-Entry created on: 5/20/2013-
As the helicarrier landed in the middle of the Atlantic, roughly 50 miles from Boston Harbor, Clint and I gathered the Avengers
The other Avengers agreed to my plan with varying levels of agreeableness.
"No way," Tony crossed his arms.
"Tony, we have to!" I insisted. "What if it was Pepper instead of my friends?"
"I'd probably develop an extremely clever plan that would not involve doing the obvious and playing into Loki's trap," Tony remarked, pulling a pretzel out of the bag he had taken from one of his stashes.
Did I mention that? In case I didn't, Tony snacks stashed all of the helicarrier. No one can find them, so they don't get touched.
"If they can send me an email in code, then Loki hasn't trapped them," I pointed out.
While Tony and I fought, the other five Avengers sat at the glass table that over looked the main room of the helicarrier. They mostly made jokes and, in the case of Thor and Natasha, electrocuting each other with low levels of electricity, Thor with his hammer, and Nat with her Widow's Bite attached to her glove.
"Loki could be torturing them. Or worse, he could have used the glow-stick of destiny on them," Tony countered. "Besides, if Loki shows up, we still have no way to stop him without killing him, which both you and Thor are insisting on."
"He has a point," Nat threw in.
"BUTT OUT, NAT! NO ONE IS DYING, TONY, NO ONE'S GETTING KILLED!" I yelled at him. Fighting Tony had frustrated me. I took a deep breath and continued. "Look, all I know is that I have three best friends in trouble, and God has given me the power to save them. With your help or without it, I intend to do just that."
"No way, you are not!" Tony argued.
"Jeez, you two fight like daughter and father. Are you sure you're not related?" Bruce asked.
"Might as well be," Steve added.
"Um, Stark, one of your helicopters just landed on the runway," The same agent who had intercepted Ava's message walked over.
"What?" Tony asked, wiping out his phone. "Jarvis, show me the SHIELD security cameras facing the landing pad on the Helicarrier."
"I thought we got you out of our system," The agent groaned.
"You thought wrong, agent," Tong gave him a sarcastic salute.
I studied the agent for the first time. He had short, dark hair and dark brown eyes. He looked a lot older at a glance, but in studying him I discovered he was only maybe 17.
"What's your name, agent?" I asked.
"Grant Ward. Agent Ward, ma'am. No one's asked me that before," Ward answered.
Harnessing everything I learned from Sherlock, I discovered a small slice mark on the tip of his ear, and faded bruises around his left wrist. He noticed my staring, pulling down the sleeves of his uniform, but first on the right side. All of these signs pointed to something dark in his past, and there was no way I was going to let him hurt quietly. No one deserved that.
I discovered his eyes were tracing my own wrists, making me jam my hands in the pockets of my jean shorts.
"Pepper?" Tony asked no one in particular.
"Pepper is here?" I asked, brightening up. I really liked her.
"Yeah, and three other women. Jeez, Thor, is that your girlfriend? Slightly World of Warcraft, but she rocks it," Tony asked.
Thor, taking Tony's phone, looked mildly horrified and confused. "Lady Sif is not my girlfriend. But Jane, I suppose, is. Darcy is just... Shocking," He finally commented after studying the screen's image for a moment. "I do not understand why Lady Potts has brought them here, or why Sif is on Midguard. I think Jane may kill me. Or kiss me."
"Love is weird," I commented.
"Love is for children," Natasha's cold exterior replaced itself. "And if we could focus on the fact that someone has traveled between worlds to get here."
Happy, not-so-bad Natasha had left the building.
Did all of the Avengers have double personalities?
Nat led the other Avengers toward to landing strips outside. I lagged behind a bit. "Hey Grant?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
"It's not as bad as you think," I told him. Acting on impulse, I held up my left wrist, displaying my four scars to the world. "I should know."
With that, I ran off, replacing my hand in my sleve.
Catching up to the rest of the team, I walked out onto the landing strips. The ocean surronded me, filling me with energy. I could see my city, Boston, lurking in the background. I could see the outlines of buildings and sailboats just on the horizon.My hometown wasn't far. I could fly, if I wanted to, but the women's arrival intrigued me.
Upon arrival, the Stark helicopter's occupants' moods seemed to darken ever so slightly.
I studied each of them, finding it not hard to pick out where they had come from. The dark haired girl in Asgardian battle armor didn't even need to be discussed. The two dark haired girls dressed in modern winter clothing were clearly from California or New Mexico, shivering openly in the cool breeze that rolled off the water. I had already known Pepper.
"Where have you been?!" One of the modern, dark haired, women confronted Thor. I correctly assumed she was Jane. "It's been two years!"
"I was defending Midguard from my brother, as I am trying to now," Thor replied calmly.
"That... That is a very good excuse," Jane's anger wavered slightly.
