I'd more slid than jumped actually, so I felt the wall as I fell and hit the small ledge perfectly. Unfortunately, my landings were never really that great and as I landed I nearly toppled over the edge, arms cartwheeling in an attempt not to go through the Loki experience. But I needn't have worried as a hand grabbed mine and pulled me to my feet without sending me over the edge.
I looked over to my so-called rescuer and blinked as I saw Thialfi standing beside me, looking at me with a mixture of worry, annoyance and amusement.
"Are you Midgardians always this reckless?" he asked, looking about wearily in case the Chitauri had noticed our… well, I can't call it an escape, can I? Not yet, anyway.
"I can't speak for everyone, but I will say that we don't like being kidnapped to alien planets," I replied, then asked the question that was circling my mind. "When did you get out of the cell?"
"I was quick to follow when you jumped," he replied, indicating to the drop he added; "I had a feeling you might end up in trouble."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said with a sigh, ignoring the blank look he gave. "Now that we've accomplished part one, we need a part two."
That seemed to worry him slightly and he looked about in case the Chitauri decided suddenly to leap out at us.
"You do not have a plan?" he asked.
"I do what I do with stories," I replied, again he looked at me confused. "Have an idea, have an ending and wing it until I reach said end; In this case, my idea is to get the Tesseract, my ending is to go home with said Tesseract and as to how that will come about I'll come up with a plan as I go along- it makes it easier to deal with unexpected occurrences."
"Like that," said Thialfi pointing out the doors of the building next to the cell which had swung open to allow the Chitauri to exit and cross the long, winding path up to the area where The Other was. A long, steady stream of them- like an ant trail- and I wondered where they could be going. A question which was answered when the familiar form of a portal appeared and the Chitauri began to head through that.
"Okay, next part of the plan is go through the portal before they take the Tesseract and leave us stranded here with The Other," I said, hoping that they wouldn't turn and notice us two standing here like a duo of idiots. "Is that building the TARDIS or something?"
There didn't seem to be an end to the numbers and the building couldn't have held too many without it getting incredibly uncomfortable.
"And how do you know they will take it with them?" enquired Thialfi as I considered the dangers of tackling a few of these guys to the ground and stealing their weapons. Probably not good because I would likely to get my ass killed before I'd got near them- even if I used Thialfi as a human shield, well… Asgardian.
That was a joke, in case you were wondering.
"Well they obviously aren't going to invade Earth, so they must be going to meet up with the rest of the army," I replied, feeling edgy and impatient. "We are stuck in a very small place so this is not likely to be the whole of the army, they also don't seem to have any ships or Leviathans stored here and their trap hasn't worked yet. My guess is that they're relocating to their main base to go through with said plan and will take the Tesseract so they can send their Avenger prisoners here where they will be unable to do any damage."
The Asgardian looked impressed with my figuring this out and I felt proud mixed with annoyance-did people expect me to be an idiot because I wasn't a trained warrior? How insulting.
"So we are to somehow follow them through the portal without being noticed, go to their base without any weapons or backup, somehow get the Tesseract off them and leave before they can catch or kill us," he surmised. "IS that the gist of your plan?"
"Yup," I confirmed.
"And how exactly are we supposed to do this?"
"I told you- make it up as we go along," I replied stubbornly. I had no desire to start coming up with a plan to show how hopeless this idea was- although to be honest it was quite clear from that summary.
"Then I think we'll be waiting until your Avenger friends and the prince are captured," said Thialfi, rubbing at the bridge of his nose.
"Lightbulb," I said, an idea hitting me.
Again the Asgardian gave me a bizarre look.
"We sneak inside the building, steal some armour and weapons then wait until there are only a few Chitauri left on this side, take them down and steal the Tesseract," I explained. He gave me an incredulous look, probably doubting my sanity regarding this plan.
"Come on, I thought you Asgardians were supposed to be strong warriors with little common sense," I said to him with a grin, and to my surprise he looked more amused than angry. "Reckless charging and battling are your areas."
"You make it all sound so easy," he commented and I rolled my eyes. "And how will we get in the building with enough time to still be able to catch those last few Chitauri?"
I looked around, there appeared to be only one way into the building… one door at any rate.
"We go that way," I said, indicating to the window (or hole) on one of the supposed upper levels of the building. "I reckon we could easily get onto the roof of the cell."
"Well you will be going first," said Thialfi as he looked up towards said area. "I'll be beneath you in the likely case that you fall."
"Oh ye of little faith," I muttered under my breath as he prepared to help me up to the window again.