I kept my eyes trained on the Norse God, ready for any sign that he was about to make some sort of move. He was legendarily a trickster, like my namesake, so I wasn't going to be dumb enough to let him leave my sight for more than a second.
His handcuffs were tight enough that I could see them cut into his skin with enough force that I would assume he couldn't shapeshift without tearing the skin there, and they were made from something far tougher than the usual stuff that I would expect from human designs, must have been something that SHIELD created recently, or had kept in a vault somewhere till it was needed.
Spy organizations weren't to be fully trusted.
Of the entire group, I kept my hand on the scepter, since it was unlikely that Loki would be able to overpower me to get his hands on it. But I wasn't dumb enough to just hold it openly, instead, I threw it into a case.
An added layer of security.
Thanks to this incident, SHIELD had given me their files on Thor. Some of it I had guessed, like Mjölnir's 'Worthy' enchantment, others, like the Bifrost being a wormhole of sorts, I had not. Asgard was far more tech-focused in this universe, but still retained their exotic abilities that involved just manipulating reality to a certain extent, which Thor implied that they still called magic, or at least ancient humans called it magic.
So any slips from my side can be excused as slips of the tongue… which they would be.
"Hey, Stark, you mind turning off the tunes," The Black Widow spoke up, drawing my attention toward her. I still wasn't going to take my eye off Loki but my ears were perking up at every word that went out her mouth. "I like ACDC as much as the next girl, but the same song on repeat for twenty minutes will start to get on anyone's nerves."
I didn't bother to listen to Stark's reply to her, instead of turning a quick eye towards the woman and scanning with the variety of vision powers that I had at my disposal. I didn't need even a nanosecond before seeing…
… rather horrible things about her body… ok. Not doing that again, I didn't need to know what had been done… down… there. Like really, Jesus, even if this version of Black Widow ended up to be as big as a bitch as her ultimate counterpart, what her insides look like is unwarranted.
"Something wrong?" Black Widow spoke, smirking at me from the pilot seat of the SHIELD jet that we were using to carry Loki. "You've been staring at me for a minute now."
She seemed to be amused, I don't think she'd be if she'd known what I had just seen.
"No," I shook my head, turning my back to her, my eyes once more focusing on the Norse God in our midst. "I was just looking on ahead of us, making sure that the Grinch here didn't leave any surprises for us."
I heard the chortle from Rogers, and I didn't need superpowers to know that Stark was rolling his eyes.
"Really, the Grinch," Iron Man mocked. "What were you born in the 50s, Blue?"
"Some of us don't spend their time in a lab with nothing but a computer to bounce quips off."
That caused Stark to blink, it wasn't because I was any better at giving it out but rather it was probably more to do with my tone. It was much rougher, much harsher than anything that I would usually bring out.
I guess seeing what shit had been done to Black Widow put me into a bad mood. What was even the point of that? Stop the agent from having a child? Make sure they can't-
"CHCHCHHHH!"
The crack rang out through the quinjet, I could even feel the metal of the case start to crumble in my fingers. Looking down, I found that I had crushed the handle of the scepter's case in a way that I could cut a man's throat with it if I wanted.
While looking at this, and ignoring the expressions that everyone was giving me, my ears picked up a storm coming onto us… one that I hadn't heard nor seen coming till it appeared right on top of us.
Black Widow made some sort of comment about it, while Rogers and Stark continued to talk amongst themselves. I didn't give them much concern or attention, I was worried about far more important things.
"What's the matter? Afraid of a little lightning?" Roger asked as he noticed Loki flinch.
"I'm not overly fond of what follows."
Instantly I rose from my seat, Stark's repulsors whined in response to my sudden movement, even asking what was wrong… then, before I could answer, it happened in an instant, and timed with a flash of lightning, the door to the jet opened suddenly, someone forcing it from the outside.
That someone being a very familiar man in a red cape and a small hammer. He reached for Loki and before I could let out a real thought, I did what came naturally and attempted to jump at him, throwing the scepter in the Captain's enhanced hands as I did so.
