Happy reading! That is all.
" Your really afraid of h-"
" No, I am not, insufferable mortal!" Loki hissed, his shoulders hunched. Banner raised a questioning eyebrow.
" Why would you be so offended if you aren't actually afraid?" The doctor asked with a challenging tone. Loki's glare could have thawed out Jotunheim.
" I am not afraid, you daft thing. I am a god!" Loki snarled. Ahead of them, Steve and Romanoff shared a long suffering glance.
" So why are your hands shaking?" Loki glanced down, forcing his pale hands to be still with no little effort.
" I am annoyed and want to hit you." He spoke through gritted teeth. " My hands shake from the will it takes not to."
" Yeah? I want to hit you too, my hands aren't shaking." The doctor raised his hands coolly, lips pressed into a tight grin.
" Boys, stow it." Romanoff called over her shoulder. " We're here."
The hallway opened up into a high roofed room. Agents bustled around on two separate floors, tapping away on computers or rushing off with orders. The wall in-front of them was made completely of glass, wisps of thin white clouds drifting by.
Loki felt sick.
" We're at level, sir." A woman with short dark hair called, glancing up to a dark skinned man on the platform above her.
" Good, let's vanish." The man growled. Loki recognized the voice, in a detached way, as Director Nick Fury. The thrum of machanics rumbled through the walls as, unseen, reflection panels popped up all along the aircraft, blending the massive flying machine in with the sky.
" Come on, Director Fury would like to speak with you." Romanoff waved them forwards to a circular glass table, flocked by black chairs, on the platform above the computer room. Fury was already waiting for them.
" Gentlemen." He greeted, his single dark focusing and analyzing them as they stepped in. Steve wordlessly walked forwards, slipping a green bill out of his pocket and handing it to Fury without looking at him, eyes wide with awe as he walked forwards into the main room.
Fury raised his eyebrow but accepted the bill, walking past Loki to Banner.
" Doctor, thank you for coming." The Director said, shaking Banner's hand.
" Thanks for asking nicely." Banner replied dryly. " So, how long am I staying?"
" Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you in the clear."
" Where are you with that?" Banner asked, wandering past Fury after Steve. Loki, ever silent, followed behind.
" We're sweeping every wirely accessible camera on the planet." Coulson called up to them from the platform below, his arms cross. " Cell phones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."
Romanoff stood by one of the scenes, flicking through the people turned by the Mind Gem; Selvig, two unnamed agents, and Barton, Clint, code-name; Hawkeye.
" It's still not going to find them in time." She murmured, turning away from the screen.
" You have to narrow your field." Banner piped up, slipping his jacket off. " How many spectrometers do you have access to?"
" How many are there?" Fury countered.
" Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition, at least we can rule out a few places." He folded the jacket carefully over his arm, glancing up at Fury. " You have somewhere for me to work?"
Fury nodded slowly, glancing over to the computer area. " Agent Romanoff, show doctor Banner to his laboratory, please."
" You'll love it, doc, we got all the toys." Romanoff swept passed them without checking to see if Banner was following. The doctor hurriedly followed after her.
" Loki, I presume?" Fury asked mockingly, finally turning to the silent god.
Loki nodded, scowling.
" What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" The Director snorted, sitting down in one of the chairs.
" I'm afraid I left it on ground level." Loki ground out, taking the seat across from him. " I assume you have questions."
" What do you know about the Tesseract?" Fury shot out, straight to business.
" That you should have left it where you found it." Loki retorted. " It is a self-sustaining source of power, all the nine realms would fight for it. That kind of power is best left to Yggdrasil."
" Can you find it? Your one of those Norse gods, right?"
" I am Loki, and yes, normally I would be able to find it. But I fear my magic is depleted, it needs time to be restored and must be used sparingly. Tracing the Tesseract would be impossible without the power to over-come the enchantments the Chitauri would secure it with."
" What do you know about the man that came out of the Tesseract?"
" His favorite colors yellow, his favorite chocolate bar is Kit-Kats, and he is more powerful then all of Asgard put together." Loki answered truthfully.
