Ugh, I'm really off in terms of updates this month. Only two by the twentieth? I'm kind of annoyed about that. I think this has been the longest time in between updates. This chapter was really hard to write for some reason, and I'm hoping it doesn't disappoint. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
As always, thanks to all you awesome reviewers, readers, followers and favorite-ers. You all make me really happy.
Some of the POV shifts jump back in time the tiniest bit from where the previous one ended. Or maybe I should say they take place simultaneously and just overlap a bit... Hopefully it's clear. I introduce a new character in this chapter, and it's sort of AU that he's here. A little. Maybe. More on that in the end author's notes, I don't want to spoil anything.
By the way, the first couple paragraphs are when Loki's drugged/sedated. I'm not entirely sure what that's like, but it could affect him differently because he's not human... or maybe I just took some creative liberties :)
Loki's in a fog. But there's no actual fog in front of him, he doesn't think, it's more like there's fog in his head. It's not visible, but it's there, sort of like how Fenrir and the others weren't really visible, until recently. Maybe they're making this fog? It would probably be Hel or Jormungand if it was one of them, but they've never done anything like this before, so why would they now?
"Stop it," He mumbles, but Hel says they're not doing it. Loki frowns, confused. Hel wouldn't lie to him, so it has to be something else, but he doesn't know what. The fog is dulling his head. Part of him is telling him he should be worried, but something else is telling him to relax. He tries to lift an arm to part the fog, but his limbs feel heavy and useless when they don't respond. He stares ahead, not even really noticing what's in front of him. He feels remarkably relaxed just sitting there, not moving. He vaguely thinks that's somewhat strange, because normally sitting still makes him worry about someone jumping him, and it's just so hard to keep his body still anyways.
Slowly, the fog seems to fade as he's set down against a wall. Some time later- he's not sure if it's a minute or an hour- it's mostly gone. Loki looks at his surroundings.
Loki knows he's never been here before as he glances around at his surroundings, unsure as to how long he'd been out of it. Where is 'here', anyways? There's glass all around him, a circle of clear material has a couple columns built into the glass walls. It kind of reminds him of those mostly-flat glass cylinders that Bruce had in his lab, called petri dishes. All of Bruce's petri dishes had been rather small, and he didn't even know they could be this big. Unless he shrunk? But that doesn't make any sense. Loki never had any desire to be in a petri dish, but here he is.
There's a bridge leading out, but it's on the other side of the glass, and while everything inside this petri dish is bright, everything outside is sort of dark and gray. There are also a couple holographic screens.
Loki realizes that he doesn't have Simba, or Olaf for that matter. If he had to choose one to get back, he'd choose Simba but he'd really like to have them both. Why are they even gone? He looks down and sees that he's still wearing the same clothes. Why are they still here but not Simba and Olaf? He'd had them when he jumped in the rafters...
Did he teleport here? Well, no, he doesn't think he teleported here exactly, but he's pretty sure he teleported to the rafters. Really, how else would he have ended up in a completely different room in the blink of an eye? He hates teleporting even more now that it landed him in that scary place.
Okay, so he's almost positive that he teleported to the rafters, but he doesn't know how he got in this glass thing. Is it in the same building as the other room he'd teleported in? He can't be in Stark Tower, still, can he? He doesn't feel the huge arc reactor, but he never really feels that in the penthouse, either. But Stark Tower isn't scary like this.
Loki turns his attention back to the glass around him. Considering it's all around him, it's probably supposed to keep him in, like a cage. That's what it feels like, anyways. He feels trapped. This thought makes him very nervous, because he doesn't want to be in a cage! Why is he in a cage?! Who put him in here?
If someone put him in a petri dish, they can't be too nice, right? Loki has a bad feeling that the people here fall into that category. What if the people here find out he's a Frost Giant with magic to boot? What if they're not like Tony, but like Asgard. They can't know about it, and they can't know who he is!
Where is he? Is he even on Midgard? He has so many questions but so few answers.
Loki suddenly realizes the implications of the fact his cage is made of glass.
Loki smirks. Whoever made a cage out of glass must be really dumb, because everyone knows that glass breaks, sometimes even if you just punch it. Loki doesn't know why they're trying to keep him here and he doesn't like it, but he's not planning on staying here. Nobody's here to punish him if he tries to escape.
He needs to get back to the tower, back to his home. And first, he needs to get out of here.
Home is such a nice word, he thinks absentmindedly.
He runs his fingertips over the glass, walking around the perimeter of the circle. He briefly wishes he had something like a chair to throw through the glass, but he doesn't. He stops briefly, fingering the glass before bringing a fist back to smash into it.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Now, you mind telling me why you came here?" A voice says behind him. Loki whirls around at the voice, even though it takes a bit longer for him to understand what it's saying. At first, the words just sound like jumbled sounds, until the All-Tongue sorts them out.
There's a really scary man with an eyepatch like Odin's, only it's over his left eye instead of his right. Still, Loki hates being reminded of the Allfather. This man, unlike Odin, is bald, has dark skin and a long coat that isn't nearly as awesome as Loki's own, since this man's doesn't have stars on it.
Still, this man gives off the same sort of feeling that Odin did- cold, menacing and scary. The man has a cold impassive gaze fixed on him.
Does this man know Odin?! What if this man decides to send him back to Odin and Asgard?! Loki doesn't think he could bear Asgard again, now that he knows what it's like to be liked and not be beaten at least every other day. Now that he has a home.
Loki doesn't like this man at all, and he screams at the top of his lungs.
"You mind telling me why you came here?" Nick Fury asks the man, who looked like he was about to try to break out of the containment unit. As if he could- it was designed for the Hulk.
The man whirls around with an uncomprehending look. Upon seeing Fury, he promptly screams. Yes, he actually screams. It's a rather shrill scream, as if he's getting tortured by something out of a nightmare.
"Not too happy to see me, I see." Fury says dryly. This man clearly didn't want to end up in his clutches, probably knowing it would be bad, regardless of the reason he came onto the Helicarrier in the first place. This man probably knows exactly who he is, Fury thinks. After all, if one was going to break into a top secret base, they'd probably do their research beforehand.
So clearly this man isn't too happy to get caught, but still- screaming? What kind of response is that?
The man looks like he's going into a panic attack as the scream continues to roll off the walls. Green energy starts forming around the man's hands but it fizzles out. That's another interesting thing about the man. Fury really wants to figure that out, along with the teleporting.
The man's somehow still screaming, and Fury's surprised that he hasn't seemed to run out of breath yet. "Sedate him again." Fury mutters into his comm, and gas starts entering the chamber the man is in. Like he had before, the man slumps against the wall, bleary eyed. He's still conscious, though, and his eyes continue to track Fury's movement, wide and terrified. They'd given him the same dosage, but already it seems to affect him slightly less.
