Awakening
I own nothing! *Cp swings bottles of Sierra Mist at legal hounds as she takes cover on her bed* So call these stupid mutts off!
After making sure that Dad was alright and wasn't about to have another breakdown, or a panic attack, I let him finish fixing up the suit; which had taken damage when Thor threw him into that tree.
I had Flashed back to Bruce's lab, invisible of course. My Core had screamed at me, and my vision had blurred as soon as I had reappeared but I didn't regret doing it. It was to prove to Dad that I could take care of myself, and that I wasn't as bad off as I really was.
To be honest, I don't think I proved anything.
But once the world stopped spinning for the millionth time that day, I was glad that I had Flashed to Bruce, as I appeared right before Loki and his guard passed the lab. Loki's face had been blank, but as his eyes locked with Bruce's I swore I saw a flash of contempt and smugness cross his features as he smirked at the doctor.
Bruce thankfully didn't respond except to narrow his eyes at the trouble making Asgardian.
Wincing as my Core protested I phased through the door and made to follow the entourage, as per my Duties request.
What was all of this about?
I followed Loki and the SHIELD goons into a large holding room with a glass cell in the middle. The container was shaped like a can of tuna, I was surprised to realize, and it was being suspended in the air by large metal claws. I scowled at the large device, I could tell just by looking at the thing, who it was built for. It left a foul taste in my mouth and a frown on my face just by thinking about it.
If Fury ever even tried to put Bruce in there, I would rip him a new one myself, screw secret identities! Hulk wasn't a freaking animal, and it was time that someone in this world realized that!
I took a deep breath and calmed down; being pissed at Fury wouldn't really help me at the moment.
As the guards and Fury, who had joined us at some point, ran around trying to make Loki's entrance into the cell peaceful, I leaned against a far wall. It was out of the way so no one would run into me, yet it was also a wonderful place to supervise what was going on.
Once Loki was inside I saw Fury make his way towards a control panel not too far from the cage. I saw the glint and his eye and smacked my forehead.
Fury was going to start gloating...or ranting. One or the other, and each were a very likely scenario.
"Incase it's unclear," Fury began as he reached the control panels, "if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass…"
Fury pressed a button and my stomach dropped to the floor as suddenly the retractable floor beneath Loki's cell opened up. I leaned as far back into the wall as I could, but the air vacuum was so strong I had to close my eyes. Boy did I wish that I was wearing my boots!
"Should have put them on before leaving." I muttered to myself, comfortable talking aloud because there was no way anyone would be able to hear me over the noise.
"30,000 feet straight down in a steal, trap!" Fury stated loudly with a poorly concealed proud smirk adorning his face. "You get how that works?"
I winced as I thought about it. That would hurt like hell no matter what you were, Human, Immortal, Asgardian, Bruce...or something else, that cell was a recipe for a disaster and pain.
I didn't like it.
Pressing the correct icon on the screen and another press of a button and the floor closed us off from the sky once again. I sighed in relief and sunk down onto the floor. Boy, did I seriously wish that I had my boots and other stuff. But no, I had to be silly and go crime-fighting in sweats and a t-shirt.
I scowled; too bad I didn't have enough energy to Flash back home. I watched Fury tiredly as he approached the celli.
"Ant," he stated gesturing towards Loki, "boot," he gestured towards the control panel.
Loki chuckled and I had to wonder if he was really insane or it just had to do with the situation.
"I must say, it's an impressive cage." Loki stated with a small smirk, motioning around at the cell. "Not build, I think, for me…oh no." I could practically see Loki dangling bait in front of Fury and I scowled, that wasn't what we needed.
Fury never should have built that thing, but since it was currently been used to hold a trouble making god, I would let it slide, for now.
"It was built for something a lot stronger then you." Fury stated, grabbing Loki's bait…great, just great. I literally slapped my forehead, and contemplated the pros and cons of slapping Fury.
"Oh I've heard." Loki stated with a smirk as he suddenly turned his attention towards the security camera. "A mindless beast that makes play that it is still human."
I could feel my blood draining from my face and my fists clenched as I realized that Bruce was probably watching this. Anger flooded my veins and as I gritted my teeth, I swore that I would deal with Loki myself; sooner or later.
"How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki sneered at Fury.
I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest. Desperate? Most of us weren't, Fury however….
