(A/N) You'll have to forgive my possible delays in posting. It's coming up on finals week and between college and work I'm a scatterbrained mess.
"Holy dicks"
"Darcy, it that really the most appropriate thing to say right now?"
"Duh! You and I are seeing the same thing right now, right Jane?" There was no response but a sigh.
The two women were standing on the upper half of the bridge of the almighty, amazing, awesome, technologically advanced helicarrier. Darcy's inner broke college student couldn't help but be a bit peeved that SHEILD had all of this at their disposal and yet the taxpayers of the nation were stuck in overly cramped, micro-seats filled to the absolute max. Not that she was going to say anything while there. She didn't really feel like getting kicked off (she wasn't really even sure why she was here to begin with to be honest), and she could always complain to Jane about it after they were safely back on land.
The helicarrier hovered about a sea of clouds, sailing through them as smoothly as a jetty on a clear day. The urge to dive into them was present in the back of Darcy's mind, and she suddenly understood Tony's penchant for flying as high as he could just to plunge back down towards the earth. That exhilaration that came with letting go of control for just a moment. The feeling of freedom that accompanies the stomach drop that draws people to things like roller coasters and zip-lining. Not that she was planning to take up skydiving anytime soon. The idea of it seemed more appealing than the actual act.
She drew her eyes away from the floor to ceiling windows and the clouds beyond them. Bodies scurried around her and Jane in a flurry of activity, though she was pretty sure that one of the people at the computers across from her was playing some sort of video game (must be practicing for the impending alien invasion, eyeroll). The two women had been standing around on the bridge for the past hour, having been dropped off here as soon as their jet landed. Thor promised to join them after going to have a private chat with Loki, where ever it was that they stuck him, but until then they were stuck awkwardly shuffling out of the way of the people going by. Some acknowledged them, but most ignored them. She didn't actually know where everyone else had gone off to. She thought about attempting to find them, but the pair of guards stationed at each of the very few exits were a very effective deterrent.
"I can't believe they don't have some kind of waiting room on this thing," she complained to her boss. "It's almost like they don't ever have any guests."
"On the contrary," A strong but feminine voice interrupted from behind them. "Generally our guests get stuck in a cell."
Darcy choked when she turned to find Natasha Romanov standing about a yard away. Not that she was supposed to know who that person was. She recognized her as soon as she saw the back of her head on the jet, but that was only because she had a pleasant browse through SHEILD's database post-Ipod larceny (there was a reason Jane kept her around, and it wasn't her pop tart toasting abilities) and pre-Tony ranting about Natalie Rushmore from Legal. Even then, most of her files were so heavily encrypted that going anywhere near them would have likely sent off alarm bells in their system. Best to just leave that be.
"Red hair? Well fitted coat? You must be a Romanov!"
"Darcy…" She always admired Jane's ability to secrete so much exasperation into one name.
"I know, Janey. It's technically a jacket, but coat just sounded better." It was a relief to catch the small smirk lift the corner of the assassins mouth out of the corner of her eye. Good, her lack of filter might not get her killed today then.
"Natasha," the older woman introduced herself. She didn't hold out a hand, instead choosing to remain standing with her stance wide and hands behind her back. 'parade rest,' Darcy's mind supplied.
"My name is Jane Foster." She gestured to the former intern. "And this is my assistant, Darcy Lewis."
The woman gave a nod, her eyes hovering on Darcy a little longer than they had Jane. "I've been briefed on your work. I've also been requested to escort you and your assistant to the lab to help facilitate our search for the tesseract."
Jane's brow crinkled. "My specialty is astrophysics. I'm not sure what I could do to help."
There was that slight smirk again. "I'm aware."
She turned on her heel, striding towards the closest exit slowly enough that they understood that they were to follow. The women dashed over to catch up, Darcy commenting breathlessly, "So, be honest. Thor kicked up a fuss about Jane not being near, didn't he?"
"Among others," Darcy could have swore there was a slight chuckle, though that might have just been a hallucination based on wishful thinking. She was too mysterious-assassin to do something as mundane as laughing. What she couldn't decipher, however, was whether the women meant that Thor made a fuss about more than just Jane or that more than Thor kicked up a fuss.
The guards they passed didn't step out of the way like she expected, but they made no comment or move to deter them as they walked past. The path they were escorted down was long and winding and full of metal walls and rails. It was almost claustrophobic when compared to the openness of the bridge. Sure, there were less bodies around to fill the space, but it was so much smaller that it didn't matter regardless. She wasn't sure how long they strode through the maze of corridors, but her breath was beginning to become light and airy in trying to keep up with the redhead's pace. Lab life was a sedentary one, her only exercise coming in the form of the occasional coffee run a couple floors up, and even that allowed for elevator access.
'I should take up yoga again.'
'Romanoff is probably really freaking good at Yoga.'
