c4

Temporary office

5 minutes later

Thor and Darcy sat at my sides; the big guy looked blankly forward. Darcy had the hammer on her thighs and like me looked at agent Coulson who sat across from us. He was attractive, but not my type. He wore a black suit that showed how neat he was, but he was drenched. I nodded and floated up to him and put my hands on his outfit and started focusing my starbolt energy in my hands. I made the heat as hot as a hair dryer and projected it toward the agents who looked nervously at me.

Then he noticed what I was trying to do, he smiled somewhat awkwardly. "Thank you, your… Highness."

When Coulson was finally dry, I went back to my seat. "Welcome you are."

Darcy leaned into me. "You are so handy to have around, Fire." I put an arm around her shoulders and sighed in contentment. Her hair smelled of tropical flowers, I couldn't identify which ones, I liked her shampoo.

After making myself at ease, my eyes fell back on the agent who looked at me with a playful smile. I liked the guy, but I also felt that he noted how my relationship with Darcy was. I think I will have to protect her from the spies in the future, after all, their house was full of parasites. I will have to do something about that, but first it was time to put my diplomatic hat on.

"So what about the talking you wanted, spy Coulson." I spoke to him while making Darcy sit straight.

The brunette looked at him with big eyes, then at me. "Oh, he is a spy?"

I nodded while still looking at Coulson, not missing a blink from him. "Yes Friend Darcy. He is big brothering for SHIELD."

My new friend snorted at my way of speaking. Coulson winced at it. He sighed as if he wore a big burden and said, "I am Agent Coulson, from SHIELD."

"SHIELD?" Darcy asked. I always forgot what it stood for, I prefer to use the acronym to call them.

Patiently, Coulson began to enunciate what the acronym meant. "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, we are a special law enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency…"

I took pleasure in interrupting him when he tried to tell us he wasn't a spy. "But you still do the spying, right?"

We looked at each other for over thirty seconds, I wasn't going to be the one giving in; I made my eyes glow. I knew how unnerving it was for humans.

"Fine, yes, we do." Coulson finally cracked.

I gave him a toothy victorious smile. Coulson knew I was playing him, but he took it in stride. "Your Highness, could you tell me why you are here and is this yours?" He pointed a finger at the hammer in Darcy's lap.

I denied that Mjolnir belonged to me with a wave of my hand. "Not mine, but it belongs to Prince Thor." Then I pointed an arrow of starbolt energy at Thor.

"Prince… Thor?" Coulson stared at the irresponsive asgardian at my side. Smiling, I nodded vigorously. "Yes, he is an Asgardian. Exiled royalty to be more accurate."

Phil put a hand on his mouth, then closed his eyes in frustration. When he reopened them, it was to ask, "Another one? Is Earth a tourist attraction for aliens?"

"Actually…" I started to reply with a raised finger.

"Don't answer that!" he shouted, Darcy flinched a bit at that.

Normally, Coulson was a pretty chill guy; but it seemed that I was changing his ordered life and shifting his worldviews. It wasn't my fault, when life hits you, you need to roll with the hits or it will continue to strike at you until you give up.

I pouted. "But you need the contexting for why his father did the exiling on Earth."

"Alright, please tell me." Coulson kept sighing. If he continued, I feared that his happiness reserve would disappear.

Placing my PADD on the desk, it projected an hologram of different humanoid species; it began with the Kree, Asgardian, Skrull, Eternal and others. It even showed the areas they liked to inhabit. "Earth is the perfect place to do the sending for Asgardian exiles since your tech and sensors aren't advanced enough to do the detecting of the people. It also helps that it's within Asgard's area of influencing and no one wants to piss off the All-Father."

Thor reacted when I said Odin's title, the PADD projected a picture of the All-Father wielding Gungnir and striking down a Dragon, then the screen shut off and I took the PADD back.

"Only fools can't blend in on this planet." I continued to say as I looked at Thor and remembered his goofs.

"Wait! Thor couldn't blend in…" Darcy added her one cent, making me laugh. Then she amended herself, "Ohh, it's alright, he's pretty, he would have been fine eventually."

I found myself agreeing with her, he was really gorgeous and I was jealous of his hair. Soon, I will find a way to pry his secret from him.

"Prince Thor is kind of silent." Coulson said as he watched the asgardian.

