Nick Fury waited in the control room, standing and watching, sometimes pacing. Some of the higher ranking agents on the premisses had tried to persuade him that he should go and sleep, or at least sit and maybe eat something now that the battle was over and the threat contained. There was no guarantee that the prisoner Fury was so intently waiting for was even going to wake up today.

Fury had refused their suggestions, he would be here when Loki regain consciousness, he would know the second the monster was awake and he would make it known who was the 'boot' and who was the powerless insect.

He waited three hours until finally the monitors showed signs that Loki was awake. Fury almost felt bad for what he was about to do... almost.

"So glad you could join us." the voice came booming out of nowhere, making Loki's whole body flinch. The involuntary movement made him cry out against his gag and then two thoughts hit him simultaneously. The man speaking was Nick Fury and whatever Loki was strapped to was now swaying in a not very pleasant way. His teeth clenched down on his bottom lip in fear of what the motion might mean. He pushed that fear to the back of him mind, he needed more information before he would let this scare him.

He tried to keep positive 'So not "the end" just Fury.' He thought. He was still on Midgard and that was something, it was still just the stupid mortals that had him.

We worried at his lip. 'Well, maybe not as stupid this time around they'd certainly got the upper hand on him right now.

Fury noticed on the monitors that his prisoner's heart rate had gone up. Loki was afraid. He wished that he could see the look in the demigod's eyes. He'd just have to settle for knowing that if he was scared now he'd be terrified before Fury was done.

"I know you felt slighted last time you were in our custody, what with being in someone else's cage. So I've taken the liberty of having this one made especially for you, and I do hope you will enjoy your stay with us." Loki could hear the disgust in the other man's clipped words. It was a hatred that he was familiar with. He sucked air through his nose and tried to steel himself against the torture that he was sure was coming next.

"We've been doing our research and well your brother he had lots to tell us about you." Fury hit a button and the cables holding Loki started to move.

The thin god tensed every muscle in his aching body as if his life depended on it as whatever he was strapped too started lifting up and flipping him over. He wondered what 'in all the realms' had Thor told these mortals.

Loki's breath caught in his throat as the board went from horizontal to vertical to falling over and dropping.

Being blind with no clues as to his surroundings except Fury's disembodied voice his stomach jumped to his throat as he fell forward. For all he knew in the moment Fury had just pushed him over a ledge and he was going to hit solid ground with nothing to break his fall but his already injured body.

The breath he'd held as he started to fall was suddenly forced out of his lungs when the cables were jerked taunt and his fall was abruptly and painfully stopped. His body spasmed because of this new abuse and Loki felt a moan come from deep in his throat. He hurt all over. Flashes of how he might hurt Nick Fury flashed through his mind.

Loki was now hanging. The straps and belts and cuffs that held him down and were now keeping him from plummeting to 'Odin knew what' felt like they were cutting through him as they took all his weight.

Fury pulled a lever in the control room and the floor thirty feet below Loki opened and retracted and revealed three large industrial fans. They weren't quite wind tunnel big but they would do the job that Fury wanted them to do. They switched on and started blowing air up at Loki. They created lots of noise, wind and made the cables and prisoner sway in a way that Fury was hoping made the god feel unsettled.

The name of the game was containment through disorientation and distraction. This time they were going to make sure that Loki's time was so filled with uncertainty and discomfort that he couldn't think of anything else.

"Welcome to the cage we built just for you." Fury glared out the window, this was just the beginning of what he had planned.


The leather straps pressing against his mouth and eyes were the ones that after a time were probably bothering him the most. They were the straps that were directly on him and not laid over top of his clothing or armor. Their pressure on his bare skin was pervasive. It didn't take long before the swaying motion the gritty wind was creating caused the straps to bite into his checks and rub till his mouth and chin felt raw.

Of course laying face down like he was he could feel each of the straps the midgardians had bound him with. Not one of them was painless. His ribs had settled against the strap across his chest and were pressing against his lungs making it hard to breath and grating with each motion.

The one strap he could feel acutely now was the one around his right ankle. He was fairly certain this was because his broken leg had gone numb.

He couldn't breath well not only because of the pressure on his chest but also because it was unpleasant breathing into the wind that was blowing on him. It's warm, smells musty, and was blowing dirt and debris at him.

It was also causing the swaying feeling that was making him ill. He knows from his weigh pulling him which direction is down. But in the unpredictable motion that this strange Midgardian wind is causing and the odd pulsating noise that seems to accompany his brain is starting to play tricks on him.

The trickster is starting to lose track of up and down, left and right in the dark. He isn't sure how much time has passed but he knows it is a bad sign when he starts to feel like he is falling through space. The seemingly endless space between yggdrasil's branches.

Loki bites down hard on his tongue to bring his mind back to the present. He hates that it has come to self inflicted pain but it would do him no good to go back to that time and relive his fall and what came with it.

He needs to keep his focus. He knows well that his life and sanity depend on him keeping some sliver of himself intact, just like before, the goal is survival.

Loki wishes to curse and spit and throw fire and tear this place, this 'cage' and all his captors apart. But hanging face down in the air without the strength to move against his bonds or the sight to see his surroundings he can only hope that he can bide his time and let his magic build back up so he can heal and escape.


"Director Fury we have the the signal jammer ready." The lead engineer on this project spoke from a computer station behind the intense spy.

