After lunch they would meet the new head of operations and Tony Stark hated deadline. Which is why he was playing video games and drinking. He hadn't left his plane since the little mix up with Pepper. If he was ever honest with himself which he only did if Pepper was involved he would admit he was in a funk. Video games didn't hold the mind of a man like Tony long and with resignation finally about an hour and a half before lunch he called her. Pepper answered on the third ring. "What is it Tony?" the aggravation in her voice made him cringe. "I'm sorry. I should have thought about the fact that she's lived in a dungeon for like a billion years and probably had never had a drink. How can I fix this?" She was quiet for a minute "Tony have you been sulking in your plane?" she accused and asked in one sentence. "Uh no." he could never really lie to Pepper. "Oh, God Tony you have! Listen I'm about to go into a meeting. Find out if Althia is ok first and I'll call you back," Tony's head dropped "and Tony, I can't believe I'm saying this," she continued "you might want to thank Loki seeing as he cleaned up your mess." with that she hung up.
'Loki cleaned up my mess.' Tony was suddenly curious. "JARVIS where is Loki right now?" Tony jumped up to shower while his AI went looking. Tony could hear the stewardesses talking to someone as he dressed. "JARVIS?" he asked. "I took the liberty of inviting Mr. Odinson to join you for lunch Sir." JARVIS's voice responded through his phone. Throwing on a pair of slacks and a white button down Tony Stark went to play host. "Good thinking old buddy." He said ask he exited his bathroom. Arriving just as the girls served up fruit, cheeses, and small sushi rolls as the first course.
"Hey, thanks for stopping by." Tony greeted Loki as if they were old friends when he entered the main lounge. "I was glad to receive the invitation I was honestly getting bored." Loki replied as smooth as Tony. "Thank you, Jeannie." Tony acknowledges the cocktail one of the stewardesses placed in front of him and the coffee she provided Loki. "If it's too sweet let the girls know and they can make you a fresh cup. Do Asgardians drink coffee often?" he asked as an opener. "No, actually most either begin the day with some form of alcohol or water. I acquired the taste some time ago." Loki informed him with a grin. "You almost had me there; starting my day with scotch got me titled a lecherous drunk on this mud ball. Though considering the fact that I was might also explain that. I couldn't live without coffee though." Tony quipped picking up one of the sushi rolls. "There's an idea. Once we get your name off the chopping block back home we could work out a deal to import coffee." Tony joked. "A brand new market untapped." Loki smiled as Tony chewed "Imagine thousands of men like my brother chugging coffee for the first time." Tony leaned back seeing the point and grinned while he shook his head "Yeah that could get hard on the architecture." Dropping the idea with a wave of his hand Tony ate his sushi. Loki began sampling some of the fruit on the plate the attractive stewardess had fixed him. Keeping his face schooled in polite interest he found most of the food familiar except the sushi. Both men engages in lit chatter as they ate. Discussing the simulations JARVIS was running and the various materials they were going to need to build the machine that Loki had provided the specifications on. Tony had been surprise by the prince. He had rapidly learned the terminology and technology they used in the lab as they worked together. Finishing the meal Tony dove into the topic he wanted to discuss "So Pepper told me you had to clean up my mess with Althia. Feel like catching me up?" Loki's eye brows rose a bit as he sipped the sweeten coffee Jeannie had kept him provided with. "It wasn't much trouble really. The lady was dancing with the guards so I gave her a partner more experienced in such matters. She swooned in my arms and I tucked her in. That's when things became much more interesting." Grinning mischievously he watched Tony's rapid fire thoughts cross his face. "Well, you're still in one piece so it's safe to assume you and Althia didn't go toe to toe. I think the noise Bruce would make would have woken the dead let alone me. So give it to me straight. What went down while my old lady was cramming me in the dog house?" Tony cut to the chase.
