A/N
Is this crossover longer than anticipated?
Yes.
Am I disappointed?
Not even a little. This was fun to write and it letting me finish and polish the Celestial Spirit Party arc to a satisfying conclusion.
Slight TW: Implied/Mentioned Suicide. Bruce was not in a good headspace for a while. It doesn't get highlighted in the movie but does a bit more here.
"What are you doing Stark?"
"We've been wondering the same thing about you?"
OK, I guess I'll consider how to deal with the Harry Potter thing later.
I shot a look at Tony, questioning and suspicious at Fury's tone. He had been making efforts to conceal what he had been up to from me and I deemed it had been done subtly enough that someone who wasn't in the know wouldn't have caught on to his blatantly hacking a paramilitary primary information system. He winked, stepping in front of me to partially block me from Fury's line of sight, sitting down before a screen to set his stage and play his role.
And get answers because as a weapons designer, he was understandably concerned about some of these specs and the records of the demonstrations.
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."
"And we are. Program is sweeping now, once we get a hit, we'll get a location within half a mile."
It had impacted their ability to work since they had needed to filter out my own energy signature. But I had contributed in a few small comments here and there, reading Bruce's own expertise and Tony's sheer genius to format my thoughts in such a way that I could get around my All Speech issues.
"Yeah, you'll get your cube back, no big deal, but the burning question of the hour is: What exactly is Phase 2?"
The door slid open again with a hiss and I perked up, sensing a faint trace of ethernano in the air. Just a few particles, but in the absence of it made those bits all the more poignant. Steve dropped a strange looking gun onto the table. The energy was coming from that made me sit up and pay attention.
Is that...I think it might be.
During WWII in this world, Hydra had made weapons using the Tesseract as a power source. On the surface, it appeared to just be lasers, but thinking logically, they had to function by teleporting portions of whatever they were pointed at elsewhere. And since people generally could not survive with large holes in their bodies or while missing certain vital organs, it was a gruesome, but effective means of utilizing the natural abilities of the Space Stone.
I could use that. But this is also where things start to really go pear shaped before they pull themselves together.
I sat cross legged on a workbench wrapped in three different blankets and cradling a paper cup of cocoa in my hands. It was nothing special as I had bantered earlier with Tony, but it was warm and filling and helped counter my lowered body temperature from my Astral contact with Loki. And it was enough to wet my throat so the granola I was snacking on went down easier.
I downed the rest of my drink, and tried to finish eating quickly, knowing that I wouldn't get the chance to have more food and would likely be caught up in a huge dangerous mess in the next...5 minutes give or take.
Tony confronted Fury about Phase 2. Natasha came in to warn Banner, and that only wound him up tighter. Steve came in with the concrete evidence of a rehauled Hydra weapon, and things only escalated from there. Thor scoffed and derided them-
I turned my head to look at him, brow furrowed.
Tony was naturally confrontational to authority. Bruce was understandably on his guard towards Natasha. And Steve's straight arrow approach would rub people the wrong way if they were already prickly. But Thor's behavior...
That doesn't seem quite right.
"Excuse me-"
But they just...ignored me. Even Natasha's eyes didn't' even waver from her hawk like scrutiny of Bruce.
The entire plot of Thor's first movie was about him learning humility. That included respecting other beings. Odin had made him no more than a Terran to teach him that strength wasn't everything and confined all his power to Mjolnir until he was worthy to use his gifts again. This behavior wasn't in line with him. But...it could very well be what a certain, extremely biased someone aboard the Helicarrier still viewed him as and was pushing him to be. Morgana confirmed after a thorough scan.
Silvertongue is present again.
He got some on Natasha, though she got him back just as good. Thor probably had a passive version of it since he helped capture him. Everyone else got another dose of it during Fury's chat with him.
I knew that this would all work out. Or had a very strong chance of working out in the end. But being in the same room as this argument, knowing their potential bond, and what they were capable of together...was painful. Sad. Stressful. It was Bruce's bitter admission that made my head whip around. That did not come from Loki's encouragement, the word was 100% wholly himself.
I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spat it back out.
The admission of how far he had fallen into the depths of his own mind was terrifying. It wasn't really addressed in the movie, since explosions and fighting happened shortly thereafter. But what if it wasn't addressed...because Loki, or Thanos, wouldn't give a damn that Bruce tried to kill himself. Tony would have. Steve certainly would have. They all would have reacted somehow other than to just...brush by it. So much potentially went unsaid because of Loki's signature ability. And by the time things progressed later...some things had already been established and could not be easily answered.
I have to try.
I laid my syllabary and some sheafs of paper open to Naruto short stories about releasing genjutsu, or illusions and mind altering effects. With that as support, it should be doable. Not pleasant, but doable. I clasped my hands together in the requisite seal and pulsed my energy, slicing at Silvertongue with a vengeance.
The scanner that Bruce had calibrated to react to me shrieked as a sudden, deliberate surge of power filled the air. It broke the tension with all heads turned towards it. Almost all. With the reflexes of a trained combatant, Natasha turned towards me when she tracked an unusual movement.
The hostile tension was gone from the air, the feeling was replaced with a new one. This one born from my actively channeling ethernano into magic.
"Fae!"
