parterNotes: Have some more characters. And, okay, so maybe that wasn't exactly a one-shot cameo after all. Sorry to abandon Jane for the moment but I am going to try to keep the chapters short and focused so we can get this story told!
Chapter Two
"All right, are you ready to give it a go?" George asked, looking both scientifically interested and very excited.
"I believe so," Loki replied, looking quite excited himself as he studied the map coordinates. "I shall send back a photograph when I arrive, so you may see whether I have been successful."
"Or you could just look for the sign that says RAF Museum and tell us when you get back," Mitchell suggested, and was the recipient of three dirty looks from his housemates.
"And where, pray tell, is the fun in that?" Loki demanded.
"Don't be a killjoy," Annie scolded.
"Good point," Mitchell admitted. "Okay, off you go before the place opens." There was a green flicker and Loki vanished, map book and all. A moment later, George's mobile buzzed with an incoming message. He opened the attachment and held up the device to show a selfie of a smiling Loki standing in front of the model Spitfire and Hurricane on display on the green at the Royal Air Force Museum location at Hendon, in London. The three housemates broke into cheers, which were interrupted by a knock at the front door.
"Are we expecting anyone?" Mitchell asked rhetorically as he walked over to open it. "Oh- hullo." He backed into the front hall, accompanied by Thor's friend Fandral, looking as much like Robin Hood as ever, but uncharacteristically anxious.
"Hi Fandral?" Annie greeted him, and Fandral, with a tense smile, answered her implied question:
"Hello, Annie. Is Loki here?"
"He went to London for a few minutes, but he should be back soon, he needs to get to work," Annie replied with a far more genuine smile of her own. "He's been working on using map coordinates to navigate through Yggdrasil, and he wanted to experiment with a location he's never been to. Would you like a cup of tea while you wait?"
"Thank you, but I think not," Fandral said, fidgeting. "Do you know how long he will- ?" The question broke off in a muffled yelp as Loki reappeared at his elbow. Annie, George and Mitchell exchanged looks. You would expect Fandral to be used to Loki's sudden appearances after all those years, so this twitchiness had to mean he was seriously worried about something.
"Fandral," Loki began, his expression mirroring the concern of his friends. "What brings you to see us?"
"Thor sent me to fetch you," Fandral explained, which brought Annie's eyebrows up. Loki was not a thing to be fetched, even if Fandral chose to play Thor's Labrador. She had opened her mouth to make a sharp reply when a second's further thought stopped her: Thor knew all that perfectly well. In the time Loki had lived here in Bristol, Thor had never behaved as though his brother was his to command. Either Fandral was misstating his mission, which was possible, or some sort of emergency had occurred and Thor badly needed his brother's help. Given Fandral's manner so far, the second possibility seemed the far likelier.
It was evident that Loki understood this.
"Fetch me?" he replied, rather than the "Fetch me?" intonation he might have used if he was taking offense. "And why have you been sent on this mission?"
"Jane Foster has been abducted," Fandral replied bluntly. "Thor is in New Mexico at her home, and he bid me- "
Fandral broke off as Loki seized his arm. There was a green flash, and both of them disappeared.
~oOo~
The pair stepped out of Yggdrasil in front of Jane Foster's research facility. Loki ran inside, to find Thor and Tony engaged in an intense discussion, while Steve attempted to calm the distraught Darcy. Leaving Fandral to help with that task, Loki joined his brother and Tony on the other side of the room. Without preamble he addressed his brother.
"Fandral tells me that Jane has been abducted. What is known?"
Thor turned a worried face toward him. "It happened… perhaps an hour ago. Darcy tells me they heard a sound outside. Jane thought it was animals foraging in their rubbish, and went to investigate. She was captured by two strange creatures and taken away in a spacecraft."
"Darcy saw this?" Loki prompted.
"No, Jane called to Heimdall, who saw the creatures. And then the spacecraft vanished."
Loki raised his eyebrows. "Vanished?"
