"Why are you so full of humor, brother?"
"Because I know what's going to happen soon," the dark-haired man snickered, his eyes alight with mischief on the other side of the force-field cell wall. "Or, to be more accurate, I have a good idea of what I hope is going to happen soon."
Thor inspected his adoptive brother with a frown. "You speak in riddles. As is common. Would you care to explain?"
Loki's small smirk widened. "Why, brother, can you not work it out for yourself? Did you not feel the magical surge recently?"
With a slight sigh, the blond Asgardian looked steadily at the other man. "You are well aware you have far more talent for the sorcerous arts than I. What magical surge?"
Stopping his idle pacing, Loki stood in front of his larger brother, the smug grin growing to an irritating level. He leaned forward a little and looked both ways down the corridors of the prison block, lit mostly by the glow from force shields. Returning his eyes to Thor's, he said, "We have a visitor. One who said she'd be arriving eventually." Thor frowned again. "To talk about certain claims that may have been made in the past. Surely you remember?" He held his hand just above his head to the side. "This tall, scaled like a dragon, a long tail, and an amusing dress sense?"
The god of thunder paled.
"Saurial."
"Indeed, brother. I suspect she has lost patience waiting for a response. You did mention her to Father, I hope?"
"Um..."
Loki shook his head sadly. "Oh dear. The young lady appeared to me to be someone you should take seriously. Perhaps you should see about that before she simply walks in and confronts him?"
The blond man looked a little ill. "Perhaps… you have a point, brother. Please excuse me, I need to see someone."
Turning with as much dignity as he could bring to bear considering he was visibly sweating, he hurried off. Loki waved mockingly. "Goodbye, brother. I do so enjoy these little chats. Stop in again when you have time."
Laughing under his breath, he watched as the other man disappeared into the distance. When he was safely gone, he turned to look to the side. "Are you planning on harming any of them?"
"No, not really," a voice said, before a figure emerged from the darkness between two cells. The occupant of the one that wasn't empty looked at her, then turned around very deliberately and walked to the other side of the cell, doing his best to pretend she wasn't there.
"But I do want to talk about this Asgardian tendency to collect my hardware and call it their work," the humanoid lizard went on, stopping in front of him. "Odin would seem to be something of an acquisitive bastard."
Loki snorted. "You have no idea."
She cocked her head to the side, inquisitively. "That sounds like it's based on experience."
"You could indeed call it such."
"Want to talk about it?"
He studied her while she studied him. Raising his eyes, he spotted motion in the shadows behind her, sensing that there were more of her people around the place, although he couldn't see any of them directly. "How long do you have?" he finally asked in a wry voice.
"Long enough," she smiled. "And I always like a good story." Stepping back a pace, she sat in a chair that appeared behind her. He watched, amused. It was a remarkable piece of magic.
"We might be disturbed at any moment," he pointed out.
"Not likely." She seemed fairly certain of this, so he took her at her word.
"In that case, allow me to enlighten you on some of Great Odin's other 'conquests.'" he replied, also sitting down on the chair he had in the cell. His voice was hard. "Things that made me the man I am today." Thinking about it, he was honest enough to add, "Or more precisely, helped me along that path. Parts of it were entirely my own."
Clasping his hands in front of him and resting his elbows on his knees, he started talking about his origins, while the lizard in the coat and hat listened silently.
"Father, I must speak with you," Thor said respectfully while bowing his head, having finally gained an audience with his father after some threatening of the guards, who had been fairly convinced that the elder god was desirous of solitude. Odin peered down from his throne at the blond man, one hand on his spear and the other resting on his lap.
"What is the urgency, my son?" he said calmly, "You seemed most insistent. I was meditating and did not wish to be disturbed. I trust you have a good reason?"
"I do," Thor replied, before swallowing a little. "It is a matter I should have brought to your attention some time ago, but I have neglected my duty. I apologize, I can only offer that I was distracted by recent events in Midgard."
The ancient god regarded his son thoughtfully. "What matter?" he finally asked.
