The God That Forgot

Loki On Asgard.

Loki is one of several powerful beings from the realm of Asgard, who have been worshipped, and known as on Earth, as gods. Even though they are really just an alien race. Many years ago Odin, the ruler of the Asgardian gods, led his subjects in a war against their enemy, the frost giants. The giants were defeated. Surveying the spoils of war, the Asgardians discovered a small Asgardian god-sized baby hidden at the giants' main fortress. The infant was Loki, whom the frost giant king had kept hidden due to his shame over his son's diminutive size. Odin remembered his own father's dying words to adopt the son of a father killed by his hands; so Odin adopted Loki into his own family, raising Loki like a son along with his biological son, Thor, and keeping his real heritage a secret from him.

 Always second best to his older brother and though possessing physical attributes equal to a fit average member of the race of super-beings, the Asgardians, such as enhanced strength; stamina, speed, durability, (his Frost Giant metabolism grants him superhuman levels of physical stamina in practically all activities); he never equalled to the strength, tenacity and bravery of Thor and forever resented him for the love their father lavished upon Thor. And so he relentlessly tried to undermine and gain the upper hand over his older brother, gaining the nickname "The God of Mischief" but as they grew older that mischievousness turned into malice as his lust for power and revenge became stronger. And always Thor tried to stop him, though always reluctant to harm his little brother. [Note, I have yet to see Thor the film so I'm not exact on the relationship between them]
 Aside from his superior sorcery abilities and the ability to manifest and manipulate ice, Loki possesses a brilliant intellect, charisma and underneath the steely cold veneer of his trickster charm is a certain vulnerability and sensitivity – the wounded fragility of an outcast brother and son. However, his arrogance, his passionate hatred of Thor, and all-consuming lust for power greatly impeded his ability to bring his well-laid plans to fruition. He is an expert manipulator and schemer, is usually armed with throwing knives, a sword, or a curved, two-pronged staff and has used magical items to enhance his powers.

It's been 7 months after the events of The Avengers, when Loki's plot to take over Earth with/for the Frost Giants was foiled and he was taken back to Asgard by Thor, and the rest of the Avengers went back to their "ordinary" lives until such a time that they were needed to assemble once more.
 Though the Avengers were taking a break in the absence of crisis, work on the SHIELD helicarrier never ceased. Their personal and primary technician, systems engineer, tech guru or whatever you want to call it was certainly not one to rest either. It's her job to attend to and upgrade the weapons and defence systems/tools of SHIELD and the arsenal of the Avengers themselves, or any other SHIELD agents. She takes a lot of stick from the geniuses [namely Tony Stark - Iron Man and Bruce Banner - The Hulk] when they waltz in with their skepticism over the tech they'll use to save the world, but for the most part she gets along with the Avengers greatly and follows their ventures and progress eagerly, secretly gleeful that she's the one who's partially responsible for their success.
 Her name is Sarah Brett, she's 26 and the call of "Breeeeett!" is commonly heard in the SHIELD helicarrier control room when Tony Stark or any of the other Avengers need to compare notes with her, get something fixed or pretty much anything to do with their arsenal or armour. With straight, flyaway brown hair with remnants of past blonde streaks she couldn't be bothered to replenish, honey-gold light blue eyes and a cheeky grin, she isn't the sultry femme fatale that Avenger Natasha Romanova is but she still gets some playful teases from fellow SHIELD crew members - after all, who can resist a cute, snappy, nerdy gal? Despite this she's actually quite shy, and find's Captain America's old-school [he's from WW2] manners and polite ways with her to be quite sweet. But just because she's inwardly shy doesn't mean she can't hold her own in a match of witty banter, or have outbursts of bravery and confidence in what she does, hence her ability to ward off, and firm friendship with, Tony Stark.


