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There had never been a time in his life in which he doubted his enemy. Whenever he faced an opponent, he was sure it was his role to defeat him, that he was on the right side of the battle. But he had changed so much after his exile from Asgard. The time he had spent in the endless abyss, in the mercy of that creature's power, had transformed his mind.
In his blue eyes, none was an ally. Everyone were enemies or tools for victory.
Yet the first person he encountered after he escaped the portal of torture was someone whose position in this battle he could not decide. Or, to be precise, he could not choose whether to keep her as a hostage or to eliminate her entirely, for she was no stranger. He had seen her before.
Her bronze eyes shone with familiar ferocity, yet brimming with sympathy and despondence.
Loki was sure enough that this woman, armed with a silver staff which rivalled Sif's spear, was not a mere human. She was pale, incredibly pale, like the gentle moon in the sky. Yet her face was fierce like a beast, her bronze eyes radiating fire and courage. And around her, Loki swore he must have mistaken, was magic. It was as if she was a sorceress herself. If she was truly the same woman he had encountered a year ago, then she was entirely different now.
He saw her shifting minutely. So she's afraid, Loki thought bitterly. So she is like any others… Afraid of my whole being.
"Sir, please put down the spear," his other opponent, a one-eyed, dark-skinned man, ordered.
"Sir, he won't," the woman told the man surely, even in her state of doubt. Loki smiled at her cleverness, and she stiffened in return. He stared at his spear, a gift from Thanos, with a considerable amount of admiration. In his hand was a powerful weapon capable of killing dozens in a single strike, though he had not tried its strength yet. Here, before him, was a suitable test subject.
Prove to me that you are more than just a human, he mused, before he shot a bolt of energy to Fury and Clint. Inertia's muscles sparked and reacted just in time to create a force field protecting the two—inevitably thrown back when the powerful blast hit the shield. She rolled back, clutching her staff, and regained her footing.
Loki grinned with amusement, for he had never seen such power before. And before she could counter his attack, he had lunged to one of the armed personnel and pierced his chest deeply with his blade. He beamed when he saw the man succumbing to his death. It was a terrifying yet endearing emotion, seeing the man dying. He did not remember having this feeling before he fell from Bifrost. His body moved on its own, striking his other opponents with sheer force and speed none in the room could rival.
"Asgardian," Inertia gasped. "Everyone GET BACK!" she subsequently warned the other agents now assaulting Loki, but they did not pay heed to her warning. Their senses were blinded by their gunshots and fear, and their ignorance was their most fatal choice. Loki, unharmed in any way, swiftly moved among the men as he fired his weapon relentlessly and stabbed anyone in vicinity. In a short time bodies fell, like leaves of the autumn left to decay, and blood tinged the floor and the air.
Inertia gaped at the sight of a dozen bodies scattered on the floor. The only survivors were Fury, Clint, an agent, and the researchers. And her; the last line of defense.
Loki pulled his spear away from his last victim, and whirled around to the audience. "I thought I heard someone mention 'Asgardian'," he muttered his weapon to each one of them. He narrowed his eyes when the spear landed on Inertia, who was rooted to the ground. "It was you, isn't it? Where did you get that knowledge?"
"Does is matter to you?" she answered. "Your purpose here is not to question my knowledge, is it not? I see that your purpose is to wreak havoc on Earth."
Though she said that bitterly, he could see hesitance in her eyes. What was she hesitating about?
Loki stepped closer and tilted his head. "You seem to be different than the others."
"I am different," she whispered. Loki frowned, and so did she. "Fury, get the Cube!" she immediately screamed, swinging her staff. Taken aback by her desperation, Loki shot his weapon at her. She switched her stance just in time to dampen the direct blast. She staggered back, her boots grinding against the ground, before she charged.
With a speed equalling her opponent, she extended her hand and sent a force powerful enough to kill a man with a single blow. Yet Loki was merely flown to the wall of the platform, and cracked it with the amount of force he received. He chuckled, suppressing the slight pain he experienced, and returned to his feet.
"And here I thought my plan would be undisrupted… I was terribly wrong."
