Shirou was flying
There was no other words for it.
He was being carried along by his projected copy of Mjolnir. The fact that he could not only project so powerful (and so alien) a noble phantasm, but also modify it on the go was because of the truly absurd amounts of mana available on this Earth.
Mjolnir was one of the most powerful Noble Phantasms he had ever encountered, and it was like a loyal dog – it would only let one individual lift it, and that was Thor. Shirou had had to rewrite the loyalty code so that it was directed at him.
The wind whipped past him, tugging at his clothing. Cold rain smashed into his face, making navigation difficult. Shirou reinforced his body, trying to prevent freezing to death.
There! Just ahead he saw Captain America arguing with Thor.
The (still bound) Loki was laying near Thor's feet, trying to butt-slide out of the conflict zone. Rain was was drenching everybody as it came down in sheets.
As Thor's raised his hammer to strike, Shirou let his Mjolnir pull him level with the ground, racing towards the angry thunderer. He let go at the last moment, dropping to the ground a few yards away and letting his copied Mjolnir continue on towards the god of thunder. But just as it was about to strike Thor, it dissolved in a blast of light. Apparently even on this bizarro version of Earth there were rules about duplicates being redacted by such close proximity to the original. Good to know.
"You dare, mortal.." Thor was usually an easy going Aesir, but dealing with his brother's foolery always pissed him off. And he was a warrior. You do not mess with a warrior's weapon. Not even a copy thereof. And that hammer had looked decidedly like Mjolnir!
"We need Loki. He has stolen the Tesseract, a powerful weapon that will cause untold harm in the wrong hands," Captain America called out.
"He will stand trial for his crimes on Asgard. I will not tolerate this interference." Thor turned back to the upstart warrior, "And I will not tolerate you trying to steal my hammer!" He swung Mjolnir at the red head, to drive the point home.
Shirou project Kanshou and Bakuya and dodged under the blow, but before he could retaliate, Captain America's knocked Thor into a tree. Shirou was conflicted - from Mjolnir, he knew that Thor was a worthy warrior. But Loki was his only connection to finding Rin, and that took precedence over everything. As Captain America and and Thor exchanged half-hearted blows (neither was really trying to maim or kill the other), he took a step forward and yelled into the melee, "Loki is our prisoner. We need him for our investigation," Shirou was shivering slightly from the wet and cold. "But you can have him once we're done with him."
Captain America jumped back out of combat range, to let Thor consider the request.
The demands! The impertinence! The god of thunder did not take kindly to mortals speaking to him thus. He took a deep breath and counted to ten in his head, like his anger management coach had instructed.
Then he punched the infuriating redhead again.
(He had been working on humility like Odin had commanded, but there was only so much disrespect that a god could take!)
Shirou twisted with the punch, letting most of its force slip by, before letting Bakuya dissolved back into nothing so he could hit Thor with his (reinforced) fist.
Which was about as useful as punching a brick wall.
"Archer, Thor is not the enemy," Captain America called out as Archer and Thor circled each other, Shirou reforming his signature paired falchions.
The two glared at each other before Shirou backed up. "Loki has information that we need. We can not wait." Shirou replied, trying to sound reasonable and calm. The stress of the situation, and the constant sheets of cold rain made thinking difficult. He knew that while Thor was not a bad person, he was quite volatile, but he couldn't find the words to explain to him the importance of what they were doing.
Thor watched the redhead. He wasn't certain what Archer had tried to hit him with, but it had looked suspiciously like Mjolnir. But that was impossible. He needed to learn more about this. Later. Thor sighed. Why was life always so complicated? Things used to be simply. You got up in the morning and killed frost giants until it got dark, and then you went home and drank mead all night with your companions. He glanced at the two warriors in front of him with a frown. He trusted Captain America – he had read of his exploits. But this Archer… he was a loose cannon, attacking people for no reason. And with their own weapons to boot.
