TGS - #24

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SHIELD Helicarrier, [May 4, 2012]

–Nick Fury–

He nursed his wound as he was informed of the situation of the Helicarrier by the analysts. That would not have been something that he would ask on priority though.

"Wh-" He coughed as he interrupted the agent and waved him off, the person getting the dismissal and leaving his side. Hill came to his side as she continued to keep a tally of all the damages on her tablet.

"Where is everybody?" He asked her, knowing full well that they had lost arguably the two strongest people on the team. Sure, Banner was a loose cannon at the best of times but the other person, Green Guardian, he was…

Well, he was quite literally the best combatant he had on the team. Even stronger than Thor, stronger than even Hulk in the application of his powers.

"Stark is working on his armour, the Captain is in the meeting room, accompanied by Coulson, Widow is with Hawkeye and Thor is standing on top of the Helicarrier and hasn't moved since he was found," Hill rattled off as she continued to work on her tablet as well. She was a good find and he was glad to have her by his side at this point.

"What about Banner? The Green Guardian?" He wheezed out, immediately breaking out into fits of cough later on, the goons that Loki had unleashed on the bridge certainly did their number on him. It was good that he did not hesitate in unloading his entire magazine in that bastard's body. Fucker just would not go down, despite sustaining so many injuries. It was as if his mind had been trained to just ignore pain in order to just complete their goals.

"Dr.Banner's flight path indicates a 20-mile radius where he could have landed. As for the Green Guardian, well…" 

He sighed in sadness as the silence was damning enough. They had lost him, plain and simple.

Somehow, against all odds, that bastard had done the impossible and lifted the Helicarrier up on his back, allowing it to land safely. Sure, they had sustained quite a bit of hull damage but nothing unfixable, and more importantly, they had not crashed full-fledged nuclear reactors in the ocean along with having the entire crew safe and sound to fight for another day.

"About the assailants?" He questioned her once again as the medic finished dressing him, finally allowing him to get off the gurney. He absolutely hated feeling this weak but he had to work. Now was not the time to rest.

That could wait for the day he died. He was not about to take bed rest when someone out there literally died for their sake, even when he could have fled entirely, without pausing even for a beat. Hell, even killing all the assailants and then saving as many people as possible would have been praiseworthy in his opinion. Instead, they had a mostly intact Helicarrier, a partially broken team, and one confirmed death of an Avenger. The worst thing was there was nobody for Project TAHITI to do its magic, not that he was sure if it would even work on someone of his calibre anyway.

They had all watched the footage where The Green Guardian had spread himself absolutely thin, creating thousands of different barriers that literally propped up one side of the Helicarrier, long enough that the other engines could do their job as they landed in a controlled fashion. 

He had watched the barriers breaking down and reforming as the weight of the Helicarrier proved to be too much for him. Even the big armoured avatar he assumed had dissipated as he seemingly used up all of his powers to try and save the Heliacrrier. That, he thought, was the reason for his defeat.

He had spread his powers too thin, allowing the unknown assailant to come close and stab him through the stomach. 

They had all underestimated Loki too much. He had overestimated himself. He had never thought, in a million years, that Loki would fell the Helicarrier itself and probably already predicting the actions of the Green Guardian, must have ordered his people to suicide ram both the engines, forcing the one person who could have stopped Loki with ease, to focus his entirety on one thing and one thing only.

The person capable of bypassing the Green Guardian's barrier, thin and flimsy looking as it might have been, was a surprise on its own, even to the Green Guardian, it would seem. It was good that Stark's timely arrival managed to stop him from inflicting even more damage otherwise the Green Guardian would have lost his life and they would have all died as well.

Thinking of Stark and the others just worsened his headache. Thinking of what Loki might be up to, especially now that they had lost the single biggest gun they had against Loki, turned that headache into a migraine.

"The Assailant does not show up on any databases but we are still searching. We have asked Hawkeye about it but he only mentioned something about his memory being fuzzy when it came to that person. We have no idea about his powers but they seem to be able to phase himself both through solid matter like walls and energy constructs like the Green Guardian's barriers. He also seems to have the ability to transfer matter along with himself, judging by that knife,"

"Well, shit," He muttered to himself as he realised that this person was the perfect counter for someone like the Green Guardian. He was probably someone who had never found someone who could so easily breach his barriers, aside from God-like entities like Thor and Hulk.

"Call Thor, I need to have a chat with all of them," He grunted in pain as he stood up from the gurney, limping on one leg.

"But–"

"Just do it, Hill,"

"Affirmative,"

Hah, he just hoped that there was still some way of salvaging this.

_____xx____

Meeting Room, Helicarrier

–Tony Stark–

Tony Stark was not used to feeling this useless ever since he had gotten a second wind from Yinsen's words and the subsequent death of Ho Yinsen in his own arms. He would forever treasure the short time he had spent with Yinsen in that cave as he imparted absolutely life-changing wisdom to him in such a short time period.

Ever since that day, today was the most helpless he had ever felt in his life. He had felt the same when his parents had died and he had found himself completely useless as he couldn't do a damn to save his Mom. The same was true when Jarvis, someone who was like family to him, left him and all he could do was create a small digital interface that replicated his voice. That was how pathetic he was back then. 