It''s the beginning of November, the warm nights are beginning to draw in and everyone is clinging on to their last chances of wearing their summer clothes. Sarah Brett is one of those people and has just been called back from her brief holiday. They said it was urgent so she didn't even have enough time to change out of her sneakers, tight denim shorts and burgundy Sherlock t-shirt. The high-tech transport plane Nick Fury [the head of SHIELD] sent to pick her up lands on the sky-height hovering helicarrier and her disgruntled feelings at being disturbed on holiday are shaken off as she's reminded just how cool her job is.
 Nick Fury's assistant, Agent Maria Hill, is waiting for her at the bottom of the airstairs and she descends them quickly, trying not to shiver at the high wind and biting temperature at this hight.
 "Sarah, sorry to interrupt your vacation but Nick Fury requires your presence urgently." She greets her.
 "Good to see you again Maria." Sarah replies, wrapping her arms around herself to keep down the goosebumps.
 "Follow me." Maria smiles and they walk swiftly to the dark glass entrance of the base.
 "Couldn't Fury have gotten one of the other on-board technicians? I don't mind but surely it would have been easier for him?" Sarah said, raising her voice over the roar of the helicopters.
 "Yes, but he needs you specifically, we've had a Code Diamond from one of our outposts," Maria shouted back over her shoulder.
 "Code Diamond? Shit." Sarah said to herself in surprise, it wasn't like SHIELD to lose track of their experiments. She'd learnt all of the secret codes and passphrases SHIELD used off by heart years ago, even though she hadn't been required to.
 "He'll explain when we get inside." Maria continued ass they strode over a runway. "The Avengers are already assembled." She called as she ran forwards to open the doors of the entrance.
 "The Avengers are already here?!" Sarah asked in disbelief and jogged after her. "So quickly?! It must be urgent. Best not keep them waiting then!" She said to her with a grin as she slid in through the door past Maria and nodded in greeting to the two guards inside as she started down the spiral stairs.
 "She's arrived." Maria said into her earpiece as the electronic double-doors shut behind them.
 As Sarah hopped off the bottom step and looked at the familiar sight of the helicarrier control room/bridge down the hall she saw that Nick Fury was already waiting for her, right next to the stairs. A normal person would find their instant communication and reactions odd but to Sarah, it was odd if they didn't.
 "Agent Brett. I trust you had a good flight?" He greeted her.
 "Never gets old, sir." Sarah smiled.
 "Let's go on then, we've been waiting for you." He replied and lead the way to the conference room which overlooked the bridge. Maria followed behind them as they strode along the smooth, grey-panelled flooring and Sarah couldn't help but feel out of place amongst her fellow, dark-uniformed SHIELD workers but she didn't need to feel out of place for long.

