kore_logs | when banner comes marching home again... OPEN

Tony's restless energy is practically palpable, yet he does nothing to conceal it. Hands stuffed in his jacket pockets so that no one can see how tightly clenched his fingers are, he paces back and forth around the fountain, impatient to be out looking for Bruce. That he's here at all, waiting for others, is a favor to Steve and nothing more.

Common sense tells him it's hopeless. That Bruce is gone the same way Steve was gone. The same way Romanoff - both of them, really - is gone. It sets his teeth on edge, makes the muscles in his jaw so tight it feels like it might snap from the strain. But here he is anyway, because he has to do something. Even if it's hopeless. Even if Bruce is gone.

He'll never forgive himself if he doesn't act. But he won't wait forever, Steve's request or not. If the others don't get here soon, he's going on his own, warnings be damned. The longer they wait, the more unlikely it is they'll find anything that might tell them if Bruce is alive or dead. And since Tony has neither seen nor heard any sign that points toward a transformation into the Hulk, he doesn't think they'll be lucky enough to find him alive.

Steve hands him a helmet and the candlestick he used to knock down their camera, since he's seen Tony's swing and it's not bad. He'd like to have been able to find some sort of armor, but on short notice and short fuses, that's unlikely to happen. He'll just keep an eye on Tony, like he is now, watching him grow nervous and worried.

Tony's not in a state or position to go into the woods, but Steve won't stop him and couldn't if he tried. He imagines volunteers will be plentiful but protection will be scarce. He doesn't know Logan, but Sharon said that he was one of her best men and that she'd been a director of SHIELD, which concerns Steve with what exactly is in those woods and what kind of danger they're all walking into.

"I got a few calls back. We shouldn't be waiting long, just enough so everyone can get something together," he says. But he's not sure exactly how long they're going to have to be here. As soon as a couple people show up, he supposes he can send Tony along with them and keep waiting for the others if there are stragglers. He takes a deep breath and tries to sort out all the thoughts in his mind.

Sharon rounds the corner and heads over, her expression carefully schooled not to betray her thoughts. She has no great faith that they'll success, that they need another plan. Any plan. But she also knows how much people need to feel as if they're doing something.

"Rogers. Tony." She inclines her head to each of them, all business. "You two have a plan yet?" Oh, God. She hopes it's something better than "Wander around and call for them."

"I'm not used to waiting. Not anymore."

It's a mark of how seriously he's taking all of this that he doesn't complain or make a snide remark about the helmet and candlestick Steve hands him. He simply takes them and holds them in his hands, loosely, like he barely realizes that they're there. Whoever it was took Bruce, took the Hulk. A candlestick probably isn't going to do a damn thing. Steve might be useful here, but Tony knows that he won't be.

His gaze shifts to Sharon when she walks up, and he gives her a nod. "Sharon." Does he have a plan? Not really. "Far as I'm concerned, find Bruce is the plan."

"Well, that depends on how many people show up. But I figure there's three places we should be looking-- the forest, the town, and that little island up north... At least getting to the island should provide a better view of what's beyond the town."

He takes out his sketchbook, and he's drawn a crude map of the place. "It's a huge forest, and it's... dangerous, so we're going to have to send a team of fighters in. Someone should have medical knowledge and someone else should be good at orienteering, so nobody wanders around in the woods.

"We don't know what the island's going to be like, so we should send a similar group over, with someone who's sailed before, in case there are any surprises with the water. Has anyone figured out if there's a way to get underground in the town?" Because most likely, an above-ground search won't take very long... But Steve's not discounting hiding someone in plain view.

"We'll keep in touch over the watches-- I'm not sure how they work, if we need to be near a tower or each other, but that's something we're going to have to figure out on the way. Nobody goes anywhere alone. We meet back here at sundown or we set up a conference call to check in."

He pauses and lowers his voice before anyone else around hears. "And a member of each group should know about Dr. Banner's condition, but I'm not ready to tell everyone else just yet."

She nods along with the plan as she evaluates it and searches for holes. "Which means SHIELD personnel with each team. I've been wanting to recon the forest as much as I could, so I'd like to join that team, if I can."

"As for the water, one of our former residents, the Doctor, said the water was faintly acidic. He was taken before he could tell me how harmful it might be to humans, though." She glances at Tony before her eyes shift back to Steve. "With your regenerative abilities, it might benefit us most for you to go in the water, and Tony can help lead the search on the town. We haven't found anything underground except for a basement here and there. But it would explain a great deal."

As for Banner's condition, she's fine without advertising it. She won't tell until he's ready for people to know, and even then, she'll follow his lead and nothing more.

Tony listens to Steve lay out the plan with growing irritation. Oh, it’s a good plan. It makes sense. It’s why Steve’s the strategist of the group and he’s not. He finds nothing wrong with the plan. What he takes issue with is his place in it.

