Chapter 26: Aim to Misbehave
(Disclaimer: I do not speak Russian.)
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
Clint shook himself awake just before his forehead would've knocked the window pane, and straightened his posture. He was getting too tired to keep this up. He looked towards Loki's improvised sleeping area with a frown and checked his watch.
"Shit." Clint got up from his seat on the edge of the shelf, now entirely awake. The Trickster had been quiet for far too long. The ex-assassin yanked the blanket off the top of Loki's 'fort', confirming his suspicions. "Son of a bitch!" Clint grabbed his gun and ran out of the room. He streaked down through the stairwell three steps at a time, hoping to get out onto the street in time to catch up. There was no discernible trace of the alien, even his footprints had been lost in the disturbances left in the snow by Sentinels or other passing travelers. Clint kicked at a nearby chunk of hardened snow in aggravation, slipping a hand into the pocket of his jacket. His thumb stroked over the red button enticing him to push it. He still had his trump card in play. Just one push of a button and Loki wouldn't be such a hassle anymore... The thought was certainly tempting.
"You came back for me." Loki's palid face invaded his mind. He had looked so earnestly surprised, and grateful. Clint's hand released the triggering mechanism. Maybe not yet... the archer thought to himself. It might be worth it to see what the hell he's up to now.
Loki walked briskly down the street, pulling the collar of his trenchcoat up to mask his face. He was a bit surprised that he'd gotten this far. Clint had been watching him like a... hawk since they'd escaped the Voidthing. Loki had sort of expected to be shot from the window as he reached the street, or perhaps fall victim to whatever the ominous mechanism Clint had alluded to in the gym entailed.
Perhaps he'd rather not kill you, Charles offered optimistically.
Not yet, Loki conceded. He still wasn't going to take any chances. With the faint flow of magic that had returned to him over the past hour he shifted his appearance, taking comfort in the familiar wash of gold over his body. Loki was now a curvy, human woman with the same coloring as his Aesir form. She pulled her trenchcoat tight around her tiny waist and smiled at her reflection in a cracked window she was passing. "Not bad. I may keep this form for a while..." Loki considered her reflection appreciatively.
If your goal is to be inconspicuous... Charles prodded.
Loki flashed a theatrical pout. "You never let me have any fun." She then strutted across the street to speak with the three men huddled for warmth around a burning trash can. "Excuse me, Boys?" She pulled a packet of protein rations out of her pocket and held it up for them to see.
Loki, I know that you're upset... very upset right now, but that is no reason to be delberately reckless, Charles protested, going mostly unheeded by his devious host.
"I have a proposition for you," Loki continued, "I will trade these for the best offer, most especially garments or money... in that order." She stopped in front of the men with the plastic packet dangling from her dainty fingers.
"If you want me to take my pants off for you, Baby-" The stocky one offered crudely. Loki dismissed the remark with a wave of her hand.
"You shut up." She turned to the other two. "Any offers? There's a full day's worth in this. The seal is unbroken."
The tall, skinny one shrugged off his burgundy wool blanket. "This should help keep you warm, if you need it that bad, Ma'am," he offered. The man was wearing a worn out army jacket over his bundled layers, and looked old enough to pass as Loki's father. "You don' need to give up all your food. You look like you prob'ly got people worried about you."
Loki smiled warmly at him, then sobered when the third man who'd been leaning against the brick wall on Loki's left, observing, stood and shoved the old man aside.
"Yeah, fuck you, Old Man," he said in a deeply accented voice, as he moved to stand directly in front of Loki.
Slavic-sounding, Charles provided, Russian, maybe? But I might be biased.
The new suitor leaned a little closer into Loki's personal space, until it was only just too intimate to be considered polite. "You want a trade. I got real money, none of that voucher bullshit, and if you want I'll give you the blanket."
"You're so hungry that you would beat an old man?" Loki verified, not leaning away or faltering in the slightest. It was clear from this man's face that he was very dangerous... for Midgard.
