Archive of Our Own

"So, what exactly is BadTimes trying to do?" Alex asked, concerned about the ritual that he was looking at. For the past hour, the man had been going around in a circle, saying magic words and placing blocks, and it was starting to scare Grian.

Hels sighed. "He had a dream and is trying to do something from it."

Alex smacked his head. "I'll talk to him, you go find G, he's with True." Hels nodded and walked off. Alex sighed and walked toward BadTimes.

"BadTimes, what is going on?" Alex asked when he made it to him. The man broke into a smile.

"Ok, so, I had a dream where I opened a portal to another world, and I'm trying to recreate that." He said, smiling away.

This man.

"You do know that every other planet in this galaxy hates us, right? And this could bring them right here." Alex pointed out. BadTimes thought about it, his happy face shifting to fear as he thought about it.

"I completely forgot about that." He said. "Good thing you stopped me, I just had to do one more thing then it was done."

"You had to do what!?!" Alex yelled. He couldn't believe that he just barely stopped him from doing something bad.

"Oh, yeah, all I had left was to place this block." BadTimes said, putting down a block. Both men processed what he did in seconds, and a swirling blue portal began to form. 

"Get back!" Alex yelled, pushing BadTimes away from the growing portal. But he was too close and was being sucked in.

"NO!" Was the last thing he heard when he was engulfed by the portal.

He felt like he was falling as blue raced by him. He managed to open his inventory and grab his plasma guns and put on his helmet before he was spat out of the portal.

He landed in a crouch and took stock of his surroundings. He was in some sort of underground facility, most likely belonging to a government. It was fairly high tech, but he had broken in and out of better.

His helmet alerted him of people behind him. He looked and saw two people, one with a bow pointing straight at him, the other had an eye patch and was looking directly at him, masking his surprise with a straight face. 

He must be the leader.

"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to put down the guns."

This is not going to be fun.

I was right, this sucks.

Alex was sitting in a cell of the facility he was in, and he was bored out of his mind. It was cramped, he was pretty sure he was being moved somewhere, and they took his guns away. That bothered him the most. He was not fully unarmed, but those two guns used to belong to his dad.

He knew he'd get them back, but still.

His cell shuddered violently, as if being set down. Alex banged hard on the side.

"WATCH IT, THERE'S SOMEONE IN HERE!" He yelled as loud as he could, hoping that whoever was on the other side could hear him.

"It can speak English!?" A muffled voice said from the other side.

"-tell the director." "Who is he?" "What the f-"

Alex sighed and laid down on the cell's cot. It was going to take all of his energy to not kill any of the derps here.

His helmet told him that three days had passed since he had been moved, and he was fairly sure that he was on some sort of boat. There was a small sway that he noticed very quickly, but that was the only give away.

They gave him food, but he wasn't sure if it really counted as food, but he didn't want to use the food in his inventory just yet, so he ate what they gave him.

He heard footsteps and buttons were pressed outside of the door. Someone was coming in. The door opened with a click and the eye patch man he saw when he first arrived walked in. He had a chair with him and he sat down.

"I must be an important prisoner if the leader himself came to talk to me." Alex said, noticing that the other man raised an eyebrow at that.

"What makes you say that I'm the leader?" He asked. He clearly wanted answers, and Helsians never lie, just occasionally bend the truth.

"Your posture tells me a lot, when I arrived you were hiding your emotions very well, you speak with authority, and everyone did exactly what you said while I was being brought to this cell." Alex listed off. It was very easy for him to notice these things, he's the exact same around the Helsmits.

The man nodded. "You sound very experienced in that field."

"Where I'm from it's always a benefit to notice the small details." Because otherwise you are dead or caught by a Hunter .

The man nodded. "Now, excuse my bluntness, but what the hell are you?"

Alex just chuckled and threw his head back. "Now that is a loaded answer."

"I think I can handle it." He said, crossing his arms.

Well, this is going to be fun.

"On my planet, I'm known as a Helsian. If you ask anyone who is not a Helsian what a Helsian is, they would say that I'm a war criminal, terrorist, a person who causes harm just for kicks, that we don't understand the value of life, or are just the most dangerous and sadistic people to ever exist."

The man nodded slowly, now understanding what exactly was in front of him. "And if I asked a Helsian?"

This time, Alex gave a soft grin, not that it could be seen from under his helmet. "They would say that we are a group of people who aren't accepted by the world around us and are trying to live their best life without the rest of the world, even doing awful things if it means that they will let us be."

The man thought about that before nodding. "What is your purpose for coming to this planet?"

"Ok, I actually don't know what planet this is." Alex said, the man looking at him as if he had grown a second head. "My arrival is the result of one of my idiotic friends having a dream about opening portals and then following the exact process when he woke up. I didn't stop him in time."

The man just placed a hand on his face, as if he had dealt with similar scenarios. "So, you're here because your friend made a horrible decision, and you mean this planet absolutely no harm."

"Precisely." Alex said. He then cocked his head a bit. "However, I have a feeling that there is more you want. More specifically, something you want me to do for you."

The man nodded and handed him a file he had tucked away. "Two days after you arrived, we had another visitor in that facility."

Alex looked over the file, frowning intensely. The visitor was Loki of Asgard, and he had caused quite a bit of trouble. Destroying the facility, mind controlling agents, stealing military vehicles, and killing many people.

Alex eyed the man. "What do you want me to do?"

"I'm assembling a team of individuals to take him down, and I want you to help them." He said as he handed over five more files. Where was he hiding these?

The group was very unique. A billionaire who flew around in a suit of armor, a war hero, a green rage monster, a super spy, and… Thor.

Alex has bad memories of the man, but he wasn't going to let them get in the way.

"What do I get in return?"

"We get you back to your world."

Alex thought hard. He could probably get back on his own, but as looked over the team, he knew that they were going to need help, because the one person they already had on their side would not lift a hand to harm the threat.

"When I agree to help someone, I like to know who I'm helping."

The man held out his hand. "Nicholas Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Alex shook his hand. "Alexander Void, leader of the Helsmits, and you've got yourself a deal."

Fury nodded and handed him his pistols. "Hope everything is correct with them, my scientists were trying to get their hands on them."

A quick glance told him that everything was fine.

The two began walking down some halls, Alex mapping the place in his helmet.

"Rogers, Romanoff, and Banner should be arriving soon. Stark is a wild card so I'm unsure if he'll be here. It's only a matter of time before Thor decides to show up."

"I'm assuming we are heading somewhere to debrief." Alex said as they began walking through more populated areas; people stopping what they were doing to gawk at him.

"Your assumption would be correct."

They eventually made it to a control deck, a large meeting table behind the master controls. Fury nodded at the table and Alex took a seat.

Alex tapped the side of his helmet, connecting to the system and he listened to the workers give orders through their version of coms.

"This is Agent Romanoff, requesting permission to land."

"Permission granted."

"Agent Coulson to Director Fury, Rogers has landed."

"Sir, we are clear for liftoff." A brunette woman told Fury, who nodded and everyone below began to type in commands.

The boat began to rise into the air, having been built with flight capabilities.

Alex heard the door open and four pairs of feet walked in.

"All engines operating. S.H.I.E.L.D. emergency protocol one nine three point six in effect. We're at altitude, sir." The same woman said.

"Good! Let's vanish." Alex didn't understand that, but he would have to guess that this flying boat also had some form of cloaking mechanism.