"Who are you and what is your true purpose?" she asked with outmost composure, raising her weapon. She was surprised to death when, instead of answering, he attacked her once more. He leapt at her and struck her staff with his spear, sending a jolt of energy to her body. She rolled back in a series of tumbles, not noticing him sending another powerful strike. She could not defend herself, and inevitably flew across the room. Pain trembled through her body, something which had not occurred for decades.
Thunder struck her veins, paralysing her entirety into a solid statue. For a moment she could only hear echoes of he surroundings, but then she saw her comrades being assaulted by her opponent. Loki attacked Clint ruthlessly, using his spear to disarm the agent. He pinned Clint to the wall and pointed his weapon to his heart. Clint tried to retaliate, but the Asgardian quickly subdued him useless.
"Do you have heart?" he asked him. The man glanced momentarily away from him, looking at the woman lying limp on the ground. She stared back, pain obvious on her face. "Oh, I forgot. You're a human. You have heart." Loki smiled wickedly as he gently placed the edge of his weapon atop Clint's chest. He saw her widening her eyes, as if understanding what's happening.
Inertia crouched on her stomach, trying to reach her teammate, but could only watch in outmost horror. In her eyes she saw a flow of aether from the weapon to Clint's heart. She saw it festering in his body, plaguing each and every part of his existence. Slowly his eyes transformed as well, turning dark before forming icy blue balls. Upon this change Clint slowly loosened his body and put down the handgun he had been trying to reach.
She could see he was no longer her comrade.
So she turned to Fury as she struggled to her feet. Go, she told him through her eyes, pulling her staff close. She laid motionlessly as she watched Fury shuffling, trying to regain her own strength. But before Fury could take a single step with the Tesseract, the Asgardian spoke.
"Please don't do that," he warned, though his attention was still focused on transforming the other agents and researchers.
"This doesn't have to get messier," Fury persuaded. Inertia surreptitiously crouched away from her previous ground.
"Of course it does," Loki replied, pulling his spear away from his latest victim. "I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."
Inertia froze, and so did Selvig. "Loki? Brother of Thor?" Selvig asked. Inertia could only prepare for the worst. Elliot had told her stories regarding this man, of how cunning and powerful he was. The God of Mischief, a master of words and tricks, was not one should be messing with, especially if one was not a god.
Selvig had informed S.H.I.E.L.D. that Thor had some problems with his brother when Mjolnir case happened a year ago, and now she had the feeling their problems were not well-resolved. Whatever happened between the two surely caused a turn of tide in Loki's life.
"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury said, stealing a glance from Inertia. Loki too glanced at her.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," Loki retorted with a mocking smile. "Though one of you here is bigger than an ant."
"You planning to step on us?" inquired Fury, grasping for his holstered gun. Loki scoffed and shook his head.
"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free. Free from freedom," he explained. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…" Loki paused and approached the transfixed Selvig. The doctor was frozen with fear and helplessness as Loki touched his chest with the spear. Slowly his eyes too turned like Barton and the others. Loki smiled malevolently. "You will know peace."
"Yeah, you say peace. I kind of think you mean the other think," Fury snapped. He glanced at the ceiling where the remnants of the portal energy were condensing. Clint flinched.
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Clint deduced. "This place is about to blow, drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us." Inertia glared at him to no avail. He could no longer differentiate her as his ally.
"He's right. The portal is collapsing on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical," Selvig added. Inertia cursed internally. She knew the agents were under Loki's control, but did not expect them to be conversational at all. It seemed they were not mere dolls, but intelligent puppets.
Now returning to her better state, she sneaked behind the tables with incredible stealth. "Well then," Loki said before she could act. Loki nodded at Clint who, without hesitation, shot Fury on the chest. All happened so fast that Inertia's eyes could not follow. Fury staggered back as he received the accurately fired bullet.
"Fury!" Inertia gasped. Loki was once more reminded of her presence, her uncurbed actions. She emerged from her hiding place with her staff. Gritting her teeth, she swung a shockwave with her staff and pushed Loki several centimetres, unharmed. She did not stop and advanced in a flash of light, aiming for Loki's head. The Asgardian shuffled as fast as her and received her attack with his spear.
Loki trembled when her power clashed with his. Up close he could see her complete ferocity, the determination to take him down. Yet he found her visage very strange.
