I Wouldn’t Call This Luck, for antrazi
Title: I Wouldn’t Call This Luck
Author: Moose
Recipient: antrazi
Rating: T
Wordcount: ~7,400
Warnings: Spoilers for s8
Prompt: Crossover - Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) - The Avengers don't know what to think of this Gabriel with the powers of a god who is nothing like Thor or Loki.
Summary: Tony wouldn’t exactly be calling it his lucky day when a man who claims to be Loki crash lands into his home. But he would call it interesting.
He crash landed into the landing of the Avenger’s tower when Tony just started real work on repairs. Okay, it’s not quite as destroyed as the previously named Stark Tower, but it’s not like Tony really wanted to entertain guests, especially the kind that fall from the sky.
Tony walked out toward the platform, watching the man sit up from the newly busted floor, groaning and grumbling something that sounded approximately like “gee, thanks dad”.
“You know, most visitors use the front door,” Tony said.
“Ouch,” the man said. “Want to help a brother up?”
“Are you going to zap me with something?” Tony asked.
“I don’t know. Do you deserve to be zapped with something?” the man asked. He looked so earnest about it that Tony actually considered his answer.
“Maybe? I don’t know, probably?” Tony asked. He still offered the man a hand up.
“Eh, I don’t know your sins, and you helped me up, so we’ll call it even,” the man said. And he was short. Well, Tony wasn’t a tall man, but this guy made Tony feel tall.
“Welcome to my humble abode then stranger,” Tony said. “Care for a drink.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” the man said. “I’m seriously sugar deficient.”
Tony was about to offer the man whatever he had lying around that Pepper hadn’t confiscated, but the man snapped his fingers and one of those giant rainbow lollipops appeared in his hand, which he promptly took a bite out of.
“How did you do that?” Tony asked.
“How didn’t I do that?” the man asked with a smirk.
“Is today Cryptic Friday?”
“More like Cryptic Tuesday… it is Tuesday, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s Tuesday,” Tony said. He turned and walked inside. He now needed that drink as well. He poured two tumblers, sliding one down to his guest took a large gulp.
“So, where am I exactly?”
“Avengers Tower, downtown New York. Where did you think you were?”
“Not dead,” the man said. “And who are you exactly?”
“Tony Stark.”
“Seriously? Tony Stark? And I had the perfect chance to prank you and passed it by? I have to have the worst luck in the world,” the man grumped.
“So what, you’re like some kind of trickster?”
“The Trickster, that would be me,” the man said with a smile.
Tony eyed the man suspiciously. He didn’t look like much. Though Tony supposed more than one of their group didn’t look like much. Barton didn’t exactly have his hero face on at all hours of the day, and Black Widow made a living on looking as weak and defenseless as she wasn’t.
“So, you got a name?”
“My friends call me Loki,” the man said before finishing off his drink.
“You know, I can’t tell if you’re trying to be funny or stupid,” Tony said, his tone dropping to something dark.
“Why?” the man pretending to be Loki said.
“Because Loki’s back in Asgard paying for the damage he did to my city. So you’re either pretending to be him, to me, which is stupid. Or you are him, but I don’t think he’s that stupid to just announce his presence, especially with the face lift.”
“Ah, well, no wonder you’ve got your panties in a bunch. I’m a pagan, not an Asgardian, losers that they are.”
“You’re, wait, what, want to run that by me again?”
“Pagan,” the man repeated slowly. “You know every god you’ve ever heard of from any culture on the planet? We exist… well some of us are currently a little more dead than others.”
“So then… Loki?” Tony asked with disbelief, the man nodded and started drinking again. His tumbler was full again and Tony did not remember refilling it. The bottle had also no moved from his hand.
“So, tell me about the one you call Loki. And go slow. Assume I’ve been sort of vaguely dead since early 2009. Speaking of, what’s the year?”
“2013.”
“Great,” the man said with heavy sarcasm. “Any zombie problems?”
“No. Are there supposed to be zombie problems?”
“Well, since they aren’t, I’m going to say that the world isn’t well on its way to ending, which is a good thing.”
Tony finished off his drink and refilled. “Can you draw more things out of thin air?”
“I can do more than that. I’m a Trickster, we create things from nothing. Not permanently of course, but they serve our purpose.”
“Like what?”
“Well,” the man said, pausing. Tony assumed if he was telling the truth about being named Loki, then he had a lot of pranks to think of. “I once created the incredible Hulk.”
“You did what?” Tony felt like someone had stabbed him. He was very protective of Bruce.
“Yeah, I mean not the real one. I think he was off in Harlem then or something. Nah, just a needed a jolly green giant for this one guy. Real asshole, wife beater. Nah, you can’t let that type of shit get away with that, not when you’re in town and you have the power to stop it.”
“What happened to your… hulk once he finished doing what you wanted?”
“I uncreated him,” Loki said. “I sense that I’ve upset you.”
“Wow, you’re observant,” Tony dead-panned.
“The hulk a friend of yours?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Ah well,” Loki said with a shrug. “I was trying to think of a funny one. How about this, I once trapped a couple of yahoos in an endless loop of TV shows.”
“You did what?” Tony asked. He wasn’t certain if that was torture, brilliant, or just brilliant torture.
“Yeah, Dr. Sexy, Nightrider, Japanese Game shows. I’m particularly proud of the Herpexia ad.”
Tony started to laugh. “Oh, you’re evil.”
“Nah, not evil,” the man said, shifting uncomfortably. “Just creative.”
“So, what got you vaguely dead for so long?”
“You don’t want to know,” Loki said and Tony actually believed him. It was the brittle way Loki shifted in his seat. Tony only looked like that when he thought about exactly what his weapons had been actually used for.
“Yeah, I probably don’t,” Tony said, trying to sound gentle, but really, really wishing that he had Pepper there to help him. He was bad at the whole comforting and being kind thing. “But if it’s going to be a danger then I need to know. I have to take care of it.”
Loki started to laugh. “Kid, if you tried to take care of him he’d probably make you into an even less attractive bloodstain that he did with Odin. Just trust me and do not push it. If he was still a problem, believe me, you would already know it.”
“You’re certain he’s not an issue?” Tony asked.
“No zombies?”
“No.”
“No odd storms? Random slaughters of entire towns? Blood raining from the sky?”
Tony felt a nasty jolt go up his spine. There had been some pretty odd occurrences a few years ago, but nothing Tony had been able to track to one source. “It all stopped suddenly.”
“Then he’s locked up tight and the key is already dead. Count it as a win and move on,” Loki said.
“Alright,” Tony said, but only because Loki looked like he’d rather jump off the building than keep talking.
“So seriously, tell me what my name-twin did.”
“He orchestrated an alien invasion that ended up killing hundreds or people and destroying large swaths of New York.”
“Yeah, man ain’t got on sense of humor,” Loki said. He finished his drink again. “Look you got a bed? I’m apparently more severely depowered than I thought. I’m probably going to pass out now. I expect I’ll be awake again in a few days.”
“Days?” was about all Tony could get out before Loki collapsed into a heap on the floor. “Crap, Jarvis?”
“Sending help,” Jarvis said. “You should know sir that your guest has been putting out unusual energy signals.”
“Yeah, how about now?”
“About a minute ago his energy depleted to almost nothing.”
“Great,” Tony muttered. The elevator dinged open and two of Tony’s new builder robots came in. They scooped up two thirds of the stranger and Tony got the shoulders. They wheeled him down to one of the bedrooms, where they left him to sleep on top of one of the beds. Pepper could fuss later about shoes on the bed, but Tony had stuff to look up.
“I’m not really certain why it was imperative that I be on the next flight here?” Bruce asked, yawning. The red eye had never agreed with him in the first place. The plane Tony had sent for him left him with nice soothing music and a bed to sleep in the entire way from Kenya. He hadn’t slept well. Again, flying was never conducive to his sleeping habits, but he appreciated the effort.
“Just watch the tape, would you?” Tony asked. Bruce was wondering if he should question why Tony filmed everything in his home, but decided against it. He sat down in front of the screen and let Tony hit play.
Bruce’s eyebrows were almost firmly ensconced in his hairline by the time the tape finished. “So, we have a second Loki, who says he’s a pagan god?”
“Oh, it gets better,” Tony said. “I did some research, you see.” He flicked he screen and about five different windows opened up. “See, Pagans aren’t like just gods. They live by eating people.”
“So a cannibal,” Bruce said.
“Yeah, except he identified himself as Trickster first, and as far as I could tell, Trickster’s have a massive sweet tooth and a twisted sense of Justice, but I didn’t see anything about people eating. And he definitely knew about our Loki.”
“Can you not call him our Loki?”
“Thor’s Loki then, whatever. What I’m saying is that it gets even weirder.”
“Tony, I’m not certain this is exactly scientific, so I’m not sure why you had to go and retrieve me. Steve lives not even a half hour away, why not get him?”
“Because Steve still believes in God, and I’m not so sure that I want to blow his mind until I’m certain that what I’ve been reading is real. Plus, you’re the smartest man I know, and I need at least two of me to puzzle through this one.”
Bruce actually felt touched. Tony could be completely inconsiderate on a good day, but Bruce didn’t think Tony would ever just flatter someone in order to get something out of them. He smiled a little and nodded.
“Alright, tell me what else you found.”
“This,” Tony said, pulling up one big screen.
Bruce leaned in. “A chatroom?”
“Not just any chatroom. The chatroom for the Supernatural fandom, a series of books about two brothers, Sam and Dean, who run around killing monsters.”
“Tony, I need you to speak in small sentences,” Bruce said. He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
“Look, this thread here, the Gabriel appreciation post: Look what it says, Gabriel (aka: The Trickster, aka: Loki, aka: why must you make me cry like this, you stupid idiot).”
