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Ken stepped out of the car and to the small quinjet with Coulson. The entire ride had been silent, after Coulson had explained the mission to find a man named Loki, who was apparently an alien, and a square blue object called the Tesseract, which was an unlimited energy source. Ken wondered for a moment if either were edible, but ended up saying nothing. For the rest of the ride, he wasn't very sure of what to talk about and Coulson had seemed content with the silence. As they boarded the quinjet, though, there was already a blond haired man sitting there waiting. He was dressed in a brown leather jacket and loose jeans, but in the closed environment that the man had been sitting, even Ken could smell that the man was strong. He absently rolled his tongue in his mouth, more muscle was healthier and he was fond of the texture, but it didn't taste quite as good as younger, softer flesh.
The man glanced up at Ken, and his blue eyes widened with surprise at his appearance.
"Ken Kaneki, this is Steve Rogers, Captain America. Steve, this is Ken Kaneki," Coulson said, introducing the two.
"Bit young, isn't he?" Steve asked.
"He's older than you were," Coulson replied. Steve simply nodded, glancing over at Ken, his eyes lingering on the mask.
"I want both of you to take a look at this, these are going to be your teammates for this mission," Coulson said, pulling a clear glass screen out of his briefcase and handing it to Steve. Ken and Steve watched silently as it went through and gave a quick description and picture, along with a couple of video clips, of each of their teammates. When it got to Ken, though, there was a distant picture, and a short description of his observed psychological profile and strengths. Ken noted with interest that it never once mentioned that he ate people. Was SHIELD trying to keep that hidden?
"So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Steve asked, as he watched a short video of the Hulk smashing things. Ken couldn't help but feel a connection, since the Hulk couldn't really control himself when he got angry. Ken just couldn't control himself when he got was probably a good thing he ate just the night before.
"A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula," Coulson replied.
"Didn't really go his way, did it?" Steve said absently, watching the beast pick up a truck and throw it.
"Not so much. When he's not that thing though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking," Coulson explained, pausing for a moment at Steve's confused glance. "He's like a smart person. I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping. I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a... just a huge honor to have you on board," Coulson said, stumbling over himself a bit. Ken glanced over at the Captain. He was pretty sure he had heard of Captain America once or twice since being here, but was the guy really that famous? He had seen the Captain's profile when they were looking through them, so he knew he had been frozen and thought dead for a long time, but still.
"Well, I hope I'm the man for the job," Steve replied, glancing out the window to see the water they were flying over.
"Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input," Coulson said, smiling at the captain.
"The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?" Steve asked, looked pointedly at the black uniform Coulson was wearing, and the black sweater and pants Ken had put on.
"With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned," Coulson said sadly. Ken glanced at Steve, to see him looking pensively at Coulson. Old-fashioned, huh? It wasn't much longer before the quinjet finally landed on the base, an enormous ship in the middle of the ocean. As the ramp lowered, Steve and Ken followed Coulson out onto the landing pad, where a beautiful red-haired woman was waiting for them.
"Agent Romanoff, this is Captain Rogers and Mr. Kaneki. Boys, this is Agent Natasha Romanoff," Coulson introduced.
"Ma'am," Steve said, with an incline of his head. Ken just nodded.
"Hello," She responded, before turning to Coulson, "They need you on the bridge. Face time."
"Alright, I'll see you there," He said, before waving at the three as he walked away, leaving Ken and Steve with Natasha. She looked at both contemplatively.
"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" She asked, looking at the Captain.
"Trading cards?" Steve asked, bewildered.
"They're vintage, he's very proud," she explained, before turning to look at Ken, "And you, no one quite knew what to do with you. The cannibal that never kills."
"What? Cannibal?" Steve asked, staring at Ken. Ken shrugged, like he cared about what they thought of him. Perhaps in a past life, before he had accepted his nature, he might have argued that it wasn't his fault and that he couldn't help it, but the past didn't change the present. And, since he was half human, he was technically a cannibal. He hadn't killed since getting here, but that was because he hadn't done anything that necessitated killing. If these people thought that meant he wouldn't kill in the future, well, that was up in the air. He wouldn't for food, but for defensive purposes? He would slaughter the world. There was a bit of an awkward silence as Ken kept quiet, not rising to the potential argument, and Steve silently watched him with a thinking face. There were some shouts on deck, and suddenly Steve's attention was grabbed by another guest on the deck.