I think that I will break out the Tamaranean beer for Thor to drown his woe, the guy was kind of pitiful like this. I missed his goofy smile. "He needs to do the thinking about what he is going to do."

Coulson's gaze switched from Thor to me. "I see… by the way your highness, I mean no offense but is it normal for you to speak this way? And why do you hover all the time instead of walking? I think it's bad for your fitness." The agent smiled tauntingly at me.

Darcy laughed as well. "It's okay, Fire, it's cute when you do it."

I crossed my arms and started pouting, everyone was a critic.

~/.\~

(Loki)

Temporary Office

A Tamaranean on Midgard, this was a complication I hadn't predicted. Thor has always been really lucky, it was uncanny how he found allies in the most unlikely place. The fact that he found a woman willing to help him didn't surprise me the least. He had always been quick at getting infatuated with special (that's his excuse) women.

The Tamaranean wasn't interested from what I understood, that's good as I don't think that father would have liked such a match. I watched as the Tamaranean female and the Midgardian woman left the room with the spy in tow; Thor wearily stood up to follow them, but I stopped him by revealing myself.

"I thought they'd never leave."

Thor looked up at me, the expression of shock on his face was delightful and satisfactory. He looked at my clothes. I had dressed for the occasion in garb of a 21st century Midgardian; Black coat, and an Armani suit with comfortable shoes.

"Loki? What are you doing here?" Looking into the surprised big blue eyes of my brother with this expression has always been delightful.

I never understood why he never wanted to expect mischief from me. The trust he had in me was heartening, but I couldn't change my nature… "I had to see you, you need to know, brother."

Thor stood up urgently and pawed at the lapel of my coat. "What's happened? Tell me! Is it Jotunheim? Let me explain to Father-"

I theatrically sighed and averted my eyes from my brother's pleading eyes. "Father is dead."

Thor stares at me, stunned. I waited for my brother's tiny brain to reboot at my fake revelation. "What?" Ah, here is the expression I wanted to see.

Taking on a mournful expression, I stared straight into his eyes. "Your banishment, the threat of a new war, it was too much for him to bear. You mustn't blame yourself. I know that you loved him. I tried to tell him so, but he wouldn't listen."

Thor looked down, seeing him like this almost made me drop the charade, but I had to steal my heart. My brother wasn't good for our people, he had to stay away or he would create problems upon problems for us with his ways. I needed to hammer him down even more, I laughed internally at my pun. "It was cruel to put the hammer within your reach, knowing you could never lift it. And then one of those Midgardian could… I can't imagine how you must feel."

Thor suddenly closed up, this was normal; he didn't like others seeing his pain. It was time to finish this, I had duties to see to. "The burden of the throne has fallen to me now."

Thor lifted his head, he looked hopeful. "Can I come home?"

And I crushed this tiny hope with relish. I shook my head with an expression full of regret. "The truce with Jotunheim is conditional upon your exile."

Thor looked desperate as he said, "But couldn't we find a way to-"

"Mother has forbidden your return." I quickly added. This was a lie, a bald faced one. I would have to lie to her later, but she was sure to see through me… This is a problem for the Loki of the future.

Thor nods, lowers his head, beaten.

"This is goodbye, brother. I'm so sorry." I said sincerely, I was sorry for having to keep him mortal and out of the way, but needs must.

Thor looked grateful and sad at the same time. "No, I'm sorry. Loki... thank you for coming here."

"Nothing could have stopped me." I stared at the pathetic form of my brother; no hammer, no father and mother angry with him and me installed as king. That had to hurt.

Thor looked down, dejected.

"Fare well, brother." I turned my back on him, smiled and then exited the room.

"Good-bye."

I was surprised to see the Tamaranean female looking at me with her glowing purple eyes, she frowned and then her eyes went back to green. "Did she see me?" I shook my head and left, telling myself that it wasn't possible.

"Friend Thor, I've come to do the fetching! Come with me, I've got some exotic alcohol for us to drown your sorrow with."

~/.\~

I brought back the scientists and Thor back to their labs at Smith Motors, the entire place was empty, SHIELD was here. They even left a check in an envelope for Jane. The Astrophysicist went bonkers when she noticed that all her custom gear had been removed. Fortunately for her, I had anticipated this and beamed down Jane's primitive scanners and instruments. I didn't expect to receive a tearful hug and profuse 'thank you' from her, but I did.

