(Pat Doyle: On Quinjet back to Helicarrier)
I kept my eyes trained on the Norse God, ready for any sign that he was about to make some sort of move. He was legendarily a trickster, like my namesake, so I wasn't going to be dumb enough to let him leave my sight for more than a second.
His handcuffs were tight enough that I could see them cut into his skin with enough force that I would assume he couldn't shapeshift without tearing the skin there, and they were made from something far tougher than the usual stuff that I would expect from human designs, must have been something that SHIELD created recently, or had kept in a vault somewhere till it was needed.
Spy organizations weren't to be fully trusted.
Of the entire group, I kept my hand on the scepter, since it was unlikely that Loki would be able to overpower me to get his hands on it. But I wasn't dumb enough to just hold it openly, instead, I threw it into a case.
An added layer of security.
Thanks to this incident, SHIELD had given me their files on Thor. Some of it I had guessed, like Mjölnir's 'Worthy' enchantment, others, like the Bifrost being a wormhole of sorts, I had not. Asgard was far more tech-focused in this universe, but still retained their exotic abilities that involved just manipulating reality to a certain extent, which Thor implied that they still called magic, or at least ancient humans called it magic.
So any slips from my side can be excused as slips of the tongue… which they would be.
"Hey, Stark, you mind turning off the tunes," The Black Widow spoke up, drawing my attention toward her. I still wasn't going to take my eye off Loki but my ears were perking up at every word that went out her mouth. "I like ACDC as much as the next girl, but the same song on repeat for twenty minutes will start to get on anyone's nerves."
I didn't bother to listen to Stark's reply to her, instead of turning a quick eye towards the woman and scanning with the variety of vision powers that I had at my disposal. I didn't need even a nanosecond before seeing…
… rather horrible things about her body… ok. Not doing that again, I didn't need to know what had been done… down… there. Like really, Jesus, even if this version of Black Widow ended up to be as big as a bitch as her ultimate counterpart, what her insides look like is unwarranted.
"Something wrong?" Black Widow spoke, smirking at me from the pilot seat of the SHIELD jet that we were using to carry Loki. "You've been staring at me for a minute now."
She seemed to be amused, I don't think she'd be if she'd known what I had just seen.
"No," I shook my head, turning my back to her, my eyes once more focusing on the Norse God in our midst. "I was just looking on ahead of us, making sure that the Grinch here didn't leave any surprises for us."
I heard the chortle from Rogers, and I didn't need superpowers to know that Stark was rolling his eyes.
"Really, the Grinch," Iron Man mocked. "What were you born in the 50s, Blue?"
"Some of us don't spend their time in a lab with nothing but a computer to bounce quips off."
That caused Stark to blink, it wasn't because I was any better at giving it out but rather it was probably more to do with my tone. It was much rougher, much harsher than anything that I would usually bring out.
I guess seeing what shit had been done to Black Widow put me into a bad mood. What was even the point of that? Stop the agent from having a child? Make sure they can't-
"CHCHCHHHH!"
The crack rang out through the quinjet, I could even feel the metal of the case start to crumble in my fingers. Looking down, I found that I had crushed the handle of the scepter's case in a way that I could cut a man's throat with it if I wanted.
While looking at this, and ignoring the expressions that everyone was giving me, my ears picked up a storm coming onto us… one that I hadn't heard nor seen coming till it appeared right on top of us.
Black Widow made some sort of comment about it, while Rogers and Stark continued to talk amongst themselves. I didn't give them much concern or attention, I was worried about far more important things.
"What's the matter? Afraid of a little lightning?" Roger asked as he noticed Loki flinch.
"I'm not overly fond of what follows."
Instantly I rose from my seat, Stark's repulsors whined in response to my sudden movement, even asking what was wrong… then, before I could answer, it happened in an instant, and timed with a flash of lightning, the door to the jet opened suddenly, someone forcing it from the outside.
That someone being a very familiar man in a red cape and a small hammer. He reached for Loki and before I could let out a real thought, I did what came naturally and attempted to jump at him, throwing the scepter in the Captain's enhanced hands as I did so.
But… this didn't end as well as I liked. It was as if I had telegraphed my attack as Thor just stepped back and let me jump out of the jet. He and Loki followed soon after but actually heading downward, unlike me, who stayed airborne.
I shifted myself around and made to rocket after the brothers but once more Thor showed me up. As I got to them within a second, so did Mjölnir hit me in the face and knock me away. Hardly the worst blow that I had ever felt in my life, I barely even felt it but given my current durability, that might've meant more than I thought.
Before I could attempt to go after him again, he raised his hammer into the air… and struck me with a bolt of lighting.