"Dr. Banner!," he called, walking up to the man standing near the edge. The two began talking for a moment, while Natasha spoke with another Agent. A minute later, she turned to Ken.
"You might want to get inside, we're going up and the winds could knock you straight off," she said, "Just ask any agent for directions to the bridge." Ken nodded his thanks and walked over the the main door while Natasha went towards the two men still near the edge. It took him a couple minutes to find the place, but when he did, he was amazed by the size of the room and the technology. Fury and another woman were barking orders left and right as the ship lifted out of the water and into the air. He was watching with quiet shock. Furthermore, he listed as they talked about finding Loki and the Tesseract, sweeping every camera on the planet? His own world had nothing like this. It was no wonder he had been discovered. After a few minutes, Dr. Banner was escorted out by Natasha and Fury stepped over next to where Ken was silently watching out the window.
"You know, you don't need to wear that mask in here, we are your allies," Fury said carefully. Ken's eyes narrowed.
"But will you always be?" He asked quietly.
"So long as you do not kill any humans, yes, we will leave you be. We will never support you, but we won't stop you," Fury said carefully. Ken said nothing. "Kaneki, just remember that these people are going to be your teammates for the duration of the mission, not your enemies. There is no point in trying to maintain this facade of apathy, you have people here who could become good friends if you would allow them to," Fury said.
"How do you know it's a facade?" Ken asked gently.
"Because I know you care about people. You can pretend otherwise to others and to yourself, but I know the truth. You would have killed if you didn't, but instead you go out of your way to search for those already dead, who didn't care about their own lives and who didn't have anyone to care for them. In a way, you do your own sending off ritual, giving their death meaning meaning. Now, I do not agree with your actions, and do not take this as approval, but I do appreciate the effort you have gone to in order to hurt the fewest people possible. That tells me exactly how much you care," said Fury.
"It only indicates that I care when it comes to my own selfish desires," Ken said quietly. Before Fury could respond, however, one of the Agents called out.
"We got a hit! 67% match! Wait, cross-match, 79%. The location is Stuttgart, Germany," The agent said.
"He's not exactly hiding," muttered the man next to him.
"Captain! Kaneki! You're up!" Fury said, turning to go back to his main spot. Steve nodded and immediately followed Coulson out. "Oh, and Kaneki, we have a spare uniform that might suite you a bit better. It was modified slightly based on your noted preferred style of casual wear," Fury said, gesturing to another Agent to lead him across the ship. In the room, he found a black outfit similar to the ones the Agents had been wearing, but it was a bit looser in the top half and had a hood attached to it. Furthermore, there were some thin white lines on the side and front, probably to distinguish him from the actual SHIELD agents. As he felt the cloth, though, he realized that it wasn't leather. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was actually much more flexible than leather, yet just as difficult to tear through. He did look absently at the back of the suit with a frown, if he had to pull his kakuja out, it would shred the back of the suit. Of course, it would do that for pretty much anything he wore, another reason why he hadn't used it much since being here, but it seemed like a shame on such a good uniform. Maybe after this mission he would ask for a modification. He gently put on the uniform and frowned when he saw the guns in the locker as well. He picked up the pistol and eyed it. He wouldn't be against using one, but he never had before and this probably wasn't the time to start learning. After going through the rest of the things in the locker and deciding he didn't recognize any of the tools or how to use them, he threw his hands up in the air and walked out of the room without any of the offered weapons.
The ride to Stuttgart was fast, Natasha pushing the vehicle as quickly as it could go, yet they were almost too late. Just as they were flying over town and saw Loki, he was lowering his spear and shouting something. Steve acted before Ken did, jumping down and hiding behind his shield to reflect the blast back at Loki. The people immediately stood up and began screaming and running from the scene. Ken jumped down just behind the Captain.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing," Captain America said, walking forward with confidence.
