And I've done it again. I AM SO SORRY! I say this a lot, but I really mean it! Sorry for the lateness, this time I blame all the stupid make-up work I have to do for the week I was out sick. But you don't want to hear about that, you want to read. Maybe I should just change to Wednesdays… nah. Well, here you go.

Chapter Twenty: Magic!

Sometime during the tense argument between Captain Rogers and Mr. Stark, the scepter had gleamed, glowing, sending off more magic. Hiro had caught it with a Seeker's eyes and split his attentions between the malignant weapon and the adults, some of which were acting like children. He felt for the energy it was sending off, analyzed it in his own way that was the opposite of whatever professional procedure the Aurors might have done and beyond the capabilities of the muggle-filled world he now called home.

Though untrained in any way that counted, the wizard-turned-cat could feel the magic, like the way he'd felt Loki's, but this was different. Loki's had a… green feel to it, a swampy, slimy green that was pointy and not unclear about its harmful intentions. This… staff – for he had heard Merlin once wielded a staff rather than a wand, and this thing was saturated in magic – had an energy, oh yes, but it wasn't Loki's. It had its own magics that had been combined with the snake's so that he could channel his through the spear as well as use its innate powers.

The scepter's magic was yellow and bright, but not like the sun, not in that happy-cheerful-sunny-day feelings, no, this was an icky mustard yellow that didn't creep in tendrils but spread in a haze like mist around the room, collecting around the heroes. Hiro felt like he should've had troubles breathing with this magic in the air, this energy that seemed neutral at best. But he found it pressing on his Occlumency barriers, however weak they were, but they still held.

No, this magic was tricky, like Loki himself, but Loki was aggressive, and this was patient and slow as it seeped into your mind and manipulated your emotions with precise motions that you didn't notice.

Now, the kit couldn't actually see any of this, it was all compiled in feelings, feelings of color as weird as that sounded. He wasn't quite sure if this was his way of interpreting magic, or if it was the way this world's magic was, or a bit of both. He did know one thing. The energy of the staff kept trying to get into Peter's mind. And he was having none of that.

While he couldn't do magic in this annoying form, he could send out as much of a half-arsed Occlumency shield around his friend as possible with a clear message for the invasive magic. Back off. This one's mine. It sounded childish, even to him, but he could practically hear the yellow hiss in displeasure when it backed off of Spider-man and shuddered imperceptibly.

He reluctantly jumped off of Spidey's head, knowing they were talking in the background, but not really hearing it as he glowered at the blue jewel at the head of the spear that he just knew housed the magical energy. Hiro knew he wasn't strong enough to do the same to everybody onboard the massive ship, as much as he'd like to, especially these new "Avenger" people he was growing attached to. It didn't seem to be leaving the lab, however, so he tried to limit its influence as best he could.

Which, for him, included scowling at the Merlin-damned thing and trying to incase the imaginary mustard mist in an imaginary clear hamster ball. Thinking of it like a glass marble, filled with swirling yellows. It didn't entirely work – give him a break, he never even finished Hogwarts! – and there were little leaks in the containment everywhere, like pinholes that wreaked havoc on his hard work. Maybe, maybe, he could've done it if he was human again, but that was still a big maybe for the Boy-Who-Lived. He wondered if they were calling him the Boy-Who-Died now wryly. Nah, knowing the wizarding population he was something like "the Man-Who-Saved" or something equally idealistic and ridiculous.

Satisfied with his work for now, and mostly certain the stupid golden stick wouldn't cause any more problems without Captain Roger's and Mr. Stark's conflicting personalities butting heads, he slid lankily away and out a crack in the door, eager to explore. Hiro wandered, dodging S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and catching sight of Thor looking confused and miming antlers in the big, main command center, somehow not getting caught among the world's premier spy organization. It was amazing where being underestimated could get you.

Eventually, his four legs took him deeper into the ship and he found traces of Loki's green energy along the path they had led him on to his cell, that large, circular glass thing that they could drop from the Helicarrier at a moment's notice. He stole through the doorway, coming up just in time to see Agent Romanoff standing outside the glass with Loki directly in front of her, though, thankfully, still imprisoned. But if this man's magic was any tell of his character – and Harry had found that magic usually was – he wouldn't be in there for much longer, only as long as it amused him. The pale god slammed his fist into the thick glass as Hiro sat to watch in a shadowed corner.

"I won't touch Barton!" he was snarling. "Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear!" The redhead turned away, appearing frightened and shaking, but he could see the resolve in her eyes and knew immediately she was acting. No, this was not a woman broken, but a woman strong. Not one to trifle with, and he had already been scared of her before. "And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull!"

However, that was no reason for Hiro to leave her like this and the words Loki spun grated on his ears painfully. But he held back, if only for the strength in her eyes. She had a plan, and he did not want to mess it up. "This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" Wow did everyone is Asgard talk like that? Talk about getting old fast.

The light sounds of sobs came from behind Agent Romanoff's hands realistically. "You're a monster!"

