Chapter 18.
I woke up before anyone else in the house and laughed quietly when I rolled over and saw Loki asleep on the couch. He looked like the least graceful cat in the universe, one foot propped up on the desk, the other hanging off the couch and on the floor. His hair a mop of black that fell over the arm of the couch in a black mass that was matted and tangled, and his arms going every which way. I slipped out of the bed and covered him with the quilt, and he shifted, rolling onto his side as I smoothed the blanket over him. I found some clothes left for me on the desk as I lifted his leg and put it back into the couch so he didn't fall to the floor, and went into the bathroom to put them on before wandering out to the front room with my boots in my hand.
Thor and Fandral were passed out on two separate cots at the far side of the room, and Clint was draped across the couch asleep. I jumped out of my skin and dropped one of my boots when Thor let out a full throaty snore that resembled a Harley Davidson, I giggled to myself at the scene as I slipped my feet into the unlaced boots like slippers. The party at the dorms was so definitely over, and I was the only one with the sharpie pen. I just needed a target to draw some genitals on someones face. I picked up a napkin and found a tray filled with cookies on a table that was filled with the remains of a buffet from the night before, and chose five cookies from the tray in front of me.
I walked out the sliding glass door with my makeshift breakfast and into the fog covered yard, the light drizzle landing in my hair and on my face as I walked across the grassy yard to the pond and stood by it alone. I watched the trees in the distance, finishing my wonderfully nutritious breakfast as the trees that lined the two acre yard vanished and reappeared in the mist. I dusted the crumbs off my hands and stuffed the napkin in my pocket as I kicked at the dirt around the pond, rolling a few rocks under my boot and put the hood of my sweater up as I thought to myself about the previous night.
Loki was right in the long run, I did not give myself an ounce of credit and maybe I was too hard on myself, but who was going to make living easy on me? I lived behind the walls in my head for too many years, I put that first brick in place when my father died and I kept adding to it until it was too high to reach the top. Now that wall was falling, and someone was getting in, someone was taking a peek inside the castle, and I was afraid of what they would see. I didn't want anyone in, and that thought alone was a scary thing for me.
I was scared shitless of what I was becoming by letting that wall down, and showing everyone my life. I was not used to being that vulnerable and naked in front of anyone, let alone Loki. What if he saw my scars and judged me for every last one of them, finding my past to be something he was ashamed of? What if he looked at it and saw the monster I really am?
I should never have let him in. God, I was stupid.
I shivered a bit with the cold, but I did not want to go back inside, too many damn people and too few places to think. The quiet I was enjoying now was a huge juxtaposition to the chaos of the last two weeks, and right now I just needed time to process everything. I never got that back in Asgard after being told what I was, I was yanked out on adventures, nearly killed and got into fights. Maybe I just needed some time to myself to think about what was shoved down my throat by Odin and given time alone. I was also not ready to go back in and face the mess inside the house as well.
I gave one of the rocks I had been rolling under my boot a good kick as I shoved my hands into my pants pocket and watched it sail across the pond halfway, and watched it hit the surface, creating a ripple as it fell below the water.
"Good kick." Someone said behind me and I nearly Jumped out of my skin. I turned around and saw Clint standing behind me, holding two mugs of coffee.
"Jesus man," I said back to him and took one of the offered cups. "Make some noise when you walk, I nearly peed my pants here."
He cracked a smile at my statement and sipped from his mug as I turned back to the trees. Wanting to just be alone with my thoughts for a bit more, and angry for the invasion.
"Sorry, Thor woke me up." I laughed a bit as I held the mug in both of my hands and drank from the cup gingerly.
"I heard him, Norse God of Thunder or Harley Davidson, you make the call." He smiled again at my joke and looked at the trees with me as they ghosted in and out of view in the fog.
"I like you kid." He said and I smiled back at him.
"Thanks old man." I joked back and he gave me a sidelong glance as I sighed.
"A Cherokee Rose huh?" Clint said, breaking the silence and making me cringe a bit over the fact that no one could drop the fact that I had a tattoo. I was already not looking forward to explaining to the Asgardians about it.
"Yeah." I replied and looked at him.
"You know the legend of them right?" He asked, drinking his coffee and looking at the treeline in the distance.