The person he recognized as Rogers walked up to Fury and handed him a price of paper, most likely this world's currency. He was very in awe of the ship, and for good reason. His file said that he had just woken up from being stuck in ice for seventy years, all of this must be very new.

Rogers turned around and noticed Alex for the first time. "Who are you?"

"Last minute addition." Alex said, standing up.

"Rogers, I'd like you to meet Alexander Void." Fury said, and Alex and Rogers shook hands. "He arrived on our planet on accident but has agreed to help us on this mission."

"On accident?" Rogers asked.

"It happens when majority of your friends are idiots." Alex said as he sat down, Rogers taking the seat to his right, Romanoff sitting on the other side of Rogers.

Banner was still standing, very nervous.

"Your file told me that you can find Loki." Alex said.

"My file tell you anything else?" Banner asked, extremely nervous.

"Nothing I'm concerned about." He said, giving him a calming look. "Trust me, the green guy's nothing compared to some people on my planet."

That actually made Banner calm down a bit and he sat on Alex's left. "So, I'm a scientist and I'm very curious about your planet."

Alex chuckled. "Once this mess is over I'll tell you everything you want, because you had the decency to ask nicely."

That made Banner completely calm down. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Rogers watching him carefully.

His helmet pulled up Rogers file and he saw that Rogers was the leader of a unit of soldiers in a war, and prides himself on his leadership. He might see me as a threat to that position.

"Your file told me that you fought in something called 'World War 2'?" Alex asked Rogers, who nodded. "You're gonna have to tell me about that because I have no idea what that sentence means." Even the playing field, I have experience but he knows the planet.

Rogers was surprised but brought himself together quickly. "Perhaps we can talk about battle tactics later."

"I don't see why not."

Fury decided to step in. "Alright, now that you've all met, time to get to work. Romanoff, could you escort Banner to his lab? The sooner we find Loki, the better."

The two stood up and left the room. The final guy, an agent, walked up to Fury. "So, he's not dangerous?" He asked, looking right at Alex.

"Oh no he's extremely dangerous, just agreed to help." Fury said, not even turning around.

"Fury." The man turned to Alex. "Are there any training facilities here? I've encountered people like Loki before and I know a few things that might help you get an edge on him in a fight." 

The director looked at the agent. "Take Rogers and Void to TR2, they'll have more room there."

TR2, training room 2. Very original.

The agent signaled them to follow him.

"You've fought Loki before?" Rogers asked.

"I've fought Asgardians before, all of them have the same mindset." He turned his head to look back at him. "They believe that they are the most powerful beings in the universe, and they don't like it when they're proven wrong, for anything."

Rogers made a face, looks like he remembered that Thor would join them. "Fury said that Thor would be assisting us."

"Thor is not going to do anything that will bring harm to Loki." Alex said bluntly. "He didn't twenty years ago, he's not going to now." He looked forward and saw they were arriving at the room. Either the ship is very small or we are secretly teleporting place to place.

"However, Fury would have no way of knowing this so I understand why he said that he'd help." Alex finished and took stock of the room. He had no idea what he was looking at.

"Before we start, could you please tell me what everything in this room is? I have zero idea of what I'm looking at." Alex said, waving his hand at everything.

Rogers smirked and began to explain all of the equipment to him. His confidence grew because it was something that Alex didn't know but he did.

After he explained what everything was, Alex went to the side where a white board was and picked up a marker.

"Alright, here's what you need to know about Loki. He is one of the few warriors of Asgard who fights with magic and not brute strength. He's good at illusions in particular. From what I've heard, he now has a scepter which he uses to mind control people and shoot small blasts of energy." Alex said as he wrote on the board. Rogers looked over the info.

"Any weaknesses?"

Alex nodded. "Because he uses magic, he is not the best at physical combat, but can still hold his own fairly well in a fight, but that's not his biggest weakness." He paused to write some more.

"His biggest weakness is that he loves to talk. Get him to monologue and you've bought yourself as much time as you'll give him. Be careful because he will catch on eventually and begin fighting."

Rogers nodded. "We can work with this."

Alex put down the marker and looked at a red, white, and blue shield on a rack. "Yours?"

"Yes."

"Can it block energy blasts?"

Rogers thought for a moment. "It actually can."

"Good." Alex said. He walked by the rack and picked up a staff. "I've fought people who use Loki's fighting style, so I'm going to replicate that style so you can get used to fighting that kind of opponent."

Rogers picked up his shield. "Sounds good."

"Then let's begin."

Coulson watched the two men fight, and he was very impressed.

Rogers caught on quickly how to fight a person with a scepter, and Void explained ways to improve or get a better advantage.

From what he observed, Void seemed to be the best candidate for team leader, but he knew that the man wouldn't take the job. He was from another planet and most likely wanted to go home once this was all over.

"Agent Coulson, do you copy?" Romanoff's voice rang through his earpiece.

"I copy Romanoff." The two men stopped fighting to hear what he had to say.

"We found Loki, come to the bridge."

"Copy, over and out." Coulson looked at Rogers and Void. "Loki's been found, follow me."

"Where is he?" Alex asked when he saw Fury.

"Stuttgart, Germany. Suit up Captain."

Alex turned and saw an agent bring Rogers the most embarrassing suit he has ever seen.

"Yeah, you're not wearing that, follow me." He said, grabbing the suit and walking back to his cell.

"Where are you going, Void?" Fury asked, not amused.

"To get this man an upgrade." He called back, Rogers following him with an amused look on his face.

"Hey, if you're going to fight a god, you aren't doing so in a costume from a kid's cartoon." Alex said, stopping in his cell. "Any preferences?"

"I like the style they are trying to go for, just less cartoony."

Alex smirked under his helmet and red sparks danced on his fingertips. "ᓵ⍑ᔑリ⊣ᒷ." He said and snapped his fingers.

The previously embarrassing outfit became a battle uniform, all the colors in the same place, just more suited for a fight.

"Now that's better."

Rogers looked at it in awe and picked the outfit up carefully. "It looks just like what I wore in the 40's."

Alex chuckled and patted him on the back. "See you on the plane."

People were flooding out of a building, and Loki was slowly walking out, outfit changing into Asgardian battle armor. Alex watched from a rooftop as the god blasted a police car and flipped it over.

He pulled out a sniper rifle he had on him and aimed it at Loki, as he cast illusions of himself around a group of civilians and made them kneel before him.

"Is this not simpler?" Loki asked them as he began walking through the crowd. "Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end," He stopped in the center of the crowd. "You will always kneel."

Yeah, I don't think so.

Alex saw an old man slowly rise to his feet. "Not to men like you."

Loki chuckled. "There are no men like me."

The old man held his head high. "There are always men like you."

Alex pressed the side of his helmet. "You're gonna have to intervene soon."

"Copy."

Loki raised his scepter to the old man. "Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example."

Loki fired but Rogers landed in front of the man, shield raised. It reflected the blast back at Loki, who fell to the ground.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." Rogers said, referring to his time in the war.

"The soldier." Loki said as he rose to his feet. "The man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time." Rogers said as Alex took his shot. He hit Loki in the shoulder, more specifically the arm he held the scepter in.

"Thanks for making everyone get down, gave our sniper a clear path." Rogers said as Loki snarled. The god picked up his scepter and attacked, all civilians clearing out of the area.

Rogers took the training that Alex gave him to heart and fought well against Loki, but god had thousands of years of experience above him. 

Just as he was about to pearl down to help, the jet that Romanoff had parked began to play… was that 'Shoot to Thrill' by AC/DC?