" He one of yours?"
" No, but he had enough power to free me from imprisonment when we were both bound by the same spells."
Fury leaned back into his chair with a sigh.
" Is that all, Director?" Loki asked polity, hands folded on the table.
" No where near, but you can go for now." Fury waved him off, sending a flare of anger through Loki. He hated being written off.
He straightened up irately, storming off to search for Steve.
The room was filled with silent focused energy, people murmuring quietly or typing away silently. The only two openly talking stood near the stairs, watching others bustle by.
" I mean," The shorter one said, casting his idol a side-glance. " If it's not too much trouble."
" No, no, it's fine." The taller one insisted, cheeks slightly pink. They both watched the agents work silently for several seconds.
" It's a vintage set." The shorter one added, shooting a hopeful look to his companion. "Took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint." A slight beep overtook his words. " Slight boxing around the edges, but-"
" We got a hit." One of the agents called, catching Steve and Coulson's attention. " Sixty-seven percent match. Wait, cross-match, seventy-nine percent."
" Location?" Coulson prompted, stepping up to stare at the screen.
" Stuttgart, Germany." The agent replied, clicking away on the screen. " He's not exactly hiding." Gabriel's face appeared on the screen, the battered trench-coat exchanged for a light tan suit. The sharp edges of his starved face had softened slightly, and the bruises under his eyes paled.
" Captain," Fury's voice echoed from behind them, making Steve turn. " Your up."
" I am coming with you." Loki declared, seemingly appearing out of thin-air. His green eyes were fixed on the screen. Fury scowled but nodded, allowing the god to join them.
" Anyone else want to come for the ride?" He asked sarcastically.
Coulson timidly raised his hand.
Stuttgart, Germany;
Thor arrived in the city when he felt something... wrong. Like a scrap of the void had drifted over into Midgard. Frowning and keeping a calloused hand on his hammer, the prince of Asgard followed the feeling like a blood hound, trailing towards a tall stone building, light pouring out like it had captured the sun. Finely dressed men and woman strutted around it, drinking colorful little martinis and laughing in high pitched, mock mirth.
Thor felt like a grizzly bear next to them, towering over and stinking of blood and sweat from his armor.
" Er, excuse me, I must pass." The Thunder god said awkwardly, staring down at the tiny man clutching a sheet of paper close to his chest.
" Of course, sir." He squeaked, jumping aside. Thor gave him a bright smile and sauntered in.
Just in time to see a short man flip an old grey haired gentleman over a stone table shaped like a bull, a whirling machine clutched in one of his thin hands. While Thor watched, the short man jabbed the machine over the other man's eye, the screams from the crowd as the rushed towards the doors drowning out the gentleman's own.
The crowd surged forwards, pushing Thor right out the door. In the courtyard, the short man suddenly appeared, his suit fading into bright golden armor.
" On your knees!" He commanded, his voice like thunder. Thor felt like a massive hand fell on his shoulders, forcing him to the ground. By the groans of fear and shrieking of the crowd, he guessed they felt the same.
" Good." The man suddenly brightened, but under his smile a darkness lurked. " Wasn't that easy? Now, who believes in God?" He swept forwards, trotting through the crowd. No-one moved or spoke. " No-one? Really? What a pity." He tsked, stopping by Thor's side. For a second, his bright blue eyes flickered to a burning gold, like liquid metal, before the lifeless, swirling blue overtook them. " Though it does make this part easier...
" Right then, I'm you new God." He declared, twirling the blue tipped staff in his hands. " You pray to me, I protect you. All you need to do, is kneel." His grin stretched into a smirk, his eyes like chips of ice.
In the middle of the crowd, an old man gazed off in the distance over the heads of all the bowed people. Slowly, his joints creaking with age and force, the old man raised himself to face the man.
" I do not bow," He spoke in a thick German accent, breathing heavily though his nose. " To false gods."
The man's smirk twisted into a sneer, full of spite and anger. " I am not one of the gods. I am God."