 As the trio walked through the open door to the conference room the heads of all the fully-suited Avengers turned towards them, some had been idly sitting at the table, some had been pacing about and Tony Stark was lounging around in his t-shirt and designer jeans [he can practically walk into his suit] fiddling around with the projected computer screen next to the large glass window overlooking the bridge. Captain America stood up politely as she entered. Fury took his position under the SHIELD logo and was about to say something when Tony's voice suddenly came from the other end of the room.
"Sarah Brett, finally. I thought I recognised that ample behind coming down the stairs." Tony said suggestively without turning around and as Sarah peered over she saw that he was indeed watching her from behind through the security footage he'd hacked into. "You gonna get us some stuff to take down this glitzy geek who thinks he knows it all? 'Cause I saw those arrows you gave Legolas over there last mission and, well, far too much boom kid. The blast almost took out my suit." He said and turned around with his arms crossed and a slightly sulky expression.
 "Maybe I should take a look at your suit instead then. Check out those collaborators." Sarah responded with a knowing smile and Tony's expression turned to one of a hurt puppy dog.
 "My collaborators are fine!" He said defensively, yet again cutting Nick Fury off. "It's your collaborators I'm worried about." He mumbled, thwarting another of Fury's attempts to speak.
 "Tony! Cut the sass!" Natasha suddenly barked at him and he was momentarily subdued while Fury spoke.
 "Thank you, Agent Romanoff" Fury said to Natasha with an inward sigh and Sarah smiled smugly as she took her seat next to Natasha, smiling in thanks at Captain America for his sweet manners when she entered.
 "As Agent Hill told you, we have a Code Diamond." Fury said to Sarah and the other Avengers paid attention as the amusing moment between Tony and Sarah had passed.
 "I take it you've lost someone?" Sarah asked.
 "Not quite," Fury said and nodded to Tony to get the projection screens up, which he did with a swipe of his hand across the screens. A large profile picture of a middle-aged, Caucasian man with dark brown hair and squinty, grey eyes now filled the window and various articles and a fact file surrounded him.
 "You're looking at Graham Tucker." Fury explained. "He was one of us until he quit just a week after the Avengers took down Loki. Ever since he was a kid he was gifted at technology - he graduated MIT at the age of 16 and went on to get various accolades - he was able to hack into and win the lottery when he was 18."
 "Lucky guy." Tony said sarcastically and Fury Mmmed.
 "5 months ago he contacted us, claiming he had the ability to control anything electronic, and he wanted to join the Avengers. We checked him out and it turned out he actually can do what he says, due to a highly advanced chip he inserted in the back of his neck, but due to his criminal background we said no. We kept an eye on him anyway as he could pose a dangerous threat. He seemed to be placid, usually staying in his workshop or at home. Then a week ago we got an alert from our lookout on Tucker, he'd just disappeared."
 Sarah groaned, she could see where this was going. "So now he's out for revenge because you did't let him join the team?" She asked and Fury nodded, Sarah thought she saw a little glimpse of shame appeared in the army veteran's eye, but it was too hard to tell.
 "It gets better," Captain America suddenly interjected. "It turns out he has the remnants of Tony's entire battalion of drone soldiers under his command." Tony coughed awkwardly.
 "The guy could get through any security system, you can't blame me for keeping some spare parts to study. You're just lucky he didn't find my suit." Tony protested.
 "That's our problem." Fury said. "He can bypass and turn anything we send at him against us. We sent in the Avengers yesterday and-"
 "You went in?!" Sarah repeated in astonishment. "Already? But I've only been gone three days, how come it  isn't all over the news? I mean no offence but you guys aren't really the most subtle of types." She said and looked skeptically at Captain America's blue, red and white suit and Thor's Asgardian armour and red cape.
 "We tried our best not to let the public know that every defence system in the world is futile against this guy." Fury said tightly and Sarah's eyes widened in realisation.
 "Tony's suit doesn't work." She said and Tony genuinely looked pained for a moment.
 "No. In fact if he goes in he could well be turned against us, which more or less happened yesterday." Fury informed her.
 "So what, you want me to make Tony's suit resistant to this Tucker? I appreciate the consideration but surely he could have done that himself?" Sarah asked in confusion.
 "Indeed." Tony scoffed and leant back against the wall to wait for Fury to deliver the bombshell.
 "No," Fury sighed. "We brought you in because Tucker has managed to steal a piece of the Tesseract, the cubic energy plasma from Asgard that Loki used several months ago to open a rift between his world and ours, that you worked on. The original, Thor tells us, is still safe on Asgard. We can't afford to send in the Avengers in such vague circumstances and as Stark was the only one who had a chance of understanding what Tucker's doing with it, we need you to look into it and see if you can figure out what Tucker wants it for, and if possible, how to stop it." He finished and all faces turned to Sarah as she stood in silence and tried to take it all in.
 "The teleport device? But that failed, what does he want with that?" She asked.
 "Well now evidence suggests he got it working, but we're not sure in what way." Fury said and turned to her. "We have some evidence from the scene so you won't be entirely clueless and almost everyone here saw it, so can you do it?"
 Everyone was looking expectantly at Sarah and she gulped. "I-I'll try." She said and Fury smiled.
 "Then that's all we need." He said. "Stark and Dr. Banner will help you as much as they can and I'm sure you'll find a spare uniform in the lab. Now if you'll excuse me I have the Ministry of Defence to assure that I've got our best analyst on the case." He said and with that he left the room with Maria.
 Sarah was left in the room with the Avengers and she gulped. "Best analyst?" She repeated weakly and Bruce Banner smiled at her kindly.
 "I'm sure you'll do exceptionally." Captain America assured her.
 "Thanks. So who saw it?" She asked and Bruce put his hand up.
 "That would be me, Natasha and Clint. I can't really remember it though. Being green doesn't exactly give you an eye for detail." He said apologetically.
 "Ok so did it look any different?" Sarah directed at Natasha and Hawkeye and they looked back at her blankly.
 "From what?" Natasha asked and Sarah suddenly understood why Tony mocked anyone who can't understand him.
 "Uhh it's only small compared to the original, a small rectangular cube the size of your thumb, but it's encased in a metal stand with various lights and knobs and a circular bottom to direct the energy flow, like an upside-down halo." Sarah explained awkwardly.
 "I didn't see any casing." Said Natasha.

"No, in fact it looked more like the original, but smaller. There was a lot of spare parts around it, looked like he was experimenting with something." Hawkeye offered helpfully, in his own broody way.
 "But that just removes the teleportation limitations I put on it." Sarah said in confusion. "Thor, are you sure the original is safe on Asgard?"
"Perfectly." Said Thor, who'd been listening to the technical conversation with some bemusement. "It's under the highest security in the treasury vault, there's no technology to be bypassed to enter it." He said and Sarah sighed in deep thought.
 "Well if you're going to go round in circles all day with your little get-together, I think it's time I showed the Cap what we call an 'X-Box'." Tony announced, a little miffed he wasn't included in the conversation he'd be suited for. Captain America jumped up eagerly, not having much to do here, and the two headed towards the hall that lead to the residential zone. "I'll be on the com if you need me, Brett." He said, pointing two fingers at her and clicking with his tongue. Sarah rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