A red and gold streak appeared in the sky and fired a blast at Loki, who fell back hard. The metal suit held out his hands at Loki, and various weapons came out and pointed at him.

"Make a move Reindeer Games." A voice said from the suit. As Rogers walked up to the man Loki held up his hands in surrender.

"Good move." The suit retracted the weapons.

"Mr. Stark."

"Captain."

Ah, so this is the elusive Tony Stark.

Rogers put a hand to the side of his head. "Void, why don't you come down and introduce yourself?"

"Copy that." Alex said and he pearled down to Rogers, appearing behind him. Loki gasped when he saw him.

"You're a-" Loki started but Rogers cut him off. "Helsian, yeah, we know."

"Hold on, you weren't on the list Director Eye Patch gave me." Stark said.

"Last minute addition." Alex said and held out a hand. "Alexander Void."

Stark shook his hand. "Tony Stark."

Alex stood next to Rogers and Stark, all of their helmets off, and he was keeping a close eye on Loki, who hadn't said a word since they boarded the jet.

"I don't like it." Rogers said, and Alex had to agree with him.

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Stark asked.

"Asgardians don't give up that quickly." Alex said. "He's up to something."

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in." Rogers said.

"Told me you were a wild card and wasn't sure if you'd be here." Alex added.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you." Stark said when lightning flashed in front of the jet.

"Where's this come from?" Romanoff wondered out loud. Alex immediately knew the answer.

"Thor decided to show up." He said, putting on his helmet and drawing a pistol. "Keep the door closed and arm up."

"Isn't he on our side?" Rogers asked as he put on the cowl.

"Depends on his mood." Alex replied as something landed on top of the jet. A roof latch was open from the outside and the god of thunder jumped down.

Alex and Stark had their weapons drawn on him in seconds. "Not on my watch." Alex said.

Thor was shocked to see him but that shock quickly turned to anger. He hit Stark into him and kicked away Rogers.

Thor grabbed Loki by the neck and opened the ramp of the jet, flying away with him.

"Now there's that guy." Stark said as he stalked down the ramp.

"And this is why nobody likes Asgardians." Alex sighed. "Let's go get Loki."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack." Rogers said.

"I have a plan. Attack!" Stark said and he flew away.

Alex pulled out another pearl and Rogers put on some sort of pack. "This is gonna get messy quickly." He said as they went to the edge of the ramp.

"I know." Rogers said. "Meet you down there." The two jumped off.

Stark and Thor were fighting when Steve and Void landed. Loki was nowhere in sight.

"Alright, we saw what happens when Thor sees you." Steve said. "So I'll deal with him and Stark, you go find Loki."

Void nodded and went deeper into the woods, away from the fight. Steve trudged toward the fight, hoping he wasn’t making a terrible decision by splitting up. In the short time that he had gotten to know him, he had earned all of Steve’s respect.

Void was a natural leader, you couldn’t help but to listen to him. His battle experience was off the charts; if hadn’t given Steve pointers before his fight with Loki, he wasn’t sure if he would have succeeded. And overall, he was just a good man, an extremely dangerous man, but a good man nonetheless.

So Steve was naturally confused on why people like him were hated on his planet. Void explained to him what he was on the flight to Germany, but he acted nothing like a war criminal to Steve. Sure, he looked the part, but his actions didn’t match.

Up ahead, he saw Thor and Stark fighting.

Time to put an end to this conflict.

He threw the shield forward, and it bounced off of both of them before returning to him.

"Hey! That's enough!" Steve jumped down from where he was. "Now I don't know what you plan on doing here-"

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's scenes!" Thor interrupted.

Probably shouldn't have sent away Void.

"Then prove it. Put that hammer down." Steve said, trying to be reasonable.

“Uh, yeah! No! Bad call, he loves his hammer-” Stark tried to warn him before Thor hit him aside with his hammer.

“YOU WANT ME TO PUT THE HAMMER DOWN!?” He yelled and charged toward Steve, swinging his hammer. Just as Steve was going to bring up his shield to block himself, he was tackled from the side and Thor hit nothing.

“Done trying to kill people?” Void asked, and Steve was glad that his anger was not directed at him. Stark even felt the rage coming from the man and took a few steps back.

“I don’t know why you are on this planet, Helsian.” Thor said, glaring at Void. “But I will not let you bring any harm to its residents.” 

“The only person here that is harming anyone is you.” Void stated, and he was absolutely correct. He, a supposed bad guy, was doing more good than Thor, the supposed good guy. And, Steve had to admit, if he was chosen for team leader over him, he would agree wholeheartedly with that decision. But, whatever their problem was, it would have to wait until after Loki was dealt with.

“Are we done here?” Steve asked and both Stark and Void nodded while Thor still seethed.

Steve looked at Void. “Where’s Loki?”

He could see the smirk behind his helmet. “Look behind Thor.”

He looked and while he was able to hold back his amusement, Stark just laughed his heart out. Because propped up on a tree was Loki, tied up with bright pink unicorn duct tape.

“I only use that one for special occasions.” Void added, and that was when Steve lost it.

Alex watched as Fury talked with Loki in a glass cell with Banner, Rogers, Thor, and Romanoff. Unfortunately, he could tell just by looking at it that it wasn’t meant for Loki, and the person that it was for knew that too. But on the bright side, there was still a little bit of unicorn duct tape on the god’s back, and everyone decided not to tell him.

Loki was in the middle of a monologue when he heard Rogers mutter to himself “He really does love to talk.” Alex kept a straight face but was very amused.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." Fury said as his digital version walked away.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Banner said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Like a parasite.” Alex added.

“Loki’s gonna drag this out.” Rogers said. “So, Thor, what’s his play?”

“He has an army called the Chitauri.” Thor said. “They’re not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”

“An army, from outer space?” Rogers asked.

“Sounds weird, I know.” Alex said. “But it’s actually pretty normal.” He looked Rogers in the eye. “Not many planets like each other and are often fighting. Mine, in particular, is attacked a lot, because according to everyone else it is too ‘unnatural’ to let exist.” Rogers looked surprised at that, probably because nothing about Alex seemed too weird except for his appearance.

“So, he’s building another portal.” Banner said, bringing everyone back on topic. “That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for.”

“Selvig?” Thor asked, surprised.

“He’s an astrophysicist.” Banner said. An astrowhat?

“He’s a friend.” Thor said. Thor has friends? That’s new.

“Loki has them under some kind of spell.” Romanoff explained. “Along with one of ours.” She added after a pause. She must be close to whoever it is.

“I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He’s not leading an army from here.” Rogers said.

“I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki.” Banner said, which drew Alex’s attention. “That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him.” 

Alex snorted at that. “I mean, he’s not wrong.”

“Have care how you speak.” Thor said, looking directly at Alex. “Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother.”

“He killed eighty people in two days.” Romanoff deadpanned.

“He’s adopted?” Don’t sound too sure of that.

“I think it’s about the mechanics.” Banner said, and Alex could hear two sets of feet walking into the room. “Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?”

“It’s a stabilizing agent.” Stark said as he walked in the room with Coulson. He said something quietly to him; all Alex caught was ‘weekend’ and ‘portland’. “Means the portal won’t collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D.” He walked up to Thor and patted him on the arm. “No hard feelings Point Break, you got a mean swing.”

“Also, means the portal can open as wide and stay as open as long as Loki wants.” He added and stopped at the control panels. “Ah, raise the mizzen mast, ship the topsails.” The workers there looked at him weirdly, not that Alex could blame them. “That man is playing Galaga!” Both Alex and Rogers turned to where Stark was pointing, neither had any idea what that was. “Thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did.”

