Chapter 2

What my plan didn't take into account was the fact that I was unable to enter my own lab. Dodging shards of glass that were scattered on the ground, I stood at the entrance to the room. The floor was covered in a layer of red lasers, which practically disintegrated anything that touched them. I observed the effects myself when a shard of glass I chucked in exploded in front of me. "Well there goes my plan." I'd managed to pick up a replacement headset on my way down, after my original was smashed when Loki kicked me into a wall. I clicked on and connected to JARVIS. "JARVIS, would you care to explain why the floor of my lab is covered in lethal lasers?"
"It appears Loki managed to activate them whilst you were recovering."
"WHAT! WHY JARVIS? WHY DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?"
"My systems seemed to have been…infiltrated. Is there anything else I can help you with, ma'am?"
"Ugh. Where is Loki now?" Infuriated, I struggled to stop myself from yelling into the microphone.
"He is currently on the top floor, observing surveillance footage."
"JARVIS, why on earth did you give him access to the surveillance system?"
"I… er…I don't know…I—"
"Look, don't worry. Just don't give him access to anything else." I removed the headset and almost threw it inside in frustration, almost. I noticed that the Sceptre was still on the centre table, exactly where I left it. My lips curved up in a smile. "Two can play this game." All I needed was some string, a remote control helicopter and a serious attitude.

The lift bell sounded as I reached the top floor of Stark Tower. The doors slid open immediately revealing an intimidating looking Loki facing me. Unaffected, I entered and strolled over to where Loki was. He grinned and spoke. "Have you come to apologise?"
"Don't think so Loki. I want my lab back." He just smirked and chuckled, but then suddenly became serious. "Kneel…and I'll consider it." I sighed and slowly began to bend down. He looked satisfied and slightly relieved at my response, and held his head up higher in pride. It looked as if I was about to kneel, but then I groaned, stretched my legs and arms and stood up again. "Not today." His expression once again turned into a menacing glare. "Disable the lasers, Loki."
"I don't think so. Surely you would be able to do this yourself. You already managed to disable the surveillance from where you were. You should be proud that I had no idea what you were doing." He mocked. I flashed him a fake smile. "Very funny." I then took a step back and shrugged. "Ok. I can't make you do anything…"
"No." He interrupted.
"…but you made a BIG mistake in your little 'plan for revenge'. You left the Sceptre in the lab, where you and I both were unable to reach it." At this realisation, his face turned into one of worry.
"What."
"So, I took the liberty of linking said Sceptre to a piece of string which was attached to a remote helicopter." Holding up a tiny remote, I smirked. "Which is connected to this!" Beaming, I waved it in his face. He swiped for it but I swiftly dodged and laughed. "GIVE ME THAT REMOTE!" Loki yelled.
"TURN OFF THE LASERS!" I countered with the same amount of ferocity.
"I AM NOT, AND WILL NOT TAKE ORDERS FROM YOU!" Mildly frightened at his rage, I took a small step back. "Fine. Then watch as your precious little Sceptre gets smashed into pieces. It matters little to me. I need to break into it to see how it works anyway." I pushed the button, the helicopter was activated and the Sceptre started to move off the table.

The Avengers Team arrived at Brooklyn, ready for action. They were looking for an underground base concealed within one of the houses. "I don't know about you, but this doesn't seem right." Captain America observed. "Surely if there was something going on, neighbours would enquire…or someone would at least notice."
"The idea is to not let anyone find wherever 'it' is, so of course no one would notice." Barton commented. "It's here." Stark cut them off. He rapped on the door of number 32 Rogers Avenue.
"How do you know?" Romanoff asked, surveying the area, gun in-hand.
"I know because this address doesn't exist. Anywhere." He looked them all in the eye before forcefully opening the door after knocking clearly didn't cause any response. They rushed in, checking every room, every cabinet. The words 'clear' rang out from each of them. Disappointed, they conversed by the front door. "It's a decoy." Stark announced. Thor roared and smashed his hammer into the wall. "Thor smashing things won't help." The God of Thunder was about to retaliate to the Captain's remark, when Stark cut them off. JARVIS spoke out through the earpiece in Stark's suit. "Sir, we have an issue."
"What is it JARVIS? I'm in the middle of something right now." They were all silent as they listened intently to what JARVIS had to say. "Loki is attacking Sophie on the top floor of Stark Tower, sir. I thought you'd want to know."
"You have GOT to be kidding me."

