Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

41. Catching Up

The ruins of the research facility made for a poor base of operations, but Coulson was keen to remain relatively close, so a helicopter was arranged to airlift them to a more structurally sound SHIELD bunker the best part of an hour away.

'My apologies if this is not to your usual standards of accommodation, your highnesses,' Romanoff said when she brought the helicopter down onto a poorly maintained landing zone.

By the time Loki and Thor had unbuckled their seatbelts, the small squadron of SHIELD agents who had accompanied them had thrown open the cabin door and rushed out to secure the surrounding area. Coulson and Thor were quick to follow them, but Loki trudged out. The bunker really was nothing to be enthused about. The bulk of it had been buried into the hill, with only the weather-worn concrete facade jutting out. Inside, the fluorescent light fixtures inside flickered unpleasantly and the air smelled as if the place hadn't been inhabited for a decade.

'Director Fury possessed encyclopaedic knowledge of SHIELD's facilities,' Coulson said. 'This is the only place this side of the country that he might not know about and that contains the equipment we need.'

'I trust you're scouting other SHIELD facilities right now? If your director knew their locations, they seem like a good place to hide,' Thor said.

'Unless he's intelligent enough to know that those would be the first places SHIELD would look,' Loki replied.

'Fury is nothing if not conniving,' Coulson said, 'but are checking all the locations we know about. Due diligence and all.'

As Loki nodded, he trod over something solid and once he shifted his foot, he cringed. He wasn't quite certain, but the offending object looked decidedly like dried-out rat dung. The place Barton had taken him to had at least been clean, if rather lacking fresh air. He wondered if Ebony Maw and his accomplices hid in the very same place right now. Not that Loki could guide anyone there. Between the long hours spent on invasion preparations during his last days in the Sanctuary and the infinity stone inside the sceptre warping his mind, Loki hadn't been in best shape when he had arrived on Midgard. He had let Barton take the lead after they had secured the Tesseract.

'I may be able to track the Tesseract for you.' Loki ignored the startled double-take Thor performed. 'If I have the right equipment. The artefact emits all sorts of energy, but it also spurts out low levels of gamma radiation. Unless they have found some place to bunker down beneath a few dozen feet of lead lining, it should be trackable.'

'We'll see what we can do in terms of equipment,' Coulson replied, but in his tone Loki read exactly what the Midgardian was thinking - his director was an intelligent man, he was undoubtedly hiding out beneath fifty feet of lead right this moment. 'Agent Romanoff, could you show our new friends where the sleeping areas are. They might want to rest or freshen up while we work through the bureaucratic backlog.'

Romanoff gave them a tour of the areas of the bunker not dedicated to operational support, putting on the air of a hotelier who didn't quite realise that what he thought was a top-notch establishment was, in fact, a disintegrating shack in the middle of the woods. Thor laughed heartily at her every word, while Loki hung back, only chuckling along where he felt he had to. He was a master liar and she had managed to trick him once before, Loki wasn't about to give her the opportunity to get the better of them now. But there was no reveal. She finished the tour at a sparsely-furnished room Thor and Loki would be sharing and excused herself, leaving the two brothers alone.

Thor set Mjolnir down on the linoleum-lined floor and sat down on the bed closest to the door. The bed-frame sagged under his weight, not that Thor seemed to notice.

'What happened with you?' he asked. 'You look like you haven't slept in weeks.'

Who'd waste time on sleep when you have Sakaar's high life to savour?