Prequel Chapter 138

"We sure it isn't the freak just trying to take over the world again?" Natasha answered.
Tony looked at the assassin but Fury spoke up, stopping him.
“While I’m sure it would be easy to blame this on Laufeyson, it’s also stupid. His magic is restricted and heavily monitored by Thor’s father.” Fury looked at everyone in the room. “Don’t start acting stupid just because Laufeyson is here. I need all of you to focus.”
"Stark is screwing him and blinded. Just because he doesn’t have all his magic doesn't mean he can't plot." Natasha replied.
"Let me remind you Agent Romanov, I call the shots here. Right now we have a threat coming for us, now either you act like the agent you were trained to be or you leave." Fury ordered.
Natasha pursed her lips but didn’t say anything else. Tony frowned at the woman, clenching his jaw.
“If anyone else in this room can’t focus on the mission, get out. I don’t need you all focusing on Laufeyson when we have a real threat coming at us.”
“How soon will we know what this is?”
“Not soon enough.” Tony answered. “At least not through Jarvis.”
“I could speak to my father. Perhaps Heimdall could tell us more.” Thor spoke up.
"He would be the only one who could see it. Best go now so we know how to prepare for it." Loki suggested.
Thor nodded and quickly left.
“How do we prepare for this?”
“We’ll need better weapons and armor. Even if it isn’t more Chitauri, at the very least we learned something from that battle.”
"Tony and I will see what we can do by then." Bruce replied.
"Nat and I will get started on the plan." Steve added.
They needed to be ready for anything.
“I need everyone to be ready for whatever comes at us.”
Tony headed off with Bruce to get started on whatever they might need. “Where do we start?”
"Arrows for Clint. He's going to need those, especially the exploding ones." Bruce said. He went on an entire list of everything they needed.
Tony took note of everything and nodded. “Let’s get started.” He got to work with Bruce, starting with the arrows.
“I need to talk to you for a moment.” Fury looked at Loki and walked back to his office with the god.
Loki followed after him. Stepping into the office, Loki closed the door behind him. "Yes, Director?"
“This Thanos character, just how badly does he want to get back at you for not handing over the tesseract?”
"He could have had earth in his hands if it weren't for me." he said.
“That bad huh?” Fury rubbed his chin and shook his head. “If you know anything about how we can defend ourselves against this guy, now might be the best time to tell me.”
"I don't know." Loki answered honestly. "We either hope that nothing like that happens or that something happens to him before he finds us. Because if he comes, the chances of all of us living are slim."
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Fury looked away from Loki and out the window. “Let’s start praying that whatever’s coming at us isn’t him then.”
Loki hummed. "Then we're doomed." He replied.
Fury was on pins and needles now. There was no way they could prepare against something this big, even if it wasn’t exactly Thanos. They had barely scraped by against the Chitauri, and that was sheer dumb luck.
"You should start making preparations to clear out the city. If it is Thanos, more lives will be lost, he has no mercy. Men, women and children, young or old, it will not matter to him."
“I didn’t think he’d be the merciful type.” Fury looked at Loki. “But I also doubt he’ll stop at New York. We can’t really evacuate the entire planet.”
"No, but it will give us the chance to save what we can. Destroy him if we can." Loki explained.
“And what are the odds we can do that?” Fury wasn’t expecting there to be much chance at all.
"You'll have myself and Thor to help. If push comes to shove, Thor can call for his friends and the Allfather. There is a key to Thanos' power. A gauntlet. If it comes off, he is a great deal weaker but he is still stronger than the rest of us. If it comes off, we have a fighting chance."
“Then let’s hope he left it at home.”
Tony and Bruce had finished off the arrows and were working on some new weapons for the others.
“What do you think this is?”
“Honestly? I don’t want to think about it.”
Bruce looked at his friend and nodded slightly. He knew what Tony was thinking and why it made him nervous.
"Do you think it's anything Loki told you about?" he asked. Bruce was worried that it would be something that Loki talked about. That they would be in for the fight of their life.
“He’s told me about a lot of scary shit out there, but the only thing I can think of is Thanos.”
“The guy that sent Loki here?”
Tony nodded. “He’s probably pissed that he didn’t get the tesseract.”
"But it’s not even here anymore. So why come here?" Bruce questioned. What he wanted wasn't on earth. What was the point in looking for it?
The inventor pursed his lips. “Because Loki’s still here. I don’t know how this guy’s brain works, but there’s a thousand possibilities. He might think Loki took the tesseract for himself or that he handed it over to Asgard. He might think he can still use Loki to get it.”
Bruce nodded as Tony shared the information with him. "If it does come to it being Thanos, on short notice, how soon can you clear the city?"
Tony looked at Bruce then back at the weapons they were working on. “If this is Thanos, I don’t think it’ll matter if we clear the city out or not. From what Loki’s told me, this guy isn’t the I’ll-let-you-live type.”
Loki watched Fury for a moment as he tried to think. "As soon as we know, we'll clear the city out."
