Chapter Two
It had taken some time but he had come to respect Midgard's prowess in the field of Architecture. Loki had photographs of himself in front of some of the most impressive examples of architectural ingenuity in Midgard. The Eiffel Tower during the 1889 World Fair, the Taj Mahal in 1906, the Empire State Building after its completion in 1931. As soon as Loki saw Stark Tower he knew he’d sooner lop off his own foot than take a picture in front of it for his collection.
Stark Tower stuck out like a sore, ugly thumb. Never had he seen a building so inexcusably horrendous, and he’d spent one disastrous night in Trump Tower and traveled Midgard when humans lived in thatched huts.
“Are you coming?” Ms. Rushman asked, stepping out of the building. Again, her presence was impressive, fake pleasantness overlaid over fake impatience. He could have trained her himself.
“Who designed this building?” He asked.
“Stark and Pepper Potts.”
“Its ugly.” He said, lip curling. “I do hope Stark is a better engineer than architect.”
Ms. Rushman smiled. Not a lie. “He is. Now, if you’ll follow me please.”
Loki followed her into the building and was gladdened that the inside was a bit more palatable than the outside, with smooth modern lines and subtle blue accents. Ms. Rushman slid around a row of metal detectors and bag scanners.
“Just a precaution.” She said, gesturing for him to move through the security, which seemed to be automated.
Loki nodded and obligingly did as told. Neither the metal detector nor the bag scanner pinged. They must scan for objects and categorize them. Ms. Rushman would likely set them off, as she was most likely conventionally armed, but a bracelet and a ring passed right through.
“Now that I am here, would you oblige me by telling me a bit more about this project?”
Ms. Rushman remained quiet until they entered the elevator, which was basically a glorified glass cylinder with a tangible hologram keypad. A keypad, Loki noticed, that Ms. Rushman didn’t bother to touch, the elevator shooting upward without command. At least it was faster than the one in his apartment building
“I am sorry, you’ll have to wait to speak to Mr. Stark. I don’t have the credentials to tell you.”
Loki very much doubted that but didn’t bother to challenge the lie as the elevator slowed to a stop, the doors opening to allow them into a bubble-like foyer with a few plants and another security check retrofitted into a doorway.
They both walked through the security-door without issue despite the fact Ms. Rushman had at least a knife on her, if not several knives and a gun. Out of curiosity, he sent out a tendril of magic, sensing a gun at her back, several knives strapped to her thighs, and metal disks up her sleeves. And yet the detectors didn’t go off. Was Stark a shitty engineer or was there something infinitely more fascinating afoot?
“If it isn’t my favorite red-head, back with the space-man-that-hopefully-can!” Someone crooned, stepping into the hallway with a grin.
Ms. Rushman’s lips pulled into a grudging smile in response. Loki’s did not. He had seen Tony Stark on TV but in the flesh the man was shorter than the television would lead one to believe. Though likely just as annoying.
“Stark.” Loki said, nodding his head.
“Wow you’re real stoic, aren’t you space man.” Stark said, tapping his hands on the wall behind him. “I looked you up and all of your photos feature the same face. Do you ever smile?”
“I do when I hear something funny.” He looked Stark up and down and flashed his teeth in a fake grin. “Or when I see something funny.”
“Ohhhhh.” Stark’s grin got a bit more genuine. “Space-baby got bite!”
Loki smirked a bit at that. His current persona was documented to be 28, young by any standards, especially considering his perceived accreditations. It was forever amusing to have creatures centuries younger than him reference his youth.
“If you’re done with your dick measuring contest,” someone boomed from the room behind Stark, “then we can get started.”
“Eye eye, sir.” Stark said, laughing as he whirled back into the room.
Loki didn’t get the joke until he saw the man at the back of the lab. He was tall and imposing, a man used to being in charge and used to fighting to be in charge. The eye not hidden behind a patch spoke volumes of how un-amused he was by the quip.