Several moments passed as Thor and Arched faced off. Thor squinched his eyes in concentration as he sought to get a sense of the warrior facing him. Finally, once he trusted that Archer wasn't going to give him a reason to punch him again, Thor turned to look at his brother. "Loki, give us the Tesseract."
"So that I can go back home to face the wrath of Odin? Really? Is that the best you can offer me?" Loki looked like a drowned rat, with water streaming down his face and mud covering his fancy clothes, but he still manged to sound supercilious.
Thor turned back to face Cap, "I will return the Tesseract to you once we have it. But Loki, as much trouble as he is, is still my brother."
Loki rolled his eyes at the 'brother', before adding "Good luck finding the Tesseract, as I no longer have it." At the skeptical looks he shrugged, "I gave it away."
"You're lying," Thor retorted (always a safe assumption, with Loki). He grabbed the trickster by the scruff and attempted to glare him into submission. Loki just smiled.
"Family connection is no reason to circumvent justice," Shirou interrupted. "Loki needs to face a human court for crimes he committed."
Thor looked conflicted, "First he will come to Asgard. Then we can send him to Earth," he began, when with a roar, Iron Man swooped in through the rain.
"So what did I miss?" His amplified voice rolled out as he hovered above the scene. "Oh, I see, Master Thespian here has absconded.. is that the word? He's absconded with our prisoner. Hand him over, big boy, and we won't tell your mama that you're playing with her drapes."
Shirou looked up, aghast. His Japanese sensibilities had been worn down by experiencing many other countries over the years, but this behavior was beyond even most Americans.
"Your little stunt interrupted the (very) little time I take for personal moments. Now hand over horny-head, and we'll call it a day." Tony was not in a good mood. He had finally been able to get some time to take Pepper out for dinner. No work, no Iron Man, and then Fury's goons show up at the restaurant, whisking him away to deal with an emergency.
"Where is your fraternal loyalty?" Loki began when Thor interrupted, "Loki is coming with me!"
"We'll see about that," Tony began as he took the armor's safeties off line so he could pour more power into his repulsors.
"This isn't just about the Tesseract. Loki also may know the location of the woman who came here from an alternate Earth with me." Shirou yelled out.
Thor paused, and looked closely at Shirou, "This woman.. You love her?"
"Yes." Shirou surprised himself by replying without thinking. He stood there in shock, as Thor considered.
Thor nodded, "Ok, let's go."
"Wait, what?" Tony was flabbergasted. "Just like that? Love conquers all?"
Loki shrugged as best he could while being manhandled back towards the quinjet. "I told you, he's my IDIOT brother." His eyes twinkled merrily. He appeared surprisingly unconcerned for somebody who was a prisoner.
Shirou was barely aware of the byplay. 'I hadn't realized...' But what he had said was true.
Captain America just shrugged. He still missed Peggy, so he could sort of understand. But he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth – infighting was always a waste of time.
/\ b'D /\
Shirou and the others watched as Fury explained the facts of life to Loki. The Trickster was currently standing in a transparent tube, his feet braced on the tiny lip that ran along the base of walls because the floor had flapped open, revealing an impressive mile long drop from the helicarrier to the ground below.
Shirou tuned and asked "Just as an aside, can Loki fly?"
Thor shrugged, "Not that I know. But he is a trickster."
Shirou nodded and turned back to the monitor. The audio was turned off, but they could see Fury gesticulate menacingly before finally closing the hatch. He said some final words to Loki before shoving a tray containing a sandwich and a glass of milk through a slot and stalking over to sit on a desk. Loki just smiled sardonically and took a bite of his tuna melt, like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Shirou kept an eye on the monitor - once Fury was done, he was going to go have a chat with Loki about Rin. From Structurally Grasping the scepter, he knew Loki hadn't had it long (though oddly enough, the scepter did have a link to him like Mjolnir did to Thor). But sometime during his ownership of it, Rin had managed to place her Prana into the gem.
"Did you make a copy of Mjolnir?" Thor demanded.
