Kansas 11
"Tin man, who the heck are you calling tin, point break?" said Tony
"Wait are you saying he might kidnap me?" said Gin
Thor nodded in the affirmative.
"Yes" said Thor, as if the nod wasn't enough.
"He has a point Loki was already fascinated with her to begin with, this will make her irresistible to him" said Barton
"He's fascinated with her, why wasn't that in your report?" said Fury
Barton shrugged
"I didn't think his obsession was relevant" said Barton
Fury glared at him and frowned.
"My brother has rarely expressed an interest in any maid nor has he acted on such to my knowledge. In truth I had begun to worry his inclinations were directed at his fellow warriors" said Thor
Tony chuckled.
"Hello stalking me remember, stop planning the engagement already" said Gin
"It is a relief to see that he is not so inclined" said Thor
Gin glared at him and Thor glared back.
"Oh yes because this is so much better and what would it matter if he was? He's still your brother" said Gin
Thor nodded and sat back
"Aye and I would love him no less, you are in the right my tiny friend" said Thor "Be that as it may, it still creates a dilemma, how do we keep Ms. Smythe out of his hands?" said Fury
"Well keeping her here is out of the question. He already almost knocked this fancy ride of yours out of the sky" said Steve.
Barton blanched and looked guilty for some reason.
"Rogers is right we need to move her to a safer location, one Loki is unaware of" said Tasha
Gin was scared, holy crap she had a target on her back and some vengeful power mad alien was gunning for her or stalking her.
"We could always move her to a safe house" said Fury
"No good, Loki knows what I know, which means he knows about quite a few of our safe houses" said Barton
He winced when he said that as if he felt guilty for Loki having that information. Fury gave him a sympathetic look.
"We could always stash her in one of my houses" said Tony
Fury gave him a strange look and Steve glared at him.
"That might work" said Tasha
"No!" said Steve
Gin gave him a strange look.
"You have an objection Cap?" Said Fury
"Actually yes, you know his reputation. Do you really think he should be alone with her?" said Steve
Tony looked offended.
"Oh come on, really you're going to go there. She's got a god for a stalker and you're worried about her virtue, for criss sakes Rogers" said Tony
Thorn snorted
"Does this place have a practice field?" said Thor
"Practice field?" said Barton
"Yes some place we can begin her training" said Thor
"You mean a gym" said Barton
Thor gave him a confused look.
"Yes all of them do, it's a feature I won't live without" said Tony.
Thor nodded in understanding.
"We will need to set up a defensible perimeter" said Tasha
She sounded very military when she said that and Gin was starting to get scared. Tony was looking at something on his phone. He suddenly nodded to himself.
"I am assuming you have just the place in mind, Mr. Stark?" said Fury
"Tony and yes" said Tony
He slid the phone across the table to Fury, he picked it up and looked at it, then raised his eyebrow and gave Tony a look.
"This could work" said Fury
He handed the phone to Tasha and Barton glanced over his shoulder.
"Not exactly your style, aren't you more of an modern art type of guy" said Barton Tony shrugged
"It's more of an ancestral estate than a home" said Tony
"Great, I'll download the plans, and start setting up a defense plan" said Tasha
"I've got dibs on the tower" said Barton
"It is decided then. We shall hide her and train her in the house of Tony's ancestors" said Thor
"Wait all of us" said Bruce
"Well no, I don't think she quite ready for the big guy yet or ever" said Tony
Steve smirked
"Actually she handled him just fine" said Steve
Thor nodded.
"True tis she who won the challenge" said Thor
"Challenge! What challenge is this? "said Fury
All eyes were now on Gin and Thor. He didn't seem to care but Gin was slightly self -conscious.
"She issued challenge to Banner, that if he failed to escape her prison then he would return and he lost" said Thor
Everyone in the room looked shocked except Steve and Thor.
"What were the terms if he won?" said Fury
He sounded less than pleased.
"She promised to leave him in peace" said Steve
Thor nodded, the big guy looked almost proud of her.
"They as friends would part" said Thor
Seconding Steve's response.
"She doesn't have the authority to promise that" said Fury
Gin shrugged off Fury's hard look.
"Still would have kept it" said Gin
"Not likely" said Fury
Thor shifted and pinned Fury with a glare of his own.
"She would not stand alone" said Thor
"No she wouldn't" said Steve
"Duly noted" said Fury
There was a moment of tense silence until Fury decided the argument was moot anyways.
"It doesn't matter now, she won" said Bruce
"No I suppose it does not" said Fury
"Wow, okay… holy. I guess she did, didn't she" said Barton
He gave Gin an appraising look. Tasha frowned at them.