"Of course I know it. You really don't miss much do you?" I said and he looked at me in challenge, I sighed and looked off in the distance.
"On the Trail of Tears, the mothers of the Cherokee Nation were weeping and grieving over the children who died along the way, the elders prayed every night to the gods and the Sacred Mother to return hope to the women because they were loosing their own faith. The Gods answered, and turned the tears into seeds that fell to the ground and grew into flower. For every tear that the women shed in loss, a white bloom opened along the trail and they women began to feel hope and the whole nation started to become stronger as a tribe. The entire nation became unified in their grief, and the rose remained behind in a symbol of hope in hopeless places." Clint looked at me and nodded, I grinned at him and laughed a bit.
"Another person who is amazed by how smart I am." I joked and drank my coffee.
"No, but I am wondering what gives you strength." He asked me and I looked down into my coffee mug.
"My life has never been easy, and not many people have given a damn weather or not I lived or died. I suppose it is hope that things that will get better gives me strength, as long as I am alive there is always a chance to improve it all a chance to find all that shit I lost and to maybe find myself along the journey." I replied to his question, and he put his hand on my shoulder and smiled at me.
"Now I really like you," He said and I laughed. "I may still think one of your decisions is off, but I can respect it."
I laughed again, catching his meaning like a shotgun blast, and took another drink of coffee.
"Thanks," I said and turned to look back at the trees. "Wait until you really get to know me though. I am a vexing, willful girl." Clint laughed at my surprisingly convincing Loki impression and I smiled back at him.
I kicked up another rock from the dirt and gave it another good kick over the pond as the mist parted and gave us a good view of the trees. It swallowed them back up and hid them from us a few moments later, but it was a haunting and beautiful sight. The quiet ghosts of the planet, checking on creation and leaving again. The quiet morning was broken by the sounds of the house behind us coming to life as Thor gave out another snore of epic proportions, someone yelled at him and tried to go back to sleep.
"I pity any woman that man marries." I groaned and Clint laughed hard at my joke, the house further came to life as the slamming of doors told me that my not being in bed had been noticed and I was about to face the irritation of Loki.
"Incoming." I said sardonically and took another sip of the coffee to hide my amusement as Clint looked over his shoulder and back at the house, someone yelling at Thor again about his snoring.
"God of Making Mountains out of Molehills in 3...2..." Clint laughed again, as we both heard footsteps walking toward us in the grass.
"Morning Mr. Grumpy pants." I said, causing Clint to choke on a mouthful of coffee as Loki walked up and I sighed.
Loki made an irritated sound and I chuckled to myself knowing I had gotten his goat for a few seconds, and I heard him walk closer to stand next to me as I looked at the pond and the trees beyond it.
"What, may I ask, are you doing out here?" He asked and I turned toward him and showed him my nearly empty coffee mug.
"Drinking coffee and enjoying the view, talking to Clint." I said and Clint tipped his cup to him.
"Morning." Clint said tersely, with a bemused smile on his face as he looked at the two of us.
"Barton." He replied coolly, I rolled my eyes getting annoyed with the constant Loki hate fest going on, but I ignored it and drank the last of my coffee silently. I managed to ignore everyone around me, and I sighed.
"Thor get anything figured out about the Bifrost?" I said and watched raindrops creating ripples on the surface of the pond, studying the way they intersected and passed over one another in their meeting.
"Are you rested enough for the journey back, should he have the problem solved?" Loki asked me and I pressed my lips together.
"Yeah, I guess so." I said and kicked another rock over the pond, the rain getting heavier as the mist began churning and rolling in thicker, swallowing up the edge of the yard.
"Good." He said and turned back toward the house. "You have much left to learn Little Mouse, and your black eyed friend is still looking for you."
He walked back to the house as Clint and I watched, I waited until he got some distance from us before I turned to Clint in confusion. He was known for being standoffish, but this was definitely weird on a whole new level.
"What the hell crawled up his ass and died?" I asked Clint and he told me everything that Tony had found on me, my jaw hit the ground as my entire being sank through the dirt under my boots as I nearly started to cry. My inner bitch raged, clawing at the bars of her cage and I opened the bars happily to let her out to play. I stalked back to the house and stormed through the sliding glass door, and hissed at Tony. Everyone saw the look on my face and cringed back, Thor and Fandral edging back as I heard Clint run through the door behind me.
