Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters used, just my own.
Please don't kill me for not updating for ages, but I lost my drive for writing for a while. It is back now. Enjoy chapter 7.
Lex knew she probably shouldn't be eating on the main deck, but she didn't really care. She bit into the ripe apple as she slumped against a metal frame, enjoying the sweet snack. She was back in her usual cloths and felt exceedingly better than in the suit, or the dress. Looking around she felt that she sort of blended in with the eclectic bunch assembled.
Steve and Natasha where sitting at the table while the Thunder God Thor was standing on the other side of it, crossing his beefy arms across his chest. Lex now remembered where she had recognised him from, some of Coulson's files she had sneeked a peek at when she first joined S.H.I.E.L.D.
Another man stood quietly to the side, anxiously pacing and holding his hands under his armpits. Lex could see a slight build up of fog on his glasses. He really didn't look too comfortable being in the room.
Perhaps it was the crazed Asgardian they were watching on the table screens that put him on edge. Lex could see but she could damn well hear his voice of the speaker.
"It's an impressive cage. Not built I think for me." Even from all the way up on the main deck Lex could tell he was baiting Fury, and probably with that cocky grin of his.
"Built for someone a lot stronger than you." Fury's own voice came across just as confident as Loki's.
"Oh I've heard. A mindless beast, makes play he's still a man." Lex looked down at the bite make in the apple, mentally tracing the grooves left by her teeth. "How desperate are you that you would call upon such lost creatures to defend you?" There was something unsettling about Loki's voice that both irritated her and left an unsettling want for more. Maybe this was why he was the God of Lies.
Lex bit into the apple again, the juice trickling down her chin.
"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control and you kill cause its fun. You've made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
'Shit, Fury sounds pissed.' Lex thought.
"Ohhh. It burns you to have come so close." There it was again, that over confident tone. Lex licked the juice from her lips. "To have the Tesseract. To have power. Unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what real power is."
"Well let me know if real power wants a magazine or something." There was a beep as the connection cut off from the monitor.
Lex glanced out of the corner of her eye and watched as Steve pulled his face away from the screen and lent back heavily in the black chair, "Loki's gonna drag this out. Thor, what's his play?"
All eyes turned to the god. "He has an army, called the Chitauri." He turned slowly, releasing his own grip around his bulging biceps. He had done away with the cape but still looked huge to Lex. "They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."
"An army. From outer space." Steve shook his head.
"So he's building another portal." The third man, presumably a scientist, finally spoke up. He removed his glasses and toyed with them. It reminded Lex of how she toyed with her pendent when she was thinking. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."
"Selvig?" Thor asked .
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend."
'And the game of 'Six degrees of Separation' continues.' Lex shifted so that her shoulder was pressed into the metal frame. Natasha rolled her shoulders back before leaning forward on the glass table top. Lex pictured her putting on her passive express for conceal herself, "Loki has them under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours."
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve butted in, as if to take charge of the conversation.
"He's a distraction." Lex blurted out. Four pairs of eyes turned to her, "If Selvig is creating this portal, than Loki is the perfect thing to keep S.H.I.E.L.D busy while he completes it." Lex pointed to the table monitor with a sticky finger just as Maria Hill came up from the bridge slowly with her dark eyebrows knitted together. Lex knew she was going to get an earful later from her superior but went on talking. "Just leave Pissy in his fish bowl, he'll burn out soon." She took another bite of her apple.
"Have a care how you speak!" Lex stopped her chewing as the thunder god growled at her, his fists bawled up in anger and he looked ready to fight. Out of instinct Lex stood up straight, ready for him. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother!"
"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha countered coolly.
Thor dropped his guard and eyed his own first. "He's adopted." Lex blinked at his statement and swallowed the piece of apple, "That is the most half assed excuse I've ever heard."
'But it does explain a few things.' Lex wiped her mouth on her sleeve.
Pissed Off Little Brother Syndrome.
