(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 11 – The Gods of Crushing

Chapter 11 – The Gods of Crushing

Tony had to blink a couple of times to make sure he was seeing right and even then he seriously considered asking Friday to confirm it. Because Thor coming out of a spaceship, while unusual, was understandable, but Bruce Banner? What the hell had the man been doing for the past three years?

Looking at Thor brought its own line of questions. He had known the man for four years and Thor hated when people touched his hair, but now he shows up with a trimmed haircut and without an eye. Seriously, what the hell happened to them in the last three years?! Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who had a rough time during those years.

Carol’s voice penetrated his racing thoughts as she asked calmly, “Tony, do you know those two?”

Tony shook his head mentally before replying, “Sure do. You remember me mentioning Point-break and Brucie-bear?”

“Yeah…” Carol said it with an air of exhaustion. She was tired of pointing out to him that there was a place and time for his weird nicknames, but he just kept throwing them around as he saw fit.

Tony chuckled at his girlfriend’s exasperation and corrected himself so he wouldn’t have to deal with any scolding later, “Thor and Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk. They were part of the old Avengers team.”

Tony could see Carol nodding in understanding. They had spent a long time in bed talking about their pasts in the last year.

Carol told Tony about her time in the Air Force and her relationship with Maria and her daughter Monica, how the Kree killed her mentor and kidnapped her because the Tesseract infused its energy inside her. She told him about the painful years of dealing with broken memories while being constantly lied to by someone she thought she could trust.

Tony could sympathize with that better than most. The night she told him that and he held her as she cried it out, he knew he wanted to marry that woman. Even if he was still too afraid to ask her.

Of course, she, Nick, and Coulson humored Tony by telling him the story of what went on during the ’95 fiasco. Which was hilarious and was dubbed ‘Coulson’s first rodeo.’

They were now at the point where she would tell him what she was doing in the last decade in space and why she visited in ’08 just before he was kidnapped. Tony was very interested in that.

In return, Tony was telling her about his life which, thanks to all the crazy and chaotic events in it, took a lot longer than one would have thought. The fact they weren’t exactly following the chronological order of events didn’t help them make more sense.

They usually talked about the stuff that caused his daily panic attacks which Friday happily pointed out last week were happening less and less since he started dating and talking with a certain space-glowing captain.

So, saying Carol had ill feelings toward a few members of the old Avengers would be an understatement, especially when it concerned their version of a blond captain. But she knew that Thor and Bruce were some of the good ones, his friends before the former returned home and the latter disappeared in the Quinjet.

Bruce’s voice drew his attention back to the odd duo as he called happily, “Tony! Oh goodness, I’m glad to see you.”

Tony landed a few steps away from his missing friends and let the helmet collapse back into his suit. Carol landed softly next to him as Tony spoke, “Yeah, me too, Brucie-Bear, but what the hell happened to the both of you?” After a not-so-subtle cough from his girlfriend, Tony added with a sheepish smile, “Sorry. This is Captain Carol Danvers. My girlfriend and co-leader of the New Avengers.”

Both of the men across from them had wide eyes and dropped jaws, which Tony was trying his very hardest not to laugh at.

Thor was the first to recover, eyeing Carol up and down, and asked with a voice full of approval, “Girlfriend? She looks strong, friend Tony. A great quality in a partner.”

Both Tony and Carol chuckled. Boy, he had no idea that Carol could probably wipe the floor with him. Tony wondered for a moment if that fact would make him appreciate Carol more or less.

Thor’s words brought Bruce out of his state as well, and he screamed, outraged, “New Avengers? What the hell did I miss?!”

“I believe we all have a lot to catch up on. Do you have a place for it?” Carol asked calmly. Her leader voice always sent shivers down Tony’s spine.

Thor nodded in agreement as he said, “Aye, Lady Danvers. Follow me and we shall converse in my new temporary throne room.”

As the four entered the huge ship, Tony could think about one thing Thor said: ‘His throne.’ What happened to Odin? After all, that’s the only way Thor could become king, isn’t it?