“I don’t think that last one is a real title.”
“Everything must come in threes on the internet,” Tony said. “Anyway, I found the books last night. The Trickster, it turns out, is the Archangel Gabriel, who’s been hiding on earth since Lucifer got tossed out on his ass. So the brothers, Sam and Dean, find him, still thinking he’s a Trickster and demand his help stopping Lucifer.”
“Tony.”
“No, listen. So the brothers get captured by pagans to offer to Lucifer so the pagans can kill him. Only Gabriel shows up and all the pagans know him as Loki. Gabriel tries to get the brothers out, but that fails, and he ends up being killed by Lucifer in order to save one Pagan, Kali, and the brothers.”
“Tony, you realize you’re starting to sound obsessive,” Bruce said gently.
“Bruce, I looked these up, every case I could. I found police records, tons of them, some of these things happened in the books before they happened in real life but the dates matched. I’ve found the Ghostfacer’s website, where they reference two assholes named Sam and Dean. I’ve also found Sam and Dean.”
Tony flicked up more windows, all with pictures of two men. “Every single instance of these two committing crimes up until the explosion that supposedly killed them in 2007 was documented in those books, again, some of them before the incidents happen. Carver Edlund listed places and dates. It all matches up.”
Bruce took a deep breath. “Okay Tony, let’s say that you are right and the books really are about two real brothers who really kill monsters. There are stranger things in our lives.” Bruce was one of those things.
“There was a report of the Hulk killing a man when you were nowhere near that area.”
“There are lot of reports like that Tony,” Bruce said. “But listen, let’s say all that’s real. But Angels? You’re telling me that you got an angel, but not just any angel, an Archangel, and an Archangel who was supposed to be killed by Lucifer, to crash land into your home?”
“Ah, so you discovered my secret identity.” Bruce whipped around, seeing the man from the video standing in one of the door ways. “Now, it’s not nice to snoop.”
“Also not nice to break and enter, or use a false identity,” Tony said
“Hey, I’ve been Loki almost as long as I’ve been Gabriel.”
“Yeah, not what I was referring to. Not nice to use one of my friend’s names in vain,” Tony said.
“You still mad about the hulk thing?” the man asked with great exasperation. “Tell you what, you bring the guy here and I’ll apologize to his face.”
“Well, he’s sitting right here,” Tony said.
“I don’t really need an apology,” Bruce said.
“Man, I am off my game,” the man said. “Since you uncovered my secret identity, I suppose it’s okay for you to call me Gabriel.”
“Really?” Bruce asked. “Are you really an angel?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said.
“Can you prove it?” Bruce asked.
“You know, it’s not faith if I give you a sign,” Gabriel said, going to the cabinets. He began to forage for food, wrinkling his nose whenever he saw something healthy looking.
“We’re not asking for faith,” Tony said. “Can you show us your wings? That Castiel kid could do it?”
“No, Castiel would have shown a shadow of his wings. I try to show them to you for real and your eyes explode.”
“Is it terrible to still want to see them?” Tony asked.
“Nah, just human. But if I showed you the shadows you’d think that I was using some hocus pocus or something. You just gotta go with me on this one,” Gabriel said.
“Tony, I think it might be time to call Steve,” Bruce said.
“Oh joy,” Tony said. “Jarvis, call Cap and tell him to get his star spangled butt down here pronto.”
“Would you like to phrase it exactly that way sir,” Jarvis asked.
“I didn’t program you for sass, you know,” Tony said.
“I highly doubt that sir. I’ll be sure to properly phrase you request.”
“Do you have any food? My grace is still off. Being dead does that to you apparently,” Gabriel said.
“Yeah, the kitchen. Hey, if you were dead how did you get here?” Tony asked.
“Why dear sweet loving Dad, of course,” Gabriel said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He stopped and gave Tony a long look. “So, you’re an atheist, I take it? Cause you don’t look like you’re willing to relinquish your non-believer pants any time soon.”
“Non-believer pants?” Bruce asked, feeling his lips start to curl into a smirk.
“Eh, off my game, being dead and depowered does that to a man. Now, food,” Gabriel said.
“This way,” Tony said, getting up off his stool. Bruce followed after the pair, eyes slipping between them. He wasn’t sure what was more dangerous: an unknown person who was probably and archangel with whose power was apparently fluctuating, or Tony’s curiosity.
Gabriel slipped from Tony’s side the second they arrived at the kitchen and set about raiding the fridge and starting to make an omelet.
“Is it a prerequisite for angels to know how to cook?” Tony asked as he took a seat at the island.
“Nah, just runaways who aren’t sure how much of their grace they can use and not get caught. I mean, can you image Michael in an apron? He’s probably burn the whole house down just out of frustration,” Gabriel said with a laugh.
“I need coffee,” Bruce said.
He grabbed the coffee tin that Pepper kept in the freezer and started to fiddle with the coffee pot. He really wasn’t awake enough to deal with both Gabriel and Tony. He stood by the coffee pot as the machine started to make percolating noises. To his surprise he realized that Gabriel moved around him without problem.
“Have you been powerless before?” Bruce asked.
“When I ran away I actually did drain myself down to nothing so they’d think I had died,” Gabriel said. “The only time I’d gotten that low before was the Nephilim Wars, where I did actually nearly die. I had a while where I lived as a human. Of course that was still when humanity was only in triple digits. Then of course you hang out with people like Julia Child and you just learn that cooking is kind of awesome.”
“You can just zap stuff into existence,” Tony said. “So why bother?”
“Okay, you got a bunch of cars right? You work on them, don’t you? And you’ve got a bunch of money. You can just pay to replace them, so why bother?”
Tony nodded his head from side to side. “Point.”
“Being able to make something without just waving your hand is a blessing sometimes,” Gabriel said. Bruce, who was standing fairly close to Gabriel, could see the far off look in his eye.
“Sir,” Jarvis said. “Steve Rogers has arrived.”
“Good, tell him we’re in the kitchen,” Tony said.
They didn’t have to wait very long before they could hear Steve’s voice from the hall. “Tony, please don’t tell me you called me because you’re missing an ingredient or something.”
“Nah, we’ve got an actual issue. You go here fast,” Tony said. Bruce glanced up from his coffee to see Steve walk in, look around and looked confused.
“Jarvis said it was an emergency,” Steve said. “Hello Doctor Banner.” Bruce smiled a bit. Steve would call him by his first name normally, but he also dropped back on formalities when he was tense or unsure of a situation.
“Well, I wouldn’t call it urgent, exactly,” Tony said. “Important, though.”
“What, exactly?” Steve asked, already sounding like he was regretting having come.
“Me,” Gabriel said, flipping his omelet out onto a plate and taking it to the island. “Touch it and die, Stark.”
“Have I shown any indication that I would steal from you?” Tony asked.
“I’m not taking chances,” Gabriel said, going and getting out a large glass, the milk and chocolate sauce before proceeding to make chocolate milk to go with his eggs.
“Stever Rogers,” Steve introduced himself.
“Gabriel,” Gabriel responded, getting a fork and starting to shovel food into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in a hundred years.
“So,” Tony said, looking away from Gabriel. “This guy here is apparently an Archangel, who has apparently been dead for a few years before Big Daddy brought him back to life.”
“You know, Tony, that isn’t funny,” Steve said, finding a seat at the Island.
“It’s not funny,” Gabriel agreed. “Tony that was a really poorly formed joke. At least bring you’re A-game to the table.”
“I haven’t seen you been hitting anything out of the ballpark since you got here,” Tony grumped. Bruce tried not to laugh too loudly into his coffee.
“Yeah, well, being dead will do that to you,” Gabriel said.
“So, you were really dead,” Steve said. He looked decidedly uncomfortable.
“As bad as Tony’s big daddy joke was, the rest is completely accurate,” Gabriel said.
“I thought angels were…” Steve trailed off, making vague hand gestures that seemed to suggest something that wasn’t Gabriel.
“Little naked kids with wings and halo?” Gabriel suggested.
“Creatures too grand for the human mind to conceive,” Steve said.
Gabriel smirked. “I like you. You do your homework, don’t you? I am every bit as grand as you can imagine and more, which is why I have a human vessel. We have to have human vessels to exist on this plane, otherwise we tend to accidentally kill people and set stuff on fire.”
“Did Castiel burn out a woman’s eyes?” Tony asked.
“How long was I out?” Gabriel asked and then shook his head. “I don’t know exactly what my little brother did and did not do, but if someone got a look of him then yes, their eyes would be burnt out. Me, I’m lot bigger. If I wasn’t wearing this guy, then the entire city, possibly the whole state would be decimated by my existence.”
“And I thought I was destructive,” Bruce said.
“Yeah, Dad wasn’t the biggest on us playing with his doll house. He had to put on the special gloves first,” Gabriel said. “Speaking of the grand plan. You read a bunch of the Prophet’s books, right? Can you tell me what happened?”
“When?” Tony asked.
“No zombies, no fire from the sky means Lucifer’s ass isn’t up here causing problems any more. So, what happened?” Gabriel demanded.
Tony looked suddenly very uncomfortable and even kind of guilty. Steve wasn’t looking comfortable either, but Bruce was going to chalk that one up to him edging on an existential crisis. Tony looked rather green and the curious smile on his face fell away completely.
“Stark,” Gabriel said. His voice dropped, and his tone changed. The Joviality that seemed to be so part of his personality melted away, leaving a small man who looked very much like he could bring down the Avengers tower with the snap of his fingers.
“The brothers got the porno you sent them, and collected the other rings,” Tony said, speaking as gentle and careful as Bruce had ever heard him.
