fossilised | it's a new plot!

Steve clasped Tony's hand as if he fully understood the gravity of what was being offered to him, smiling one of those beaming smiles that even lit up his eyes. He wasn't a man who could lie very well, or at all most of the time, so Tony could be assured that the joy he was seeing was genuine.

"I always miss my friends when we have to be apart for a while. And thank you for coming back and giving me a second chance after what I did, I'm still sorry, I should never have lied to you."

“Shut up, Rogers,” Tony said, smelling the man’s aftershave (because of course he used it) and what was probably powder. It had such a strong reaction out of him that he pulled the man in for an embrace, not exactly as he had done with Bruce, but there was full body contact just the same. He couldn’t help it.

He’d missed Steve. He missed his warmth.

And he was currently hosting the guy’s best friend so... we’ll they were going to eventually be even on the not telling each other thing.

He released Steve as quickly as he had held him close and plopped back down before Rhodey elbowed his way over. “Don’t I get a hug?”

“Nope,” he told his friend, glad to see her had started to walk without the cane. It was an uncomfortable moment for them all as the Avengers all filtered in. The last time they had been together, it had been a brawl.

“Hey guys!” Whatever Tony might have said was swallowed up by the teenager bounding towards him. In costume. “Wow so cool to meet you guys! You know, when we’re not fighting. Mister Stark, hoooo... Doctor Banner? Wow!”

Steve felt something unwind in his chest when Tony accepted his apology and friendship back. With the Accords gone, it felt like maybe this might be a chance for them to rebuild into the strong team they had been before Ultron, when they had become like a family again.

Bruce blinked in surprise at the costumed teenager. He wasn't used to most people knowing his name, usually they worked hard to keep Banner and the Hulk separate, and it was the Hulk that most people knew. Though scientifically minded people sometimes knew that a physicist called Bruce Banner worked with the Avengers from time to time, he had no idea that Peter Parker was a scientifically inclined kid.

"Uh-- hi, it's nice to meet you too," Bruce said in confusion, holding out his hand politely. "And you are?"

So this was the kid that they should have had, but had Ultron instead. He was bright, but like all ten year olds (Tony had no Idea how old he actually was), he was rambunctious. And idiotic.

Peter changed his voice to make it sound deeper, reaching excitedly for Bruce’s hand. “Hey— Hi. Spider-Man. Nice to meet—“

“Parker, knock it off,” Tony said from the other end of the table. “I get the whole secret identity. However. If you’re here you have to trust people.”

“Parker? Who’s that?” Peter laughed nervously and tried to lean on the table before misjudging and almost falling over. He used the suit to catch him though and he tried to pull off looking cool with the web hammock he made. It didn’t work.

“Oh it’s that spider-kid, from the airport,” Sam said, coming to stand by Steve as Tony snapped at Peter to pull off the mask.

“Come on.”

“Mister Stark—“ That was a whine. But he did do as he was hold, sheepishly removing the hood. His hair was in total disarray. “Uh.. sorry guys. Peter Parker. It’s... still... really great to meet you.”

Bruce still just looked incredibly confused. He had no idea what the airport or the spider-kid were about, and he had absolutely no clue that Tony had taken him under his wing for a while and nearly inducted him properly into the Avengers. Before Pepper left and he ended up sinking into his little hole again.

So he just glanced around the table to where a few more people were looking nonplussed. They still recognised Parker, but were sort of confused as to why he was there. He was, after all, just a kid, and this wasn't a kid's game.

"I think somebody might need to fill me in on this later," mumbled Bruce, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "I've been a bit, uh, busy. Thor says hello, by the way, but he's taking an official hiatus from the Avengers. His father has passed away and he has the duties of a King to occupy him for the moment, but he says he'll always come if 'our need is great'."

Steve took his seat finally and frowned down the table, though out of concern rather than disapproval. Okay, maybe slight disapproval. "Nice to meet you again, Peter, it's always good to see another New York native. But do you mind if I ask why you're here?"

The kid looked around the room, filled with past and present and returned Avengers (minus Thor), and though he tried to remember that he saved New York when no one else would believe him about the Chitauri black market, he couldn’t help but feel a little out of his league. “Well. Well Happy sent me a Captain America emoji and today’s date and then dropped me off.” His hair seemed to pout, that was how animated the boy was. “I’m sorry, Mister Stark. I know I said I wasn’t interested full time but I thought when Happy told me to assemble, you needed me again.”