Stark then covered half of his face with a hand. “How does Fury even see these?” He asked. 

“He turns.” An agent he now knew as Maria Hill said.

“Sounds exhausting.” Stark said, turning back to the group. “The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick start the Cube.” Alex did notice that when was fiddling with the control panel while talking, he placed something on it. He didn’t say anything, because he wanted more info first.

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Hill asked him. In what? Is this planet insane?

“Last night. The packet, Selvig’s notes, the extraction theory papers- am I the only one who did the reading?” Stark asked.

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asked.

“He’s have to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break the Coulomb barrier.” Banner said.

“Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect.” Stark added.

“Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.” Banner said, and Stark pointed at him.

“Finally. Someone who speaks English.”

“Ok.” Alex said. “Someone is gonna have to tell me what is considered English here, because where I’m from, that’s not it.” He could just tell that Rogers knew exactly how he was feeling.

“I’ll give you a crash course later.” Stark said, and he shook Banner’s hand. “It’s good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

Banner made a face and thought for a moment. “Thanks.” Alex had a feeling that Stark may have been trying to be nice, but it didn’t really come out like that.

“Doctor Banner is only here to track the Cube.” Fury said, entering the room. “I was hoping you might join him.”

“I’d start with that stick of his.” Steve suggested. “It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the Cube.” Fury said, but Alex had to disagree with him. The scepter had a very different form of magic around it, and he highly doubted it was from this Cube.

“And I like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.” For once, Alex and Thor could agree that that sentence made no sense.

“Monkeys?” Alex asked.

“I do not understand-” Thor said but Rogers interrupted.

“I do!” Everyone in the room just stared at him. “I… I understood that reference.”

Alex turned in his chair to look at Stark. “You said something about a crash course?”

Stark smiled and made a dramatic gesture to the door. “Right this way, my red intergalactic friend.”

Alex looked at Banner. “Am I gonna regret this?”

“Probably.” Banner said with zero hesitation. Alex sighed and followed the two scientists out of the room.

“Stark is gonna break that man’s mind.” Nat said, a hint of sympathy in her voice. Void was definitely someone she wouldn’t mind working with, and she really hoped he survived whatever hell Stark was about to put him through.

“The thing I don’t understand is how he is a war criminal.” Rogers said, clearly frustrated by that. “He- he just doesn’t feel like one, you know?”

Nat had to agree, Void definitely didn’t match any description of war criminals she had seen. Honestly, he was just a nice guy who had a lot of field experience.

“Do not let his act fool you.” Thor said. Nat didn’t understand what his problem was Void, or why Void didn’t like him. She’ll figure it out later, she always does.

“He is a master manipulator and a liar.” Thor tried to explain. “His name is not Alexander Void, it is Evil Xisuma, he is the clone of a man named Xisuma Void, a mighty warrior of his world and a noble leader; he’s one of the few people on that planet that Asgard respects.”

Thor looked at Fury. “Do not fall for his tricks, or else the outcome will be worse than what Loki is doing.” With that he left the room.

The room was silent for a moment.

“So who do we believe?” Rogers asked. “The man who didn’t plan on being here but has helped us so much, or the god who just arrived and only made the problem worse?”

Nat scoffed. “I think it’s pretty obvious.” Rogers chuckled. “Yep.”

Fury cleared his throat. “While it is clear who we believe, we still need to be wary of those who come from Mr. Void’s planet, because they may not be as nice as him.”

Both Nat and Rogers nodded at that. One person does not always accurately represent where they are from.

“Glad we are in agreement.” Fury said. “Now Rogers, please go see to it that Stark hasn’t driven Void mad with knowledge of Earth.”

Rogers wasted no time to get out of that door.

If Alex had known that Stark's definition of crash course was explaining every science on this planet, he would have stayed with Rogers. 

Unfortunately, he was stuck with his decision until the madman in front of him was done talking. Banner was working on something else in the lab, but he occasionally looked up to laugh at the show.

Don't get him wrong, the info was useful, just a little much. 

"So, tell me about your planet." Stark said, leaning back casually. “I want to know everything. And don’t worry, nobody will judge if you go crazy and lay eggs or eat someone.”

Alex just paused for a moment and stared at Stark. “I’m sorry, but what the Notch?!”

Banner started laughing insanely at that, which resulted in him dropping something and electrocuting himself. “Shit.”

Alex went over to check on him, and he noticed a bit of green creeping up his neck. Not wanting to trigger the Hulk, he didn’t mention it. “Just a minor shock, you’re good.”

He looked at Stark, who he knew saw the green, and sent him looking saying not to bring it up. Stark, for fear of his life, stayed silent.

“Everything okay in here?” Rogers asked, materializing in the doorway.

“We’re good.” Banner said. “Just lost my focus because of Void's reaction to something Stark said.”

Rogers looked at Stark. "Do I want to know?"

"Let's just say it was the best 'what the actual fuck' reaction I've seen in a long time." Stark said. "Once my decryption program is done hacking into the system I'll show you the footage."

Wait what.

“I’m sorry, did you say-”

“JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge.” Stark said, cutting off Rogers. That’s what he put on the controls. “In a few hours I’ll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever tried to hide.” He held out a packet of something to Alex. “Blueberry?”

Alex stared at the packet in shock and grabbed some of the blue fruit. “Somehow we have identical fruit.” Alex popped the handful in his mouth. It was the same.

“Wait, wait, wait. Out of everything that our planets have that could be the same, it’s blueberries that we share.” Stark said, staring at Alex in disbelief.

“Yep, another question: Do you have strawberries?” Banner and Stark both lost their minds at that while Rogers slowly backed out of the room.

“The thing that brings planets together, fruit.” Stark said, while holding the blueberries above his head dramatically.

“I thought it would be something cool like an invasion or an intergalactic alliance, but no, it was literally an everyday food item.” Banner said, still laughing. “God, I haven’t laughed that hard since I got the big guy.”

“How exactly does that work?” Alex asked. “Is there like a certain point that you can get mad to and once you reach it the green guy takes over?”

Banner seemed a little surprised at the question. “Yeah, there is kinda a point where he’ll take over. I can still try to fight him for control but he always wins.” His attitude turned fairly glum. “Once he takes over, he’ll just go on a rampage until someone manages to somehow calm him down.”

Alex could immediately see that Banner was very insecure about this, and so could Stark.

"Hey, I read all about your accident. That much Gamma exposure- should’ve killed you." Stark said.

"So you’re saying that the Hulk- the Other Guy- saved my life? That’s nice. That’s nice sentiment. Saved it for- what?" Banner asked, apparently never thinking about it like that before.

"I guess we'll find out." Stark said, getting back to work.

"You may not enjoy that." Banner warned before getting back to work.

"And you just might." Alex said before he left the room. 

When Fury was talking to Loki earlier, the god felt too confident about himself. He had a plan, and Alex was gonna figure it out.

When Alex got to where Loki was being held, he saw that he was talking to Romanoff. Or rather, Romanoff was trying to make him spill his plan unintentionally.

Loki slammed his fist against the glass, making Romanoff jump back. Alex ducked back further to stay out of their eyesight.

"I won't touch Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear."

Dramatic much.

"And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

Romanoff fake cried. She is good at this.

"You're a monster!"

Every inch of Alex froze. Hulk.

Alex turned and ran back to the lab as fast as possible, never drawing the god or spy's attention to him.

