Hey, everybody! Happy Saturday! Hope you all had a good week! Time for chapter six, and I'm pleased to say that it's one of the longer chapters. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter Six
"I shall provide you cover," I said as Barton gathered weapons for his team. "I'll distract SHIELD and clone the eye while you proceed with obtaining the iridium."
"I can't have you do that, sir," Clint refused as he slipped arrows into his large quiver.
"I'm the one they're after. They're most likely looking for me rather than the rest of you. I cause enough trouble to get taken by SHIELD. Then, I can neutralize the threat of this Avengers Initiative," I offered. "You said it yourself. When Banner is threatened…"
"He destroys everything in sight," Agent Barton finished. "If they capture you, and you somehow manage to put Banner in enough danger to bring out the Hulk…"
"He will destroy them," I added. "Then their SHIELD is out of our way."
Clint nodded slowly along with my words before looking me over. "Then you can't go into a fancy Earth party dressed like that. You'll stick out too much." Barton lifted a case with an assault rifle stored inside and moved passed me to store it in the van they were taking to the private airfield.
I concentrated on my magic and cast an illusion to alter my Asgardian clothing to a formal Midgardian suit. I morphed the Scepter into a simple cane with a glowing, blue jewel at the top. By the time Clint turned back around, I looked like any other Midgardian.
He froze at the sight of me before scoffing. "I was going to get you some fancy, rich guy clothes, but that works, too." I smirked at his reaction. "We'll get you out after you bring out the Hulk," Clint assured.
I nodded. "And perhaps we should move the Tesseract if they somehow manage to get its location out of me," I suggested.
"Want us do do it without your knowledge, then?"
"Yes," I confirmed. "I believe that would be best."
"Sir?" Eric called.
I turned towards the sound of his voice and found him approaching Clint and I with two devices in his hands. "What?"
"The device to clone the eye," he explained as he got to us. He held the smaller of the two devices out to me. "This one would be yours, sir." I took it from his hand and examined it. It three prongs circled around a metal cup that glowed blue, and there was a button on the silver top that was meant to activate the device. "Hold this over his eye, and it will be replicated here." Selvig passed the second, larger device to Clint Barton. "Hold this up to the recognition scanner and the image of the eye will appear."
Clint nodded and loaded the large device into the back of the car. I stowed the hand-held version in my suit jacket and waited for the others to finish loading up the rest of the equipment.
The flight was long but uneventful. It gave me a chance to get more detail on everyone involved with the Avengers Initiative from Clint and the rare opportunity to sleep. When we finally landed, I parted ways with Barton and his team. They went to Schafer's place of business, and I went to the party.
Night had fallen in Germany, so it was easy to see the bright, flashing lights of the event. I didn't try to hide, though I didn't announce my presence either. I couldn't draw so much attention to myself that SHIELD would think it a trap. My clothes gave the impression that I belonged among this rich class of Midgardian people, and I carried myself lightly, never glancing anywhere except for where I was going. I acted like I owned the place and walked right in without anyone stopping me. The humans milled about in the halls with thin glasses of champagne, conversing with one another while the orchestra played.
Barton said that he and his team would only need about fifteen minutes to get in position by the time I got to the party, so I traveled the halls above the main event, watching Schafer. No one looked at me twice as I made my way down the stairs when the fifteen minutes were up.
The crowd was large, and I needed them to disperse. If they were too close, they would interfere and not give me the time I needed to accurately clone the eye. Intimidation and fear are the best ways to get people to scatter-especially humans.
I spotted Schafer over the edge of the landing and quickly descended towards him, gripping the disguised Scepter. I noticed a man guarding Schafer's back who had a lanyard around his neck, marking him as security for the party. I flipped the cane in my hand and used the blue jewel at the top to hit him on the side of the head with enough force to push him over.
The sound of the man's impact on the hard floor gained the attention of several party attendees, and they gasped and scrambled backwards. Schafer instantly turned to face me, and I grabbed the front of his suit before he could run off. I forced him towards a decorative table that had a carved bull on either end. I flipped him over and slammed him down onto the golden surface. The people screamed all the more as I pulled out Selvig's device. I hit the button on top, and the prongs extended, a blue light coming from the metal cup. I knew that Barton was ready on his end when the prongs started to spin, so I brought the device down on to Schafer's left eye and held him while he squirmed, straining to get away.
The people scrambled, screaming as they fled like a disturbed ant colony. Welcome waves of its familiar power rocketed through me as I watched them run. We were making progress, and this level of commotion was sure to draw attention from SHIELD.
The blue glow from the device faded, letting me know that the job was done. The prongs retracted, and I drew the device back from Schafer's eye, placing it next to him.
The people ran and screamed, filling me with an odd satisfaction. Perhaps it wouldn't be terrible to actually rule these people. I was above them, after all. As both an Asgardian and a Jotun.
I finally dropped the Midgardian disguise and followed the humans as they fled the building. My Asgardian armour and horned helmet formed in a golden light, and the cane elongated, revealing what the Scepter truly was.
The street was fret with the same chaos as the party. Humans scrambled and screamed, some glancing back towards me as they ran. Sirens sounded, and a vehicle raced around a corner as it flashed orange-yellow lights. It was heading straight for me. I lifted the Scepter and delivered a blast towards the tires of the vehicle. The blast was enough to flip the car over as I passed-it missed me by inches-but not enough to kill the people inside. I didn't want to kill anyone. Killing wasn't exactly something I ever enjoyed-unlike Thor who slaughtered just about every enemy we came across with a smirk on his face as he asked for a new opponent.
The street I was on was surrounded by buildings and had very few roads out of it. I sent a projection of myself to block the path most of the humans were fleeing towards. "Kneel before me," the projection demanded as the Midgardians ran into each other.