"How desperate am I?" Fury stated coldly, his voice almost a hiss. He stepped towards Loki with a hard look on his face and a glint in his eyes. "You threatened my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace; you kill because it's fun…and you have taken my people. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"Ooh…" Loki mocked him with a smirk on his face. I could tell that he was just making jabs at Fury. I wondered why Fury didn't realize that as well. "I'm so scared. It burns you to have come so close to having the Tesseract to having the power…unlimited power and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share? Then only to be reminded what real power is."
Loki paused for a moment before leaning in close to the glass and stating coldly, "You have no idea what I am capable of."
Fury smirked lightly and turned away from the Asgardian. "Well, just let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine for something. Oh, and you have no idea what we're capable of."
Fury left the room in silence, the entourage of guards following him. I knew that two or more would be posted outside of the door.
My eyes narrowed at the Asgardian as I was left alone with him, and two sides of myself were battling over what to do. My Duties were telling me to threaten him, and my gut was telling me to get the hell out of dodge.
Shaking my head I compromised and whispered to myself, "Oh, you all might not know, Loki...but I do. I know very well."
I didn't even look at the god to see if somehow he had managed to hear me. I simply turned on my heel and with a wince I phased through the door. Phasing what something that I had learned from my half-returned memories and my Sparks allowed me to put to use. It came in handy, let me say.
I walked silently down the corridors heading towards the Bridge. I wasn't staying out of this, and I had a feeling that that was where everyone was. Well, perhaps not Dad...but still. That was where I needed to be, I was going to make sure that Bruce was ok.
If I happened to make sure that Dad didn't blow anything, or Fury, up yet it was just a double reason to go. Cause even if I was irritated by Mr. High and Mighty Eye-patch, blowing him up would just cause trouble.
Bruce's POV
"Oh I've heard." Loki smirked and turned to stare right at the camera from which we were watching him. "A mindless beast that makes play that it is still human."
I rolled my eyes and snorted at the Asgardian's words. He might have been able to bait Fury, but I wasn't going to be that easy.
"They're all idiots, aren't they Big Guy?" I mentally asked him, and Hulk sent me a sense of agreement, and irritation towards Loki.
I did agree with him, Loki was irritation. But we weren't going to let him get into our heads. That was what he wanted.
"Except Pen of course, she's special." I continued as an afterthought. Hulk hummed in agreement once again and also sent me a mixture of feeling and images that I was able to translate into 'don't add her to the mix. If you do, then you're an idiot.'
I was pretty sure that Hulk would have used different words, but it got the message across. I had come to appreciate the, usually, one sided conversations we had. It added spice to life, and also helped with our control.
"How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" The 'god' continued and I rolled my eyes.
I gave Thor, Romanoff, and Rogers, who were staring at me in either concern or worry, a bored look.
Romanoff's eyes narrowed and I mentally sighed as Hulk pictured smashing her.
"No smashing SHIELD agents." I scolded Hulk, knowing that it was better to get the idea out of his head now. For a moment, I swore that Hulk pouted, but then the feeling vanished and I dismissed the thought.
Mostly because Thor, who I had learned was quite a pleasant man, was still looking at me in concern, I made a show of smirking and rolling my eyes. I wasn't going to let Loki get to me.
"Don't worry; you'll get your chance at him sooner or later..." I promised him even though I had a feeling that we weren't seeing the whole picture here. Either way, I wouldn't have a problem letting Hulk toss him around for a bit. He was a bit of a prat.
I mentally groaned, now I was starting to sound like Penny. I mentally glared at Hulk as he started laughing at me. It wasn't funny!
My train of thought then led me to wondering what Penny was even doing here. Just because I hadn't seen her around didn't mean that she wasn't. She was quite handy with her invisibility and I had another gut feeling telling me that she most likely knew more about what was going on than I did. Not that I was surprised about that, but I had no clue what she was planning.
I tuned out the rest of the monolog between Fury and Loki as I got lost in thought. However, I did notice how all of the SHIELD agents froze when Loki mentioned 'a warm light for all of mankind'. I wasn't sure what he was hinting at. But once this little briefing, or whatever Fury wanted to call it, was over I was going to find out.
I was drawn out of my thoughts when Fury left the cell room, obviously on his way here. Well, time to play the game.
