The bridge of the carrier glowed in dark reds and blues as hundreds of work stations hummed with activity. Shield agents walked the aisles and worked through the pre-flight checks as Maria Hill, the second command of Fury's operation, dictated the procedures as they were needed.
Me and Tony had been left inside a laboratory as Captain America, Steve Rogers, and Black Widow spoke with Fury. The both of us were left here in order to set up the tools that Mr. Playboy had requested last night. So here we are, unpacking several cases worth of exotic sensor equipment, computers and sensitive manipulation devices.
"Elsa, I need you to go grab-" His voice was cut off as Fury's interjected, his silky smooth tone carrying through the room with confidence. "I, need you both to suit up. We just found Loki..." I looked over at Fury from the lab tables, the window behind me shining light onto the master spy.
"Do we get to meet with Steve and Black Widow first, or...?" He shook his head as Banner walked in behind him, his gait taking him towards the same table that I was unpacking a quantum scanner upon.
"No. Meet Cap top-side when you're both suited." The ebony man stalked away with a casualness that belied his usual level of paranoia, most likely a cover for his actual anxious state. Having the Tesseract stolen from out under him must have made him agitated.
"Give me a minute Elsa, I'll meet you there... Oh, your Banner! I love your theories on Gamma Radiation interactions with human biology. And the way you turn into a large, green, rage monster." Groaning at the man's ADHD brain I simply stepped out of the room and started walking through the same hallways that I had been guided through.
The downloaded information had finally finished processing inside my subconscious a minute or so ago, the new data percolating my understanding of existence. This new state of knowledge was instantly used by me to increase the speed in which I was copying down the structure of the carrier. To compare it to something more mundane, my speed at copying the atomic lattice that made everything inside the ship work had gone from pre-jet planes and wooden aircraft to a freshly made F-16 fighter jet. I had already measured the bridge, the rotors, the hundreds of rooms... The only thing I was struggling with was the energy source, which was in a constant state of fusion. Either they had perfected fusion generators or they had used the Tesseract to start the process and contain it. Both outcomes mattered little in the end anyway since I could just copy the chamber and the generator itself, using Naquadah or some other material in the stead of the Tesseract.
Agents and technical staff shuffled past and around me as the entire carrier was buzzing with newly drafted orders. Like an anthill that had been kicked the halls were filled with 'workers' whilst security personnel 'army ants' watched them all and followed the lone corridors down. Shield, even in the comics, had been eerily efficient when it counted and that was obvious here as they slotted into the orders seamlessly.
My thoughts were broken as I stepped out into a hanger bay. Several aircraft were splayed out along the steel flooring, engineers and maintenance crews picking away at some of them. Sparks glowed from welding gear as an entire weapons-system was being replaced and repaired. My boots thudded coldly against the flooring as I approached the Quin-Jet in the middle of the bay, Steve standing next to it as Natasha Romanov; Black Widow, spoke to him.
Steve was dressed in a garishly American combat suit that hugged his figure and puffed out in key areas, some form of ablative plating or bulletproof padding added below the surface. A vibrant white star splayed out from the centre of his 'uniform' and broke into hundreds of red and blue lines that wove in-between his musculature and ended on another star upon his back. Natasha in comparison was running fairly standard Shield equipment, her skin-tight suit accentuating the entirety of her figure whilst also providing coverage to every single aspect of her body. It was no doubt bulletproof, stab-proof and tear-proof.
"Ah, Drecarios, it's good to finally meet you." Cap held his hand out to me in greeting, his pearly whites shining a little as he graced my presence with a small smile. I took his hand and shook it strongly, smiling in equal measure to the first Super-Hero.
"Pleasure's all mine cap. I heard that Loki was found." Natasha stepped forwards now, her crimson hair shifting delicately over her right cheek before it was blown away by an exhale.
"Yep, we're heading to Stuttgart Germany. He's attending a fancy gala of some kind." I frowned.
"What does he want there?" I had to play the part of the ignorant 'hero' again.
"Our analysts believe that it could be a play for a rare metal that is currently being stored in the same city and is owned by the organiser of the gala." I knew what he wanted it for and needed it for but I couldn't interrupt this moment, it was too integral for the future of several Heroes and also needed to found the Avengers officially.
"Excellent, let's go stop him then." Both of them turned to look at me, their expression slightly confused.
"What about Stark?" Cap asked with curiosity lining his voice.
I smirked in response. "He can catch up... You know, flying suit and all." He chuckled as Natasha shrugged and boarded, both of us following behind her as the maintenance staff all rushed out.
"You may want to sit down boys." Natasha strutted up to the pilot chair with a sway on her hips, both me and Steve watching her as she she began flicking buttons and placing the headset on her head. Both of us turned to look at one another, Steve's face blushing like a tomato whilst I simply shot him a crooked grin and spun around.
"How long is it going to take firecracker?" I witnessed a small upturn of her lips when I sat down, her response equally as teasing.
"Hmm, half an hour at most." Her smirk turned into a chuckle as I rolled my eyes. Cap, in the meanwhile, had sat opposite me and was frowning in mild confusion. He was such an innocent soul that he could barely tell when people were secretly flirting or teasing one another. The man was too pure for this world!
"Guess I can go that long without action." I grinned as the engines of the Quin-Jet fired up.
~~~
Stuttgart Germany, Outside the Gala- 30 minutes later
"I SAID... KNEEL...!!!" Loki stood before a large crowd of human, his golden armour and helm shining brilliantly as spotlights and gentle street light framed him.