"I'll ask again- What are you doing in the Helicarrier?"
"Hel...?" The man mumbles, sounding rather out of it. Fury notes that he has a British accent. "You can't carry her." His eyes become even more glazed than they already were and he asks "Dids they carry you? No, I didn't think so, just... just me."
The man's eyes focus somewhat more Fury, still slightly glazed but clearly terrified. He starts rocking back and forth, hugging his knees to his chest and flapping his hands. "I don't like it here, Hel. Don't like this man, nope nope nope. Too much like him."
"You could be right about this place being Hell," Fury states coldly, "If you don't give us what we want."
The man just stares at him- well, not at his face, but at his hands- fearfully, as if he's expecting them to lash out or produce a weapon. Not that that's an unreasonable assumption on here, especially when one is the prisoner. Besides, Fury literally just threatened him.
Still, aside from, well, getting here, this man hasn't done anything worrying yet, although he could be trying to lure them into a sense of false security.
When Fury asks another question, the man just screams again, squeezing his eyes shut. It seems like Fury's mere presence is its own brand of torture for the man, who seems to be having another panic attack, curled into a quivering ball on the floor.
Okay, maybe the man's not in any state for questioning right now. And he's quite possibly insane, which is never a good trait for an enemy.
"Tell Agent Coulson to get in here." Fury mutters. As much as Fury would like to have this talk himself, they're not going to get anything out of the man if he keeps having panic attacks. Not even torture could really do anything about that, though the man hasn't exactly done anything to merit that yet. Agent Romanoff is currently out, and while she would have been Fury's first choice- she can seduce a lot of men into talking, as long as they're straight- Coulson will do fine.
Once Phil Coulson enters, Fury stalks out of the room.
"Jarvis, what did you just say?" Tony asks, really hoping he'd misheard and that Jarvis hadn't just said what Tony thinks he just said.
"Mr. Loki is nowhere in the tower, sir." Jarvis repeats. Tony groans. This is freaking fantastic. In hindsight, he really should have expected that something like this would happen sometime. Heck, it sort of had happened, with Loki getting lost in the city. Only, that was normal and this isn't, since Loki apparently just teleported out of the tower.
"Any trace of him at all, Jarvis?"
"Unfortunately not, sir. He is not wearing the watch with the tracking device." Tony slaps his forehead (well, his mask's forehead) when he realizes that if Loki were wearing that tracking watch, this would be a piece of cake. His frustration in himself only grows when he realizes that, he should have had Loki wear that all the time once he'd discovered Loki could teleport. Twenty-twenty hindsight again.
Okay, so even if Loki was wearing the tracking watch, it might not be a cakewalk if they had to fly to the other side of the world (it would take a while, certainly), but they'd skip the worst step that they're currently stuck on- actually finding him.
"What's going on?" Steve asks, coming over from the other side of the room with the rest of the team, clearly sensing something's up.
"Loki's gone." Tony says shortly, before rounding on Clint. "What happened, exactly?"
"He startled me and then freaked out when I automatically aimed my bow at him. I think I sort of scared the shit out of him." Clint says guiltily.
"Well, of course he freaked out. Most people don't like having bows in their faces, Katniss! And then you go aiming at someone who doesn't even seem to know there's a such thing as a friendly punch on the arm, much less an unintentional arrow in the face?!" Tony exclaims. He notices that Clint's arrow is covered in ice, and he whistles slightly.
"Whoa, did Loki do that?" Of course he did. Who else would it have been. Tony glances at Bruce. Loki freezing the arrow is just like what Elsa did when confronted with a crossbow. He wonders if Loki would have done that before seeing Frozen, or if freezing it was instinctive. Either way, it's good to see that Loki defended himself.
"I wasn't going to shoot him!" Clint protests, and both Bruce and Steve try to diffuse the tension. To be totally honest, Tony can't blame Clint for automatically reaching for his bow, given his job as an Avenger and agent, although he's sort of annoyed at Clint because if he hadn't done that, Loki would still be here. Clint slumps slightly and says "Ugh. I really screwed everything up, didn't I?"
"It wasn't your fault." Steve says with a hand on Clint's shoulder, ever the supportive one. "What happened once you instinctively pointed your bow at him?"
"He jumped and just disappeared. Can he teleport?"
"Yeah. He seems to have no control over it, though, and it's only happened a couple times. Freaks him out every time, not that I can blame him... I mean, popping up somewhere else without meaning to has got to be pretty scary..." Bruce murmurs. Tony wonders if Loki's freaking out right now. He's almost positive Loki is.
"So any idea where he is?" Steve asks. Tony turns to glare at him.
"If I had the slightest idea, I'd be headed over there now." He points out, not in the mood for stupid questions. "Jarvis, start looking through any security camera you can find from buildings around here and see if you spot any sign of him.
"I was already doing so, sir, but have not had much luck." Jarvis sighs.
"Do you have any suspicions of his whereabouts? Where has he teleported before?" Natasha asks, crossing her arms.
"The first time, it was to the other end of my lab. Then he teleported in his sleep to the tower's movie theater not long ago, and there was one time that he teleported across his bedroom." Tony pauses. "It's always when he's airborne, and I think it happens when he thinks he's flying... or when he's actually flying."
"He's flown?" Steve asks, which really isn't the important part of this conversation at all.
"Sort of. I took him for a ride when I was in one of my suits. That was the first time he teleported." Tony says offhandedly. Steve frowns, probably thinking he means he took Loki on a reckless flight through the city. "Hey, it was in my lab, which is probably why he teleported to the other end of it."
"So, his room, your lab, the theater." Natasha lists, and Bruce seems to catch on. "Any significance with those places, specifically?"
"Presumably he just didn't teleport that far. I mean, most of the time it wasn't even out of the room." Tony muses. "And he really loves his room."
This isn't like when he'd lost Loki in the city. That time, he'd had an idea of where Loki could have been. Then again, he hadn't even known Loki could do magic back then, let alone teleport. Not knowing really made things easier, because Loki could be anywhere on Earth. Or maybe he's not even on Earth anymore. What if he'd teleported back to Asgard?
But then again, Loki's never teleported far from where he started out. Most of the time, he never even teleported out of the room he was in, let alone teleporting out of the tower. Tony's somewhat surprised that he had this time. Maybe he's not very far away, Tony thinks. Or hopes.
Tony groans when he realizes that Loki has absolutely no way to contact them, nor is there any way for them to get in touch with him. Of course Loki hadn't had a Stark Phone- he almost never uses the thing. Perhaps Tony should start making him carry it around constantly. Maybe he can strap it to Simba or something. Tony's noticed that Simba's gone too.
"Jarvis, any luck with finding security footage of him?" Tony asks somewhat impatiently.
