Prince of earth

Chapter 4

Loki lay awake, staring at the Ceiling of his small room on the SHIELD aircraft. The low rumbling of the engines provided a calming white noise, and the slight vibration could've put anyone to sleep, but sill he couldn't keep his eyes shut.

He tossed and turned, looking for comfort to sleep in, but always his mind kept him awake, unwilling to shut of and let him rest.

After a long time of failing to get to sleep Loki decided to get up.

He got out of bed and got dressed. he didn't know what time it was but the sky was no longer black through the window in his bunk so he knew morning was coming.

He put on the pair of tennis shoes that were left for him,  which had a logo of some kind of bird on it around which were the words 'Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division'. Loki decided that that was a ridiculous name for an organization and they were smart to abbreviate it.

Loki left his bunk and quietly closed the door again, not wanting to be heard. Mac had told him he was free to leave the room and walk around the plane, but he still felt guarded walking through the quiet empty corridors and empty common spaces.

The plane was big, but Loki was used to large spaces and he was able to get to know the layout pretty quickly; he found a kitchen, a lounge space, a fighting ring he assumed was for training purposes, and of course the lab, which he wasn't allowed to go into.

He went back to the kitchen to find some water, then went to the lounge and sat down.

His throat was still healing and even though the tap water wasn't especially cold, it was still refreshing. Loki noticed that the same bird logo was on the mug he'd taken.

He sat down on one of the sofas and picked up a book on the coffee table. It was a book on Chinese history, and he figured if he's going to be in this world he should know this world, so he started reading.

He'd only been there for a little while when he felt the plane rock momentarily beneath him and heard the docking of another craft on the roof.

There was a narrow spiral staircase at the other end of the common room and after a minute Loki watched three agents come down the stairs, one of which was carrying  a small metallic square crate with the numbers 0-8-4 written on the side in a large white font.

"What's that?" Loki asked, putting down the book he'd been reading and leaning toward the entering group. The agents (surprisingly) didn't seem to mind Loki asking, but they did eye each other like it was strange that he would be curious.

"It's an 0-8-4" one of them told him after a slight pause.

"What does that mean?" Loki asked. The three agents now looked at Loki with puzzlement and confusion.

"And object of unknown origin. We don't know what it is" one of them told him, who as the only woman among the three of them but carried herself like she was the one in charge. "How do you not know that? It's one of the first codes we learn at the academy" she asked. Loki realized the problem, he understood now why they thought he was an idiot.

"Oh, no. I'm not an agent. I'm just... a passenger" he explained. He wasn't sure why he hesitated to tell them he wasn't from earth. Maybe because he didn't want to end up being coded as an 0-8-4.

Loki could feel the judgement leave the room, but he didn't feel any more comfortable. The agent holding the box held on a little tighter, and Loki could see the woman's hand slowly move toward her weapon.

"Who are you? SHIELD doesn't typically have casual passengers who aren't part of SHIELD" she asked, flicking her short hair out of her eyes.

"My name is Loki. I'm... an alien" he said bluntly. The woman turned to the two men carrying the box and waved them forward, they both left the common room, presumably to take the 0-8-4 to the lab.