MY FRIENDS I AM STILL ALIVE and I'm so sorry for leaving this story update way past its due.
Warning(?): There is some violence in this chapter. Otherwise, enjoy!
Steve studied possible routes through the map Maria gave him, but in the end he had to agree with what Loki said: It was impossible to go unseen.
As for food, however, Steve was delighted to find that Loki was wrong. A few weeks' worth could be stretched out between the eight of them given that they ran more often than they fought.
He refolded the map, noticing how crisp the creases were, and looked around the room. Tony was still there, to Steve's surprise. He was fingering the flash drive.
"I was just thinking." Steve waited for him to continue. He held the drive up so that Steve could see clearly. "We could use this."
"Tony," Steve warned.
Tony looked annoyed. "It's just a thought, Captain."
He let the remark brush by. "Tony, you heard what was on there-"
"Look, I don't know about you but to it sounds almost spitefully contrived. I don't think that even Agent Hill knows what's going on. I dislike that lack of information." Tony now shook the flash drive so it conveyed the 'rubber pencil' effect. "If I were this worried about secrets getting leaked, I would go to the source. The person."
Steve's tone became harsh. "Hydra probably thought of that too." Tony jolted, then tucked the flash drive away.
"I'm the one who started Avengers, but you seem to be taking Initiative more seriously."
Steve either ignored or didn't recognize the joke. "If you're first Avenger, then why do I take the hardest hits?" Or he had an incredibly convincing poker face.
"The price of leadership." Tony comically shook his head.
…
Thor pulled on the edge of his cloak-jacket. Natasha had found them and said they were supposed to help with camouflage, but all it seemed to do was constrict his upper body. He wanted to give one to Loki, but the chain at his wrists made it difficult to put on. After a few attempts (and unneeded commentary from the person of interest) Thor shrugged and tied the cloak around his brother's waist.
They started out well enough, in his opinion. The only downside was the portable bathroom, which needed extra effort on Thor's part if they wanted to carry it through the forest. He wasn't exactly sure why they wanted it, except for convenience, but he eventually decided that they made a mistake somewhere and at this point their location could be easily tracked if they left it behind.
Which was really an unfortunate situation, since the bright blue plastic did nothing to blend with the trees.
"Wait." It was the Wolverine, who sharply stopped and turned past them. "I hear something. I- oh. This is bad, guys."
"Agents?" The Hawkeye scanned the trees.
"And a helicopter."
"Run," Loki hissed.
"No, there's too many to run. We either hide or fight." The Wolverine cracked his knuckles and let out his strange metal claws. "And it's pretty hard to hide."
The Captain took out his shield. "Stay in defensive until you know what you're dealing with. Assemble!"
The Wolverine as well as the Hawkeye and the Black Widow began to climb their own prospective trees. The Wolverine had to run past Thor to find a tree to climb in, and Thor heard him mutter "Does this mean I'm an Avenger?" before leaping his way through the branches.
The Captain guarded the left, which meant Thor would need to secure the right.
Thor beckoned Loki to follow him as he ran to cover that side. He twirled Mjolnir around. Its weight in his palm was a comfort.
"I would really be of more help if you loosened these shackles."
Of course. Thor didn't respond.
"Brother?"
"No."
…
Tony's plan was simple. Wait in the porta-potty until enough agents came his way, then come decked out in his suit and blast them.
He didn't expect the helicopter to get there first.
He knew something was wrong when the porta-potty shuddered. The agents were still too far away to give him any real advantage, but he decided that leaving had moved up to a top level priority. His first blast went through the door, easily. So did his second. The problem was that they didn't hit anything beyond that point.
Apparently, S.H.I.E.L.D. or whatever organization was after them had figure out how to force-field objects they wanted to transfer, and now Tony was stuck.
The drive burned in his pocket as he considered his options.
He was really, really stuck.
…
Hawkeye was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He should have been able to tell who the bad guys were.
He had to admit it was really hard to determine. Everything- how they moved, how they responded- seemed to point to actual S.H.I.E.L.D. agent fighting formation. He needed to get closer.
Or he could blow his cover and get it over with. That suited him much better.
He stood out among the trees, bow in hand. "Hail Hydra!"
All the guards stopped and looked up at him. Any S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, he figured, would shoot him right away, so he jumped from his tree and attacked.
…
Natasha watched the scene below her.
Thanks, Clint.
She quickly switched to Icers. As soon as her own cover blew, she'd slip into the fray. Until then, she would try to miss Clint when she shot. It wouldn't be too hard- hopefully. As long as none of his arrows collided with her bullets.
Right before she jumped, she noticed something peculiar. A floating blue box in the sky, surrounded by shimmering material.
…
Thor was pretty good at deterring agents.
Loki had a harder time. His tactic quickly became one of 'stay out of the way while Thor uses Mjolnir.' It was a pretty solid plan.
Then came a point where neither the first nor second part of that plan held any effect. While Loki was hindered physically in his ability to fight, his senses were as sharp as ever, and he perceived the rustle of high-up branches as deadly. Resultant trajectory was easy to determine. Thor.
Thor.
Thor was going to get ambushed.
"Brother, the trees!" Thor looked up, uncertain. He was focused on other things. He didn't notice.
For a moment, neither did Loki. A…was that the portable toilet? Loki wrinkled his nose. S.H.I.E.L.D. held strange taste of gaining evidence.
The gun's barrel brought instinct protection out of him. He vaulted straight over Thor and into the line of fire.
Needless to say, Thor was upset, so upset that the force of Mjolnir hitting the ground shook the sniper right out of his tree. It also forced the bullet out of Loki's wound, if not throwing his entire body against a large redwood. The wind was knocked out of him, to say the least.
"Loki."
He would survive, right? It wasn't bleeding…too badly…
"Thor." what did he want to say?
"I'm sorry."
Thor shook his head. "You shouldn't have done that."
He laughed. "I'm not sorry for that." Destroying New York and endangering Thor? Yes. Getting caught up in Thanos' scheme? Yes. Saving his brother? Not at all.
"You could die, Loki."
It really depended on a certain chain of events, but he wanted to make sure that if these were his last words they were going to be sincere. He could already feel the strain on his heart from the great loss of blood.
"I would be glad to die…for my king." Thor cried-laughed, a strange combination. He quickly looked around for a weapon to put in his brother's hand, but when finding none, he held it with his own.
"I think that's the last wave." The Captain's voice came faintly. Thor closed his brother's eyes and looked up. "He was unarmed."
Steve looked with slight- sadness or distaste, maybe both. "I know."
Thor looked back down at Loki's hands, shackled by thin silver. "I give you back your magic," he whispered, touching the band. It was his brother's weapon of choice, even if it wasn't considered one. Perhaps it suited him better. He watched him for a few moments more as green pulsed from his wrists to his body and faded.
Clint and Natasha stood in the background. "We can't find Tony. We think he was taken."
"With the drive?"
"With the drive."
Wolverine came in partway through this conversation, studied the scene, looked up around him.
"We can't let them take it, can we?"
"No." The word was solidary. Thor straightened. "No, we cannot. My brother will not have died in vain."
"The S.H.I.E.L.D. jet was headed east when it left." Natasha ended the sentence, looked at Clint, then added the disclaimer, "we believe," to the end of it.
Steve rubbed his chin. "Then we'll head east. And hope Tony is as determined as we are."
We are currently (following movie canon) nearing the end of the Fellowship of the Ring. Thanks for reading! I hope I did Loki relative justice.
Please Review! Reviews are lovely things.