Loki Laufeyson - The Experiment {1}

Chapter Twenty Two - Under Attack

Everyone slowly stood up, watching the ceiling warily as they walked over to the glass window. I stood up as well, walking next to Loki and peering out the window. Immediately, my eyes drifted to one of the buildings nearby that had a flat rooftop, but was now covered in people dressed in the way too familiar black clothes of HYDRA agents, standing around what looked a lot like a missile launcher. My heart was immediately in my throat and my chest tightened with anxiety as I took an instinctive step back. My eyes widened and I fisted my hands, trying to hold back my power that I felt stirring in my stomach.

"Reindeer Games." Came Tony's voice, muffled from the suit, but I could still detect the controlled fear lacing his words. "Get Emily out o-" Suddenly, there was something black streaking towards the window and we all tried to scramble away as it shattered the window and crashed into the room, blowing up seconds later.

The ringing in my ears was horrible, it felt like someone was repeatedly attacking my skull with something similar to a sledgehammer. My whole head was buzzing and my vision was distorted, making me feel like I wanted to vomit. My right cheek hit something hard, my jaw filled with a splintering pain as I fell down, my body limp. The ground rumbled underneath me, the sound adding to the ringing in my head, causing me to squeeze my eyes shut tightly. The chandelier crashed down from the ceiling and shattered all over the ground, some of the glass shards flying towards me and I manage to just close my eyes before they dug into my skin painfully. I held back a cry of pain and squeezed my eyes shut tighter, my heart pounding against my chest so hard that it felt like it was trying to escape. Something hit the ground with a loud boom and I jumped, opening my eyes just in time to see someone, Bruce I think, scramble out of the way of a chunk of concrete that hurtled down from the floor above.

"Emily!" A voice called out faintly through the ringing in my ears and I looked around with my distorted vision, the shapes of the Avengers scattered across the floor. I opened my mouth to call out, but instead inhaled the dust from the concrete that had fallen to the floor. It instantly caused my to cough, and I winced as my ribs moved, probably bruised from being thrown onto the floor by the explosion.

There was a loud crack above me and I looked up sharply, blinking a couple of times to try and get my vision into focus. I was only able to see clearly just as a block of concrete from the level above hurtled down towards me. I knew I wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time, so I curled up as quickly as I could and threw my hands up to protect my face bracing for the impact.

"Emily." Came Wanda's distorted voice and I slowly opened my eyes, which widened with shock a couple of seconds later when I realized that I had been completely surrounded by a bubble. A bubble made completely from my own fire. It caused everything outside of it to be slightly distorted and tinted orange.

"Emily, you can let it go." Came Wanda's voice again and I moved my head slightly to see Wanda standing not too far away from me with her own power pouring from her hands, holding the concrete up from falling down onto me. Despite the panic coursing through me, I tried to focus on the exercises that I had learnt in Asguard, and a couple of moments, the shield shuddered around me before slowly disappearing. Wanda moved the chunk of concrete away from me, dropping it to the ground a little way off before she offered me a hand and I hesitated for a moment for taking it, letting her pull me up.

"Are you okay?" She asked, her eyes quickly darting over my body, hovering a little on my scratched face that was bleeding slightly from the glass shards on the chandelier. I nodded, trying to swallow back my panic as I fisted my shaky hands. I had no clue how I had formed that shield, but that was the least of my worries.

"Quickly, go with Loki." She urged me, nudging me towards Loki where he was trying to stop concrete from falling onto the Avengers as they grabbed weapons that happened to be laying around what was left of the kitchen and lounge room. "You need to get out of here." I was slightly alarmed by the urgent tone in her voice, I hadn't heard it before, but hurried over to Loki, looking over my shoulder at the ruin of the building. He noticed me immediately and quickly grabbed my arm, causing me to stumble back a couple of steps in shock. He had never grabbed me before, and I instinctively tried to pull away, but his grip was tight.

Suddenly, there were faint voices coming towards us from below, and I immediately recognised their Russian accents, and the fact that they were speaking in bit. My heart picked up speed if that was even possible, but before I could do anything, I was covered by a massive flash of green.

I landed a couple of seconds later on sold floor and I stumbled, Loki was quick to steady me though. I pulled away immediately, my heart pounding rapidly as I struggled to keep a grip on my power. Loki's eyes were filled with something close to sympathy, but they also seemed... hardened. I took another step away from him and his face soften for a couple of moments before he turned around, walking over to a glass sliding door.

It was only then that I noticed where we actually were. We were inside a new building, in the kitchen area, that also happened to have a lounge room nearby. There was a massive TV screen, similar to the one in the Tower, and a spotless white couch that would hold all of the Avengers and more. The kitchen was very similar to the one in the Tower, except bigger, and behind it was a hallway and a frosted glass wall with a door that led into a room beyond. Next to the sliding glass door, there were massive windows that revealed lush grass fields that eventually met a forest not far off.

"Where are we?" I asked timidly, slowly turning to Loki who was tapping at a projection that was hovering in mid-air.

"It is a backup building Stark has had for a little while." He replied, not looking away from the projection. "He told me about it a couple of days ago in case anything like this happened." He swiped his finger across the screen and suddenly big black shades fell over the big windows, shutting out all of the light as they clicked in place firmly against the windows. I jumped back at the loud noises and fisted my trembling hands again.

"Stay here." Loki told me firmly, waving away the projections. "I'll be back soon, Don't let anyone in. Don't make any noise. Just... stay here." He looked over at me and managed a small smile before disappearing in a flash of green. I watched where he had been standing before the pain from being thrown onto the Tower floor actually hit me and I sat down in the middle of the lounge room and kitchen. I drew my knees up to my chest and rested my head on them, trying to take in deep breaths to calm the fear spiking through me.

"Miss Emily." Came JARVIS' familiar voice, and like every time, I jumped. "My apologies. I believe a glass of water may do you some good." I slowly looked up at the ceiling. "They're in the cupboard above the stove. There is also cold water in the fridge, or you can have tap water if you prefer."

"The others won't mind?" I asked softly, slowly standing up.

"Mr Stark doesn't even notice when Mr Barton takes pieces off the suits." JARVIS replied, a faint hint of humour in his voice. "I doubt he will notice a cup of water missing." I smile weakly and made my way hesitantly over to the kitchen, opening up the cupboard JARVIS had said to see many glasses of all different shapes and sizes. I picked the one closest to me before turning on the tap and half-filling the cup with water. As I swallowed the water, it immediately soothed my parched throat and I found myself filling the cup up again.

"JARVIS?" I spoke up after I finished drinking, setting the glass down on the drying rack. "Are you able to see everyone else?"

"Yes." The AI replied. "And they are fine, you really have no reason to worry. They will be back in no time." I nodded and looked back over at the now black windows, trying to shut out any thoughts my brain conjured up of HYDRA waiting outside for me. Instead, I sat down on one of the chairs at the big dining table, eyes glued to the door.

A couple of seconds later, I heard the sound of footsteps crunching the grass outside, more than one pair of footsteps. I held my breath, all of my attention on the door and the windows as I tried to look for any signs of movement. Something was dragging along the ground as well, though I couldn't tell what it was. Voices murmured, but I couldn't hear what they were saying. The footsteps slowly drew closer and I slowly got up from my chair, ready to run, when the door beeped from the outside and began to slide open.