I scanned the faces and locked on Tony, my hand tightened on the mug as I approached. My knuckles turning white as I gripped the ceramic in my hand. He backed up and tried to keep distance between myself and him, but I had turned into a stalking, caged tiger. I refused to take my eyes off him as we walked in a circle around the room.
"You son of a BITCH!" I shouted at him as he backed around the room, and we began circling like boxers in a ring. I intended to throw the first and last punch.
"You told everyone, everything about me? You pulled my records and used them to humiliate me? Who the holy hell do you think you are?" The mug in my hand creaked under the pressure I put on it as Tony struggled to keep distance between myself and him.
"Listen princess." He said and raised two fingers at me. "You really need to calm down, not only is anger a bad thing for you to have, but you are not tall enough to be scary."
Tony smiled at me and the final straw broke, I squeezed the mug in my hand and it cracked and broke into pieces. I could feel the ceramic dig into my palm and managed to not groan in pain as the pieces got stuck in my hand. The room was completely quiet, and I could heel hot blood drip as I let go of the pieces of the mug that I still held, I raised the palm of my hand up and used my teeth to pull an imbedded piece out and spit it on to the ground. My hand instantly began healing and I looked at everyone in the room, one face at a time.
No one said anything, I doubted if they even breathed. The only sound was the blood that dripped from my hand to the floor. Loki backed next to Sif, and I glared at everyone as my anger hit the boiling point.
"That was scary." Tony said and looked pale.
"How scary Tony?" I hissed at him and Loki stepped forward to try and stop me before the fight escalated.
"You want to tell me what gave you the right to even think about looking up my records, let alone what part of your messed up head that said it was O.K to tell everyone about me like that?" I said to him and took a step forward.
"You want to calm down?" Tony replied and I laughed at him.
"You tell me now to calm down? What gives you that right?" I shouted walking toward him, and he backed away as I growled.
"You tell me something, and be perfectly clear. Which lie I have been spoon fed for twenty years is worse. The one where I am a perfectly normal human, or the one where I actually have the right to fucking privacy?" I said as his back met the window and he nearly jumped out of his own skin as I slapped my injured hand against the window, leaving a bloody hand print next to his head.
"Look Princess, I did what I had to do to ensure everyone in this team would be safe. I don't know what you are capable of, and who you are..." Tony started and I laughed, cutting him off as I stepped back from him and closed my screaming hand.
"Safe? That is funny coming from you. Safe. You tell me how the fuck I am supposed to trust anyone ever again." I said and turned away from him and walked down the hall to the bedroom, slamming the door behind me. Leaning against it as I slipped down to the floor and let myself cry. I felt so violated and I did not want anyone near me at the moment.
My injured hand throbbed with every beat of my heart, and I stood up slowly and ran it under the water in the sink, the deep cut oozing, but still healing. I wrapped it in a towel and returned to the bed and sat down on it quietly and groaned as I let myself lay back. I stared up at the ceiling, and tried not to cry more as I lay there indulging my own self pity when the door opened. I looked up briefly and saw Natasha standing in the doorway, holding up a roll of bandages. I stayed in my position and held the towel wrapped hand out at her.
"You are wasting your time, it is healing already." I said and she still sat down next to me and began working on the hand.
"I'm saving the towels." She replied and I hissed in pain as she put a gauze pad into the palm of my hand, I opened an eye to see her cringe at the mess I had made of it and sighed.
"Bad?" I asked her and closed my eyes as she left the hand on top of the towel, and opened the package of gauze bandage.
"I have seen worse, but this is still a mess." She said and began wrapping the hand to hold a bit of blood in my body. "It is a good thing you heal quickly, otherwise you would need stitches, and probably loose some use of the hand."
"Damn. I was hoping to be completely useless on top of being a criminal." I groaned out and covered my face again.
"You are not the only one here with a record." Natasha said plainly, and I laughed sardonically.
"Just finish and go away." I said and started reinforcing my personal wall. This time, no one was getting in and I was going to make sure of that. When all this was over, I was going to take what I could, and survive on the road. To hell with what I was and to hell with everyone else.
