For a sworn enemy of caffeine, Bruce was making rather decent coffee.
They were sitting at the dining table – all the adults, including Steve and James, and then Lila, who’d gotten woken up by the commotion and was now huddled in Clint’s lap, desperately trying to stay awake, but still refusing to go to bed. She could recognize something important was going on, even if she couldn’t fully understand what it was.
Natasha gave them an abridged version of the events – Hydra had used deception to lure them in and they fought their way out, stealing the jet in the process – dancing around the more gruesome details and completely omitting the “almost dying” part, much to Loki’s relief, apparently. She wasn’t sure why was that, although she had a few guesses, with the winning one thus far being he didn’t like the rest to know he had used the scepter for some reason. Sure, it might sound incriminating for the first twelve milliseconds, before they explained why he had no other choice. She couldn’t imagine anyone condemning him for making that call, but there was no doubt that it all looked very different from the inside of his head. He might have come around the realization he was not their prisoner or, worse, their property, but it was obvious he still felt insecure about his position in the group.
“So, Sitwell, huh?” Clint mused. “I’m not surprised, to be honest. The guy was always…”
Laura sent him a thunderous glare.
“A jerk,” Clint finished.
Natasha shrugged. She never much liked Sitwell, but he never had struck her as a secret Nazi sympathizer either. Just another career man, focused on his own image a bit too much. A bit sleazy, maybe, too eager to jump up when told to jump and too quick to flash a polite smile to immediately turn around and act against other agents' backs if it could only bring him personal gain.
“I can’t believe he fooled you though,” Clint added, shaking his head. “Those masks couldn’t fool a blind toddler in the dark.”
“No, it wasn’t the same tech we were given to use before. Much more precise and believable even up close. The voice rendition was impeccable too. I wouldn’t suspect anything if not for the way he acted and then I only thought it’s Coulson trying to give me some sort of sign until it came off.”
“Hmm,” Tony hummed. “You kept the mesh?”
She glanced at Loki and he nodded. “It’s in the jet.”
“I’ll take a look at it in the morning,” Tony said. “Speaking of tech, do you know why I couldn’t understand you when you called me?”
Loki looked at Tony with a frown. “I assume it’s because of the distance?”
Tony shook his head. “I thought so too at first, but then Clint told me you talked with him over the phone and it worked without a hiccup. They were still miles off the Helicarrier when the call patched through.”
Loki pursed his lips.
“Yeah, I thought so,” Tony laughed. “The working theory, for now, is that whatever magic mumbo jumbo you’re emitting while talking transfers via the standard cellular network protocols, but not over Jarvis’ transmissions. I cut out some ranges that wouldn’t be audible to an average human to save the bandwidth and make it operational even in areas with very poor satellite coverage. So, your magic is hiding in those ranges, at least partially, which means I can find and analyze the signal.”
Loki’s frown deepened. “You think you can study magic with your primitive mortal technology?” He looked equal parts offended and fascinated with the idea.
“And why not?” Tony said lightly. “It’s a phenomenon with a physical representation, which means it can be studied. Which is exactly what I intend to do. Once I get my lab back, at least. There’s very little I can do here and I’ve already isolated the ranges.”