He spread something Tony Stark obviously had a hand in making on the table, as eyes shifted to Tony. He seemed to like the attention, because the older man was smirking

“He’s worked with the Stark Initiative in a consulting fashion twice now. Think of him like our first junior member. Someone needs to mentor him because today’s potential super heroes could easily turn into tomorrow’s super villains.” He turned to Bruce and waggled his eyebrows. “Like that? Literally just popped into my head.” Tony stood and sauntered his way over to the back of Peter’s chair, which he gripped, tightly. “Parker is strong, smart enough to disable all of the safety functions I built into his suit, and listens to authority as well as any of us.”

Of all people, it was Natasha that spoke up. “I think he should be here,” she said. He wasn’t that much younger than Wanda. And sure, Wanda still wasn’t completely right from what was done to her, but Natasha had started very young herself. She wished she had a guiding hand. Tony’s might not be the best hand but maybe Tony needed it too. “He’s proven himself capable to step up to the plate.”

But Scott kept making faces.

“You know we like, Uh, tried to kill a kid last year? No offense, your super powers are cool.”

Peter worked up. “So are yours! I love the whole growing thing!”

Scott rubbed the back of his neck. “The Gulliver’s Travels response was pretty clever—“

Peter frowned. “Who..?”

“Anyway,” Tony broke in, hands now on Peter’s shoulders to pull him back into the seat since he looked about ready to happily melt out of it. “I vote he stays. Intern capacity. Go get us coffee, Parker.”

Wanda and Vision both also agreed that he should stay, but even with the overwhelming majority thinking that it might not be such a bad thing, all eyes still turned to Steve to make the final decision. Perhaps he had been away and in hiding for a long time, but he would always be the undisputed leader of the Avengers. He was their moral core, what kept them as superheroes and not just vigilantes.

He still didn't look sure, but eventually he nodded and fixed both Tony, as his patron, and the kid himself with a stern sort of expression.

"Alright, son, but there will be some restrictions. I'm not sure intern is the right label and you don't have to get anyone coffee, but you'll be on training detail only. I'm not putting a minor into dangerous situations if it can be helped. I think a mentor system probably works best - Tony, you obviously already know Peter, so you can be his primary mentor. Bruce, why don't you join him as a secondary mentor?"

Bruce looked up, startled. Surely he was the last choice for any kind of mentoring considering what he could become, but Steve had picked him because Bruce was the most compassionate of their members and would balance Tony's devil-may-care style out well. Bruce opened and closed his mouth once or twice, before just shrugging helplessly.

"I guess this means you can't retire, Tony."

Tony shrugged as if it was no big deal. Bruce looked so pleased, so surprised, and he’d pretty much already made up his mind that he and Tony were going to get right back to business where they left off. Having been a disappointment, to James if no one else over the last day or so, and with a few beaming faces pointed in his direction, Tony couldn’t manage to say no.

“You’re still getting us coffee. Down the hall, four doors down. FRIDAY has our usual orders. Just bring it back.” There was no way that Tony could budge Parker if he didn’t want to be but that kid happily let himself be yanked out of the seat and he scampered off as Tony took it, beside Bruce and Rhodey. “So this is nice. Everyone together again.”

Wanda still looked like she hated his guts but he could live with that. She was creepy.

“What’s the first order of business, Cap?”

“We need to find Bucky. With everything going on, we need to make sure he’s all right. He’s going to be a target and it’s important that we find him first,” Steve said immediately. Most everyone agreed.

Tony felt his stomach bottom out.

Bruce knew this would have been coming.

He had also been thinking about how to divert it while giving some comfort to Steve, though honestly knowing that his friend was out there and didn't want to see him would probably leech any comfort out of anything. He had to be the one to speak here, because Tony was less universally trusted and would probably spill too much in an attempt to keep it secret.

"I saw him on my travels," said Bruce, mildly. It wasn't exactly a lie, the Tower was part of his travels, but it made it sound like he had seen him when he was far away from here. He waited for the general murmur of shock to pass by. "He was healthy and he'd found somewhere safe to stay, but he wanted to remain there without being bothered. I think we should respect that. From what I've seen, his status is well on the way to changing from villain to victim, so he'll likely be in less danger anyway. I think that he'll make the choice to come back when he's ready, and we don't have the right to push that choice forward."