That hurt more than a little.
I didn't quite get knocked out by this, but I did drop to the ground in a rather rough crash, my body nearly getting buried underground from the force that I hit the damn thing with. I noticed that my hoodie was ruined, the single-cut it had gotten from Loki was the least of my concerns compared to the fact it was on fire. I blew on it, but that sort of turned it to dust.
"Not sure that should work like that?" I thought as I looked upon my now topless form. It was time to shift to a different style of suit, the whole Smallville coat get-up wasn't working out for me.
Even with the storm raging above in the sky, my ears were managing to pick up the conversation between the two as clear as if I was standing next to them. Thank Rao for giving Kryptonian nonsense senses.
"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor nearly screamed. I could hear his rage clearly, it coincided with the roar of thunder above us. This man was worthy of his title at least, God of Thunder.
"I've missed you too," Loki practically giggled, the maniac in a manner closer to the Joker than anything else I've ever heard from a real person. This version of the god appeared to be skirting to the edge.
"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?!"
I picked myself up after this was said, making my way towards them while I let the two reveal details to me that I hadn't been aware of from SHEILD's files. I wasn't sure that the whole Dark Matter part made much sense from my understanding of science. Does Dark Energy allow for either teleportation or wormhole generation? Maybe, I really only know that the damn thing exists.
Better get on fixing that, given I can read a whole book in a few seconds now it wouldn't be much of my time spent.
Then the two talked a bit about Loki being adopted and how that drama has affected them. Seems like the young Odinson has gone through a bit of a psychotic break from the knowledge that he wasn't the same species as the rest of Asgard.
Then I heard this line;
"I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness," Loki started to rant, his voice wavering in places, I could hear how he was being overcome with multiple conflicting emotions. Rage, sorrow, even the odd sprinkle of glee. "I remember you tossing me into an abyss when I was and should be king!"
"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights," Thor replied coldly. "No, the Earth is under my protection, Loki."
I decided to make my presence known now, I leaped up to the cliff that the two were speaking on, my feet hitting the ground softly. While Thor summoned his hammer, Loki simply smirked in that annoying way that only assholes could manage.
"Yeah, great job protecting there," I interceded. "I think you just missed killing a few people by a few inches. Next time how about giving us a call and not shooting us with lighting, it's bad form.."
Thor growled at me, sparks jumping around his hammer as he waved it at me.
"This has nothing to do with your kind, Kryptonian," he warned. "Go back to your own home."
"Bit insensitive, Thor," Loki couldn't help but laugh much to his brother's ever-increasing fury.
I blinked, then laughed.
"Please," I rebuked Thor, placing my hands into my pockets. Thor wasn't going to attack me outright if I didn't make the first move, at least while he thought he was the one with his brother in custody. "I've been living on Earth my whole life, it's more my home than yours. I actually work for the people here, you're a foreign prince, don't dictate to me what's my business."
That came out a little more heated than I intended. So much so when Thor took a step forward I couldn't help but raise my fists in a defensive stance, I let the heat start to rise to my eyes, ready to fire at a moment's notice.
"Now listen here-" Thor let out… only to be cut off as Iron Man slammed into him and took off into the forest below.
"I'm listening," Loki spoke innocently, smirking down on the site of the two grabbling with each other in the air and wrecking through trees.
"Hasn't anyone heard of talking before?" I asked, exasperated at the universe around me. I really hope that I wasn't stuck in one of those old superhero team-up comics, where the heroes fight with each other when they first meet each other.
I looked down at the two fighting heroes, then back to Loki.
"I won-" As he spoke, I blew… freezing his feet to the spot, much to the God's displeasure. "-t move… " Loki looked down and gave me a rather unamused expression. "... that's cold."
I ignored him for now, instead, I leaped down between the two. Thor had thrown a bolt of lighting at Stark, something I didn't let happen, positioning myself between the two and literally slapping the bolt off into the sky.
The two descended into silence, Stark was the first to break it, of course.
"Did you know you could do that?"
"..."
I didn't answer that question, not because I was embarrassed or anything but because Thor flew at me with Mjölnir nearly taking off my head as I was forced to dodge backward. I kicked out, hitting the God in the stomach and throwing him back into the forests, breaking several trees.
It didn't take more than a second before Thor was out again, his weapon flung out ahead of me. This was when I decided to up my game, I rushed forward and slid under the majestic instrument and grabbed hold of it.
Now, see there were two thoughts I had when I pondered grabbing the damn thing. The first was that while I had been told by SHIELD that his hammer had the whole "Worthy" thing here… it's just that I was basically Superman. And he was worthy, and I was obviously doing a good job of living up this example.