Bruce had heard that tone of voice from other people who were afraid of the other guy. But Tony had never been afraid of him. Tony trusted Bruce and he trusted the other guy. But Bruce could see Tony was afraid of the being sitting at his kitchen table. As Tony was the only one who’d read the books he was probably the only one with any idea as to the power Gabriel had, second to Steve who apparently did read his bible. Steve looked cautious too, but whatever disbelieve he’d had was stripped from his eyes.
“Keep going,” Gabriel ordered.
“So they got the rings, but could only figure out one way to get Lucifer back in the cage, which was for Sam to say yes,” Tony said. Bruce didn’t know what that meant, but Gabriel clearly did because he nodded for Tony to continue.
“So Sam does. But Dean never said yes to Michael. They had a half-brother who Michael ended up wearing. So Lucifer and Michael go to face each other at Stull Cemetery, and Lucifer asks Michael if they can both just back off the gameboard. Michael basically called Lucifer an abomination and it looked like they were about to start their world ending fight. Then Dean drives up in his Impala and gets in the way. And Castiel shows up and molotov’s Michael with holy oil.”
Gabriel snorted. “Kid would do that,” he said. “Continue.”
“So Lucifer gets pissed and blows Castiel to smithereens. And then he goes after Dean. He’s just beating the crap out of Dean. And Dean just keeps telling Sam that it’s okay and he doesn’t blame him. And something happens, like Sam gets control of Lucifer, opens the door to the cage and gets ready to throw himself in. But Michael pops up at the wrong moment and tries to stop him. Except that Sam’s already started falling, so he ends up dragging Michael down too,” Tony stops for a breath, but quickly presses on. “And God brought Castiel back to life again.”
Gabriel lost all of his thunder and just sat at the island. He clasped his hands around his chocolate milk for a moment, looking into his glass like a sad drunk might look into his booze. He slowly raised his glass and drank all the rest down before getting up and walking out.
“Tony,” Steve said after a moment of silence in the kitchen when they could no longer hear Gabriel’s footsteps. “Are you telling us that the end of the world already happened and no one noticed?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Tony said quietly. “Jarvis,” he said a little louder.
“Sir?”
“If Gabriel tries to do something stupid like jump off the landing pad, tell me before he can do it.”
“Will do, sir,” Jarvis said.
“Tony,” Steve said again.
“Look Cap, I don’t know. We dealt with the gods from outer space, but this is different. Like way different. From what I can tell, if Gabriel’s telling the truth and the books are right, then the biggest threat is over. Sure, Heaven’s full of dicks, but whatever, you’ve got a bunch of directionless children running things.”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of that,” Steve said. “Where’s God in all of this?”
“The Himalayas, or someplace. No one knows. Raphael said he thought God was dead, but then Joshua, God’s gardener, said that God’s just tired and doesn’t want to play. And he does keep bringing Cas back from beyond the grave. So while he’s hands off, he’s still gotta be paying attention somewhere.”
“I still don’t like it,” Steve said.
“Well, that doesn’t matter, because it is, what it is,” Tony said.
“I know that, Tony. Doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it,” Steve said before looking at Bruce. “What do you think?”
“I don’t think a liar could fake that kind of heart ache,” Bruce said. He found a seat at the island. “The question is now, what’s happened since the books ended?”
“Well, I saw something,” Tony said. “One of the mods said she married Sam Winchester in 2011, though she also said it got annulled. She was apparently dating the writer for a bit, and is definitely in the books.”
“So, she would be the one to contact,” Steve said.
“Yeah,” Tony said. “Jarvis, find out everything about Becky, AKA: Samlicker81.” Bruce snorted and quickly covered his mouth.
“Anything else, sir?” Jarvis asked.
“Yeah, when you find her, get her down here. I don’t want to have any email conversations with her that Fury could potentially find blackmail worthy,” Tony said.
“Director Fury reads your emails?” Steve asked.
“Well, I read his, so it’s a fair trade,” Tony said.
“Do we need to call Fury?” Bruce asked, draining the last of his coffee and putting down the mug.
“Let’s not call him or the super spies in just yet. I’d rather it be between us for the moment.”
“Mostly you don’t want Fury to know about the possibility of Angels,” Steve said.
“He built weapons from HYDRA tech when he heard about Thor, what do you think he’ll do when he realizes Angels are real and a lot closer by?” Tony asked.
“And we’re not calling Thor,” Steve said.
“It’s enough trouble trying to get him here in the first place since the Bifrost broke,” Bruce pointed out. “And I’m not certain he wouldn’t attack first and ask questions later if he found out that someone was using his brother’s identity.”
“Biggest question I want to know is which one of them actually screwed the horse.”
“Tony,” Steve said, using his ‘my patience doesn’t stretch that far’ voice.
“Okay, okay,” Tony said. “I won’t ask, today anyway. But there’s no need to get Thor down here. With our fine feathered friend’s powers being on the fritz, Thor might either kill him or cause an explosion that wipes out New York for real this time.”
“Sir, I found the information you requested,” Jarvis said.
“Give it to me, and get her down here.” Tony said, getting up to get his tablet so he could look through the files.
“I’ll ask Ms. Potts if she’ll send the request.”
“Thank you Jarvis, that’s a good idea,” Steve said, going to stand behind Tony so he could also see.
Pepper didn’t mind doing favors for Tony. He’d been doing better since they got the pieces of metal out of his chest. She had always been used to odd requests from Tony, and convincing a young woman they didn’t know to come visit wasn’t that odd for Tony. It was odd that Bruce and Steve were in on it.
Well, she had refused to do anything until they filled her in. When they did she made Gabriel a cup of tea with about twice as much sugar and milk as she would regularly use. He thanked her for her efforts. Though, he also told her she needed to double the sugar the next time.
Pepper decided it was a better idea to just pick up Rebecca Rosen from the airport herself. She knew this wasn’t something she really wanted to be spreading around, and Happy had agreed to drive them, so it was okay.
“Ms. Rosen?” Pepper asked when she saw the other woman walk by.
“Ms. Potts,” Rebecca Rosen said, looking star struck. “It’s such an honor, really.”
“Pepper, please.”
“Becky,” she said, looking incredibly nervous. Becky offered Pepper a hand to shake, which Pepper accepted. “How can I help you?”
“I’ll tell you in the car. Let’s collect your bags, shall we?” Pepper asked with a smile.
Becky found her bags with relative ease. Pepper took one while Becky took the other. Happy met them out on the street and loaded the bags into the trunk while Pepper ushered Becky into the back seat.
“Do you know why I’ve asked you to come?” Pepper asked.
“I really don’t know,” Becky said, playing with her fingers nervously. “I really can’t think of any reason at all. In fact I was half convinced someone was playing a joke on me, except that thee plane tickets were paid for and I was in first class. Which was very nice by the way. Thank you very much for that.”
“Not a problem,” Pepper said. “I called because Tony is having a problem, well one of his house guests is, but Tony has taken it upon himself to help fix it.”
“I don’t know if I can help, but I’ll try,” Becky said with a nervous smile. She was holding it together fairly well and seemed pretty humble, so Pepper decided that she did like the other woman.
“We called you because of your familiarity with the Supernatural books,” Pepper said.
Becky laughed nervously. “Is this a joke?”
“Supposedly, Tony has an Arch Angel moping around in his house. So I’m going to say no,” Pepper said.
“Which one?” Becky asked quickly. Her humbleness melted away, instead becoming absolute focus.
“Gabriel.”
“Gabriel died in Hammer of the Gods,” Becky said.
“He says he’s been brought back.”
“Well,” Becky said, resting her hand on her chin in thought. “Castiel got brought back many times, so I don’t see why not.”
“Yes, as far as Tony could tell, you were the best source of information about what happened after the books finished. Short of the brothers, or the writer.”
“Chuck’s gone,” Becky said. “Completely gone. He’s been declared dead. They called me about his Will over a year ago. He turned the book rights over to me, so I published the rest,” she said.
“Do you have any idea what happened to him?” Becky asked.
“The books said he disappeared,” Becky said. “I did research on prophets and it’s happened before you know.”
“Yes, Tony also found the research,” Pepper said. Meaning that Tony read the Bible and complained about it.
“Yeah, so I just assumed he’d finished his work and moved on. I saw Sam and Dean before I got called about Chuck’s Will, but I haven’t seen or heard from them since… well, not really,” Becky said. “I heard some things. There was some stuff on the news.”
“About the murder streak,” Pepper said.
“Yeah, but that’s not them. They wouldn’t do something like that. The them on the videos was nothing like how they really were, you understand,” Becky said.
Pepper nodded. “Do you know what was going on?”
“Really vaguely. I’ll see if I can help,” Becky said in earnest.
“Good,” Pepper said. The rest of the trip was more about silence and small talk. Becky pulled out her Kindle at one point, pulling up the books with Gabriel in them and beginning to skim for details. Pepper left her to it until they actually arrived at the Avengers tower.
Becky seemed hyper focused by the time they actually got into the elevator and to the correct floor. Tony and Steve were sitting on the sofas. Steve had a physical copy of the Supernatural books in his hands, while Tony was reading on his tablet.
“Where are Bruce and Gabriel?” Pepper asked
“No clue, not asking,” Tony said.
“We decided it was safer that way,” Steve added, actually looking up from his book. He stood and smiled. “Miss Pepper, and I assume this is Miss Rosen.”
“Becky’s fine,” Becky said from Pepper’s side. Pepper could tell even without looking that Steve had flustered her. It was hard not to be attracted to Steve. Pepper was just better at not worrying about it than most women. For one thing, she had Tony. For another, she’d been dealing with Tony for too many years to just get flustered over just about anything.
