Just Scratches

Steve and I joined the rest of our small crew that had been made slightly larger due to the addition of Tony Stark- the man I had to thank for my earlier distraction- and the man we had come to pick up in the first place, Loki, on the jet right before it took off back into the air. Loki sat silently with his back to the right side of the jet, staring unwaveringly at the opposite wall.

After removing his helmet, Tony stood in the front right corner and watched the god with a quiet intensity, as if he was trying to slve a riddle that surrounded him. Steve stood next to him and directly behind Natasha, listening as she told somebody over the radio that Loki wasn't talking.

I sat on the small bench against the left wall with an opened medical kit resting in my lap as I rustled through it, searching for something to clean the cuts on my palms and forearm before bandaging them. My noisy foraging was silenced when Steve mumbled something incoherent to Tony and I stopped myself to better eavesdrop on the conversation.

"What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony responded to whatever it was the Captain originally said.

"I don't remember it being that easy," Steve explained. "This guy packs a wallop."

Tony shrugged faintly. "Still, you are pretty spry for an older fellow. What's your thing, pilates?"

"What?"

"Therapeutic exercise," I offered in place of whatever Tony was about to answer. "It's supposed to enhance coordination and balance... Maybe I should try it sometime."

"It's new," Tony added with a nod after glancing in my direction. "You might have missed a couple of things. You know, doing time as a Capsicle."

Steve's jaw flinched in response to the nickname, but other than that he showed no reaction to Tony's pestering. "Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in."

"He didn't tell me anything," I threw in under my breath. "Still hasn't told me anything, actually."

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell people."

Just after Tony's statement thunder rumbled throughout the jet, closely followed by quick flashes of lightning. Natasha leaned closer to the window and squinted her eyes, tilting her head. "Where's this coming from?"

The jet shook a few times and I had to clutch the med kit closer to my stomach to keep its contents from spilling out. When I was sure everything inside was safe, I looked back up in time to see Loki pull his arms closer to his chest as he stared at the ceiling.

"What's the matter?" Steve asked, nodding his head in the god's direction to show that he was addressing him. "Scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows."

As if his words were some form of signal, a loud thud against the ceiling rocked the quinjet once again and despite my earlier precaution, the supplies inside the kit on my lap tumbled over the edge and rolled across the floor when I jolted forward. Tony picked up his helmet and slid it back over his head at the same time Steve did the same, though after he had his on he walked towards the back of the jet and pressed the button to open the bay door.

I snatched up a few lost items before they could escape the jet and glared up at the back of Tony's head. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

He had no answer for me when an unknown man dropped onto the open door in a crouched position before slowly standing and turning his gaze to a very frightened looking Loki. When he tried to walk further in Tony raised his hand to blast him, but before he could fire a single shot the man in the cape punched him in the chest with a hammer, sending him soaring over my head and straight into Steve.

Once Tony was out of the way, the man stepped in and grabbed Loki by the throat, swung his hammer in a circle and flew out of the jet all within a matter of seconds.

I finished replacing the scrambled items back into the kit and closed it before standing from the floor the same time Tony did, stepping away from the open door to avoid tumbling out of it.

"And now there's that guy," Tony groaned.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha called from the front, looking back over her shoulder.

"That guy's a friendly?"

"Doesn't matter," Tony disregarded Steve's question, marching towards the back of the jet. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark! We need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan. Attack."

When Tony jetted out of the quinjet, Steve didn't even hesitate before grabbing one of the available parachutes on the rack against the left wall and strapping it onto his back. "I don't know if that's a good idea," I pointed out. "You might want to hang back and let these guys work out their issues on their own."

"I don't see how I can."

"She's right," Natasha agreed. "These guys come from legend, Cap. They're basically gods."

"There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

After that, there was no more arguing as Steve picked up his shield and ran out of the jet, dropping quickly out of view. Natasha shook her head disbelievingly for a moment before glancing back at me. "Look, those idiots are going to be too busy proving themselves to each other to keep an eye on Loki. I'm going to take this jet down and get them back in here, but I need you to stay in here and keep an eye on the jet. Can you do that?"

"No problem," I agreed easily, already re-opening my med kit. "I'm just gonna sit here and fix up my arm. I have absolutely zero desire to go after those guys. That is all on you."

Natasha's answer was to start lowering the jet, careful to avoid the surrounding trees. I almost spilled the antiseptic a few times on the way down, but other than that it was smooth sailing as she brought us to the ground and unbuckled the straps holding her into the pilot's seat. "Be right back," she called on her way out, marching out into the forest with an intensity I was glad wasn't aimed at me.

Once she was out, I could finally finish cleaning my minor injuries in peace before pulling out a crisp white bandage that I wrapped a few times around my forearm where Clint had been able to cut me. The wound wasn't anything debilitating, but better safe than sorry.

Right as I was fixing to clean up the small scrapes on my hands, my cell phone in my back pocket that I had completely forgotten I even had at this point began to vibrate. Confused on who would be calling so late, I pulled the phone out and glanced at the unfamiliar caller ID before answering. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ali!"

"Oh my god," I sighed at the easily recognizable voice, closing my eyes and massaging the area between my eyebrows. "What did you do this time?"

"Nothing major. I'm just in a, uh... Look, it's not important. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be... indisposed for a little while, so don't bother visiting for now. I'll let you know when I get things sorted out."

"What things are you trying to sort out?"

An indistinguishable voice shouted something from the other end, and my brother yelled back that he would be right there before returning to our conversation. "Hey, I gotta go Ali. I'll call you soon, okay?" Before I could answer, an ear-shattering clang echoed through the forest and I reflexively flinched to cover my ears. "Woah, what was that? Are you okay?"

"Don't worry about it," I dismissed, standing from my seat and looking outside of the quinjet to try and get a glimpse of what the hell was happening out there. "I'm a little busy with work right now, but next week you bet your ass you're explaining what kind of trouble you've gotten yourself into."

"Next week," he repeated. The same voice from earlier screamed at him again, and he sighed deeply into the receiver. "I really gotta go now. Talk to you later, Ali."

"Yeah. Talk to you later, Scotty."

The phone beeped against my ear when he disconnected the call, and I slipped my phone back into my pocket as I stepped closer towards the edge of where the quinjet morphed into dark green grass. A few seconds later, I saw Natasha walking through the forest with Loki at her side and the three men she had gone after in a small huddle behind her.

Without a word, Natasha walked straight back to the pilot's seat and strapped herself back in, starting the vehicle back up. The four men- including the one who had stolen Loki just minutes ago- all silently chose their own separate places to sit in the jet. I had no idea how Natasha convinced them to come back into the jet and be so quiet about it, but as I closed the door and returned to my own seat, I was sure that I was better off not knowing.

For those of you wondering about Alice's powers, I suggest reading up on the power 'Reality Warping' on the Superpower Wiki. Alice is a low-level reality warper, and will become more powerful as her story in the MCU progresses.