Chapter 11: Off We Ride...
DARK ELF HARROW SHIP, ASGARD
Alexandria turned in circles, staring wide-eyed at everything within the ship. It was obviously advanced technology for a race that had been frozen somewhere away in the darkness for centuries. It brought to mind the thought of how ironic Asgard seemed. In some aspects, their technology was far more advanced than anything humans possessed, unless you counted SHIELD, Stark Industries, and Joe's own secret group. Yet, in other ways, Asgard was so positively medieval. And sexist. Then again, she could not say that humans had advanced all that much in that particular area.
"I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing." Loki spoke, staring at Thor as he randomly pressed buttons, effectively cutting through Alexandria's thoughts.
"I said 'how hard could it be?'" Thor replied, clearly annoyed as he attempted to get the spaceship moving.
"Well, whatever you're doing brother, I suggest you do it faster." Loki spoke up once more, looking out to see the Einherjar soldiers reaching Volstagg, a battle would soon ensue, he was sure. Alexandria looked at them and allowed a soft smile to display upon her lips as she caught Loki's use of the word 'brother.' It had been done snidely, but progress was progress nonetheless.
"Shut up, Loki," Thor positively growled, causing Alexandria to roll her eyes and look at Rai. The entity gave her a sly smile in reply as he moved to one of the ship's walls and pressed a hand to it.
"You must have missed something." Loki replied.
"No, I didn't. I'm pressing every button on this thing." Thor replied, annoyed.
"No don't hit it. Just press it gently," Loki said, trying to unsuccessfully stop his brother from smashing the buttons with his shackled hands.
"I am pressing it gently! It's not working!" Thor answered, thumping the buttons harder in annoyance.
Behind them, Alexandria giggled and turned to Jane, whispering suggestively, "Who would've thought that out of the to of them, Loki would make the gently lover, eh?" She finished with a wink. Jane barely managed to hold back a snort of laughter.
Watching her smile and laugh softly behind her hand, Alexandria turned to happily observe Rai. She soon noticed that the entity had made quite some progress, using his sentient abilities as well as his lighting to transfer energy and life unto the machine. She was sure he would have it up and running in seconds.
"Ha ha!" Thor exclaimed as the lights and internal displays came on and the engine started up, conforming Alexandria earlier thoughts.
GRAND HALL, PALACE, ASGARD
Einherjar soldiers were now jogging through the Hall in clear pursuit. They quickly reached the plaza where the Volstagg stood before the Harrow Ship, double-headed axe held ready in defense.
"They're on the ship! Get to the ship!" One of the guards exclaimed, sending everyone into action immediately. As they fought, Volstagg managed to detain them as much as he possible could, odds considered.
"Get him! Get him!" the same soldier yelled out as more of them arrived. They all begin to jump on top off him, covering him up in a pile of soldiers. A sudden tremor is seen as they shook.
"Haha!" Volstagg exclaimed, making his way out. Yet again, the Einherjar soldiers have underestimated the Warriors Three.
LONDON, ENGLAND, EARTH
"Okay, uh hum," Darcy spoke into the phone, swiftly moving herself around the apartment, searching around for all of Jane's latest works, "Okay, so you want me to scan them and send them over? Got it," she replied.
"Yes, we need them here as soon as possible so that Banner and I can start going over them," Tony's voice seeped through the phone. Darcy could here the faint sound of someone tinkering with something in the background.
"Wait, so you guys aren't playing on coming on over and getting her?" Darcy asked, eyes widening in surprise as she moved on to turn on her laptop and motioned to Ian to do the same with their scanner/printer.
"I wanted to, but I have been overtaken by Lexy's parents who decided to dispatch some SHIELD agent or another," Tony spoke, his voice sounded like he was pouting.
"And that is stopping you? Since when?" Darcy replied, eyebrow raising sceptically.
Tony grinned, "Oh no, definitely not. I just to do some arrangements, figure a few things here and there, and I will be on my way. Should be there by tomorrow the latest."
"Can't wait to see you Metal Boy, it's been a whi-" Darcy spoke, only to be cut of by the sound of metal falling to the floor and a yelp.
"Shit, man, that fucking hurt. Okay, so, um, I guess we should make that a couple a days?" Tony spoke into the phone, almost panting as he cursed under his breath once more. Darcy snorted in laughter from her side of the phone call.
DARK ELF HARROW SHIP, ASGARD
As the vehicle finally came to life (all thanks to Rai tinkering, of course) Thor tried figure out the controls for the Harrow Ship and began to slowly rotate it, taking out few palace columns left along the way. Beside him, Loki rolled his eyes and glanced back. He took in the three figure behind them and quickly came to a conclusion. His brother was useless and Mjolnir had somehow made the ship work.
"I think you missed a column," He quipped at his brother, willing to get a reaction from him now that he had gather what truly happened.
"Shut up!" Thor bellowed as he miraculously managed to get the Harrow Ship to lift off and burst through a palace wall, twisting and swooping through the City of Asgard.
"Look, why don't you let me take over? I'm clearly the better pilot of the two." Loki said, knowing that he could drive the ship better than Thor, yet still not as well as Mjolnir.
"Is that right? Well, out of the two of us, which one can actually fly."
"Neither. I am the only one here who can actually fly," Rai replied, getting tired of Thor's constant bursts and obvious ignorance.
Thor stiffened, but did not reply or turned back, simply attempted to maneuver the Harrow Ship through the city. As he turned the ship in a particular direction, Jane fainted to the floor. Alexandria fell to her knees beside her, checking vitals and looking at Rai and Loki for guidance. She was rather aware that she should not attempt any more healing/reviving, having no wish for a repeat of her last attempt.