"Not yet sir." Jarvis sounds exasperated. "I assure you I'll let you know immediately when I find something."
Tony pulls up a holographic screen, fingers flying over the accompanying holographic keyboard. He starts checking for any trace of Loki on any of the tower's scanners. They usually pick up his magic energy, but he's not sure if the scanners would be able to detect them from a distance.
"Maybe he went to an actual field with horses?" Bruce suggests. "Or maybe Central Park? Sometimes they have horses there. Sure the stars aren't out right now, but still..." Tony could totally see Loki winding up somewhere with horses.
"Jarvis, start looking at satellite feeds nearby of anyplace with horses." Tony sighs, annoyed with this whole process.
Yeah, he really needs to make sure that in the future there's always a way to track Loki down and get in touch with him. In fact, maybe he'll take the tracking watch and Stark Phone with him so he can attach them right after finding the missing god.
He heads to Loki's room, since the Stark Phone he'd given Loki is in there instead of the lab. He'd shown Loki how to use some apps, but it mostly just sits unused on the god's desk. Loki obviously prefers the holographic screens that float in the air instead of a holographic phone. Right now, it's actually buried under his figurines.
Tony snags the Stark Phone before going down to the lab and grabbing the watch. He's definitely going to start making Loki carry them around in the future, because losing Loki is frankly sort of annoying.
Phil Coulson waits for the man to calm down. A small amount of sedative gas had floated into the chamber not long ago, and it seems to be taking effect. Phil glances at the man's feet, which were oddly bare even when the man first showed up. Sometimes they take a prisoner's shoes to try to keep them from escaping, but he made that entirely unnecessary. Perhaps he'd teleported from his home- he probably wouldn't go out without shoes.
The man had been screaming when Director Fury was in the room, but that's stopped, thankfully. Despite just being sedated yet again, the man was apparently still tense, as he visibly relaxed once Director Fury left, though he hadn't stopped screaming until almost half a minute later. Somehow, it seems this man is partially fighting off the sedation. He doesn't seem even close to relaxed, but he seems a lot more relaxed than when Fury was present.
"What are you?" The man suddenly asks, glazed eyes sort of focused on Phil.
Does he mean Who are you? Or is he pretending to not know this ship is full of S.H.I.E.L.D agents?
"I'm supposed to be asking the questions, but I think you already know who I am. Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D." Phil says, figuring this man probably did his research before breaking onto the Helicarrier anyways, so telling him this can't hurt.
"Son of Coul." The man says it like he's asking for confirmation. The phrasing reminds Phil of Thor. "You made the scary man go 'ways." The man looks at him almost thankfully.
Okay, wow. This man is basically setting himself up to fall for the Friend or Foe interrogation method. One would think that someone who'd managed to sneak onto the Helicarrier would know about such techniques. It's pretty obvious that acting friendly is really just trying to gain someones trust until they reveal information, so the fact that the man seems to have fallen for it is somewhat shocking. Director Fury had, somewhat unintentionally- until he'd threatened the man, that is- been the Foe. But the prisoner had apparently already regarded the Director as a major Foe before the threat, so much so that he'd screamed bloody murder.
Well, Phil can play up the Friend part. Sometimes that gets them to spill the beans. Although, to be honest, Phil thinks that Fury had started out a little harsh anyways. It's not like he beat people up like when Thor first came to Earth.
"Yes, I made him go away." Phil agrees, even though he hadn't. Still, if it helps... "Sorry about all this." Phil gestures to the cell. "It's a necessary precaution."
"Pre-cau-shun." The man echoes, sounding out the word and repeating it a few more times. "That means... like, tryin'ta make sure something doesn't happen, right?" He frowns slightly and cocks his head to the side. "What's gonna happen? Are you gonna hit me?"
"I won't hit yu." Phil says, purposely not adding that he can't guarantee about not getting hit by anybody else on the Helicarrier. If Director Fury decides this man needs a bit more persuasion during his interrogation... well, hitting might be the least of this man's problems. Still, the man looks very relieved to hear that he won't be hit.
"Are you hungry?" Phil asks, both to get on this man's good side and because he has no clue if this guy ate recently. "I can have someone bring something for you to eat, if you'd like." The man doesn't answer, but Phil decides to do so anyways.
"Where are we?" The man asks, looking around. "Not the tower...?"
"I think you know where we are. You're the one who came here, after all. So why did you come onto the Helicarrier?" Phil waits for an answer, but the man just stares at him blankly.
"Where's Simba?" The man asks suddenly. "And Olaf? Hey, can I get outta here now? I have to go home."
"Simba and Olaf? You mean the toys you had?" Phil asks, having recognized the lion. He ignores the last question- the answer is obvious. What prisoner just blatantly asks to be let out like that? If that tactic worked, people would probably never be imprisoned in the first place.
"Your toys are indisposed." Phil says. Currently, both toys are in the labs, being experimented on. Well, the Iron Man (or should it be called Iron Lion?) suit is being experimented on. As far as Phil knows, the toys are just sitting there. Not that Phil's going to tell him that, obviously. The scientists are thinking that perhaps the toys have some hidden information in them. Well, certainly Simba has the Iron Man suit and possibly something else, but the snowman- Olaf, apparently- seemed like just a regular stuffed toy. Maybe it was to throw people off? But why is he asking about the toys instead of the suit- surely that's the important part.
There's definitely something different about the fake snake he had, though. There are faint traces of some sort of weird energy around it, apparently.
"I want them." The man says almost petulantly. "You can't take my Simba, you can't! Or Olaf." Oddly enough, he doesn't mention the snake.
"I think you'll find we already did." Fury's voice comes over the loudspeaker this time, and the man flinches slightly.
Then, the man starts to look rather annoyed. "You can't take them! That's stealing, and stealing is wrong! W-R-O-N-G! Not R-O-N Ron. Wrong! Like, even Flynn was wrong for stealing, but he made up for it later and Aladdin had'ta steal. But you guys can't take my Simba and Olaf, 'cause they were gifts and you can't steal people's gifts!" The man's voice has risen to a shout by the end of this and his hands seem to have a mind of their own, flapping with flicking fingers.
"We'll give you the snowman but that means you have to answer some of our questions." Phil suggests. The snowman at least seems normal and probably doesn't have any secrets. The man nods hesitantly. Phil speaks in his comm, saying to bring the toy snowman up with the meal.
"Why are you coddling him?" Fury asks over the intercom. He's watching the proceedings from the control room, after it was revealed that this man is terrified of him. Phil can't tell if he's actually asking or if he's playing up the Foe role.
The man's eyes flick to the speakers placed intermittently throughout the room, and he mumbles something that sounds a lot like "Like a mean Jarvis."
"I'm just treating him humanely, Boss." Phil responds, trying to up his Friend status so the prisoner will potentially spill his secrets.