"The soldier," Loki snarled, before his face twisted into a smirk, "The man out of time."
"I'm not the one who's out of time," Steve replied calmly. Ken sniffed the air absently. Dear god, what was that scent? It was extraordinarily foreign, not good nor bad, but so different from anything else. It smelled...like ice cream. Ken couldn't remember ever smelling ice cream before, did it even have a scent? He wasn't sure, but it was the only thing he could compare it to. Like ice cream, or a frozen cake. It tickled the nose with a subtle flavor and a chilly atmosphere, yet was strong enough to reach him. He had known that Loki was an alien, but now he was really curious for what the man would taste like. He could probably get away with a couple bites.
"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," Natasha ordered firmly from the quinjet. Loki's response was to chuckle and throw a blue ray in her direction, which Steve responded to by throwing his shield at the alien. Loki turned his head slightly so the shield bounced off his helmet, but Steve followed up by diving straight into combat with the man, using his shield to counteract Loki's spear. However, after a moment, Loki managed to get his spear around the shield and hit the Captain across the courtyard. Ken used this moment to leap onto Loki's back, mask unzipped, but the moment he did he realized he would have to rid the other man of his armor. His teeth wouldn't break through this, he could already tell from the way it resisted his hands trying to crush it. He didn't get another moment to think, though, before he was thrown off. Loki tried to spear him, but had to use the spear to block the shield thrown at him by the super soldier instead.
The shield was knocked away, and Steve again engaged in a fight with Loki, though this time he was without his weapon. Ken grabbed the shield and threw it. His aim was a bit off, but it distracted Loki enough for Steve to grab it in the air and bring it around the try and hit Loki once more. The self-proclaimed god used his spear to knock out Steve's feet from under him, sending the man down to his knees. Loki smirked as he held the point of the spear to the man's head, but before he could say anything, Ken tackled him from the side, ripping off his helmet and shoving him to the ground in a single move. However, he was quickly thrown off by Loki's surprising strength. It didn't matter much though, he had gotten a taste of the man. He grinned broadly, a chunk of the man's ear rolled around in his mouth and Loki held a hand up to the side of his head, stemming the blood flow with fury on his face.
"How dare you!" He shouted, sending a blue blast at Kaneki, who dived the side to avoid it. Suddenly, rock music began to play across the area as a golden blast knocked Loki off his feet. Ironman, better known as Tony Stark, landed in the middle of the pavement, both hands pointed at Loki. "Make a move, Reindeer games," he said, giving both Ken and Steve a chance to breath and come to stand net to him. Some of Loki's blood still dripped from Ken's mouth, astonishingly cold. In fact, it felt like the inside of his mouth was freezing slightly, but by rubbing his tongue over his lips to get the blood, the sensation faded. Loki looked carefully at all of them, before his armor faded off and he held his hands up in surrender.
"Good move," Tony said, lowering his own hands, which Kaneki thought was stupid. If this guy could materialize his armor and weapons, then he was always armed, like a ghoul.
"Mr. Stark," Steve said in greeting.
"Captain. Hannibal." Stark responded, greeting them both. Ken nodded, his mouth still tingling, and his body having the rush of energy that came from eating a good meal. He also wondered if this was at all similar to the rush Touka had experienced after he had allowed her to eat some of him. However, despite the energy that filled his system, his head was hurting rather nastily.
"Alright, lets load him up," Stark said, grabbing Loki and pulling him towards the lowered quinjet ramp. After boarding, Ken sat down and held his head in his hands, rubbing circles on his temple.
"Hey, you alright?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, brain freeze," Ken replied. Because it was. He recognized the weird painful sensation now.
"How'd you get brain freeze?" Steve asked, bewildered. Ken shrugged and gestured at Loki, who was looking at him now with a strange mixture of fascination and hate. Stark let out a rough laugh.
