Ben Wolf (agoodman) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-06-12 01:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | captain america, door: marvel comics, thor |
Who: Steve Rogers and Thor
What: Talking
Where: The diner across the street from Stark Tower, New York, Midgard, Marvel Door
When: Following this
Warnings/Rating: None
Prior to the mess in Las Vegas, there had been plans for them to meet already, to speak of Loki and what preparations could be made against Thor’s brother. While it did not surprise that his brother took advantage of the situation in Ben's realm, the nature of what he'd brought across had. Lindworms and draugar, both creatures of an older time, a harsher time. They had no place here, not in this time, nor in this place, but Thor could not have honestly expected that Loki would bring either. It was just another facet of his brother, another step to figuring him out.
Thor was still thinking of it when he returned to Passages. Using the copy of Pepper's key that she had given him, he went through the door again, this time to her apartment in Malibu. It seemed empty, so he didn't stop to say hello before he left the building and flew to New York, Mjolnir leading the way until he stopped in front of Stark Tower. There was the diner that Captain Rogers had mentioned, just across the street where he said it would be. Thor didn't hesitate to go in and acquire a table for them towards the rear of the restaurant where they would have some semblance of privacy.
Waving off the waitress until the other man arrived, Thor sat down to wait.
It took Steve longer to walk down the block than it did for Thor to fly from Malibu, and he arrived within minutes of the other man. The hostess received a shake of his head, a polite explanation that the person he was meeting was already there, before Steve made his way through the diner to the table Thor had selected. It was impossible to miss Thor, who was as physically out of his element as Steve was internally.
Steve slid into his seat, and he regarded the man across from him. He wasn’t joking when he told Dr. Banner that he had no idea how they were supposed to bridge this gap they all had, but maybe this was the way. He’d give it a chance, just because Bruce kept insisting it was important, though he didn’t feel like he had a lot of bargaining chips at this particular negotiating table.
Steve was dressed in harmless khaki and white. No shield, no helmet, nothing but all-American good looks and a fair amount of uncertainty resting on his broad shoulders. “I don’t know how to say ‘your brother is turning into a real pain’ without just saying it,” he began, because this wasn’t a wargame that required subterfuge. “I can’t take him, and Tony can’t take him. Did you have something planned?” Because quiet or not, uninformed or not, Steve didn’t believe the last week hadn’t put wheels in motion. But maybe that was wishful thinking.
The waitress came to the table, and Steve ordered a coffee for himself, and then motioned to his companion.
Coffee. The one drink on Midgard that Asgard could not match and for which there was no equivalent. Ignoring the glance the waitress gave him, as he was still in his standard armor and quite conspicuous, Thor seconded the order for coffee, and waited until the waitress had left before addressing the other man's question.
He appreciated Steve's blunt honesty, but it lacked the sharp insult that might come from any other tongue and that earned him a bit more of Thor's respect. "Yes," he answered truthfully, with a slight nod of his head. To explain his plan though, would take more than one simple word. "The first attack, the leviathan, Loki has created illusions before. Not to that scale, but it has been done. It is the manner of his seiðr, his magic," Thor began.
"Magic has always been his domain. Even as children, he relied more on it than any of our people and in a fight, it is the first thing he reaches for." Much like Mjolnir for Thor, or the shield for Cap and though they had tried to bring Loki around to the more physical fights, magic had been his shield and his sword.
"We once had to have an indestructible chain forged. I returned to the dwarves on Nidavellir to see if they could craft a pair of manacles, with the intention of containing Loki's seiðr. It would at least prevent him from using any of his magic to harm anyone until he can be returned to Asgard."
The chain, at least, sounded like something tangible, something Steve could understand and wrap his head around as a solution. “Do you need to lure him through the door to get it on him, or can you do it in Las Vegas?” Las Vegas would be easier, and Steve was the kind of soldier that liked the direct path, the one of least resistance, even if it came without flourish or a fight. Whoever Loki was in Las Vegas, he had no magic. It was a sure thing. Maybe not with his gal, but if Thor had someone strong, then they could shove Loki through the door, and it would be done. Anticlimactic, but Steve had lived too long to care about theatrics. He just wanted to win the war, and if he could do it fast and without casualties, all the better. But there was the fact that Loki’s Las Vegas counterpart hadn’t talked to any of them (not that Steve knew of). “Do you know who he is in Las Vegas?”
It was a simplistic understanding of the situation, of people in each other’s minds, but it made sense to Steve. They were one way on one side of the door, and they were another way on the other side of the door. Some things lingered, but it wasn’t science, and Steve didn’t like magic. Thor talked about it like it was unpleasant, but Steve hated it altogether. Blame Hydra and the fact that the technology that had ruined his life had come from the man sitting across from him.
Steve took a sip of his coffee, and he patiently waited.
"I cannot take it through the door," Thor replied, in answer to Steve's question. It would be easier if he could apply it on that side of the boundary, but there was a part of him that wanted to protect Benji and Lizzy as much as he could from what Loki had become. Two years ago, even a year ago, he would have thought nothing of introducing everyone to his brother or of taking a back seat while his brother schemed and planned with the brilliant minds Thor that came in this group of people.
That, however, would have been the Loki of a year ago. The Loki today was far different and Thor did not appreciate having to question how well he knew his brother. "I do not know who he is in Las Vegas, but we have spoken and Benji has spoken to him," Thor said honestly, his hands splaying towards Steve, palms and fingers open.
"They spoke again, after everything returned to how it should be. Ben asked him to let us know when Loki tried to cross next time. It will be harder catching him here, but during the transition? It would be easiest to take Loki then."
