In The Shadows | Loki

I'M GOING TO TRY SOMETHING

A shrill alarm ripped through the tower, jolting both Loki and I from our bed. We exchange a quick look before diving for our uniforms. It was the Avengers alarm, one that told us that trouble wasn't coming, it was already here. My suit still fits like a glove, even with everything that had happend the past months, and it was a small mercy. I grab my swords as Loki has a dagger materialize in his hand, and we head to the common room. We arrive the same time Nat and Clint do, with Thor, Steve, and Tony waiting. Sif would have been here too, but she had gone back to Asgard after two weeks to report to Odin and Frigga. 
        "What's the situation?" Nat is all business, guns loaded and ready to go in every holster she has. 
        "Magic user in Jersey. She's causing havoc, ripping through a small town near Trenton. If we don't work fast, she might head that way." Steve replies. "It should only take the quinjet a ten minutes to get there. Stark, you'll go ahead and give us an idea of what we're dealing with. Thor, join him." Both men give terse nods. "The rest of us, we'll get there with the Jet." I see Steve's eyes dart my way, and he hesitates. "Ophelia, are you.... are you okay to help?" 
        I raise an eyebrow at that, a little offended by what he was implying. "I'm more than my powers, Steve." I lay one hand on the cylinders on my belt, and he sighs. 
        "Right. Let's go." Thor and Tony go to the balcony and take off as the rest of us load onto the jet. Clint pilot's, pushing the jet to its limits as Steve receives more news from SHIELD. Whoever this was, she was trying to cause as much damage as she could before help arrived. She had taken out a large amount of the police force there already, causing mass panic. 
        Tony arrived a few minutes before the jet would be there, and he and Thor began doing what they could to get people out of the way. The woman, though, was not pleased to hear and see the jet approach. The second we were in range, a bolt of something headed our way. Clint narrowly avoided it, immediately moving towards the ground the best he can while avoid more shots from the woman. 
        "Is she mutant?" I'm not sure who Nat's question is directed too, but Loki answers.
        "Possibly. The magic she's using isn't the kind of magic the people on Midgard practice. It may just be a formation of her energy." Loki explains. I shoot him a curious look, having not heard of anyone on earth using magic, but he shakes his head. He'd tell me later. 
        "Either way, try not to get hit with whatever it is." Tony shoots around her with repulser blasts, distracting her long enough for us to get on the ground, just out of sight. Without needing to be told, Clint takes off for a sniper position, his eyes scanning the buildings as he goes. "We need to spread out. Romanoff, you're with me heading east. Loki, Winters, you take west. If anyone sees civilians, getting them out is priority, got it?" Nods all around. "Incapacitate, not kill if at all possible. That being said, if you get a chance, take it. Go!" 
        Loki and I move quickly, staying behind buildings for as long as we can before moving closer to the chaos. We use overturned cars and rubble as cover, though Tony and Thor are doing a pretty good job at keeping her distracted. Once Clint finds a perch, he joins as well, shooting multiple sonic and flashbang arrows around her. Whoever she was, she didn't have enough concentrate to attack and ward of the team at the same time. 
        Until she does.
        A strike from Thor lands a hair too close, and the woman screams. We watch her hunch in on herself for only a second before she releases a blast of power that tosses everyone within half a mile onto their ass. Clint is the only one spared from the hit, as high up as he is, so he's the one screaming in our ears about what just happened. About the energy beasts the woman had produced. 
        The energy was an angry orange color, and the creatures, while not large, came out in a massive number. They surrounded the woman, making her platinum blonde hair whip around her face as her skin began to glow. 
        "My repulsers aren't working on these things!"
        "Neither are guns or arrows. Loki? Ophelia?" Steve asks over the coms. My swords do nothing, passing through the forms like a breeze through grass. I turn to Loki, slightly panicked, when he just... snatches one out of the air. I watch as he holds it between his palms, his fingers practically dripping with his own magic. 
        "This is natural. A Mutation." Loki grunts, doing something that makes the creature scream before bursting into nothing. "I don't have enough magic to take out more than one at a time. We need something else." 
        "I can't get a visual." Clint replies. Sure enough the creatures were surrounding her to the point that Clint wouldn't be able to see any part of her. 
        I had never felt more useless. Nothing was working, not a single weapon, not even Thor's powers. Loki was only able to take out one at a time, and there just seemed to be more coming. 
        "The X-Men are coming, but it will be an hour before they get here." 
        "We  don't have time for that. If these thing-" Nat curses as the creatures begin to get closer, angrier. Next to me, Loki lunges and grabs one that was aiming for him. We both miss the one heading straight for me. 
        It slams into my back, sending me flying down the rubble covered street. 
        Except, I don't feel anything. I almost... it feels like I absorb the energy when I hit the ground. Loki shouts in alarm, and I hear screaming in my ears, but nothing is happening besides that initial hit. I get back to my feet, confused as Steve screams when one burns his arm. I turn to look at the swirling mass of energy beasts, before the thought hits me. 
        "I'm going to try something."
        "What? Ophelia, don't-" I stop listening, taking in a deep breath and closing my eyes. 
        "All I have to do is picture the place in my mind, and will myself there. I have to know it, be able to see it, but if I can do that, I can appear there."
        I picture the concrete slab the woman had been standing on, the one now hidden by the creatures. 
        When I open my eyes, I'm right in front of her, with her staring at me with shock. "How-" I don't let her get any more out, appearing behind her before wrapping my arm around her throat, pulling her into a headlock. I squeeze, and she starts scrambling. The issue, though, is that her beasts are doing nothing. 
        Her movements get weaker, her scrambles to get away slowly becoming less frantic. around us, the beasts begin to disappear, vanishing completely when she slumps over, unconscious. I let her go, not feeling too guilty when she hits the ground. I barely hear the others surrounding us, too absorbed in my own thoughts to even think about their words. 
        "Ophelia!" It's Loki's worried shout that gets through. "Love, what was that?" 
        And then I can't stop it. I can't stop the crazed, unbelieving laugh that crawls its way up my throat, and I can't stop to breathe as the laughter takes over. I sink to my knees, and Loki follows, concern written across his face. 
        "Brother?" Loki glances Thor's direction. "Brother, you don't see it?"
        "Don't see what, Point Break?" 
        "Thor, explain." I hear Thor sigh through my laughter. He waits, though, waits for the strangled sound coming from me to stop. He waits for me to breathe, for Loki to take me in his arms. Thor says the truth I realized. 
        "She's the goddess of mutant-kind."