On the other side of the lab, fiddling with a scanner, was Bruce Banner, who looked rumpled and sleep deprived. Loki assumed he’d be called in. Banner was the premier scientific mind when it came to gamma rays. He was also not alone. Loki could sense something writhing within him, something hulking and powerful and barely locked down. Something infinite and angry. Loki’s heart rate spiked and he forced himself to stay blank.
“Bruce Banner, it’s a pleasure to meet you. You’re work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled.” He said. It sounded better than, Bruce Banner, what an interesting monster you have inside of you.
At that Banner snorts and jerks his head at Stark. “That’s what he said.”
“Now that we all know each other.” Mr. Eyepatch began.
Stark raised his hand. “Actually you didn’t introduce yourself-.”
“I am Nick Fury, I work for the U.S. Government-.”
“SHEILD.” Stark coughs, confirming Loki's suspicion.
“-We are in charge of assessing and containing extraordinary threats to this planet. My people contracted Stark, who we had contact you, because we need help tracing a very dangerous element that has fallen into enemy hands.”
“And what exactly is this element, if I may ask?” Loki queried, playing along.
“You must understand, Mr. Laufey, if we bring you into this, you will become the recipient of unrepeatable knowledge. Your Stark contract stated you could never share anything you learned on this job. We will hold you to that.”
Loki resisted the urge to roll his eyes. This part of the game was neither interesting nor constructive.
Fury took his silence as acquiesce and continued. “Several months ago we rediscovered a device known as the Tesseract, a power source found by HYDRA during World War II and used to make advanced weaponry.” At this he gestures to Stark, who rolled his eyes but waved his hand, pulling up a holographic screen. “That is the Tesseract.”
The screen flickered and an image solidified. In the video the artifact is held in a containment unit, a man with white hair pacing around it, writing down notes on a clipboard and tapping his chin with a finger. Loki knew that man, had seen him at a conference just this year.
“Erik Selvig.” He stated.
“Yes. He was the one that discovered that the Tesseract was reacting to something the day before yesterday. He hypothesized it was opening a portal. As it turns out, it was a good hypothesis.”
Loki didn’t dare to blink, eyes glued to the holoscreen as the artifact sparked a brilliant blue, expanding outward like a supernova. Loki felt phantom vibrations in his hands. He leaned forward and watched, enraptured, the artifact exploded outward, filling the room with dust and gas that he knew tasted like electricity. A figure rose from the center of the explosion, dress swirling around her ankles. Loki forced down a flinch as someone he never expected to see again emerged from the smoke. Amora the Enchantress. For the second time in one day, he found himself standing as a player on a new board. This changes everything.
Centuries after his fall, Loki had heard rumor that Amora attempted to ensorcel Thor into loving her. Odin had caught her, of course, and tossed her from Asguard for betraying the royal family. Loki had mourned for the girl she’d been before it all.
On the screen, Amora held out a hand gauntleted with a blue gem, the pair of the artifact behind her. She turned to Selvig and he jerked forward into her grasp, his eyes washing blue. An arrow few down toward her heart and pinged off her chest, useless. She turned in the direction of the projectile and threw out her hand, sending a blast of blue toward the archer. A shadow fell onto the screen, running toward her and lashing out with a bow. She grabbed it and wrenched it from the archer’s hands, kicking out with unexpected speed. The archer dodged, but she lashed out with magic and he flew forward, feet leaving the ground. Her hand fell across his heart and his eyes bled blue.
Next to him Ms. Rushman shifted. His eyes flicked to her but for once she was not fixated on him. Her eyes were on the archer as he grabbed his bow and shot down one of his comrades before coming to stand behind Amora like a toy soldier.
Amora threw her head back and shook with laughter, shouting something before reaching for the artifact and disappearing in a flash of light. The humans left on screen bolted seconds after she vanished, spiriting from the rolling mass of energy left in the middle of the room. Loki watched as it expanded, becoming more and more unstable, until it crossed a threshold and exploded outward in a shock of blue and white.
