Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter of 'The avenger's titan'. I hope you like it but before we get to the story, let's see the reviews:
Shadow the Dragon God: Thanks, the events will be the same but not really.
GodzillaFan4515: Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Lightingblade49: Stick around, you'll see.
Abraham H: Thank you, yeah got a little issue with English, it's my third language and the one I use the less. Don't worry, you'll be able to see more of what the inner machinations of his mind are like.
Eugene DC Flores: The same as the one above.
Now with this out of the way, let's get started.
Chapter 4 : Knowing you better
Back at the helicarrier, Loki was brought to a cell made of reinforced steel and reinforced glass, while Fury made his way to a panel nearby.
"In case it's unclear. If you try to escape, if you so much scratch that glass." Fury said as a hole opened underneath Loki's cell.
"It's 30000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant. Boot." He finished while closing the hole.
"It's an impressive cage. Not build, I think, for me." Loki answered with a grin
"Build for something a lot stronger than you."
"Oh I've heard. A mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you."
"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what real power is."
"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." Fury mocked him as he left the room, leaving Loki alone while he stared at the camera.
In the bridge, Steve, Natasha, Bruce, Thor and Ian were listening the conversation.
"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce said
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked the Asgardian god
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the tesseract." Thor explains them
"An army from outer space." Steve said
"Outer space? As in…beyond the world?" Ian asked
"Yes, far beyond, as crazy it sounds." Steve answered
"That could be bad for the balance. It-he won't like it." Ian said to himself
"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce said
"Selvig?" Thor asks
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend."
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha says
"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."
"Maybe he wants something you have or do something in here. And decided to waste less energy in fighting to get here by let himself get caught and brought here." Ian suggested
"That could be, but I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him." Bruce said
"Have care of how you speak. What the child speaks does sound like something Loki would do. And he might be beyond reason, but he's from Asgard. And he's my brother." Thor countered
"He killed 80 people in two days." Natasha said
"He's adopted" Thor tries to clarify but doesn't quite make it.
"I thinks it's about the mechanics. Iridium…What do they need the iridium for?" Bruce asks to no one in particular
"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony said as he entered the bridge with agent Coulson to who he whispers "I'm just saying, pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive."
He then turns to the group "It means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. No hard feeling, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." That last part he said it to Thor as he pats the god's arm.
"Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay as long as Loki wants. Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." Tony said as he stood in the center of the room before he points at worker "That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."
He then looks at the rest of the team "How does Fury even see these?"
"He turns." agent Hill answers
"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick-start the cube." He finished his explanation
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" agent Hill asks him
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asks
"He would have to heat the cube to 120 million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce said
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony continued
"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."
"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony said as he approaches Bruce
"Did you understood what are they talking about?" Ian quietly asks Steve
"Not at all." He answered as Tony and Bruce shake hands behind them
"It's good to meet you Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage-monster." Tony said
"Thanks." Was the only thing Bruce could say in response.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you could join him." Fury said as he entered the room
"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works a lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve suggests
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury said
"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor said
"I do!" Steve exclaimed excited as he understood the reference, Tony only rolled his eyes at this, and at the same time Steve started to realize what he did, and his excitement began to disappear.
"I understood that reference." See, I told you
And after a moment of awkward silence, Ian asks him
"I thought monkeys couldn't fly, which are those?"
"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asks him
"This way, sir." Bruce said as he and Tony left the room
A little growl called the attention of everyone else only to see that it was coming from Ian who looked a little ashamed. "Sorry, I'm a little hungry."
"I think I could eat something too, let's go to the cafeteria." Steve suggests and both were making their way but a voice stopped them
"Hey, do you mind if I tag along? I don't have anything better to do, so can follow you." Natasha
"Sure come." Steve said as he, Natasha and Ian went to the cafeteria. Once there, each one took a plate, Natasha took a salad, Steve picked some pasta and Ian took a little of everything, well by little I mean for him but more than enough for four people. Both adults and everyone else in the cafeteria was surprised by all the food he had. Then they took sat at an empty table.
"I thought you were just a little hungry." Natasha said
"Well I was but all the food looks very good. Why is it too little?"
"No no it's just I don't see that many people take that much food."
"Oh, I'm not supposed to take this much? If that is the case I can-"
"No, that's not what she meant, she's just saying that many people a lot less. But you can eat as much as you want. So go ahead, enjoy." Steve said, and that was all Ian needed to hear before digging into the food. He was having the best meal of his life, not by the amount of food he was eating as when he was with his father, he would eat a lot of fish but it had a very bland taste, this on the other hand was hundreds of time better.
While he enjoyed his meal Steve was looking a little surprised by how much and how fast he ate but not that much because of how he ate at his apartment, Natasha on the other hand was shocked by this.
