AN: I thought I would post this a little sooner to get the ball running on some other parts of the chapter is quirky. Then again, any chapter with Loki being mesmerized by screen savers and Bruce conducting radiation experiments on candy, is by definition quirky. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 10- Realizations (or if you want a more entertaining title, 'Radioactive M&Ms')
"No, no, I wouldn't eat those," Bruce said quickly rising. "You see I've been experimenting with effectiveness of disaccharides such as maltose, as a shield for gamma radiation."
"Say what?"
Loki POV
The infernal screen was as static as it had been for the last two hours. Yes, it was interesting to watch the path of multicolored ribbons of light make its way across the screen, but curse it all! Loki had no idea how the mortals could stand this contraption after an hour. Did the ribbons ever stop?! What was its purpose? Perhaps it was broken or only meant for the feeble-minded. Yes, this was how he should have enslaved the world. He hesitated for a moment; would the vow harm him for as slight a thought about world domination as his previous one? He grunted leaning back in the chair. He needed to find a way out of the vow soon. He didn't think he could last much longer. He heard some shuffling behind him and a door shutting with a click. By the reflection on the screen he could tell it was his pupil. He had rescinded training with Icarus for the last week. It wasn't that he cared for the lad-no that wasn't it. He just didn't want to get killed by an amateur-that would be truly embarrassing! And, until that boy could understand the consequences of his magic and take his education seriously, there was no point in potentially harming any of the inhabitants of the tower. Hear that unbreakable vow, Loki thought to himself, I haven't used my pupil's uncontrollable powers to my advantage. Surely that ought to give me penance for any earlier remarks!
"Come to destroy another floor? Although it gives me such mirth, I daresay Stark will not be altogether pleased with your performance," Loki sneered swerving around in the swivel chair (apparently all the great villains used the contraptions to assert dominance while pressing the tips of their fingers together, or so Loki was told by the voice in the walls). Icarus sighed.
"I've thought a lot about what you've said," he answered Loki. "And you were right." Loki raised a single eyebrow and gestured for the young man to continue.
"I wasn't willing to access my magic properly. The connection I have with my center is unstable at best," he remarked. "All my life, I have been told of my supposed powers, and all my life I never wanted to use them. Now I understand that those powers have always been connected to me and I've realized..." Icarus paused.
"I realized that I should never use them. I'm giving them up."
"What?" Loki asked.
"You were right. I can't take them seriously and I can't control my center-there is no possible way I should be allowed to use have access to them. So, I'm doing the right thing for once. My powers got me in this trouble and now I'm going to end it." Icarus turned away from his ex-teacher and left the room. Loki starred at the door as it shut and wondered what this would mean for him. Did it exempt him from the vow if the student refused to learn? Would they send him back to Asgard? What did it matter to the trickster if some pup tore himself away from his destined powers…he would just leave it. Icarus was breaking the vow, not he…surely he would receive punishment for upholding his end of the bargain. He waited for a few moments, and then rose quickly, hitting the desk upon which the computer stood as he hurried after Icarus. As the god of mischief left, so did the endless path of multicolored ribbons. The computer roared to life as the screen saver was disabled.
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Anna finished filing the stack of forms that had been laying around the table.
"All done," she called to Pepper. Said strawberry-blonde came into view and looked astonished at her surroundings.
"Wow, this looks like a whole new place. Thanks for giving me a hand with the filing. Tony can track down anything, but ask him to put a file in its correct place and suddenly he's lost." Anna returned the smile.
"Now, I think I've found what you were asking about," Pepper motioned for Anna to follow her to the desktop screen. Anna looked at the website that was pulled up.
"It's perfect, but do you think they can customize it for me?" she asked.
"When they see the order is coming from Stark Industries, they most certainly will. Do you have something in mind?"
"A title actually," Anna responded. She told Pepper the title and the CEO broke into a dazzling smile.
"What? Is it too corny?" Anna asked nervously.
"No, I think it's perfect," she gave her a glance. "I'll have it ordered and finished by the end of the week."
"Thank you so much Pepper for helping me. I would have asked someone else, but you…"Anna trailed off.
"I am probably the only one who would understand your motive," she finished.
"And not tell Steve," added Anna hurriedly.
"My lips are sealed."
"Thanks again." Anna looked at the screen and smiled. It was perfect. The idea had come to her after writing down her umpteenth vision in a journal. With the number of dreams or epiphanies she was having, she was sure she could devise a better history of the Oracles than the one in the gigantic leather book Cornelius gave her. The point, however, was that the book gave her a space to handle all the information she was absorbing. Steve needed a place and a medium for expression, and if her knowledge about Captain America was correct, then she knew just the thing.