"Yes. I can create duplicates of any sword or similar weapon."
"But Mjolnir isn't some weapon," Thor was scandalized, "it was specially made for me by Eitri and Brokkr, so that only my hand can lift it." He gestured with the hand in question, glaring at Archer.
Natasha looked on to this exchange. The profile on Archer that Director Fury had given them ranked Emile Leblanc as an 'Enhanced Asset', like Captain America. It was beginning to sound like that characterization may have been in error. From what she saw on the quinjet, it may be that he was a PMD – a Person of Mass Destruction, like Thor or Iron Man.
That was troubling.
She inspected the easy going man. They needed more information on him. She glanced at the others in the conference room. Banner was watching Fury's performance while Tony was playing with some technology – he was muttering complaints about the user interface on Banner's Tesseract detector. More importantly, Steve Rogers didn't appear concerned at all.
Maybe she was was over reacting.
But it wasn't paranoia if people really did try to kill you on a daily basis.
"Yeah, well, my copies all have some imperfections," Shirou replied mildly to Thor's comment.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner gestured towards the monitor. Loki might be a self absorbed ass-hat, but he was kind of funny.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. He's enjoying the attention." Steve placed himself between Leblanc and the god of thunder, "So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve tried to direct the conversation back on topic.
"I'm not certain. Word in Asgard is that he has allied with some group called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard, nor any world known. But when I spoke to him just recently (before Cap and Archer arrived) he claimed that he was doing it to save Earth from Hel's daughter."
"That man, god, whatever, lies like a carpet. We can pretty much disregard whatever comes out of his mouth," Tony was thinking out loud (as he continued tinkering with something on his computer), "Based on his actions - 80 fatalities in two days - I would say he doesn't give a rats ass about humans. Hey you," Tony pointed at random at one of the technicians working at a computer workstation, "Hel is the goddess of the dead – do a search for any increased reports of unquiet dead. If there is something to this Hel's daughter song and dance, there should be some trace. But otherwise, we stay on track for the the Tesseract emissions."
"Unless Loki has managed to contain them." Shirou mused.
"It's emitting a unique blend of neutrinos spiked with a few high energy gammas," Banner countered, "It's all low interacting – it would take several miles of concrete and lead to block all of it."
"The Tesseract is at least in part a magical construct. The emissions could be suppressed with the appropriate ward scheme."
Everybody turned to look at Shirou,
"Oh, great. Somebody thinks he's Harry Potter. So where's your broomstick and pointy hat?" Tony mocked.
"Is there something you haven't been telling us, son?" Fury walked into the room from having secured Loki.
Shirou considered. He liked these people. Even Tony. Despite their differences, they were all looking to protect those around them, not to destroy. But he knew that he was a lousy judge of character. Like with Shinji. He wished Rin was here.
"I am a Magus, though a very poor, inadequate one. My one strength is that I can magically analyze any weapon in an instant and learn its composition, its abilities, its history, and the history of those that wielded it." He turned to Steve, "That's how I knew I could trust Captain America to be honorable. And how I could match you in sparring – I learned who you were and how you fought from your shield." Steve Rogers looked perturbed by this, glancing at his shield with an odd sense of betrayal. "The Tesseract is a weapon. I analyzed it when I looked at it. I couldn't fully comprehend it – there was just too much. It's way more complicated than anything I have ever seen before. I blacked out. But I did learn enough to know some of how it works. And it works at least in part on magic."
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," Banner quoted.
"Oh, not you too." Tony groaned.
"What do you get on the staff that Loki was using," Captain asked, "It seems a lot like the Hydra weapons that I have seen."
"I don't know your Hydra, but what I saw was that it's not of terrestrial origin. And that it has sat, unused, for so long that it's history effectively begins just a few months ago. It was during those few months that it came into contact with Rin Tohsaka."
"Your girlfriend?" Tony interjected,
"I wouldn't go that far. But she is also a Magus. A far more powerful one than I."