It lacked hate and despite one should have had for him.
"Get the Tesseract out of this place!" Loki ordered. Inertia pulled back in the brief moment and swung her staff to Loki's abdomen. Loki gasped when, despite her attack not appearing dangerous or fatal, he was sent across the room—wrecking the numerous equipment in process.
"Inertia! The Tesseract!" Fury reminded, apparently surviving Clint's lethal shot. Inertia whirled around to Clint and the other controlled agents, now running too far for her to pursue. She left her staff aside and extended her hand. An invisible force radiated from her hand, pulling Clint and stopping his strides. Clint grabbed the gun in his holster and fired at her. She shifted her body just in time to dodge the first shot, but the next ones found her skin. They fortunately could not penetrate her flesh, though she lost her focus as a result.
She threw her staff away and reached for another hand. The bullets stopped mid-air, deflected by her powers. Once Clint lost all of his bullets, she started her counter attack. She neither wanted to kill Clint nor hurt him mortally with the bullets, so she lifted her staff and disassembled it into three hovering rods. With a quick flick of her hands she threw the rods one by one. They flew directly towards Clint's head, pinpointing for his skull.
It was inches before they found their target when she lost control of her body.
Pain throbbed across her muscles, an agony unlike any she had ever experienced. She screamed, her body paralysing completely. She heard her weapons clashing with the ground, and her own body. All she could see was fogs of figures and objects. Her ears could not discern between the sound of her heartbeat and the sound of footsteps.
With her deteriorating vision, she saw a man moving towards her, and then kneeling before her. "You should not have done that," Loki whispered. Inertia froze. Something about his words nagged her conscience.
He sympathises me.
Why?
Inertia groaned, trying to pull her weapon, but she had no strength left. "It is my first time to see a being like you and consider me intrigued. But I have a greater purpose and no time to study you. Perhaps… if you survived all these ordeals, we would have a proper conversation."
"Don't," she murmured desperately. She could not see clearly, but she swore she saw him smiling slightly.
He did not try to injure her further, yet alone kill her. He left her be on the ground, pacing away from her sight. Inertia tasted blood in her mouth, from her bitten lips. Never had she felt so helpless; never had she met an enemy so strong and cunning. What was the use of all her years of training?
She peered over her shoulder and saw Fury—apparently not dead yet—wriggling awake.
It was only then did she fully feel the pain from the blast, much more aching than before. Around her the world started fading, seemingly discoloured. Had her world been colourful in the first place? Then, her vision turned off, and for a moment she floated in a dark space, reminiscing the long journey she had taken. For a second, she was sure she was in the brink of dying… until her comms buzzed to life.
"Inertia? Inertia are you alright?"
Coulson's voice fluttered her eyes awake and she groaned, reaching for her earphones. To the end, he would never surrender, and so would she. Staggering to her feet, she studied their situation. "Sir, the Tesseract…" she choked, leaning on the wall for support. She felt her back burning against the cold wall, a casualty of the unknown immense energy. Yet there was no reek of iron, which was a good thing. "The Tesseract has been stolen."
Waiting for an answer, she walked to Fury brokenly. The man lifted his head with a wince and showed her his chest, miraculously protected by Kevlar and his broad muscle. "Sir, can you stand?" she inquired.
"Not now. Not quick enough to pursue them," Fury grunted. "But you can, can you?"
She nodded hesitantly, but her next move was without doubt. Ignoring all the pain now throbbing her body, she forcibly pushed her legs to chase after the Asgardian, anger and fury fuelling what strength she had left. If she was a mere human, she would have certainly died from the last blast. It was a miracle for her to find herself running again.
Coulson did not receive her report, it seemed. She needed to take matters on her own. She adjusted her comms for wide broadcast as she picked her disassembled weapon, attaching it again into a single rod.
"This is Inertia speaking," she coughed. Her body was recovering, but not fast enough to accelerate her speed. She needed reinforcements. "The facility has been breached. The Tesseract has been taken by an intruder and our own agents, now under control. The intruder has a dangerous spear. I repeat, the Tesseract has bee taken. Requesting all personnel for backup towards the tunnel!"
