Hey everybody! Sorry for taking so long, here it is! I'm glad ya'll liked the last chapter! Thanks to the... one... reviewer... T.T oh well, maybe there will be more this time! Enjoy!
Chapter 2 - There Once was a Thicket
At 231 feet above the ground, Tony Stark could see everything he needed to know. As he flew toward S.H.I.E.L.D. head quarters, he saw what he knew from photographs to be the - or perhaps in this case, a - Bifrost sight. That's what Point Break called it anyway. Then something off to Tony's left made a sudden movement in the forest below. It's probably just a wild animal, Stark thought to himself. But when it moved again, Tony slowed down to see what it was.
From a ways off it looked like it could be glowing, whatever it was, so of course Stark decided he could handle whatever came his way. Into the line of fire he went, toward the ominous glow.
As he stopped on the ground, everything went silent. All the insects and nocturnal creatures stopped their chatter the very second Tony's feet touched the ground, but the strange light that seemed to come from nowhere still lingered giving the whole experience a twilight zone feeling.
"Okay, eery," he spoke aloud. Nothing compared to seeing Reindeer Games again, right?
That's when the light went out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsewhere, Midgard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the jet landed on the helicarrier and it's passengers started to depart, Loki quickly cast himself a spell of perception ensuring that any who looked at him would have their attention drawn away and therefore not see him at all.
Treading as casually as possible, the god followed the four agents across the deck, through the side door, and down a hallway, brushing passed a few workers who were on their way to retrieve the cargo Loki had shared the ride with. His head throbbed a bit at first from the extreme pressure changes on the flight, but it soon passed. I am not so weak, Loki thought to himself with a satisfied, tight grin.
At one point the hallway turned slightly to the right, while there laid a great, big room to the left that Loki had never seen. No he had never laid eyes on this place, but he knew immediately where he was. The control room... if only I had... but no I'm not here to resume my former agenda. Stay focused! Loki scolded himself. This is important, and they need to trust you, which they, of course, don't.
The Master of Mischief watched as the agents parted their ways and moved to different parts of the room. Loki considered his options for a moment before deciding to follow Clint. Because of time they had spent together, Loki felt closest to him even though it had been a fake friendship. He wanted to find out what Barton was going to do, but all the while he watched Romanoff on the other side of the room from the corner of his eye. Agent Barton made his way to a ladder and scampered up rather quickly for a mere human. Of course, not just a mere human, Loki reminded himself. He is much more than that.
Loki followed clint with both speed and grace reaching the top even before Barton could. Lowering himself to crouch beside Barton, he began to observe.
~~~~~~~~~~ Not-really Elsewhere, Midgard ~~~~~~~~~~~
Once Clint had reached the top of the room where an over hang had been built for... well mostly for him to have something to climb on, he bent down placing is weight on the balls of his feet. Agent Barton always does his best work from above, Clint remembered someone saying a long time ago. It was true too, he was far better use to S.H.I.E.L.D. up high, than anywhere else, even inside the helicarrier.
As he sat there observing, a strange sensation passed over him. It was the same one from before in the forest when he thought he was being watched. Looking around he tried to spot what could be causing the feeling that was getting worse by the minute. However, nothing presented itself as the cause; everyone was too busy doing their jobs to even notice him. Even Natasha was preoccupied.
At the last second, right before the he couldn't stand the feeling anymore, clint suddenly stood up sending his bow which he had laid beside him to fall from his perch and clatter noisily to the ground. Many of the Agents below stood up, their guns pointed at the place the bow had landed. Everyone was on alert, growing pale in the face; everyone except Barton who had turned an unsightly shade of rose pink. The question as to what had happened came out of Director Fury's mouth as he entered the room.
That's gotta be the sight of the century. Walking calmly into a room only to realize that everyone has their guns pointed at a stick and string on the floor.
