Sorry, I had a bit of difficulty with this chapter. Mostly because it's the one in front of the chapter I want to write. Hopefully I did okay on this...let me know.
Natasha groaned as she opened her eyes to the offending light from her window. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was only 7 am. Natasha sat up and rubbed the sleep from one of her eyes and glanced around the room. The taste in her mouth told her she had been drinking the night before but she didn't see any mess or random men in her room. Sometimes Clint would be in her bed after a very drunken night. But he was nowhere to be found.
She stood and realized she was still in the clothes from last night. She groaned and started to take off the jacket but stopped when she felt something in the pocket. She pulled out a flower that was similar to a black and red tulip. Last night's events began to unfold in her head and she felt like smacking herself.
For starters, she had stayed after making a hit. It was a miracle she wasn't killed afterward by someone who had stumbled upon the mess. Then she had Loki out and around the damn city! He may have looked like the average person but it was a miracle that no one recognized him or any of the other avengers he had portrayed the night before.
Natasha stared at the flower. The worst part was that stupid smirk of Loki's had her severely wanting to take him up on his offer last night. She tossed down the flower on her nightstand and went to take a shower.
Bruce and Tony sat at the breakfast table by themselves. The night before had been interesting. Tony had begun working on his latest Iron man suit and Bruce stayed up trying to see if there was a way to track the magic that Loki possessed. The data that was collected from the fight was mesmerizing. But so far they hadn't found out how to track the magic just yet. When they had decided to take a break they had seen a very drunk spy and a very drunk god stumbling in at three in the morning.
"Do you think Fury knows?" Bruce asked. He eyed the director who was across the room talking to Barton and Selvig.
"He may have put her up to it," Tony frowned and wiped his eyes. He knew that sometimes Fury set Natasha up with missions that would require wooing some poor bastard.
"Wouldn't she have followed him back to the room if Fury had?" Bruce asked.
Tony shrugged. He wasn't sure what to think. If Fury had put Natasha up to it then she may feel as if she didn't need to sleep with Loki to keep him interested. Or possibly, Loki knew about Fury's plan and was toying with Natasha. Tony frowned. If Loki didn't know and liked Natasha, they could end up with an extremely pissed off god. Then again, if Loki was toying with Natasha then they could be dealing with an extremely pissed off Black Widow. Tony wasn't sure which was worse.
Something else bothered him though. What if Natasha was not on a mission? What if Loki wasn't playing her?
Tony turned as the Television went off across the room, which made Darcy swear and Jane reach for the remote. Almost immediately after, Odin appeared near where Bruce and Tony were sitting.
"Father!" Thor jumped up from his relaxed position on the couch.
Odin smiled at his golden haired son, "I have gathered more information."
"Should I go get Loki? He is still abed," Thor asked.
"He will be up shortly," Odin told him. The older man turned while waving his hand and a wooden table appeared in front of him.
Odin turned when there was a ding at the elevator and Loki came out with one of Odin's ravens perched on his shoulder. Loki made his way to the other two Asgardians but made no sound. Aside from Loki's moody expression, he looked very presentable. His hair was combed back and he was wearing the green tunic and black pants again.
"If you went to sleep earlier, you wouldn't be in such a foul mood," Thor told him.
Odin sighed, "Only a fool provokes an angry Kalasnake."
Loki glared daggers at Thor and the elder sibling scooted toward the other side of the table.
Bruce and Tony made their way to look at the table that Odin had set up. It was a plain wooden table that was not remarkable in any way. Fury made his way over to the table as well, his eyebrow raised at it.
"Frey has told me that he anticipates Thanos to strike sometime this upcoming season," Odin told them.
"Somewhere between two weeks and two months," Loki pointed out. "Though I am betting on closer to 5 weeks from tomorrow."
Odin nodded, "alignment?"
Loki nodded, "but I am not quite sure at the timing. If he catches wind of what we are planning, he may be able to vary it by a few days."
Odin moved his hand and golden pinpoints showed up above the table in a formation of a constellation. "As to where it will show up, we are unsure."
"Here, unless Thanos catches wind," Loki stated and the pinpoints moved to focus on a golden earth.
"Why would they strike here again?" Bruce spoke up.
Odin eyed the man momentarily before looking at his dark haired son.
"He wanted me to bring the Chitauri to this spot before because this was where he planned to come," Loki told them, "Though it may not be directly over this tower-that was my doing."
"But it will be in Manhattan?" Fury crossed his arms.
