Summoning her magic, Loki crashed into the first line of Hydra soldiers before they even had time to raise their weapons. Six of them went down with daggers in their throats; a seventh had his head smashed in against a tank. That was when the shouting started.
Loki grinned. Showtime. She spread her wings and shot up above the chaos.
"Foolish mortals! Your choices have brought the wrath of the gods down upon you! Walk away now or be destroyed."
Someone shot that blue energy at her. It bounced harmlessly off her shields, which rippled into visibility for just a moment. Loki quietly winced. They wouldn't know, but her shields wouldn't take many more hits like that before breaking. Time to speed this up.
"So be it; you have chosen your fate." Her eyes started to glow green as she summoned her magic around her. "Die."
A dozen Lokis shot off in different directions. The real one hurtled towards the ground, shoulder slamming into a tank and knocking it over. Blades flashing, she cut a path of destruction through the Hydra forces, vaulted onto another tank. A decent shove turned the barrel to hit another tank, which exploded in a flash of blue energy. She then snatched a flying grenade out of the air, wrenched the port of the tank she was standing on open, and smiled. "Be a dear and hold this for me, won't you?" She dropped the grenade and jumped off as the tank blew itself to Hel.
Several Hydra agents took aim with what looked like traditional firearms. Loki smirked. Fools. She raised her hand, and a swirling green runic shield materializes in front of her. Gold sparks fly every time a bullet hits it, but the shield holds, and the bullets freeze in midair. When they finally stop firing, her grin gets wider. "My turn." A flick of her wrist, and a blast of arcane power sends the bullets hurtling back at the soldiers. All of them are bleeding out on the ground before they had any chance to realize what was happening. Loki gingerly stepped over the bodies, then kicked the door off its hinges. Someone screamed. Good. They should be scared.
She summoned her daggers and stalked inside.
The first thing she found was what looked like a factory floor. Containers of that strange blue energy were everywhere. She quickly pocketed several into the space between worlds. She would study those later. Right now she had a job to do. Deeper in the fortress, she found row after row of cages full of soldiers, far more than had been taken from their regiment. This was a far bigger operation than the humans had thought, she realized. She'd suspected as much, but it was concerning to have her fears confirmed.
"Who the hell are you?" one of the men asked.
"I am Loki, Goddess of Mischief. I am here to save you all."
"Sure, and I'm motherfucking Santa Claus," the man laughed.
Loki quirked an eyebrow at him. "If you say so." She summoned her magic into glowing tendrils that sought out every lock in the room, then coalesced into glowing green keys.
Click.
In unison, the doors to every single cage swung open silently.
Loki turned to the man who'd mocked her. "You were saying?"
His jaw was on the floor, but he quickly composed himself. "Lead the way, Your Godliness."
"Is Sergeant James Barnes here?"
Several people answered in the negative.
"Here." She summoned dozens of confiscated Hydra weapons into the room. "Arm yourselves, then get the Hel out of here. I have something else I must do, but I will join you shortly." She pulled the shadows around herself and sprinted out of the room.
He had to be here! He had to! She raced from room to room, fueling her haste with a trickle of magic, taking out any Hydra agents she came across, freeing any captives still alive.
There! She'd almost missed the door. Loki darted inside. He was here. Mumbling his name, rank, and number over and over, but he was clearly still alive, thank the Norns. What had they done to him? Loki quickly began cutting through the restraints that held him to the table. "Laura? I knew it, I'm dead, aren't I?"
"Not quite just yet. We've still got one chance in Hel of getting out of here alive."
"You're...shinier than I remember."
Loki chuckled. "We'll talk about that later. Can you stand?"
Bucky nods. "I think so." He tried to stand, then stumbled, only for Loki to catch him and loop his arm over her shoulder.
"Come on, let's go." She began half carrying him towards the door. They'd made it to the catwalk above the main factory floor when the explosions started. Loki cursed. She should have known there was a failsafe.
Emerging out of the flames as the catwalk collapsed in front of them, a man in a strange uniform stared straight at them. "So, you are the one they created to oppose me."
"What in the Nine Realms are you talking about?"
The man reaches up and takes a mask off, revealing red, burned skin and dark, hungry eyes. "This is what that man's serum did to me. What made you think you could escape the same fate? Oh well, it won't matter. You're not making it out of here alive." He turns and walks away.
More explosions rock the building. "Well, it was a good run while it lasted," Bucky smiles at her sadly. "At least I'm not gonna die strapped to that table."
"You're not going to die today, James," Loki's voice was nearly a growl. With a thought, she brought her wings out, dark feathers curving up past her shoulders. Raising her free hand, she blasted a hole in the ceiling with raw magic, unfiltered by any spell. Then, she swung her arm under his knees and lifted him bodily off the ground. As the catwalk collapsed from underneath them, she pushed off, launching herself into the air with a powerful beat of her wings. She pushed herself faster, faster, to the very limit of her abilities as the fireball chased them towards the sky. Then they were out, rocketing into the stars like a dark comet.
"How the hell did you do that?" Bucky was staring out at the night sky in awe.
Loki smiled. "Just a touch of magic."