OK, I am going to post the next two chapters, but the story is completed. I really want to be able to post it so please keep reviewing, ask me questions, provide suggestions, etc.
Preview: The poison...well, it arrives on Earth. This chapter is a doozy so make sure that you read it slowly and watch where the scenes change as there are many.
Chapter Seven – Will someone close that open door
It was near eleven at night when Dr. Jane Foster entered the testing facility where she and her mentor were supposed to arrive. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and scientists crawled all over the equipment and computers.
Inside the large wind-tunnel room that was cut off from the glass and a doorway, she observed a long platform with power lines that snaked across the floor to a generator platform. It was where the object that Erik said had been found in the desert would be located. The power lines would supply the power.
Jane had heard from people talking that they were going to be doing the first tests at night so not to strain the city power grid during peak periods in the day. That was before she heard that power was going to be supplied from an artifact that Tony Stark's father recovered in the 1940s.
She only hoped that one day she would be able to work with Tony Stark, the muse of her genius. Granted her inspiration to work hard on the portal research would one day allow her to reach Asgard and reunite with Thor, before him, Tony Stark had been her inspiration.
She slowly backed up to head out of the room when she bumped into someone or something.
"Excuse me," she said in surprise as she turned about to see whom she had run into.
Of all people, it had to be Tony Stark, the man that she was currently thinking about.
"No, excuse me," Tony Stark said. "My, you are much prettier than that S.H.I.E.L.D. photograph session did you justice, Dr. Foster."
"It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Stark?" she said as she shook his hand.
"Oh the pleasure is all mine," he replied. He allowed her to pass back into the laboratory. "Say, Dr. Foster…"
"Jane," she interjected.
"Jane," he said her name. "I may have a potential opening at Stark Industries for someone to run my Astrophysics and Sciences Section. I really cannot see you working in this bomb shelter of a laboratory for SHEILD without seriously wanting to kill something or someone."
"It is not my ideal job," she replied to his potential job offer. "But I am glad to be working on this portal project."
"Well, think about it," Tony said as the commotion of the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. was walking into the room. "Oh by the way, nice necklace," he added in pointing to it.
Jane looked down at the necklace she had received magically. "Oh, thank you."
Erik arrived with the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. One agent had a briefcase handcuffed and chained from his wrist to the handle of the case.
What was in there?
"Dr. Foster," Commander Nick Fury greeted her. "Mr. Stark," he greeted him in a slightly lesser kind way.
"A pleasure Commander Fury," Stark answered back. "Dr. Foster and I were getting acquainted since we will be working together for some time to come."
"A job that I am sure can be discussed on other time," Fury chastised him. "Officer, the case."
The officer brought the case to the metal table.
Erik came and rested his hands on her shoulders. "Just wait till you see what is in there," he whispered to Jane Foster.
"What is it?" she whispered back.
"A power source," he added. "Dr. Selvig has spent the past couple of years analyzing this and we have come to the conclusion that this small fragment could be the key to opening gateways to other worlds."
Jane looked up at Erik.
"Dr. Foster has been brought in with her extensive and personal knowledge of portals and gateways," the commander added in; pointing to her and she gave a light wave. "She will be able to calculate the amount of energy from the artifact that Dr. Howard Stark, father of Mr. Stark here, will need in order to use its power to one day, open a portal to another world."
Jane smiled with joy. That object that Fury was indicating to would be the key to proving all her research and theories to work. She would no longer be a joke to the scientific community.
Not only that, she would finally get to be back with the man she had loved and missed for almost a decade.
L7L7L7L7L7L7L7L7L7L7L7L7L
Nightfall
Night came on and the city was starting to quiet down. However, SHEILD's island off the coast was working hard as they prepared to give the artifact a test run.
Dr. Jane Foster was working with her star charts to implant coordinates into the computer. She was calculating the constellations and the notes within her notebook. With her notes and hours of research alongside her mentor, they had the approximate guess as to where Asgard was located.
Commander Fury came over to supervise. She made her case for locking on to Asgard and not another realm. At least Asgard would be a friendly territory and there were allies there that would not attempt to attack Earth.
He gave his approval for those coordinates to be inserted into the computer and she did as instructed.
The town had been "advised" that the city's power grid was going to be having technical issues and the power may fluctuate. It was a cheap lie that S.H.I.E.L.D. produced, but it would allow them to test the generator.
Jane got a quick look at the artifact as it was pulled from the case with some sort of tool.
Erik was by her as their eyes were locked on the glowing cube.
It was taken to a small disc dais at the edge of the room and inserted into a chamber just above the power unit.
It was coming along.
The people that were no longer needed were dismissed, but Jane, Erik, Fury, Tony Stark, and several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and officers remained.
Each put on a set of radiation goggles and gloves in case of any backlash from using the artifact.
"Dr. Selvig, are we ready to begin?" Commander Fury asked.
"We are good to go," Erik said. "Shall I begin the initial power up sequence?"
"You are cleared to begin," Fury gave the order.
Erik Selvig came over to her and they locked eyes with each other. "Here we go," he said to her.
And she smiled wide before putting on her goggles.
The switch was hard to push up to the on position, but Jane assisted him in pushing it to activation.
The electricity snaked down the power-lines toward the tesseract. It was slow to start glowing, but it finally started to accept the power supplying it.
It began to get brighter and brighter, but still nothing was happening. The ball in the center of the dais just grew to take up the space on the platform, but nothing was happening.
Perhaps the coordinates were wrong. Maybe the power supply was all wrong.
There were so many variables that would need to be tested before they tried again.
Jotunheim
Loki watched from his viewing glass a group on Midgard was using the Asgardian relic that he had personally seen when he visited years ago; by taking over the mind of Jane Foster's former teacher.