"Come on, I've got something to show you." Bruce smiled wryly and lead her out of the opposite hallway to his science lab, leaving Thor, Natasha and Hawkeye to their own devices. "I may not be able to tell you what it looks like but, god knows how, I managed to catch hold of some files from Tucker's lab." He said as they went along the smooth, grey-metal-furbished hallway and he swiped his ID on the pad next to his white metal and glass lab door.
 The white walls and furnishings were a stark difference to all the dark grey, but Sarah's eyes were drawn immediately to a table where several sheets of diagram were spread across it amongst various scientific vials.
 "I don't know what to make of them as I'm not familiar with the work you did on it in the first place, but I was hoping you could make some sense out of it." He said as they went in and observed as she immediately went over to them.
 "It was nothing, an idea, nothing more. I thought we could control a smaller portion of it to create a single-world teleportation device to make the Avengers more efficient. But I was wrong, it nearly blew the whole ship up. We never should have kept it in the first place, it was supposed to be going on a one-way trip to Asgard with Thor but I guess Tucker got to it first." She mused as she flicked through the files, her frown going deeper and deeper with each page.
 "Have you found something?" Bruce frowned and came forward to look over her shoulder.
 "I'm not sure," Sarah said hesitantly. "But it doesn't look good, whatever it is..." She paused and looked up at him brightly, not wanting to tell anyone what she'd realised until she'd ruled out every other possibility.

"Do you mind if I take these? I've got to look into it more before I'm sure. Besides, frankly I can't think straight  while I'm freezing." She said and gestured down to her short summer clothes.
 "Sure!" Bruce said and leant against his elbow on the table. "Feel free to come into my lab at any time."
 "Thanks." Sarah smiled and swiftly walked out of the lab when she'd gathered all of the papers. Bruce watched her go out with interest, wondering what it was that she wasn't saying.

It took her almost 3 days of researching and comparing notes with Bruce and Tony to figure out what Tucker was trying to do with the Tesseract sample. She'd suspected and figured it out from the start of course when Bruce showed her the diagrams, most of the time she spent was trying to rule out every other possibility, because this one was by far the worst, and how to tell them the only solution to stop Tucker. The Avengers had been watching Tucker and trying to figure out his next move, and they could tell he was gearing up for something big. Every second spent ruling out other possibilities was a second that Tucker got stronger in. They were running out of time and patience, she'd ruled out just about every other likely possibility now and it was time to break the news. It was a pity, Hawkeye was just getting to like her too.
 She prepared herself and took a deep breath as she approached the conference room, they weren't going to like it. They were all there awaiting her verdict, Hawkeye, Thor and Bruce were standing around the table while the others sat with Nick Fury waiting with his arms crossed behind his back by the window.
 "Well, Agent Brett? What have you got?" Fury asked her as she came in, all eyes turned to her and her stomach clenched with nerves.
 "Well, ah," She said and cleared her throat, annoyingly telling herself to get it together. "From the diagrams and the descriptions Clint and Natasha gave me, it's clear that Tucker isn't interested in the teleportation device."
 "What would he want with it then?" Captain America asked and Tony leant forwards in curiosity.
 "He's trying to turn it into its original form." Sarah surrendered helplessly. "He's trying to open a rift between Earth and Asgard." She said and all faces turned into alarm.
 "But what would he want with my people? We have no technology." Thor said in the outbursts of "What?"
 "Exactly." Sarah said and caught everyone's attention again. "The only reason I can think of is that Tucker's angry. He couldn't join the team to save the world so now he wants to rule one, it's already mentioned in his file that he isn't mentally balanced. With no technology to control or override them Asgard would be at the mercy of Tucker's versions of Tony's droid soldiers, which I don't doubt he's been reproducing."
 "It explains his sudden silence, the deranged dork probably has his own bunker to keep them in as well." Tony said grumpily.
 "We would not give in without a fight, these robots could never take over Asgard." Thor said stubbornly.
 "Maybe not but it would result in many unnecessary deaths, and we do not know how large this army of his is." Fury said. "How long would you say we have until he makes the rift?" He asked Sarah.
 "By my calculations, just days, his ability with technology is amazing." She informed him and everyone took a metaphorical gulp.
 "Days?" "We'll never take him down in that time!" "How can we even infiltrate him with half our team down?" Were the various outcries that came from this, too quickly for Sarah to tell who was saying what and Fury suddenly eyed her awkward position as Maria tried to get them to calm down.
 "Do you have something to say, Agent?" He asked her and everyone suddenly silenced again. So much for avoiding the solution and hoping they'd come up with another plan to take Tucker down.