In which intentions don't always align with reality

"Mr. Stark." Tony cringed as the criticizing voice coming from the one and only Director Fury, who Tony preferred to call Director Eyepatch, cut through the otherwise quiet room. The man behind the Ironman, as Tony often called himself, had been reluctant to go this "Progression Report" meeting for the Avengers Initiative. His reason? Other than being a billionaire playboy with no time on his hands? Simple; Superheroes didn't do meetings, he wasn't the business man type (Which is in part a reason he gave Pepper his company) but more the tinker with projects, delve into other people's secrets, and be fucking Ironman kind of guy. Which is why he was a half an hour late to the meeting occurring in his own tower, and didn't give a shit.

Tony could see the rest of his team as he walked to the one open seat. Natasha and Clint were a given. Tony suspected they had been early, not bothered in the slightest at the mention of the "Progression Report." Cap was also there, giving him that stern look that you'd see from a teacher or grandfather. Oh, wait… Bruce was looking as bored as Tony suspected the meeting would have him feeling and Thor was surprisingly present for once. Tony raised an eyebrow but dismissed it as he sat down.

Fury gave him a glare as he sat up stiff straight, his hands folded on the table in front of him. He motioned for Natasha to start talking first, supplying a simple, "Black Widow."

"Ever since the attack, the city has-" She didn't get a sentence in before the doors to the room were opened with a bang and a out of breath, horrified woman burst into the room. Everyone was immediately on edge.

She took a moment to recover her breath before speaking, hands clamped over her knees. "Director Fury, the Tesseract. Its… It's reacting to something!" She looked up, swallowing before continuing in a more controlled voice. "It's acting just like it did when Loki came through!" If the news that the tesseract was doing something wasn't worrying enough, the knowledge that something akin to Loki could be crawling it's way through the device sent the Avengers into fight mode. Natasha and Clint drew their weapons and Thor picked up his hammer. Everyone was out of their seats, everyone but their director.

Director Fury was silent for a moment before he also stood. "We need to be prepared for whatever is setting off such a strong reaction from the tesseract. Thor, could this be Loki's doing?"

A conflicted look passed the god's face. "I would say that it shouldn't be possible, my friends. He is being detained, monitored at all times. It should not be possible for him to escape, but there is always that chance."

Fury hummed. "Avengers, your mission is simple. Stand watch over the tesseract and, if anything comes out through it, I want it detained. Captured or killed, no exceptions. Understood?"

Everyone nodded. Tony grinned as they were sent on their way, calling his suit around him. It was a short plane ride in one of his company's planes before they were directed to Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. and the room where the energy mass was being stored. This was by far a better alternative to giving director eyepatch a report. Tony had been planning to bullshit it anyway.

The tesseract was going crazy. Tony hadn't been here the first time it happened, but right now the blue glow and sparks were overwhelming. His machines were being influenced by the raw energy pulsating off of it. He watched in horrified amusement as the scientists flew around the room, tossing papers around and tinkering with various machines, yelling about the readings they were receiving and how to stop it. They'd tried and failed at that once, hadn't they? His jaw almost dropped when the activity from the stone suddenly stopped. Maybe they actually had succeeded. That was his thought until a huge babble arose, all asking one question.

What happened?

"Why would the tesseract stop?" Thor asked, voicing everyone's confusion. "It wouldn't react this volatile for no reason, so why has nothing passed through?"

"Maybe something has come through." Steve said, turning his shield in his hands.

"But there is nothing here, friend!" Thor replied.

"Who said that whatever this thing sent through had to come straight in this room?" Tony offered, Iron man helmet covering his face again as he prepared to fight.

Everyone froze. "We all assumed." Natasha hissed, berating herself.

"Well, you know what they say about assuming." Clint muttered as the Avengers piled out of the building. They left the scientists to their work as they piled back into the plane that had taken them here. The six heroes settled into the small space. Natasha and Clint opted to stand, pacing or staring out the window in annoyance. Steve, Bruce, and Thor sat down in the chairs lining the sides, all different levels of calm. Thor's impatience was the most visible, his hammer being twirled around in his hands constantly. Bruce kept wringing his hands, undoubtedly trying to keep his other persona at bay.

