Yes, I left you hanging there didn't I. I had to think a LONG time over this and Loki's power over the water (yes, this'll happen in this chapter) is based on the fact that he had an affinity for it in Thor; tales of Asgard and that he is a Frost Giant so water would come naturally to him. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask them! Also I AM going to continue this fic because I fell in love with writing it, I can't stop thinking about more plot bunnies and they keep popping up! I'm thinking of making this a trilogy but we'll see about that.
Thor's gone and by whispering those words he just had Loki knows they'll leave him be for some time, long enough, he hopes to prepare for plan B. There has to be something to fall back on because Loki doesn't care that his brother trusts these mortals Loki's learned to rely on himself and not on others too much so that's exactly what he'll do. If the mortals fail in deactivating the bombs the consequences are horrible. If even one of the bombs explodes and this explosion is not stopped it time, its power will reach the next bomb and deactivated or not, that bomb will explode to. The chain reaction will destroy the city and with it Loki's chance of showing the Midgardians that he means no harm and it will make the Chitauri's plan succeed. He doesn't know what they've planned after the explosions but it can't be good.
The plan is simple in theory, he has studied the art of cloning himself for months now because it looked like a handy trick for some pranks but now he has to use them in a life-death situation and he dearly hopes it will work. He only has a one-second-window, he has installed a mini-virus into the computer of Stark (he heard that was the Iron Man's name) that will disable the artificial intelligence program to monitor everything on the ship, including Loki, the computer won't even be able to notice because it will be quick, the only thing Loki has to do is send the signal but at the same time he has to clone himself and teleport that clone in the close proximity of the mortal city Detroit.
Glad that he has seen enough images and maps to know where the city lies and how it looks he knows that he can send his clone there, however keeping that clone hidden is something of a bit more complicated nature, he still has to be connected to it or it would fade away but this connection can't be discovered, not by anyone so he has to cloak it.
To explain this very simply: Loki has to send a signal to the virus in the computer system, has a second time to clone himself and teleport that clone to Detroit but has to cloak the connection with him and said clone at the same time. He also has to embodiment the clone so that it can actual do things and he has to be two persons at the same time. That can't be too hard can it?
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The mission is blown and it's all Thor's fault. The thunder god had been so worried over the safety of his little brother that he had not been paying his full attention to this mission while this mission especially required his attentiveness. Stark had explained to him how to deactivate the bomb and it was simple, the Chitauri had weapons of mass destruction but these weapons weren't too complicated because your average foot soldier of the Chitauri knows almost nothing except how to shoot a gun and die in battle.
Thor had been too distracted hadn't paid attention to his surroundings hadn't even noticed when more Chitauri practically came raining down on him. Thor had been the last for his bomb had been placed the furthest so by the time he had started to deactivate the bomb all of his companions had already disabled theirs so the Chitauri had been able to concentrate on this last bomb, they had all known that if this bomb did not explode for them all would be lost so they had not been distracted at all.
And Thor, Thor with all his strength, Thor the prince of Asgard was not defeated but he was stalled, long enough for it to be too late to deactivate the bomb and as he realizes this he braces himself for the explosion and thinks
I have failed you brother
And when the bomb goes off and Thor is blown away and he cannot hear anything anymore he suddenly feels like the heavens are crashing down on him and he can't breathe anymore because there's water everywhere!
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He must act quickly, with a simple vision spell he had been able to spy on all the action those Midgardian and his bro- no not his brother, just Thor had done. He had seen the red-haired woman take out the aliens with such ease that he would never ever doubt the strength of a woman again. He had seen the archer shoot his arrows swiftly and with no effort at all, he too had had no problems with taking out the aliens, they almost made it look like child's play! The green monster the healer transformed in smashed his enemy's heads with such ferocity that what had been left of the Chitauri had not been a pretty sight. The Man of iron had simple blasted away all of the Chitauri in a matter of seconds like they were nothing but insects that were there to trample and squash with your boot.
But Thor, Thor had been distracted and Loki had seen this the moment the vision spell showed him the crown prince of Asgard and Loki had known that if the plan were to fail it would because of Thor so the clone had teleported close to where the bomb lay. He had not been able to even try and deactivate the thing because he couldn't risk teleporting so close. And when the bomb exploded he had been prepared.