The second being, perhaps it was a limited time thing in this universe, I mean I don't think attacking innocent people is all that worthy?
But the hammer thought differently.
Apparently.
And I was instead taken on a ride with Mjölnir, flying across the sky and whacking Stark, our two bodies colliding together like I was the ball and him the pin. I heard him groan beneath me, and I could tell that he was about to be snarky.
So I rolled off him, my right hand still holding Mjölnir and trying to leap back up to my feet. I had thought it was just the momentum that stopped me from using the hammer… but as I fell back to my ass, I found out differently.
"You may be mighty," Thor spoke, stepping out of the forest, his good arm raised. "But that doesn't make you worthy."
Even as he summoned Mjölnir I kept my grip on it, letting it carry me towards the God of Thunder with a speed… actually slower than I was capable. But still, he was smiling, not expecting my next move.
A MIGHTY HEADBUTT!
At the same moment, I let go of the hammer, letting Thor fall to the ground with a meaty thump.
"Ha!" I went, smiling down. "No one expects a head butt."
"And I thought I had a hard head," Thor groaned from the ground. He went to reach for his hammer, he had dropped it to the ground after being headbutted, but had already caught his outstretched hand.
I pulled him to his feet, holding his wrist hand enough that I was sure to be hurting him.
"Now," I spoke out, gritting my teeth at him. "Are we done here?"
I had expected for him to struggle but eventually give in, I had expected this to be the end of the fight. But instead, Thor smirked.
"Yes, I think we are."
This time Mjölnir came for my hand, smacking it and letting Thor break from my grip. He slapped me across the face with the hammer, sending me stumbling back in shock. Then Thor leaped into the air, gathering lighting around his form as he did, and brought that hammer down right for my head.
But as fast as he was, I was much faster and moved far out of the way of his attack. Now back out of the forest to where Stark was now getting back to his feet. Sadly, not everyone got the memo about my dodging speed, Thor's hammer now headed for the shield of Captain America.
No doubt, he thought I had been in trouble and rushed in to take the blow.
I wasn't sure how well it would hold up to Mjölnir so I tried to rush in to save the man but was too late as the two famous items slammed into one another and created a shock wave so powerful that it uprooted trees from the ground.
Leaving the four of us staring in silence till the bravest of us spoke.
"So… are we done here."
Coming from me that had been a question, coming from Cap that sounded like a demand.
(Loki)
He entered the cell, the prison built for another with a rough smirk on his face. He wanted all of them to know how amusing he found the whole situation, leaving all the humans, his brother, and even the Kryptonian, with a sense of unease.
It was all too easy at times.
He listened to Director Fury with half-hearted attention, only really gaining the gist of what he was saying when he gestured to the controls for the cage, showcasing how it could be dropped out of the Helicarrier.
"As if a simple fall like that would be an issue for one that survived the Void."
"An excellent cage," Loki said, turning to face Director Fury for the first time since he had been brought to the Helicarrier. "Not built, I think, for me."
"It's built for something much stronger than you."
Loki intentionally looked into the camera, knowing from his connection to the Scepter that the monster playing at being a man would be watching this as they spoke.
"The mindless beast makes play he's still a man," Just as you once did, his mind supplied cruelly. "How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"
"How desperate am I?" Fury replied, his glare rivaling Odin, and not because they both had the single eye only. "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."
But Loki saw something else in there, it was more than just threatening his world.
"Oh, it burns you," The Jotun turned Aesir grinned savagely. "It burns you to 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."
Loki knew he had him there, if this had been the All-Father there would be yells of fury at the accusation, but the Director was of calmer stuff than Odin. Fury just smiled with an expression that rivaled Loki's own.
"Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something."
Fury walked off, leaving the Norse God in the cage made for another. Loki looked back up to the camera and smiled once more.
"Oh, I'll not need a magazine with the entertainment that you've provided me."
(Bobbi Morse)
"I have to wonder if you're losing shirts on purpose?" she asked him as he stepped into the Helicarrier control room. He was, as always, without a blemish on his skin; impressive given the reports of Loki drawing blood and of Thor smacking him around and blasting him with lightning but the lack of any top was becoming such a common occurrence that she couldn't help but comment.
"Hey, when you got it, flaunt it." he winked, making a joke of the question before grabbing the SHIELD Issue jacket that she'd been told to bring.
Doyle had been the first to enter the room, with Rogers following soon behind him… it was then that Morse saw the blond Norse God walking in. He was wearing a similar outfit to the reports, minus the chainmail on the arms but his cape seemed to have been folded away somewhere, the only sign of their existence being the parts peaking over his shoulders. The Gamma scientists were back in their labs, studying the newly arrived Scepter.
