Strangefrost Oneshots

part twenty-five ~ midnight in venice (3)

Earth

The compound was dark and quiet, and immediately, Loki knew something was very wrong. He exchanged a cautious look with Carol as they walked inside. He expected guards or some kind of alarm but there was nothing. Their arrival was merely another spanner in the works of a defeated machine.

A muffled voice reached them through the many thick layers of glass. A head of blond hair and broad shoulders made Loki's heart stop for a moment - could it be? Thor - ? 

The man behind the glass turned and instead of feeling relief in any way, Loki's stomach churned in anxiety. Steve Rogers. 

"This is a nightmare," he said, making Carol look at Loki with a mildly panicked expression.

A woman, different to how Loki remembered her, with short almost white hair stood up to the screens Steve had been gazing at. Natasha Romanoff.

"I've had better nightmares," she murmured. 

Carol put a hand out in front of Loki when he leaned forward to walk and shook her head. He sighed quietly and they remained in the shadows.

A man neither of them recognised walked in, a strange contraption strapped to his legs.

"Hey," he called to the two Avengers. "So that thing just stopped doing whatever it was doing."

This was getting weirder and weirder.

Footsteps softer than feathers on the hardwood floors, Loki and Carol followed them into another room, a sort of laboratory, where they met with someone Loki did recognise: Bruce Banner. He appeared to be observing a small device in a glass cabinet. Loki heard Carol's breath hitch when her eyes heeded the little electric appliance.

"Whatever signal it was sending," Bruce said to them, his voice beaten and frustrated. "Finally crapped out."

"I thought we bypassed the battery." Steve crossed his arms. All four of them now had their backs to Loki and Carol. 

"We did. It's still plugged in, it just... stopped."

"Reboot it. Send the signal again."

"We don't even know what this is."

Natasha sighed. "Fury did." 

Loki peeked Carol balling her fists next to him. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Just do it please. And you tell me the second you get a signal. I wanna know who's on the other end of that thing." 

Letting out a huff of annoyance, Carol shrugged out of Loki's grip and strode up to them, nostrils flared, just as Natasha turned around.

"Where's Fury?" She asked.

Introductions brought the group, now six, to the conference room table. It seemed nobody knew Carol, much to her distaste. However, her new blood was welcomed. 

Now the conversation was turning to Loki.

"Does Thor know you're alive?"

Loki stared at Steve in astonishment. "Thor's alive?"

"Yes, of course he is - "

"Brother?" Came a deep, incredulous voice from the doorway. 

Loki turned to see Thor himself, tatty and distraught and nowhere near as regal as normal. 

"You didn't get blown up?" Loki asked, standing, his eyes wide.

"Thanos didn't snap your neck?"