“How long ago?” At least Steve seemed happy about that, to hear first hand that someone had seen Bucky. They all assumed that Tony was the one that released the exonerating material and Tony wasn’t about to say that it was Bucky and FRIDAY. “He looked... all right...?”

Everyone was quiet as Bruce filled Steve in on his friend. The little details made all the difference. Even something as small as Bucky looking like he had been eating went a long way to make Steve feel better. They’d all been through a lot, after all, and thankfully, Steve did not yet know that there was an entire ship of Asgardians hovering over the Tower in New York.

It had been reported on of course, but he wasn’t as connected to social media as everyone else.

And he had no idea that the Hulk had been off the planet for years.

Tony settled back as Peter bustled in with the coffee only to have Sam bring up the next topic. Namely. The ship.

“So does Thor being bsck have something to do with what’s blowing up my Twitter?”

Bruce didn't give out a whole lot of details because he didn't want to outright lie or give false information. He just told Steve that he hadn't actually spoken to the other man, but that he'd looked a healthy weight, clean, and he had been in a safe environment when Bruce had passed through. That had to be enough to go on.

Natasha looked thoughtful and unconvinced, but she was smart enough to keep her mouth shut for now. She would, however, be investigating this in her own time.

But then the subject got changed and this was also something that Bruce was the authority on, so he found himself holding forth again, which wasn't a natural state for him. He usually preferred to stay quiet, to let other people speak, and to pretend he wasn't actually there.

"A war happened on Asgard and the whole realm was destroyed, the people that are left are all the survivors, they've come to Earth with Thor as their King to find safety for a while before they start to look for a new home. At least, that's what I understand it as."

“How... Many...?” Wanda asked, her voice guarded as FRIDAY helpfully projected an image of the ship onto the far wall (to which Peter ‘wow’ed and nearly spilled Tony’s drink on him).

“A few thousand,” Tony answered, pushing the cup away from the excitable teen. “Oh. And Loki.”

He wasn’t sure why he said the name. It made his head pulse with longing and he paled slightly before he turned in the chair back to the ship.

“It’s complicated. They all got hair cuts and everyone is friends again. Like us.”

“They’re not like us, Stark,” Clint offered.

"Alright, there's no need to turn this into a fight. As long as Thor is keeping them all in check, then we can coexist for a while, but we're going to have to deal with the logistics of an alien species that have come to take residence on Earth for a while. That means negotiating with the government, and we need to get that ship out of sight before it gets worse than this."

That was all Steve, already taking charge and having people listen to him. "Rhodey, you and I will negotiate with the government on this. Tony; you, Bruce, and Peter can run interference on the Asgardians. Find somewhere incognito for them to stay, make sure they don't cause international incidents, find a new place for them to go. Vision, Wanda, Natasha, Clint, you four handle the mess that's still happening with the Accords and the leaked information. Find a way to make things right again, I know you're the best people for the job. Any questions? Objections?"

“Can I get assigned something,” Scott asked, only to have Sam tell him that they were on HQ duty. Not everyone got to have the fun tasks and whoever was left over had to mind the shop. Lang looked disappointed. “Man. Even the kid gets to go and meet aliens.”

“Because the kid’s parents are going to meet the aliens. He’s coming for supervision.” Tony hadn’t slipped. He’d been seeing Peter, at least a little bit, like the son he hadn’t ever had. Or wanted. And with Bruce back, he was feeling oddly paternal.

Like they’d done this kid thing before.

He wandered across the screen, telling FRIDAY to relay to Thor that he should take the ship above the clouds, and that they’d be coming to dinner. “Have him set three spots,” Tony said before he glanced at Rogers. “We should catch dinner. Soon. There’s probably a lot to talk about.”

Steve glanced gratefully at Sam. He knew that he could trust the other man to look out for HQ while he was gone, and that he really did understand the importance of always having people at base. Next time, he would make sure it was a different two people left behind, but there should always be someone on reserve in case of an emergency.

