Finally a new chapter! Sorry for the wait and thanks for reading! :)
Chapter Thirty Two: Inferno
~Thea's POV~
I can't breathe. I can't move. This was not going according to plan.
"Where did you think you were going, Thea?" asks Kyle, enunciating each word through hissed teeth, "Out to save the day? What were you going to do, walk to Caracas?"
"Leave me alone," I whisper.
He laughs shortly. "I don't think so. You're coming with me." I try to resist, but he drags me up the stairs and towards the attic. "Look at that, you get to go to your happy place."
Upstairs, Max is at the same computer I had hacked into earlier; Lucy, the traitor, is lounging at his feet. Without looking back, Max says, "Found her?"
"Well, you bet I did." Kyle pushes me into a chair. "What do we do with her now?"
"Where's Leah?" I ask stubbornly.
Max turns around, holding his hands up defensively. "One question at a time." He looks at Kyle. "We're not going to do anything to her, we're going to just keep our eyes on her." He looks at me. "And I don't know. That's not my job."
"Let me call Tony," I beg. "I just want to find out-"
"Absolutely not." Says Max firmly. "Right now, they're on they're trying to rescue them. Would you like to be the person who ruins that for them by ringing them up?"
I'm silent.
"That's what I thought. Now seeing as you just lost your freedom, you get to stay where we can see you." His voice stings me. "Where we know you won't try to sneak out and kill yourself."
I cross my arms and slouch against the chair as Max turns back to the computer. "What are you doing?"
"I'm not answering that." he replies, typing what looks to be a string of code into an illuminated green screen. I squint, trying to see what he's doing, and turns out, I can make out that he seems to be hacking into security cameras of some sort.
I'm trying to make out the grainy images when my chair spins around and I am now face-to-face with Kyle. "Oh, no you don't, young lady. You and I are going downstairs and practicing with a pistol."
Like yesterday, my arms crawl at the thought of using a gun. "But I don't want-"
"I know." He says. "That's why we're doing it."
"You can't make me." I say as he pulls me down the stairs, even though I'm pretty sure Kyle can make me do whatever I want.
"I can, and you know it." As we pass through the kitchen, Kyle lets go of my arm and opens the refrigerator. "So we are going out there whether you like it or n-"
The phone begins ringing shrilly. I leap forward and grab the portable phone off its holder before Kyle can reach me. "Hello?" I dodge Kyle's attempt to knock the phone out my hand.
"Thea?"
"Jack?"
"Yeah, so I have to talk really quickly, cause I'm not supposed to be talking at all. But Leah and Jane are captured by the Imeldi, most everyone except Natasha went to rescue them, and Loki told me to tell you, assuming I managed to hack onto the phone, which he said I probably could, that he promised he would get Leah back."
He says it in such a rush combined with the fact that I'm still trying to fend off Kyle, that it takes a few seconds for his words to process.
"Oh, yeah, I knew the first part already," I manage. Kyle finally gives up and leans against the cabinet, glaring at me. "When will they come back?"
"Dunno. But I've got to go, I'll call you when I can. 'Kay? Hang in there, Thea, see you soon." He clicks off.
"That your boyfriend?" asks Kyle, choosing his words in a way that he knows will make me annoyed.
"He's not my boyfriend," I snap, replacing the phone to the holder so that Kyle won't see my flushing face.
"Yet." He adds.
"Why aren't you asking why he called?" I demand.
"Because I already know. You hit the speaker phone button on accident."
"Damn," I mutter, aiming a kick at Kyle.
"You, young lady, are a talented liar. Very talented. Unless someone knows that you're lying, then you're an absolute waste."
~Nobody's POV~
It's almost dark in the camp. Soldiers and monsters alike crawl about, making adjustments here, carrying bits of things there, all leading to a huge cash in the middle of the preservation.
Past all this, two shadows move. The Imeldi that is lying lazily near the edge of the forest, its gruesome tail spread out over the bloody remains of its meal suddenly squeals softly and falls, an arrow notched in its neck.
The two figures move quickly past, up the path towards the enclosure. While Clint stays behind, his arrow trained, Steve easily jumps up and over the high chain-linked fence, landing silently like a cat on the other side.
