Sorry this chapter is a little late, I got stuck on it as it's another one that is Very Important and Therefore Must Be Perfect. A review from Camus was the motivation I needed to get off my butt and finish it. I'm going to need you to trust me, Camus-I'm not sure you'll like the ending I have planned, but it's not the one you're dreading. But you won't have to wait long, the story has only 9 chapters left.
The theme song for this chapter is "Life is Beautiful" by Sixx AM.
Chapter 75: Gambit
The Avengers stared at the unassuming building through the tinted windows. Judging by the copious weeds growing from the cracks in the pavement, it had not been in use for some time. There was not a single sign of habitation: no guards, no oil slicks from frequently parked vehicles.
"What is this place?" Loki asked, frowning.
"Looks like a retail overstock depot, although with the economy like it's been, it probably hasn't seen much use," Maria guessed.
"We need a layout," Steve thought out loud.
"On it," Tony mumbled, fiddling with his phone. After a moment, he pointed it at the ceiling, and it projected the image of a blueprint across the grey fabric.
"Ok, that gets us specs, but where is he?" Clint asked, assessing the image along with everyone else.
Except for Loki, who was still staring out the window. "Give me a minute," she murmured. When Bruce leaned forward to ask what she said, Natasha motioned for him not to speak. There was a long moment of tense silence, as Loki appeared to be looking further and further away.
"All right," with a deep breath, she came back to them, and glanced up at the diagram. "He's here:" she pointed to the center of the largest room.
"What kind of defenses does he have set up?" Steve asked.
Loki shook her head. "That's just it-he doesn't. I mean, the entire place is seething with magic, but it's all potential. He's not hiding anything behind illusions, or I would know. But there are a lot of spells set up, just waiting for the correct trigger to initiate them."
"Is it just me," Bruce mused, "or does this have 'TRAP' written all over it?"
"In big, shiny letters," Tony agreed.
Loki scoffed. "Of course it's a trap. It's a challenge." She fingered the ruby pendant absently, a strange expression on her face.
"Loki..." Thor said warningly. He had seen that expression before, and knew what it meant. "Do not let him tempt you into doing something foolish. Many lives are at stake, some of them our friends."
The ruby flashed, and she dropped it as if it had burned her. She seemed to be startled out of whatever she was thinking. "Of course. Here is what I propose:" She glanced at Steve, not wanting to usurp his authority as strategist. "Natasha and I will take the obvious route through the front door," she indicated the path on the roof of the car. "I will be invisible, and Natasha," she sighed and glanced at the assassin next to her, "Let's try your suggestion of reasoning with him, but just as a diversionary tactic. I'll put an illusion on you so you appear four feet left of where you're actually standing. That should be enough to protect you from any surprise attacks.
"The rest of you can use this time to go around the building, and come into the room by various routes. No matter what happens, we'll be better off if we can get him surrounded," she finished.
Steve nodded. "Ok, Thor and Hawkeye, you take this entrance, and go in here," he pointed to the path they should take. "Iron Man and ... well, Dr. Banner, go in here, from the roof. Bruce, you should probably wait as long as possible to let the other guy out."
Bruce nodded in agreement. Stealth was not one of the Hulk's strong points.
"Agent Hill and I will come from this direction. Call in some backup, Hill," he said over his shoulder.
"Already done, sir," Maria reassured him.
"Loki, do you know what kind of magic has been set?" Thor asked.
She nodded. "There are a few protective spells around his location, but mostly it's Transmogrification."
"What, like Calvin & Hobbes?" Clint asked.
Loki's face lit up—she'd actually understood that reference. "Yes. It's a kind of magic which changes matter from one form to another. It could be as simple as a door turning to stone, or a hole opening in the floor, or as complicated as a lamp turning into a warrior. Keep your eyes open for surprises," she suggested, "But I don't think you'll run into anything until you get to the main room..." she frowned.
"What is it, Loki? We need all the information we can get," Natasha encouraged her.
"It's just... well, it's all in that room there," she waved a hand at Pierce's location. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think he's just luring us in to blow us all to Muspelheim. As it is..." she ran a hand through her hair, thinking. "I think he might be planning a battle."
