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batsutousaiTitle: The Lightning Strike
Fandom: Marvel (movie 'verse)
Author: Batsutousai
Betas: Runic, SharaLunison, Nimohtar
Rating: Mature
Pairings: Loki/Tony Stark, Phil Coulson/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Thor/Jane Foster
Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega trope (to an extent), actual wolf pack dynamics, intersexual Jötnar, sexism, suggestion of previous dub-/non-con, mating, hurt/comfort, Loki just needs some love, Bruce really wants to go Hulk on Odin, Tony is confused about everything (but not as much as Steve), Clint is an absolute ass (& drags Natasha and Phil along for the ride), Pepper is kinda a BAMF
Summary: Pack dynamics are confusing enough for the Avengers without adding the complete mess that Thor and Loki grew up with, but they aren't given much choice when Loki goes into heat in the middle of a battle and Tony's alpha instincts tell him he has to take care of his pack, enemy or no.
Dinner was just winding down – and Tony was realising he and Loki needed to discuss sleeping arrangements for the night – when JARVIS let out an odd crackling noise and all the lights went out.
"What the fuck!" Clint shouted.
"Security breach," Tony reported grimly as he thoughtlessly tugged off his shirt so they had a bit of light; there was something to be said for having a flashlight installed in your chest. "There should be two flashlights in the left-most drawer."
"Got them," Natasha reported over the sound of a drawer opening.
Next to Tony, a ball of green flames started to grow in Loki's palm, giving the familiar blue glow of the arc reactor's light a green tinge.
"Natasha, Phil, Clint, lower floors. Make sure the civilians are out of the way of any danger," Steve ordered as Natasha found the flashlights.
"Got it," Phil agreed as Natasha tossed Clint the second light and they turned to leave the kitchen.
"Bruce, Tony, we need to get the power back up."
Bruce and Tony traded frowns. "The back-up generators should have kicked on by now," Tony commented.
Bruce nodded. "I can go check on them. You need to get down to the arc reactor and figure out why it kicked off."
"Loki, go with Bruce," Steve ordered. "Tony, I'm with you."
"Long trip down," Tony warned as he rubbed at the back of Loki's neck, uncertain if he was trying to reassure himself or the tense god.
"Then we'd best get started."
Tony nodded and stood with the other three. "Right. Do we need to side-track for a light for you, or..."
"I'll manage."
They walked to the stairs together, then separated; Tony had put the back-up generators on the roof, the exact opposite end of the building from the arc reactor. He figured, at the time, that if anyone found a way to cut the building's power from the arc reactor, better to not stick the back-up generators right next to them so they could cut those out, too. Once Thor had moved into the tower, Tony had added some lightning collectors to keep a regular charge in the generators, since Thor often started a storm brewing when his temper got high or he left the tower for a battle, and Tony figured he might as well get some use out of the extra energy. As long as the generators had at least a certain level of charge, they could continuously power the building's emergency lighting, ensuring there would be no pause between the power going out and the back-up generators kicking in.
Or, well, that had been the theory. Either there was something wrong with Tony's power calculations, or whoever was attacking them had used two strike teams to simultaneously knock out both power devices at once.
Tony was starting to wish he'd taken Natasha's suggestion, all those months back, to always carry at least a handgun on his person, even in their home, as the three SHIELD agents did.
"I don't like this," he hissed out on a hard breath as he and Steve took the stairs at a dangerous speed.
"I don't like being separated," Steve agreed, voice tight. They all always wore the tiny, in-ear comms that Tony kept improving on, but with JARVIS down, and neither Tony's suit nor the quinjet active to boost the signal, they were pretty much useless. Bruce would power up the quinjet if the damage to the generators wasn't a quick fix, but Tony and Steve might well be out of range by then.
"I'll find a better way to connect the comms," Tony promised. It would mean compromising security, but, at the moment, he would much rather know he could keep in contact with his pack than worry that someone might tap into their frequency.