“I’ve got teams on standby in case we need it. I only hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Down in the labs, Tony and Bruce finished up on the weapons and started on plans for the armor.
“We’ll have to plate it so it can handle blasts from the Chitauri guns. Hopefully it’ll work against whatever else is coming at us.”
Thor returned with news that was not pleasing. Heimdall, with all that his eyes could see, could not see what was coming for them.
“Of course he can’t see what this is.” Fury sighed heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“I am sorry Director, but it is out of Heimdall’s line of vision.”
“I don’t know if this is better or worse than finding out it might be Thanos.”
Everyone came together again, Natasha glaring at Loki as she had before. "What do we do?"
"Put our heads between our knees and kiss our asses goodbye." Clint answered.
“How about we come up with something useful?” Steve looked at the archer sternly then back at Fury, though he felt they weren’t about to get good news.
“This is going to be the biggest fight we’ve ever fought. And according to Loki and Thor, if this is Thanos, there’s really no way to kill him. We’re going to have to hope we can chase the guy off.”
“Please tell me you have a plan.” Tony looked at Fury nervously.
"You can't chase him off. He is powerful, and ruthless. He has no mercy." Loki shared. "He wears a gauntlet. If that can be removed, we'll have a chance but getting it off is no easy task."
“Of course it’s not.” Clint sighed heavily. “So what do we do? Ask him nicely if he’ll hold his hand out while we wrestle that thing off?”
“We’ll fight is what we’ll do.” Fury looked at them sternly. “We have allies in this. I’ve contacted a few people and given them a heads up.”
"No, the less people the better." He said.
"My brother is right, the people you called in will only get in our way. I have called upon my friends to help us." Thor added.
“I don’t think you two understand just how big this city is. Evacuation efforts are already underway and if you think eight can handle the mess that’s coming at us, then you’ve all lost it. This isn’t just about Thanos, this is about trying to keep him in one place so we can figure out what the hell to do next. This is about getting everyone out of this city safely, including hundreds of homeless people that won’t be able to leave.”
Everyone grew silent, knowing this was true. They couldn’t risk the massive body count this would bring with it.
"If Thanos is coming, he's coming for me." Loki replied. "He'll come for me because I failed, and then he'll come for the rest of you because you'll be standing in his way." Loki said.
"So what’s the plan?"
"What part of the city of already evacuated? We'll start there, it'll stall for time. Let everyone else get out.”
"Perhaps you should stall him out to sea and then lure him in, ambush." Thor plotted.
"That is as good as a plan is going to get." Loki answered.
“Everything on the shore has already been cleared a mile in.”
“That should give us enough space to hold the guy here, assuming he doesn’t bring anything else with him.” Tony looked at Loki as he spoke. They could only pray they were dealing with Thanos and not another army as well.
He nodded. "Then it's set. I'll hold him out to sea as long as I can, clear as much more as you can in that time." he said.
"Sir, we have a visual!" one of the men at the computers shouted out. Throwing it up on a larger screen Loki frowned.
"Well, Laufeyson?"
"It's Thanos."
The Avengers all paled at the image they say. Well, at least now they knew what it was.
“Oh my God.” Natasha said quietly.
Steve stared at the image then looked at Tony. “We done with those weapons and armor?”
“Almost.” Tony and Bruce darted back down into the lab to put the finishing details on the armor. “Jarvis, how much time do we have?”
“Ten hours until Thanos lands Sir.”
“I want updates on the evacuation. Everyone needs to be clear of the area where Laufeyson is going to be.”
Thor looked at his brother with fear in his eyes. “Loki, you cannot possibly hope to fight him off alone.”
"No, I said I would stall for time. Let him come closer and then I will go to him. I can stall him for only so long before he over powers me. The goal is to get his gauntlet off." Loki said. Loki sighed, he could feel eyes on him. He wanted to forget that he'd told the truth, that he hadn't been lying and everything they'd been putting him through was unjustified.
Thor looked at his brother and put a hand on his shoulder. “I know I have failed you as a brother, but I will not fail you now.” He spoke in Old Norse so only Loki would understand. “I am sorry for the pain that I have caused you.”
Bruce and Tony finished with the armor and got everyone fitted and armed. The city was mostly empty by now.
Loki nodded. He would give Thanos another hour before going to meet him. The city was clearing out at a steady rate
Going down to the lab, Loki stopped Tony for a moment. "It's time for me to go." It was cliché. He didn't care, he had to say good bye. The chance that either of them couldn't walk away from this was too great.
Tony looked at the god and there was nothing but dread in his eyes. “Don’t say this like it’s the last time I’ll ever see you. You better make it out of this alive or I’ll drag your sorry ass out of hell and kill you myself.”
Bruce glanced over at the two but stayed quiet. He could imagine how Tony felt; he’d felt it once before.
"But it wouldn't be right if I don't say something. Even if you can drag me out of hell.” Resting his forehead on Tony's, he kissed the man's nose. "Thank you, for listening to me when you did. For giving me that chance and showing me a great deal of kindness and love. I love you." Loki sighed.