Raising his gaze to meet his father's, Thor said, "It relates to Mjolnir, among other things. I met someone who claims to be the one who made it."
There was a long pause, during which Odin's single eye widened slightly, then narrowed in thought. "Who is this person? Mjolnir was wrought by the dwarves at my instruction."
"That… is not what she said," Thor said awkwardly, feeling both embarrassed and nervous. His father was definitely glaring at him now.
"Who?" Odin insisted, leaning forward, his eye flashing with irritation and surprise. "Who dares to claim such a thing?"
"That would be me," a voice that Thor had heard twice before said, making both of them sharply look around, to see Saurial strolling towards them down the length of the great hall, looking around with interest. Odin jumped to his feet, while Thor sighed. This was going to be embarrassing…
"Name yourself, creature!" Odin shouted, leveling his spear at her. "How did you get past the guards?" She kept approaching until she was only a few feet away, then stopped, cocking her head as she examined the spear itself and pretty much ignoring the one wielding it.
"Yep, that's mine, alright," she said in a low voice to herself, sounding slightly peeved.
"Yours!?" Odin appeared deeply insulted. "Gungnir was crafted by the dwarves for my father, Bor Burinson, and has been passed down the ages since. It is a sacred artifact of the Asg..."
"I know the various myths surround it, trust me," the reptilian female said, holding up a hand. Odin actually sputtered to a halt at this action. "You guys have told half a dozen different stories over the years about it. That hammer, too," she added, indicating Mjolnir, which Thor was very carefully not putting his hand on, allowing it to hang from his belt. "But we all know they're not actually very accurate, don't we?"
"Who are you to come into the hallowed halls of Asgard and insult me, the king?" Odin bellowed at the top of his voice, fury overcoming him as he hefted the spear. Thor looked at the lizard, whose eyes narrowed slightly, then his enraged father, and decided that it might be sensible to take a few steps back. "I am Odin Borson, Ruler of Asgard, and I will not be accused of theft by some… thing."
Saurial watched him with her head tipped a little to the side, radiating much less good humor than Thor had seen on her previous visits. He got the definite impression that she was somewhat annoyed.
"Oh, you want to be all formal, do you?" she asked evenly. "All right. I can do that too."
She took a breath, then roared out in far deeper tones than seemed possible from someone so slender.
"I am Saurial, First of the Family, Last of the Varga, Heir to the Lost Kingdom of Rimsbell, and I do indeed accuse Great Odin of theft."
Thor staggered from the sheer volume, as did Odin, both of them gaping. Saurial's attire changed as she spoke from the informal coat and hat to a set of armor, made of a dark blue metal with the head in profile of some huge dragon, picked out in gold, on the breastplate, while both her hands now held a five foot long sword which she crossed in front of her, ending her display with a vicious grin that exposed many, many teeth. She took a step forward and pointed both swords at Odin, half-crouched with her tail out behind her, looking like she was mere seconds from jumping at him.
"If you want to keep going, just try me," she hissed in an entirely inhuman voice that send chills down the backs of both men. "I'm willing to dance if you push. Or we can simply talk and resolve our differences. Your choice."
Spinning the swords in a manner than showed enormous skill and much practice, she slipped them into a pair of sheaths that formed out of nowhere on her back, without any noticeable effort, then stepped back, straightening up in the process.
"Personally, I'd prefer to talk, myself," she added in a far more friendly voice, smiling at the leader of the Asgard. "Why fight if you don't have to?"
Thor blinked. The sudden change from calm and friendly to instant machine of war and back again was disconcerting. He looked at his father, who seemed somewhat stunned as well.
"Lady Saurial," he said after a number of seconds passed without anyone saying anything, "I do not think any of us wish to enter into unnecessary combat." He reflected how that sentence would make most of the people who knew him stare, but was uneasily certain that engaging this person would be unwise. He liked a good fight as much as the next warrior, but was smart enough to know that they knew nothing of her abilities other than that she was clearly a very powerful magic user if nothing else. Her obvious skill with her blades, not to mention the appearance of those blades from nowhere, also showed that she had more than a few surprises up her sleeves.
