Tony was eyeing her suspiciously as she explained the warning that Loki had delivered, nonspecific though it had been. Thor looked suitably uncomfortable and torn between retrieving Jane now and leaving Sigyn by herself with Tony and Bruce. Steve, Clint, and Natasha had been held up at SHIELD and thus weren't present with them. Bruce, for his part, was occupying himself with a tablet and resolutely not looking at Sigyn. He had done much the same the previous night and had avoided Hulking out again in her presence.
"Soooo," Tony drawled and she had to smile at the suspicious tone. "Loki magiced this message to you and none of Jarvis' sensors were set off?"
"That is correct," she said and grinned when that only served to deepen his frown. Tony might have been a genius among humans and disliked the ease with which magic disregarded their rules, but Loki was a master sorcerer and was more than capable of working his way around safeguards. She was willingto help them build a device that would allow them to detect Amora and magic within the vicinity, but she would not help them to tweak it to capture magic-as Tony had tried to convince her the previous night. Being able to detect an enemy was only fair, but rendering a sorcerer powerless was not something she would lend herself to-not if it meant potentially hurting Loki. "If it makes you feel better, Amora has never been able to fool Heimdall and I doubt she has any grasp of what electronics are."
"The Captain, Hawk, and Widow shall return shortly, yes?" Thor asked, shifting uncomfortably.
She waved a hand at her brother and said, "Go, Thor. Some of my magic will return by days end. Yesterday's introductions shall not be repeated. Amora cannot be allowed to hurt those we care for further. This is more important than the off chance that Dr. Banner will lose control again."
He nodded, relief flickering through his eyes. "Then it is well. I shall return by days end with her."
Sigyn glanced at him sidelong, amusement curling her lips. "You will need to let her pack and if there are others that she cares for, bring them with. Amora will not hesitate to capture them and use them to draw her out and, in turn, you. You may be longer than a day, brother."
"I can make arrangements for Dr. Selvig and Darcy, Pointbreak," Tony said, snagging the tablet from Bruce, who gave his fellow scientist an amused look. "Clothes and equipment are no issue. I'll send someone to gather anything that Dr. Foster thinks she'll need and we can go from there. Just get her and get back since we have no idea what this Amora is up to."
She wandered to the side of the couch and leaned over the edge to see what he was doing and was immediately confused by the pictures, numbers, and symbols. "Do I wish to ask?" she inquired and saw his lips quirk.
"Not really, princess, not really. It's kinda boring, but what I'm doing is arranging for a short notice flight between New York and New Mexico and alerting the intended individuals that their presence is required due to an unspecified emergency," he said, his fingers sliding automatically across the screen, changing the picture time and again.
Sigyn hummed even though she didn't really understand half of what he had said. Then, she glanced at Thor and saw the expression on his face. She straightened and followed him from the room. For their part, Tony and Bruce did not even seem to notice that the two Asgardians had left. "What is it, brother?" she asked softly when they were in the hall and away from human hearing.
"You know what the cause was, what was preventing your power from returning to you?" he asked carefully.
Ever aware of Jarvis' hearing, she hesitated. Then, she decided on the truth. "Loki is siphoning my magic. When he passed along the warning, I asked him to let up some and he agreed to do so by days end. I won't be at full strength while he needs my power, but I will be able to defend myself should Amora attack," she assured him.
"And Skurge?" Thor asked.
And there was the heart of his concern, she realized. Being possessed and controlled by Amora had been hard enough, but what Skurge had done to her had been worse and he was worried she wouldn't be able to fight him as well as other warriors. A smile curved her lips and the look on her face became just a little feral. "If it comes to it, I will take distinct pleasure in ripping that bastard limb from limb and feeding him his fingers and his toes before I slit his throat and let him drown in his own blood," she said. "Dr. Banner, Tony, and I should be more than enough to fend them off should they attack. We are not defenseless without you, brother."
The hand that he clapped to her shoulder was warm, heavy, and reassuring. "Very well," he nodded. "I think you shall enjoy Jane's company."
Heimdall watched the events unfold with great interest. Thor had retrieved his human woman and returned to their base and by that time their three missing companions had returned and been informed of Loki's warning. Anthony Stark's woman had returned to find another guest and two more on their way. To his surprise, she didn't question what had happened, but merely traded glances with Sigyn.
For a moment, his gaze slid to Loki and lingered there. The planet, for the most part, was still inhospitable, but the area that the fallen prince was working on was beginning to take shape. The land had taken a solid shape beneath his feet and there was an area within the atmosphere that was breathable without the continued renewal of certain spells. If he squinted, he could almost make out the shimmer of barriers that had been erected against the hostile environment of the rest of the planet. At the moment, Loki was peering intently at the ground like he was expecting something to happen. Content that the second prince was occupied and wouldn't vanish as he had done the night before, Heimdall turned his attention back to Thor and his companions as they gathered again to agree on a plan of action.
It looked as though their conversation drew itself out late into their night. By the time that they had finally agreed upon something, Sigyn was nodding off sitting beside Thor and Thor looked no better than she as he struggled to stay awake. For the most part, it was the humans that argued amongst themselves and it was between Anthony Stark and Natasha Romanov that the most heated debate ran. That, however, changed when Sigyn seemingly uncoiled herself from her seated position and stalked towards the female assassin. Thor lurched to his feet after her, but she danced from his grasp until she was within striking distance of the woman.
"-and for all we know, the little bitch could be spreading her legs for Skurge and Amora!" Natasha snarled back at Tony. "The only thing we have to go on for this is her word-" Sigyn's hand came down sharply across her face, snapping her neck to the side and making her cheek sting. Natasha blinked hard and turned her head back to glare at the shorter woman.
