Chapter 14 [JFK Airport]
Loki savored the chaos around himself. While the Skull wanted to parade his black suited lackeys around and shut the mortals' governing structure down, he blasted the transportation hub into submission by himself. A few well-placed assaults had dispatched the security forces and contact with the outside world. He wanted these insolent mortal fools to know what it'd be like to lack for food and water. Perhaps after toying with the gnats, he'd swat a few just to put the rest in their place.
He grinned and blasted another wall panel. He could almost feel the strands of his plan coming together.
The Hulk leapt closer and closer to his locale. When the time came, a short cut would arrange for him to be there that much sooner.
The Asgardian threw two more blasts showering the area with a lethal hail of concrete and steel.
Now to find that infernal mortal woman and deliver a message to his dear brother….
[C Concourse]
Pepper and Happy rushed through the terminal turned war zone looking for their friends desperately. They zigged and zagged around falling rubble and panicked people. They jumped over broken and sparking power cables and light fixtures. Water sprayed them both from broken plumbing fixtures. Their attempts to call their respective partners meeting only with infernal static.
"Where are they?" he pressed.
"JANE! PEGGY!" she called out loudly while combing every gate area and cafeteria.
"PEPPER!" Peggy waved to them from the C8 food court. "We're here!"
"Great! Glad to see you!" Pepper hustled over. "Where are Jane and Dr. Ross?"
"We're okay. A few unlucky folks got caught in some falling wreckage. We're doing what we can for them," Peggy reported. "Come with me and…." She stopped cold and turned white for a second. Her hair stood up on end. "It can't be."
"Peggy? What the?" She turned in the direction which her friend was looking to see the Red Skull placidly considering them as well. "Who?"
"Yes, Agent Carter, please do tell her," the Skull advised from across the devastated area. "Pity the Captain never introduced us, Fraulein."
"Peggy, get back," Happy directed while stepping between them.
The Skull sniggered sarcastically. "You Americans! Always so the cowboys!" He flicked his wrist.
As if by some invisible force, Happy flew backwards and smacked into the wall.
Peggy frowned. "Was that necessary, HerrSchmitt?" Her eyes quickly looked to the unconscious Happy slumped by the far wall. "I'm sure Colonel Philips would have if you hadn't tried to run away from us."
The Skull laughed. "Hardly. I can see why Captain America fancies you. Unlike the rest of this swine, you stand your ground. I respect that source of strength. You would have made an admirable Nazi."
Peggy's eyes narrowed. "Never. I would never sink so low."
"As I told him before he knocked the plane off course, nations are not what is important. Wewarriorsare! No matter. I have you. He will come to me," the Skull insinuated.
"What a conceited ape!" Jane interjected.
"Jane, stop!" Betty ordered.
Jane stormed over to the other two. "Is this the creep who was responsible for Cap's big sleep?"
Peggy narrowed her eyes. "The same. The Red Skull."
The Skull drew his luger and considered it. "Another cowboy? I won't kill you yet." He glared into the physicist's eyes. "Do you fear me, FrauleinDoktorin?"
Jane steeled herself, beating her fear down. She returned the look with an equal one of her own. "Should I? Creeps like you have taught me to be without fear."
For the former Nazi, she reminded him of the more resolute inmates at Auschwitz among other camps. Even if they were to die, they would do so with their dignity and honor intact. He recalled one young woman.
Lena Rosenkrantz….
Before the camps, she'd learned to survive without family. Her parents were killed during the Kristalnachtuprising. Her brother fell in a "gas shower" early in their internment. She'd taken every shift. Watched every friend she made in there die horribly.
She even stood as the Skull then only Johann Schmitt, tortured her with whips and water. He shaved her head and burned her books. He did so to break her.
Instead she rose above the need to fear anything.
Even as the firing squad took her, she glared at him. Even as the bullets ripped through her torso, her eyes never wavered.
Even in Death, she never stopped staring.
YoufacedyourDeath,Fraulein,andyouwerestrongerforit.The Skull considered Jane again. "I see you are teaching her well, Agent Carter."
"It's AgentSimmonsnow, Schmitt," Peggy corrected him almost like a teacher would a recalcitrant student. "Thanks to you."
"You married another man? Does the Captain know about this? Such infidelity!" he chided forgetting about Jane and turning back to Peggy in amusement.
"He would never want me to be unhappy. You're responsible for us being apart for the past seventy years. Doing that, you have the gallto say that?" Before he could react or she could think better of it, she slapped his face hard. "You HAVE NO RIGHT!"
His hand snaked out and grabbed her around the throat. "I have KILLED for less than THAT!" He raised her off of the ground letting her gasp for air. For a few passing seconds, he considered his options before dropping her to the floor. "Do that again and I will send you to him in a BOX!"
Peggy never wavered. "He'll make you smart for it…" She coughed.
He turned to see Loki watching from the corner. "Having your entertainment, are we?"
"I prefer my baitto be alive, HerrSchmitt," Loki chided with annoyance. He strode over to the girls. "Charming, I'm sure." He smiled coldly and made Jane float in the air. "You. The one who made my brother soft!"
"You're Loki. Thor talked about you," Jane informed him tersely. As with the Skull, her eyes never left the Asgardian's.
"I'm sure he has." Loki glared into her eyes. "I should kill you right now after what you've costme! Stupid mortal. But no, I want you alive for my brother. Especially with the surprise I have planned, he should have an audience."
Jane bit her lip but wasn't about to give an inch. "Audience? Isn't it enough you're creating this scene?"
"You? Lecturing a god?" Loki's eyes narrowed. He flung her into the wall and let her drop on the sofa beneath. "Those bruises will be a first lesson, Mortal." He turned to the Skull. "Why aren't you at the other tower?"
"Hydra has it in hand."
"Oversee it!" Loki punctuated his command with a look of fire and disdain. "DEAL WITH IT!" His eyes moved toward Peggy. "Since she's yours, take her with you."
"Gladly," the Skull hissed. He grabbed Peggy's arm and vanished in a flash of light.
Then Loki considered the unconscious Happy and Jane. "Pathetic mortals. As if they're the equal of the gods!" He sniggered contemptuously at Pepper and Betty who were looking Jane over. "You'll see your friend, my Dear. I've made sure of that."
"Excuse me?" Pepper asked not knowing what he was talking about.
"Not you, her." He pointed at Betty. "Get ready." He frowned knowing that the mortals' news would be carrying word to others.
He in fact was counting on his accursed brother hearing sooner rather than later.