Chapter 3
Upon arriving at the floating sky-fortress, Andrew and Persephone trailed behind the rest of the quintets occupants, bar Loki and Stark, the latter who had neglected to rejoin the group for the remainder of the flight and the former escorted by an armed guard elsewhere. Eventually the eclectic posse converged in a conference room to observe the attempts of a modern day Captain Hook to intimidate the god (? Andrew still held reservations with regards to his divine nature). While the others remained stoic and traded weighted glances in accordance with the interplay, Persephone and Andrew continued to discuss the situation in low tones, unassuming in the corner of the room.
“Why has your Mother involved us in this? This is clearly Not Our Job TM.” Andrew snickered into her shoulder as he braced his arm on the wall behind her.
“Did you just verbally trademark your words?” “I-” “No, wait Don’t say anything. Of course you did because you’re secretly a geek just like me.”
Persephone scowled at her companion, “That doesn’t answer my question.” Crossing her arms and shoving her companion back, Persephone glared at Andrew until he corrected his posture and settled his amusement.
Scratching the back of his neck, he seemed to ponder his answer for moment, “Athena would not send us into a scenario such as this lightly. Clearly there is some inter-pantheon or interplanetary implications, if we actually believe these others to be gods or even aliens. We may as well be functioning as ambassadors of the Greeks to the intercultural incident developing as a result of this Loki and the Tessaract, whatever that may be.” He hummed briefly, “We should be careful with what information we divulge, we don’t know if Athena or Zeus intends for us to breach the subject of our origins.” At this a low roll of thunder seemed to roll through the otherwise calm skies, “We should take that as confirmation and just attempt to help contain whatever world ending crisis has risen.”
Persephone sighed deeply, clearly exasperated, with the gods or the situation Andrew isn’t sure, but he still reached out to rub his hand soothingly across her shoulders and back. Their momentary silence allowed for Persephone to tune into the timid scientist that joined the posse in the conference room, “-could smell crazy on him.”
In an attempt to dispel her depressive mood she chose to interject, “Does crazy have a smell? Is it more desperation and ego or fear and loathing?”
The largest blond present chose to ignore her comment and directed his recrimination to the scientist, further irritating the raven beauty, “Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother.” - The red-headed agent chimed in with an unproductive, “He killed 80 people in two days.” - “He’s adopted.”
Andrew had to grab Persephone’s arm to stop her from charging the oaf, “That’s bullshit! Family is complicated, but that doesn’t mean you get to debase his relationship to you! Several of my siblings have attempted to murder me, but that doesn’t allow me to simply write them off like a rent-a-family-member.” Andrew was finally able to yank Perse back from the direct attentions of the others present, while seemingly disturbed by the young woman’s words, particularly the blond whose eyes remained on the young woman, the group refocused on the previous discussion despite the brief interruption.
The conversation continued with the addition of Stark and a nondescript agent who skirted around the edge of the room towards the young couple. Andrew remained attentive to the conversation surrounding them, but Persephone was watching the new player’s body language and his own response to their presence. Upon reaching the couple, the agent simply offered them a change of clothes. Persephone was surprised by his lack of inquiry and his offer of a small kindness, her appraisal of the man put him at a higher level of esteem of the remainder of their current colleagues. She was quick to accept the offer on behalf of both herself and Andrew, but was halted from asking any questions by the arrival of Captain Hook.
Having heard little to none of the discussion up until that point, Persephone continued to ignore the dialogue and focused on the array of body language present in the room, from the American patriot’s earnestness at some movie reference, to Stark’s exasperation, and the scientist’s timidity. She quietly thought to herself, This would make for a terrible team, the dynamics would be shot to hell and fraught with strife and condemnation.
“And who the hell brought a pair of kids onto my helicarrier?” The eye-deficient man, Persephone thought she heard him referred to as Fury (an apt moniker), demanded of the room as a whole. It was the Black Widow that rose from her seat at the table to address the man.
“They were confronting Loki prior to our arrival. Not only were they using their outdated weapons with great proficiency, but they were pretty much containing the situation on their own. I figured you would want to speak to them.” The room, Fury included, turned to stare at the couple in question.
Andrew stepped forward, “My name’s Andrew,” waiving to his companion, “this is Perse. I think we could lend you guys a helping hand.” Behind him, Andrew could hear Persephone muttering about them needing more than a helping hand, but refused to be distracted and remained focused on the man, Fury.
“I don’t know what you think you could offer, but do you really think you’re prepared to engage alien gods?” Fury seemed arrogant, but Andrew had to deal with his mother on a regular basis and was not cowed by some superficial estimation of his skills.
“If you need help understanding, I do believe your agent just informed you that the two of us were perfectly capable of handling Loki before their intervention. And not just that, but I happen to know a thing or two about super-reactors and thermonuclear astrophysics.” Perhaps not as much as two of the most studied and lauded men in modern science, Andrew privately thought to himself. “And” redirecting his words towards the red-head, “just because you cannot comprehend the skill and capability of proper forged weapons, does not mean our blades are outdated.”
There was a timid cough and Dr. Banner, of course Andrew recognized the man with 7 PhDs, proceeded to clean the lenses of his glasses in a nervous manner.
Fury seemed temporarily stymied by the youth’s obstinance, before curtly instructing Andrew to join Stark and Banner in the labs, only for Persephone to object and insist that she remained with her partner. Fury relented and as the quartet left the conference room, Andrew heard Perse ask the quiet agent to bring the offered change of clothes to them in the lab.