Wasn't expecting to take this long getting the next one written, but I spent the second half of October making a 45-minute YouTube video ranking over a dozen Dracula adaptations in time to post it on Halloween, and I've basically been glued to election coverage since then (the highlight of which was definitely Four Seasons Total Landscaping). Having mild writer's block over something pretty insignifcant didn't help, but here's the chapter at last!
The Ancient One made a careful circular motion in the air before her. This caused a pinwheel of amber sparks to form, which widened into a hole roughly the size of a dinner platter, through which a library was visible. A portal?! Loki's mouth fell open, but neither Brunnhilde nor Thor looked surprised. Thor must've seen the wizard he spoke of doing something similar, and Brunnhilde had lived on a planet where portals were as commonplace as clouds in the sky for most of a millennium.
Loki shot a brief glance at Kaecilius by the door. The man looked irritable but not impressed. Loki felt rather indignant. He had spent decades and decades discovering all the secret pathways across Yggdrasil, yet mortals were just making portals like this whenever they felt like it? The Ancient One reached through it and pulled out a heavy tome, and the portal vanished again at a dismissive gesture from her. She poured herself another cup of tea and began flicking through the pages while she sipped it.
It was going to be extremely difficult not to ask any questions until after she'd finished helping Thor, but Loki would be as observant and patient as he could. It wouldn't do to burn up her goodwill by pestering her, and he fully expected that the process of discovering how to break the bond between Thor and the Time Stone would take hours—if not days—of research, let alone the time it would take for planning and execution.
"Ah, yes," she said, snapping the book shut again. "This shouldn't be too complicated." Loki blinked. "Hold out your hand, if you please. The same one you held the Time Stone in."
Thor stretched out his right hand underneath the hovering Stone. It brightened enough that Loki squinted. The Ancient one did more complicated gestures, and a thin ribbon of green sigils appeared, wrapping around Thor's wrist and the Stone in the shape of a rounded hourglass. It had no beginning or end, and the sigils rippled along in a slow revolution.
"The bond," said Brunnhilde.
"Indeed," said the Ancient One. She held her left hand level with the Time Stone, her right level with Thor's outstretched palm, then made slow, careful twisting motions in opposite directions. The spot where the two bulbs of the hourglass shape intersected began to look strained, and with a sound like shattering crystal, it broke into two separate circles, which sealed off seemingly automatically, then continued to revolve on their own. The light of the Time Stone dimmed a little. "Now draw back," she said. Thor did so, and the glowing sigils around his hand faded, while those around the Time Stone did not.
"Is that all?" said Thor.
"Yes," said the Ancient One. Her smile was a little too wide to be characterized as serene. She knew exactly how maddening she was being, didn't she? "I have separated your temporal displacement from its power source, so do not rely on getting additional chances if this one goes poorly for you. And drop by again if you do begin experiencing anything like repeated days, missing time, or the world speeding up or slowing down around you, though I still would not consider it likely at this point."
"Forgive me, but in order to drop by again, we would have to leave first," said Loki. "I had hoped to learn something of your way of doing magic before we go."
"That will have to wait for another time," said the Ancient One, getting to her feet. "You have more pressing matters to attend to at present, I believe."
"Wh—" Loki began, but Thor clapped a hand over his arm. He looked around to glare at him and saw that Thor's eyes had gone golden once more. Heimdall was being awfully communicative today. It only lasted a few seconds.
"She's right," he said once his eyes were back to normal, and he stood up too. Brunnhilde copied him and so did Loki, though reluctantly. "We weren't very subtle when we went to meet Brunnhilde. Heimdall says accounts of it are spreading and will likely be all over Midgard within hours. We shouldn't leave SHIELD wondering where we are with all that going on."
Loki suppressed a groan of frustration. He saw Brunnhilde smirking at him and shot her a scowl, though not one with any heat to it.
"I don't suppose you could make one of those portals for us?" Thor asked the Ancient One. "Loki and I can fly, but I'd have to carry Brunnhilde or something to get back to the Triskelion."
"Yeah that's not happening," Brunnhilde snorted.
"Certainly," said the Ancient One. She made the same circular gesture as before. Loki still couldn't work out what she was doing. He sensed a pull of power now that he was ready for it, and thought it might have something to do with the large ring she wore, but that was as much as he could get in those few seconds.
Thor and Brunnhilde stepped through onto the grass of some forested park that presumably wasn't far from SHIELD's headquarters, but Loki turned to face the Ancient One. "I hope to return soon, if I am welcome. There is clearly much I could learn here."
She smiled again and bowed slightly from the waist.
He copied her and followed Thor and Brunnhilde through the portal.
X
The first stop Bruce had Agent Coulson make was to Pawn Brothers. In order to get the golden locket back, he'd planned on offering the silver knotwork belt he'd been given on Asgard (part of the clothing designed to accommodate his transformations), but Coulson made that unnecessary. On balance, it was probably better to spend a little of SHIELD's cash than to leave a magical alien accessory on Earth. Also he hadn't tried to take off any of the Asgardian clothing while it was disguised as Earth clothing and, for all he knew, it would unravel Loki's illusion if he did so.