"Stark, you copy?" he mutters as he creeps along the sides, careful to keep to the areas that he knows the shadows will hide him until the sun sets completely.
"Yep. Around the three o'clock, as planned."
Steve glances to the up and right and sees a small shadow rising from the ground with small bright jets, telling him Tony is circulating the eastern part of the front.
"Anything on Thor and Loki?"
"Waiting. Just like we said."
"Good. Keep it short, keep it quiet. I don't want any of these monsters getting a sniff of what's going on."
The wireless signal going through the Bluetooth in Steve's ear buzzes and then goes out. Steve looks left and right, then sprints across a path and leans against a wall, listening. As he runs around the perimeter, he knocks out three government agents with their silent bodies slumping against the ground.
The door is padlocked, but Steve easily bursts through it. There are two guards on the other side; those two go down as well. Steve hurries through the corridor, which smells stale and pallid, then leans against the other side of the wall, listening.
With a shriek, an Imeldi snakes along the wall, crawling up the sides, seizing Steve's arm. Steve uses the wall as a kick-off, spiraling around to strike the snake in the back of the hood. It shrieks again, which makes Steve know that he has to kill it before it calls too much attention. With a flick of his shield, its head topples to the ground, its tongue curling in one last hiss.
Shaking his head, Steve runs forward, trying to determine the layout of the base. He walks past a computer room with only three workmen in there, so Steve flings open the door, knocks the three of them out, and flicks through one of the computer screens, trying to look for a location router that would lead him to the cells.
He is just about to go towards the second computer screen when a siren blares through the building, making Steve jump back. He glances around to see about half a dozen agents running past the computer lab. Thinking he's about to get attacked, he grabs his shield and prepares for defense.
More pass by, yelling. There are the shrieks of the Imeldi as well.
And then Steve smells it and realizes what's happening.
Fire.
~Thea's POV~
After about a half hour of shooting virtually the same object, Kyle finally lets me back into the house. Max is now in the kitchen, back on his computer. His regular, non spy, non-secret-revealing computer.
Glancing at him disinterestedly, I say, "I'm going up to my room. I'm exhausted."
I'm halfway through the kitchen when Kyle bars me with his arm. "Oh, you're not going anywhere. We're all going to have a little sleepover in the living room."
"What?"
Max gets up from the bar stools, slamming the computer lid shut. "You've proven that we can't trust you, you pay the consequences. Go upstairs and change and be back down in five minutes or we'll be up there."
Kyle gives me an extremely sarcastic smirk, and I glower at the both of them before stalking upstairs, feeling a lot of satisfaction in the pounding of my boots on the wood floor.
When I walk into the living room, I see Max lying down across the sofa, his feet propped up on the cushion. Kyle is lounging on the huge, plush chair in the corner. Both are fixated on the football game that's playing on the large television in front of them.
"You're two minutes late." Says Kyle without looking at me.
"You're an a-"
"Language." He smirks again. His smirks are worse than Loki's. A pang settles in. Loneliness. Missing.
"C'mon over here," says Max, gesturing me towards the small love seat across from him. I blink slowly. I'm tired. I lay down reluctantly, rolling over so that my back is to them. I trace the fabric, the patterns on the couch that feel soft under my finger.
Before I know it, the football game is distant and tinny, and my eyelids fall down, heavy and desperate.
~Nobody's POV~
The flames spread high, and Thor and Loki stand stock-still near the entrance. "I'm going in, brother" says Thor, swinging his hammer. Before Loki can respond, he is gone.
Loki steps forward, and the fire sparks flake through the air, flying around. One of them hits his face, and he winces as a hissing sound hits his face. He holds his hand up- it's blue.
~
"Watch the perimeter!" shouts Steve to Clint, who is running around the outside of the building. He ignores the dozens of workers streaming from the building, the screams, the shrieks of the Imeldi, the pattering of hundreds of footsteps. "Any sign of them?"
"That would be a negative," yells Tony, who is circling the perimeter from the skies, occasionally blowing up part of a wall to get through. "I'm working on it."
