Chapter 31: Snakes on the Plane

Chapter 31: Snakes on the Plane

2012

Classified Location

S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier

A few Hours Later

(Loki POV)

I was escorted down the halls of a strange aircraft by a troop of armed guards, led by the boy they prop up as a Captain.

He and his men walk me past a window showing a hi-tech lab with a bunch of strange instruments, Inside the monster masking himself as a man was working.

"Keep moving," The boy captain orders, and one of his soldiers shoves me forward. I glance back at him but don't say anything.

Let these mortals feel like they're in control... for a little while at least.

A playful smirk comes to my face as I send one last glance through the window at the monstrous doctor who removes his glasses and stares back at me.

The boy captain leads me to a room with a cylindrical glass cage in the middle and locks me inside.

"Is this supposed to hold me?" I question but the mortal doesn't answer me as Fury walks through the door.

The boy gives him a salute but Fury just waves him off.

"Leave us." He orders and the boy leaves the room.

Fury walks over to a control panel in front of the cage and presses a button.

"In case it's unclear, If you try to escape or you so much as scratch that glass."

He presses another button on the panel and the floor beneath the cell retracts, revealing the open sky below.

"Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" He threatens and presses the button to close the floor.

Fury points toward me. "Ant." He gestures to the control panel. "Boot."

He fixes me a glare but the playful smirk never leaves my face.

"It's an impressive cage. But not built for me, I think."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury responds.

At his words, my smirk grows to a large smile.

"Oh, I've heard. You have a mindless beast that makes play he's still a man. How desperate must you have become, that you call on such misplaced creatures to defend you?" I ask sportively.

At my words, a look of anger takes hold of Fury's face and he moves slowly toward my cage.

"How desperate? You threaten my world with war, you steal a power you can't hope to control, you strut around thinking yourself some kind of enlightened being but you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. But you might not be happy that you did."

I just continue to smile as the man finishes his rant.

"Ooh. How it must burn you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all you mortals to share?"

I chuckle, mockingly, in his face.

"No, I think not. I think you wanted to be the one to harness its power, but I came along to remind you what real power is." I state.

Fury just eyes me for a moment before an unnerving smile came to his weathered face.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." He jokes before he turns around and exits the room.

Leaving me alone in this glass prison.

"Don't think I'll be here that long," I mutter behind the man.

***************

S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier

(Brock POV)

The avengers and I watched as the monitor on the large conference room table, which was showing the interrogation, shuts off, and Steve, in his Captain America suit but with no cowl, looks over our misfit group.

"Loki's gonna drag this out. We need to know what he's planning." He states and looks over to Thor. "So...Thor, what's his play?"

Thor didn't say anything at first, deciding whether or not to help us, but quickly made up his mind.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard nor any world I've known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor explains.

Steve gives him a bewildered look.

"An army...from outer space?" He questions but Thor just nods.

"He'll need to build another portal then, like the one in New Mexico," I state.

"That's probably what he took Erik Selvig for." Natasha agrees.

Thor looks over toward the woman, a worried look on his face.

"Selvig?" He questions.

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce chimes in.

"I know, he's a friend. Is he okay?" Thor asks.

"To our knowledge, yes. Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha explains but Thor's look of worry doesn't lessen.

"I wanna know why Loki even let us take him. He's not gonna be leading an army from here." Steve says.

"Maybe he wanted to weaken his opposition before he calls his forces." I voice and Steve nods his head, agreeing with me.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him," Bruce exclaims.

Thor shakes his head at his words.

"What will you do if I vow to spare Barton?" I ask.

"I'm not letting you out." She states.

"Ah, of course not. But I like this. Your world is in the balance, and yet here you are bargaining for one man? Tsk tsk very cold, Agent Romanoff."

Her face goes stiff as she gives me an emotionless glare.

"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian, or at least I was."

"So I've heard. Barton regaled me on your past adventures with the notorious 'Red Room'. So, if you're not that person anymore, what are you now?"

She takes a moment to think over my words before she answers.

"It's really not that complicated. I have a lot of blood on my hands to answer for. I just want to wipe them clean." She declares, her face showing traces of regret.