"You might get yourself into trouble like him too, Little Girl, if you don't wise up. Those rich folks of yours aren't here to save you now," the thug threatened.
Loki flicked her eyes over the man's confident face, making to step past. He grabbed Loki's wrist in what would be a bruising grip, were Loki human, and the Trickster felt the telepathic impressions rush into her for the Consciousness to sort through.
Dimitri Zolnerowich was a Torpedo for the Russian Bratva before the bombing started. He has killed women for less, Charles relayed, sounding highly-disapproving of what he'd seen. He's killed entire families.
Loki took half a second to digest the new information, keeping her eyes on the contract killer's face. Then she turned away and tossed the old man the packet of rations, unimpressed by the way the 'Torpedo' drew himself up looking infuriated by her lack of respect. She spared him a fleeting glance.
"I don't need anyone to protect me. Least of all from you."
"Listen. I'm not so sure..." the old veteran began, looking concerned. The other man was already backing away toward the far end of the alley.
"We had a bargain, did we-" Loki began to reply, holding out a hand to accept the blanket but the mobster grabbed her wrist and twisted it, slamming her back against the wall.
"You think you can fuck with me, you stupid brat!" He twisted her arm, intending to break it, but Loki wasn't nearly as fragile as she looked. She spun out to his side, graceful as a dancer, in parallel with his movement and reinforced her grip with both hands to dislocate the man's shoulder in one firm tug. "Nikhuyasebe!"
Loki took the opening provided while the mobster was bent over in pain to retrieve the gun tucked into the back of his belt and reverse their positions. She checked the clip. "Six rounds left, how useful," she remarked casually. The Jötun Goddess grabbed the back of her would-be-attacker's parka and hauled him upright enough to look him in the face. "I must admit, I haven't been having much fun since I returned to your quaint little world, and it is beginning to affect my mood."
"You crazy bitch!" The thug ground out.
Loki looked to the veteran who had backed up against the opposite wall of the alley with his arms up in a protective gesture. "You see? It is people like this who give your kind a bad reputation." She leaned down and pulled the thug upright by his injured shoulder so that she could speak into the moaning man's ear. "Now, I am going to take this." She gestured with his gun while she spoke. "You are clearly not to be trusted with such things. I want you to take this time to reflect on the choices that brought you to this moment... and when the man in the brown leather jacket arrives, I want you to tell him exactly what happened and why. Understand?"
"I'm going to fucking kill you, Cu-" Dimitri's threat was cut off by Loki casually slamming his body against the brick wall behind them with inhuman force, momentarily stunning him.
"I am losing patience with you, Dimitri. That is not a good sign for your survival. When the man in the leather jacket comes by, you are going to tell him what he needs to know, or I will return for you. You do not want that."
"I am going to kill you!"
"Promises promises," Loki replied airily and pushed away from the wall, shrugging off her coat before she accepted the old man's blanket. "So long as you cooperate." She smiled at the veteran. It didn't quite manage to reach her eyes this time. "You have definitely earned those rations now."
"What if that man of yours doesn't come?" the old man inquired despite himself.
Loki smirked as he left the alley, firing her stolen weapon twice. She looked at the infuriated mobster. "Someone will be with you shortly," she remarked, and tossed her jacket away into the street as she left, heading toward Avengers Tower.
You enjoyed that, Charles accused.
"I did," Loki agreed. "Be glad that I have chosen to focus my anger in such a convenient direction and be done with it. I am in no mood for one of your lectures on morality."
It isn't your morals that I'm worried about, Loki. You have been under quite a bit of pressure. I only hope that you won't allow your rage to drive you to do something that you will later regret.
"I will take that under advisement," Loki replied non-commitally, wrapping the blanket around herself like a shawl.
ASTRAL PLANE
Thor walked through yet another dark and dripping, stone tunnel in search of Jane, or their captors, or failing either of those, a way out of this dismal place. So far all that he had found was more stone catacombs. It was more a place that he would expect to find on Swartalfheim, or in one of his father's old war stories about Midgard as it once was. He stopped at a faint sound coming from nearby. Water dripping. With his fading confidence renewed by the sign of something different up ahead after too long searching, Thor picked up his pace towards another fork.