As they began advancing toward the head of the ship, Tony noticed many people around. He guessed they were all Asgardians, but they all looked like refugees.

Tony’s stomach began growing into a pit as he started connecting the dots of all the events.

All of them kept doing a double-take when they saw him and Carol and began muttering with smiles. Tony wanted to smirk at Carol; these people probably heard about Captain Marvel and wanted an autograph. He was so teasing her about that later.

Before he could analyze the situation any further, they arrived at the head of the ship, which was obvious thanks to the large windows in front of them that showed a view of a vast sea with the shore of an island not too far from them.

Not far from the window stood a throne made out of rock, Tony guessed, and around it in a circle were a few more chairs. Simple ones made of wood.

Tony looked around the room. Bruce was heading toward a woman with dark hair and skin, blue marks on her face, and white armor. Tony had no idea who she was, but Bruce gave her such a gentle smile that Tony began to suspect something was going on between those two. If it’s good for his Science-bro, then…

And Thor began heading toward the other occupant of the room, who had fair skin, shoulder-length dark hair, and green eyes… Wait for a damn moment!

Tony jumped back, startling everyone in the room. He raised his right hand with an open palm and charged his repulsor. His left arm bent slightly but still pointed toward the man with a missile. Déjà vu took over Tony and he found himself calling, “The next move is yours, Reindeer Games.”

And just like four years ago in Germany, Loki raised his hands up with an amused smile on his face.

Tony saw Carol powering up and raising her fists, ready for a fight. It was nice to know she would always come to his side if she saw him on guard like that.

Thor was the first to react as he stood between Tony and Loki, his own hand raised in a calming gesture. He called with his booming voice, “Friend Tony! There is no need for this. My brother intends no harm.”

“The people of New York will probably disagree,” Tony countered, his arms still in attacking positions.

Bruce took a few steps closer to Tony and said calmly, “He was brainwashed, Tony. By the mastermind behind the invasion.”

Tony’s eyes grew wide. His arms dropped to his side and he said quietly, “Thanos.”

Thor, Bruce, and even Loki’s eyes widened at the name, although Tony noticed Loki flinched for a moment before that. Bruce looked at Tony, a little spooked, and asked, “How do you know that name, Tony?”

Tony sighed heavily. “Like Carol said, we have a lot of catching up to do.” Tony glanced at the woman in the corner of the room, who just kept drinking from the bottle she was holding, and added, “Maybe we should start with introductions.”

Bruce was about to speak, but the woman stopped drinking and raised her bottle, saying, “‘Sup. The name is Valkyrie. You must be this Tony Stark human that big green and sparky here kept talking about. Can’t say I know the awesome lady next to you.”

Tony was actually touched that even all the way out in space his friends kept talking about him so much that a complete alien stranger knew who he was. Tony also didn’t miss the smirk on Carol’s face when she was referred to as awesome.

Deciding to be his usual dramatic self, Tony gave a small bow and announced royally, “At your service, Ms. Valkyrie. And this is my girlfriend and one of the strongest people in the universe, Captain Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel.”

Valkyrie’s eyes widened slightly. A smirk stretched on her lips and she said, “Ah, I heard about you flying around the galaxy kicking ass. Oh, this is going to be fun.” Then her eyes scanned Tony and she asked with a frown, “Where do I know this suit from?”

Tony’s eyes widened. He had a guess, but before he could say something, Carol spoke in the most casual tone ever, “He is Iron Man.”

The woman in the white armor nodded as if it was the most logical explanation and took another sip from her drink.

Bruce and Thor looked bewildered at the woman, and Bruce was the one to ask, “You know who Iron Man is?”

Then Loki began laughing from behind Thor, which caused the god of thunder to move aside so he could stare at his brother as well. Loki looked at the both of them until he realized it wasn’t a joke and said, outraged, “You are not simply joking, good doctor?”

Bruce just shook his head, which made Loki look even more outraged. “Surely the champion of the Grandmaster, one of Iron Man’s greatest fans in the universe, heard the name mentioned at least once.”

