Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing related to Marvel, either the comics, movies, TV shows, etc. All of that belongs to the Disney Corporation (though I might try kidnapping Captain America and Hawkeye some day, just for fun).
AN: Yes, this is another chapter update for this week! Your eyes do not deceive you! I hope that everyone enjoys themselves, and please don't forget to review. Thanks!
Chapter 9: Things Go South, Part II:
I'd never been in an explosion before, but it was definitely something I would not want to experience more than once in a lifetime.
Cap had very sweetly sheltered me from the brunt of it, even going so far as to push me into the hallway once the shrapnel had finished flying. Even though it was rather nice being held and protected by my idol, I wouldn't want to be in an explosion for that kind of situation to happen again.
Lying in the hallway, I began coughing to clear my lungs of dust, my ears struggling to hear what was going on around me. Blinking rapidly in the cloudy air, I could barely make out the shapes of people running all around me, going in different directions.
As I struggled to get myself together so that I could stand, a strong, muscular arm wrapped itself around my waist and pulled me up. While I struggled to get my balance, the arm held me steady, not letting go until I was securely on my feet.
"I'm okay," I croaked, looking up into Cap's eyes. He didn't look convinced. "Seriously, all I've got is a ringing in my ears. Now go," I firmly told him. "They need you!"
Cap didn't move until I pushed him firmly in the chest. "Seriously, I'm fine. Go get this situation back under control!"
He turned his attention towards Tony. "Put on the suit."
Tony was already scrambling to his feet and heading down the opposite hallway. "Yup."
"Be careful," I croaked around the dust in my throat.
Cap nodded before heading off after Tony, leaving me alone to pull myself together.
I knew that the ringing in my ears wasn't going to vanish that quickly, but I managed to gain my bearings enough to assess what had happened, and what was currently going on.
The air was still cloudy with dust, but it was settling. Thor and Director Fury lay on the floor to my left, brushing themselves off as they struggled to their feet. To my right was a huge hole in the floor –and if my memory served me right, Natasha and Bruce had been standing there when the explosion occurred.
"Natasha!" I cried, struggling to get to the hole without causing the floor to cave in under me.
"Adena, don't move!" Fury ordered, stopping me in my tracks. Reaching into his coat, he retrieved a walkie-talkie, which seemed rather low-tech for a government agency. "Agent Romanoff, are you okay?" There was silence from the other end, which prompted Fury to try again. "Natasha! Are you alright?"
This time, there was a crackle, and a reply. "I'm alright," she said, though her voice was strained. "But I think we're going to have a problem soon."
How much more of a problem could we possibly have? The air ship was under attack, and we'd almost been blown to bits! What else was there to worry about?
Then it hit me. Bruce had been pretty agitated before the explosion, and the stress of almost being turned to cat food might just be enough to trigger his larger, greener self. Worse, Natasha was down there, and she didn't stand a chance against something that powerful. Someone had to go down there to help her, but who? Cap and Tony were off doing who-knows-what, and no one else on this ship stood a chance against The Hulk…except one.
"Thor!" I blurted out, getting his attention. He looked a bit dazed, but also angry, which might be helpful. "You've got to help Natasha! I think Bruce might shift, and she doesn't stand a chance in hell if he does!"
Realization dawned in his blue eyes. "Where is she?" he asked, looking over at Director Fury.
"Maybe one or two levels down." Fury's one good eye focused intensely on Thor. "You might not be able to beat him, but you could still at least get his attention and hold it until we can tranquilize him."
Thor nodded. "I will hold him as long as I can." He looked at the both of us. "Be safe." Then he was gone, managing to stumble his way out the door towards his destination.
Meanwhile, Fury looked over at me. "Go back to your quarters," he ordered. "I don't know what hit us, but things just got a lot more dangerous. Lock your door, and if you need help, there's a red button on the back of your bedside lamps. Agents will come as soon as they're able."
I nodded and as he lifted his walkie-talkie to his mouth, I headed out to the hallway, where I paused to listen in on what he was saying. I know I should have done as ordered, but if things were going bad, then they would need all the help they could get.
"Agent Hill, what's going on?" Fury asked, his voice cold and angry.
