2.6 Interlude 2
d.fish
Lés Bien
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Notes: Not satisfied with this chapter, but I guess there's nothing I can do... sigh... help me, please?
"Son of Coul!" Thor boomed as he barged into Phil Coulson's office.
Phil looked up from his computer terminal and sighed, "Hello Thor. How are you doing?"
"No time for pleasantries, Son of Coul," Thor did a great impression of Brian Blessed. He slammed his palms down on Phil's desk, causing the floor to shake. "I come on urgent business for the All Father. 'Tis a matter that concerns the dangers to all the Nine Worlds and beyond, for I must seek to repair the Bifrost, which has shattered in Loki's betrayal!"
Phil blinked. If he were a more impatient man, he would have reached up to massage the bridge of his nose. This was a confounding case if there ever was one, but it was only so troublesome because of the confirmed non-violent nature of things and how it tangled the different members of the Avengers initiative.
He logged out of his terminal calmly as Thor seemed to breath a sort of old mead-infused breath down his forehead, before turning back to the Asgardian. "Alright, Thor. Is this about the girl?"
"She is the only clue to the core of the Tesseract, yes. I must acquire it if Asgard is to keep peace across the dominions of Yggdrasil, Son of Coul. Billions of lives depend on it." Thor intoned, his words empowered by the weight of the situation.
It was a little above his jurisdiction, if Phil were honest with himself.
He didn't even deal in things that mattered on the scale of millions of lives, let alone billions. It was a daunting number, and he thought he was up for it, but it still caused him to pause. He couldn't picture the kind of scale this was. Even the New York Incident was just that, an incident that took part in a part of one single city.
Billions?
Phil stood and stared into Thor's eyes. "Alright. I did a little searching after our last meeting, and then she showed up in a way that SHIELD couldn't cover up. Kara Zorelle. Does the name ring any bells, Thor?"
"No," Thor frowned. "Why do you ask, Phil?"
"I... thought she was one of yours. A rogue Asgardian, maybe?" Phil studied Thor's facial features closely as he said this. His words slowed as a dawning sense of dread engulfed his heart. "No?"
Thor shook his head, his beautiful locks swaying in the air conditioned air of the room like threads of gold. "No, I have never met a creature as her, Son of Coul. Like her, perhaps. She may be a Titan or another unknown Celestial... but no Asgardian may perform her feats without aide."
Coulson motioned for Thor to come around to the back of his desk before taking a seat again. "Look, this is what I got on her." He turned the computer back on and flipped it to the recent mess that this strange girl made.
She had went on social media, streaming video live in a way that couldn't be blocked, and showed herself moving faster than the human eye could follow, as well as what was arbitrarily labeled as some sort of 'freeze breath' that induced a state that was as close to absolute zero as physically possible. And she seemed to be immune to temperatures over 3000 degrees. Her abilities were baffling, and the closest thing that could approach her abilities were Asgardians.
If it weren't them, then who was she?
Phil played the video as the towering blonde alien watched over his shoulder. "You can't tell me what she is?"
"No..." Thor's brow furrowed. He seemed like he was telling the truth, and he had no reason not to, but after the Tesseract debacle, Phil felt a little doubtful that the Asgard would reveal everything to him. Thor asked, after the video ended, "What else do you have of her?
Phil shrugged. "Just her name, and that she works for Stark now, apparently."
That was hard to believe. He even watched a surveillance video of her slipping and tripping, with a cup of coffee landing on her head, but Phil still felt like he was watching someone else.
"Stark?" Thor blinked down at Phil incredulously. "Really? Then we must leave at once! We can make it a date!"
"Hold on there," Phil grabbed Thor's wrist. He was surprised he was actually capable of holding Thor in place, but he guessed it might actually be because Thor had learned a new level of patience with humans after the New York Incident. Phil also remembered how smashed the Avengers were the day after Thor dragged them through Tony Stark's liquor cabinet (why else were they all wearing sunglasses the day after?) and it wasn't a situation that he wanted to be a part of.
"What is it, Son of Coul?" Thor asked. "Did something happen to Stark? Or, Odin forbid, his alcohol?!"
"What? No," Coulson shook his head. "When I last put in the proper paperwork to look for Kara, before she put her face on practically every social media network, it was flagged and denied. But if you want to go through Earth looking for someone, I think it would be best if we had someone accompanying you."