Tony was the bewildered one now as he asked mostly himself, “Some guy named ‘the Grandmaster’ is my fan? I’m not sure how to feel about it…”

Bruce gave him a flat look and said dryly, “He is a mad tyrant who enslaves aliens and forces them to fight each other for amusement.”

Tony’s eyebrows flew all the way up and he said firmly, “Yep. I better not meet him, I got you.”

Thor returned everyone to the matter that began that bizarre exchange as he asked Loki, “Why is the Grandmaster familiar with the man of iron, brother?”

Tony had a feeling Loki practiced the look he was giving Thor for a long time by now. The trickster’s expression just yelled, ‘How stupid are you?’ After a moment of staring, he spoke slowly as if talking to a child, “The man of iron defeated the invasion single-handedly in one strike. Being the first to not only thwart but to destroy not a small portion of the mad titan’s army.”

Thor and Bruce kept blinking at him while Valkyrie nodded her agreement with the trickster’s words.

Loki gave an exhausted look Tony could recognize from the many times he himself had the same one and said in a dry tone, “The entire universe knows about that, but you two don’t. Why am I even surprised? Did you at least hear of the Guardians of the Galaxy?”

Bruce immediately shook his head while Thor looked deep in thought for a moment before exclaiming, “Aye, the name does ring a bell. Something to do with the rogue Kree…”

Loki sighed heavily before he spoke, “You are very ill-informed, brother. Something you must amend in order to protect what is left of your people. The self-named Guardians had an altercation with Ronan the Accuser, one of Thanos’s agents, regarding the Power Stone. Ronan ended up dead and the Power Stone in the Nova Corps’ custody. But yet, a group of six of them managed to defeat one while Anthony here did much more damage, kept two infinity stones from the titan’s reach, and all of this almost by himself.”

“We aided in the fight to defeat the Chitauri alongside the man of iron,” protested Thor.

Loki rolled his eyes and delivered the hard truth, “You were delaying the inevitable. Anthony had seen the sheer number of forces that just waited to invade this planet. It was just a matter of time until the six of you would have been overwhelmed and the mad titan would have gotten his wish. No, it was the quick thinking of Anthony and heroic action that won the battle that day.”

Both Bruce and Thor seemed to look at Tony in a new light. Tony himself didn’t much like to think about that day and that specific action, but looking back now and taking into consideration everything Loki said, Tony had to admit that without his strike with the missile, the Avengers would have been overwhelmed sooner rather than later.

Loki then went on to say, “When I was Odin, I made sure all of Asgard would know of Iron Man as many of our allies as well. So when the time to face the mad titan comes, the people will have a symbol of hope. So they will know the titan is not undefeatable.”

Tony’s eyes widened. He began looking backward toward the hall they just entered through before he exclaimed, “So that’s why everyone kept looking at me and muttering?!”

Loki nodded unashamedly, while Thor and Bruce just looked into space with complete shock on their faces.

Tony let out a heavy sigh, allowed his armor to open, and stepped out of it. Tony took a few steps until he stood close enough to Loki and reached out his hand, saying with a smile, “Well then, it’s nice to really meet you, Loki. I’m Tony.”

Loki’s eyes were wide and full of suspicion as he stared at the offered hand. The green eyes met Tony’s when the inventor chuckled and said, “Take it easy, Reindeer Games. Both me and Carol know how much brainwashing sucks from personal experience.”

Loki looked at them with a look Tony had a hard time identifying, especially on Loki’s face. But after a moment, he reached out his own hand and shook Tony’s, a small but genuine smile on his face as he said, “I will be honored to accept your offer of friendship, Anthony.”

Tony smiled back at the god of mischief and said quietly, “If you’re interested, I have something that can help with the trauma. It has already been tested on myself and a few of the other New Avengers, Carol here included.”

Carol nodded and added with a small teasing smile aimed at Tony, “The name aside, BARF is really effective.”

Tony chose to ignore the small tears he noticed in Loki’s face at the offer and instead glared at his smirking girlfriend and shot back annoyed, “The name is perfectly fine…”

Bruce cut them off before an argument could develop and asked, “New Avengers, Tony? You mentioned that the Avengers changed while we were gone, but how and why?”

