"And this." Bruce presented. "Is the lab."
Loki peered inside, following Bruce inside of a large room, covered in all sorts of electronics, screens, mechanical arms, different objects. He looked around.
"I know, it's a bit overwhelming." Bruce stated. "Even when I worked with the gamma field reactor, it wasn't anything like this… That was probably a mistake." he then added and cleared his throat. "Anyway, most of this Tony developed himself. He really is a tech genius."
This probably was a good time to be honest, Loki had no idea what any of this was for… He knew some of it had to be scanners, and there was of course computers and so on.
He could though figure out what it was for, and he was going to!
This most advanced technology earth had to offer at his finger tips… It had been to easy.
Loki turned his head away from Bruce so he could hide his smirk as he congratulated himself for how easily he had managed to get here. His enemies freely handing him anything he could possible need.
He almost felt bad about probably betraying them eventually… But only almost.
Then he looked up and saw at the end of the room, a giant window revealing New York in front of him, Loki walked over there and looked down at the grand landscape.
To think… It had been about a year now. A year since he had been standing on top of this very tower calling upon the Chitauri.
His eyes scanned the buildings and busy humans down there… One year was nothing in the grand scheme of cosmos. It was just a second fleeting by, less than a second.
Loki had to hand it to the humans though, looking down it would be impossible to guess that a big battle had taken place at that exact location a year ago.
They had rebuild and moved on, the humans were busy living their ordinary lives ones more, it was like it had all been erased and forgotten already.
"Yeah, it's an amazing view." Bruce commented as he stepped beside Loki. "Kind of scary huh?"
Loki frowned. What was scary about this? It was just ants crawling around down there, mindless drones not even realizing what was going on around them. There was nothing scary about this, in fact it was… Calming.
"Anyway, this side of the lab we are free to use." Bruce informed earning Lokis gaze. "That portion over there though." he gestured at another section which looked a whole lot messier, with lots of scraps and wires all around the place. "That's Tony''s section, he doesn't like other people touching his projects."
Loki frowned glancing at it, then turned to Bruce. "So what are we doing here Doctor?" he asked.
"For now, tracing and measuring gamma energies across the globe." Bruce informed walking to a big computer, then pulled up a holograph showcasing the globe itself. "I am currently conducting sweep scannings of different continents to see if there are any concentrated sources of gamma radiation. When-ever I find a concentrated source, that's when the fun begins."
"Oh?" Loki asked.
"First question that needs to be answered. Is the source man made or are we talking about an alien object like the tesseract, mind staff or Malakiths stone." Bruce informed. "Those are our only three confirmed alien gamma sources thus far, right now I am trying to figure if there is any more on earth."
"What will you do if you find any?" Loki asked.
"I guess we'll be retrieving it for further examination." Bruce commented his eyes not leaving the screen.
Loki grinned.. Perfect, absolutely perfect! This was exactly what he wanted!
Just then the door opened again and in stepped a woman with long strawberry blond hair, her build was thin and she was wearing a smart business suite following her slender body.
Bruce turned to her as well then he blinked. "Oh, good morning Pepper." he greeted her. "I'm afraid that if you're looking for Tony, he isn't here."
Pepper shook her head. "No, I hear our Gamma team here has gotten a new member." her eyes turned to Loki. "Robert Johnson right?"
Loki nodded. "Yes. That is correct."
"Hello, I am Virginia Potts. CEO of Stark companies." She offered Loki a hand. "People call me Pepper."
"Ah, pleasure." Loki accepted the hand and they shook.
"Basically, I'm the person making sure that Tony doesn't destroy the entire planet by accident." Pepper informed.
Loki smirked amused. "Well, you have my condolences, and my most sincere sympathy."
That made Pepper snort, clearly she couldn't stop herself from laughing. "Wow." she chuckled. "That has to be the most appropriate response I ever had!" she exclaimed.
Even Bruce smiled a bit amused. "It's good seeing you Pepper, it has been a while." he commented. "How are you?"
"I'm…. Good."
There had been hesitation in Peppers voice, so she was lying. Very obviously even. So obvious that Bruce was catching on.
"What's wrong?" Bruce asked.
Pepper sighed. "Look, I… " she closed her eyes. "Tony promised, he would cut down on all this Iron man business. That's what I told him he needed to do if we were to stick together, but now what is he doing? Looks to me like he is aiming at doing more Iron Man stuff instead of less… I don't think I can deal with that. That's not what we agreed on."
Bruce looked very sympathetic. "I'm sorry Pepper, I didn't mean to.."
"It's not your fault Bruce." Pepper assured in a sad smile. "In fact, it's really nice with another level head around Tony actually listens to." she stated sadly. "And that's very good… I love him, but taking care of him is such hard work. And I am not so sure I can do it anymore when he doesn't even do the one thing we agreed upon."
Loki tried not to groan, human drama. It tasted bad in his stomach and he just wanted to hurl already.
"It's going to be all right Pepper." Bruce assured in a light smile. "Tony is just worried about your safety… Well earths safety to. But with time, when we figure out what these gamma sources actually are, he'll calm down. And you'll be fine."
"You think so?" Pepper asked.
"Positive." Bruce smiled. His lip though was twitching, his left eye slightly squinting… He was bloody lying, he didn't believe it at all!
Pepper though wasn't catching on. "Yeah, you're right." she nodded, her fingers though was twisting, she didn't believe it either.
Loki was watching two people lying both to themselves and each other and somehow this was supposed to be heart warming? … Geesh.
Then Pepper turned to Loki. "It was really nice meeting you Robert, it's good with another level head around to keep an eye on Tony. He can be… a bit reckless at times."
Loki lifted an eyebrow. "If that is what you say." he merely stated making Pepper smile a bit amused.
"I hope we'll get to talk more soon." Pepper then stated. "I am in the building most of the day, my office is the top floor. If you need anything."
"I appreciate the offer. Thank you, Pepper." Loki offered her a slight bow and Pepper smiled amused, clearly charmed, as was the aim. Of course what would have really sold it would be to call her Lady Pepper, or Lady Potts… but apparently you didn't use the word lady on earth anymore. Midgardians had really regressed when it came to manners.
And finally she left, Bruce looking after her with a soft gaze before he turned back to Loki. "Between you and me, that's the real boss you just met." he informed.
"Oh?" Loki asked.
"Tony is the inventor, no doubt about it!" Bruce stated. "When it comes to science and technology, he is possible the greatest mind on earth. But when it comes to anything else than that, he is a bit lacking. Any business deals, general human interactions, maintenance of hygiene, time tables, his diet, all of it. That's her."
"So in other words. She's Tony's mother." Loki stated in a dead pan voice.
It was so unexpected that Bruce choked in his laughter. Then he shook his head. "Oh god, that's not funny." he stated taking off his glasses, wiping them in his shirt. "Well you could call it that." he then finally admitted putting his glasses back on. "Okay, it's a bit to accurate. Though I do think Tony prefer it when we call her his girlfriend."
"Ah, I see." Loki nodded. "She's a lot less vapid than I would expect Tony's girlfriend to be." he admitted.
Bruce smirked amused. "I think even Tony had enough of vapid relationships." he stated. "He seems to be at a point in his life where is looking for something a bit more meaningful."
Loki nodded slowly as he thought. This was very valuable information.
"Well, shall we go to work?" Bruce asked.
Loki nodded again. "Yes, please show me." he asked and Bruce smiled as he headed for his projects.