"Well, obviously, he said as much at the Met," Steve frowned.
Loki shook her head. "Yes, but that was him against us, one versus eight. With these spells in place, we have no way of knowing what the odds will be. We could be vastly outnumbered."
"Been there, done that, kicked your ass," Tony reminded her.
Loki sighed, frustrated. "Has it ever occurred to any of you that I didn't want to win?" she asked exasperatedly.
There was a moment of stunned silence. Clint was the first to break it. "God dammit, Loki."
"What?" Loki asked, worried what he might say now that he knew he'd been used to get to his friends, so that they could fight him and win...
He smiled wryly and shook his head. "I owe Darcy a lot of money now."
She blinked rapidly, and turned to face Steve. "Is there anything else?"
He sighed, thinking, and then shook his head. "Good luck, everyone," he said, and he opened the door as quietly as possible.
As the others moved into position, Natasha and Loki headed to the front door. When they reached it, Loki turned to face her. "Ready?" she asked, sounding a little unsure.
Natasha nodded, unhesitating.
Loki closed her eyes. When she opened them, Natasha was four feet further away than she had been. "Can you see yourself?" she asked.
The image of Natasha looked around a little, as if searching for something, and then stopped, facing away. "Yes."
"Good. Try not to make it run into anything, and don't look at it too much," she suggested.
"All right," Natasha shifted so her double was now standing in front of the wide doors, facing them. "Let's do this." She reached out to open the doors, and Loki, invisible beside her, pushed them open.
Inside, it was eerily quiet. Loki could hear the fluorescent lights hum as they flickered. Aside from the occasional pile of flattened boxes, the hallways were clear.
Natasha quickly got the hang of controlling the illusion of herself, looking ahead for any obstacles and planning accordingly. By they time they reached the double doors to the large open area of the warehouse, she made it look natural.
They paused before the doors, and Natasha could feel her nerves thrum with anxiety. She took a moment to compose herself, and jumped a little when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"I'll be right beside you the whole time," Loki's disembodied whisper promised. "We'll be fine."
Natasha nodded, and pushed open the door. Just inside was a wall of pallets and boxes, stacked high to nearly reach the three-story ceiling.
"Left," Loki whispered close to her ear, so quietly no one else could have heard it.
Turning to the left, Natasha followed the canyon of boxes until there was a break. Using her shifted appearance, she peeked carefully around the corner, she could see that the interior portion of the room had been rearranged, with all of the pallets circling a podium like a strange colosseum. On the podium was the book, and behind it, fidgeting with anticipation, was Pierce.
"I know you're there," he crooned maniacally, and she shuddered at the sound of his voice.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped out into the open, and began to walk down the only open avenue to his location.
"Excellent," he grinned. "I was hoping I would get to see you again," he made the greeting overly suggestive.
"Pierce, give us the book, and this can end right now," Natasha said, sounding very convincing. "We know what it's doing to you, we can help..."
He laughed, and the sound contained very little sanity. "What it's doing to me? You have no idea! But I can show you..." he flipped the pages of the grimoire excitedly. "I finally found the perfect spell for you, you little slut," he glanced up to see her reaction to his insult.
She raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "I've been called worse," she admitted. Reasoning was clearly not going to work with him, so she tried for antagonization. The rest of the team only needed a little longer to get into position.
Pierce was too wrapped up in flipping through the book to be riled. "Ah, here it is," He began chanting in badly accented Latin, and Natasha took a step back uneasily.
True, she had the benefit of the illusion, but who was to say this spell had to be pointed in the right direction? She suddenly wished she knew a lot more about magic, and had to resist the urge to look for Loki or call out to her.
Loki was listening intently to the spell, trying to figure out the very same thing. She had shielded Natasha before he even began speaking, but she wasn't sure how well the shield would hold up. In this form, she didn't know very much Latin, and she was only catching a word here and there. What she did understand sounded ominous.
Pierce lifted his hand, pointing at Natasha, and from her position it took Loki a moment to realize he was pointing at the real Natasha, not the illusion she had cast. His voice rose in pitch, and at the last second, Loki dove to push Natasha out of the way.