" No, you are not." The old man retorted.
" Look at your elder, people." The man laughed, the noise high and crazy. " He will be the first to taste the fury of your new god." The staff rose, changing as it did into the gem-tipped scepter. Blue light built up along it's length, humming with energy, before bursting out in an azure ball of light. It flew over the crowd, streaking straight towards the old man's chest.
It never found it's target.
A wall of red, white and blue flashed into the path of the energy, sending it reflection back to the man off of the gleaming surface of a round shield. The light smacked into the man's knees, sending him tumbling forwards onto his stomach.
" You know," Captain America began idly, walking towards Gabriel laying prone on the ground. " The last time I saw someone standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing."
Gabriel pushed himself up, his face torn between madness and anger. " Captain America, I heard you pray for your daddy."
Before the Captain could react, Gabriel was on his feet, his fist blurring towards his opponents face. Steve Rogers ducked down, the fist flying over his head. Pain flared up along his side as Gabriel's other hand jabbed into his ribs hard enough to bruise. Captain America slammed his shield into Gabriel's feet, sending it across his throat when the other man hunched over in pain.
A silver knife flew into Gabriel's hand, the triangle blade long enough to be considered a sword. He lunged forwards, swiping the blade across Captain America's shield. With a sinking feeling, Steve felt his arm get nicked by the blade as it cut through the near invincible shield like butter.
Gabriel raised the sword again, aiming for Steve's throat, when a force like a thunderstorm ripped towards him, flying over his shoulder.
There was the crack of breaking bones, and the tear of flesh unheard under the unearthly scream torn from Gabriel's throat. Over his shoulder, a golden cloud glimmered and defined itself, showing six massive wings. The largest over his right shoulder was torn in half, silver tinted blood pulsing out in bucket loads. The other half of the golden wing lay on the ground twenty feet away, fading to ash.
" What the-" Steve stepped back, hands clamped over his ears. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the hammer fly back into it's owner's hand. The man, a tall blond wearing dirty leather armor, darted forwards and slammed the hammer's handle across the screaming man's (creature's?) head, knocking him out cold.
Above them, a helicarrier hovered anxiously, landing nearby as soon as the courtyard was cleared. Loki jumped out as soon as the machine touched the ground, nearly flying towards the out-cold Gabriel.
" B-brother?" The blond man gasped, his hammer slipping out of his numb hand.
" Hush, Thor, we have to stop the bleeding." Loki said absently, hardly glancing in the other god's direction. He shrugged off his jacket, wrapping it around the stump of a golden wing. He might have ignored Thor completely, if his adoptive brother didn't suddenly lock his arms around the dark haired god's stomach and yank him into the air, face split into a grin.
" Thor, you oaf, put me down!" Loki screamed in anger, jabbing Thor in the ribs with his elbow.
" No, I will not put you down for anything less then Ragnarok." Thor replied stubbornly.
" If you do not put me down, Gabriel will die, and the humans will never find the Tesseract!" Loki hissed, wiggling in his brother's iron grip. " They do not find the Tesseract, and this realm will fall, leaving the others in danger! Put-me-down!"
Thor reluctantly released his brother, the look on his face so sad and forlorn that Steve came over and gave him a little pat on the shoulder. As they loaded Gabriel into the helicarrier, a metallic light streaked through the sky, slamming into the asphalt in-front of the team.
" Hey," Iron man laughed, the face plate sliding back. " Am I too late for the party?"
DDDDOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Man, I've been updating this story a lot the last few days... I haven't even touched Tricksters-in-arms. Meh, people want more of this for now, so on with the show!
Okay, so my week is like this; School on Wednesday, Thursday and Tuesday, I don't get home until around 9 on Tuesday, and on Mondays I work as a volunteer librarian's assistant, and on Fridays I'm taught how to do that job. Maybe I'll update again this weekend, but I can't next weekend because of Sea Cadets. If I don't update in a while, feel free to bust me on it, but I do have a fairly full week for the next..
Ever?
Eh, Peace Off, Internets!