Title: Sigur Fagnað
Author: JoeHundredaire
Rating: R/FR18
Disclaimer: With a myriad of writers, artists, and editors - and directors, now that we're getting decent movie and television renditions - actual rights are a nightmare when you go near a comic book universe. Suffice it to say that Marvel Entertainment LLC owns all of the property printed in their comics, along with the television and movie adaptations of said same property. Not mine, don't sue, and so forth and so on.
Summary: They came, they saw, they conquered… and then they dragged Sif shopping.
Joe's Note: …and we're getting an immediate follow-up on Hjálparhönd. Why? Mostly because I was intending to cover arrival, outing, and the resolution of the Lorelei situation all in one story, but then Loki and Coulson stole the show. So here's the, uh, other half of Hjálparhönd. After a fashion.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Alexander, Thomas, Koby, Wil, Tracy, Christopher, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.
Standing calmly in the middle of the freight elevator as it ascended to the top floor of Caesars Palace, Agent Phil Coulson breathed in and out slowly as the SHIELD agents around him prepared for the coming battle. "This is going to be repetitive for a few of you ladies, but unfortunately our superiors thought I was joking when I requested an all-female team for this op and only a third of you were at the formal briefing. Our target is an Asgardian, goes by the name of 'Lorelei'. She has the ability to control men with her voice or touch, which has required us to shuffle our assets accordingly. Normally, a bunch of humans going up against an Asgardian would end with a pile of corpses. Luckily, we've got an Asgardian asset of our own. Lady Sif?"
Sif drew herself up and cleared her throat, waiting until all eyes were on her before speaking. "I will provide your frontal assault. As the Son of Coul has noted, it would end… badly… for you if you attempted to handle Lorelei yourselves. If you can incapacitate any thralls she might have, though, I would be quite grateful." She paused for a second, grimaced, and then continued. "There are two other Asgardians on Midgard at the moment: a blonde who tends to wear green, and a woman who resembles me but prefers green and gold attire. They claim to be allies on my hunt; whether or not they truly are remains to be seen. If you encounter them, please do not attack them. If they are forced to act in self-defense, they may harm you in ways that your mortal medicine is incapable of repairing."
In other words, there was a chance that Amora or Loki… err, Reginna might retaliate with magic if forced to defend themselves, which wasn't exactly a type of injury that a SHIELD medical facility was equipped to handle. Or were they? Coulson brought his hand up to rub at his chest absently; SHIELD was apparently surprisingly capable at doing the impossible these days when it came to saving lives. Or restoring them. Shaking his head, he forced his mind back to the mission at hand. "As much as I want to be right up front with you, I'll need to stay back for obvious reasons. If it looks like Lorelei is making a grab for me, you have my permission to incapacitate me. We don't think she can enthrall someone who's unconscious. If she can? Well, at least I'll wake up restrained on the Bus where SHIELD can keep an eye on me. Any questions? No? Good. Because we're there."
Right on cue, the elevator chimed and the doors slid open, allowing the group to disembark. Sif quickly took the lead, stalking down the corridor at a pace that left the rest of them jogging to keep up. Lashing out with one leg, she took both doors off the hinges with an ease that impressed Coulson before striding into the room. May led the rest of the SHIELD contingent into the room in the Asgardian's wake, leaving Coulson to wait in the hall impatiently as they secured the suite.
"Clear."
"Clear."
"Back room's secure."
"Kitchen clear."
"Bedroom's cle-holy shit!" Oh, now that wasn't good. "Sir? I think it's safe to say that you can enter the room without worrying."
If it was safe for him to enter and yet they weren't reporting an all clear… well, Coulson had a pretty good idea of what he was going to find inside the suite. Drawing his gone all the same, he carefully stepped over the remains of the door as he made his way into the room. He came to an abrupt halt at the unexpected sight of Reginna standing in the middle of the living room, wearing nothing but a fluffy green towel as she used its twin to dry her long black hair. He raised an eyebrow, eliciting a shrug from the Asgardian. "I apologize for my state of undress, Son of Coul, but there was a bit more splatter than we thought there'd be."
