Chapter Seven

Harry checked his watch for the fifth time since he found his hiding spot. Nearly forty five minutes had passed and he'd neither seen nor heard from Sigyn. The stench of rotting garbage was only making the sick feeling in his stomach worse, and he was certain he might throw up behind the dumpster he was using for cover. Well, it wouldn't be the first time…

All kinds of scenarios played in his mind. What if Spiderman had overpowered her somehow? What if he'd called for backup and she'd been captured? What if she was too injured to move? She may have given him an order to run but he regretted leaving her behind.

"To hell with this," he muttered, getting to his feet. He would retrace his steps back towards the terminal. If she was fine, he'd probably run into her. If she was still there, she'd probably need help.

He was only one step out of the ally when someone pushed him by the chest back into it, pinning him against the brick wall.

"Gimme your wallet! Now!" The man's breath reeked of alcohol and cigarettes and at least four days of not brushing his teeth. Something sharp pressed against his ribs. A knife? No, not the right shape. A broken bottle.

"Alright, alright. Just lemme get my wallet and you can have everything."

"Hurry up!" The man steppe back just enough and Harry saw his opening.

You want me to hurry? Fine. He thrust his hand up and slammed the heel of his hand into the man's nose. Before he could so much as scream, Harry struck him right in the middle of his chest. It wasn't enough to crack bone, but he could feel the shock of the impact reverberate through his arm. The man staggered back, gasping and holding his nose. His face was covered in blood. The mark on his arm itched and burned, like a thousand fire ants were moving underneath. Kill him, the Goblin whispered.

Harry kicked the man's feet out from under him before kicking him again in the stomach. The man groaned and curled in on himself, and Harry was about to land a blow to his head when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Sigyn stood at the ally's entrance, leaning against the brick wall. Like him, she still wore the mask over the lower half of her face, but hers looked like it was covered in something he couldn't quite make out.

The man moved again, and Harry crouched down. "Don't move." His voice had the same mechanized quality Sigyn's had earlier. His attacker groaned, but didn't get up, so Harry took that as an acknowledgement.

Sigyn limped forward, heading further into the ally, and he followed after her in silence until they had found themselves in a new ally.

"You're hurt," he said as she came to a stop. Up close, he could clearly see what was on her mask as she struggled to peel it off. "Is that webbing?"

"He meant to reveal my identity, and quickly learned that was a mistake." She leaned against the wall and winced when her back made contact. "However, he is stronger than I anticipated."

He looked at the ground; she was hurt because of him. "I shouldn't have left you."

She gently touched his chin and lifted so her gaze met his. "Yes, you should have. If he pulled my mask off, oh well. He has no idea who I am. But we cannot risk him finding out you're free. Not until you're ready to face him. Besides," she pulled something out of her jacket pocket and placed it in his hand. "The fight wasn't for nothing."

"What is it?" he turned the small metal contraption over a few times.

"It's how he makes…whatever this is," she answered, peeling the last of the webbing off her mask.

"Holy shit…" The piece was still intact and probably still worked. He wondered if it could be repurposed to shoot something other than webbing.

"Do you still have the drive Fiers gave you?" He nodded. "Good, we need to find out where your suit's being held." She waved her hand and their masks were gone. Now they looked like they could be any other random person walking New York's streets at night.

"I know just the place where we can do that," he said as they stepped out of the ally.

"We aren't going back to the mansion?"

"Not yet. I don't trust Fiers not to have tampered with this."

The internet café was the kind that was open 24/7, about a forty five minute walk from where they'd met. A few people were scattered about, which gave them just enough cover. Harry led them over to a computer tucked away in the far corner.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"An internet café. I need you to watch the door," he said as he plugged the drive into the computer.

"You're going to open up a sensitive file in front of everyone?"

"Safer than doing it at the mansion. If Fiers put a tracking device or virus on this thing I'd rather not risk opening it back home."

There was only one file on the drive, inconspicuously titled 'New Folder,' which only contained one file identified only by a series of random numbers and letters. "Here we go," he murmured and clicked.

It was an inventory report, dated at least four months after his fight with Peter. Most of the items didn't make any sense—what the hell is a magnetic repulsor watch?—but listed at the top was a 'prototype exo-skeleton Osc' followed by numerous pieces of machinery that he assumed came from his busted glider. Okay this is good and all but where are…

"Oh fuck me."

"What? Did Fiers betray us?"

Probably…. His thoughts and heart were racing. He shook his head and pulled the flash drive out of the computer, compelled by the sudden urge to get out of there. "Everything is with S.H.I.E.L.D."