"Undoubtedly," Loki nodded.
"Frey has mentioned something interesting," Odin began to pace around the table. "That it is possible to move the portal to another place, even a different realm."
Thor blinked, "Then we should do that. Take them to the Dark Elves home world. There is nothing but desert out there."
Loki crossed his arms as he eyed the golden Earth. As he stared at it, the Earth expanded to focus on New York. Odin continued to pace, eyeing both of his sons.
"We could move our army there as well: to prevent unneeded casualties," Thor continued.
"It won't work," Loki stated. Odin eyed his younger son but said nothing.
Thor paused, and whirled to look at Loki. "Frey said-"
"Frey is an old codger," Loki rolled his eyes. "The spell he is talking about is very complicated. It requires a lot of information which we do not have."
"We know where he will be and when he will get here," Thor waved his hand dismissively. "What else do we need?"
"The exact place and exact time down to the minute," Loki frowned. "Without that information then the spell becomes less efficient." He paused as he did some calculations in his head. "I would say a fifty percent chance of even working."
Odin widened his pacing to include walking around the Midgardian home.
"That's a good chance," Thor told him. "We could save Midgard from further destruction."
"That's a horrible chance," Loki told him, "We could open the 9 realms to annihilation."
The elevator dinged and they all looked over to see Natasha coming out. Natasha froze at the newcomers and the pissed off expressions on the two brothers.
Thor turned back to Loki, "I have faith in you. You could easily pull this off."
"I am telling you that it cannot be done with certainty," Loki was growing angry. "yes, there is a chance that we save your precious Midgard and have an army waiting for Thanos on an unpopulated world in a realm far from home. But there is also an equal possibility that it will not work. Leaving our army in the wrong place, all the realms open for destruction, and it would alert Thanos that I am alive and weak from performing such a useless spell."
Thor scoffed, "you merely want to save your own hide. Such cowardice."
Odin paused at a bookshelf and began to run his fingers over the titles on the bindings. Fury eyed the king wondering what the old man was up to.
"That spell will severely drain my magic," Loki pointed out to him, "And at this point we need my magic!"
"You're afraid to die in battle?" Thor slammed his fist on the table. "This is for the better good."
"This is suicide for no progression," Loki gripped the table and stared the blond dead on. "Actually it's worse because I know that Thanos would not allow me to die."
"It could work!" Thor's thunderous voice boomed.
"It could NOT!" Loki nearly yelled. "We need to be looking into ways to shut the portal, to keep it from opening. Possibly cursing Thanos in there for longer."
"We could end him now," Thor told him. "And not even worry about him after this."
Loki shook his head, "You really don't understand the concept of someone being stronger than you."
Thor smirked, "We can take him. The Avengers have proven themselves."
Loki took a deep breath, "I refuse to do the spell."
Odin stilled but did not say anything.
"You refuse?" Thor's features darkened. "This could mean the difference between the deaths of millions"
Loki looked down at the table. He was not going to do the spell. It was idiocy.
"Do you know what Thanos could unleash onto this planet? We could save them all."
"Or destroy ourselves." Loki stated.
"You really don't care do you?" Thor slammed his fist again. "You could save your magic up, I know you can-and you could do this spell."
Loki crossed his arms and started to look for Odin.
"Instead, you would unleash that monster unto this realm?" Thor growled, "It makes you no more than it."
Loki turned his head to his brother. He glared into Thor's eyes and Thor realized what he implied.
"Prove to me that you are not this kind of person," Thor said.
Loki stared at him stone faced, "Do what you want. You're going to do it anyway." He turned on his heel and headed out of the room.
Thor sighed and looked down at the table as his brother left. He knew better than to toy with Loki like that. Loki really felt as if he was a monster, to imply he was one was like cornering a two-headed snake. But Thor knew that the Midgardians did not stand a chance against Thanos.
"You have come to a conclusion?" Odin asked from the bookshelf.
Thor nodded, "We will have Loki perform the spell-if he won't then Frey will," The golden earth shrunk and a golden constellation appeared before Thor. He pointed to a dot on the constellation, "The dark elf world will prove to be the best place for this war. We will-"
"no," Odin said softly.
Thor looked over to his father, "no?"
"We will not be performing the spell," Odin said simply.
"Just because Loki won't-"
"Loki has given many different reasons as to why the spell should not be performed and you ignored them all." Odin frowned. He turned and began to walk to Thor. "A king does not have to be the smartest man in the room, but he does have to listen to those that are smarter than him."