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Icarus prowled the floors looking for one of his companions to alert them of his decision. He had just entered the laboratories when he saw Bruce and Vincent at some work desk. Using the access code given to him earlier, Icarus entered the lab.
"Do you think you could make it glow-in-the-dark?" Vincent asked.
"Why do you need it to glow in the dark?"
"What if I'm suddenly called out on an emergency in the middle of the night and need to find it?"
"Couldn't you just turn on the light?"
"That's not the point-what if I fall into an endless abyss or a wormhole or something and have no light to find it?"
"First off, it wouldn't glow in the wormhole and secondly, if you were in either situation I think you would have bigger issues to worry about then putting on your armor," it was at this point that Bruce noticed their visitor. "Icarus, shouldn't you be training with Loki?"
"Technically," he admitted. "Vincent can I speak with you for a minute?"
"Sure," he got off the stool, but stopped by a lab bench. "Are these M&Ms?" He reached for the bowl hidden behind the mass spectrometer.
"No, no, I wouldn't eat those," Bruce said quickly rising. "You see I've been experimenting with effectiveness of disaccharides such as maltose, as a shield for gamma radiation."
"Say what?"
"Whether or not the candy coating would protect the chocolate from gamma radiation," Bruce explained with a roll of his eyes.
"Wait, so you radiated a bowl of candy?" Icarus asked while Vincent dropped the handful of candies, quickly wiping his hands on his jeans.
"Shouldn't those things be in a lead vault or something?"
"I guess you and Tony do have a mad-scientist thing going for you." Icarus and Vincent left as Bruce sauntered over to the bowl. Once the glass doors closed behind the two, Bruce chuckled to himself and popped a few candies in his mouth.
"Maltose as a shield for gamma radiation," he laughed. "Works every time."
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Icarus and Vincent settled down into the common room.
"Do you know where Anna is?" Icarus asked Vincent.
"Over here," came a voice. The two men looked to see their female counterpart hunkered over a stack of books.
"Oh there you are. Anna, Vincent, I am calling a team meeting."
"Do we have to go to a closet?"
"No, but you should all take a seat," Icarus gestured for the two to sit. "Guys, there's something I need to tell both of you. After much thought I've decided-"
"To help me learn to appreciate Midgardians," a voice finished for Icarus. The wizard swung around to see none other than the god of mischief appearing from out of thin air.
"Uh, okay, and this concerns us how?" Vincent asked. "You're not letting him out of the tower unsupervised?"
"What? No-I" Icarus stammered.
"Because that would be bad," Vincent finished.
"Listen!" Icarus ordered. "That isn't what I called the meeting for." Loki strolled up behind Icarus and grabbed the nearest book, bringing it down upon Icarus' head.
"What the hell?" Icarus held his head as he rose to face the lithe god.
"Thor showed me some sort of moving illustration in which a baboon hits the young pupil with a stick, when they showed no commonsense. I chose to improvise."
"The first thing you should know about the United States, Loki-corporal punishment has been long abolished," Anna held back a fuming Vincent. "The second thing is that the baboon was blue-butted and sang songs about squashed bananas."
"Charming," Loki sneered. "If you will excuse me, my apprentice and I must speak alone."
"Apprentice? Since when did you become his apprentice?" Vincent asked Icarus with an accusing glance.
"Okay, that's enough. Icarus why don't you settle your matters with Loki," Anna pointedly looked to the god. "And then come back and talk to us."
"Fine…"
"Hey Icarus," Vincent called after him as Loki dragged him from the room. "Stay away from mops and old man shoes!" The door punctuated Vincent's joke with a slam. The King turned to face the withering look of the Oracle.
"Was that necessary?"
"Everything I do is necessary, Birdy. Oh I forgot why don't you go sit across some hallucinatory chasm?" Vincent retorted.
"Original," Anna murmured and returned to her seat.
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Loki steered Icarus into the adjacent room.
"What is the meaning of this?" Icarus roughly pulled his shoulder from Loki's grasp.
"I should like to ask you the same thing," the god responded.
"I know what I am doing and what I need to do. And you, you need to just let it go."
"No, I do not need to do anything, nonetheless 'let it go'," Loki snarled. "We made a vow that you will be damned sure to uphold your end of."
"Is that what this is about?" Icarus sighed. He knew this vow thing would get him into trouble someday.
"Yes, and considering it is unbreakable, we will need to be smart about this."
"Fine, what do you propose?" Icarus consented, figuring it was best to just play along.
"Whether you like it or not you can't just give up magic. Not unless you were to transfer the core of yourself to someone else," at this Icarus raised an incriminating eyebrow at Loki and backed away. "I am not suggesting that we transfer any magic. What I am trying to explain to you and your lack of fore-planning is that you still need to be trained on the containment of your magic. If you do not wish to use it, that is fine by me, but you will be a walking bomb to all those around you."