"Can I have Simba too?" The man asks in a quiet voice. Phil hesitates.
"I'll think about it, but if you cooperate, maybe." Phil answers, though he's sort of lying. The Simba toy could have more than just the suit and is clearly more important than Olaf the snowman. There has to be some reason for the man to want it, and there's no way they would want to just hand it back like that. Still, all is fair in interrogation, so getting him to think he'd get it back isn't overstepping the bounds.
"What's your name? Who are you?" Phil asks as he waits for the agent to arrive with the promised food and toy. Who can just teleport into the Helicarrier like he had?
"I'm Flynn Rider." The man says after a bit, with a small smirk that gives Phil the feeling that's not his real name. Sure enough, when he looks it up, it's the name of a Disney character. Sure, this man could have the same name, but it's not likely.
"Really?" Phil raises a brow. The man had mentioned a Flynn before, and he probably hadn't been talking about himself in third person. Phil wouldn't be surprised if this man didn't want them to know his real name, though.
"Eugene. My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert." The man says in a different voice, as if he's mimicking someone. "Someone might as well know."
Phil's starting to seriously doubt that this man is any kind of trained person sent to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. If he is, he has horrible technique. He's literally stealing the identity of a Disney character, because according to the internet, Eugene Fitzherbert uses the alias of Flynn Rider in the Disney movie Tangled. The likelihood of this man actually having that name and going by the same alias is rather slim. Still, he did manage to infiltrate the Helicarrier.
"Why don't you tell me your real name?" Phil says sternly. "Remember, if you cooperate, you're more likely to get Simba."
"Loki." The man mutters. Phil's not sure if he's telling the truth or not, but he supposes they'll have to go with that. "And I'm not a monster." That last part is sort of weird, and Phil decides to focus on the first part.
"Just Loki? No last name?"
"Just Loki." Loki answers.
Phil asks how to spell it, and the man replies "L-O-K-I. That's how Bruce says it's spelled in Midgar... No, En-glish? He saids it's called English." Phil raises an eyebrow at this answer and quickly searches S.H.I.E.L.D's files but finds nothing.
An agent comes with the snowman toy and the Loki's gaze immediately fixes hungrily on it, not even glancing at the meal that comes with it. It's like he's getting a Happy Meal, only less happy and with a toy he already owned. "Olaf." Loki states upon seeing the snowman.
With a gun pointed at the man, the agent quickly opens the door to the cell, throws the plush snowman and the Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) inside, and shuts it again. Loki had been staring at the door with a curious glance- it's really just one of the glass panels sliding up, and perhaps he hadn't even known there was a way out. He scurries over to the plush toy and picks it up, not like someone picking up something with valuable hidden information, but like a child picking up a toy they like. Loki hugs the small snowman to his chest, furthering that image.
Loki continues to hug Olaf, and the toy's stick-like arms shift ever so slightly as if the toy's hugging him back. He sits there, ignoring the box containing the MRE. Perhaps he hasn't realized that's the food, although even civilians should be able to recognize that for what it is. Phi's starting to think this man's slightly touched in the head.
"Why did you teleport here? How did you teleport here?" Director Fury asks over the intercom, somewhat harshly, because that's the main reason he's considered hostile right now. His refusal to cooperate right now isn't gaining him any favors either.
"Magic." Loki answers before immediately clamping a hand over his mouth with wide eyes.
"Magic?" Phil asks skeptically.
"No! I didn't say magic, nope nope nope!" The man says again in a frantic tone of voice, shaking his head wildly. "I think your ears are broken. No magic. Just jumping... jumping to the other rafter. Away from him."
"Away from who?" Phil asks, gesturing at the MRE package and telling Loki that he can eat what's inside it. Loki doesn't even seem to know how to open it, so Phil has to walk him through that, wondering vaguely how Loki doesn't know this, when he even makes a comment about "all food here being inside not-food, even chocolate." Phil wonders where here is.
Loki takes a very hesitant taste of the chili in the MRE and immediately spits it out, where it splatters on the glass. He refuses to touch anything else in the box, probably believing it to be inedible, but that's his problem. His request for waffles is not granted- they don't even have them for starters, but prisoners normally don't get waffles anyways.
"Can you take me to Tony Stark's tower?" He asks hopefully.
Why on Earth would they take him there? There's no way he lives there. He probably just wants to break in or something. Still, Phil tries not to show his suspicions and answers "Maybe later."
"Is that where you got the Iron Man suit?" Phil asks again. Had Loki broken into Stark's lab, too? But why would Stark have a suit for a toy Simba? Actually, Phil wouldn't put it past Stark. He does weird things sometimes. To try to get Loki on his side, Phil adds "It's a very nice suit. Perhaps it should be called the Iron Lion."
Loki laughs and singsongs Iron Lion for a bit. "I made it." Loki eventually answers with more than a bit of pride.
"Very impressive." Phil says, not even really faking. Loki actually smiles slightly at him.
"I made it and my Tony made the arc reactor. An' he made me a suit for Halloween, he dids!"
The only person who's been gifted with a suit is James Rhodes for War Machine, so Phil seriously doubts that Tony Stark gave this man a suit.
"Did he now?"
"Yeah. Tony's my best friend ever! Even better than Simba." Loki says. "An' he doesn't even hate my friends like they all did, just 'cause you can't touch 'em." Phil wonders if Loki knows how that sounds.
Loki pauses thoughtfully. "You better let me go or you'll be sorry, Eyepatch Man." Loki says this like it's a fact instead of a threat, crossing his arms and glaring at the camera in the corner, apparently knowing that Fury's watching through it.
"Oh, I will?" Fury asks over the intercom in a rather unimpressed tone, clearly not believing that Loki has any sorts of alliance with Tony Stark or any other Avenger. Sure, Loki had snuck onto the Helicarrier, but considering Loki's the one in a cage and can be sedated at any moment, he's about as threatening as a puppy. The fact that he hasn't teleported away yet probably means that's not an issue, unless he's messing with them.
"Yeah, 'cause my Tony will beat you up. He's Man of Iron, and he says that even Hans and Gaston couldn't beat him, nope nope nope! They couldn't beat him! Or my Hulk-y and my Bruce. They could beat you up too, 'cause they beat up Thor."
Why does this man think Tony Stark would support him when he most likely stole an arc reactor? If Loki knew anything about Tony, he'd know that stealing the billionaire's designs is a big mistake that would make Tony hate him. Of course, that's sort of what they're doing now, but they're going to keep that a secret as they run tests on them. Once Stark asks where the armor is (and he surely will, seeing as it was almost certainly his originally- S.H.I.E.L.D will return them, pretending they'd only just gotten their hands on the armor.
If they actually did get on Stark's bad side, well, that might not end well for them. But that's not going to happen. This man is the one who stole Stark's tech.