The entire matrix of catacombs shook as something massive slithered towards him. Thor faltered, the torch in his hand was flickering wildly in the sudden breeze. It had not occured to him until now to wonder what could have made a natural tunnel system like this. In the next instant he snapped out of his stunned trance and threw himself into the opening on his right. The torch dropped out of his hand while he dove and rolled away. Thor looked back just in time to see a wall of luminous, silver scales each the size of his hand speeding past through the corridor. The massive serpent's belly had snuffed out his iron torch and crushed it without a sound. The Crowned Prince forced his attention away from the passing behemoth to survey his new surroundings.
He was in a sizeable subterranean cavern, lit only by the glow of a powerful containment spell. There was a young man lying in the center with a mess of dark curls splayed out around his head like a halo. Thor might have thought that he was merely asleep if it weren't for the drop of water hanging in thin air, or the way that the bladed pendulum was caught suspended in its upswing. Thor suspected the deady device would be far too close to the prisoner's exposed chest otherwise. There was something familiar about his pale, boyish face but Thor figured he would have remembered that scar.
"NO. YOU ARE RIGHT, ODINSSSON, THE TWO OF YOU HAVE YET TO CROSS PATHS," a deep, booming voice echoed all around him and through his mind. "BUT YOU SSOON WILL."
Thor whirled around, looking for the source of the voice. "Jörmungand."
"RELAXX. WE'RE NOT CHILDREN ANYMORE, COUSIN. I AM NOT HERE TO PLAY."
Thor smiled tightly. "Is that what you call it."
"DON'T BE A BABY."
"You nearly drowned me!"
"YOU WOULDN'T LET GO OF THE- OH, FOR NORN'S SSSAKE! THAT ISSSN'T WHAT I CAME HERE TO TALK ABOUT. JUSST LET IT GO," the World Serpent bitched.
Thor felt a little inwardly-smug that he had managed to ruin what was doubtlessly meant to be a dramatic entrance. The prat deserved it for dragging him fifteen miles, mostly underwater over a stupid oxhead statue. "What have you done with Jane?"
"NOTHING AT All. SHE IS OFF IN HER OWN DREAM. I AM HERE TO SSSEE YOU."
"I did not know that I was asleep. I must wake! Jane and I were-"
"SSEDATED. STOP TRYING TO DIGRESSS. WE ARE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION."
"I refuse to converse with a snake."
"DRAGON," Jörmangand corrected predictably. Thor turned away to study the runes and sigils painted over the surface of the containment field, regardless of the fact that he lacked the knowledge to interpret them. "FINE." There was a slithering, whooshing sound from the tunnel behind Thor, then a naked, silver-haired man walked up to stand beside him. Thor passed him his cape.
"What do you want from me? I have enough to be wary of without you slithering in to invade my time of rest," Thor said, trying and failing to make out the features of the man suspended before them.
"You should know this has to be important. It is only under those circumstances that I would subject myself to your mind," Jörmungand drawled out. "There is a new player in this little game that you and the Allfather play. He used the Trickster as his portal into your plane. Now he and your precious Allfather plot together."
"My brother!"
"Ze's alive. I cannot say it left Hir in the best state of mind, but what else is new?" Jörmungand admitted. Thor wasn't even bothered by his persistent references to Loki's born gender anymore. After around the fifteenth time correcting his hybrid cousin, Thor had decided that teaching him respect in that matter was a lost cause. Maybe if the two ever met Thor might give it another token try.
"Why are you telling me this?" the Thunderer asked instead.
"Because they are plotting to destroy all that ze ever loved. After that I have no doubt that Odin will finally end hir once and for all." Jörmungand turned to look Thor straight in the eye; despite his slender, dancer's body and fairylike features it was still intimidating. "They will not get far enough for that. If you do not stop them..." The pupils in his radiant, golden eyes dilated vertically into the merciless eyes of a reptile. "I will."