"Kryptonian, I would have a word with you." The Prince calmly ordered, but no matter the calm manner that he spoke Doyle still bristled at the command.
Morse took a few steps back but was still close enough to overhear the two aliens speak with each other.
"You have done well in defending this world but your services are no longer needed," Thor said this as if he was trying to take a great weight from the other man's shoulders. "Return to your home, Earth is under Asgardian protection."
"..." Doyle blinked as if he was confused by being told to go home. The reason for his confusion wasn't a mystery for long because the reporter glared at him with enough intensity that she'd felt the need to grab an extinguisher. "You really are an ejit."
"Mind your words-"
"There is no return," The revealed Kryptonian interrupted the Prince with a wave of his hand a sharp whisper. "Krypton's been destroyed for many years now, due to space travel I'm unsure how long but at least twenty two years. So stop telling me to go home, I am home."
That was rather alarming information to learn, especially given the abilities that Doyle's displayed over his stay on Earth. The homeworld of a species as powerful as this man? Maybe even more so… it was a humbling thought to the human chance of survival.
It also made Thor's comment about returning home rather ignorant.
Thor's mouth held agape but before he could say anything else Doyle stepped away from him and joined Hill, and Romanoff up by the center of the command center. Morse followed after, ignoring the rather shell-shocked expression that passed over Thor's face.
She didn't know him very well, so Morse didn't want to intercede where she might not be wanted. They then started to watch Loki and Fury speak to each other,
"Loki's going to drag this out," Rogers spoke, his voice drawing Thor's attention back to the matter at hand and not at his rather sizable faux pas. "So Thor, what's his play?"
"He has an army called the Chitauri," As Thor spoke, Morse noticed Doyle's head snap to attention. The man knew something. "They're not of Asgard or any world known-"
"They're an off-shoot of Skrulls actually," Doyle interceded. "From what I can recall they've heavily cyberized themselves to the point that I'm not sure if they've kept the natural Skrull abilities like shapeshifting."
Thor glared at the other man sharply, as if the knowledge itself was suspicious.
"I'm not aware that they're any such off-shoots," He placed a hand on the table, slowly tapping his fingers across the surface. "How did you come across this information?"
Doyle sat down on one of the chairs, placed his feet on the table with a casualness that Morse would've expected out of Stark.
"Seems someone is working with out of date information… which is a surprise… because between the two of us, I would've guessed that it would've been me. Given my people were the isolationists, not yours," Doyle shifted positions, from gloating to confused mid-sentence. "How did you not notice the centuries of evolutionary drift like that?"
"The affairs of the Skrulls were not the concern of Asgard," Thor responded, it was a calm response, much to her surprise given his actions so far. "But this knowledge is useful, perhaps we can find out how Loki came upon his army now."
"So… his plan is to conquer Earth with the army from space?" Morse piped in. "What does he need with the Tesseract then?"
"I suspect that he'll use it to trade for Earth."
Banner walked in, a pad in his hand, and sat down in a chair next to Thor's current position.
"So he's building another portal," he supplied, sitting down as he did so. There was a calmness to Dr. Banner that Morse wouldn't have expected from someone famous for his temper, especially given his experiences with government military organizations. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."
"Selvig?" Thor's eyes brightened, excitement particularly radiating from his body.
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend,"
Romanoff interred into the conversation after a few minutes of being silent.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell," There was a momentary lapse of control from the woman, her hands noticeably clenched for just a second. Morse wondered if she was the only one to catch the action. "Along with one of ours."
"What I want to know is why Loki let us catch him?" Rogers piped back in, bringing the group back onto the task directly at hand. "He's not leading an army from here."
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Banner pointed his finger to the side of his forehead, spinning it around. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."
"Have a care how you speak," Thor warned the doctor, waggling his index finger at the man while standing to his right. "Loki's mind may be far afield, but he's of Asgard and my brother."
Morse noticed that the statement caught a look of approval from Doyle, the man seemingly impressed by the Prince standing by his familial relation regardless of what he had done. Especially if the man would stop his brother but then Romanoff opened her mouth;
"He's killed eighty people in six days."
"He's... adopted."
Doyle scoffed, leaning back on his chair with cold indifference. It seemed that respect that he was about to have given the Norse God wasn't there anymore.
"I didn't realize that the Avengers would have two prima donnas," Morse pondered.
"Of course that's the reason you're different," Doyle grumbled under his breath. Thankfully for the survival of the people in the room Thor didn't seem to catch anything he was saying. "Or maybe you've just not been thrown into the vacuum of space enough for the bolts to loosen your head till you end up as far afield."
