In Marvel As Loki

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As for the anti-meteorite lasers, I decided to leave them as they were. With proper power routing, the "toys" Stark produces already pack more than enough lethal punch.

The shield generator, however, was a trickier issue. For a fleeting second, the thought crossed my mind: "Why not just leave him an Asgardian shield generator to study? It's a mad genius, what could possibly go wrong?" Fortunately, my Common Sense managed to find a rather large club right on time and didn't hesitate to beat me over the head with it.

I suddenly realized that giving him full-blown Asgardian shielding was not my brightest idea.

An ordinary gravity compensator would be more than enough for Stark to eventually reverse-engineer his way into directed singularity technology. Let's not hand him the keys to the universe just yet.

But a veeeery thin layer of adamantium over the hull? That, I could arrange.

Knowing the exact composition and having an Asgardian atomic forge at my disposal, mass-producing the necessary amount of the alloy was child's play.

At the same time, Stark would never be able to deduce the secret of the metal just by examining the hardened shell.

And if he didmanage to invent a way to crack it, well, I'd be the first to shake his hand and say thank you, because it would undoubtedly be a stroke of sheer, magnificent engineering bastardry worthy of my utmost respect.

And so, the day of celebration arrived. I had just finished shaping an unobtrusive, tasteful gold bas-relief featuring motifs of Jormungandr the Midgard Serpent in the yacht's main lounge.

It was, after all, a gift from a deity to his high priest; it needed to look the part. That was the final touch. All that was left was to sit at the helm and fly the damn thing.

After opening the hangar doors, obviously. I'm not quite stupid enough to try and fly through them while they're closed.

Oh, right. I still had to do something about my silent little shadow, whose classes for the day had already ended.

"Laura, wouldn't you like to go play with the other children in the yard?"

"No?" I guessed.

The girl shook her head.

"Or maybe you'd like to watch some TV?"

X-23 narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Right. Even I wasn't buying that suggestion.

"I have a meeting scheduled with a friend. It's his wedding, and I promised I'd attend."

She tilted her head.

"A wedding?" I interpreted the look.

X-23 nodded.

"Well, it's a solemn ceremony where two people who love each other promise to share their joys and sorrows, take care of one another, and stay together for the rest of their lives."

Her brow furrowed in confusion.

"I'm really not sure you'd find it interesting. My friend is very… specific. There'll be a lot of adults there whom I don't know, and absolutely no mutants, which means you can't show your abilities."

She glanced away, then shot me a doubtful look from the corner of her eye.

"No, I don't mind taking you with me. Just warn your mother at least, otherwise she's going to worry."

The girl gave a single, understanding nod, slid down from the armchair to the floor, and marched off the ship.

"Yuriko, do you have any desire to fly to Tony Stark's wedding?" I turned to the second girl who had been keeping me company during my creative process.

"No, sir," the Asian woman answered with professional restraint, though it was clear the name dropped a heavy impression on her. However, that didn't stop her from delivering a swift, logical analysis of the situation: "There will be too many cameras there... and there might be people present who recognize me."

"I can layer an illusion over you to change your appearance."

"Very well, sir," the beauty agreed compliantly, instantly switching into 'perfect secretary' mode.

"Hold on, you don't actually want to go, do you? Why?"

"I... do not like such large gatherings," the girl admitted, clearly not wanting to shift the conversation into the realm of her personal desires.

"Understood..." I sighed, glad I had actually paid attention to her hesitation.

Otherwise, she would have flown with me. Purely out of a sense of duty, she would have gone. "Then stay here. We won't be long anyway. I'm just going to troll Tony a tiny bit and come straight home."

"You don't have to..."

"Oh, stop it," I waved her off. "You make it sound like I'm heading off to an epic battle. Better yet, fry me some potatoes for when I get back, since you're so eager to take care of things. I bet you anything there won't be any actual, normal food at this pretentious party, and our silent little wolf cub needs to eat well," I nodded toward the open hatch of the ship.

"As you wish, sir," Yuriko nodded compliantly again. And once again, that gesture practically screamed that she thought I was wrong about something, but since her objection was clearly about me not taking her along, thereby denying her the chance to act as my bodyguard, I decided to keep my brilliant insight to myself...

...

We arrived at the event maintaining our strict incognito, hiding deep within the shadows. Ahem. Well, functionally speaking, that's roughly how it went.

The girl had been dressed in something "appropriate for the occasion", meaning I had transmuted her clothes into a lovely silver dress, over which she immediately stubbornly pulled a black, semi-sporty jacket.

I didn't even try to understand her logic or argue with her; I just magnanimously decreed the outfit "acceptable" and left it at that.

I myself sported my usual tailored black suit with a light overcoat, and I certainly didn't skimp on the perception-filtering illusions. So, let's just agree we were incognito and covert.

We skipped the church ceremony entirely. It was a long way into the city, it takes forever, and more importantly, I am a pagan God whose very existence Christianity denies. Therefore, I have every right to mutually deny Christianity and its temples.

But we were among the very first to arrive at the estate for the reception.

While waiting for the newlyweds to make their grand entrance, I discovered that Tony had managed to completely hack S.H.I.E.L.D., and now their entire operational feed was streaming directly to his private servers.

I was just about to silently dub him a magnificent bastard and nod in deep respect when I dug into J.A.R.V.I.S.'s databases to see how this happened.

I promptly lost touch with reality for a few minutes.

Yeah. You make one little joke, and next thing you know, S.H.I.E.L.D. has lost 70% of its personnel.

They managed to purge Hydra (true, only within their own ranks and a little bit in the Pentagon, they hadn't reached Alexander Pierce and the other actual leaders with the main forces of the organization yet).

And now, the entire intelligence apparatus is effectively run by my High Priest.

And he wasn't even running it personally! He dumped all the administrative nightmare onto Pepper, who was currently building them a functional organizational structure and fixing their HR policies.

And the news hadn't even uttered a single peep about it! Not that I actively watch TV, but whenever the kids finish their homework, someone is always glued to the screen in the common room.

You can hear what the anchors are droning on about from miles away, especially if you have the hearing of an Aesir. News like thatwouldn't have slipped past the mansion's collective radar.

It was a strange feeling... disappointment, honestly. So many people died, and Fury not only survived but even kept his title as Director.

Where is the justice, huh? Why not appoint Maria Hill?

The girl is smart, responsible, serious, and actually has a very pretty face, she doesn't hold a candle to Storm, obviously, but compared to the other locals, she's a genuine beauty.

Or maybe that's exactly the reason? Very possible... Tony is a smart man. He's forward-thinking. He's not going to set himself up for a trap on the eve of his own wedding by putting a gorgeous super-spy in his direct line of sight.

But still, she would have been a thousand times better than those two acrobatic brothers, Fury and Coulson.

Hell, even Justin Hammer in that position would have brought the world more benefit and less harm than that budget Master Windu!

No joke, yes, in the cinematic universe Hammer is a clown and a total embarrassment, but the guy actually knows how to build an internal security service.

Nothing leaks from his company, the second Iron Man movie is proof of that! And if you recall how his special ops turn out...

….

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You can add it through my profile or from the author note below.

…

If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.

[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]

[email protected]/Yggdrasil_Loki