They were quiet the rest of the way down, save for Tony's harder and harder breathing. They did pass a few Stark Industries employees stumbling down the stairs by the light of their phones or small flashlights, but they always moved quickly out of the way for the two Avengers without a word of complaint.
When Tony burst past the currently useless security door into the arc reactor room, they were nearly blinded by the flood of light. "Well," he gasped out, using a hand to shield his eyes, "I guess...the arc...reactor is still....functioning."
"That's good, right?" Steve asked hopefully as he followed Tony into the room.
"That...is not," Tony replied, pointing to where a tech lay, face down, under a panel singed with some sort of energy weapon.
"Stay behind me," Steve ordered and started a quick ring around the reactor. Tony kept with him until they reached the tech, then knelt down to check the man's pulse and keep an eye for anyone thinking they might keep the arc reactor between themselves and the super soldier.
The tech was dead, and Steve's face was grim when he rejoined Tony. "Two more Stark Industries employees on the far side. Both are dead."
Tony clenched his jaw; Stark Industries was more Pepper's pack than his, any more, but it still put his hackles up to think that someone had murdered three of his people. "Any other weapons fire?" he bit out, standing to look over the damaged console. It controlled something minor and wouldn't cause any problems if Tony reconnected the power to the building, but the story might be different of other damage.
"No, but a panel has been completely ripped out."
"Show me."
The panel Steve had seen was close to the ground, rather than along the top of the control board, and had vomited wires and tubing across a fair chunk of the walking path. Tony took a moment to run a mental map of the electronics in his head, then let out a moan as he realised how much of a pain this was going to be to fix.
"Problem?" Steve asked, eyes running uselessly over the mess.
"This is why the power cut," Tony explained as he dropped to his knees and ducked his head inside the panel to better take stock of the damage. "I can give us partial power in about five minutes, but we'll have to take everything back offline tomorrow to do real repairs."
"Can you get JARVIS back online?" Steve asked, prioritising.
Tony pulled back from the mess inside the panel so he could find the wiring he needed for his quick fix. "Yes. Over by the stairs up to the reactor, there should be a small cupboard with a lock on it. I need the tool box in there. One of the techs probably has the key."
"Do you care if I break the lock?" Steve called back, already moving.
"Not in the least."
Half a minute later, Steve returned with the tool kit and Tony flashed him a grim smile in thanks as he pulled out the safety glasses and the handful of tools he thought he'd need.
"I'm going back into the stair well. See if the back-up generators are up."
Tony hummed his understanding as he ducked back into the panel. The generators wouldn't be able to keep the emergency lights running for the entire time it would take for this mess to be properly fixed, so he needed to do this patch either way. But, well, Steve probably didn't completely understand that. And the soldier needed to feel useful, Tony figured; he could hardly blame him.
Six minutes later, Tony pulled away from the panel and called, "JARVIS?"
There was a moment of static over the room's speakers, then the familiar voice said, "I'm here, Sir."
Tony let out a relieved breath. "I need you to, slowly, bring the most critical systems back up, starting with comms."
Steve came back around the edge of the arc reactor as the bud in Tony's ear crackled. The soldier winced, then barked out, "Avengers, report."
"All floors above the forty-sixth are cleared," Phil reported. "Miss Potts joined us and we split into two groups to speed things along. And she and I are both fine," he added before Tony could ask.
"Do we need to keep doing this?" Clint whined, rather than reporting that he and Natasha were fine. Which, really, if he was whining, they hadn't had any trouble.
"I can't fully fix this mess until tomorrow," Tony reported. "That means compromised security and no elevators."
"We're still evacuating the building," Steve translated, then demanded, "Bruce, report."
There was a noted silence on the line. Tony swallowed and turned to the nearest computer screen to access the security tapes. Try and figure out who had attacked them. There were cameras up on the roof, but those weren't part of the critical systems JARVIS would be bringing up, so he couldn't just check to see why Bruce was being silent.