"How? if you don't mind me asking because that's pretty fucking incredible" said Tony
"She creates shields" said Tasha
"Shields?" said Tony
"Yeah it's like this... ah bubble... sort of made of energy. It's hard to describe" said Gin
"And she can block things too" said Barton
Tony nodded and actually looked impressed.
"Can you show us?" said tony
Gin looked at Fury for permission of sorts. He nodded at her giving his permission. Gin started to pull the energy then abruptly stopped. She looked at Fury.
"Ah, this usually works better when I'm protecting something" said Gin
Fury nodded and touched his earpiece.
"Kitchen please" said Fury
"Yes sir?" said the voice on the other end of the line.
"I need you to bring up a dozen eggs to conference room five, uncooked" said fury "ah… okay sir" said the voice.
"While we're waiting we need to discuss what we are going to do about Loki" said Fury
"You mean besides keep him from stalking Smythe?" said Barton
"Yes, what do we know about him?" said Fury
He looked to Thor. The blond man crossed his arms across his chest.
"He's a drama queen with horrible taste in hats" said Tony
"He's easily tricked" said Tasha
"It is not often that my brother is fooled" said Thor
"Maybe he was distracted" said Barton
He looked pointedly at Gin. Thor opened his mouth to protest.
"That would seem plausible, he did fall for hey look a distraction more than once" said Gin
"Hey look a distraction?" said Fury
Gin suddenly pointed at the door across the room.
"Hey look a distraction!" said Gin
Fury, Thor and Tony all turned, the others chuckled.
"Most amusing" said Thor
Tony just shook his head like he couldn't believe he fell for that.
"Hilarious" said Tony
"Very funny" said Fury
Thor roared with laughter and smacked her on the back.
"We most definitely needed that jest, thank you Smythe" said Thor
"Gin" said Gin
The blond eyed her for a few minutes.
"Gin" said Thor
"Silliness aside, without the power source he will never be able to open the gate to bring his army here" said Tasha
"I say we just put an arrow through his skull and call it a day" said Barton
Thor turned towards Barton.
"Have care who you threaten archer, Loki will face Asgardian justice I have sworn this" said Thor
There was another tense moment. Gin could tell Thor was worried about his brother. She rested her hand on his tense arm.
"No one's going to hurt your brother Thor, I promise, I will personally put him in a box and mail him home. Just as soon as we find him" said Gin
Thor relaxed some and covered her small hand with his.
"My thanks" said Thor
Some of the tenseness left him and the others relaxed.
"Besides he would have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break the coulomb barrier" said Bruce
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect" said Tony
The others were simply staring at them.
"Well if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet" said Bruce
"Finally someone who speaks English" said Tony
"Is that what that was?" said Steve
Gin grinned
"Oh leave the two nerds to their nerdgasm" said gin
Bruce and tony both snorted.
"So in laymen's terms he needs a reactor" said Fury
"Well yes that's a given, nerdgasm is that even a word?" said Tony
Gin shrugged and then suddenly had a horrifying thought.
"Tony what did you do with those schematics I drew?" said Gin
"They're still in my phone babe, why?" said Tony
"Could they be plans for a reactor?" said Gin
Tony frowned and lifted his phone, tapped on the screen several times and then frowned at the screen. Bruce looked over his shoulder and then took the phone from Tony's hand. After a few minutes studying the image he swore.
"That's precisely what it is, the design is alien, but yeah that's most likely what it is" said Bruce
"Damn it, I was afraid of that" said Tony
"Which means he already can open the gate, just wonderful" said Fury
"Then we need to get a move on" said Steve
"Yes, Ms. Smythe go pack your bags" said Tony
"Well that ought to take all of about two seconds" said Gin
All but Bruce and fury gave her confused looks.
"This house does have a chopper pad right?" said Tasha
"Yep right on the third floor" said Tony
"Great, Smythe get ready to go" said Fury
Gin sighed and stood up, it was obvious Fury wanted to talk to the others without her in earshot. She got halfway to the door and someone poked their head in.
"Ah sir you asked for eggs" said the man
"Yeah I did, half an hour ago what took so long?" said Fury
"Sorry sir, there was some confusion in the kitchen on whether you wanted them cooked or not" said the man
"No I didn't, they're raw right?" said Fury
"Yes sir" said the man
He sounded confused and Fury took the package from his hands.
"Thank you" said Fury
He held them out to Gin she shrugged and took them from his hand.
"I guess I've got time to show you my party trick, it's not like it takes a while to shove a tube of lipstick back in a purse" said Gin
She walked back to the table set the package down opened it and took out one egg then she handed the package to Tasha to hold. She wrapped the small egg in a shield and set it on the table.