"Can you even wipe that much blood clean? Drakov's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital fire? Barton told me everything. Your hands are dripping with blood and you think saving one man, who is no more virtuous than yourself, will change anything?"

I move closer to the glass.

"You mortals love to dwell in your useless sentimentalities. But the reality is, you just traded one master for another. Pathetic. You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You can pretend all you want to be different, to have your own code that makes up for the horrors you've committed. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away."

"Shut up!" Natasha screams.

I notice tears threatening her eyes at my words, but I didn't stop. I move closer and slam my hand against the glass.

"I won't touch Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way, he knows you fear."

I watch, gleefully, as fear and anxiousness fill the mortal woman's face.

"Then I'll make him wake up just long enough to see his fine work, and as he screams in agony I'll split his skull! This is my only bargain, you mewling quim!" I yell.

Natasha turns away from the glass cage in horror. Sounds of her sobbing come to my ears as she hangs her head low.

"You're a monster!" She exclaims.

I chuckle menacingly at her words.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet. If you think I'm a monster, just wait till I turn your own pet against you!" I say, laughing madly at the woman's suffering.

At my words, Natasha lifts her head and turns to face me. My laughter dies as I see her face is completely dry.

"So, Banner? That's your play." She states as I stare at her confusedly.

"What?" I question.

Natasha turns and begins to walk out of the room as she touches something in her ear.

"Fury, Loki plans to unleash the Hulk on the ship. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way to him. Send Thor down to babysit his brother." Natasha explains.

As she reaches the door she turns back to face me and gives me a smug smile.

"Thank you, for your cooperation!" She says before skipping, happily, out the door. Leaving me alone standing, bewildered, in the glass cage.

Did this wench just play me?

ME. Loki, the GOD of mischief.

Anger at having been manipulated filled my mind as I threw away my helpless act and begin casting a spell.

My hands moved in complex gestures as a green portal, leading to the outside of the cage, formed in front of me.

"Pity, I hoped to buy more time," I mutter to myself as I walk through the portal, escaping easily from my prison.

I quickly move to the door and cast a minor concealing illusion on myself as I open it.

Three agents that were guarding the hallway, look back at the opening door, but my spell works quickly as they soon seem uninterested in the strange movement.

A smug smirk comes to my face as I prepare to make my way toward my target, but something stops me in my tracks.

A strange feeling nibbled at the back of my mind and I turned back to study the three mortals guarding the empty room.

Two of them seemed oblivious of my spell and continued their normal actions, but the third one gave off a strange feeling to me.

Moving closer, I saw that the third guard turned out to be the boy captain that Barton had warned me about.

Odd. What is this feeling?

I move even closer, becoming face to face with the young mortal, and study his eyes. They weren't focused on me but I still got a strange feeling, as if he could see me.

I reached out a hand to touch the mortal but was surprised as my hand was suddenly caught in a vice-like grip.

"Why couldn't you just keep walking?" The Captain mutters quietly as an unbelievable amount of force smashed down onto my hand, crushing the bone.

"Arrrragh!" I scream as the spell around me fades, revealing me to the outside world.

"W-what?!" One of the other guards exclaims confusedly at the sight of a man appearing out of thin air in front of them.

Moving swiftly, I placed my other hand on the young Captain's head and cast another spell.

As green and gold light flowed from my hand, the powerful grip holding me suddenly released and a sigh of relief escapes my lips.

"S-stop right there. Put your hands up!?" The other guards ordered, realizing the situation theysuddenly found themselves in.

I don't even pay attention to them as my focus is completely on the young captain, who was standing stiffly like a statue in front of me.

Waving my good hand, I conjured two daggers in the air and sent them toward the two mortals. The blades easily pierced their heads and made them drop lifelessly to the floor.

As the blades that were embedded in their skulls disappeared, I cautiously moved closer to the frozen captain.

Green and Gold energy clouded around his head, showing my spell was working, but what worried me was the faint dark Crimson glow that emitted from the young mortal's hazel eyes.

"Now, what are you?" I mutter as an intrigued smile plays on my lips.

**************

A/n: Hey everyone, hope you are enjoying the story so far and as always thanks for reading!