She wasn't sure if her words would be obeyed—she had never been a high-ranking officer—but in this chaotic state and after the small earthquake before, certainly several agents would listen.
Running through the corridors, she finally arrived at the garage, where she was greeted by one of the few apparently listening to her broadcast. She looked lost for a moment before she slammed her hand on the jeep and jumped into the driver's seat. "Shit!" Hill cursed. "Get in!"
Inertia did not need for the woman to remind her and instantly leapt onto the back of the jeep. Hill stepped on the gas and drove faster than a normal driver is capable of—in this case, she was not just an ordinary chauffeur—and caused Inertia to grab tight on her own as Hill moved the car into the tunnel. "Remind me how did this happen?" Hill shouted, her extraordinary senses focused on the road.
"Mainly because we meddle with things far out of our hands—" Inertia gaped when the facility trembled, as if another earthquake hit momentarily. "Hill, if we can't get our hands on the Cube, we better get out of here!"
"We are definitely getting that Cube," Hill yelled. She continued to command the vehicle madly until their targets were in vicinity. In front of her, the reinforcements Inertia had requested appeared. They fired at Loki and his controlled men, which was a fool's act and it was partially Inertia's fault for not informing them that he was an Asgardian. The attacks merely angered Loki as a result.
"Watch out!" warned Inertia as she noticed Loki's spear glowing. He launched an attack to the jeep driving in front of them, instantly killing its driver and putting its pursuit to a halt. Hill turned just in time to evade the jeep with outmost precision before speeding up once more to close into the enemy.
"Hello there," Loki greeted childishly, though his face said another. Was he regretting his decision to leave her alive?
He scowled and fired again at her, or at Hill to be precise. Inertia deflected each one of them using a force field and sent it to Loki's vehicle in return. She might not be as excellent in accuracy as Clint, but she knew where to aim; she countered all his attacks towards his jeep's wheels. Loki's vehicle swayed as her counter measures hit the ground beneath it.
"Go faster!" Loki ordered Clint, who drove his vehicle. Clint was, as far as Inertia had observed, not as excellent a driver as Hill; but the hypnotism taking effect on him seemed to enhance certain weak aspects of his skill. Gradually, his jeep distance itself from Hill's after it barely evaded another attack from Inertia.
Loki halted his assault at the duo, much to Inertia's relief. She took this chance to play her own game. She twirled her staff and sent a vertical shockwave to the enemy jeep, almost succeeding in flipping it. Her muscle burnt in the process and she grimaced, noticing that her shockwave was not as fatal as she had expected. The only result she brought was to distance the enemy jeep further.
"We have to flank them!" Hill informed Inertia as she took a sharp turn at the branching tunnel. Hill's jeep immediately joined the shadows, disappearing from Loki's vicinity. He peeked from his position and searched for his opponents warily, particularly Inertia. He was now in a dilemma, to decide whether he was terrified or mesmerised by her powers.
Hill's jeep darted in front of his, like a lion cornering its prey. Hill quickly turned her vehicle to face Clint's directly, and Inertia stared eye to eye with her comrade. He certainly did not understand or cower under her glare, for he took his gun and fired it mercilessly at Hill. Inertia returned all his projectiles and prepared to attack the jeep once more. However, Loki disturbed her momentum with his crafty spear, again releasing a ball of concentrated energy. Inertia was forced to retreat back and Hill was fractionally disturbed, enough for Clint to step on the gas and crash her vehicle.
Hill lost her concentration and was forced to pull back, leaving a path for Clint to escape. "Take the jeep down!" Hill ordered. Inertia regained her ground after letting Loki's blast past her shoulders and aimed her staff like a throwing javelin. Clint's life was now not her concern, for only a single thing occupied her disarrayed mind: the Tesseract.
Before she could destroy the jeep or pierce it, however, a strong vibration from the collapsing facility threw her back. "Damn it!" she cursed, struggling to rise up to no avail. The vibration was getting stronger, turning itself into a major earthquake. Hill's fierce driving faltered and they swayed to the walls of the tunnel. Inertia desperately clung onto the body of the jeep as she tried to see their targets, which were now apparently out of their reach. "Forget about the Cube! We need to get out of here!"