Now he has to concentrate on the bomb and he lets his attention in his true body slip for a couple of seconds, lethal seconds he knows because his real body is about to be attacked the moment this bomb sets of and it does no damage but he can't think about that because he has other things to worry about. This clone body is imperfect and its magic limited but it's there and when he sees Thor almost being swallowed up by the explosion something snaps inside of him.
He doesn't know where this rush comes from, this wave of power, he can only guess it comes from the Tesseract energy within him, but that is of no importance right now so he focusses on his plan again. He's always known he had some connection to water and upon discovering a river flows through this city he had immediately known what to do. He had immediately known his plan B. Has it already been mentioned that Loki really hates plan B?
Loki calls upon the water, forces it to obey his will and the water does as it is bid. Loki knows that, while he's directing the water to the city that this will only temper the explosion it won't cancel it out and it will bring destruction too but it is a sacrifice necessary for this city to survives this ordeal, this power 'boost' will not last and that soon his magic will not suffice to hold an amount of water like this in his control he has to act as fast as possible for the casualties to be minimal.
He moves the water in such a way that is like a barricade preventing the full force of the explosion to reach the other bombs it's like a protective shell and he is glad that he only has to will the water to hold this form for a moment, long enough to protect the city. In the same breath that he holds to force the water to obey his will, he feels his magic is not enough and he can do nothing, he can only stand there and keep fueling the water with the magic he's left when the body of the clone slowly fades away because its conjurer is being wounded and does not have the power to do this anymore.
The consciousness slips from the clone and everything is black for a moment. Then Loki can feel his true body again and he can feel it being smashed against the ground with such force that the pain almost blinds him. His small, weak body is not made for any of this.
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Fury is not happy with any of this but apparently he has no say in the matter (he hates this as well). Stark has unmuted him and after a few seconds of raging Fury has calms down enough to listen to the plan. He has to because he has no other choice and he hates it that earth's fate is going to be placed in the hands of the maniac who tried to conquer it in the first place
The Chitauri have made it clear that if any military force is detected in a one mile radius from the heart of the city that they'll blow Detroit up without hesitation. Fury's part of the plan is simple, yet crucial, he has to be 'present' when 'handing Loki over' to those space bastards and it has to be convincing. He has to keep SHIELD agents as close as possible to the city without the Chitauri knowing and when the realization that the bombs have been disabled sets in he has to get his agents to that city as fast as humanly possible, normally it will only take a few seconds but those seconds would never have been more important.
The moment the Chitauri realize they've been tricked they'll send their whole armada in and earth has to be prepared for that, in the five hours that were given, Fury has mobilized the biggest army since World war II in a one mile radius of Detroit he just hopes it'll be enough.
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Thor is drowning, he can't move because somehow the water is perfectly still but he can still feel it moving and he has never been good with seidr but he is the son of Odin and Frigga, seidr is in his blood and he can feel his brother's so close to him, a sense of familiarity but then realization sets in, Loki's moving the water but that's not possible from a distance like that, so there is only one logical explanation, Loki's cloned himself, Thor remembers that Loki only showed that he had this ability when they were over 500 years but he now fully knows what a liar his brother is and that he knew how to produce duplicates way before that.
Thor doesn't even bother trying to move or swim to the surface because it's like there is no surface, like there's only water and he can't move anyway. The seidr he feels is so strong but its presence fades away just as fast as it came. He knows it's still there because it can't just disappear like that but he can't feel it anymore because it's so weak now. He takes this opportunity to try and move and before he can try to figure out where the surface is the water just falls and Thor with it. All the magic is gone now and Thor wants to worry about his brother but he's occupied at the moment, he's busy drowning.
Once the water has fallen Thor realizes it's steady and he manages to find the surface and with a few might swings from Mjolnir he flies out of the water into the sky. The sky is dark and clouds have gathered in the few seconds he was under so much has happened, the war fleet from the Chitauri is coming down from space and Chitauri are swarming, people are screaming and there's smoke coming from burning buildings.
Thor looks around only for a moment and can see the destruction the gigantic wave of water has caused, building look like they're going to collapse at any seconds and everywhere he can see Midgardians floating or swimming, screaming because they're disoriented or have lost sight of someone they care about. Thor has no time to keep looking because the sound of shooting and battle can be heard plainly, from where he knows Loki is.
Thor doesn't think he's ever flown this fast before, he flies over the road where Loki is and the sight that meets him, shocks him. From afar he can see the Midgardians coming as fast as they can (not very fast) and he can see air vessels approaching. But his gaze is fixed on the ground.