"Get down below!" shouts Clint. "There's a path there."
"Move!" roars Thor, passing Steve and running down the path that seeps below the ground. It's smoky and thick down there.
Thor avoids a pile of splintered wood that goes up in flames as a spark hits it. He's about to turn back when he hears it: desperate, raspy coughing. "Jane!" he shouts. "Leah!"
The coughing persists, and Thor crashes through the bars that hold her back and grab her in his arms. "Jane! Jane!" he kisses her brow softly, "Where's Leah?"
~Thea's POV~
Smoke
Flames
Iron
Blood
I jump up, clawing at the sofa, trying to hold back my shrieks. I'm sobbing. I don't know why. I'm breathing heavily, and I can't figure out why.
"Thea!" I glance over. Kyle is crouching in front of the sofa, his eyes concerned. "Thea, what's wrong?"
I just shake my head and begin to cry harder.
"Sh, sh, sh," says Kyle, reaching out and wrapping his arms around me. "Thea, what happened?"
"I don't know," I whimper. "I think a...a...nightmare, I guess, but I don't know."
"Okay, just go to sleep," says Kyle quietly, rocking me back and forth gently. "Just go back to sleep."
~Nobody's POV~
"Did you find Leah?" yells Stark as Thor breaks the surface of the rubble with Jane in his arms.
"No," says Thor, his breath hoarse from the smoke-filled air. "No, Jane doesn't know where she is, those guards took her this morning."
"Keep looking!" Steve's voice echoes from Stark's radio. "Clint's around the south side, I've got the east."'
"Where's Loki?" demands Thor.
"I don't know, last time I saw him he was with you!" Stark kicks off from the ground, spirals once, and then heads back into the wreckage.
~Thea's POV~
"Make it st-o-o-p," I sob, grasping my head. "It hurts!"
"Thea, calm down," says Kyle, lying me down on the couch. "Tell me what's wrong."
"What's going on?" asks Max, finally waking up.
"I don't know," says Kyle, shaking me. "Thea, talk to me, what the hell is happening?
My head is throbbing, and I feel like flames are dancing in front of me. I jump, and Kyle holds my arms down. "Get it away from me!" I shriek.
"Get what away?" exclaims Kyle desperately. "Thea, what's going on!?"
~Nobody's POV~
Loki surveys the wreckage from the western side, where the base's labs are turning to ash. He's about to turn around when he hears it. The scream of a young girl.
He throws his hands forward, and ice pierces the flames, crumbling the burning wood for good. He steps around carefully, then sees a hole in the wreckage, where a room once stood and is now crumbling.
Running forward, Loki ignores the heat that is trying to burn his skin and flings aside some of the wood, entering the room. One glance tells him that it is a laboratory. Three steel shelves-one that is in flames- some cabinets, also in shambles, and a steel table that is bent over something below the ground awkwardly. It's holding down Leah, who is screaming and crying.
"Leah!" shouts Loki, stumbling forward as a spark hits his arm. He cries out. "Leah, I can't move forward very easily, so you are going to have to listen to what I have to say."
"You're a monster!" she howls. "Get away from me, you'll just hurt me, go away, Loki!"
"I'm trying to help, you ignorant girl!" yells Loki. "Now listen! You need to push up on that table so that I can get ahold of it without touching the fire."
Leah keeps crying, and doesn't move. The smoke is choking her.
~Thea's POV~
"It's burning me!" I howl, thrashing around on the couch as Kyle holds me down. "Water! I'm hot, it's hurting, I can't breathe, let me up!"
"Sh, Thea, sh," says Kyle, pinning me with his arms as Max runs to the kitchen. "What's burning?"
"My body!"
"Oh well that eliminates everything," says Kyle sarcastically.
"Please..." I sob.
~Nobody's POV~
"Please..." sobs Leah, coughing, her breath coming wheezy and short. "I want Mama! I want Mama!"
"You're mother's not here," says Loki through gritted teeth, desperately trying to evaporate the burning flames around them. "Now listen!" He crouches down in front of the wreckage that is holding her down so that he can finally see her face cramming at the entrance of her burning tomb. He reaches forward and can barely touch her face, saying, "I promised your sister I would bring you back to her. Trust me, Leah."