/\ b'D /\
"Commander, I need to talk to you" Natasha approached Nick Fury as he pensively paced the Helicarrier's bridge. The rest of the heroes were either down in the lab or the adjoining conference room.
"What have you got?"
"If this Rin Tohsaka is as powerful as Leblanc says she is, we may have a problem."
"You mean that if she's more powerful than the guy who can potentially create a partial facsimile of the Tesseract from thin air, she could be a massive wild card in all this?"
"Oh, you caught that."
"Yes, and I am becoming more concerned about how little I know about our friend Leblanc."
Natasha nodded, "I am also, but I think we can worry about him later. Yes, he has his secrets, but who here doesn't? But both at the museum and then on the way back, with Thor, he did what needed to be done without hesitation or debate." Natasha paused before adding, "It's good to have another archer on the team." Even though Leblanc was nothing like Clint.
/\ b'D /\
"You didn't look terribly concerned when Fury popped the cork on your bottle." Shirou strolled into the prisoner containment room. Loki was sitting on the floor of his tube, looking board.
"Hello Mr Leblanc. Or should I call you Shirou Emya?" When that didn't garner a response, Loki continued, "are you here to make me a deal? Maybe in exchange for me telling you about your Asian sweetheart?"
"Maybe." Shirou considered. He knew that intrigue was not his strong suit. If he wasn't careful, Loki would take advantage of him. "You have a plan. You have accounted for all the variables, and even though you are our prisoner, you are convinced that you have everything under control."
"Oh, tell me more." Loki looked interested.
"We're all heroes. We all want to save people, so that constrains our actions. Makes us easy to predict." He spoke with an intensity as he looked past Loki at the impressive room, "But I came to the realization that you can't save people without killing others." He slammed his palm into the button opening the doors under Loki.
The Trickster barely managed to grab hold of the lip of the chamber, at the same time kicking his feet out to brace them on the far side of the chamber. He tottered, trying to keep from tumbling down a mile through the slightly cloudy sky. He wedged his hands more firmly on the near side as he wriggled his toes onto the ledge on the other.
"What do you want?" Loki asked, a cold sweat forming on his back as he realized that Shirou was not going to play by the rules.
Shirou stood and watched him.
"You need me alive. To find your girlfriend."
"No. I know that she is alive. I can take care of the rest. I just need to make sure that you don't interfere." Shirou turned and walked towards the door.
"Wait!" Loki called out, "I am not the enemy here. Your Rin is working for me. She will not take kindly to you murdering her partner."
Shirou whirled, "She would never work with someone like you!" His composure cracked.
"What's going on in here?" Agent Coulson ran in, slamming the 'close' button for Loki's chamber. "You can't go killing our prisoners, Archer!"
/\ b'D /\
"What was the meaning of that little stunt?" Nick Fury demanded of Shirou.
"I was trying to get some useful information."
"Kids got a point. We did get data." Tony remarked. Maybe Leblanc was more pragmatic than he had given him credit for. The jury was still out on whether that was a good thing or not.
"And if he had died?" Thor demanded.
"That would have solved one of our problems." Archer replied coldly.
Ok. Not a good thing, "You can't be the judge, jury and executioner."
Natasha was also conflicted on Leblanc. On the one hand, he had a solid, no nonsense attitude. On the other, he thought he was Harry Potter and was probably as nutty as the proverbial fruitcake. But so was Banner, and he was a useful additional to the team. She gave a surreptitious glance over at Banner. He appeared intent on his calculation. Good, no Hulk-anneurism today.
"Mr. Leblanc, I don't know how it worked in your world, but we have a system of laws, and courts to administer them. While you are on my planet, you will follow them. Is that clear?" Fury glared at Shirou.
Shirou found the response of the people... surprising. With the type of people he typically worked with, he was usually the one with a strong moral compass. Director Fury was correct that he had stepped over the line a little, but he was shocked that they had called him on it. He wasn't certain if he should be angry for this meddling or glad that they had prevented him from going too far. He looked around the conference room - the only one who wasn't giving him a disappointed look was Black Widow. And Banner, but he was barely paying attention to all the irrelevant 'people stuff' as he worked.
