Something's Wrong
Kat wondered how long it would take for the Asgardians to get to their new home. She hoped that Loki would come for her and take her there, so she could help everyone settle in and meet Thor. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to live there, but it might not be a bad idea, eventually, to have a home with Loki.
She was training with Peter when it happened. It hit her like a mack truck. One minute she was fine, the next she was on the ground, clutching her head, screaming out in pain. Peter was by her side in a minute. “Kat! What’s going on! Are you okay? Should I get Mr. Stark? Friday, what’s happening!” Peter asked frantically.
“There appears to be nothing wrong with her health Mr. Parker. She seems to be having some kind of reaction to magic.” The AI told him.
“What does that even mean!” Peter yelled. Just then Tony came running into the gym. He knelt next to Kat, pulling her into his lap. “Fri said you were in distress, what’s goin on sparkles?” Kat just kept shaking her head, sobbing into Tony’s chest.
After a few minutes, she was finally able to calm down enough to talk. “I think…I think there’s something wrong with Loki. Our magic is connected. I think something bad happened to him.” She told Tony. He and Peter exchanged glances and Tony looked back down at Kat. “Is there a way to get a hold of him?” He asked her. She nodded and started to stand, Tony putting one arm around her waist to help. She walked outside and stood on the lawn, looking up at the sky. She didn’t look good. She was pale and sweating, like she had a fever.
“Heimdall! I know you don’t know me, but I need your help! I need to know if Loki is okay.” She yelled. Nothing happened. Maybe he couldn’t hear her? No that wasn’t possible. Loki told her Heimdall sees and hears all pleas for his help.
“Heimdall?” She asked again. Nothing. She gave a worried look to Tony. “That’s the only way I know of. I don’t understand why he’s not answering.” She told him. Tony had a bad feeling in his gut as to why he wasn’t answering. Something bad must have happened to the Asgardian ship. He didn’t want to tell Kat that though. He didn’t want to worry her.
“What if something happened to them Tony.” She said, looking up at him with big eyes. He pulled her to him and tucked her head under his chest. “I’m sure they’re okay, and they’ll contact you as soon as they can sparkles.”
Kat tucked herself in her room for the rest of the night. Peter crept in at some point and they watched some old cartoons before he ended up passed out on her couch. She got into bed and rolled over to Loki’s side. It still smelled like him. Eventually her mind shut off and she was able to fall asleep.
Rhodey was the only person in the compound the next morning when Kat woke up. There was a fresh pot of coffee that she was so thankful for, and bagels too. Rhodey told her Tony and Pepper went out for a run in the park, and Peter was at school.
Kat sat down on the couch with her mug and flipped on the tv. She was halfway into an episode of Once Upon a Time when Friday interrupted her.
“Miss Kat, there is something you need to see.” She said. A news feed of downtown popped up and there was a giant freaking circular ship over what looked like Greenwich Village. “Rhodey!” Kat yelled. He was still in the kitchen when she called, so it only took him a minute to get to the couch. “Oh my God. What is that?” He asked. Kat shook her head.
“Wait, is that Peter?” She asked when she saw the unmistakable blue and red blur zoom by and go up toward the ship. “There goes Tony.” Rhodey added as they watched Iron Man fly up to the ship after him.
“Friday, can you contact Tony?” Kat asked. There was a brief pause before the AI answered. “No Miss, the ship he is on is blocking any signal.” Kat sighed and turned to Rhodey. “What do we do, call the team?” That was a stupid question, she and Rhodey were the team.
“Unfortunately, I need to call Secretary Ross. He controls the Avengers now, whether we like it or not.” Rhodey turned and headed to a conference room, and Kat got up to put her mug in the sink, going into her room to take a shower and change. She pulled on a pair of leggings and a t-shirt, pulling on her training shoes on and heading down to find Rhodey.
When she got to the conference room, there was another man there, who she recognized as Bruce Banner, or the Hulk on his bad days. He held his hand out when she sat at the table. “I’m Bruce.” Kat smiled at him and took it, shaking it softly. “Hey, I’m Katherine, newest Avenger I guess.” He gave her a warm smile then told Rhodey he was going off for a shower and to change clothes.