Only Steve seemed to be keeping his cool as he leaned back, shield on his lap. He gave a glance towards his armored comrade who was leaning against a table on the center of the space. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't stay confused long as Tony started messing with some computer attached to the thing.

"Jarvis, give me something. Any reports of extraterrestrial beings terrorizing capital cities or destroying landmarks? Any supervillians yelling for revenge?" Tony asked the AI.

There was a moments delay before a hologram appeared in the center of the room, flashing up from a table. "There has been a large discharge of energy around this region resembling that of the tesseract." Pictures flashed up above the hologram, displaying several amateur shots of the new invaders. "People have reported a large group of white-collar soldiers marching through the streets. Their weapons seem to be capable of paralyzing individuals, and so far no casualties have occurred that have been reported." A short clip showing the soldiers weapon in action appeared, disappearing as soon as it concluded.

"Shit. Are you sure this is where it happened?" Tony asked, groaning as he already knew the answer to his question.

"Yes, Mr. Stark. The army is attacking in New York, more specifically in Manhattan."

When the Avengers made it back to Stark Tower, everyone the slightest bit annoyed at having wasted time, they were greeted with the mysterious army. It wasn't that large, in hindsight, Tony's scanners only picking up a little over one hundred people, but they were still turning people into, statues?

"I'll try and talk to them, they are probably just confused after getting transported by the tesseract, if it wasn't intentional." Putting his Captain America persona forward, Steve commanded the group and they set out to the front of the enemy line. The man who they assumed to be in charge, this one had a red stripe across his otherwise blank chest, led the soldiers in their march. Steve approached the man in a peaceful way. "I ask for you to put down your weapons. We mean you no harm. I assure you that we can answer all of your questions, but we will have to ask you to have your men refrain from harming anymore civilians."

The man didn't reply like the team had thought he would, but instead lifted his weapon and fired it directly at Steve. It was only his quick reflexes that allowed him to lift his shield to block the blow. "Doesn't seem like they'll be willing to cooperate anytime soon. What do we do now?" Bruce asked, fingers running through his hair. "Do I bring the big guy out?"

Steve stood there for a moment, blocking attacks with his shield as his companions did similar. "No, their weapons seem to be able to turn people into… stone with a single hit. You, Natasha, and Clint fall back. Focused on ranged attacks for now and minimalize the risk of you getting hit. We need to take these guys down as fast as possible."

Grumbling something about being left out of the action, the three Avengers disappeared from the battlefield, for that's exactly what it became moments later. Tony took to the sky, blasting the soldiers and buzzing around like an insect, with the help of the tech in his suit, to dodge the blasts sent his way. He probably wasn't affected by the whole turn people into stone thing while in his suit, but he wasn't taking chances.

As Thor and Steve danced across the battlefield, using their hammer and shield respectively to both block and attack, arrows could be seen covering the two when any soldier managed to get in their blind spot. With their impeccable teamwork, the enemy's numbers quickly dwindled.

As he flew overhead, blasting any of the soldiers that fired at him, Tony couldn't help but think that something was wrong. If they were seriously trying to attack the Earth, then why send such a small force? And if they were transported accidently, then why continue fighting when they were clearly outmatched?

He wasn't the only one having these thoughts. Captain America was having similar thoughts towards the soldiers, even as he took them down. He threw his sheild, hitting one of the pure white soldiers in the chest and sending him to the ground. He didn't get back up. What disturbed the war veteran was the lack of empathy, anger, or anything in the remaining soldiers' eyes. They showed no hint of comprehending their surroundings.

"They seemed almost like dolls." Black Widow's voice rang over his headset, voicing his thoughts.

Hawkeye seemed to share her apprehension. "I shot one of them in the shoulder and other than falling back he didn't react at all. His face didn't even change."

"They're probably clones or something, right?" Bruce offered. "I mean they all look fucking identical. Except that one guy, but he's already down for the count so…" The one that seemed like a commander hadn't been much stronger than the other soldiers and went down quickly.

Tony's voice came over the line. "Were almost done here, there's only about ten left."

Steve looked around, sharing a look of confusion with Thor as the god was taking out the last enemy. "Where? There aren't any left where we are."

"Don't worry, Ill deal with them." The team could practically hear the smirk and eyeroll in his voice. They watched as the metal man in the sky turned his course, hovoring over an area hidden from the team behind some buildings as he began to fire.

