Chapter sixteen
Ready, aim, fire!
"So what's the plan…do we have a plan? Please tell me there is a plan!" Tony said, not really helping any.
"The first part is to throw you overboard," Loki said.
"That can come after we stop the world…or universe…from ending," Coulson said.
The man was not without humour, but had his priorities right. They started discussing tactics, what they were going to do while Loki and Darcy were in Asgard…or perhaps they should all go. Hmm.
"Maybe if Loki can get us to Asgard before those other ships go, we can warn them?" Darcy asked. "If they're doing anything to block their presence, it might be worthwhile…"
"Good idea, it might be worth doing that, though not all of us…and especially not this ship. Asgard will still be rather suspicious about unknown ships in their airspace. They will gun it down," Loki said.
"Is this where we choose straws to see who gets to go?" Tony asked.
"You can go, I would rather stay here…Alien airspace might not be so good for the other guy," Bruce said.
"What's left of our S.H.I.E.L.D. agents can stay here and monitor the situation, but some should go with you," Coulson said.
"I'm going!" Tony said. "I want to see what all the fuss is about."
In the end, all the Avengers but Bruce and Barton was on team going-to-Asgard, Tony's girlfriend was coming too and two of Coulson's agents as well, May and Fitz, as the latter wanted to see a new world. She couldn't blame him; Asgard was so beautiful and the others were awesome too. It's just a shame these guys had to see it under these circumstances, but hey, you take what you can get. She was so glad that she got to talk to Captain America, if only briefly, though she had noticed that Loki had stayed a little away when she talked to the Captain. He was either unwilling to be so close to a former enemy or he was…hmmm, Darcy wasn't entirely sure. Loki seemed himself any other time, especially with the planning. She decided to ignore it for the time being.
"Now, be prepared, this travel will be rather strange for those not used to it," Loki said.
Travelling in seconds was always a weird feeling, but it definitely got better with practice. She was so glad Loki had made it possible for their communication devices to still work out here, that they could contact those on Earth and vice versa. They landed in the Asgardian palace, more specifically, the audience chamber where Odin was currently speaking with the Warriors. All of a sudden there were guards with swords pointed at them.
"Your Majesty, some of them are friends of Thor, though I know not the rest of them...save Loki, of course," Fandral said.
"We all come in peace with a message!" Darcy called out, stepping forward with her hands up. "Please hear us out."
"You are alive?" Odin said to Loki, looking a little angry.
"You know, he reminds me of someone…" Tony commented.
"Don't even go there Stark! We're not talking to just anyone here; he's a King of another world and we don't know how powerful he is," Steve said, chiding the man with the dangerous sense of humour.
"You're no fun, old man. You should try lightening up once in a while," Tony said casually.
"I'll lighten up when the world isn't in danger," Steve said.
"Never, then," Tony said.
"Yes, I am. However, we have far more important matters. Ragnarök is quite likely upon us," Loki said, and he explained everything.
The old man apparently didn't need much convincing; something about his late wife (oh, if only he knew) having expressed worry that something awful was coming, something that would bring the realms together. Darcy was glad; the last thing they needed was a family dispute when the universe was collapsing in on itself.
She heard footsteps and turned to see Jane rushing into the room in Asgardian garb. It reminded her of the time she returned to Earth during the convergence.
"Has Thor returned?" Jane asked, before spotting her. "Darcy!"
Jane ran to her and Darcy accepted a hug from the astrophysicist. This was bizarre, considering Jane didn't seem to have a lot of love for her. Or at the very least she was a little bit annoying to the older woman. Yet, here so was, saying some stuff that she couldn't quite make out because Jane was talking too fast.
Darcy held her away at arms' length. "Okay, chill, yes, I'm alive! When Ian and I were poofed, I wasn't able to get back and, uh, bumped into this guy here," Darcy said, motioning towards Loki.
Jane stared at him. "I thought you were dead?!" Jane asked.
"Apparently not. I possessed something that brought me back to life," Loki said. "Now, we have more important business to attend to…" And so Loki explained again.
"Just one question, if you were with Loki, then were you in an alleyway a couple of days ago? Heimdall spotted you there and Thor went to get you," Jane said.
"Uh, no, I wasn't," Darcy said.