Loki laughed and described the scene at the residence building pausing as Tony had JARVIS retrieve the video footage. They watched it and then after a good laugh Loki described the latest aspect of Althia's power. Tony was thrilled and came up with some fascinating applications for his new favorite girl in the world. Half way through a discussion on getting her drunk near some of Tony's more intractable clients JARVIS interrupted "Excuse me sirs, the simulations Mr. Stark had me run on his prototype are complete. I cannot continue without Mr. Odinson and Ms. Sacmich providing a demonstration of their abilities under observation." Tony took the hot towel a Jeannie offered and cleaned his hands before standing. "Thanks JARVIS drop it on a jump drive and we'll move the party to the lab. "I already have sir." JARVIS responded. "Well, there goes the fun, ready to meet the Ice Princess?" Tony asked Loki as he pulled himself out of his chair having followed suit with cleaning his long hands staring into the eyes of the flirting stewardess. He was enjoying her little behaviors and the attention she paid him throughout lunch. "Oh, this I wouldn't miss." Loki replied as he rose to follow Tony out of the plane. Tony grabbed a small silver object from the stewardess as he walked out. Loki on the other hand stopped and thanked Jeannie her for her gracious attentions raising her hand to his lips with a seductive smile that she returned with a sultry chuckle. Followed by an offer any time he felt the need for company. Once in the jeep Loki relaxed against the side. "Tell me Tony, how do you stand to be in the company of such a bounty of ladies and not sample the fruit?" He asked. Tony lowered his shades to look at the god of mischief. "I noticed you and Jeannie hit it off pretty well." He replied knowingly. "She's a single woman in a modern America. Free to do as she pleases, off the clock." Tony winked at Loki. "Oh, so you wouldn't be bothered by any company she chooses to keep provided it doesn't interfere with her duties?" Tony laughed "To answer your question about sampling the fruit. I don't they are more or less part of the scenery to me now." Pushing his shades back up "Great to look at but more to entertain the occasional friendly visitor." A lascivious grin spreading from ear to ear "I always prided myself on being a good host." Loki laughed. "I shall keep that in mind."
Both men were laughing when they entered the lab. Stopping to greet Althia and Bruce before Tony flamboyantly introduced Loki to Agent Maria Hill as His Highness, God of mischief, Loki of Asgard which didn't get the meeting off to a good start. "I'm going to come right out and say this Loki." she started making his name an insult as she walked directly and fearlessly up to him. "Yes?" he asked politely to find himself punched in the jaw hard enough he had to twist away or fall. "That was for Barton and the Helicarrier." She finished to his back. "My, my first Ms. Foster and now you." Loki turned to look at Tony. Maria grabbed his arm and foot swept him. "That was for NY. " She finished and walked away. Loki was smiling when he got up and dusted himself off "Do you have many more of these. I'd love to have one of my own." He asked Tony as he leered at her. "Watch it Loki, she might decide to keep parts of you in a box under her bed. Parts you might want later." Tony replied in a low tone. "Shut up Stark." Maria Hill snapped. "Ok people show me what you got I don't have all day." She commanded taking a seat at a vacant computer station. "Loki, Tony, don't." Bruce ordered with a grin "Let's just get this over with so we can find a solution to Althia's problem, ok?"
"No, problem buddy you want to warm up the crowd for me?" Tony replied. Loki wisely kept his mouth shut and went to stand near Bruce and Althia. Keeping a respectful distance he could see she was tired after her morning and tell she was fighting the urge to laugh so he winked at her making her giggle behind her hand.
Bruce began explaining the frequent nightmares Althia suffered as a result of her experiences with Hydra and the Smiley man. He quickly skimmed over what they knew was fact regarding her abilities and touched on her remarkable recall and ability to assimilate large quantities of data rapidly with perfect reproduction. "That's what leads me to believe Althia isn't dreaming when she's asleep. She's reviewing, processing, sorting, and storing information she took in." Shifting a holo board around; he brought up the scans done while she slept the day after she healed Loki's injuries. He also brought up one done on the helicarrier shortly after her rescue. "The patterns before and after are nearly identical. Except there is a radical increase in activity here in the frontal lobe during her sleep now than when the initial scan was taken but almost no change in the level of activity in the temporal lobe. What sets her apart is the lower signs of any activity in the brain stem during sleep." Pausing Banner got a sip of water before continuing.
"When she came here to heal Loki she was able to sense the presence of a second entity with in his mind. Loki you want to take it from here while I get set up?" Bruce asked for once without hostility. "Thank you, Doctor Banner, Tony if you please." Loki began waving at the holo board. "Got you covered. JARVIS." Tony replied as he worked at his portable station. JARVIS projected a holo of two white balls within a female form one in the head and one in her chest. Her hands holding it down and a male form reaching out to touch a stream of green and gold. "The nature of Althia's power is two-fold empathic and healing I believe are the words you would understand best. When she uses her power it is a releasing of it. Whereas I have to call my magic to me Althia spends all day and night holding it in." Taking a step forward Loki begins to manipulate the holo as Tony had shown him. "When she tried to heal me the Chitari parasite attempted to force her mind to merge with mine." He showed how because her power is part of her being it prevented a complete merge which would have disabled or killed them both. Instead the parasite inadvertently created a bridge which Loki was able to use to communicate with and work in conjunction with Althia to rid himself of the parasite. A set of stills from the cameras showed the combined powers hovering over Althia's face the worm easily distinguished because of its grey color and the eventual destruction of it.
