ARVID
Now that we had a plan in place for getting the iridium, we just needed the materials to pull our plan off.
Loki assured Freyja and I that he could handle our disguises, assuming Freyja mastered shape shifting. The main issues would be the props to accompany the disguises.
"Why can't I come too?" Loki whined as Freyja forced him toward the door where Genesis awaited him. "I want to go buy things too!"
She scoffed. "How many reasons do you want? One, you have a target on your back the size of Alfheim. Two, you have humans to entertain. Three, if I don't get a break from you I'm going to end up drowning you in a bucket of dirty dish water."
"That seemed uncalled for." He scowled but waved his hand at her and I to transform our clothing back into Midgardian attire with a wave of green light. "But I suppose whatever you say goes, guardian. Be safe."
"We're not the ones that need to worry about safety." I gently tugged on Freyja's sleeve to tow her toward the door. "Don't set anything on fire."
A mischievous glint sparked in his green eyes. "I would never."
I towed Freyja down the hallway with a strange boiling sensation in my stomach. No matter how much he pretended to be on our side, a snake never forgets how to bite.
"Let's go over what we need again." I said as I released my grip on her arm. "We need walkie talkies..."
"Stupid name." She muttered.
"...Matches, dynamite..."
"More stupid names."
"...and two fake S.H.I.E.L.D badges." I concluded. "Which we will likely have to take from actual S.H.I.E.L.D agents."
"To get the agents, we may need to create a little... chaos." She flashed me a grin that simultaneously made my stomach flutter and my skin crawl. She had the same, partially deranged look in her eye that Loki did. It was unnerving, how similar they could be sometimes.
I elbowed her lightly. "I think Loki may be rubbing off on you."
"Stars above, I hope not." She scrunched up her nose and made a face. "I'd sooner let Calder rub off on me."
"That would be even worse!" I laughed. We walked down the winding hallways of the hotel until we eventually emerged onto the sidewalk where a chauffeur was waiting with a car.
He waved to us. "Miss Freyja and Mister Arvid?"
"That's us." Freyja confirmed.
With a distinct sense of pride he patted the gleaming hood of the car. "Your ride awaits you."
"You're supposed to ride that thing?" Freyja asked cautiously. "How? There's no saddle."
I smiled lightly and left her side. My hand curled around the door handle and I swung it open with a quick jerk. "Milady, your chariot awaits you."
"I am not going in there." She said flatly as she studied the starkly clean interior of the vehicle. "We can walk."
"Oh, don't be ridiculous." I offered her my hand. "It's perfectly safe."
She sighed but reluctantly took my hand and allowed me to help her into the car. The slight touch sent buzzing waves of electricity rushing up my arm. I forced my giddiness down and hopped into the car behind her.
"Where to?" The chauffeur asked as he twisted his neck around to look at Freyja and I.
She smiled at him in what I'm sure was an attempt to get him to lower his guard in case a fight came (best friend intuition). "Where can we buy dynamite?"
"I know a place. Although it may not be the kind a pretty lady like yourself would want to go." He turned around and missed the cold glare Freyja gave him.
I've known her a long time, and there isn't a thing in Valhalla she hates more than being called pretty. Granted, it did kind of sell her short. With her flawless face and intense eyes, she was drop-dead gorgeous. I suppose she just hated it when people pointed it out.
"I'm sure we can manage." I piped up as the car lurched into traffic. Freyja flinched at the sudden movement and clamped her hand down on the side of the door. "Relax. It takes some getting used to but contrary to outward appearance, we don't have too high of a risk of death."
"Too high of a risk?" She asked incredulously. "You mean there's a possibility?"
"It all depends on the driver." I explained even as my stomach did a back flip in sync with the cars turn.
The chauffeur let out a guffawing laugh. "Luckily for you, I'm the best in New York." He then proceeded to very nearly run headfirst into a heap of debris.
"I can't imagine what the other drivers are like, then." Freyja remarked, still bracing herself against the jerky movements.
It was a decent trip to get to the place to get dynamite. Maybe a half hour or so. But when we finally got there, we were well outside of Manhattan.
"Here you are." The chauffeur said with a crooked smile. "I'll be waiting here when you're ready to leave."
Before I knew it, Freyja and I were standing in the shadow of a particularly rickety looking building with a gaping hole ripped in the upper ten stories. The bottom floor had the windows boarded up and graffiti scrawled on the walls with a distinct odor I couldn't place permeating from it.
"Pleasant place." Freyja remarked. She marched forward with the same subtle confidence she always had and tore the door open. "After you."
"Uh, hello?" I called into the building as I hesitantly stepped inside. "Is anyone here?"
"You're awfully young to be in a place like this." A deep, gravelly voice rasped from the shadows. The smell of smoke hung in the air and the darkness was almost suffocating.
Freyja closed the door behind her with a humorless chuckle. "We're older than we look. Listen, we need dynamite."
"Well, we've got ourselves a spitfire, gentlemen." The man barked as two more men separated from the shadows. "I'll cut you a deal, sweetheart. I'll give you as much dynamite as you want for one small price..."
