Beautiful Ruins

Chapter 34

I glance around the room, there's multiple clear benches filled with neatly stacked papers, pieces of machinery and pieces of the avenger's outfits, and a lot of empty coffee cups on a bench, half of them probably belong to Tony.

"Storm, the first thing we did was question Ashton" Steve says calmly, looking directly at me. I close my eyes, I guess that makes sense. "We are convinced he had nothing to do with this." At this point, I don't care who was involved, I just want Clover and MJ back safely.

I glance at a piece of Tony's suit on the bench, I think Tony and Bruce might share this space. How am I going to find my friends? I have no idea where they are, I don't even know if they are together or not. It seems unlikely they were both kidnapped by different people in the same twenty-four hours, but why would somebody want both MJ and Clover?

"It's okay to be worried" Steve says softly, I look at him. Steve's face is filled with empathy and concern which would normally annoy me but I'm too busy wondering where the hell my friends are. The door opens and I see Tony and Peter walk in.

"Fury wants us back upstairs" Tony says to Steve. Steve nods and stands up. I glance at Tony, waiting for him to address the two of us. "Don't go anywhere, we'll be right back. Peter, I'm trusting you to keep Storm here." Tony walks out hurriedly with Steve right behind him. Tony just asked Peter to babysit me which is as much amusing as it is offensive.

I immediately stand up, searching for the cameras and recording devices that are certainly here. They'll want to make sure they know if we're planning to leave to go rescue our friends. The issue is we don't know where our friends are. I pull two recording devices out from under a desk and smash them. Once I am convinced that I've found all of them, I turn back to face Peter.

"Where are they, Storm? Where's MJ?" Peter asks me, sounding so vulnerable I just want to hug him and tell him it'll be alright, but that would be lying. "Is Ashton involved?"

"They're convinced he isn't" I answer, sitting down on a white chair. Peter places his head in his hands. We have nothing to go by, no idea what the hell happened. Someone put Clover in a trance and made her go somewhere, who knows if the same thing happened to MJ.

"MJ was having these weird dreams" Peter says, I glance at him. I doubt MJ can suddenly see the future but we have no leads so we may as well explore every avenue. "Thor's brother Loki was calling out to her."

My face turns white, and I hold my breath. No, no, no. Clover asked me about Loki yesterday, did Loki call them? "What's wrong?" Peter asks me.

"Clover asked me about Loki yesterday" I admit, running a hand through my brown hair. This is terrible, this is catastrophic. There aren't enough words to describe how much of a disaster this is. We can't fight Loki; we'd be killing ourselves and potentially our friends by trying. Loki is smart and insanely powerful, why does he want Clover and MJ?

Clover's smile flashes into my brain. I will do whatever it takes to save her, maybe I can offer a switch. My life for Clover's. Loki might be interested in my powers, they're nothing compared to his but there still powers.

"I need to find Loki" I declare. I turn to face Peter who is looking surprised and a little bit nervous. "I'll try my hardest to bring them both back." I have no idea how I'm going to find Loki or even attempt this, but I have to try. It's Clover and MJ, two of my closest friends.

"We" Peter corrects me. I'm not surprised, I know he'd do anything for MJ, but the truth is that if we both go up against Loki, we could both easily die. I don't want Peter to die, it may as well just be me. Peter is good and he has an entire life to live out.

"No, you stay here" I say firmly, causing Peter to roll his eyes. I glance at an empty coffee cup, I know Peter will demand to come with me, I wouldn't want him going off to fight a god alone either, especially if Clover's life was on the line.

"You can't fight a god alone and I care about MJ and Clover, too" Peter says, looking challengingly at me. He opens his black backpack and pulls out his laptop, opening it up. "I'm going to try tracking MJ's phone."

I glance into a mirror; Peter looks stressed and angry. My face is blank and expressionless, but I can see the worry filled in my eyes. Clover will be fine; we just need to get there before any harm can come to Clover or MJ.

"We could be killed" I remind Peter, just wanting him to aware of the risks. He'll come to save MJ, just like I would for Clover, it's what you do for the people you love. Even if it was just MJ, I'd still go and risk my life, she is my friend.

Peter starts typing quickly, tapping lots of different keys on his laptop. If Loki wanted us to come and find our friends, surely, he'd leave a clue, wouldn't he? We can't save our friends if we can't find them.

"Maybe we should check Clover's room and then mine" I say to Peter who doesn't look up and continues typing furiously. "If Loki wants us to come, he'll have left a clue somewhere." Peter rolls his eyes and slams his laptop lid shut.

"Her phone is at her house" Peter snaps, running a hand through his brown hair. He bangs his fists down onto the work bench and then places his head in his hands. I raise an eyebrow as I see a small crack, I might have enhanced strength, but Peter is certainly stronger than I am. "I can't lose her, I can't."

I place my hand on Peter's shoulder. "There's still time, we can find Loki. We just need to be quick, if Tony finds out he'll make sure neither of us can leave." Tony is not going to let us go after Loki, he knows just how dangerous he can be. Hell, even Natasha and Steve would probably try to bench us if they find out we were going after a literal god. Natasha because she's my mother, and Steve because he thinks he can control what everyone does.

"Come on then" Peter says standing up. He has a determined glint in his eye, if I saw that look, I wouldn't want to mess with him, I know he'll do whatever it takes to save MJ just as I will for Clover. Maybe we have a tiny, tiny chance of living with both of our powers combined.

"Let's go the back way" I decide, heading towards a flight of stairs that nobody ever seems to use. It'll take us to the floor my room is on, I'm certain that Loki has left some sort of clue considering he obviously wants us to come after our friends.

We walk into my bedroom and quickly shut the door. I smile as I see a blanket on the edge of my bed, this blanket used to be in Clover's room, it was never mine. I pull up the blanket and see a small piece of paper. Peter snatches it and we both glance at it. "It's an abandoned factory" Peter tells me after looking up the address on his phone.

I raise an eyebrow. The paint is peeling off on the outside and it looks like nobody has been there in like a thousand years, I can't figure out why this is Loki's chosen place. Peter zooms in, the grass is tall and there's piles of dirt.

"Maybe you should stay and let Tony know what's going on, I'll go ahead, and you can meet me" Peter suggests. I raise an eyebrow; Tony isn't going to accompany me if I tell him what's happening. He'll make sure I'm locked in my room or something and then will go after Peter, but it'll be too late. Tony will focus on keeping Peter safe before saving Clover and MJ.

"You can't fight a god alone" I repeat Peter's words from earlier to him. The two of us don't have much of a chance, but I'm not sitting in my room waiting for Tony to return with Peter's body, possibly Clover and MJ's bodies as well.

"Whatever it takes?" Peter asks, sticking out his hand. I shake it without hesitation. Whatever the price is, we're willing to pay it.