"Agent Stark, were you ordered to the bridge for any particular reason?" Maria asked her, but what she was really saying was 'You're are not needed, get out.'
"I am yet to be debriefed ma'am"
"There are more pressing matters than that."
"Then I'm 'assisting' this investigation, and I'm telling you focusing on Loki right now is stupid." Lex responded smoothly. She did want to be of use.
"Agent you do make a point. I think it's about the mechanics." The man in purple shook his glasses at Lex. "Iridium. What do them need the iridium ..."
"It's a stabilising agent." And with that Tony Stark arrived, followed by Coulson. Lex lent back against the frame to make room for the millionaire.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers." Lex announced. Steve and Coulson looked at her like she had slapped both of them without reason. Tony took no notice of this and continued speaking. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like before. No hard feelings point break, you've got a mean swing." Tony playfully knocked Thor's arm as he passed. "Also it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." Whilst he divulged the facts, he busied himself with playing with Fury's control panels. Lex thought Maria would take his hand off, but she was showing a surprising amount of restraint.
"Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails. That man is playing Galaga, though we wouldn't notice, but we did!" Now half the agents down on the main deck were distracted by Tony's arsing around.
Lex puffed out her lips and tried to ignore him for now, "If the Iridium was only thing the need to steal, then what ever other materials Selvig needs will be easy to get a hold of." She said.
Steve swivelled in his chair to face her, "What makes you say that Miss?" His mannerisms reminded Lex of an old Hollywood star, like Clark Gable meets Laurance of Arabia but in blue body suit.
"You can get just about anything if you know the right people. And if I know who, Burton does too ... and then some." She explained. Steve nodded along with her words
"Okay Lexie, just what were you doing before S.H.I.E.L.D got you?" Tony made a dramatic flourish with his hand, "Because I can't say I'm liking what I'm hearing."
Lex cocked and eyebrow at him, "So now you take interest?" That came across a little too icy, even for Lex's taste. Tony immediately backed off.
"Sorry." He coughed and returned to the issue at hand. "The only major component Selvig still needs is a power source of high energy density, something the kick start the cube."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked.
"Last night. Selvigs' notes. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
For a moment everyone appeared confused before regaining their senses. "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.
"He got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." The scientist looked down at his glasses as he spoke. Tony nodded and strutted over to him.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect."
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."
Tony threw up a hand, "Finally, someone who speaks English."
Lex and Steve's eyes met, "Is that what just happened?" He asked her. She shrugged at the soldier, "Yes and No. Don't hurt yourself trying to understand." Steve gave her a quirky half smile of amusement. Much to Lex's surprise, she felt her cheek twitch to form a grin of her own. She shoved the apple back into her mouth as her uncle and the scientist shook hands.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner."
Lex almost choked on the fruit.
The Dr Banner, the Hulk himself, was on board a S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier. So that's what Loki was getting at before. If Loki knew that Banner was here, what else did he know?
Things just really interesting.
She quickly looked away when she realized she was staring at the man, while her uncle went on in his usual manner of running his mouth. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
"... Thanks."
Lex mentally slapped her forehead just as a blur of leather passed her peripheral. "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." Nick Fury explained to Tony.
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon." Steve suggested. Fury placed both hands on the table "I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
Thor, who had been oddly quiet for the last few minutes, gave Fury bemused look, "Monkeys? I do not understand."
"I do!" Tony rolled his eyes, while Steve looked proud of himself, "I understood that reference"
Lex was trying so hard to not laugh that she formed an unattractive pout.
Tony removed his suit jacket and swept his arm across himself. "Doctor? Shall we?" He and Banner departed for what Lex presumed to be one of the many research labs on board. Everyone took the opportunity to go their own ways. Coulson walked towards Thor and muttered something to him before the two headed down to the bridge, while Natasha quickly passed Lex, clearly in a hurry to get somewhere.
"Agent Stark." Fury barked. Lex folded her hands behind her back, mostly to hide the apple core. "Yes sir."