He had thought that his days of feeling powerless were behind him and yet, as he closed his eyes, the scenes of Jack being stabbed through the chest flashed through his mind repeatedly. The sad smile on his face as blood dripped from his wound and his mouth due to the internal injuries, was forever seared into his mind. 

Even if he wanted to, there was not a damn thing he was able to do. He could not help him stop the Helicarrier in any possible way. There was nothing he could do, no suit of armour, no Arc Reactor, and no repulsor array he could build that could have held the weight of something that heavy.

They couldn't even stop Loki from escaping. Now, they had lost Jack as well as Loki's sceptre, along with the Tesseract.

The least he could do was find Jack and bring him back to the surface but even that was not possible because his body, no, he couldn't think like that, Jack was nowhere to be found.

How could he have disappeared so abruptly from his sensors? He was right there one moment and…

"Portals!" He exclaimed as he stood up, drawing confused looks from both Thor and Rogers who were both waiting for Fury to arrive because they had some sort of meeting scheduled.

Well, screw that, he thought to himself as he immediately got to work.

First of all, he had Jarvis work on finishing the three Mark IXs that were currently going through fabrication and assembly in the three different factories, in LA, Stark Tower, and SI HQ. Once any one of them was done, Jarvis would fly them out to his location post haste.

He was already borrowing the sensors of the various warships that surrounded the Helicarrier and despite their best efforts, they could not find any trace of Jack. 

"What are you talking about, Stark?" Rogers asked him and he resisted the urge to blow him off. The previous jealousy and resentment seemed so pathetic when he thought of the selfless way Jack had shouldered on a weight that no human could ever hope to handle.

"Portals. Ja-The Green Guardian had the ability to make portals. I want to see if he used the same to escape," He said even though a tiny voice at the back of his mind told him that the problem was not the ability to make portals or escape from the water. The problem was Jack's condition when the Helicarrier was literally dropped on top of his barriers as it crashed into the ocean. God, that impact must have been horrendous. If he could not even sustain a single small barrier to cover his face and then bring him up to the surface, it probably meant that he would not have the energy to open a portal as well.

"Stark, we all saw the footage," Rogers said as he shrugged off his hands from his shoulder.

"Stark, Tony, there is no way he was in any condition to do anything. He is–"

"DON'T. Just don't," He glared at Rogers, daring him to complete that sentence.

"Gentlemen," A cough brought their attention to the entrance of the meeting room, where Fury was hobbling through. The door closed behind him and he sighed once he looked at the screen which showed the final moments before he lost track of Jack.

"Stark, answer this honestly. According to your AI, what are the chances of the Green Guardian surviving with all those wounds, on top of the crushing pressure underneath the ocean?" 

He gritted his teeth as he refused to answer the question. He knew. He knew that Jack could not possibly have the power to do that. He was running on fumes as is. In the last moments, he saw his energy signature falling dangerously low before it blipped out of existence as if it was completely extinguished. But no, he would not declare him dead unless he saw his body.

"Not Zero. That is all that matters. Now, Fury, did the search parties find anything?" He deflected the question and looked at Fury defensively.

Fury sighed as he replied, "Nothing Stark. Aside from Debris, they found nothing. The last of the search parties just came back an hour ago,"

"What? Last of them? Why did you stop looking? You can't-"

"Tony…Just..let it go. Things happen. Lives are lost in wars. You have to-"

"No! This isn't one of your goddamn wars, Rogers and we are not soldiers. Not Fury's soldiers. We are just a bunch of misfits brought together because it was more beneficial for us to be together than apart. And look where that brought us? Divided? Or even worse, DEAD?" He just snapped at Rogers who just looked at him with pity.

He hated that look more than anything at the moment. It meant that he was vulnerable. No, he was more than fine.

"Fine. I will search for him myself. Jarvis, Send the Mark IX to this location," He said to his comms.

"Sir, the suit's launch mechanisms are still not-"

"Skip the spinning rims. We are on a timeline here,"

"Very well, Sir," 

He sneered at Fury and was about to leave before Fury stopped him,

"Stark, don't let it go to waste. Loki is still out there. We still don't have the Tesseract. He could be up to some—"

"Well, I have Jarvis on it. Some of the data from the lab was salvaged and Jarevis will soon be done parsing through it. Once we have that, we should have a rough idea of its-"

"Sir," His words paused as he heard Jarvis' distressed voice. 

"The Tesseract has been located," 

Jarvis' words echoed in the meeting room as Jarvis took control of the display in the room and showed a map of NYC, pointing at a dot that was smack dab in the middle.

"Son of a BITCH!" His eyes widened as he saw the exact location. He immediately ran to his suit.

"Rogers, take the Quinjet. I'll have Widow and Hawkeye meet you there." Fury quickly ordered the rest of the members as he too saw the location of the Tesseract.

Right there, in the middle of the screen was a blinking red dot, showing the location of Stark Tower.

Word Count - 2233

A/N - On the shorter side today :)

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