Caution was warranted.
Turning to his father, who now seemed annoyed again, he bowed his head respectfully. "Not that I would put words into the mouth of my father and leader, of course," he added in as calm a manner as he could manage.
Odin appeared to take hold of himself, if Thor had any judgment, a little tic in his cheek that appeared when he was angry but restraining his temper coming and going a couple of times. Saurial simply watched them, apparently now perfectly calm and more curious than anything.
"You overstep your bounds, my son," Odin grated, but when Thor gave him a meaningful look, trying to get across his thoughts, the far older and more experienced god bit back whatever else it was that he was going to say, exhaled through his nose, then nodded very slightly. "But I understand your point." He raised the spear a little so it was no longer pointing at their unexpected visitor.
Thor noticed with alarm that as he did so, two shapes resolved to the sides, one on the left and one on the right, both of them holding what appeared to be some form of very large energy weapon. One was the cousin he'd met before, the black and scarlet lizard that had been introduced as Metis, while the other was her apparent near-twin, only violet-blue. Their weapons were just in the process of being lowered, having very obviously been aimed at Odin the entire time. How neither one of them had noticed up until now he had no idea, aside from some very powerful sorcery being involved.
They quietly stepped back into the shadows at the sides of the room as Odin also noticed them, his single eye looking from side to side while his face both hardened and paled slightly.
Metis nodded to him then vanished into the dark beside a column, the other one looking faintly amused before also disappearing again.
"Sorry, but they insisted," Saurial said in a light tone. "Family, you know? They like to help."
Odin opened his mouth, closed it after a moment, then tried again, apparently reigning in his temper. "I would be grateful if you could explain yourself," he said in a stiff voice. "I am unaccustomed to being accosted in my own throne room and accused of theft by… unusual visitors." He'd clearly wanted to say something somewhat more descriptive but had thought better of it at the last moment.
"Really?" Saurial asked, looking at him in an evaluating manner. "With your background… Huh. OK. The point is basically that that..." she pointed at the spear he was holding in a slightly less threatening manner, "… is something I made quite a while ago, in local terms. As is tall and blond's hammer over there. I am somewhat irritated by the way that certain people are spreading around the stories that they were made by the dwarves, which we both know is not actually true."
Thor's father went a somewhat choleric hue about the face again. "Both these sacred artifacts were created for the Asgard by..."
"Me. And not for the Asgard," Saurial interrupted, scowling. "I made the hammer about fifty three thousand years ago for a job I was working on and forgot it. Fair enough, I don't care about that part, I left it behind and if you want to use it, help yourself. But don't go around telling people you made it, or had someone else make it for you. It's older than your entire civilization by this point. The spear I made for a friend, who wasn't your father, believe me. I never even met the guy. How you ended up with it I have no idea. The blaster spell on it is someone else's work, true, but the thing itself is mine. I'm starting to get just a tiny bit pissed about people finding my stuff and claiming it's something they made."
Odin was still looking furious. "I do not care to be called a thief," he snarled.
"Well, stop stealing things, then," she growled back. "My hammer, my spear… I've looked you up, you have quite the reputation for helping yourself to things you want. Or people, for that matter."
Thor stared at her, as did Odin, who suddenly looked rather taken aback. And a little worried.
"People?" he echoed, a guilty expression flashing across his face before it evened out.
She squinted at him sidelong. "Yeah. People. You know damn well who I'm talking about. Skinny dark haired guy you've got locked up downstairs."
"How do you know of Loki's past?" Thor interrupted, feeling both surprised and worried.
"He told me," she replied, looking at him. He stared in shock. "We had a nice long chat about it. OK, I get that he's a sneaky little bastard who's done some pretty unpleasant things, but I have to say that his family life is enough to drive most people to the edge. It doesn't excuse it, but I think it explains quite a lot. And your daddy there doesn't really have anyone but himself to blame for that."
