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ANASTASIA STOOD BY STEVE AS THEY WATCHED LOKI THROUGH THE MONITOR. She heard Ingrad passing back and forth. She wanted to say something to her but she didn't even know how to begin. Anastasia always assumed she was an empathetic person, but she couldn't relate or even remotely understand how Ingrad was feeling. She didn't know exactly who he was to her,but that still didn't mean you could see the pain in every step she had or every look she had toward Anastasia.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce said, breaking the silence.
"Loki's gonna drag this out, so, Thor, what's his play?" Steve turned from Anastasia and to the rest of the team.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor sighed as he and Ingrad made their way to the table.
"An army from outer space?" Steve asked, genuinely confused.
"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce connected. Ingrad sat up straight as if the name some how triggered something unknown to Anastasia.
"Selvig?" Thor and Ingrad asked in unison, with Ingrad's american accent shining more than her father's asgardian accent.
"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce quickly explained.
"Yeah, well he was also a friend." Ingrad said, melancholy.
"Loki had him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha said. Anastasia hugged her mother from behind as she remembered Clint and the last time she saw him. In a way, she would never admit it, but she felt responsible for Clint's kidnapping.
" I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Bruce suggested.
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor defended. Thor's brother? So that would make him Ingrad's uncle. That's why she looked betrayed. That made Anastasia want empathize with her more. She was sure if her mom had a sister, and she betrayed them, that Anastasia would be hurting as well.
Or if her father did.
Anastasia never tried to think much about her dad.Her and her mom were doing just fine on their own. She had a small family within S.H.I.E.L.D. She had Fury, Coulson, Ward, Fitz, Simmons, Maria, and Clint. But she knew part of her would pay anything to see her father. If she could, she would ask him why he doesn't care enough to be with them, but that's if she ever saw him. Or if he was even alive, which seemed more likely.
Anastasia quickly joined back into the conversation after her long deep thought. Tony covered his eye and looked around. "How does Fury do this?"
Maria glanced over, annoyed. "He turns."
"Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria questioned.
" Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Probably." Anastasia murmured. Another thing about Anastasia, she despised Tony Stark. Long story short, her mom worked with him undercover and discovered very quickly that he was a selfish jerk who only seemed to care for himself.
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve questioned.
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce explained.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony interrupted.
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce started to argue.
"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony's face brightened.
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked. Anastasia nodded her head as she couldn't agree more.
She watched as they shook hands. How could Tony Stark be a jerk and charming at the same time. It pissed her off.
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve continued.
" I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."Fury stated. Anastasia snickered at the 'Wizard of OZ' reference Fury made.
"Flying monkeys? I do not understand." Thor said, confused. Ingrad patted her dad on his shoulder and grinned at him.
"I do!" Steve pointed his finger upward and looked around. "I understood that reference."
AUTHORS NOTE
(11.25.22)
So it's been longer than a month since I've posted on this book so I'm glad I finally did it! Anyways, HAPPY THANKSGIVING (well yesterday was thanksgiving but still) this is my little gift to everyone! Have a great day!