It was Agent Romanoff who spoke next. She had realized what had caused the noise, but her expression asked wether to still be on alert or to ease up because it had simply been a mistake.
"Agent Barton? Is everything alright?"
Startled out of his shocked trance, Clint met eyes with her before answering in a false casual tone.
"Yeah, sorry. My foot slipped, sorry for the commotion, I, uh, yeah sorry," Clint stammers over his words before he descended to retrieve his bow.
All the guns in the room lowered with sighs of relief. The last time a ruckus had been made - about 3 years ago now - it was caused by an un-kill-able, un-harm-able, giant, green, gamma ray, rage monster. With no way of being stopped, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had to lure the beast out of the ship to stop him from tearing the place to pieces. As would be expected, a repeat performance was entirely unwelcome.
Clint picked up his bow and strung it over his shoulder as Natasha walked over to him.
"Could I have a quick word, Agent Barton," stated Agent Romanoff pretending it was a question.
"Sure."
Just as she lead him around the corner out into the hallway, Barton gave a quick glance over his shoulder to his perch. Shaking his head, he followed Natasha while a grinning God strutted in pursuit from behind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsewhere, Midgard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With a stormy sky and a bright flash of light, the Asgardians suddenly came crashing into the ground. Falling to their hands and knees or rolling on in heaps, they landed more roughly than they had anticipated. Since the Bifrost was barely working, it had given them a worse flight than usual.
Sitting up with a groan, Thor's eyes searched through the dark. The grey images of his friends were barely visible in the early morning light. Glancing around he took note of each of his friends situations with alarm.
Volstagg, being the largest in the group, had crashed straight into the Earth resulting in a old-Saturday-cartoon-body-shaped hole in the ground. The shape of the hole, a giant round middle with limbs spiraled out awkwardly, would have made Thor laugh aloud if the situation hadn't been so serious.
Fandral landed on his hands and knees and then rolled down the hill a few feet. Physically, he didn't look too injured, however, Thor noted, once he saw the state of his hair, he would argue otherwise.
Hogun had curled into a ball upon impact and then flattened himself out to latch on to the ground. He was also the shortest in the group and had obviously landed the lightest. As Thor looked on, Hogun had already started to stand up.
It took longer for Thor to locate Sif. He almost called out for her for fear she was gravely hurt, but then as his eyes searched the forest floor his attention was caught by a movement above him. Sif, with her black hair falling around her face, was hanging with her legs wiggling below her and her arms struggling to get a hold of some branches to pry herself free. It was obvious she didn't want to be seen in the position she was in and was trying her hardest to get down before anyone might notice. It was too late.
Thor couldn't help it. It was a very serious situation on a very serious quest, but Thor let the laugh concealed behind his lips burst out with intense volume. After a few moments all four boys were rolling and howling and running out of breathe. Their injuries and quest forgotten, the Asgardian men could hardly hold themselves together, for Sif's butt was properly stuck in the tree.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsewhere, Midgard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Loki almost felt odd listening to Barton's and Romanoff's conversation. The Norse God was used to eavesdropping, but it had been a while since he had listened in on a conversation like this one: behind the lines.
Agent Barton stood with his back to the windows and his face turned up toward the ceiling. Agent Romanoff stood with her feet shoulder width apart, with her arms crossed, and her eyes fixed on Barton's face.
"What was that in there? I know you, Clint. That wasn't a random slip. What happened?" There was a brief pause before she added, "You can tell me, what's bothering you?"
"I," started Barton, shaking his head. "I don't really know. I just, I've got this feeling. I can't shake it, and I don't know where it's coming from, but..." his voice trailed off. There was a look in Clint's eyes that Loki recognized with a strange satisfaction. It was almost as if Loki were proud of him. All that time they had spent together had stuck with Clint, so although he couldn't see Loki, he remembered his presents.
"I just have this feeling like I'm being watched. It's the same feeling I got before we left last night. It's like, it's like we were followed."
