Chapter 9: Solving some things

Despite the gips Yinsen had given him Tony still managed it to stalk down the corridors of SHIELD NYC base – Natasha and Clint flanking him and Yinsen and the rest of the Avengers plus Loki followed them.

Their destination: Nick Fury's bureau.

The door opened thanks to Jarvis help without anyone of them doing anything, which made their entrance a bit more dramatic. Tony headed right for the desk where Director Nicholas Fury was just standing up to be better able to kick out the unwanted company. "Anthony! What are you doing?! Storming in here and with a criminal at that!"

Tony plopped himself down in the seat Nick had vacated only a moment ago – a familiar feeling, the only thing missing was his special glasses and being alone in the older man's office. The young man gave Fury a sharp grin. "Ah, well you know 'storming' your office to get some things straight Eye-Patch."

Fury chose to ignore Tony's constant nickname for him and instead raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Well, then enlighten me."

Tony leaned forward in the seat – taking in the fact that everyone had positioned themselves near him to signal that they were having his back (even Rogers), no matter what happened – and then said with a toothy grin: "First of all: Loki is not an enemy. Never really was since he had been controlled as well as Clint had been. So you can't blame him just as you can't blame Clint." 'Because if you do, I will make your life a living hell' was left unspoken but everyone heard the words nonetheless "Second:" his next words grew cold and got an angry edge to them "Where. Is. Phil?"

"Agent Coulson died. You saw the bloodied cards yourself." Fury replied calmly and appeared outwardly as if he wasn't even affected in the slightest by Tony's fury (pun not intended) but he couldn't fool three assassins and one God of Lies.

"Don't fuck with me! You should give me the correct answer right now or you will regret it dearly!"

Now Fury's mask cracked slightly and everyone could see that he was uncomfortable with Tony's words (he knew after all of what Tony was capable of – even with the cast on his leg – and not to forget Clint and Natasha were also very protective of Coulson). "He is in your old room. As soon as he woke up he threatened the doctors until they wheeled him there since he wasn't allowed to contact anyone yet."

Tony gave Fury a (fake) smile. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Let's go guys."

They were almost through the door when Tony turned back to Fury. "Oh and Nick, Natasha, Clint and Phil will only work for you if they want to now. So if you have mission for them, then they will decide themselves if they want to take them on – just like me – but their priority will be the Avengers. Understood?" The director gritted his teeth but nodded nonetheless.

"Good." And then they were gone and on their way to Tony's old room.

Everyone that saw them stepped aside – it didn't matter if they were carrying something or not – they knew not to stand in the way of the three assassins (plus company) if they valued their lives and so the Avengers (plus Yinsen and Loki) got to Tony's old room in no time.

The door opened without a problem and Tony, Natasha and Clint immediately made a beeline for the couch where their favourite Agent was lying. It was a sight for itself:

Three of the deadliest assassins of the world, hovering over their caretaker/older brother/kind-of-father-figure and were unsure what to do until Phil shifted to give them space to sit down. Clint sat on the backrest, Natasha on the armrest, Tony was sitting right beside Phil but at the same time gave Yinsen enough space to check Phil himself.

After declaring that Phil would be okay as long as he got enough rest everyone breathed a sigh of relieve. Tony got scolded by Phil – who had heard everything about the fight against the Chitauri from Jarvis (including all injuries of every Avenger) – and then tried to deflect the attention to the person who was the most nervous: Loki.

"Rudolf is innocent by the way! He too was being controlled!"

Phil then really shifted his attention to the god who was not standing near Thor as if he wanted to disappear and once he had gathered enough courage to talk to the man he had nearly killed – by his own hands – he tried again to apologize for his actions but was shot down before he could even get started: "Forget it. If Tony says that you were being controlled too then it's not your own fault that I am lying here… Maybe I shouldn't have confronted you without proper backup-" "Yes, that remind me: what were you thinking?!" Tony interrupted and then a small argument about taking risks started. "You have to talk Tony! Taking a nuke through a portal! Or how about the one time in Budapest?" "Ah! You too took an unnecessary risk in Budapest!" "To protect you!" "So did I!" "…Draw?" "…Agreed."

After that the rest of the Avengers started conversations; Tony informed Phil about the decision Natasha and Clint had made concerning SHIELD and what he had told Fury.

At the end of the day – before everyone said goodnight – Tony asked if everyone wanted to come to the tower with him to live there once it was repaired.

Rogers took the lead and after confirming the opinion of everyone said: "I think I speak for everyone when I say that we accept your offer."

"I'm sorry to interrupt sir, but everything is ready for the 'show'."

A mischievous smile grew on Tony's face. "Then let it roll, Jarvis."
"Understood sir. Commencing project Pirate."

A TV screen came down from the ceiling and turned on, showing:…Fury's bureau.

The SHIELD director was working on his laptop when suddenly the song 'Yo ho a pirate's life for me' came through the speakers that were installed in the walls and Fury's screen of the laptop suddenly showed snippets of 'Pirate's of the Caribbean' and other pirate movies. Fury's face quickly turned from surprised and confusion to understanding and angry, "Anthony!"

Tony just laughed and the other soon joined him when they realised that Fury was trapped in the room (part of project Pirate was for Jarvis to look the door for a few hours) with the song and the movie snippets running the whole time.

"That's just a nice piece of what you get for lying to me Eye Patch!" Tony said even though the other man couldn't hear him and Phil gave him a knowing look and ruffled Tony's hair a bit causing the younger man to grin even wider. Natasha leaned against Tony, Clint draped with a grin of his own on Tony's shoulder and Yinsen and the other Avengers smiled at them.

And that was the last chapter FOR NOW! If I get new ideas - you too can send me suggestions but keep in mind that I didn't read the comics (*draws circles of shame in a corner*) and if you want me to include some of the comic things then you should then me some extra information – then I think I will continue it! ^_^

Oh! And I will slowly begin writing the story from Phil's POV as well as give you some of my deleted chapters if want. (Because chapter 7 and 8 were totally different from what they are now!) And since I promised some a story with FrostIron for this 'Universe' I will write a short story where Tony and Loki are together (but it can be seen independent from this story - sort of like an AU for my AU ...if you understand what I mean.)