"Black Widow, Hawkeye, meet up with us by the stairs," Phil ordered. "Miss Potts, Hawkeye, and I will keep moving down while Widow gets up to the roof."
"Understood."
The security video appeared on the screen, but JARVIS helpfully reported, "I am unable to access any information more recent than ten minutes before I was shut down."
"Son of a bitch," Tony snarled and set about hacking into his own systems to find out what – or who – was blocking JARVIS.
"On my way up," Natasha reported. "Five minutes."
"I am going to find this asshole and rip him a new one through to his fucking spleen," Tony muttered as he threaded his way between his own security traps. This would have been much easier from the computers up in his lab, the ones actually hooked into JARVIS' mainframe, but fighting with himself from down here was far faster than running back upstairs. If only he had his suit...
Natasha reached the roof before Tony could cut through the mangled code blocking JARVIS from the data he'd collected before the attack. "Bruce?" they heard over the comms. "Bruce is down, and I don't see Loki," she reported after a moment.
"How down?" Steve demanded, voice strained with the memories of the three techs he and Tony had found dead.
"Unconscious. Wait. Tranq dart. This looks like–"
"Fury," Tony snarled as he finally got to that point in the recording. "I'll kill him."
"Widow, can you get Bruce into the quinjet?" Steve requested, carefully resting both hands on Tony's shoulders.
"Affirmative."
"Bring it down to street level. Coulson, Hawkeye, leave off the evacuation and meet us at the entrance."
"Understood," the two men replied.
"Tony," Steve said, voice quieter, but no less firm, "I need JARVIS to broadcast an evacuation order to the entire building, then I need the building shut down once everyone's out."
Tony took a shaking breath and forced himself to look away from the one-eyed bastard and the group of SHIELD soldiers landing on their roof. "JARVIS," he said, voice tight with rage.
"I understand, Sir," JARVIS replied, voice a balm for Tony's temper.
"We need to get out front," Steve said as JARVIS' voice started listing directions for safely evacuating the building. The AI, Tony knew, would be sure to find and hurry along anyone who thought to linger or missed the lights going out.
"I know," Tony replied and let the soldier lead him out of the reactor room and down two floors to the main entrance.
Two security guards stood by the doors, directing stragglers out of the building and into the line of taxis that someone had thought to call; with the power out, no cars could exit the garage, so taxis would be a necessity to get many employees home.
Tony gathered himself enough to stop next to the nearest guard and ask, "Are the taxis aware that Stark Industries will be reimbursing them for the fees?"
The guard's eyes flickered down to the exposed arc reactor, then back to Tony's face, eyes wide. "I-I'm not certain, sir. One of the front desk secretaries set everything up, and she's already gone."
"Tony," Steve called when Tony walked over to the front desk.
Tony held up two fingers to suggest he was only going to be a couple minutes and looked around for the emergency protocols book he knew would be there. It was still open to the page he wanted. The directions above the list of local taxi company numbers ordered that all costs for taxi travel from and to Stark Industries, following an evacuation, be charged to the company. Tony managed a crooked smile at Pepper's thoroughness – the book had her doing written all over it – then he walked over to join Steve by the doors as the quinjet lit up the street outside, blocking traffic going both ways, but not the taxi line.
"JARVIS," Tony muttered into the comms, knowing his AI would hear him and keep his words from the rest of his pack, "remind me, once everything's settled down, to transfer funds into the company accounts to cover the taxi costs." The attack was made against his mate, and that made it his responsibility; he had the money to spare, and he could always demand reimbursement from Fury. Assuming he didn't just kill the director.
"I've made a note, Sir," JARVIS replied.
Tony and Steve reached the open back of the quinjet just as Clint, Phil, and Pepper hurried out of the building, all three breathing hard. Pepper was carrying her shoes in one hand, and she didn't stop to put them on before she stepped out onto the roadway after Clint and Phil.
"I'm coming," she snapped before Steve could think to suggest she take a taxi home.
