Chapter Sixteen: Revelations and Familiar Faces
*TINY TIME SKIP* (A/N: I'm too lazy to figure how long this is… I'm sitting in World History periodically laughing with my friend at hilarious text conversations online. This is probably after Captain America and Black Widow have gone after Loki in Germany, but before they come back with Tony Stark and Thor. – Lucky)
Hiro had been in the duffel bag for a very long time, much longer than he had anticipated or wanted. After Peter tried to drop him off outside of the library while changing – keyword being tried – and he slipped back into the luggage by way of a dangling pant-leg that hadn't been tucked all the way. He felt and listened while the swinging motion gave way to talking and the smooth takeoff and flight of a plane. Though the sudden, vertical ascents and descents confused him, as he thought planes moved up and out at the same time.
Listening, he heard another voice join the agent and Spider-man, then the introductions and how even his witty friend stumbled over his first sentence in the presence of the living legend. Silence for a while, a telltale clue someone had given Spidey the information he had been bugging Agent Coulson for a little while back. Some shuffling and a few close calls when he had to dodge the books that were being put away and taken out periodically.
Somehow nobody noticed when he pressed a green eye to an opening in the zipper to catch a glimpse of Captain Rogers. He was exactly how Hiro had seen on the history documentary, not a day older. Blonde hair parted cleanly, blue eyes, and an old-fashioned outfit that consisted of a tucked-in button-down and a brown jacket.
The quiet went on for a while, with a brief interruption when Hiro had to suppress chuckles at the "serious secret agent's" clear fawning over Captain America. The plane set down as smoothly as it had taken off and he had to avoid Peter's attentions one more time. Walking, talking, Spider-man embarrassing himself in front of one of his idols – if the long, truly one-sided discussions in the boy's room were any hint – so much that he didn't hear his travel partner's laughter even with all his senses.
Hiro recognized Director Fury's voice before Dr. Banner took over the conversation, and finally the two scientists, however much Peter liked to deny the fact that officially wasn't one, were led into another room, from what he could tell, by Agent Romanoff and left alone. Now all he had to do was wait in the duffel and bide his time, which sounded easy enough, but it was ruddy boring.
"Pencil, pencil, or even a pen would do," Hiro heard Spider-man carp to himself mutedly. "In the bag!" The cat barely had time to blink before his ride was exposed and he was blinded with bright fluorescent lighting while having a bit of a flashback to the time he snuck along to Midtown High. "Hiro! What the heck are you doing here?!" He replied in the only way he could think. He angled his head down and looked up with the widest, cutest eyes he could muster and mewed pitifully. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Uuuugh… it's like all the other times combined!"
"What?" Dr. Banner said confusedly. The kit could recognize his voice, though it was much less muffled now that he was finally free, as he crawled out of the carry-on. "Why is there a cat?"
"You're not allergic, right?"
"No."
"Well," Spidey started with a small groan, offering his arm as a ramp when the animal began trying to climb him. "Hiro's my cat. And I thought I left him at home, but as you can see, he is not at home. He has a penchant for going where he's not supposed to, and I swear, I never know how he does it." Hiro strutted up his arm, allowing his midnight coat to shine sleekly in the light as he gave the famous scientist a once over with the kitty equivalent of a smile.
Placing himself in his usual spot on his shoulder and hooking a claw in Spider-man's hood to pull it down, he jumped up to the teen's brown hair to flump down comfily. "Sometimes he's worse than me with the troublemaking." Hiro purred happily and watching Dr. Banner's amused gaze as he studied the lightning-notch in his ear, shrugged, and went back to work.
"Okay," he agreed with his head down and back to work. "Fury's the one you have to worry about. Here, let me check your work." Spider-man swiped over and up on his screen, sending the notes across the other to the one the older man was working on with a satisfied hum. The hazel-eyed genius read them over, his eyes flicking from scribbled equation to note to formula. "That's… good." He almost sounded surprised and Hiro growled a bit. Why did everyone assume that heroes didn't have any brains? "Really good. Wow. How'd you come up with this?"
"Oh, I just –" Some random agent burst in through the door, sending a befuddled glance at the kit on Spider-man's head and a weirdly terrified one at the good doctor, and he said that without sarcasm for once.
"Captain America and Agent Romanoff are back," he informed them timidly. "With Iron Man and an individual named Thor as well. Loki will be coming by this room. Do not leave it until he has passed and been secured. Then join Director Fury and the rest in the conference room." With that, the never-named S.H.I.E.L.D. spy ducked out and was gone. The two brown-haired technologists locked eyes with each other and Dr. Banner raised an eyebrow, causing Hiro to snigger atop the younger's head.
"I guess we're staying here," Dr. Banner stated.
The spider in the room cocked his head to the side, staring with those wide bug-eyes. "Did we have other plans you forgot to tell me?" In his head, he mulled over the name "Thor." He was sure he'd heard it somewhere before, and it wasn't like it was a common name.
"… no."
"Then we're good." A sudden commotion from outside drew their attentions to the one wide window the lab had to the outside… well, not world, hallway, though that didn't sound as good. Practically an entire platoon of men was occupied in escorting someone down the hallway.
The unknown was male, with slicked-back, bordering on greasy, black hair and piercing green eyes when he turned his gaze on them. He was in maybe one of the weirdest, but coolest, outfits he had ever seen, all green and dark leather with golden accents. But what really unnerved the wizard-turned-feline was the energy around the being.
