Guardians of Olympus

Interrogation

When Natasha spoke there was silence for a grand total of half a minute before a whole babble of voices cascaded over each other.

" Quiet!" Piper barked loudly.

All talking ceased immediately and she let out a sigh of relief.

" Well, who's going to interrogate our friends over there?" Piper inquired diplomatically.

" I reckon Tasha should do it, she's scary enough to get answers out of anyone," Clint sniggered.

Natasha sent him a frosty glare as he high-fived a laughing Tony, a glare that made them instantly stop their playing around.

" Your suggestion may have merit Clint, though your reasoning could be better. However, I think Natasha and Piper should both go, since Piper has the ability to charmspeak them," Steve reasoned.

With nods from all through the room, Natasha and Piper set off to the cell block while Leo and Tony pulled the video feed up on screen for them to watch. They saw the prisoners were currently bantering away with each other until Natasha and Piper entered, and they all glared at the new arrivals.

Now they could name the prisoners they saw that the leader, Starlord, looked prepared for a verbal fight.

" We want answers," Natasha stated simply, fixing a glare at Starlord.

" And what makes you think we'll give them to you?" Asked Gamora in a snarky, sarcastic tone.

Natasha's eye twitched in annoyance at the woman's tone and she grimaced in her annoyance.

" Because your little friend Nebula is here in this city, and I know you'd rather have us interrogate you than her," Natasha growled back.

She'd struck a nerve there, as Gamora visibly stiffened and her eyes widened slightly before she let out a string of unladylike curses. Starlord smirked at her before taking up the answering.

" What do you intend to find out from us? We just came to get our orb back and leave," he reasoned calmly.

That sparked Natasha' interest.

" Well you could start by telling us what the heck that orb even is," Natasha murmured, an eyebrow raised.

Starlord and Drax shared a quick glance before Starlord decided clearly on something.

" Fine. You're bound to find out soon anyway if Thanos gets his way. The orb is a nickname for the power stone, and it has incredible powers an infinity stone, capable of tearing whole galaxies apart if in the wrong hands. We've tangled with it before, hence why we are in charge of returning it to its vault on the planet Xandar," Starlord explained calmly.

Natasha and the avengers stiffened at the mention of an infinity stone, of course, they'd dealt withe Teseract and later found out what it was through Thor talking to Odin about it. He'd also said someone about an Aether.

Piper took the chance while their were feeling talkative to use her charmspeak.

" How did it disappear from Xandar and get to Hope?" Piper asked, lacing her words with charmspeak.

All of the guardians of the galaxy, minus Groot, answered at the same time in response to her charmspeak, blank expressions on their faces.

" No one knows, it simply disappeared from the vault three months ago. We do not know how it got to Hope," the all answered before blinking and looking at her strangely.

" Thank you," Natasha growled before the two girls exited the room.

In the conference room everyone was looking expectantly at Hope who seemed to shrink under their gazes, eyes wide with fear.

" Why is it on me? It doesn't come off!" Hope asked shakily.

The whole conversations he'd been trying to take it off, but it wouldn't come off. Just out of Pandora's box and finally awake she hadn't expected a crisis to affect her straight after coming out of one. In all her immortal, endless years she hadn't expected to be bound to this stupid stone. Oh yes, bound. Under the necklace where the stone hung, tendrils of purple were spreading under her skin like veins. Her eyes flashed yellow just thinking about that stupid stone.

Nico, sensing her fear and seeing the spark of yellow in her eyes put and arm round her shoulders and drew her closer to him, knowing that she liked physical contact when upset.

" We don't know, Hope, but we'll figure it out together," Nico murmured to her gently as Natasha and Piper returned.