Darcy had taken me somewhere isolated and kissed me with tongue for over ten minutes or was it more? I lost track of time… I think she just claimed me. I almost forgot about Tony and his entourage on the Hyperdimension, they must be fine by now. I needed to get them back home. So I decided to take Darcy with me to my main ship and ravish her there and make her my mate.

As I held her in my arms while she faced Jane, my soon to be conquest shouted in feigned panic, "Jane help, I'm getting kidnapped by an alien!"

I laughed maniacally as Darcy played the poor helpless girl, I kissed her neck and she went weak in the knees.

Jane, who looked at us with red on her face as we got too intimate, began to say, "Please Blackfire, get her back here in the morning when you can; you already left Thor and Selvig on your ship to get drunk…"

The sky was getting dark and it was almost 11 pm, thanks to my sunlight absorption I didn't feel hungry or thirsty, but I liked to sleep. Tightening my hold onto Darcy, I said, "Don't worry, Friend Jane, I will have her back here at seven, as for the men? They will be automatically teleported back here when they won't be able to do the moving anymore."

Jane stood there looking stunned. She finally reacted by shouting, "That's not reassuring at all!"

Darcy giggled at that, then I said aloud, "Two to teleport, TALI."

"Tata, Jane!" Darcy waved her hand at her boss.

"Wait-" The Astrophysicist was about to say something but blue light surrounded us and we were not at Smith Motors anymore.

We appeared in the principal transporter room, hand in hand, I guided Darcy down the transporter platform. She looked around herself with googly eyes. TALI's gynoid form was at the console and looking at us with a patronizing smile. I rolled my eyes at how nosy the AI was being.

"Welcome to my home." I said to Darcy, who finished looking at the smooth golden walls and the machinery around us. Mjolnir was hanging at her belt as if it was normal, it was cute in a way. I sure hoped that Thor would get his hammer back from Darcy. So far Darcy wanted to polish it and give it its own cushion.

"Why is everything a shade of gold?" She asked by tilting her head and smoothing out the front of her hoodie. She took off her cap and let her hair free by shaking them, making me stare at her for a long moment, then my brain rebooted but I was still horny.

"You don't like it?" It's bad, I love the color gold.

"Captain Komand'r loves the color." TALI informed Darcy.

The young woman turned to me and raised an eyebrow in speculation. "Fire, we need to expand your preferences in color palette."

As she stared me down, and didn't even flinch with my glowy eyes trick, I said in defeat, "I can settle for silver and purple…"

The brunette smiled over the fact that I was willing to negotiate; I guessed that a new paint job was going to be needed for the entire ship in the future. Taking Darcy's hand in mine, I pulled her out of the transporter room. For ten minutes we roamed the corridors, until we reached the observation deck. We were currently in the rear section of the ship and in this room, there was a single large window, benches and table to sit and observe space ahead. *Hmm… this place needs more decoration.*

Darcy walked toward the window that gave a panoramic view of her planet. "Fire?"

"Yes, Friend Darcy?" I asked as I engulfed her in my embrace, putting my hands on her stomach while she watched the blue and green orb turning slowly on itself.

Darcy leaned into me, I wished at that moment that I wore something more comfortable than my usual outfit. One part of myself enjoyed the moment, while another was already planning to have full use of the fabricator in my wardrobe to make me new stuff, Earth style clothes maybe?

The brunette put her hands on mine and started to caress them. "If your goal was to show me your swanky spaceship and the view of my planet to make my panties drop, you succeeded."

"Are my intentions that transparent?" I whispered in her left ear in a sultry voice.

Darcy trembled at the sound of my voice in an agreeable way; feeling of lust and desire swirling within her. "Pretty much, you look like you want to eat me each time you look at me." She answered, her voice gaining a husky tone.

I giggled. "But your aura and feelings are so fluffy! I can't help it."

That's one of the reasons that Darcy attracted me. She was soft externally but beneath that softness, Darcy was a strong woman, with a steel core; I spent most of my time observing her and I know that those qualities describe her to a 'T': integrity, empathy, humility, resilience, vision, and positivity.

"Oh so you're some kind of mind reader?" Darcy asked me, curious. She turned into my arms to face, our faces were almost touching, thanks Xha'l that I was taller than her.

She didn't even think that I was influencing her at all; someone else would have gone stiff and demanded that I reveal what I could do.

