Words in bold=POV shift
Words in italics=El or Loki interjecting in the other's narrative
Words in underline=standard emphasis
Brackets=Loki responding to El when she interrupts his narrative
We made back to the giant flying aircraft carrier (I didn't get told what everything was called, sue me. From here on out I'll refer to it as the Helicarrier) with only one real incident. Admittedly, said incident was freaking Thor coming and grabbing Loki out of the ship, leading to a big fight between him, Captain Rogers, and Mr. Stark. (And yes, that was what finally made the whole Norse God thing click for me with regards to my apparent soulmate. I never claimed to be particularly bright. Ow!)
I told you that you would get flicked on the head every time you insulted yourself.
What about the whole opening paragraph of the last chapter?
Thank you for reminding me.
Ow! You're definitely sleeping on the couch tonight. Anyway, back to my story. We reached the Helicarrier without further incident after getting attacked by a Norse god who was really just an alien…and my life reached a really weird point where I could say that in all seriousness. The man in charge of the ship, who, in a wonderful show that destiny has a sense of humor, had an eye patch, and had two guards take me to a random bedroom elsewhere on the ship, after checking my bag. Fortunately, from what I've gathered from people's questions when asking me if I like what I'm reading, everyone else just sees the book as Harry Potter Five. At any rate, I was left in a bedroom and promptly ignored for the next few hours. Which was perfectly okay with me. I had no delusions of grandeur. If Mr. Stark, Captain Rogers, an alien/god with weather powers, and an entire flying aircraft carrier were working together, then whatever Loki had done was way bigger than just what I'd seen in Germany, and I'd be no help whatsoever. So instead I sat down on the bed and started reading, starting back at the beginning.
To explain, yes, I have a magic book. And by that I mean both that it's a book with magic spells in it, and that it's magical itself. I got it in a…interesting way. And by interesting I do not mean illegal! You see, growing up in Arizona I lived next to this guy named Doctor Stephen Strange. Yes, his last name was Strange. He was a nice guy if reclusive at times. One day, when I was fourteen, I was taking care of his plants and cat while he was on vacation and I found a book on the kitchen table. It was large and bound in brown leather, with two gold snake/dragon things wrapped around a sword on the cover. Being curious, I opened it, and promptly got a paper cut. Not wanting to get blood on the expensive looking book, I quickly closed it and moved on, hurrying up and watering the plants before leaving. When I got home though, the book was on my bed. More than a little weirded out by this, I put it on a shelf and decided to return it the next day.
The next day however, a moving van came and took all of Doctor Strange's stuff away. I gave the guy who was in charge the book, he thanked me and gave me an envelope from Doctor Strange. It had a check for the work I'd done and a short letter explaining that something had come up and he was moving immediately. I compared it to the list of rules he'd given me for taking care of his house and the handwriting matched up, so I decided it was legit and cashed the check. The day after that, I woke up to find the book on my bed. Now thoroughly freaked out, I quickly took the book out to the trash can and threw it away, watching as garbage truck picked it up. The day after that the book was back, so I took it and dumped it in the school dumpster. And guess what? The book came back. I then went out into the desert that Saturday and burned it. It burned to ash alright, but when I got home it was already back on my bed.
After that, I just kind of gave in and started reading the damn thing. Learning the spells it contained was not easy. Imagine trying to learn Russian by picking up a book that was written in Russian with a Latin alphabet. You can sort of figure out what it should sound like, but not easily. I had to go out into the desert after the first spell I tried froze my dresser to practice, and it was largely a trial and error deal. Lots of cacti died (I don't care if cacti is only the Latin plural, it's a fun word to say) in my quest to teach myself magic, but I like to think that it was a worthy sacrifice. Regardless, I'd noticed that the more I read, the simpler the incantations for spells I'd already mastered (relatively speaking) became. I had to go back and relearn things, but at least I no longer had to recite a whole paragraph to cause a burst of freezing energy. I wasn't going to practice anything on the flying ship, that was just asking for something to go horribly wrong, but I had noticed that the fireball spell had just shortened down to five words, and that a new diagram thing had appeared in the most recently cleared page. That was another thing. Most of the pages were jumbled up gibberish, but occasionally a new one would clear up. I don't know if the book was judging my skill level or what, but there you go. I couldn't quite make out what the new spell was, but it looked much more complicated than the other spells. From what I could tell, it required a painted or otherwise drawn pentagram and five candles. I made a mental note to get to work studying that, after I'd memorized the new fireball spell.
A few hours later a woman in her early thirties/late twenties with brown hair wearing a navy blue uniform walked into the room. "Габриелле Park?"
Are you honestly translating your name into the Cyrillic alphabet?
I really don't like my first name, sue me.
I don't understand your aversion.
I'm a woman, I don't have to justify anything. Now stop interrupting. Now where was I…, oh right. I nodded in response. "That's me." I said, shutting the book.
"My name's Maria Hill. We've run a thorough background check, and it came back clean, but we're going to have ask that you remain in this room when not accompanied by a guard. This is still a military vessel." I shrugged. That was about what I expected, and I'd be lying if I claimed that I was disappointed.