"Why Iridium? What's it for? Banner spoke, his voice easily helping to mask Doyle's.
"It's a stabilizing element."
"It's a stabilizing element."
Doyle's voice mixed with Stark's as the man entered the room with Coulson by his side.
"I'll fly you there, keep the love alive," Stark said to Coulson, Morse wasn't aware that he was close enough to Stark that he'd discuss his love life before the armored hero addressed Doyle with an impressed stare. "I didn't know that your non-existent reporting degree was paired with a minor in thermonuclear astrophysics?"
"It wasn't," Doyle rolled his eyes. "I read about it on the way over here, we were given Selvig's notes and the Extraction Theory papers," Given that she hadn't seen him read those on his first trip here, and she wasn't with him when he left the last time, Morse was sure that the man had managed to read all about it from the time spent getting to Germany and back. "The science is easy enough to understand. When did you become an expert?"
So not only was he able to move fast, but read fast as well. Scary to think about.
"Last night, I did the same," Stark replied, easily shifting around till he was standing by Fury's spot near the center of the room. There was a gleam of respect for the reporter in his eye, Morse supposed discovering that the alien was smart would appeal to Stark. "Of course, ET would understand pity Earthling science. What about the rest of you goobers? No one else do the reading?"
"Besides Iridium is there anything else that he needs to create his portal?" Rogers ignored the other man's jest. The man was all business at the moment, but Morse wasn't sure how long the man would last before he would verbally confront Iron Man over his attitude.
Stark looked to Doyle, who shrugged, waving him to continue on.
"Not much," Iron Man said, turning around in his spot as if he was confused by something. "The rest of the stuff they can get pretty easy… minus a power source. It needs to be high energy density, something to kick start the cube."
"Does it need to be any particular kind of power?"
This time it was Banner that piped in, leaning forward.
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."
"Unless," Stark interceded with a charming smile. "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."
"Well, if he does that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."
"Finally," The Billionaire threw up his hands. "Why is it only the two of us here that speaks English?"
"That's English?" Rogers asked but he was ignored.
"You don't count," Stark proclaimed, pointing at the reporter in question with a smirk. "You're a super-advanced alien… Thanks for the heads up on that, by the way, I thought we had something special."
"That's just what I say to all the girls, Stark," The reporter rolled his eyes, leaning back into his chair.
"It's good to finally meet you, Dr. Banner," Stark held out a hand, Banner shook it with no small amount of hesitancy. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way that you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
Despite the odd segway, Banner took it in his stride.
"Oh, I don't do the second anymore and I hope to get back to working on more of the first in the future."
Stark blinked, tilting his head. It was like he was disappointed that the tale of Banner curing himself of the Hulk appearing to be true. It was certainly something she was glad of at the moment, given the heightened tensions between Thor and Doyle.
The last thing they needed was three guys rampaging in the Helicarrier.
There was a whoosh as the door opened again, Director Fury walking in with the full nonchalance that she expected from the man.
"Banner is only here to track the Cube, I was hoping that you would join Miss Ross and him."
"How about we start talking about that stick of his," Rogers stood back to his feet and hands on the desk, Captain America stuck an inspiring image of a leader on top of things. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"HYDRA had mind control weapons?" Doyle asked, his hand raised as if he was at school Rogers froze for a second before turning his eyes to Fury, who shook his head. "That's terrifying."
"Well… no, but the blasts he shoots out are similar to the weapons that HYDRA used."
"So… blue?"
"..."
"..."
"Yeah, they're both blue."
"So Cap's not the leader anymore," Doyle turned to the rest of the room, his hands together. "So I'm voting for Banner as our leader."
Banner glanced around the room as if he was worried that other people were going to agree with Doyle.
"Why not vote for yourself?" Romanoff, for some reason beyond Morse's understanding, played along. Even leaning forward, the blond SHIELD Agent guessed she was starting a game with him, get him over whatever obvious dislike the man had.
"You can't vote for yourself, that's against the rules."
"If we may stay on the topic at hand, children" Fury stepped in, not wanting to waste any more time. "It's very least a similar power source to the weapons HYDRA once used, so Rogers isn't wrong to assume they're connected."
"Sorry to waste time I guess." The reporter shrugged, pulling his arms in towards him till they were under his armpits.
(Steve Rogers)
The sun had set when Steve finally decided to spark up a conversation with Doyle. Not having much else to do while they waited for the Doctors' search program to find the location of the Tesseract.
"So… alien?"
"Yup," Doyle smiled in response. It was the same kind of awkward expression that Steve himself would wear whenever he was asked about something uncomfortable. "Born and bred on a completely different planet."
"You don't really sound like one."