"Loki has killed hundreds of people on Midgard, and elsewhere..." Thor began as Odin seemed lost for words.
"True. But neither one of you is unfamiliar with that either, are you?" she asked meaningfully. "And not all of it has been in battle. Even when it has, who started those battles in some cases?"
He lowered his eyes in sudden shame, remembering events in his past, some not all that long ago. "I mean, I've never started a war," she went on. "Ended a few, true, but not started them. I gather you can't say the same."
"I… have learned valuable lessons," he admitted.
"Glad to hear it." She looked back to Odin, who was gritting his teeth a little. "Hopefully other people can do likewise. All I want is an apology for claiming something that's not true and a promise that you'll stop doing it."
His son could tell that the elder Asgardian was trying very hard not to shout again. Odin wasn't the sort of person who took a shine to someone coming into his own throne room and pointing out a number of embarrassing things from the past. Especially when they were true.
He noted with some alarm that the tip of the spear was dropping again. Saurial eyed it, a slight smirk crossing her scaly visage. "You'd better be very sure you want to do that, Great Odin," she said in a low silky voice.
The end of the spear was glowing now, while Odin's face was like stone. The reptilian woman simply waited. "Well? Take your shot if you want. Then I get to take mine." She looked around at the throne room again for a moment. "It's a nice building. But I guess you can rebuild it afterwards." Looking at Thor, she added with another dark smile, "Or rather, you can. You're next in line, right?"
More than a little alarmed at the implication, and the confidence with which she was facing down what he knew to be a wildly powerful mystical weapon, the thunder god cleared his throat. He was also quite worried about the way none of the guards had come in, even with the shouting.
The faint whining sound he could hear on either side of the throne that he imagined was what a charging energy weapon might well sound like was also somewhat upsetting, as was the ominous glow he could see in the shadows.
"Father, I urge caution," he said in a carefully respectful manner. "Perhaps we can resolve this matter without violence."
Saurial squinted sidelong at him, not taking her eyes off Odin. "Huh," she murmured. "Your brother was right. Maybe you are learning."
Not sure whether he should be insulted, pleased, or confused, Thor stared at her for a second, then returned his attention to the elder man, who was still glaring at the lizard. Again he cleared his throat, a little more loudly. Eventually his father grumbled something under his breath and the spear stopped glowing, the tip raising again.
"What do you want, creature?" the elder Asgardian finally gritted out.
Saurial smiled at him in pleased manner.
"Mainly, I want you to stop going around claiming my hardware as something you invented. An apology for that would be nice too. Perhaps some form of official retraction of previous statements?" She looked thoughtful while Odin went a funny color. "Do you have Asgardian newspapers? A full page ad from the leader of the Asgard saying how he was very sorry about being a bit of a klepto and it would never happen again would be a good first step." Glancing at Thor she raised an eye ridge enquiringly.
The blond man looked at her, then his father, who had gone purple, then put his hand over his face. This wasn't going to end well.
"You… dare..." The sound of the elder man's voice was the only thing that broke the silence, other than a low hum which had replaced the whine but was no less worrying.
The female reptile shrugged. "I'm not insisting on an advert, but I really would like someone to do something about all those stories going around about the hammer and the spear. Or, if you like, we could simply arrange to do a complete audit of Asgard and see what else of mine is lurking around." She smiled toothily at him. "If it comes to that, though, I may want to confiscate anything we find. The dwarves are a little pissed off as well, since your tall stories have sort of dropped them into the middle of all of this. I got them to agree to let me handle it but if you're not cooperative, well… They may also want to have a word. I'm told there are quite a few outstanding irregularities with your historical dealings with them."
"They said they'd hire us for security purposes under those circumstances," Metis commented from the dark to one side of the room, sounding very amused. "Since our goals align pretty well."
"Father, I think we should all take a moment to calmly think about..." Thor started, desperately wanting someone else, anyone else, to be here to talk the older man down from what was building up to the most impressive rage he'd ever seen. He wasn't a diplomat, he was keenly aware of that, and preventing a fight wasn't the sort of area his talents generally lay in.
