TITANIA: Goddess of War

Chapter 14

Neilrosa went to sit in front of one of the computers to observe the mission and if needed, act. She could also hear the conversation in the quinjet, thanks to the earpiece she put on. As expected a few minutes before Nat and Steve could get there, chaos broke out.

People fleed the gala, screaming and crying, trying to get away as fast as possible. Then Loki came out, his civil attire was long gone and was replaced by his armour of gold and green, with a helmet with horns and blue glowing spectre in his hand.

Neilrosa was watching him, more or less now standing, ready to run out and to Germany at any moment. She could see what looked like a smirk playing on his lips as he was walking slowly to the centre of the square in front of the gala.

Police cars came from around the corner, but he just looked at them and a blast came from his spectre and flipped it on its roof. Then he made duplicates of himself and surrounded the mob of gala people. 

"Kneel before me. I said- KNEEL!" He screamed and banged the spectre on the ground. People carefully kneeled, scared of the god before them.

"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end- you will always kneel." He talked as he was walking through the crowd, smirking and acting like a real God. Then one of the crowd stood up, an old German man and looked at Loki.

"Not to men like you." Neilrosa's breath got stuck in her throat. She was watching as the old man was standing fearless against Loki. She already had a crystal ready in her hand.

"There are no men like me." Loki's smirk went even wider.

"There are always men like you." Princess just prayed that Steve and Nat will get there in time to stop him.

"Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example." Loki aimed the sceptre on the older man; the crystal was already near Neilrosa's lips when Captain America jumped in front of him and deflected the blast back to Loki, knocking him off his feet. Neilrosa breathed out when she could here again Nat and Steve and she saw them too.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," Steve smirked and walked closer to Loki.

"The soldier - the man out of time," Loki said as he was getting to his feet.

"I'm not the one who's out of time." A quinjet appeared behind him with an aimed gun.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." Natasha's voice sounded as in the earpiece then in the megaphone too, directed to Loki himself.

Loki fired at the quinjet and a fight broke out between him and the Cap. Loki got Steve down on his knees with the bottom of the sceptre when he jumped and kicked him to his face as the fight carried on. Natasha was trying to get a shot as they were moving all over the place, she couldn't target the god of mischief.

Loud music blasted through the earpiece of all three; Natasha frowned, Steve looked to the sky and Neilrosa needed to take out the earpiece because of how loud it was. 

"Agent Romanoff, you miss me?" A cheeky masculine, bit robotic voice sounded and a blast sent Loki down. Iron Man landed with his hands still ready to shoot at Loki.

"Make a move reindeer games." Neilrosa half smirked, recognizing Howard's son. Loki raised his hands and his armour disappeared.

"Good move." Tony put down his hands. Cap came to stand by his as they exchange the formalities.

Neilrosa leaned back in her chair as they loaded Loki to the quinjet, she could still hear their conversation in her earpiece. She shut down the camera live she was watching and went outside to look around the helicarrier.

The conversation in the quinjet went on with Tony making fun of Steve as Neilrosa rolled her eyes when gasps could be heard and a rumble. Rumble of a thunder. Neilrosa stopped and was listening carefully, hearing the commission on the board of the quinjet as a loud thud could be heard as something landed on the roof. A door could be heard opening and some swinging sound too. 

Thor. Neilrosa touched her earpiece as Cap by sounds was putting on the parachute.

"Nat, where are you?" She asked quickly, a crystal in hand.

"Somewhere in France near Verdun. Forêt Domaniale de Verdun. Why?" Natasha said in nearly perfect french. Neilrosa wasn't gonna wait anymore. She whispered the name of the forest and a portal opened.

As she came through it, she changed to her "quick armour" consisting of shorts with belt, where her swords were hanging, a crop tank top with straps going down to the short. She had fingerless gloves on and knee-high combat boots.

She could hear Cap and Thor arguing near so she walked there slowly, to not be seen by them. 

"Then prove it. Put that hammer down." Cap said.

"Uh, yeah! No! Bad call, he loves his hammer-" Tony was cut off by Thor hitting him with his hammer, which sent him flying few feet back. Thor started to swing his hammer.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" Thor jumped to the air, aiming at Cap as he raised his shield. The contact of hammer and shield created a big wave of energy which throw all of them backwards. As they were getting to their feet, they noticed a figure standing above them on a fallen tree.

It ran down and smack each of them on the head.

"Are you done?" Neilrosa asked sarcastically standing on her previous position. Thor calmed down already, Cap was a bit embarrassed and Tony was googling her as he never saw her before.

"Good, now for our prisoner." She ran off as quick as the light, so no one of them noticed how she ended up on the cliff, where Thor left Loki.

"Stand up." She yanked him up to his feet and gave him a nasty glare. He wasn't surprised to see her, otherwise, he was happy, disturbingly happy.

"Oh hey. You didn't change, Neilrosa. Missed me?" He grinned, but a slap erased the grin from his face.

"Let's go." She glared at him again and waited for Natasha to land and together with Thor, Tony and Steve boarded the quinjet.

