ANGRBODA ※ Tony Stark [1]

14 - THE THINGS WE LOVE

"WELL YOU'VE CERTAINLY regained full range of motion... And you're sure there's no more pain?"

"None at all."

The physio looked stupefied, shifting between Angrboda's face and her shoulder. It was astonishing but it really seemed like she had recovered completely. Her shoulder had been swollen and raw only the day before and now it looked perfectly normal. It was a medical miracle.

"Must be that analgesic cream I gave you yesterday..." he muttered more to himself than to her.

Angrboda almost snorted in his face but it was clear he didn't believe his own words at all.

In all honesty she was almost as stunned as he was. Tony's arm cuff had worked wonders in an incredibly short amount of time. She had kept it on since the moment he gave it to her and she'd woken up that morning feeling prodigiously stronger and, most importantly, injury-free.

Tony was a genius, there was no doubt about it, but her shoulder had healed overnight and even she hadn't expected that much.

"I still want you to keep the brace on for a few more days," the physio requested writing down some notes "Just to prevent a relapse."

"Sure," she let out a silent sigh, knowing full well she was going to throw the brace into the nearest trash can the second she stepped out of the care unit.

She waited for the physio to be done with his endless charts and reports, boiling with impatience. The thought of fighting in the full range of her abilities made her ecstatic. Learning to shoot had been undoubtedly valuable and she was glad she had come to master those skills but it was nothing compared to going back to basics.

⁂

Now that all seven Avengers were reassembled again, Fury had called them in for a meeting that afternoon. Angrboda was apprehending it slightly since the last Avengers meeting had gone spectacularly wrong. There was no way of avoiding it though, the Chitauri could land on earth any day and they had to discuss what they were going to do.

Once they were all sat around the table of the briefing room, Fury adopted his usual stance, standing with his hands behind his back in the most domineering way possible. The man had a natural talent at commanding authority; it was impressive if not infinitely disconcerting.

The Director's eyes scanned all seven of them before finally announcing "We've repaired the damaged engines and the central system is back on track."

Clint frowned, resting his face against his palm "That's good news, isn't it? Why do you look so glum?"

Fury inhaled deeply, carefully choosing his words "I've called you all here because we failed to track Loki and the Tesseract which means we need to discuss our next step."

"I thought it was obvious," Natasha shrugged "It's all about damage control from now on."

Bruce's brows furrowed "What do you mean damage control?"

"I mean the Chitauri are coming Bruce, it's time we talk about what we'll do when that happens."

"So that's it?" Clint let out, eyeing everyone around the table "We're not even going to try to stop him from opening the portal?"

"We did try, Barton," Tony said "We tried to reset the tracking system but it's useless since Loki destroyed our monitors."

Thor cleared his throat making all eyes turn to him. He didn't speak very much or very often, usually preferring to listen; but when he did speak, the entire room's attention was on him "If I've learned one thing about my brother it's that his mischief always comes in a spiteful way. His mind is far afield, it's not just power he craves, it's also vengeance... upon me."