Universal Headaches

Chapter 19

There was a commotion coming from right outside the lab. Heavy footsteps grew louder as they came down the hallway and Sutton could suddenly feel the tension fill the room like static.

"Try to barricade the doors," ordered Steve jumping into his role as leader. "It won't keep them out for long, but at least it can buy us a little more time. We'll set up a perimeter around Tony and Bruce and hold them off until the portal is ready to go."

Sutton tried to help. She gripped one end of a long working table and worked with Clint to shove it in front of the double doors that Loki had barged through. The same Loki who had just escaped federal custody, blinded security cameras to their presence, and rendered an entire shift of night guards unconscious. The same Loki who was now making zero effort to lift a finger and help. With the table in place, they scrambled to find more items of significant weight to place in front of the entryways. Sutton found a large metal drum that she attempted to scoot or roll in place, but it was too much for her to budge. She looked around trying to find someone with bulk, finally was able to make eye-contact with Steve, and waved him over.

"Hey! Can you move this? It's really heavy."

Steve was able to heft it up off the floor and carry it over to its destination with only marginally more effort than it took him to lift a punching bag. Sutton could tell because his harms didn't even quiver and the muscles in his back that were pushing through the fabric of his t-shirt shifted easily. Sutton shot the drum an unimpressed look.

"Nows not exactly the best time for showing off your muscles, Steve," she said. He was quick to reply with a grin despite them being in a hurry.

"Nows not the best time for you to be noticing them."

The rapidity in which Sutton's face went red was just a notch below the speed of light.

"Sometimes I forget that you can be snarky too," she complained. Her attention was suddenly diverted by an unguarded doorway. "Oh snap, that door says 'push' on our side. We're going to have to wedge it closed or something."

The far set of double doors suddenly rattled violently and there was a warning shouted through the wall. Sutton blanched. Steve brought her attention back to himself and away from the doors.

"Hey, there should be some scrap metal leftover from Bruce and Tony that's long enough to reach across the doorway. Find one and put it through the door handle, ok?"

Sutton nodded and scrambled off to find a pole long enough. After several minutes of frantic searching she finally found a piece that would be adequate for the job, and hurried to shove it through the handle until it stretched across the threshold. The door shook the second she was finished and Sutton jumped back with a shriek.

"We're surrounded! It's official!"

The team had gathered back around the portal as a last line of defense. They didn't have much else going for them. Loki, the tyrant, was lounging on his back on a cleared table top and casually tossing a wrench in the air and catching it repeatedly. Sutton wished he'd drop it just once.

No that wasn't nice.

But it would be pretty funny.

He could probably do something about this; a force field of magic, maybe, or a sleep spell, or something. But by now she'd finally figured out that it would do no good to ask, plead, or badger him about it. It would only serve to amuse him. Besides, knowing now that he had been working this whole time to ensure she had no realistic hope of happily staying here, there was no way anyone was going to convince him to assist in their dilemma. Sutton ran back to the safety of the group and huddled down behind Clint and Natasha.