"Thor would you mind smashing this with your hammer" said Gin
Thor shrugged looked at the egg and stood up. He took the hammer off his side.
"I apologize in advance for the loss of the table" said Thor
Then he brought the hammer crashing down on top of the egg. The table shattered under the blow and the egg launched through the open door. Somewhere out in the hall area they heard
"Ouch what the fuck, who the hell is throwing eggs?" said the unknown agent
"Oops sorry" said Gin
Fury went to the door an held out his hand. Someone laid a perfectly unscratched egg in his hand. He held it up for all to see. Tony held up his hand asking for Fury to toss the egg to him, he did. Tony missed the catch and it hit the floor. Tony promptly scooped it up and stared at it.
"It's completely untouched" said Bruce
Taking the egg from Tony's hand and examining it.
"Yeah but I bet it's scrambled inside" said Tony
Tasha held out her hand and examined it also, before handing it to Barton. Thor was staring at the broken table when Barton handed it to him.
"How much would you wager, that it is not?" said Thor
"Hmm, how about dinner whoever loses pays" said Tony
"Agreed, I say it is not" said Thor
He looked to Barton.
"My gut says it's not, she's pretty powerful" said Barton
"I've seen what she can do, so no not scrambled" said Steve
He tossed it to Fury
"As does mine but it was hit pretty hard, tell you what I'll sweeten the deal, if it is scrambled Smythe gets a wardrobe on shield" said Fury
Gin raised an eyebrow. He handed it back to Tasha who considered it.
"Not scrambled" said Tasha
"Oh okay fine, I'll see your raise and if it's not I'll buy her a new wardrobe, anything has got to be better than shield standard issue" said Tony
"Science would say it's scrambled and I'm a scientist so scrambled" said tony everyone looked at Bruce
"Scrambled as well, sorry it was tossed around so it has to be" said Bruce
"Okay" said Fury
He walked to the cabinet and opened it. Pulled out a bowl shaped ashtray and set it on a chair. He handed the egg to Gin and she removed the shield and cracked the egg open over the ashtray. When the perfectly intact yolk fell into the bowl Tony groaned.
"How in the...damn... guess dinners on us big guy" said Tony
He reached into his wallet and pulled out a silver card.
"Here I'll call Pepper and let her know I okayed its use, get yourself something nice baby doll" said Tony
Gin shoved the card in her bra and walked out of the room. Fury glanced at the table and shook his head. He waited until Gin was out of earshot before he addressed the others.
"She's watched at all times and she doesn't leave the house unescorted" said Fury "was already planning on it boss" said Barton
"Tasha stick close to her, teach her how to spot a tail etcetera" said Fury
"the rest of you keep her safe and teach her how to fight, She hides it well but Loki scares the heck out of her, keep him away from her" said Fury
The others nodded in understanding.
"Do not worry my friend, she is as safe as she could ever possibly be in our presence" said Thor
Tony shoved his phone in his pocket.
"No one's going to touch her, not while we breathe" said Tony
Gin found her way through the halls easily this time. She was starting to get used to where everything was in this place. She wasn't stupid she knew Fury was most likely telling the others not to let her out of their sight. Truth be told she stood a better chance staying out of Loki's grasp if she was on her own. That was why she was making plans to ditch her new friends as soon as she got the chance.
She knew they would probably defend her and didn't want anyone else to die because of her. One death was enough to have on her conscience. She reached her room and stuffed the card into her wallet. She debated about taking the laptop. Would they let her order stuff online or would they monitor that as well. If they didn't she could use it to look stuff up.
She picked up her purse and looked at the contents. She didn't know if she should laugh or weep that everything she owned was reduced to a clutch sized bag. It was pretty pathetic actually, depressed now she closed the bag. She debated on taking the laptop.
"Are you ready Ms. Smythe? "Said an agent she didn't recognize.
"Ah yeah and you are?" said Gin
"Agent 23, Michael Roseurs ma'am" said Michael
Gin nodded and flung her purse strap over her shoulder.
"ma'am" said Michael
"Yeah?" said Gin
"I just wanted to thank you, I got to see my baby girl turn five because of you" said Michael
Gin stood there stunned, she didn't know what to say.
"That and you're in good hands, I'm flying you out myself" said Michael
"Oh ah, thank you" said Gin
"Come on let's get your situated, aren't you taking the laptop?" said Michael
"Ah no it's not mine" said Gin
Michael smiled at her.
"I'm pretty sure they gave it to you, but I can ask if you like" said Michael
She hesitated
"Ah sure thanks" said Gin
"No problem is that all you're taking with you?" said Michael
"Ah, it's all I have" said Gin