"Ha! Did he really take a chunk out of you, Loki?" He asked with glee. Loki's lips twisted into a mild snarl as he glared at Stark, but the thin layer of blood coming from his ear was clearly visible. Ken had only taken a small piece of it, he hadn't had the time to grab the whole thing. Now, he wondered if it was safe to do so. Sure, Loki tasted good and gave him a rush of energy, but if he had this bad of a brain freeze from biting that tiny part of him, what about a larger chunk? Absently, he cracked one of his fingers.
The sharp sting of pain made him look down and realize what he had done. He hadn't cracked his finger like that in over a year. His blood was boiling, and he had only been in a small fight. An old anger and fire was sparking to life in his gut, and he thought he could faintly hear a certain woman laughing. When was the last time he ate? It had only been a couple of nights ago, yet he felt a craving anyway. He forced it down, he was not Rize; he was not the Binge Eater who gorged herself practically every week. The brain freeze seemed to shoot up and down his spine, and he started to feel like he had a stomach ache. It seemed like eating Loki gave him a lot of immediate energy, but his body didn't like it very much some time after the fact. A woman sat next to Loki, her purple hair draping peacefully over her and her loving eyes resting on his face. One of her hands rose up to caress him.
"Oh Kaneki, could you just imagine how much power you would have after eating him? Sure, he might be cold, but cold won't kill you, you know that already," she said lightly. She shifted, standing up and moving to sit next to Kaneki, who continued to stubbornly look forward. "Or what about some of the other people? The other Avengers? I bet you could get a real rush from Steve. Mm, what a guy, right?" She said, gently setting one hand on Ken's shoulder and leaning into him. "Come on, Kaneki, I thought you had accepted me."
'I have, but I will not hurt those I value.' He thought.
"Oh, so you value these men already? You hardly know them, I bet both will turn their back once they learn your true nature," she said. And she was right, Ken knew. Stark joked about Ken being a cannibal, and Steve had heard, but neither seemed to really grasp it, like it was a distant thing, or a silly rumor. Furthermore, no one on this world had seen him fight beyond his sparring matches down at a local gym, they hadn't seen how he was willing to tear someone apart. Something in him had been broken by his torture, he knew, because he also knew that he would be perfectly willing to rip apart opponents, given the opportunity. And yet, he couldn't quite bring himself to care about the change. He was a ghoul, and that was the way it was.
A sudden crashing sound jolted him out of his thoughts as the quinjet shuddered from an impact. Ken blinked, bringing himself back into focus. At some point, both Tony and Steve had moved over to the front of the aircraft, but Loki had remained sitting where he was, observing Ken with a calculating gaze, though his face seemed a bit worried. A moment later, the back of the quinjet was ripped open, and another man stepped in, grabbed Loki, and stepped out, falling to the ground.
"And now there's that guy," Tony said with a groan, lowering his mask over his face.
"A friendly?" Steve asked.
"Doesn't matter. Whether he frees or kills Loki, we lose the Tesseract," Tony replied, stepping over to the edge of the ship. Steve's eyes widened when he realized what Tony was going to do. "Stark, we need a plan of attack!" He shouted.
"I have a plan. Attack," Tony said before leaping out. Steve cursed and grabbed a parachute, before leaping out to follow Ironman. Ken stood up and stood at the edge, wondering if he should bother with a parachute. In the end though, he decided not to risk it and grabbed one.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. These guys are way above your level, practically gods," Natasha said, seeing Ken put on the parachute. He pulled a little on the tab, not quite sure how to use it, but he would figure it out. Probably.
"Then I will challenge the gods," Ken replied quietly, before leaping out to follow the other two. He could see the controlled flight of Ironman through the dark, so he tried to angle himself towards that. Below him, he could see Steve's parachute hitting the trees a little ways away from the flashes of golden light. He frowned, where was Loki? Ken pulled on the tabs of his parachute when he thought he was at a good height, but it was a bit too low and as he hit the ground in a clearing, he felt the bones in his legs snap. He rolled forward to avoid more injuries, but he still ended up scraping his uniform rather badly.
"Well, I must say, that was a terrible landing," A voice drawled. Ken sat up to see Loki looking down at him with an eyebrow raised. In response, Ken lifted both his broken legs into the air, and they twisted around until they were straight once more. He then leaped up off the ground in a single casual movement.