Loki began to lunge for me as soon as I hit the button. Luckily, I had calculated it would take precisely 7 seconds before the Sceptre would hit the ground. I ducked under his arm as he reached out and slapped my hand down on the button which controlled the lasers, disabling them instantly. My relief was short lived as Loki continued to come for me. I ducked another lunge and rolled under the desk, leaving me opposite the God with only a steel desk in between us. "Whoa! Stop! Stop! Look! I disabled the lasers! The sceptre's fine! Just calm down!" My threatening demeanour had completely vanished, replaced by utter terror. Concluding that there would be no way to stop him, I tried a different approach. The desk tipped towards him as I shoved my whole weight against it, buying me a few crucial seconds. I sprinted towards the stair well, jumping down small flights at a time. Thankfully, I had reached the same floor as my lab by the time Loki had burst through the door at the top. I rushed through the door leading to the labs without hesitation. Clicking my headpiece in place, I darted for my lab at the end of the corridor. Reaching the door, I risked a glance back and rapidly regretted it. He was gaining on me. Fast. Swearing, I entered the lab and scrambled on top of the centre table, just grabbing the sceptre as I did so. "JARVIS ACTIVATE THE LASERS!" I screamed as Loki reached the door. The floor was illuminated in red, preventing him from entering. The only sound that could be heard was my panting as we stood there in a standoff. The avengers, conveniently chose that moment to arrive. Fantastic. "Sir I can explain everything."
"I sure hope so! Do you have ANY idea what you're dealing with?"
"Oh I'm sorry! Who was it who asked me to do this in the first place?" I retaliated.
"Sophie! We asked you to complete this task, in trust you wouldn't do something utterly stupid!" Stark's voice was getting louder and louder with each word.
"I wasn't being stupid! I was stopping myself from being fried!" Unintentionally, my voice was gaining in volume also.
"By provoking him?" Stark indicated Loki. "Oh yes! Brilliant idea!"
"You think asking nicely would've accomplished anything? I'd like to see you try!"
"Sophie..." Dr. Banner tried to interrupt, but in my anger I foolishly ignored him.
"Funnily enough, I didn't expect when I was given this assignment to be FEARING FOR MY LIFE!"
"Sophie!" Dr. Banner tried again, but still he was ignored.
"First day and I've been impaled with glass, had my head nearly smashed and I broke my collar bone! I thought you told me this would be safe! Even though-"
"SOPHIE!" Dr. Banner finally yelled, stopping me in my tracks.
"WHAT?" I screamed.
"Put down...the sceptre." He responded quietly, as if instructing someone to cool it. Ironic, considering he is the Hulk. I looked down, surprised at what I was holding. Instinctively I released it, but instantaneously realised my huge mistake. The sceptre clattered as it hit the table and then began to drop to the floor. The events that followed seemed to be in slow motion. Thor bellowed for everyone to get back as Stark yelled to JARVIS to deactivate the lasers, but they were both too slow. The point of the sceptre connected with the red floor, but instead of breaking, the connection of the Tesseract energy and the energy from the lasers caused a huge explosion, knocking everyone off their feet. The impact was worse for me as I was hovering right above it at the time. For the second time that day I was violently flung back against a solid wall. Someone screamed my name but I couldn't decipher who it was at the time as I was too busy trying not to die. I just managed to bury my head in my chest before I struck the side of the lab. Fortunately, Stark's orders to JARVIS didn't go unnoticed and I was not disintegrated as I fell to the floor. My memory of what followed was hazy. All I could remember for certain was pain. Excruciating pain, everywhere.