"Do you seek to command a son of Odin, Phil?"
"Ah, no. It's a request."
"Ah." Thor blinked. "Well, it is a reasonable one. If you cannot accompany me, yet you wish to, then how would you go about doing this? Your culture is so confusing."
Phil smiled. He hoped he'd get that line more often in the future, when more aliens visited. By then he'd have a bunch of awesome one-liners ready. "Well, I can put in another request."
"Then why don't you do so?" Thor asked.
"I just did." Phil turned back to his terminal. It beeped. He had a new message.
It was a message.
Come see me.
"Well," Phil smiled tightly back at Thor.
"Well?" Thor arched an eyebrow.
"It has been a while since you've met Director Fury, hasn't it?" Phil remarked rhetorically. He stood and grabbed his jacket. "The Director will either give me permission to go with you or tell us we can't."
"And what do we do if he does not allow you to go with me?" Thor sounded more troubled now.
Phil turned back to Thor.
The alien prince seemed so sure of himself, yet so confused at the same time.
"I can't go with you to look for Kara," Phil shrugged. "But there's nothing wrong with guiding you to Stark."
The elevator up to the Director's office was a silent one. It wasn't uncomfortable, Phil thought. He had a lot on his mind, so he wasn't exactly paying one hundred percent attention to begin with, but he noticed Thor humming along with the elevator music. It was the same elevator music they had at the headquarters for the last nine months now. If everything stayed the same, it would be another three months before anyone though to change it.
At SHIELD, everything worked according to protocol. Everyone had to trust that, if nothing else. There was dedicating your life to the mission, but you had to trust your superiors too... more than how you might trust your superiors in the army. This was espionage after all.
And with protocol, changing anything required paperwork... paperwork... and more paperwork. Changing the elevator music required all the department managers to pass. After all, with the kind of things they were dealing with, something insidious could be hidden in sound, or any other of a thousand different threats.
Changing elevator music wasn't easy.
And when Phil Coulson walked into the Director's office, he noticed enough to realize that this wasn't going to be a normal meeting. Fury was turning on every gadget and gizmo to keep anything from listening in. Even standing an inch away from Coulson would have reduced any sound they made to barely a whisper. Nothing was going in, and nothing was coming out.
Fury stared down at them with one eye without making a sound. He was frowning, as he always was, but the way he steepled his fingers and the way his cracked lips curled downwards did not make a good impression.
Phil waited for Thor to pull up a seat first before sitting down himself. "Sir."
"Thor. Coulson." Fury nodded before closing his eyes. "You're digging into something above your clearance level, Phil. Thor, you need her, do you."
It should have been a question, but none of these were questions. Phil knew Fury knew already.
A lot of this flew over Thor's head. But he kept to his seat, despite his legs twitching as he almost was unable to resist the urge to stand and demand. Thankfully, he'd learned since his last visit to Earth. "Yes, I require the location of the Tesseract's core. Without it to repair the Bifrost, reconstruction efforts are slow, and we risk the lives of many across the Nine Worlds."
Fury sighed. He seemed so... tired. This was a side Phil didn't want to see of the Director, certainly not in front of outsiders like Thor. "... Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?"
"... Sir?"
The room was unreasonably tense, filled with confusion.
Fury turned away from them, looking out his window, or rather looking out between the individual slits of the blinds on his window. He grumbled again, looking down at his hands.
"What is this riddle, Son of Coul? Is this a test?" Thor stage-whispered to Phil. As an afterthought, he added, "I do not do well with such tests of wit... it has always been more my brother's area of interest."
Phil knew what the 'riddle' was. He knew it was a line from Pulp Fiction. He just couldn't understand why the Director said it to him in this moment, with so much in the balance. He'd never been to these nine worlds, but if even one world was like Earth, and relied on Thor to protect it, then what hung in the balance was too great for them to just... waste time like this.
But what had stumped him wasn't this. He knew it was a quote... but it didn't sound like the Director was quoting the movie at all. It was like he was quoting someone else...?
"No, if this was a test, it'd be a stupid test." Fury turned back to Phil, interrupting his thought. His dark visage slipped back to the grim frown that he always wore. "I know you wanted to investigate her before, Agent Coulson."