I didn't say anything more, and didn't open my eyes when heavy foot falls entered the room and stopped. I glanced over at Natasha as she tied off the bandage, and checked over her work. My hand screamed as she tied the knot in the bandages one last time, and I flinched and felt my face pinch in pain as she gathered up all her things, and left the room quietly.
"Keep it elevated for a bit, it will keep it from swelling." She said as she left and I scooted around on the bed, propping my head on the pillow and rolled over onto my side to ignore Loki.
"Go ahead and start yelling at me. I am going to ignore you though, just a heads up." I said over my shoulder and waited for the verbal bitch slapping to come. I didn't give a shit any more what he had to say.
I felt him sit down on the bed behind me, and rested his hand on my side as I scooted away from him. I looked over my shoulder at him and he regarded me without pity, but concern. I sighed and rolled over on my back, he gingerly lifted the bandaged hand and looked down at the bandage and sighed.
"I believe the pain you are in now is punishment enough for your foolishness." He said and I rolled my eyes in annoyance at his calm demeanor.
"Does anything ever freaking get through to you, or are you always a narcissistic butt head?" I shot at him and he glanced up at me with annoyance.
"I am doing my best to remain calm after witnessing your self destructive act, but trust me, I do want to scold you for damaging your hand." He said and his fingers touched the tips of mine. "You have graceful fingers, and it is a pity to see such a thing come to harm."
"He had no right to do any of that." I said and draped my good arm across my eyes. "He just exposed every nasty secret about me I hoped to keep buried, and now the cat is out of the bag. I have nothing, no one will ever respect me for anything I do in the future, I'm naked and violated. And now, I would like to crawl under a rock and vanish. On top of that, you are ultra disgusted with me and that is bad enough I lost the respect of the one person whose opinion of me mattered."
I tried to roll back onto my side trying to not cry, but he held fast to my hand and refused to let it go. He shifted as he looked at me, and placed his other hand over the bandaged one, laughing at me as he sat there.
"What?" I said sharply, but he kept laughing at me as I rolled my eyes and tried to roll back over but he still held my hand.
"You truly believe that the petty crimes you have committed are worse than the ones I have, that you are judged by a few minor transgressions?" He laughed harder at me and I grinned at him as I rolled my eyes, his eyes sparkled with the amusement and I sighed.
"You made your point," I said. "Knock it off jerk."
I pulled the sheet over my face to hide that I was turning red and giggled a bit and heard him shift and felt the movement next to me, he leaned over close and felt his breath on my ear as I groaned in embarrassment. My anger faded and now I was just depressed, trying to hide from everyone so I could just try and relax.
"You believe in redemption for sins, and your time for redemption has come. Soon you will walk through the inferno, fearless in your steps, and it will hurt and burn you. I see you facing it with grace and dignity, and when you emerge from the heart of the sun, you will brush away the ashes of your past. The person who will emerge, the glorious and shining woman you will be. You will be untouchable by anyone, even me. You will become the future, and the universe will be yours to hold."
I slowly uncovered my face and looked at him, unable to speak as I processed what he said to me. Hearing my heart hammer away in my chest. His eyes were filled with a bit of sorrow, and I swallowed hard.
"You really believe this?" I asked him and he nodded at me silently, I looked into his eyes and he smiled gently as I felt the weight of his words crash down on me. I swallowed hard and blinked as he gauged my reaction, and he used a long finger to sweep a stray strand of hair out of my face.
"You truly are a survivor, and I hold no fear of your falling, because you will not. No matter where your journey takes you, and no matter if I am there with you or not, I know that you will still be alive in the end. That is the only thing that will ever matter to me. To know that you will always be out there somewhere, and that your life will be endless." He said and a tear traced down my cheek as I lay back and my breath escaped in a sigh and my lips parted, his thumb brushed away the tear and he pulled me close to him and I melted against him as I cried into his neck.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I lay wrapped around him and we were both exhausted and covered in sweat, he pulled the quilt up over me as I shivered in the stillness with my cheek rested on his chest listening to his heart beat as I looked out the window quietly. His hand rested on my back between my shoulders, and made lazy circles as my other hand found his under the sheet and I laced my fingers between his. His eyes were closed peacefully, and I sighed gently as I watched the rain fall outside and his fingertips found a bit of my hair and he began twirling it around his finger.
