Prequel Chapter 116

"I prefer it if we don’t bring it up at all."
Tony looked away from the god and nodded. “Alright.”
Quietly, Loki turned his sights back to the movie. "Where is Hawaii?" Loki asked.
Tony looked at the god then took his phone out. He pulled up a world map and showed it to the god.
“Right there.”
Loki nodded. "What's it like?"
“It’s actually pretty nice. It’s small, so there aren’t many big cities there. It’s quiet and there’s nothing but beaches all around.”
"Sounds like it's hot." Loki said.
Tony smiled a bit and shrugged. “Yeah, it’s pretty hot there, especially during the summer.”
"I honestly don't like the heat." Loki replied.
Tony wanted to crack a joke but decided against it. “I could take you to Canada. It’s cold there.”
"It's not so much that I have to go cold places but overly hot places are out of the question. Asgard is the same temperature in the spring and summer the flowers are always in bloom there. The fall and winter come and it is cold enough to snow once in a while."
“Guess we could stay here. Doesn’t get very hot in New York.” Tony shrugged. “So you don’t want to go back to Malibu?”
"No, I do." Loki replied. "That I could handle but we were never going very far anyway."
“Maybe we could go again soon. You know, when we don’t have anymore…”
“Sir.”
Tony groaned and sank into the couch.
“Director Fury is calling.”
“Of course he is.”
Loki was about to ask him when they didn't have any more of what but fell silent so Tony could take the call.
Tony stood and answered his phone. “Tell me this is a social call.”
“Suit up.’’
Tony sighed and hung up then looked at Loki. “Better get dressed.”
Loki sighed and was suddenly in his armor. Running his fingers through his hair, Loki squared himself off and looked like his usual self.
Tony looked the god over then went to get his suit. Damn if that wasn’t the sexiest thing he’d seen just now.
Loki was a master of masks. He hid his emotions very well from the people he didn’t want to see he cared.
Tony walked out onto the landing pad and looked back at the god.
“Need a ride?”
"Of course not." Loki waved and then was gone from sight.
Tony took off as well, heading straight for SHIELD.
He arrived soon enough and headed to the debriefing room.
Loki was standing in the corner, listening as best he could.
“It seems our satellite picked up some interesting images.” Fury pulled up the footage they had.
"Of what?" Loki asked coming out of the corner.
Both Clint and Natasha turned to the god, and both assassins looked more upset than usual that he was there. They then glared at Tony, though he was really used to it.
“Originally we thought it was movement of Hydra operations, but upon further investigation, these movements turned out to be from an independent group.” Fury pulled up more information. “They call themselves Maggia.”
“Wait, I’ve heard about these guys.” Steve frowned curiously.
“We’ve dealt with them on a number of occasions, but they’re not like Hydra. They’re a bit more on the dirty dealing side than actual terrorism.”
"What makes them so different from Hydra?" Loki asked.
“Hydra is an active terrorist organization. Maggia is just a gang.”
“Pretty big scale though. What did they do to get on our radar?”
“These shipments have been going on for almost three weeks now that we know. Since the satellite went up, we’ve recorded movement across American borders and even overseas.”
“Any idea what they’re moving?”
Fury shook his head. “Not yet.”
"What's the likely hood that they are moving something other worldly?" Loki asked.
“That’s my main concern. Maggia doesn’t usually delve into that, but there are odd energy signatures coming off their latest shipments.”
“Weird how?”
“Like they have something big in those containers.”
"If this is something from another realm, I’m pretty sure you'll know how to handle it." Fury said looking at Loki.
“He can handle Stark pretty well.” Clint spoke, glaring at the god.
“Save it for after the missions.” Fury frowned at all of them. “Stark’s stupid decision aside, this could be a real threat.”
“So what do we do?”
“We need to secure their latest shipment, find out what it is and where it’s going.”
Without a single word or a twitch, Loki conjured a snake inside of Clint's suit.
The archer jumped up and quickly fished the creature out.
“Why the hell is he still alive?” Clint turned to Fury after shooting the head off the snake.
“He’s alive because I can’t kill him myself. That was the deal I made with Thor.”
Tony frowned at both men.
“He wouldn’t have done that if you knew how to keep your mouth shut.”
“Shut up Stark. Just because Loki’s wearing you as a ring doesn’t mean the rest of us are falling for it.” Natasha frowned at the inventor.
"I'm not wearing anyone as anything. Although if you so wish, you can be my next cloak." Loki threatened.
