AN: I'm aware of the lack of updating in this work and it saddens me to no end. My only defense is that life has been quite difficult these past months. However, I assure you: this story is still going! I have no plans to leave it so far!
Chapter 14
The following day brought more repetitions of the same failed experiment. They would have needed at least ten cores like the one Stark wore inside his chest, but they couldn't finish the first stage of the reaction without the metal exploding. It was Thor the one who asked Stark to stop: he had seen firsthand what had happened with an overheated core in a nuclear reactor and said he didn't want to crawl his way out of a crater which would take half the continent.
In the afternoon even Tony was pondering the odds of a silent infiltration inside the Joint Dark Energy Mission complex, when JARVIS warned about a surge of gamma radiation in the premises of that complex. The readings were almost residual, but Stark had ordered JARVIS to warn him about possible upcoming surges, no matter how small the quantity was.
"Now what?" said Thor.
"Now we wait," Stark answered. "I'm bad at that game too, big guy, but sometimes it pays to do it."
"You are not one to give that advice, sir," JARVIS retorted.
"Shut up, JARVIS, or I'll turn you into a talking bathroom scales," Tony said over his shoulder.
They agreed to wait, much to Thor's chagrin. Not that Loki was against it, but that behavior seemed odd for someone like Stark. He decided to remain behind when all his companions went either to bed or patrolling the premises, and he and Tony were the only ones sitting at the house's bar.
"This is not like you," Loki commented as he sat on a stool.
"What, you know me that well?" Stark chuckled as he eyed his collection of whisky bottles. "Do you have spies like Fury?"
"No. It's strange that a man who let me fly with an experimental suit so we could reach New Mexico, and seems to have something personal against Fury chooses to wait, of all things."
Tony was giving his back to Loki still browsing the bottles. He took one and weighted it on his hand, reading the label. Seemingly satisfied with his choice, he opened a cabinet and took two tumblers, without saying a single word the entire time.
He's stalling for time.
"What's your story with Fury?" Loki asked directly, taking a sip of whiskey.
The man didn't look at him directly, but the mere mention of the one-eyed spy made him scowl.
"I just want to prove a point," he said after a while.
"It being?"
"Why are you so curious?"
"Because it involves us. I don't like him either, but my reasons are evident. Yours, on the other hand, are not. Haven't I earned the right to know that much? After all, we are supposed to be partners in our business."
Stark looked him in the eye, probably assessing him. Then he smiled humorlessly.
"You know that kind of people who bear the end justifies the means as their personal motto?" he said. "That's Fury. I get that sometimes you have to get down to your enemies' level and kick them in the nuts, but this man takes it even further. I…" he paused, as if thinking what to say next. "I spent decades hating my father after he died, thinking that he despised me. I know, I know, childish!" he exclaimed, sweeping his hand over the counter in a dismissive gesture. "But it hurts to think that your own blood doesn't want you," he took a sip of whiskey and continued. "Thing is, that my father left a recording with the key to discover a new element, and the exact words that I had wanted to hear since I was a little kid. I know it was sincere because my father wasn't planning to die in that car accident. That one-eyed bastard kept it stored for nineteen years. Nineteen! I spent half my life in a downwards spiral of nihilistic partying because I always thought I was worth nothing," he tapped his glowing chest. "The element I was using before was slowly poisoning me and he suddenly appeared as a savior, offering me a cure! Bullshit! He did it because I was convenient to his plans. For all he cared I could have kept going down in a self-loathing train crash and he wouldn't care. Oh but the funny thing is that later he announces he's creating a group of protectors for Earth, of course, held on a tight leash by politicians."
"Then why helping him?"
"I'm not helping. I just want to prove a point," he paused for a moment. "Okay, I'm helping a bit, but not them. It's not for them. I just use my natural charm to avoid some disasters because some so-and-so general is too trigger-happy for anyone's well-being. I want to show them how idiotic they are acting and how poor their decision-making really is."
"And so you act as consultant."
"Yeah, he had the nerve to send an undercover agent to profile me."
"What's profiling?"
"Someone who knows about psychology talks to you and writes a report saying what kind of personality you have. He sent a cute redhead chick and invented a whole resume with her having being a model and knowing God knows how many languages."
"And you hired her."
"What was I supposed to do? She was brilliant!"
"Her being cute had nothing to do with it, of course."
Stark sighed and took out his phone. After browsing through some pictures he held the screen in front of Loki, who chocked on his drink.
As he coughed, he heard Tony chuckling.
"Told you so!" he said.
"I've seen that woman before," Loki rasped, feeling the whisky up his nose.
"What?"
When the cough finally subsided, Loki recounted his brief adventure when searching for a personal assistant. The employment agency sent him just one candidate: a redhead woman with an impressive resume and all the attitude of being the most efficient worker in her field.
"I sent her back," Loki said. "Had she worn a tshirt reading Honey Trap it wouldn't have been more evident. Then I called that agency and requested someone a tad less extraordinary."
"And you settled for…?"
"A middle-aged mother of three growing kids. Competent enough, hard-working and very much in love with her husband, who is a good man and very efficient at his own job. And no contact with SHIELD."
"You sent her back?" Tony asked in disbelief.
"I'm not here for that! Well, not just for that. My point is that I had more pressing matters than falling for the charms of someone who spelled trouble so manifestly."
Tony raised his eyebrows.
"All right, all right," Loki admitted. "I knew the trick because I've used it myself."
