Devil of Menace

5 - Acquainted

Steve lays with his head on my chest as I run my fingers through his hair, "I don't know why I ever believed this would be a one time thing." I laugh. Steve looks up at me, "I know that you kinda got stuck with me, and you definitely didn't have to let me do all of the things I've done to you, but thank you. I need this." The two of us smile before I lightly slap Steve's bicep, "Right well we should probably go and check on everyone." Steve rolls off of me with a groan and starts to pull on his trousers as I slip my clothes back on. We head back into the main hub of the ship and find Nat and Bruce engaged in conversation.

I slide into the seat next to Nat, "What are we talking about?" I ask with a smile. Nat turns to me, "Bruce was just explaining the basis of nuclear physics." I nod, "Do you specialise in anything?" I ask, "Power? Weapons? Medicine? MRI? Isotopes? Ion implantation?" Bruce cuts me off by clearing his throat, "Uh, yeah. A bit of it all really." I smile once more, "Impressive." Bruce turns to Nat, "What's your story?" Nat takes a deep breath in and hesitates slightly before saying, "I was trained by-," she looks at me, "an organisation. Caught the eye of the KGB and was recruited for SHIELD by Barton." I sigh at the mention of Clint's name. I run my hands over my face, "Okay, who here is versed in Norse mythology?" I ask standing up from my seat and resting my weight on the edge of the table. Silence permeates the room and I nod, "Great. Crash course time."

"Okay so you have Odin who is the king of Asgard, married to Frigg, uhm he's the god of wisdom and all that stuff. He has five sons; Baldr, Höðr, Víðarr, Váli and Thor. Thor has been here before, to Midgard, on two known occasions. Once in the early '40s and recently within the last 2 years. Agents Coulson and Barton attended a call regarding an unliftable hammer, even Thor could not lift it at the time despite it being Mjolnir, his magic hammer." I begin to explain, "The time in the '40s is undocumented. He got stuck on Midgard after an issue with the bifrost, his transport, and ran into me. For some reason he trusted me with location of the Tesseract before it was stolen by Schmidt." Steve's eyes meet mine at the confession and his brows furrow. "Now, Loki wants the Tesseract. Loki is not born of Asgard, he was born in Jotunheim and was adopted by Odin after the battle between Asgard and the Frost Giants. It's unknown why he wants the Tesseract however his arguments of 'peace' and 'freedom' seem unlikely." I conclude.

"So basically, Loki's an outcast who wants attention?" Nat asks. "You could say that." I say, taking my seat again after pacing the room whilst delivering my sermon on the Norse gods. "What are we doing?" Steve asks. Nat speaks, "Currently we're running satellite facial recognition in hopes of locating Loki, Selvig or Barton." Steve pinches the bridge of his nose before asking if he can speak to me in private. The pair of us head to the Helicarrier bridge, "You okay?" I question. "Yeah I just-, doesn't this seem familiar?" He asks, tilting his head. "How do you mean?" I follow up. "Bad guy wants the Tesseract, bad guy gets the Tesseract, bad guy gets a war after fiddling with the cube. It's all too similar to HYDRA and Schmidt." He explains. I wince at the name HYDRA, "Stevie, nobody's heard from HYDRA in decades." Guilt fills me as I don't tell Steve the truth but I can't risk losing him for my actions. "You stopped it once, and that was on your own in the '40s. It's been 70 years, tech is better and you have a team." I reassure Steve, he gives me a tight-lipped smile and nods in defeated agreement. "Yeah."

Just then Coulson joins us on the bridge, "Captain Rogers?" He asks. Steve twists his body to look at him, "Yeah?" Coulson reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out vintage Captain America collectable cards. "Could you sign them? I mean, if it's not too much trouble." Coulson asks nervously. Steve smiles, "No, no. It's fine." Coulson breathes a sigh of relief, "It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but-" Before he can finish he's interrupted by Agent Sitwell, " We got a hit. 67% match. Weight, cross match, 79%." Everyone's ears perk up at the announcement. "Location?" I ask. "Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding." Steve and I share a look.

"Captain, Nightingale. You're up." Steve and I nod before leaving to change into our suits as the Helicarrier zeros in on Germany.