"Do you usually eat this much for a little hungry?" she asked
"Well I actually don't eat this much, or eat…at all." He said with a little sad tone on his voice
"Oh. Sorry to hear that. Do you mind if I ask why? You don't have to answer if you don't want."
"No, it is okay. I don't eat a lot because people don't like me, for how I look like and when they see me, they get scared and run away or they attack and yell at me ever since I got here, so I don't manage to get something to eat very often. And when I'm really hungry I go to the rivers to get some fishes but the ones I found always taste bad."
"I'm sorry about what happen to you, I'm afraid that how many people act to things they don't understand. We can be really bad."
"Yes I saw that when I got here."
"How and when did you got to New York?" Natasha ask
"Well I lived in an island for four years with my parent or father, that's how Fury said right?" He asks Steve who nods in return.
"Yes, he called father his parent as he didn't know which one was, as his father is a giant lizard for what I understood." Steve explained
"Yes, I spent four with father who told me to hunt fish, swim and he told me about the balance of the world."
"What's that balance? I heard you said something about that in the bridge." Natasha said
"He never explained a lot but father explains it as the way to maintain the world healthy by keeping the living beings in check and see if they are in problem or not with other beings in the world and prevent any beings that could disrupt the order that nature stablishes. Father always looks at the biggest threats to the balance. Then, when I had four years old, one day he told that I had a mission for the balance and that the humans were important for it and then he swim away from the island. I waited, he would leave from time to time, so I waited, and waited, but he never came back. So I realized that I had to find the humans for my mission, so I swam away until I found the city. When I got to land, I learned the first thing about humans, they don't like strangers, I didn't knew what they were saying but I saw they were scared and one of them suddenly attacked me, followed by another and another. I didn't understood what happen, I was confused maybe I did something wrong and that's why they attacked me.
I hid and that is how the next following years continued, I manage to get some books and I started to understand human language while looking how they talked. So from there I began to notice why they acted the way they did, I was a monster in their eyes and would be violent if they saw a monster or scared. I begin to wonder why father would send me with such violent creatures, but little by little I saw that despite how bad they could be, some were kind and good to other beings, like dogs, cats, and others. And I finally understood why father send me with the humans. They were an example of what the balance is, so I could understand balance better, so I thought if they were humans that feared me, maybe there were humans who would like me. But I couldn't find any human that wasn't scared of me and I really began thinking that none would. I-I was beginning to lose hope that I could find one, I saw many families together and…I wanted to feel that… to see what a good human was." He said as tears formed in his eyes, remembering all the times he was attacked and rejected. He then turned to Steve with a small smile
"And now I know a lot more humans like that. All thanks to Steve, I don't know if I could hold more if he didn't showed up. Thank you." He said as he hugged Steve, who felt touch by that last comment and gave him a one arm hug
"Don't worry, I will make sure you never go through that again." Steve promised, Natasha who was looking at the scene was having many feelings at once, on one side she was very sad for what Ian lived, but she felt happy when she saw how he and Steve were very close.
"Wow. That really sounds awful, I'm really sorry, I must say I'm impressed that you don't hate us, I mean humans." She said
"No, I don't hate humans, they are just like that, I can't hate them for their action, nature made them like that." He responded "And thanks but don't be sorry, you didn't do anything." He said smiling at her
And so they continued to eat, once Ian was done Natasha received a message from Fury and she left the two alone in the cafeteria, who then left to take a walk until they arrived to the lab where Tony and Bruce are working and heard Tony speaking.
"Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises." He then proceeded to shock Bruce lightly with an electric stick, getting a 'Ow' from him
"Hey!" Steve said
"Nothing?" Tony asks Bruce ignoring Steve
"Are you nuts?" Steve asks him
"Jury's out. You really have got a lit on it. What's your secret? Mellow jazz, Bongo drums, huge bag of weed?" Tony ask Bruce
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve ask him
"What's weed?" Ian asks Steve
Everyone got a different reaction to the question, Bruce got a shocked and confused looked, Tony was chuckling and Steve was embarrassed and uneasy with the question, he then gave Tony a death glare.
"Weed is um… is something you take to feel good, but while it feels good it's also very bad for the body that you shouldn't take." Steve tried to explain what it was
"But if it's bad then why would they take it?"
"We'll talk about this later." He told him before turning towards Stark "Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offence, Doc." Steve said
"It's okay, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't take handle pointy things."
"You're tip toeing, big man. You need to strut." Tony said
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve said
"Do you think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us?" Tony questions him
"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asks
"He's a spy. Captain he's 'the' spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him, too. Isn't it?" Tony said
"Uhh…I just want to finish my work here and-" Bruce said before interrupted
"Doctor?" Steve said
Bruce took a little moment before answering. "A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."
