Tesseract Sickness - For Thor

[starkingenuity]

>> Several hours after Fury came to Stark Tower to inform Tony that Barton's had a relapse of his mind control and that it's spreading like a disease, Tony's with SHIELD and Thor's gone home to question Loki.

Tony frowns into his coffee as if a scowl alone could make it heat back up.  He's been looking at the same charts for over five hours now,

Comments

[asgardhero]

"I would like to see you travel through worlds faster."

Thor paces through the doorway into the room where Stark sits with his papers and instruments spreading across everything... but otherwise he is alone. And it is a strange thing, to find him this way. For even though the man always gives the impression that he is merely tolerating the presence of anyone he happens to be with, he is very rarely without company.

Palms are spread on the table and Thor leans toward Stark. "Loki is gone." How much he wanted it to be untrue is neither here nor there. "It seems there there is not a prison that can hold my brother when he does not wish to be held." The words are tight and bitter on his tongue and Thor knows his face will show his distress. He would not bother to hide it if he could. He straightens, crossing his arms over his chest. "But the tesseract remains in the Allfather's possession." His eyes flicker to the screens showing the SHIELD agents in the basement.

"Untouched. Contained. Guarded. I saw it with my own two eyes."

[starkingenuity]

After stilling the urge to reach up with both hands and push Thor's frown into a smile, Tony rocks backwards in his entirely too comfortable SHIELD provided chair and closes his eyes. He hums under his breath, lulled by the music of the arc reactor that sings its songs in his brain. He hears it when he sleeps sometimes and it's a comfort.

No. Tony Stark is rarely alone. There is Jarvis if nothing else to keep him company and while Tony does have contact with the AI through his phone or his net work link, he's left his artificial butler at home for today.

Things are too heavy.

"So we have a missing mass murdering alien and a device safety locked away that is still causing everyone to be--"

A klaxon shuts Tony up and he turns back to his monitor. It's Steve. Steve with brilliant blue eyes standing up slowly to stand in the middle of the room.

"Cap!  Cap, don't do this to me!"

[asgardhero]

Despite any thoughts to the contrary on the other man's mind, Tony's words only serve to make Thor's frown even deeper. Loki may have killed but his brother always has his reasons and Thor does not think that death was ever an intended outcome. Each death was a message, served a purpose, not done because Loki actively enjoyed or courted them.

At least, he hopes this is so. Otherwise his brother is no longer the person he ever knew or loved. The thought that it may be so is a deep ache in his chest that Thor does not have time to address as his attention is turned to the moving picture of Steve. He comes around the table, behind Tony, to see better.

"How many?" he asks quietly. People, but specifically, them. Avengers.

[starkingenuity]

Tony doesn't answer. He's too busy dancing around the other man, behemoth that he is and standing right in the way, to pull up views of the cell that Steve's in. The image blows up and there he is, about half life size, standing there. Waiting for direction.

Tony sucks in a breath.

"Bruce. Talk to me."

"Still here. The Cap--"

"I'll get back to you Banner."

Tony shuts off the feed and drags his hands through his hair. "Me, you, and Dr Jekyll there. The rest of the facility is like them now."