Splatter? Turning toward the bedroom, Coulson slipped between two of the female agents who had accompanied him and then blanched. Lorelei's glassy eyes stared up at him from where she'd been dumped near the foot of the bed, her head facing in the completely wrong direction and the tip of some sort of blade protruding from her back as blood slowly oozed down her bare skin. God. What a way to go. And… hopefully the ladies knew some sort of magic that they could use to clean up after themselves, or else the housekeeping staff was going to be in for a nasty shock when they came by. "This wasn't the plan."
"You should consider yourself lucky that we decided to strike out on our own." Weaving her way between the now-uncertain agents as they milled around the suite, Amora wrapped her arms around Reginna from behind and rested her chin on the slightly shorter woman's shoulder. "When we arrived nearly half an hour ago, Lorelei and your agent were almost finished with their packing. If we'd waited for you mortals to be ready, who knows where they'd be by now?"
While Amora did indeed have a valid point… Coulson honestly wasn't sure where to go from there. No, that was pretty much the very valid point. Because even if they'd made it there on time, what would they have done if they'd found Lorelei? As of when they'd landed, Fitz had still yet to finish his repairs to the collar that could contain Lorelei and her powers. But even if they'd had the collar with them, what would have contained Lorelei's Asgardian physiology? The woman could shred any handcuffs they had at their disposal with a simple tug, and so unless Sif had intended to wrap Lorelei in a bear hug and physically carry her from place to place… how would they have transported her from the hotel back to the Bus? Or contained her long enough to reach a spot where she could be taken back to Asgard?
And that was assuming that Sif could get her hands on the wily Asgardian. After seeing the brunette make short work of the doors, Coulson was keenly aware that there was nothing stopping Lorelei from putting holes in the walls or floor, creating a new escape route any time they managed to corner her. They'd been complacent, Coulson realized to his shame, treating this like any other snatch mission. And if the plan had actually unfolded to the point of contact with the enemy, a lot of innocent people could have lost their lives. Or even worse, been enthralled by Lorelei.
"Tell me something, Son of Coul… for how long did Lorelei and her thrall secure the right to dwell in this delightful room?" Reginna's voice drew Coulson from his self-recrimination, and he furrowed his brow as he racked his brain for an answer to her question. Ultimately, he was forced to offer a helpless shrug; Skye probably knew from her online sleuthing but it hadn't been germane to their planning and so if she'd mentioned it, he hadn't retained it. "Well if they have arranged a stay of any real length with their ill-gotten gains, I doubt the innkeeper will return those funds to you. In which case it would be a terrible shame to let all this go to waste…"
And if he told them no, Coulson wondered, then what? SHIELD had no real way of stopping a pair of superhuman women who could teleport, turn invisible, and do Lord knew what else with their magic. On top of the pure strength and durability that came with being Asgardian, of course. Lorelei had reached Earth via one of Loki's 'secret pathways', which meant Reginna and Amora could return to Asgard at Sif's side before doubling back to be in Vegas by nightfall. Which wasn't to say that he was going to leave them without a minder, but… "I don't see a problem with that. May? Put a call in to the Triskelion. If Miss Rushman is between missions right now, see if they'd be willing to send her out here for a few days."
"I cannot believe that I am indulging in this sort of… frivolous behavior."
Loki rolled her eyes and sighed as she and Amora tugged Sif along between them, an arm wrapped around each of the brunette's as they led her through the mall. Behind them trailed 'Natalie Rushman' - who was actually Natalia Romanoff, not that she was supposed to know as much - and a handful of plain clothes SHIELD agents, the latter of which were loaded down with shopping bags from what 'Natalie' assured her were very exclusive clothiers. "Maybe if you 'indulged in frivolity' a bit more often, you wouldn't have lost your paramour to a scrawny Midgardian with the social skills of a troll."
