The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 71

"In case it's unclear," I was watching Fury interact with Loki on a tablet Coulson had given me, "You try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass," He opened the drop that the chamber Loki was in would fall through, "Thirty thousand feet, straight down, in a steel trap! You get how that works?" He closed it, "Ant." He pointed at Loki, "Boot." He gestured to the console. But Loki wasn't intimidated, he just chuckled.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard." He looked right at the camera, "A mindless beast, who makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you? That you'd call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooo, it burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power, and for what?" He scoffed a bit and looked directly at the camera again, "A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is." Fury didn't take the bait either.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." He left, leaving Loki inside the glass cage. After that, our tablets turned off.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" It was Dr. Banner. The only one who hadn't heard our conversation in the conference room.

"Loki's going to drag this out. So. Thor, Peggy, what's it's play?"

"My name is Arista now. I insist you call me that."

"He has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard, or any world known to us. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army. From outer space."

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"What about Jane!?" I cut in, "She an astrophysicist too."

"She was offered a consulting job on a remote island. She'll be safe there."

"Loki has Selvig under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours."

"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think he should be focusing on Loki, that guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak! Loki may be beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."

"He killed 80 people in two days."

"He's adopted." I punched Thor in the arm.

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium." Banner mused, "What do they need the iridium for?"

"Stabilizing agent." Stark came onto the bridge and was talking to Coulson. He looked like he was trying to convince him to do something, "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD." He came up to Thor, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." He spoke to the bridge crew now, "Uh, raise the mid-mass, shift the top sails. That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." He went to where Fury had been standing when I entered the bridge and tried to see the screens.