Chapter fourteen
"A Lead?" Tony repeated. "How long have you had a lead?"
"How long have you had tracking devices on your friend's gear?" Natasha retorted.
Tony sighed. It was only a matter of time before someone confronted him about that.
"Since Banner went Awol." he answered. "Look, it was never meant to be a way to… to keep tabs on you guys. I never thought it would come to that… I didn't want to… lose track of you. Any of you. In case someone was lost, in trouble. Something I should have done when Bruce was still here."
Natasha uncrossed her arms, and inhaled slowly. She had been harbouring a deep anger and distrust of Tony ever since she had found out he had been tracking each of his teammates. But now, after hearing this explanation… She couldn't be mad. What had seemed like a superior act of someone trying to micro-manage his teammates, was actually Tony's weird way of trying to take care of his friends.
"You could have told us." She said.
"You're right." He admitted.
They were in an empty hallway leading off of the lobby of Stark tower. Sam's rooms were empty, and the guards utterly confused. Natasha recognized Clint's seamless handiwork from their report. Bucky had was gone as well, but nobody was quite sure how. After interviewing the rambling lab assistant, and two of the guards who had been witness, all they knew was that it was someone in a red-and-black body suit. From there the stories differed. The assistant said that the man had teleported. One guard was explaining desperately that they needed more heat-sensitive security, because the man was clearly in possession of some kind invisibility technology. The other guard insisted that the man hadn't appeared like he was teleporting or becoming visible, but more like he was shooting up from being very small.
"So, you wanna explain to me how you know where Steve is?" Tony prompted. Natasha roused herself.
"Well, I don't know where he is." She said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. "But I think Alessia is with him," She was unlocking the intricate passcode on her phone.
"Wait.. why do you think that?" Tony asked blankly, curiosity peaked.
"Because I've been texting her."
"Texting?" Tony repeated. "She has a phone with her?"
"I found her on some security footage at the mall nearby where Sam and Barnes were found." Natasha said, now opening the screen with her and Alessia's conversation. "She had bought a phone there. Then I hacked into the phone seller's database to find all the phones they sold that day and their numbers. I texted all of them something simple, something that could be brushed off as a wrong number, but would make sense to Al. Out of the five, four of them called me out, asking who I was and how I got their number. I think the other one is her."
She handed her phone to Tony. His eyes lingered on her face for a moment, his expression conveying how utterly impressed he was. He turned his attention to the phone.
"What makes you think she's with Steve though?" He asked when he had read all of them. "She said she's with someone 'like doctor who.'"
"I think you probs know him, but youve def heard of him. nICE is one way to describe him. He's like doctor who :P." Natasha read the text over Tony's shoulder.
"Ice, time travel, someone who we've definitely heard of." She listed off. " I can't think of anyone else but Steve."
Tony hummed doubtfully.
"Steve even has the same hair-cut as Eleven." Natasha said, irritated that Tony didn't believe her. "Who else could she mean?"
"Doctor Who is about aliens." Tony said, slowly. Natasha scoffed.
"Since when are you a doctor who fan?" She asked.
"An alien… who we've all heard of." Tony said, thinking aloud. "…But Thor is here." Then Alessia's other clue struck him.
"Ice. shit, Nat."
Tony looked up at Natasha, whose eyes had widened, and skin had whitened with the realization.
"Shit." She whispered.
"Alessia, please, think this through."
"You're not going to stop me."
Alessia was walking along the side of the road, ignoring the pelting rain and the splash of puddles kicked up as cars drove past. Loki was walking alongside her, shouting his entreaties over the sound of the rainfall.
"Darling, you won't accomplish anything with this."
"Fuck you." She spat back. She glared at him. "You knew. You fucking knew people were dying because they're looking for me. You would have just let that keep happening. Fuck you."
Alessia turned to face the road. She stuck her thumb out, hoping to flag down the oncoming car.
"It's not so simple," Loki said through his teeth, each word enunciated sharply, like he was trying hard not to sound irritated even though he was.
"This is bigger than a few Midgardians lives. Muspelheim has a population of over eleven billion. You can't turn your back on an entire planet."
The car Alessia hailed came to a stop.
"Fuck you, Loki." Alessia whispered. The driver was motioning her into the back. She stepped into the car, closing the door behind her.
"He's not with me," She said urgently to the driver of the car, a man with a long, gray ponytail. Loki was walking around to get in on the other side.
"He's not?" The man asked, concerned.
"Please just drive." Alessia said. "Just drive."
"Why does it matter if she answers?" Natasha was rubbing her palms together nervously. Her hands were getting clammy, and she was losing her patience.
"Because otherwise, I have to hack into the phone database and find the phone's gps number, and track down the last spot that number was active and hope she's close to there." Tony said, hitting redial for the third time in a row.
"Well, why don't you just do that?" Natasha snapped. "She's not picking up the phone. Clint Probably told her that's how you track someone's position."
"Everyone knows that. It's in like, every cop movie. You know what Clint should have told her? Not to run off with literal supervillians." Tony switched from the redial screen and opened a new window to start tracking the phone.
