So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.

You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.

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DAY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND 2012

1835 HOURS

SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER

LOCATION UNKNOWN

DUNCAN

I knew when I knocked I was tempting fate a little but I did it anyways, because I knew that if I didn't it wouldn't be a risk but a certainty. There's a difference between chumming the water and dumping blood in a shark tank.

After I delivered her back to that room I still had her rucksack with me to deal with, and I just tossed it under a bench figuring a woman's wet dress and some slightly emptier containers of soap could be dealt with later.

I had gun maintenance I could do and needed to send two of the boys in civi's up above for another another perimeter check and make sure the guard had changed over down here.

So I did that, and then I came back, and couldn't help but notice something was off about the bag. The creases in its surface didn't quite look right, and the knot looked like a sloppy imitation of mine.

It didn't take me and my men long to track down the little piece of shit. One of the Rising Tide hackers we gathered to set up our security system and keep an eye out for eyes on us. A hipster with a beard that he thought made him into a man, and misplaced arrogance about how necessary he really was, cowering in a service closet, with his hands up and hopefully asking for parley. Like that meant something when he was holding her hairbrush in an evidence bag.

Little fucker tried to sneak out of here with DNA evidence for S.H.I.E.L.D! Once I told the boss that, in less colorful terms, it wasn't my head on the chopping block anymore.

I left him in a room with my men and Terrance, my second in command and our field medic who he was going to need, because Barton walked in that room and I wasn't going to tell him to leave it.

The sound of him begging for mercy when we walk back in makes me even more confident in my decision to leave Terrance in there to make sure we didn't kill this guy before we got what we needed.

Not that I think it's going to take all that much. Looking at him I can tell he hasn't even suffered a paper cut yet. He's just been cuffed down, with all but his boxers removed and the plans for his future drawn out with a sharpie marker on his skin. Barton hasn't even finished selecting his tool yet, but I got to give him some credit, for a guy who takes the long shots he sure has a grasp of the personal methods.

"Agent Barton" Loki 's voice appears after a moment. Until now he has simply been observing the man with tension in his brows and a stiff set to his mouth, then he turns to the S.H.I.E.L.D agent who is testing the grain on a power sander in his hands and shakes his head. "Thank you for your enthusiasm but that won't necessary."

Agent blue eyes of course nods back impassively about being ordered not to grind the man's skin off and lets the power tool return to the table with a heavy thunk. At the same time this idiot starts thanking the boss, and I have to exercise my best restraint and not chuckle.

"Oh thank you, thank you, man." Clearly being smart doesn't make this guy very smart. This isn't the boss being merciful, this is the boss wanting to do the job himself. He let me deal with the first man who messed with him woman, but this is incident two. He's going to make such a message out of this gut nobody even thinks about number three.

The boss hears the pathetic begging for this guy and responds to it with a toothy smile. The kind of smile that's full of creepy intent, and this time even the victim picks up on that, a nervous swallow making his Adam's apple bob.

My mental evaluation of his common sense rises with that observation, then it falls again. He actually looks at me with a hopeful expression, like I, the guy who dragged him in here, might help him out! This time the snort is unsuppressed. Just because I recruited you doesn't mean I give a shit.

At least until the big guy shoots me a curious look. "Sorry Boss." I offer with a slight cough and fall back to into attention before letting Loki have the floor again.

"They tell me..." He starts, his words drawing the hackers line of sight away from me back to him. "...as a man who works with computers, you value your hands very much..." Those gray eyes widen with understandable terror at the implied threat "That they are very integral to your application of your skills yes?"

He doesn't answer that question because he is too busy being slack jawed at the sight of his thick black framed glasses that Loki had picked up now disintegrating in a green light. All but the metal that had been inside of one of the arms of his glasses.

He gets his voice back rather quickly when that wire embeds itself in his wrist though, and he forgets how to turn it off when the bosses hand turns blue around it and his arm starts to turn black and radiate steam just like a hot breath in the winter air!

Loki only pauses after the first second of screaming to tell us to shut the door so she wouldn't be able to hear him scream as his flesh is crystallized by ice! Holy shit, no wonder she's so scared of him!

After he finished amputating this poor guy's arm with what had to be frostbite he seemed to have gotten bored with torturing him, and having gathered this fool hadn't succeeded in getting any information out yet, Loki let his hand hand turn back its normal color.

Leaving the hacker with the cold cauterized black stump of flesh at his shoulder he rose from his sitting position and turned away from the sweating panting mess of man, too weak from pain and out of breath from screaming to put up a fight anymore.

On his way out he tells Agent Barton to do as he pleases with him as long as he cleans up after his mess when he is done.

NOTES FOR THE READERS:

For anyone who has noticed I usually post new chapters Friday evening, my new job has me leaving work after 1am, so from now on I will be posting Saturday afternoon.

For anyone who watches Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D like I do, you will catch the reference I used in this chapter pretty easily. for those that might not, the Hacktivist group the Rising Tide is MCU's version of ANONYMOUS and their focus is on exposing the truth SH.I.E.L.D is hiding from the world. further information can be found by going to the Marvel cinematic universe wikia and looking up RISING TIDE.

I apologize for those who don't keep up on the tv shows, and will try to post information about what I incorporate from them into the story, but they are a canon part of the Marvel Universe and is such will be used.