Stressed voices woke me up from a surprisingly comfortable sleep. Locating where the voices were coming from, I forced my head up to look around, but suddenly became terribly dizzy. Unintentionally I cried out, grabbing the attention of the voices. The familiar face of doctor Harris rushed over, blocking my view of the room. She gently supported my head as I lowered it back down again. "Ugh..." My voice was husky and sore as I struggled to find words that wouldn't hurt to say. "What...how...did I...get here?" Blinking, my eyes adjusted to the white room in the medical bay. "The avengers carried you down. You were in pretty bad shape, but you recovered nicely as always." Doctor Harris replied with a smile. "I would tell you to rest for a bit longer, but you never listen so I won't." I attempted getting up again, this time taking it slow and using the bed to support me. The door was closed and the curtains drawn, preventing anyone from seeing in. That usually meant I'd either had a lot of treatment, or I'd been in here for a while...or both. "How..." Cough. "Long was I out?" Using my voice was growing easier but it was still painful.
"2 days." Came the short response.
"Oh hell." I noticed a glass of water with a couple of chalk-white tablets next to it. Cautiously, I reached my arm out to take them. Again, excruciating pain radiated through my arm. Eventually, I managed to knock back the pills and drink the water. "What happened? Did I break all my limbs or something?"
"Yeah, about that. You smashed your right arm on impact, your left wrist was fractured in 2 places. One of the ligaments in your right leg was moved completely out of position, your left knee cap was more or less crushed and your left able was broken out of position."
"Yay." I retorted sarcastically. "Well it couldn't be any worse."
"You could be dead." The doctor snapped with a glare. "With the circumstances of your injuries you could well have been." I didn't want to think about that right now, so I ignored her remark.
"Who else was in here just now? I heard more than one voice." I asked , double checking to see if we were alone in the tiny room. "Stark and Director Fury were just here seeing if you were alright. You were stirring, so I notified them and they came to check up on you." I frowned.
"That never happens. Ever..." I looked the doctor straight in the eye. She looked nice today. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a neat pony and her uniform was unusually tidy on her small frame. "What's going on doc?" She fidgeted and looked away as if the answer would magically appear on the wall behind me. "Doc, why were they here? Look, I'm fine aren't I? What's all the stress for? A few broken bones is hardly life threatening, I mean come on." Recognising her clear discomfort, I dropped the subject. I was too tired to press right now. "Was anyone else hurt?" I enquired quietly. "Thankfully, they were at a safe enough distance away so they didn't get badly hurt. A few cuts and bruises as expected, but that's not really what you were asking is it?" Satisfied, I stopped talking and let doctor Harris run tests and issue me with medication, which I paid no attention to whatsoever. Finally, she helped me to a now open door and I managed to hobble my way around the corner and back down the corridor. I was surprised to notice the avengers, bar Agent Romanoff and Barton, sitting in what seemed to be a conference room just outside the med bay entrance. Loki was also with them, sulking at the back of the room. Noticing me, they hurriedly got up and just stared in disbelief. I just caught Stark murmuring something along the lines of, 'I told you so', as each and every one of them gawked at me. Confused, I looked down at myself, trying to find what was causing them to stare at me this way, but to no avail. "What?" No response. "What are you staring at?" Even Loki looked utterly dumbfounded. "Seriously guys, what?" It was stark who at last broke the silence. "So you're feeling better then?" I nodded warily, eyeing the rest of them. What on earth were they staring at? Aware of my discomfort, stark lead me down the corridor and back to the lab, lecturing me about how idiotic my actions were.