Steve's mouth twitched and he reached down a hand to help her up. "Yes, ma'am."
Pepper huffed, tossed her shoes onto the floor of the quinjet, and vaulted herself up without Steve's help.
"Let's go!" Phil shouted as Steve closed the back and Clint slipped into the co-pilot's chair.
Pepper dropped gracelessly into the seat next to where Tony had settled himself, one of Bruce's spare shirts shrugged on, but unbuttoned over the arc reactor. She didn't say anything, just set about putting her shoes back on, but she made a point to lean against Tony's side while doing so. And as much as he didn't want it to, Tony had to admit that it helped calm him down.
He still wanted to rip out Fury's good eye, though.
Fury was waiting for them when they landed, blocking their way into the main part of the helicarrier with a pack of armed guards at his back. "Gentlemen, ladies," he offered neutrally as Tony and Steve stopped in front of him. Pepper and a bleary Bruce were behind the two Avengers alphas, with the three SHIELD agents flanking them in a protective formation, weapons drawn.
"That was a dick move, Fury," Tony commented, cheerful voice belied by the ice in his eyes. "One for the record books. Really. Something could have exploded in one of the labs, and then civilians would have been hurt."
"Any civilian casualties are acceptable in the capture and detainment of a wanted–"
"No, you do not get to claim the high ground here!" Tony snarled, Steve's hand across his chest the only thing keeping him from stalking forward and getting directly in the director's face, height difference be damned. "Loki was in my building, had my promise of security, and you–"
"The fact that you thought it at all a wise choice to give asylum to a wanted criminal, Stark, shows entirely too well exactly how unfit you are to be in a position of autho–"
"If you intend to give a dressing down to a member of my team, sir, you need to start with me," Steve cut in, voice tight, expression so hard it could have been carved from granite. "Tony was hardly alone in offering Loki asylum in the tower."
"Now I'm just disappointed," Fury said, shaking his head. "Agent Coulson, I'm putting you in charge of the Avengers until such a time as Captain Rogers is capable of leading you without Stark's insane ideas clouding his judgement."
"Sir," Phil said, stepping up so he could meet Fury's eye steadily, "there are extenuating circumstances that made offering Loki asy–"
"I'm aware that Loki is an omega coming into his cycle of heat," Fury interrupted, mouth turning down with a frown.
The other humans were so stunned, they stared at him in silence.
"According to the envoy sent from Asgard, Loki is slated to serve his reparations as is common to his species–"
"The hell he will!" Tony roared, pushing forward against Steve's arm.
"This is a matter of Asgard's purview, and we won't be starting an inter-Realm war over the non-existent rights of one criminal," Fury returned, as unmoved by Tony's rage as Steve's arm was.
A hand with all the steel due Pepper's station rested lightly on Tony's arm and she stepped up between Tony and Steve, her gentle touch on Tony's arm almost more effective at holding him back than Steve's firmer grip. "Excuse me, Director Fury, but I need clarification on one small matter, then we will be more than happy to return to the tower."
"Miss Potts–" Steve started, but he shut his mouth when she turned her sharp gaze on him.
"By all means, Miss Potts," Fury agreed easily enough, apparently calmed to know that someone retained their senses in regard to the escaped god.
"What, exactly, are the legalities involved when the omega in question is one of a partially formed mate-bond?"
Fury went very, very still. His nostrils flared, seeking the changed scent that the harsh winds cutting across the open landing pad had kept from him. His eye eventually zeroed in on Tony's bared teeth, a grim understanding stretching across his scarred face. "This way," he allowed and turned to lead them into the closed hallways of the base.
Tony and Pepper took the lead, with Steve dropping back to assist Bruce, should the other man require it, as he was still not completely recovered from the tranquilliser SHIELD had hit him with. Phil, Natasha, and Clint were at the rear, gifting those members of SHIELD they knew with tight nods, but making no move to ease the tightly coiled threat each of them wore like a glove, even in the place of their employment. Behind them, two SHIELD guards walked along with uncertain steps, guns clutched too tightly against their chests.