After that, it was about a half-hour drive to reach Culver. Parts of campus were still roped off, with construction and landscaping crews busy repairing the damage from the skirmish between the Hulk and General Ross's soldiers. The bridge that connected Biological Sciences to Biotech was covered in scaffolding and couldn't be used, but both buildings were still accessible individually.
Bruce tried not to make eye contact with the guard he'd bought off with pizza the last time he was here while Coulson flashed his SHIELD ID to get them in, and they made their way to the fourth floor. The only people they passed were a few frazzled grad students in lab coats.
"Is it SHIELD protocol that you have to come with me for this part?" said Bruce.
Coulson glanced at the name plate of the office door. He didn't look surprised by what was on it. "No," he said. "I'll wait out here."
"Thanks," said Bruce. He was still wary of anyone employed by the government that had pursued him for five years, but Coulson seemed less objectionable than most.
Fingers of one hand curled around the locket, he raised the other hand to knock on the office door.
"Come in!"
He turned the handle and stepped inside. "Hi, Betty."
She looked up from a microscope and gaped at him. "Bruce." It took another second or so for her to recover from her shock, and then she was running at him. He moved closer so that they met a few steps from the door, and she hugged him as tight as she had that night in the rain. "I wasn't sure if all those hearings meant you got away or if it was being covered up and you were locked in a reinforced cell somewhere." She pulled back to look at him, her fingers trailing over the sides of his face like she was checking for signs that he'd just been through a harrowing escape.
"I got away," he said.
She wasn't so easily reassured, however. "You weren't followed?" She went to the door and looked out.
"Ma'am," came Coulson's respectful voice from out in the hallway. Betty jerked back inside and stared at Bruce.
He felt a little sheepish. "It's a long story."
X
Coulson didn't mind waiting outside Dr. Ross's office. It gave him time to plan what he would say when he showed Steve Rogers his vintage card collection. He'd caught him off-guard the first time and it got pretty awkward, but Coulson could salvage it. He had to.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out and flipped it open. "Coulson."
"We have a problem." It was the Deputy Director. "It's Thor and Loki."
"What happened?"
"They went to New York and pulled their interplanetary light show in the middle of a park. There were civilians nearby, and it's all over the internet now."
Coulson allowed himself a brief sigh. "We were only going to be able to keep a lid on this for so long."
"Maybe a little longer if you hadn't gone to Virginia."
"Fury left it to my discretion how tight to keep the leash. How are the optics?"
"Could be a lot worse. It's not footage of property damage or a battle near civilians like at the Expo and Harlem last month. Looks like they just went to meet a friend of theirs. A woman in leather armor."
"Good," said Coulson, thinking fast. "I think this could be a positive. In a lot of ways."
"Smokescreen for the other project?" Meaning Hydra, about which Coulson had been briefed that morning.
"Exactly."
"Well then it can't look like our work."
"That shouldn't be a problem. I just need to give Stark a call."
X
The portal closed behind them once Loki was through. Thor looked around. He could hear a river rushing nearby, and he spotted the upper floors of the Triskelion through a break in the trees in that direction. He started towards it. Loki and Brunnhilde stayed level with him this time, and he noticed the faraway look in the latter's eyes.
"I truly am sorry that you won't be able to use the Time Stone to go back like I did," he said quietly. He thought about what it might mean if she did go back, and tried to imagine growing up in an Asgard with the Valkyrior still flying through the skies in force. An Asgard with three princes instead of two, perhaps. "I'm sure there are many who would jump at the opportunity."
"It's fine," said Brunnhilde. "It sounds like what you did was a one in a billion chance anyway. Even if I thought I could stop Hela and her supporters, I wouldn't want to try it only to get caught somewhere in the middle and be stuck on Sakaar again."
Loki reached for her hand. She let him take it and some of the bitterness in her expression softened. Her words, however, had given Thor an idea. "Hey, what if the wizards could solve our Hela problem?"
"What, you think they could do a better job than Odin of locking her up?" said Brunnhilde.
Thor shrugged. "If they've kept an Infinity Stone safe for thousands of years, why not?"
"It's an option to consider," said Loki.
"Did you have a better idea?" said Thor.
"Possibly." He said it in a mysterious and tantalizing tone. Thor rolled his eyes. He wasn't going to satisfy him by asking right away, but if Loki thought there was an option besides imprisonment or death for Hela, then he might need a closer look at some of Thor's memories.
X
"I can't believe you've been to three different planets since the last time I saw you," said Betty, half-laughing. They'd migrated over to the lumpy old sofa behind her desk, fingers loosely twined together on top of the middle cushion, and her mother's locket was back around her neck where it belonged. Bruce had told her pretty much everything that had happened since New York. "For me it's mostly gone back to a normal semester, except that now I watch a lot more C-SPAN and more journalists have shown up to ask about my dad than ever wanted to know about my work."