I answered simply and truthfully. "No, I am an empath."

The power to fully interpret the emotions, moods, and temperaments of others. But there was another side of that ability that I would never attempt to use on someone, emotion manipulation. I know that sooner or later I would grow in power and be able to do such a thing. *Let's worry about that later, I have a strong and sexy kitten who wants to be kissed.*

Darcy passed her arms around my neck and looked seductively into my eyes. "Then, what do I feel now?"

Slowly, our faces closed in, then our lips met. We stopped for ten seconds, looking into each other's eyes and a moment later we locked lips again. Darcy put her hands on my shoulders while I placed mine around her waist, next, I pulled her body closer to mine. Putting my hands on the sides of her face, I used my right thumb to sweep across her cheekbone. Darcy put both of her hands around the back of my head and tangled them in my hair, gently pulling me into the kiss. Just like Natalia and Pepper had taught me, I coaxed Darcy into a French kiss. We stayed like this for another twenty minutes I think, it was hard to gauge the time when I was with her.

Without Darcy's awareness, we slowly floated out of the room, and suddenly, I transported us at super speed to my cabin. The attractive brunette didn't even feel it when we moved. That's how much she was invested in our kiss; I was getting better at controlling my powers. Thankfully, the living quarters were near our current position, so we didn't have to move at high speed for long. When I stopped kissing her, I smiled and showed to Darcy that we had moved somewhere else and pushed her on the bed at the center of my cabin.

She landed on the mattress, bouncing once on it. Darcy had a total sluttly smile on her face when she said, "Just so you know, my legs can't make it past my ears, I tried."

What a delightful image she was putting in my head, I bit my lower lip as I imagined it. The little minx knew what she was doing.

"Nothing that a little bit of the training can't change." Without my eyes leaving her face, I unzipped my suit, slowly while she watched.

The girl began drooling as more and more golden skin was showing. My chest was freed and bouncing, then I took off the special leotard-like suit. I floated and turned myself lazily around while taking off my thigh high boots and shucked them away from the bed. Landing on Darcy's lap, I straddled her and began to take off her clothes. We kissed at the same time while I methodically threw her clothes on the ground; coat, top, pants, undies…

"You are so warm."

Of course I was, we had different biology after all. I had to be careful and try not to hurt her, but I had the will to see through to exploring the delightful naked body of Darcy. "Let me embrace you, Darcy."

And that's what we did, all night.

~/.\~

The next day

Captain's cabin

05:58 AM (US time)

Darcy snored, not super big snoring, but the cute kind. The young woman had her face into my bosom, her snoring did some special intimate things to me that I won't describe. I didn't mind that she stuck to me like a baby koala to its mother, it was cute and heartening. I spent the last two minutes watching until it was six a.m. and soon after, started to try to wake Darcy up.

"Hey, Darcy." I threaded my fingers in her brunette hair.

She stirred and pushed her face even more into my chest. I giggled as Darcy's breath tickled me, I tried to pry her from me with a little strength. "Wake up."

She let go reluctantly, but still had her eyes closed. "I will kiss you if you don't."

"The prince normally kisses the princess to wake her up." Darcy puckered her lips with her eyes still closed.

Laughing, I couldn't help but answer with a teasing tone, "But I am the princess, shouldn't you do the kissing?"

"Double standard." Darcy assured me.

I kissed her, giving her what she clearly wanted, my hands gliding under the sheets covering our bodies and caressing Darcy's flank. We spent the next ten minutes kissing, before I reluctantly stopped and floated away from the bed, grinning as I looked at Darcy from the one meter in the air. She tried to catch me, but I quickly floated away.

"That's cheating!" She shouted as she tried to reach, but couldn't.

My paramour reluctantly exited the bed, seeing her naked made me want to have her again but I steeled myself. "I know, but we need to get you to do the showering, and the breakfasting, I promised Jane that you'd be there at seven a.m."

"She's always on my case, but whatever." The brunette whined as I landed before her and pulled her into a hug.

Darcy clung to me, her face in my breast, it was quickly becoming her favorite place to nuzzle. When she took her face out of my bosom, she looked up at me. "We need to do this again."

"You and me?" I smiled, there was definitely going to be an encore to our night.

"Yes, or is that a problem?" She scowled at me, there was a bit of vulnerability in this question.