Kat sat and listened to Ross bicker with Rhodey about where Captain America and the rest of the Avengers where. As if on cue, Kat looked up to see the Captain himself walking down the hall with Black Widow and three other people she didn’t recognize. She was mesmerized for a second. Let’s just say the textbooks and television did nothing to prepare her for how attractive Steve Rogers was. Even when he was in an edgier suit, he still looked damn good. Kat shook her head to get rid of the thoughts as Rhodey ended the call with Ross and introduced her to them.
“I’m Katherine, Kat for short.” Steve smiled down at her. “I’m Steve.”
“Nat.”
“Sam.”
“Wanda.”
“Vision.”
“It’s great to meet you all, the compound is creepy when it’s empty.” Steve laughed at that and everyone went up to the upper area of the conference room. It would be an understatement to say that Kat was nervous. She was terrified. It was one thing to go up against aliens in a simulation, but now? There was a very good chance she’d have to go out and fight them for real, and what if Rhodey still didn’t think she was ready? What if Steve or Nat didn’t?
“So we gotta assume they’re comin back right?” Rhodey asked.
“They can clearly find us.” Wanda added.
“We need everyone on deck, where’s Clint?” Bruce asked. Nat told him that he and Scott, who was apparently Ant-Man, took plea deals and were on house arrest. Bruce seemed very confused by all the new players that have come into the team since he’s been gone.
“Okay look, Thanos has the biggest army in the universe, and he isn’t gonna stop until he gets…” He trailed off…looking to Vision. “Well then we have to protect it.” Nat told him.
“Where is Thor right now?” Steve asked. Kat looked down and Rhodey looked over to her. “Have you been able to get in contact with Loki?” He asked her. She shook her head.
“What do you mean Loki?” Nat asked.
“A couple months ago, Loki and a woman named Valkyrie came here asking Tony for help. Asgard was destroyed and they have a refugee ship in space with hundreds of Asgardians on it. While Tony was working on finding them a place to live, Loki and Valkyrie stayed here. We went and found Kat and they were training with her.” Rhodey told them.
“Wait, we’re talking about the same Loki that attacked New York, right?” Steve said.
“That wasn’t him.” Kat interjected. “That was Thanos. He was in Loki’s head, controlling him, making him think it was what he wanted. He’s not like that anymore.”
“When Tones found a place for the Asgardians to go, Loki and Valkyrie went back to the ship to tell Thor.”
“That was a month ago. Heimdall won’t answer when I call for him, and that makes me think that something bad happened to them. To him.” Kat said quietly. Steve stared at the girl, knees pulled up to her chest, head resting on them, tears brimming her eyes. There was something more going on between her and Loki, and he wanted to make sure that the Trickster wasn’t controlling her somehow. He would have to ask Rhodey about it.
“We have to destroy it.” Vision said from across the room, still holding his abdomen. Kat was confused by what he was. He looked like a robot, but he had an open wound like a human, but it wasn’t bleeding, and he moved and talked like everyone else. Everyone looked over at him as he explained how he thinks Wanda could destroy it with her powers because she got them from a stone, similar to his. She refused, saying that it was too high a price. It was clear she loved Vision, and it seemed like he could love her too, which brought Kat back to her point of was he a robot.
“We don’t trade lives Vision.” Steve told him.
“Captain, seventy years ago you laid down your life to save how many millions of people? Tell me, why is this any different?” He asked the Captain. He had a point. Kat had grown up learning about Captain America and The Howling Commandos. How he took a plane down into the ice so a bomb wouldn’t go off, killing millions of people. It was the most heroic tale she’d heard, and one that had stuck with her more than most historic tales.
“Because you have a choice here.” Bruce said. “You are made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, the Stone. All of them mixed together, all learning from one another.”
“You’re saying Vision isn’t just the stone?” Wanda asked.
“I’m saying that if we take out the stone, there’s still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts.”
“Can we do that?” Nat asked. This was way over Kat’s level. She felt like she was smart, not Tony Stark smart, or Bruce Banner for that matter, but she considered herself smart. But separating Vision from the stone that basically gave him life? Could they do that?
“Not me, not here.” Bruce told her.
“I know somewhere.”