Special Agent Loki Laufeyson

Chapter 66

"What do we got?" Gibbs asked, coming around the corner into the squad room. The team snapped to attention at the sound of his voice.

DiNozzo assumed the lead in bringing Gibbs up to date. Tossing his coffee cup in the trash and picking up a fresh cup from his desk, he looked at the screen. "Jarvis, bring up the fingerprints Abby sent up."

"Right away, Agent DiNozzo."

The Avengers and agents all came and circled around the screen, some draining the dregs from their coffee cups while others took small sips from fresh, steaming cups and made slight faces as they burned their tongues.

"We have a theory," DiNozzo said to Gibbs. "With the news that Lucas Sharpe is still alive, we've been trying to figure out how he survived the explosion of the Photon Guard. Stark, Abby, and Banner ran a simulation to see how that could be possible."

"Jarvis helped, too," Stark said. "Roll the completed simulation."

"Yes, sir."

The computer-generated video began to play. It showed the explosion and projected what would have happened to the astronaut. Stark looked over at Gibbs.

"We think that in the blast, the ciyako used in the Photon Guard entered Sharpe's body and somehow kept him alive. Banner's analysis found that, in the explosion, the Guard would have released a large wave of gravity and ciyako. If Sharpe received the brunt of the wave, it would have altered him enough to enable him to survive both the explosion and the exposure to space itself."

"Gravity and ciyako," Gibbs repeated.

McGhee nodded as he moved back to his desk. Tapping some keys on his computer, he zoomed in on the simulated figure of Sharpe. "The ciyako would have prepared his cells to absorb the blast from the escaping gravity. That blast of energy would have given him power over gravity, which makes Sharpe –"

"The Space Walker," Gibbs finished. "He's finishing what he started."

The team nodded as silence fell. But before anyone could speak, the elevator door opened and Abby came running out, a file in her hand.

"What is it, Abs?" Gibbs asked, turning to face her as she pushed through the agents and came to a stop in the middle of the circle.

"Remember those fingerprints I pulled from the Agent Sniper file?" she asked, panting slightly. She held out the file. "I manually ran them against Sharpe's prints, and they're not a match."

Gibbs took a look at the file, showing the two sets of prints side by side. He glanced up at Abby. "Whose are they?"

Abby shrugged. "I don't know. They could be Leopard's prints, or the Sniper's herself. But we don't have access to any of their prints for comparison, and I can't risk crashing AFIS again."

A sudden beeping from the screen startled the team and all of them looked up to see the computer simulations replaced by an image of the Stark Industries logo as Jarvis began to speak.

"Sir, one of the Stark satellites has alerted me to an irregularity in nearby space. Shall I open the report?"

"Yes," Stark said, furrowing his brow. "Open it."

The logo was replaced by a video showing the fabric of space being cut into a hexagonal shape, like a cookie cutter slicing through cookie dough. A warship slid through the polygonal tear, followed quickly by several more.

"Is that –?" Abby began.

"Yep," Stark affirmed, paling. "Those are Chitauri war vessels."

"Loki was right," DiNozzo said. "Where is he?"

"Thor's still not back," Rogers said. "Loki may not have returned to Asgard yet."

Gibbs turned and left the squad room. "Boss?" McGhee asked, rising from his chair as Gibbs hit the button for the elevator.

"Gibbs, where are you going?" Barton inquired. The Avengers and NCIS agents hurried to the elevator, leaving Abby standing in the squad room. Rogers got to the elevator first and stopped the doors from closing, allowing the team to crowd in before stepping in himself.

"Gibbs?" DiNozzo asked. "What are we doing?"

The former Marine didn't offer a reply. He stayed silent as the elevator doors opened on ground level and the team spilled out into the lobby of the Navy Yard. Gibbs just strode through the front doors and out into the parking lot.

"Boss?" McGhee repeated, his forehead creased and a perplexed look on his face.

"Thor should have given us a report by now," Gibbs said, looking up at the sky.

"It's been almost a day since Loki turned himself in," McGhee said worriedly. "He should have carried out the plan by now. He should have been able to transport himself and Bishop into Asgard by now."

"Exactly," Stark confirmed with a nod.

"Maybe something went wrong," DiNozzo said, looking like saying the words gave him physical pain.

"But we have no way to get in touch with Thor," Romanoff reminded them. "We're completely dependent on him. We won't know anything for sure until he returns."

Gibbs was still standing slightly apart from the others, looking up. As Romanoff finished speaking, he spread his arms and shouted, "Hey, Heimdall! Open the Bifrost, will you?"

"Uh, Gibbs?" Stark called. "See, it doesn't exactly work like that –"

Before he could finish, the rainbow beam of the Bifrost shot down from the heavens and enveloped Gibbs. Then he and the bridge were gone, the only sign of the startling occurrence being the entangled markings now seared into the pavement.

Jaws dropped in sync as everyone realized what had just happened. DiNozzo, recovering first, looked at Stark with a raised eyebrow. "You were saying?"

"You know, I'm starting to wonder why Fury didn't recruit Gibbs for the Avengers," Rogers remarked as Stark couldn't seem to find any words.

/**/

I'm wondering why Gibbs isn't an Avenger, too :)

Did that surprise you, that Gibbs managed to summon the Bifrost? Or are you guys just like, "Of course he can do that: he's Gibbs!"

Do you guys think that Gibbs would be an Avenger if he was actually a part of the MCU? Why or why not?

Thanks for reading; please comment and vote!

Skylar Wittenborn