Sadly, I couldn't hear much of the reply, but I did manage to make out the words 'under attack,' and the horrifying fact that one of the giant propellers had been taken out. That's when I felt the floor beneath me sink a little. I immediately realized that, given how heavy this ship was, if we lost another engine, we'd be going down, fast.
Fighting down my panic of how I did not want to die like this, I furiously tried to think of a way out of this situation. Everyone else on this airborne vessel was probably doing something useful at this point –so why shouldn't I?
It took a little bit of thinking on my part to decide what I should be doing, and where I should go. After all, I didn't know the vessel that well, and since the entire place was in chaos, asking for directions wasn't an option. Neither was offering to help anyone who passed by, since I probably didn't have the skills most of them were looking for.
A slight discomfort in my back pocket reminded me that I had something no one else did: Jarvis.
Whipping out the small computer, I tentatively asked, "Jarvis? Can you hear me?"
The screen automatically lit up. "Yes, Miss," it replied. "How can I be of service?"
Good question: how could Jarvis help me? My brain managed to pull up the memory of Tony saying something about Jarvis hacking into the ship's computer system. If Jarvis was in the computer, could he find a map or readout of the place?
"Jarvis, can you tell me where everyone is? Captain America, Tony Stark, etc.?" I asked.
"Yes, Miss," came the prompt reply. "The Captain and Mr. Stark are currently outside, attempting to repair and restart the damaged engine. Thor and The Hulk are battling several levels below, in the docking areas, with Agent Romanoff nearby."
To my surprise, Jarvis provided a blueprint of the ship, with little colored dots to indicate where everyone was. The blue dot I guessed was Cap, and red was Tony, as they were the only ones outside the ship. Green was obviously the Hulk, and the gold dot clashing with it had to be Thor. A stationary silver dot was probably Natasha, though why she wasn't doing anything had me worried.
"Is Agent Romanoff hurt?" I asked, a knot growing in my stomach.
"Unknown, Miss," Jarvis replied. "She is alive, and her life signs are strong and steady. It could be that she is wounded or in shock, but I am unable to read more than her vital signs."
I quickly absorbed all of my info, and tried to figure out what to do with it. "What about Director Fury? Where is he?"
That took Jarvis a minute. "He is currently on his way to the bridge to assess the situation."
Great; nearly everyone I knew was doing something to save the ship, which left me pretty much alone and useless. Wait; there was still one person I hadn't checked up on…
"Where is Agent Coulson?" I asked, wondering what poor Phil was up to.
All of the dots on the blueprint vanished, and another dot, this one neon blue, blinked on the map. "Is he alone?" I wondered aloud, while silently praying that he had backup.
"Yes," Jarvis declared, which made my heart sink. I couldn't let the poor guy do what he had in mind without someone to watch his back!
"Where is he, exactly?" I asked, watching the dot as it moved quickly. "Or where is he going to?"
Jarvis's reply was lost as another explosion rocked the ship. It wasn't as monumental as the one that disabled one of the engines, but it clearly indicated that there was trouble still going on. I began wondering if the ship had been invaded by enemy forces, and the panic that I had so far managed to ignore came back.
"I'm sorry, Jarvis, but could you say that again?" I said, my voice going high with anxiety.
The answer I got was exactly what I was looking for.
Phil was on his way to the armory –thank goodness for that!
Too bad I didn't know where the armory was.
Even worse, I probably wasn't allowed to go inside there –but then, that's what Phil was for.
Thanks to Jarvis, I was able to navigate my way through the ship and run into Phil just as he set foot in the armory. He looked surprised to see me, and not at all happy.
"Adena, what are you doing here?" he demanded while trying to block my way.
"I figured you'd need help," I replied, checking to see if he really was alone –he was. "Everyone else is busy, and you shouldn't be going off to do something stupid without someone to watch your back."
He looked torn between relieved and annoyed. "You aren't trained in weaponry, Adena! I can't have you risk your life like this. The Captain would never forgive me if something happened to you."
Phil sort of had me there, but right now, Cap was busy doing other things. "Well, you've clearly got a plan in mind, and no one to go with you," I said, crossing my arms. "And I don't think the Director would want you doing anything without help."
