Chapter Text
Tuesday
Stark Mansion, Fairburn, Georgia.
"FRIDAY, run that list by me one more time, and don't mention the ones that have already agreed to be recruits this time."
"Yes boss.
POTENTIAL NEW AVENGERS:
- Matt Murdock, A.K.A Daredevil, living in Hell's Kitchen, New York.
- Sam Wilson, A.K.A Captain America, living in Brooklyn, New York.
- James "Bucky" Barnes, A.K.A White Wolf, living in Brooklyn, New York.
- Kamala Khan, A.K.A Ms. Marvel, living in Jersey City, New Jersey.
- Scott Lang, A.K.A Ant-Man, living in San Francisco.
- Marc Spector & Stephen Grant, A.K.A Moon Knight and Mr. Knight, living in London.
"That's very stalker-y," Stephen says like he's giving a diagnosis.
"I'm just doing my job. We already have Matt and Foggy signed on as lawyers for Stark Industries, more specifically, The New Avengers, so I have zero doubt Matt will hesitate to join us as a hero. Nor will Sam or Bucky. Or Lang. Or Kamala! Family friend, y'know?"
"Really?" Stephen asks, intrigued. "Will you be seeing her first, then?"
"Nah. Matt's behind you. Matty!"
"Yes sir?" Matt's head pops in the door.
"Come in! We would like to offer you a promotion."
"I've been working with you for three days, sir, we haven't even-"
"How'd you like to be a more public piece of the New Avengers?"
________
"Sam!"
"Hey Stark, been awhile. What's goin' on man?"
"Where's Barnes? I got a job offer for you. Both of you.
________
"Mrs. Khan!"
"Anthony, so good to see you!" She extends her arms for a hug, which Tony gladly accepts. "Why have you come, hm?"
"How can you assume I only want something out of you?"
"You want something."
"Alright, alright, fine. I'd like to offer Ms. Marvel a job."
_______
"Scott!"
"Oh my god- LUIS! TONY STARK IS ON OUR FRONT DOORSTEP!"
"Nono, just you, Scott.. actually, Hope too."
"What- what do you need, sir?"
"Please, no formalities. I'd like to offer you both a job."
_______
"Hello ma'am, I'm looking for a Katy Chen and someone named Shaun. I have a job offer for them."
_______
Tony knocks. "Hello, Steven Grant?"
"ONE MINUTE!" Steven yells, stumbling all over and falling. "This is so dumb, Marc," he huffs. Tony hears something intelligible and the door opens. "Oh my days."
"May I come in? I've got a job offer for you and Mr. Spector."
_______
"That. Was. Exhausting," Tony grumbles, curling up in Stephen's lap like a cat.
"It couldn't have been that tiring, could it?" Stephen asks, playing with Tony's hair gently.
"Four days without my wizard? Absolutely awful." He whines, leaning into Stephen's hand. "They're all coming here next Monday, they've all been briefed by Foggy and Matt on the legal bits, they all know why they're coming. The ones that already agreed will be here in three days, including America and Peter. So in the meantime…" Before Tony can finish the thought, the sound of small feet pattering against the floor is loud as an excited screech of 'daddy!' erupts. He sits up just in time to be tackled by their youngest, Morgan.
"Daddy, daddy!!! Missed you," she frowns.
"Hey Maguna! Hey, daddy's here now, okay? Don't be sad anymore. What did papa show you while I was working, hm, baby?"
"He showed me the buh-fwies!" Morgan grins. "Blue and pretty!"
"Oh yeah? Did he show you anything else?"
"Mmm… he show me PBJ!" She offers.
"Oh? I bet it was really yummy, huh? Hey, daddy's gonna go take a nap, you wanna join me?" Tony offers, standing up and hoisting Morgan up onto his hip. She nods excitedly at him, but Tony could tell she was sleepy. "Come on, papa, come join us," Tony smiles.
"Alright, if you insist," Stephen shrugs with a cheesy grin, following them into the dimly lit bedroom.
"Boss, someone's at the door." FRIDAY's voice was quiet but loud enough to wake Tony up.
"Who is it," he grumbles, rolling over.
"Ms. Danvers and Mr. Rhodes, boss." Tony's eyes go wide and he scrambles out of bed, thankfully he had left his sweats and shirt on. He nearly falls down the stairs running towards the door. He straightens up his hair and then answers.
"Rhodey, Danvers, how good to see you, even with no notice."
"Sorry, you paged me and this was the place Colonel Rhodes told me you'd be."
"Well you know why you're here then, yes?"
"I do. I've come to discuss it."
"Then sit down and we can talk. My husband and baby are sleeping upstairs and if they come down it won't be properly dressed, fair warning."
"Tones, whatcha got in the kitchen I can have?" Rhodey asks while Carol sits down across from Tony.