"Loki cares not for Midgard or its people-"
"And you care too much!" Odin snapped. "You are to be king of all nine realms, not just one!"
"Loki-"
"Acted more of a king just now than you have," Odin frowned and then turned to look at the constellation. "Mayhap I chose the wrong son."
Thor stared at him and clenched his teeth. He looked down at the table in silence.
"I will continue to have Frey look into the portals, so far he has not found anything of use." Odin continued. "I assume that Loki hasn't either." He frowned and then waved his hand and Loki appeared, leaning up against the wall.
Loki raised a brow at his father. He expected for himself to be brought back but he assumed it would take a little longer. He looked over to Thor and saw his brother holding back rage.
"What have you found on portals?" Odin questioned.
"One option would be the infinity gauntlet and gloves which I would suggest against," Loki told him.
Odin shook his head, "we do not need Thanos to get his hands on that."
"No," Loki agreed. "If I could pinpoint where he is emerging from then I can slow his entrance to the point we can attack but that may lead to warriors falling into hell itself."
"A warrior's death," Odin nodded. "And prevention?"
Loki shook his head, and then jerked his head to Coulson and Fury. "They might have something."
Odin raised a brow at the two.
Fury blinked in surprise.
"You have asked the internet?" Loki asked.
"The portal in question is prophesized and there does not seem a way to hamper it from our knowledge," Coulson told him.
"We may be able to pinpoint it," Tony spoke up. Odin turned to him expectantly.
"We are trying to see if there is a way to trace magic. Loki is helping us with it. Wouldn't this portal emit some sort of magic?"
Odin looked to Loki who nodded. "I'm not sure for how long." Loki frowned. "It could be a couple of days or a couple of minutes that it would emit it."
"A few minutes would be enough to get my army assembled," Odin told him.
"If it works," Loki advised.
"I have nothing but faith in my sons," Odin stated.
Loki rolled his eyes.
Immediately Odin, the table and Loki disappeared.
Thor crossed his arms, "That means Loki is in trouble." He huffed and stormed off.
Loki blinked against the sudden sunlight and determined he was on the roof of Stark Towers.
"Have I not earned the right to call you my son?" Odin stared at him.
Loki sighed, "I am not-"
"I raised you! I fed you! Clothed you!" Odin yelled.
"That does not make me your son," Loki turned away from Odin, he didn't bother to walk away because Odin would just poof him back.
"I dealt with your mischief and tricks for over a thousand years, taught you of our family history, how to fight. I think I have earned the right for you to call me Father," Odin said calmly.
"You dealt with me because I was some relic in which you could use!" Loki spun around.
"Then why keep you around now?" Odin asked.
"Because I am useful." Loki said simply.
"Why is it you hate me so?" Odin asked. "You refuse to call me father, did you do the same to your Mother?"
Loki tensed up. He could see his mother's hurt face when he told her she wasn't his mother. Even though Frigga knew he was lying, it was still the last thing he had told her before she was killed. He refused to look Odin in the eyes.
"You refuse to call Thor brother but you helped him with that Midgardian," Odin stated.
"Jane," Loki said.
"You have interest in her?" Odin asked.
"No," Loki shook his head.
Odin took a deep breath as if trying to find the words, "for the past thousand years, you have been an Odinson-that will not change."
"Is it Mother's spell?" Loki asked. He turned to look at Odin who tilted his head in question. "Why I look like you?"
"When I found you, you were alone. Cast off for being so small." Odin told him. "I picked you up and held you. Then your skin changed color and you smiled at me."
Loki furrowed his brow.
"It was your own magic that made you look like an Asgardian, like me. Your Mother feared you might accidentally change back and kept an eye on you as you grew into adulthood. She wanted to make sure that you always felt like one of us." Odin smiled. "She told me that she believed that your Asgardian state had become your natural state of being."
Odin watched Loki take in the information.
"After this war," Odin began. "You will no longer be confined to that prison. Your bravery in Asgard has made up for your crimes. After your help in this war you can take your rightful place back home."
Loki crossed his arms.
"Your Mother would be proud," Odin smiled sadly. A moment later he was gone.
Tony worked with the interactive computer program that displayed his suit in front of him. He was currently working on the arm while leaning against the table. He wanted to make it stronger, more powerful than the last. With Thanos coming he would need to be at peak power. He frowned and made a mental note to increase the power so that the suit could work at peak performance for a longer time.