"I heard it" Steve said
"I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."
"The Stark tower? That big ugly…" Steve couldn't finish as Tony looked at him
"Is that big building with a 'Stark' written?" Ian asks to which Tony nodded
"Yeah, you like it? It powered by a prototype of an arc reactor, I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."
"It think it looks weird. Then again all building are strange." Ian deadpan getting chuckles from Bruce and Steve and Tony felt a little ashamed before Bruce turned serious
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Bruce said
"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony said
"I'm sorry. Did you say…" Steve was beginning to say but Tony interrupted him
"JARVIS has been on it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has been trying to hide. Blueberry?" he said as he offered both of them the bag, Steve didn't take, Ian did took some, he had never tasted blue berry before.
"Yet you wonder why they didn't want you around."
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not awesome."
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them."
"Following's not really my style."
"And you're all about style, aren't you?"
"Of the people in this room, which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and, B, not of use?"
"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you." Bruce told him
"I don't smell anything." Ian said
"It's an expression, it means that something isn't right in all this situation."
"Oh, I get it. But you're correct, from what you said something 'smells a little funky'."
"See? Even the kid agrees." Tony said
"Just find the cube." Steve said as he left the room frustrated, with Ian behind him
"Steve? You okay?" Ian asks
"Ian, this isn't something you should meddle in."
"Why?"
"Because this a um…human adult thing, that you wouldn't understand."
"But they say that something isn't right and I understood why it isn't right."
"No! It's just… I'm sorry but I need to do something." Steve said as he begin to leave but when saw Ian following him he stopped.
"Ian don't follow me."
"Why?"
"I need to do this alone, please don't follow me." He said as left, leaving Ian alone on the hallway
"Did I do something wrong?" He asked to himself before walking the opposite way.
He continued wandering on the hallways wondering what happened and if it was because of him that Steve got mad, as he continued walking he would hear whispers and would see people looking at him, he felt uncomfortable as he could actually hear them talking about him. He continued until he felt something approach him, something he already felt, and from around the corner came the source of the presence he was feeling. Thor. The god of thunder seemed to be walking nowhere until he saw Ian and walked towards him.
"Hello um I'm sorry but I do not know your name." he said
"Hi, my name is Ian."
"It's nice to properly meet you Ian, I'm Thor Odinson."
"Nice to meet you too. Hey I would like to apologies for the fight from before."
Thor chuckles "There's nothing to apologies, you fought with a lot of courage, and you possess great strength, that fist did hurt a lot. But I should expected coming from the child of the great Midgard's beast."
"You know my father?" he said as both began walking around the ship together
"All of Asgard has heard from him, the tale of an incredibly powerful and ancient beast that lives in the depths of Midgards oceans. Everyone knows to not disturb or face it as it could destroy most who fight him, even my father is unease with the idea of challenging it."
"I didn't knew my father was known so much. But I don't think I'm that strong or good at fighting, you were able to fight me with ease."
"That's because I have trained a lot to fight better. But I'm sure if you trained, you could become better."
"You think so?"
"Yes, I'm certain you can do it. You're already very strong and brave which is very important, all you need is to know how to use it properly."
"Thanks. You said you were from Asgard? Where is that and what's Midgard?"
"Midgard is how we call this world back where I come from, Asgard is where I come from, the realm where the king, my father keeps watch over all other realms under his rule, including this one. In Asgard we train and prepare ourselves to keep the realms in peace, we fight and celebrate our victories with great feasts."
"Incredible! That sound amazing."
"Yes but despite how advance we are, we can still be brutes and savages who can enjoy war a bit too much."
"Oh, that doesn't sound that amazing. Hey can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"What's 'war'? I keep hearing about it and I know is a bad thing but I never known what it really is, what is it?"
Thor stood there unable to say anything, as he tried to come up with an explanation of something himself thought was horrible. After a minute he answered.
"War is when two or more groups or kingdoms or empires fight against each other and it's where many, many people die fighting."
Ian was shocked by that answer "B-but why? Why would they kill so many others?"
"It depends, sometimes for lands, for fortune, hatred against one another."
"Have you ever been in a war?"
"Yes many, and until very recently, I, enjoyed fighting in wars."
"You did?"
"Yes but certain events showed me the chaos and horrible nature of war, and since then I would only fight in a war if it is absolutely necessary to keep peace in the realms.
"War sounds really horrible. I hope I never get to see a war."
"I hope you don't child. Maybe we should try to talk about something else."
"Yeah that sounds good. What would you like to talk about?"
"Um let me think. During our fight, you absorbed mjolnir's lightning, how did you do it?"
"I found out about that a couple of years ago, it seems that if I get shocked with electricity or a lightning, I can absorb its power to heal myself and recover all my energy back, and with enough of it, I can get a little stronger, or at least that's what I think would happen as I never tried to see if it works"
"That sounds impressive, no wonder you could withstand Mjolnir's lighting?"