Not that her goal would be to take up a Black Widow level exercise regimen, but it wouldn't hurt to be able to run away from any Loki related danger that pops up (because all the danger they've faced thus far has been somehow Loki related).
After several twists and turns and even a couple sets of stairs, the hallway slowly widened and opened up into a series of glass encased labs. Darcy could pick out the group of super muscle-y men she was familiar with. Thor caught sight of them first, his head popping up like an excited puppy and a grin shining across his face despite the seriousness of the situation. Tony noticed them soon after, going so far as to step out of the lab as they walked up throwing an arm first around Darcy then, with some hesitation and a glance at Thor, Jane. Darcy wasn't sure if she imagined his gentle tug, guiding them away from the redhead in the skintight suit.
Captain Hotpants and an adorable frumpy looking science-type stood around a screen, watching intently as Thor came over to greet his Lady and her intern. Darcy recognized the sound of Loki's voice coming out.
"-cage-not built-me-"
The mysterious new scientist's brows wrinkled and Darcy felt the urge to wrap him in a blanket burrito and give him some herbal tea. Scientist wrangling skills strike again!
The man looked up from his intent scrutinization of the screen at Jane's gasp of, "Doctor Banner!"
He looked confused for a moment, his brow crinkling even further as he stared at the woman. "Oh, Doctor Foster. I didn't expect to meet you here." His face cleared and he stepped away from the screen, leaving only the Good Ol' Captain to keep surveillance over it. Loki's voice continued coming out, not carrying over well enough for Darcy to keep track of the conversation he was having with a deep voice that she didn't recognize.
Jane's level of fangirling was as high, if not higher, than that time Tony Stark had walked into their middle-of-nowhere New Mexico lab. Darcy recognized the name of the infamous biochemist, Bruce Banner, from her time at Culver. Everyone knew the story the man who turned into a giant green beast that put even the most 'roided football player to shame. She was having trouble amalgamating the image of the mass destruction causing creature with the demure scientist in front of her, but was soon pulled from her analysis by the other bodies in the room.
Steve let out a breath as the monitor he was watching went black.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asked, having actually caught the tail of the video stream despite being caught up in Jane's greeting and subsequent fangirling (Darcy couldn't blame her, she had a tendency to fangirl herself).
"Loki's going to drag this out," Steve asserted in response now that the topic had been broached. "So, Thor, what's his play?"
Thor was uncharacteristically serious despite having his arms full of Jane. He tightened them slightly, as if to protect her from the subject at hand. "He has an army called the Chitauri," he confirmed. "They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."
"An Army? From outer space?" Darcy scoffed at the Captain's observation, as if that was the most worrying part about Thor's revelation. Tony raised an eyebrow from where he had yet to detach himself from her side, but made no comment.
"So he's building another portal," Bruce chimed in. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."
Thor's attention zeroed in on the doctor. "Selvig?"
"He's an astrophysicist."
"He's a friend."
"They took Erik?!" Jane screeched. "Is that why SHIELD tried to send us to Norway?"
"Norway would've been a better option," Darcy grumbled. "We were just lucky that Loki wasn't there for us specifically." She paused. "If lucky is what you'd call it."
The Captain's brow crumpled in confusion, an expression that would have been adorable if the situation was less dire. "Why would Loki target the two of you?"
Okay, offended.
"Lady Jane and Lady Darcy were the first to greet me upon my arrival to your realm with Erik Selvig as their companion." Thor explained.
"Jane him with her van," Darcy piped up.
"Darcy tased him," Jane retorted.
"My Shield Sister did fell me with my own element," Thor confirmed, a fond smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Yes, I did," she preened. "But mostly Jane is Thor's lady love, even if Loki dragged him back to Asgard before they could do the hot and heavy to make it official."
The good Captain sputtered and flushed a deep crimson. Jane similarly turned a dark shade of pink but Thor grinned wide, not an ounce embarrassed by Darcy's comments.
"Wait, I thought Erik was safe at some secret SHIELD lab," Jane cut in before more damage could be done to the poor Captain's sensibilities. "How the hell did Loki get to him?"
"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Natasha spoke for the first time since escorting the with two women over. "Along with one of ours."
Something about what she said rung in the back of Darcy's mind, the cogs beginning to spring to life. She may not understand all of the nuances of the situation, but she could tell that something was off about it all. But what is it?
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," Steve interjected. "He's not leading an army from here."
Another spark. Is he even leading that army?
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Banner argued. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him."
Wrong, Darcy thought to herself. The first step to understanding the crime is understanding the motivation. All of Thor's stories of Loki painted him as sly and mischievous, but never crazy; at least not the level of crazy that seemed to pour out of him now.
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother." No, Thor. You're focusing on the wrong part.
"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha argued.
Tony glanced over and caught the look on Darcy's face, one so familiar to him that he could feel the thoughts racing through her head like they did his when he was on a Science! bender. "What are you thinking, short stack?" He didn't get a response, but he didn't really expect on either.