"No..." she whimpers. "Don't kill me."
"Shh," says Loki, wiping some of her tears, "You're going to live. Once we are out of this, you are going to live, Leah. We're going to keep you safe so that you and your sister can lead the normal lives that you deserve, all right, darling? Now listen."
Loki glances around anxiously, trying not to let Leah see the fear he is feeling as the flames grow higher around them, "Grab onto my arm right here, there, that's a good girl."
He grits his teeth again and uses his other hand to push some of the wreckage off her A nylon strap is holding her to the table. He grabs his dagger and slices it off her. She cries out, not in pain but in fear. Sheathing the blade, he says, "You're going to need to push through some of that wood, my powers are weakened by the heat."
He blasts some of the heaviest steel with ice, burning it with the cold and sending it into fine mist. Catching some of the remains and throwing them away, he says, "When I count to three, you're going to push against the rest of that steel table and I will pull you out of here. Come on, darling, sh. One," Loki cries out again as some of the sparks hit his face, burning the blue skin. "Two," he snarls, "Three."
With a desperate yank, he pulls Leah out of the wreckage. Knowing there is no time to waste, he picks her bruised and bloodied body up and begins to kick out of the shambled wood, feeling weaker and weaker as the heat intensifies.
"Hey, there you are, we missed all the fun." Loki covers his eyes as Tony, in a flash of brilliant light, appears in front of him, "Got her? She okay?"
"She'll be fine," rasps Loki. "Get her out of here. Did you get Jane?"
"Jane's fine. Thor'll be here in seconds." Tony grabs Leah and takes off into the sky.
Loki's strength wanes, and he collapses, coughing hoarsely. The flames flicker on his armor, but he's too weak to get it off. He feels himself failing.
"Brother!"
Thor grabs his shoulders. The next time Loki wakes up, he's back in the airplane.
"Boy, you had us scared," says Tony as the plane soars through the blackness of the night. "Although Leah's pretty weak, so I'd say you're about even."
Loki rolls his eyes, feeling normal as the coolness of the air conditioner hits him, albeit the burn marks on his face.
His eyes fall on Leah, who is lying in the back, on a sort of stretcher. Jane is on the stretcher next to her, but she is awake and reading. Both are bruised, and have cuts.
He stands and walks over to Leah, whose eyes are closed. Her breath is raspy. Glancing at Steve, he asks, "Will she make it?"
"She'll be fine." Nods Steve. "Just shock, mostly."
"Well," says Loki, managing a chuckle, "Maybe this means that Thea might actually forgive me." He lies a cool hand on Leah's hot skin. Immediately, she relaxes a little, the frost giant's cold fingers giving her relief from the inferno she had to go through.
~Thea's POV~
With a gasp, the burning stops. I try to sit up, but Kyle says, "Oh, no, no, no. You're going to lie down and stay down, got me?"
"It was a dream," I whisper. "A horrible, horrible, visual dream."
"Yep," says Max. "Here's some water."
This time ,Kyle lets me sit up and I grasp the cool glass anxiously, the figidity of the water soothing me somewhat. "Anything about..."
Kyle and Max exchange glances.
"What?" I sit up straighter. "What? What happened? Did someone call, did-"
"Yeah, we got a call from Stark," says Kyle lazily, "Hey, stop drinking that so quickly."
I slam the glass on the coffee table. "What is it? Is she okay, did they find them?"
"Whoa, kid, slow down," says Max, holding his hand out. Then, he smiles a little. "Looks like you'll be leaving us soon."
"Good riddance," adds Kyle with a playful smile.
It takes a minute for this to sink in. "What? They found her? Is she-"
"She's fine," laughs Max. "They're both a little beat up, but they're fine. Stark and everyone else are on their way to the main helicarrier now. We're going to take you there tomorrow."
I stare at them in shock, and then begin to cry. For once, I'm crying because I'm happy, happy that I get to see my sister again and that she's safe and alive.
YAY! A new chapter! please vote and comment and oh my gosh, I forgot to do my AP Stats homework, have to run!
:)