But… this didn't end as well as I liked. It was as if I had telegraphed my attack as Thor just stepped back and let me jump out of the jet. He and Loki followed soon after but actually heading downward, unlike me, who stayed airborne.
I shifted myself around and made to rocket after the brothers but once more Thor showed me up. As I got to them within a second, so did Mjölnir hit me in the face and knock me away. Hardly the worst blow that I had ever felt in my life, I barely even felt it but given my current durability, that might've meant more than I thought.
Before I could attempt to go after him again, he raised his hammer into the air… and struck me with a bolt of lighting.
That hurt more than a little.
I didn't quite get knocked out by this, but I did drop to the ground in a rather rough crash, my body nearly getting buried underground from the force that I hit the damn thing with. I noticed that my hoodie was ruined, the single-cut it had gotten from Loki was the least of my concerns compared to the fact it was on fire. I blew on it, but that sort of turned it to dust.
"Not sure that should work like that?" I thought as I looked upon my now topless form. It was time to shift to a different style of suit, the whole Smallville coat get-up wasn't working out for me.
Even with the storm raging above in the sky, my ears were managing to pick up the conversation between the two as clear as if I was standing next to them. Thank Rao for giving Kryptonian nonsense senses.
"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor nearly screamed. I could hear his rage clearly, it coincided with the roar of thunder above us. This man was worthy of his title at least, God of Thunder.
"I've missed you too," Loki practically giggled, the maniac in a manner closer to the Joker than anything else I've ever heard from a real person. This version of the god appeared to be skirting to the edge.
"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?!"
I picked myself up after this was said, making my way towards them while I let the two reveal details to me that I hadn't been aware of from SHEILD's files. I wasn't sure that the whole Dark Matter part made much sense from my understanding of science. Does Dark Energy allow for either teleportation or wormhole generation? Maybe, I really only know that the damn thing exists.
Better get on fixing that, given I can read a whole book in a few seconds now it wouldn't be much of my time spent.
Then the two talked a bit about Loki being adopted and how that drama has affected them. Seems like the young Odinson has gone through a bit of a psychotic break from the knowledge that he wasn't the same species as the rest of Asgard.
Then I heard this line;
"I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness," Loki started to rant, his voice wavering in places, I could hear how he was being overcome with multiple conflicting emotions. Rage, sorrow, even the odd sprinkle of glee. "I remember you tossing me into an abyss when I was and should be king!"
"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights," Thor replied coldly. "No, the Earth is under my protection, Loki."
I decided to make my presence known now, I leaped up to the cliff that the two were speaking on, my feet hitting the ground softly. While Thor summoned his hammer, Loki simply smirked in that annoying way that only assholes could manage.
"Yeah, great job protecting there," I interceded. "I think you just missed killing a few people by a few inches. Next time how about giving us a call and not shooting us with lighting, it's bad form.."
Thor growled at me, sparks jumping around his hammer as he waved it at me.
"This has nothing to do with your kind, Kryptonian," he warned. "Go back to your own home."
"Bit insensitive, Thor," Loki couldn't help but laugh much to his brother's ever-increasing fury.
I blinked, then laughed.
"Please," I rebuked Thor, placing my hands into my pockets. Thor wasn't going to attack me outright if I didn't make the first move, at least while he thought he was the one with his brother in custody. "I've been living on Earth my whole life, it's more my home than yours. I actually work for the people here, you're a foreign prince, don't dictate to me what's my business."
That came out a little more heated than I intended. So much so when Thor took a step forward I couldn't help but raise my fists in a defensive stance, I let the heat start to rise to my eyes, ready to fire at a moment's notice.
"Now listen here-" Thor let out… only to be cut off as Iron Man slammed into him and took off into the forest below.
"I'm listening," Loki spoke innocently, smirking down on the site of the two grabbling with each other in the air and wrecking through trees.
