Tada! Second chapter. This is exciting, guys. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favourited so far! I really, really appreciate it.
After their rather abrupt landing, Lana flew forward, being caught by the good Captain, who saved her from her demise of slamming into the other side of the craft.
"Are you okay?" he asked with a concerned gleam in his eye, setting her down in an upright position.
"Yep, yep, I'm good." She replied as they all began to exit."Thanks," she began, "I appreciate not being turned into a human pancake." he nodded his head in reply as the all followed Stark.
"Lana, you're a bit clumsy, aren't you?" Stark asked, and was met with said girl glaring daggers at him. He put one of his hands up in mock surrender as he led them all into his 'living room', where he continued to drag whatever was in the suitcase.
The room they entered from the outside was several times the size of Lana's apartment, Stark, after dropping his suitcase on the ground beside him, and set down his 'house rules'. Lana elected to ignore most of what he was saying as she looked around some more, still stunned by how big this one room was.
"Okay, you," he pointed to Loki, glaring at the fallen god, "do not leave, I repeat, do not leave this tower, except with permission and a giant escort." Knowing Stark, he probably meant every SHIELD agent in the building. "And no killing or maiming anyone." He pondered what he had said for a moment, before adding, "Except, maybe, yourself. I wouldn't have a problem with that."
Thor cleared his throat, giving Stark a look, which made Stark retract that statement. "Okay, maybe not." But he continued to nod his head as Thor's giant head veered off to look elsewhere again.
He turned to the rest of his company. "Okay, the rest of you? Ask FRIDAY where your rooms are. I'm going to the lab." He yet again grabbed the suitcase, and walked a couple of feet before turning around to face Banner. "You coming?"
"Actually, I was thinking-" Banner began, before being cut off.
"C'mon? What's the worst that could happen?" Stark said, wagging his eyebrows. "I got a new toy." he said gesturing to the suitcase. I don't know, maybe something blowing up? Lana thought. The way Banner looked, he probably thought that, too.
"Do you really have to ask that question?" Banner sighed, as he shook his head, and followed Stark out of the room. "Is it really-"
"What you think it is?" Stark asked, before finishing the question. "Yep." Lana really didn't want to know. Actually, maybe Lana needed to figure out what was in the suitcase to keep what little sanity she had left intact. Banner sighed, and left the room with Stark, Stark sending one last suspicious glance towards the god of mischief before leaving the room.
"Come, Loki." Thor said suddenly, gesturing for Loki to follow him. "We shall ask FRIDAY where our rooms are located." Loki remained stubbornly still, almost daring Thor to make him.
"Loki." Thor said again, an edge of threat to his voice. Loki glared at him, but aquested, and followed Thor after he had attained their rooms' locations. Clint followed behind, not trusting Loki for a second it looked like, but then again, who would?
Natasha and left soon afterwards, talking on her phone, presumably to Fury, informing him of the little that had happened.
The Captain stood awkwardly around for a moment, before sitting on a massive couch. She would have sat down beside him, but she wasn't really in the mood for socialization, and instead, asked FRIDAY where the library was.
"Two floors down, Ms. Lazar."
"Thank you."
"You're quite welcome."
"Okay, then." She nodded her head awkwardly at the Captain, who just as awkwardly returned it, and walked to where she assumed the stairwell was, which turned out to be a pantry. A pantry was the only word Lana could think of, because it wasn't quite a pantry; more like a giant wine basement, but with more scotch than anything else. This room, too, was larger than her apartment. She shook her head and closed the door.
"Oh, yeah, Lana." Stark's voice crackled over the intercom.
"What, Stark?" she sighed, annoyed that he had literally just left, and he was still bothering her.
"Dinner at seven in the kitchen. Don't be late. Be sure to wear that smile that you wear sooooo much."
She sighed again, rubbing her eyes, and tried the next door, ignoring Stark. She really wasn't looking forward to dinner. All of them? Sitting at one table with knifes and forks? Maybe she could just skip? Or, maybe, she could stab Loki with a fork to the hand before being brutally torn apart and murdered? That would work, too.
After eventually finding the library, and spending several hours in it, reading Stark's beyond massive book collection, which included many first editions, she found her way to her room and proceeded to flop onto the bed. When, she was in the library, though, she couldn't help but feel like something or someone was watching her. She had the annoying prickle on the back of her neck on and off for the entire time that she was there.
She glanced at the time given to her on a black desk: 6:49. She groaned, realizing she was more than likely going to have to go and socialize with people. Normally she would be all for talking and laughing, but Loki was probably going to be there, and it was not worth the emotional damage it would cause her to deal with him. Because to be honest, he would probably see the fork coming for his hand a mile off, and it would end up in her eye.
