Within moments of Loki speaking, the entire area became quiet and tense leaving Duffy to drum her fingers against her thighs for the time being. She was doing her best to ignore the loud roar of the thunder outside, the lightning flooding the inside of the Quinjet with light, and the fact that Loki was looking at her again. Perhaps under non-world domination circumstances, she would have given him a second look, but the small hidden smirk on his face left her feeling quite nervous. She wished she had Duncan's legilimency skills so she could see what was racing through the god's mind at the moment, but then again, as she thought about it, perhaps she really didn't want to know.
Fortunately, with the state of the weather outside, she didn't remain the topic of interest as they all were looking around as the Quinjet hit major turbulence.
"Oh, I hate flying," Duffy muttered to herself as she dug her nails into her jeans, " I hate it so much."
Suddenly, there was one intense flash of light that seemed to strike the Quinjet, leaving Natasha to steady out the aircraft. There was a sound of something striking the top of the jet, leaving everyone to look up at the same time, to see Loki nervous, well, Duffy wasn't exactly feeling the most reassured at the time. Quickly, she was up on her feet, wand in hand as Tony and Steve stumbled about a bit from the impact.
Tony made a grab for his Iron Man helmet and headed towards the exit ramp, opening up the ramp that led outside. While Steve was questioning just what in the hell Tony was doing or what he was thinking, Duffy looked back at Loki. However, they were both startled by the sound of something landing on the ramp, leaving both of them to look over.
For a moment, Duffy swore they were inside some sort of intense hair care commercial as she spotted who landed on the ramp. Just several feet away, came to land a crouching man with glorious glistening muscles and an even more magnificent head of golden hair. As he stood up and walked towards Tony in a somewhat menacing manner, Duffy had to do everything in her might to keep her weak knees supporting her body.
Why the hell was everyone she was encountering on this mission extremely attractive?
"I have a feeling you know him!" she called out to Loki, bringing him to look at her.
"Unfortunately," came his answer just as Tony went to make an attack, but whoever the Hammer-Wielding man was attacked much faster, launching Tony back. He landed into Steve and into Duffy, bringing all three of them to the floor.
She had once complained that Duncan had a bony ass when he sat in her lap once, but with Steve's hard muscles digging into her elbow and Tony's iron ass digging into her legs, she would never complain about Duncan's bony ass ever again.
Within seconds, TRESemmé's newest hair model stomped over to where Loki was contained and grabbed the god by the throat before dragging him towards the exit ramp where they both leapt out. Tony jumped up to go right after them, while Steve helped Duffy back up to her feet.
"Another Asgardian?" Natasha called to the back, looking over her shoulder, only to be met with Duffy shrugging her shoulders.
"Think the guy's a friendly?" Steve asked.
"Doesn't matter," Tony replied, " if he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."
"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" Steve yelled at Tony as the other man stood on the ramp, ready to leave without discussion.
"I have a plan, " Tony said, " attack."
Steve rolled his eyes before racing over to grab something, perhaps what appeared to be a parachute of sorts as he placed it around him after Tony jumped out. Duffy was left in a state of shock, simply watching the pure dramatics that took place within the group. Natasha called back to Steve, warning him that it would be best to sit the fight out as the men down below were basically gods.
"There's only one God, ma'am," Steve answered, " and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."
After Steve jumped out of the Quinjet, Duffy was the only one remaining, along with Natasha and the co-pilot, leaving the awkward silence to return shortly after Steve's departure. Following the awkward silence, Natasha looked back over her shoulder and saw Duffy looking over the edge of the ramp. She was about to call out to her and tell her what she had told Steve about sitting out of the fight. However, Duffy knew that Tony was right, it was also part of her job to ensure the safe return of the Tesseract and right now, the plan was being compromised by the epitome of the "Do you even lift, bro?" meme.
With a sigh, Duffy knew what she had to do and before Natasha could even tell her to remain put, she leapt out of the jet and used her wand to apparate safely to the ground.
She wouldn't have been able to tell through all the cloud coverage but as she landed, Duffy noted that they were in some mountainous range. She heard the sounds of a ground crushing crash leaving her to look over in one direction. Running over, Duffy was delighted at first to see that Tony had found the other Asgardian and had him alone, only seconds later, she found herself rolling her eyes.
"Do not touch me again," the muscled snack of a man warned Tony.
"Then don't take my stuff," Tony countered, leaving Duffy to shake her head. Obviously, neither one of them had Loki in their custody, meaning the god was somewhere out there, giving him a clear chance to escape.
Leaving the two men to bump egos, Duffy looked all around for any sign of Loki, only to catch the sight of quick movement, upon one of the cliff edges. She went to turn and apparate when she heard Tony call out another quip to the god.
"Doth Mother know you weareth her drapes?"
"Oh, that's good, Tony," Duffy mumbled to herself as she gripped her wand, " piss off the Blonde Gorilla of a man, that should really help the situation."
Loki had his back pressed against the rock wall, watching the scene below him when he heard a crack that sounded similar to a light roar of thunder. He turned his head, only to catch the sight of Duffy standing before him with her wand pointed directly between his eyes. Down below, Tony and the god were fighting back and forth, practically throwing each other around like little boys fighting over a toy.