I smiled a bit as he opened his eyes and looked down at me, and he brought my hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it. Not a word passed between us for the last hour, and neither one of us cared. We were in our own world now, and I felt so very safe in that moment. He pulled me closer to him and bowed his head to kiss the top of my head and I smiled wider at him.
"How do you feel?" He asked me softly and I sighed and shifted so that my chin rested on his chest as he watched me.
"Safe, and a bit scared." I said and he frowned at me.
"Why scared?" Loki asked me and his hand traced down my spine.
"I am scared that I will never feel this safe again." His hand squeezed mine as he smiled and unlaced his fingers from mine and pressed the palm of my hand over his heart, covering it with his and his eyes never left mine.
"This is yours, and it will protect you, no matter where you are, no matter how far away. I will find you and keep you safe, always." He said and I kissed him, letting the quilt fall down around my waist and his breath became ragged again as I wound my fingers into his hair and my heart that had finally just stilled began pounding again.
"I don't want to die and make you face grieving me." I said and he looked up at me and traced his fingers along my jaw and pulled me close to him and rolled himself on top of me. I hooked my arms under his and pulled him down on top of me and sighed.
"Then live." He whispered into my neck, and I pushed my head back into the pillow and teased him by dodging a kiss. He laughed and his eyes sparkled down at me, his arms resting on either side of my head and crushed his mouth against mine. I arched up into him and buried my face into his shoulder as the kiss broke and pushed him back and kissed him directly over his heart, his hands wrapped around my back and I laughed a bit and he smiled down at me.
"So very beautiful." He said and he trailed his hand down to my naked waist, and kissed up my shoulder to my neck and jaw, my head falling back and a soft sigh passing from me into the ceiling.
"So very gentle." I said, and he smiled down at me and laughed softly.
"You see the true me Little Mouse." He said and I let my fingertips trace his lips, his hand captured mine again and he kissed my fingertips in the still quiet. I arched my back and I sighed again as his fingertips dug into my hip gently, my heart pounded in my ears and I trembled a bit as he hooked a hand behind my knee and his other hand braced itself between my shoulder blades. I wanted him so badly again, I let a moan escape me as a knock came from the door and he sighed and groaned, rolling to the side and covering me with the quilt and looking at me apologetically.
"Do you think they heard us?" I whispered and pulled the blanket up to my chin as the door opened, making me freeze like a deer in headlights. Loki put his hand on my shoulder as the Norse God of Being Inconvenient walked into the room followed by Tony Stark. Thor froze and looked embarrassed as Tony made it his new hobby to study the ceiling, I pulled the quilt up further as Loki slipped his hand over me and around my waist over the blanket, I swallowed hard.
"Brother...We...Wanted... wanted to see if the Lady Lilliana was well." Thor said, and I gave him a thumbs up and blushed into the blanket.
"I'm good Meat Swing." I said as Sif walked in with a tray of warm food and I groaned as she froze, looking at the both of us and her eyes went wide.
"Lilly?" She said and I blushed and smiled at her as Loki traced his hand down my arm and over my hand. She looked around at where to put the tray and couldn't make a decision, so she glared at Loki with the tray shaking in her hands in anger.
"I will kill you!" She hissed at him, and I shifted and threw a hand out as he jerked back a bit.
"Lilly. What? Are you? You are dead Loki!" She screamed at him and I tried not to hide more.
"Sif," I said and looked at her patiently and she diffused a bit at a time. "I am fine, horribly embarrassed, but happy."
Thor looked at the other two, and I scooted down into the blanket to hide a bit more, feeling more naked than I ever had in my life.
"I need a drink," Tony said and Thor raised his eyebrows. "I need many drinks to wipe this from the hard drive."
"We shall take out leave then." Thor said and grabbed Sif's arm as he turned to leave, I buried my face in the blanket and groaned as the door closed and Loki buried his nose in the place where my shoulder and neck connected.
"I did not get to steal his car, but that was highly amusing." He said and I laughed as he kissed the birthmark under my ear, his lips lingering and making me shiver when the door slammed open again violently, making me jump.