This isn't want you can be. Loki sees you all as a bunch of squabbling children, bowling pins ready for him to knock down. But you are not. You...all of you, are the beginning of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Silvertongue was an incredibly potent spell. But it was also a false perception. Loki's own view of the world was not in line with the truth. And that gave me a huge advantage in tackling it. And the fact that Bruce's true despair also resonates within me. There was nothing worse to be felt via Story Magic based empathy than someone who decided, for whatever reason, that the world was better off without them in it.
I opened my eyes, holding my hand seal with both hands, forcing Silvertongue back just a tiny bit so that they would hear me. I was fairly certain I was also crying a little bit.
"Please...just stop and think for a little bit. Stop pointing fingers, and taking jabs at each other. Whatever is about to come wants to wipe out everything. And you-"
I caught Bruce's eye and saw he looked stricken. More than a few people looked slightly ashamed, Thor and Steve especially. It seemed in the heat of their argument, with Silvertongue's encouragement, they had forgotten that I was listening.
Thor shifted abruptly, his chagrin clearing from his face.
"Loki managed to lay down a compulsion again." His formidable power snatched at the subtle compulsion, shifting to disperse it with brute force. He sent out a current of sparks into the air that attacked the compulsion with a vengeance. It was very much wood chipper vs a delicate work of art. But it was effective and the tension in the air was dissipating. But the words still were in the room that had been said.
Everything special about you came out of a bottle.
You don't have what it takes to make the sacrifice play.
The beginning of the battle lines that would rupture the best defense this planet had to offer at the literal worst possible moment.
Bruce's hand was stretched towards the scepter, he hadn't actually picked it up. And as our eyes met, he pulled his hand away.
Initiating first level emergency shut off.
Morgana snuffed out my Charm Magic counter, pulling in all essential systems. I only now felt the exhaustion and knew I looked gray in the face and exhausted and was noticeably swaying in my seat.
Thor actually managed to get across the lab and catch me first.
"You've overstretched yourself, young one." He chided me gently, keeping me upright with one hand as he touched my forehead with the other. A faint, rudimentary probe reached for my magic. Morgana allowed him access without protest. "Loki's work is far beyond what most could challenge for themselves let alone for so many."
"You weren't stopping. None of you were listening." I mumbled, leaning into his hands. They were warm and my depleted magic circulatory system was craving for any hint of similar power to mine. "I just want to go home..."
Morgana pushed on my All-speech to ensure exactly what I felt was conveyed with no room for misunderstanding.
I just want to survive this, I want home and my family and you all are my best chance at getting them back. The world is going to be on fire around us soon and you all can't get your crap together enough to be in the same room with each other for five minutes without starting to squabble.
Shame and understanding reflected in the Prince of Asgard's eyes. When he spoke, the sound of his words shifted slightly. He was deliberately using another language and allowing All-Speech to translate for me.
"I am so sorry, Faerun. I shall personally escort you to your home as soon as I am able. No further harm or distress shall come to you under my care. I make this vow as a son of the Allfather."
Morgana prompted my response, reading what the appropriate words would be to answer his offered promise and protection.
"I accept your offer of escort. Until I am returned to Tetribiblos's domain, your cause shall be mine and what aid I can safely give shall be freely offered."
The formal term for the Celestial Spirit King didn't feel quite right to say. But the chosen language wouldn't convey the proper authority he had over my homeland and the responsibility he had to uphold the Laws. Thor was offering protection, a sort of ambassadorial escort as long as I was within his Father's bound realms. I, in turn, was promising to assist him in his endeavors in exchange for this protection.
Thor nodded formally in acceptance of my terms.
"As we have said, so shall it be."
I knew that everyone else in the room was watching the exchange between us closely. Some of them might be able to infer the intent, but they wouldn't know exactly what was said, or the import of what had been promised.
Naturally the special moment couldn't last.
The enemy Quin-jet has entered the Helicarrier's airspace.
I couldn't stop the visceral tension that ripped through my body. Morgana showed me the blast lines and the places that would be damaged and a timer of about ten seconds. The sensor sounded again, this time registering the handful of possessed agents that were coming.
Morgana showed me clearly that the whole floor and window of the lab would be blown out.
"Incoming!" I got off the work bench where I had been sitting and lunged for the side of the room, clutching my pen and syllabary in one hand.
There was a split second of confusion. Then the Helicarrier was rocked by an explosion as one of the four massive fan engines that kept the carrier airborne died. The floor exploded underneath our feet. The window I had been sitting by shattered.
Thor was closest to me and ended up grabbing me before I could do more than squawk in alarm. I was tucked into his chest as whatever uber strong glass they used to make the window flew everywhere from the explosion. His armor and own increased durability protected him from the shrapnel. And his quick response had gotten us to land one story down with Fury instead of the multiple stories that Natasha and Bruce had fallen. I unconsciously tracked Tony and Steve as they were heading out the main door to address the problem with the disabled engine. Fury was already getting a status report and checking in on the people he didn't have in his sight.
"Are you alright?"
I heard Thor ask through ringing ears. I shook my head, the explosion and the sudden change in air pressure from the window being blown out was messing me up.
"I can't really hear." The ringing, my own pounding heart, racing thoughts and depleted ethernano reserves were blocking me from hearing Morgana. And by extension, the Hydra scheme timer. I would recover quickly if I just had some more ethernano-
The gun. The one Steve brought. Phase 2.