"Help yourselves to anything you want," Tony invites. "So, Captain, what've you come to discuss? I thought you already knew about the situation and what it entails."
"Well, I'm an intergalactic superhero. I can't just give up protecting other galaxies for Earth, as much as I'd like to."
"You can be like Thor. You show up when Earth really needs you, and occasionally train with us. You'll be going to Avengers Compound, though, not my house. I trust you'll be joining us Monday?"
"Of course I will. I need to meet the new recruits anyway."
"Well you already know Matt and Scott and Clint and-"
"Yes, I know." Carol smiles. "I meant the rest of them. Do you mind if I crash here for now?"
"Nope, not at all. We have too many spare rooms and not enough guests. All our guest rooms are on the left side of the second floor. You can take a room too, honeybear!" Tony yells to Rhodey, who yells some kind of affirmation back. "If that's all, I'm gonna head back to bed. I'll see you in the morning." Tony waves goodbye, wriggling his way back into bed for the night and falls asleep almost instantly.
Monday
Avengers Compound, Upstate New York
"Peter stole my slice," America whines.
"We all agreed we weren't complaining about that!" Peter defends with his mouth full, ignoring Stephen's glare.
"We did, but then you stole my slice." America huffs. Tony sighs, pinching his nose.
"Jesus Christ you two, stop arguing long enough for me to talk to the team," Tony groans. "So, as I was saying, training will be every Monday and Friday. You're more than welcome to ask for one-on-one with any of your team members at any time, you all have your own quarters in the compounds and you've all been given keys to the gym and to your quarters. Yes, Scott?"
"How will we get into the compound again?"
"It's locked by facial recognition and voice activation - in case you got too roughed up and the AI can't identify you. Any other questions?" Tony says before promptly munching on a slice of pepperoni pizza. "Hawk Junior, go."
"Who exactly is training us?"
"Myself, Thor, Bruce, Stephen, Wong and Clint. As I said before you can seek more direct help from any one of your teammates. Anyone else got anything?"
"Will we all be getting our own costumes and tech for real missions?" asks Steven.
"Yes you will! Great question. In collaboration with S.H.I.E.L.D, Hank Pym, and myself, you will all be getting new costumes and tech - they're obviously optional, if you prefer to stick to your old costumes. Hell, some of them are barely different from their originals. FRIDAY, bring up the images please!" He can't fight a tiny smirk at some of the members' amazement as the room is surrounded in holographic images of the costume for each hero.
"You're all free to go or stay, but be back by 6 P.M. sharp, you can't miss the first session," Tony says while getting up and calmly leaving the room. He's quickly followed by his family members. "How's family movie night after training sound?" He offers, stepping into Pepper's elevator. Various noises of agreement are mumbled as the elevator dings, notifying everyone of their arrival. "Where's my baby?" Tony asks, grinning when he sees the almost three-year-old stumbling towards him.
"Daddy!" She screeches excitedly. "Peppy let me watch Mickey!"
"Did she now?" Tony asks, picking up his daughter while signing to Pepper, 'was Morgan good today?'
'She was on perfect behavior,' Pepper signs back, nodding. "Yes, of course I did. She also wrote a few letters today," she smiles gently, handing over the handwriting book to Stephen since Tony's hands were full with Morgan.
"Well, Minnie Mouse," Tony smiles at his daughter, tickling her neck just to hear her laughing, "why don't we get you home, get you a bath and then I'll read you a bedtime story, huh? How's that sound?"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah? Alright! Thanks again, Freckles," Tony says, giving her a goodbye kiss on the cheek.
"Of course! I love my niece, I'm always willing to babysit," she smiles and waves goodbye as the elevator doors close. Tony kisses Morgan's forehead.
"Did you have fun with Auntie Pepper and Uncle Happy?" Morgan nods excitedly, earning a chuckle from both her dads. "Yeah? What did you do besides watch Mickey?"
"We play outside! On swings!" The two-year-old grins.
"You must be pretty tired then, huh Maguna?"
"Mmhhmm," she nods, rubbing her eyes.
"She's not even gonna make it back to the house," whispers Stephen. Tony nods at him gently, softly playing with the girl's hair, and she was out before the elevator got down to the lobby, where he found the team split into groups, excitedly chatting about a variety of things, but primarily the excitement to see the gym and their teammates' powers and skills. He can't fight a grin back even as he steps through a portal straight into Morgan's bedroom. He sets her down and kisses her forehead, then follows the rest of his family out, heading into his own bedroom.
"We got an hour to kill, whaddya propose we do?" Tony grins at his husband, waggling his eyebrows, amused at his husband's annoyance.
"I say we shower," he pauses to let Tony groan, "together, then we get dressed and then go and whip the recruits into shape."
