Chapter Notes

The first chapter for The Avengers.
Finally. :D

Chapter 13: Showtime

"Well, this is horrifying.", I murmured to myself as I surveyed the destruction underneath me. I was hovering above a giant hole in the ground. Just hours before a Shield research facility had stood there. I shivered. I didn´t know how many had died here. The doubts about how to handle the invasion crept up again.

I breathed out slowly to calm myself down.

Questioning myself too much would just drive my anxiety up and lead me to hesitate. I had prepared to keep casualties low. There was just no way to have none at all.

I mentally went over my checklist of what I knew of the movie plot.

The Widow´s side shouldn´t have changed. Even her trip to Bruce could still be happening. I nearly laughed out loud when Bruce had told me last month that he was going to India. He had begun feeling restless with the sorcerers. They had helped with his control, but he didn´t have an interest in learning magic. (He and Jane were still going strong though.)

Tony was in New York. He was the first person I warned about the imminent invasion, so Coulson wouldn´t catch him off guard this time. Pepper was safely on a press trip for SI with Domi as a bodyguard. Both of them had needed suspiciously little convincing when I started talking about alien invasions. Which honestly had some worrying implications about their view of my credibility. Or they were just awesome friends. Or they liked spending time together. I didn´t question them, but I would surely tease Domi when this was over.

Xavier and the X-Men also received some dubious warnings from yours truly. For the next few days they would be on high alert, ready to jump into their jet on the way to NYC at the slightest hint of trouble.

I let out another nervous breath, looking down at the reminder of what was at stake.

The stage was set. Let the play begin.

Contrary to my expectations, having a hood that turns you invisible was something that came in handy a lot more often than one would expect.

Even if said hood had anxiety issues.

´Anxiety issues? `, you ask.

Yes, anxiety issues. Well, to my (admittedly limited) knowledge, some of the named relics had more or less developed personalities. The cloak of levitation for example. And my new hood was highly empathetic. The slightest feeling of being uncomfortable and it would go up.

Which means that I had been regularly disappearing from conversations for months now. The worst thing about that is, that I stopped noticing it at some point. Tony or Pepper came across a floating book more than once.

It was great for pranking though.

Oh, and it had separation anxiety. It absolutely hated it each time I took it off for some time.

The opposite of my new scythe really. The scythe was content on staying in my apartment for the most time. However, each time I trained with it, it tried to convince me to use it as a scythe and not just a staff. Bloodthirsty thing. Thankfully, it wasn´t all that sinister when I ignored it. More like pouting child.

The weirdness of having some sort of telepathic bond with two emoting inanimate objects aside, I was reflecting on all of this the next day when I was getting ready to infiltrate the Heli-carrier.

I felt quite smug thinking about how I found the evermoving structure. I simply tagged Bruce with some easy locater runes. With his consent of course.

I was decidedly less smug when I came across the carrier in its invisible state and had to find a discreet way in. Which even with scanning from Ree took an embarrassingly long time.

My invisibility was better though. Hades liked that thought. (Very creatively, I had started to call my relics after their godly counterparts.)

I wandered around a bit, slightly lost even with Ree´s help. Ree had to work overtime erasing the evidence of me going around. Everything was monitored, as one would expect from the ever-paranoid Shieldra. Cameras were put on loop and doors were malfunctioning all over the place.

I found what I was looking for after half an hour. The cell for the Hulk. Where Loki would be held.

Of course, in the movie it had no ways of actually keeping a magic user contained. That would change.

I made sure to give myself quite some time for this. Binding normal baseline humans was easy. Binding enhanced people was a tick more challenging. Binding a godly magic user with hundreds of years of experience? Yeah, give me a bit more time here.

Thankfully preparation was key and prepared I had.

I cracked my knuckles as Ree started looping the cameras in the room. Didn´t want Shield to see the glowing runes.

I placed down circle after circle, specifically tailored to Loki´s situation. Being overly specific would help me a lot. A layer that targeted those who used Aesir seidr; a layer that targeted Jotuns; a layer that would feed on any magic clouding the prisoner's mind; etc…

Most importantly, none of these were easy to detect. Should Loki get a whiff of them before he was inside, my whole plan could backfire.