"Coulson filled me in on your encounter with Loki in Stuttgart ..."
"I can explain my actions despite the order not to engage with him sir. Loki exposed himself and began attacking civilians."
"So you went at him without any back up?"
"Yes sir."
For a moment Fury was silent, then he smirked at her. "Stubborn as a bull as always." He said, "When we have the Cube's location, you will be needed for extraction. Until then you are on standby."
"Sir, I could be of assistance to Dr Banner. I can access the..."
"I believe one Stark if enough for Dr Banner." Fury was quick to remind Lex of her place. Maria nodded in agreement. "Just be ready when I call you. That is all Agent." He turned his back to her and started fixing the mess Tony had left on his monitors. Lex bit the inside of her mouth sharply to stop her saying anything back. This was not the time for snide comebacks. She turned on her heels and let out a puff of air to calm herself. A little groan escaped as the dull pain from her stomach reminded her once again of the crazed prisoner, or rather the fight they had. She began to walk out into the maze of corridors. She tossed her apple core into a waste disposal unit built into the wall.
"Miss Stark?"
Lex stopped so that Steve could catch up. "Have you had that injury seen too yet?"
Lex lightly skimmed her hand over her stomach when he mentioned it. "Yeah, it's fine." She lied. The rough fabric of her shirt did rub against the charred skin but Lex didn't mind. "How about yourself Captain? No bumps or bruises?"
"None. And if you please, Steve will be enough."
"Kay Steve. How can I help you?" The two of them walked at a slow pace down the steel corridor. "You look like you have a question on your mind."
"I know it's none of my business but I would like to ..." "Have a look at Loki's toy?"
Steve grinned at Lex, "You are good."
Lex walked with a little more sass, "That's why S.H.I.E.L.D hired me."
"So you're good with people."
"That and I'm a good hacker."
"Hacker? What's a hacker?"
"It's a ... never mind. I'll tell you when you're older." Lex's shook her head. "I digress. Loki's toy."
"Ah yes. I was wondering if you knew where Dr Banner and your uncle would be working."
Lex stopped walking to think. Steve stood awkwardly at her side, unsure where to look. 'One of the larger ones perhaps. Quiet and isolated for Banner.' "Follow me." They took a turned and headed into the inner workings of the Helicarrier. There was silence between the two until it became apparent Steve couldn't handle it.
"So ..." He began slowly, "You're Howard Stark's granddaughter?"
"Biologically speaking yeah." Lex shrugged. "Never knew him personally."
"He was a good man. You know you do look a lot like him. I mean in the eyes."
"Really?" Lew had only ever seen old clippings of infamous founder of Stark Industries in articles and had never fully pictured him being her grandfather. "Tony is probably a closer match."
Steve just stared ahead, "Maybe. We will see."
Lex could tell he was reluctant to associate the two Starks. "I apologize in advance if Tony acts like a Backpfeifengesicht."
"You speak German Miss Stark?"
"Nope, just picked a few phrases recently."
"I have heard that one before, during my service in the war. Never knew what it meant."
"It is a face crying out for a fist in it."
Their laughter filled up the empty corridors as the drew closer to their destination. Just as Lex had guess, both Tony and Banner could be seen through the windows of the large lab running back and forth between an assortment of machines, most of them Tony's.
"Just in there Steve." Lex stopped and pointed to the entrance.
"You don't wish to come in?" Steve's hand hovered around her shoulder as stood in front of her. Lex glanced between the lab and the super soldier. "Ugh ... no I'm good."
"Well, thank you Miss."
"Lex please."
"Alright ... Lex."
She smiled at him quickly and turned to head back the way she came. "Have fun!" She called over her shoulder.
'Standby? Perfect.' Lex kicked her boots along the ground. She remembered she had her own curiosity that needed to be sated, and she remembered the cold eyes that had sparked it.
"Goldie huh?"
She bounce her black pendent in her palm as her feet took her towards the detention block.