"Well, lots of planets have a North," he responded under his breath before quickly moving past that bit of snark to an actual answer to Steve's un-aired question. "I grew up in Ireland, moved on to America recently, had to see the world for meself."
"Ah," The super soldier nodded. "Maybe that is something that I should do?" he thought, "Staying in New York, it's like looking at everything through a funhouse mirror. Too different, but painfully familiar."
"Any reason you choose Earth in particular?" Steve asked, suddenly trying to get his mind away from the depressing time period he'd found himself in. That question got a dry almost blank laugh from the younger man.
"Look at me," Doyle threw his arms out, nearly hitting a technician that walked by, as if he was presenting something obvious. "Can't even tell I was alien till it was pointed out to you. Humans even share similar emotional needs to Kryptonians, it's as if God himself decided to make a backup. Where else would I be sent?"
"God?" Steve asked, picking out that part while slightly amused but also hoping to keep the conversation light. "You don't have some special god that your people worship?"
"I'm Irish, despite the whole Kryptonian thing," Doyle replied, equally. "So… that automatically makes me Catholic."
Steve chortled slightly at that, a bit of trivia popping up from his head.
"I've never been to Ireland," The blonde stated, leaning on a railing nearby. "Never had a reason to during the war. In fact, never had a reason at all."
"Only if you like endless rain and too many potato products," Doyle frowned. "I'm weirdly annoyed that that stereotype is true. Like, I ate mashed potatoes for dinner every weekday for about six years, can't stand it anymore," A bright smile suddenly overtook his face. "What I miss, is me Dad's stew, ain't nobody makes a stew like he could."
"That right," Steve smiled, "Maybe I could try it sometime."
"..." Awkwardly Doyle glanced away before muttering lowly. "Hard to have a dead man make a stew dude."
That seemed to end the conversation there.
(Loki)
"Thor," Loki greeted, gleeful at his brother Thor's rather heated glare. "I'd offer you a drink, but I'm afraid that the accommodations are sparse."
The thunder god took a rather deep breath, his chest expanding before he let it all out in a rather audible display. It appeared that Thor hadn't brought Mjlnor with him, which surprised the trickster God, as it was usually close by.
"Brother," Thor stated, his tone the calmest that he'd heard from the blonde since the Frost Giants broke into the Vault and ruined the man's coronation day. Thor waited for a second, crossing his arms before he decided to continue to speak; "Where did you meet with the Chitauri?"
Loki's smile became strained, his body tensing up as if he was suddenly stuck between two planes of glass. Usually, the trouble with Loki was getting him to stop talking but that wasn't the case here...
Right now? Loki wished that his mouth was stitched together.
"... You could say that I ran into them," Loki eventually revealed with a click of his teeth. "Rather painfully after being thrown into the void."
Thor blinked, his arms across to hang loosely by his side. It was an odd reaction to see as if the blond god was only just learning this fact. Loki growled lowly, enraged at his brother Thor acting dumb.
But that only lasted a second before Thor regained his usual glare.
"Enough of your lies, brother," He snarled, his teeth grinding so visibly that Loki would've been taken back if it was so amusing to upset his brother. "Tell me who's given this army to you, who sent you on this fool's errand."
"A fool's errand?" Loki couldn't help but chuckle. "There's been worse errands that we've been sent on over the years, Thor. Do I need to remind you of that dragon terrorizing Nidavellir?"
"Yes… that was a dangerous but odd situation," Thor admitted, scratching his chin before shaking his head. "But this is far worse, we're not talking about a deadly creature here, we're not even talking about something we can tell when it will be dangerous. We're talking about messing with something that neither of us truly can grasp."
The Tesseract could be a fickle thing, capable of as much harm as good to any society that tried to harness its vast power. Some never recovered from that mistake, it was why the All-Father had tried to keep it hidden on Midgard.
Not that the humans seemed to understand the hidden part, using its power and practically broadcasting its presence across the cosmos. Loki supposed that was the issue in letting a species with such short lives hide it for you.
They tend to forget in a few centuries why they have such an item.
"Thor… " Loki spoke, before trailing off for a moment, stopping himself from revealing more than he had planned. The Trickster just couldn't wait to gloat, to rub his victory into Thor's face. "You've no idea what I grasp now."
(Bruce Banner)
"So how's studying the scepter going?" Doyle asked, coming into the room with his hands in his pockets. If there was a picture of nonchalance in the dictionary, Bruce would say it would be one of Doyle. "Not feeling anything odd?"
That got Stark's attention faster than even Betty could even start to ask what he meant by that, who seemed to have absorbed some of that psychobabble from her ex-fiance. So at times, she would go off about psychological diagnostic techniques for describing one's feelings.