"Hasn't anyone heard of talking before?" I asked, exasperated at the universe around me. I really hope that I wasn't stuck in one of those old superhero team-up comics, where the heroes fight with each other when they first meet each other.
I looked down at the two fighting heroes, then back to Loki.
"I won-" As he spoke, I blew… freezing his feet to the spot, much to the God's displeasure. "-t move… " Loki looked down and gave me a rather unamused expression. "... that's cold."
I ignored him for now, instead, I leaped down between the two. Thor had thrown a bolt of lighting at Stark, something I didn't let happen, positioning myself between the two and literally slapping the bolt off into the sky.
The two descended into silence, Stark was the first to break it, of course.
"Did you know you could do that?"
"..."
I didn't answer that question, not because I was embarrassed or anything but because Thor flew at me with Mjölnir nearly taking off my head as I was forced to dodge backward. I kicked out, hitting the God in the stomach and throwing him back into the forests, breaking several trees.
It didn't take more than a second before Thor was out again, his weapon flung out ahead of me. This was when I decided to up my game, I rushed forward and slid under the majestic instrument and grabbed hold of it.
Now, see there were two thoughts I had when I pondered grabbing the damn thing. The first was that while I had been told by SHIELD that his hammer had the whole "Worthy" thing here… it's just that I was basically Superman. And he was worthy, and I was obviously doing a good job of living up this example.
The second being, perhaps it was a limited time thing in this universe, I mean I don't think attacking innocent people is all that worthy?
But the hammer thought differently.
Apparently.
And I was instead taken on a ride with Mjölnir, flying across the sky and whacking Stark, our two bodies colliding together like I was the ball and him the pin. I heard him groan beneath me, and I could tell that he was about to be snarky.
So I rolled off him, my right hand still holding Mjölnir and trying to leap back up to my feet. I had thought it was just the momentum that stopped me from using the hammer… but as I fell back to my ass, I found out differently.
"You may be mighty," Thor spoke, stepping out of the forest, his good arm raised. "But that doesn't make you worthy."
Even as he summoned Mjölnir I kept my grip on it, letting it carry me towards the God of Thunder with a speed… actually slower than I was capable. But still, he was smiling, not expecting my next move.
A MIGHTY HEADBUTT!
At the same moment, I let go of the hammer, letting Thor fall to the ground with a meaty thump.
"Ha!" I went, smiling down. "No one expects a head butt."
"And I thought I had a hard head," Thor groaned from the ground. He went to reach for his hammer, he had dropped it to the ground after being headbutted, but had already caught his outstretched hand.
I pulled him to his feet, holding his wrist hand enough that I was sure to be hurting him.
"Now," I spoke out, gritting my teeth at him. "Are we done here?"
I had expected for him to struggle but eventually give in, I had expected this to be the end of the fight. But instead, Thor smirked.
"Yes, I think we are."
This time Mjölnir came for my hand, smacking it and letting Thor break from my grip. He slapped me across the face with the hammer, sending me stumbling back in shock. Then Thor leaped into the air, gathering lighting around his form as he did and brought that hammer down right for me head.
But as fast as he was, I was much faster and moved far out of the way of his attack. Now back out of the forest to where Stark was now getting back to his feet. Sadly, not everyone got the memo about my dodging speed, Thor's hammer now headed for the shield of Captain America.
No doubt, he thought I had been in trouble and rushed in to take the blow.
I wasn't sure how well it would hold up to Mjölnir so I tried to rush in to save the man but was too late as the two famous items slammed into one another and created a shock wave so powerful that it uprooted trees from the ground.
Leaving the four of us staring in silence till the bravest of us spoke.
"So… are we done here."
Coming from me that had been a question, coming from Cap that sounded like a demand.
Author's Note: Now, I'm hoping that was a decent showcase of Thor vs Blue with neither really trying their hardest. Also starting to plant part of the future conflict, as well as conflicts that will show up within this arc.
Don't have a lot to say this time, so like comment, review or whatever you kids do these days.