For a second, I thought Phil would use a martial arts move to knock me out and get me out of his hair. A long minute passed before he finally sighed, rolling his eyes. "All right," he gave in. "I'm going to regret this, but have you ever fired a weapon before?"
I had to be honest with him. "My dad used to take us shooting when I was little," I admitted. "Just cardboard targets in the desert and all, but I haven't done that since I was twelve or thirteen." I swallowed hard. "And to be honest, guns make me nervous."
That last bit of info should have had Phil looking like he was getting a migraine, but it didn't. Instead, he seemed to be thinking it over, and after a moment, he motioned for me to follow him quietly. I did so, though I didn't see the point in tip-toeing when there was a war raging inside the ship –everyone was bound to be focused on other things than strange noises inside the armory.
Phil ended up leading me to a back wall with all sorts of dangerous-looking weapons hanging behind locked cage doors. Below them were drawers, and from one of these he pulled out what looked like some sort of pistol with an odd end to it. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, but Phil assured me that it was a real weapon…sort of.
"This is our version of a stun gun," he said, pointing to the side of the weapon, which had three lights on it. "There are three levels on it, but we'll keep it at medium power, because you want to knock someone out with only a minor shock to the system. Low power shocks and incapacitates people long enough to cuff them, but it keeps them conscious. Medium stuns someone into unconsciousness, and the shock to the system keeps them there for a few hours. High power will knock a person out for a day or so, and leave the target with a major migraine."
I watched him point to the trigger. "It works just like a gun –meaning you can keep firing round after round, without having to wait for it to charge. Just make sure to not hit someone more than twice at high power, or four times with medium, unless you want to kill them."
Since killing was the last thing on my mind, I had no intention of going to the extreme. 'Unless it's a desperate situation,' I reasoned, taking the offered weapon. Still, stunning someone was better than shooting them, and as Phil had said, I'd have to hit a target at least two or three times to kill them.
"So, where are we going?" I nervously asked as Phil pulled the biggest, most dangerous-looking weapon I'd ever seen from a large shipping container.
He looked his weapon over and held it so confidently I was instantly jealous. "We have to go make sure that Loki's cell is secure."
What little confidence I had took a major nosedive. "Why?" I blurted out, suddenly terrified at having to face Thor's crazy adopted brother.
Phil gave me a sympathetic smile. "We have to make sure that he stays locked up. I've no doubt that this attack is meant to break him out, and we can't let that happen. The Tesseract is still out there –if Loki were to escape, he'd find it, harness its power, and use it to take over the world. We cannot allow that to happen."
No, we couldn't; but that didn't stop me from being scared out of my wits. The mentally unstable Asgardian had scared the crap out of me during those few seconds I'd seen him, and the last thing I wanted was to be in the same room with him again.
'If he could somehow turn the Avengers against each other, I can only imagine what else he can do, even while locked up.' The thought made me shiver.
But I couldn't let Phil go off alone –he was my friend, and he'd been so nice to me during my stay here, even when he didn't have to be. I owed it to him to be there when he went to check on Loki.
And so, swallowing my fear and nervousness, I nodded. "Okay, let's go."
As chaos flowed throughout the ship, Loki stood in his glass prison and smiled, savoring his victory. It might seem premature to celebrate, but his enslaved agents had arrived to free him –they would do so, or die trying, thanks to the power he had over them.
'Once I am free, nothing will stop me,' he smirked to himself as explosions, weapons fire and pain-filled cries sounded nearby. 'Not even Thor and this mismatched group of so-called heroes will be enough to stop the Chitauri invasion.'
Wait, someone was coming. Using a touch of his mental abilities, Loki sensed that it was one of his slaves coming to release him. But there was another presence that tickled the edge of his thoughts –one that was not the subservient creatures that did his bidding. No, this was something else, something that he'd encountered before and had wanted the instant he'd set eyes on it.
'It's her,' he realized, smiling broadly.
She was coming to him, and of her own free will. That made him very curious, as he had not yet had time or the opportunity to touch her with his powers. Why was she coming to him? Perhaps that pathetic Fury had sent her and a team of his fighters to keep an eye on him?
It didn't matter. In a few moments, he would be free…then things would start getting even more interesting!
AN: Shorter chapter this time, but the next one will be longer. Thanks for reading, and please don't forget to review!