Unexpected

Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Flames

Releasing my face, Loki lead the way out of the cell and threw open the door to the hallway. Barton pushed me forward, still gripping my arm, and the still nameless hobo trailed after us like a dazed, obedient puppy. The hall on the other side of the door looked very much like the hall on the inside, except that it wasn't lined with cells. The walls were still cement with no windows and only a few colorful cords decorating it, running the length of the hall, and the ceiling was lined with a weak light bulb every few paces.

I eyed Loki as he sauntered in front of us. His back was straight and his gait even, yet quick. Where was he taking me? What was this place? There were no windows, so were we possibly underground? Was this guy really Loki from the old Norse legends, or was he a super, a person with superpowers, who had gone crazy and now believed he was the god of mischief and lies? What other powers did he have? He'd mentioned his scepter mind control being only one of his tricks, and he'd done that thing where I saw him transformed in a different outfit. He wanted to rule the world; that much was obvious. How many people had he taken over already? Were the men from the alley his henchmen too? If so, why had I been kidnapped? Loki had said that I 'would do', what did they want from me? I had no powers, no abilities that could help in his scheme, why me? Well, something was apparently off with me since I was actually thinking my own thoughts and not a zombie servant like the homeless man. Why hadn't his scepter worked on me?

Coming to the end of the hall, we took a right at a fork and traveled down several offshoots of the hallways, turning this way and that so many times I wondered how Loki wasn't lost. As we traveled these halls we'd pass a person or two. Most of them had glowing blue eyes like Barton, but a few had normal colored eyes. I was just noticing a pair of brown eyes on a passing man carrying a heavy load of boxes when my ears picked up an unexpected sound. It sounded like people, and lots of them.

Turning another corner, I saw a huge spacious room unfold. It looked like some sort of huge, underground place where trains would turn around in, or maybe like a massive sewer chamber. It was dark and dimly lit with a great amount of machines and mechanical doo-dads whose purposes I couldn't even guess at, boxes and cargo piled high, and there were people everywhere. Men swarmed the room, some in white lab coats and others in dark colored commando-type outfits, coming in and out of the chamber from several other hallways sprouting from the room. Some were carrying boxes, others were obviously scientists working on their projects, and still others went to and fro carrying guns and looking rather fearsome. I did notice, however, that I didn't see many other women, just a small handful bustling about scribbling this or that on a note pad or tapping on some electronic device. After the silence of my cell and then the silvery, if somewhat harsh voice of Loki, all the noise seemed thunderous. People were chattering away, some shouting, footsteps clopped everywhere, and the machines beeped and whistled and clicked as they performed their purposes.

In the very center of this room was a brightly lit, translucent curtained platform in which stood a man with a few desks with computers on them and a huge machine sitting in the center. This machine seemed to be the main focus of those in this spacious chamber and this was probably so because of a cube that was nestled in it that glowed an identical blue to the gem in Loki's scepter. Even from this distance I knew that that cube was powerful. It radiated energy that made the air feel almost staticky and I wondered what it could possibly be.

As we had come up to the room I had unconsciously stopped walking to look around the room and take it all in. Barton had stopped for a moment to let me gaze around, but now that we were falling behind Loki a bit, he steered me with my arm to continue forwards into the center of the room, towards the machine and cube. The closer I got to that thing, the more I wanted to run from it. It gave off a bad feeling, like a warning, yet at the same time it drew me in. Part of me wanted to touch it, though I feared the consequences. As far as I knew I'd die on the spot upon laying finger on it.