I'M BACK!
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Thor's Gift
Chapter Nine
They all sat around staring down that the table. The video streaming onto the table top in front of each person. "In case it's unclear, you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass," Fury pressed a button. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" Pointing at Loki, "Ant." Points back at the controls, "Boot."
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Loki retorted with a smirk upon his face.
"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury told him grimly. Valerie glanced at Banner surprised that he was completely calm, because if it had been a cage for her then she would definitely not be calm.
"Oh, I've heard. The mindless beast, makes play to be the man." Loki says and then looks at the camera knowing that they were watching. "How desperate are you? You call these lost creatures to defend you."
"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control and some of my men. You talk about peace and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
Loki started laughing, before he started talking, "Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A world for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."
With a smile, "Well let me know if real power will want some magazine or something?" Fury said to him as he walked down the ramp and out of the room.
Standing up, Valerie started pacing. Loki was up to something, but she couldn't tell what. But she knew that he was and whatever it was, was going to be bad. "Valerie," a deep voice said from behind her. Turning around, she found her father watching her. Concern filled his eyes. Looking away from him, she didn't want to explain what had happened, it hurt to much in the first place, and it was only going to hurt worse if she had to talk about it. A hand was placed upon her shoulder turning her around. Looking up she, the concern was still there. "Valerie," it was even etched into his voice. "What is wrong? Where is my shield brother? Where is your protector?"
She heard whispers from the others as they watched what was going on. Coulson and Natasha already knew that Thor was her father but the others didn't.
Looking up at him, she quickly looked down as a tear escaped. And only one word had to be said, "Loki," and Thor understood.
"He was one of the men that he took?" He asked, and Valerie nodded. Pulling her into a hug, she didn't cry but it was a comfort to have her father here with her when she really needed it. "I am sorry. We will get him back."
They pulled away from each other as Fury walked into the room. "Okay what was that?" Stark asked still staring at the two of them.
With a sigh, Fury said, "Stark, you already know Thor?"
"Yeah, God of Thunder. Carries around a hammer."
"Well Valerie's real name is, Valerie Thordóttir. Thor's daughter."
Stark, Steve, and Banner stared at the two of them in surprise. "Well that explains a lot," Stark said being the first one to react. "The fighting, and well the electricity."
"Can we get off the topic of who my father is and back on the topic of Loki?" Valerie asked as she sat down at the table, soon followed by Thor.
Everyone nodded, but it was Banner that was the first to actually say something, "He really grows on you, doesn't he?"
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked as he still tried to take in the fact that Valerie was a half god.
"He has an army called the Chitauri, that none of Asgard nor any world know. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. Return, I suspect, the Tesseract."
"An army, from outer space."
"Hollywood is going to have a field day with that," Valerie muttered to herself.
"So he's building another portal. That what he needs Selvig for." Banner said as he started thinking about everything.
"Selvig?" Thor asked, sounding confused.
"He's a astrophysicist," Banner explained.
"He's a friend."
"Loki has him under control, some kind of spell," Natasha told him.
"I don't know if they know what's going on, but from I saw with Clint, is that he was trying to fight for control. Like he was merely just pushed back away from the surface." Valerie told them as she continued to think about what type of plan Loki has going on.
"But what I wanna know is why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here," Steve said trying to lead the conversation onward.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him," Banner said to them.
"I don't care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor told them strongly.
"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha told him quietly.
"He's adopted."
"Yeah, and please tell me that in Asgard there's a law against incest and such," Valerie asked Thor who only looked confused.
"Yes of course there is."
"Well then he's not just crazy…he perverted."
"Iridium," Banner said, clearly having not been listening to a word of what's been said. "What did they need Iridium for?"
"A stabilizing agent," Stark said. "So the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at Shield. It also means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Walking around the table, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."
"Like you?" Valerie asked.
He turned to look at her confused, but when she taped her chest, he nodded, before saying, "No not powerful enough."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Natasha asked.
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory paper. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked, stopping the banter that was about to ensue before it even started.
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb Barrier," Banner explained but then Stark interrupted him.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."
"Finally, someone who speaks English."
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked completely lost on what they were talking about.
"Apparently," Standing up, everyone except for Stark and Banner looked at her, "I need to expel some…frustration. So I'll see ya later."
"I'll come with you," Natasha said as she stood up.
"I'll join you, as well," Steve told them, before adding, "If you don't mind?"
"No not at all."
Natasha and Valerie stood a few feet apart, "Anything special?"
"No just regular. Why?" Valerie replied.
"Oh it's just that Coulson showed me the video of you and Clint sparring." Blush bright red at Nat's words, she attacked. Spinning, kicking, dodging, punch, ducking. They fought. Each going back and forth between defensive and offensive. But both putting effort into it. Soon, however, Valerie had pinned Natasha to the mat after she rabbited a punch. "Alright I deserved that after that last comment."
With a laugh, she helped Nat up, before saying, "I do have to say though. That even though it always fun sparring against you. Clint's funner."
"That's not even a word."
"I don't fucking care. The point is still put across." Turning they face Steve who had been sitting watching the whole thing. "You ready?"