Bruce was glad not to hear it.
"Should we be, Zapp?"
The nonchalance that Doyle had shattered in an instant, replaced by a sharp sneer that was covered by a roll of eyes that became a much more neutral expression. Stark didn't seem to have caught, but Bruce knew more than most about suppressed anger.
"Given what we've seen," he said, slowly walking around the table that they had set the scepter on to study, peering at it with a glare that could melt steel. "This thing can literally change a man from a stalwart defender to a deadly schemer. And Loki's locked up, he can't directly be controlling anyone according to Thor. So all those mind-controlled agents are self-directed. Brainwashed and not really Mind-controlled. That's some big mind mojo, we've got to keep on guard for it."
"Everything that we've observed so far from Loki and the scepter-" Betty cut in her, her hair done up in a pony rather than her typical style. "-seems to indicate that he needs a physical contract to brainwash someone."
"And you need wings to fly," Doyle argued. "We could be dealing with some kind of virus situation, where direct contact just speeds up the infection rate. We don't know yet, is all I'm saying."
"Fair enough," Betty shrugged.
Bruce had stayed quiet for the last while, hoping that Stark would lose interest in trying to figure out how to induce a 'Hulk' experience in him for at least as long as Doyle was in the room. While the man could appreciate what Stark was trying to say, that the Hulk could be used as a positive force, much like the Arc Reactor that the man still had stuck in his chest, but the Hulk was too wild to be controlled in high stakes situations.
Better for him to never transform again.
That was when Bruce noticed something about the data he was getting.
"I'm going to go out a limb here and say that there's something to your idea, Doyle," he spoke up excitedly. "Not entirely correct, mind you, you've watched too much TV but as an analogy, it worked decently."
"Bruce…" Betty glanced over at him, peering at him from above her glasses with an amused expression. "...we're not psychic. You have to tell us what you've found."
"Sorry," he chuckled, turning that display he was looking at around so that the other three could see what he had. "See, like the Tesseract the scepter gives off Gamma radiation, just sending it out at such a low level that the carrier's alert system for this stuff isn't worried. But when I cross-referenced that to the scans that the carrier takes around people themselves.
"I'm more green than ever before," Doyle turned to Stark. "Do you think that I could become the Green Mascot, or do I need to actually get painted first?"
"Don't bother with paint, we can do that in post," Stark played along with him. before stroking his chin. "Yeah, do you think it gave us a little injection of Gamma, to loosen us up and get the mind manipulation going?"
"It's a theory," Betty shrugged. "But to be honest here, we're dealing with an entirely new field of science. Any assumptions we're making here could come back to bite us."
"What do you recommend?" Doyle asked while Stark leaned closer to the display.
"We have to bring in some more people, more varied scientists of different fields," Betty started to explain. "And from there we should have-"
"Wait a second," Stark interrupted her while a large grin spread across his face. "I'm not getting any of that Gamma."
Both Betty and Bruce quickly turned back to the data, seeing exactly what the readings were saying about Stark.
"Doyle is picking up much more of it than us," Betty glanced over to the man in question. "You should've warned us that you'd soak up radiation like this?"
"Didn't know that myself," he responded smoothly. "I don't typically throw myself into nuclear reactors."
"Good policy."
"Still, it's not normal for my people either," he admitted with a squint of his eyes, which was odd to Bruce. The man beyond the physical bounds of mortal people but you'd think he'd need glasses with the amount of squinting he was doing at the moment. "I can't recall anything of my biology that explains this reaction to Gamma Radiation, should've probs set up a doctor's appointment."
"With who?" Bruce asked, curious at who in the world could treat his alien biology. Something that concerned him as he pondered. While seemingly invincible to common weaponry, and Norse God's hammers and lightning, it was likely that the same couldn't be said for diseases.
Unless his people's immune system was so adaptive that Earth's diseases and viruses couldn't overcome it, no matter how foreign it was to the body.
"... why is Stark not getting Gamma-fied?" Doyle deflected, given the stakes on hand with the Tesseract and an alien army, Bruce would let him. Suddenly, the reporter twitched, he turned his head down to the left, as if he was glancing at someone several floors below them.
"It seems to be an unintended side-effect of having an Arc Reactor attached to my chest, if these readings are right," Stark mumbled. "My head seems to still get all those deadly juices," he pointed at the part of the display that his head was at with a finger. "I'm not sure how this works, it's nonsensical! The Reactor shouldn't give me protection from Radiation at all."
Doyle suddenly turned around, walked over to the display that Stark had been working on by himself, and then turned back to face the man with a raised brow. Bruce could tell from just that glance alone, that the conversation was about to change topics.