"I am grateful, my Cousin, to know that you would come to my brother's aid should I fail to protect him," Thor told him solemnly, believing every word he spoke.
"You should not be." Jörmungand let Thor's cape slip from his shoulders as his form elongated and sprouted rows of irridescent, silver scales, once again becoming the great Astral Serpent that had inspired legends. "SSSAVING HIR WOULD BE HUNGRY WORK..."
Thor let a beat of silence pass. The threat wasn't exactly unusual between them, but it was unexpected. Then he called after the retreating shapeshifter, "Why have you brought me here? Who is this man?"
"WHY?" Jörmungand echoed, sounding and feeling amused in Thor's thoughts. "HE'S 'MR. WOLF'."
"That answers little..." Thor muttered, not at all liking the feeling that he was being toyed with, especially with the serpent behind him. He heard Jörmungand's laughter fading away into the vast catacombs, and hoped that he would wake up soon. Thor was in the mood for a good battle.
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
Clint looked up from his scrutiny of the footprint he'd found in the snow, toward the sound of gunfire. He pulled his own gun out and hastened toward the ominous sound, prepared for anything. New York wasn't exactly the most hospitable place to live in these days; that thought made him internally curse the Trickster for the umpteenth time for making this deadly situation they were in even less predictable. Clint turned at the intersection to see Loki's jacket lying in the middle of the road with no other signs of life in sight other than an old vet huddled around a fire in the alley. Clint walked over and checked the coat for any blood or tears. It was damp but undamaged. He wasn't so sure whether that was a good or bad sign.
"It's you. The man in the leather jacket." The old vet looked both relieved and frightened by the sight of him. "She said you'd come. Left a message for ya."
Clint turned back to the burning trashcan and noticed there were - not one, but two - men gathered around it. The second one was a muscular man with his chiseled features currently twisted in a wince while he cradled his dislocated arm. His crouched form was partially concealed by the makeshift firepit. "A woman told you that I'd come here?"
"That's her coat."
Clint stepped up to the other side of the bin. "You said she left a message for me?"
The veteran looked meaningfully down at his companion.
"She came here and offered trade. Rations for money and warmth. He wanted to give her his blanket, I offered her better. She disrespected my kindness," the man against the wall recited hatefully.
Clint smirked ever-so-slightly. He could infer what this was about even if he hadn't known that Loki was a shapeshifter. "Let me guess: you took offense."
"That bitch is crazy! She spouts shit like she thinks she's from another world!" the thug exclaimed.
"She is," Clint put in. He probably shouldn't be amused, but he'd just recognized this guy from a past op. Loki hadn't exactly harmed an innocent here.
"She knew my name! She told me to say what happened, then she fucked off down the road."
"Sounds like her," Clint looked to the old vet. "What'd she look like?"
"I thought you knew her..."
"Long distance. Indulge me," he persisted.
"She was a pretty, young thing: tall and graceful looking, like a ballerina, with long dark hair..." the old man recalled.
"The bitch was pale. Like a vampire," Dimitri spat.
"That girl had the greenest eyes I've ever seen," the vet elaborated, undaunted by the crude interruption.
"Which way did she go?"
"Fuck you. What you gonna do?" Dimitri denied in a dismissive tone, probably wanting to reassert his dominance.
Clint stepped around the burning bin and grabbed the other man's injured shoulder in a vise-grip, causing him to cry out. "Your name came up on my to do list a few months ago. Lucky for you, I'm busy with my manic alien partner right now. You help me..." he rotated the man's arm drawing another cry of pain. The contract killer spouted barely intelligible Russian curses. "I help you," Clint concluded, relocating his shoulder. "Help me find him, or I cross you off the list."
"She went that way," Dimitri directed after a pause. "She went that way and turned right at next intersection."
Clint turned and followed the trail of the wandering Trickster without another word.
