Chapter Text
Keeping the big "A" on Stark Tower had not initially been the plan; there’d just been something about it. That lone letter, hanging over New York City, shining down on Grand Central Terminal like a beacon. So Tony had quietly edited the designs for the rebuild and let it stay that way. And just like that it was no longer Stark Tower, but Avengers Tower. Slowly, that became its name, and though it was never made official, it was fitting. Now everyone knew that up there, looking out over the city, were the Avengers.
Inside the tower, things were far less organized and streamlined than the people looking up at the sleek glass facade probably imagined. Housing a bunch of superheroes wasn't all that simple, and redoing the top floors of the tower to accommodate them was no mean feat. Especially not when they were a working team at the same time - or trying to be. Something always seemed to be going on; the mood of the place fluctuated between busy and frenetic. Tony couldn't really remember when he'd last had serious downtime.
It wasn't that Tony agreed with their detractors that the Avengers attracted or caused trouble - and he'd personally attracted it for years already – but it did feel like even more weirdness was hitting the US, and especially NYC, lately. Which was why he wasn't as surprised as he should've been when the alarm in his Avengers badge went off while he was having an early morning shower.
The noise, like an old car horn pressed down hard, blared through the bathroom, bounced off the white tile walls, reverberating and deafening.
"Mute! Mute!" Tony yelled at the damn thing, and with a delay of a few long seconds, silence fell. "Ugh..." He let his head fall back against the wet wall of the shower and closed his eyes, allowing himself two seconds of luxurious warm water. "Water off." He stepped out of the shower, absently rubbing the muscle near the arc reactor. It was always slightly sore, even though he didn't consciously notice it any more.
"JARVIS, what's the emergency?" he asked, quickly drying off and half running into his bedroom. Pepper was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking slightly shell-shocked, hair sticking out at odd angles. "Sorry, Pep." The alarm must have startled her, if it hadn’t outright woken her up. She waved a hand at him, dismissing his concern. Her eyes had dark rings around them, visible even in the dim light of the bedroom.
"Emergency around Battery Park, lower Hudson River and the islands," JARVIS said. Tony yanked on the black conductive undersuit to the Iron Man armor. "The team is assembling in the kitchen."
"Tell 'em I'll be there in ten seconds," Tony said, struggling to get into the damn thing. They lived in his house, he was supposed to be the quick, efficient one, and yet he was always last to be ready. Even without being caught while showering.
"Done," JARVIS said. In the distance, Tony could hear the rumble of Thor's voice. Probably impatient as usual.
"Be careful," Pepper said and Tony shot her a quick smile.
"For you, always," he said before he ran out the door.
The kitchen was one level below, and he took the stairs, sliding on the bannister to get there as fast as possible. Landing at a run, the jolt tugging at the weight in his chest, he slammed the door open and was in the kitchen in a matter of seconds.
"Ah! We are all here," Thor said, looking very satisfied. "Shall we go?"
Steve looked around, his battle face already on. "Are we all ready?" He glanced at Tony in the undersuit, Natasha, checking the charge in her bracelets, and Clint strapping on his quiver. "Good."
"What are we up against?" Tony asked. "Do we know?"
Steve shook his head. "Not exactly. Our intel says huge, numerous and dangerous." There was a concerned line creasing his forehead, a look that absurdly reminded Tony of someone's father. "Is the jet ready, JARVIS?"
"Engines are running, Captain," JARVIS replied.
"Good." Steve looked around. "Natasha, Clint, with me. Thor, you fly. Tony, carry Bruce. If this is really is as big as I fear, it might be most efficient to drop him on it. Is that all right with you Bruce?"
"Yeah. Okay." Bruce, standing towards the back of the room, looked nervous. He almost always did when it was time to let the Hulk out. Tony nodded to him across the room.
"Good. You know what to do." Steve led his delegation to the roof, while Thor, Tony and Bruce made for the platform. Tony deployed the suit while running, so Thor only got a minimal head start on him, even with the time it took to grab Bruce and get airborne.
It was pure chaos by the waterfront. Their intelligence had failed to mention that 'huge' meant 'the size of a destroyer-class ship' and that 'something' meant 'enough giant squid to make Jack Sparrow piss his pants'.
While not the worst fight Tony had ever seen, it was by far the messiest and dirtiest. After ten minutes, Iron Man was knee-deep in squid ink, green blood and goo - and getting hopelessly stuck. It was like walking in jello. Black Widow couldn't get close enough to make much difference, but she fared better than Hawkeye. He got caught and spent five minutes hanging upside down before Hulk tore off the tentacle holding him. Apparently squid didn't react much to arrows that didn't explode, and Hawkeye ran out of those fast. The creatures wreaked havoc on the surroundings, tearing up the seawall and uprooting trees. In the distance, Ellis Island was also under attack, and Tony wasn't sure any of the Avengers could get there in time to avoid casualties.
