Chapter Four: In Need of a Translator
They were able to move bases quickly, thankfully. Just because they had taken out all of the team that had been sent against them didn't mean that their location still anything resembled secure. While the old place had been a warehouse, this one had been a mansion with a large basement for Selvig to work in. She really had no idea how Loki was getting this places on such short notice. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to ask.
Even though the house was lovely, Phoenix was feeling restless. She wasn't the type to sit over and work on something like Selvig did, and she could only watch others for so long as Barton was doing.
And a wretchedly bored Phoenix was a bad thing.
She didn't have the ability to teleport around like some people, so she had to leave and get around the old fashioned way. The 'old fashioned way' turned out to be a motorcycle that she stole from one of the other people working around the facility. Of course, when he complained, she pinned him to a wall by his shoulder with a knife. Then he just screamed.
She drove into the nearest town, realizing that she STILL didn't quite know where they were. She wouldn't normally be so blatantly ignorant of where she was, but she just found that she simply didn't care. She could go anywhere in this world. What difference did one place make from another now?
She knew that she was still in the southwest by the desert air. She was apparently close enough to a large city because she managed to get there on a motorcycle in half an hour. At least now, she could keep herself entertained. Now that she wasn't working for S.H.I.E.L.D., she didn't have to behave herself.
After a trip around the city, she figured out what she wanted to do. After breaking into a propane store and stealing a few tanks, she rigged them up around a restaurant. It was some too nice, stuffy one that, no matter what she wore or how much money she flashed around, she never felt comfortable in it. Watching it burn would be nice.
"Having fun?" A voice said behind her as she was setting up the final tank. She whirled around, hand reaching for her gun, only to see Loki standing behind her. Tonight his slender frame was clad simply, in a silken green shirt and tight black slacks. He really was a remarkable sight, no matter what he wore. It was actually nice to see him in the simpler clothing rather than his leather vestments. It let his true looks shine through.
"Actually, yes," she said, looking up at him with a smile. "I'm allowed to do this, right?" she asked, eyebrow raised. She hadn't even thought that he might be trying to keep a low profile or something until now. Damn...
"Oh no, don't let me stop you," he said with a wave of his hand. "I was actually wondering what that agent did to anger you enough to leave him hanging by the knife in his shoulder."
She hopped up with a gleeful bounce, heading over across the street to a park so that she could watch the explosion from a distance when she set it off. "He didn't want to lend me his transportation," she said with a slight pout as she pulled the trigger device from her pocket. It was a crude bomb that she had constructed, a small bomb that would go off with each propane tank, but the explosions would help the building burn, along with the people inside.
"I could have brought you into this town, or at least arranged for your transportation," Loki said to her, watching with what appeared to be amusement as she played with the trigger for a moment, finally pressing the button and actually giggling as parts of the building exploded, biting her lip to keep her from fully cackling as she heard the screams within.
"I didn't think it proper to trouble my King with such matters," she said, bowing slightly to him before turning back toward the building. She was trying not to laugh too loudly simply because she didn't want to attract any undue attention, although she supposed the burning building in front of them would keep anyone from noticing her glee for a while. "Besides, I can take care of at least the simple matters. I'm just trying to find ways to entertain myself in the interim."
He nodded. "Actually, there is a way that you can be entertained if you'd like to come along," Loki said to her. She arched an eyebrow at him before walking over to the parked bike that she had brought. She swung her leg over, sitting down on the bike while looking up at him while waiting for him to continue. "Selvig needs something that can only be gotten in Stuttgart, Germany. I get to play as a distraction while Barton gets it." He grinned. "Care to join?"
"Does this involve getting captured, screwing with the enemy, and then escaping while they flail?" she asked, deadpan. He nodded. "Could be fun." She cranked the motorcycle, grinning as it roared to life. "Are you gonna just do the teleporting thing back or would you like a ride?"
He looked at the bike for a moment before shrugging and sliding on it behind her, arms sliding around her waist. "How does this thing work, exactly? Is it the same as a car?" he asked.
"Kinda. Take it apart when we get back," she told him, making sure to keep herself from thinking about where his hands where and instead on the road that was about to be under her. "For now, just think of it as a faster horse." Without another word, she revved the engine and pulled out of the park at a breakneck pace, cackling as they rode away, feeling his arms tighten around her as she could swear that she heard him chuckle behind her.
