| Morningstar | A Crossover Story

☆Chapter Eight☆

The floor (if it was a floor) was cold and white. There were too many lights for the room, it was painful. Bill drifted through consciousness and back to nothingness. He could tell in the few moments that he was awake that he was drugged up, and practically chained to the floor. The handcuffs felt heavy. His head felt heavy. The demon felt weak, and wanted to throw up, but he knew he couldn't.

"I hope you're comfortable, Mr. Cipher. You are quite the guest here today."

"Oh noooo, how'd you know it was me?"

"Government databases aren't that complicated to hack these days."

As Bill tried to stay awake for what was no doubt about to be a villain speech, Alexander Drake stepped within Bill's blurry sight range. It took a second for it to register, but the demon realized that he had seen this coming when he infiltrated the arms deal meeting.

"Heeeyy, it's you. I rememberrr when you were a little squirt, and your parents made a deal with me," Bill slurred rather coherently.

Drake, the real Drake, turned to one of his subordinates, giving them a look of absolute disgust. "What the hell did you guys give him? He sounds like he's stoned!"

"I am fffucking stoned, thanks for askin'," Bill then continued to giggle crazily.

The guards guarding the door thought the scene playing before them was the best humor they've had all day. It looked pretty funny at first sight, since Bill was high off his ass, and also in nothing but a button down and his underwear talking like he was the old friend of a nuclear-crazed maniac. They were snickering stupid jokes to each other. They should be paying attention to their jobs.

After a long lecture from Drake to his "medical team" (and after Bill was somewhat off his awful high), yet another discussion began. The first half of it consisted of Drake asking for information on the Avengers. Bill replied with the same thing each time a question was thrown at him. A bored and a half-hearted shrug. When Drake got bored of that, then Bill spoke up.

"For how smart I made you, you think such an organization like Earth's greatest acclaimed heroes would give me, a monster, a demon, a professional con-man, do you think they'd give out information around me?"

Drake inspected Bill, looking for any sign that may show through: a twitch, a glint somewhere behind those tricky eyes.

"I suppose your right. It would be common sense after all."

"Common sense is for losers, kid."

"Look where that got you, Cipher."

Bill clicked his tongue, making a mental note to remove the clever part of Drake's brain.

"But, anyways, there is one more thing I would like to discuss with you before I send you off."

Now that perked Bill's interest. What sort of information could this gift the demon bestowed upon this man possibly even give him?

"You seem surprised."

"Well, I'm waiting."

"The shadow that keeps following you around..."

Shadow? What sort of nonsense was this guy about to spout out? Or if it was legitimate, how had he not noticed it?

"You've been too distracted to notice it, haven't you?"

"Excuse me, but what? I know you're speaking English, but uh, you gotta spell this one out for me, Drake."

Drake sighed, clearly not expecting Bill's ignorance.

"I first noticed whatever it was when my men dragged you in here. I almost believed it was some sort of sentinel, but it disappeared once it confirmed your final location. I believe something is hunting you, Cipher."

"Huh, well I didn't expect that. I'll have to look into it once I'm out of here," Bill said while yawning.

Drake snorted, doubting the fact that Bill actually believed those heroes would come after him. Of course they would, S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn't allow a powerless demon to run around.

"We'll soon see, Cipher. For now, you are my prisoner, and if you misbehave I just may treat you like one."

"Yeesh, one cage to the next, huh?"

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"You idiots did what?" Fury raised his voice over the intercom.

"Well, uh, it's not like Tony put up security cameras and stuff all over the suite. Fury, were going to find him, don't worry."

"Agent Barton don't tell me to not worry about this. You lost a demon capable of blowing up the planet with the snap of his fingers. You're telling me to know sorry?"

"Hey, Mr. Bossman, we're on sort of a time limit here, so I'm just gonna,"

"Tony, if you hang up on me I'll,"

Fury's voice disappeared once Tony purposefully hung up on him.

"He's going to kill us all later," Natasha stated bluntly from the back of the Quinjet.

"I know, but I he was going to start yelling if I didn't, Nat."

"Do any of you know where we are going yet?" Loki interjected.

"Yes, I do. Thank you for your concern Reindeer Games."

"Please stop calling me that. I get enough of it from the demon already."

"Whatever. Anyway, to answer your previous question, we are headed towards an uninhabited island off the coast of Greece. It's privately owned by guess who?"

"Drake. Money and nukes. What a perfect combination," Clint grumbled while toying with one of his arrows.

"So what's the plan then?" Steve asked.

"Well, I don't think we'll need Brucie to go green, so Thor you'll be in charge of a destructive distraction. Legolas will be our makeshift sniper, and Nat, Steve, and Loki will be in charge of the guards around the perimeter of the building and inside of it. I'll cover Thor."

There was a silent agreement that flowed through the team. Tony's plan was smart, basic, and would most likely work if Drake had a ton of guards. The rest of the trip would be fairly quiet, except for the buzzing of the Quinjet's engines, and the small talk between Steve and Natasha.

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Holy moly the beast is done. I honestly hated this chapter because I like lost inspiration about half way.

I mean,

it took me six months to write this.

anyway here it is. this chapter and the next are the ones I just need to get through before shit gets weird and actually interesting. so uh yeah bye.