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Chapter 14
Golden Clouds
Hela had turned in early for the night to rest her physical body in the luxury of her room while her astral projected soul dealt with matters back in her realm when the customized ringtone specifically set for any member of the Avengers abruptly merge back with her body on Midgard, leaving her in a groggy state similar to that of a just awakened person.
Reaching for the phone as she tiredly roused herself in a sitting position, she internally reprimanded herself from descending overeagerly, answering the phone, "Lieschmidt."
Bruce noticed the sleepy tone of her voice, followed by a yawn; it seems like he had a bad habit of calling her during the most importune times, but it was a dire emergency, "Hi, uuh, sorry for calling so late…"
Hela blinked her eyes and focused on the darkness around her room, letting her sight adjust before she slipped her leg off the side of the bed, "It's quite alright. Did something happen?"
"Yeah," Bruce started, "It's Loki."
Bruce explained calmly over the phone about as calm as he could get about the situation. They have an unconscious God in the medical bay who has, according to the video footage, disintegrated the entire communal floor into ash, and everyone was beyond perturbed and in dire need of caffeine.
Despite the tiresome travel from Hel and back, Hela felt the magical residue permeating from the direction of the Avengers Tower, it was feint, but she had a feeling it gets worse outside.
The entire time the information was being relayed to her, Hela had been and concentrating on a large bag, conjuring the necessary contents she would need, including a large metal case with ancient runes etched on the surface. By the time Bruce finished, she had her phone dumped inside her bag, dashing from the hallway towards the grand staircase leading towards the lounge, barefooted and still in her button down, black silk pyjama top.
She found both her brothers looking out the floor to ceiling windows where thin clouds of golden light formed around the Avengers Tower, left unseen from the prying eyes of the mortals or any technology known to man.
"That doesn't look good," Fenrir said to no one in particular, "At all."
They didn't notice Hela creep up behind them, too busy studying the flaring cloud of golden magic, registering it to be their father's and something else and when Hela cleared her throat to announce her presence, they nearly jumped at the ferocious look in her eyes; she didn't bother with a greeting and was all seriousness, "Oh, it gets worse."
Exchanging questioning looks at each other, they then turned to Hela who was holding on for dear life at a large metal case to her chest, a large bag hooked over each arm and a backpack.
Hela muttered a word under her breath and offhandedly reported the situation, "It's father; he shifted back to Æsir form and that happened."
She emphasized on the word as she gestured towards the drifting clouds of magic.
"It's definitely father's," Jörmungand hissed at the golden clouds which threateningly grew by the second.
Fenrir nodded, "And something else. I couldn't make it out from here, but it's dark."
"We shouldn't teleport our way in then," Hela conceded, trusting their judgement due to their feral senses.
Jörmungand and Fenrir went to their respective rooms to gather their things while Hela grabbed another bag to pack food and other provisions having heard that the lounge including the kitchen was burned to a crisp. She didn't want to have to deal with hungry heroes, she might just flip.
When they finally finished packing, they quickly made their descent to the parking lot where Hela took long and quick strides towards her vehicle of choice, passing through different sports, and luxury cars, all with their uniform choice of colours: gold, black, green, or silver. When she dashed for her black, intimidating hulk of a Hummer, they knew she meant business – or blood, or both. Now was not the good time to piss of their sister, bad things happen when she gets the slightest bit irritated when she is this on edge.
Hela opened the driver's seat and carefully laid the metal case on the passenger seat, fastening the seatbelt and left her brothers to seat at the back, along with their bags. Neither was particularly upset they didn't get to ride shotgun because of Hela's abysmal driving.
Hela sped off the driveway and once their vehicle was out in the open city, the air felt thick, and almost sticky which made Fenrir groan out in annoyance, "It smells like Bilgesnipe out there."
"Like food, you mean?" Jörmungand asked rhetorically.
"I'm not even sure I wanna sniff the air out," Hela ground out, "Though it does reek of malice, if that was what you meant."
"It actually gets worse," Fenrir said, as he rolled the window down and sniffed the air with his head sticking out, glaring at the still growing cloud of magic, "And I think the cloud just winked at me."
"Shut up dog, you're probably just seeing things," Jörmungand spat as he pulled his brother back in and rolled the windows back up.
They arrived in the Tower's parking lot in less than five minutes, thanks to Hela's horrific, yet quite useful reckless driving; it took longer for them to pack the supplies and food they needed than the actual drive there.