He doesn’t miss the fact that he’s been relegated to searching the town, which to his mind is equivalent to giving the kids something menial to do while the grownups go out and do the real work. Just like he doesn’t miss the way Sharon looks at him when she speaks about how harmful the water might be to regular people. And he gets it. Of course he gets it. He’s a normal human. He doesn’t have special powers. He can’t heal himself if he gets injured, he can’t withstand physical trauma that would kill an ordinary person. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t bother him. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t hear what they’re both tactfully not saying.

Without the suit, he’s nothing. Without his fortune and his technological toys, he’s nothing but a man. One who doesn’t even have a gun. It knots his stomach into a tight ball of bitter frustration and makes him want to lash out them, to call them on what they’re doing and remind them that he’s Iron Man. But he doesn’t. Because he’s not Iron Man. Not anymore.

So Tony holds his tongue. He lets the soldiers speak and plan and decide things that, as a civilian, he has not place in deciding. And his eyes drift toward the forest again. Because he knows Bruce isn’t in the town, and he thinks that finding out what’s on the other side of those trees is their only hope of finding him again.

Actually, Steve thinks him and water is a seriously bad idea, but he supposes if it's damaging, that he should be the one to go. But he also thinks if it's acidic enough to do serious damage on a single trip to the island, then if they find Dr. Banner on the island, rescuing him is going to play out like the floor is lava.

He sees Tony out of the corner of his eye weighs the options. "Stark's going with you," he says. Tactically, it's not the best plan, but he knows that if they make Tony lead the town he's going to be distracted the whole time and find an opportunity to leave and possibly go into the forest himself. It's better, at least, if Sharon's with him. And it's better, if they do find Dr. Banner, if Tony's there. "Barton can take lead on the town. If they go underground, they'll need his eyes, and only flashlights they can turn off."

Sharon is quiet for a moment. She'd rather Tony stay in town and she take Barton - why does it feel as if they're splitting up the children after a divorce?

It doesn't help that she's more at ease with Barton. Meanwhile, Tony...

She sighs and turns to Tony, her arms crossed. Her eyes run over his body, not sexually, not even kindly. It's the same look she tends to give recruits on a bad day. "How fast can you move without the suit, Tony?"

Phil only catches the tail end of that conversation as he walks up to them. He's got his gun neatly tucked into his pants and he's walking with a calm air, but he's anything but calm. First Natasha, now Banner. They need their people back.

It doesn't help that he was apparently caught moving the food. He's pretty angry at himself over that. He should have been fine. There's no way anyone with less training than him could have spotted what he'd been doing.

He nods to them all and stands back so that Tony can answer her. Sharon's in charge and he's a little grateful for that, selfish as that might be. He knows that Stark's at least in pretty decent shape, though. Even without the suit, Phil would trust the man to have his back more than the people her he doesn't know.

There's a part of him that wants to bristle at being tossed around like a piece on a chessboard. That takes offense to Steve's comment about the arc reactor. It sounds like mockery, like he's being derided for a disabling injury he couldn't prevent. Just one more jab at him, another example of how he couldn't do anything worthwhile. Couldn't keep himself safe, couldn't protect Bruce, can't help the search party because he's ordinary and weak and can't turn off the light in his chest.

It's easy to let the self-loathing run away with him, and it's in the middle of his descent into the depths of it that he sees Coulson step up to join them. The only good thing about this nightmare at this point, he thinks, is that the SHIELD agent is alive again. Will remain alive, if it's the last goddamn thing he does. Coulson's presence is enough to snap him out of his funk, and after a brief nod of acknowledgement, he glances over at Sharon.

"That depends," he responds, cool and matter-of-fact. "On how fast I need to go." Like with everything else, he does better under pressure. And if lives are on the line, as they are right now, he'll push himself beyond his comfort zone to ensure that he keeps up. "No one's going to be held up by me."

They are splitting up the children, and Steve thought that if he'd pretended like it was a good idea and not that he was favoring Tony by insisting he go into the woods like he wants, that Sharon would go along with it easier. He obviously doesn't know Sharon very well. It's dangerous out there for all of them, it's just that three of the four are trained for this kind of thing.

"The group leaving for the forest should go first, since it's easier to meet up in the other locations later. Coulson, do you mind taking a look around town with Barton?" He's circled some locations on his sketched map, with little notes detailing where he thinks there might be things hidden underneath the building foundations. "If you don't find anything, meet me up by the island."

“And where shall I go?”

Not a welcome voice, this, no doubt. Smooth, oh yes, pleasant certainly, but what does that matter when it's owned by Loki Laufeyson?

How easily he snuck up on them. It's almost as though he's just appeared out of thin air.

