The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 64

"That getup is almost as ridiculous as your costume," a voice says behind me. I changed into the armor Valkyrie had given me and was admiring the bright colors painted on it before he interrupted my thought process.

"Thanks," is all I reply after sighing. I'm not really in the mood to deal with this child right now. I turn around and cross my arms over my chest as I study Loki, he smirks up at me and I roll my eyes.

"It's been a while, Grace," I stop, that was the first time he didn't call me Agerathea. It felt weird for him to say my Earthly name instead of my maiden name. I relax my shoulders and smile down at Loki.

"It surely has been, Loki," the annoyance builds up in me but I push it down because I can't show him what he's doing to me. I busy myself with some of the strange fruit resting on the island in the kitchen area. Suddenly finding myself hungry, I grab one of the strange fruits and force myself to not groan from the sweet juice. I grab another fruit feeling the small satisfaction from eating.

"When was the last time you ate?" Loki asks from the corner, I grab another fruit and hide a chuckle.

"Based on my long hair, I'd say probably a year," I say back with a mouth full of this savory fruit. My quench is gone and energy begins to return to my body but I continue to grab more food. The sound of the door sliding open forces me to set the fourth or fifth fruit I've had down and wipe my face.

I stand there and Loki chuckles before sarcastically saying, "Surprise," as Valkyrie walks over by me and grabs a beer. A tall man in bright clothes walks in and picks a cup up before chucking it at Loki, who responds with an "ow."

"Just had to be sure," the man says and I take a few steps up to him.

"Thor?" I softly say and he looks over at me, I run and embrace him in a hug, feeling the relief of seeing a good familiar face. He looked different without his long hair, but it's a good different.

"Grace, what are you doing here?" He asks after we pull apart.

"Fell through space for a year, what about you?" I ask as I clean the dirt from under my nails.

"My sister sent me here, after my father passed," my heart breaks for Thor, he's been through so much since he became an Avenger. He lost his mother and now his father, along with Loki a few times along the way but he's still alive. Now he has a...

"Wait you have a sister?" I say and Thor nods before smiling.

"Ah, yes, my sister. The goddess of death who destroyed my hammer and is in Asgard right now taking over the whole place." I nod and bow my head as a way to show my condolences and Thor moves over to Valkyrie.

"Hello, Bruce." I twist around and see Banner looking straight at Loki who only smirks up at him.

"So last time I saw you, you were trying to kill everyone, where are you at these days?"

"It varies from moment to moment," Loki says making his voice deeper and raspier, I hide a chuckle behind a grin and move over to Bruce.

"Hey, Bruce," I say and Bruce jumps out of his skin before realizing that it's just me. He looks at me before embracing me in a hug and I can't imagine what the Grandmaster has put him through.

"Grace, what are you doing here?" He asks and I just wave him off with what I just told Thor. I then proceed to ask him about himself and in his eyes I see him shrink down a little. "The quinjet somehow brought me here, all I remember is flying over the ocean then all of a sudden I was here."

I nod my head understanding what happened.

"You went through a gateway that connects planets," I whisper, it all makes sense. "Think about it, you a presume went through one of those gateways in the sky correct?" He responds with a slight nod of his head and I feel my confidence building in this topic. "So there's a gateway from Earth, but it's almost impossible to know which one."

"Well, we need to go through the big one," Thor says getting in on our conversation. Valkyrie takes a swig before coming up to us.

"The Devil's anus?" She asks, and once again I have to hide my laugh behind my hand.

"I did not the name when I chose that one." Thor defends and I look over at him.

"That looks like a collapsing neutron star inside an Einstein-Rosen bird bridge," Bruce says pointing at it.

"We need another ship, that will tear mine apart," Valkyrie says after finishing the bottle.

"She's right, we need one to withstand the geodetic strain from the singularity and has an offline steering system that could also function without the onboard computer so they can't track us," I say and they all look at me surprisingly. "What? I had to learn all this when I was in S.H.I.E.L.D all those years ago."

"We will also need one with cupholders cause we're gonna die, so drinks!" Valkyrie says raising her bottle.

"I feel like I know you," Bruce says to her and Valkyrie just laughs.

"I feel like I know you too, it's weird." She points at him and says between chuckles as she walks back to the kitchen area.

"So what do you say, one charge of intergalactic travel through a volatile cosmic gateway, talk about an adventure," Thor says to the two of us and I smile at him.

"We need a ship," I say and Valkyrie begins before I could finish.

"One or two ships, top models..."

"I don't mean to impose..." Valkyrie hurls her bottle past me and I turn in time to see it shatter, the pieces flying around Loki and he just looks up at us. Whatever he did to her must have really pissed her off.  "but the Grandmaster has a great number of ships, I may have even stolen the access codes to his security system."

"Suddenly you're overcome with an urge to do the right thing," Valkyrie says while she places her hands on her hips, I cross my arms over my chest and look at him straight in the eyes.

"Heavens no, I've run out of favor with the Grandmaster and with the access codes to his ships, I'm asking for safe passage through the anus," Loki says, his eyes flicking to the three of us as he speaks.

"So you're telling us, that you'd give us access to the garage without setting any alarms," I ask taking a few steps towards him.

"Yes, I can," Loki smirks at the four of us and Bruce huddles us in.

"Hold on can I just say a few things. I was just talking to him just a couple of minutes ago and he was totally ready to kill any of us."

"He did give my identity and my brother to the Grandmaster," I say agreeing with Banner, they both look in my direction but I shake my head showing them I'll explain it later.

"He also tried to kill me," Valkyrie's eyes look between us before glancing at Loki, who only looks down with a smirk over his mouth.

"Yeah, me too, many many occasions." Thor's gaze travels over to Loki who only smirks as, I'm sure, thousands of stories of what he did play through his mind, "When we were children, he transformed him into a snake and he knows how much I love snakes. So I picked it up to admire it, and he transformed back into himself and went 'Blrrghgh it's me' and then he stabbed me." I turned and looked at Loki who only had a big smirk on his face. "We were eight at the time."

"If we steal a ship, we'll need to draw some guards away from the palace," Valkyrie says and my head nods in agreement with her.

"Why not just set the beast loose," Loki says from his corner and I raise my eyebrows in agreement but Thor shakes his head.

"Shut up, there's no beast, he's just being stupid," Thor says stopping me from stating my agreement, he shakes his head at me as a warning and I don't say anything else. "We're going to start a revolution."

"A revolution?" I ask and Thor just responds to me with, "I'll explain later."

"Who's this guy again," Valkyrie asks, nodding her head towards Bruce and Thor just repeats himself to her before smirking at Loki.

"You and I will get the ship while Grace and Valkyrie begin the revolution. Bruce, you're going to stay here and we'll pick you up." Thor says to the four of us and we all nod in agreement. Valkyrie looks over at me before gesturing for us to go. I hope this works, because I know Thanos is coming, and he is going to show up sooner or later.