Tony interjected, "According to Darcy, they got a Skype call just as Jane went outside, from a guy Jane is collaborating with on some kind of new research angle. He said it looked to him like there was an Einstein-Rosen bridge opening. He was pretty insistent that Jane get to her observatory fast, and of course the data he was looking at was recorded here. If an ERB did open it's possible that's what the spacecraft used to get here, and to get away again with Jane. The thing is, I don't know if the bridge is still open now or, if it is, whether we could use it to follow them somehow." With an expression of commingled frustration and shame, Tony admitted, "I've taken a look at Jane's data but I can't make heads or tails of it. Darcy's tried to send a message back to the collaborator, but he hasn't answered yet. He's in England, and he seems to have been up most of the night working on Jane's data so he's probably shut down his computer and gone to bed. We could get SHIELD's office in London to send someone to speak to him, but even if he could explain the data I'm not sure there's anyone at SHIELD who can actually understand it-"
"Could you understand? If it was explained to you by this scientist?" Loki interrupted.
"Yeah, I think so," Tony replied. "I'm not sure how that- "
"If you and this research collaborator can explain to me where the opening is, Thor and I should be able to work out how to follow it to find Jane." Loki carefully did not look at the expression of relief on his brother's face, but Thor's faith in him compelled him to admit, "I cannot guarantee I can do so, but Yggdrasil is everywhere, and we must try, yes?"
"Yes," Thor spoke up fervently.
"Very well. You say this scientist is in England?" Loki prompted. Tony nodded. "I have been working on using Midgardian map coordinates to navigate through Yggdrasil, and of course I am fairly familiar with England. I should be able to transport both of us-" Thor made an involuntary movement and Loki amended- "the three of us to the home of this scientist. Surely he will be eager to help retrieve his research partner."
"Right," Tony said, and called across the room to Darcy. "Do you have an address for Brian May? A physical address, I mean."
"Brian May?" Loki demanded in astonishment. Thor looked anxious again, which Loki found painful. He tried to look reassuring but his brother, clearly fearing that Loki had knowledge of the scientist as some sort of English supervillain, demanded,
"You know of him?"
"No, no," Loki replied hastily. "It is only- there is in England a guitar player of the same name. He is very famous, but obviously he is not the same- "
"He is," Tony- by now examining the call history on Skype for the location information they needed- interrupted. "It's the same guy. You've heard of him?"
"I live in England, Tony," Loki replied, trying to play up a little in case it helped calm his brother. "Of course I have heard of Brian May." Addressing his brother once more, Loki added reassuringly, "Apparently he is a kind man, fond of animals and also other humans, and of course he is also an associate of Jane's. Surely he will be happy to assist us."
"Got it," Tony announced. "We need a map of southern England- "
Loki held up the map book he was still holding. "As it happens, I have one."
"Great," said Tony. "Hand it over."
~oOo~
Being, so to speak, under pressure, Loki had quite forgotten that Tony had never passed through Yggdrasil with him before. Tony coped quite well with the disorienting experience, by which Loki meant he did not vomit on the front steps of their destination. After giving his human friend a moment to compose himself, Loki knocked on the door. There being no immediate answer, he took hold of the door handle and applied a little judicious magic. The locking mechanism turned and the door opened.
"Ordinarily, of course, I would not think of doing such a thing," Loki assured Tony and his brother- truthfully- at least here in England it was the truth, he endeavoured to obey the laws of his new home as well as he could- "But this is indeed an emergency."
Which of course could not be expected to be of immediate comfort to their quarry when he strolled out of his kitchen, in pyjamas and dressing gown, to behold three total strangers in his home. However, it was to be supposed that, in the course of a long and varied career, Brian May had perhaps seen stranger things than superheroes in the vestibule. At any rate, he refrained from exclaiming, or dropping his cup of tea, and an apparently deeply ingrained sense of courtesy meant his first words to his uninvited guests were,
"May I help you?"
Loki, as the English resident of the group, should probably have spoken for them. However he found himself momentarily distracted by the contrast between the tall, silver-haired, elderly man before him and the dark-haired young one depicted on the record albums in Mitchell's collection- the first of which had been recorded only a matter of some forty or fifty years ago. Not for the first time, Loki found himself reflecting upon the painfully brief lives of humans.