Cannibalizing and taking advantage of a defeated enemies' technology was more than smart, it was textbook in terms of successful warfare. The organization that Steve had been working for during World War 2 was the precursor of SHIELD. So they were the ones who had originally secured all the nasty technology that hadn't gone down with Steve in the ice and had likely worked overtime to recover as much as they could from the Arctic sea when he was found again. All of them were powered by the Tesseract. By the Space stone.
The gun Steve had brought in was nowhere to be on my and Thor's level.
"I need more ethernano." I told Thor. "I won't be good for anything unless I can get some power back. Not even to run or hide."
Where is the gun? Just that alone would help so much.
Howard Stark had blown up his lab with a pistol battery the size of a small coin. The newer stuff was likely much more stable thanks to the advances that people made once Tony's arc reactor technology was more available. Just one regular gun battery. Thor shifted to move towards the door Fury was by, keeping an arm around me. And good thing because I slipped twice on the uncertain footing and only his grasp kept me from falling down below.
"Could you use mine?"
Thor asked, digging his hand into the metal wall with easel to secure a firm handhold as he helped me along what litter remained of the floor.
I shook my head.
"Elemental conflict. It'd take too long to filter and make it safe for me."
Thor's crackling lightning-like energy would not be the safe neutral energy Wendy worked painstakingly to develop in herself to enable her to use magical healing and transfer ethernano to depleted wizards. It was protective, powerful and painfully good, but the only people who would be able to accept an easy donation from Thor would be Laxus and other super strong Lightning Mages.
We had made it to safer footing when there came a spine chilling, primal roar from several floors below.
Hulk *s **re.
Morgana's voice was patchy from my own rattled focus but the message was clear. Hulk was now in play. Hulk in a confined space where the more stuff he broke, the more people he put at risk. And he was reacting to Bruce's stress and tension and lashing out at everything that he perceived as being a threat to his alternate's safety.
It's not anger that makes him transform is it. Not always.
The reaction was called Fight or Flight. Anger was a reaction, not the source. The origin...was fear. Bruce was almost always afraid that he would hurt someone as Hulk. He was hyper aware of his own capacity for destruction. That fear in turn became a self fulfilling prophecy when combined with how SHIELD had pulled him in and Loki's magical prodding.
Fury helped me to safer ground with Thor close behind. He seemed to have gotten as much of a status update as he could for the time being. Between his gloves and my still ringing ears, I didn't hear what Morgana could read off of him. But I did feel an overwhelming, implacable determination to protect. This was no white knight. This was a man who did what he felt was necessary. And that was strangely comforting.
"You come with me to the bridge." Fury said firmly. Thor spoke up before I could.
"She needs more ethernano- a form of energy her people are dependent on."
"We don't have that."
"You've got batteries charged with Tesseract Energy." I said, coughing as the acrid smell of burning plastic filled the air from some fire. "The Tesseract itself is a vessel for an energy source like what is in the scepter. Only it deals with space- instead of the mind."
I would consider the repercussions of displaying such knowledge later. Once I was no longer near death. I finished my explanation.
He won't agree.
Not letting an unknown alien life form near experimental weapons during a crisis such as this was smart. It would be the opportune time for more things to go wrong and Fury was too much of a paranoid bastard to not think of that.
"You know what, nevermind, you're never going to agree."
Where is the gun that Steve brought? Please tell me it didn't fall out of the ship? I'd never make it to Phase 2's store rooms without Hydra agents snatching me. Or even SHIELD people trying to relocate the arsenal.
It's on the bottom floor.
Where Hulk is. I don't suppose Lullaby would work right now?
Lullaby worked because Hulk and Bruce both trusted Natasha. We have about a 70% chance of successfully calming Hulk, but he will not destransform until they are away from the Helicarrier, which Hulk perceives as Bruce's source of stress.
If we push, how much magic could we get out of what we currently have before I go unconscious?
One Active Cast to get you down to where the gun is. One passive Concentration to locate it. One Sustained Cast to harvest the Space Stone's energy and channel it into a miniature Anima. Max time; 10 minutes.
This whole exchange between myself and Morgana took about two seconds. I looked at Thor, knowing he could and was currently oathbound to protect me.
"You have a conflict of oaths, Odinson. Hold to your first and act as Earth's champion. I'll get myself stable and do what I can to assist as promised."
I was shedding the scared child's look that I had been using as camouflage. The same need based focus that had driven me in Iceberg's ghost filled castle was asserting itself. I reached into my still sealed Second Origin, and opened it, just a crack. Opening your Second Origin entirely took a matter of years before you got the massive power boost out of it. But I had been using magic long enough that I was at least aware of that secondary source and it had something in it for me to make use of.
Not to say it isn't painful.
Needlepricks ran over my skin from head to toe. Not tiny ones, but deeper, stabbing pains, like the growing pains that most people got in their legs as they shot up to their adult heights. Only this was all over my body and accompanied by a surge of new energy that filled me and banished the wan, gray skin I was dealing with due to magical exhaustion. That energy combined with my natural adrenaline made shivers wrack my body for a second. I felt my hair snap and curl in its braid in response. It was a subtle transformation. But from the look in Fury's eye, it was one he could see very evidently and he had no idea what to do about it. Before I could overthink, or let either of the responsible adults stop me, I jumped down the same span that Thor had carefully led me around.