I kissed her softly on the lips. "I intend to do the courting ceremony with you."

Darcy eyes and aura shone so much in happiness that it became blinding. "A-are you saying you want me to be your girlfriend?"

"Yes, that." I nodded.

She smooched me and literally vibrated in joy. "That's awesome! I can boast that I am dating a space princess to my friends. My Facebook is gonna explode..."

"Facebook?" Was it the same as back home? I don't know what to feel about having our relationship exposed. Memories of a similar virtual social board appeared in my mind, significantly more advanced than Earth's paltry social media page, holograms were a big part of it. Tamaranean technology was really awesome.

Darcy looked thoughtful as she said, "Ah, yes… social media. It grows like moss on everyone and makes things rather impersonal..."

Nodding I understood what she was trying to say. "Oh, we have this on Tamaran. Young people use it a lot to boast about things they hunted or people they did the fucking with."

The brunette snorted, then started laughing. "I see that some things are universal across the cosmos."

Pulling her by arm, I walked up to the bathroom. "Come, we must not tary."

Darcy loved my bathroom, it was spacious and was similar to a roman one but way more high-tech; there were different systems such as a sonic shower, a waterfall style shower, and a jacuzzi. Darcy wanted to try everything, but we didn't have the time so she went with what she knew: a waterfall shower where I helped her thoroughly to clean her body. We finished and proceeded to do some aftercare where we helped brush and comb our hair, this was nice.

I showed Darcy the fabricator in the wardrobe, she went shopping by copying things she had seen on online shops and made a complete outfit that I told her that she could keep. Darcy went for a black mini-dress with a sweetheart neckline that showed her impressive bust, mid-calf black boots and a long open cardigan. I went for a silver and purple leotard and black jeans, though Darcy chose the boots for me, black leather and over-the-ankle boots and she fab'd me a jacket. The material used in the fabric cleaned itself and was resistant to low-tech small arm fire. Just for my safety, I took the watch in my mini-armory.

We lost some time admiring our handiwork, then we decided to go have a bite. Everything was going fine until we arrived in the galley of the Hyperdimension. Happy and Pepper were there eating and Tony was fiddling with a food replicator. Different dishes strewn around him as he studied the device.

I watched as Pepper looked angrily at Tony playing with the replicator. "Tony, will you just eat already?"

With an excited smile, Tony turned to his girlfriend. "But Pep, this is revolutionary! Can you imagine how many people this device could feed?!"

Happy ignored them, and- wait since when Happy is this muscular? Did Talonn tune him up as well? Pepper looked more healthy and younger as well! They wore clothes clearly out of the fabricator. It seems TALI and Talonn have taken some liberties with the guests.

The redhead rolled her eyes at Tony's outburst. "And how many jobs would be lost globally in the process? The world isn't ready for this tech."

"But!" Tony whined like a child being denied a toy.

"Tony! Sit down and eat!" Pepper commanded, pointing a finger at the empty chair at her side.

"Fine!" Tony turned to all the plates full of food and loaded them on one of the disposable trays.

Darcy turned to me and said aloud with a voice full of mirth, "Fire, I didn't know you had kidnapped Tony Stark and his entourage?"

Pepper and Happy's having heard her, look in our direction. The redhead stood up and shouted, "Komand'r! You are finally here!"

We walked up to them and sat at the same table, sitting across from Pepper. "Hello, Friend Pepper."

Tony placed himself at her side and waved his hand at me and started his breakfast by sipping on his OJ. Then he looked at Darcy hanging on my arms with head leaned against my shoulder. "Huh, who's that with you?"

"This is my new mat-girlfriend, Darcy." I didn't call her my mate yet. We barely knew each other, but my empathy sped up things between us.

As if he read my thoughts, Tony said, "You move fast." Next he put a lot of syrup on his waffle and started to dig in.

My stomachs grumbled loudly and everyone looked at me in surprise as it had sounded more like a monster roaring. I shamelessly looked at a gaping Darcy. "It's time for the breakfasting, let's go to the food replicator Darcy."

I floated up to the kitchenette and started to order food, Darcy didn't go with the usual ploy of going for a salad. She went for a Mexican breakfast, it seemed she really liked that style of cuisine. I settled for creole cuisine and had a mountain of french pastries, guava juice and a bit of milk in a pitcher. Darcy loomed at me as if I was crazy.

