Before John could go to offer his help to whoever could use him, his phone started to ring. "Hello?" he said as he answered it.
"John, are you at the Hub dropping off all of that paperwork you're behind on?" Felix demanded.
"I'm at the Hub. Having a little problem with dropping of that paperwork." John frowned at the mention of the overdue paperwork. He hoped he had forgotten that in the plane. It was either that or he had managed to loose it somehow in the distance from the plane to Phil's crew. He wondered if Victoria would accept this mess as an excuse for misplaced paperwork if he had lost it. Somehow he doubted it.
"It's your funeral if you don't get it in." Felix said. "John, what's going on there? Nick just called and told me that until further notice, I'm handling all of Victoria and Jasper's work. I know that Phil's team was supposed to be at the HUB today. What did they do to Victoria? Because I know that I haven't done anything to make Nick decide that I should die of overwork trying to do the jobs of three people."
"It wasn't Phil's people. That's what I was thinking at first too but…. Just a second, let me see if I can get a video connection so you can see the mess we have here." John fiddled with his phone for a bit before figuring out what he needed to click on to connect the video. "Take a look." He said as he waved the phone in the direction of the thorn enshrouded building.
"What in the…" Felix's eyes went wide as he took in the building, honestly not sure for a moment about what in the world he was seeing. At first he couldn't even tell that there was a building there due to how thick the vines and thorns were. "Is that the HUB? What happened? Victoria hasn't mentioned any of her people working on something that could cause something like that."
"Some sort of artifact got loose." John told him. "And basically what's happening is that the plot of Sleeping Beauty is being reenacting with Vic in the starring role."
"What? Are you serious?" Okay, the building was covered with thorns, but still, was John saying that a fairy tale was real? Although they had found out that Norse myth was real so maybe?
"Afraid so. Take a look. Phil's kids got something hooked up so we could get a view into Vic's office." John moved over to the video hook up that was still showing the scene from Victoria's office, with her lying on the floor, the spindle beside her, and held his phone so Felix could see. "Both of them are out like lights. No idea what the rest of the building looks like, but it's probably pretty much like that."
Felix stared in shock for a moment, not sure of what to say. A spindle. Was that thing honestly a spindle there by Victoria's hand and was there blood on her finger? And…. "John, is she even breathing? It doesn't look like…."
"Yeah, it's just really slow." John told him. "It took me a second to see it too. Felix, do you have anything at the Sandbox that you think might help get through the thorns? Phil's got his people working on trying to figure out something, and there are people here from Asgard trying to help but anything you might have would be really good right about now."
"Have you tried fire?" Felix suggested, although Victoria would probably have his head for suggesting letting John loose with fire near her building.
"I suggested that. Hela said that apparently there was a dragon involved with these things before so fire isn't going to do it." John told him.
"Hela?"
"Apparently Loki actually does have kids, who on the up side seem pretty nice. They're trying to help us figure out a way in." John said. "If you have any ideas, though, just shout them out."
"I'll get the scientists on it. Surely there's something. I'm not sure what, but the scientists play around enough, surely they have something that could deal with vines and thorns. What else do you know about them?" Felix asked.
"The thorns might be poisonous. There's that." John said. "They reacted to liquid nitrogen when Phil's kids tried to spray it on but the vines lashed out at what they were using, so they're having to try to come up with something more solid to try again."
"Cold. I'll see what our people might have. They've been playing with a ton of nutty stuff lately. Surely they've been doing something with cold." Felix said. "What else do you know about those things? Is whatever caused this from Asgard?"
"No. Some Asgardian kids were messing with it, though, which is how it ended up here. Hela's got someone who has some experience with this stuff doing research on it to try to find a solution but apparently they don't have a whole lot of experience with your average person so who knows how that's going to go."
"I'll get my people on it. Victoria's scientists were taking a look at that scepter of Loki's or I would suggest that thing. It might be a bit awkward to use, but maybe it could have cut through the vines."
"Yeah, too bad it's stuck in the reenactment of Sleeping Beauty's Castle at the moment. Felix, there's another problem besides how to get in, though. Apparently if we want to wake Vic up from this and to wake everyone else up too, she has to get True Love's Kiss."
"What?" Felix said. "Wait, this is literally the plot of Sleeping Beauty?" Fairy tales were actually real too?
"Apparently, or at least according to what Hela says it is."
"Fairy tales are real. What's next, a cottage made of gingerbread?" Felix grumbled.
"That might not be as big of a hazard right now if we did run into one." John said with a chuckle. "Jasper's the foodie, and he's napping at the moment."
"That doesn't mean you should feel free to walk right into one if it does show up." Fairy tales were real? Felix felt his head swimming at the thought. How many possible dangers could they be facing if fairy tales were actually real? Who on his staff had kids he could get a few books from? He probably needed to brush up on some things fast.
"Avoid all cottages gingerbread or otherwise, probably a good idea at the moment. I've got that." John said. "But the True Love's Kiss thing, do you have any ideas for that? Because there might be some time constraints on this mess with getting Vic to wake up."
True Love's Kiss. How in the world were they supposed to arrange that? And how upset would Victoria be if she knew that he and John were suddenly having to meddle in her love life? "And Victoria has to get this to wake everyone up?"
"That's what Hela's saying, and the faster she gets it the better. So, do you have any ideas for someone we could try to set her up with or…."
"She's unconscious. This isn't normally the sort of condition a person's in when you arrange a blind date for them." Felix said. "I'll see who I can think of. And I'll get the scientists working on a way to get into the building. It won't do much good if we can come up with a possible match if Victoria's still trapped in there."
"Whatever you can do. And Felix, do it fast. There's a chance that if we can't figure out how to get this mess fixed, it could kill them."