“We were told you might be able to help us figure some of this out.”
“Well, I can try,” Becky said, regaining her focus. “Is Gabriel here now?” She hardly was hiding the excitement in her voice.
“Jarvis, locate Bruce and Gabriel and tell them our guest has arrived,” Tony said.
“Of course sir,” Jarvis said.
“Wow, a talking house,” Becky said. “Just like in the movies.”
“Yeah, except Jarvis isn’t just the house and he’s a lot more functional than the ones in the movies,” Tony said, getting up and climbing over the sofa’s back to walk over to Pepper and Becky. “I’ve been reading your work. Though I question the flexibility of some of the positions you put these two in. You actually met them, right, was that actually going on.”
“It’s just fantasy,” Becky said, flushing. “I was married to Sam for a while.”
“Really? That didn’t ping on your records,” Tony said. He started to scroll through his tablet.
“It was in Vegas, we had to get it annulled,” she said.
“So what you married Sam Winchester and didn’t end up dead,” Gabriel asked. He appeared from nowhere, but then his abilities were apparently coming back here and there, so he had been popping up from nowhere a lot recently. “I thought he had a killer dick or something.”
“Are you Gabriel?” Becky asked with awe in her voice.
“The one and only,” Gabriel said with an illustrious bow.
“Wow!” Becky said. “I cried so much when you died. I couldn’t believe that happened. I was so mad.”
“Well, I assure you that it didn’t do much for me either,” Gabriel said.
“How can I help? I can help, right?”
“Maybe,” Gabriel said. “When did you marry Sam?”
“It was about a year ago.”
“So he got out of the Cage,” Gabriel said, looking away for a moment. He looked more worried than Pepper thought he should. “Do you know how?”
“Sam sort of filled me in. I mean, I didn’t ask a lot. Honeymoon and all. But He said Castiel dragged him out, and Death helped.”
“Death?” Steve asked.
“You haven’t gotten to the Horsemen yet, keep reading,” Tony said.
“Okay, yeah, Death would have the juice for that,” Gabriel said. “Do you know anything else?”
“Well, Sam said they were looking for a way to stop Leviathan, and Crowley backed it up.”
“Okay, Leviathan is a huge problem. Why is it here?” Gabriel hissed. “And why is Crowley confirming anything?”
“He made himself King of Hell,” Becky said.
Gabriel paused and cocked his head to one side. “Okay, yeah, I can see that.”
“What is Leviathan anyway?” Pepper asked.
“A sea monster described in Job,” Steve said.
“Not a sea monster, kid,” Gabriel said. “They’re like the borg, a hive mind that eats everything, except that they eat you, not turn you into one of them. And they eat each other. And they can kill angels. They’re the only thing in Purgatory that the Mother Monster didn’t create, and fighting them was the last thing my brother Lucifer ever did under our father’s orders.”
“So, they’re a big deal,” Becky said.
“A huge deal,” Gabriel said.
“Do they have anything to do with Dick Roman? Sam mentioned him.”
“One way to find out,” Tony said, pulling up everything on Dick Roman. “I mean, the guy died about a year ago now. He was building man.”
“When did that start?” Becky asked.
“A year before his death,” Pepper said. “He started to take over everything, even things he hadn’t been involved in before, like food.”
“Food which people consumed,” Gabriel said. “Damn, Dad, you left a huge mess,” he murmured. “Leviathan’s leader is like their god, except that he runs everything. Without him you’ve got a bunch of piranha no longer in a school. Yeah, they can eat some people, but it’s not going to be anything like what they could do otherwise.”
“Are you sure the head’s been cut off the beast?” Bruce asked. Pepper jumped. She didn’t even know when he’d actually arrived, but clearly long enough ago to actually have enough information to ask such a question.
“I can’t be exactly sure,” Gabriel said. “And they’re sneaky. You wouldn’t notice immediately if they had taken over. I need to find out more.”
“We’ll help,” Tony said.
“No, you won’t,” Gabriel said.
“What do you mean we won’t?” Steve asked. “That’s what we do, help people.”
“Yeah, but this way above your pay grade, kid. It’s way above mine without Lucifer or Michael,” Gabriel grumbled.
“What about Raphael?” Becky asked.
“He’s a healer, not really a fighter,” Gabriel said.
“No,” Becky said quietly. “I mean, he’s dead.”
“When?” Gabriel demanded, suddenly rounding on her.
“I don’t know. Sam mentioned it,” Becky said in a small voice.
“Where the hell is Sam anyway,” Gabriel asked. He was getting a very large anger around him. Pepper couldn’t see it, but she could see how much grander Gabriel seemed, though she couldn’t figure out why he seemed that way.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since I signed the annulment papers,” Becky said, sounding a bit panicked.
“So he really did leave you. I can’t imagine that he had much interest in you in the first place,” Gabriel said with a sneer. Becky looked near tears.
“Hey, stop it,” Steve said.
“Yeah, there’s no need to act like that,” Pepper said.
“No, it’s fine,” Becky said in a quiet voice. She focused her gaze on Gabriel. “I understand this can’t be easy on you. But you don’t have to shoot the messenger. You’re supposed to be the messenger.”
“Humans aren’t supposed to be the ones to tell me my brothers died,” Gabriel said. On another person, Pepper would think they sounded near tears.
“Yes, which may be why you’re here now,” Becky said. “Who’s running heaven now?”
“Just shut up,” Gabriel said. He disappeared.
“You know,” Tony said far too soon. “I don’t think I ever thought I’d see an angel throw a hissy fit.”
Gabriel barely spoke to them after that. Steve wasn’t certain if he thought of that as a lucky break or not. Honestly, Gabriel was and was not everything he expected from an Arch Angel. When Gabriel got angry, really angry and he allowed his grace to be felt, those were thee moments where Gabriel seemed as glorious as everything Steve had imagined. Otherwise, Gabriel was just like Tony, except he was also a brother grieving for his family being dead.
“You know, I understand, right,” Steve said, sitting down next to Gabriel. “Waking up and someone who you loved, everyone you loved is just gone.”
“Yeah, I heard about you,” Gabriel muttered.
“It’s like the worst feeling ever,” Steve said quietly.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. You know, none of it. I was supposed to get a call before it all ended. That never happened. It was just… Hell, I just wanted it to be over,” Gabriel said in equal quiet.
“I read about you,” Steve said. “You know…”
“What, are you pissed at me too for running away?” Gabriel snapped, suddenly very loud.
Steve made his voice softer. “No. You came back when it mattered. You let them get away. You made it so they could stop the end of the world. You were there when it mattered.”
Gabriel sighed heavily and closed his eyes. “You’re a really good guy. I hate that.”
Steve chuckled. “I didn’t think angels were supposed to lie.”
“Language is subjective,” Gabriel muttered, but he looked a little more like smiling.
“Yeah, it is,” Steve said, shaking his head. Gabriel’s head suddenly snapped up. “What is it?”
Gabriel got up and walked outside, heading out to the outside landing. Steve followed outside. The dark sky was suddenly full of stars falling. Steve looked up in awe before looking down at Gabriel who Steve suddenly realized was crying.
“Gabriel, what’s wrong?”
“The angels… all of heaven. They’re all falling,” Gabriel whispered.
“What?” Steve breathed.
“The angels are falling,” Gabriel said. He looked over at Steve. “I have to go.” And suddenly he was gone.
“Gabriel! Gabriel!” Steve shouted.
“What is it?” Bruce asked.
“It’s Gabriel,” Steve said. His eyes fixed back up on the Heavens, which were apparently rapidly plunging to Earth. “He said the angels are falling.”
“The angels are falling?” Bruce said. It was loud enough that Becky, Tony and Pepper came out to watch the shower.
“That’s what he said before he disappeared.”
“Where did he go?” Becky asked.
“I don’t know. He just said he had to leave,” Steve said. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the sky. It made him feel profoundly sad.
“We have to do something,” Becky said emphatically. “If the angels are falling that means something gone wrong, really wrong.”
“So what happened?” Pepper asked.
“No idea. But I bet Sam knows,” Becky said. “Tony, do you think you can find them. I mean you found me.”
“Yeah, but you haven’t supposedly died twice,” Tony said.
“So you can’t do it?” Becky asked.
“Nah, it’ll just take an extra hour or so,” Tony said. He was using his I’m-so-happy-I-have-a-challenge voice.
“What are you going to do when you find them?” Pepper asked.
“Help,” Steve, Bruce and Tony said.
“It’s what we do,” Steve said.
“And no matter what Gabriel said, if the angels are on earth it means it’s our problem now,” Bruce said calmly.
“We are the Avengers, after all. If this isn’t out kind of gig, I don’t know what is,” Tony said with a too big grin. “Steve, you call up Romanov and Barton. I’ll go find the monster killing twins and see if I can send them a fruit basket.”
“You should look up Enochian warding sigils,” Becky said.
“We can do that,” Bruce said.
“I’ll see what the news is doing for coverage and try to figure out what to do with the angels in New York,” Pepper said.
“Good, we’ve all got our marching orders,” Tony said. He walked inside, so did the others.
Steve stood outside and watched the Fall. “Jarvis, can you get Director Fury on the phone. I need to tell him something important.”
“Of course,” Jarvis said. “I believe he’s already on the line.”
“Patch him through.” Steve said.
“Rogers,” Fury’s voice said.
“Director, we already know. There are angels falling from the sky.”
“Angels?” Fury said calmly, but with true disbelief.
“We’re working on it,” Steve said. He shut his eyes when suddenly the sky stopped being lit up with falling angels. He almost sort of wished it were the Apocalypse again. At least there was a handbook for that.
