Loki story *The Avengers*

Avengers Initiative

In the Atlantic Ocean, Tony Stark had plummeted into the water and began cutting into a pipeline, he placed a Stark Energy reactor over the pipe and he then rocketed upwards and into the night sky.

"You're good on this end. The rest is up to you," He spoke into his suit.

"You disconnected the transition line? Are we off the grid?" A female voice asked.

"Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy," Tony replied as he approached a tall, dark building.

"Light her up," The power is switched on and Stark Tower lights up, the word STARK across the front of the building shining brightly across the bustling city.

"How does it look?"

"Like Christmas but with more, me," Tony replied.

"Gotta go wider on the public awareness campaign, You need to do some press. I can do some more tomorrow. I'm working on the zoning for the next billboards,"

"Pepper, you're killing me. Remember? Enjoy the moment," Tony chuckled.

"Then get in here and I will," Pepper replied. Tony lands on a platform connected to his building, machines start swirling around him and his suit is taken off

"Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line," Jarvis informed

"I'm not in. I'm actually out," Tony replied as his boots were unravelled from his legs.

"Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting," Jarvis replied

"Close the line, Jarvis. I gotta date,"

"Levels are holding steady, I think," Pepper looks up at a large screen monitoring the reactor.

"Of course they are, I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question: how does it feel to be a genius?" Tony asked, walking over to her.

"Well, ha! I wouldn't really know now, would I?" Pepper responded.

"What do you mean? All this came from you," Tony pointed

"No all this came from that," Pepper pointed to the arc reactor in Tony's chest.

"Give yourself some credit, please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself... twelve percent of the credit,"

"Twelve percent?" Pepper scoffed

"An argument could be made for fifteen," Tony suggested.

"Twelve percent? For my baby?"

"Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you," Tony sassed

"Oooooooh," Pepper replied.

"My private elevator-"

"You mean OUR private elevator," Pepper corrected

"was teeming with sweaty workmen. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later aren't I?" Tony continued as Pepper poured two glasses of champagne

"Not gonna be that subtle," She shrugged.

"I'll tell you what, the next tower's gonna say 'Potts' on the front,"

"On the lease," Pepper replied

"Call your mom, can you bunk over?" Tony asked jokingly.

"Sir, the telephone, I'm afraid I'm being overwritten," Jarvis called out

"Stark, we need to talk," Tony picks up his phone and looks into it at Coulson

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message,"

"This is urgent," Coulson replies

"Then leave it urgently," Tony deadpanned and at that moment the elevator door pings and opens to reveal Agent Coulson.

"Security breach," Tony states

"Mr Stark," Coulson greets

"Phil! Come in," Pepper smiles

"Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent," Tony disagrees as Pepper walks over to greet the other man.

"Come in, we're celebrating," Pepper explains

"Which is why he can't stay," Tony shook his head.

"We need you to look this over," Coulson holds out a folder for Tony to take

"I don't like being handed things," Tony said

"That's alright, 'cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade," Pepper takes the folder, passes Coulson her wine, then takes Tony's wine and hands him the folder.

"Thank you," She smiles.

"Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday," Tony sighs as he walks away with the folder,

"This isn't a consultation," Coulson replies

"Is this about The Avengers? Which I...I know nothing about," Pepper asks

"The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify," Tony opened the folder

"I didn't know that either," Pepper shrugged

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others,"

"That I did know," Pepper nodded at Tony's comment.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore,"

"Whatever. Miss Potts, got a minute?" Tony asks as he flicks the files into his own database,

"You know, I thought we were having a moment,"

"I was having twelve percent of a moment. This seems serious, Phil's pretty shaken," pepper replied

"How did you notice? Why is he, Phil?" Tony asks

"What is all of this?" Pepper ignores him.

"This is.." Tony trails off as he waves his hand and hundreds of images and clips appear, on the Hulk, Black Widow, Captain America and Hawkeye. Another file opens up and shows Thor, Loki and the Tesseract.

"I'm going to take the jet to D.C tonight," pepper whispers to Tony

"Tomorrow," Tony disagrees

"You've got homework. You've got a lot of homework," Pepper replies

"Well, what if I didn't?"

"If you didn't?"

"Yeah," Tony nods

"Well, um...then," She then proceeds to whisper something in Tony's ear, he gasps and Coulson looks away uncomfortably.

"Square deal. It's the last date," Tony nods and Pepper kisses his cheek.

"Work hard," Pepper then leaves with Agent Coulson and Tony pulls out the holographic version of the Tesseract and looks worried.