unseen.

“Well, yes, after this. Have to save server space.” He wasn’t playing around too much with that. Like paper, data was going to become very expensive too. He was already disliking the degree of rusticity his new life had in it. He didn’t want to make it worse. Especially since his servers might actually be the only thing holding centuries of human culture inside of them. He made a mental note to add some backups for that.

“Of course, Boss.”

“But back to the question, I’m of normal proportions everywhere, thank you. Since Suresh was the one taking care of me in my illness, he can back me up on that one.”

"You were well enough to be writing down all your worldly work, Tony, I hope you didn't actually make poor Mohinder see you naked. There are some things that people can never recover from, you know?"

Sass wasn't something that Bruce got to engage in that often, he was too much trying to stay under the radar and hide in plain sight, and he didn't have many people that he trusted to let it out with. Now that he had an hour to kill, and someone he liked, it was all coming out.

"I'd rather not ask for him to relive that trauma just to give me a size."

“First of all, I have never made anyone do anything, thank you. And no one has ever complained.” Maybe this was, in some weird way, a healing exercise by trying to do away with whatever body shame Tony might have after his many, many months on the training moon. “Least of all Suresh. But I wouldn’t trust his word anyway. We’re in direct competition here and he’s squirrely enough to make up lies about me to you.”

This was healing too, a way to vent his own jealousy and while he wasn’t trying to get Bruce to pick a favorite (it would be him anyway), speaking about it out loud made it seem less of a thing to harbor. Why would he? Mohinder had no where near the genius he did. And he could never understand Bruce the way that Tony already had.

He'd bet money on that!

Without Rhodey or Happy or Pepper here, Tony really needed a best friend. And Banner proved himself valuable for making sure he didn’t sink into himself. Maybe he could repay that in time.

He knew from experience that sometimes it was good to just allow the mood to get lighter and more irreverent, it allowed everyone involved in something scary and traumatic to realise that they could still laugh and smile and maybe that there could be moments where they weren't defined by what had happened to them.

"Direct competition?"

Bruce repeated the words in amused confusion.

"I'm sorry, am I now part of a love triangle that I didn't even know about? You'd be alright if I were, Dr. Suresh isn't a fan of mine, he seems to have got it into his head that I'm an arrogant racist."

To be honest, Tony was genuinely surprised at that. Suresh came off just as mild mannered as Bruce did. He’d seen them together many, many times having a laugh, working together…so what had changed? Tony knew he’d been working pretty hard for the last four or five days and of course, he’d spent the next four or five feeling (and being) on the verge of death. “Are you sure we’re talking about the same guy? Mohinder Suresh? Annoying accent, curly hair, wears a lab coat better than anyone, ever?” He didn’t mind losing his competition for BFF but he wanted to know why in case Mohinder charged up and won the crown at the last moment.

His metaphors were crazy, he knew and accepted that. His head just made them all work. Somehow. He used to think about donating his brain to science when he died, but he doubted science these days even cared about that when survival was on the line.

“Because as far as I’m concerned, the only thing that changed about this triangle is that you’ve become aware of it’s existence and can now weigh in on it.”

Bruce knew that Tony was joking, he had a strangely off-colour sense of humour sometimes, but he also knew that Tony had some severe abandonment issues and was probably jealous of Bruce having any other friends. He didn't want to encourage this type of thinking because it was possessive, destructive, and could lead down an unintentionally abusive path. But at the same time, nor did he want Tony to think that he was about to be stolen away by someone else.

"Oh, good. Then let me disband the triangle idea right away. I have enough friendship to go around, though Dr. Suresh isn't a fan of me, and I don't need to pin my allegiance to just one person."

Hopefully that should do it, though Tony could be odd about this sort of thing. Just look at how he had behaved and still behaved towards Steve.

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