SOMEWHERE IN NEW JERSEY
Jane stared unblinkingly at the doors at the back of the transport. The latch clunked as it released, causing her to jump, and the doors were opened by a uniformed SHIELD operative. The visor of his cap blocked his face from view and his black driving gloves hid his skin as well, making him look entirely generic. Behind Jane, the lab-made mutant opened her eyes to scowl at him.
"This isn't to plan. Our orders were to keep it locked," she protested in a superior tone.
"I'm changing the plan," the driver's familiar voice responded, pulling a silenced gun out from behind his back and shooting her twice in the chest with it.
"Oh my!" Jane's arms went up to cover her face in shocked surprise, and she dragged one hand down over her face before turning to the imposter driver. "Onslaught?"
"You're welcome," Onslaught replied, climbing in and starting to search through the medical supplies stored behind her for anything useful. "Is he dead?"
"Um. No! He was just-" Jane began trying to shake Thor awake. "She had us in this dreamstate... and I-"
Onslaught turned to give her a look that communicated just how little he cared.
"Right. I'll just wake him up," Jane amended.
Thor stirred awake with a groan after Jane got sick of shaking him and gave him a dejected shove against his thin pillow. "Ungh... Jane, where are- Jane!" He surged up into a sitting position, entirely alert.
"I'm okay. We're fine now." Jane scrunched up her face, wondering how realistic that was, considering that..."Onslaught saved us."
Thorlooked accusingly over her shoulder. "Where are the twins?"
"Pete's up front taking out the cavalry. Wanda pissed off early in the morning while we were asleep. Ooh, isoflurane! That takes me back."
An armored guard ran up to point his M16 at them. "Freeze! Hands where I can see them! Now!"
Onslaught paused for a beat, irritated by the interruption, then continued speaking to Thor. "You can thank Wanda for this little reunion by the way; she told us in her note that we should come here."
The blue and white blur that was Peter knocked the soldier out of view before stopping, perched on the back bumper of the truck. "Hi, Guys! What's that, Francis?"
Jane glanced back over her shoulder at the bottles in the teenager's hands. "Breatheable drugs. When did you suit up?"
"This morning." Peter grabbed the offending items out of Francis' hands and put them back. "Bandages, antibiotics," he pronounced, grabbing packets of each and tucking them into the pockets of his customized, blue leather SHEILD uniform. "That's all we'll need."
"Hey! Come on! I was only going to use them on other people!" Onslaught defended poorly.
"I know. Out." Peter hauled his semi-psychopathic sibling out of the armored vehicle with a firm grip on the back of his jacket. He looked back at Thor. "You good to walk? I wanna get out of here before another fight breaks out."
"I am well," Thor assured, following after him and helping Jane down.
"You know they wouldn't have fought back as much if you'd just let me kill them," Onslaught pointed out.
"No shit. Their friends would also hate us more," Peter reasoned.
"You sound like Mummy."
"We're not arguing about this." Peter looked around. "So this whole split-up-and-hide plan is pretty shitty. You guys want to head North with us, or what?"
"You are abandoning the plan?" Thor inquired dubiously.
"Ugh... Again with the plan," Onslaught complained, falling back to walk with Jane while the two men conversed. "What is this? Attack of the Bureaucrats? I vote for a more organic approach."
"You're an impulsive, sociopathic terrorist. You don't get a vote," Peter reminded him.
"Fascist."
"Shouldn't we be trying to find Wanda?" Jane asked, deciding not to dwell on the unusual sibling banter.
Peter shook his head. "She knows what she's doing. I'm more interested in what SHIELD is up to. They're swarming this entire city, and if that Bioweapon is any indication, they're working with Sinister now. It isn't just us they're after. Whoever the new leadership is, it's pretty clear that they're searching for something. The sooner we figure out what that is, the faster we can make a countermove. You two can go ahead and lay low if you want, but I'm not going to sit around in the middle of a war."
Thor looked back to exchange a glance with Jane. This was not good.