Alessia stepped out of the car, her stomach writhing uncomfortably.
"Are you sure this place is safe?" The man with the gray ponytail asked her. He was looking dubiously past Alessia at the location she had chosen. The abandoned factory where she had fallen on razor wire.
"Don't worry about that." She said. She dug the dead phone out of her pocket. "I'm going to get my mom to come get me here. I just needed to shake that guy. Thanks for helping me."
The lie had fallen out of her mouth as easily as if it were the truth.
"Should I stay? I mean, until your mom gets here?"
"I don't think you should. I mean, I'm already going to be in trouble for skipping school, I'd be grounded for life if she knew I was hitchhiking." Alessia stepped back and waved the guy on. "Thanks again for helping me."
The man didn't seem to want to leave. Alessia knew he was trying to be nice and make sure she was safe, but she wasn't actually a sixteen year old who was getting out of an abusive relationship with a thirty-year old. That had just been the first thing that popped into her head when she got in the car. She'd gotten the idea from the woman at the diner earlier.
"Okay." The man said reluctantly. "But, please be careful. The world has some real creeps in it."
Understatement of the century. Alessia thought. She smiled and waved as the man drove away. Once the car had disappeared around the turn of the highway, Alessia turned to view the lot. There was one building that was much older, and more worn down that the other four. She started heading towards it, rain pelting down around her.
Why won't anyone stop for me? Loki thought vehemently. It had been so easy for Alessia to flag down a vehicle. But that of course someone stopped for her. He thought. She's a beautiful young woman. She commands immediate trust. A passing vehicle sprayed Loki with muddy water as it passed. How could I not have realized she would react so strongly? She wants to play martyr for a few dozen mortals. Can't she understand that there is a greater cause here? She could reign supreme in Muspelheim, she is the RIGHTFUL HEIR. She's going to get herself killed because I didn't have the tact to know she would care about human life.
Loki tried to flag down another car. It sped past him. He sighed and closed his eyes. He pictured Raisa, his old chambermaid. Long red hair and small, upturned nose. A ticklish, tingling filled his being. When he opened his eyes, the hands he looked at were slender, pale, and freckled. He waved to another passing car, and this one slowed to a stop.
Alessia kicked the door of the building open. It banged on the wall and bounced back a little as she walked in. The inside of the building was dark and grimy. Rain pounded loudly on the roof, was almost deafening. Alessia held her hands out in front of her, watched as fire plumed from her palms. She turned and dragged her blazing hands across the wall.
The fire spread easily across the wall. Alessia ran her hands up and down it, like she was painting a hot, bright picture. Giddy, she ran to the other side of the door, and dragged her hands across that one, too.
Alessia felt tremendous energy rushing through her as she watched the flames eating away at the building. The fire within her had been starved. She wasn't going to let it go unfed this long ever again. The rush was like a high, and it wasn't just because she was letting her powers come flooding out of her. It was because, for the first time in her life, she was free. There was no limit, no worry that the fire would spread too far. The fire was crawling across the factory floor like an extension of her being. The flames danced up the walls, devoured old rusted barrels, the dry rotted scaffolding, the peeling linoleum tiles. The flames licked the ceiling, catching the second floor. It was the biggest fire she had ever set, and she felt like she could taste the building. She had a very real sense that this inferno belonged to her.
"Are you sure it's safe having someone like him in the house Dad?"
"Shh. You're being rude. Of course it is."
"It's just, I was reading the files that Romanov leaked a while back and-"
"Hope, he's our guest."
Hank and Hope Pym were standing in the kitchen of Hank's upstate new york townhouse. Hope was peering into the living room from the door, plucking at the neck of her blouse. Scott had shown up two hours ago bringing with him three avengers and one highly deadly soviet hitman. He didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with that. Neither did Hank. So now Hope was biting her lip and pretending not to be worried either. This really wasn't how she had pictured spending her afternoon.
In the living room, Sam was cradling the T.V remote and flipping between the news channels every few minutes. Steve was sitting on the couch between Scott and Bucky. Clint was holed up in the upstairs guest room with the phone and Hank's laptop. Scott was sitting in the armchair by the couch pestering Bucky.
"Is it, like, magnetic?"
"No."
"What happened to that spot on the shoulder?"
"I filed off some paint there."
"What's the heaviest thing you've ever picked up with it?"
"I'm not really sure."
"Does it rust?"
"No."
"What's it made of?"
"Vibranium alloy."
"What happens if it gets wet?"
"Nothing."
"Can you feel with it?"
"Sort of."
"Is it removable?"
"No."
"Can you like, bend the joints backwards? Or rotate it?"
"Shhhh!" Sam had landed on a story and was cranking the volume up.
"...despite the rain, the fire has quickly spread to the entire building. There is some speculation that the fire could have been started spontaneously, since the building was previously used to store some hazardous materials. It seems unlikely that this could be another in the ongoing arson attacks, since the area in question is uninhabited, which is inconsistent with the pattern."
"Is that the fish factory?" Scott interjected.
"You know it?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, its only like twenty minutes away, it's right by the railroad. I stopped some kids from tagging it last month."