"Sir..."
"What makes you think we haven't already investigated her?" Fury asked. He leaned closer, his shadow looming over them, even though he was shorter than Thor. "I know more about her than she knows about herself. But that's no one's business but my own."
"Does she have the Tesseract?" Thor growled, finally having had enough.
Fury spared him a glance. "Perhaps."
"Then I must have it. It is Asgard's." Thor demanded. "Bring me to her so that I might take it from her!"
"Ha! Really? Just you?" Fury actually started laughing. He laughed as Thor's face seemed to grow red. He covered his eye for a moment before sighing, as if he had just heard the greatest joke. "No offense, Thor, but you ain't enough. Maybe she'll help you. Maybe. But knowing her capabilities... do you know how fast she can run, Thor?"
Thor fell back onto his seat from the dark intensity of Fury's voice. All the rage that gathered like a storm cloud in his eyes dissipated like it's been blown away.
Fury continued as if he was speaking with the same breath. "She can run fast enough that she runs back through time. She can punch a planet in half. There's a reason why no one is allowed to touch her. Now, everyone knows about her, but they don't see how much she is holding back. A lot of her file will be declassified to some degree sooner or later with her just blatantly showing everyone everything she has. Thor, if the two of you fight, the wreckage will be worse than what you did to New York. If she doesn't utterly destroy you first."
"T'was not I who—"
"Don't fight her." Fury glared.
Thor's lips clamped closed.
Then Fury smiled, less to Thor and more to Phil. "But if you want to go to her, to ask her to help you, I believe she's making Mister Stark's coffee just about now. I'm sure if you wanted to "
Thor stared down at him in surprise. "But..."
"Go."
As they climbed onto the quin-jet, Thor turned to Phil and asked, "Why do Stark and Rogers act as if you were dead, Phil?"
"Well," Phil shrugged. "I did die. I just got better."
"Oh." Thor nodded. "That makes sense."
Did it though? Phil wondered. There were just too many mysteries in this world for him not to be overwhelmed. Too bad it wasn't as simple and easy as the X-Files or something. That would be nice, he mused. Yeah... and he should look into how exactly he was brought back if nothing else but to get his mind off of this... Kara Zorelle mess.
---
"Son of Coul!" Thor boomed as he barged into Phil Coulson's office.
Phil looked up from his computer terminal and sighed, "Hello Thor. How are you doing?"
"No time for pleasantries, Son of Coul," Thor did a great impression of Brian Blessed. He slammed his palms down on Phil's desk, causing the floor to shake. "I come on urgent business for the All Father. 'Tis a matter that concerns the dangers to all the Nine Worlds and beyond, for I must seek to repair the Bifrost, which has shattered in Loki's betrayal!"
Phil blinked. If he were a more impatient man, he would have reached up to massage the bridge of his nose. This was a confounding case if there ever was one, but it was only so troublesome because of the confirmed non-violent nature of things and how it tangled the different members of the Avengers initiative.
He logged out of his terminal calmly as Thor seemed to breath a sort of old mead-infused breath down his forehead, before turning back to the Asgardian. "Alright, Thor. Is this about the girl?"
"She is the only clue to the core of the Tesseract, yes. I must acquire it if Asgard is to keep peace across the dominions of Yggdrasil, Son of Coul. Billions of lives depend on it." Thor intoned, his words empowered by the weight of the situation.
It was a little above his jurisdiction, if Phil were honest with himself.
He didn't even deal in things that mattered on the scale of millions of lives, let alone billions. It was a daunting number, and he thought he was up for it, but it still caused him to pause. He couldn't picture the kind of scale this was. Even the New York Incident was just that, an incident that took part in a part of one single city.
Billions?
Phil stood and stared into Thor's eyes. "Alright. I did a little searching after our last meeting, and then she showed up in a way that SHIELD couldn't cover up. Kara Zorelle. Does the name ring any bells, Thor?"
"No," Thor frowned. "Why do you ask, Phil?"
"I... thought she was one of yours. A rogue Asgardian, maybe?" Phil studied Thor's facial features closely as he said this. His words slowed as a dawning sense of dread engulfed his heart. "No?"