Hill did not object and urged the vehicle to advance faster. Not a split second later, they heard a large explosion coming from the centre of the compound. The ground shook and the ceilings of the tunnels cracked. Behind them, the tunnels began collapsing. Hill, glancing the rear mirror, widened her eyes in terror. She sped up, forcing the car to its limits.
Debris began falling above them, and Inertia created a strong force field above her as she clutched tightly on the body of the jeep. Hill inaudibly cursed when a debris landed just inches behind their backmost wheel. All her efforts to escape the tunnel were in vain when a huge chunk of the ceiling crushed the ground before them. She instantly stomped on the brakes, but failed to stop them from hitting the rock. The vehicle crashed devastatingly against the giant obstacle, almost throwing Inertia overboard in process and almost killing Hill.
As if the rocks and gods pitied their lives, the collapse of the tunnel stopped. Silence engulfed the destroyed compound as the tremors stopped, long enough for the duo to thank for their lives. Hill and Inertia panted, the latter realising she was almost crushed by a rock beside her. They stared at each other, both conveying the same relieved feeling exploding in their hearts.
"You okay?" Hill asked Inertia, though it seemed to her she was in a direr state. Inertia hazily nodded, watching Loki and his newly recruited henchmen disappearing to the dark road from the cracks of rocks.
Yet through that small gap Inertia could see his eyes glinting in the night, staring at her. Why did you spare me? she thought repeatedly as she leapt out of the dilapidated vehicle.
Hill scowled, slamming her steer, and took a deep breath. She glanced over her shoulder, her mind forced to think of the director and all her comrades. "We are more fortunate than the men back there, that's for certain," Inertia remarked, assuring herself that Coulson had survived the blast. She crackled her knuckles before she pushed the boulder with a terrifying force. But the boulder merely shifted an inch, so she resorted to her weapon and crushed the boulder with a single swing.
The night sky loomed over them like an intimidating bully. Hill was offered with no words after Inertia's demonstration of her powers. She searched for her walkie-talkie, which fortunately survived the ordeal. "Director?" she spoke as they walked out of the tunnel. Inertia lifted her head and gazed at the stars, wondering if the Watcher of the Worlds saw what had happened, saw the man from his man.
Would Thor also notice this upheaval of his brother? And the Tesseract was beyond Earth's capabilities to understand. Perhaps, Inertia deduced, this artefact belonged to Asgard. She wasn't sure whether that was a good or a bad thing.
Her attention shifted to an explosion occurring not far, just a hundred metres from the tunnel exit. Inertia and Hill rushed towards the direction with their remaining strength. A helicopter lay motionless there, completely on fire. Inertia could certainly gamble it was the result of Loki's doing.
"The Tesseract is with hostile force. I have men down," Fury's voice said, emerging from the walkie-talkie. "Hill?"
"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors," Hill reported, a hint of pessimism in her voice. But she was almost certain none survived. "Sir, what should we do?"
There was a long pause before Fury finally answered. "Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."
"Roger that," Hill muttered.
"Coulson, get back to base. This is a LEVEL SEVEN. As of right now, we are at war," Fury added. Inertia wanted to chirp, telling every living personnel that it was beyond their ability to control that Cube. Yet humans were ever so stubborn, she could not understand that.
"What do we do?" Coulson's voice came, much to Inertia's relief. There was another silence for Fury. He had never faced a situation like this.
"Sir?" Inertia asked him. Her voice clicked on a certain buried information inside his mind. Her voice somehow brought him hope. He scoffed and then pulled his device closer to his smiling mouth.
"We will assemble the Avengers."
A/N: Hey there! I am back with another chapter! Hopefully you enjoyed it :) The story begins to move, though the writing progress is very slow. Sorry for that!
Just for your information, Elliot is a legitimate character in MCU. He exists in the tv series, which I will leave you guys to find out because once you've found him, you'll get a hint of Inertia's backstory. And if you do, please don't tell the others because it will spoil the fun!
Anyways, thank you for reading once again this kind of experimental fiction. I hope you like it and if you have any opinions to convey, please review with consideration. Please remember that I am writing this for my own pleasure and improvement :).
See you later!