Although she kept her expression perfectly blank, Loki saw the change in her eyes. A dash of fear mixed with curiosity began to work its way through her retinas. Not even Clint noticed, but Loki knew what to look for, especially since she had tricked him before. Now he knew her face; he knew her real face.
"It's probably nothing," she tried to convince Clint. "Just... why don't you go take a rest. I'll bet you're just tried."
"Looking a little rejected, but finding the conclusion logical, Barton nodded and set off down the hall.
For a moment Loki was torn on who he should follow, but then he decided it would be perfectly fascinating to watch Clint when he was alone. Curiosity and the sheer scientist in him could not be stopped. And so he followed Clint down to his sleeping quarters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsewhere, Midgard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once Sif had dislodged her rump from the tree's clutches, she promptly - to be in Midgardian terms - beat the living shit out of each boy in turn. After she had recovered her dignity and finished wiping out any respectability her friends had once possessed, Sif walked off to search the surrounding area. With groans and grunts, the men followed the Lady as she made her way down the hill.
Upon reaching the bottom, the Asgardians froze in their tracks as a noise was heard off in the distance. They could not figure where the sound had originated, nor what it was exactly. All they could do was guess, for the noise had been short lived and hadn't been very loud. If there was one thing they could tell for sure, it was that the sound had been male and probably human. Given the circumstances, Thor was unwelcoming to the thoughts that sprung into his head.
Savagely, Thor and his friends rush through the underbrush until they came to a large thicket. Wether or not the sound had been produced in that general area was unknown, however, Thor, Fandral, and Volstagg wasted no time in cutting through the vines or thorns to search within. While Sif rolled her eyes, hogun closed his eyes briefly and shook his head, the others cut away with vigor.
"What, do you suppose, are you to find within a bushel of branches?"
Sif question didn't phase the boys in the slightest.
"Why, we mean to locate the cry for help, of course," Fandral explained with tone of surprise, but not stopping in his work.
"And what made you to believe you shall find it in there?"
"We'll know once we've found it."
Hogun and Sif shared confused expressions for a moment before shrugging off their concern and joining in the search, but not before Sif gave a glance at Thor and realized the meaning of their unnecessary work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsewhere, Midgard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clint's quarters were only a few hundred feet away when Loki fell to his knees suddenly causing a loud, dull thud. Barton spun around, his eyes searching for the culprit, but to no avail. Loki had grown ridged on the ground while his breathe caught in his throat. An image flashed into his mind. It wasn't a welcomed image and Loki almost called out and tried to leap up from his position. However, the watchful eyes of Agent Barton were enough for Loki to keep his composure and allow himself to slowly raise from the ground and lean himself against the wall to catch his breathe.
As the God tried to shake away the nasty picture in his mind, Clint kept looking, desperate to find the thing that wasn't there. After a few moments, Loki pulled himself together, casting all thought from his mind as focusing his attention on Agent Barton.
Slowly, Clint turned back to his quarters and took the fewest strides he could manage to reach them. Upon a spur of the moment thought, Loki decided not to follow the human just yet. There was something calling his back toward the little red head. What was it? Red Ledger? Close enough. It was Romanoff... or something of the like. No matter.
However, instead of turning back toward the command deck, Loki hesitated and listened. There was something there, below him, hundreds of miles away in a mesh of brambles and twigs. There were many of them. At the very least, five. Loki thought to himself then a moment later his added, Why would they come? What are they... oh. Ah, no. Please, don't tell me they know already.
"Well, one must act with speed now. This ought to end well," Loki spoke aloud to himself, bringing his hand up to message his temples with his middle finger and thumb.
To Red ledger first, I think.
The Wordsmith then gracefully waltzed off to the far most South wing of the helicarrier. A damsel there awaited him.
Sorry the this chapter's so short! I didn't mean for it to be! sawwy. I hoped you liked it! Stay tuned for more!
~Lady Spyce