"Bring it." They laughed at how the modern phrase sounded coming from him.
It had been harder for Valerie to take down Steve than it had been with Nat. But it made sense, he was a super soldier, not one of the greatest assassins in the world. But, Valerie figured that even Natasha and Clint would have a problem with taking Steve down as well. After cleaning up they both headed to the lab that both Stark and Banner were working in.
"The gamma reading are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract," Banner said before turning to a different screen.
"I could have told you that, Banner." Valerie told them as Steve and her walked in.
"Yeah, how was the fight?"
"I beat his ass."
"Thought so pay up," Stark said to Banner who handed him forty dollars.
"What's that Stark?' Valerie asked walking over to him.
"Oh just a bet on who would win," he explain to her, money still in hand.
"Oh great," snatching twenty, she pocketed it, "That's for actually winning the match."
"Great…so when's the next match?" Stark asked with a smile on his face.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked irritated.
"Funny things are."
"You need to focus on the problem."
"And you think I'm not?" Stark shot back, "Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us. I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."
"You think Fury's hiding something?"
"He's a spy, Captain. He's the spy. His secrets have secrets." Stark then pointed at Banner, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"
"Uh… I just wanna finish my work here and—"
"Doctor?" Steve interrupted.
" 'A world for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube." Banner started to explain.
"I heard it."
"Well, I think that was meant for you," he said pointing at Stark. "Even if Barton didn't say, it was posted all over the news."
"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…building in New York?"
"It's powered by Stark Reactor, self sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?"
"I would say more then that," Valerie cut in, "More like two maybe three before it dies. At least that is what I've seen."
"What you see the future?" Stark asked.
"What? No, I see electricity, dumbass."
"But it's just the prototype," Stark said not looking at Valerie, which only made her smile. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now." Stark explain to Steve.
"So why didn't Shield bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Banner continued, "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"
"I should probably look into the once my decryption programme finishes breaking into all of Shield's secure files."
"Did you just say—"
"You're breaking into Shield," Valerie repeated surprised, before high fiving Stark.
"Jarvis has been running it since we hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret Shield has ever tried to hide."
"And yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve shot back.
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically no possible."
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have our orders. You should be finding the cube." Steve told them before he walked out leaving them all looking after him.
After a few silent minutes between the three, Valerie stood and headed for the door finally deciding that she was going to get some answers, no matter what she had to do. A few feet from the door to the holding cell, she heard voices talking. Stopping she listened, "There's not may people that can sneak up on me," that was Loki.
"But you figured I'd come," and Natasha was there as well.
"After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."
"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton?" Valerie froze at the question.
"I'd say I've expanded his mind."
"And once you've won. Once you're king of the mountain. What happens to his mind?"
"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?"
"Love is for children. I own him a debt."
"Tell me."
"Before I worked for Shield, I uh…well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on Shield's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."
"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"
"Not let you out."
"Ah, no. But I like this. Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man? One that doesn't even love you, but another."
"Regime's fall everyday. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian, or I was. And like I said before love is for children."
"But what are you now?"
"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out."
"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakoff's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital file? Barton told me everything. You ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic! You lie and kill in service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away." There was a pause, "I won't barter Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then I'll make him go after his love, and he'll wake up just enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull!" Tears fell down her cheeks as she listened. She had to save Clint. She had to stop this from ever happening. "This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"
"You're a monster."
"Oh, no. You brought the monster."
"So, Banner? That's your play?" Her voice changed, no longer broken with emotion.
"What?"
"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way." Natasha's voice echoed from Valerie's ear piece. "Thank you, for your cooperation." Valerie heard foot steps walking towards her. She came through the door, and paused when she found Valerie standing there, but with a nod she kept walking.
Valerie waited a few seconds before walking in herself. She stood facing him, her face lacking any emotion, something she picked up from Clint and Natasha. "I was wondering when you were going to come in and see me."
"So was all that just a show then?" She walked towards the console looking at the buttons. Their electrical pulses, pulsed brighter as if sensing that she was there, watching them, egging her to talk them.
"It was truth."
Turning back towards him, she smiled. "It's not going to happen though."
"Why do you say that?"
"Cuz I'm not going to let it happen." She told him as she place a hand upon the glass. Electricity flicker on and off the glass almost like it was tasting it. "Hmm, interesting." She mumbled as she looked at the glass, completely ignoring Loki.
"And what would be interesting about this glass cage?" A smile on his face as he walked closer to her.
Smiling at him, electricity pulsed from her to the cage. She watched as he fell to his knees in pain. Stopping the electricity, she stepped back, "That's what's interesting, you fucker."
"Watch how you talk to me," he gritted through his teeth as he stood shakily.
"Oh what are you going to do? You're stuck in this lovely cage." She chuckled as he glared at her.
"I won't be in here much longer, and then I'll be sending Barton after you." He watched her for any change of emotion, but she just kept on smiling at him. "You shouldn't be smiling."
"But I don't worry about facing Clint. Why should I?" But then she felt it. Looking up, she walked away from Loki.
He was here, somewhere. He was on the ship. She started walking towards the door, when the ramp shook and she fell to the ground.
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