Author: Moose
Recipient: antrazi
Rating: T
Wordcount: ~7,400
Warnings: Spoilers for s8
Prompt: Crossover - Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) - The Avengers don't know what to think of this Gabriel with the powers of a god who is nothing like Thor or Loki.
Summary: Tony wouldn’t exactly be calling it his lucky day when a man who claims to be Loki crash lands into his home. But he would call it interesting.
He crash landed into the landing of the Avenger’s tower when Tony just started real work on repairs. Okay, it’s not quite as destroyed as the previously named Stark Tower, but it’s not like Tony really wanted to entertain guests, especially the kind that fall from the sky.
Tony walked out toward the platform, watching the man sit up from the newly busted floor, groaning and grumbling something that sounded approximately like “gee, thanks dad”.
“You know, most visitors use the front door,” Tony said.
“Ouch,” the man said. “Want to help a brother up?”
“Are you going to zap me with something?” Tony asked.
“I don’t know. Do you deserve to be zapped with something?” the man asked. He looked so earnest about it that Tony actually considered his answer.
“Maybe? I don’t know, probably?” Tony asked. He still offered the man a hand up.
“Eh, I don’t know your sins, and you helped me up, so we’ll call it even,” the man said. And he was short. Well, Tony wasn’t a tall man, but this guy made Tony feel tall.
“Welcome to my humble abode then stranger,” Tony said. “Care for a drink.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” the man said. “I’m seriously sugar deficient.”
Tony was about to offer the man whatever he had lying around that Pepper hadn’t confiscated, but the man snapped his fingers and one of those giant rainbow lollipops appeared in his hand, which he promptly took a bite out of.
“How did you do that?” Tony asked.
“How didn’t I do that?” the man asked with a smirk.
“Is today Cryptic Friday?”
“More like Cryptic Tuesday… it is Tuesday, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s Tuesday,” Tony said. He turned and walked inside. He now needed that drink as well. He poured two tumblers, sliding one down to his guest took a large gulp.
“So, where am I exactly?”
“Avengers Tower, downtown New York. Where did you think you were?”
“Not dead,” the man said. “And who are you exactly?”
“Tony Stark.”
“Seriously? Tony Stark? And I had the perfect chance to prank you and passed it by? I have to have the worst luck in the world,” the man grumped.
“So what, you’re like some kind of trickster?”
“The Trickster, that would be me,” the man said with a smile.
Tony eyed the man suspiciously. He didn’t look like much. Though Tony supposed more than one of their group didn’t look like much. Barton didn’t exactly have his hero face on at all hours of the day, and Black Widow made a living on looking as weak and defenseless as she wasn’t.
“So, you got a name?”
“My friends call me Loki,” the man said before finishing off his drink.
“You know, I can’t tell if you’re trying to be funny or stupid,” Tony said, his tone dropping to something dark.
“Why?” the man pretending to be Loki said.
“Because Loki’s back in Asgard paying for the damage he did to my city. So you’re either pretending to be him, to me, which is stupid. Or you are him, but I don’t think he’s that stupid to just announce his presence, especially with the face lift.”
“Ah, well, no wonder you’ve got your panties in a bunch. I’m a pagan, not an Asgardian, losers that they are.”
“You’re, wait, what, want to run that by me again?”
“Pagan,” the man repeated slowly. “You know every god you’ve ever heard of from any culture on the planet? We exist… well some of us are currently a little more dead than others.”
“So then… Loki?” Tony asked with disbelief, the man nodded and started drinking again. His tumbler was full again and Tony did not remember refilling it. The bottle had also no moved from his hand.
“So, tell me about the one you call Loki. And go slow. Assume I’ve been sort of vaguely dead since early 2009. Speaking of, what’s the year?”
“2013.”
“Great,” the man said with heavy sarcasm. “Any zombie problems?”
“No. Are there supposed to be zombie problems?”
“Well, since they aren’t, I’m going to say that the world isn’t well on its way to ending, which is a good thing.”
Tony finished off his drink and refilled. “Can you draw more things out of thin air?”
“I can do more than that. I’m a Trickster, we create things from nothing. Not permanently of course, but they serve our purpose.”
“Like what?”
“Well,” the man said, pausing. Tony assumed if he was telling the truth about being named Loki, then he had a lot of pranks to think of. “I once created the incredible Hulk.”
“You did what?” Tony felt like someone had stabbed him. He was very protective of Bruce.
“Yeah, I mean not the real one. I think he was off in Harlem then or something. Nah, just a needed a jolly green giant for this one guy. Real asshole, wife beater. Nah, you can’t let that type of shit get away with that, not when you’re in town and you have the power to stop it.”
“What happened to your… hulk once he finished doing what you wanted?”
“I uncreated him,” Loki said. “I sense that I’ve upset you.”
“Wow, you’re observant,” Tony dead-panned.
“The hulk a friend of yours?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Ah well,” Loki said with a shrug. “I was trying to think of a funny one. How about this, I once trapped a couple of yahoos in an endless loop of TV shows.”
“You did what?” Tony asked. He wasn’t certain if that was torture, brilliant, or just brilliant torture.
“Yeah, Dr. Sexy, Nightrider, Japanese Game shows. I’m particularly proud of the Herpexia ad.”
Tony started to laugh. “Oh, you’re evil.”
“Nah, not evil,” the man said, shifting uncomfortably. “Just creative.”
“So, what got you vaguely dead for so long?”
“You don’t want to know,” Loki said and Tony actually believed him. It was the brittle way Loki shifted in his seat. Tony only looked like that when he thought about exactly what his weapons had been actually used for.
“Yeah, I probably don’t,” Tony said, trying to sound gentle, but really, really wishing that he had Pepper there to help him. He was bad at the whole comforting and being kind thing. “But if it’s going to be a danger then I need to know. I have to take care of it.”
Loki started to laugh. “Kid, if you tried to take care of him he’d probably make you into an even less attractive bloodstain that he did with Odin. Just trust me and do not push it. If he was still a problem, believe me, you would already know it.”
“You’re certain he’s not an issue?” Tony asked.
“No zombies?”
“No.”
“No odd storms? Random slaughters of entire towns? Blood raining from the sky?”
Tony felt a nasty jolt go up his spine. There had been some pretty odd occurrences a few years ago, but nothing Tony had been able to track to one source. “It all stopped suddenly.”
“Then he’s locked up tight and the key is already dead. Count it as a win and move on,” Loki said.
“Alright,” Tony said, but only because Loki looked like he’d rather jump off the building than keep talking.
“So seriously, tell me what my name-twin did.”
“He orchestrated an alien invasion that ended up killing hundreds or people and destroying large swaths of New York.”
“Yeah, man ain’t got on sense of humor,” Loki said. He finished his drink again. “Look you got a bed? I’m apparently more severely depowered than I thought. I’m probably going to pass out now. I expect I’ll be awake again in a few days.”
“Days?” was about all Tony could get out before Loki collapsed into a heap on the floor. “Crap, Jarvis?”
“Sending help,” Jarvis said. “You should know sir that your guest has been putting out unusual energy signals.”
“Yeah, how about now?”
“About a minute ago his energy depleted to almost nothing.”
“Great,” Tony muttered. The elevator dinged open and two of Tony’s new builder robots came in. They scooped up two thirds of the stranger and Tony got the shoulders. They wheeled him down to one of the bedrooms, where they left him to sleep on top of one of the beds. Pepper could fuss later about shoes on the bed, but Tony had stuff to look up.
“I’m not really certain why it was imperative that I be on the next flight here?” Bruce asked, yawning. The red eye had never agreed with him in the first place. The plane Tony had sent for him left him with nice soothing music and a bed to sleep in the entire way from Kenya. He hadn’t slept well. Again, flying was never conducive to his sleeping habits, but he appreciated the effort.
“Just watch the tape, would you?” Tony asked. Bruce was wondering if he should question why Tony filmed everything in his home, but decided against it. He sat down in front of the screen and let Tony hit play.
Bruce’s eyebrows were almost firmly ensconced in his hairline by the time the tape finished. “So, we have a second Loki, who says he’s a pagan god?”
“Oh, it gets better,” Tony said. “I did some research, you see.” He flicked he screen and about five different windows opened up. “See, Pagans aren’t like just gods. They live by eating people.”
“So a cannibal,” Bruce said.
“Yeah, except he identified himself as Trickster first, and as far as I could tell, Trickster’s have a massive sweet tooth and a twisted sense of Justice, but I didn’t see anything about people eating. And he definitely knew about our Loki.”
“Can you not call him our Loki?”
“Thor’s Loki then, whatever. What I’m saying is that it gets even weirder.”
“Tony, I’m not certain this is exactly scientific, so I’m not sure why you had to go and retrieve me. Steve lives not even a half hour away, why not get him?”
“Because Steve still believes in God, and I’m not so sure that I want to blow his mind until I’m certain that what I’ve been reading is real. Plus, you’re the smartest man I know, and I need at least two of me to puzzle through this one.”
Bruce actually felt touched. Tony could be completely inconsiderate on a good day, but Bruce didn’t think Tony would ever just flatter someone in order to get something out of them. He smiled a little and nodded.
“Alright, tell me what else you found.”
“This,” Tony said, pulling up one big screen.
Bruce leaned in. “A chatroom?”
“Not just any chatroom. The chatroom for the Supernatural fandom, a series of books about two brothers, Sam and Dean, who run around killing monsters.”
“Tony, I need you to speak in small sentences,” Bruce said. He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
“Look, this thread here, the Gabriel appreciation post: Look what it says, Gabriel (aka: The Trickster, aka: Loki, aka: why must you make me cry like this, you stupid idiot).”