The one thing that did work was Thor's lightning. The hammer went through the creatures, often without doing much more than slow them a little. But the lightning. Oh boy. It fried them. The promenade at Battery Park reeked with the smell of calamari, tar-like blood and the ozone from lightning bolts. Steve pulled the rest of them back and let Thor and Hulk do their thing while the others ran clean-up, damage control and protection of civilians.
"Figures," Tony said, doing a fly-by to scan the things, as Thor took out yet another of the creatures. "There's a chip somewhere in them. Wanna bet it's some kind of control device?"
"Make sure you get one to analyze," Natasha said.
"Yeah, you dig through five tons of squid meat to get it then." Tony had little doubt he'd be the one to end up doing it, no matter what he said.
After they figured out how to kill them, it went pretty fast and smooth. They had a close call when one of the things hit Liberty Island and grabbed several tourists. Steve sent Hulk to smash the squid and Tony to grab people when they were dropped. Tony thought it worked surprisingly well, though not everyone took kindly to being snatched up like that. Had it been possible for a human to dent Tony’s armor, he would have looked like a golf ball afterwards.
Tony completely lost track of time during the battle, but the sun was a good deal higher in the sky when they were done. The coast guard pulled up and began clearing the area of squid, which Tony was very grateful for. He didn't want to deal with pulling the dead creatures out to sea or whatever you did with that much dead animal, especially since he still hadn't had breakfast.
"Whew. I'm glad that's done." Clint stretched, and Tony could hear a few joints pop. "Can we get food now?"
Steve smiled, tired too, but it was a sure sign he was relieved. "We can. I think we all need it. That was a job well done, team."
"Food sounds good," Tony agreed. "Just not seafood. Please?"
"Agreed," Clint said. "I don't ever want to see anything like this again."
"We also need to bathe," Natasha added, nose wrinkling. "We stink."
"Seconded," Tony said. The smell was overpowering, even inside the suit. "How about we fly home then?"
"Hulk walk," Bruce muttered next to him. "Hulk swim first."
"You do that," Steve agreed, keeping his voice mild. Hulk huffed, nodded and jumped into the water. Tony could see the waves he made as he swam around the south point of Manhattan. He expected that by the time he got near the tower, he'd be calm enough for Bruce to emerge.
"I'll send Happy to look for him," Tony said. "The chance of a cab picking him up when he's half-naked and dripping wet is pretty slim." Inside the helmet he got a confirmation that JARVIS had picked up the conversation and was relaying the instructions to Happy.
Tony was rewarded with a pat on the back from Steve. "Good. Let's clear the area."
"I need to grab one of those chips first," Tony said with a sigh. "That one over there looks like it's torn apart enough that I might be able to find it..."
The others stuck around while Tony used the armor's scanners to get a precise location for the chip, then cut through to it with lasers, close enough that he could pry it free by hand afterwards.
The three non-fliers departed in the quinjet, while Thor and Tony took off. "Iron Man taking a brief detour," Tony reported via their internal communication; the most secure system in the world, he'd built it himself. The others were covered in sludge, but he wasn't - his armour was. So he found himself a car wash and cut to the front of the line. No one protested - probably because of the stink.
There was something intensely undignified about this mode of clean-up, but what the hell could he do? It wasn't like he'd fit in the bath, at least not without cracking tiles, and he wasn't replacing them again. He’d finally got his apartment back, no more construction workers around; he was not risking damage again so soon. The owner of the car wash gave him a freebie in exchange for taking a picture with him afterwards. It was a good deal, especially because he wasn't in the habit of carrying money in the armor. Taking off again, he was pretty sure he could hear intense discussion break out. There'd be photos of this on the gossip sites in less than an hour.
Steve, Natasha, and Thor, were gathered in the kitchen when he returned, in various stages of dampness and comfortable clothes, sitting around the large metal table. Tony was exhausted, but catching sight of them through the window as he flew by still made him feel good. There was something about them. This group of people. The sheer odds against them working together, yet they did. It brought a smile to his face.
"Hey, gang." He waved before shooting up another floor to the platform where the armor was peeled off him. It looked pretty shiny now. Pepper was nowhere in sight when he entered the penthouse, but JARVIS relayed a message from her while Tony showered and dressed.
"Hi, Tony," Peppers voice spoke over the speakers. "Hope you got it all sorted. I just checked the news, it looked like you all had a handle on it, but yuck... Make sure you leave that mess outside. Please?" Tony chuckled. He'd have to tell her about the car wash. "Anyway, don't get hurt, and come back safe. I'll be in the office and in accounting most of the day and then I have a business dinner, so don't wait up. See you tonight."
Simply hearing her voice like that made Tony smile to himself. Also, given that she wouldn't be home, he felt like he might try and coax the others into some R&R tonight. Today. Once he'd eaten.
Downstairs, Clint had joined the others. Tony entered in the middle of an animated telling of how the squid had grabbed Clint's ankle and shaken him. Laughter ensued, and somewhere in the middle of shared stories and blow-by-blows, Bruce appeared as well. It was very easy to forget how the day had begun.