Bruce was surprised to see Void come running back into the lab. He and Stark had just finished making a program to find the Tesseract, right now they were watching Stark's AI hack S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Loki's gonna trigger the Hulk for his escape." Void said, before either of them could ask what the problem was. "Figured you'd prefer to hear it from me rather than Romanoff."

Bruce was shocked and sat still for a moment. This was the first time someone had thought about what he would want when it was about the Other guy, normally everyone else decided for him or tried to.

"Thank you for telling me." He managed to say. "I appreciate it."

Void nodded. “Not a problem, Banner.”

“Call me Bruce.”

Void smirked. “Call me Alex, then.” He looked to the side. “Same goes with you, Stark.”

“Tony.” He said, then he looked at Bruce. “If Hulk does end up getting triggered, is there a way to stop him.”

“There might be one way.” He had Tony and Alex’s attention. “When I first became the Hulk, he would not hurt people he knew I cared about or trusted. I think that if he is unleashed, there is a chance that he might listen to you two.”

The two looked stunned, but then Tony smirked. “Well that’s one tidbit of information S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t have.” He gestured to a stool nearby. “Want to watch me hack in?”

Alex gave an evil smirk, and Bruce was starting to see why he was a war criminal.

“Tony, it would be my pleasure.”

“What are you doing, Mr. Stark?” Fury demanded when he walked into the lab. Alex just leaned back to watch the show.

“Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you.” Tony said. Better not let him and Hels meet, I’ll never have another peaceful day in my life.

“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract.” Fury said.

“We are, the model’s locked and we’re sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we’ll have the location within half a mile.” Bruce said, pointing at their set up. Those two worked together scarily well to make it, Alex was really impressed.

“And you’ll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss.” Tony said, when his screen pulled up something. “What is Phase Two?”

Rogers slammed a weapon on a table. “Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons.” He looked at Tony. “Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me.”

“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we’re-” Fury started, but was cut off by Tony who had pulled up a blueprint for a missile.

“I’m sorry, Nick. What were you lying?”

“I was wrong, Director. The world hasn’t changed a bit.” Rogers said as Romanoff and Thor walked in.

“Did you know about this?” Bruce asked Romanoff.

“You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” Romanoff said, instead of answering the question.

“So that would be a yes.” Alex said, hiding his smirk when everyone but Tony and Bruce jumped at hearing his voice. Somehow none of them noticed he was there.

“Loki’s manipulating you.” Romanoff tried again.

“I know.” Bruce said, turning and gesturing at Alex. “He heard the end of your conversation with him and decided to warn me about what Loki plans on doing with the other guy so I could mentally prepare myself for anything that might make me go crazy.”

Both Fury and Romanoff looked shocked.

“Hold on.” Rogers said. “You're telling me that neither of you considered warning him so he could make sure that the Hulk doesn’t come out?”

Alex looked hard at their faces. “Certainly looks like it, Rogers.”

“Call me Steve.”

“Alex.”

Bruce looked at the blueprint. “I’d like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

Fury gave him a level stare and point at Thor. “Because of him.”

Thor had the audacity to look surprised. “Me?”

“Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town.” Fury explained. “We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out-gunned.”

Alex groaned. “I should have known.”

Thor glared at Alex. “You have no right to say that, Helsian. Your list of crimes is longer than Loki’s by ten folds.”

“Well at least I’m not you.” Alex said, everyone backing up from the two. “Your crimes against my world are nothing compared to mine.”

“I’ve done nothing to your planet.” 

And Alex snapped.

Thor only processed the punch after he was on the ground. “The End.” Was all Alex said, and everyone could see that Thor knew what he was talking about.

“The Enderians were too dangerous to let live, we had to destroy them.” Thor said, trying to explain to the others, but he missed the livid look on Alex’s face. 

“No, Asgard didn’t like how powerful my planet was, so they decided to wipe out my kind.” Alex said. I’m revealing all secrets now.

Bruce figured it out first. “You’re an Enderian.” Alex nodded.

“Alex, how old were you when it happened?” Steve asked. Alex’s expression turned grim.

“Eight.”

He could hear someone gasp in shock. “Want to know the best part, Thor?”

“My brother and I watched as you tore my father in half and strangled my mother.” And Alex was done, he said what he needed to.

Tony and Bruce looked at him in shock, sad that he had to go through that. Steve was glaring at Thor. Fury and Romanoff had blank faces, but he could see that Romanoff could barely believe what she just heard.

“I’m starting to understand why you want those weapons.” Bruce said and he began pacing around. Alex heard him mutter “Holy shit.” under his breath.

“Director, my people want nothing but peace with your planet.” Thor said, trying to save face.

“But you’re not the only people out there, are you? Void here is proof of that.” Fury said. “And from what I’m hearing, the people here would rather take their chances with a war criminal than an Asgardian.”

“Damn right.” Tony said.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for A HIGHER FORM OF WAR.” Thor said, trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about.

“No, it says that you are ready to defend your home no matter what.” Alex said. 

“If you punch us, we’ll punch you back harder.” Tony said.

“Exactly!” Alex exclaimed. “It’s not on offense if they strike first, it’s in self defense.”

“Isn’t that how you made your fortune, Stark?” Fury asked, and that’s when Alex felt it. Something in this room was trying to mess with them. He held up a fist, and everyone went silent. He turned and looked at the scepter. The blue orb was slightly pulsating.

He walked over and used a pair of pliers on the table to remove the orb. Once disconnected, it turned into a yellow stone, and Alex recognized it.

“Thor, how did Loki get his hands on an Infinity Stone?” Alex asked, turning so everyone could see what he was holding.

“Get his hands on a what?” Romanoff asked.

My turn for a lesson.

“This stone is part of a six piece collection called the Infinity Stones. Each stone has complete control of an aspect of life. They control time, reality, space, soul, power, and mind.” He held the yellow stone higher. “This one is the Mind Stone.”

“How did Reindeer Games get that?” Tony asked.

“One way to find out.” Alex said, and the monitor on the other side if the room beeped.

“That’s the Tesseract.” Bruce said. He stared at the screen in disbelief. “Oh my god.”

Before anyone could ask what it was, an explosion rocked the ship and destroyed the lab.

Bruce felt that he was reaching his limit. He didn’t know much longer he could hold the Hulk back.

“Bruce, you ok?” He looked and saw Alex was pinned under some pipes, trying to get up.

“N-No.” He managed to get out, scared by the anger in his voice. He looked back at Alex, and he saw that he knew what was gonna happen.

“Bruce, it’ll be ok.” Alex reassured him. “You can let him out.”

“P-People, w-w-will be hurt.” Bruce spat out, trying to keep him at bay.

“Bruce.” Alex looked at him calmly, despite what he was seeing. “Trust me.”

And Bruce held back no more.

Hulk in dark place! Hulk on flying boat! Where is Hulk!?

Grunting behind Hulk! Man behind Hulk! Man hurt Hulk!

Hulk turn! Where is Man!? Hulk look down! Man on ground!

“So you are the infamous Hulk.” Man say. “Nice to finally meet you.”

Man nice to Hulk?! Who is Man!?

“Just in case you don’t remember, I’m Alex.” Man say. “I’m a friend of Bruce’s.”

Man use Banner name! Man good?

“Red Man hurt Hulk!?” Hulk ask.

“Never will.” Red Man say.

Red Man friend! Who hurt Red Man?!

“Red Man hurt! Hulk help Red Man.” Hulk yell, throwing aside metal that hold Red Man down.