"Well, I must say. He grows on you, doesn't he?" My voice was dripping with sarcasm and Thor looked at me in curiosity, though not confusion. I wondered just how much the Asgardian knew about me.
"Loki's going to drag this out." Rogers stated and Hulk and I squirmed as my senses finally completely focused on him. While I had been sensing it slightly since I met the man, it was only now that I fully realized the feeling of...offness...that seemed to be coming from the man.
It wasn't like I didn't like the man, I did. But there was just something about his... Aura, personality, energy... That was causing Hulk to pay attention to him. This of course, caused me to pay close attention to the man.
On the other hand it was amazing that the source of all of my previous research right in front of me. If I didn't have such common sense I would probably try to talk to him about the formula. But I wasn't an idiot, I was far from it.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when Rogers continued morbidly.
"So, Thor, what's his play?"
I personally didn't care for all of the military talk that floated around the base, but I guess that it couldn't be helped. Especially since Rogers was one of the most hardcore soldiers I had met, and I had dealt with Ross and his crazy cronies.
Thor was deep in thought, and I wondered just how much he knew. He was staring unseeingly at the floor, and didn't look up when he replied.
"My brother had an army called the Chitauri. They're not from this world or any known world. I must wonder where he discovered them, since these beings are beyond his power."
"Perhaps they found him." I found myself suggesting before I could do a thing about it. I was surprised that I had voiced my thoughts so suddenly...
Romanoff and Rogers both looked at me in surprise. Thor looked up at me and appeared to be contemplating what I said, and then he nodded at me.
"Perhaps you are correct...if it were not impossible I would suggest that an Ancient One was assisting my brother…"
Thor shook his head as if banishing unwanted thoughts and I swore that I saw a flash of grief cross his face. But in the next moment it was gone, and I almost thought that I had imagined it.
"It is possible that one of these 'Ancient Ones' are helping him?" Rogers asked looking at the Asgardian in thought. "Or will help us?"
"No," Thor shook his head, quick to dismiss the idea. "The Ancient Ones are rarely seen in our world; and if they are...they are forbidden from intervening with our people. They aren't like Asgardians, who used to help and guide the humans. They are the Watchers of existence. They may be among us, but unless it had to do specifically with their Realm they may not interfere. They have their own power, their own rules, and their own time for things.
"There is only one Ancient who would be able to assist us; and he has not been seen in many years." There it was a flash of sadness had definitely crossed Thor's features there.
Thor was looking down at the table, seemingly lost in memories. A thought suddenly struck me, had he known an Ancient?
I noticed that Romanoff opened her mouth to speak, but Rogers cut her off before she could even utter a sound.
"Just how long is many years? Five, ten? Because considering I'm sitting here right now shows that time doesn't always put you out of your game."
Thor turned towards the Captain, a cold unreadable expression on his face. "I, nor anyone else on Asgard has seen him since I was fifteen of your years."
Thor's words were solemn and I felt bad for the guy. Obviously, whoever this Ancient One was, he meant a lot to the god.
"Ok then…" Rogers muttered to himself as everyone stared wide eyed at Thor. We all knew that he was quite old, and for him to say that this Ancient had been gone for so long…
Yeah, we had a zero to none chance that he was going to show up to help.
"It has been many, many centuries." Thor stated as he placed his hands behind his back and started pacing. "While the origins of this army are unknown, his next goal is obvious. He means to lead them against your people using the bridge created by the Tesseract to bring them here. Make no doubt, if he is successful, they will win him the earth...I suspect in return for the Tesseract."
"Wait, you're telling me that someone loaned Loki an army...from outer space... so that they can get the Tesseract?" Rogers asked, sitting up straighter in surprise and realization.
"Aye." Thor nodded looking grim, his gaze wandered over to the scene showing Loki in his cell. He sighed as he looked at his brother, before shaking his head and looking away.
"Adayna would be shamed for your actions brother." I heard Thor mutter under his breath thanks to my advanced hearing, and I narrowed my eyes at the Asgardian. Who was Adayna?
"So, he's building another portal." I stated, pushing the thought away for now.
I leaned forward and gazed at the two blonde men before me. "If he wants his army to get through, he's going to have to open a much larger wormhole...and to do that he'll need a lot more power...that's why he took Selvig." I sighed as my brain put together the pieces, it wasn't looking very good.