"Do you know MC Hammer down there?" Duffy asked Loki, still keeping her wand aimed at him. "What does he want with you?"
"He is Thor," Loki replied in a mocking tone, " and I am late for tea time back in Asgard, he only wishes to bring me back so I don't miss the meal."
Duffy stared at him for a second before shaking her head, however, she took a step back as soon as he rose to his feet to approach her.
"Stop," she warned him, " or I'll turn your head into a pumpkin."
Loki went to respond but seemed to catch onto the tail end of what she had said, leaving him with a confused expression, wondering if she really threatened to turn his head into a pumpkin. As the God of Mischief though, he found great humour in her threat, wondering if what she said was true. His eyes locked on the wand in her possession before he looked up at her. Both of his feet seemed to firmly plant themselves to the ground in an obedient manner.
"Very well," he said placing his hands up in surrender, " question though, are you really a witch?"
She didn't bother to answer him, too distracted by the noise below as Tony and the other continued to keep fighting and now Steve arrived on scene with his moral speech that no one was listening to.
"Able to wield your own magic, that's quite impressive."
Her eyes darted back to where he was still standing in place, but his smile was making her even more uneasy.
"You're able to do the same from what I observed," she told him, " how is this considered impressive?"
"It was not a compliment for you," Loki countered, " it was a compliment for those heathens over there as they apparently have the strength to wrangle you in and have you do their bidding. You appear to be so strong and yet, at the same time, so weak in another sense."
With a raised brow, Duffy's lip curled in an irritated manner, not appreciating anyone trying to deem her as weak when she was far from it.
"You might want to choose your words carefully," she growled, " because I am far from weak."
"So why work under them, when you could have them working for you?" he asked.
" I do not work under them," Duffy informed him in a matter-of-fact tone. " I am simply here to assist them when it comes to dealing with the likes of you. You're threatening their world, but you're also threatening mine. We share this planet, their problems tend to be our problems. Right now, you're their problem, which makes you my problem. You're no better than your predecessors."
"Predecessors? There has been no one like me-"
"There have been plenty like you, whether they are in this world or my world. But I remember one, told throughout history and you're not much different than him. There are people like you, who seek power and they don't care who they hurt in the process. And for what? What was the purpose of it? To claim they are almighty and powerful and then what comes next? What do you do when you are the one who sits on top when no one wants you there?"
Loki's jaw visibly clenched as he glared at her. "You have quite the tongue on you-"
"I speak from experience. People who force their power on others are...nothing," she said, only to hear Loki scoff to the side.
"You think I'm nothing?!"
"You're nothing to me but a mere child."
"A child?!"
"Only those with the small mindset of a child would be so preoccupied to rule over others ignoring the fact that no one will like them and no sense of power will bring them the likeness that they crave. You're a bully seeking approval."
Loki took another step towards her, despite her previous warning."You think I'm doing to this to have people like me?"
"Why else would someone go through all the trouble to gain all this notoriety as they rise to power?"
He gave a shrug of his shoulders. " Fame doesn't hurt one, does it? Not to mention to bask in the glory of knowing that you were able to defeat so many-"
"Defeat so many?!" Duffy interrupted him. "You mean defeat people who don't stand a chance against you? Oh yes, bask in the glory as an animal would after seeking out a helpless, wounded animal and making it its prey! The people here cannot fight against you in order for you to claim glory over a battle. It's completely one-sided!"
That was it, Duffy had finally lost her temper and Loki was about to pay the price for it. Her eyes narrowed at him, especially as he wore the stupid smirk on his face as if he were the triumphant one. But the smile on his face did not last for very long as he watched her and heard her mutter something under her breath.
"Melofors."
While Loki and Duffy seemed to be having a heart to heart on the edge of the cliff, Steve was having a difficult time trying to get Tony and the other god to stop fighting. It seemed they were all fighting the same cause, maybe with different reasoning and passions behind it. But finally, as Steve tried to get the man to place his hammer down, it resulted in another attack where the hammer came right down on his shield. However, it didn't work in the favour of the god as the impact, launched not only him but Tony back as well. The ringing in the clearing was enough to cause anything within the radius to lose their hearing temporarily.
But it finally brought an end to the entire battle, and the three seemed to come to an agreement to bring Loki in so they could find the Tesseract. However, as they returned to the cliff to take Loki in, they were all completely caught off guard when they came upon the scene. Duffy was standing casually to the side, checking the underside of her fingernails for dirt and next to her, Loki was sitting on the ground, his head replaced by a pumpkin.
"Well, that's something you certainly don't see every day," Tony said removing his helmet. "Did you want to celebrate Halloween early, sweetheart?"
"Once again, my name is Duffy," she told him, " and unless you want to join him wearing a matching pumpkin, I suggest you start calling me by it. Let's just get to the Quinjet, shall we, gentlemen, or do you need to have another fight to boost your egos for the next round?"
It was quiet for a moment before Tony and the other two looked at one another. " I mean, I'm good if you two are-"
Steve and the other god quickly nodded their heads in agreement, mumbling that it was time to go.
"It smells terrible in here!" Loki called out from inside the pumpkin. "I have swallowed numerous seeds! Unleash me from this fleshy pumpkin prison!"