"'Mjonril' is your hammer?" to which Thor nodded
"Yes it helps me controlling my powers."
"That's cool. I wish I had something like that to help me fight better."
"You don't need a weapon to learn how to fight. What you need is training and someone to train you."
"Then I hope I can get somebody to help me."
"Well maybe your friend Steve can help you he looked like a warrior himself. But now that I think of it, what would you say if I trained you?"
Ian stopped hearing that offer. "You would?"
"Absolutely, well not right now because I need to get back to Asgard to deal with some problems but once I get done with them I promise you I could train you how to fight better if you want."
"I might not like fighting that much, but fighting better could help me for future situations. Yes I would like to train with you." He replied to him with a small smile which the norse god answered with one of his own
"Great, once I'm done in Asgard, we'll start your training." Thor told him
They then crossed with Natasha who seemed in a bit of a hurry
"Hi Natasha."
"Hi Ian, I'm sorry but I don't have time to talk, I need to find Bruce."
"Last I saw him he was in his lab, why something happened to him?" he asks with a hint of worry as he and Thor followed the spy
"No but I know that Loki could try to manipulate him to get him become his other self."
"You mean the hulk?" Thor ask her
"Yes, we need to get to him." And soon arrived to the lab where Fury, Steve, Tony and Bruce could be heard arguing about something.
"I was wrong director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve told fury as they could see a weapon on one of the tables and a screen showed the image of a missile.
"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she replied
"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."
"Loki is manipulating you."
"And you've been doing what, exactly?"
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."
"Yes, and not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction." This last comment was towards Fury.
"Because of him." He said as he pointed at Thor
"Me?" Thor ask
"Last year, Earth got a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet."
"But you are not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled, and that's without counting him and his father and all the others monsters who are hiding in the world." Fury said pointing at Ian
"My father keeps the balance of the world, he wants nothing but to protect the Earth. And all the other monsters are sleeping they can't wake up unless someone does it."
"And you want to control them like you did with the cube? And you want to control Ian?" Steve said
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor said
"A higher form?" Steve asked
"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something" Fury said
"A nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms everything right now." Tony said
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark."
"I'm sure he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep…" Steve was saying
"Hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony said
I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve mocked him
"I thought humans were involved than this." Thor said
"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury told him
You treat your champions with such mistrust. Maybe I should take Ian with me to Asgard, there he would get treated as he should be instead of being consider as a threat." Thor spat on him
"Are you really that naïve? SHIELD monitors potential threats. And no one said that Ian would get hunted or treated like a thing." Natasha countered
"So now SHIELD keep children on threat watch?" Bruce mocked her
And so everyone was arguing against each other, insulting and mocking each other, everyone but one. Ian.
He was getting overwhelmed with how much hate everyone was talking to each other, people who he started to care deeply were fighting in front of him. A wave of anxiety and stress hit him, wondering how it came to this. He then felt something in the back of his mind, he turned to find the scepter glowing abnormally. He felt as something inside of it, something yelling inside that was causing all of this, which h taught was Loki's doing as it was his staff. So he gathered his courage and tried to calm the situation.
"Hey guys? Guys? Guys!?Please stop!" but it was in vain as they kept arguing which only helped to push him more over the edge, and he did something he hadn't done in a long time. He roared.
"SKREEEEEEEONGHK" this caused everyone to cover their ears, once he was done everyone looked at him.
"I'm sorry, but I had to. Look at you, this is what Loki wants, this is how he wins. All of us yelling and arguing. Please stop, I know you're better than this." All the room went silent as they looked down in shame for such demeanor. The silence was interrupted by a small beep coming from a computer.
"Got it" Tony said, while Bruce made his way to the computer
"You located the Tessearct?" Thor asked
"I can get there the fastest." Tony said
"The Tesseract belong on Asgard, not with humans." Thor told everyone
"You're not going alone." Steve stopped Tony
"You're gonna stop me?" Tony asks him
"Put on the suit, let's find out who lasts the longer." Steve challenge him
"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."
"Put on the suit."
"Oh my god." Bruce said as he saw that the screen showed that the Cube was in New York.
BOOM
That's all for this chapter folks. Sorry this one took so long to come out but I had to calm down after what happened after the last chapter of 'The kid of the Normandy', but don't worry I haven't forgotten this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, this is my gift for you for the New Year.
As usual, review the chapter all negative and positive feedback is welcome, just don't be rude.
So goodbye, I hope you have a good night and Happy New Year everyone, let's hope this 2020 is a good year for all of us. And I'll see you in the next chapter of 'The kid of the Normandy'.
Bye bye