"You dressed as a woman?" Tony exclaimed. "With a wig and everything?"
"NO! I made myself look like one," and before Stark laughed harder, Loki made a gesture and transformed into Pepper Potts.
Tony's face froze.
"See?" Loki said with Potts' voice, amused at how the other man looked at him wide-eyed. "It's not that difficult."
He ended the spell at that moment, lest Stark might feel irate. But instead of that, the millionaire kept gazing at him, this time with a calculating look in his dark eyes.
"Say, ever pulled a heist? Nothing violent. Come in, come out and no one's the wiser until much later."
Loki smiled to himself, remembering how he acquired his wealth back in the Victorian times, and how he feigned solving some of the "cases", so that he could receive the rewards. A century later, he discovered with delight that said little stint as an investigator, and his friendship with a certain physician with an inclination for writing novels, would create the stories that were considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. And, as the 20th century advanced and humanity discovered other forms of entertainment, that character's fame kept growing until it was part of the collective imagination.
He hadn't been a strange to that phenomenon and, while he didn't have the time back in the day to read the stories of his doctor friend, in the past three months he had spent more than a rainy afternoon enjoying a cup of tea and reading about the adventures of that detective and his partner. 20th century media produced adaptations of those books which were sometimes a hit and miss, but he enjoyed the latest British Television adaptation and the added different twists, which were not bad for stories written by Midgardians.
It would be fair to say, that his appropriation of other people's belongings also inspired real life criminals and would-be, turn-of-the-century Robin Hoods, who would in turn stir other writers' imagination and create more fictional characters which would be also considered legends during the next century.
"I might have," he simply said. "Why the change of opinion?"
"Because one thing is storming a fortress, like your brother and his friends would want to do, and another thing is using subtlety. As a last resource, would you be in?"
"Yes."
Tony set his glass on the counter and clapped once, ordering JARVIS to project a small model of the Dark Energy complex in front of them. From there, and working with the guards' schedule, both men could trace the outline of a plan.
A tremor made them brace against the bar, as the whiskey rippled inside the glasses. Before it ended, JARVIS was issuing and alert about an explosion at the Joint Dark Energy Mission. The sound of hurried footsteps echoed along the hallways and Darcy and Jane raced inside the living room, still in their pajamas. Thor and his friends quickly entered the house, but they didn't have to ask what was happening, since there was a clear picture projected in the center of the room for everyone to see.
Jane and Darcy muffled a scream when the situation sank in.
"How many casualties?" Tony asked in an even voice, though his whole body had gone tense.
"No casualties so far, sir, as the facility seems to have been evacuated in time. Several life forms have fled the scene in two vehicles. A helicopter is pursuing them."
After a brief pause, JARVIS continued with his report.
"Sir. There is an important amount of gamma radiation seeping through the debris."
"Deploy my suit," Stark ordered, a slight tone of panic in his voice. "That's our cue!"
"We are going too!" the Warriors Three and Sif all said, wielding their weapons.
"No," Thor ordered. "You stay here and guard the house. We don't know if SHIELD will come for the girls."
"They have no reason to come after us," Jane protested.
"Yes, but we don't have enough room for everyone," Stark, who had already suited up, reasoned. "Besides, we don't know what might happen here or there."
"Lend me the spare suit," Loki said as he and Thor accompanied Stark outside the house.
"Sorry, but I sent it back home," Stark said. "Besides, you might go nuts again if you use your magic and I'm not in the mood to repair my armor a second time."
"I can carry you," Thor said before Loki could reply. "I forgot to tell you: I have been practicing my landing. I won't harm you this time."
Loki pursed his lips. As if the idea of clinging to Thor for dear life wasn't embarrassing enough, there was also the risk of falling face-first to the ground.
The very first time Thor discovered that Mjolnir allowed him to fly, he tried persuading Loki to accompany him. Of course, Loki had refused and, of course, Thor couldn't take a "no" as an answer, so the young warrior got a hold on his little brother's shoulders and launched Mjolnir. The next thing Loki remembered was lying on his bed, with his head bandaged, his nose broken and all his front teeth missing. It took a month and a half of healing stones, Frigga's magic, pureed meals and great amounts of patience and pain to fix the damage, time during which he confined himself to his room, refusing to see anyone who wasn't his mother.
His only consolation had been that Thor voluntarily changed his normal meals for the gruel Loki ate during his convalescence. It was no small sacrifice coming from a young man who loved eating as much as fighting, but Loki never allowed Thor to carry him ever again. If only he had kept Freyja's feather cape and said it got lost instead of returning it!
"Practicing?" he echoed.
"Aye, Sif helped me."
"You asked her to?" Loki didn't mask his horror at the thought of what would have happened to her.
"It wasn't necessary," Thor beamed. "She offered me her aid. You know how kind-hearted she is, but she's also a stern teacher. It has taken me whole years to perfection it, and even then I have to keep practicing from time to time with her. Only I had to tell her that you would never embrace me as tightly as she does."
"Or in any way!" Loki exclaimed, straightening his back with dignity. He didn't know whether to shudder at the image Thor's words conjured in his mind, or roll his eyes at his brother's obliviousness. But he didn't have the chance to do either, for Stark had already taken off and Thor didn't want to lose track of the "Metal Man", as he called the millionaire.
"Come on, brother! No time to waste!" said Thor as he grabbed Loki unceremoniously by his waist and launched Mjolnir.