This was driving into her mind that I wasn't human and that our physiology was different, I could eat a lot more than humans or even Asgardians. When we returned to the table, Darcy ate in silence, watching me eat with relish; Tony and Pepper continued to argue about the alien tech he was studying, Happy ate sedately and was reading the news on a PADD. I quickly spied on my personal HUD what Tony was consulting, it was mainly stuff on material science, one hundred years in advance from the stuff available on Earth. That's good, he will become stronger with that, but I took the liberty to restrict things from him, things he wasn't ready for, transporter tech, replicators, spatial folding… and other things.

When we finished eating, Darcy burped silently with a tissue on her mouth, she made me laugh. Pepper looked annoyed at Tony who was still reading and ignoring her. That wasn't good, so I decided to cut short their visit. They've been here for almost a week already.

"Friend Tony, it's time for your knorfka Happy and your mate Pepper to do the returning home." I said as I looked at him.

He finally registered what I said and dropped the PADD on the table, he looked surprised and somewhat shocked.

"Mate?" Pepper said under her breath with her cheeks reddening.

TALI's hologram briefly appeared and she looked relieved as she said quickly, "I will prep the transporters, Captain."

Tony looked somewhat despondent as he saw the AI leave, he shook his head. "Your AI doesn't like me…"

Tilting my head I asked Pepper, "Did something happen?" TALI was more tactful normally, she wouldn't drop decorum like this if something didn't annoy her.

Pepper glared at Tony who lowered his head in penitence. The redhead addressed me, her gaze never wavering from the billionaire. "Yes, Tony has been bothering your AI, your healer and the engineers with questions. He had to be stopped from dismantling one of your fabricators as well…"

Shaking my head, I understood why TALI wanted him out of the ship. "I see, that would have done it. Tony, we will need to do the speaking later. But for now, take this."

I handed him the PADD he has been using, with this it will be easy to contact him and let him access some of the knowledge he would need. "Don't lose this, I will call you later on it."

Tony looked suspiciously at me as he took the grey tablet. "One of your PADDs, why?"

Showing him my most serious expression, I explained, "I have a lot of things to say, but we don't have the time; now you must go home and let Pepper play nurse with you to check if everything is alright with you." I wiggled my eyebrows at him and then at Pepper who blushed.

She looked quite fetching in that white top and skirt. Tony looked mutinous, he wanted to stay on the ship and explore, I could feel it.

"But!" He tried to argue.

Pepper looked somewhat sad, I didn't like feeling her emotion shift like this. I scowled at Tony, my eyes glowing purple. "Choose, Pepper or the toys?"

Tony straightened up, Healer Talonn had worked well on him, he looked younger and more muscular. "Pepper, all the way." The man said without hesitation.

"Aww, Tony. I love you too." Pepper tackle hugged him and kissed him full on the lips.

I laughed as I watched them. Those two were always a riot together. "Good choice. Now, let's go to the transporter room and do the bye bye."

Taking Darcy in my arms, princess carry style, I floated out of the room. My new friends followed me with a bit of sadness, maybe I will invite them back again.

"I love how you talk." Darcy gushed.

My handmaidens waited for us in the transporter room, they had gone to great lengths to gather all the clothes my friends fabricated while they had stayed here. They gave them suitcases full of those clothes, I'm sure they would like to have them. I needed to send mining drones in the asteroid belt to gather material later. In particular for those Vibranium asteroids TALI detected.

The three humans climbed on the transporter platform, their suitcases in hands; I waved at them with a smile. "Good of the bye Friend Tony, Pepper, and Happy. We will see each other soon!"

They waved back, with smiles and niceties; Pepper muttered a silent 'thank you' to me that really touched me deep in my heart. I may not be a goody-goody, but I wasn't completely insensible to the plight of others. It was finally our turn to leave, I had my morpher and my new girlfriend with me, I was ready for that Destroyer bot, and Loki. I can't wait to smack that smarmy little git in the face or 'Puny god' him. The three disappeared in a flash of blue light and then it was finally our turn to leave, and Darcy stuck to me as the transporter charged again.

"I can't wait to tell Jane about what I've seen. She's going to be so jealous." Darcy said happily as she straightened her new cardigan. She had no cap on her head this time and she looked more voluptuous and confident than yesterday.

"Me think she'll be too busy to do anything today, Darcy love."

"Why?" Darcy's big eyes turned toward me.

