alright, bringing the first chapter for you!

A huge thanks to scullens71 for beta reading it for me :D

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker


Chapter I

In Which A Beer Bottle Fell Out of Nowhere

"I really don't see what all the fuss is about."

"Do you not truly feel the gravity of your crimes? Wherever you go there is war, ruin, and death."

"I wanted to rule the people of Earth as a benevolent God, just like you."

"We are not Gods. We are born, we live, we die, just as humans do."

"Give or take five thousand years."

"All this because Loki desires a throne."

"It's my birthright!"

"Your birthright was to die… As a child! Cast out onto a frozen rock. If I had not taken you in you would not be here to hate me."

"If I had fully asked for true mercy, I'd say just swing it. It's not that I don't love our little talks, it's just… I don't love them."

"Frigga is the only reason you are still alive and you will never see her again. You will spend the rest of your days in the dungeon."

"And what of Thor? You'll make the witless oaf king while I rot in chains?"

"Thor must strive to undo the damage you have done. He will bring order to the Nine Realms and then, yes, he will be king."

oOoOoOo

"No Steve, I did not meet any British boy, you know after last year I tend to avoid them… Yes yes, I did sleep during the long flight… Still have to get used to the time switch though… No, I did not eat three scoops of ice cream…"

"Actually she just did!" Darcy screamed into my phone as she passed me by.

I glared at her and quickly shooed her away. Darcy laughed and disappeared into the kitchen, and I carried on with my conversation on the phone. "London is beautiful, the people are really nice, and the tea is just awesome… And no, nothing happened to me yet… THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"

Jesus Christ! I just arrived yesterday and a certain star-spangled man has been constantly calling and texting me. I have seriously considered telling Tony he should take Steve's phone away for a good cause. Doing international calls costs a lot and I don't think SHIELD would be all too happy to see his phone bill at the end of the month.

"Yeah I got. I will call you in the evening. Bye."

I finished the call and put my phone back into my jeans pocket, letting out a tired sigh. It's November already, and almost a whole year has passed without any real incident that I got involved with. I could say, it almost looked like I could live a 'normal' live and graduate safe and sound from school next year and then finally start an ordinary college li-

DING DONG

The doorbell.

"Darcy!" I screamed through the hallway, while walking to the door "The doorbell rang!"

"Then open it!" She yelled back.

Uh huh, no way I'm going to open the door for a complete stranger. Last time I did that an Extremis soldier appeared (who was a Brit by the way), and I really don't want to have the same experience again.

So this is what I did: Standing on my tiptoes, I looked through the peep hole. On the other side of the door stood a rather weedy looking young man. He kept turning his head around nervously, as if a double-decker bus was going to drive through the hallway soon.

Deciding that he was most likely harmless, I opened the door.

"Hey." I greeted with a raised eyebrow.

"Hello. I'm Ian Boothby and I'm looking for Darcy Lewis." The weedy boy introduced himself.

"Uh, sure. Just wait a moment." Shutting the door I looked over my shoulder and started to yell again. "Darcy! There's a weird guy looking for you! He says his name is Ian Boothby!"

"Oh oh oh! That's my intern!" Came the quick response, followed by the loud noise of something crashing down (followed by an 'Oops') and the dark haired girl quickly rushed to the door and opened it, inviting the boy in.

… Right, an intern. I thought Darcy was already an intern? So basically Ian was the intern's intern? Do I even have to understand this? No wait, lemme rephrase that. Was Darcy responsible enough to take an intern under her wing? I mean this is a huge responsibility. I have the feeling if Boothby doesn't follow her ordes, he might just get tazed.

I'd sell my soul to see that.

Darcy and her intern settled themselves down in the kitchen ("So intern, your first job is to clean the kitchen. We need a clean space to work"). At first I thought maybe I should just join them, and humor myself with how she was going to handle the poor intern, but then I decided it was better to just keep my distance for now. Who knows in what kind of internship mess I will get involved in. Especially since all those things are rather scientific… And that wasn't really my forte.

Carefully I made my way through the living room to the television. A lot of different kind of scientific devices – that one next to the cupboard looked like a toaster – were scattered all over the floor, so I really had to make sure I wasn't stepping on or touching any of them. Who knows what happens when I did that. I could lose a foot.

Rather ungracefully I plopped down into the couch and grabbed for the remote, though it took me a rather long time to switch on the TV and find the right channel. Admittedly, I don't own a TV at home and thus I had no idea how to use one. Sometimes I just don't get why people cannot survive without a TV. Personally I always thought that a stable Internet connection, a good computer, and Netflix was all you needed for living.