Abruptly he was wishing Loki was here. They needed someone with the gift of the golden tongue, and whatever else his brother was, a good talker was one of the more impressive things.
Before he could finish the sentence, Odin snapped the spear down and activated the devastating magic held within. Thor reeled back from the enormous noise, brilliant light, and wave of searing heat that the mystical energy beam threw off as it impacted squarely on Saurial's chest.
Over the roar of the spear's magic in action, he could hear alarms going off outside the hall, as whatever magic or technology had made this meeting private was suddenly overwhelmed. Covering his head as he hastily moved away from the backwash of the weapon, he waited for what seemed like minutes but was probably only seconds until it finally stopped, the abrupt silence ringing in his ears.
Straightening up, he turned to see what the result was. As he did he noticed that his father was now standing as still as a statue, the spear no longer in his hand, but in the grip of the violet lizard who was standing next to him, while both she and the matte black form of Metis were holding the dangerous ends of their respective energy weapons to his head, the rumbling hum very obvious.
Odin was more or less ignoring this, since his one-eyed gaze was fixed, apparently in horrified awe, on the slimmer figure standing in the middle of a cone-shaped area of stone floor which was glowing red and visibly slowly flowing to the sides, several inches of it obviously molten. It extended a hundred feet or more back into the hall, an elongated shadow of darker stone showing where Saurial's body had blocked the massive energy release.
Saurial herself was completely intact, something that didn't surprise Thor quite as much as he thought it should have done. He was very aware that he himself would not have fared nearly as well in the face of even a fraction of that beam.
She looked down for a moment, then around herself at the glowing rock. "Not bad," she commented in a low voice. "Decent output for a simple blaster spell, but the duration is limited. Takes too long to charge." He got the impression that she was talking more to herself than anyone else.
A couple of seconds passed, then she started walking forward, her bare feet sinking into the molten surface and leaving three-toed footprints in it, dripping rock falling from her body as each foot rose. He stared at her, as did Odin, while she slowly stalked towards him. "Now, while that was nicely refreshing, I have a distinct impression that you were actually trying to kill me. I'm not fond of people doing that. I am not happy at all. You had the opportunity to resolve this whole thing peacefully, but you seem to want to do it the hard way. All right, we can do that."
Coming to a halt at the base of the throne steps, she looked up at her cousins, saying something in her native tongue. The violet one snickered, nodded, and tossed her the spear. She caught it, looked it over, then somehow made it simply vanish into a belt pouch which was vastly too small to contain it. "I'll hang onto this for now," she commented. "Just in case. Now, while I could retaliate in kind, I can't be bothered, so audit it is. Hermione, you're up."
Footsteps sounded off to one side, making everyone look over, including Odin who was moving very slowly and carefully. Metis and her cousin allowed him to look but kept their weapons trained on him.
Approaching from the direction of the entrance doors, which were moving slightly as someone on the other side was apparently hammering on them, was a slim brunette woman dressed in what he recognized as some form of dragon skin armor. His eyes widened a little when he noticed she had a reptilian tail very similar to Saurial's except for the color. Her wavy brown hair was pulled back in a braided ponytail, which flicked back and forth as she looked around. On the right side of her chest there was a golden badge of some sort, glinting in the light as she moved.
"Impressive," she remarked in a cool voice as she stopped a few feet from the edge of the glowing area, which was slowly becoming dimmer as it cooled. "I take it he didn't want to cooperate?"
"Apparently not," Saurial shrugged. "I asked nicely for an apology." She waved at the floor. "You see the results."
The woman nodded, then raised her arm. A wand of some form appeared in it, even Thor feeling the magical potential of the focus. She flicked the thing in a small but complex motion, which had the effect that a faint pulse of light spread out from her across the floor, instantly cooling it to ambient temperatures. "Nicely done," Saurial smiled, lifting her feet one at a time with a crackling sound out of the now-solid rock and flexing the toes, which made crumbled stone drop to the floor.