"Faerun, no!"
"Featherfall!"
The words rang out in understandable English, tapping into one of the spells I had written in the syllabary for such a scenario. It good for one time use only until I could rewrite it, but I felt it was well spent here. I landed as lightly as a dandelion seed several stories below where I had been in no time at all. I looked up at Thor and grinned, the smile was shaky and still fearful, but it was a smile of action now.
"Faerun, yes. I'll manage. Go do what you have to do." I then ran into the debris before they could argue, grateful for my sturdy shoes right now as the place was a hazard to navigate. I heard Thor call me one more time, but I ignored him.
9 minutes and 48 seconds until you fall unconscious unless new energy is found.
Scan for Phase 2 technology.
Natasha was currently running from the Hulk and trying to lead him away from people without getting swatted like a fly. The area was more or less clear for me to conduct my search. There were some engineers searching for evacuation routes to get away from the Not so Jolly Green Giant. But I managed to duck out of their line of sight.
Finding the gun took me under two minutes.
Constructing a small ritual circle to safely channel the Space Energy within it into an Anima took about another four minutes. I had recorded the structure of an Anima in my syllabary not even a week after the Edolas debacle.
Powerwise, I don't have nearly enough, but this is Spatial Magic, functionally. It's already aligned and inclined to do this sort of thing on its own. It just needs a framework.
If I were working with any other kind of energy but this one, I would never have been able to amass enough power to open an Anima for more and a few seconds, a few precious gasps of ethernano filled air. But this was Tesseract energy. The bells and whistles that Selvig and his compatriots needed to hold the portal open were not needed since my Story Magic, written out long ago, supplied the structure they needed their physical materials and set up to access.
The small Anima winked open in the ruins under the Helicarrier. I swiped over to where I stored a little bit of Wendy's story and started to breathe in. Deep, long and desperate, drinking in the energy as she would drink down clean air to fuel her magic.
You are out of Emergency Mode. Total reserves, 56% of maximum.
I would still need to get to the New York Sanctum. The Ancient One was there at this moment, and shortly, there would come an errant Time Traveler to borrow the Time Stone from her to Snap half of the universe back into existence. Hopefully their ability to traverse dimensions would get me somewhere where I could fully recharge.
Actually, hopefully I can put enough changes into play with my information exchange with JARVIS that they won't ever get to the point where they have to do the Time Heist at all.
I muttered an Undetectable expansion charge and stowed my syllabary and pen in my pants pocket. Things were too quiet down here right now. Especially since Hulk was in play.
We need to find Natasha.
Morgana showed me updated schematics of the broken hanger and where the Black Widow had run to try and evade the enraged berserker. I took off running to follow her.
I found her as Hulk was lifting his hand to backhand her.
"No, Hulk don't!"
I wasn't sure what I expected to happen as I pushed myself to race through the ruined course of breakers and metal that he had left behind him. But it certainly wasn't for Hulk to stop and whirl towards me. I saw Natasha's eyes go wide in naked terror as she jumped to conclusions but was too stunned and winded from her harsh landing to move. To do anything.
Lullaby, don't fail me now.
I might not be trying to make Bruce detransform. But I did want to make Hulk stop. I stepped forward. Hulk grunted, baring his teeth at me. I didn't stop, just held my hands out, showing I was unarmed and likely making myself seem even smaller in comparison to him. Hulk slowly lowered his fist. I let out a small breath.
"Thank you. I know you're scared. You don't actually want to hurt her. And she doesn't want to hurt Bruce. I promise. She's a good person."
I saw Natasha's dissociation shattering into a warm, lively smile when Clint's kids asked where Auntie Nat was. Her quiet smirk as she spent time with her teammates. The stalwart ally she had been to them. The child she had once been, and the sister she remained to Yelena. The image of a motionless body on the craggy stone of Vormir, the sacrifice she had made- I forced myself to not tear up and spoke with all the conviction I had within me.
"She's so much better than even she knows."
What is it with the MCU and all the people I can sympathize with so closely.
Brain's Garden Project had been intended to make G2.0 into the same thing the Black Widows were meant to be. A dispassionate spy that cared nothing for any cause, felt nothing, and only obeyed. And she had fought that. Broken away from that conditioning. She hadn't left behind the fighting and violence she had been groomed to handle, but she had her own compass, her own motivations and goals, loves and passions. She was a person who fought, as she had put to Loki, every day to wipe out the red in her ledger. To make amends for her past.
Hulk snarled again, looming over Natasha, clenching massive fists.
"Bruce scared."
Morgana quickly filled in what he couldn't express.
"Yeah. But there isn't much that doesn't scare Bruce these days. It's an alien invasion, big guy. It's scary stuff...says the alien."
I took a moment to appreciate the irony of my own words. Hulk tilted his head, comprehending but questioning.
"We probably should get out of this area. If the carrier loses another engine, it will go down and I want to be closer to a means of evacuation. Hang on a second." I stepped over to Natasha, and crouched before her. Her eyes were still vacant with shock and pain from her sharp landing. Hulk's hand had barely brushed her. It wasn't a deliberate hit, and that, plus the Black Widow serum meant she was still alive and functional.
