Awakening
*Draws glittering sword* "I challenge thee to a duel, if thee believes I own a thing!
*Crickets*
"Aw…."
A few moments later, Fury turned to me and said, "You should resume your work to locate the cube."
"What?" I hissed, Hel grabbing my shoulder again as most of us looked at Fury in disbelief.
"You heard me." Fury stated coldly, "The Cube is our, and therefore your, first priority. Don't forget it."
He then turned around and strode away, probably heading towards the bridge. Hel and I glared at Fury, first priority my ass!
"This is why I prefer the company of immortals. At least they aren't usually so idiotic." Hel muttered to herself, and I became confused. Penny was human, at least I thought she was….I had a feeling that I wasn't supposed to had heard that.
Thor sighed and Coulson shook his head, Fury really was an idiot.
"You want me to get back to work?" I muttered angrily to myself, glaring at Fury's back, "Fine, but screw all of you."
I spun on my heel and stalked away from everyone who was still standing outside of the missing med-bay. Hel followed me as Rogers tried to engage Thor in a conversation, but he too just walked away.
Coulson faded into the background, following Fury. He probably wanted to 'speak' with his boss; leaving Romanoff and Rogers the only ones still in the hall.
"You ready to discover who shot my daughter?" I asked Hel quietly as we passed the scene of the crime. The only evidence remaining that something horrific had happened there was the two agents cleaning up the large puddle of Penny's blood.
I glared at them as we strode by, suddenly aware, but unconcerned about the fact that I was covered in the same blood.
"Of course." Hel smirked, and I chuckled, causing the agents we passed to shiver. I smirked evilly, matching Hel's expression, whoever had shot Pen would pay, and I wasn't the only one who thought that way.
Hel and I glared at the holographic scene in front of us. We had enlarged the security footage as well as making it 3D and life size, so I was basically standing in the middle of the same scene I had been in not even an hour ago.
The footage was currently frozen, the holographic bullet that both Hel and I had glared at for a good ten minutes hovering in the air. I was trying to trace the trajectory while Hel was scanning the large crowd for the shooter.
It wasn't easy, whoever had shot Penny had done it discretely, and from the one corner of the corridor that the camera couldn't really see. We had the video feed, but the shooter had been amongst a lot of other people who created a shadow. I had Jarvis enhancing the feed now, but it would take time.
But I didn't know how much time we had, Loki was obviously going to make his move soon, and hopefully Penny would also be returning.
I hid a frown as I glanced over at Hel.
I was glad she was here, but it was also strange. I had never seen Hel without one of the other girls around, and didn't she say that she was overworked? If she had work to do, what was she doing babysitting me? Yes, Mortem probably asked her to, for Pen's sake, but something else was going on here.
I had seen the way that Hel's eyes narrowed when the walls flashed purple in the footage of Pen and Romanoff's fight. She had tried to hide it, but the shadows around her had flared, for less than a moment, but I had noticed. Not to mention the way that the purple blast of energy appeared out of nowhere and caused Bruce to freak.
No, something much bigger was going on here. I didn't know what, but from what I could see, it even had Mortem and Hel unnerved.
That wasn't good.
"Is she going to be ok?"
I froze as Hel's head snapped up to face mine; I didn't even realize that I had spoken aloud. We stared at each other for a moment before Hel sighed and looked away.
"I'm going to be honest with you Stark." My eyes snapped to her bowed head, her dark hair hiding her face. Worry and fear exploded in my gut, but I ignored them. I was completely focused in the moment.
Nothing else mattered.
"Things aren't looking pretty." She sighed, the Asgardian sounded tired, stressed. I knew that something had been going on. "Something is coming; something that you all aren't ready for, and sometimes, I don't even know if we are."
I was slightly confused; who was she talking about when she said "we"? Her and Mortem? Her and the other Asgardians? Everyone who knows Penny? I didn't know, but I had a feeling that she wasn't going to tell me.
"But," Her voice suddenly hardened and she looked up, and I saw determination shining in her vibrant violet eyes. "We won't let anything happen to you, or your daughter. Trust me Stark, she'll be alright. Mortem'll bring her back."
I nodded, if anyone cared about Penny as much as I do, it's Mortem; I knew he would bring her back.
Silence filled the air once again as I stared down at my holographic double staring at the relieved looking holographic Penny.
Anguish shot through me and I looked away as tears threatened to fall. I knew that she was coming back, and while my mind was more at ease...my heart was still cleaved in two.
"Stark!"
I looked up from the Jarvis' algorithms increasing hologram quality and turned to see Rogers, Romanoff and Fury all stalking into the room.
"Great, it's my hate club." I muttered to myself as I glanced back down at the program in front of me.
"You're supposed to be finding the Cube!" Fury barked, and Hel appeared by my side, glaring at them.
"Where's my Uncle?" She questioned her voice dark and threatening. My eyes narrowed as I realized that Coulson was also missing.