"He's adopted." Thor's reply to Natasha hung in the background, ringing in the young intern's ears.
"You guys aren't asking the obvious question," Darcy suddenly cut in, startling those who had been lost in conversation. "What do these Chitauri guys want with the Tesseract?"
"Does it matter?" Tony asked, the arm around her shoulder somehow seeming patronizing as he squeezed it. She brushed him off taking a step forward and pacing across the room.
"It does," she asserted despite the looks of disbelief. "I mean think about it. What Loki wants is power. The Tesseract is hypothetically the most powerful object on earth right now, so why would he give that up to rule over a race that he views as inferior?"
"He wishes to hurt me by overthrowing the realm I have vowed to protect," Thor argued.
"No, that's not good enough," she brushed him off as well, her thumbs coming up to rub her temples. "I mean think about it. Why would Loki just give his only chance at keeping power over to a different group unless he had no choice? Otherwise why recruit them at all? He's just a figurehead, a public image to hide a bigger power at play." A spark twinkled in Thor's blue eyes and suddenly the last piece clicked into place. "Thor, what color are Loki's eyes?"
"They are the same color as your precious emerald earth gems."
"No they're not," she let out a deep breath. "At least not right now, they're not." Everyone looked confused, but seemed to be following. "In Germany… I remember his eyes were blue, like really vivid blue. It was the same with hot-arms-guy."
"Hot-arms-guy?" Tony asked at the same time that Natasha said, "Clint?"
"I don't know who he was or what he was doing there. I saw him before the Gala though, and at the time I thought he was wearing some crazy intense contact lenses or something, but that can't be a coincidence."
"He was there to help steal the Iridium," There was no doubt in Natasha's tone. "That man whose eye Loki gouged out? That was for a retinal scanner."
Darcy made a face of disgust, her stomach turning as she recalled the image of that exact instance. Tony, who hadn't moved very far away despite being brushed off, leaned over and asked quietly, "How did you figure all of that out?"
She just shrugged. "I'm a political science major. It's kind of what I do."
"Iridium," Doctor Banner tapped a pen along the side of his index finger in thought. "What did they need the Iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony glanced around like everyone around him was an idiot, a look Darcy was familiar with. "It means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."
"That's if it's really Loki who wants it."
He rolled his eyes at her. "It's a good theory, but I'm not 100% on it yet, Lewis. Besides, if he's being controlled similarly to how Barton and Selvig are then it doesn't matter if it's actually him who wants it. He'll do it regardless." She caught him casually placing something down under one of the nearby computers while everyone else had their eyes on her, waiting for a reply. She took a breath then shook her head, making a conscious decision not to comment on either development. Tony send her a wink before continuing on with his rambling and drawing the attention of everyone else in the room back to his theatrics.
"Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."
Jane looked at him like he dribbled on himself. "When did you become and expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Okay, maybe she was offended that he was talking space knowledge. That was her thing.
"Last night while you two were on your way straight into danger. There was a packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers." He stared at the others in the room. "Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve pondered.
"Her's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Banner.
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Stark.
"If he could manage to do that, and knowing Selvig as well as I do I'm sure he could, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Jane?
"Finally, people who speak English," Tony exclaimed patting both scientist on the back.
"Is that what just happened?" Darcy had to agree with Steve. She could barely keep up with just Jane. She'd learned to just nod when Jane and Tony were in the same room. Now that there was a third Science! enthusiast in the mix there was no hope for her. People she understood, Science! not so much.
"I'm such a huge fan of your work," Jane gushed now that she had an opening to properly fangirl. "You're work in nuclear physics in absolutely unparalleled."
"It's also kind of cool that he loses control and turns into an enormous green rage monster," Tony stage whispered to the woman.
Banner cringed and sent a looked down at the floor, ignoring the various looks from around him. Darcy felt a bit bad for him and so she chimed in, "Don't worry, my dude. As long as it doesn't interfere with Science! then Jane doesn't care." He glanced up and met her eyes with a sheepish and uncomfortably guilty look, and then and there Darcy decided that she would adopt the mild mannered scientist and do whatever she could to never allow that look to appear on his face again.
"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube," A new voice joined in. Darcy turned to find a tall black man with an eyepatch (Fashion or function?) had entered the lab. If everything Darcy had picked up on since moving to the tower and then getting stuck in this mess was correct, then this man was Nick Fury, SHIELD director "I was hoping you two might join him," he said, indicating to Tony and Jane.
"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve conceded. "It may be magical, but it works and awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube, and I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys?" Thor turned to Darcy, his gateway to all things pop culture. "I do not understand."
"I do!" Steve let out an astonished chuckled. "I understood that reference."
"I'll let you in on it later, big guy." She patted Thor's arm (he may be Jane's, but no woman could resist touching those muscles).
Tony ignored them all, turning to Jane and Bruce. "Shall we play, doctors?"
Jane gave an exuberant nod, and Bruce responded with, "let's play some."