Did she get a super soldier serum? Some of what she went through is covered in the MCU, but that's never confirmed.
It is possible, but cannot be confirmed at this time.
"Natasha? Can you hear me?"
There was a vague response, but she was still breathing like she had run a marathon and had a thousand yard stare going.
Touching her would trigger a bad reaction.
89% chance of a violent response.
Hulk wasn't waiting especially patiently, but he was waiting, shifting his feet and making small sounds of irritation. But he was waiting. I would take that as a win.
"Natasha, you can come back. It's alright. Hulk isn't going to hurt you." I shot a look back at the green giant and he huffed in annoyed acquiescence.
The enemy strike team has begun to work on disabling the second engine. Time until they finish; 7 minutes.
I need to wake her up.
Doing the whistle that she shared with her sister would do the trick but also spook her since there was no way I should know about it. She would react similarly if I called her Auntie Nat, due to her protectiveness of Clint's family. And both of those felt weird and Invasive and inappropriate to use in this instance.
So I focused on All-Speech and tried to make it come out in Russian rather than English.
"You're alright, Natasha. But we need to move."
This did the trick, her eyes came back into focus and looked at me strangely.
"How do you know Russian?"
"I don't. I know All-speech and that can sound different depending on who is hearing it and how I want it to be heard." I pushed lightly on the passive ability to flick it through another language that Natasha knew and then back to English. There were a lot of those to choose from so I think it came out as Mandarin.
"Can you stand?" She tried to rise, and I didn't try to help her. But I kept my hands where she could see them in case she wanted support. She ended up gripping my arm to steady herself as she walked, still breathing heavily. I could distantly feel her nerves at the situation, still wound tight but slowly calming as her heart rate came down, but she still looked at Hulk warily.
I looked at him.
"I won't ask you to apologize yet, but I hope there will be one in the future." I told him simply.
He huffed and looked away, sulking like a toddler.
He's 10 feet tall, wider than five of me and could level a skyscraper with one backhand. How is he adorable?
Everything is relative.
Morgana flicked through my own memories of my friends. Erza's fearsome reputation in and outside of the guild, and the fact that she somehow made metal armor comforting to hug. Gildarts, who could casually bring down a house without even noticing, and likewise could let kids climb all over him without them suffering a scratch.
Natasha spoke quietly once we started for a ln access point to the main hanger.
"How did you get him to stop?"
I matched her volume.
"Best way to put it is Hulk is a psychic alternate personality. We have them in my world and I managed to introduce myself to him earlier."
She huffed quietly.
"That's convenient."
"Very. The last hostile alternate I met was even worse than the guy he was replacing."
I felt a suspicious stare get directed at me.
"And why were you the one to deal with them?"
I took only a tiny bit of petty pleasure at cutting off her suspicion at the knees.
"I got kidnapped by him. It was... unpleasant." So there wasn't much of a choice in the matter. It was my job to take care of it, or death. Or worse than death given the circumstances.
No matter how bad Brain was, Zero was so much worse. I didn't want to think about what I would have been made to do if Zero had access to my command phrases before Morgana and I managed to subvert them.
Natasha knew what a lie looked like. And I felt her suspicion give way with a snap as she saw whatever she needed to be convinced that I was telling the truth.
The diversion from Primary timeline is being rectified.
My head snapped up as two men with menacing looking guns started to level their weapons at us and a third sent a rocket powered grenade at Hulk. I threw myself to the side with Natasha as the bullets started to rattled the wall. Hulk's roar vibrated the metal wall and the bullets stopped shortly thereafter.
He just tanked an RPG, didn't he?
Morgana didn't dignify that with an answer.
I peeked around the busted door into the air hanger that Hulk had made in his rage, ready to throw up a shield, and saw that there were two insensate men crumpled against the wall, Hulk was in the aircraft hanger and the techs and engineers were running for their lives.
Please tell me that they were mind controlled.
They were. Hulk was not behaving as intended so they had to push him. So they did by aiming for you, who Hulk has demonstrated attachment to.
I peeked up in time to see Thor tackle Hulk to keep him from going after an aircraft technician who had been too slow to retreat.
"They are not your enemies Banner!"
He roared back in protest.
"Try hurt Child!"
And he was right, some of them were enemies and they had no good way to distinguish them. But he was now throwing a tantrum and the only way to get him out was with a plane. Sure, he could just jump and fall down. But his invulnerability did not mean he didn't feel pain whenever he was attacked. It just meant it didn't stop him.
Whatever else I have to do right now...I need to get Hulk off the Helicarrier.
I looked with Morgana's help for any potential bullet trajectories that would come if I went into the open. The only ones that were pending were the mini gun on the jet that was being deployed to get Hulk's attention.
Got a few minutes until then.
I made to rise, but found Natasha's hand gripping my wrist. I gave her a reassuring smile.
"He needs to get off the carrier. Is there a pilot you know you could trust to carry him closer to the surface?"
Another loud crash came. Thor appeared to have summoned Mjolnir. The fight was escalating once again.
Well fudge.
"I really have got to go now."