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
Loki stopped a block away from his previous sanctuary. It had just started feeling comfortable right before these new SHIELD morons had stormed the place. She eyed the darkly armored fools swarming the tower with disdain. They would pay in time. Something drew her attention to a building across the street. At first the Trickster thought she'd seen movement out of her peripheral vision, a figure in red running, but there were no new footprints in the snow. Her gaze roamed upwards from the snowy street to the building itself. The old, weathered door drifted open further as though in invitation. Loki's green eyes narrowed. The door opened even further, shimmering with the faintest ghost of scarlet radiance. One corner of Loki's rosy lips quirked upwards in a smirk. She pulled her blanket tighter around herself, striding across the street to ascend the icy steps and lean in through the doorway.
"It's me, Dear," Loki called into the seemingly-empty old shop. "Although you already seem to have sensed that..." Loki looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of Wanda's magic within the room.
"You're a girl," Wanda observed, flickering into existence in front of Loki without the slightest warning.
"I am a Lady," Loki corrected, standing up straighter, only to recline with her back against the doorframe. They looked at each other with matching grins and quickly burst into giggles.
"I knew you'd be fun!" Wanda informed her. Loki sobered.
"Is that why you are here instead of travelling with your brothers as you ought to be?"
"No..."
"Are you lying?"
"Yes..." Wanda confessed. "But I can also be here and be good for us. You might do something bad if no one's there with you. I can be that someone!"
"You aren't my jailer, Dear. That is the Hawk's job." Loki noticed Wanda's disapproving expression and misjudged the reason behind it. "You should consider that a compliment. I chose to spend time on you of my own will. You interest me. Which is why I am glad that you aren't responsible for me."
"You don't need a jailor."
Loki smirked. "How sweet of you to say."
"You need friends."
Loki's smirk twisted into a scowl and she looked away towards the tower. "I need to return you to your keepers, or perhaps to that Captain. He is far too persistent not to have made it out alive. It shouldn't take us long to pick up his trail."
"I'm your friend," Wanda persisted, taking a step closer in spite of Loki's bitterness.
"I don't have friends," Loki corrected, pushing herself away from the doorway and beginning to leave. Not tangible ones, sheamendedinternally.
How sweet, Charles imitated, both touched by the thought and irritated on Wanda's behalf.
Loki continued to explain, "A friend is just another hostage for Odin to-"
Wanda pulled her hood up to shadow her face, followed Loki out, and hugged her from behind, forcing her to stop at the top of the steps.
"I'm not a hostage, and I'm not oblivious. I remind you of someone you lost," Wanda spoke quietly into Loki's ear. "You're scared, but that's okay."
Clint ran into view and stopped at the far corner, slowly turning to face towards them. Loki kept her eyes locked on the assassin, trying not to let her uncaring mask slip.
"Stop hugging me, you stubborn little witch!" she grumbled under her breath.
"Did he take her?" Wanda asked, reading the answer in Loki's eyes. "He took her away and left you all alone." She didn't sound taunting; it would be easier to fight back if she did. Instead, she sounded sympathetic. It was to be expected, he supposed, for a child who called Charles 'Mummy.' "You don't need to be alone, that's what he wants."
Clint caught sight of them. A shit-eating grin spread across his face upon noticing Loki's situation.
"I am not afraid," Loki articulated.
"Hug me back then," Wanda offered happily, giving her hesitant friend's shoulders a little squeeze.
"I will not."
"Aw! Aren't you two just adorable," Clint teased, stopping at the bottom of the steps to enjoy Loki's predicament.
Loki scowled down at him, then with a put-upon sigh turned round and gave Wanda a swift excuse for a hug before pushing her away at arm's length and stalking back inside. Clint looked inquisitively up at the Scarlet Witch, who grinned unhelpfully down at him. They both walked into the building without another word. Clint decided it was better to focus on getting Loki back under control, and Wanda was busy running through different probabilities in her head again and couldn't be bothered to explain.