Thor shook his head, his beautiful locks swaying in the air conditioned air of the room like threads of gold. "No, I have never met a creature as her, Son of Coul. Like her, perhaps. She may be a Titan or another unknown Celestial... but no Asgardian may perform her feats without aide."
Coulson motioned for Thor to come around to the back of his desk before taking a seat again. "Look, this is what I got on her." He turned the computer back on and flipped it to the recent mess that this strange girl made.
She had went on social media, streaming video live in a way that couldn't be blocked, and showed herself moving faster than the human eye could follow, as well as what was arbitrarily labeled as some sort of 'freeze breath' that induced a state that was as close to absolute zero as physically possible. And she seemed to be immune to temperatures over 3000 degrees. Her abilities were baffling, and the closest thing that could approach her abilities were Asgardians.
If it weren't them, then who was she?
Phil played the video as the towering blonde alien watched over his shoulder. "You can't tell me what she is?"
"No..." Thor's brow furrowed. He seemed like he was telling the truth, and he had no reason not to, but after the Tesseract debacle, Phil felt a little doubtful that the Asgard would reveal everything to him. Thor asked, after the video ended, "What else do you have of her?
Phil shrugged. "Just her name, and that she works for Stark now, apparently."
That was hard to believe. He even watched a surveillance video of her slipping and tripping, with a cup of coffee landing on her head, but Phil still felt like he was watching someone else.
"Stark?" Thor blinked down at Phil incredulously. "Really? Then we must leave at once! We can make it a date!"
"Hold on there," Phil grabbed Thor's wrist. He was surprised he was actually capable of holding Thor in place, but he guessed it might actually be because Thor had learned a new level of patience with humans after the New York Incident. Phil also remembered how smashed the Avengers were the day after Thor dragged them through Tony Stark's liquor cabinet (why else were they all wearing sunglasses the day after?) and it wasn't a situation that he wanted to be a part of.
"What is it, Son of Coul?" Thor asked. "Did something happen to Stark? Or, Odin forbid, his alcohol?!"
"What? No," Coulson shook his head. "When I last put in the proper paperwork to look for Kara, before she put her face on practically every social media network, it was flagged and denied. But if you want to go through Earth looking for someone, I think it would be best if we had someone accompanying you."
"Do you seek to command a son of Odin, Phil?"
"Ah, no. It's a request."
"Ah." Thor blinked. "Well, it is a reasonable one. If you cannot accompany me, yet you wish to, then how would you go about doing this? Your culture is so confusing."
Phil smiled. He hoped he'd get that line more often in the future, when more aliens visited. By then he'd have a bunch of awesome one-liners ready. "Well, I can put in another request."
"Then why don't you do so?" Thor asked.
"I just did." Phil turned back to his terminal. It beeped. He had a new message.
It was a message.
Come see me.
"Well," Phil smiled tightly back at Thor.
"Well?" Thor arched an eyebrow.
"It has been a while since you've met Director Fury, hasn't it?" Phil remarked rhetorically. He stood and grabbed his jacket. "The Director will either give me permission to go with you or tell us we can't."
"And what do we do if he does not allow you to go with me?" Thor sounded more troubled now.
Phil turned back to Thor.
The alien prince seemed so sure of himself, yet so confused at the same time.
"I can't go with you to look for Kara," Phil shrugged. "But there's nothing wrong with guiding you to Stark."
The elevator up to the Director's office was a silent one. It wasn't uncomfortable, Phil thought. He had a lot on his mind, so he wasn't exactly paying one hundred percent attention to begin with, but he noticed Thor humming along with the elevator music. It was the same elevator music they had at the headquarters for the last nine months now. If everything stayed the same, it would be another three months before anyone though to change it.
At SHIELD, everything worked according to protocol. Everyone had to trust that, if nothing else. There was dedicating your life to the mission, but you had to trust your superiors too... more than how you might trust your superiors in the army. This was espionage after all.
And with protocol, changing anything required paperwork... paperwork... and more paperwork. Changing the elevator music required all the department managers to pass. After all, with the kind of things they were dealing with, something insidious could be hidden in sound, or any other of a thousand different threats.
Changing elevator music wasn't easy.
And when Phil Coulson walked into the Director's office, he noticed enough to realize that this wasn't going to be a normal meeting. Fury was turning on every gadget and gizmo to keep anything from listening in. Even standing an inch away from Coulson would have reduced any sound they made to barely a whisper. Nothing was going in, and nothing was coming out.