The video cut into static and Loki’s muscles tightened under his skin. This was worse than he had anticipated for in the Uber. He had suspected he’d be tracking down humans. His plan was to allow SHEILD to retrieve the artifact and then benevolently liberate it from them in the dead of night. But Amora was a different matter, and this wasn’t all her plan. She was a decent Sorcerer but she didn’t have the power, or knowledge, to make that gauntlet she wore. Nor had she ever displayed interest in Midgard when he knew her. If she were simply stealing the artifact and vanishing back into the fold of the universe, she would have done it without capturing the humans or displaying quite as much fan fair.
She was here to stay, at someone else’s bequest. Odin’s beard. I am going to actually have to get involved with this at some point.
“What is she?” Loki asked, setting the ball back in motion. They had work to do and the faster this went, the better.
“An alien.” Fury replied. “She’s part of a species that call themselves Asgardians.”
Loki's muscles twitches unseen under his suit. “How do you know that?” He probed. “Get a lot of off-world visitors?”
“No. This video is just missing the sound. She announced herself as Amora of Asguard, said a bunch of other shit about the unworthiness of humanity and made some ominous comments.” Fury replied and Loki relaxed incrementally. The last thing he wanted was to hear Asgard had formally made its existence known to Midgard.
“And what does she want with this Tesseract?”
“We don’t know, but we suspect she has an interest in the Tesseract’s capabilities as a portal. We need to locate her but Erik Selvig was our Astrophysical expert on the Tesseract and now she is controlling him like a flying monkey. Banner and Stark couldn’t trace the object on their own-.”
“We totally could if we had more time.” Stark cut in.
“So we went to find the next best expert and you were it. That algorithm you developed is what we need.”
“If you even have it.” Stark said.
Loki nodded his head. “I will help.”
“Good.” Fury nodded and strode to the door, posture military crisp. “I have work to do. Keep me appraised.”
There was a silent moment before Stark clapped his hands together and turned to Loki. “So, this is your show now I guess. Banner and I have done all the leg work, you just gotta finish the relay.”
“The last part of the race is the hardest.” Loki replied, somewhat depressed he knew Midgard's sports better than a Midgardian.
Stark snorted. “JARVIS, pull up what we have so far.”
“Gladly, sir.” Someone said in a crisp British accent, the room filling with a faint blue light as holographs popped up across the lab.
Loki looks around and then up, actually startled. He was the only one, Banner and Rushman don’t even twitch, and they are indeed the only others in the room. He couldn’t sense anyone else. “What-.”
“Oh, that’s just my AI. His name is JARVIS.”
“JARVIS.” Loki blinked once, and then again after he processed the statement. “An AI... Are you self aware?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How do you figure?”
“Well, sir. My job is to watch the Tower and to help Mr. Stark. However, sometimes Mr. Stark does things that makes me not want to help him. But I do it anyway, as that is my programming.”
Loki thought about this. “You have a personality?”
“Yes, though that is a bit of a rude question, Sir."
“My apologies.” Loki blinks, his stomach bubbling with excitement.
If JARVIS was what he seemed to be, he was a lot like Lokakot and Lokakot was a masterpiece. Loki had built his house from the ground up, imbuing every inch of her with magic, spending months alone with Loka in the pocket dimension, shaping her into something with a spark of life. She was one of the great prides of his existence.
Loki turned to Stark, compelled to complement him as he would a fellow Sorcerer. “I cannot believe you are famous for developing a flying piece of armor when you have also created this.”
Something flashed briefly through Starks eyes before he makes a show of puffing out his chest. “Iron Man is much more than a flying piece of armor, thank you very much.”
Loki scoffed. “From what I can see, compared to JARVIS it is practically a can opener.”
“Thank you Mr. Laufey.” JARVIS said diplomatically.
“What, you’re an expert on Artificial Intelligence now? Whatever. Just get looking at the stuff. Time’s wasting away.” Stark grouched, throwing himself dramatically into a chair. Loki thought he didn't genuinely look displeased.
Loki turned to the screens, reading the data outputs. “You’ve already begun scanning for the gamma rays then.”
“Yes.” Banner said, curving inwards as he frowned. “Without luck.”