Tony’s entire body slumped as he asked tiredly, “Do you remember when I mentioned the document the UN is writing after the fall of SHIELD?”

Bruce, a little taken aback by the change in subject, nodded before remembering, “You said it will take them about four more years to pass it. We should still have time.”

Tony nodded, but his face turned serious and he said, “Well, Sokovia pushed the timetable up. And then Rogers kept going on those stupid missions that always ended with more damage and death. So last year, the UN presented the Sokovia Accords.”

Thor nodded in approval, “I remember your documents. I told friend Fury that many planets I visited have such laws, and I will abide by them when the time comes.”

Tony let out a bitter laugh and responded, “Well, Rogers didn’t see it like that. He called it a leash on the Avengers and refused to sign them. Of course, Wilson and Maximoff followed him without a second thought. And then…”

“Maximoff?!” Bruce cut him off with an outraged scream. His face starting to turn a shade of green.

Valkyrie came closer to him and with a hand on his shoulder calmed Bruce from Hulking out. Tony nodded gravely as he said, “Rogers put her on the team after Sokovia. Said she deserved a second chance after she helped save the world and that I owe her for her parents and brother. He even sold the people that the two of you would have given her a chance if you were around.”

Both members of the old Avengers looked pissed off, but before any of them could react, an Irish voice came through the speakers of the room, “I can show them highlights of the events, Boss. It will be easier for everyone.”

Everyone, including Tony himself, jumped in their place, surprised to hear Friday’s voice through the speakers in the room. Bruce looked around the room as if he was looking for someone and called fondly, “Friday? Is that you?”

“Indeed, Dr. Banner. It is a pleasure to see you again. Me and Boss were worried,” Friday said genuinely, which caused Bruce to smile widely toward the ceiling. Then his baby girl spoke to Thor, “You as well, Prince Odinson. It’s been a while.”

Thor chuckled fondly himself and answered the AI, “Aye, Lady Friday. I have missed your watchful presence as well.”

Then Friday surprised everyone by addressing Loki, “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well, Prince Friggason.”

Loki looked curious around the room but answered all the same, “Indeed it is, Friday. What are you? And where are you speaking from?”

A sound not unlike a chuckle came out of the speakers before Friday’s voice spoke again, “I’m an artificial intelligence created by Boss. And it took me a while, but I managed to get inside the ship’s systems and am speaking to you through the speakers in the room.”

Loki looked kind of impressed, but before he could say anything, Carol spoke, “It was a good idea, sweetie. Go ahead and play the videos.” Then she turned to the other four people in the room and told them, “You better sit down. It will take a while.”

For the next hour, clips from the news started with the conference after Sokovia where Rogers proudly announced the addition of Maximoff. Then it moved on to a kind of montage of the reports post each disastrous mission Rogers led in search of his precious Bucky. Of course, it all began reaching the breaking point with the Lagos fiasco report.

Tony was surprised to see recordings from the Compound of the presentation of the accords and then the discussion that took place after. After that came some recordings from the street cameras in Romania, then the breakout in Germany, all coming to a head in the airport battle.

Tony knew what would come next, but before he could steel himself for what was coming, he felt a pair of arms turning him around, and in no time he found himself in a tight hug from his girlfriend. She made sure his head was trapped between her neck and arm so all the sounds around him were muffled.

But even muffled, he could tell when the fight had begun. The sound of metal meeting metal was hard to forget. But in his girlfriend’s arms, he wasn’t shaking or having another attack. Was he panicking? Yes, even a year later, the trauma isn’t completely gone. But with BARF and Carol, things improved greatly.

Tony knew the video was over when he was freed from the tight hold Carol had on him, and he turned around to see the faces of the four other people in the room.

Bruce was gone, and in his place stood the towering Hulk. The green anger machine was shaking right now as a growl deeper than ever before left his lips, “Puny Captain try to kill Tin-man. Hulk smash Puny Captain when Hulk see him.”

Valkyrie was the next one to speak. She, too, did it in a deadly tone, “I agree, big guy. If I ever meet that guy, he is going to have my sword shoved in places he would never imagine.”