"Mm," Tony hums, kissing his husband's jaw. "That sounds like a plan to me."
"On your left, Sam!" Tony says and connects a kick to the back of his left knee. The man groans in pain.
"You know," Sam huffs, rolling over onto his back. "When you said you'd go easy on us, I was picturing you'd be pulling your punches."
"I am pulling my punches," Tony raises an eyebrow, then laughs at the man's shock, extending a hand to help the man up. "I have black belts in five martial arts and I've been working out regularly for 15 years," explains the billionaire.
"Jesus…"
"Dad needed somewhere to stick me after school for a while so he put me in martial arts, figured it'd be good for me. I guess he was right," Tony shrugs. "Barnes! Break's over, come and train with your boyfriend."
"Yes boss," Bucky rolls his eyes. Tony grins at him and sits down at the front of the room, watching his new teammates all practice together. It reminded him of when the original Avengers trained together, and that made him smile.
"Reminds you of the first training session we ever had too, huh?" Clint asks, strolling up next to him. Tony jumps a bit.
"Jesus Clint-" He huffs. "But yeah. Rodgers damn near took my teeth out." He chuckles while Clint cracks a smile.
"Thor busted my lip. Had that scar for a long, long time."
"I miss those days," the mechanic sighs, "when the most we were worried about was who would be paying for takeout each night."
"Only because you refused to go grocery shopping!"
"Why didn't you go, huh, Mama Bear?" grins Tony, to which Clint rolls his eyes and lightly punches Tony's shoulder.
"Y'know, once we retire for real, I think Earth is in good hands."
"Thank you, I curated this list myself."
"Oh?" The archer raises a brow.
'Yeah. There's a lot of vigilantes around, so I had to narrow down the list at least a little bit.”
“You did pretty damn good,” Clint nods, looking out at the team, then he sighs. “Welp, I gotta get back to work.”
"Woah woah woah, hang on. Are you free next week?"
"....why?"
"Because it's Morgan's birthday party and she wants to see Cupid."
"There's no way in hell I'm-"
"You still owe me one from when Iron Man came to your kid's birthday."
"Ah fuck, I do, don't I?" He grumbles.
"You can have cake," Tony offers.
"I'm in." Clint extends his hand for a handshake, which Tony takes while shaking his head and laughing a bit.
"Alright. Party's on Friday at 3:30, at the lakehouse. Stephen can portal you straight there, and your family is more than welcome to come with you! Hell, you can bring Kate and Lucky too! Morgan absolutely adores you and Kate, she thinks you're Robinhood and Lady Robinhoon." laughs the billionaire. "Well, speak of the devil, Kate! I haven't seen you since you were tiny!"
"Hi Uncle Tony," Kate smiles, hugging Tony.
"Uncle-?"
"The Bishops and Starks have been friends for generations, so she calls me uncle," Tony shrugs.
"Oh! Kate, why didn't you tell me that?" Clint asks with feigned offense.
"Well I thought you knew! You and Tony have been friends for like 15 years!"
"Damn kid, you're really making me feel old," Tony laughs, ruffling Kate's hair. "You're pretty good, kid. Keep it up and you'll be replacing this old bag o' bones here soon," he grins at Clint's real offense. "Right, well. AVENGERS!" Tony yells, crossing his arms and watching as everything stops and falls silent. "You're too stiff. You don't trust each other. So we're gonna solve that my way. FRIDAY, shuffle play my dance music!"
"Tony, we don't know how to dance-"
"Well this is the safe dancing zone! There's absolutely nothing wrong with however you decide to dance! Be silly! There's no judgment here." Then Dancing Queen comes on and Stephen facepalms watching his husband dance like an idiot, but he's still smiling. Slowly, the rest of the team joins in one by one until they're all dancing in their own silly ways. They roll through a handful of songs before everyone is out of breath from moving and laughing.
"Who wants to get ice cream?" Tony huffs from where he laid down on the mats. He explodes in laughter after everyone's hands immediately shoot up. "God you guys are great. Everyone, go clean up a little and then we can go get ice cream and rent a movie."
The team shuffles out one by one until all that's left is Tony and Stephen. "Are you okay, Tony? You've been on the floor for like five minutes now," asks the sorcerer, leaning over him.
"I'm fine," Tony grins up at him, "just a little out of breath. I'm gettin' old man, almost too old to do this shit. Why do you think I got these guys around?"
"I understand. Well, come on, you're a sweaty mess and you could do with a change of clothes anyway." He smiles and Tony takes his hand, then begins talking excitedly about the tech in everyone's costume, and Stephen found it as endearing as he found it interesting.
"What do you guys wanna watch? Top Gun? Let's watch Top Gun. It's a classic." Tony says, scrolling through movies available on streaming. The team agrees without hesitation, and Danvers and Rhodey were especially excited.