Director Fury turned to the rest of the avengers after stark had lead Sophie away. "She must never know." Still trying to get over what they had just seen, the avengers were at a loss of what to say.
"I don't understand! That's not humanly possible to recover like that! I mean, she recovered from smashed bones, 3rd degree burns and severe cuts in a few days! It's biologically impossible!" Dr Banner protested. "That's because she's not entirely human."
"What?!" It was Loki who spoke up this time. "How can she not be human?" Everyone was now paying full attention to Director Fury. "This organisation we're trying to find, HYDRA, this isn't the first time we've encountered them, as captain America can vouch for."
"But I thought they were disbanded?" Captain America objected.
"A lot has happened since then." Fury continued. "Before they were developing Chitauri technology, they were trying to create super soldiers. Sophie was patient zero. The first one to be experimented on. We intercepted the plan early on, luckily, but as a last ditch effort, they erased all memory of what happened to her in the experiments, so we wouldn't find out. We don't know how, we just know that they did." Nobody said a word. It sounded too impossible to be true, but the evidence had been brought right to them. They couldn't argue. "What did they do though? They must've done something to her DNA, her genetics to make her able to heal this fast!" Still struggling to get his head over it all, Dr Banner enquired further. "In all honesty, we have no idea the exact process, just a rough idea. But she hasn't the faintest idea she's different from anyone else. She thinks it's normal to have a recovery rate as fast as hers. Sophie's world would crumble if she ever found out. You will not tell her, not even a slight hint at what has happened, do you understand me?" Fury commanded. He looked each one of them in the eye until they agreed, finishing at Loki. "You especially." Loki nodded as a response, still shocked at how a puny mortal could have abilities such as those he'd just witnessed. "I assume everyone else is aware of the situation with the girl?" Loki prompted.
"They are." Fury answered. "Don't hurt her any more than you already have Loki, she's been through enough don't you think?" Loki was at a loss for words. Without a response, he just got up and strolled out of the door with no acknowledgement that anything had been said at all.

By the time Stark left, I was exhausted just from listening to him ramble on and on! To make matters worse, Loki sauntered into the lab. With no energy left to deal with him, I chose to completely ignore him and get on with what I was supposed to be doing. I pulled up the diagnostics of the sceptre JARVIS had provided earlier, shaking my head at the lack of new information. Frustrated, I picked up the sceptre to see if that would make any difference. Surprisingly, it did. Energy levels seemed fluctuate and the end of the staff seemed to glow more than usual. "What the...?" Returning the sceptre to the stand caused levels to return to normal and the glow dissipated. "It never did that before..." I mumbled. For the second time that day, unbeknown to me, Loki came and stood by my side. Looking back and forth between me and the sceptre, his face grew to one of utter confusion. All of a sudden, he grabbed my wrist and shoved my sleeve up my arm. "OW!" I protested, but Loki took no notice. Following his gaze to my arm, I finally understood his expression. My arm was glowing. Blue. Just under the skin, a faint, pulsing colour could be seen. Squealing, I jumped out of his reach, rubbing my arm furiously as if to get it off somehow. Of course that didn't work. "What the hell did that thing do to me?" Flustered, I looked frantically between the sceptre and Loki, hoping he might have some answer. The god slowly approached me, taking my arm in his hand. He was exceptionally gentle with his touch considering how he could snap my arm with ease. "I...don't know. Either you must've absorbed some if the radiation in the explosion or..."
"Or? Or what?" He was hesitant to respond, which just made me panic more.
"Or...the energy was inside you already... Either way, this energy is what triggered the sceptre to react so...peculiarly. Contact to this..." He indicated the staff. "Must've triggered the energy inside you to come to the surface." In all honesty, I was more overwhelmed by his soft nature than by what he was telling me. "...Since when did you become so caring?" Yet again, he brushed me off as if nothing had been said. I took one last look at the sceptre before reaching for my headset. "Sir, I'm done for the day."
"...fine. Go home and get some rest." We clicked off as I headed for the door.