The three hastily made their way towards the elevators and soon found themselves into the hallway leading to the medical bay. There they found some of the Avengers lingering in the spacious waiting room, Natasha perched on an arm rest next to Clint; Steve and Bucky standing against the wall as they walked cautiously towards them but that didn't stop the haste in their steps as they got closer.
They found Thor slumped on the floor, the worry etching his face soon replaced by a quizzical look as he saw his nephew's faces looking down at him, "Is he going to be alright?"
"We'll make sure of it," Hela answered, "We've got more to lose than you do if we don't."
Hela's determined, if not biting response gave Thor the strength he needed to get up and hold his long lost niece and nephews, in a crushing embrace, pleading to them to save his brother's life. Giving her brother's a sideway glance, she looked for the reassurance she needed from her brother's, as they did the same in turn, knowing that they have each other for support.
After the lengthiest and most asphyxiating hug she has received in her life, maybe, Hela introduced her brother's to the Avengers, and if the circumstances had been any different and they were not in the middle of a crisis, she was sure her brothers would've swoon.
The Avengers on the other hand were dumbstruck and in awe at their resemblance to Loki and each other; the smooth, flawless almost pale fair skin, the distinguished green eyes – only slightly more green than their father's, and the jet black hair that could strike any God or mortal with envy.
Jörmungand and Fenrir stayed in the medical bay with Bruce and Tony to check on their father's condition, putting him under a suppression spell that covered his entire body, while Hela contains the magic cloud spreading out throughout the city.
"I still don't see how this 'magic' thing works," Tony swivelled his chair close to the bed to inspect the sheen sheet of magic all over Loki.
Fenrir settled his coffee mug down and stared at Tony too long for comfort, making the genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist cringe.
"I think what Tony means to say is-" Bruce started and was suddenly interrupted by a holographic screen popping out of thin air, Hela coming into view.
"Good news, the cloud can be contained," She said.
"Why haven't you put decent clothes yet?" Jörmungand asked, to which Hela responded to with a shrug as his brother stood in front of the screen, staring perplexedly at his sister who was, judging by the wind billowing of her hair and the immense city landscape glowing behind her, was standing afloat right above them.
"Here's the bad news," Both siblings shuddered at the sight of Hela's delightful grin, "The cloud has gained sentience so I will have to shut down the entire city so as to not alarm the mortals."
"Shut the city down?!" Tony suddenly rose up in his chair, the rest of the Avengers filing into the room at the sound of his alarm.
"She's going to what now?" Clint resounded.
Fenrir cleared his throat and motioned for everyone to calm down, "She means she'll put the city to sleep."
"Do you require any assistance, dear niece?" Thor boomed, Mjölnir ready in his hand.
"No, it's best if you all stay there," She assured, "And take father to ground level. The cloud is gaining more power by feeding off his energy. It's preferable if the room is reinforced so you can set the portable Soul Forge I brought."
"Alright," Jörmungand nodded, while Fenrir felt put off not being let into the battle, "Anything else?"
"Fenrir, get ready to switch places with me after I'm done putting the city to sleep."
At that, the screen blinked away and Jörmungand put the barrier up as his sister instructed.
"Is it okay if we just left her alone out there?" Bruce asked Hela's brothers.
"She's going to be totally fine," Fenrir huffed excitedly.
"Do you have any reinforced rooms in the lower levels?" Jörmungand asked, ignoring Fenrir's excitement.
"We have the Hulk's containment unit," Steve answered.
"That would be perfect!"
"Sorry Bruce, we'll have to rent out your room again," Steve chided with the Physicist, it was a good long standing joke amongst them by now.
"I'm not sure about you guys, but this is something I am definitely going to watch," Tony quipped excitedly, "JARVIS, show us a live feed from outside."
"Right away, sir."
"Impressive, Stark," Fenrir gave him an approving look, which Tony, of course not one to pass out on praises from a God, bowed gallantly taking pleasure.
A home-theatre sized screen flipped into view from one of the walls which automatically switched on to show a live video feed from outside.
"What the heck are those things?"
Authors Note: Another cliffhang chapter ending. I seem to like doing a lot of that. Hahah.
And many thanks to those who recently followed and fave'd this fic, as well as those who reviewed the previous chapter.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me.