Red Man stand up, very slow.

“Who hurt Red Man?!” Hulk ask.

“A group of people who are being mind controlled by a guy named Loki.” Red Man say.

Loki hurt Red Man! Hulk go hurt Loki!

“Where Loki!?” Hulk ask. Red Man smile.

“Follow me.” Red Man say.

Red Man lead Hulk through flying boat! Red Man duck by wall! Bad Men shoot at Hulk and Red Man! Hulk roar!

“No hurt Red Man!” Hulk yell and smash Bad Men.

"That works too." Red Man say and wave his arm. "This way Hulk, we're getting close."

Hulk find Loki! Loki pay for hurting Red Man!

Big room empty! Where Loki?!

Hurt man on floor! Red Man help hurt man!

"Coulson! What happened?!" Red Man ask Hurt Man.

"Loki escaped. Got a shot on him though." Hurt Man say. 

Red Man pull bottle out of air! Red Man magic!

"Hulk, Loki's heading to the top of the ship. Do you think you can find him?" Red Man ask.

"HULK FIND LOKI!" Hulk yell.

Hulk go through walls! Hulk go through roof! Hulk at top of flying boat!

Plane fly away! Loki on plane! Plane too far!

HULK NO GET LOKI!!!

HULK MAD!!!

"Hulk!" Red Man yell. Hulk point at plane!

"LOKI GET AWAY!!!" Hulk yell.

"It's ok." Red Man say. "We'll find him again. Promise."

Find Loki again! Hulk calm down! Hulk be Banner again!

Alex watched as the Hulk slowly turned back into Bruce, letting out a sigh of relief that he didn't know he was holding in.

"Oh, god." Bruce said, and Alex handed him an extra shirt he kept in his inventory, which he gladly took. 

"Did the other guy hurt anyone?" Bruce asked nervously.

"Just those on Loki's side." Alex said with a smile on his face.

"How did he not hurt you?" Bruce asked and they began heading back inside.

"I was just nice to him when he saw me and said that I was your friend." Alex explained. "He decided that I was his best friend and tried to go off on Loki for indirectly hurting me."

"Did he?" Bruce asked, curiosity in his voice.

"No, Loki was too far away in the jet." Alex said.

"But hey, he can't control any more people now." Alex added, pulling out the Mind Stone from his inventory. "I don't think Loki even noticed it was gone."

He saw Agent Coulson walking to them, still a little shocked from the healing potion. "You good, Coulson?"

"I feel like a new man." He said, slightly in awe.

Alex snickered. "Healing potions will do that to you."

"Wait what happened?" Bruce asked.

"Loki stabbed me in the back with the scepter." Coulson said. "And Void used a potion from his world to heal me."

Coulson then stopped and listened to his ear.

"Fury wants us all on the bridge."

Great.

Fury looked at everyone sitting in front of him.

Stark, Banner, Rogers, and Void.

All of them wanted answers.

Can’t hide anymore.

“Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. As Void said, it would have been to defend ourselves.” Fury admitted. “But I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier.”

Void looked at him curiously.

Get him to agree, and so will the others.

“There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative.” Stark sat back, watching Void. He remembered this conversation, he wanted to see what Void would think. “The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.”

Void sat back and thought. “And we were all candidates for this?” He asked.

“You weren’t until we saw you in action.” Fury admitted.

The men before him looked at each other, a silent conversation happening between them.

One last shot.

“Well, it’s an old fashioned notion. Heroes.” Fury left the room, letting the occupants decide for themselves.

This better work or else the entire world is in danger.

“We’re doing it aren't we?”

“Yep.”

“I mean, why not.”

“Glad we’re in agreement. Now, Bruce, where is the Tesseract?”

“Stark Tower.”

“... Son of a bitch.”

“Get Romanoff, Steve. We’re gonna need a jet.”

“On it.”

“Let’s go, Hulk wants round two.”

“Loki has no idea what is about to hit him.”

Tony flew to New York as fast as he could, the others following behind in a Quinjet. They had a new addition, Agent Barton, and after some light hacking it was revealed that he was meant to be on the team before he was brainwashed by Loki.

He joined the team instantly after Alex heard that, who had now become their unofficial leader. Why exactly is he in a rush to get back to his planet if he’s a wanted man?

That question would have to wait, Tony was at Stark Tower. Selvig was working on a device with the Tesseract. 

“Sir, I turned off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustaining.” Jarvis informed him.

“Shut it down, Dr. Selvig.” Tony said, the doctor turning to him.

“It’s too late! She can’t stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe.” Selvig said. Alex didn’t say that the Mind Stone makes you cray-cray.

“Okay.” Tony said bored and fired at the machine. Instead of destroying it like he had hoped, it hit an energy barrier and blasted him and Selvig back, knocking Selvig out. Well, when he comes to he’ll no longer be mind controlled.

“The barrier is pure energy. It’s unbreachable.” Jarvis said, very helpfully.

“Yeah, I got that.” Tony looked down and saw Loki on his balcony. “Plan B.” Tony started to lower down to the ground.

“Sir, the Mark Seven is not ready for deployment.”

“Then skip the spinning rims, we’re on the clock.”

Tony landed and his suit was removed from him as he walked. Loki began heading inside too.

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity.” Loki said when they were both inside. All Tony had to do was stall him until the others got there.

“Uh- actually, I’m planning to threaten you.” Tony said, heading to his bar.

Loki smirked. “You should have left your armor on for that.”

“Yeah, it’s seen a bit of mileage. You’ve got the uh- yellow stick of destiny.” Loki smirked down at his scepter. He still hasn’t noticed that the Mind Stone’s gone?

“Would you like a drink?” Tony asked.

“Stalling me won’t change anything.” Loki said, very confident about himself.

“No, no, no- threatening. No drink? You sure? I’m having one.” Tony said as he prepared himself a drink.

“The Chitauri are coming.” Loki said, looking over the city. “Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?”

“The Avengers.” Tony said casually. He looked up and saw Loki was a little confused. “It’s what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ type of thing.”

Loki just smiled. “Yes, I’ve met them.”

“Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that one.” Tony said. “But, let’s do a head count here. Your brother, the Demi-God,” Loki looked away at the mention of Thor and Tony took the opportunity to put on two bracelets that would let his suit come to him. “A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; an intergalactic war criminal with the most amazing arsenal I’ve ever seen; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.”

“That was the plan.” Loki said, trying to stay in control.

“Not a great plan.” Tony said and he began to walk over with a drink. “When they come, and they will, they’ll come for you.”

“I have an army.”

“We have a Hulk and Alex.” Tony shot back.

“Oh, I thought the beast had wandered off.” 

“Yeah- you’re missing the point.” Tony said, stopping in front of Loki. “There’s no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. ’Cause if we can’t protect the earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it.”

Loki started to raise his scepter. “How will your friends have time for me, when they’re so busy fighting you?”

He touched the scepter to the arc reactor, but it did nothing. That was when he noticed that the Mind Stone was gone. “How did-”

“Yeah, Alex told us all bout that little rock collection. Where’d you get it anyway?” Tony asked when Loki grabbed him by the throat and threw him across the room. “Jarvis, anytime now.” He muttered under his breath when Loki picked him up again.

“You will all fall before me.” Loki said and threw him out the window.

“Jarvis. Deploy. DEPLOY!”

The Mark 7 suit came racing after him and fully attached itself just before he reached the bottom. He activated the suit and flew back up to Loki.

“And there’s one other person you pissed off! His name is Phil.” Tony said and he fired a repulsor blast at Loki, knocking him down.