"Oh dear. Is she dead?" Loki spoke, actually surprised (and a tiny bit worried, after all, this woman not only possessed the Aether, but she made his brother happy and was his Dria's friend.)
"Jane!" Thor exclaimed with worry.
"I'm okay," Jane whispered meekly. Beside her, Alexandria sighed in relief as she moved into a sitting position, laying Jane's head on her lap so that it would not be pressed against the hard metal floor.
"No, Janie, you're not, but I promise you that you will be," she whispered as she carded her fingers through Jane's hair in an attempt to soothe her some.
Rai stood near the walls, attempting to put some control to the erratic manner in which Thor drove without actually removing him from his position (which at this rate, he was close to do so) Thor swooped too close to a building and took off to the top of it. Loki turned back to look back at Thor and opened his mouth.
"Not a word." Thor said, cutting off any possible comment Loki could have made.
Suddenly, the heard the sound of ships cutting sharply through the air. Loki looked around, trying to asses the situation. He noticed that three of Asgard's flying skiffs were tailing them.
"Now they're following us," Loki informed Thor, worrying slightly about the fact that the Einherjar soldiers were so close.
The skiffs began firing worrying Loki even further. "Now they're firing at us!"
"Yeah, thank you for the commentary, Loki, it's not at all distracting!" Thor replied as they swoop towards a tunnel, the wing of the Harrow Ship slicing through the neck of a huge stone statue of King Bor.
"Well done. You just decapitated your grandfather." Loki complimented and even with the situation so dire, he managed to get a giggle out of Alexandria. (He would never admit to that being the reason why his own smile grew.)
Finally, they managed to exit the city by flying over water, parallel to a bridge stretching towards distant mountains.
"You know, this is wonderful. This is a tremendous idea. Let's steal the biggest, most obvious ship in the universe and escape in that. Flying around the city, smashing into everything in sight so everyone can see us. It's brilliant, Thor! It's truly brilliant!" Loki sassed, hoping to get another giggle or a laugh out of Alexandria to no avail. Indeed, she rolled her eyes instead. There was something as going to far.
Thor reached across and shoved Loki out of the open door. Loki plummeted, screaming. He then looked at Alexandria who glared a promise of retaliation at him, carefully removed Jane from her lap, and stood up before turning to Rai and grabbing his hand.
"You could have warned him," she scowled before jumping. Ignoring her, Thor picked up Jane and jumped after them.
Thor landed upon a flying skiff driven by Fandral, as Loki is climbed to his feet with the aid of Alexandria and Rai.
"I see your time in the dungeons has made you no less graceful, Loki," Fandral called out jeeringly.
Loki simply ignored him and looked up to the Harrow Ship which veered to their right, towards a mountain range, and with the three skiffs still in pursuit. Alexandria took her queue from Loki and ignored Fandral, instead looking at the still flying Harrow Ship. She turned at Rai questioningly and he smiled slyly in reply.
"There was a reason why I allowed Lord Thor to fly the ship, Mistress, I needed to set up a rather unique autopilot," He whispered to her, causing Alexandria to smile, pleasantly surprised at this.
"You lied to me. I'm impressed," the God of Lies spoke, clearly amused. Alexandria turned from her conversation with Rai to smile softly at his reactions. Loki being nice with his brother was yet again another pleasing change.
"I'm glad you're pleased. Now, do as you promised. Take us to your secret pathway." Thor spoke, urging Loki on.
Winking at Alexandria, Loki took hold of the tiller as best as he could with the his hands chained and began grinning in genuine glee. Until now they had traveled alongside the bridge, but just above the waterline. Now they have veered to the right, and this brought them to the attention of another Asgardian skiff, which began giving them chase and firing. Loki weaved impressively from left to right to avoid lazer-fire, then lifted the skiff higher to bring them in line with his secret pathway. Alexandria looked on curiously as she sat by Jane, ensuring her well being as best she could as Rai attempted to revive her without causing the Aether to react or damage her further.
"Fandral," Thor suddenly called, motioning to his blonde friend and then to the skiff following them.
"Right. For Asgard," Fandral replied, taking hold of a rope and dropping off the edge of the skiff, using the rope to swing onto the pursuing skiff.
"Nothing personal, boys," He said to the soldiers as he landed just before knocking them out and saluting Thor, "Good luck, my friend!"
Below him, Loki steered the skiff to a rocky mountain peak. There, if you looked rather closely, a very small narrow cave could just barely be seen.
"Loki…" Thor spoke, the hesitation clear in his voice.
Loki looked at him, the manic grin growing and worrying every other passenger as he shrugged, "It if were easy, everyone would do it."
"Are you mad?!" Thor yelled, his panic growing as he moved to try and protect Jane of any impact. As a response to him, Alexandria moved next to Loki and gripped his arm tightly in fear, yet spoke not a word in order to try and convey her trust in him, even when her instincts said otherwise.
"Possibly," Loki replied as his grin grew in acknowledgement of not only his brother's words, but Alexandria's silent trust. Glancing at her and then turning his attention forward once more, he steered the skiff into the cave. The space was so narrow that the edges of the skiff smashed against the walls of the tunnel, much to Alexandria's deep displeasure and fright. Iridescent crystals could be seen on the walls of the cave, mesmerizing Rai who as an entity was indeed the least worried, and as they whizzed through, the crystals lit up with the same effect as that of the Bifrost (or at last, according to what Alexandria recalled the Bifrost looked like from the memories she had been imparted from Rai). Everything blurred and Alexandria's grip on his arm tightened (oh, how she hated all forms of Asgardian travel). The skiff exited the cave/tunnel and ricochets off the black sands of Svartalfheim.
"Ta-da!" Loki exclaimed and a relieved laugh from Alexandria much to his pleasure, "We're here!"
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