Loki watched from the top floor of the tower as Sophie headed for home. Intrigued by his brother's new attitude, Thor joined him. "You care for the girl?"
"She...interests me. Care? I think not." Loki didn't even blink as he answered back.
"Then why do you watch over her brother? She is mortal."
"Why are you constantly bothering me with insolent questions?" This time, Loki did look up into his brother's eyes. Thor shrugged and gazed over the city. "If you truly felt nothing for her, then you wouldn't be so defensive." Loki tensed, and this action did not go unnoticed by his brother.
"She is stronger than most...but then again you wouldn't really know much about strength would you Thor?" Loki smirked at his brother's distress. "Oh don't get yourself worked up brother. If you're really lucky, when you grow up, you might be big and strong like daddy dearest!" Speaking to Thor as if instructing a child, Loki mockingly patted his brother on the back and walked off, leaving the Thunder God to fume by the window.

It was 4:00 by the time I'd reached my apartment just off Times Square. With a sigh, I pushed open my door and collapsed on the familiar brown leathered sofa in the living room. The place I called home wasn't very big, but then again I didn't need it to be. There was a coffee table and small TV in the lounge, with big open windows providing a nice view of the famous city Square. The kitchen, like the rest of my apartment, was tiny with only the few bare essentials needed for me to have food. The bedroom was just to the right of the lounge, consisting off purple wallpaper, a basic double bed, a bedside table and a wardrobe. The sofa offered comfort for all my aches and pains which I'd only just managed to overlook throughout the day. My brief moment of relief was disturbed when my phone started vibrating in my back pocket. I was happy to see Ella's name appear on the front screen as I impulsively answered the call. "Hello?"
"OH MY GOD SOPHIE WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! 2 DAYS! NOT A SINGLE WORD! NOT A TEXT! NOTHING! I WOULDN'T HAVE CARED EVEN IF IT WAS A RANT ABOUT YOUR CLOTHES MISSING, BUT SOMETHING!" She was out of breath by the time she'd finished, and is been helpfully reminded of the situation with my clothes. "I was unconscious in the medical bay."
"...oh. Sorry. Geez! What did you do this time? 2 whole days you were out? Wow must've been pretty bad!"
"Yeah...this really isn't a conversation we should be having on the phone. Can you come over?"
"...holy...this really IS bad. I'll be there in five."
"Oh, and bring my clothes!" I quickly added. The smile in her voice was obvious as she replied.
"Not until I have proof you wore them to work!"
"I've been at work 2 whole days, unconscious and have literally just got back to my apartment. I'm wearing your bloody outfit so bring my bloody clothes."

As promised, Ella arrived at the door 5 minutes after we hung up, carrying shopping bags full of clothes. I allowed her in and we sat down on the couch after greetings had been exchanged. Ella's strawberry blonde hair was wrapped in a neat bun at the rear of her head, and a smart, black suit was hanging loosely off her body. She looked impressive as always. "How was work?" I remarked, admiring her attire. She worked as a solicitor in one of the top law firms in the city, she was incredibly bright and organised. But when we were together, oh the chaos that would stir. "Work was fine, unlike yours, clearly..." Silence descended, letting my best friend ask the question she so blatantly wanted to ask. "What happened?" I proceeded to tell her everything. From the avengers being in stark's suite, to Loki showing me the energy in my arm. "Holy mother of cow! Gimme your arm!" She was studying my arm before I had even a chance to respond. "Well that's just plain weird."
"I know. Tell me about it. Even worse with Loki in there." Her discomfort was clear when I mentioned him. "Just the thought of him being back in the city...ugh."
"Ella, calm down. You're kinda...cutting off my circulation!" With a cry she let go of my arm.
"Sorry."
"Don't worry. I've had worse." She stayed for around an hour longer before she had to head home, complaining about the amount of work she had to do. Just after she had left I went to bed, dreaming of a life where everything could be normal, for once.