Good evening. Lady Antabella here with an author's note.
This is called an introduction. Here it is used to introduce a mysterious stranger :3 Third person point of view will go away immediately because it's nice for setting the stage but it's too impersonal for my likings. I'm warning you now this is the first time I've ever released my writing on the unsuspecting public. And it's un-beta'd. And swears. Yee be warned.
Obligatory disclaimer: I actually don't have legal rights to jack squat otherwise I'd be livin like Tony Stark up in here
Please, alert me immediately to anything you may deem as speelling or can has grammatical errors - or something that just don't sound right.
Chapter 1: First Impressions Shouldn't Involve Homicidal Totalitarian Super-Jerks
She calmly looked down on the scene below, casually leaning back against the steel girders supporting the catwalks along the walls. A lock of hair fell over her face and she quickly pushed it back into place with a gloved hand. The hawk was in his nest just below her, silently observing the goings on of the extremely top-secret high-security SHEILD laboratory. Apparently, not top secret enough for her to be there. SHELD had gotten lazy since she'd left.
Agent Barton had no idea that she was less than a meter over his head, and eating an old fashioned root-beer flavored hard candy. Exactly the kind he seriously hated because they tasted suspiciously like licorice which he was completely disgusted by ever since that one mission in the Netherlands… long story.
He hadn't changed a bit since she last saw him. Still as recluse as ever, and it looked like he was still into gymnastics. She used to tease him a little bit about that. She wondered if he ever did anything about that adorable little crush he had on a certain red-headed Russian. Probably not. He was never really all that good with people. Especially women. He wasn't really good with feelings either. And both at the same time were a total mess. What was he actually good at again? He could kill you twenty different ways before you could say, "pasta!" Right. She had to keep that in mind. If he caught her hanging around, she was as good as dead – or close enough.
As she shifted the candy to the other side of her mouth a man she recognised entered her sightline; Nick Fury. That made her body suddenly tense, her fight or flight instincts kicking in. If Barton was bad, Fury was the bloody Antichrist and she did not want to stick around for that. It would be more than a problem if he noticed her. But she knew he wouldn't and tried to force herself to relax a little. He'd never been able to catch her before, after all. Probably the eye patch. The shadows she hid herself in among the rafters wrapped themselves closer around her slight frame, giving her some slight comfort and allowing her to focus on calming her increased pulse.
She took in his conversations with the scientists, and then with agent Barton, the hawk, after he came down from his roost. She was tempted to spit on his head, root beer candy and all, just for a laugh as he climbed down, but stopped herself. A long time ago it would have been funny. Now it could mean life or death.
She saw it all as the "Tesseract" began to "misbehave," as Dr. Selvig had put it. She rolled her eyes at that. What – did chairs have feeling too now? Utter nonsense if anyone asked her. Not that anyone ever would. People tended to put little value on her opinions.
Then it began. The Tesseract was about to go berserk; she could feel the energy coming off of the thing in waves, shocking every nerve in her body. Every instinct she had told her she needed to run and get as far away as she possibly could but all she could do was retreat farther into her shadows until her back was against the wall.
Then the worm-hole opened right in front of her. The blue fire burned her just to look at and she somehow felt the malicious intent stemming from the thing, and she couldn't shake the feeling it was targeting her. It was as if the Tesseract hated her.
She could feel what was about to enter her world was a monster, but what she saw when the flames rose… didn't fit. And that face; she knew that face. If only she could remember, she told no matter how hard she tried that memory was locked away; among the many others she doubted she would ever know again.
She came back to herself as the always articulate Director Fury welcomed the newcomer to Earth.
"Sir! Please put down the spear."
But if you read between the lines he definitely said, "Welcome to Earth." You just had to listen really closely.
Then the newcomer below began destroying things. There was gunfire and explosions, the energy from which made her flinch every time. He took control of Barton and some others; that hurt her a bit. They had never really been friends, but she knew the archer well enough. They both had terrible people skills.
During this time Fury had taken the Tesseract, which had not escaped the man's attention. It didn't surprise her. Fury was never the subtlest of men.
"Please don't – I still need that." the man said in a voice that made her blood run cold.
"This doesn't have to get any messier."
"Of course it does; I've come too far for anything else."
The malicious intent behind every word that man spoke cut through her as much as the pulses of pure energy the Tesseract gave off, chilling her to her core.
"I am Loki, of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."
She couldn't help but scoff at this, even if he did terrify her. This was a first-class jerk. What arrogance. Just who did he think he was?
The trickster price; a god from Norse mythology, something in the back of her mind told her, which was funny because she didn't remember ever learning that anywhere. She mentally shrugged; she must have gone on a mythology frenzy of some sort and just couldn't remember it. That made sense didn't it? As much as anything she supposed.
"Loki? Brother of Thor!"
"We have no quarrel with your people."
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."
Again, such arrogance. First-class genocidal jerk.
She decided it was time to act. She pulled a black silk mask over her face – no need for Director Fury to know she was still alive after all. That would lead to a rather awkward conversation. If he didn't shoot her on sight first.