"Then…" Jane frowned.
"It is likely that he has been led into a trap, one even Heimdall could not see through," Loki said. "I know not what could have happened to him."
Loki seemed to have answered Jane's next question; poor Jane, Darcy knew she'd feel the same way if Loki was the one missing. She wasn't given much time to muse as a guard entered and warned them of an approaching ship.
"Heimdall is having a really bad year," Volstagg said to no one in particular.
She watched as Loki tried to gear up everyone who was a little less prepared for battle; magical enhancements to better defend them and weapons they may need. Darcy found herself equipped with a large medieval-y gun of some kind. A blaster? It was so cool. She knew that Loki would probably stick quite close to her, since he seemed to think she was incapable of defending herself…well, it was probably true, but a girl likes to know she can try. The doors blasted open and all hell had already broken loose, apparently.
The worst part was Thor was with the mixture of Hydra soldiers, blue people and other beings. Oh, shit. He didn't have Myeh-Myeh either. She watched Loki as he approached Thor, but the big guy threw a punch at Loki and sent him backwards. Loki quickly got up, though, and faced him again.
"Thor, what―" Odin started, and a few others had chimed in with some sort of reaction.
"Now we know where the sceptre went. Leave him to me, defend yourselves!" Loki said, starting to fight.
Everything happened so quickly; Captain America directed those with the most training to fight in the forefront while the ones without much experience flank from the back. Jane, Fitz and herself were left blasting from the back along with Pepper, who was probably not quite as adept with the suit she was in, but she was quite good considering. Odin seemed to be blasting people with his great spear. The walls were blown out and more Hydra agents swarmed in with the blue aliens. If it weren't such a dire situation, she would have found the blasting people backwards a lot funnier. More explosions and more damage. They could see a lot of the palace now, a lot of the walls had been destroyed and bit-by-bit, the palace was falling to pieces. The sky could be seen above, no more peaceful than the ground.
"Shit, what about the people?" Darcy asked, blasting another Hydra agent away.
"In the time you've been gone, Thor suggested that the defences not be focussed on the palace, but the town instead," Jane said. "I mean, it's only logical; the palace is where most of the army meets, so it's a lot more protected than the town."
"Thank God…it's almost too convenient, though," Darcy said, laughing.
"They originally had the defence thing over the palace, but if there's going to be an invasion, the town is what's going to suffer the most. Can't rule a Kingdom of corpses, after all," Jane said.
She could see Loki had the gauntlet out, but Thor was attacking him too much for him to get an attack in. Darcy blasted a spot near Thor's foot and he turned towards Darcy, meaning to move towards her instead. Loki used the distraction to summon a purple light around his hand and hit Thor in the head with it. Thor dropped to the ground and Loki moved onto another to fight. Not before giving her a smile, of course. Cheeky bastard.
Then another wave of enemies came in, surrounding what looked like a big bad. He was hooded, but she could just about see that he had a blue face with black around his eyes, a streak of the same inky black down his cheeks and it was around his mouth. He used his power to knock them back and she found herself unceremoniously on her butt. Even Loki was momentarily taken aback.
"You, son of Laufey, I know of you," the man said.
"Laufey?" Fandral called out, confused.
Huh. All that time and Odin never revealed Loki's heritage to the world? Weird. Darcy watched Loki get up and face the man who had halted all attacks. She knew that everyone was keeping on their guard, though. Agent May looked like she really wanted to punch someone while they didn't expect it. She was cool.
"I know not of you, though. Are you the leader?" Loki asked. "Or just a puppet?"
"You would know all about that, Laufeyson. I work with your old friend. He sends his blessings…I am sadly not allowed to kill you, he wants that pleasure himself," the man said.
His voice was horrible; Darcy could feel the shiver rolling down her spine. She could see Loki snarling at him, his teeth bared a little animalistically. She couldn't deny that it was a bit of a turn on. In fact, his whole way of fighting was just plain sexy…but that was beside the point. Darcy could also see something else in his eyes…fear, she thought. Inky was working for Loki's former 'ally' and that scared her. She wouldn't let him take Loki.
"He cannot see you, but he knows you travel with a companion…I will be sure to bring her, too," Inky said.