"Put your clothes back on and never do that again, Xena out here is planning a horrible death for him, and I think it may involve power tools." Tony said and closed the door quickly, I burst into laughter and Loki gently rolled me back to look at me as I buried my face into his chest and turned red.
"I think we may have broken Tony." I said as I sat up and looked around the room and pinched my face in thought as I looked at the boot on top of the wardrobe.
"How did that get up there?" I asked him and he looked at it with me and had to think about it for a moment and laughed. I gathered the quilt around me and looked around the room. I stood on shaky legs and found my pants and shirt, I tossed him his pants and I could feel his eyes on me as I padded around the room.
"What are you doing?" I asked him as he sat up and rested his arm on a sheet covered knee and smiled at me.
"Admiring the view." He said and looked at the boot again, I smiled at him and I turned to walk into the bathroom for a shower, leaving the door open.
"I will try to save you some hot water." I said as I turned and went into the bathroom, turning the water on and standing under the warm spray. I could hear Loki shift about and I looked through the steam on the glass doors as he stood and turned his back toward me to reach to boot on the top of the wardrobe, the network of scars continued down to his thighs and I sighed looking at them.
It hurt me to see them and to know how much any being could endure before reaching their breaking point, I turned and rinsed the soap off of me so he wouldn't see me staring. I left the water running for him as I dried off ans dressed as quietly as I could. He had lay back down on his stomach and was dozing a bit when I silently slipped into the room and put my hand onto his back, he opened one eye and looked at me as I looked at his back sadly.
"Your touch is more kind that the one who gave me that scar." He said and my breath hitched in my chest. I didn't know what words to say that would erase them and the hell he endured when I jerked my hand back and sighed.
"I wish this never happened to you." I said and he sighed tensing at the words, he looked at me.
"You can wish all you want, but it will never change the past." He said and pushed up off the bed, walking toward the bathroom.
"Loki," I said and he turned toward me. "Your right, the past can't be changed, I can't fix you and you can't fix me. No one can take the broken pieces in us and put them back together. We can't bury each others past, no matter how much we try."
He looked back down at me, and I took in a breath.
"Maybe we can just support one another while we fix ourselves and come to terms with our own pasts. Then we can look at each other and see the amazing people we become." I finished and he pressed his lips together. The words hung in the air and I did my best to not look away, he looked at me and smiled as he walked back over and pulled me up into a hug.
"That is all I would ask of you." He said as he let me go, kissing the top of my head as he released me and walked into the bathroom. I sighed and smiled back at him as he vanished through the door and looked at the computer.
I sat down at the desk and picked up the brush, running the bristles through my damp hair. My injured hand still felt clumsy, even though is was nearly healed with the exception of a few long pink scars along the palm of it. I looked at it and cursed my hot temper, and knew I had to get it under control before I did something really stupid, but that was a task for another time.
I tied back my mop of black hair and turned on the computer, and opened the browser as I set the wireless keyboard into my lap and logged into the USGS under a dummy account with full access. I had set up the account years ago out of boredom, and I wanted to keep tabs on a few interesting points on the geologic map. Their network was not at all hard to hack, just a bit tricky overall, but I still felt like a real criminal for doing it. I had hacked worse in my life, much worse.
I clicked on the readouts for the New Madrid Seismic Zone and looked at them, reading a few notes and memos on the active fault line system near the Mississippi River Delta. I checked a few Volcanoes and looked at the network around Mt. Redoubt in Alaska, and saw an internal memo pop up and become really annoying. I read through it and my heart and stomach sank into my feet as a cold sweat broke out all over my body.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone had gone completely silent, and there were fears of a major rupture on the plate boundary that stretched from Vancouver Island north of us, and all the way down to Northern California. I internally screamed when I saw the activity from a week ago mentioned in the memo.
A Slow Slip Event was in progress when it went silent, it actually went from absolutely normal seismic activity to zero at about two in the afternoon yesterday. The fault line was stalled and building energy as I sat there staring at a computer monitor like an idiot.
I bolted out of my chair and ran down the hall toward Tony Stark's lab, I ran into Thor and Sif and pushed them both out of the way not saying anything to the two of them as I hurried on down the hall. I tried to open the glass front door and it refused me access. I slammed both of my hands onto the glass desperately, and Clint let me in and I shot toward the computer as I ran around a table. Tony looked at me as if I had just lost my mind.