"Bah humbug." She continued being potato like on her bed for the next several minutes, deciding to forgo dinner in lieu of getting dinner later when she went to pick up some of her things from her apartment, which she would have to do now, because she had to stay in the godforsaken tower. She decided to flip through her packet on the Avengers, and discovered it wasn't a physical copy, but in fact a file on the holographic projection system on the desk provided in her room. When looking through Stark's file, she noticed the inactive status in the Avenger's Initiative. She snorted. Like Stark would ever actually be inactive from something like that.
"Hey, Laaaaana." She heard Stark's voice again, speaking of the devil himself.
"What now?" she groaned again.
"Looks like dinner's gonna have to wait."
"Why, exactly?" she tried to sound annoyed, but was internally relieved. Dinner was a no-no.
"They found more bodies. They're like the other ones. All turned inside out and that fun stuff."
Stark continued, and excited tone to his words."Do you know what that means?"
"People are, oh, I dunno, dead, maybe?" She really hoped she wouldn't have to go. After all, it's not like she could tell whether the gory bodies were lying or not.
"That, aaaannd... Field trip!"
"Oh, god." This was not going to end well.
"Yes, actually! So, c'mon, up and at 'em, Whizkid! We're in need of your lie detection skills." She perked up, wondering who she was going to have to validate.
"So you read your packet, then?" She thought for a moment. "And Whizkid? Really?"
"Yeah, really! And of course I did! I always do the reading. I'm offended that you think I wouldn't!"
"Yeah, sure. Are you suuuuuure you didn't look up a summary? Because I'll admit, it is a bit long." Something sounded off about his voice. He was actually trying to lie, at least in part, to her. He shouldn't have bothered, if he'd read the file.
"Summary? Now, where would I get that?"
"I'm assuming FRIDAY could probably do it for you."
"I dislike you."
"The feelings mutual." she chuckled at his silence. He was probably pouting. "So, where exactly am I meeting you guys?"
"Downstairs. Ten minutes." The comm clicked, indicating communication had been ended.
"Downstairs isn't vague at all, now is it?" she muttered to herself, grabbing her parka that she had thrown on the other side of the enormous bed.
She arrived at the level where they had all departed ways from each other earlier, figuring that was most likely meant by 'downstairs'. She was met with the sight of Stark, who was donning his iron suit.
"Is that really necessary? We're going to look at bodies, not to go fight a war."
"I agree with that." said the Captain, entering the room from the same way that Lana had come from. He was wearing his civilian clothes, meaning he didn't expect there to be that much trouble. "Stark, take it off."
"That desperate for some action, Cap?" The Captain stepped forward. "But I just put it on." he whined. The Captain raised an eyebrow, almost daring Stark to argue with him.
"Fine, but if there's trouble, 'I'm telling you I told you so!'"
"I wouldn't expect any less." he turned to Lana, the whirring of Stark's suit in the background as it was removed from his body. "Ma'am." he nodded his head in her direction.
"Please don't call me ma'm; you make me feel like a school teacher. Lana will do just fine, as far as I'm concerned." she said with wide eyes, looking around her, suddenly noticing how modern yet ornate the room was.
"Lana, then."
"Thank you." She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Stark entering his enormous scotch closet. "STARK." she called out. "How about you don't drink right before we go to a crime scene?"
"I don't know about you, but I need a drink." he replied, uncorking a glass bottle of what she assumed was some sort of very expensive scotch. He grabbed a glass from behind his 'mini' bar.
"Drink it when you get back." she said too late, as he practically downed the glass in one gulp.
He was about to pour another one when the others arrived, and Natasha took the glass out of his hand at lightning speed.
"Time and a place, Stark." she said stoically as she took the bottle from him as well, practically ripping it from his hand.
There was no blood. That was the first thing Lana noticed as they arrived on the scene, the group, minus Banner, who had insisted on staying at the Tower, had anything crazy happened. They had all been carried in three menacing SUVs, where she unfortunately had to be in the same car as Loki.
"Lady Lana! How will you be assisting us on this day?" the God of Thunder had asked her from the back seat.
"Just another set of eyes, I guess. And please, Lana." she replied, trying to reveal much of why she was there, considering that reason was sitting in the back seat beside Thor.
"Are you employed as an agent, Lana?" he questioned, a child-like curiosity in his voice.
She snorted. "No, most certainly not." she said in a voice of contempt.
"And why not?"
"I don't really feel like becoming an assassin. Bit too cold feeling for me."
"Hey!" Clint looked over at her from the driver's seat.
"Except you, Clint." she patted his arm. "You're an exception." she said in an affectionate voice. "Barely an exception, but an exception none the less."
Clint glared at her from playfully narrowed eyes, before turning back to face the road. Lana began laughing, and couldn't stop.
