A/N: It's been awhile, my apologies. Here's a chapter for your troubles. Rated M but not for sexyness. I got no sleep. Please read and review!
It wasn't even a week later when the news we awaited came. We weren't using such primitive means as newspapers, or even the Internet. Loki had magicked a scanner – a worldwide scanner – for disturbances the weapon would cause. He talked at great length of this, so obviously it was a pretty amazing piece of work. I imagine it could come into handy if you controlled a planet, assuming you could change the scanner to search for other things… rebels, for instance.
The disturbance had come from Scotland, of all places. Our enemy seemed as averse to engaging S.H.I.E.L.D., based in America, as we were. Europe was a safe bet for beginning domination campaigns. S.H.I.E.L.D. would hear of it eventually of course. But they wouldn't hear of this case. Loki and I would be taking down this one before overthrowing S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. We figured in the entire world, they would be the most danger to our plans. What better to oppose world domination than a group of assassins and spies trained from childhood (in my case) or near it, who often worked outside of government and law?
It was early morning when the power awoke, and the adventure began. Upon locating the disturbance, Loki teleported us nearby – another fancy use of his powers. I distantly worried if they were a finite resource; if he exhausted himself now could he handle whatever we were walking into? All that we knew was some otherworldly power had the mystical weapon we needed. Whatever that weapon did – we were about to find out. Loki was confident again now though, as we looked down upon the apparently peaceful small town. Somewhere here, or nearby, was the thief.
As if he were waiting for our arrival, a scream rent the quiet air. I jumped, startled by the abrupt noise, and a grim smile spread across my partners face. "We will split up." He said turning to me, as more screams rapidly joined the first. "I will search the nearby land, you search the town itself. Both have various vantage points, and he must be nearby to be causing this." A brief scowl crossed his beautiful features, as he glanced sidelong at the town. "If only we had some idea as to his plan. Attacking a town is hardly fitting with the world domination scheme."
I shrugged. "Maybe he thinks the British Isles are the world. They certainly do."
Loki spared a smirk in my direction before striding purposefully off towards a nearby copse of trees. I spared a moment to admire the intimidating, and handsome, figure he cut before turning back to my own business. Heeding the turmoil I was headed into, I grimly drew my weapons – a pair of knives, wicked sharp with the blades being about the length of my forearm – as I had lost my gun in the battle in New York. I would have rather my gun – getting into close range with whatever was down there was not a pleasing thought.
Reaching the edge of town I saw my caution was well founded, as figures ran everywhere now. A woman ran towards me her face a mask of horror, her arm cradled to her chest and blood pouring from it, despite her efforts. I turned away, but not before seeing the slashed flesh, mindlessly torn at. Alert, I surveyed what I could see of the town. I wondered where I'd go to supervise if I was controlling whatever forces were assaulting. He would be in the midst of the mayhem, surveying the chaos he created from a vantage point, or he would be well separated from the disaster. I had to focus on the former though, as Loki was searching for the latter. So a vantage point was my goal. Searching the skyline I saw several such buildings that could serve our thief nearer the centre of town… including what appeared to be an old bell tower of a church. What could suit an egotistical megalomaniac better? That was the direction I set of at a brisk pace, watching the crowds around me for signs of the creatures forming the disturbance. My imagination plied me with all the horrific creatures I could need – monsters from nightmares, aliens less humanoid than the Asgardians I had viewed. As I prepared for such, it took me a couple blocks to spot the source of the horror; what appeared to be normal townsfolk. I watched a man in a business suit advancing oddly, and peculiarly predatorily on a member of the police force. Mind control? Did the weapon brainwash the humans to do it's bidding? I'd barely begun to wonder why only a fraction of the population had been affected when the police officer, visibly trembling, shot the businessman in the leg, causing him to stumble and fall… and proceed to continue to claw his way towards the officer, taking several more bullets to the chest and shoulders before reaching his goal and beginning to gnaw the officers leg, his clawed hands tearing at the flesh. The cop, screaming now, the high, terrified scream of someone facing his or her demise raised his gun once more and shot the suited man directly in the face. Watching as his face was all but obliterated by the bullet… and he continued to devour the officer until the man stopped moving. I was sickeningly paralysed, rooted to the spot my mouth gaping and my mind refusing to believe. There was no way he could be alive, yet here he was raising his head from the officer, and turning towards me. I believe we would have made eye contact, except for the fact there wasn't any eyes, or much in the way of features at all, upon his face. Fighting down bile, my terror turned to adrenaline as the suited man began to claw to me. I ran, then. I ran towards the bell tower, for the safety I hoped it held, if not a location to put a stop to this horror. I stumbled in my haste, over what appeared to be a severed arm. Kneeling on the pavement, I watched the limb twitch, then reach for me. Retching, I hauled myself to my feet and ran, avoiding all forms of life. Life was hardly the term to describe the monsters though. The businessman could not have lived through his wounds. It was impossible, and it grimly dawned on me that he hadn't lived. That he hadn't been alive when he'd begun stalking the cop. That the weapon that we had searched for, the promised power to world domination had created this nightmare. It had reanimated the lifeless bodies and turned them against the humans. Staggering to a stop in a deserted street, I leaned against a building gasping for breath and vomiting up my breakfast. I'd seen blood, gore, and gruesome wounds before. That was in the job description of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. But wounds like these, inflicted on the monsters? The wounds they themselves inflicted – slashes and bites – wounds not intended to kill, wounds intended to inflict pain, and spread the monstrosity, I hadn't seen such as this. Innocent women and children with their faces hanging off, or desperately trying to scoop their innards back through the rent in their abdomen… I finished emptying my stomach and looked around hopelessly. How did one kill the dead?
Loki and I had to find the thief – no, he wasn't a mere thief anymore; he was more of a monster than the zombies (for that's all they could be) plaguing the streets. We had to find him and stop this disaster. There was no way we could rule the world with this. There would have to be humans to rule for one. Grimly, I stood, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. The monster behind this would be in the town, revelling in the ruin he caused, and I had to find him.