Jane deserved to enjoy her full complement of years. They must rescue her.
"We sure hope so," Tony blurted. "My name is Tony Stark, you may recognize my friend Thor here-" Thor being garbed as a prince of Asgard, in armour and cape, such recognition was extremely likely- "and his brother Loki." Loki raised a hand in greeting. Brian May nodded politely in return. Tony went on, "We're all friends of Jane Foster. I understand you've partnered with her on some research."
Brian May made a slight face which suggested repudiation, and demurred, "Not to say partnered."
"What do you mean?" Thor demanded, glancing at Loki in alarm and no doubt seeing his expression mirrored on his brother's face. If this human refused to acknowledge Jane, to help her-
-They would compel him, Loki thought, knowing full well that mind control was not an ethical use of magic- and entirely unable to care.
"More of a glorified research assistant, really," Brian May explained tranquilly. "I mean- she's Jane Foster." He glanced from one to the other, apparently seeking to ensure they understood the significance. "For someone in astrophysics, working with her is like… well, it's rather like getting to play with Jimi Hendrix. I can't think of anyone doing more fascinating research. It's tremendously exciting to be invited to play even a small role in it." He paused, frowning slightly as a thought occurred to him, and asked, "Incidentally, how did you get in here?"
"Magic," Loki replied succinctly. "We need your help. Jane is missing. She appears to have been abducted by something that came through the space bridge she was studying. We must find the entrance to this bridge in order to rescue her, but without Jane we do not know how to interpret the information she has collected. Will you assist us?"
"Abducted?" Brian May echoed, demonstrating a most gratifying ability to grasp the most important point. "Yes, of course. Come with me." Abandoning his teacup on a random surface, he led the way down a passage to his study. There he started up his computer and began opening files. Tony leaned over his shoulder and the two humans embarked on an intense discussion while Thor and Loki stood awkwardly waiting.
Finally, Tony turned to Loki. "Okay," he said, "this is what the stars look like from Jane's observatory. The Einstein-Rosen Bridge activity occurred here- " From there, Tony's description was technical but not incomprehensible, and indeed when Tony ventured too far into the jargon of physics, Brian May was able to offer a simplified version.
Eventually, Loki nodded. "I believe I understand. Tony, shall I return you to New Mexico before Thor and I depart?"
Tony shook his head. "No, I've got enough contacts here that I can sort myself out."
"I can offer you breakfast and perhaps you can fill me in a little further on exactly what happened," Brian May suggested. Tony accepted with alacrity and May turned to Loki. "How are you… traveling?"
"Yggdrasil- the World Tree- " Loki began, and May nodded his recognition of the name. "All places are connected through Yggdrasil, and with this information as a guide my brother and I will be able to make our way to the opening of what you call this Einstein-Rosen Bridge. We shall then follow it, climbing through Yggdrasil, until we find Jane."
Brian May showed himself a true scientist in the mode of Jane herself, in that he wasted no time protesting the impossibility of Loki's plan. Instead, looking concerned, he merely asked,
"And you're certain you can find your way back?"
It was apparent from Tony's expression that this had not occurred to him. Loki gave both humans a reassuring smile.
"Should I become disoriented, I will simply take us to Asgard, which is close to the roots of Yggdrasil and as such is impossible to miss." Which was, perhaps, not strictly the truth, but what was the point in being the God of Lies if you could not tell a small falsehood to reassure your friends? "We will then return here via the most direct route." Perhaps they would travel by Bifrost. Jane seemed to enjoy that the last time she had done so. Aware of his brother vibrating with impatient anxiety beside him, Loki smiled at Brian May and made their farewells. "Thank you for your assistance and your hospitality. We should go."
"Please let me know when you've got Jane safely back," said Brian May, as he and Tony followed them to the door. The brothers stepped outside onto the lawn, and Loki took his brother's arm as he felt for Yggdrasil.
A moment later, they were gone.