There was no reason that Amora would think to hide the cube from the searches of Midgardian technology. Like most Asgardians, she dismissed the works of humans as infantile. Banners approach should be working… Unless she hid herself from Heimdall using the unrefined version of the spell he had taught her. That spell may confuse the scanners but it wouldn’t confuse Loki’s algorithm. In a way, his time on Midgard has shaped him into a better Sorcerer. It encouraged to seek magic beyond that of the Aesir and to learn to translate magic into a new language, Mathematics.
His algorithm, when fed through the proper technology, could find anything through any defense, be it physical or magical.
He turned to Stark, eyeing him critically for a moment. Time for a test. “Do you consider yourself to be an honorable man, Mr. Stark?”
“Excuse me?”
“Do you keep your word when you give it in earnest.”
“Are you asking me if I can keep a pinky promise?”
“I am asking if you have integrity. If I plug my algorithm into your technology, will you promise to wipe all record of it and to allow me to keep its mysteries to myself.”
Stark blinked at him, shocked. “You’d trust me to keep my word if I gave it? Have you ever even heard of corporate espionage?”
“I will know if you lie.” And if you do I will rip my algorithm from JARVIS and rain Hel upon you. Unless it is a good lie, in which case I will just break a few bones and take JARVIS for myself.
“Uh, alrighty then.” Stark said, still looking wrong footed. “I pinky promise to wipe all record of your algorithm from my servers and to never recreate it.” No lie.
“JARVIS?”
“Yes sir?”
“Will you promise as well?” Stark looked even more flabbergasted at that. Loki had the feeling that Stark was not usually this flappable, but then again he had never been in Loki’s presence before.
“I am not programed to prevent Mr. Stark from gaining it if he is determined to.”
“Doesn’t matter. Will you promise?”
A pause, as if the AI were thinking. Excitement bubbled again. Just how complicated was JARVIS's thought process. “Yes.” JARVIS said eventually.
Loki nodded, he could explore JARVIS's capabilities later. “Thank you. I’ll need a computer connected to your server.”
Ms. Rushman handed him a laptop. He looked at it and then at her. Her face gave nothing away but he’d be willing to bet the computer had been in SHEILD hands before it was in hers.
Before he could open his mouth to refuse the laptop, Stark spoke up. “She doesn’t work for me. She works for SHEILD.
Now it was Loki’s turn to be surprised
“Stark!” Ms. Rushman snapped.
“What? I just promised! It was a pinky promise! I can’t let Fury get his mitts on this poor guys tech. It’d be pretty hypocritical of me to feed him to the wolves like tha-.”
Loki eyed Stark’s honest expression, ignoring the flood of words. He was going to be more involved in this quest than originally planned. He might as well reveal a truth for a truth, in appreciation for Starks unexpected goodwill. “I knew.”
Stark paused mid-gesture. “What?”
“I knew she was a spy. She has a gun strapped into a back holster and moves like she could impale my spleen on one of her heels. But thank you, as much as I appreciate a good liar, I also appreciate honesty when I ask for it.”
Ms. Rushman turned to look at him, eyes edged in suspicion. She’d dropped her disguise as soon as Loki identified the location of her firearm, her stance moving onto something light-footed and fluid. If Loki ever dropped his Professor act, that was how he would stand as well. He smiled at her slyly, “I apologize for my deception, but I do believe we are even.
“How do you know where I keep my gun?” She asked, eyes narrowed.
Loki smiled for real. “I always know.”
“Uh, that’s cryptic and all,” Stark said, “but we kinda have a glow cube of death to find.”
Loki nodded and walked towards one of the computers near Banner, sliding a hand into his pocket and visualizing his algorithm. Numbers spun through his head and he focused his magic in the palm of his hand, condensing his algorithm into the form of a flash drive.
He sat down at one of the StarkTech computers and inserted the drive. Instantly the program pulled up and he typed in the parameters, using his body to shield the fact that he was largely inserting the commands with magic. After a minute the algorithm was filled out and he sent out the final command, the hair on his arms standing as magic permeated the air.
A map opened on the largest holoscreen and began to triangulate.
He turned to Ms. Rushman. “You should summon Fury and let him know that he’ll have his location in an hour.”