About two hours later, the whole team had passed out watching the movie, and Pepper didn't want to disturb them, but she did need to make sure that at least one of the parents got home. She made sure to get a picture of them all before she leaned in and gently shook Tony awake. "You need to go home so Morgan won't be alone when she wakes up." Tony mumbles a response and shakes Stephen up, signing to him that they needed to go home. Stephen nods and then they each pick up one of their sleeping children and carry them into the newly opened portal. Pepper smiles and then begins waking up the rest of the team, telling them to head to their quarters for the night and that FRIDAY would be waking them up early in the morning.
Friday
Stark Mansion, Fairburn, Georgia
"Hey honey bear," Tony says, answering the door for Rhodey and taking the gift from his hands, setting it on the table. "Help yourself to anything except the cake, birthday girl is being entertained by 'Cupid.'" He motions to Clint, who was shooting bullseyes with fake arrows onto some of the team, who would then pretend to fall in love with each other, and Morgan was squealing with delight. Rhodey shakes his head, shoulders trembling with suppressed laughter. It was especially hilarious to see Matt and Foggy pretending to be in love because of how awkward it was.
"Sorry I'm late, dear," Rhodey sighs. "Traffic."
"You could've flown."
"I could have." Rhodey nods.
"You're so difficult. Go mingle, we're singing happy birthday in 25 minutes." Tony lightly shoves Rhodey towards the guests, then making his way towards his husband. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Morgan whisper something into Clint's ear and point at them, and then felt a cardboard arrow hit him in the back, and so obviously Stephen's reaction was to dramatically dip Tony and kiss him, both of them very amused at both Morgan's excited screeching and the sighs coming from Wong and Rhodey.
The birthday girl then hurries her way over, tripping on the princess dress she'd insisted on wearing a little, tugging on her daddy's sleeve. "Daddy, up!" So Tony leans down and hoists her up onto his waist. "I gotta big secret!"
"Oh? What's that?" Tony asks, holding Morgan up to his ear.
" I love you 3,000 ," she whispers, grinning.
"That sure is a big number. Where did you learn such big numbers, huh? You spend too much time with daddy in his lab."
"Nuh-uh! Bubba told me!"
"Ohhh," Tony nods. "Hey, go talk to Cupid some more, m'kay? He looks like he could use some company." He sets Morgan down, fixes her dress a little and kisses her head, then she runs back to Clint.
"She's most definitely a daddy's girl," Stephen says matter-of-factly.
"Oh absolutely." Tony nods in agreement.
Morgan was overwhelmed in her excitement when the cake was brought out, and even more so opening all her presents. Not long after, it was time for bed, so she bid all her guests goodbye and got tucked into bed. "Can bubba sing to me again?" She asks, rubbing her eyes. Before Tony could even get an answer out, the little girl had fallen asleep. Tony smiles at her, kisses her forehead, and exits her room, leaving the door cracked. He looked up to see Stephn chewing his lip.
"Stephen? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"How much of the team is still here?" Is the doctor's only response.
"Uh, most of them, why?"
"We need to get them suited up, now " He says, handing over his phone. Tony's eyes widen in horror as he watches a news clip.
'This brand new threat is leveling Bayview, New York. She has no known identity at the moment, and she appears to possess some sort of psychokinesis, as well as the ability to fly.'
Tony hands Stephen's phone back to him and rushes to the backyard where the team were all sitting and laughing. “Well, you all were talking about what your first mission would be? You’re about to find out. Suit up, we’re going to New York.” He says and promptly presses against the nanoreactor attached to his chest, stepping through the portal. The team doesn’t waste a second, and they’re all very thankful that Tony had made all of their suits nanotech as well. The New Avengers shove their way through the portal and into the chaos of Bayview.
“We have no clue who this lady is, and I doubt we’ll have time for an introduction. Find her, incapacitate her, and after that we’ll figure it out. Stay in touch.” Tony orders and flies off, leaving the rest of them to scramble about, afraid of any more damage being done. “FRIDAY, keep us updated on every development.”
“She’s been identified as sixteen-year-old Lucile Allen, a patient at Genesis Medical Center who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. How she got her powers is still unsure.”
“She’s a kid with cancer, so don’t break her,” Tony says, pressing a hand to where his ear would be if there weren’t a helmet there. He hears some affirmatives and nods to himself, continuing to fly higher until he could pinpoint the location of the girl. Finally, he saw a building suddenly topple, and he wasted no time blasting toward it. “LUCIEL! STOP THIS!” He shouts at the kid, taking note of the sorcerer who had just arrived himself.
The girl whips around, and Tony could read the pain on her face. Then a large piece of concrete clangs against his helmet, effectively knocking him out and sending him falling to what could only be his death.