I slipped my wrist out of her still senseless grip. But just leaving her there, huddled in her freight felt wrong. She was the Black Widow; she wasn't supposed to be weak or vulnerable. She was made not to be.
So that's why it's important even now that I give her the time to be.
I reached in myself and thought of my own red haired idol. My sister, mother, mentor and friend whom I still missed four years after the fact. The respect and love of a younger sister for the elder.
"Expecto patronum minimus."
I muttered the modified charm, placing a small silver and gold barn owl the size of my palm into her hand.
"I'll be OK. You will be too."
Natasha stared at the tiny glowing bird in her hands with numb shock, blatant, undeniable proof that something existed in the world that she could not understand or perform. But also, hopefully something good.
The Patronus was made to banish despair and fear. Providing a layer of calm and emotional resilience that I had found was helpful for grounding people in shock back to reality.
And it was a tiny owl. It was cute. And gave me an additional idea.
I ran out into the open, staggering as the ground lurched.
Tony is attempting to jump start the failed engine while Fury is directing the carrier to move over the ocean and decrease altitude.
A machine of this size was a technological marvel, but it was not meant for swift maneuverability, that much was apparent.
OK, how stupid is my idea?
Very.
Would we have the energy to pull it off?
As this world has enough of a belief base revolving around the source materials, projected energy costs would leave us at about 30% of our maximum capacity.
I'll take it.
Thor was trying to choke Hulk into submission with Mjolnir's help. His eyes widened upon seeing me.
"Fae, get into hiding!"
"Sorry, can't hear you over our friendly fire berserker!"
I sang, spinning my pen into my hand and starting to write, orange runes flying from the tip as I guided them into my desired shape and form.
Hulk got stronger the angrier he was. So undercutting the anger, at least temporarily, would bring down his strength to something manageable. And he needed wings that could carry him safely to the ground. I knew Hulk would protect Bruce and he wouldn't detransform until Bruce was somewhere he could survive being.
Now is a bad time to wonder, but what the actual hell are Bruce's pants are made of?
Tri-weave PG-13 Plot.
The Patronus Charm was made of happiness and hope and encouraged calm. It couldn't carry anything except messages normally. But I was a Rune Mage, and the spell was there for me to use and adapt to my needs.
Need it to be enough.
By crossing the Patronus with my Peter Pan based Flight Spell, where a happy thought was literally enough to make me and others fly, I hoped to create something that could carry Hulk down to the surface without him struggling against it too much.
After some hurried spellcrafting, I had what I needed. I stabbed my pen in the air, holding the completed spell in place, hovering around me in a loosely woven spiral of amber light.
"Hulk!" I called, but he couldn't hear me over his own bellows as he tried to fling Thor off his back. So I tried another route. "Thor, get clear!"
Thor knew one thing when it came to wizards. When they said to get out of the way, you got out of the way as fast as you could. So he released his choke hold and quickly put space between himself and the green giant.
"Hulk, look at me! I'm right here!"
His head whipped around again and when he saw me he paused.
"I've got a way to get Bruce out of here, Hulk. But you can't fight it. Otherwise you'll fall. I don't want you to get hurt. So please let me get you to the ground safely. Will you do that?"
He gave a coarse grunt.
"Show."
With his assent, I whipped my pen through the runes around me and they flared into brighter light.
This owl was the size of a jet plane, the amber of my spell outlined it and highlighted it and I quickly poured all the hope, happiness and resilient delight that this story had brought me. The laughter. The tears. The grief and fury. The awe-inspiring sensation of multiple, wonderful stories aligning into the same epic tapestry of color. And that made the owl fill in with white until it was ready behind me standing taller even than Hulk himself.
"It will take you down to the ground." I told Hulk. "And it'll be a good landing. You'll both be alright."
Hulk seemed fascinated by what he saw. I didn't doubt this memory was one that Bruce would be baffled by for years to come. But some of the rage left his shoulders. And he gave a more positive sounding grunt.
So I bade my spell do its job.
With a single flap of its wings, the chaos and nerves of the situation, of the shaky flying machine and the approaching ground, seemed to be put into better perspective. It hovered over Hulk, reaching down its talons to wrap securely around his arms and pick him up with startling ease. And then it was gone, diving into the clouds, and headed towards the ground.
Hulk has been averted.
This means I averted the funny scene where the pilot says 'Target Angry, Target Angry!', in increasingly panicked tones. But this is better I think.
I looked at the God of Thunder.
"Loki is going to be broken out shortly by the invaders."
"Right. We should go."
I yelped as he scooped me up with one arm and started to run. I wasn't going to deny, this was probably much faster than if I had just run beside him, but it was certainly a lot more bumpy.
"Hulk is no longer in the hanger."
"Where is he?"
Maria Hill looked up from the camera feed she had been watching.
"He's gone, sir. Faerun did something and literally flew him out the hanger entrance."
One of the screens flashed and showed a glimpse of a large white-gold feathered shape diving into the clouds, headed for land with a smaller green shape dangling beneath it. It was testament of Fury's ability to compartmentalize that he didn't gawk at the sight, and merely focused on the next immediate issue.
"Good. Now that's one less thing that could tear us out of the sky. What's the status of Engine 3?"