He had influenced him to take another look and research into a potential doorway to access Midgard personally.
But what enlightened him more was that Jane Foster was standing right by her teacher. This was going to be very easy.
Amora the Enchantress stood by him holding a small box that contained the death crystal within. It had to be kept safe and no one else could touch it until it was meant to be used.
Otherwise, this would have all been for naught.
"Is that her?" Amora asked.
"That is Jane Foster," Loki replied.
"Pretty for a Midgardian," she answered back.
He gave her a look. "I told you that she would come to me," he told her. "Now I just need to connect a portal that I create to the one that she is trying to create. Once they do, she is mine."
He snatched the box from her hands, grabbed his scepter, and then pointed it toward the mirror.
His looking glass glowed brightly. His power and energy were being drained, but he knew that once Jane was infected with his poisoned crystal, he would be able to get his energy back.
The doors connected and he was able to see the humans, but he made it so that they would not be able to see him.
"Jane," he called out to her.
Earth
"Jane," the room heard a voice call out from the portal.
Jane Foster stared into the void of the portal as she slowly took off her glasses. Had they done it? Had they established a connection?
"What the hell was that?" Tony Stark said.
"Jane, it's me," the voice called out to her again. "I can see you Jane."
She felt entranced and started walking away from the control console toward the light. It was as if she did not have control over her own body.
"Who are you?" she called into the portal. "How do you know…?"
"Jane, its Thor," the voice said to her. "Come towards me. Help me to come through."
Tony reached out for her, but she shook it off.
"It's Thor," she told him. "I have to help him."
"How do you know it is him?" he asked. "For all we know this could be a trap."
"Jane, I had to stay behind to destroy the bridge," the voice called out to her. "I did not want to do it, but I had to stop my brother Loki. He was going to destroy an entire race if I did not stop him." There was a pause. "Jane, the portal is weak and I cannot pass through it," the voice called out. "Please, give me your hand and I can pass through and return to you."
"Bad idea," Agent Coulson said out loud.
"It's OK," she said. "I trust him." She put her glasses back on again to prevent the light from burning her eyes.
She drew closer and closer to the portal opening. Jane also got more scared as she drew closer. She did not know if this was reality or a dream. She also did know that if she brought Thor through, what would happen to her?
But her heart pulled her closer to the doorway.
Jotunheim
She was falling for it. This stupid human was actually falling for Loki's ruse, the Enchantress thought. This human thought that she was communicating with Asgard and with Thor.
The brunette female stepped up to the steps and was about ready to stick her hand out to him.
"Thor," Jane Foster said to the portal. "Where have you been?"
Loki smiled as he pulled the crystal from the box. "I have been trying to find my way to you," he said to the portal. "Please Jane, I have been trying to come to Earth, but I could not find a way. You have opened the door for me. Let me come to Midgard for you. Let me be with you."
Jane's face lit up with a gorgeous smile…just before she reached out with her hand.
"You're mine," he said and stuck his hand with the crystal through the mirror.
Earth
Jane reached her hand to where her fingertips were just about to pass through the warm, radiant light. It wasn't painful and she was reaching further to see if Thor was about to grab her hand.
Suddenly, a hand reached through the portal and grabbed her sharply around her wrist and forearm. It was a tight grip, but the alarming thing was that it was not Thor's hand. The flesh was of a blue tinted color and covered in carvings.
She had been tricked.
"Help!" she howled.
Coulson and the rest of the agents charged for her.
She could barely hear Tony Stark shouting, "Close the portal."
But she looked back as a second hand slammed onto the top of her forearm. It was painful and it burned upon impact with her skin.
The pressure of the attack was enough to send her flying off the platform to the floor. She curled into a ball and held her wrist in her hand.
Coulson was there to check on her, but he turned his gaze to the window when they heard a different voice mock them.
"Pathetic humans," the voice that she did not recognize say to them. "Watch as my precious poison slowly and painfully destroys the life of Jane Foster." The person laughed before the portal closed.
Jane writhed on the floor, her arm freezing, but burning at the same time. It was so painful that it was getting hard for her to breathe.
She was panicking at her stupidity.
Tony Stark rushed down to Jane Foster's side and was trying to get her to look up at him, but her eyes were shut tight and she wept as she clinched her forearm.
He slowly pulled away her fingers so he could get a look at what was causing her her pain. Her flesh looked like it was burned, but the skin crawled and shifted where the burn was. It was as if whatever struck her had seeped into her body.
He about vomited when he saw it move.
"What is it Mr. Stark?" Commander Fury came over to check on her.
"I don't know," he replied. "It's not natural because it is moving under her skin and absorbing. Like a parasite."
Dr. Erik Selvig was with him as well, trying to get Jane to remain conscious. His hand wicked away the beads of sweat across her skin.
"She's burning up," Selvig told him.
"OK, we have to get her to a hospital, now!" Tony demanded. He lifted her up from the floor and began to carry her.
"Where do you think you are going?" Coulson asked.
"I am taking her outside to my car," he told them. "You are welcome to follow if you would like."
"What hospital?" Pepper Potts, his assistant who had been watching from the connecting laboratory asked, apparently ready to call.
"Call Cedars," he said. "Dr. Keith Kincaid, her former husband, is Chief of Trauma Center over there. He'll have some pull on getting her treated."
The other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were trying to ask questions and give him orders, but he did not listen or care about what they thought.
Jane Foster's life was on the line.
I have to admit that I am really in love with the Loki character since reading "Fallen Star" by Alydia Rackham so these chapters where Loki is evil toward Jane are hard to write. Please stick with and review!