"How could S.H.I.E.L.D. possibly have your equipment?" Sigyn asked once they were back at the mansion. Harry grabbed a beer from the fridge, popped the cap off, and chugged as much of it as he could in one go. It had been that kind of night. "Harry?"

"Damned if I know. Maybe they're watching Spiderman and took anything connected to him."

She muttered a curse in a foreign tongue under her breath. "We need a new plan."

"I have one," he said and chucked the rest of his beer. He couldn't believe he was about to suggest this but he'd been thinking about it the entire way home. "We're going to break into S.H.I.E.L.D. and destroy it."

"Absolutely not! It's too dangerous."

"You're the one whose been saying I need more experience."

"Yes, on a smaller target. This is going from the sparring ring with wooden swords to a full scale battle. And last night you didn't even want to break into the precinct."

He really wanted another beer right now, or some pot. Anything that would take the edge off. "What would you do if something you built fell into enemy hands?"

Sigyn drummed her nails on the countertop and kept her gaze down. He knew what she'd say, even before she said it. "I'd get it back, or find a way to destroy it."

Fuck it, he needed that second beer and grabbed it from the fridge. "That suit has Oscorp written all over it, literally. We have to destroy it and all record of it."

"Have you considered that this could be a trap? Maybe Fiers has told them something."

"Tipping off S.H.I.E.L.D. is ballsy, even for him. He'd run the risk of them looking to closely into him."

She shook her head. "I do not like this plan."

"Do you have a better idea?" He snapped. "Because as it stands now, our two options are either let one of our greatest enemies keep a piece of tech they can trace back to us, or we can get it back. Neither is a good idea but if you've got a better one I'm all ears."

Sigyn fell silent for a long moment, her brows furrowed together, and she chewed on her bottom lip as she thought it over. Finally, she let off a long string of foreign curses and grabbed a beer as well. "This is beyond foolish."

"Story of my life. In fact, I'm sure this isn't even the craziest thing I've done this year." It wasn't any crazier than injecting himself with radioactive spider venom on a hunch it might work, or entrusting his health, freedom, and safety to a centuries old Viking space princess. But if he left his suit in that facility, he would always be looking over his shoulder for a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, or Spiderman, or hell the Avengers. He would never get stronger that way, never be able to defeat Peter, never be able to keep Sigyn from having the shit beaten out of her to protect him. He needed to be stronger to protect them.


Harry was back at his cell in Ravencroft. The cement walls were damp and moss covered. The straight jacket he was in came apart in shreds, orange ribbons pooling around his feet like snakes. His breath materialized in front of him in a white cloud, and gooseflesh prickled his arms. Sobbing echoed behind him, and when he turned around the bars of his cage were gone.

He followed the sound, but could not tell when the prison became a cave. The ground was squishy and muddy beneath him, and he followed the sobbing. Bright iridescent veining ran along the walls that illuminated the cave more than it should have. He stepped on something that was definitely not the ground, and a roar shook the cave and reverberated in his bones. A pair of eyes glowed red in the darkness, and Harry saw rows of flashing white teeth. A giant serpent with a mouth big enough to swallow him whole stared right through him but didn't move.

Beneath the serpent, a man lay bound to a rock by some kind of rope. His skin was pale, so pale that it seemed almost blue. The serpent's venom had made a ruin of his eyes; they were burned out pools of red and black gore. Were it not for the rise and fall of his chest and his ragged breathing, Harry would have thought the man was dead. A woman with light brown hair covering her face held a bowl of the man's face, collecting the venom as it fell. Like his face, her hands were covered in acid burns, some so severe the bones showed through on her knuckles.

'I know this,' some part of him thought, though he knew he had never seen such a place.

He tore his gaze away and followed the rope to its source. A body, a young man with shaggy dark blond hair matted with blood lay on his side. His abdomen had been ripped open, and his entrails pulled out and used to bind the man.

"Harry…"

That voice. The woman looked up at him, deep red claw marks under her eyes. He knew her.

"Mom…"

The venom spilled out over the edge of the bowl, and the man—Loki—screamed in agony.


The hours crept on, marked by the ticking of the wall clock. Sigyn sat curled on the sofa, tracing the rim of her mug with her finger, lost in thought. She knew she should return to bed, that rest would be the best remedy for the ache in her joints and in her back. With rest she would be able to think clearly enough to come up with plan that would ensure their survival. Harry's insistence that they destroy his equipment had caught her off guard and left her without a clear course of action. And what had brought on this sudden recklessness? One day he could barely be convinced to scout a police station, the next he wanted to storm a S.H.I.E.L.D. compound, a course of action that made her nervous this time.