Fury stared down at them with one eye without making a sound. He was frowning, as he always was, but the way he steepled his fingers and the way his cracked lips curled downwards did not make a good impression.
Phil waited for Thor to pull up a seat first before sitting down himself. "Sir."
"Thor. Coulson." Fury nodded before closing his eyes. "You're digging into something above your clearance level, Phil. Thor, you need her, do you."
It should have been a question, but none of these were questions. Phil knew Fury knew already.
A lot of this flew over Thor's head. But he kept to his seat, despite his legs twitching as he almost was unable to resist the urge to stand and demand. Thankfully, he'd learned since his last visit to Earth. "Yes, I require the location of the Tesseract's core. Without it to repair the Bifrost, reconstruction efforts are slow, and we risk the lives of many across the Nine Worlds."
Fury sighed. He seemed so... tired. This was a side Phil didn't want to see of the Director, certainly not in front of outsiders like Thor. "... Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?"
"... Sir?"
The room was unreasonably tense, filled with confusion.
Fury turned away from them, looking out his window, or rather looking out between the individual slits of the blinds on his window. He grumbled again, looking down at his hands.
"What is this riddle, Son of Coul? Is this a test?" Thor stage-whispered to Phil. As an afterthought, he added, "I do not do well with such tests of wit... it has always been more my brother's area of interest."
Phil knew what the 'riddle' was. He knew it was a line from Pulp Fiction. He just couldn't understand why the Director said it to him in this moment, with so much in the balance. He'd never been to these nine worlds, but if even one world was like Earth, and relied on Thor to protect it, then what hung in the balance was too great for them to just... waste time like this.
But what had stumped him wasn't this. He knew it was a quote... but it didn't sound like the Director was quoting the movie at all. It was like he was quoting someone else...?
"No, if this was a test, it'd be a stupid test." Fury turned back to Phil, interrupting his thought. His dark visage slipped back to the grim frown that he always wore. "I know you wanted to investigate her before, Agent Coulson."
"Sir..."
"What makes you think we haven't already investigated her?" Fury asked. He leaned closer, his shadow looming over them, even though he was shorter than Thor. "I know more about her than she knows about herself. But that's no one's business but my own."
"Does she have the Tesseract?" Thor growled, finally having had enough.
Fury spared him a glance. "Perhaps."
"Then I must have it. It is Asgard's." Thor demanded. "Bring me to her so that I might take it from her!"
"Ha! Really? Just you?" Fury actually started laughing. He laughed as Thor's face seemed to grow red. He covered his eye for a moment before sighing, as if he had just heard the greatest joke. "No offense, Thor, but you ain't enough. Maybe she'll help you. Maybe. But knowing her capabilities... do you know how fast she can run, Thor?"
Thor fell back onto his seat from the dark intensity of Fury's voice. All the rage that gathered like a storm cloud in his eyes dissipated like it's been blown away.
Fury continued as if he was speaking with the same breath. "She can run fast enough that she runs back through time. She can punch a planet in half. There's a reason why no one is allowed to touch her. Now, everyone knows about her, but they don't see how much she is holding back. A lot of her file will be declassified to some degree sooner or later with her just blatantly showing everyone everything she has. Thor, if the two of you fight, the wreckage will be worse than what you did to New York. If she doesn't utterly destroy you first."
"T'was not I who—"
"Don't fight her." Fury glared.
Thor's lips clamped closed.
Then Fury smiled, less to Thor and more to Phil. "But if you want to go to her, to ask her to help you, I believe she's making Mister Stark's coffee just about now. I'm sure if you wanted to "
Thor stared down at him in surprise. "But..."
"Go."
As they climbed onto the quin-jet, Thor turned to Phil and asked, "Why do Stark and Rogers act as if you were dead, Phil?"
"Well," Phil shrugged. "I did die. I just got better."
"Oh." Thor nodded. "That makes sense."
Did it though? Phil wondered. There were just too many mysteries in this world for him not to be overwhelmed. Too bad it wasn't as simple and easy as the X-Files or something. That would be nice, he mused. Yeah... and he should look into how exactly he was brought back if nothing else but to get his mind off of this... Kara Zorelle mess.