"I don't need to be good at landings," Ken said.
"I can tell," Loki replied, looking him over in interest, "If I may ask, what are you? Clearly not human, no human could have hurt me the way you did." Ken paused, but kept silent. He ignored the question.
"Come on, we're heading over to the others. If you try to escape, I will restrain you," he said calmly. Loki looked amused, as if Ken was saying something funny, but he simply gestured instead.
"Lead the way, my friend," He said. Ken glanced at him but said nothing, and simply began walking down the side of the cliff to where the others were down below. The third man, the one Ken didn't know but suspected was Thor, had an astonishingly strong scent, rather the opposite of Loki. Whereas Loki's was soft and cold, like ice cream or cake, Thor smelled warm and spicy, like strong curry or Mexican food. Again, though, no more or less delicious than those around him, just a very different flavor. Ken wondered why these beings smelled edible to him, given that Ghouls had always had to eat humans to live. He couldn't eat cows or other animals, so what made the aliens different?
"You want me to put the hammer down?!" Thor shouted, just as they approached the clearing. Ken dropped down low when he saw the hammer strike the shield, digging his feet and hands into the ground as the wave of energy passed him. Loki looked unaffected, and Ken wondered how much of what he said and did was an act. With a groan, the three heroes who had been closer to the epicenter of the blast began to get up.
"Are we done here?" Steve asked with exasperation, looking at the other two.
"Yeah, yeah, we're done," Tony replied casually. Thor looked between the two, then back at his brother standing on the edge of the clearing. He didn't even glance at Ken, who was standing back up.
"Alright Natasha, we're coming back up," Tony said out loud. Ken assumed that it was transmitted to her, as the quinjet lowered itself towards the clearing, the back of it still torn open. Thor grabbed Loki roughly and jumped into the back, nearly lowering the ship a few feet with a loud thud.
"You two flightless bird, grab on," Tony said. Steve hesitated for a moment before gripping Steve's shoulder tightly, while Ken hung off Tony's back. Ironman then quickly ascended, before dropping into the ship. In the light of the ship, Thor finally noticed the thin blood trail going down the side of Loki's face to his jaw.
"Who did that?" He asked, gesturing. It was impossible to tell if he was upset or not, as he was not in a good mood in general. Loki just pointed at Ken, and Thor looked over at him critically.
"How?" He asked.
"He bit me," Loki said, a bit indignant. Thor processed this slowly, but once he did, his eyes narrowed and he looked a bit confused.
"But then, he should be dead," Thor finally said.
"I know," Loki replied, grinning. Thor looked at Ken carefully, before taking a seat across from Loki and waiting out the ride.
"Dead?" Steve asked, but neither Thor nor Loki responded. The ride was quiet for the rest of the flight to the helicarrier. Upon landing, several agents escorted Loki off the ship while the group headed for a briefing room to meet up with Bruce. Once there, they listened to the exchange between Loki and Fury, each glancing at each other and nervously glancing at Bruce when it was brought up that the cage was meant for him. However, Bruce just shrugged it off.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" said Bruce.
"Loki's going to drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked, turning to the Asgardian.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract," Thor explained.
"An army? From outer space?" Steve asked, trying to wrap his head around the idea. Of course, 70 years prior, it would have been a distant science fiction idea, not a legitimate possibility. Ken himself was having a hard time processing it all. Aliens? No one would have believed it back home.
"So he's building another portal, that's what he needs Erik Selvig for," Bruce said, thinking to himself.
"Selvig?" Thor asked sharply.
"He's an astrophysicist," Banner explained.
"He's a friend," countered Thor.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours," Natasha interjected.
"I want to know why Loki let us capture him," Ken said, thinking about how easily Loki followed him. "He had the chance to escape when you guys were fighting, why didn't he? He's not leading anyone from here."
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him," said Bruce carefully.
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother," Thor said carefully.
"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha replied, raising an eyebrow.
"He's adopted," Thor defended.
"The point is that I think we should focus on the mechanics. Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Bruce cut in.