Still, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been involved in her husband's capture. Their archives would hold everything about him, his attack, perhaps eve how he survived or made it to Earth without the Bifrost. If she could get into their records…

A terrible scream broke her out of her thoughts. Harry… She nearly knocked over the tabled as she bolted to his room.

"Harry!" she cried as she burst into his room.

He was seated upright, panting and shaking. His skin was green and splotchy, and his teeth were sharp. But there was no sign of an intruder; the windows were still closed, and aside from the usual clutter—clothes, shoes, books—nothing seemed out of place.

"It's nothing," he panted. "Just…just a nightmare. I'm fine."

Whatever his dream had been, it had been terrifying enough that when he looked up at her, his eyes said something different: No, I'm not.

"Shhh…come here." She sat beside him on the bed and guided him closer so that his back rested against her chest, and he tilted his head back against her shoulder. His pulse was still elevated, but at least his breathing had steadied.

Freya hadn't been one to tell her daughter's lullabies; instead, Sigyn's childhood had consisted of war stories and the deeds of great heroes. As such, she lacked a wealth of lullabies to draw from. But she did know of a few ballads that had soothing melodies, even if the lyrics invoked heartbreak. The tension eased out of his body as she hummed the melodies and traced her thumb over his tattoo, working magic into it.

"Is this…a ritual?" he slurred. When his eyes fluttered open, they revealed the bright, slightly unnatural blue glow of his eyes. She'd noticed it when she first gave him that tattoo, and every time after when he'd work on controlling his abilities. It was a good sign; it meant he still had a decent grasp on it.

"Shhh," she murmured and smoothed some of his hair. "It's just a lullaby."

Minutes turned to hours, and the city came back to life as dawn lightened the sky. Harry's transformation had completely receded, and he was sleeping peacefully.

Sigyn laid him back on the bed and tucked him under the sheets. This nightmare had her worried. She knew so little about his illness or about the venom he injected himself with that trying to help him control it felt like guess work sometimes. Still, something as simple as a nightmare shouldn't have caused this reaction. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

"Sleep well, little goblin."

Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. A pillow had been pushed aside, revealing a book that had been hidden beneath it: the Poetic Edda. Sigyn knew, with a deep seated dread in her stomach, what he likely found while reading it. The book's spine had been broken at the spot she feared: the binding of Loki and slaughter of her sons. She'd hoped he wouldn't discover these stories, but she wasn't surprised he had. The boy was curious, and the mortals had never been shy about the stories they created about them. She placed the book back under the pillow. It was a discussion for another time. Right now, she needed rest, and to prepare for this foolhardy plan.


The technology of Midgard was primitive, crude, but Sigyn still had to give S.H.I.E.L.D. credit. Though still archaic by Asgardian standards, their computer system was more advanced than what was at the mansion or at Oscorp. Sneaking past their security hasn't been easy either, and between that and the tediousness of trying to infiltrate their system, this whole endeavor was taking longer than she'd like. She had the information from Fiers, but trying to find one shipping record was like trying to find a single spell buried somewhere in the archives. Outside she could hear the voices of agents going about their business, and each time she was certain one of them would open the door and find her. Fighting her way out of S.H.I.E.L.D. base was not how she planned to spend her afternoon.

Finally, she found the information she was looking for. The equipment was being shipped out the following night what she assumed was an airfield, and then it was to be flown to some place called The Fridge, whatever that was. Sigyn sent the information to Harry first through the watch he gave her, before downloading a backup of it to his flash drive.

I should leave, she thought as she nearly pulled the drive out of the computer, but stopped just before she could. She still had access to all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files. She should check to see what, if any, information they had on Spiderman, on Harry. On Loki.

"This is a bad idea," she muttered as she strengthened her barrier that held the door shut.

They had little on Spiderman, mostly surveillance and some shots of him swinging between buildings. If she wanted to see this, she could find it on the internet. Her chest tightened when she saw Harry's name in their records. It was mostly what she remembered wiping from the records at Ravencroft—medical records and test results—but these also included pictures and reports from the night he lost to Spiderman.

'Mentally unstable,' 'violent,' 'damaging physical mutations,' 'dissociative,' 'possibly homicidal.'

Nothing identified him as Gwen Stacy's killer, only as a possible suspect. And there was nothing about him being free, either, which was a good sign. Still, she couldn't just let them keep this information. "You won't be needing this," she whispered and pressed delete.