"Though now we have the additional headache that your high school crush is playing for the other team," Tony added.
"Rin wouldn't do that. She's like Stark – she might get too caught up in her ideas to notice the people around her, but she wouldn't do something unethical." Of course, he hadn't really spent much time with her in the past six years. What if she had changed? 'No, Rin is Rin. She wouldn't do anything to hurt people.'
"I'm sorry, did you just compliment me? Because I can't tell if I should be flattered, or offended that you are comparing science to some voodoo." Tony was genuinely puzzled.
Before Shirou could reply, the door to the conference room slammed open and Steve Rogers stormed in, dropping a SHIELD pulse rifle on the table, "PHASE 2 is SHIELD using the Tesseract to create weapons."
"Rogers, we have gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're..." Fury prevaricated
"These are the same design as the Hydra weapons. The ones they were developing using Tesseract technology." Steve remembered those clearly. They were what lead to the 70 year hiatus in his life.
Steve Rogers looks disgusted. "I was wrong, director. The world hasn't changed a bit." He was a soldier. He understood the need for weapons to defend yourself with. But new weapons would just lead to an arms race. And then somebody would decide to have a 'little war', just to test them out.
Banner began to get agitated. He couldn't concentrate. He had been keeping his cool in the face of all this chaos, but he hated weapons and violence. It made him anxious. And he wasn't very good at dealing with anxiety (but he knew somebody who was. And that made him even more anxious). "I'd also like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
"Because of him." Fury pointed at Thor.
"Me?"
Nick glared at Thor, "Last year Earth had a couple of visitors from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out-gunned."
"The Aesir are a peaceful people," Thor protested.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, not all Asgardians are the same. All cultures have their criminals." Fury replied shortly. Didn't Thor understand that he was the problem? Unnoticed by all, the gem inset into Loki's staff had begun to glow.
"Using the Tesseract is not the answer, though. It was your work with the Tesseract that drew Loki and his allies to Earth. It is the signal to all the realms that there is something of interest here." Thor retorted, slamming his fist onto the table in anger.
"He's right," Shirou interrupted. "The Tesseract bleeds magical energy. It's like a search light in the dark. You should lock it down. Besides, weapons are never the answer. People are." Shirou's library of weapons all told the same story. "You can create a corp of magic users to protect Earth."
Banner looked skeptical, "Magic is something that can be learned?" Curiosity pulled the cork on his anxiety, letting in drain away. He was a scientist after all. Loki's staff glowed brighter, but distracting a scientist on the hunt for knowledge is a daunting task. And the other participants in the argument were intrigued by this new option as well.
"Yes. If you have magic circuits – pathways for channeling magical power," Shirou intoned an an aria under his breath and looked around the room, "I just cast a spell for identifying what a person's magical capacity is. I'm not very good at it, but it will give me a general sense of who can be taught." He slowly turned his head, panning the room. "Actually, Dr. Banner, you have magic circuits, but they are all tied together, like a magic crest – almost a separate object, that can be transferred to closely related people. Other than that though.. Agent Coulson has a strong potential."
"Me?" the slightly geeky agent looked surprised, but his expression slowly slid into 'pleased'. He had always wanted to be a hero, like Captain America.
"But not Thor?" Banner asked.
"No. His abilities must not use the same type of magic."
"Now there are types of magic?" Tony asked skeptically. Despite himself, he was actually curious.
"I think so," Shirou ran a hand through his hair, nervously. This was way outside his comfort zone. He could face off against a swarm of undead, no problem. He go toe-to-toe with a god of thunder without batting an eyebrow, but having to give an impromptu lecture was making him break out in a sweat. "I really don't know much about this. If Rin was here, she could answer all your questions."
"Sir," A bridge tech entered the conference room, "we have a radio transmission from a Rin Tohsaka."