My mind was practically a whirlwind as I came up with all of the possibilities and technicalities involved with stabilizing the portal, along with everything else going on. I took my glasses off and rubbed my eyes, boy it would be nice if someone with an actual brain would show up.
I looked up to see Romanoff watching the three of us, looking amused. I had been working for hours on the tracking program to find the stupid cube, and it was slow work. I just hoped that they didn't expect me to do anything else on top of that.
Thor's response to my statement surprised me enough to draw me out of my thoughts.
"Selvig?" He repeated in shock, looking concerned as he gazed at me in question.
I nodded, "He's an astrophysicist, one of the best actually." I stated, hoping that it would clear up any confusion the Asgardian had.
"He's a friend." Thor stated coldly and my eyes widened as I recalled Penny mentioning something about Selvig, Thor, and someone called Jane...
"Loki has him under some kind of spell." Romanoff explained, talking for the first time since we all entered to bridge. "Along with one of ours."
I narrowed my eyes at the emotion that showed in the spy's voice. She had stiffened while she spoke and a slight amount of worry had entered her voice. Hmm, she must have been very close to the agent to have a reaction like this, from what I could tell of the woman's personality that is.
"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from that cell." Rogers redirected the conversation back towards the problem with Loki. I didn't really see any reason with talking about him. We could be doing other things, not sitting around fretting about if Loki was or wasn't completely insane.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki..." I said slowly, carefully choosing my words. Loki's brother was in the room, and I didn't want to say anything that would offend him. "Right now...I don't know if any of us will understand what's going on in that brain of his. But we have a chance of finding the Tesseract. That should be our first priority."
"He killed 89 people in two days." Romanoff stated with a sour look on her face. "Why shouldn't the psycho be our top priority?"
Hulk growled at Romanoff, clearly not liking her. I hushed him and turned my attention towards Thor who had stepped forward at her words.
"Careful of how you speak." Thor warned the red head with narrowed eyes.. "He is currently beyond reason and his sanity is questionable; but he is still of Asgard...and he is still my brother."
"I think it's about the mechanics." I commented, trying to get the topic back to something relevant and that wouldn't lead to Thor smiting someone.
"Iridium...it's what your agent stole while Loki was keeping you all distracted. What do they need Iridium for anyway?" I leaned forward on my elbows as my brain whirled around, trying to discover the answer.
I was only thinking aloud at the moment, but it was better than someone's face getting smashed in.
"It's a stabilizing agent." I raised my eyebrows at the new voice, and turned to see a man in a black Metallica shirt under a dark blue jacket walk into the room followed by Agent Coulson.
Even if I had been out of the loop for a while, I knew enough about the science world to recognize Tony Stark when I saw him.
My eyebrows connected in confusion, if they were going to call Stark in, why hadn't they before? I could have used his help on the searching program.
"I'm just saying, pick a weekend, I'll fly you to Portland. I'm not taking no for an answer, your practically family now." I heard Stark mutter quietly to Coulson before he spun on his heel and gave us his attention.
I watched with amusement as Coulson rolled his eyes at Stark's antics before giving him a discreet nod. Their conversation done Coulson walked over to stand beside Romanoff.
"Hmm, that was interesting." I commented to myself and Hulk. I felt Hulk agree with what I said, however, when Stark stepped closer Hulk stiffened in surprise.
"What is it?" I asked the other part of me, knowing that he had much better senses and instincts then I did.
I was surprised, when I didn't get an emotional response, but a verbal one.
"Familiar." Hulk growled in the back of my mind, causing my eyes to widen. Hulk speaking to me twice in one day? That was new, and how could Stark be familiar? We had never met him.
Hulk did nothing to answer my inner quarries and I decided that now really wasn't the time. I could drill Hulk for answers later.
"It means that the portal won't collapse on itself like it did for SHIELD. Sorry, I'm late...that tree bent the suit a bit out of shape. Didn't want to come off." Tony stated flippantly. My eyes narrowed at the man, he wasn't lying...but at the same time he seemed to be leaving information out.
"You have my apologies." Thor stated, looking sheepish. I had to wonder what had happened between the two as Thor nodded to Tony.
With a small smile Stark spun on his heel and surprising everyone, he just patted Thor on his shoulder and said, "No big deal, buddy! I've had worse, but man do I pity anyone who gets on your bad side."