ACTION: DENIED

She froze, waiting for the sound of blaring sirens and guards storming the room. Moments passed but none came. The room was silent save for the sound of her shaky breathing. This was her opportunity to leave, before they figured out someone was digging through their files.

And yet…she couldn't leave, not until she'd satisfied her curiosity.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had a wealth of information on Loki. Pictures of him in a glass cage, of him being escorted to said cage. The images of him from Stuttgart weren't much different than what Harry had found online. There were images and video of the Destroyer he sent to some desert town. That's right, she remembered, the town Thor was banished to…

Sigyn clicked on one of the videos next. The screen filled with an aerial view of people frantically moving about what looked like a large observatory. A single bright blue point, too far away for her to tell exactly what it was, drew her eye. Suddenly, a beam shot from it, tearing a dark opening in the air. Moments later, whatever this device was, it gave off a final, dying blast of energy, and when the portal closed…

"Loki," she mouthed, grinning at her husband's kneeling form. She needed this video, the pictures, everything, and moved to copy them all to the disk.

ACTION: DENIED

"Shit!" she exclaimed, and immediately clasped her hand over her mouth. That had come out louder than she intended. For a moment she stood frozen, scarcely breathing, and waited. Someone had to have heard that.

Soon enough, the door handle rattled, and the barrier she put up shimmered and started to fade. "Who's in there?" A deep male voice asked, still persistently shaking the door. "Open this door."

With muttered curses, she yanked the flash drive out of the computer and closed all windows. Her disguise was still intact—hair the color of flame, a face marked by freckles, and facial features that were not her own—so with a deep breath she dropped the barrier around the door. It flew open, smacking the wall, and a man in a dark grey suit stepped into the room.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I-I'm with tech support," she answered in a voice not her own.

"Tech support?"

She nodded. "I was told to come down here because the computers were acting up. Freezing, crashing, odd error messages, that sort of thing."

"Who's the supervisor that gave you this order?"

This man was asking too many questions, and each second someone else could come by and see them. "My supervisor…" Sigyn would never admit this out loud, but right now she almost wished she had Lorelei's abilities to control men with her voice. He closed the gap between them, and she reached out to cover his eyes with her hand. "Sleep," she commanded.

The man grabbed her wrist and staggered. "What're…" he slurred.

"Sleep," she commanded again. This time, he dropped down to his knees and slumped over. She dragged him so that he was hidden underneath the desks. This spell would only last for a few minutes, so she hurried out of the room and closed the door behind her.


It had rained earlier that night. Small puddles dotted the sides of the street, and a damp, cold mist seemed to linger in the air. Sigyn didn't seem bothered by it. She sat behind him on the motorcycle, still as stone, and at time he thought she had left. 'I'm still here, little goblin,' she'd whisper whenever he'd turn his head to make sure she hadn't left. Their truck pulled out of the garage, and as they followed it, Sigyn wrapped an arm around his waist. Blending in with the traffic and keeping their distance was easy. But as the number of cars dropped, his heart sped up and the adrenaline coursed through him. He could feel the hum of the motorcycle's tires on the pavement, and could hear the buzz of the cars they passed.

This is it he thought as he sped up so that they were closer to the truck but still a ways back. He felt Sigyn adjust herself and grab something, her dagger, from around her waist. The dagger glimmered under the streetlight just before it hit the right rear tire. The metal rim screeched as it grinded along the pavement as the truck started to spin out. Harry didn't see the second dagger, but the second rear tire blew out just like the first one did. Rain had made the roads slick, and without two rear tires it didn't take long for the driver to lose control of the truck. They dropped back as it careened down the road, sparks flying from where metal ground against pavement, only stopping when it crashed head on into a streetlight. The impact crunched the front of the front of the truck so that it seemed to wrap around the streetlight. The light gave out as well and plunged the immediate area into darkness.

Sigyn hopped off the motorcycle before he had even stopped and rushed up to it. While she placed a grenade near the door, Harry scanned the surrounding area. Someone must have heard the crash and if not they will certainly hear the door being blown off. The blast however did not shatter windows and set off car alarms as he feared, but it did alert every dog in the area. Voices murmured in the distances and soon sirens would follow.

She handed him another bomb. "You know what to do."

Harry climbed into the truck and started rummaging through the cargo. Finding the boxes didn't take long. Like the broken pieces of his glider, which were in a nearby box, the suit seemed like it had been separated into smaller components. He had vague memories of the suit being taken off of him when he was captured, of pieces being ripped and torn away from him. He chucked the bomb between the boxes holding his armor and his glider, and hopped out of the truck.

