Chapter Four
Having Loki prowl around didn't bother Tony as much as he thought it should have. Tony figured that the guy hadn't tried to kill him yet, and they both knew that if he wanted to he'd be out that window again in a flash, agreement be damned. Sitting back in his chair, Tony took his time responding; he wasn't just an inventor, he was also a businessman, and he knew how to play things out. Granted, he had never played business mogul with a half-crazed, self-proclaimed god, however. Tony waited until Loki was in front of him once again before speaking. "Your hocus pocus not up to the task this time?" He sighed, shrugging as he gave his answer. "It could be fun, I guess, and I like fun. Sure, why the hell not; the bonus is that it would probably also piss Fury off." Smirking, he pressed his hands together. "Pissing off Fury is a little hobby of mine."
Loki gave Tony a shark-like grin, his eyes shining like emeralds as he did so. "Excellent choice, Stark." He sat back down in front of the billionaire, crossing his legs and interlacing his fingers. "Now that I have your consent to assist me, I will tell you what it is I require. I need someone of your intelligent caliber to help me create a device that would mimic the Tesseract; before you protest, I assure you that I will not be using it for domination, but instead, as a distraction. I am positive that Fury would be absolutely livid if he found out you were assisting me in this manner."
Staying relaxed as Loki sat back down, he kept his face neutral as he was told exactly what Loki wanted. "Ok, if I'm gonna make this, and I will make it, don't doubt that, I have a few questions. Why do you want it so badly then if not to conquer this world? What guarantees do I have that A- you won't try and kill me later, B- that you understand this may take some time, and C- that I won't regret doing this? If I am gonna make you the equivalent of an all powerful artifact, then those are my terms. In return, if this isn't something that is harmful for the inhabitants of this world then you have my guarantee that I won't run off and tell the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. That goes for JARVIS too." Tony leaned forward a bit to take another swig of his drink. "So Loki, do we have an accord?"
Loki mulled everything over in his head before extending his hand to Tony. "We do indeed have an accord, Stark. And you have my word that I will not attempt to kill you- I admire intelligence and yours rivals my own. I could never kill someone like that. You will have your time, and I will see to it that you will not regret this decision. As to the reason behind my need for a mock Tesseract, I have need to throw certain beings off of my trail, if you catch my drift. "
Tony shook Loki's hand, clasping it in a firm grasp. He had just made a deal with the God of Mischief; Pepper would kill him if she found out. Standing up, Tony walked over to the bar and sat his glass down on the counter. He had long since lost count on how many drinks the two of them had shared, but knew it was enough to kill a bottle of seventy year old scotch. He would blame the alcohol for this deal of his if anything went sour, providing he survived to tell the tale, of course.
"You know, you're really lucky to have me, Rudolph. I had JARVIS keep a copy of the files detailing everything that happened with the Tesseract on my private server. I actually have quite a lot of data on it, as well as all the crap you had Selvig install on my roof. I love you Jarv," he said, beaming up at one of the cameras in the corner of the room.
"The sentiment is returned, Sir," JARVIS responded smugly.
"I am indeed very lucky to have you, Stark," the god nearly purred, eyes gleaming as always.
"So, when do you wanna get started?" Tony turned to Loki with a grin, eager to begin his latest project.
"We can start whenever you wish, though obviously the sooner, the better. Perhaps I will indulge you with a tale or two while you work."
"Well, no time like the present, come on," Tony stated as he started walking towards the elevator that would take them down to his lab. The possibilities of picking a god's mind apart, intellectually of course, was making Tony giddy. He got inside the elevator and held the doors open for Loki to join him. "JARVIS, bring up file PoF83845SKMA."
"Right away, Sir."
Loki had to admire Stark's enthusiasm. He got up and strode across the living room towards the elevator and stepped inside. He watched as the doors closed in front of him and found himself standing extremely close to the billionaire without actually intending to, not that he minded, of course. "Where should I start, Stark?" he asked, subconsciously licking his lips.
Tony was seriously excited. He knew he shouldn't be, this was Loki after all, but he knew that he was probably the only person to ever have the opportunity to work with this kind of technology and theory. Sure, Tony had created a new element in Afghanistan but it had been a life-or-death situation; he didn't get the chance to enjoy the fruits of his labor. "How functional do you need it, I mean it's kinda obvious that you want a fake, but it needs to be a damn near-undetectable fake. Like you said you're trying to get someone off of your back. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the guy you want off your case is the same person I probably royally pissed off with that nuke, huh?"
Loki listened as the man spoke about the fake Tesseract they would need to create in order to throw Thanos and The Other off of Loki's trail. "Your assumption is correct, Stark, and I would prefer if it was functional enough to pass as the real thing without actually being the fully-functional Tesseract. The Other and The Mad Titan need to be convinced that it is real, but do not need to wield its power." The god placed his hand upon Tony's shoulder as he spoke his next words. "This stays between us, got it?"
Tony stilled at the contact but gave Loki a sideways look. He put his hand up to his arc reactor. "Who would I tell anyway? JARVIS? He already knows. Well I may tell Dum-E..." Tony trailed off at that, suddenly remembering that Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers were under the ruins and rubble of his Malibu mansion, which was now in the Pacific ocean. Tony's excitement dimmed a bit. "Yeah, no worries Reindeer Games. Only people that will know, already do."