You could cut the tension inside. Loki was silently sitting in the corner, he didn't even dare to look at Neilrosa who was leaning over the doorframe to the cockpit and watching the world outside. Thor was sitting dow seats down from his brother and was occupied by his own thoughts. Cap and Tony were standing near the door, Cap was surprised to see Neilrosa like that for the first time and Tony was intrigued by her.

"We are landing," Nat informed them as they approached the helicarrier. Guards were already waiting for Loki. As they came in for him, Neilrosa stopped them and looked into his eyes.

"Try something funny and you know what I'm capable of." She growled at him, anger was boiling inside her. Thor was silent, he didn't want to anger her even more. Loki gulped and without another word they escorted him to his cell.

Neilrosa came out behind them, followed by Thor and Cap. Tony said something about going to change so he disappeared right after. 

"Hey." Cap caught-up to the goddess in the corridors.

"What was that about in the jet?" He eyed her suspiciously. She just looked at him, her eyes cold and distant, and continued to the bridge where Natasha and doctor Banner already were. She sat beside the agent as looked at her. They were the only women on the team, they needed to stick together, although Natasha wasn't much of a social butterfly.

Steve sat opposite Neilrosa when Thor came in. All of them were waiting for Fury's interrogation of God in the cell. A video came up on the table and nearly all the eyes turned to watch it.

"In case it's unclear, you try to escape- you so much as scratch that glass-" Fury started as he pushed the button to open the trap door.

"Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. Do you get how that works? Ant. Boot." He gestured first to the cell then to the control panel as he closed the door again.

"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." Loki walked around the cell and grinned on Fury.

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard." Loki turned to came and smirked, knowing they can see him.

"...A mindless beast- makes play he's still a man..." Natasha's eyes flew to Banner as he just chuckled at Loki's words.

"...How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" Thor was listening silently and Neilrosa clenched her fists. Same as the God of Thunder, she couldn't believe he is alive.

"How desperate am I?..." Fury moved closer to the cage.

"...You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power- unlimited power, and for what? A..." He smiled to the camera again.

"...warm light for all mankind to share?" Agent Hill was watching him too on her screen.

"And then to be reminded what real power is." He turned back to Fury.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." Fury just smiled and exited the room. The video turned off and a complete silence filled the room, Banner was the first one to break it.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?"

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve looked up at him. Thor turned around and his eyes immediately locked with princesses.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead against your people." He started.

"They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract," Neilrosa said and leaned back. Steve raised his eyebrows.

"An army, from outer space?"

"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvigfor."

"Selvig?" Both Neilrosa and Thor said.

"He's an astrophysicist."

"Yes, we know him," Princess answered.

"Loki has them under some kind of spell- along with one of ours," Natasha muttered the last part so only Neilrosa heard it and gave her a soft smile.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him." Banner pointed to the table where the video was.

"Have a care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha eyed him.

"Thor, we both know what he did. I agree with Banner, he is crazy and revengeful. He wants nothing more than destroy us, everything we hold dear. Everyone we love." Neilrosa was now standing, anyone could feel the anger out of her and she looked at Steve when she said the last part as her best friend.

"He's adopted?" Thor added and raise his eyebrows. Princess just sighed.

"I think it's about mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the iridium for?" Banner asked everyone just as Tony and Agent Coulson came in.

"It's a stabilizing agent. I'm saying, take a weekend; I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive." The last part was for Coulson as Tony answered.

"Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD."

"No hard feelings point break, you got a mean swing." Tony patted Thor on the shoulder as he was walking by him.

"Also, means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."

"Ah, raise the mizzen mast, ship the topsails." Everyone looked at him as he was crazy.

"That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did. How does Fury even see these?" He was trying to get attention away from him.

"He turns," Hill said with attitude and Neilrosa chuckled.

"Sounds exhausting!" Tony started to mess with the screen and checking everything on them, closing it eventually and sticking something under one of them.

"The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component still needed is a power source of high energy density. Something to- kick start the Cube." He clapped his hands as he turned to the rest of the Avengers.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked him curiously.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig'snotes, the extraction theory papers- am I the only one who did the reading?" He waved his hands as he raised the eyebrows.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve wanted more information. 

"He has to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Banner gave him one but more scientific than Steve expected.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunnelingeffect." Tony came closer.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally. Someone who speaks English."

"Is that what just happened?" Steve looked at others as Neilrosa just shrugged, not knowing what they are talking about.

"It's good to meet you, DoctorBanner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Goddess sent Tony a glare for his words.

"...Thanks."

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him." Fury said as he walked in the room.

"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." 

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men, I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand."

"I do!" The whole room went silent, you could hear even the breathing.

"I...I understood that reference." Steve shutter up, embarrassed but princess smiled at him.

"I may know, but I need to look at it again," Neilrosa said quietly and looked at Fury, who nodded.

"Okey-dokey. Shall we play, Doctor, Princess?" Tony looked at both of them. 

"This way, sir, ma'am." Banner showed the way as Neilrosa got up, giving one last glance to Thor and Steve before she disappeared after Banner and Stark.