“I don’t think that last one is a real title.”
“Everything must come in threes on the internet,” Tony said. “Anyway, I found the books last night. The Trickster, it turns out, is the Archangel Gabriel, who’s been hiding on earth since Lucifer got tossed out on his ass. So the brothers, Sam and Dean, find him, still thinking he’s a Trickster and demand his help stopping Lucifer.”
“Tony.”
“No, listen. So the brothers get captured by pagans to offer to Lucifer so the pagans can kill him. Only Gabriel shows up and all the pagans know him as Loki. Gabriel tries to get the brothers out, but that fails, and he ends up being killed by Lucifer in order to save one Pagan, Kali, and the brothers.”
“Tony, you realize you’re starting to sound obsessive,” Bruce said gently.
“Bruce, I looked these up, every case I could. I found police records, tons of them, some of these things happened in the books before they happened in real life but the dates matched. I’ve found the Ghostfacer’s website, where they reference two assholes named Sam and Dean. I’ve also found Sam and Dean.”
Tony flicked up more windows, all with pictures of two men. “Every single instance of these two committing crimes up until the explosion that supposedly killed them in 2007 was documented in those books, again, some of them before the incidents happen. Carver Edlund listed places and dates. It all matches up.”
Bruce took a deep breath. “Okay Tony, let’s say that you are right and the books really are about two real brothers who really kill monsters. There are stranger things in our lives.” Bruce was one of those things.
“There was a report of the Hulk killing a man when you were nowhere near that area.”
“There are lot of reports like that Tony,” Bruce said. “But listen, let’s say all that’s real. But Angels? You’re telling me that you got an angel, but not just any angel, an Archangel, and an Archangel who was supposed to be killed by Lucifer, to crash land into your home?”
“Ah, so you discovered my secret identity.” Bruce whipped around, seeing the man from the video standing in one of the door ways. “Now, it’s not nice to snoop.”
“Also not nice to break and enter, or use a false identity,” Tony said
“Hey, I’ve been Loki almost as long as I’ve been Gabriel.”
“Yeah, not what I was referring to. Not nice to use one of my friend’s names in vain,” Tony said.
“You still mad about the hulk thing?” the man asked with great exasperation. “Tell you what, you bring the guy here and I’ll apologize to his face.”
“Well, he’s sitting right here,” Tony said.
“I don’t really need an apology,” Bruce said.
“Man, I am off my game,” the man said. “Since you uncovered my secret identity, I suppose it’s okay for you to call me Gabriel.”
“Really?” Bruce asked. “Are you really an angel?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said.
“Can you prove it?” Bruce asked.
“You know, it’s not faith if I give you a sign,” Gabriel said, going to the cabinets. He began to forage for food, wrinkling his nose whenever he saw something healthy looking.
“We’re not asking for faith,” Tony said. “Can you show us your wings? That Castiel kid could do it?”
“No, Castiel would have shown a shadow of his wings. I try to show them to you for real and your eyes explode.”
“Is it terrible to still want to see them?” Tony asked.
“Nah, just human. But if I showed you the shadows you’d think that I was using some hocus pocus or something. You just gotta go with me on this one,” Gabriel said.
“Tony, I think it might be time to call Steve,” Bruce said.
“Oh joy,” Tony said. “Jarvis, call Cap and tell him to get his star spangled butt down here pronto.”
“Would you like to phrase it exactly that way sir,” Jarvis asked.
“I didn’t program you for sass, you know,” Tony said.
“I highly doubt that sir. I’ll be sure to properly phrase you request.”
“Do you have any food? My grace is still off. Being dead does that to you apparently,” Gabriel said.
“Yeah, the kitchen. Hey, if you were dead how did you get here?” Tony asked.
“Why dear sweet loving Dad, of course,” Gabriel said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He stopped and gave Tony a long look. “So, you’re an atheist, I take it? Cause you don’t look like you’re willing to relinquish your non-believer pants any time soon.”
“Non-believer pants?” Bruce asked, feeling his lips start to curl into a smirk.
“Eh, off my game, being dead and depowered does that to a man. Now, food,” Gabriel said.
“This way,” Tony said, getting up off his stool. Bruce followed after the pair, eyes slipping between them. He wasn’t sure what was more dangerous: an unknown person who was probably and archangel with whose power was apparently fluctuating, or Tony’s curiosity.
Gabriel slipped from Tony’s side the second they arrived at the kitchen and set about raiding the fridge and starting to make an omelet.
“Is it a prerequisite for angels to know how to cook?” Tony asked as he took a seat at the island.
“Nah, just runaways who aren’t sure how much of their grace they can use and not get caught. I mean, can you image Michael in an apron? He’s probably burn the whole house down just out of frustration,” Gabriel said with a laugh.
“I need coffee,” Bruce said.
He grabbed the coffee tin that Pepper kept in the freezer and started to fiddle with the coffee pot. He really wasn’t awake enough to deal with both Gabriel and Tony. He stood by the coffee pot as the machine started to make percolating noises. To his surprise he realized that Gabriel moved around him without problem.
“Have you been powerless before?” Bruce asked.
“When I ran away I actually did drain myself down to nothing so they’d think I had died,” Gabriel said. “The only time I’d gotten that low before was the Nephilim Wars, where I did actually nearly die. I had a while where I lived as a human. Of course that was still when humanity was only in triple digits. Then of course you hang out with people like Julia Child and you just learn that cooking is kind of awesome.”
“You can just zap stuff into existence,” Tony said. “So why bother?”
“Okay, you got a bunch of cars right? You work on them, don’t you? And you’ve got a bunch of money. You can just pay to replace them, so why bother?”
Tony nodded his head from side to side. “Point.”
“Being able to make something without just waving your hand is a blessing sometimes,” Gabriel said. Bruce, who was standing fairly close to Gabriel, could see the far off look in his eye.
“Sir,” Jarvis said. “Steve Rogers has arrived.”
“Good, tell him we’re in the kitchen,” Tony said.
They didn’t have to wait very long before they could hear Steve’s voice from the hall. “Tony, please don’t tell me you called me because you’re missing an ingredient or something.”
“Nah, we’ve got an actual issue. You go here fast,” Tony said. Bruce glanced up from his coffee to see Steve walk in, look around and looked confused.
“Jarvis said it was an emergency,” Steve said. “Hello Doctor Banner.” Bruce smiled a bit. Steve would call him by his first name normally, but he also dropped back on formalities when he was tense or unsure of a situation.
“Well, I wouldn’t call it urgent, exactly,” Tony said. “Important, though.”
“What, exactly?” Steve asked, already sounding like he was regretting having come.
“Me,” Gabriel said, flipping his omelet out onto a plate and taking it to the island. “Touch it and die, Stark.”
“Have I shown any indication that I would steal from you?” Tony asked.
“I’m not taking chances,” Gabriel said, going and getting out a large glass, the milk and chocolate sauce before proceeding to make chocolate milk to go with his eggs.
“Stever Rogers,” Steve introduced himself.
“Gabriel,” Gabriel responded, getting a fork and starting to shovel food into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in a hundred years.
“So,” Tony said, looking away from Gabriel. “This guy here is apparently an Archangel, who has apparently been dead for a few years before Big Daddy brought him back to life.”
“You know, Tony, that isn’t funny,” Steve said, finding a seat at the Island.
“It’s not funny,” Gabriel agreed. “Tony that was a really poorly formed joke. At least bring you’re A-game to the table.”
“I haven’t seen you been hitting anything out of the ballpark since you got here,” Tony grumped. Bruce tried not to laugh too loudly into his coffee.
“Yeah, well, being dead will do that to you,” Gabriel said.
“So, you were really dead,” Steve said. He looked decidedly uncomfortable.
“As bad as Tony’s big daddy joke was, the rest is completely accurate,” Gabriel said.
“I thought angels were…” Steve trailed off, making vague hand gestures that seemed to suggest something that wasn’t Gabriel.
“Little naked kids with wings and halo?” Gabriel suggested.
“Creatures too grand for the human mind to conceive,” Steve said.
Gabriel smirked. “I like you. You do your homework, don’t you? I am every bit as grand as you can imagine and more, which is why I have a human vessel. We have to have human vessels to exist on this plane, otherwise we tend to accidentally kill people and set stuff on fire.”
“Did Castiel burn out a woman’s eyes?” Tony asked.
“How long was I out?” Gabriel asked and then shook his head. “I don’t know exactly what my little brother did and did not do, but if someone got a look of him then yes, their eyes would be burnt out. Me, I’m lot bigger. If I wasn’t wearing this guy, then the entire city, possibly the whole state would be decimated by my existence.”
“And I thought I was destructive,” Bruce said.
“Yeah, Dad wasn’t the biggest on us playing with his doll house. He had to put on the special gloves first,” Gabriel said. “Speaking of the grand plan. You read a bunch of the Prophet’s books, right? Can you tell me what happened?”
“When?” Tony asked.
“No zombies, no fire from the sky means Lucifer’s ass isn’t up here causing problems any more. So, what happened?” Gabriel demanded.
Tony looked suddenly very uncomfortable and even kind of guilty. Steve wasn’t looking comfortable either, but Bruce was going to chalk that one up to him edging on an existential crisis. Tony looked rather green and the curious smile on his face fell away completely.
“Stark,” Gabriel said. His voice dropped, and his tone changed. The Joviality that seemed to be so part of his personality melted away, leaving a small man who looked very much like he could bring down the Avengers tower with the snap of his fingers.
“The brothers got the porno you sent them, and collected the other rings,” Tony said, speaking as gentle and careful as Bruce had ever heard him.