Loki was being held in one of the more basic cells, wrists held tightly together in front of him with cuffs that had no give, mouth covered over with a gag very like the one Thor had brought with him last time he'd had to drag Loki back to Asgard. A man who vaguely recalled Thor in the shape of his face and his colouring, yet lacked the Thunderer's massive bulk, was pacing in front of Loki's cage, smile wide and edging on deranged in response to Loki's cold glare.
"–so proud that I was the one to bring you so rightfully to your knees, something at which even Thor has failed," the man was babbling as the door to the cell block opened for Fury and his entourage. "Perhaps, in reward, Father will let me be the first to impregna–"
Tony's growl was a feral sounding thing, and it quite effectively caught the attention of both non-humans. Something like relief flashed in Loki's eyes, but the blond Asgardian appeared only bemused by the interruption.
"Director Fury," the man said, an arrogance in his voice that made Tony rather want to tear his throat out.
"Prince Baldr," Fury replied evenly, and someone let out a quiet noise of surprised understanding behind Tony. "Complications have arisen which must be handled before Loki can leave Earth."
Baldr let out a disdainful little laugh. "Complications? What could possibly have occurred that would require this omega to be kept even a moment longer from his duties?"
"On our planet, we have this things called human rights," Clint called from the back of the group before anyone else could speak. "They sort of require that you refer to other beings by their name, not their fucking genetic disposition."
"It is well, then, that he is not human," Baldr returned easily.
"Your people have mate-bonds, correct?" Bruce interrupted, pushing past Tony's tense form and meeting the Asgardian prince's stare head-on.
Baldr shrugged. "Certainly. But I have no understanding as to why this–"
"If Loki were half of a mate-bond, what would that mean for your intents to force him from Earth?"
Baldr let out a dry little laugh. "Jötnar can form no mate-bonds, Midgardian."
"That is untrue, Brother," Thor's voice boomed from behind the two uncertain SHIELD guards. They jumped out of the way, letting the Thunder God into the room. He stepped easily around the human Avengers, coming to stand peacefully next to Bruce. "All creatures of the Realms have a mate, and all may bond, should the correct mate come to them at the proper time. If it is that Loki has bonded to someone, that is most fortuitous and a cause for celebration."
"He is a criminal and must be brought to justice!" Baldr shouted. "Mate-bond or no, he must serve out his sentence for his crimes, as the Allfather deems fit!"
"You would break an alliance and begin a war over an omega?" Thor wondered.
Baldr stared at Thor in disbelief for a long moment, then let out a scoff tinged with panic. "What matter is it, these supposes? There is no proof of any such bond, and, as such, it is an exercise in futility to be debating what might or might not occur should one exist."
"But it does," Thor murmured, glancing over his shoulder at where Tony was being held back by Pepper and Steve, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. Thor turned back to the other Asgardian. "You are unfamiliar with these Midgardians' scents, Baldr, so you do not notice it, but the bond is there; Loki belongs to Anthony Stark, the Man of Iron."
"But– But, I– Th-there are no markings, Brother!" Baldr insisted, pointing at Loki, who had decided to rest lazily against one wall of his cell, entirely unconcerned at the proceedings.
Thor sighed. "You expect a Midgardian to be able to leave markings on a Jötunn?"
Baldr blinked, then hung his head in shame. "Oh."
Thor considered him for a moment, then stepped carefully out of the way and nodded to Steve and Pepper. They immediately let Tony go and he darted past the two blond gods without pausing. The door to Loki's cell unlocked at his touch and he tore it open as Loki came forward to meet him.
The manacles fell apart at Tony's touch, but the gag took a little more effort. At last, Loki was free, and Tony gently touched along the marks the gag had left around his mate's mouth while Loki's hands fisted in Tony's borrowed shirt, their foreheads pressed tightly together.