He nodded to Tony, accepting the invitation for a nebulous future dinner, before turning away to start on his own task, leaving Tony with Bruce and Peter for company. Given that Tony was concentrating on communicating with Thor, Bruce decided to try and look out for the new teenager in their party.

"So-- Peter, right? Do you have any questions for me?"

That was the stupidest thing that Bruce Banner, short of maybe experimenting on himself, had ever done. Peter did not stop talking from the moment that Bruce gave him the go ahead until they all piled into the back of the car waiting for them and were on their way back to the Tower. Tony just sat there, arm stretched across the back of the seat, legs crossed, and watched Bruce and Peter, who were seated across from him, interact. He was glad Happy brought the limo. This gave them a good amount of time not to be all cramped up together and gave Tony quite the vantage point for this interaction.

“I mean what else are the side effects? Are you radioactive?” Peter asked at one point. “Because I had Aunt May take me the hospital but they didn’t find anything wrong. Which is good. Because cancer would be a real bummer even if I can walk on walls—“

Technically, these were all questions but Bruce didn’t get a moment to break in with a reply.

Peter could talk.

“Do you like Star Wars? My best friend Ned and I are really excited about the new movie. What was it like in high school for you? I mean, you’re probably the smartest guy in the world, right?”

“Hey,” Tony protested but Peter didn’t hear him.

“You have like ten doctorates right? Amazing!”

Wow.

Bruce thought that Tony had the gift of the gab, but this was a whole other level and he found himself almost breathless by the onslaught of questions. He was a little sad that apparently Peter already knew that he was the Hulk, but also comforted by the fact that he didn't seem to be afraid of it. Again, quite like Tony, he could see why his friend had taken this superhero teen under his wing.

When he finally had a moment to get a word in edgewise, he opened his mouth and...

...the world exploded in pain.

Something hit the car side on right where Bruce was sat and buckled the metal, slicing right through his abdomen and left thigh. He felt the sudden dull roar of fury in his head and moaned aloud, more scared by that than any of his injuries. He could vaguely hear Happy swearing up front as he got the car back under control, but that was about it.

Though Peter scrambled over Bruce to try and keep the car from being completely buckled, the damage was already done. His injuries weren’t just life threatening, they were fatal. And as Peter pushed the metal back, whatever was holding Bruce’s abdomen together was removed and a mess of blood spurted out, hot and sticky, across the jaggedly smashed window. Where Tony sat, he was a lot safer. There was bullet and impact resistant glass on his side of the car and the panels were thicker and built in with plenty of impact safe plastics inside the door itself. That didn’t mean that the crash forced him out of his seat, but at least he wasn’t too injured.

He laid on the floor of the limo as they swerved and Happy came to a stop at the junction. The other car was just as ruined but it was trying to limp away, sideways. That didn’t matter.

From his vantage point, the spray of blood across the sidewalk of the car and Peter himself, and the glassy look in Banner’s open eyes all painted one picture.

This was bad.

The Hulk didn’t take too kindly to being unleashed when Banner had died, not from Tony’s perspective, and he’d only briefly met the chatty, somewhat less destructive Hulk through a video call.

“Pete— Pete I need you to get yourself and Happy away from here. Snag that bastard that hit us too. Don’t argue, just go.”

He’d stay behind to deal with the Hulk... the one who was just starting to force a corpse back to life.

Thankfully, Peter didn’t argue. In his suit, he spun a web to get Happy up into one of the nearby trees and snagged the retreating van too. Easy peasy.

Bruce had no idea if the person that hit them had done it on purpose, a deliberate attack on a limo that had Stark license plates, or whether it was one of those random accidents that could happen to anyone. It sucked that it was happening to him. Not because of the pain and the blood, he didn't care about that, but because he felt himself dying and he knew it wouldn't be the end.

Despite how far he had come, just for a moment there was a part of him that wept that this wouldn't be the final death.

And then he was gone.

The Hulk didn't come out in a controlled and slow sort of growth, he exploded outwards in such fierce ferocity that the top of the car peeled off as easily as a can opening, and he sprang out at once. He snorted, threw his head back, and bellowed a challenge at the world that would dare to kill Banner. Puny he might be, but he was still the Hulk's, and killing him wasn't allowed.

He charged wildly, viciously, at the nearest person in sight. Which would be Peter as he held onto the retreating van.