Bruce had heard that tone of voice from other people who were afraid of the other guy. But Tony had never been afraid of him. Tony trusted Bruce and he trusted the other guy. But Bruce could see Tony was afraid of the being sitting at his kitchen table. As Tony was the only one who’d read the books he was probably the only one with any idea as to the power Gabriel had, second to Steve who apparently did read his bible. Steve looked cautious too, but whatever disbelieve he’d had was stripped from his eyes.
“Keep going,” Gabriel ordered.
“So they got the rings, but could only figure out one way to get Lucifer back in the cage, which was for Sam to say yes,” Tony said. Bruce didn’t know what that meant, but Gabriel clearly did because he nodded for Tony to continue.
“So Sam does. But Dean never said yes to Michael. They had a half-brother who Michael ended up wearing. So Lucifer and Michael go to face each other at Stull Cemetery, and Lucifer asks Michael if they can both just back off the gameboard. Michael basically called Lucifer an abomination and it looked like they were about to start their world ending fight. Then Dean drives up in his Impala and gets in the way. And Castiel shows up and molotov’s Michael with holy oil.”
Gabriel snorted. “Kid would do that,” he said. “Continue.”
“So Lucifer gets pissed and blows Castiel to smithereens. And then he goes after Dean. He’s just beating the crap out of Dean. And Dean just keeps telling Sam that it’s okay and he doesn’t blame him. And something happens, like Sam gets control of Lucifer, opens the door to the cage and gets ready to throw himself in. But Michael pops up at the wrong moment and tries to stop him. Except that Sam’s already started falling, so he ends up dragging Michael down too,” Tony stops for a breath, but quickly presses on. “And God brought Castiel back to life again.”
Gabriel lost all of his thunder and just sat at the island. He clasped his hands around his chocolate milk for a moment, looking into his glass like a sad drunk might look into his booze. He slowly raised his glass and drank all the rest down before getting up and walking out.
“Tony,” Steve said after a moment of silence in the kitchen when they could no longer hear Gabriel’s footsteps. “Are you telling us that the end of the world already happened and no one noticed?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Tony said quietly. “Jarvis,” he said a little louder.
“Sir?”
“If Gabriel tries to do something stupid like jump off the landing pad, tell me before he can do it.”
“Will do, sir,” Jarvis said.
“Tony,” Steve said again.
“Look Cap, I don’t know. We dealt with the gods from outer space, but this is different. Like way different. From what I can tell, if Gabriel’s telling the truth and the books are right, then the biggest threat is over. Sure, Heaven’s full of dicks, but whatever, you’ve got a bunch of directionless children running things.”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of that,” Steve said. “Where’s God in all of this?”
“The Himalayas, or someplace. No one knows. Raphael said he thought God was dead, but then Joshua, God’s gardener, said that God’s just tired and doesn’t want to play. And he does keep bringing Cas back from beyond the grave. So while he’s hands off, he’s still gotta be paying attention somewhere.”
“I still don’t like it,” Steve said.
“Well, that doesn’t matter, because it is, what it is,” Tony said.
“I know that, Tony. Doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it,” Steve said before looking at Bruce. “What do you think?”
“I don’t think a liar could fake that kind of heart ache,” Bruce said. He found a seat at the island. “The question is now, what’s happened since the books ended?”
“Well, I saw something,” Tony said. “One of the mods said she married Sam Winchester in 2011, though she also said it got annulled. She was apparently dating the writer for a bit, and is definitely in the books.”
“So, she would be the one to contact,” Steve said.
“Yeah,” Tony said. “Jarvis, find out everything about Becky, AKA: Samlicker81.” Bruce snorted and quickly covered his mouth.
“Anything else, sir?” Jarvis asked.
“Yeah, when you find her, get her down here. I don’t want to have any email conversations with her that Fury could potentially find blackmail worthy,” Tony said.
“Director Fury reads your emails?” Steve asked.
“Well, I read his, so it’s a fair trade,” Tony said.
“Do we need to call Fury?” Bruce asked, draining the last of his coffee and putting down the mug.
“Let’s not call him or the super spies in just yet. I’d rather it be between us for the moment.”
“Mostly you don’t want Fury to know about the possibility of Angels,” Steve said.
“He built weapons from HYDRA tech when he heard about Thor, what do you think he’ll do when he realizes Angels are real and a lot closer by?” Tony asked.
“And we’re not calling Thor,” Steve said.
“It’s enough trouble trying to get him here in the first place since the Bifrost broke,” Bruce pointed out. “And I’m not certain he wouldn’t attack first and ask questions later if he found out that someone was using his brother’s identity.”
“Biggest question I want to know is which one of them actually screwed the horse.”
“Tony,” Steve said, using his ‘my patience doesn’t stretch that far’ voice.
“Okay, okay,” Tony said. “I won’t ask, today anyway. But there’s no need to get Thor down here. With our fine feathered friend’s powers being on the fritz, Thor might either kill him or cause an explosion that wipes out New York for real this time.”
“Sir, I found the information you requested,” Jarvis said.
“Give it to me, and get her down here.” Tony said, getting up to get his tablet so he could look through the files.
“I’ll ask Ms. Potts if she’ll send the request.”
“Thank you Jarvis, that’s a good idea,” Steve said, going to stand behind Tony so he could also see.
Pepper didn’t mind doing favors for Tony. He’d been doing better since they got the pieces of metal out of his chest. She had always been used to odd requests from Tony, and convincing a young woman they didn’t know to come visit wasn’t that odd for Tony. It was odd that Bruce and Steve were in on it.
Well, she had refused to do anything until they filled her in. When they did she made Gabriel a cup of tea with about twice as much sugar and milk as she would regularly use. He thanked her for her efforts. Though, he also told her she needed to double the sugar the next time.
Pepper decided it was a better idea to just pick up Rebecca Rosen from the airport herself. She knew this wasn’t something she really wanted to be spreading around, and Happy had agreed to drive them, so it was okay.
“Ms. Rosen?” Pepper asked when she saw the other woman walk by.
“Ms. Potts,” Rebecca Rosen said, looking star struck. “It’s such an honor, really.”
“Pepper, please.”
“Becky,” she said, looking incredibly nervous. Becky offered Pepper a hand to shake, which Pepper accepted. “How can I help you?”
“I’ll tell you in the car. Let’s collect your bags, shall we?” Pepper asked with a smile.
Becky found her bags with relative ease. Pepper took one while Becky took the other. Happy met them out on the street and loaded the bags into the trunk while Pepper ushered Becky into the back seat.
“Do you know why I’ve asked you to come?” Pepper asked.
“I really don’t know,” Becky said, playing with her fingers nervously. “I really can’t think of any reason at all. In fact I was half convinced someone was playing a joke on me, except that thee plane tickets were paid for and I was in first class. Which was very nice by the way. Thank you very much for that.”
“Not a problem,” Pepper said. “I called because Tony is having a problem, well one of his house guests is, but Tony has taken it upon himself to help fix it.”
“I don’t know if I can help, but I’ll try,” Becky said with a nervous smile. She was holding it together fairly well and seemed pretty humble, so Pepper decided that she did like the other woman.
“We called you because of your familiarity with the Supernatural books,” Pepper said.
Becky laughed nervously. “Is this a joke?”
“Supposedly, Tony has an Arch Angel moping around in his house. So I’m going to say no,” Pepper said.
“Which one?” Becky asked quickly. Her humbleness melted away, instead becoming absolute focus.
“Gabriel.”
“Gabriel died in Hammer of the Gods,” Becky said.
“He says he’s been brought back.”
“Well,” Becky said, resting her hand on her chin in thought. “Castiel got brought back many times, so I don’t see why not.”
“Yes, as far as Tony could tell, you were the best source of information about what happened after the books finished. Short of the brothers, or the writer.”
“Chuck’s gone,” Becky said. “Completely gone. He’s been declared dead. They called me about his Will over a year ago. He turned the book rights over to me, so I published the rest,” she said.
“Do you have any idea what happened to him?” Becky asked.
“The books said he disappeared,” Becky said. “I did research on prophets and it’s happened before you know.”
“Yes, Tony also found the research,” Pepper said. Meaning that Tony read the Bible and complained about it.
“Yeah, so I just assumed he’d finished his work and moved on. I saw Sam and Dean before I got called about Chuck’s Will, but I haven’t seen or heard from them since… well, not really,” Becky said. “I heard some things. There was some stuff on the news.”
“About the murder streak,” Pepper said.
“Yeah, but that’s not them. They wouldn’t do something like that. The them on the videos was nothing like how they really were, you understand,” Becky said.
Pepper nodded. “Do you know what was going on?”
“Really vaguely. I’ll see if I can help,” Becky said in earnest.
“Good,” Pepper said. The rest of the trip was more about silence and small talk. Becky pulled out her Kindle at one point, pulling up the books with Gabriel in them and beginning to skim for details. Pepper left her to it until they actually arrived at the Avengers tower.
Becky seemed hyper focused by the time they actually got into the elevator and to the correct floor. Tony and Steve were sitting on the sofas. Steve had a physical copy of the Supernatural books in his hands, while Tony was reading on his tablet.
“Where are Bruce and Gabriel?” Pepper asked
“No clue, not asking,” Tony said.
“We decided it was safer that way,” Steve added, actually looking up from his book. He stood and smiled. “Miss Pepper, and I assume this is Miss Rosen.”
“Becky’s fine,” Becky said from Pepper’s side. Pepper could tell even without looking that Steve had flustered her. It was hard not to be attracted to Steve. Pepper was just better at not worrying about it than most women. For one thing, she had Tony. For another, she’d been dealing with Tony for too many years to just get flustered over just about anything.