With a flash, we got teleported in Smith Motors' parking lot as Darcy asked me that question, then I pointed my finger at Jane's trailer, which was rocking, we could hear the voices of Thor and the Astrophysicist getting it on.

"Because of that." I said and laughed at the irony of the situation.

"Oh." Darcy said, not expecting that at all.

~/.\~

(Phil Coulson)

SHIELD Desert Base - Security room

08:00

I raced in the security room as a SHIELD techie called up the satellite footage of the flash storm that was just detected on the monitor. I was seeing a pattern here, the same thing happened when this Prince Thor and his Hammer crashed on Earth. And now it seemed that someone else was arriving by the same way of travel.

"More aliens?" I asked.

It was obvious that there had been a new arrival; since Princess Komand'r's revelation the Director had placed a high priority on detecting celestial events and investigating them. We even had to place a team to watch Princess Komand'r's friends at Smith Motors. From the last reports, it seemed that Prince Thor was getting cozy with the local fauna.

The techie shook his head. "I don't know, sir. But we got the same energy reading that Jane Foster had registered on her instruments." He looked at the screen again. "Huh? It just disappeared, sir."

"Where?" I looked down at the techie who looked nervously at me.

He brought up a map and pointed a finger at a spot. "Fifteen miles due northwest."

"Let's go take a look." I quickly moved from the security room and ran to the car outside.

~/.\~

(Lady Sif)

Bifrost's landing site (Earth)

Amidst the fury of the Bifrost storm, we dropped on the arid ground. Climbing to our feet as the Bifrost recedes, I raise my head to see the hole in the sky closing behind it. Beneath my feet the Bifrost runes covered the desert sand. Looking around me, I only saw the arid wastes we landed on. Then I noticed in the distance the only sign of civilization: a town.

I said nothing and let the men speak between themselves and make themselves look like idiots, one of the hidden pleasures that I have since I joined that warrior band. My friends could be entertaining like that.

"He must have landed nearby. It's time to put our tracking skills to work. Spread out. Check the sand for indentations of his boot prints." Volstagg suggested as he addressed us, his long red mane of hair were swept by the wind.

"The winds would have blown them away by now. We should look for signs of a campfire." Fandral, the green garbed blonde man at Volstagg's side, argued.

Sighing, I laughed at their lack of awareness. "Or we could just start there." I pointed behind them to the little town and to Hogun, our stoic black haired friend who was already walking towards it. Volstagg and Fandral traded looks, their egos bruised, eliciting a small grin from me.

"It's worth a look, I suppose." Fandral stated. I followed Hogun, tromping towards the town.

It took us barely ten minutes to reach the street of this little town in this arid desert; I asked myself how they survived in this climate, but it seemed that those villagers were tougher than they looked.

The townsfolk stared at us in wonder as we strolled down the street in all our armored and well armed splendor. A boy lost his toy ball under one of the primitive vehicles and Volstagg easily lifted it to let the young one access the ball under it. He then lowered himself and picked up the boy's ball, then dropped the car, handed the ball back to the boy, tousling his hair.

"There you go, lad!" Volstagg exclaimed happily.

He had always been one of my friends that was good with children, his wife was a lucky Lady. Meanwhile the Midgardian boy just stared at him, standing frozen. Volstagg then went to his merry way at our side.

"Friends, is it just me, or does Earth look a little different to you?"

"It has been a thousand years…" I realized it was logical that Midgardian people would be different.

"Things change so fast here. You leave for a millennium, and it's like the whole village is gone." Volstagg sniffed, smelling something.

I stopped Volstagg from going somewhere else, he must have sniffed food as usual, the man had hungry bears in his stomach. Then I noticed two people on the roof of the closest building. I scowled at them; Volstagg noticed them as well, that's why he was moving toward them I guess. They were about to reveal our presence to whatever authority was in power, before they could do anything, Volstagg jumped behind them and smashed their heads together.

"They're out!" The big redhead shouted at me in victory. He jumped down at my side and said, "Never cared for spies."

He said that but I saw the bag full of food that he had stolen from them. He pulls out some kind of food that consists of two flat pieces of bread with meat and vegetables between them. He hummed in satisfaction as he bit into it. "Exquisite."

I rolled my eyes at him and walked out, looking for my Prince, the only man that could save them from the reign of the false king Loki.