Loki himself looked royally pissed and muttered in a voice full of remorse, “I should have killed him when I had the chance in Germany instead of playing with the disgraced Captain.”

Thor was in shock, Tony knew. He admired Rogers for his pure strength, but after the fiasco with the dark elves, Thor grew up and saw that what Rogers was doing didn’t always work and more often than not hurt more people than it helped. That was when he and Tony started getting really close.

But when Thor came out of the shock, he jumped from his throne, lightning flying around his body, and boomed, “HOW DARE HE?! THE DISGRACE! IF I EVER ENCOUNTER ROGERS AGAIN, HE SHALL FEEL THE WRATH OF THE MIGHTY THOR!”

When Tony looked from the shocking sight of Thor, he noticed Valkyrie calming the Hulk down enough to bring Bruce back. That was an interesting development.

Then all eyes flew to him. Concerned looks all around. And Tony was touched, really, he was.

Bruce spoke up, “Tony, are you okay? Those injuries, they looked…” He didn’t want to finish.

Tony finished for him, “Fatal? Yeah, they were.” Then he smirked and raised his fist, all muscles tensing and eyes glowing before he punched the nearest wall to him, creating a dent in the metal with no effort. He said, “But I got better. A lot better.”

Thor, Bruce, and Loki looked between the wall and Tony as if they couldn’t make sense of what they were seeing. Tony just shrugged, smirk in place.

Friday apparently decided to move things along as she showed the news report about Tony and Carol making sure the asshole Ross was arrested at Barton’s farm.

When it was over, Bruce looked at Tony, his face full of gratitude as he said sincerely, “You got rid of Ross for good. You have no idea how much it means to me, Tony.”

Tony’s smirk grew sharper and he said in a hard tone, “No one hurts my Science-bro and gets away with it.”

Bruce shot him another grateful look before he went back to watch the next clip, which was the announcement of the New Avengers.

Once it was finished, Tony didn’t feel like talking about it, so instead he tried to move the conversation a few steps forward, “Well, now that we’re all caught up with Earth’s matters, do you care to tell me what the hell happened to you? The last time I saw you, Bruce was on a missing jet and Thor had two eyes.”

Bruce and Thor exchanged a look before Thor said, “You should go first. I am sure friend Tony is eager to know what happened to you.”

Before Tony could comment that he was equally interested in hearing Thor’s story, Bruce began to speak.

Tony could just blink. So apparently Bruce ended up in space somehow and not just space, but some weird planet where he became a gladiator and fought as Hulk for the past three years until Thor sort of found him and they broke out together while liberating the entire planet from the tyrant that was surprisingly his fan.

“It is not a big mystery. The Grandmaster always liked to collect the most powerful creatures in the universe. After defeating Thanos, you became the strongest hero. As such, it makes sense for the Grandmaster to be obsessed with you,” Loki explained when Tony wondered aloud why this guy was a fan of his.

Then came Thor’s story, which was far more complicated.

He was searching for the infinity stones and information about Ragnarok. Okay. Loki wasn’t dead but instead pretended to be Odin. Odd but makes sense considering it was Loki. Odin died. Now that sounds bad no matter how you look at it. Thor has an older sister, the goddess of death. Crazy and dangerous. Said sister destroyed his hammer. Tony thought it was impossible. Thor and Loki ended up on the Grandmaster’s planet too. Huge coincidence, but fine. Thor fought Hulk, brought Bruce back, they found the jet, and tried to get back to Asgard. The only thing that made sense to Tony so far. They enlisted the help of Loki and Valkyrie to steal one of the Grandmaster’s ships and started a revolution so they could get home. Tony won’t comment on that. Thor fought his sister Hela while Hulk fought Fenrir, as in the God devourer from mythology. And Tony’s brain wanted to check out at this point. Hela cut out Thor’s eye, and in return, he hit her with the biggest lightning ever created. Thor’s words, not his. Eventually, the only way to defeat her was to evacuate as many of the people as they could before unleashing Ragnarok, destroying Asgard and Hela with it. Seemed kind of extreme. Surely there was another way, but Tony won’t ever voice that thought. And then while flying to Earth, they were attacked by Thanos’s ship. Heimdal sacrificed himself, calling on the dark magic to forcibly open the Bifrost and whisk the entire ship away from Thanos’s attack and closer to Earth.