Opening her mouth to argue, Sif looked from one side to the other, deflating a bit when she was met with a pair of knowing looks "…as you say. But while that may be true, I fail to see how-"
"Simple. Thor is obviously taken with this realm and its people. But if you learned to combine his old home with his new one… well, how could Jane Foster hope to compete with that?" Amora allowed Sif the time she needed to process that, waiting for the brunette to nod in acceptance before pointing at a particular storefront with her free hand. "Now, if you don't mind? I want to go in there. Given who I was in the last cycle, the idea of an entire store being devoted solely to the sale of apples intrigues me…"
"Well?"
"They are… surprisingly comfortable." Sif lifted her right foot off the ground, rolling her ankle experimentally as she stared down at the 'Allure Fashion Motorcycle Boot' that the shopkeeper's assistant had brought out. She recognized the word 'motorcycle' from their first attempt at apprehending Lorelei; the loud, two-wheeled conveyances were hard to forget. What these boots had to do with them - or whether or not they were fashionable - Sif had no idea, but they certainly were alluring. Looking up, she found Amora grinning at her smugly and felt the need to amend her previous statement. "For a Midgardian creation, that is."
"Mmhmm."
Standing in front of the large, brightly lit sign advertising the 'Spearmint Rhino Gentleman's Club', Loki turned to Sif and offered up a hopeful smile as she inclined her head in the direction of the establishment. After hearing several passing mortals make references to gentleman's clubs, she'd asked Natalia for details and the answer had been… intriguing. Definitely unlike anything found in Asgard or Vanaheimr, but not in a bad way. Much to her dismay, though, Sif shook her head sharply before turning and stalking back toward the waiting SHIELD vehicle. "No."
"Enjoying yourself?"
"Hmm?" Loki shot a quick glance at where Sif was settling into the armchair across from the couch that she was sprawled out on, before her attention was drawn back to the game she was playing on Amora's new tablet. "Actually, I am. Not only do the mortals make their devices remarkably intuitive to use, but their games are addicting. Take this one, Candy Crush. On the surface, it's a simple matching game involving six colors of pieces, but-"
The sound of metal scraping against metal made Loki look away from her game again, watching as Sif slowly drew her sword from the back of her shield, leaving the latter resting against the leg of her chair as she lay the sword across her lap. "Fascinating, I assure you. But I have a question for you, Loki."
Eyes widening, Loki licked her lips nervously as her gaze bounced from Sif's impassive face to her sword and back. "…how long have you known, then?"
"As long as the Warriors Three have known, which is to say from the day that 'Reginna' began appearing around the palace at Amora's side." Lifting her sword, Sif pointed it in Loki's direction before closing one eye and peering down its length. After a few seconds, she nodded in satisfaction before returning it to her lap and pulling a sharpening stone out of… somewhere. Loki found herself wondering if the ásynja was gifted with a touch of magic herself; there was no logical explanation for where Sif could have been hiding the thing in the Midgardian attire she was currently wearing. "There is a reason they call my brother 'the All-Seeing', after all."
"…Heimdallr is your brother?"
"Yes."
"But he's got dar… you look nothing alike."
"Amora has blond hair while Lorelei was a redhead."
"That is completely different."
"No it's not."
"Yes it…" Trailing off, Loki took a deep breath and then swung her legs off the side of the couch as she rose into a sitting position. The chances of her taking Sif in a fair fight - especially when she already had her sword out and ready - were somewhere between 'slim' and 'none', but Loki tended not to fight fair as a matter of course. Especially with Amora serving as backup, it would be child's play to… wait. The three of them had been sharing the suite for days now. If Sif wanted her dead, Loki realized, she would be by now. Impaled in her sleep with that vicious sword of Sif's, likely taking Amora with her given how they tended to curl around each other at night. But if Sif didn't want her dead, then what? An arrangement like Coulson's, perhaps? Silence in exchange for services rendered? "What do you wish of me?"
"As I said, I have a question for you. And I wish of you something I doubt you're capable of, daughter of Laufey: the truth."