Hours later, I stood back. I took one last look at my work and nodded to myself. With a wave of my hand the ocean of runes disappeared.

Groaning, I stretched.

Time for a break!

I wouldn´t get many of those the next few days. I sat down with a sandwich, not seeing any sense in a change of venue, and let myself be updated on the situation in Germany.

It had taken me a good hour of research with Ree to find the scientist that Loki would attack and the city he was located in. I felt a bit sorry about not helping the man keep his eye (and potentially his life, I mean, ugh, that was grim). Still, I only monitored what was going on and didn´t interfere yet.

In the end, I could even take a nap. Ree woke me when the not-yet-Avengers were half an hour away. I clapped my cheeks to wake myself up.

A little nervousness crept in again as I made my way to what I had identified as the conference room on my first round-about. I stood to the side to not risk someone running in to me.

I wondered if the confrontation between Thor and the others went better this time. I had warned Tony that he would show up and why. Knowing Thor, that wouldn´t help. Hell, knowing Tony, that wouldn´t help. He was one of my best friends, but I wasn´t blind to his faults.

Sighing silently, I lend against the wall with crossed arms. I watched the agents run around busily while waiting.

Eventually, I was joined by the people I had been waiting for. First, Thor, Natasha and Steve Rogers.

They didn´t seem all that jolly, not that I could blame them. Steve, funnily enough, was an exact copy of Chris Evans. Uff. Not good. He had the same puppy dog eyes. Nooo, my weakness!

I narrowed my eyes at Cap. "Doesn´t mean I won´t kick your ass if you fuck with my bestie!", I thought venomously at the completely oblivious man. Team Ironman all the way. I wasn´t biased, what are you talking about.

To be fair to the man, he probably had a whole bunch of issues and needs that weren´t properly addressed by Shield after he woke up 70 years in the future. The insidious thing was, that he wouldn´t even know what to ask for, in what things he had to stand up to himself.

A few minutes of stewing in my thoughts and Bruce entered. He looked mildly uncomfortable. So business as usual at that front.

They all were fixed on the screens around the room. Fury put on the same play as in cannon and to my satisfaction Loki didn´t react any differently either. The chances that he hadn´t noticed that he was trapped were good. I allowed myself a grin as I felt some of my worry disappear.

"He really grows on you, doesn´t he?", Bruce remarked sarcastically as he stood behind a chair.

"Loki´s gonna drag this out. So, Thor what´s his play?", asked the all-American boy scout.

I tuned Thor´s lackluster explanation of the Chitauri out as I reflected on how weird it was to hear the movie dialogue in real life. I was getting major déjà-vu here.

"An army… from outer space.", Steve deadpanned when Thor finished.

`I know man, shit sucks. ´ I nodded in commiseration.

"So, he´s building another portal. That´s what he needs Erik Selvig for.", Bruce concluded.

"Selvig?", Thor asked.

"He´s an astrophysicist.", Bruce explained.

"He´s a friend.", Thor insisted.

I smiled. I always thought Thor´s loyalty, while it landed him in trouble often, was one of his most endearing traits.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours.", Natasha intercepted. With hindsight, it was easy to see that she took the first opportunity to learn more about Clint´s brainwashing from someone that might know more. I couldn´t begrudge her for it.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him.", Cap said. "He´s not leading an army from here."

"I don´t think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy´s brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him.", Bruce commented, clearly still creeped out from the little eye contact I remembered him having with Loki as the Jotun got taken to his cell.

"Have care how you speak. Loki might seem beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother.", Thor immediately defended his family. Again, very loyal.

"He killed 80 people in two days.", Natasha retorted. (Cough, hypocrite, cough.)

It took me all my composure to not start ranting about how most of those were scientists and agents Shield had knowingly endangered to build their stupid weapons.

Thor backpaddled eloquent as ever. "He´s adopted."

I rolled my eyes. I missed what Bruce said, still too enraged by Shield´s – well, everything, really.

I snapped out of it when I heard Tony come in, followed by Agent Agent Coulson. I grinned as Tony did his thing, irritating everyone in the room. It was quite hard to not start laughing out loud, when Tony pointed out an Agent playing Galaga and Steve´s head swung around, trying to see what my fellow chaos gremlin was talking about.