"No problem. But if I do need to use the bathroom or something…"
"There's a button next to the door." She finished for me, pointing at said button. "If you need food, water, or to use the facilities and a guard will arrive shortly. Is there anything you need now?" I looked down at myself.
"Clothes that aren't a cocktail dress and heels would be nice." I admitted. She nodded.
"What sizes?" I paused.
"Uh, in jeans I'm size 10 according to Lee." I said slowly. "And I'm a medium from Volcom." She raised an eyebrow.
"You didn't get that dress by yourself, did you?" She asked.
"I stood still for the fitting and that's about it." I admitted frankly. Maria chuckled.
"And shoes?"
"Eight."
"I assume that's US?" I blinked.
"Most likely." I didn't know there were different sizes for different countries, though I suppose it made sense.
"I'll see what I can find for you." She said, turning to leave.
"Thanks."
Seven hours later
I woke up with a start when the ship lurched to one side sharply, a huge explosion filling the air. Considering the fact that I was on a giant flying metal ship, the possibility of crashing was enough to make me panic more than a little. I'd discovered a force field spell, but I didn't exactly know the upward limits of it, and I doubted that it could protect me from a hundred tons or so of steel crashing down on me after falling several thousand feet. I stared at the door, not sure what to do, when I heard gunfire. That settled that. Now was not the time to test my reaction times and whether or not my force fields could stop bullets. I opened up my book and flipped to the page about the force field spell. "Rise and guard, Lights of the Horizon." A little melodramatic, but better than bad Latin. A wall of solid purple light formed and put itself up around the door before turning invisible. I wasn't sure if it would stop bullets, but at the very least it would hopefully slow any attackers down.
Of course, that didn't solve the problem of the fact that I was on a crashing flying ship. I hadn't found a flight spell yet, so that was out. The gunshots meant I really didn't want to go wandering around looking for a parachute either. And then, because things weren't bad enough already, the roar of something massive filled the air. "Of freaking course." I moaned. At least I was in decent clothes now. Jeans, a white wife beater that unfortunately made my navy blue bra visible, but whatever at least it wasn't a cocktail dress, and boots. If I had to run away, at least I could now without fear of breaking an ankle. Then the door slid open, and a man in black combat gear bounced off the force field.
"What the hell?" The man demanded. I looked at them warily.
"Who are you and what do you want?" I asked slowly, book open to the new fireball incantation because fire would probably cause less damage to the metal than ice or pure kinetic energy.
"Lord Loki has asked us to ensure that you got to the escape ship safely." The other man said. I gulped and looked at the two men. It looked like I needed a new hiding place.
"Uh, thanks but no thanks." I said, holding out my hand, palm towards the door. "Strike out, Lights of the Horizon." The wall of magic shot forward, slamming the two into the wall behind them. I stepped out, only to find three more men waiting for me, all dressed the same as the two I'd just knocked unconscious with guns pointed at me. "Don't you have a ship to be attacking?" I groaned, shoving my book into my bag. I was not faster than three guys with automatic weapons.
"We have new orders." One of them said, gesturing with the rifle. "This way please."
Loki POV
Loki raised an eyebrow as two men escorted his soulmate up the ramp as the human aircraft began to slowly make its ascent. "Were there not five of you?" He asked.
"A SHIELD agent managed to kill one of us sir." The leader of the small squad said respectfully as his counterpart forced the girl into a seat opposite Loki. "She dispatched two more of us when we first located her." Loki gave the girl an interested look.
"So you do know how to actually use that book of yours." He said. She snorted.
"Yep, that's how I took them out. I hit them on the head with a thick book. Your guys were really quite pathetic." Loki smirked. He could appreciate wit.
"I think you know exactly what I mean." He said, leaning back as the craft sped up on its way to Stark Tower. "What spell did you use?" She stared at him warily, then looked away, shifting nervously.
"Force field." She said simply, looking determinedly at the cockpit. Loki nodded, then realized he had made a bit of an oversight.
"…What is your name?" That got her attention. The mortal girl looked at him for a long moment, and Loki forced himself to not notice that the shirt she wore was a little tight for her chest.
"El Park." Loki raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. He could tell that 'El' wasn't her real name, but he wasn't going to call her out on her lie. It would have served no purpose.
"I am Loki of Jotunheim, former Prince of Asgard." He said politely. El's defeat two of his brainwashed puppets, while no great feat for him, was somewhat impressive for a mortal who he doubted was older than two decades and had earned her enough respect for him to be a little polite. For the moment at least. She was still only a human after all.
"…Interesting to meet you." El said after a moment's pause. Loki smirked and nodded.
"Likewise." He said honestly.
Author's Notes
I hope I didn't make Loki seem too nice there at the end. I don't really view Loki as a Death Eater. I think he's at least capable of acknowledging a human's skills and amounting them some slight amount of respect, even if he thinks they're inferior to them. As always, if you think I'm making El a Mary Sue, please point it out either as a review/comment or a PM.
Thanks for reading guys! Please review!