The spell came flying at them, shattering Loki's outer protections instantly, as well as the illusions she had cast on herself and Natasha. Loki was forced to try to deflect it at the last possible moment, and nearly failed at that.
Natasha was aware only of Loki pushing her, then appearing as her ears popped, and then it felt as if her left side had been splashed with cold water. The sensation faded quickly, though.
"Are you ok?" Loki asked quickly, forgoing subtly.
Natasha nodded, she felt fine.
"There you are," Pierce cackled. "I could feel you hiding in here somewhere. Easy enough to get you to show yourself," he teased.
Loki ground her teeth. For all she knew, the spell had been harmless. No matter. The rest of the team was almost in position, she need only buy them a few more moments.
"Well you didn't think I was going to turn down your invitation, did you?" she said sweetly, but her smile had a deadly edge.
Pierce giggled. "No, of course not, "Lucy." Or should I say... Loki, Norse god of lies and trickery?"
She bowed dramatically. "One and the same," she admitted.
"I'm curious," Pierce said, leaning over the book. "What's with the switching? Obviously this isn't an illusion," he gestured to her female form. "I mean, I know the ruby is your focus, and it has something to do with it, but I don't get the advantage. You know, other than looking really hot."
Loki looked down at her body, and the ruby necklace, and then back at Pierce. "Who says it's an advantage?" she asked casually, but Natasha could hear the echo of pain behind her voice. It was, after all, the truth. "You're wrong about it being my focus."
Pierce narrowed his eyes. "No. I can feel it. All of your magic is tied to it, channeled through it. What would happen, I wonder, if I destroyed it?" The pages of the book in front of him began flipping of their own accord.
She swallowed nervously. What would happen? Would she remain in this form forever? Would she disappear? She had never thought about it before, and suddenly her curiosity burned through her. Why hadn't she thought of that? "You're welcome to try," she said nonchalantly.
Natasha shot her a look that clearly questioned Loki's sanity. But Loki knew the rest of the team was in position, and the best moment for them to strike would be while Pierce was busy with a spell. She only hoped they would know to attack while he was still-
Pierce raised a hand, spoke a single word, and sent a jet of light from his fingertip directly at the ruby pendant. Most of his spells had been long and complicated, so Loki was completely taken by surprise. The ruby cracked a little, diminishing it's fire. Loki was doubly surprised to find himself changed, and dressed in a dark shirt, long jacket, and leather pants.
"Ha!" he said, more to his counterpart than to Pierce. For one terrifying moment, he had thought she would succeed in eradicating him entirely, and was more than a little angry that she had tried. But it had backfired on her, and now he was finally free! He reached for his magic, only to find once more a void. "Well, damn," he muttered.
"I knew it!" Pierce crowed. "Now you are-" his gloating was cut off as, with inhuman speed, Loki drew the .45 Magnum from within his jacket and fired it at him.
To Loki's dismay, the bullet ricocheted off of Pierce's protective spells. He had hoped that they wouldn't have been keyed to mundane attacks - many a more experienced sorcerer had fallen to that mistake - but Pierce clearly knew better.
Fortunately, the rest of the team took this as their cue to attack. Tony fired a beam of energy from Pierce's right at the same moment that Clint shot an arrow from his left. Neither broke through, illuminating a large sphere of pale blue energy around him. Mjolnir followed soon after, and while it did manage to pass through the barrier, it was deflected so the shot went wide.
In the midst of the attacks, Pierce just smiled, and began another incantation. Loki cursed his inability to feel what the hell he was doing, and wondered if they were all about to die in a massive explosion. Instead, the pallets and boxes strewn about the room began to flicker and warp, resolving into a menagerie of vicious-looking monsters. At a word from Pierce, they attacked.
Chaos ensued. Each member of the team was suddenly occupied with fighting ten or more creatures, which varied in size and method of attack. Loki managed to stay close to Natasha, and found that their guns were hardly more effective on these new opponents than they had been on Pierce. Loki pulled his walking stick from off his back, slammed the head of it on the concrete floor, and came up fighting with the naginata.
Behind him, Natasha was having decent success with a garotte, strangling the creatures she could get her hands on, and shocking the rest with her taser disks. Thor was in his element, and had developed a sort of game where he struck his opponents with Mjolnir, sending them flying across the room to the Hulk, who gleefully tore them apart.