And here they ended up. Carol looked confused at Thor and asked, “Why did Thanos attack you? His MO is usually diminishing overpopulated planets by massacre, but because of Hela, your numbers were already cut down. So what was his motive?”

Thor shrugged, but Loki looked uncomfortable. Tony stared at the god and asked calmly, “Anything to share, Loks?”

The man with the long hair sighed heavily before saying, “I believe he was looking for this.” Loki raised his hand with his palm pointing up. A green flash later and he was holding a glowing blue cube. The Tesseract, no, the Space Stone.

Both Tony and Carol flinched at the sight of the object. Each had an unpleasant memory connected to this item.

Thor gave his brother an exhausted look and whined, “You are the worst brother.”

Bruce looked very worried suddenly and voiced his concern, “So now Time, Mind, and Space are here. Thanos will come straight after us!”

Loki shook his head. “You are mistaken, good doctor.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at Loki, even when inside his blood froze and panic started to rise, but he managed to ask flatly, “And why is that, Loki? Right now Earth is an open buffet with three infinity stones and overpopulation. Seems like the kind of deal Thanos will want in on.”

Loki looked amused at Tony before answering, “Why not? It’s obvious because of you, Anthony.” Valkyrie and Carol seemed to relax with Loki’s explanation, but Tony just glared at the god until he elaborated, “The mad titan considers facing you as courting death itself. He will dare not approach Midgard and risk facing you without at least a couple of infinity stones at his disposal.”

Tony wasn’t so sure about it, but looking around, he apparently was the only one who wasn’t reassured by the explanation. Carol instead was the practical one and asked, “What about the three other stones?”

In another green flash, the cube was gone. Loki shrugged and said calmly, “Last I have heard, the Power Stone is safe with the Nova Corps. The Reality Stone is with the Collector. And no soul in the universe knows where the final stone is. So while it won’t stop him in any manner, it will allow us more time to prepare for his eventual assault.”

Still worried, Tony nodded, but then Carol caught one of his hands and gave him a reassuring smile, which significantly lowered his heart rate and spread warmth into his frozen veins.

Thor then looked very uncomfortable and spoke timidly, which was very unlike him, “Friend Tony, I’m afraid I must request a substantial favor from you.”

Tony could already guess where that was heading, but still, Thor had to ask so it could be a formal request Tony would be able to pose to a panel later. With a reassuring smile that looked just like his girlfriend’s from moments before, Tony spoke, “Sure thing, Pointbreak. What can I do for you?”

Thor’s entire demeanor changed to something formal, something even royal. Tony guessed it was King Thor who spoke now, “Our home is gone. In the name of the people of Asgard, I request asylum on Midgard and perhaps the opportunity to create a new home for us.”

Tony nodded. That much he could figure out even before he heard the full story, but he needed to make something clear, “I can help you with that, Thor, but you do understand Asgardians will be expected to carry their own share of the burden. One such thing is helping with the coming threat of Thanos.”

A smile spread on Thor’s face and the booming tones came back to his voice as he spoke, “Aye. We have many capable warriors that will gladly fight in the coming battle. As well as many scientists that will be delighted with the opportunity to share and receive new knowledge.”

Tony smiled, but before he could speak, Friday’s voice cut him off, “Boss, the island next to you is unmanned and owned by the Norwegian government. Considering their mythology, I believe a deal for it could be achieved very easily.”

Tony wasn’t the only one shocked by his baby girl’s initiative in finding that information, although Carol looked very proud as well. After another moment, Tony spoke, “You are the best, Fri.”

“I know, Boss,” came the sassy response, and Carol began laughing.

Tony turned to the three Asgardians and asked, “Looks like we are in business. What do you say?”

Loki nodded respectfully while both Thor and Valkyrie looked wistfully out the window toward said island.