"It was a bit too warm for me," the woman, apparently called Hermione, said with a small smile. She was obviously a magic-worker of considerable ability, Thor deduced.
The wand vanished again with a motion of her hand, which then dipped into the shoulder bag she was wearing and re-emerged with a completely mundane-looking clipboard, just like you'd find in any Midgardian office. She produced a pen from somewhere and clicked the end, then flipped through a couple of pages, before turning to Odin.
The elder man was watching the proceedings with what looked like a mix of anger, worry, and disbelief in his eye. Thor himself was feeling much the same although the anger was more irritation at himself for not having taken the lizard-woman seriously enough at the first to immediately contact his father and discuss the matter. Now it was too late.
"Odin Borson, King of Asgard, I am Hermione Granger. I will be your Auditor for today. The Union of Dwarven MageCrafters has appointed me their representative under a mutual union cooperation agreement with the Family." She tapped the badge she was wearing with her pen. "My credentials, if you wish to inspect them."
Odin opened his mouth, thought for a moment, then closed it again.
"As you wish. Now, we will begin with your weapons vault. In addition to the hammer known as Mjolnir, and the spear known as Gungnir, both of which I have on my list, I would like to inspect a semi-autonomous bipedal weapon system known as the Destroyer. There are also a number of other mystical weapons, as well as a collection of magitech devices such as a pair of soul forges. I will need to see receipts, full documentation of use since acquisition, current and past warranty forms, and any details of claims made for malfunction."
Flipping a page, she ticked a couple of items off. "I have the list here." She lifted the next five pages and went through them, her eyebrows raising slightly. "It is quite long, so I expect this will take some time. You should arrange to cancel any previous engagements until we are finished." Glancing at Saurial who looked amused, and ignoring Odin who was opening and closing his mouth making little hissing sounds while suddenly appearing very worried indeed, she nodded towards the door. "Could you do something about that noise?" she requested. "It's becoming irritating."
"Sure, Hermione," Saurial smiled. "Hey, you, blondie, come and help me talk to your guards and get them to shut up. Ianthe, give us a hand, will you?"
The violet lizard nodded and came down the stairs, trailing behind them as Saurial prodded Thor into moving. Sighing, he decided he had no choice and complied.
Behind him, Miss Granger's voice went on remorselessly, "Now, in addition to the artifacts, I will need to see full details of all funds used in purchasing them, the entire paper trail for those funds, and account details both personal and for the Kingdom of Asgard. I must warn you that the Interdimensional Banking Authority has appointed me as a field agent with full authority to impose financial penalties of up to ten percent of all income for the past two thousand years. Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated. Shall we begin?"
Thor shivered slightly. No, he had no choice at all. He had no wish to be audited himself, and that woman gave him the creeps.
The discussion at the door took some time, but eventually he managed to get the guards to calm down. Odin was still talking to the Granger woman, apparently trying to make excuses, each of which she shot down in seconds. Saurial and Ianthe were watching with definite grins on their scaly faces. "Oh, while I remember, Jane says hi, hope you're well, and where the fuck are you?"
He twitched, then looked at the smirking lizard next to him. "You know the lady Jane?"
"We met. Pulled her out of a potentially nasty situation recently, then talked for a while. She's kind of pissed at you, you made a promise. I'd suggest keeping it, or giving her a very good reason why you can't."
He nodded slowly, thinking about the woman in question. "I will."
"Good." They watched as Odin slumped in defeat, then nodded to something Hermione said, following as she turned and headed towards them.
With a faint sigh he fell in behind the little procession heading towards the weapons vault, knowing that this was going to be a long day or two. And probably rather embarrassing.
Loki looked up from his book when he felt something familiar outside his cell, to see Saurial standing and watching him with a small smile on her face. Marking his place, he stood up and approached the force field. "You succeeded in your task?" he asked.
"We did. All done. I'm afraid that your dear father has got a lot of explanations to do to quite a few places. The dwarves are… very pissed off."