"Alright everyone knock it off. Laufeyson is here and that’s the end of it. You," Fury pointed to Loki, "You are not part of this team but you will keep those tricks to yourself." Fury said.
Everyone went silent, though the tension in the air was thick and heavy to breathe. Tony shifted a bit where he sat, casting a quick glance at Loki before looking back to Fury.
“So, all of us go after this shipment?”
“I don’t want any surprises, but we’ll need to be ready in case this is something toxic. Specialized suits have been made up for each of you. Stark, I’m assuming your suit can handle it.”
Tony rolled his eyes, almost insulted.
Loki scoffed. "I'll be fine on my own." Loki told him.
“I didn’t ask, did I?” Fury gave Loki a testy look. “This isn’t about how well one person can do missions alone, this is about making sure you can all play nice together.”
"I didn't mean working with everyone else. I meant wearing the suits you made for everyone." Loki said.
“You can wear whatever the hell you want Laufeyson.” Fury looked at the god then back at the others. “The rest of you go get your suits on and we’ll finish the brief.”
Tony watched the others go then stood and walked over to Loki.
“Might be best to avoid sticking snakes in Barton’s pants during the debriefing.”
"Would you prefer I give him flying lessons?" Loki asked.
Tony snorted and grinned. “I wouldn’t mind but we can save that for later.”
Rolling his eyes, Loki was already cooking something up for the archer.
"He'll get his."
“Can I watch?” Tony glanced over as everyone walked back into the room, all suited up and ready.
"Wouldn't be a show if you didn't." Loki chuckled.
Tony smiled back then looked at Fury. “So how do we do this?”
“I want you and Laufeyson in charge of securing the cargo. The rest of you are on information gathering and security detail.”
Loki knew he would get stuck moving stuff. Of course he could use his magic to move it.
The team loaded onto a jet and got ready to fly over to the location. Thankfully, they were in the states this time.
“Their next shipment is coming into Florida in a few hours. You’re to intercept and capture; I don’t want any deaths if we can avoid it.”
Loki chuckled. There would be a death or two somewhere along the mission. His eyes were on the red head and her archer companion.
Natasha looked back with equal ferocity, her posture stern and ready for action.
Clint didn’t bother hiding his discontent as he glared at the god and then, at one point during the trip, at Tony.
Loki could care less about their glares and thought back to the mission at hand.
Tony looked at the two and winked at them, hoping to unnerve Clint. It worked; the archer looked away with a frown.
Loki chuckled as he gave Stark a smirk and then turned to his attention to the nearing target.
Tony smiled to himself, quite pleased with the reactions and flipped on his visor as they got closer.
“Alright, we’re over the target. I want everyone to stay close in case this gets ugly.”
They agreed to the idea going in pairs but still staying fairly close.
Natasha and Clint paired together to go for the intel while Steve and the Hulk were in charge of heavy security. That left Tony and Loki to actually go after the cargo.
They arrived just off the docks and quickly got into position.
“Let’s just hope this isn’t radioactive.”
"One can only hope." Loki opened a portal that would put the crates at SHIELD headquarters.
Tony went up to the ship with Loki. They slipped by the guards easily enough; seemed no one knew what the cargo was. The inventor wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing.
Steve and the Hulk cleared up the rest of the guards easily enough and Natasha and Clint headed up to where the captain was.
"Let’s make this as easy as possible." Loki told him.
Tony chuckled a bit and shook his head.
“Now just say that to the bad guys.” He looked around then found a few containers. He scanned each, finding only weapons at first. He paused at the last container, which was much smaller than the others.
“Well, it isn’t radioactive, but this still isn’t good.”
"What is it?" Loki asked him.
“I’m not an expert but it looks an awful lot like those Chitauri weapon’s cores.” Tony ran more scans on the box then looked at Loki. “I don’t want to risk opening it here.”
"Don't send it to SHIELD and tell no one what's in them." Loki said.
Tony looked at the god curiously and flipped up his visor.
“Loki, we have to turn this stuff over to Fury.”
"No, it should be destroyed. SHIELD shouldn't have it any more than the Chitauri." Loki had been told they were dead but a long nagging feeling in his gut told him otherwise.
Tony looked at Loki for a moment then sighed heavily and nodded.
“Stark, you two find anything yet?” Fury’s voice sounded through the communicator.
“It’s just guns and other weapons in here.”
"Well get it over here." Fury ordered.