Around the large gathering of now kneeling humans, several illusionary copies of himself stood imperialistic above them. Craziness sparked in his eyes as he surveyed his serfs, his newly subjugated peons, those that would worship him as their god. His spin tingled and a twitch in the back of his skull twisted his mind for a moment, his vision clouding for but a millisecond before his senses were once more absconded with.
"Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation..." His words whispered on the wind and caressed every human present as he strut forwards, his gait calm and dripping with superiority. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity." His tongue softly wet his lips as he watched a black woman cower to his side, a white man cover his children and shiver at his mere presence, an old woman quiver in fear for her family... It was all so, intoxicating? He wasn't entirely certain. "You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."
He came to a stop in the middle of the crowd as an old German man slowly, achingly, stood in defiance of his orders. The god stared the mortal down, matching gaze for gaze, as the old man straightened his posture and spoke up in defiance.
"Not to men like you." Mortal those words may be, simple they may have been, but they held all the spite of experience and mortal stubbornness.
The god's words were just as stubborn if layered with indignance. "There are no men like me." Those words felt foreign upon his lips, foul inside his mouth and revolting to his soul... Wait, are those his words? The question hung inside his mind before thought was dominated and taken over.
"There are always men, like you..." The would-be-king's mouth hitched upwards in disdain before he spoke aloud, confidently, maniacally.
"Look to your elder, people," He lowered his staff as blue power coiled around the blade, "Let him be an example." A pulsing surge of sound billowed into the surroundings as hundreds of people scrambled to get away from the blast, failing pitifully as they were herded into a tight cluster.
The energy coagulated at the tip before exploding forth in the shape of a blade. Like a knife's blade the gathered energy sliced through the air, oxygen molecules burning as plasma passed it. The old man's eyes widened as he faced down death itself, the promise of no tomorrows, the end to all life, his life...
*BRAAANNGGGG*
A metallic gonging resounded and reverberated around the square as the symbol of America, the symbol of freedom stood from his defensive crouch. The energy had smacked into the shield and been absorbed, deflected, made redundant, or all of the above.
"You know, the last time I visited Germany, there was a man saying the same thing." Captain America stood opposite the golden god, his righteous blue eyes staring down the tyrant. "We didn't really see eye to eye either."
Loki snarled in mild frustration before his eyes narrowed onto the sparkling figure that the pathetic masses held on a pedestal. "The Soldier..." It sounded as if he were about to spit with how he grumbled the words out.
"It's over Loki, this is the end." The God scoffed.
"No, this is only the beginning!" His staff lit up once more, a blast of energy surging towards Cap as he prepared his shield.
As the blast struck the crowd fled for their lives, children and elderly being carried or pushed out of the way as everyone made a dash for safety. Police sirens cried out in the distance, their croon slowly getting closer to the battlefield.
Both men parried, blocked and struck with immense experience. Rogers ducked under a stab and jabbed up under the defences of the god, his fist connecting with Loki's ribs. A gasp of pain shot through Loki but was silenced as the god kneed Cap in the face, his recovery being a backflip before another blast of energy was fired off at oncoming police cars. Two cars flipped end over end and impaled themselves upon cement car-blocks, the sirens' call muted as if they were but errant bits of rubble and not symbols of order.
"You have no hope of winning, soldier." Cap scrunched his nose before running towards the god, his sprint interspersed with weaving dodges and rolls as Loki peppered the area before him with sceptre blasts.
"No, you have no hope of winning, Loki." The Quin-Jet roared overhead, the mini-gun on the nose spinning and whirring as it prepared to fire thousands of bullets per second. "Loki! Stand down! You are outnumbered and surrounded!" Natasha's voice echoed electronically over the area, the speaker inside the ship vibrating amidst the roar of the engines.
"I have not lost!" He swung his sceptre into Cap sending him flying into one of the nearby flipped cars, a loud clang following a man-shaped imprint in the side of the police car.
Loki turned to address the aircraft with his sceptre but flinched when loud raucous music surged through the speakers.
(Author's Note: Cue Epic ACDC music, Back in Black)
"That's enough of that." Energy pierced the air and lanced towards Loki, striking him in the middle of his breastplate before lifting him off the ground and lifting him to the nearby steps where he landed roughly, his breath shooting out of him in a large gasp; not that it could be heard beneath the layers of ACDC.
Tony, or rather, Iron Man landed in front of the god and prepared every weapon system in his arsenal, his hot-rod-red and gold paint scheme only slightly altered by the matte black of the metal he had made this new suit with. "Stay down, or I put you down." The tone was cold and deadly, his suit's vocal projector making it sound slightly robotic and filtered.
Clarity struck Loki for a few seconds and he raised his arms and lowered his conjured armour. He had no idea why he was fighting these mortals or why he was on Midgard of all places... Last he knew he was being flung down into the void below the rainbow bridge... Then in an instant his mind was subverted once more, his senses controlled and the fugue state returned. A wicked grin stretched across the god's face once more before settling into a defeated look of remorse.
"Elsa didn't even get to play, how unfortunate for him... Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." Cap scoffed and shook his head before walking forwards and grasping Loki by the wrists.
"Come on 'King'." Loki grunted and maintained his defeated expression.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a Patreon where you can get exclusive Discord roles, vote on Fan fiction decisions, and even suggest Extra Chapters for me to write. Join here: patreon.com/user?u=111976696.
If you'd like to further support my work, here's my PayPal: paypal.me/RBSMFF.
Feel free to join my Discord community here: https://discord.gg/wVZXpPpUQn.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------