Tony still felt that itch to murder someone, but it had eased at finding Loki largely unharmed. Still, "Zapdos, if you don't get Mini-You out of here before I turn around, I will not be held accountable for what I do to him."
"Come, Baldr," Thor rumbled, amusement colouring his words, "I shall see you to Bifröst."
As Baldr's scent receded, Tony let himself calm further, leaving the marks around Loki's mouth so he could press his nose against Loki's neck, under one ear. Loki returned the favour, hands loosening from Tony's shirt and wrapping around his back. "I'm sorry," Tony whispered against the god's skin.
Loki gave a minute shake of his head. "You came," he said by way of response. The quiet amazement in those words made Tony want to send Bruce up to Asgard and just let the Hulk have free range for a few weeks.
A throat was cleared behind Tony and he tensed before attempting to pull away, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but Loki just tightened his grip and glowered at the woman who had come to stand in the doorway of the cell. "And you are?" the god demanded.
"Virginia Potts," Pepper replied evenly.
Tony peeked over his shoulder at her, pressing just the slightest bit closer to Loki. "Pepper..."
"Ah," Loki said, grip loosening slightly. "He's mine, now," he added, possession dripping from each word.
Pepper's lips curled up, approval in her eyes. "I think you'll do," she decided and sauntered back towards the exit of the cell block, calling, "Director Fury, you and I need to have a talk about the damages done to my business."
"Pepper is the best," Tony murmured, turning back to hide his face against Loki's neck.
The god let out a faint, noncommittal hum as Steve asked, "Miss Potts? Did you need for us to wait to take you home?"
"No. Director Fury can have someone take me back to Manhattan. It's been a long day for everyone, and it's probably best if you all leave before something happens."
"Not a bad point," Bruce agreed.
"Can we even return to the tower for the night?" Steve asked. "Tony?"
Tony sighed and disengaged himself from Loki so he could step out of the cell and see his pack. The god followed after, wrapping his arms back around the human from behind, as though determined to maintain contact as much as possible. "We'll have to severely limit power use, and getting the generators back online will help. If we all keep to doing nothing more than sleeping, maybe Steve making a team breakfast in the morning, it should be fine. And I'll make fixing the connections a priority, but even if I get up at six, I can't promise full power until lunchtime." He glanced up at Pepper, who was glaring at the stiff-faced Fury. "It might be easier all around if we pick up the necessities, then spend the night at a couple of empty company apartments."
"Can you arrange it?" Pepper asked him, looking away from Fury.
"Yeah, no problem."
Pepper nodded. "Call me as soon as the power is back up tomorrow, please."
"I will."
Pepper left with Fury, leaving the Avengers and Loki standing alone in the cell block. Steve cleared his throat. "Back out to the quinjet, then?" he suggested, and they all made noises of affirmation.
They returned to the quinjet, and it wasn't until they were in the air that Tony thought to ask, "How did Thor know where we were?"
"I texted Dr Foster as soon as we knew there was an Asgardian component involved, told her to send him along," Natasha admitted. "I hoped they'd bow to the ruling of their prince."
"Not an unreasonable assumption," Loki offered. "There are very few in Asgard who would deny Thor's word, and none of those are trusted enough by Odin to be sent after me."
"Keep on Pikachu's good side, got it," Tony muttered. His pack laughed quietly in his ear through the comms, while Loki just sighed and pressed a little closer to him. Tony reached up and took out the transmitter for a bit of privacy so he could say, "I was going to let you have that apartment, anyway, so that'll work out for you–"
"Us," Loki insisted, eyes glinting with equal parts uncertainty and insistence.
Tony smiled, his question answered before he could even ask it. "Us," he agreed and put the transmitter back in his ear. He'd have to bring JARVIS online enough to find the others apartments, but at least he and Loki were settled for the night.
The Lightning Strike ~ Chapters
Movement I ~ What If This Storm Ends | Movement II ~ The Sunlight Through the Flags | Movement III ~ Daylight
..