Loki cocked his head at Stark's sudden change in demeanor, a quizzical look upon his face. He let his hand linger for a moment longer before withdrawing it, letting it fall back to his side. "Are you alright, Stark?"
Glancing at Loki and giving him one of his winning-but-fake smiles, Tony replied. "Yeah, everything is cool. I just remembered that Dum-E and the rest aren't here."
"Dum-E?" the god asked, not sure who the mortal was talking about.
"Dum-E was my first creation, but some would have called him a failure. He messed up a lot, loved the fire extinguisher a bit too much, and had a nasty habit of dropping things, but he was my first AI...I guess you could say he was kinda like a child to me."
Loki's eyes darkened slightly as Stark spoke. "I'm sorry for your loss, Stark. I know of that pain," he said as he set his jaw.
Giving a sigh as he shrugged his shoulders, Tony continued. "Not much I can do really; like I said they are buried under tons of rubble underwater. It's really my fault though. Never, ever give your enemy your home address. Then again it's not overly hard to find my homes, is it?"
Loki smiled, chuckling a bit. "Your homes are never hard to distinguish, that much is certain, Stark. I certainly had no issues finding you," he said, his eyes glimmering with mischief.
"Thanks," Tony said, returning the grin. Sobering up once more, he looked the god in the eye again. "Though, I think this is personal to you too, yes? You've lost children, haven't you?" Tony tripped over himself a bit, biting his tongue as he realized that being alone in an elevator with a certain, and certainly dangerous, Loki Laufeyson probably wasn't the best time to be having this conversation. "I mean, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, I don't want to pry, but it helps a bit to commiserate with someone that knows your pain, you know?" He gave the god a small smile and hoped that green flames didn't shoot out from Loki's hands.
"My losses aren't truly gone as much as they aren't easily accessible to me," Loki replied curtly. He didn't feel like going into the specific details of how Odin stole Sleipnir from him, or how Jörmungand was trapped on the outskirts of Midgard, or how Fenrir was banished to the shadows, or how Hela was sentenced to the darkest realm of all in the Yggdrasil. He stood up straighter and waited for the elevator to stop.
"Huh, I guess you could say that's one more thing that we have in common, our 'kids' aren't accessible to us. Mine are under rubble in an ocean and yours are... wherever they are," he said, scratching his head as he spoke. "Well we have mythology that tells us where they are but I'm not so sure how accurate those stories are, to be honest." The rest of their ride was silent.
The elevator stopped then, having traveled from the penthouse to the lab. Once the elevator doors opened, Tony gestured for Loki to go first. "After you. Now let's get this show on the road." Tony walked out after Loki and headed to his desk, where a holograph of the Tesseract was waiting for him to examine. He picked it up and turned it around in his hand, as he had done countless times before. "So functional but not functional. Got it. Maybe it works briefly but fizzles out say, half way through a teleport?"
Loki took in the shop around him. The technology was unlike anything he had seen, but reminded him vaguely of the elven workshops in Alfheim. "Seeing how I am the only one who knows where the actual Tesseract is kept, I plan on using the real one for display of power and then swap it out with the mock device. If you can make it work for a moment, but not long enough to be successful in its endeavors, we may have a shot of getting The Other and The Mad Titan off of my ass," he said sourly.
Tony nodded, inspecting the holographic Tesseract for a moment longer, "Here, catch," he said as he tossed it at Loki. "Pretty neat, huh?"
Loki caught the holograph and inspected it closely, mimicking Stark's movements to enlarge the cube. Meanwhile, Tony started pulling up various charts and graphs using his numerous screens. He grabbed some, moving them to a file folder while he balled up others, tossing them away. Loki sat the cube back down on the desk where Stark had got it from, but not before looking over at the genius to ensure that he was placing it in the correct area. Tony gave Loki a nod and went back to researching the Tesseract. Loki walked up behind the mortal and watched him, leaning over his shoulder as he read what was on Tony's screen.
Tony poured over the data for a while, glancing over his shoulder to see Loki watching him. He wasn't used to having company in his lab, and definitely wasn't used to having someone peering over his shoulder as he worked. "Hey look, I think I can make something like the inside energy, but the outer shell is going to be the troublesome part," he said as he turned around to face the god.
Loki nodded curtly as he stepped up next to Tony. "I may be able to assist you with the outer appearance using my magic, but we'll have to work together to make it work." He paused as an idea crossed his mind fleetingly, but his thought process was interrupted by Stark's musings.
"You know, I can't get over how much you and I have in common. It's kinda scary. If mythology is correct, you and I are really are a lot alike. Both of us miss our kids, both have had absolute dicks for fathers; it just blows my mind."
"The myths and legends that you mortals have known do have some truth, but are also fabricated from lies. I rather like them, actually." He smiled again as he placed his hand on Tony's shoulder. "Maybe I'll tell you the real stories some time," he stated.
A/N: Sorry if some of the mythology is not correct, I took a few creative liberties in order to make things fit into the plot a bit better. Anyways, thanks for reading! Feel free to review :)