Darcy stayed calm. This was that moment in the movies where someone called out and it became clear who the person Loki cared about was. She wouldn't let that happen…not that he would be taking Loki. If Inky got hold of her, then it would be easier for them to take Loki. She prayed that everyone else would keep quiet too.
"Thanos is slipping if he sullies himself with such trivial tasks," Loki spat.
"You can say what you wish, it does not change a thing," Inky said.
"May we know your name or are we supposed to guess? Because I'd say Badger Blue," Tony called out.
Inky looked at him and all around them. "I am Ronan, of the Kree…and this is where you all die, humans, Asgardians and friends," he said.
She noticed that the Asgardians appeared to recognise the name and became even more determined to defeat him. Honestly, he didn't look like small fry. This was going to be difficult. He lifted his arm and raised a shining purple stone, and it pulsed around the room. Only, it didn't do what he wanted it to do, since they were still alive. She could feel Loki's magic shielding them. Or at least a mixture of Loki's magic and that fuckawesome gauntlet of doom he had. Loki's arm was raised and the lights were glittering.
"That is impossible," Ronan said. "This here is an Infinity Stone."
"A good copy, I give you that. However, it is not the real thing," Loki said with a smirk.
The attack that was likely to come from Ronan was interrupted by the near crashing of a relatively small ship, managing to stay well above their heads, but it was too close for comfort. Another, smaller, ship crashed into that one and made the space tighter. The door opened in the smallest ship…pod maybe? and a woman who was all blue with no hair dropped out.
The other ship opened its doors and five…people…dropped out. Talk about the very definition of a rag-tag bunch. A man in a long coat, a woman with green skin, a big guy with blue skin with red markings, a raccoon and a tree person. A raccoon with a gun!
"Where the heck are we?" The human-looking guy asked.
"You are on Asgard," Loki said.
"Who cares? Less chatter more splatter!" The raccoon said as he tried to blast Ronan.
The green woman looked between the groups. Darcy saw the red-headed agent have a quick conversation with the green woman and then all hell broke loose as the fighting seemed to unfreeze. Tony had decided to put a little music on as he attracted the attention of the bald blue woman and Darcy laughed. I'm blue by Eiffel 65 flooded the airwaves. Darcy blasted a Hydra agent back and watched as Loki and the racoon tried to fight Ronan together, except she could tell that they seemed to be butting heads. Darcy laughed, but squeaked as a bullet shot past her and she blasted that agent out of the way too.
Darcy was saved from another attack by the blue guy, who punched the enemy blue being out of the way and looked back at her.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, thanks! Who're you?" Darcy asked. "I'm guessing Inky…Ronan, pissed you guys off?"
"I am Drax…Ronan killed my whole family, so you could say I have a score to settle," he said.
"Man, I'm sorry, kick some ass! He deserves it," Darcy said. "Who're the other guys?"
"Peter Quill is the guy in the red coat, Gamora is the woman, Rocket the raccoon and Groot the tree fellow…" Drax said, punching another agent and Darcy sent a blast at a blue being.
"Get out of the way, I am trying to blast this guy all the way back to the womb!" Rocket yelled.
"Yes, and I am trying to kill him too, so perhaps you will quit the yelling and perhaps work together," Loki said. He ducked out of the way of the tree man's swipe, watching as he lifted Ronan up and taking his chance to blast the fake stone out of his hands.
"No matter, if it really is fake, I will just take the real one," Ronan said, getting himself easily out of the tree's arm and kicking him backwards.
"What?! FAKE?! The stone is fake? After all that trouble and it turns out to be FAKE?!" Rocket yelled. "That's it." He fired at Ronan some more and dodged out of the way of another of Ronan's attacks.
"Perhaps we should work together," Loki said, ducking another attack.
"Perhaps you should shut UP!" Rocket responded.
Loki managed to stick Ronan's feet to the ground with magic and Rocket let off another round. Loki didn't give him time to recover as he blasted him with the gauntlet, which did seem to do something.
The raccoon looked at him. "Not bad," he said.
"See? Team work," Loki said. The raccoon snorted.
"What, do you want a gold sticker now? Coz you ain't getting one," Rocket said, making Loki roll his eyes.