"So have you met the other Avengers?" Phil asks, still not sure whether to believe Loki or not.
"Yeah." Loki says. "But Clint was gonna shoot me and now I'm here, but I gotta go back to my tower! Well, it's Tony's but it's my home, an' he said it is. So you gots 'ta take me back there!"
Perhaps this is all some weird form of manipulation, but the man really needs to rethink his strategy. Really- telling the organization that the Avengers work for that the Avengers are going to beat them up? That's plain stupid. Especially since Phil himself was the Avengers' official handler, and Besides, why would Clint try to shoot this man if he wasn't up to something?
"I'm sorry, but we can't do that."
"I don't wanna be here." Loki says as if that would make a difference. Of course he wouldn't want to be stuck in a cell, but that's what he gets.
"Well then you shouldn't have come here." Director Fury comments over the loudspeaker. "Why are you here? What's your motive? You're in league with Dr Doom, aren't you?" Fury demands. Realistically, the man's not likely to just tell them, but they do have ways of getting this stuff out.
"I DON'T wanna be here!" Loki says again, smacking the floor of the containment unit with his hand. "I wanna go HOME!" Obviously, that's not going to happen right now.
"Where is your home?" Phil tries a different question. Maybe Loki will reveal where he came from.
"I WANNA GO HOME!" Loki shrieks suddenly, smashing his fist into the glass near the chili splatter, and Phil's somewhat surprised at this reaction. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" He takes a deep breath and his scream somehow becomes even louder. "Tony! TOOOOO-NYYYYY!"
Is he screaming for Tony Stark or some other Tony? He has mentioned Tony Stark, but Tony's the only one living in Stark Tower.
Yet more sedative gas enters the cell, and Loki calms down somewhat, although they need a lot more of it to sedate him now.
"Okay, so if you know the Avengers, than surely they'd recognize you if they saw you." Phil says.
They decide to call in Thor first, rather than Romanoff or Barton. Stark's obviously not an option right now since they're secretly experimenting on his tech. Besides, Loki seems to be up Thor's alley. Apparently the thunderer's on Earth right now, and even agrees to stop by once Fury contacts him. With the speed of Mjolnir, he shouldn't be long.
Thor knows more about teleporting than they do. Loki could easily be an Asgardian anyways, with his durability that won't even let him get pricked by a needle, his way of saying "Man of Iron" and "Son of Coul", and those powers. Besides, Thor would be able to confirm or deny what Loki's saying. If Thor says this man is lying (which he probably is), then things certainly won't be looking up for Loki.
"So if you're not a threat, than surely Thor could vouch for you. You're from Asgard anyways, aren't you."
"No! Not Thor! Please, I'll be good! Don't send me back, please!" Loki practically begs when he hears that Thor's coming, though he doesn't dispute the Asgard fact. Him saying that he'll be good really doesn't give much credit to the idea of him being innocent in the first place. Perhaps he's an escaped criminal who doesn't want to be brought back to Asgard to face justice.
"I won't do it anymore." The man pleads. Whatever 'it' is- probably some crime he's being punished for in the first place. Loki doesn't answer when questioned about it.
Loki's aversion to Thor seems to make Fury all the more convinced that Thor should be here, and so the interrogation is put on hold, and obviously his pleas are ignored.
Phil leaves the room to talk to Fury while they wait for Thor.
Loki's close to panicking, when Son of Coul leaves the room. Son of Coul had actually been pretty nice. Loki actually liked him, even if his food was awful.
Why had they been asking him all those questions? It was like talking to Dr. C, only with weirder questions and they didn't listen to his answers. And he's stuck in a petri dish without Simba or Tony. These people don't seem to get that he doesn't want to be here and they don't seem to believe him about Tony.
He doesn't know why they're keeping him here, but it's obvious now that they are. He just wants to go back to the tower, back to his home. His real home. Not in dumb old Asgard where everyone hates him. Everyone but Son of Coul hates him here, too, it seems, but this place doesn't look like Asgard at all.
He can't believe Thor's going to be here and he hates the idea so much. This is already bad enough, and now Thor's going to make it worse, and Tony's not here to keep Thor from hurting him. What if they send him back to Asgard?! Loki doesn't think he can do Asgard again, now that he knows what it's like to actually live somewhere safe with friends.
Ultimately, it's his "fake" friends that manage to calm him down. They're not visible, and Jormungand's hugs aren't nearly as good now that he doesn't have a tangible body like when he uses the necklace (The closest thing right now is Loki hugging himself, which used to be the closest Jormungand ever got to hugging him). Sleipnir sings their special song and Loki tries to pretend that Tony's voice is singing it too. He really likes it when Tony sings his song, because he has a feeling that Tony doesn't do that often, or for many other people.
Once he's calm, they remind him that Tony's going to come for him. Tony found him in the city, after all, so Tony's going to find him now too, and then he'll beat up the Eyepatch Man.
Then, Jormungand asks why they need to wait for Tony to come, when they could get out themselves. Jormungand once again recommends that he should punch through the glass, despite the Scary Eyepatch Man saying not to.
Loki frowns. That idea would be ridiculously stupid in Asgard, for all the trouble he'd get into. Not that he'd ever really been locked up like this. But this isn't Asgard, and he really needs to get back to Stark Tower anyways, and now there's even more of a reason to go back so he can avoid going to Asgard again.
But Eyepatch Man is watching through the metal eyes, like Jarvis does, right? Loki's worked out that Jarvis sadly isn't here, but Eyepatch Man probably is watching. Disobeying him probably isn't a good idea.
Tony would probably say escaping is good, anyways, Loki thinks. He wonders what Tony would do in this situation. But Tony wouldn't even be in a situation like this, would he?
No, wait... Loki remembers Tony mentioning a cave he was stuck in, and how he'd escaped from that. Tony said something about blowing stuff up with his Man of Iron suit. But Loki doesn't have a suit. What would Tony do if he didn't have his Man of Iron suit? Then he'd... he'd... okay, so Loki has no clue what he'd do.
Still, Tony would definitely think escaping is a good idea, and if Tony and Jormungand both say it's not bad, then it's not bad. Besides, Simba wouldn't just stay here, either. He'd run, like he had from the Hyenas and Scar as a kid, or he'd fight back like he had as an adult.
Simba wouldn't want him to stay here, and neither would Tony, regardless of what the people here want. Decision made, Loki stands up.
Punching through the glass doesn't work, sadly, but he knows there's a door now. It's indistinguishable from the other glass panels, but he'd seen it slide up to make an opening. He feels around the edges with his fingers, but it certainly doesn't feel any different than the other panels. He tries to find some sort of ridge to pull up on, but there's nothing. Loki sits back, annoyed, and thinks.