The alleged god's back was to her and she took full advantage of this, dropping down silently from her hiding place, allowing the shadows to cushion her fall. Fury saw her clearly as she slid up behind Loki and the men surrounding him, slowly unsheathing one of the two long sleek blades strapped to her back, careful the light would not catch the gleaming metal in a bad way before she was prepared to strike.
"Are you planning to step on us?"
She froze where she stood. Fury was looking directly at her. She glanced his way and saw the hard glare he gave her before turning his attention back to the unruly god. She knew a warning when she saw one. She stepped back and allowed herself to melt back into the shadows as her sword slid back into place, seeing Fury had confidence in some plan of his own.
"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free."
"Free from what?"
"Freedom."
Neither she, nor Fury liked that. First-class genocidal fascist jerk. Now fascist isn't necessarily bad, but coupled with genocidal is probably the worst combination you can have. Ever.
"Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart, you will know peace."
And with that, Dr. Selvig was lost as well.
"Yeah, you say peace. I kind of think you mean the other thing."
If that wasn't a signal of some kind, she didn't care. The situation sucked and she's be damned if she wasn't going to do anything about it.
Barton was about to step forward when she emerged from the shadows and pulled him back, a gloved hand covering his mouth. Most unfortunately, however; this did not go unnoticed, because Clint had begun to say something. She'd made a big mistake. In a flash several guns were trained on her, as well as the business end of one very dangerous looking magical spear. It physically hurt for her to be so close to its energy. Something about it just didn't agree with her dark side.
She let go of Barton and, slowly and deliberately, she raised her hands in surrender-
- Until her hands reached for the handles of the blades. In the blink of an eye they slid out of their sheaths and, after she dived out of the way of a blast from Loki's spear, were whirling about, slicing through fabric and flesh before a single shot could be fired at her. There was gunfire and a hail of bullets cascaded her; each one deflected with a flick of a wrist and a twist of a blade – a skill beyond any human ability.
Barton had found his voice again and used it to express his concern for the building's structural integrity. "Sir, this place is about to blow and drop about a hundred feet of rock on us."
"He's right, the portal is collapsing in on itself, we've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."
Loki was obviously flustered by her sudden appearance, as well as her stubborn refusal to just die already. Time constraints brought into consideration, it was necessary to end this disturbance quickly.
He got in a lucky shot with the spear that sent her flying into a wall. She let out a sharp cry of pain as the corrosive blue energy surrounded her and her back hit concrete. She fell to the ground with no signs of consciousness.
Fury had attempted to make use of the momentary distraction she had provided, but his escape was promptly ended with a shot from agent Barton and he grabbed the case containing the Tesseract.
Then they just left. None of them so much as glanced back at the two bodies, broken and bleeding, they left behind them.
"Hill, do you copy?" Fury asked, angrily pulling the bullet from his wound.
The residual energy from the Tesseract was going berserk above him. Time to get the hell out of there. He looked to where she had fallen, but… she was gone.
No time to look for her.
"He's got the Tesseract; shut him down." Fury ordered as he staggered out of the building, the vortex collapsing behind him.
A few minutes later Fury was standing in the road, the wreckage of a helicopter burning behind him. He could tell this was going to be a hell of a week, and not in a good way.
The tail-lights of the vehicle Loki and his new flying monkeys were riding in were still visible in the distance.
Suddenly a motorcycle sped past him at top speed, in hot pursuit of the fugitives.
One fucking hell of a week.
She gripped the handles of the motorcycle tightly as she sped down old highway. She was gaining on her target fast and they had noticed. She swerved violently to avoid the hail of bullets, followed by a blast of blue energy.
A bead of sweat formed on her brow under the motorcycle helmet. That damned blue energy, whatever it was. It was starting to really piss her off.
She pushed the cycle to its top speed, suddenly lurching towards the other speeding vehicle, before jumping up onto the bike's seat then leaping forward, twisting midair to avoid another bullet. Her feet touched the back of the truck and fingers closed around the side of the bed. She was unable to avoid the next blast - point blank.
She flew backwards and felt the helmet slide of her head. All she had time to think was, "Fuck, this landing is going to hurt."
Well, that's not entirely true. During the split second it took for her to fall backwards off the truck and into the darkness of the unlit street, the arrogant god got his first look at her face through the smoky blue energy setting her nerves on fire. There; for just a fraction of a second, she saw the expression on his face as he blasted her into a world of pain.
Recognition.
He knew her.
Then she hit the ground. Hard.
"Stop!" the Asgardian shouted, and the driver slammed the brakes.
Loki leaped from the back of the truck and ran down the road a short ways, searching for the battered body that had to be there. But it wasn't. She had disappeared.
He stooped down and picked up the helmet, the only trace he could find of her. He went a little farther and there was the motorcycle, lying broken and abandoned in the middle of the road. Nothing more.
Reluctantly, he gave up trying to search for her in the dark with nothing but the glow from the Tesseract-powered spear and returned to the truck.
It drove away with her clinging tightly to the shadows of the vehicle's underside.
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