"Tagging?" Bucky asked.
"Yeah, like graffiti."
Sam, Steve, and Bucky all stared at Scott.
"What? I don't have a crime app to tell me where to go." Scott said defensively.
Sam and Steve exchanged a look. Bucky smirked.
"So- so we should go there, right? It's probably that girl? Right? Someone should get Haw-Clint, right? I'll do it." Scott sputtered. He stood and removed himself before anyone could respond.
Alessia only reluctantly left the building. It was consumed in flames. Her flames. But the building's structure was weakening, and pieces of the ceiling were raining down. She stumbled out the back door and turned to look back at the fire. It was just as big as it had felt when she was inside. Smoke was flooding the sky, violent and gray. swirling against the off-white of the rainclouds.
Alessia's body was hot. Rain was falling in sheets, but she didn't feel anything but the soft rise of steam around her. Her breathing started to slow, and she felt her eyelids slip closed. She forced them back open and fisted her hands. I will not fall asleep. She told herself fiercely. I need to be awake for this.
"It's you."
Alessia turned to look at the speaker. He was standing a few yards away from the building. He was watching her, must have seen her step out of the fire. He was unnaturally tall, at least a head taller than Steve was. His clothes were a strange mixture of wrapped fabric and metal. Two sharp, black horns protruded from his head, amidst his dark mess of curls. His eyes flashed to the red stone around Alessia's neck when she turned to face him. The rain didn't touch him, either, instead a ghostly aura of steam surrounded him.
"It's me." She said.
He reached his arm behind his shoulder and drew a sword out of the sheath on his back. "Sinrutha," He spoke the name reverently. "I've waited a long time for this."
The drive was actually only ten minutes if taken at twice the speed limit, which was the speed Steve was going. The van came to a halt on the gravel lot. The back door slid open the moment the wheels had stopped turning, but even before that the passenger's door had swung open and the occupant had jumped out and into the rain.
"Ally!" Clint cupped his hands at his mouth as he shouted. He had ran ahead of the others and was looking helplessly at the flaming building, trying to figure out a safe point of entry.
"Alessia, are you in there?" He called again. He was pacing, his eyes glued to the flames. "Ally! It's me, Clint! Alessia, can you hear me?"
Sam, Scott, and Bucky had wordlessly spread out to look amid the ruins of the factory. Steve joined Clint at the burning building, circling it, looking for an indication that Alessia was still inside. Something inside the building made a loud crashing sound, and Steve jumped back. Part of the wall visibly fell in. She might be fireproof, but that doesn't mean she's okay in there. He thought.
Sam banged open the door to the largest building.
"Alessia?!" He yelled into it. "It's Sam. Alessia are you in here?"
The broken windows let in a little light from outside and Sam was able to glance around. Beer bottles and a mildewed old mattress were thrown on the floor alongside the rusted barrels from the days the building had served as a factory. Something bright red on the wall caught his eye- spray paint. But no Alessia.
Bucky had taken the building farthest from the fire. He kicked the door in and stepped in cautiously. It was falling apart inside, barely had enough of a roof to keep the rain out.
"Alessia?" He called. The building was dark and he didn't have a flashlight. "Alessia, you aren't in here, are you?"
Something-probably glass- crunched under his boot when he stepped in. "Alessia?" He called again. "Come on, it's not safe in here."
"I FOUND HER! GUYS, SHE'S OVER HERE!" Scott's voice rang out.
Bucky turned and sprinted out. Scott's voice had come approximately from the building closest to the one that was burning. Bucky's heart was hammering as he rounded the building, following Clint, Steve, and Sam. She's okay though, right? Oh god, let her be okay...
"Um, who the hell are you?"
"I'm Antman."
Alessia was standing, perfectly safe, perfectly unhurt, with crossed arms and eyebrow cocked, eyeing Scott skeptically. Next to her, a man was standing up from a kneeling position, pulling a sword out of the ground in front of him. Bucky felt relief rush through him even as he appraised the man with the sword. He was well over six feet, with bull-like horns growing from his head.
"Do you know these men?" the horned man asked Alessia, stance wary. She didn't respond, however, because her face had split into a huge grin when she caught sight of the rest of them.
"Hey! You guys are okay!" She said. She was looking from Sam to Bucky. "I was worried ab-" Clint cut her off by pulling her into a hug.
"Ally, oh my god." He said. Then he released her and looked at the man with the sword. When Alessia had smiled at them, the horned man had relaxed from his battle stance, and was returning the sword to the scabbard on his back.
"Uh, so I guess you made a friend?" Clint asked.
"Right, sorry, this is Reemum...-uh... Ree.. um-" Alessia glanced at the man and offered him an awkward smile.
"I am Reemanaskel Sumnayth." He announced proudly. "I am a tenth generation soldier of the Muspelian crown, and I am honored to be acquainted with the friends of my Queen." and he made a reserved bow to the five of them.
"What the fuck?" Bucky was lost. He pushed his rain slicked hair off of his face and looked over at Sam. Sam met his gaze, his look mirroring how Bucky felt. What. The. Fuck.