At this point Bruce chimed back in "What none of us thought to do was check the video to see if it held any clues so I went back and watched frame by frame. There are several things that led me to believe that either A) part of the magic Loki taps into is still inside Althia or B) the less desirable option; she has somehow been altered by the Chitari worm." A series of stills cycled into view. "The effect so far being a physical manifestation of any harm she experiences while in her dream state. Lastly and the possibility we least want to see C) is that both the Chitari worm and Loki's magic are still affecting her." Stepping back to let Loki pick up the area that was his expertise the two men exchanged a nod. "If it is option B or C as Doctor Banner has described then there is no means to deal with it on your world. I would have to petition Odin to allow her to be brought as Jane Foster was to our healers." Maria Hill interrupted at that point "If I remember correctly the Asgardian healers couldn't help Doctor Foster at all. What makes you think they can help Ms. Sacmich?" Loki sighed "Jane Foster carried an infinity stone within her body, a weapon if you like. An object of such immense power that its presence was killing her mortal body. The magic I call and the Chitari worm are not destructive they are tools not weapons." Tony jumped in at that point "It's the difference between having a prosthetic and swallowing a chunk of plutonium." He jerked his head "A bad prosthetic can do a lot of damage before it's corrected but it doesn't automatically start killing the host. The Aether was like Jane swallowed a ton of weapons grade Plutonium raw with a hint of cilantro and lime. Burning her up from the inside but having pleasant defensive side effects." Swiping clean the holo board Tony began rapidly arranging parts to demonstrate. "Right now there's the possibility that Althia has a couple prosthetics she wasn't intend to have and doesn't need. We're just trying to figure out who botched her nose job and if they added a pace maker and or an extra kidney." Glancing over at Althia he winked. "Sorry kiddo, you're stuck with the old nose till we get this straight." She grinned fighting not to laugh as she touched her nose.
Banner walked up and helped Tony arrange things so they started to take shape. "Loki gave us the basic design and specs for a device that will help us detect any trace of his magic on Althia. We can building it with materials fairly common to earth but for the more advanced equipment we'd have to petition Asgard and that violates our treaty with them." The image finally solidified into what looked like a long tuning fork attached to a box under a table.
"Is it portable?" Maria asked. "No, the amount of raw rubidium required makes it too heave. Where ever it's built it's not going to move easy." Tony said. "Not to mention the subject is floated in a non-corrosive solution that is maintained sonically within a narrow range of agitation." Maria hill looked dissatisfied with the solution they had come up with. "I take it the only other option is a field trip?" she asked after a minute. Bruce nodded "The problem with that is I don't think the big guy would tolerate me traveling through the bifrost. Althia may not handle it well either but me going might leaving a mess that damages our ride home. No, Tony could go..." Maria looked alarmed. "No, Stark stays planet bound he's too erratic to not cause an intergalactic incident. Get me a list. Whoever ends up going has to be vetted, briefed, and cleared through me." Bruce starts to fidget and he clenches his jaw "What is it Doctor Banner?" Maria asks. "There's one I know of who could handle the equipment but I don't know if it's a good idea sending her back there." He answered. Maria thought for a minute "Jane Foster, I see what you mean but she's has already under gone the necessary processing and if she goes Thor will which gives us two representatives that Ms. Sacmich is familiar with. She is also already accepted by Asgardian society as an ally her influence could be valuable. If you come up with a better option send it to me but for now we will assume Doctor Foster will be requested to act as our liaison." She finished her eyes catching the agitation on Loki's face. "Do you have a problem Loki?" she asked him directly. Taking a deep breath Loki sighed "Doctor Foster and I have had a number of disagreements. She is also in the habit of assaulting me whenever she sees me." He replied evenly with a raised eye brow. "I like her better already." Maria smiled slightly "if no one has anything further to add meeting adjourned." Walking over to the table where Althia was she looked at the woman calmly "Ms. Sacmich I've heard a lot about you. I'd like to hear your experiences first hand when I have the time." She said. Althia nodded quietly. "Good, I've got work to do send me a list of what you need and the specs so I can get them. SHIELD will foot the cost." With that she got up and left without a word. Tony looked at Loki "See what I mean about ice princess?" Loki grinned back. He had met true ice princesses and they were a warmer lot than Agent Hill appeared to be.