I wasn´t proud to admit it, but after Tony planted his bug and the conversation returned to science, I blanked out again.

"Ah, Bruce! Brucie, it´s good to see you again! How are things going with Jane? Are you doing the whole long-distance thing now that you are doctoring in India?", Tony greeted Bruce with a lot of enthusiasm. He threw out his arms and I could see Bruce go stiff in fear of an incoming hug. Thankfully, Tony wasn´t a hug person either and just deposited a hand on Bruce´s shoulder.

The billionaire was still more in the shy man's personal space than Bruce was comfortable with, but that was just how Tony worked.

"I would like to know how you knew where Dr. Banner was until today. To my knowledge you shouldn´t even have met.", Fury asked in his usual passive-aggressive tone as he swooped in.

I could hear how pissed off he was at not knowing something and it raised my mood immediately.

I took that as my cue to appear between my two friends, quickly suppressing a grin when Tony jumped up, putting a hand on his heart with a yelp. Bruce only flinched a bit.

"Damn, I have heart problems, you know!", grumbled Tony jokingly.

Of course, the assassins – erghm, I mean the agents in the room drew their weapons at me.

"Well, Fury, that is my fault.", I said calmly, as if there weren´t deadly weapons pointed at me. I was 90 % sure I could call up a shield if someone was especially trigger happy.

"Bluelight.", Fury scowled. Oh, he mad.

"How generous of you to show up. For someone that claims to concern himself with Aliens on Earth you sure took your sweet time."

I snorted.

"Yeah, I took my sweet time securing that fancy cell of yours, that would have been incredibly useless against a magic user of Loki´s pedigree.", I threw back, only a little bit smug.

"Friend! It is good to see you!", Thor exclaimed with a smile and came up to me. He gripped my arm in greeting and gave me a friendly (for him) clap on the shoulder. I winced as I tried not to stumble.

"Hey Thor.", I greeted him with a smile that disappeared quickly. "You might have wanted to mention to them that imprisoning a seidr user isn´t that easy."

Thor sputtered, trying to come up with an excuse. He had totally forgotten what Loki was capable of, hadn´t he?

I sighed.

"I have some more info for you, too."

"So, you are Bluelight?", Steve asked curiously. He stood up and held out a hand. "My name is Steve Rogers. I was briefed on you. Are you really some kind of expert on Aliens?"

I blinked in surprise as I shook his hand on autopilot.

"Briefed on me?", I asked stupidly as I threw Tony a bewildered look. He had his shit-eating grin on, which didn´t bode well for my sanity.

"Yup", he quipped. "Got your own little info packet in the Avengers section."

"We couldn´t get in contact with you, so that never went anywhere. Our attempts at reaching you through Stark here didn´t help either.", Fury said, disgruntled as ever.

I stared at him as if he had just proclaimed his love for unicorns. I looked at Tony in question. He shrugged.

"`m not an answering machine."

I facepalmed and groaned quietly. I had never looked at those files, confident that I knew what I had to know. It wasn´t all that out there for Shield to want me on the Avengers more than wildcards like Tony or Bruce, so that wasn´t surprising. I just hadn´t thought about it.

All that didn´t change anything at the moment though.

"Well, that doesn't really matter right now. Let´s get back to the important stuff.", I declared decisively.

"First things first. The Chitauri. There is more to this than Thor just told you. They aren´t the real problem, the real problem is who they are working with."

"Loki?", Steve asked confused.

"No, I´m not so sure Loki is in this on his own volition. I talked to Thor about this before, but the last time I heard about Loki, he was in a major identity crisis and not in the state to make any kind of coherent plan. So, Thor, what happened when you returned to Asgard?"

"What does this matter?", Fury tried to intervene impatiently. I held up a hand to signal him to back down.

"Humor me."

Thor frowned. Of course, I knew more or less how Loki fell, but I wanted everyone on the same page.

"When I returned, it was to Loki trying to use the Bifrost to destroy all of Jotunheim. I had to break it to stop him. My brother wouldn´t listen to reason. Father and I tried to save him, but he fell into the void."

I crossed my arms and send Thor a serious look.

"Did he really just fall?"

"Who cares-"

"Shut up Fury, Thor, did Loki let go?"

Thor looked down, frustration and sadness shining through. He nodded.