He looked to the roof just as the device finished activating, sending a beam up into the sky. A portal opened and the Chitauri flew through.

“Right! Army.”

He sped into the oncoming hoard, firing blast after blast. That drew their attention to him as they fired back at him. He dodged, fired back, and repeated. He lost focus at one point and he was hit by one of their flying crafts. As he righted himself, he saw Thor landing on Stark Tower. About time he showed up. He smiled to himself as he saw the quinjet arrive, and shot mini-missiles at the Chitauri. They had a lot of work to do.

“Stark, we’re on a three heading north east.” Romanoff’s voice rang inside of his helmet.

“What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing that park, I’m gonna lay ’em out for you.” Tony said as he flew past the quinjet with some Chitauri flying after him. He took a sharp turn around a building and some of them crashed. The rest were taken out by the quinjet as he flew in front of it. More Chitauri chased after them and a blast to an engine took down the quinjet.

Tony saw the jet crash and all of the occupants flood out. The Chitauri were immediately hit with rounds of gunfire from Alex, who was charging through the troops like a madman.

Tony turned back to the aerial battle. This had to end. Now.

This brings back memories. Alex thought as he laid waste to the army in front of him; it honestly wasn’t too different from killing demons with his dad.

“We gotta get back up there.” Steve said. “Tony, are you seeing this?” 

“Seeing. Still working on believing…” Tony’s voice trailed off a little as he fought more aliens. “So will the Hulk be making an appearance?”

Alex glanced back at Bruce, who was helping some civilians get away. “Might be a bit, doesn’t look very angry right this second.”

“Well, tell me when that changes.”

More Chituari started firing and he took cover by a taxi with Bruce, Steve, Romanoff, and Barton.

“We’ve got civilians trapped.” Barton said as more aircraft began flying over, firing on the street. The lead craft had a very familiar person riding it.

“Loki.” Steve said, and Alex noticed Bruce’s neck become green just at the name. He looked back down at the civilians running for their lives.

“They’re fish in a barrel down there.” Alex said, as Romanoff began firing at more Chitauri heading their way.

“We got this. It’s good. Go!” Romanoff yelled, Barton starting to join her.

“Hold them off as long as you can.” Alex ordered.

“Void, it would be my genuine pleasure.” Barton said, and he started to rain fire on the aliens.

He signaled for Steve to follow him. “Bruce, help civilians find places to hide.”

After he got confirmation from him, he and Steve began running through the mess, dodging attacks while Alex fired back at them. They were heading to a group of officers to tell them how to defend the area.

Alex stopped to take out a large group of Chitauri as Steve landed in front of two officers. “You need men in these buildings. There are people inside and they can be running right into the line of fire. You take them to the basement or through the subway, you keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th.”

“Why the hell should I take orders from you?” One officer asked as more Chitauri jumped down on them.

“STEVE DUCK!” Alex yelled as he threw TNT at them, blowing up three of them. He then drew his Fire Aspect sword and decapitated two more and shot the last one to smitterins with his pistol.

The officers just looked at him for a bit. “I need men in those buildings, lead the people down and away from the streets. We gonna set up a perimeter all the way down to 39th street.”

Alex looked at Steve. “What’s 39th street?” 

“Tell you later.”

They continued running through the street, and they saw Romanoff and Barton fighting off a hoard of twenty Chitauri. They jumped down to help. Alex threw one off Barton and the two rained fire on incoming aliens. Just as more were coming in, white lightning rained down from the sky, and Thor landed in front of them.

“What’s the story upstairs?” Alex asked, putting aside his differences with Thor.

“The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable.” Thor said.

“Thor is right, we gotta deal with these guys.” Tony said over the coms.

“How do we do this?” Romanoff asked.

“As a team.” Alex stated.

“I have unfinished business with Loki.” Thor said.

“All of us do.” Alex said. “But that’s gonna have to wait. Loki’s gonna keep this fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Tony up top, he’s gonna need us to-” He stopped at a low growl behind him. He turned and saw Bruce, large amounts of green starting to creep up his neck.

“Hulk wants his turn?” He asked, and Bruce nodded.

Steve spoke into his com. “Stark, Hulk’s ready.”

“Then tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.” Tony flew around a building, a large flying creature chasing after him.

Alex reloaded his gun, and he nodded at Bruce. He began walking toward the creature. 

“You got this Banner.” Steve said.

“I don’t.” Bruce said and he turned around a bit. “The Hulk does.” He then turned into the rage monster and punched the creature, stopping it in its tracks. Tony took the opportunity to fire a missile at it, blowing it in half.

Alex summoned a shield and used it to cover Barton, Steve doing the same with Romanoff while Thor raised an arm to block the rubble. 

The tide just changed in their favor.

The Chitauri army stared at the remains of one of their Leviathans. Many slid down the structures of the planet, shrieking at the ones responsible.

Down below, their enemies stood in a circle, looking out at the army around them. The green monster roared back, the black clad man readied his bow, the Asgaurdian shifted his grip on his hammer, the red haired woman reloaded her guns, the Helsian summoned a fire sword with his gun, the red white and blue man stood ready with a shield, and the red and gold suit of armor landed next to him.

Loki looked down at the Avengers.

“Send the rest.”

“Guys.” Romanoff’s voice brought their attention to the Chitauri reinforcements coming through the portal.

“Call it, Alex.” Tony said, and he took charge.

“Until we can close that portal up there, we’re gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Tony, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”

“Call me Clint.” Barton said, then he looked at Tony. “Wanna give me a lift?”

Tony walked over. “Right. Better clench up, Legolas.” The two flew off.

“Thor! You gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow ’em down. You got the lightning, light them up.” Thor swung his hammer and flew up.

He looked at Romanoff and Steve. “We stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk!”

The Hulk looked down at Alex.

“Smash.”

He grinned and jumped off, smashing every enemy in sight. Alex and Romanoff began firing at all hostiles in sight, Steve guarding their backs. He pulled out a spare pistol and handed it to Romanoff.

“You’re gonna need something that has more of a punch in it than that little thing.” He said and she fired at a Chitauri, smiling at the power it had. 

“Call me Nat, then.”

“Alex.”

They continued fighting, but in the madness Alex got separated from them. 

He heard shrieking and saw Chitauri closing in on a small family, and he saw red. He pulled out his rifle and fired three shots, hitting three aliens in the head. The last two turned their attention to him, and he took care of those with his sword.

He looked at the father. “Get your family underground. These guys are focusing on people up here, you'll be safe.”

The man looked a little relieved. “Thank you sir. I’ll tell others.” The family ran off and Alex turned back. He looked up and did a double take when he saw Nat on one of the flying crafts.

I don’t know how you did that, but good job.

“Captain, the bank on 42nd, past Madison. They cornered a lot of civilians in there.” Clint said over the com. He saw Steve enter a building behind him, and not long after many civilians began flooding out. Steve fell out of a window, an explosion knocking him back. He pulled off his cowl as Alex ran over.

“You ok?”

“Had worse.” Steve winced. “We still have work to do.”

“Yep.” Alex said and he fired three times behind him, hitting three Chitauri.

He looked up at Stark Tower and saw Hulk land on the building. “Well, Hulk’s getting his revenge.”

Steve looked at the building and chuckled. “I almost feel bad.”

They got back into the fight, Steve now had one of Alex’s guns and he switched from firing it to throwing his shield. Thor landed by them and started knocking Chitauri back with his hammer.