"well it's about damn time." Fury didn't turn from the viewing window to face her. Instead he kept watched as the cables retracted and Loki was twisted up from his horizontal position and made to hang at an angle, with his weigh still on his front but now shifted to lay hard on his left side.

Fury ran his finger down the touch screen in front of him and the fans cut to a forth of their power. It was time to see how the frost giant dealt with a little heat. That done he did finally turn to the engineers. "What is the projected out come of this signal?"

Another of the scientists, Fury hadn't taken the time to learn their names yet, in front of Fury presented the director with a tablet that contained their formulas and other data they had collected on Loki's magic. Fury glanced at it but wasn't interested in studying it that's what he paid other's for.

"Loki's magic is like an energy current that runs through and around his body. After identifying its frequency and studying how the current reacts when he uses his magic we've had the computers running scenarios. We believe that we've found the counter frequency that will disrupt the flow of his. We theorize that any disruption to the flow of the current will make his magic unusable." The man explained their findings.

"Like a kink in a hose." Fury suggested.

"Perhaps or like those strands of christmas lights where one blub is burnt out so none of the other's work." The female engineer analogized. Fury narrowed his eye at the woman but said nothing.

"Time to put it to the real test." Fury's order was understood. The scientists moved to the main control room computers and worked swiftly taping key boards and swiping screens.

"Ready." The man turned to Fury to get the final go ahead.

"Do it." Fury nodded, the man tapped the screen and stood back.

"I don't hear anything." Fury wondered if anything had happened.

"It's not a frequency we can hear, we should be able to see its affect." The woman swiped again at the computer screen in front of her and the large screen on the wall lit up with scan that showed Loki's magic energy glowing in a yellow green.

For a moment Fury saw no discernible difference from the scan of the god's magic he'd looked at earlier. Fury started to think about what unpleasant department he could bury these engineers in when the scan suddenly and dramatically changed.

The green glow went from looking fluid and ethereal to looking like 'no signal' static.

"Goodness." The engineering man comment as the woman turned to the computer to look at the numbers.

"Does he feel this?" Fury enquirer and the man turned to another screen to look at Loki's vitals. "I would say he..." The man didn't need to finish as they could all hear Loki's muffled scream from the other room.

Fury watched the life size scan and could see his prisoner writhe and thought vindictively 'Christmas, more like mother fucking Forth of July.'

Loki screamed as his body vibrated and convulsed. It was like insects were crawling through his veins. His right eye opened wide in sudden terror his eye lid dragging across the rough back of the leather blindfolding him. His left eye would have openned but it was pressed to hard with his weight against the strap to opened at all.

If he could have moved his hands he would have torn at his own skin to try and stop the sensation and he would have slammed them tight on his ears to try and keep out the horrid high pitched buzzing noise that was assaulting him.

He whimpered as his finger curled and his nails dug into his damaged palms.

He wondered what sorcerer Fury could have possibly found on Migard to cast this curse. He bit his tongue again and fought to stay calm. He tried to breath deeply through his nose, hoping that his new position would allow him at least to breath and found that the air had become thick and painful to breath in the absence of the wind.

It was hot and quickly becoming too hot.

The buzzing it his head seemed to get louder and the wriggling under his skin stronger as he got hotter and hotter.

He could feel the weakness coming.

Loki started to panic. 'What had Thor told them?' 'Where was Thor?' 'Thor must truly hate him to allow this.' The last thought he had before exhaustion and exertion pulled him back into unconsciousness was 'Thor will pay for this.'

"I hope you didn't want to question the prisoner." The female engineer commented glibly. Fury cut his stern gaze at her and her expression fell in line. "I mean hum, the prisoner is now unconscious, Sir."

Fury stared out at Loki as he hung slack restraints like some creepy evil marionette. His dark hair which had been blown wild by the fans was now plastered to the god's thin face, he looked pale as death.

"Do we know what made him pass out? I thought Loki was suppose to be tough." At least he hadn't expected him to be out cold after only a few hours.

"It could be the heat, or the jammer. If we'd known you wanted to know precisely we could have been a little more deliberate with the timing of application." The man looked at the data on the screen.

The woman spoke up obviously nervous of Fury's wrath. "From what Thor told us we can theorize that Loki either because of his different physiology or just a weaker constitution was never as strong or healed as fast as Thor. That and his healing may be linked to his magic, blocking him from the little magic he had available to him may have caused greater weakness or the jamming signal itself maybe taking a physical tole on him."

"Are you guessing?" Fury asked seriously. He wanted, no, he needed to know what limits he could push this alien to. At some point he would most likely have to hand him back over to his brother and he didn't want to have to explain any irreversible damage.

Of course Fury was working on a plan so that he wouldn't have to give this murderer back. He felt that he should be the one who got to dole out punishment for Earth and Coulson. It seemed only fair.

The male engineer spoke after studying his computer for a time. "Sir, we have ascertained that the heat has had a great effect on the prisoner's vitals. His core body temperature has risen drastically and even in this short time the scans are showing increased and indisputable signs of heat exhaustion and dehydration."

Fury contemplated this news and relented. "Alright turn the fans back on."

He knew he could be patient, there was no need to cook the frost giant too fast. he had at least a little time in which to stretch his punishment out. Thor was leaving for New Mexico in the morning to wait there for word from Odin or Heimdall or someone in Asgard.

Fury wanted Loki to suffer to do that properly he would find a way to make sure the god stayed awake next time and without the sweet escape of oblivion.

TBC...

Thank you for reading and reviewing. I love a good Loki Whump Story, hope you like this one.