His purpose for being here is uncomplicated enough, by his standards: Banner did him a service, and services do sometimes deserve repaying. Much more than that, though: Banner is interesting and potentially useful, and Loki has made a deal. Liesmith he may be, but some agreements are made to be honoured and this is one of them. If he's going to assist in an escape attempt, then he's certainly going to do his best to ensure that they have all the firepower they can get, for his own sake as much as anyone else's.

There are, of course, other reasons tangled up in that major skein. Curiosity, oh yes. The reactions of those he comes ostensibly to assist. Amusement, as there will no doubt be some of that. The constant suspicion is always entertaining, particularly when he truly does mean as well as he ever can. Particularly when it's only their own feet that they're shooting, these funny little human things... and given the array of them spread out before him now, he's no doubt at all that they'll deliver.

Sharon tries to meet Coulson's eyes when he approaches to show there's no blame. After all, even the best spies could be caught, and Sharon is confident that this won't end too badly. And if it does, it will be easy enough to fuck things up for that asshole.

She turns to Tony to indicate that they should head out when a new voice arrives, a familiar one that she had hoped not to hear for a while. She takes in the reactions of the others before turning to Loki. Does he honestly expect them to think he wants to help search for Bruce and Natasha... and Natasha... after two of the three had helped defeat him and his army?

On the other hand, she could use a demigod if they're going to get out of here. She'd been considering getting his help somehow since she'd seen Barton take Loki to the lighthouse. She makes a mental note to ask how Loki got out of his doghouse.

"Loki. I could use you with me and Stark in the woods. Or perhaps Captain Rogers could use you to reach the island." She glances at Coulson. She doesn't want to make him work with Loki after Loki supposedly killed him, but he's working with Barton, and Barton... Has issues with Loki. Or at least Coulson thinks so.

She directs her full attention back to Loki. "So. By sea or by land, Loki?"

Phil isn't really sure what checking the town will do. He's been all over it several times in the last few days, but he'll look. Maybe they missed a clue somewhere. They can't risk being sloppy right now.

He gives Loki a suspicious look, though. He's not sure which of Sharon's ideas he trusts less, sending him out to a deserted little island with Rogers or sending him into the woods with her and Stark. If he's honest, he wants Loki where he can keep an eye on him.

He turns his attention back to Steve. "Sam wants to build a boat to get out there, too. What do you think you're going to find? It doesn't look like much from the shore. If someone was trapped out there, don't you think they'd do something to get our attention?"

He isn’t expecting to see Loki here. In fact, Bruce is the last person for whom he’d expect that Loki would want to help search. Yet here he is, another individual who might actually be of some use in the proceedings. That alone is enough to make Tony glad that he’s here, regardless of what anyone else might think.

There’s nothing for him to contribute to the conversation and he knows it. More and more, he feels like an outsider among them, this collection of people who possess genuinely worthwhile skills for this type of endeavor. Not for the first time, he thinks he ought to have ignored Steve’s earlier call and just gone out on his own. All he’s doing here is standing around being useless, wasting time.

And it’s that thought that prompts him to make an executive decision.

“I’m going. My communicator’s on. You need me, you know how to reach me.” He doesn’t want for a response, doesn’t care to listen to the arguments. He simply turns as he’s speaking and starts walking away.

They’ll meet up eventually or they won’t. Either way, he’s out.

It's always like this. Why is it always like this?

When Tony leaves, Steve thinks it's time to start talking fast. "Sharon, Loki. I want you to follow Stark." He wanted that group to go in early, but not that early. He figures Loki might be good at finding where he is, and if the creatures are as dangerous as Sharon says, it might help to have him going with them. "I'll call you on the communicator so we can establish a path.

"It shouldn't take that long to check out the island, so we can meet up afterwards and take a second group into the woods. I guess I'm going off to the island by myself." On the bright side, he thinks at least that means he can catch up with the town group before they're done and then they can maybe start up in the woods up north.

That works. Either way would've worked, really; Loki is entirely equanimous, and so he sketches a very shallow bow.

"As the good Captain wishes," he responds with a perhaps surprising breeziness, turning on his heel.

"Come along, then... Sharon, was it? I don't believe we've been acquainted, though clearly you know me. If I were completely stupid I might even be surprised." If. And that there is quite enough by way of pleasantries, if the way he completely fails to slow his pace is any indication. Either she'll follow or she won't; it's no concern of his.

Bit of a shame it isn't supposed to be Rogers, though. Watching those two conflicting sources of stubbornness at work, following orders like a good soldier and not following Loki's orders like whatever passes for a good man within the predictably closed confines of his own head warring with one another until one or the other snaps. Curious to watch.

Yes, shame it won't happen, but amusing enough how quick the fellow is to get rid of him. There's some entertainment to glean from all of this already. Definitely not a wasted trip.

Continued in the Woods section?

when banner comes marching home again... OPEN

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