I chuckled and shook my head as Thor nodded his head in acceptance and gave Tony a small smile.
As Stark moved away I eyed him carefully, I had to admit...there was something very familiar about that man.
My eyes widened as I put the dots together and then had to stop myself from chuckling.
"I wonder if Penny knows how similar she is to her old boss...well, disregarding the fact that the both have Arcs in their chests…" I commented to myself and Hulk.
Suddenly, Hulk started chuckling at me, and I grew confused.
"What's so funny?"
Pen's POV
I had to smile as I followed Dad and Coulson onto the bridge. While I had somehow lost Fury along the way, Mortem had come through for me again.
I had just been wandering down the corridors, avoiding the multitude of agents that were now patrolling when something had caught my attention. I had turned in confusion towards a corner only to see the shadow started to twist and crawl out into the light. I had moved towards it as it wrapped, and suddenly my boots, gauntlets, and the outfit that Insania and Hel had picked out for me was sitting on the floor. I had almost cried out in happiness, but had managed to control myself. After running forward I had pulled the outfit into my arms, turning it invisible.
I had thanked the shadow, knowing that it was one of Mortem's minions I still couldn't see. The shadow had twisted at my words and i swore that I almost saw it wave as I turned on my heel and found a closet that I could change in. Even if I was invisible, I wasn't changing in the middle of a hallway.
I had been extremely happy once I was once again dressed for the occasion, and I sent my gratitude towards Mortem through our link. He must have heard me wishing to have these...or knew that I would need them.
My boots were the same they always had been, the same with my gauntlets. It was only the outfit that was now different, which was obvious since this was leather instead of liquid metal and Hel had a say in it.
I was wearing black leather leggings that hung on my hips and even though they cut off just below the knee, they were tucked into my boots. The leather wasn't stiff, thankfully, and was actually quite flexible. I was also wearing a silver silk sleeveless tank top that was thin enough that the light of my Arc shined through. Over the silver shirt was a snug black leather vest, it showed off my curves and had a very low cut V neck. The vest stopped about four inches before the top of my pants, and the silver shirt also revealed a small amount of skin on my stomach. The black choker that Mortem had given me hugged my neck as the Hallows Ring sat on my finger. It seemed to glow as I slipped it on.
I didn't wear it often, as I didn't want Dad to see it, but when I did, I always felt a sense of peace, like the ring belonged there.
My hair was no longer in the short pigtails, but now hanging freely, with a black headband holding my hair back though my silver stripe of hair still framed my face.
After I changed the shadows grew again and swallowed my discarded clothes. I had started laughing, after thanking the Reaper of course, Mortem always did look after me.
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts I followed Coulson and Dad into the room. It was really random how I had ran into them, but I didn't really care, it was amusing watching Dad try to talk Coulson into letting him fly Coulson to Portland to patch things up with his ex-girlfriend. The two had been dating for over a year before she had broken it off because she had gotten a job offer and moved.
It was really hilarious how dedicated Tony and Pepper have been on reuniting the two of them. They had been adamant about playing matchmaker, if the press or the rest of the world found out, they would have a heart attack.
I mean, because besides a select few, who would think that the arrogant playboy that was Tony Stark and the Icy Business Queen that was his girlfriend would play matchmaker with a SHIELD agent and a musician.
I personally couldn't wait to see Fury's face when he found out.
As I relaxed against the wall by the table I smiled watching Dad interact with the other. I was proud of how he acted around Thor, and it was funny to watch everyone else's reactions.
Romanoff had looked shock, but also void of emotion. Rogers had looked gobsmacked, Agent Hill, who was standing in a corner supervising, was just as shocked as her college. Coulson had simply looked amused, and Bruce, well, he looked like he contemplating something rather seriously.
I winced as I realized that I needed to be more careful. While it wouldn't be bad if Bruce found out that I was a Stark...it would be better if it waited until the situation calmed down.
On the other hand, Bruce knowing might not be a bad thing.
Oh well, I would wait and see how this played out before making a move. Loki had become a wild card, and I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
But I knew that no matter what he threw at us, we would hit him right back.
He didn't know what we were capable of.
He did know what I was capable of.
That is why he already lost his 'war'.
He just didn't know it yet.
Long chapter, I know, but I think it worked. Hope you're all enjoying it. :)
Thanks to everyone,
Cp
