Her shoes were off, her pretty dress was rumpled and she just laid there on the spartan bed with its scratchy blankets, leaning her feet on the wall, splaying her toes. The redhead pilot of the jet had offered her some pills to help her sleep which she had refused with a loud laugh. Because that's what she should have done when forced into an enclosed space at the mercy of people who were shady as fuck, take drugs from them. Quite frankly, it was an insult to her intelligence.
Still, for an isolation room it was surprisingly roomy. She wondered if Crazy Eyes— oh right, Loki—had this much room too. Although this room wouldn't be that much space for him really, he was a tall man...god? Alien?
It was time to do some thinking.
Events so far:
Gala was crashed by magical man using magical sceptre with magical powers
Magical man was doing something that needed her Dad in some capacity, or a part of him at least.
Magical man was stopped by her but also by a shady military organisation that she was guessing was SHIELD judging from the insignia printed on everything.
SHIELD had shown up barely a few minutes after the action went down.
Those were the facts but that wasn't all to them after all. The way SHIELD had shown up so quickly meant that they had prior warning. That meant they knew that Loki was at the gala and they knew that Loki was up to something that wasn't benign.
Loki needed something from Dad. Not his co-operation though so something else which was unusual. Dad was probably the best nuclear physicist in the world, people usually wanted him for his brain and that required cooperation. So something else then but it wasn't like the rest of him was that good. He kept in shape, sure, but he couldn't even throw a punch properly what good was he—
Oh. Biometrics. Loki was going to take Dad's eye out.
She should have hit him harder. And in the crotch. Fucker.
But she was here too presumably as a subject to study the effects of the sceptre. Understandable really because she had come close to losing control over her thoughts when it had been in her hands. The effects of the sceptre were related to the brain so they were probably comparing her brains activity to the scans she had taken for Arnav's project which would be on the university server. Realistically it shouldn't take too long but Loki was their priority right now, which meant that it would take time.
Besides, she'd seen some of the personnel here and recognised them from her early university days. They'd dropped out of Culver or been let go, either way they weren't exactly the cream of the crop so there would be a delay.
She was so bored. But she had a hockey stick and a ball, there could be some fun had anyway.
Tony hummed ACDC under his breath, idly watching the program do its work. Beside him, Banner was clenching and unclenching his fists, for a man who turned into a rage monster he was way more controlled than Tony ever was. Then again, to stay in the helicarrier he would have to be, wouldn't he?
Outside their lab, a group of SHIELD agents were passing them by talking fast with wild gesticulations and Tony wondered what they were talking about. A little command sent to Jarvis had the conversation playing back for him as they waited. Banner threw him a curious look but didn't say anything else.
"—I just calmed down and again, boom! The fuck is going on in the Carter wing?"
Tony and Banner exchanged a look but when he began looking up the Carter wing even Bruce leaned forward curiously.
In the Carter wing, in an isolation room Mila, the girl from the gala, was using the door as a goal. She hit the ball hard enough that it rebounded and she swept at it before it could pass her by, dribbled it before aiming it at the door again. It hit with a loud clang and outside the room the passers-by jumped at the sudden noise.
The loud laugh that escaped Tony got him more of a reaction from Banner than prodding him with electric shocks had done, the scientist jumping at the sound,a vein throbbing in his head.
He liked this girl.
"She moves forward, on the attack, will this be the nineteenth goal for Mila Schafer or the one that got away? She feigns right, moves forward and GOAL—"Her jubilant cry was cut short as the door opened and the ball hits a man's legs instead. "Crap."
The ball idly moved towards her with none of the momentum with which she sent it and the one eyed man glaring at her pursed his lip.
"I see you've been entertaining yourself."
She shrugged. "My iPod was dead and there's no outlet here for me to plug it into."
He breathed in deeply, leaning back. It was a surprisingly threatening move.
"Your results came back in, congratulations, you're not under any influence of the sceptre and you may leave if you wish to." She sagged in relief but it went away when the man smiled. It wasn't very genuine, this smile, and that made her tense up. "However, I would like to invite you to work with Dr Banner and Mr Stark. Your background in nuclear physics might help speed things up."
She tensed and thought it over. On the one hand, she wanted off this giant flying machine and she really wanted to sleep for a few days. On the other hand she might get a front row seat to watch Loki's plans turn to dust and maybe if she played nicely they'd let her rough him up a bit again.
"Would speeding things up make Loki angry?" She asked and her question took the man by surprise.
"And help save the world."
"But he'd be pissed off, foaming at the mouth?" The man looked taken aback by the hope in her voice, which was really just silly. A secret agent with one eye, something that had clearly happened in a near lethal accident judging by the spider web like scars radiating from under the eye patch, would understand violent vendettas.
"Yes."
She grinned, her smile probably reaching Grinch proportions in both, teeth visible and malicious pleasure.
"I'm in."