Thor flattened two agents in SHIELD gear that pointed guns at us with a toss of his hammer. And there was a terrifying, gut lurching moment as the Helicarrier began to tilt radically for a while as the second engine lost power before it leveled off with a groan.
"Tony and Steve got the first broken engine working again." I noted, shaking my head clear from where Thor's armor had rattled my noggin slightly as the hallway tilted.
"They are surprisingly capable for mortals." I pinched the crease of his elbow.
"You know better than to underestimate enemies, it's time to learn to not underestimate allies."
Thor kept up his advance towards the detention center where his brother had been held.
"If they are worthy allies remains to be seen."
"You're not your hammer. Don't be picky."
He barked out a laugh.
"Even on your realm, Mjolnir's story is known?"
"I am not a good gauge for that, I know way more than I should for my age and position."
"Comes with being a practitioner I think. Loki got caught more times than any of us sneaking into the old records of the days of Asgard's conquest and the records of the Vanir."
The casual, and rather enlightening talk had to cone to an end though as I sensed something tricky up ahead and hastily tapped Thor's shoulder.
"He's already out. And there is an illusion in place." Which meant whatever we were about to see was likely not the truth and Loki could in fact be anywhere. I could feel the false perception before like cobwebs on my skin. Thor set me down, starting to radiate energy that snapped and crackled and pushed back against the faint illusionary effect.
"Be careful and stay hidden. I will be back for you."
"I will try to be here."
I said truthfully. With Thor's firmly stated promise of protection, I felt far less urgency to get to the New York Sanctum, which I believed would be the closest at this point. But if anyone had an answer to my need for ethernano, I felt it would be the Ancient One. She had earned her name for a reason after all.
Thor went further in ahead while I bunkered down in the small side room. Hydra's schemes were thankfully on hold since they did not know where I currently was, and since they were more vested in the Helicarrier and the lion's share of their undercover operatives remaining active.
Loki is scanning the Astral Plane to find us.
And that was another reason I had made the provision that I had. I did not doubt that as soon as the room had been vacated, the scepter had been left unguarded as was their plan and it had been put back into Loki's hand.
Which meant his compulsion was refreshed and he had a perfect mind control tool in his grasp again.
I need an out. Someplace where he can't necessarily follow me.
Loki was not one of the people who could fly under his own power. And, per Morgana, we were close enough to land and New York that we could feasible fall/glide to somewhere safe. Better yet-
The small owl Patronus I had sent with Natasha zipped to me, speaking in her voice.
"This is Agent Romanoff. I copy."
I smiled, satisfied. The Patronus had stayed with her until she got her mojo back and headed into combat to snap Clint out of his mind control.
"Good, but before you just dissipate, I need another job done." I cupped the owl in both hands, reaching for the petty, satisfied memory of an event that hadn't yet transpired.
"I have been falling...for thirty minutes!"
The owls feathers gleamed a brilliant white with the amusing memory and it ruffled them, as if it had just woken up from a nap and was ready to fly.
"This is a very important message. And you know who it is for."
I whispered my words to the owl and sent it on its way. It simply phased through the wall and I made to follow Thor into the chamber where the Hulk Box had been built.
Phil Coulson has been stabbed.
Oh Stardust!
I moved on instinct, seeing Morgana pull up a timer indicating how much longer Coulson had to live without some sort of intervention. I raced through the door and found the man, the Destroyer gun propped across his lap, glowing red hot from its last fired shot.
How did I forget this!? I was literally thinking about it earlier!
Morgana pulsed to throw off any lingering illusions as I hurriedly knelt by his side, touching his shoulder to get an idea of his injuries. I didn't see Loki right this second so I had time. Maybe. Hopefully.
"Ferula."
His own clothes shifted into a tight binding over the injury, the weave of his clothes bunching into a thick padding that was firmly secured around his body. He was left in a white button up as his suit jacket became his life line. Coulson groaned in pain as the pressure on his injuries increased suddenly. Morgana's timer gained another 23 minutes before he lost too much blood to survive the injury. He was deep in shock, and he shouldn't really be moved but Loki wasn't here.
Yes he is.
Frik.
I had gotten tunnel vision and not thought that Loki would still be in the room. With his capacity to teleport short distances, I was sure he would have met up with his forces to go welcome in the invasion. But now, he was struggling to his feet with his unruffled, green and gold appearance decorated by a large scorch mark to his chest.
"You again."
The part of him that was Loki tried to stand and pretend he hadn't gotten sucker punched by a mortal reimagining of Asgardian technology.
"You know, I fight with my brothers but I draw the line at death via terminal velocity."
"Adopted." I grinned at the accidental parallel of Thor facing Loki's homicidal streak in the two days he had been on Earth.
"So are mine. You know you talk about each other the exact same way."
He didn't like that. He was suddenly back in my space and the scepter tip was aiming for my center mass-
No!
Morgana and I flared our magic in unison to stop the blade in time to let me skip away. He felt the resistance and didn't immediately pursue me.
If Loki got a Charm Spell on me now, everything was hosed. Kaput. It wasn't he who was guiding the scepter, it was Thanos. Thanos would know everything that Loki learned thanks to the hold the Mind Stone had over the Asgardian prince's mind. And the things that I knew, without exaggeration, could be used to bring the universe to its knees. The location of every Infinity Stone. The people who would be the best defense against his plans, their weaknesses, Thanos's own vulnerability. The fact that Gamora who knew exactly where the last unaccounted for Infinity Stone was and was guarding that information with her life in betrayal of her father's ideals.