"And Phil?" I added on, there was no way I was dealing with any of them if Coulson wasn't here.
"Coulson is currently indisposed." Romanoff stated in a monotone as Rogers shifted.
"I haven't seen Thor." Rogers said with a shrug, I raised an eyebrow at him but otherwise ignored him.
I smirked as I noticed that Fury's nose was bandaged, it looked like I broke it; awesome.
Fury, noticing my smirk scowled at me with his eye narrowed, my smirk simply grew as I turned away from them, dragging my hologram with me.
"You mortals demand so much from each other yet you all try to advert the blame and guilt." Hel stated with an eye roll. "You think yourselves so tall; even when my father, who's having a bit of a mental break at the moment, comes crashing onto Midgard and knocking you down."
The others looked confused at the mixture between modern and old (typical Asgardian speech) dialect, but I just rolled my eyes. I was used to it by now, as both of Pen's friends spoke strangely from time to time.
"Hel," I said as Fury's eye twitched. The girl turned to look at me in question and I gave Fury a pointed look before rolling my eyes. "It's not worth it, trust me."
Hel seemed to contemplate this for a moment before nodding. "I believe that you are right."
I chuckled as suddenly a popup hologram appeared in front of me flashing red. My eyes narrowed as I quickly scanned the notice from Jarvis. He wasn't talking very much because not only was he monitoring everything on board, enhancing the security feed, monitoring Pepper, and resisting SHIELD's attempts to remove him from their systems (not happening) but he was also keeping construction (what he could anyway) on the Mark VII going at the Tower so that if it was needed, it would be battle ready.
"Fury," I stated coldly as I turned back towards the man, as I continued reading the missive. "Care to explain why you're arming every one of your men with prototype firearms that, alone, have the power of a missile; and the collective power of several nukes?"
Fury sneered, "What I go with my men doesn't concern you!"
A short, bitter laugh escaped my lips as I felt the abyss creeping closer once again. "None of my business? Please, it's been my business since you stuck your overly large nose into my life. Pen and I have both been keeping an eye on you since we first found out about you! Jarvis has never completely left your systems in almost a year! We've been patient with you, Pen didn't interfere when you relocated her friends, and I didn't interfere when you started making WMD's using advanced alien technology!"
"You're making Weapons of Mass Destruction?!" Rogers exclaimed, turning towards Fury in horror.
"What did you think Phase Two was, Capsicle? Plans for world peace?" I drawled at his idiocy. However, I froze as I saw Rogers face slowly redden.
Another bitter laugh escaped my lips as I shook my head. "Let me get this straight, your Star-Spangled pants are in a twist because SHIELD is making WMD's, but not because they basically shot and killed a kid and don't fucking seem to care?!"I exclaimed in disbelief.
"But they're making Weapons of Mass Destruction!" Rogers protested pointing at Fury who simply shook his head.
"And so's the majority of the planet!" I exclaimed throwing my arms into the air. "Rogers, this is the 21st century. This may be shocking to you, but get used to it! You need to get that stick out of your ass and start thinking about your priorities, because I think they're a little skewed."
"My priorities?!" Rogers exclaimed with a look of disbelief on his face. "My priorities are to the world Mr. Stark; where are yours!?"
My eyebrow twitched at his tone of voice and I had to stop myself from trying to punch him again.
"If I've learned anything from this past year, it's that family always comes first." I stated coldly, taking a step forward.
"For the sake of the world? You'd be willing to let the world burn for your family, Stark?" Rogers snapped, I opened my mouth to reply Hel stepped in.
"I suggest a change in topics." She stated coldly, "And more use of sense."
"You're not part of this discussion." Romanoff stated coldly, her hand twitching towards her weapon.
"And you are?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "I don't recall you contributing to the conversation at any point."
"That's beside the point." Romanoff waved my statement off and I mentally sighed. That woman was annoying.
"No, this discussion is." Hel stated and with a wave of her hand a black shield sprang to life around the staff. I sent her a questioning look as the others pointed their weapons at her. "It was sending off negative energy, you need what little sense you have to deal with my father. NOT to be squabbling like spoilt children!"
I paused, and realized that a tiny bit of my anger was fading, and the abyss' pull wasn't as strong. I glared at the staff before nodding my thanks to Hel; I would rather not be restrained by SHIELD. That would be a pain to get out of...or, well, possibly not.
"Just find the cube!" Fury barked out before stalking out of the room, Rogers and Romanoff following him like ducklings.
"Morons." I muttered and Hel chuckled.
"I agree with that."
Short, I know but this chapter just didn't want to get written. Mortem shows back up next chapter, and Pen should be back soon as well.
Sorry it took so long, and sorry to those of you I told I would get it up sooner. School work is piling up, and I ended up babysitting unexpectedly today.
(And nooooo, it has nothing to do that my friend and I stayed up all night last night watching anime...where did you hear that…)
….
I deny everything!
Cp