"Really man, really?" he groaned. "You couldn't have waited for me to whisper this stuff to you?"
"You knew?" Stark replied, calmly, shoving his own hands into his pockets. "This is some pretty dangerous stuff that SHIELD is messing with, even just their benign stuff, like power generation, blew up in their faces," he rolled his eyes, moving the display away from the reporter. "Never mind making weapons using the Tesseract."
That caught both Betty's and Bruce's attention hard, and the attention of Rogers as he entered the room.
"What?" Captain America exclaimed, strutting over to see the same information that both Betty and Bruce now glanced at. "I can't believe it? He told me that it wasn't going to used for this! Why would they be bothering with this, it didn't exactly work out for Hydra. We still kicked their ass."
"Maybe they watched too much Star Wars?" Doyle snarked. "Thought that once we've got those laser weapons, the world will be safe. Not that it would work like that, given beings like me and Thor exist out there. These wouldn't work any better on me than a 9mm round."
"I'm going to need to check this out myself," Rogers ignored the joke, not that he understood the reference behind it, Bruce supposed. The Captain's eyes glared at the screen. "I didn't fight a war to turn around and find that we've become Hydra."
Before Roger could take a step out of the door, a phone rang.
The ringtone? "I can see clearly now, the rain has gone…"
"Sorry," Doyle grimaced, taking his phone out of his pants pocket. "But this could be important," he held to his ear, keeping his eyes on Stark with a glare. "No eavesdropping Stark," The reporter warned.
"Yo, Double D," He spoke into the phone, his tone light with just a hint of annoyance seeping through. "What do you got for me?" There was a pause from Doyle while the person on the other end of the call spoke to him. "Really? That's where she is? How did you manage to catch her?"
"You found her at a mall… buying clothes?"
"Yes, I know that people need clothes, man! I'm just surprised that she was out in the open like that. Was she in disguise?"
"What do you mean I'm not funny? It's not a joke, I wasn't even really asking you, just asking it openly."
"No you're not on loudspeaker-" Doyle stopped for a second. "Look let's get back on the matter at hand, find where she's staying at, then call me, I'll get SHIELD after her, I'm a bit busy handling a Norse God and his massive scepter."
"No… it wasn't an innuendo."
With that Doyle hung up on the man. Bruce, who was one of the many people in the room staring at him, decided to speak up first.
"Is there a problem?" Bruce didn't really want any more issues coming to light, first, it was the Tesseract being under the control of a mad man, then it was learning that SHIELD decided to try and copy Nazi's and make weapons out of the damn thing.
He really hoped that call wasn't someone informing Doyle that the Tesseract cracked open to reveal it had been an egg for a Lovecraftian beast this whole time.
"Nothing that we should immediately worry about," Doyle explained calmly while sending a rough smirk towards Stark. "I've just won a little bet that I made with Stark over there."
Stark chuckled, with a small smile on his face, apparently taking that with good humor.
"So… you finally found out where Doc Ock has been hiding?"
Author's Note1: Now, I'm hoping that was a decent showcase of Thor vs Blue with neither really trying their hardest. Also starting to plant part of the future conflict, as well as conflicts that will show up within this arc.
Don't have a lot to say this time, so like comment, review or whatever you kids do these days.
Author's Note2: Hello! And I'm back with another chapter. This is where I think the events of the Avengers really will start shifting away from the canon events of the films.
I don't have a lot to say right now... I'll only point out that he got away with it here.
You guessed... that man didn't get caught playing Galaga. Now his nefarious plans will continue unheeded till it's too late and his army descends upon Earth, the man only needs to be the world champion at Galaga.
Author's Note3: Hello, long time no see again... so sorry about that. I've been struggling lately to write, mostly because I've been busy over the last few weeks and it can be hard to find time for this more thought-out story. Compared to something that is more offhand, like my snippets thread.
This chapter isn't like the last few, where there'd been a lot of copy from the movie. Neither will the next chapter. Which is set during this time period exactly, so it's a meanwhile chapter. Mostly this is because I want to actually get chapters out again.
And this way I should have it out by next week or so. Then it's fine since I plan on having another the week after that. So it shouldn't be a long wait. Next chapter we're getting a more... feminine point of view...
Author's Note3: The above three notes are from the original version of the chapters that I've combined. On Spacebattles, I was struggling to get anything done from week to week so I started writing chapters with half or about the word count of the previous 6k minimum I had been working with before.
That may mess with the pacing here but I'd rather keep the word count up and not have sudden dips in word count.
On the concern of overconfidence of the main character that some have mentioned? How he's gone downright arrogant about himself as this chapter proves.