"Oh, no," the mad god grinned, falling for her hysterics. "You brought the monster." Suddenly, there was the ear-piercing sound of claws on glass as Hiro deemed it far past time for him to intervene, especially with the pleased sort-of-expression on the emotionless spy's face that told him she had what she needed. From his place on the railing, the cat hissed and growled menacingly, front legs propped up on the glass as he drug his sharp claws down lightly enough to create the awful sound, but not heavy enough to initiate the drop sequence on the cage. He really hated that snake. "What? What is this?"

Hiro hissed loudly once more before hopping onto the agent's shoulder, much to her surprise, and continuing to scowl at him. "How curious." He acted casual, but Loki rubbed his ears with his hands, much to the cat's pleasure, and came away with traces of blood. The echoes of the walls made it much worse from the inside with the technology they used.

"So, Banner?" Agent Romanoff mused and turned, a blank, dry countenance put exactly in place rather then the weeping wench Loki thought he'd torn. "That's your play."

"What?" Hiro chuffed at the lie-smith's genuine confusion, gaining the slightest of smirks from the femme fatale who he perched upon. Any normal person would've missed it, but he never claimed to be normal. She stalked around the room towards the exit, not worried about his balance, having seen him with Spider-man before.

A hand went up to her ear, and she spoke into the comm. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well." She turned, right before the door and smiled sharply at the prisoner. "Thank you, for your cooperation." Hiro caught one last look at the god's utterly baffled expression and laughed again. Seems the god of lies wasn't all he claimed to be. "So. Your name is Hiro, right?"

Green eyes looked curiously at the agent as he tilted his head to the side.

"Hm. How the hell did you get out the lab?"

The only response was a light chuff and eyes sparkling with mirthful secrets.

"Ah, those idiotskiye genii probably left the door open." The kit managed to appear affronted at the suggestion and the famously stoic Black Widow held back a smile. "You're a smart one. I like you, malen'kiy kotenok." They went up and down stairways, through a maze of corridors, and if Hiro wasn't absolutely sure she was convinced he was really a cat, he'd think she was trying to disorient him. Or maybe the place was just built to be confusing.

As they got closer, he stiffened, feeling that yellow magic again. Oh, Merlin. He shouldn't have left. Thor came up from another hallway and entered only one step ahead of Agent Romanoff. The room was crowded, the trio of scientists still there, though Peter looked rather ragged through his disguise – knowing him, he'd probably been trying to keep the peace – along with Director Fury and an angry Captain Rogers. Most eyes turned to them when they entered, and Spidey rushed over after the agent's simple words of: "I found your cat."

"Thank you," he murmured quietly to her, sensing she didn't want to distract from whatever had happened in their absence. "Where the heck were you?!" Now that reprimanding undertone was directed at him. "Don't do that!"

"Did you know about this?" Dr. Banner's voice brought the pair back to the highly-strung present as he gestured at a weird gun on the table next to Captain Rogers. Hiro, now up on the boy's tight shoulder to make an attempt at providing support, studied the weapon darkly, now knowing what everything was about. The Tesseract wasn't a clean energy source, but a breakthrough in weapons technology for S.H.I.E.L.D. As always, the government liked to ruin all the good things.

But it captured his attention briefly, for the smallest of openings, before he turned his attention to the smug scepter still on the other table. His "hamster ball" hadn't contained it for long, breaking when anger began to mount and only furthering the problem. Hiro focused in on it, trying to harness the energy once again, but still listening as the human's arguing only made things worse.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Agent Romanoff was saying.

He laughed bitterly. "I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," she reasoned.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," he countered. "I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." Everyone turned to the director, even Spider-man, who had been and currently was sitting on the edge of the counter nervously, unsure about why everyone was so upset. Yes, it was a serious topic, but couldn't they just talk it out without the yelling and accusations, like rational adults?

Hiro himself had about given up, seeing as the damage was already done and he was making no progress other than exhausting himself.

"Because of him," the African American answered shortly and exasperatedly with a finger pointed at the god of thunder.

TA-DA! I somehow made it to twenty flarking chapters! Woo! This is so far past my previous writings. Di immortales, I really didn't think I'd get this far when I started out! And there's actual character development happening! Well, it's mostly just sad emotional junk right now, but stuff will happen, I promise!

Also, the first little bit of Russian from Natasha means "idiotic geniuses" and the second one was "little kit." I used Google translate, so blame them, not me, if something's wrong with it. I did use the translation/English alphabet version instead of the Russian symbols because it always drove me crazy when people would put things like that in their story and I would have no clue how to pronounce it.

Now, your opinions please! What did you all think about the way I keep describing magic? And how did Hiro do with Loki?

Lucky

To budhayes: Thank you! You get me. =D

To Dylan-A-Friend: Oh my gods, if you find it, tell me! It sounds hilarious.

To Vladimir Mithrander: True, thank you, and XD.

To MattKennedy: I'd hope so, I just thought it would be interesting to hear that explanation.

To ellainaparker: Yep.

To Guest: Glad you like it (especially since I'm slow and I know it)!