ROARA
"This. Is. Useless." I said, my cheek pressed against the table.
I could hear the smirk in his voice. "I did try to tell you."
"It wasn't me who needed persuading." I leant back and rolled my head around, stretching my neck.
"Nothing in these folders will help. The Ascendency has been off the radar for years." He propped his legs up on the table. "But we could-"
"No." I said, looking through some more papers.
"Have some-"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence."
"Fun?"
I stood up from the table, my knife in my hand, the blade pointed at his face. Since my powers were weaker now I'd taken to carrying my knives with me everywhere, somehow they made me feel safer. Loki looked down the blade and smiled.
In a low voice he said, "They told me you used knives now, not how good you looked wielding them."
I leant across the table, my body over his outstretched legs, the blade point inches from his nose. "Flirt with me again and I will stab you."
"Oh," He said, crossing his arms, "I'll look forward to it."
I grunted and sat back down, going back over the pages I'd already read a hundred times. "I don't have time for your games. We don't have time. We have to actually get some names here."
"Look I don't want to be a bother-" Loki began.
"You're already a bother, but please, continue."
He grimaced, "But I may have been holding back some information that would be of use."
I glanced up at him. "Okay... and what is it?"
"A lot of the scientists used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. I could only tell you because I know you have no affiliation to that organisation." I looked down at the papers of possible suspects. Not one of them had been from S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course they wouldn't be, S.H.I.E.L.D wasn't one that liked to suspect its own. "They grew jealous of the avengers. Would always talk about them."
I frowned, searching through the piles. "Now I'm no Stark," I said, "But I think we need to access the S.H.I.E.L.D ex-employee database. We also need to know who wanted to be an avenger, who aspired to be one of them." I stood up from the table. "Come on dipshit, we're off to dig some holes."
"Dig some holes?" He asked, confused.
"How else do you find a mole?"
"You can't really hack it can you?" He asked, as I reached an office. Alina had pointed it out to me when we were walking one day.
"No." I said grimly. "But I know someone who can."
I dialed the phone number and press call. "Hey Alina?"
"A day and you already miss me that much huh?" Came the reply.
"You know it. Listen I need your help with something."
A pause. "What's up? You haven't killed Loki already have you?" From beside me Loki rolled his eyes.
"No, I need you to guide me through hacking into a high level S.H.I.E.L.D operative's computer. I need to access ex-employee's files from about five to ten years ago. Oh and first I need to get into her office." I said, looking down at the keypad.
"Her office? High ranking operative I thought you were going to say Fury." She replied.
"Maria Hill's. Where are you anyway?"
"Sydney." She replied. "We've been staking out some areas, talking to a few people."
"Lovely. Look out for the spiders. Now I need you to explain to me how to get in. We won't have much time."
"Right. So this is what you have to do."
It didn't take long before we were inside. Thank God for Ali's brains. I put her on speakerphone and the phone on the table as I went over to the computer.
"Is Loki there?" Came the tinny voice.
"I am." Loki replied.
"Oh hey asshole."
"Why does everyone call me names?" He tutted.
"Because," I typed in what Alina told me, "until you stop being a piece of shit, that's what we'll call you."
"Yeah, it was like only two years ago that you tried to take over the world, or have you forgotten?" Ali added.
"That was two years ago." He lifted his arms in a half shrug, "things change."
"You don't." I replied, furiously typing. "I'm in."
"Okay, it'll be massively encrypted. This is high level stuff we're dealing with here. You need to be careful."
"I'm always careful." I winked at the phone, even though I knew Alina couldn't see me.
"Ooh, will you look at that. Flirting with a phone but not me?"
"Shut up Loki." Alina and I said together.
"You'll need to get inside the software and disable the encryption from the inside." A noise outside made me and Loki stop still. "Are you two still there? Hello?"
"Alina, I'm gonna have to mute you." I whispered.
"But you're not very good at ha-" I muted the phone. People were talking outside.
Loki put a finger to his lips and walked to the door.
Muffled through the door, but still audible, Loki and I heard a voice. "As long as the other Avengers don't know about her, she's more vulnerable." I looked at Loki, who nodded at the phone. I ended the call and switched it to silent.
"But if she goes missing now, they won't suspect each other."
"When do you propose we make our move then?"
"We'll have to lie low. We can't mess this up. She's the key to our entire mission. We get Woodson and we won't need any more test subjects. Thank god our man on the ground did what was needed and shot her to see how fast she heals." Loki and I looked at each other, our faces paling.
"He made the ultimate sacrifice."
"And it was a necessary one. We need her. The longer she is with the Avengers, the more information we'll be able to get out of her once we have her. Two birds with one stone."