Before he can do anything more, four men enter the larger room that his cell is in. They're not like Son of Coul or the scary Odin-like Eyepatch Man. Loki's not even sure if these new men are real, or if they're even men, but they're clearly guards of some sort. Loki hates guards. They have shiny black helmets that cover all of their faces and black clothes that sort of look like soft armor, which is really dumb. Why would anyone wear soft armor? It's supposed to be hard so it can protect people. Then again, they'd made this glass that he can't punch through, so maybe they know what they're doing with soft armor.
Loki knows automatically that the guards are coming for him, because there's nobody else in here. They're still far away, and are now just standing there watching him (he thinks- he can't see their eyes). At least they're not hurting him.
What he wants more than anything is to be back in the tower. But he's stuck here.
Or maybe he's not. He'd teleported into the rafters, maybe he can teleport back to Stark Tower? Just like how Esmeralda teleported away from the guards, and Tony's said there's nothing wrong with that.
Loki's not sure how he teleported here in the first place though, and he's never teleported anywhere on purpose before so he has no idea how to do it.
He tries to think about what he's done when teleporting before. He got here by jumping in the rafters.
Maybe he needs to think about jumping back to the rafters, like how he'd jumped to the rafters here? He imagines the room he'd been in before he wound up in the other rafters. Tony's there, along with Bruce, Steve, and Natasha. Clint's not there, but that means he won't get shot so that's good. Loki's really sad that Clint's apparently not his friend anymore. Loki leaps to the other end of the cell.
He opens his eyes to see he's just in the other end of the cell. Figures- maybe he'd have to be back in the rafters in the first place for that to work. Loki slumps back, disappointed.
Hel recommends going to his happy place instead, saying she'll go with him. Bruce had said to go to his happy place when he was scared, too, so it's clearly good advice.
He closes his eyes and imagines being in Stark Tower. He can see his bedroom so clearly in his mind's eye, with his stars and his horses and his drawings and his toys.
He keeps imagining being in his room in Stark Tower, being safe as he tells Tony all about the scary petri dish cage he was in but how he got out. How he got out, away from the guards so now they can't see him, because he's safe in the tower. His head fills with this fantasy of being safe again. He can see his bedroom so clearly in his mind and he leaps again.
"Where did he go?" A voice asks. Loki frowns and opens his eyes, seeing he's still in the cell. The guards are approaching and Loki shrinks back against the wall. His magic feels a lot weaker than normal. It had slowly started to replenish after suddenly feeling weaker when he teleported and landed in the rafters, but now it suddenly feels even more drained, even though he hadn't done anything. He hadn't used magic, because he hadn't teleported this time. Usually, he'd be glad about this, but he really wants to teleport back to Tony.
Loki sees the green energy around his hands and he blanches. No! He was trying to get them to not know about his magic, although his treacherous mouth had betrayed him once, as it often does, during his talk with Son of Coul.
The guards continue to approach his cell, for some reason saying things like "the prisoner has escaped." What prisoner? Him? But he didn't escape, although he really wishes he did.
Suddenly, there are also two of the illusions of himself, one of which is wearing the Hulk t-shirt, even though Loki's not wearing it. He goes to swipe them out, but then pauses. The guards are looking at the illusions and not him. Actually, they haven't looked at him at all.
Loki smiles somewhat, although the illusions feel like they're draining his power.
Sadly, it isn't long before the fizzle out and disappear, and the guards' attention returns to him.
Jarvis has been working diligently to try and find Mr. Loki. Roughly an hour and a half has passed since he first went missing without a trace. Obviously, he teleported out, and Jarvis has to agree with Sir that they really should make sure that they always have some way to track and communicate with Mr. Loki in the future.
For the past hour and a half, he's been going through security camera footage anywhere they have cameras nearby, which is mostly in nearby stores and traffic cameras. His facial recognition software has been going on overdrive trying to spot the god. So far, he's had no luck.
Sir is getting very impatient. He'd actually flown around the streets surrounding the tower looking for Mr. Loki, but had returned with no further leads. Jarvis had been in the helmet then, obviously, and had seen no sign of him either. Nor had any of the pedestrians been able to find him, like last time.
Aside from that little trip, Sir and the other Avengers have been helping with looking over live satellite feeds of Central Park, having the idea that perhaps Mr. Loki teleported to the horses. Jarvis has noticed that Agent Barton appears to feel rather guilty about scaring Mr. Loki. As he should, obviously, Jarvis thinks, somewhat annoyed, although he remains perfectly polite to the Agent.
Around half an hour ago, Sir had started hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D's server to see if they had anything, since S.H.I.E.L.D usually finds out about strange occurrences like teleportation. Surprisingly, they hadn't seemed to notice anything when Mr. Loki first landed on the tower, but Jarvis supposes that's just as well. The Helicarrier had not been above New York City that day, apparently.
Captain Rogers had been very disapproving of their hacking once he'd figured out what they were up to. Not that this stopped Sir at all, of course. In fact, Jarvis can tell that Sir enjoys it all the more due to the super-soldier's disapproval.
Hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D isn't nearly as easy as Sir makes it out to be. Sir acts like it's child's play, and while it's doable for them (even if most people aside from Sir wouldn't stand a chance) it takes a while, and Jarvis has to run all sorts of programs to cover their tracks. They haven't even made it into the deeper, more secure information yet, and haven't seen any sign of Mr. Loki being there.
Naturally, the stuff they're looking for= information regarding if S.H.I.E.L.D knows anything about Loki- is a lot harder to hack into than, say, the lunch menus.
Suddenly, there's an energy surge that Jarvis has come to associate with Mr. Loki's powers, and two figures appear.
One looks just like Mr. Loki, only Jarvis' scanners don't detect an actual person there. Apparently, it's one of Mr. Loki's illusions of himself.
"Hey, glad to have you back, Snoopy." Sir says, grinning and clearly not realizing that this is not the real Mr. Loki.
"You had us worried." Dr. Banner adds.
Jarvis is forced to be the bearer of bad news when he tells them that this is merely an illusion.
The other figure is a girl, appearing to be at the very beginning of adolescence. She looks like something out of what humans deem as horror movies. One side of the girl's body resembles a skeleton-like zombie sort of creature.
"What the Hell is that thing?" Agent Barton asks, staring at the girl.
"...Hel, right?" Sir guesses, and Agent Barton turns to look at Sir like he's crazy. Dr. Banner says they'll explain later, not taking his eyes off of the two figures.
The girl doesn't react. Neither does the other-Loki. Instead, the other-Loki simply opens his mouth and talks.
"Tony! I'm safes, right? Not in the petri dish anymore." The Loki illusion says, not actually looking at any of them. Sir goes to respond, but the illusion keeps talking. "Are they gonna get me again? I don't want them to, 'cause it was really, really scary, 'specially the Odin-like man."