While the TV was running, I stared out to the balcony. It was more a winter garden with a door that led outside. Tables and chairs were placed there. I just remembered I haven't seen Selvig since my arrival, which I found quite odd, but dismissed the thought quickly. As far as I know, Darcy and Jane moved to London because of a scientific phenomena happening here or some jazz like that. And now he disappeared to God-knows-where.

Well, not that I wanted to talk much to him anyway. I knew he was involved with SHIELD and the Tesseract project for some time, he (probably) knew about my situation with the Tesseract energy, since they (or rather Loki) required my blood to fully activate the cube.

But I wonder how much Jane and Darcy knew about Erik and my involvement with the alien invasion. As far as I remember, SHIELD send them to somewhere safe, but just how much did they hear about it?

The first time when I met Jane Foster – which was when Darcy came to pick me up at the airport – I was really nervous. There was all those 'what if' questions running through my head. What if she doesn't like me? What if she asks me about Thor? What if she asks me about SHIELD? What if what if what if… In my defense, I have to say I had every reason to be worried. I was going to stay in their apartment for a whole week, so I think it is pretty important we get along in some way.

In a way, we do have a mutual respect for each other. But sometimes when we were alone, I feel this tension in the air. I know Jane wants to bomb me with questions, but there was that invisible force telling her not to do that.

The news started to play. Unlike Steve, I didn't really listen or watch the news every day, unless someone forces me to, so I was prepared to press the button to switch to another channel when suddenly the screen showed someone streaking in the wilderness.

The wilderness just happened to be the famous British tourist attraction, Stonehenge, and the streaker just happened to be Erik Selvig. At least the unpleasant body parts were censored for the minor audience (like me).

"I'm here at Stonehenge, for what has been an interesting unfolding of events today." The newscast lady explained to the audience "The police reported the scene shortly after 11 AM this morning, after a seemingly harmless rambler approached the area then started to strip naked and effectively terrorize tourists there with scientific equipment while shouting that he was trying to save them. The man, later identified as noted Astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig, has been called in for questioning by police."

Well, and here I was wondering where the heck he wandered off. But hey, glad to know he was still alive.

And naked.

Didn't Jane ask Darcy this morning about his exact whereabouts? Maybe I should tell them, or give them a hint at least.

Switching off the TV and maneuvering my way through the living room to the hallway again, I grabbed for my scarf and jacket, and popped my head into the kitchen to see how Darcy was handling the intern.

She was sitting at the table and eating chips while Ian was doing the dishes. The sight made me raise an eyebrow. Wasn't it Darcy's turn to do the dishes today?

"Hey, I'm just going out for a while, exploring and buying souvenirs, stuff like that." I told her.

"Alrighty then. Oh, can you buy more of those chips?" She held up an empty bag. It looked like Lays chips, but it said Walkers instead.

Heh, Great Britain renamed Lays to Walker. I like it.

"Will do. And you might want to take a look at the news. Or not. Depending on if you want to see Selvig naked."

Before Darcy could ask what I meant with that I left the apartment with a laugh.

oOoOoOo

"Is Vanaheim secure?"

"As are Nornheim and Ria, though our work would have gone more quickly with you in form."

"You must think I'm a piece of bread that needs to be buttered so heavily."

"That was not my intent."

"For the first time since the Bifrost, the Nine Realms are in peace. We're well reminded of our strength and you have earned their respect and my gratitude."

"Thank you."

"Nothing out of order except your confused and distracted heart."

"This isn't about Jane Foster, father."

"Human lives are fleeting, they're nothing. You'd be better served by what lies in front of you. I'm telling you this not as the All-Father, but as your father. You are ready, the time has come for you to take the throne. Embrace, celebrate what you have won. Join your warriors, eat and drink, revel in their celebration. At least pretend to enjoy yourself."

oOoOoOo

London was certainly different from New York City.

To me, it was more historical.

Not that New York City didn't have any history or anything like that, but compared, to London, NYC was just meh. First of all, I love their taxis and double-decker buses, though it's gonna take me some time to get used to the left side.

Yesterday for example I walked to the right side of the car and opened the door, ready to get in, only to realize that that was actually the driver's seat. And then I had the biggest problem with getting to the other side of the street. At the end I had to tell myself I need to start to think like a Brit while walking through London.

Another thing I should get used to was their vocabulary. The word chips in Great Britain means French fries and the chips I know is called crisps here.

As I thought more about possible words I need to look up, I passed an abandoned building. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind appeared, making my hair twirl around and blocking my view.

Frantically, I shook my head around, trying to put my hair back into its place. And here I thought cutting my hair would prevent it from getting in my way.

Just like how the wind suddenly appeared, it also disappeared without great warning.

Typical London weather maybe?

Silence filled in the air, making me realized that I was in fact alone here. No sound of the wind, no cars, nothing. It was just silent. A really uncomfortable feeling began to settle down in my stomach.