“We were told you might be able to help us figure some of this out.”
“Well, I can try,” Becky said, regaining her focus. “Is Gabriel here now?” She hardly was hiding the excitement in her voice.
“Jarvis, locate Bruce and Gabriel and tell them our guest has arrived,” Tony said.
“Of course sir,” Jarvis said.
“Wow, a talking house,” Becky said. “Just like in the movies.”
“Yeah, except Jarvis isn’t just the house and he’s a lot more functional than the ones in the movies,” Tony said, getting up and climbing over the sofa’s back to walk over to Pepper and Becky. “I’ve been reading your work. Though I question the flexibility of some of the positions you put these two in. You actually met them, right, was that actually going on.”
“It’s just fantasy,” Becky said, flushing. “I was married to Sam for a while.”
“Really? That didn’t ping on your records,” Tony said. He started to scroll through his tablet.
“It was in Vegas, we had to get it annulled,” she said.
“So what you married Sam Winchester and didn’t end up dead,” Gabriel asked. He appeared from nowhere, but then his abilities were apparently coming back here and there, so he had been popping up from nowhere a lot recently. “I thought he had a killer dick or something.”
“Are you Gabriel?” Becky asked with awe in her voice.
“The one and only,” Gabriel said with an illustrious bow.
“Wow!” Becky said. “I cried so much when you died. I couldn’t believe that happened. I was so mad.”
“Well, I assure you that it didn’t do much for me either,” Gabriel said.
“How can I help? I can help, right?”
“Maybe,” Gabriel said. “When did you marry Sam?”
“It was about a year ago.”
“So he got out of the Cage,” Gabriel said, looking away for a moment. He looked more worried than Pepper thought he should. “Do you know how?”
“Sam sort of filled me in. I mean, I didn’t ask a lot. Honeymoon and all. But He said Castiel dragged him out, and Death helped.”
“Death?” Steve asked.
“You haven’t gotten to the Horsemen yet, keep reading,” Tony said.
“Okay, yeah, Death would have the juice for that,” Gabriel said. “Do you know anything else?”
“Well, Sam said they were looking for a way to stop Leviathan, and Crowley backed it up.”
“Okay, Leviathan is a huge problem. Why is it here?” Gabriel hissed. “And why is Crowley confirming anything?”
“He made himself King of Hell,” Becky said.
Gabriel paused and cocked his head to one side. “Okay, yeah, I can see that.”
“What is Leviathan anyway?” Pepper asked.
“A sea monster described in Job,” Steve said.
“Not a sea monster, kid,” Gabriel said. “They’re like the borg, a hive mind that eats everything, except that they eat you, not turn you into one of them. And they eat each other. And they can kill angels. They’re the only thing in Purgatory that the Mother Monster didn’t create, and fighting them was the last thing my brother Lucifer ever did under our father’s orders.”
“So, they’re a big deal,” Becky said.
“A huge deal,” Gabriel said.
“Do they have anything to do with Dick Roman? Sam mentioned him.”
“One way to find out,” Tony said, pulling up everything on Dick Roman. “I mean, the guy died about a year ago now. He was building man.”
“When did that start?” Becky asked.
“A year before his death,” Pepper said. “He started to take over everything, even things he hadn’t been involved in before, like food.”
“Food which people consumed,” Gabriel said. “Damn, Dad, you left a huge mess,” he murmured. “Leviathan’s leader is like their god, except that he runs everything. Without him you’ve got a bunch of piranha no longer in a school. Yeah, they can eat some people, but it’s not going to be anything like what they could do otherwise.”
“Are you sure the head’s been cut off the beast?” Bruce asked. Pepper jumped. She didn’t even know when he’d actually arrived, but clearly long enough ago to actually have enough information to ask such a question.
“I can’t be exactly sure,” Gabriel said. “And they’re sneaky. You wouldn’t notice immediately if they had taken over. I need to find out more.”
“We’ll help,” Tony said.
“No, you won’t,” Gabriel said.
“What do you mean we won’t?” Steve asked. “That’s what we do, help people.”
“Yeah, but this way above your pay grade, kid. It’s way above mine without Lucifer or Michael,” Gabriel grumbled.
“What about Raphael?” Becky asked.
“He’s a healer, not really a fighter,” Gabriel said.
“No,” Becky said quietly. “I mean, he’s dead.”
“When?” Gabriel demanded, suddenly rounding on her.
“I don’t know. Sam mentioned it,” Becky said in a small voice.
“Where the hell is Sam anyway,” Gabriel asked. He was getting a very large anger around him. Pepper couldn’t see it, but she could see how much grander Gabriel seemed, though she couldn’t figure out why he seemed that way.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since I signed the annulment papers,” Becky said, sounding a bit panicked.
“So he really did leave you. I can’t imagine that he had much interest in you in the first place,” Gabriel said with a sneer. Becky looked near tears.
“Hey, stop it,” Steve said.
“Yeah, there’s no need to act like that,” Pepper said.
“No, it’s fine,” Becky said in a quiet voice. She focused her gaze on Gabriel. “I understand this can’t be easy on you. But you don’t have to shoot the messenger. You’re supposed to be the messenger.”
“Humans aren’t supposed to be the ones to tell me my brothers died,” Gabriel said. On another person, Pepper would think they sounded near tears.
“Yes, which may be why you’re here now,” Becky said. “Who’s running heaven now?”
“Just shut up,” Gabriel said. He disappeared.
“You know,” Tony said far too soon. “I don’t think I ever thought I’d see an angel throw a hissy fit.”
Gabriel barely spoke to them after that. Steve wasn’t certain if he thought of that as a lucky break or not. Honestly, Gabriel was and was not everything he expected from an Arch Angel. When Gabriel got angry, really angry and he allowed his grace to be felt, those were thee moments where Gabriel seemed as glorious as everything Steve had imagined. Otherwise, Gabriel was just like Tony, except he was also a brother grieving for his family being dead.
“You know, I understand, right,” Steve said, sitting down next to Gabriel. “Waking up and someone who you loved, everyone you loved is just gone.”
“Yeah, I heard about you,” Gabriel muttered.
“It’s like the worst feeling ever,” Steve said quietly.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. You know, none of it. I was supposed to get a call before it all ended. That never happened. It was just… Hell, I just wanted it to be over,” Gabriel said in equal quiet.
“I read about you,” Steve said. “You know…”
“What, are you pissed at me too for running away?” Gabriel snapped, suddenly very loud.
Steve made his voice softer. “No. You came back when it mattered. You let them get away. You made it so they could stop the end of the world. You were there when it mattered.”
Gabriel sighed heavily and closed his eyes. “You’re a really good guy. I hate that.”
Steve chuckled. “I didn’t think angels were supposed to lie.”
“Language is subjective,” Gabriel muttered, but he looked a little more like smiling.
“Yeah, it is,” Steve said, shaking his head. Gabriel’s head suddenly snapped up. “What is it?”
Gabriel got up and walked outside, heading out to the outside landing. Steve followed outside. The dark sky was suddenly full of stars falling. Steve looked up in awe before looking down at Gabriel who Steve suddenly realized was crying.
“Gabriel, what’s wrong?”
“The angels… all of heaven. They’re all falling,” Gabriel whispered.
“What?” Steve breathed.
“The angels are falling,” Gabriel said. He looked over at Steve. “I have to go.” And suddenly he was gone.
“Gabriel! Gabriel!” Steve shouted.
“What is it?” Bruce asked.
“It’s Gabriel,” Steve said. His eyes fixed back up on the Heavens, which were apparently rapidly plunging to Earth. “He said the angels are falling.”
“The angels are falling?” Bruce said. It was loud enough that Becky, Tony and Pepper came out to watch the shower.
“That’s what he said before he disappeared.”
“Where did he go?” Becky asked.
“I don’t know. He just said he had to leave,” Steve said. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the sky. It made him feel profoundly sad.
“We have to do something,” Becky said emphatically. “If the angels are falling that means something gone wrong, really wrong.”
“So what happened?” Pepper asked.
“No idea. But I bet Sam knows,” Becky said. “Tony, do you think you can find them. I mean you found me.”
“Yeah, but you haven’t supposedly died twice,” Tony said.
“So you can’t do it?” Becky asked.
“Nah, it’ll just take an extra hour or so,” Tony said. He was using his I’m-so-happy-I-have-a-challenge voice.
“What are you going to do when you find them?” Pepper asked.
“Help,” Steve, Bruce and Tony said.
“It’s what we do,” Steve said.
“And no matter what Gabriel said, if the angels are on earth it means it’s our problem now,” Bruce said calmly.
“We are the Avengers, after all. If this isn’t out kind of gig, I don’t know what is,” Tony said with a too big grin. “Steve, you call up Romanov and Barton. I’ll go find the monster killing twins and see if I can send them a fruit basket.”
“You should look up Enochian warding sigils,” Becky said.
“We can do that,” Bruce said.
“I’ll see what the news is doing for coverage and try to figure out what to do with the angels in New York,” Pepper said.
“Good, we’ve all got our marching orders,” Tony said. He walked inside, so did the others.
Steve stood outside and watched the Fall. “Jarvis, can you get Director Fury on the phone. I need to tell him something important.”
“Of course,” Jarvis said. “I believe he’s already on the line.”
“Patch him through.” Steve said.
“Rogers,” Fury’s voice said.
“Director, we already know. There are angels falling from the sky.”
“Angels?” Fury said calmly, but with true disbelief.
“We’re working on it,” Steve said. He shut his eyes when suddenly the sky stopped being lit up with falling angels. He almost sort of wished it were the Apocalypse again. At least there was a handbook for that.