"I need that computer." I said and ran over to it and started opening the browser and logged quickly back into the USGS. I spread everything over three monitors and looked up to see Thor and Sif hurry into the room after me. I looked around for a pen and glanced at the white board to my left that someone had drawn a crude picture on, and frowned at it.
"Someone get Loki, he is in the shower. I need a pen, and that white board cleaned off." I said and no one moved, they instead just stared at me and I rolled my eyes.
"Are you going to tell us what is going on?" Tony asked and I nearly screamed, Thor picked up a pen and brought it to me.
"Just do it!" I yelled and Sif left the room as Clint began wiping off the board. Thor crossed his arms as I began writing numbers on the back of my hand, he looked at the monitors over my shoulder and frowned.
"What is the Caskadi Soobdooction Zone?" He asked and I did my best to think and ignore him for a moment. I stopped to think briefly, and continued writing the numbers and figures on the back of my hand and up my arm.
"Look, I have heard of two intelligent people making super smart babies, but I have never heard of Sexually Transmitted Genius." Tony said as I began scribbling on the white board furiously, and Thor watched me with interest. I glared at his joke and tried my best to not threaten him as I continued working.
"This is really bad news Tony, so please shut up for five minutes so I can think." I said and continued doing the math in my head.
"What is going on here?" Loki said as everyone in else in the house filed into the lab. Loki walked over to the board and looked at my calculations as I did my best to ignore the voices around me.
"Did you mess with her head?" Natasha asked and I paused and gave everyone a wild eyed stare and gestured for quiet.
"Little Mouse?" Loki asked concerned and I tried to think again on what I was working on.
"Is it something to do with your black eyed friend?" Clint asked and I threw the marker in my hand at them and grabbed another one off the board.
"Can everyone shut up for five minutes so I can think?" I said and returned to my calculations, writing swiftly and covering one side of the board and running across the room to a window to continue to write. I stepped back from it and closed my eyes as everyone looked at me. The marker dropped from my fingers and my entire being wanted off the West Coast.
"God I hate being right." I said and looked as the horrifyingly silent seismograph, begging it to even just twitch silently as I walked over to the television sized monitor.
"Seriously Princess, what is going on?" Tony said and I called up a map of the world and displayed it on the monitor.
"I found the next move in the chess game I am playing against a very evil partner." I said and turned on my heels and looked around the room. Faces meeting mine and I sighed as I looked at everyone, and rolled my eyes.
"O.K. Party People. Basic Geology 101 time. Who can point at the Pacific Ring of fire?" I asked and Clint raised his hand, I looked at Tony who shrugged and groaned.
"Seriously Tony? Don't you even watch Discovery Channel?" I asked him and a few people looked down at the floor.
"Asgardians excluded, who knows what an earthquake is?" The human hands shot up and I turned to see Loki raise his.
"Alright," I said and pointed at the monitor with the map on it and took a deep breath.
"The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a Mega-thrust Fault line that extends from Northern Vancouver Island to Northern California." I said pointing at the map and showing them how long the fault line was.
"It is the boundary between the San Juan Plate and the North American Plate. Without this seismic zone, we would not have the Cascade Volcanic Arc, and I would not be loosing my collective shit right now." I said and was met with blank stares, I grabbed my hair at the back of my head and groaned in frustration.
"Could you repeat all that, but use smaller words?" Natasha said and I thought for a moment, pacing back and forth as everyone watched me. We were running out of time, and I needed to make them understand without looking insane. I looked at Thor and Loki and grinned. I grabbed Thor and pulled him over in front of the computer and everyone looked at me like I lost my mind, but I moved before anyone could stop me and grabbed Loki by the arm and stood him next to Thor. I stepped back and switched their positions, and then put them about two feet apart.
"You guys are my visual aid, just humor me and go with it." I said as I grabbed Thor's hand and put it up between them flat, then grabbing Loki's hand and covering Thor's with his. They both looked at each other, and then at me. As I ducked under their hands and started talking.