Even one minute of being possessed by the Mind Stone and Thanos would know absolutely everything he needed to turn countless planets into slag, pull all the strings. Achieve his goal and not leave anyone behind to try and reverse the damage. The worst case scenario for a What If.
And that was leaving out the chilling question.
What if he included Earthland in his war?
I absolutely, 100% could not afford to be touched by the Mind Stone while Thanos's touch remained present on it.
As long as Loki is talking, he thinks he is in control. So we'll keep playing high stakes tag as long as we can. Is Coulson ok?
Ferula is stopping his bleeding, and encouraging his stabilization. He is still conscious.
And Morgana also subtly pointed out Coulson was using his comm to signal for help. Subtly. He couldn't give details on the situation, but he could convey an urgent distress signal.
"You are impudent for a mortal."
"I strive to dazzle with my brilliance, but I accept baffling with bullshit in a pinch."
Move.
Loki was stalking me, planning his every move and putting it firmly into Morgana's view. We were playing chess with our positioning. He went at me again, scepter extended. I dodged towards the edge of the open gap, the wind whistling past the opening below me as I made a daring leap across a portion of it I was confident no human could have made. My foot caught a small ledge and I regained footing on the far side. He was moving further away from Coulson, but was between him and I now. But he seemed to be ignoring him for now.
This is an uncomfortable stalemate.
Coulson pressed out another SOS with his comm in one hand, lying as still as he could.
"Besides, you're considered the God of mischief in this world, aren't you? Isn't impudence a perk in your estimate or did you lose all your sense of fun when you picked up that fancy pimp stick?"
Keep him distracted. The irreverent, flippant speech would have aggravated Thanos, but was likely entertaining to Loki. Like watching an ant try to lift something too big for it to handle.
Morgana was following his next plan to try and tag me, this one involved teleportation and was a long con. He intended to herd me onto the walkway that Thor had raced over to enter the cage and take away my maneuverability. I was trying to get him to move before he could cut off my retreat, but he wasn't rising to the bait. So I would take a leaf from Coulson's playbook and poke at the same thing that he had used to get one over on him.
"You're never going to win like this, you realize that."
He sneered, but the vulnerability was too tender for him to just ignore the comment.
"You all are quite certain of this when I hold all the cards. All those capable of stopping me are scattered, those who remain are less than nothing." Three other Loki's appeared, circling me and trying to cut off my retreat. We had made our way around the entire room in this game of cats and mouse. I had dodged through two of his illusions attempts to hers me into reach. Even when he glitches his real form to make it seem like a trick, he couldn't get it past me.
He is begrudgingly impressed.
Now is not the time to be happy about that.
"That's not the kind of story that this is."
Another few tense minutes. I had to bounce off a wall and narrowly avoided slash to my leg from the scepter that would have rendered me lame until I got medical attention. But now I was in a unique and not so good position.
Literally the only way out is the walkway. Any other way and I get mind controlled.
Yes.
Dammit.
He made another lunge and I dodged again. Time to prepare my ace in the hole: my wings. Once I had fallen far enough to leave the Helicarrier airspace and not get swept by the wind up against its bulk. I couldn't save myself if I was unconscious..
"Life is no story, you foolish child. It is chaos, and cruelty. There is no reasoning or wishing a happy ending into being."
Wow, melodramatic much? I corrected him, knowing this was the last bit I had to stall him with.
"No life is exactly that. A collection of stories, intersecting at points with all other lives around us. And we hold the reins on our own lives. Or we are supposed to. You aren't holding yours right now."
I was trapped now, and he knew it. My mental eye only remained fixed on the real Loki, but I was trying to subtly gaslight him into thinking my dodging him before had been a matter of luck rather than skill. Even a moment's doubt would be enough.
The illusion on the far left wavered. A feint to try and lure me into range of his scepter. It looked like a reasonable gap, but I knew better. Morgana affirmed my judgment that that was a trap. We would have to take the nuclear option.
"What you are going through right now, is pitiable. But I will never allow it to happen to myself."
Fury was coming into the room with his piece drawn, trained on Loki, but the illusions were throwing him off.
"You say that as if you have a choice, whelp."
I bared my teeth in a savage smile.
"There is always a choice. The people you claim to have beaten just now? They will choose to get up to try again. Every time. Without fail. That is who they are. That is who Loki Odinson wants to be. You cannot break them."
I paused on the very farthest lip of the walkway. I saw his expression, the real Loki's, not the illusion, shift as he realized my position. And my intent.
"I am Loki of Asgard! None dare challenge my right to rule this world."
He was stalling now, inching forward. I grinned. I met his eyes imagining I was staring through Loki, through the Mind Stone, through all of space...and to Thanos.
"Liar liar pants on fire. You are using him. You are not him."
And because the origin of the words had not been Loki, the turn of phrase did exactly what it said on the label. Loki's trousers burst into flame. And he jumped in alarm, taking his eyes off of me for a split second.
"You do not get to steal my choice."
I would rather die for real than let you get even a glimpse at what I have in my head.
Then I threw myself out of the Helicarrier.