"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony's voice said, cutting over them and echoing around the room. He handed something to Coulson with a few words, before speaking up to them again. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." Tony glanced over at Thor, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing," he said, before continuing with his previous tangent, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Tony stepped up to the main command spot for controlling the ship, looking around.
"Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." Ken leaned forward slightly in his seat to see the agent quickly click out of the game. Meanwhile, Tony covered one eye as he looked over the monitors. "How does Fury see these?" He asked, gesturing to the monitors on his blind side.
"He turns," deadpanned Agent Hill (as Ken had learned her name was).
"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube," Tony explained, turning back to the table.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Tony asked in a mocking voice.
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.
"He needs to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce said, thinking to himself.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect," Tony countered. Bruce blinked, as his eyebrows came together in a concerned look.
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Bruce said.
"Finally, someone who speaks English," said Tony with relief.
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked quietly as Tony and Bruce shook hands.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster," Tony said. Ken blinked, wondering if this was why Tony didn't really have any problems with himself.
"Uh, thanks," Bruce said in response.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him," Director Fury said, striding into the room.
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon," Steve said, trying to contribute.
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys," said Fury.
"Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor said, looking confused.
"I do!" Steve said, sitting up and grinning. He faltered a moment under the glances of the others in the room, "I understood that reference." Tony rolled his eyes.
"What I want to know is how you managed to survive biting Loki's ear," Thor said, looking at Ken seriously, who shrugged, not really seeing the big deal.
"I just bit a part of it off, what is so difficult about that?" He asked. Steve looked a little uncomfortable, probably because biting was considered very underhanded in a fight.
"Though Loki's body has been heavily influenced by the magic of my father and Asgard, he still has the blood of Frost Giants running in his veins and direct contact with it for a human should have frozen you solid," Thor explained. Huh, maybe that was why he had a killer brain freeze earlier.
"I have a strong healing factor," Ken replied, shrugging, "maybe that's why?" He wasn't going to explain that healing didn't help much when you were frozen, it would just keep you alive. He also wasn't going to explain that he wasn't quite human, and that his ghoulish constitution was probably why he hadn't been frozen solid. Thor looked at him with skepticism, along with Fury and Natasha, Ken noticed. Steve seemed to accept the explanation, and Bruce just shrugged, probably not caring. However, Tony spoke up.
"Bullshit, an advanced healing factor doesn't work like that," he said. Ken looked at them all blankly.
"Well, I don't have any other explanation," he said. Tony examined Ken carefully looking thoughtful, before he suddenly turned to Bruce and smiled.
"Hey, want to go play?" He asked. Bruce looked a bit startled at the change of topic.
"Alright," he said hesitantly, following Tony out and to the lab. The rest of the group all looked at each other and slowly broke away, leaving just Ken and Thor at the table to talk. And one other person. A girl with long purple hair, standing behind Thor, running her fingers through his hair, though it didn't move.
"Hm, not as tender as I would like," she said, running one of her hands over the Asgardian's muscular shoulders, "but definitely a new and unique flavor. I think it's worth trying, don't you?" She asked, looking over at Ken. Ken decided to ignore her. He did not need hunger hallucinations right now, especially not on a ship full of humans. Why was he even having them? He had recently eaten, yet his stomach felt strangely empty. He didn't recall expending a lot of energy, why was he already starting to suffer hunger pains? Rize vanished.
"Hm, eating Loki should have frozen you. Perhaps it did, on the inside. Your body would have shed and digested the dead parts, then regrown them. You did expend energy, a lot more than you thought, in that fight. Why not refuel? This man here should do the job fantastically, the energy boost of Loki, but minus the pesky Frost Giant blood," Rize said, wrapping her arms around Ken from behind. One of her hands came up to gently brush some of his hair out of his face. Ken stood up sharply, dissipating the hallucination as he shook his head to clear it.
"I'll be in my room," he said quickly, before leaving to walk down the hall. He tried not to notice how sensitive he was to the scent of each person he passed. Or how it felt like Rize was trailing just behind him.