They each turned around and tried to run down other paths, but I created two other projections to block those roads as well, trapping them where they stood.
"I said, 'Kneel!'" I shouted, slamming the end of the Scepter down onto the stone ground, the blue light of the Gem flashing brighter from both myself and my projections.
One by one, the Midgardians got down to the floor. Some bowed their heads, and others stared at me with terror in their expression.
Waves of calming and exciting power radiated through me from the Scepter. This was good and right.
"Is not this simpler?" I asked, lifting the Scepter as I started to walk through the crowd of kneeling humans. "Is this not your natural state?"
I briefly wondered if they could understand me. Midgard had hundreds of languages, and I didn't know them all, but the Scepter assured me that they could. That flash of power from the Stone must be acting as some sort of translator.
"It's the unspoken truth of humanity," I continued, the Scepter's power coursing through me all the more, "that you crave subjugation."
Some of them glanced up at me, only to look back down at their feet. There were questions and defiance in their eyes, but that would soon disappear. What I said was true. They enslaved and imprisoned each other without hesitation. They would soon realise that and stop fighting.
"Freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power." The wars that they have fought were all about gaining power over each other, and they have the nerve to call themselves a free people? "For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel." Whether it be to each other or to me, they always would.
An aged man slowly got to his feet and glared at me. "Not to men like you," he said curtly.
"There are no men like me," I assured, laughing slightly at his bravery.
"There are always men like you," he corrected.
The humans, apparently, needed a bit more motivation to stop fighting. I raised the Scepter as I spoke, "Look to your elder, people." I aimed the sharp point of the Scepter towards the man. The Scepter glowed, its power washing over me as I prepared a blast of energy. "Let him be an example."
The man's eyes widened, and he trembled as he took a step back. The blast tore itself from the Stone in the Scepter and raced towards him, but something or someone landed in front of it at the last second, deflecting the blast with a blue and red shield. The Scepter's energy hit me in the chest, my duplicates disappearing as I lost concentration on them and tried to absorb that energy. It was enough to keep me in place but not enough to keep me standing.
I looked up from the ground to find a man in a ridiculous ensemble of red, white and blue and a large white "A" in the middle of his blue helmet, Captain America's distinctive shield gripped in his hand.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else," several of the humans got to their feet as he spoke, "we ended up disagreeing."
I had learned about Midgardin history in school, so I knew well enough that he was comparing me to Hitler. I was not like him. All he preached was death. I promise peace.
"The soldier," I spat as I recollected myself and stood. Everyone he knew from the 1940's was surely dead by now. He would be easy enough to defeat if I unfocused him. "The man out of time."
"I'm not the one out of time," Stephen Rogers retorted.
A large, black, flying vehicle appeared in the darkened sky and hovered above us. Something came out of the bottom of it, and a voice rang through the air. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," she ordered.
If I was going to get captured and wanted them to be around the Scepter long enough to destroy themselves, I couldn't make it look like I wanted them to take me.
I raised the Scepter and delivered a powerful blast towards the craft, and the large vehicle easily dodged it. Rogers' shield impacted my chest. My armour managed to absorb the impact, but it still pushed the air out of my lungs. Before I could fully catch my breath again, Rogers ran up to me and delivered a sharp punch to my jaw. He was stronger than I thought he would be, but I could still easily beat him.
I brought the blade of the Scepter towards him as the people got up and ran as fast as they could, screaming. Rogers blocked with his shield, so I used the blunted end of the Scepter to push the shield out of the way and jab him in the stomach. The force I hit him with sent Rogers rolling several feet away, but he quickly got back up, glaring at me as he threw his shield again. I knocked the painted, metal thing away, and Rogers came up behind right it, punching me again.
I brought the Scepter up to hit him away again, but he leaned back enough to dodge. When he righted himself again, I used the thick, sharp end of the Scepter and hit him in the back, throwing him a few feet away. He managed to roll to his knees, but I marched up to him and jabbed the blunted end of the Scepter onto his helmet, keeping him down.
"Kneel," I ordered as he hissed and panted.
Rogers suddenly grabbed the Scepter and stood, "Not to day!" he shouted, jumping up and delivering a sharp roundhouse kick to my side.
The force made me stumble back, but I kept my feet under me. Rogers took advantage of my stumbling and came at me again, but I caught him at the shoulders and threw him away from me again. He landed on his side and rolled even further.
Loud, Midgardian music suddenly blared throughout the streets, and Rogers glanced up, looking just as confused as I was. I followed his gaze and found a golden streak flying towards us, the silhouette of a man quickly coming into focus. A second golden light extended out of the silhouette and hit me in the chest with enough force to throw me down onto the stairs, sparks from the blast bouncing off of my armour. The Scepter slipped from my grasp, and I instantly sat up and glanced around for it. I found it lying carelessly on the stone ground behind Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit.
Stark lifted his hands and readied various weapons from his arsenal and fixed them onto me. "Make your move, Reindeer Games."
Reindeer Games? What kind of an insult was that? It didn't matter. I'm outnumbered now. It's time to be taken in.
Rogers had regathered his shield and walked up next to Stark as I slowly put my hands up, my armour disappearing. It left me vulnerable in my casual, leather clothing, but it would allow them to take me in.
Stark's weapons retracted into his gold-titanium suit, and he put his hands down. "Good move," he confirmed.
"Mister Stark," Rogers panted.
"Captain."
Hope you guys liked the Germany scene! It was pretty complicated to write for me-especially the "You will always kneel" part. As Tom Hiddleston said when describing Loki, "Every villain is a hero in their own mind." I had to justify what Loki was saying here to make it look like he's in full control and feels that this is justified and not just blame the scepter for everything. Anyways. See you soon for chapter 7!