The two newcomers began to surround Freyja, who looked thoroughly bored.
I smiled at that quiet fury that always seemed to burn like a bonfire inside of her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you..."
They didn't heed my warning and one of them tried to grab Freyja. She sighed and reached back with one hand, clamping it down on his wrist and twisting.
He screamed and fell to the floor as she snapped the bone with a sickening crunch.
The other man was more hesitant to approach. Freyja smirked. "Come on, darling. What are you waiting on?"
"Uhh." The man hesitated only a moment before sprinting back to wherever he had come from.
"Now," Freyja returned her attention to the petrified dynamite salesman with a gorgeous smile spread across her face. "How about those explosives?"
It turns out he was quite cooperative after that. He didn't even charge us. "Well that was easy." Freyja said with a confident smile as we left, a bulging sack of dynamite in hand.
"It sure was." I replied with a grin. "Now we have two options: we either get the other supplies or the S.H.I.E.L.D badges next. Take your pick."
"I'll take my chances with the badges." She answered quickly. "Taking out a few unsuspecting mortals shouldn't be too difficult."
I nodded and opened the car door for her. "So do we pick pocket them and keep going or eliminate them first?"
"Pick pocket." She said gravely. "No use shedding more blood than necessary."
I gave her a sideways glance as she climbed into the car. "No offense but you don't exactly have a small kill count. What difference does it make?"
"I try to kill only those that need to die." I was caught off guard by the heat in her tone. "Do I get carried away sometimes? Yes. But if we can help it, we may as well let them go."
Her logic confused me greatly. I had known her for years and fought by her side more times than I could count. I had seen her kill without second thought. Her goal had always been to kill Odin, no matter the cost.
Or so I thought.
"Besides," She continued as the vehicle lurched into motion. "It will be easier to cover our tracks if we don't have to deal with two dead bodies on the news."
I nodded then leaned toward the driver. "Stark Tower, if you'd please."
"On it."
For a few minutes, we drove in silence. The only sound was the steady hum of the engine and the occasional blare of a horn from the cars around us.
But then I saw it.
It was like a massive, twisted spire jutting out from the city. It towered over its neighbors, but it also seemed to have extensive damage to its overall structure.
"That's Stark Tower?" Freyja asked, craning her neck for a better view.
I felt my throat tighten at the sight of its large, imposing figure. "Yes."
The chauffeur brought us closer and closer to the building until we were only about a block away.
"Leave us here." She instructed the driver. He obliged and pulled over so we could exit.
She gave him a smile then grabbed my arm and started dragging me down the street.
"I hope you have a plan." I whispered in her ear.
She smirked. "Arvid, you know me better than anyone." An excited shiver ran down my spine as she looped her arm through mine and pressed closer to me, trying to blend in but inadvertently getting me hopelessly distracted. "I always have a plan. Tell me when you see someone with a S.H.I.E.L.D badge."
"Yes ma'am." I answered. It was all I could do to suppress my giddiness. She was so close to me. So close that I could count the faint freckles on her face. So close that I could...
My thoughts were interrupted by the flash of a S.H.I.E.L.D emblem in the sun. Up ahead walking towards us was a woman with honey colored hair pulled back in a tight ponytail.
And she was busy shoving a lanyard with a bird on the front in her pocket.
"Blonde ponytail, up ahead." I murmured to Freyja. "She just put it in her jacket pocket."
"I see her." Freyja replied, her eyes like those of a hawk as she scanned the crowd. "Follow my lead."
We veered in the direction of the woman. As we approached, she loosened her arm in mine. "Laugh as if I said something funny."
I did so. As we passed by the woman, Freyja "accidentally" bumped into her, just hard enough to upset her balance.
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" Freyja apologized as she pulled away from me and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder to steady her.
The woman used Freyja as a crutch for a moment. "It's alright." She said with a smile after righting herself. With that, she continued on her way.
Freyja and I kept walking, and I gave her a curious look as we went. In response, she held her pocket open to show off the S.H.I.E.L.D badge within.
"How did you..?" I began, but she silenced me by leaning into me again.
She tilted her head so that her lips were just by my ears, keeping us from getting caught talking about pick pocketing strategies. "Just a little slight of hand." She explained in a hushed whisper. "One more, then we leave."
"Very clever." I praised as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. She was truly brilliant. No one would think twice about a young couple walking down the street.
Two minutes later, we found another target. Freyja used the same trick, only this time I watched her hands. As she stabilized the person she ran into, her other hand fished the badge out of his pocket and palmed it.
"That was easy." She said with a smirk as we turned around and began walking away from the tower. "Where is that chauffeur?"
With the hard part according to me and easy part according to Freyja out of the way, all we had to do was hit a series of stores to get the supplies we needed.
Freyja sulked like a four year old the entire way, and I could tell she was more than reluctant to engage in such an Earthly activity.
"Why can't you do it? Just drop me at the hotel!" She said in the same monotonous tone she used whenever trying to keep from strangling someone.
I sighed. "It won't be that bad. You'll have me to keep you company."