"No, still there." The Loki illusion says, as if suddenly noticing something. For a second, they catch a glimpse of Loki's dejected, terrified face. Abruptly, the illusions disappear as suddenly as they had come.
There's a beat of silence and Agent Coulson asks "Seriously, what the hell was with that girl?"
"I think that was Hel. She's one of Loki's sort-of-imaginary friends." Dr. Banner explains.
"Sort of imaginary?"
"Well, she looked real, right?" Sir says with a raised eyebrow. Nobody offers any objections to that. "I'm not entirely sure what she is, but I think she at least started out as an imaginary friend, along with the others."
"Clearly Loki's not too happy, wherever he is. I wonder if he actually is trapped somewhere."
"But that wasn't the real Loki. What makes you think that informations accurate?" Captain Rogers questions. Sir sighs and says he doesn't know.
After all, there had been that illusion after Mr. Loki was fist exposed to Kim Possible that hadn't been like Mr. Loki at all.
By this point, Jarvis has finally managed to break into the S.H.I.E.L.D's camera feeds. Well, some of them, like unimportant hallways. The more important things like the bridge have more security to get past, but at least they're somewhere.
"Wait, there's Thor." Sir says, scanning the images Jarvis has brought in front of him, as the thunderer walks down a hallway. "Wonder what he's doing there..."
Sir's fingers fly over the keyboard as he and Jarvis start trying to break into the more encrypted camera feeds. It only takes a couple minutes this time.
They find him, at last.
Jarvis spots it first, before he even pulls up the holographic display. In a large, cylindrical glass cell, there are two Mr. Loki's.
Sir's eyes widen when he sees this and he says "Shit! He's with S.H.I.E.L.D after all! Damn! Why the hell is he in a cage?!"
"That's the cell they built for the Other Guy." Bruce says in a tight voice. "That seems a little over the top."
Sir nods in agreement and then says "Wait a minute- that's what he meant by the petri dish. And the Odin-like man... that has to be Fury."
They watch as the two Mr. Loki's- both apparently illusions- fizzle and die out and a third Mr. Loki- perhaps the real one- appears. He looks exhausted and terrified but actually bares his teeth at the guards stationed outside his cell. At the same time, he's pressing his back into the wall furthest from them, like a cornered animal.
Sir's hands are balled into fists. Without another word, he strides over to the balcony and fires up his thrusters, shooting into the sky. Jarvis knows immediately where he's headed.
Back in the tower, the other Avengers look at each other. "Good thing we have a quinjet." Agent Barton mutters. As the four of them head towards the roof, they discuss how Mr. Loki could have ended up on the Helicarrier. Clearly, S.H.I.E.L.D found him somehow, but how? Where?
Around six minutes later, Sir reaches the Helicarrier. He boards and tells Jarvis to have a go at their systems in a tone that clearly means to mess with them.
Jarvis is all too pleased to comply.
Fury watches on the screen as the man jumps around, from one edge of the circular cell to another. He sends some agents down to stop him and even releases more sedative gas, but the man keeps jumping.
He'd seemed to be having another panic attack earlier, and had started singing something about a silver stallion under his breath.
They still don't know much about this man, who may or may not be named Loki. Is this man some kind of mutant like the X-Men, or is he an alien or Asgardian? Fury's guessing he's an Asgardian, but he seems slightly different from them, too. He teleported like Doom, and now it's clear he can make ice. A couple agents report that his body temperature has dropped slightly.
This man has demonstrated a lot of interesting abilities, and Fury's determined to find out their secrets. Understanding the teleportation could help them defeat Doctor Doom, and harnessing the other powers could come in handy in the future. There had been some energy spikes when he'd been left alone after the interrogation.
Coulson's interrogation with the man hadn't revealed Loki's motive, but he's probably an Asgardian. It also strengthened Fury's hunch that the man is insane. He doesn't seem like any sort of trained professional, but he could be working alone. They still don't know why he came here, but he surprisingly hasn't teleported away yet.
Thor's actually on his way to the Helicarrier now and should arrive soon thanks to the speed of Mjolnir. Fury watches through the camera feed as the guards approach the containment unit.
Fury and Coulson watch as the prisoner closes his eyes, muttering something before leaping to the other edge.
Thor arrives while this is happening. Not long later, the tall blonde walks onto the bridge in his usual armor and red cape, Mjolnir hanging loosely from his right hand. He approaches Fury and Coulson. "I believe you wanted to have words with me, Director?"
"We've got a stowaway who might be like you." Fury deadpans, turning to the alien/god. "We're going to run some tests on him but wanted to know if you have any experience with him first. He obviously recognizes your name."
"Show him to me."
Fury pulls up the screen again, only to see that the camera feed shows an empty cell. Thor looks confused and says "Don't jest with me."
One of the guards in the room informs him that the man is gone, in case they hadn't noticed. Fury swears, since the man obviously gave them the slip and teleported away. So much for experimenting on his abilities.
However, not long after, two other-Loki's appear. Fury and Coulson exchange puzzled glances. This man just keeps demonstrating more and more interesting abilities. Had he cloned himself? Is there a whole army of him? Is he a twin? There's no way of knowing which one is accurate at the moment.
Thor, however, clearly recognizes the man. "He is still in there." He informs them, before asking "Why have you imprisoned this man? Is it because of what he just did?"
Neither of the other-Loki's are doing anything, but the guards train their guns on the two men, even though there's glass separating them. Around half a minute later, the other-Loki's fade and the original returns.
According to one of the technicians looking over the readings in the cell, he'd never been gone and the two Other-Loki's weren't actually real people. If he was never gone, had he turned invisible? Thor backs up this theory and explains that it's magic. He's clearly not a huge fan of it.
Fury's ordered the scientists to perform some tests on the man. The guards, after cuffing the man, stand watch as the scientists enter the cell with various equipment. The man tries to press himself further into the wall.
The prisoner looks tired, like he had when he'd first arrived, but he bares his teeth at the metal instruments like a dog. Before now, the man's seemed surprisingly complacent, so seeing him like this isn't exactly surprising, but slightly unexpected, especially since he's pressing himself into the wall at the same time. It's mostly flight with a tiny bit of fight in it.
"He teleported onto the Helicarrier." Fury says. "He can't have a good motive for that."
"So is he an Asgardian?" Coulson asks. Thor pauses.
"He is not of Asgard, but he grew up there." The thunderer looks at the screen as he speaks. "What are they doing?" He's clearly indicating the scientists, who have started scanning the man with various instruments. The man looks absolutely terrified.
"Running some tests." Fury clips out.
Thor frowns slightly as he watches.
"This man poses no threat to you or your realm. There is no reason to lock him up like that."
"I think him managing to make it on here is reason enough." Fury says.