When she had been told about Stuttgart, this wasn't quite what she had been expecting. She frowned at her reflection that shown in one of the windows in the art museum. She couldn't remember the last time that she had been in a dress, much less one this fancy. Her eyes moved down to the green chiffon strapless evening gown that she was wearing, tied at the middle with a sash to accentuate her waist. Even her hair was different from the norm, as she had been convinced by Loki to wear it down and smoothed out for a change instead of up and simply tied out of her face. Feeling so different than normal made her itch. Still, tonight she was supposed to play distraction.
Loki caught her frowning at her reflection. "You shouldn't worry so much. You look exquisite," he told her. She still stared at the reflection, although now she could also see his smile from behind her.
"I can't move in this thing, though," Phoenix said to him. The heels on her feet didn't bother her too much. It was just impossible to run in them. The dress got in the way of her legs when she moved too quickly.
"For tonight, at least, the plan isn't to put up much of a fight," he remarked. Finally turning around, she looked him over, smiling as she looked over the suit and scarf he was wearing.
"Did I mention I liked your scarf?" she asked him with a grin.
He shook his head. "Thank you," he said with a smile of his own, looking down at the bottom floor as someone started speaking in German. "Do you understand German?" he asked.
She nodded. "You live on this planet long enough and you pick up the languages that these people speak," she said, looking down at the man speaking as well. "It's nothing important that he's saying. It's all art stuff."
"I'm not worried about what he's saying," Loki said with a wave of his hand. "It just works to have someone speaking the plebeians' language when you want them to do what you want." She nodded at his explanation. English might be the international language of business now, but that didn't mean that everyone spoke it. "Something that we have to do first, though."
She nodded. Barton was going to need an eye recognition to pass through to get whatever it was that Selvig needed. Some metal that would allow for him to build around the Tesseract and eventually help with opening the portal that would allow Loki's army to come through and rain down destruction. She didn't take down many of the details. She just knew soon they'd attack and take down the old way of doing things around this planet, and she'd be 'working with the new government.'
As he headed down the stairs toward the bottom floor, she walked beside him. To anyone who didn't know, together the two of them looked like an ordinary couple out at an art gallery. Anyone who thought that would be an idiot, though.
After they descended the stairs, Loki first attacked one of the guards. Flipping his walking stick, he swung it to the side, giving Phoenix plenty of warning to bend backward out of the way while he slammed it against the guard's head. He then nonchalantly grabbed an older gentleman without any words and slammed him against some sort of tablet table looking thing. Even as people nearby started to panic, Loki ignored them and extracted a tool from his coat, watching as it opened up and then slammed it down over the man's eye so that Barton would have a good scan of the man's eye.
When another guard tried to come at Loki from behind, Phoenix grabbed him and threw him across the room, watching calmly as his head cracked against the wall. When she turned her attention back to Loki, he seemed to be finished with the man, letting him go and not even paying attention to the man now on the ground with one eye. He was already heading outside, and, as always, she followed, watching as his suit morphed into his more regal armor, a green cape dripping down his shoulders and back, head held high as his helmet appeared, the two horns on the top making him look even more giant than he already was. His walking stick also morphed, turning into the now familiar scepter.
Even though this was a serious moment, and she was supposed to be on her guard for what would likely be an approaching 'superhero' of some sort. She had known that, once the Tesseract was taken, Fury would start calling on other people from around the world, asking them for help. Loki had come to the same conclusion. She wanted to see these other humans and see what they had to offer.
"That is magnificent armor," she said to him as they walked toward a crowd of people outside. "When do I get armor?" I should be thinking of just the task at hand, but it's hard to focus when someone walks near me looking that GOOD and...dangerous even.
He chuckled. "I'll make sure to have something for you, soon," he said. "A queen should have armor, after all, especially one that goes into battle beside her king." Anything would be better for battle than what she was wearing, but she couldn't magically change her clothes like some people that she was with.
Loki walked before the crowd of mortals outside, several clones of him appearing around them to box them in. She had known that he had magic, but that was something that she didn't realize he could do until now. Certainly an interesting ability. "Kneel before me!" Loki called out to them, but they didn't seem to listen or understand, and kept moving, trying to get away. "I said kneel!"
Something clicked in my own head, and from behind him, she shouted, "Knien sie sich!" Loki cast a brief glance back at her, but as they started kneeling, he realized what she said. She was translating for him.
Loki smiled as he looked back out onto the crowd of 'subjects' as they knelt, most keeping their eyes on the ground now. "Is not this simpler?" he asked. "Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."