"Aye."

"So the crazy god is suicidal? What are you on about?", Tony asked with a frown. He was trying to understand where I was going with this.

"Well, here is some context: When Thor had his problems with Loki a couple of years ago, Loki had just found out that he wasn´t an Aesir, but a Jotun. That Odin had found him in a war and didn´t tell him the truth for about a thousand years. What Loki did, while horrible, had a twisted kind of logic to it. He felt disconnected from Asgard and tried to prove to himself and others that he is an Aesir. In his mind, destroying any and all Jotuns would do the deed."

I looked around to see if they got what I was talking about. Still a lot of skepticism.

"In short, he isn´t so crazy that he would just come here and try to rule. He had no interest in Earth, none at all. He tries to kill himself, nearly dies, disappears for years and comes back with an army and a mind control device? Doesn´t that sound fishy to you?"

I could see some of them coming around, Thor and Tony most of all. Natasha and Fury didn´t show anything on their faces.

"Well, I can tell you that Loki is under some kind of mind control. I couldn´t say how much though. I powered some of my protections on that kind of magic, so it should disperse over time."

Natasha showed a frown. "So, the Chitauri are manipulating Loki?"

"No, Thanos is.", I said decisively. Time to bullshit things I wasn´t so sure about. Fanon and Canon were quite mixed up in my mind on this topic.

"Thanos? He is but a legend!", Thor dismissed.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You mean, like we thought you were a legend? When is the last time you were going around outside of the nine realms? In the wider universe Thanos is a known scourge."

I turned to the rest of the table. "He goes around, from planet to planet, eradicating half of the population everywhere. He has some twisted sense of purpose, thinks that he is saving the balance of life or some shit. Resource scarceness."

I scrunched up my nose in distaste at Thanos´s utter stupidity. As if killing half of everything solved any kind of problem.

I could practically hear the alarm bells ringing in Fury´s mind.

"Great, another crazy person.", said Bruce, playing with his glasses nervously. I shrugged.

"Well, you don´t hear about the nice aliens all that often."

Tony snorted. Steve was looking all around overwhelmed and done with the alien talk.

"And he is the one that wants the Tesseract?", Fury asked with narrowed eyes. I nodded.

"It´s a powerful tool." Like hell was I telling Shieldra about the Infinity stones. "Anyway, Thanos isn´t bothering with Earth personally any time soon. The Chitauri are the concern for now. They are well equipped and numerous. The good thing is that they have a big weakness. Destroy their mothership, they all die. Bam, over."

I smashed a fist into my open hand to illustrate the point.

"You are presuming they succeed at opening a portal.", questioned Steve.

"Yeah, most of what Tony and Bruce were talking about went over my head, but from what I heard, they don´t really need Loki anymore."

I looked to Tony to contradict me, he shrugged. A glance at Natasha reminded me:

"Oh, and the brainwashed people are somewhat easy to get back. I can do it, but the fastest way is to hit them over the head. They should check with me after though. Mind control is nasty business."

Maybe it was my imagination, but Natasha seemed to be a bit more relaxed.

"Whether Loki was coerced or not, we have to stop them and get the Tesseract back.", Fury decided. He mustered me skeptically.

"Can you help with that?"

I hummed.

"Not really. You have Loki´s scepter on board, right? `cause I need to check that it doesn´t radiate latent magic. Some sort of passive manipulation of emotions or something."

Again, the benefit of hindsight. Even with my experience with magic I would have forgotten to check if I hadn´t known already.

"Well, if you follow Dr. Banner then, he´ll work on locating the Tesseract through the scepter with Stark here."

I took that as a dismissal and turned to my scientist friends.

"Shall we?"

"Yes, we shall!", Tony exclaimed and made a dramatic exit in a random direction, dragging poor Bruce along.

I couldn´t resist playing with Shield´s expectations one more time; before leaving I turned back around and disengaged my incognito mode. Now maskless I waved at the staring room with a friendly smile.

"I´m Al, by the way."

Chapter End Notes

I think my first time using quotes from the movie. Not a lot though, I skipped the science talk and changed some stuff.
This chapter practically wrote itself, total contrast to the Hulk chapter. No fighting yet though!
We shall see how the battle of New York changes. :D