"Does Tony Stark know about this?" Thor questions. "He would not be too happy to find out you have locked up this man."
Fury frowns. Does Stark actually know this man? He'd thought the man was lying, but now Thor is referencing it, too.
Suddenly, the screen cuts out and turns red, along with every other screen on the bridge.
The lights flicker out. Fury is already on his comm, telling agents to figure out what's happening. Half a minute later, they report that none other than Iron Man has just arrived.
The lights turn on again, but the screens remain useless. A British voice sounds through the loudspeakers.
"Indeed, Mr. Stark is not happy at all, and neither am I." Fury realizes that the voice belongs to Stark's AI creation. "In fact, Mr. Stark has requested that I spread this around."
Every screen on the bridge, and presumably everywhere else on the Helicarrier, blinks again and then shows a photoshopped image of Fury himself in a hot pink bikini. Fury feels a vein twitch in his temple. Stark is being even more obnoxious than usual, and apparently they'd just gotten hacked by his AI.
Things are not going as planned.
Loki's still mostly out of energy. In fact, he feels completely drained, and he sits slumped against the wall of his cell. That gas certainly hadn't helped. Every time it comes, the fog starts creeping up again.
Once the Other-Loki's had disappeared and the guards had focused on him again, Loki had tried to get as far away from them as possible. He'd let his frustration at not being able to get away by growling at the guards- they were intimidating anyways- and then had waited in fearful anticipation at the punishment that was surely to come. But no blows had fallen on him. They'd cuffed him, though, which was perhaps worse and enough to send him into another panic attack. Then the gas had come. The fog that makes him feel sleepy and stupid is back, but it's not as bad as it was the first time. Actually, the fog is already fading a little.
One of the guards had barked at him not to do that again, and Loki's not even sure which thing they were referring to.
Loki shrinks against the wall with his hands behind his back, trying desperately not to notice all the people surrounding him and the scary metal things in his face. He feels like Boo in the Scream Extractor.
Fenrir had been snapping at the metal things, but the people hadn't even noticed him. Loki had snapped too, with only his teeth to defend himself. He can't even bring up his arms to block them.
Loki arms are locked behind his back and Olaf has tumbled out of his grip. Loki really wishes he had Simba right now. And Tony. He manages to choke out Tony's name. Tony's going to come for him, right? Like when he was lost in the city.
Loki hates the cuffs behind his back, and he starts thinking about how Elsa had frozen her cuffs off. As he's thinking this, he feels a chill behind him, and the white-coat-people tell him to stop while they start prodding his hands with the metal things.
What had he been thinking, trying to escape with magic teleportation? That never ended well for him. As soon as Loki thinks this, Jormungand tells him that it wasn't bad, reminding him that Tony would say it wasn't bad, either.
Loki realizes with horror that maybe Thor is going to punish him for doing magic and trying to escape. After all, they said Thor was coming here. Loki curls into a tight ball and squeezes his eyes shut, wishing once again that he was back in the tower with Tony and Jarvis and Bruce.
Dimly, he hears Jarvis speaking. It has to be just his imagination. Loki shakes his head angrily, not wanting his head to tease him like that. Jarvis continues talking, and it's too cruel, for his imagination to mock him like that. He opens his eyes and sees he's still in the cell, surrounded by people with metal things that beep as the move over him. Loki quickly closes his eyes again, instinctively curling his legs up. He's still in this stupid petri dish, and Jarvis isn't here.
Jarvis is still speaking, saying something about not harming something. Or maybe he misheard that, because it sounds sort of muffled.
Loki starts to get even angrier because it makes him hope that Jarvis would really be here, but it's all in his head, isn't it? He's also angry at his magic- why did it have to bring him hear but not bring him back to the tower?! Loki angrily smashes the back of his head into the wall.
His head is pinned back against the wall by a gloved hand so he can't move it. Loki kicks out but his legs are quickly pinned down too.
No, no, no, no, no. It's just like Asgard.
He hears voices talking loudly in the background but doesn't pay attention.
The hands holding down his legs and head are suddenly gone, an angry voice saying something that sounds like bass-turds. Loki frowns in confusion. That voice sounds like Tony...
He opens his eyes and sees Tony, as Man of Iron, walking through the door of the glass petri dish cell. Loki goes to rub his eyes to see if he's real, but his arms are still locked behind his back.
"Tony?" He'd been waiting for Tony for who knows how long, and now he's finally here. He was right, Tony had found him, just like how he had in the city.
"Tony! Tony!" Loki grins, because now the guards and white-coat-people aren't touching him anymore. Now that Tony's here, Thor can't hurt him and the scary Eyepatch Man can't hurt him either.
Tony's here, just like how Sulley came to get Boo out of the Scream Extractor. Loki accidentally shouts out "Kitty!" like Boo had, because he's thinking about that scene.
Tony tells the people in white coats with the metal things to get out in a tone that leaves no argument.
"I think it's time to get you out of here, don't you." Tony says, crouching down next to him.
Loki nods and smiles slightly, leaning up against the suit's arc reactor. Tony's here, and Tony's going to keep him safe, because he's his best friend.
"What the hell did they do to you?" Tony mutters, and Loki wonders why he's talking about Hel. Tony somehow gets the handcuffs off him and looks at them. "Hey, I see you started pulling an Elsa again. Good job." He holds them up, and Loki sees they're covered in ice. So that's what the cold had been.
The white-coat people had told him to stop that, obviously not liking it, but Tony says it's good, and why would he believe stupid people with scary sticks over Tony?
"What was with the Kitty?" Tony asks with a small smirk as he hands Olaf to him.
"You were like Sulley."
Tony pauses for a bit and says "Huh, I guess that was a bit like Monsters Inc."
"We need'ta get Simba." Loki mutters sleepily. "They took him."
Tony sounds annoyed and says something about a suit, but Loki's already given into the exhaustion that's been plaguing him, his arms now wrapped around his best friend. The last thing he's aware of is Tony putting a vaguely familiar leather band around his wrist and sliding something into his pocket, saying something about not getting lost again.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm not entirely sure what I think of it. It was by far the hardest chapter to write. Writing Fury and Coulson was pretty hard. Hopefully they're in character.
At least Loki's found now. The whole thing between Tony and S.H.I.E.L.D will happen next chapter. Oh, and the other Avengers will be there. I figured that would probably be too long to put in this one. There will also be some more stuff with Thor.
So I know Coulson sort of died in the Avengers, but they brought him back for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (I haven't actually watched that show, though). I'm not sure if the Avengers ever figured out he was actually alive, but they have in this. It's been a year and a half since it happened, so I'm just going to say they found out sometime before now. Maybe Tony found out by hacking into their files or something.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to update four times this month like I think I have every other month, which is sort of annoying.