In no way was I a trained assassin, or a tech genius, or a demigod. But I guess every human gets supplied with a sixth sense, and right now it was telling me that there was something not quite right.

The only problem was I did not know exactly what.

Well, guess there was only one way to find out.

Reaching into my trench coat pocket, I brought out my tenth Doctor sonic screwdriver (it's actually a pen with UV light, really useful for writing secret messages down). Doing my best the Doctor imitation, I stretched out my arm while holding the screwdriver – it made the sonic sound – and checked my surroundings with it.

Yep, Doctor Who has completely taken over my life, and I think this was more serious than the Loki's army business last year.

And I believe that was a stupid move. I should be glad no one was here to witness that.

Maybe I was just being paranoid again. Like always.

Silently laughing at my own stupidity, I shrugged my shoulders, ready to keep walking and deliver the crisps to Darcy, when suddenly right in front of my nose an empty beer bottle appeared out of nowhere, dropping to the ground.

Surprised and a bit scared at the same time, I stared at the now smashed glass pieces, and then proceed to look into every direction, wondering if there was someone who threw it at me. It looked like it dropped out of nowhere, but I could have been mistaken.

… I should just keep going.

When I left that place, another gust of wind appeared, but this time I swear it was like someone was whispering something to me.

'Soon'.

It sent a shudder down my spine. Perhaps it was a bad idea to come to London.

oOoOoOo

"There was a time you would celebrate for weeks."

"I remember you celebrated the battle of Haragon so much that you nearly started a second."

"Well, the first was so much fun… Take a drink with me. Surely the All-Father could have no further task for you tonight."

"No, this is one I set myself."

"It has not gone unnoticed that you disappear each night. There are Nine Realms. The futureking of Asgard must focus on more than one."

"I thank you for your sword and for your counsel, good Lady Sif."

oOoOoOo

The intern was still in their apartment when I returned, though this time he and Darcy were actually working on something. Sadly the kitchen didn't look like a kitchen anymore.

Three laptops stood on the table, each one had a different program running. It looked complicated, and it most likely was. All the laptops were connected to some scientific gadgets that were placed all over the kitchen for whatever purpose.

It was a mess. But at least the dishes were done

Good job, intern!

But this means now I have to maneuver my way through the kitchen too, just to get to the fridge. I could live without watching TV, but not taking a midnight trip to the fridge? Hell no.

I'm sure if Jane was here it wouldn't be so messy.

Speaking of her…

"I haven't seen Jane the whole day." I pointed out while throwing the bag of chips at Darcy.

Happy at the sight of food, she opened the bag and reached into it. "Dunno, meeting a guy or something like that. Lately she's been texting a Richard dude a lot." She bit into the potato chips and savored the taste "It's time to get a new guy, I mean it has been already two years and – intern, don't get distracted by our gossips – and I think that Richard is a good guy."

The not-so-unimportant information Darcy revealed made me furrow my eyebrows in confusion and slight worry.

Who the fuck is Richard? And how dare Jane give up on the Golden Retriever of the Avengers for some muggle? I don't like even like his name, so I think that guy is most likely an asshole. Or just plain boring.

But then again, I guess Jane can't hang on Thor forever and ever. She has to move on sooner or later. This actually made me think of that time when I had the huggest crush on Peter Parker and it was the worst feeling in the world when I realized he was meant to be with Gwen Stacy. It wasn't helping that I actually got along well with her.

But enough about love and crushes and what not!

A device that looked like a giant calculator suddenly started to beep annoyingly. Instantly, Darcy got up from her chair and grabbed for it, staring at the screen before turning around and then shaking it.

"Why won't it stop making those noises?" She complained.

"Maybe you should hit it a few times." I suggested lamely, slightly amuse at Darcy's struggle.

She did what I told her, hit it a few times. The device did not stop making those noises though, and it was starting to get on my nerves. I noted how the screen was showing some weird signals, but to me it was just some wavy lines that kept moving in circles.

Not that it concerned me in any way.

Somewhat scared, the intern slowly raised his hand, wanting to say something. "Perhaps those are some important readings?"

Darcy looked at the intern with a that's ridiculous look, and then back at the screen. It went on for a while like this, before she widened her eyes in shock and delight, gasping: "Oh my God, those readings are similar to the readings Erik rambled about!"

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I felt like I should apply something to their conversation. "Does Jane know about it? Maybe she should take a look at it."

"She's having a lunch date with Richard." Darcy explained and put the device back on the table. "It'd be really rude to disturb them right now."

Silence.

And then slowly a smirk crept onto my face. "We so gotta do that."


well, gotta say I had a lot of fun writing it, especially since Darcy is a really fun character!

review please? :)