The program was on his home files so that the government wouldn't know about it. He had kept the information from Rhodey and Pepper. Though he was sure that Pepper knew what he was working on. She had hinted strongly for him to work on it when she first saw Loki in their kitchen.
Bruce was also working in the lab. He was still analyzing the data that Loki and Thor had produced. He could have used the other lab to analyze the data but Bruce wanted to bounce ideas off of Tony as they worked. Currently he was trying to analyze different wave movements to where they would light up on his screen.
Bruce muttered about inconsistencies and Tony sighed. What they needed was more data, but to do that would require finding the god of mischief and strapping those sensors back onto him. Tony doubted that Loki would have too much of a problem with putting the sensors on but the problem lay in the fact that no one had seen Loki since yesterday when Odin had popped them off somewhere.
When Loki hadn't shown up for dinner, Jane had begun to ask about the god. Thor had shrugged it off saying that Loki would get food if he was hungry. It had quickly become apparent that Thor didn't want to deal with Loki after that. The god of thunder nearly destroyed the gym in 'working out his frustration.' Fury became agitated when Loki didn't show up for breakfast or lunch. He had tried to use the sensors to see if Loki was even in the tower but Jarvis couldn't find the god.
Tony sighed and tossed one of his notebooks aside. He stopped as he realized that the notebook had stopped in midair. Loki phased into view and put the book down next to him. He was sitting on the table looking at Tony's diagram.
"Your technology is similar to my magic," Loki said simply.
Bruce turned his head and smiled at the god as if he had expected him to be there, "Little help?"
Loki pushed off of the table and went to look at what Bruce was showing him, "I keep having issues. I think this thing here is your magic, or at least a part of it but it's difficult to track."
"Can you see a similarity between Thor and I?" Loki asked.
"I was working on it but then everything was lighting up," Bruce frowned.
Loki furrowed his brow, "that's because everything has magic."
"Uh, I don't think so," Tony said as he placed his arm into the interactive arm program.
"Everything has magic, but only a few know how to work it." Loki explained further. "Higher concentrations of magic is usually what is being manipulated. I can sense it sometimes but not to a high enough degree to detect a portal somewhere in the city. Not with such a wide time line."
"Do you mind wearing those sensors some more?" Bruce asked. "We may get a better idea the longer you wear them.
Loki nodded.
"You know that you have pissed off Fury," Tony said.
Loki smirked, "I anger him simply by existing."
Tony smiled, "that's not a lie."
"Fury thought you left," Bruce told Loki, who was now fiddling with some mechanical parts.
Loki shook his head, "I preferred to keep to myself. If I don't want to be found then I won't."
"So you were in the tower this whole time?" Tony turned to look at him. "Jarvis couldn't even find you."
Loki smirked. He then turned to look at some of the things on the wall.
"Maybe you could teach me. I'd love to use it at Heff's." Tony grinned.
"Midgardians celebrate intelligence?" Loki questioned.
Bruce looked over to where Loki was and saw that it was a frame that Pepper must have hung of Tony accepting an award for some achievement before he created his suit. "More or less."
"You're looking at the two smartest people on the planet," Tony boasted. "How do you think I pay for all my stuff?"
"I thought you made your fortune-" Bruce began and laughed when Tony glared at him.
"Because you made yourselves stronger with your intelligence?" Loki asked again.
"Well…" Bruce frowned. "Not really, I mean I'm the forefront of gamma radiation and Tony does help the military develop amazing weapons. But there are others. Stephen Hawking can't even move and he is 'celebrated' quite a bit."
Tony looked up from his work and realized why Loki was asking, "Asgard doesn't celebrate intelligence, does it?"
Loki laughed darkly. "What you would call tactical planning and using one's head to insure success is considered trickery and deceitful."
"Your Dad didn't seem to put off by it," Bruce commented.
"He would prefer another strong son," Loki pulled away from the frame and began fiddling with other mechanics. Trying to discern for himself how they worked.
"Hungry?" Tony asked to change the subject. He chuckled when Loki perked up immediately. If he were to ever bribe Loki it would definitely be with food. "I think you missed out on pizza which you definitely need to try."
Loki is really supposed to love food according to the actual Norse mythology :D
So hopefully I did my angry Thor okay. He seems to have a temper and a soft spot for Midgard. I am going to be kind of busy the next couple of days but hopefully I will get a chapter out by Friday. Somebody remind me XD