Bruce smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. "Any chance you'd be interested in an off-world vacation?"
"You mean come to Asgard with you? I could just do that?"
"You wouldn't be the only one there from Culver. Dr. Foster, Dr. Selvig, and their intern have been there as long as I have. You could bring your work—or maybe branch out into xenobiology."
Her eyes were round and bright with the possibilities, but she bit her lip.
"You don't have to decide right now. I'll get in touch again before we head back. Even if you stay here, you don't have to worry about me like you did for the last five years."
"You're going to stay there until you can figure out a cure?"
"A cure, a way to stabilize it...whatever it takes." He laughed. "Even if I end up disappointing all the Asgardian warriors who want to spar with me."
She smiled at him with so much affection that it made his chest ache. "You haven't been this relaxed since before the accident."
"I guess not."
There was a knock on the door, and Coulson poked his head in. "Dr. Banner, we should be getting back to the Triskelion."
"Okay, I'll be out in a minute," said Bruce. Coulson nodded and closed the door again.
Bruce turned back to Betty. She scooted onto the middle cushion and pulled him close for a kiss. He returned it eagerly, but couldn't silence the nagging voice at the back of his mind that wondered if this was a goodbye kiss. She drew back first without moving away. "I want to go with you, but it might take some time to get everything sorted out. There's just a month left in the semester, and I can probably get approval for a research sabbatical."
"Are you sure?" He didn't want her feeling like she was in any way obligated.
Her expression turned fierce. "I was there with you when this all started, and I want to be there to help you fix it."
He beamed as wide as Thor and kissed her again before getting up off the couch. Their hands stayed connected until they couldn't reach anymore. "See you soon," he said.
Her hand went to her locket, but her eyes stayed on him. "You better."
X
An unexpected call from Agent Coulson cut the search for Sergeant Barnes short. JARVIS would have to carry on with that on his own for now. Tony let Rogers and Romanoff get almost to the end of his drive on their motorcycles before blasting past them in his suit. He turned to wave at them (JARVIS obligingly capturing a shot of Rogers's stunned expression, which he would treasure) and then set course for the Triskelion.
The trip took less than five minutes, and he arrived in time to see Nick Fury standing about a third of the way out on the bridge leading to the main entrance, shouting at Thor, Loki, and the woman who'd shown up with them in all the viral YouTube videos popping up everywhere. JARVIS enhanced the audio so that Tony could hear them before he was fully in range.
"Brunnhilde is the last Valkyrie of Asgard," Thor was saying. "She fought to defend this realm a thousand years ago, and she deserves your respect."
"This isn't about respect!" said Fury. "You let the cat out of the bag on public knowledge of aliens existing just to pick up your brother's girlfriend?!"
"I'm sorry, was that something we were meant to avoid doing?" said Loki innocently. Tony snorted inside his helmet.
"I suppose this is what I get for allying with the God of Mischief, huh?" said Fury.
"As much as I would like to take the credit, Director," said Loki, "I happen to be entirely blameless in this situation."
"Nobody told us you didn't want more Asgardians on Earth," said Thor, who plainly found this less hilarious than Loki did. Tony was suddenly very glad that he'd chosen an entirely harmless prank to pull on Loki the previous day, if Big Bro was this protective of him.
By now, the suit must be audible from where they were, because Brunnhilde looked around at him. She was a knockout, but he got the distinct impression that could be very literal, so it was a good thing he was spoken for. He touched down a few yards away from them on the bridge and opened his helmet. "Hey. Heard you needed a PR guy."
"Hah!" said Fury. "What, are you gonna set up the same kind of press conference you gave when you introduced the world to Iron Man?"
"Pretty much," said Tony. "Did you have a better idea?"
I finished the drawing of Loki and Brun in their Earth disguises. It's the second-most-recent post on my tumblr (same username as here). The Dracula video is the most recent post, if anyone's interested.
Loki doesn't get to multiclass from Sorcerer to Sorcerer/Wizard just yet, but at least he made a good first impression on the Ancient One. The thing I had writer's block about was exactly how the spell to break Thor's bond with the Time Stone was going to go. It was never going to be a big intense ordeal, just something you need an expert on time magic for. Then I realized that I could do the same thing I strongly suspect the MCU writers do: when in doubt, gloss it over with humor. So I approached it from Loki's PoV and made the procedure as irritating as it could be for someone who desperately wants to learn all these magic secrets. It was also fun to write Loki in eager student mode. He's adorable.
One of the last things I ever expected to write was Bruce/Betty content, but here we are. Their dynamic is probably the best thing about Incredible Hulk, and it bugged me that I deprived Bruce of his opportunity to retrieve her mother's locket from the pawn shop and get it back to her. I had to watch a chunk of that movie again to get the details, and that reminded me of Betty's personality enough that I became pretty convinced that she wouldn't turn down a chance to go with Bruce to Asgard to help him sort out his Hulk issues.
An Iron Man 1 style press conference for the Asgardians wasn't part of the plan for the second Earth arc, but I'm not sorry it's going this way. :D