"I would prefer for this trip to be made in silence." Loki practically hissed from the back, using his voice that she would assume was meant to make people quake in fear. He was doing a decent job.
"I would prefer you to explode into flames, but I don't think either of us are getting our preferred choices today." That would actually be very nice actually; Loki running off the edge of a bunch of cliffs, on fire. Very nice, indeed.
"It still remains that you're prattling is pointless. Please do end it."
"Oh, make me." she rolled his eyes at him, deciding not to be afraid of him when his rather imposing brother was sitting beside him.
"Don't tempt me." he threatened.
"Oh, I wouldn't dare." she said sarcastically.
"Lana." Clint said in warning. The look on his face was a serious one; no jokes at all. Lana clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"Hmmpf." she said as they pulled into the alleyway housing the bodies, SHIELD agents cordoning off the scene. She trusted Clint's judgement as to whether it was a smart idea or not to poke the sadistic god with a stick.
She shook her head. Next time she was told to get in a car with Loki, she was going to jump out of the window. One of the only things she remembered from her training was how to roll. She looked around her, standing from her kneeling position. There had to be at least ten bodies here, if not more. At the moment, though, she was a bit too sickened by the scene to really try and count. But actually, it was a bit odd, because Fury had said all of the previous bodies had been scattered around the city, but these were oh-so conveniently placed in one alley. Odd.
"Lana!" Clint called from several feet over. He gestured for her to join them as Loki was giving his prognosis. She dragged herself over there, wishing very much to make herself scarce.
"I do no recognize this form of magic." Loki said after a quick moment next to one of the bodies. His look wasn't what Lana expected it to be; instead of being the arrogant look of a know-it-all, his one was a look of shock, disbelief. He really didn't know what was going on here. Although granted, he could be lying at this very moment, because she had no idea whether she could actually tell whether he was lying or not. That was such a reassuring thought.
"Are you sure, brother?" Loki flinched at the use of 'brother', before rising to his feet.
"Yes, quite." he replied. "In fact, it might not be magic at all."
"Lana?" Clint looked to the blonde in question of the validity of Loki's statement. She nodded her head, responding to his unspoken question of 'is Loki pulling our legs?'
"From what I can tell, yeah." Thor looked between her in Clint, confusion evident on his face.
"Oh, come on, Point Break, don't tell me you didn't read the packet." Stark said, almost laughing
"Says the one who didn't read it." Lana replied.
"I skimmed it!" he said defensively.
"Skimmed it? You had FRIDAY create a summary so you wouldn't have to read it." she was going to continue, before Clint halted her.
"Actually, Stark, that bit of information wasn't given to him." Stark formed his lips in an 'oh', before shutting up. "We'll wait until he's in different company to tell him."
She nodded at Clint, expressing her gratitude. She would hate to think of what Loki would do if he knew that she was encroaching on his territory of lies.
A 'clang' was heard, rather abruptly as Loki turned away from them, kicking of the metal lid of a trash can with the toe of his boot, revealing a dark shape.
"This, however, I do recognize. Though," he back to them, "I've only seen it in the ancient tombs." He gave Thor a look, who nodded back in understanding. His hand gestured to a symbol that was in a red, almost black paint. On closer inspection, though, Lana saw that the liquid used to write it was blood.
"What is it?" she asked, without thinking, forgetting her hatred in that one moment in the quest for knowledge.
"A symbol used to recall the dead." Loki simply said.
"Recall the dead? Like zombies?" she said incredulously. This was not going to end well, at all.
"I do not know these zombies you speak of." he replied, and for the first time, Lana saw a tinge of confusion on his pale features.
"The living dead." she said, scrunching her face into a grimace.
"In essence, yes."
"Great, great." She backed away. "I'm gonna go get my stuff from my apartment, if I'm not needed anymore?" she asked, an almost desperate look on her face.
Rodgers nodded his head. "Go ahead. I don't see why you need to stay." He called over one of the SHIELD agents manning the scene. "Pack the bodies and send them to the Tower for analysis." he commanded, and the agent gave a salute, and hurried away to do what the Captain asked him. How cute.
"Okay, thanks." she replied, practically sprinting out of the alley.
"Lana, wait!" Natasha called out. Lana halted, waiting for the red haired assassin to catch up.
"I'll drive you."
"Okay... You really don't have to; I can get a taxi, or you know, use my legs and walk." She said, a nervous edge to her voice. Natasha Romanov, wanting to give her a ride? No, not good.
The redhead shook her head. "We need to have a talk." Great, a talk. From an assassin. Could this day get any worse? Stupid question, of course it could.
So, just lemme know what you think. And if you have any suggestions, I'm open to them! Pietro will be coming soon!