When Thor said the manacles could not be taken through the door, Steve looked out the window. It figured it wouldn’t be that easy. Manacling Loki on this side meant catching him, which Steve already knew was nearly impossible to do. Well, completely impossible in his case. It also meant they would need to know when Loki was here, and they’d need to catch him before he went off to wherever Loki him himself when he wasn’t in New York. Steve was pretty sure that wherever that was, there wasn’t a bus that could take him there.
Before Steve got too far in his thoughts, though, Thor was saying someone named “Benji” had spoken to the person Loki inhabited, and Steve’s attention returned to the blond man at the table.
“If he wants to help, this guy, then have him meet you at the door. Letting you know when Loki is going to cross might not be good enough, but meeting you there is a sure thing. Or agree on a time for him to walk Loki through,” Steve suggested, his military experience having taught him to leave as little to chance as possible during a siege. “And we better do it soon, before he tries something again.”
Thor had considered that and it would have been something he had asked, if he didn't already know that Loki's counterpart was doing the best he could to keep him on the Vegas side of the door.
"I have considered this," Thor said, gazing at the man before him. "But he, whoever he may be, deserves a chance to keep him on the Vegas side." Thor didn't know his name, he didn't know what he looked like, if he had a wife, children, a family, or barring that, someone that loved him. What he did remember was their conversation and the knowledge that however inadvertently, he hadn't hurt only Loki but a very real, a very mortal man. He did not like that feeling at all.
"If we can enlist his help on that side of the door, then we have a better chance. If it fails, then I'll ask for him to meet me there." It was a hefty bargain, placing the responsibility on a man's shoulders when he didn't even know his name and it would cost dearly if he failed, but there were ways to lessen that loss. Thor would see to it.
"I do not wish to see harm come to anyone. Not you, not Tony son of Stark, nor anyone of this realm, but there is an innocent man on the other side that is caught in my brother's snare. If he can break free of that, I would give him the tools to do so." As much as his brother might argue otherwise, Thor was also no fool. All his plans could not hinge on a single act of a single man.
As much as it pained him, Loki was dangerous here and true to his word, he would no more see anyone hurt here than he would on the other side. "There are things you should know of my brother if you are going to protect yourselves," he finally said, glancing down for the first time as their waitress returned with two steaming cups of coffee.
Steve was practical, a soldier. Even the serum hadn’t changed that. Being less than human, as the voice in the warehouse had indicated, hadn’t changed it. He wasn’t like Tony, and he wasn’t even like Bruce. He should have been dead years ago, and the fact that he was still alive after being suspended on ice for seventy years made him feel less than a man. Lately, when the anger got to be too much, he felt that coldness seeping into his veins and icing his emotions. But he knew Thor was right. Whoever Loki was in Las Vegas, he deserved a chance. Steve thought he’d already had that chance and failed, but he’d already figured out that Thor was more optimistic than him - well, than him recently - and maybe that was a good thing in this case, a fair thing.
“What things?” Steve asked, not asking if the yourselves in that sentence referred to him, to the Avengers, to humanity as a whole. Because it really didn’t matter just then. Maybe Bruce was wrong, maybe Thor couldn’t join them as a team, because this seemed like a personal fight. Steve knew all about those. He’d left the entire Army behind to go find Bucky. He knew about personal rescue missions. Bruce was expecting Thor to be the founder of the Avengers, but Steve had his doubts about any of them founding anything.
But Steve knew they would fight, and that was a start to something. Maybe not the perfect team Bruce envisioned, but something.
Steve was right, this was a personal fight to Thor. A personal rescue mission for his brother, but Bucky hadn't been endangering anyone. Loki was quite different in that respect and it still pained him to think of Loki as an enemy, analyzing his moves, his tactics, as one would an enemy force.
"If Loki makes it through, he's going to come back here," Thor said, absolutely sure on that. "When he attacks, he's always at the front line for the first volley." That was their father's teaching. A good general was always on the front line with his men and would suffer as they did. "Expect him to fall back after that, somewhere that he can watch everything. He likely won't be hidden then, he enjoys the attention." Twisting the mug in his hands, he finally lifted the cup up and took a healthy swallow of the dark brew inside.
The flavor made him smile and though she wasn't here, Thor remembered his promise to Jane that he would ask nicely for refill instead of breaking the mug as he would have on Asgard. "We should have everyone together, it is information you should all have."
Steve couldn’t help but grin, his hands around the warm coffee mug. Bruce would be pleased, and with recent events that made Steve feel like things might be coming together, despite his conflicting thoughts from just moments earlier. “You’re right. I’ll get everyone together. Tomorrow night? Turn your radio on,” he said referring to the bluetooth devices Banner’s Las Vegas counterpart had built.
Steve stood, and he held out a hand for Thor to shake, respect, from one soldier to another. “Glad to have you on the team, Thor, even if it’s just for this battle,” he said, and he meant it. Thor was a straight talker, nothing like Tony with his jokes and Bruce with his feelings, and Steve could understand that in a soldier. Too many feelings made things complicated on the field, and no one knew that better than him. He carried too many emotions into battle all the time, after all.
Thor nodded to the information on the radios. He hadn't tried the earpiece again since the one time in Pepper's apartment, but he would do so again, and this time he would be there. "That should be fine," he said as he stood.
The hand held out to him brought out a warm smile, but he didn't shake it as anyone else would have, but clasped Steve forearm to forearm as warriors did. "I will always be a friend to Midgard," he said without the least bit of hesitation. There was a certain amount of honesty between them that Thor appreciated as well. Steve didn't come with Tony's demands or his abrasiveness, but as a man who wanted to protect others from harm. It was a welcome respite. "I shall talk to you tomorrow. I wish you well."