He didn't get many shots in before something shot out of the ground and crashed directly into his chest. The superhero was rocketed backwards, slamming into a long since evacuated building before crashing to the ground out of view. "Tony!" Steve's voice wasn't the only one to shout towards their fallen comrade, the Avengers abandoning their positions in favor of rushing for their friend.

"Geez, you guys need to calm down. Like an attack as weak as that could take me out." The Iron man reappeared in the sky, facing the area where the remaining soldiers, and the attack, came from. In Tony's mind, the buzzing from Jarvis, telling him that the suit was cracked of all things, could wait. He hadn't seen what had even attacked him. He needed a visual of the enemy before he worried about the condition of his armor. His systems were scanning through the dust cloud his collision with the building had caused, his eyes searching almost as fervently. He wouldn't admit it, but his chest was still aching from the blow.

An alarm suddenly blared in his suit, warning him of a projectile coming his direction. He needn't worry about it hitting its target, however, because a sheild emblazoned with the United States good ol red, white, and blue intercepted the (yoyo?) and sent it recoiling back towards the person who had thrown it. Noticing the whole team gathered below him, Tony landed on the street to catch his breath. The cloud still obscured their vision, but a gust of wind cleared the street.

Previously mentioned gust of wind just happened to be coming from a man (cat?) twirling what looked like a pipe around in his hands. His figure was covered in what seemed to be leather, from his boots to his gloves, and a mask covered his face. The ears and tail seemed to be decoration, but they were twitching angrily. His blond hair stood out from the black of his uniform, but its wild style offered no comfort. When the dust cleared he stopped and dug what the team could now see was a baton into the ground, standing beside, but slightly in front of another figure, the dangerous expression resting on his face made ever more intimidating by the unnatural green his eyes were.

His partner was a woman. She was dressed in red spandex, black spots littering her body. Just like the cat man, she was sporting a mask, but this one was red decorated with five black spots. The yoyo spinning in her hand told them she was angry, but the face was conflicting. Tears were springing from her closed eyes, her empty hand clutching at her mouth as it tried to muffle the sounds of her sobbing. Her knees were pressed together and it looked as though she would fall down at any moment. The spinning gradually slowed, till the weapon was hanging limply from her arm as both hands made for her face, her head hanging forward as the tears splattered to the ground. The expression on her partner's face only became more murderous, even if he did put a hand on the woman's shoulder.

Clint made to load an arrow, but Steve stopped him, sheathing his shield as he stepped forward cautiously. After all, they didn't know the extent of these human-looking beings' powers. He didn't know where the tears were coming from, but knew that he needed to be tact if they were emotionally unstable. As he stepped nearer he heard what sounded suspiciously like hissing coming from the male and stopped. "I am Captain America. My team is here because it is our task to protect the people of the world." He noticed the woman tense, sobs going silent. He made to placate her. "We will not harm you if you stand down. I understand that you may be confused, so we won't punish you from defending yours-"

"DON'T FUCKING JOKE WITH ME!" The woman screamed, interrupting the Avenger. She raised her head, brilliant bluebell eyes filled with a fire that stopped Steve in his tracks. "We wont harm you?! We wont punish you?! We'll protect the people?!" She took a step forward, then another, and another until the two were face to face. "Do you think you could explain something for me, Captain?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm as she said his title, but Steve was preoccupied by the loathing in her eyes. "Is murdering nearly a hundred innocent civilians that have been brainwashed your idea of protecting the people?!"

The shock on his his face must have shown, because she let out a choked chuckle. The confusion must of also been apparent because she proceeded to explain to him and the Avengers what an akuma was.

It was only then that they realized how much they fucked up.

Hello, I'm back! It's been almost a year. I don't have any excuses except that I haven't had the inspiration to write, at all. Like i have update nothing in the past year. Saying that, it's a little surprising that this is the story i choose to work on. I've been debating on which way to take this story, cause there are a few ideas that i like, so I'd been putting in off, but here's a chapter. I have the next one planned out, sorta, so it might come out quicker. Maybe. Anyway I hoped you enjoyed. I tried putting all the dialog that was over their coms in italics, tell me if you like it. Dont forget to leave a review!