One shot Alex in the side and he fell to the ground. Void that hurts.

A person held out his hand to help him up, and he was surprised to see that it was Thor. He took the hand.

“You ready for another bout?” Thor asked, and Alex smirked.

“I’m always ready.”

Nat’s voice broke through their coms. “I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!”

Alex responded immediately. “Do it! Shut it off!”

“No wait!” Tony yelled. “I got a nuke coming in, it’s gonna blow in less than a minute.”

Alex looked at the portal. “I think I know where you’re putting it.”

Tony grabbed the missile and started flying toward the portal.

“Nat, when he comes back through, close it.” Alex ordered.

“Copy.”

Tony disappeared through the portal and a few seconds later the Chitauri dropped dead. Alex kept his sight on the portal, helmet zooming in. He saw a red and gold figure exit the portal.

“Close it.”

The beam to the portal disappeared, the portal following suit. But Tony wasn’t stopping.

“He’s not slowing down.” Thor said, swinging his hammer to fly up and catch him, but Hulk beat him to it.

Alex and Steve threw off their helmets as they ran over with Thor. Thor flipped Tony on his back and removed his faceplate. Tony was still and he wasn’t breathing. Just as Alex pulled out a healing potion, Hulk roared and that woke him up.

“What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.” Tony blabbered, and Alex took that as a good sign.

“We won.” Steve said, and Tony visibly relaxed.

“Alright, Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.” Alex laughed in relief, it was all over, he could go home.

“We’re not finished yet.” Thor said, and both Steve and Alex gave him their best ‘are you serious face’.

“...And then shawarma after?”

Loki slowly sat up from where he was crushed into the ground, body filled with pain.

He heard noise next to him, and turned.

The Avengers were standing in front of him, the assassin holding his scepter and the archer pointed his bow at his face.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll have that drink now.”

The Hulk gave a low growl.

“Well, you got hit pretty good.” Bruce commented as he patched up Alex’s side.

“Didn’t do it on purpose.” He said, wincing as he cleaned the wound. 

“Doctor Banner.” The two looked up to see Thor standing there. “May I have a word alone with Void?”

Bruce looked at Alex, and he gave him a small nod. “Yeah, of course.” He left to check on the others.

Alex narrowed his eyes at Thor slightly. “I would like to apologize to you, for my hostile behavior to you and for my crimes against your planet.” 

Alex’s eyes widened. “Huh?”

Thor sighed. “I reflected on what I’ve been told about your kind and how you behave, and I now see that I was in the wrong. I would like to make peace with you.”

Alex stared at Thor and took a deep breath. 

“Look Thor, I can forgive you for attacking my planet, but I can never forgive you for killing my parents.” Thor lowered his head in shame. “I won’t let that get in the way of us helping people, but just know that I will never fully trust you.”

Thor nodded. “I understand.” And he walked away.

Alex released a deep sigh.

“Well, that was awkward.” Alex jumped at hearing Tony’s voice, who began chuckling. “Didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

“I’m good, I’m good.” Alex said, holding his side. “How are you?”

“Eh, been better.” Tony said, pulling up a small hologram. “Public is a big fan of us, you and Steve in particular.”

“Really?” He looked closer at the hologram, and sure enough, there were people in the streets cheering for the Avengers, majority of the people in his colors or Steve’s.

“Yeah, got a name for you and everything.” Alex looked at Tony. “Typically when someone famous doesn’t reveal their name, the public will just agree on a name for them.” He typed up something. “And you, my friend, got one of the better names.”

He pulled up a video of Alex slaying Chitauri, but it was the title that nearly made him cry.

‘Doomguy vs. Aliens’

I’m just like you Dad.

“Told you it was a good name.”

“Tony, you have no idea how good that name is.”

Alex laid down on a couch in a floor that wasn’t destroyed in the Stark Tower, ice pack glued to his side. They had just sent Thor and Loki back to Asgard, everyone agreeing that they just wanted him off the planet.

Steve walked over and gave him a glass of water with a straw. Tony was letting them stay at his Tower, gave them rooms and everything.

“How you feeling?” Steve asked.

“Old.” Alex replied, and Steve chuckled, so did Tony and Bruce as they entered the room.

Alex chuckled with them. “I’m 28 years old, I should feel like this.”

“Hold on, back up.” Tony said. “You are how old?”

“28.”

“I thought you were like, 40, or something.” Tony said and the others agreed with him.

“I don’t look that old.” Alex protested, then he paused for a moment. “Do I?”

“I think it’s the white hair that threw me off.” Bruce said.

“Alright, that checks out.” Alex said.

Tony set down his drink. “So, there’s this question I’ve been dying to ask you.”

“Shoot.”

“If you are a wanted man on your home planet, why do you want to go back so badly?” 

Alex just chuckled. “Well, you see, I’m a-” He stopped and watched a familiar blue portal open up in front of them, the others noticing and standing up.

He sat up as Hels tumbled out and stood up. “Hels!”

His friend broke out into a smile when he saw him. “Ex!”

Alex stumbled forward and Hels ran forward and wrapped him in a hug. When he pulled back, Hels smacked him over the head. “Don’t you ever do that again, you self-sacrificing idiot.”

Alex rubbed his head. “Hey, I don't do this on purpose.”

More voices came from the portal and Grian tumbled out. 

“DAD!”

“G!” Alex bent down and scooped up his kid. “Oh, I missed you so much, kid.”

“Why did you leave?” Grian asked in a small voice, and it broke Alex’s heart a little.

“I didn’t mean to leave you bud, I promise. I would have come back immediately, but the people here needed my help.” That was when Grian noticed Steve, Bruce, and Tony.

Alex hugged him tighter and stood up. “Guys, meet my son, Grian.”

Tony walked forward a little. “Wow, you look just like your father.” 

Grian giggled. “No I don’t. His eyes are red, mine are blue.”

“Oh, how silly of me.” Tony said. “Looks like I need glasses.”

Steve chuckled and held out his hand to Hels. “Name’s Steve Rogers.”

Hels took his hand. “Hels Knight.”

“And this.” Alex started, gesturing Bruce forward. “Is Bruce Banner.” Then he pointed at Tony. “And that is Tony Stark.”

Grian waved happily to Bruce.

Bruce smiled at him. “Hi Grian. Just out of curiosity, how old are you?”

G smiled and held up three fingers. “Three!”

“Wow, you are so old.” Bruce commented, making Grian giggle. 

“We’re sorry we took your dad.” Steve said to Grian. “We needed his help really badly.”

“It’s ok.” Grian said and hugged Alex tightly. “I have him back now.”

Tony smirked at the kid then looked at the portal.  “Well, guess you’re heading home now.”

“Yeah, it’s where I belong.” Alex said, and Tony nodded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a spare com Alex let him tinker with. “You said that these let you go from server to server, so I figured it could also bring you from planet to planet.” He handed it to Alex. “Come and visit, ok?”

Alex smiled and took it. “I will.”

He and Hels walked to the portal, and Alex stopped in front of it. He turned and looked as his new friends, and waved goodbye.

Steve saluted him, Bruce waved, and Tony smirked.

Alex stepped through.

Bruce watched as the portal disappeared, sad to see his new friend go. “I’m gonna miss him.”

“Same.” Steve said. “He’s a good man.”

“Don’t get too sentimental just yet.” Tony said. “He’ll probably be back in a few minutes.”

“What makes you say that?” Steve asked.

Tony bent down and picked up a very familiar red and white object.

“He forgot his helmet.”