Darcy watched Odin shoot his ghostbuster spear thing and vaporise a whole load of them. Now why couldn't he do that to all of them―
Damn, looked like it was one of those "fire and reload" kind of weapons. How lame. Were these guys supposed to be Gods or what? Earth's ancestors were kind of stupid to worship them, they were not quite as powerful as the word "God" implied. With the exception of Loki, of course. When he did that thing with his mouth―
Darcy screeched as she was pounced on by Fitz, who got her out of the way of some enemy blast. Oh God, they were bringing people with blasters in. Would this never end? Oh wait, it was fucking Ragnarök…why couldn't it just be done already? Why was she not even that scared? She expected to be nearly shitting her pants right now…or Asgardian knickers. Whatever. She spotted Loki and he caught her eyes for a moment, giving her a smile.
That was why. Oh baby she had it bad.
She got up, helping Fitz up too. "Thanks," Darcy said.
"Not a problem, no one else is being taken away today!" Fitz said with gusto. Wow, she never realised how awesome Scottish accents were.
"We're going to get your friend back. Don't you worry," Darcy said.
She spotted Thor on the ground and led Fitz over to him. She looked over at Drax.
"Hey, Drax, think you can get Loki, guy in green, over here and cover for him?" Darcy asked.
He smiled at her. "With the chance to fight Ronan? I would pay you for that," Drax said, going over to Loki eagerly and sending him over.
"What?" Loki asked. "This is hardly the time―"
"Revive him, he should be okay now, right?" Darcy asked.
"I would think so…his mind should have rested by now," Loki said.
"I didn't think he had one," Darcy said cheekily before her hands flew to her mouth. "Sorry. I didn't actually mean that…it was in jest."
Loki laughed, looking so handsome right now. "Oh, Darcy Lewis, this is why I love you," Loki said.
Her eyes widened at the same time his did, both rather startled by the revelation. He coughed and straightened his face, looking back down at Thor. "Anyway," Loki said, gruffly.
Darcy's heart beat quickly in her chest and warmth spread. If that was true…no, Darcy, concentrate! Think about that later! She watched Loki use the Soul Gem to awaken Thor. The blond giant groaned and blinked up at them. He saw Loki and his eyes widened.
"Loki! But you were―" Thor said.
"I will explain later. Right now, the universe needs you," Loki said. "Ragnarök has really started and we must fight it."
Thor nodded, jumping up and reaching his hand out, probably to summon Myeh-Myeh. Loki went back into the fight, and Thor kicked away assailants as he waited for his hammer to come. Darcy and Fitz blasted people away as well and ducked as Myeh-Myeh flew into Thor's hand and he shot a whole load of lightning at people. It was awesome. Darcy was pretty sure she and Fitz were just stood there for what felt like ages watching the monster truck play demolition derby with Hydra agents and blue people alike.
She shook out of it and looked back at Jane, who seemed to have noticed that her lover was back, but was a bit too busy kicking ass. Well, with help from May. OUCH. Jane cracked that guy in the nuts and he was squealing like a pig. Bullseye.
"Darcy!" Fitz called out and they ducked and then rammed the big blue bully down and rolled away, before Fitz used some device on the being and it was stuck under some invisible net or something.
Darcy managed to catch Thor when he was free of attacks.
"Hey, big guy…do you remember anything?" Darcy asked.
"Darcy Lewis, 'tis quite dangerous here, you are very brave…I remember entering the alleyway looking for you and Loki's former sceptre…everything else is a blur," Thor said.
"Okay, so basically, we have a number of missing persons…including your friend Sif," Darcy said. "She's alive, Thor."
"What?!" Thor roared, sending a number of Hydra agents flying. One hit the wall in a rather horrible position. She grimaced.
"Yeah, those blue guys? They appeared on each planet and took a person, making it look like they were dead, but actually, they're out there alive," Darcy said, blasting someone out of the way.
"How do you know all this?" Thor asked.
"I…long story, basically when I disappeared and never came back, I ended up where Loki was when he presumably died and…came back alive. He kinda pulled me along on a big journey across the…realms, as you call them,…and he's not actually a bad guy, really, but that's not important now. We witnessed or heard of these deaths and later realised that they weren't actually dead. We think they were used as an instrument in all of this…" Darcy said.
"We need to find them," Thor said, looking around. "They might be in danger."
