Title: The Truth About Heroes
Author: Cheza
Rated: anywhere from Teen to Mature (I don't know how descriptive I'm gonna make the gory stuff until I get there)
Series: Avengers
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Family
Summary: Based on prompt here: norsekink. livejournal 8802. html?thread = 18623074&
Loki saves Tony Stark from something (falling building perhaps?) that costs Loki a limb. Tony then builds a robotic limb to replace it. Friendship happens.
Bonus: The amputation is forced on Loki and there is lots of pain and angst.
Author's Note: Sorry it's taking so long to get these up but college has started again and I have a 17 hours worth of classes (2 are online).
Thank you to the reviewers, I probably would not have even finished this chapter with your praise and your very helpful tips and ideas. I appreciate every single one.
roguexmagneto
Jester's Pet Oriole
GuesssWho
ObeyTheFluff
LaPirataAna
Power of Funk
Guest
skydancer2ooo
EvilConcubine
sylena
Now, onto the story!
Chapter 2
This was never supposed to happen. That's what Fury tells us after the conscious members of our group assembled in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s conference room. This was never supposed to happen, and the only reason it did is because some security guard got lazy. After the fight was over and Loki was taken to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s on base hospital (and Thor was forced to leave his side), our "glorious commander" began by telling us that they had backtracked and found the place that thing came from. What they found left us feeling ill.
Apparently, this came from a small branch lab belonging to Osborn's company. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents found an injured, twenty-something-year- old and when they tried to take him in to get his wounds treated; he started shouting about how he "stuck it to the man" and all but admitting to what he did. The reports state that he had snuck past a sleeping guard to sabotage the lab. Instead of just pouring the chemicals down the drain like a good little anarchist, he began to mix them like only someone who's never even taken a high school chemistry class could. It wasn't just acids he was mixing; it was radio-active DNA. Specifically, the already modified DNA of an earth worm and an octopus. Well, that certainly explains the color, multiple limbs, and regeneration. The thing is, it also had human DNA belonging to a scientist who was just unlucky enough to walk in on this creep.
We stood by as he was taken into a high security holding area, not one of us feeling any pity for him, especially not Bruce. Both he and Thor had to be escorted out before they decided that bashing this guy's head in was worth punishment by S.H.I.E.L.D.. After that we peeled off from the group one by one, all headed to the same place. The medical ward looked and smelled like all others, with its too bright lights and the ever present smell of disinfectant. I arrived to the sight of Thor sitting dejectedly at his unconscious brother's side, holding Loki's remaining hand between his own. Bruce was alternating between talking to the lead doctor and translating for Thor, who seemed to only be half-listening.
Mustering up what little resolve I had left after such a tiring day, I finally took a good look at Loki. He looked awful, to put it bluntly. He, thankfully, seemed to be breathing well enough on his own. His upper-torso was bare of everything except a blanket and a thick wrapping of bandages that wound around his trunk to hold his ribs in place and to keep his shoulder from bleeding everywhere or becoming infected.
Only just noticing the doctor had left, I turned to Bruce.
"Care to summarize?"
With a sigh, he nodded, eyes never leaving the brothers. "When they first brought him in, he couldn't breathe because three of his ribs had pierced his lungs. They rushed him into surgery but, after they reset the bones, his lungs had already started healing themselves. A perk of being a magic user, I guess. It's the same with most of his other injuries. The only one that still needs to be watched closely is his shoulder. It seems that poor doctor didn't just take his arm; it ripped it right out of its socket. The surrounding muscle, bone, and ligaments took quite a bit of damage. Between that and the punctured lung, he lost a lot of blood."
"Wait, I thought you said his magic is healing him."
"It is, mostly. The damage to his shoulder is going to take time, even with magic. Even then, he'll have to learn to cope with one hand."
For some reason, I couldn't help but feel guilty for exactly that. The mental image of Loki attempting move about and fight with only one arm certainly didn't help. Then it hit me.
"Maybe. Maybe not."
Bruce and Thor both looked at me, one with wary curiosity and the other with hope.
"What do you mean," Bruce asked, the caution in his tone enough to concern Thor (if facial expression is anything to go by).
"Did you know the Iron Man suit is listed as a prosthetic and not a weapon," I asked instead of answering. I couldn't help my grin as the implications sank in, Thor returning it with one of his own. Bruce, however, did not seem to share our excitement.
"Please tell me you aren't serious," the scientist asked in exasperation.
"Hey! What's wrong with my plan," I asked playfully, though no less honestly. As one of the few others in our group to understand the advanced sciences, I truly respect his opinion even if I don't always follow his advice.
"For one, your armor IS a highly destructive weapon, no matter how it is classified. Two, there's no guarantee that he'll agree to this so making plans before he even wakes up is somewhat pointless. And finally, even if you could make him a working arm, do you honestly believe for a second that Fury will let you simply make only one to give to an ex-criminal?"
I made sure to smirk for their benefit, but could not help the internal wince. He was right; Fury would not only attempt to confiscate the arm but have it disassembled so that his super-spy techies would be able to build more. Well, there were ways around that sort of thing.
"I can make one without built in weapons; it would be kind of lame but I can do it. I don't know why Loki would refuse the chance to have such an awesome arm, but I guess that is a possibility. And as for Fury, I can make it so that if he tries to take it, it will bug out on him. Essentially, it would only work while attached to Loki."
"And how do you propose that," Bruce asked, curiosity mixing with exasperation in his tone.
"Good question," I replied. "What I think I'll try to do is connect sensors in the arm directly to his nervous system through a port installed in his shoulder…" I could not help but look over at Thor as movement caught my eye, and had to stifle a laugh at the sight of Hammer Time looking back and forth between Bruce and myself; almost like a dog following a Ping-Pong match.
"And how are you going to keep Fury from taking it and using it," Bruce prompted, intent on ignoring Thor's confused attempt at listening in.
"Oh, eh. As I was saying, Loki isn't human and he isn't… like Thor. What did you call him," I asked Sparky, ignoring his scowl at the reminder that, no, he and Loki aren't blood-related.
"He is technically a Jotun-"
"Jotun, right," I continued on, thankful that Thor was too busy clutching at his brother's hand to consider coming after me. "The thing is, he is the only one of his kind on earth. Even if Fury gets ahold of the arm, if it's built to work exclusively with Loki's biology, then he wouldn't be able to do anything with it. We already know his core temp runs several degrees below that of a normal human when he's wearing a human form and a lot colder when not. We also know he has the metabolism of a shrew and that's partially why he's small for his kind. There are a lot of things that this arm would need to function that simply wouldn't work with a human user and that's only considering what little we actually know about how his body works." By this time, I had gone from calm explanation to excited gestures in a hopeless attempt to convey the possibilities appearing right before my eyes.
"So, in other words, you want to make an arm that is so Loki-friendly that it would be impossible for anyone else to use it. Do you have any idea how difficult, if not impossible, such a task would be?" As skeptical and irritated as he sounded, Bruce could not not smile at my enthusiasm and nearly choked with laughter at my response.
"Challenge accepted."