Cool, glittering green eyes caught hers and Natasha felt her stomach drop at the realization that she might have pushed things too far. Prodding at wounds that had been revealed to them with great reluctance, pushing to see how far Sigyn could be pushed had been her orders, but there was always a line and that line had, apparently, been found. They had reached the "now or never" point and it was Sigyn's move.
"Have a care of the words you speak, Spider," Sigyn growled. "Amora and Skurge are, perhaps, two of the few individuals that I would delight in killing. Keep speaking as you do, however, and I may make another exception."
Natasha watched her draw back and walk away. When Sigyn had vanished around the corner, she allowed herself to acknowledge that the others had said nothing during the brief exchange and were even watching her with disapproving or disappointed looks. There would be words later, she knew, but she found that she cared very little for that possibility as she began detailing in her mind the argument she would make to Fury about how Sigyn was not a threat and thereby did not warrant the security measures that they had put into place.
It was Tony that drew them all back to the conversation at hand and, in the end, they decided that the best course of action would be to wait and to patrol the city in pairs. Fury had given them exactly nothing to work with-which had frustrated Steve and Clint to no end. Bruce could recall nothing significant and even Sigyn could not predict what the Enchantress and her pet would plan.
Afterwards, Bruce found himself cornered by Sigyn when he left the room. The look she was giving him was a speculative one and, though he had been trying to avoid her, he gave her a friendly smile even as the Big Guy stirred in the back of their consciousness. "May I cast some spells over you to determine whether or not Amora has left latent magic that will activate at a later date?" she asked and he noticed just how she had positioned them with his back to the others.
Memory flashed before his eyes and he took a cautious step back, fully aware that the others were watching them. "I'm not sure that is a good idea. She used magic on me to keep the Big Guy sedated and that didn't work out so well the last time I woke up with you," he said apologetically.
A smile tugged at her mouth as she studied him. "My magic is very different from hers and I will not be casting it on him so much as you. Ideally, I would be able to examine you and him, but as that is not an option it is better to seek out the latent spells and destroy them before they do you or us harm," she answered.
And that was how he found himself seated in the kitchen with a cup of tea, a plate of food, and an Asgardian standing at his side weaving her hands through odd gestures and strange words muttered under her breath. Across from him, Tony leaned against the counter with a cup of coffee in his hands and, though he couldn't see them, he knew Thor and Jane were observing the curious situation from the living room. Steve was leaning against the fridge, watching the entire process with keen interest. The scientist in him observed the movements that she made while the Hulk was fully conscious of the feel of the magic slipping through him, searching and seeking what traces he knew were there from his imprisonment.
She frowned as he felt her power snag at something in his chest. Catching his eye, she tried to smile, but it turned into a grimace as she stepped back. "As I thought," she murmured and looked at him. "I am going to need to touch you. Is that alright?"
"Tell me what you thought it would be?" Bruce asked, sipping at his tea.
"An inactive control spell set to activate if you ever come against her in battle," she said. "I can draw it out, dismantle it, and-if you like-layer in a spell that will prevent future reoccurrences. If she attempts to lay in another spell like this one and mine is active, it will simply dissipate."
"Is this a sample of her magic?" Tony asked curiously.
"More or less," Sigyn answered absently.
"And removing it will be absolutely harmless to him? No weird side effects like howling at the…ah…skylights?" he asked, apparently rethinking the saying.
She hummed at him, weaving her hands through another gesture. "Shouldn't be. The spell itself isn't attached to his heart or anything, but I will need something live to transfer it to if you are going to analyze it. Preferably something that is not you and non-sentient," she added when she saw the look brightening his face.
He looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "Jarvis, request that the eel from the third floor be sent up in its tank."
Her eyes sought his, after that, and he read the question in them before she asked. Bruce absorbed the conversation and a smile quirked his lips. Whatever his reservations, Tony trusted her enough to completely bypass the usual questions of "Is this safe?" and skip directly to "What makes this tick?" For his part, he believed that at least Tony, if not the entire team, would look out for his best interests.
"Go ahead," he told her.
Tony pursed his lips at the dead fish where it sat on the scanner and then glanced at Sigyn, who was staring at the dead creature with a serene look. "You knew it was going to do this, didn't you?" he asked.
"Perhaps," she admitted. "Magic is, after all, one form of electricity that responds to my will rather than what your form of electrical currents do and water conducts electricity at high volumes. What I did not expect was for the fish bowl to shatter and fry the eel." She paused and then added, "Thor might find it appetizing tonight."
For his part, Bruce just muffled his snort of laughter into his hand. He and Sigyn exchanged an amused look while Tony continued to look disgruntled. "I didn't even get any good readings out of it," he sighed.
There was a pause until Sigyn said, "If you can make the scanner person sized, I would be willing to perform some spells so you can get a read on my energy." She hesitated before adding, "I might also be able to convince Loki to do the same, if you and your team are willing to put aside your animosity for a day. You would then be able to determine if Amora or another sorcerer is in the vicinity by process of elimination."
The look that flickered across the two scientists' faces was dubious. "We'll discuss it, but not in the next few days," Tony said and that was the end of the matter.
Exactly three days after they had made their decision, they found two new inhabitants introduced to Sigyn and moved into the Tower. Tony made a comment about how he had considered charging rent as Jane, Darcy, and Dr. Selvig claimed an entire floor and began the pain staking process of setting their lab up again. Tony, despite his reservations about their project, actually was interested in the recreation of the Bifrost from their end. By the end of that first day, Tony had dragged Bruce into the discussion of what theories might be plausible.
That was also the day that Fury decided to pay the Tower a visit.