The guards at the Fridge were understandably nervous. When Hydra had revealed themselves, they had been luckier than some of the other Shield bases. It didn't seem as if they had been infiltrated by as many Hydra agents, and the loyal agents had been able to quickly subdue them. Still, everyone was on edge, with the leadership of Shield in disarray, and no idea of how to identify possible traitors who were still hidden in their ranks. So understandably when there was a flash of blue light, and a figure appeared out of nowhere, the two guards securing the elevator jumped and almost hit themselves in the head with their guns in a panic.
"Wait. Is that…. Is that Thor?" One of the guards said when he got a better look at the man in front of them. Tall, broad shouldered, blond, not in his usual outfit, but what looked like a long-sleeved t-shirt with the front covered in blood and jeans, but still, he could swear it was the Asgardian Avenger.
"What would Thor be doing here?" the other guard asked.
"Could someone have called in the Avengers?" But were the Avengers even reachable, and if they were, with Shield in chaos, who could have called them?
Before they could think about it more, Thor knocked on the door. "I need to speak to your leaders right away." He called. "We believe that Hydra agents might be on their way here, to attack this facility. Who's in charge?"
"Agent Marley, sort of." The first guard said as he went to open the door.
"Hey, wait, Agent Hand said not to open the door for anyone but her!"
"Do you think a locked door would actually keep out an Asgardian? Agent Hand will be more upset if the door gets broken. And he's not from this planet. He's not Hydra." the first guard said as he opened the door and waved for Thor to come in. "Right this way. Agent Marley's downstairs."
"Thank you." Thor said. "My parents should be here shortly to assist in defending this place. If you could show them in when they arrive?"
They were about to be visited by Asgardian royalty? Did they need to roll out some sort of red carpet for that? Did they even have a red carpet? The second guard was debating where to look for a possible red carpet to spread out for royal visitors, when the elevator door opened and Agent Marley was standing there. "Agent Marley, this is…."
"Thor?" The agent's jaw dropped as he looked up at the Avenger, and after a moment he let out a sigh of relief. Help at last! "Agent Jake Marley. You won't believe how glad I am to see an ally."
"You're in charge of this base?" Thor asked as he followed the small, rather nervous looking agent down the hall.
"No, that would be Agent Russell, who was injured during the initial uprising by Hydra. He's currently unconscious in medical, and his second in command, Agent Anders was somewhere in transit from the Treehouse when this all started and we haven't been able to locate her. I'm from the accounting department. I was sent over to take a look at a supply issue, and somehow I ended up being the highest ranking agent on their feet and in the building."
"We believe that Hydra is on their way here even now, to attack this building, liberate any prisoners, and seize your weapons." Thor told him. "What do you have in the way of defenses?"
"Not as much as I would like if we're facing an external attack." Agent Marley said. "What makes you think that Hydra's headed here?" Not that it would be surprising if they were, given the prisoners and weapons housed there.
"Hydra took over a plane bound for this location. They shot the loyal agents onboard, and left the bodies where they were luckily found quickly."
"Agent Hand." Marley winced, realizing at once what had happened. And then he noticed the blood on Thor's shirt, and the fact that they spelled out letters and numbers in what seemed to be a very shaky but familiar writing style. "She was still alive when she was found?"
"She fought bravely and truly earned a place in Valhalla this day." Thor said. "Even on the point of death her thoughts were for her comrades and defeating this monstrous foe."
"That's her. A lot of people missed that about her. I'll show you the defenses. Maybe you can make some suggestions. One thing I'm worried about, though, is going into a battle without a way to be sure that we've rooted out all of the Hydra infiltrators. I've noticed a few funny things about the agents that turned, but not enough to make sure we have them all."
"My mother can help you with that. We have a few things that can be used to reveal the truth." Thor said. It was a shame that his brother just happened to be highly allergic to all of them.
"Mother!" Loki was waiting at the Bifrost when Frigga and Odin appeared, looking frazzled, a large basket on one arm, a small bottle in the other hand and three ravens circling his head. "How was your vacation? Ready to come back and take over the throne once more?"
"Is the palace repaired?" Odin asked.
"The number of people hit by fallen masonry has dropped to an all time low and no one has tumbled through a floor recently. I am counting that as a vast improvement. And I believe after six months that Fandral might have grasped the concept of a load bearing wall."
"We're sure you're doing just fine, running things and repairing all of the damage to the palace." Frigga said. "Do you have the potions I requested?"
"I had Hildy pack the truth telling potions." Loki said as he handed the basket over. "They make me itch just touching them. What are those mortals doing down there? Did I hear correctly that the Nazis are trying to take over again?" Nazis and his children being on Midgard, that was definitely a situation he did not approve of, and he was surprised that his brother wasn't already hustling his niece and nephew back up to the Bifrost.
"Hela and the boys are fine." Frigga handed a bottle to one of the ravens. "Take this to Hela as fast as you can and tell her that just a few drops should be enough to help."
"You did raise mature, capable, responsible children." Odin said.
"I know. I sometimes wonder how I failed so greatly. So I take it you aren't here to relieve me of my punishment? Would it help if I swear that I will never even think of taking over Asgard or any other realm again?" Loki said. "I couldn't be paid enough to take over anything again."
"You're doing a wonderful job. Six months and Fandral's already learnt what a load bearing wall is? I didn't expect him to grasp that concept for at least a year. What about the prison? Is it secure?" Frigga asked.
"Secure, and Sif and Hogun have managed to return a number of our prisoners to custody." Loki said.
"Good. We may have prisoners to move from Midgard soon." Odin said.
"Prisoners from Midgard. So you're going to help Shield with their problems then? If you see Agent Coulson, let him know if he wishes to press charges against me over that stabbing incident, I will happily surrender!"
"We're sure he'll agree that our punishment is much more fitting than any prison." Frigga said. "In the meantime, can you go through the library and look for any of the manuscripts your grandfather Bor picked up at that, I think they call it a fire sale on Midgard. I know Hela has most of them, but there might be a few she missed. And if there was something that could help an injured mortal, it would have to be in one of those manuscripts.