The guy radiated magic.
Deep, sickly magic that was torn and sharp around the edges. Magic that seeped in creeping tendrils around him in a dark, swampy green that tried to infect anything it could touch. Hiro didn't like him one bit, and it wasn't because he thought he was the only magic-user in this universe, or because the bloke's magic just felt unnatural and magic was supposed to be a force of nature. No, he didn't like his deceptive magics, but what set him completely off was his eyes.
The green eyes that were like his verdant ones but dimmed and dulled yet full of lies and chaos and tortures to come. Hiro held back a shiver, though allowed the rumbling growl to resonant in his chest. "Chill, Hiro. Jeesh, you didn't react this bad to Flash… of course, you tried to claw Flash's face off… twice…" The noise didn't stop until the entourage had passed by their workplace, and even then, it lingered for at least a minute longer after they were gone.
The kit didn't like the way that "Loki" looked at Dr. Banner, almost in morbid anticipation of something, before studying Spider-man in a curious manner, his eyes latching onto Hiro. Peter was his friend, dammit, and he liked the soft-spoken scientist. If that git thought, he would get anywhere close to either of them…
"Excuse me?" the other human being in the room questioned. "Who's 'Flash' why did his parents name him that?"
Spidey snickered at his idol's unfiltered opinion, something he didn't get to see all that often past the mask of quiet nervousness. "Nah, he named himself that. Though, at the time, he probably didn't understand all of its… connotations. He probably though it was just better than 'Eugene.'" The same agent from earlier opened the door again and gestured stiffly for them to follow. Hiro got the feeling Dr. Banner wasn't exactly welcome among many of the staff of this flying ship, and they only seemed to tolerate the younger vigilante.
They traipsed through the interior of the machine, through stark, boring hallways that could use a color other than "bland" in his humble opinion. The cat, who nobody batted an eye at, oddly enough, moved down to his ride's shoulder to allow him to pull up his hood for the full effect of his costume, which while colorful, did a good job of hiding his face. Though Hiro personally though it would be weirder if someone tried to dress up like a bat or something, and much more intimidating. Not something you wanted if you were trying to get people to trust you if you're trying to save them.
The group passed dozens of identical doorways and suits before getting to the conference room at last. In it, stood Steve Rogers in his Captain America suit, a display of red-white-and-blue that looked like someone had draped him in an American flag and was somehow even brighter than Spider-man's. That might've been from the dirt on the latter's, though.
The female agent with a ponytail – whose nametag read "Hill" – was off to the side, and a new face stood awkwardly as well. Hiro narrowly avoided gasping, which would've been pretty suspicious for a cat, and a small choking noise came from Spidey until he covered it up by clearing his throat, getting a weird look from Dr. Banner.
I know I said I'd be sticking with what the characters in Avengers look like in the movie. And yes, I know I just described Loki with green eyes while his are blue in the movie. Sorry! Just roll with it. This story is quite obviously not entirely canon-compliant. Moving on!
If you couldn't tell by now, I'm faking my way through all the science-y technical stuff with the geniuses. I am a sophomore in high school and definitely not a genius. So, all I do is steal that stuff from the movie and, you know, fake it 'til ya make it!
And yes, I did just half-heartedly dis Batman. This doesn't mean I don't like Batman or DC. I think those comics are flarking amazing, like Marvel. I LOVE SUPERHERO COMICS! I just enjoy Marvel slightly more… please don't kill me…
One more thing – and I know this is really long, apologies – is a couple questions.
1) I write slow and am afraid you guys are going to catch up too fast to where I'm currently working in the story. Our options are either me updating ONCE weekly or y'all catching up and then waiting for a long time for each chapter to finish because I refuse to rush myself, which would decrease the quality of my writing (which is already not the best). Answer in the poll.
2) I'm afraid my A/N's are too long and/or annoying. Maybe this is just my insecurities talking, but… just please tell me if I should cut it out and get back to the story or continue. I will keep answering reviews at the bottom either way. Please answer in the other poll. They will both be closed after 1 ½ weeks.
Lucky
To ellainaparker: Thanks! I'd like to think so, but I'm not so sure sometimes.
To Entrusting: Ha! XD. I remember that part from the other fics! It was hilarious!
To MattKennedy: It's one of my favorite little details from the movie, I had to put it in!
To Vladimir Mithrander: Agreed! And you're welcome, it's my pleasure. I love to write, this is just me sharing. I was afraid I was making it too serious, so I'm glad it's a good balance.
To 18Dragon: I'm not sure that's actually going to happen (sorry to disappoint), but there may be some small details/fun stuff later. Much later, so please hang in there!
To The Red Dementor: Thanks! There'll be some minor Loki-Hiro interaction, but nothing major anytime soon.
To Angelagutnav: Thanks!
To Dylan-A-Friend: I loved it!
To Guest: I'm sorry. That's all I can say. I know I can talk a lot sometimes (like here), but this is just me being me. If you're talking about the very first A/N in Chapter One, I know that was long and ridiculous. I hope to improve next time. It makes me sad to hear that you aren't enjoying my story, but I'd love to get some feedback about which parts you didn't like specifically.
To xiu (Guest): Aw, thank you so much! You flatter me.