"We have very different ideas of bad." She reasoned. "For instance, I don't mind open warfare and mindless slaughter. You do."
"Weren't you just talking about needless bloodshed?"
She folded her arms over her chest. "Killing unsuspecting S.H.I.E.L.D agents and murdering prepared warriors on the other side of the battlefield are two completely different things."
"Why?"
She smirked. "I'm a Valkyrie. I don't feel the need to explain my moral values."
"Freyja," I said seriously. "You're moral compass is more like a merry go round."
"Maybe so." She shrugged off the comment. "But I still don't want to go shopping." She spat the last word out as if it tasted vile on her tongue.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. "I'll buy you a knife."
"Done." She didn't even hesitate. "Sir up front, please drive faster."
The chauffeur nodded once and hit the gas. I found myself gripping the seat belt as we wove haphazardly through traffic, the car lurching this way and that.
No sooner had we arrived than Freyja scrunched up her nose and tilted her head in confusion. "What in Valhalla is a Walmart?"
"We're about to find out."
As soon as we walked in, Freyja immediately tensed up. I didn't blame her. The ceiling wasn't high enough for such a wide space and the lights seemed to burn holes in my eyes. People walked back and forth in thick clusters, wearing anything from business casual to pajamas. Literally pajamas.
"I've had a change of heart." Freyja decided. "I'm going to wait in the car. You can have fun."
"Oh no you're not." I grabbed her wrist as she tried to turn around. "This is your problem now too. You're the one in charge of the revolution, not me."
"You're the one who volunteered to come down here, not me." She shot back.
I gestured to the store around us. "Did I mention that this is an excellent opportunity to get Sigurd a gift?"
"That was a cheap shot." She shoved my hand off of her wrist. "But you're right. Let's make this quick."
A spark of pride burned in my chest at my quick words. Sigurd was her weakness. She would do anything to please that boy.
With evident reluctance, Freyja grabbed the nearest shopping cart and we set off deeper into the heart of the fearsome Walmart.
It didn't take us long to find the 'camping' section. There, we found walkie talkies with multi-mile range, a pack of matches and Freyja's favorite item in the world:
Knives.
"I think I'm in paradise." She said breathlessly as she selected a machete wrapped in plastic. She swung it in a graceful arch then returned it to its shelf.
I should not have promised to get her a weapon. "Don't you already have a sword?"
"I do," Freyja answered, her hand absently drifting to where it was concealed beneath her trench coat. Loki so helpfully turned her usual Asgardian jacket into something more mortal. "But I can't throw it, now can I?"
"What?" Then I saw what she was looking at. "Oh, Odin save us all..."
She gave me a radiant smile and held up a pack of throwing knives. "You should think more carefully before promising me things."
"So it seems." I massaged the bridge of my nose. "Fine! Let's go."
"Not so fast, my friend." She stepped in front of the shopping cart when I tried to steer it toward the register. "You made more than one promise to me."
"Sigurd, yes." I changed my direction. "Can I recommend you bring him cotton candy?"
"What is a cotton candy?" It sounded foreign coming out of her mouth.
I grinned. "Follow me."
We wandered the Walmart until we found the food isle, and I scanned the shelves until I found the plastic container filled with blue and pink sugar clouds.
"That," I pointed at the containers for her. "Is cotton candy."
She picked up a container and shook it. "What does it do?"
"You eat it." I explained. "It tastes good."
"We'll see."
"Wait, you can't..." She smirked and popped the lid open in the middle of my sentence. "Open it in the store."
"Or what?" She gently prodded the colorful sentence with her index finger. As if she were holding an explosive, she gingerly took a pinch of it and raised it to her lips. Her eyes widened when it hit her tongue. "Stars above."
"It's good, right?" I grabbed an armful of cotton candy and dumped it in the shopping cart. She nodded enthusiastically.
She put the lid back on and gently rested it in the cart. "Sigurd will love it. Can we leave now?"
"Oh come on," I teased as we walked toward the cashier. "Shopping wasn't that bad."
"I beg to differ." She replied stiffly. Then her stony facade cracked and she smiled. "Alright, maybe it was tolerable."
"Ha! See?" I elbowed her in the ribs. "I told you it wouldn't be awful."
I navigated the shopping cart in front of a cash register and began placing our items on the conveyor belt.
Freyja rolled her eyes as the woman behind the register began to ring up our things. "That still doesn't mean I would willingly do it again."
There was a small beeping sound as the woman scanned our purchases. "Of course not," I smiled at my friend. "Your pride wouldn't allow it."
"Your total is forty seventy eight." The woman sounded horribly bored.
I paid, and Freyja and I hastily loaded our new toys into plastic bags before hurrying back to the car.
As we went, she gave me a smile. "I don't appreciate getting forced into things, but if you ever go on another shopping trip, feel free to make me go along with you again."
My heart could've burst out of my chest. "My pleasure." I shifted my shopping bag to my shoulder and gave her wrist a brief squeeze. "There is no one I would rather spend time with. Now, let's go show off our treasure trove."