"Thor is the Juan De Fuca Plate, he is under the pacific Ocean and is chilling with the fish. Loki is the North America Plate, Seattle, Tacoma, where we are now, growing trees and all that great stuff. Do I have everybody?" I said and everyone nodded, I put my hands over their hands and looked at everyone as the two men looked at me. A few giggles came from Fandral.
This here is the plate boundaries, the land that Thor is travels under the land that Loki is. As he slowly moves west, it is usually slow and fairly steady, and has happened like this for millions of years with no problems. As Thor moves under Loki, mountain ranges are created, and volcanoes are born from the plates colliding into each other. Nature however, is a pain at times, and as the North American Plate grows and shifts, Juan De Fuca is cycled down into the Earth's core." I said and looked up at everyone and they nodded at me.
"Now, Thor and Loki a week ago entered a dangerous event for both plates called a Slow Slip Event, this is when both plates decided to start moving at a steady rate, and sometimes it is just business as usual for the two plates." I said and moved their hands over one another, everyone watching, and Tony looked at me.
"Why is it dangerous?" Fandral asked and I stopped moving their hands and looked up at him, and nodded. I turned quickly and showed the normal seismic measuremens on the larger screens and returned to my two visual aids.
"This is what it looks like when Cascadia started the Event, it was steady and the graph shows that there were a few bumps." I pointed at the sudden spikes in the graph, and turned back to my aids, grabbing their wrists and started moving their hands again.
"Now, the reason that this is so dangerous, is because the risk of a major seismic event is elevated should the fault line suddenly stall." I said and put my hand over Thor's hand and stalled Loki's hand with mine to show the build up of energy in a stall, Loki's finders curled against my hand and I kept moving it slowly.
"If the fault line stalls, because Thor has become Stubborn for some reason or another, and Loki is even more stubborn and wants to keep moving East, kinetic energy builds in the boundary and continues to until finally Loki snaps over Thor as he pushes onward." I said and moved my hand and nudged Loki to straighten his hand, and he did so.
"This kinetic energy has to go somewhere, so six hundred and twenty miles of fault line experience the energy release in a major seismic event. An event on a massive scale that takes about five minutes for the energy to settle and release fully as the entire fault line ruptures." I said and Tony looked at me and rubbed his face with his hand, and groaned. I looked around the room and Natasha turned pale, and Clint sighed and thought deeply.
"Basic Plate Tectonics, and my Black Eyed Friend, as you all call him, has figured out how to get my attention in a very big way." I said and looked down, releasing Loki and Thor's hands, I turned and used the keyboard to call up the seismograph from this morning, and Tony went pale. No spikes, nothing, just lines that spiraled around the paper etching horrible reality as the drum slowly rotated.
"Are ye saying that Thor is currently being stubborn Lady?" Volstagg said and I nodded and gave him a thumbs up.
"Bingo!" I said and began typing furiously and called up YouTube on all of the monitors quickly, selecting several videos and setting up my last visual aid.
"This has been going on for almost 24 hours, and it is getting worse by every second, energy is building to create a huge disaster that I am not sure we can stop." I said and turned back around and everyone looked at me. Sif sighed and glanced up at me and pinched her lips and Thor and Loki turned to look at the monitors.
"What happens in this Seismic Event, as you called it, It does not sound so bad to us if it is under an ocean." Sif said and I clicked play on the monitors one at a time to show the results of the March 2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami. Thor's face turned pale and the Asgardians watched in horror at the fury of nature incarnate played on the screens.
"You are saying this will happen here?" Thor asked and I looked down at my hands as he turned toward me and then looked back at the monitors as the videos of falling buildings, and drowning people looped and then back up at the still graph as it turned.
"That Earthquake killed seventy thousand people and devastated and entire country, whole fishing villages were wiped off the map in under a few hours, and we will never know the full death toll because so many people were never recovered for burial." I said and swallowed hard and pointed at my calculations.
"The kinetic energy built up will release, and when it does, there will be no where in the Ring of fire you can run or hide from this, the earthquake will be huge, and the shaking will be at a minimum of five to six minutes. The Tsunami will kill millions in North America Alone, and the displacement of the water caused by the fault line snapping back into position, it will cross the ocean at the speed of a jet to kill millions more. This Seismic Event will be like...it will be like god himself punched the ground to remind us who was in charge."