"Loki, what the fuck," Clint prompted dutifully, joining Loki in a room walled with dusty books. She was running her fingers over the spines lined at her eye level, avoiding looking at him.
"I did warn you," Loki answered, sounding bored. Clint knew she - that was still weird to him, even though he supposed the alien wasn't actually a 'he' either- was just being a diva, wanting to make him wrestle the truth out of her. Honestly, with the addiction this guy, whatever, has to attention, she could put Tinkerbell to shame.
"If you wish to continue your mission in my absence, I will not object," Loki informed him.
"I don't wish. Can you quit that?" Clint asked, gesturing to Loki's façade. It was unreasonable, but there was just something off-putting about seeing Loki as a pretty young woman.
Loki raised one delicate eyebrow, looked down at herself, then smirked at the archer. "Am I distracting you?"
"Cut the crap," Clint shot back, ignoring the loud avalanche of books knocked off the table beside him by Wanda sliding in to sit in their place. "As I see it, half my job is keeping you under control," he told the Trickster.
Loki's smirk sharpened, becoming more disconcertingly familiar even before the wash of golden light transformed 'her' back into 'him'. "Well, by all means, Agent Barton. What are you waiting for? If you intend to stop me, then stop me. I will not change my course."
"Why not? What are you planning?"
"I am quite curious to see what trick you have hidden up your sleeve," Loki continued to challenge. "You are so hesitant to use it, it leads me to doubt-" Loki suddenly dropped to the floor with his muscles clenched up by an invisible electrical current. Clint frowned down at him for a moment with both hands tucked into his pockets. His face was a stone mask.
"Clint?" Wanda questioned. "Clint, stop it!"
Clint glanced over at her, then back down at Loki and released the pressure on his hidden trigger. Loki sucked in a gasp, his muscles trembling slightly while he recovered. Clint crouched over him, watching him struggle.
"What is that?" Loki breathed out, his tremors almost masking his bitterness.
"That was the low setting," Clint replied, with busnesslike detachment.. "There is a network of nanomachines wired directly into your nervous system."
"Stark," Loki spat as if the name were poison. He felt a wave of betrayal and shame overtaking him. He had actually begun to trust the man, even confided in him. I should have known better than to think the little human could truly care!
Loki... Charles urged.
"We had him implant you while you were recovering from that near death experience," Clint explained.
"All of you?" Loki snapped, looking over the ex-agent's shoulder at Wanda.
She shook her head, eyes wide.
"It was just the three of us," Clint admitted.
"The spider..." Loki concluded. That, at least, was more expected. Agent Romanoff had played him well from the first moment they met. That was why he liked her.
"What are you planning?" Clint asked.
"Are you going to shock me again?"
"Only if you make me."
Loki breathed out a laugh. "Have care, Agent Barton. Your claws are showing." He pushed himself up into a seated position leaning back on his arms to face his jailor. "I am meeting an old friend."
"Why?"
"I have need of him," Loki obfuscated.
"Tell me the truth or so help me-"
"His world is crumbling into nothing. I have no intention of abandoning him to his fate," Loki stated forcefully. "Inflict as much pain as you wish to, it will not stop me." He tilted his head ever so slightly with a challenging stare directly into Clint's eyes. "Unless you intend to kill me first?"
Clint stared back at him for a moment, still having a hard time trusting him. He seemed sincere, but Loki was the God of Lies, which tended to make it even harder to believe anything he said. Finally he relaxed and backed off. "Tony was right." Clint pretended not to notice the way the alien's eyes hardened in response to the inventor's mention. "You have been here before."
"So it would seem," Loki muttered cryptically and got to his feet. "We should leave this place before we are discovered. I have no intention of taking on another captor."
Translation: "Ni khuya sebe!" - "No fucking way!"
A/N: Yep, I know it's been a while. I'm doing my best. Thanks for sticking with me through the wait. Hopefully this chapter was worth it. Special thanks goes to Ruby of Raven for reviewing. As always, I love feedback!