"What about the escapee?"
"232? She won't be a problem. Before long she'll be under our control too."
"Come on, we need to check that computer. We can't have them finding out who our agents are." I looked up at Loki, my eyes wide. I typed faster, moving through the software at a rate I didn't know I had a capacity to.
Loki motioned a hand under his neck. I knew what he was saying. Shut it down. We have to leave. I gave him a determined look. He let out a low groan and moved a hand swiftly through the air. I'd only seen him do this a couple of times, but I knew he and I would be invisible to everyone but ourselves. It didn't last long, Loki and I both knew it. He nodded to me and mouthed 'get on with it'.
Footsteps came closer. My brow creased in concentration, my fingers flying across the keys, barely registering what I was doing. And I was in. Quickly I pulled up a list of ex-employees. The footsteps were coming closer. I whipped out a memory stick and started downloading the information. 23%. 38%. We heard a hand on the door. Without thinking my hand flew out, a vine wrapping itself around the handles. It would only buy us a little time. They were very feeble ropes.But
"It won't open." The first voice said.
"Well I unlocked it earlier."
"Are you sure?"
"Let me try."
64%. 79%. A rattle at the door. Loki gave me a look. Time was running out. 95%. The door began to open. Loki moved back behind the door and disappeared into the darkness. Typical to leave me out in the open. 100%. I pulled the the stick out and slid along the floor to behind the curtains, staying there in a crouching position.
Two sets of feet stepped into the room. My breathing was too fast, I needed to slow it down. Just then a pang of pain spread through my body. I dropped to my knees, holding in a yell of pain.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Must be nothing."
The footsteps drew closer to the computer. Unable to hold it in anymore I let out a whimper.
"Okay, you must have heard that."
"What was it?"
I felt a body appear behind me, a hand around my mouth. Without turning my head, I looked beside me. Loki had teleported to me, crouching directly behind me, his brow furrowed, giving me a complete death stare. The pain was unbearable. I could feel myself beginning to sweat. Loki was unable to teleport the both of us out, and without my powers at full capacity I couldn't borrow from him to teleport myself. We were stuck. And they had heard me.
"Check the room."
My vision began to get blurry. I gripped onto Loki's knees as I sank into him, wanting to scream. What was happening to my body? It felt like I was being shot all over again. I began to shake, and I felt Loki's other hand snake around my body to keep me still.
"Behind the door."
"Nothing."
"Have you tried the curtains?" A pair of footsteps came closer, the curtain began to move. My eyes widened to a size I didn't think was possible. I looked at Loki, who was gritting his teeth. I pulled his hands off me and stood up, facing the man. The other man had his back to me.
I held out both my hands, two fingers out on each and pulled together all my strength, every ounce I had. "Forget you heard anything or saw anything out of the ordinary." I commanded, speaking directly into their minds. "Leave this room now." It was a big persuasion for me to do in my state, let alone pushing onto two people at the same time.
Without saying a word, both men exited the room.
I turned around to see Loki's astonished expression.
"Well. That could have gone better." I said. Then I collapsed.
When I woke up I was lying on top of my covers on my bed. I had to stop blacking out and waking up here. I turned to see Loki at my desk, a computer in front of him. It seemed so strange to see him working with modern human technology, but nothing had been normal recently.
I sat up slowly, my head feeling like it was full of smoke. "It won't last long. They'll be back to delete the files later today." I groaned.
"It doesn't matter." Loki turned to me. "You got what we needed."
"No thanks to you." I muttered, getting off my bed.
"What happened back there? You nearly ruined everything!"
"I... I don't know." I sighed looking down at my hands. "It felt like I was being shot all over again. It took everything in me to use my powers."
"Right." He frowned. "How do you feel now."
"I... Apart from my head, I feel... More powerful?" I shook my head. It made no sense.
"I'm sorry Roara, that makes no sense." He stood up, and held my head, examining me, his eyes scanning across my face. "You collapsed and started convulsing."
"Convulsing?" I stood back from him.
He nodded grimly.
I shook my head. "What have you found?"
"Three names. All code names. Axel, Gunn, and Locke." He looked at me seriously.
I sat back on my bed. Loki joined me, sitting beside me. I turned to him. "As much as I dislike you-"
"You despise me."
"Maybe not quite that far. Strongly against? Anyway... we can't trust anyone in S.H.I.E.L.D, not even all of the Avengers. From what we heard I doubt they are working with the Ascendency, but we can't be sure. From this point on, until proved otherwise..." I sighed. "It's me and you Loki."
A smile crept onto his face. "Just like the old days."