"Midguard is not your home, Thor, nor your responsibility! While you were gone, Loki returned, secretly turning people with the scepter of the Chichari! I had to fight the Warriors Three to get here to warn you. He's creating an army of your subjects, our friends, and you are relaxing on a battle ship on Midguard? Fantastic job, m'lord!" Sif screamed, adding a sarcastic cursty at the end. "You saved us all!"
"I think she won the whole angry-rant thingy," The other girl, Darcy, commented.
"I don't know whether to clap or cower in fear," I added.
"Loki is turning Asguardians? Are you alright?" Thor asked, concerned for his friend.
"I just told you that Asguard is in peril, and you are worried of me?!" Sif began to yell again.
"Sif, you are my best friend! Of course I am worried of you!" Thor countered. I didn't miss Sif's slight sadness at the word. "And of Asguard! I came to Midguard to track Loki. He has taken Midguardians, also. I do not know what he is planning, but my brother-"
"Thor, I believe he has made it pretty clear he is not your brother," The Asguardian lady calmed down ever so slightly. "Or my friend. You are not the only one he hurt."
"I know that. Regaurdless of what he made clear, I refuse to believe he has stopped caring for us completely. Whatever he feels..." Thor and Sif both looked very distraught.
"How did you three get involved with Juliet Monster Slayer? Tony asked, changing the subject to Pepper, Jane, and Darcy.
"I can explain," Jane said after exchanging a few glances with Pepper. "I was in New Mexico, studying the strange electromagnetic storms that had been reoccoring more frequently, but many of them were farther than usual, making it impossible for me to reach them in time to find out who had come to Earth. It turned out to be Loki. He destroyed my town, taking or killing everyone. Darcy and I were luckily already on our way out, with a few of our friends from town. They're in Kentucky right now. As we were freaked, we decided to go with the best bet and drive to where the only storm outside of New Mexico hit- New York.'
"I pointed out that a freaky lightning storm had hit, too," Darcy raised her hand up to point out the fact.
"Which turned out to be Thor," Jane continued. "We drove three days, which is borderline cruel and unusual with Darcy."
"Hey! I wasn't that bad! I only made us stop twice to restock on snacks!" Darcy defended.
"Twice an hour!" Jane nearly screamed.
"ANYWAYS," Pepper got back on topic. "They popped up at the Tower, talking about freak lightining storms and hunky blonde men, so I asked JARVIS to do a scan on them. He told me that they were SHIELD protected scientists and friends of Thor. I let them in, and we made plans to come."
"Then Sif crashed through the window," Darcy sent an accusing glance toward the Asguardian.
"Apologies. The head trauma affected my aim," Sif commented dryly.
"When will someone make a surprise entrance through the door?" Tony asked no one in particular. "I have had those windows fixed eight times now. Six from the XBox incident!"
"Sorry, again," Steve guiltily commented.
"I want to hear that story!" Darcy and I announced in unison.
"Anyways, Sif ended up passing out from exhuastion in the middle of the living room. When she woke up and told us her story... Well, you got the PG version, Thor," Jane finished.
"So Loki's unleashing an army of his super powerful family on us, which, even better, we can't hope to match up to?" Bruce asked.
"How are we going to stop them? We can't kill them, can we?" Nat asked.
"No!" Thor and Sif yelled in unison.
"Well actually, I have Erik's notes from when he was under the spell. He studied the scepter as well as the Tessaract, and apparently it has a fail safe, of sorts," Jane explained, pulling out a gray notebook filled with notes.
"Apperantly there's a piece that fits across the main base diagonally, fitting together the top piece and the bottom piece. If you were to split it appart, the scepter's effects would be reversed with minimal effect on the people who were originally under it's control and it would be perminantly unusable. Sure, it would knock out everybody effected, but they'd be fine. No casalities, no damage," Jane described, displaying what Erik had written down.
"You're kidding," Tony muttered, looking over the notes.
"Dead serious," Jane promised.
"We just have to get Loki away from his scepter, and we win," Steve laughed, taking a breath.
"It will not be that easy. The people of Asguard are stronger than you know. Turned malicious, we may not even be able to get near Loki," Thor warned. "This battle may be the hardest we ever face."
"Then we're going to need to get my friends out of dodge before Loki gets to them," I suggested.
"Fine," Tony finally caved. "Let's get them."
AN: I am ruining my own ships.... SIF I LOVE YOU BUT STAHP MAKING ME WANT TO SHIP YOU WITH LOKI NO NO NO NO LOKI AND -spoilers ;)- AGH
Anyways, the amount of reads I've been getting is blowing my mind.
Thank you for having faith in Lyla and I!
I would like some more comments, though. Just because I enjoy hearing what you guys think of my story. Plus, comments do help inspire me to update faster... OvO -Maddie