Tony and Clint had teamed up, since most of the creatures were magically protected. Tony would shoot a monster, weakening its shield momentarily, and Clint would follow each shot with an arrow in the exact same spot. Steve was mostly focusing on defense, keeping any creatures at bay while Maria quickly scaled a ladder so she could call out shots to the others.
Despite the lack of magic, Loki's blood sang. He loved this, the chaos, the mayhem. For all his brother was accused of loving battle, he enjoyed it no less. Although they were outnumbered, the creatures Pierce had called forth were not very intelligent, and he could see they were quickly decimating them. He had the added bonus of getting to watch Natasha in action, and frequently found himself admiring a strike or a dodge when he glanced her way to check her position.
He had managed to clear a decent space, and turned to help her, when he saw it happen. A creature with long, stick-like arms and legs struck out and hit her across the face. She went with the motion, diminishing it, and crouched to regain her composure. Only she didn't, dropping one hand to support her on the floor, the other flying to her cheek. The stick monster took this opportunity to strike again, kicking her side with a nasty crunch.
By this time, Loki had realized something was wrong and swiped the naginata out at its furthest reach. He cut off a branch-thick arm, and when the creature reeled back in pain, he decapitated it. A few more monsters advanced on Natasha, who had dropped to the floor, and he dispatched them just as quickly. When he got a moment, he crouched next to her.
She was trying to get up, although a huge bruise was spreading across her jaw line. "Stay down," he told her sternly, and swiped his spear at an approaching minion.
An arrow appeared suddenly in its eye socket, and Clint dropped down from the catwalk he had been shooting from. "I'll cover you," he said quickly, and proceeded to do just that.
Natasha tried once more to get up. "I need to—"
Loki pressed down on her sternum, which was effective in keeping her pinned to the ground. "You need to stay down," he repeated. "You are injured."
"I can manage," she babbled, "I just need to keep fighting, and—" she pushed at his hand frantically.
With his free hand, Loki slapped her across the uninjured side of her face. Clint's head turned towards them sharply, but Natasha stopped fighting him.
"Thanks," she coughed. "I needed that. I just... I don't understand, that shouldn't have..."
"It doesn't matter. We need to get you out of here," he looked around for a probable exit.
"No, go fight. Clint will keep me covered," she argued. "We don't have time."
"I can get her out of here," Clint told Loki in a low voice. "But we need you to stay. Can you switch?"
Loki felt a pang of bitterness. They needed Her, Natasha needed Her, and he had been so gleeful when she had gone, perhaps forever. What use was he without his magic? All he wanted to do was take Natasha and run, but he knew Clint was right. With dismay, he recalled what his counterpart had told Natasha; given a choice between powerful magic and a beautiful woman, any half-sane man would pick magic. Now, he would have to be that man.
"Natasha, listen to me," he squeezed his eyes shut a moment against the pain of what he was about to do. "I need you to go with Clint, understand? Just because I don't love you doesn't mean I don't care what happens to you, remember?"
Natasha stilled, her eyes sliding shut as she heard the words she had feared were behind Her earlier comment. When she opened them, she saw that Loki was glowing, that the cracked ruby pendant shone even brighter, visibly vibrating with the strain of its magic. The fracture suddenly cracked open loudly in a burst of light, before dropping to the floor next to Natasha.
Loki stood, gathering her magic and her anger around her. She looked to Clint, eyes glowing. "Take her," she said darkly.
Clint nodded, stashed his bow on his back, and gently picked up Natasha before heading towards the exit Steve had cleared for them.
Turning, Loki faced Pierce, untouched in the center of the raging battle. As if he felt her gaze, he turned to face her too, his crazed grin fading from his face.
"Now," Loki said quietly, although her voice carried to him easily, "You die."
A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger! I'll do my best to get the second half of the fight up by Saturday, but I'm not making any promises. Real life eats my promises for breakfast.
As always, your reviews are like the best thing ever. Even when they're critiques, like Camus', they make me motivated to write more. It's good to know I'm not just tossing the words into a void. ^.^