Loki snickered, shaking his head a little. "I can't say that I am surprised."
"No, based on the stories, I can understand that." Saurial looked at him with mild amusement. "You've had your own problems with the guy, I know. I'm sorry about that. Although I'm not happy about how you handled it, I can sort of understand why."
"Everyone makes mistakes," he said. "I can admit that I mishandled some of my past actions."
"By doing them, or being caught doing them?" she asked with her head on one side and a small smirk on her face. He shrugged, matching the smirk.
"Thought as much." She didn't seem too upset by it. "But it's best not to harm innocents. I don't like that. If it happens again, I might come back. You wouldn't want me to do that under those circumstances, OK?"
"I understand," he replied after several seconds.
"Great. Well, we have to go now, lots of things to do, people to see. Not to mention that I still can't find my music boxes and slightly to my surprise your father didn't have them. I thought you might like this, though." She held out a device that he inspected closely. "A portable video player, and some highlights of the recent activities." Taking a step closer, she pushed her hand through the force-field somehow, making his eyes widen. After a moment, he took the device from her. She pulled her hand back, the force-field reasserting itself seamlessly. "Enjoy. It's pretty funny. There are a load of movies and things on there as well you might like, too. It must be pretty boring down here."
"I can't say I find it all that interesting," he commented wryly. "But I'll be out sooner or later. I can wait."
She grinned at him. "I'm sure you can. Patience is a virtue. Use the time to think about how you want to live the rest of your life, would be my advice. Bearing in mind that your previous methods obviously didn't work."
Loki looked at her, then around at the cell, then smiled with genuine humor. "Apparently not. I don't suppose I could request transportation to somewhere else?"
"I'd prefer not to interfere in someone else's sentence, considering we both know damn well you actually did it. But..." The lizard adjusted her hat on her head. "I'll probably stop by every now and then for a chat. You interest me, for some reason. We'll see how it goes."
"I look forward to it," he replied with a small bow, making her chuckle. "Your visits do seem to liven things up."
"It's what I do," she said, stepping back. "See you around, Loki."
He lifted a hand in a lazy salute as she turned and disappeared into the darkness between two cell blocks. "I suspect I will, Saurial," he remarked quietly, before turning the device he was holding over a few times, inspecting it closely. It didn't take long to find the power control.
Ten minutes later he was relaxing in a chair watching a projected image and laughing his ass off.
Nick looked at the door when someone knocked on it. "Enter," he snapped, in a worse mood than normal due to the report he was currently reading.
Nothing happened, which annoyed him. He repeated himself, more loudly, with no effect. Sighing heavily he got up, then stomped over to the door, pulling it open sharply with his gun in his hand, just in case someone was trying something.
There was no-one there, and no signs of any presence at all. He stuck his head out and looked both ways, then gritted his teeth. "Damn it," he growled. "Saurial, is that you?"
Getting no response, he slammed the door shut, then stomped back to his desk. Six feet from it he spotted a USB stick sitting in the middle of the report with one of his own sticky notes attached to it. Cautiously bending over the note he read the familiar longhand with a faint sigh.
Hi, Nick, I knocked like you asked. Sorry I couldn't stop for a chat, I'm pretty busy right now, but I wanted you to have this. Enjoy it.
See you around.
Saurial.
Picking up the storage device, he looked at it, then the note, before putting his gun away and pulling a standalone secure computer tablet out of the desk drawer. Inserting the stick into it, he opened the folder on it and started the first video file playing.
Agent Hill tapped on the door of her superior's office, opened it, and stepped into the room. After a couple of seconds, she backed out and closed the door again, staring blankly at it for some time.
Eventually she turned and left.
There were many things she'd seen in her life that sent chills down her back, but a Nick Fury convulsed with laughter in his chair made it to the top of her list in one step. She really didn't want to think what could have managed to achieve that and was seriously considering quarantining the entire building, then retiring.
Somehow, she just knew it had something to do with that fucking lizard, though.