"So what you're suggesting is to train me to contain and repress my magic."
"Yes," Loki nodded. "I would still be training you in magic and you would still be training."
"And this isn't an attempt to try and make me rethink giving up magic."
"If you want to scorn the will of the Norns, then that is your prerogative. I am truly hoping that destiny understands my unsavory part in this arrangement and will acquit me for allowing you to deter it."
"Okay, I agree. I'll still train under you, but what do I tell the others," Icarus asked.
"Must I do everything?" Loki turned on his feet. "It doesn't matter what you tell them boy. All that matters is that you keep your end of the bargain." As Loki exited the room dramatically, Icarus pondered the moment. Why did the god always feel the need to make trouble for Icarus?
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"Oh and this is my favorite," Coulson gushed as he set down another card. Steve picked up a miniature image of himself leading the POW from the 101st into the camp. Steve sighed and gingerly wrote his name on the back. How was there so many pictures of him? It was like an invisible camera followed him throughout Europe. Regardless he handed the card back to the agent who squealed with uncontained glee. Upon the captain's awkward look, Coulson cleared his throat and spoke.
"So you were telling me about your Saturday with Anna," Coulson reminded the captain.
"Yeah. We just walked around the city, mostly exchanging stories," Steve leaned back. "You know, I thought it would be hard to talk about my life before, but it was so easy to speak to her. She's really something. I felt like a person again. Not just some discarded relic, but a man who was still needed."
"You've told me. Several times," Coulson responded. Steve looked up to see a slightly hurt and envious-looking Coulson.
"You know," Coulson started again. "There are plenty of people around here who still need you and would be more than welcome to listen to you and your stories should you ever doubt that you're needed." Steve patted the agent's shoulder.
"I know Phil. You were one of the first to believe in me after I woke up and I'll never forget that," Coulson looked up to his idol in awe.
"You know my first name?" Steve just waved off the question with a look of incredulity.
"You haven't given up on me. Thank you," the captain continued. The agent looked flustered, but quickly resumed his professional demeanor.
"So I take it that you and Anna will be going out again sometime?" the agent asked as he gathered up his precious trading cards.
"I think we will. You know, after Peggy…"Steve paused. "After Peggy, I thought I'd never be able to speak to any woman ever again. And then I meet Anna and something just feels different. The funny thing is that she doesn't seem like Peggy at all. Who would have thought that I could be…" Coulson raised his eyebrows and the captain caught himself.
"Talking. Talking with a lady and not think twice about it. She's really something else," Steve trailed off, and looked down at the table.
"Everything all right there?" Coulson inquired.
"Is it ridicules that I feel unfaithful?" Steve asked. "To Peggy, I mean."
"You still haven't called her yet, have you?"
"How can I? Peggy has lived a long and wonderful life without me. I don't want to ruin it. I feel like it would better that I stay in the past."
"Well, if you ever did want to get in touch with her, you could always go through her great niece, Sharon," Coulson explained. "She is one of our top agents. I'm sure you two will be meeting soon enough." The agent stopped in surprise at the Captain's melancholy demeanor.
"I don't know if I could meet her," Steve admitted. "I can barely face the possibility of talking to Peggy. Talking to her niece just seems cowardly….besides she would remind me..."
"Remind you?"
"Of what I wanted. Of what I thought would be my future-the family I would have-the dance that should have led to that family. I want to stop living in the past, Phil. I want to live in the present as much as possible."
"And Anna is the present," Coulson offered. "Is she part of your future though?"
"I don't know," Steve looked at his hands. "But for now, that's all right. Carpe Diem." Coulson shook his head with a smile. He's got it bad, Coulson thought. Before the agent could speak further, the ever-stealthy Black Widow slipped into the room.
"Natasha," Phil greeted. She nodded and turned to Steve.
"We have to get back to the tower, if you're ready to disembark?"
"Oh, sure," Steve rose and turned to shake hands with the agent. "Thank you for listening to me Phil. Keep me updated on that cellist, will you?" Coulson smiled embarrassedly at Natasha's questioning look. Before the two left the senior agent, the Black Widow turned back to him with a knowing look. With a sigh, Coulson heaved two fifty dollar bills from his pocket and handed them to her.
"I told you," she mouthed.
"It would have been sooner if I had spoken to her first," Coulson called after the agent.
Once the two were buckled into the jet, Natasha addressed Steve.
"We'll have the information on your friend soon enough."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course," she replied easing the jet off the helicarrier. "Are you sure about this, cap? This could be a lot of trouble and danger."
"Yes, I am sure. Just let me know when it's time," he replied.