As he spoke, she translated into German in a lower voice, but the crowd could still hear Phoenix. She wanted to make sure that they understood that now, they had a king, someone that would now do the thinking for them. They should be happy, be relieved and thankful.
"Ist das nicht einfacher? Ist das nicht dein natürlicher zustand? Es ist die unausgesprochene wahrheit der menschheit, dass sie unterwerfung sehnen. Der helle verlockungen der freiheit verringert sich ihr leben: Freude in einem verrückten gerangel um macht, nach identität. Sie wurden gemacht, um auszuschließen. Am ende werden sie immer knien." German as a language was fairly close to English. She hadn't spoken it regularly in seventy or so years, but once someone picked things up like that, they are hard to forget. **
"Not to men like you," an old man said, pushing himself off the ground to stand up and stare at Loki. He spoke English, but his accent was thick. He wanted to make sure that Loki understood him and not depend on her to translate for him.
Loki looked...almost amused by the idea of one frail man standing up against him. "There are no men like me," he said with a touch of mirth in his voice.
"There are always men like you," the old man said back defiantly. She wondered if he had personally fought in World War II. That would make him too old to be walking around, though...maybe he grew up in it? He spoke from memory, though. She could see that much. Hitler is why you can't depend on a human to rule over anything: they let their own prejudices get in the way.
Loki smiled. "Look to your elder, people," he said, aiming his scepter at him. "Let him be an example." Just as she watched the scepter, start to power up, she heard someone coming in.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," said a walking American flag. She turned my head to look at him better. Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, recently unfrozen from under the Arctic ice. Barton had told them about everyone whom they were likely to call. She had known a little about the man, but Barton had been a veritable fountain of information.
"Anyone ever told you that outfit is actually horribly garish?" Phoenix asked, tilting her head at the Captain.
"Stars and stripes are always classic," Rogers retorted with a smirk.
Loki was smirking as well. "Ah, the soldier. A man out of time."
Rogers didn't even bat an eye. "I'm not the one who's out of time." Oh if only he knew. Phoenix saw no use in clean cut all American boys like Steve Rogers, in more ways than one. She wished that he'd go away, even though she had expected him to show up.
Suddenly an aircraft carrier appeared near them, and she could hear the spy Natasha Romanov's voice ring out of it. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down!" Phoenix knew that she hated those quiet aircrafts for a reason. Nothing that big should be able to sneak up on a person.
Phoenix pursed her lips together for a moment before kicking Rogers in the back, her dress flying up to reveal her shapely leg as her sharp heel dug into his back and forced him down onto his knees. "Kennen sie ihren platz!*" she shouted to him, shouting in German simply because she knew that it would be an extra dig to him.
Loki grinned. "Yes...kneel," he said to Rogers.
"Not today!" Rogers growled back, flipping himself back up on his feet, kicking out at Loki and knocking him down.
Loki managed quickly to jump back up, shooting her a look before starting to fight Rogers. She knew what she was supposed to do, even though she really didn't want to do it. While Loki distracted Rogers and Romanov, she was supposed to fall back. He was supposed to be the shining beacon that they went after for right now, while she was supposed to slink back and 'lead the troops' while he stirred up trouble with the superheroes. She hated the idea of skulking away like a coward, but she did as she was told, even as her fists tightened enough to cause her nails to press into her skin and draw blood as she did, especially when she saw Tony Stark, or Iron Man, appear out of bloody nowhere and watched as Loki raised his hands in surrender.
Damn this was going to be hard. At least they'd always know where he was. They knew every movement that the craft S.H.I.E.L.D. had, and Loki had taken the time to show her a few other 'tricks' to keep watch as well…
** (Author's notes: Having people start to follow the story warms my little black heart! I do a little dance every time I get a notification saying that someone else has put an alert on this story or added it to their favorites list. Yay! Now, onto other things.
Something always bugs me about American movies: why do they expect people in other countries to know English? I may be able to identify when someone is speaking another language to me, but that doesn't mean I have a clue as to what these people are saying. I figured this would be a good time for Loki to have a translator, and Phoenix would have been around long enough to pick up more than enough languages to function anywhere that she wanted. I DO admit that I don't know any German, though. I did this through Google Translator, so I apologize for any grammar mistakes. Online translators don't always get grammar correct.)
*(Kennen Sie Ihren Platz! - Know your place!)