Not good. So much in this life was never as planned and yet Tony so often managed to get the people he cared about in terrible situations and though he did he best to guard against it, sometimes he just couldn’t protect them. Today was not going to be that day.

As the Hulk charged, Tony used his fingers to make a high pitch whistle, hopefully stopping the beast.

“Hulk! Buddy, you came back! We never got to have our reunion!” Tony, of course, was the Hulk’s biggest fan on earth. He didn’t mind being the big guy’s cheerleader. He liked absolutely every aspect about the scientist... and he was more than just a puny doctor. “Are you gonna tell me about that girl you were with? Cute. Asgardian? Lucky asshole. Come here, I have something I need smashed.”

He’d just use the limousine bait. But from what he had seen of the Hulk lately, he wasn’t all mindless. There was a person in there. A real person and not just a rage monster.

Tony sort of loved that.

There was more to him than a mindless creature, but not right now. He had been given months... years... to find his voice when he had been fighting in the arena, but this wasn't a controlled situation. He was a creature of impulse and anger at his core, and Banner dying was a pretty big trigger button.

He slammed directly into a truck that had stopped because of Peter catching the car that had crashed into them, literally breaking it in half and spilling the contents all over the road. People started screaming and running, which was just a red rag to a bull when it came to the Hulk.

Unfortunately, he ignored Tony for now, he wasn't quite at the point for logical conversation and being helpful. Someone killed Banner, and that meant someone had to pay.

Tony hated to be ignored. He had a lot of things on his plate right now and he really just wanted one to work out. He supposed that the thing with Steve and getting the old gang back together counted as things working out, though. Sure. Okay, but he didn’t want to face the Hulk without his armor.

“FRIDAY—“

“It’s already en route from the quintet, Boss. Forty-two seconds until arrival,” FRIDAY said, top of her game, but it would still be too late.

Peter mostly just blinked at the Hulk and tried to shuffle the people in the van to safety. Hard to do without tall buildings though. Just lots of trees. Trees about Hulk-height. No good.

He exhaled and tried to do what Tony had done. “Mister Hulk—. Weird question. Can I get an autograph?” He didn’t know that the Hulk was used to being the big cheese and a star. “Or would later be better? So cool to meet you!”

Peter was about to learn that having the strength of a spider, which was enough to stop a super soldier arm in its tracks and bring down a giant man, would be nothing compared to the Hulk. A huge green fist connected with him hard and sent him flying, but beyond that his attention wasn't on Peter. If he killed the human, so be it, his prey was in this van that had been stopped.

This was the one that killed Banner. This was the one that he needed to revenge himself on. Tony was right that he was smart, to an extent, he knew who his prey was and he was just going through everyone else necessary to get to it.

He bellowed as he ripped the top of the van clean off to reveal a man, silent with petrified fear, and a woman who was screaming at the top of her lungs. They were both college aged and, if the redness to the man's eyes were any indicator, he probably wasn't exactly in a fit condition to have been driving at all.

Three seconds after Peter landed, unmoving, the armor scooped Tony up where he stood. He knew better than to engage the Hulk. They were in the middle of no where, the Hulk could hopefully come to his senses before anyone else showed up. This van if kids had probably come from a college a few miles away and had t-boned them because they hadn’t expected any traffic on the road. Simple as that. That didn’t mean that they deserved to die. Even if they had just killed Banner.

Iron Man dropped out of the sky and grabbed the remaining kids from the sardine can that was currently their poor car. Up and out he went, all right with the Hulk roaring behind him.

He’d be back.

Once the two were safe, Tony returned for anyone else that the Hulk was menacing. Peter was no longer a threat, still not moving, and so he was more or less ignored. Even by Tony. Iron Man couldn’t risk drawing attention to him right now.

“Hulk! What happened?! I thought we were friends!”

The Hulk hadn't gone far from where he had been initially, eerily still when Tony returned without those college kids that had been his objective. He simply watched as Tony landed, though if he were paying attention then Tony might notice the way he shifted his weight ever so slightly like a predator preparing for the sprint towards prey.

"Where did you take them?"

Far from the one or two grunted words of before, the Hulk had a much larger vocabulary and understanding now. He had goals and plans, he wasn't so mindless as people might believe.

"Kill him, so kill them. Smash them. Where?"

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