The sirens were getting closer just as the bomb went off. One of the drivers had crawled out of the truck and was lying curled up on the ground, obviously in pain. "What about him?" he asked.

"Leave him; we have to…" Two shots rang out, and on the second one Sigyn yelled and grabbed her waist. The man on the ground held out a gun with a trembling arm.

Harry lunged at the man lying on the ground and his whole world turned red.


The bullet had grazed her side and nothing more, but Sigyn still fired off a string of curses that would make a Dwarven miner blush. Midgardian bullets wouldn't do anything more than superficial damage to her, but they still hurt none the less.

Harry was atop the man who shot at her, pummeling his face with bone crunching blows. In the distance she could see the blue and red flashing coming closer. "We need to go!" she yelled, but he didn't stop, didn't look up or even acknowledge that she had said anything. The man was surely dead at this point, and if he wasn't then he was near enough. She rushed over and grabbed his arm before he could land another hit. His head whipped around and she could practically hear the snarl behind the mask. "Goblin," she said pointedly, knowing exactly who she was talking to. "We need to leave. Now!"

"Freeze!" The first of the police cars had arrived and two officers were pointing their guns at them. "Hands in the air!"

"Get ready to run to the bike," she said quietly, raising her hands.

"I'm not leaving you behind again," he snarled.

"I didn't say you were."

The officers stepped closer. "On the ground! Now!" Sigyn watched their every movement calmly, patiently. Just a little bit closer, she thought as the officer moved to grab her wrist.

A bad idea for him, really.

She grabbed his arm and twisted hard enough for something to crack and the man screamed. His partner let go of Harry and raised his gun towards her. The struggling officer she held in front of her as a deterrent; shooting her meant shooting his friend. Harry bolted towards the bike just as the officer pointed his gun towards him, and Sigyn growled and grasped the guard she held firmly with both hands.

She screamed, feral and driven solely in that moment by vengeance and protectiveness. She lifted the man up and swung, tossing him into the other officer before he could fire at Harry, and they were thrown back a few feet as they collided. While they still struggled on the ground, Sigyn climbed onto the motorcycle behind Harry and he sped off.

It didn't take long for more sirens and cars to find and surround them. Several cars were trailing behind, and in the distance she could see more red and blue lights coming their way. She could conjure two, maybe three, more knives to take out one of the cars, but it wouldn't be enough. "Any ideas?" she yelled.

"You still have one more bomb, right?" She did. "Throw it at that street light ahead. I'll take us down another way."

She unhooked the bomb from her belt and waited until they were close enough to the light. Harry made a sharp left turn and she threw the bomb at the streetlight. The blast knocked the light over just as the police cars ahead of them were getting closer. The cars behind them followed, tires screeching as the rounded the corner in pursuit.

"Got anything to lose them?" He called. "I've got an idea but I need them off our backs."

If her side didn't still hurt and she could trust that she would have decent aim, she would have conjured a few more knives to destroy their tires. But this was far more chaotic than attacking the truck and she needed something simpler. As Harry turned down another street and the police followed, Sigyn took a deep breath, held out her hand behind her, and materialized a barrier just behind them. It shimmered and seemed to vanish, until it erupted into iridescent ripples as the first car collided into it. The initial crash was muted, but as the next car crashed into the first one, and then another into that one, the sounds of metal crunching against metal soon followed. Harry sped up more, turned down several side streets, then several more, and soon there were no more sirens.


Hours later, having lost the police and dumping the motorcycle in the river, Sigyn laid across the sofa, the pain in her side lessening by the hour, watching Harry as he practically bounced around the living room

"We did it," he cackled, running his hands through his hair, "I can't believe we did that. That was…that was amazing!"

"It certainly was an interesting experience. Though I could do without being shot at."

"Just think," he continued almost as if he hadn't heard her. "Imagine what we could do with some new armor and a glider. We'll be unstoppable! Our enemies won't know what hit them."

His enthusiasm was infectious, overriding her initial reaction to replay where they could do better next time…a better vehicle, more bombs or knives, better understanding of police response times. She pushed herself up so she could see out the window and over the city. She could feel the pull towards chaos stirring within her and wondered if this was what Loki felt when he attacked Midgard. In that moment, she felt another connection to Loki, and it made her miss him all the more. Harry, still lost in his dreams of conquering Spiderman, had a little of Loki in him too, the same wild spark in his eyes whenever he was coming up with a new scheme or adventure. There would be other nights for careful planning and tempered expectations, she decided. Tonight, she would embrace the excitement and the chaos. This realm sorely lacked a trickster, and in banishing her husband, it had gained two more in his place.