Loki is slumped against one of the Chitauri and around them are bodies skittered everywhere, all of them Chitauri, Loki has indeed put up some fight but he had been outnumbered and his strength is nothing compared to that of the Chitauri so he must have had to rely on his tricks but those were not enough, as it would seem. There's blood on his face, and not the black kind the Chitauri have flowing in their veins but red blood, his blood. His face is pale and Thor can see his hands are bloody, both his and Chitauri blood speckle his clothing and his armor, the breast plate is ripped and the edges are tarnished with blood, red blood, that is still oozing out of the wound, his leg is bent at an odd angle, one that the body (not even the one of a Frost Giant) does not allow its bones to bend.
This is all registered by Thor in a split second and then he dives forward and smashes half of the Chitauri before they even realize he's there, they fall like flies for him and Thor isn't even hindered the slightest bit when he smashes into them. With one might swing from Mjolnir he crushes the alien holding his brother.
He manages to catch his brother before he can fall to the ground and while laying him down there's an enemy behind him charging at full speed he evades the attack swiftly, grabs the creature's arm that was holding a spear (since its gun was rendered useless), breaks it easily and then hits him with Mjolnir in the chest, it's blown away by the sheer force of it and it almost flies backwards, crashing into his comrades, it's almost comical but Thor doesn't have time to laugh, he turns back around and picks his brother up he doesn't take another step though, because then a huge, blue, electric blast slams into him and sends him flying and the only thing Thor can do protect his brother is dropping him out of the reach of the blast only a split second before it hits him and then he can't do anything anymore because the world turns black.
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He's slowly drifting in and out of consciousness but he really just wants to stay unconscious because being awake means pain and fatigue. He can feel someone lifting him up, gently, in strong contrast with the Chitauri who dragged him along earlier, and he knows he can't stay unconscious because he has things to do and if he doesn't wake immediately he won't like the outcome. (Not that he like this but there is no doubt on his mind that by blacking out he'll only make it worse for he won't have any means to defend himself).
His eyes flutter open and the light fucking hurts but then he can feel magic resonating in the air, he can practically hear it and he knows what it is for some reason but he cannot warn the person who's carrying him because it's too late, the person has dropped him and is blasted away by the beam of magic coming undoubtedly coming from the Chitauri and for some reason he knows which one, the Other.
He can see a flash of red, Thor! But then he falls and his body hits the pavement and he cannot see red anymore because he can see stars now. He's landed on his bad leg and the excruciating pain consumes him. He's tried healing magic but the stunt with the water has left him drained, he's helpless, he can't even properly open his eyes and he feels pitiful and he hates it. He hates plan B so much…
The other talk so silently that the words seem incoherent at first but after blinking a few times and after he manages to get his breathing under control he understands them.
"Little princeling, there's no use in hiding behind these mortals, He will find you, you cannot hide from Him!" He's talking in his own language and even though the All-tongue translates it, it still sounds wrong and Loki comes to the conclusion that this is not the Chitauri language but something older, he has never heard it before and the fact that the other is using it freely means one simple thing.
He doesn't except Loki to survive to tell the tale because Loki somehow knows that the Other almost never speaks his mother tongue. And it is unknown to him how he knows all of this but it feels like you know that if you let go of something it'll drop, it's just something you know.
Loki can barely keep his eyes open, pain dulls his senses and his headache makes him want to claw his brains out with his bare hands but he tries to focus for it's his life that hangs in the balance. He can see the other approaching with a Chitauri warrior at each side. With a small movement of his hand he commands them to take Loki and drag him to him where the portal to the ship awaits not far behind him. Loki can't stop himself from crying out when they roughly grab him and he can suddenly feel the adrenaline kicking in, his magic is stirred and he knows it now or never. He conjures up small knives with all of his power, one he throws in the direction he knows the other must stand for he heard his voice coming from there, the other two he thrusts into his two carrier's unprotected chins and now the fact that he's so small actually works in his advantage.
He can't stand on his own however and he falls again to the ground, grunting when he connects with the unforgiving pavement once more he hopes against all hope that his knife has reached its target but when he hears the laughing, and he knows he's failed.
Yes, I'm ending it at that! I wanted to write more but I realized it would be too much for one chapter so I had to split it up again. This fighting thing is so hard I never thought it would be this difficult. I hope you liked it and please review/comment and make me very happy!
