He'd just entered their base when he'd received word that his plan had worked. Clint grinned, pulling up his tablet. None of them would have suspected it, but it was the perfect way for him to be able to pin him down. Loki's magic was able to hide the tracker easily enough so that alongside the pull of the blue haze meant he'd be able to track down the exact location of the Helicarrier.

They wouldn't see it coming. They'd never expect him to be able to locate the flying base with its shields up and running. It was the complete point of those shields — to make S.H.I.E.L.D. invisible to those that want to locate them. But there are always flaws.
And Clint's skilled in locating and using flaws.

-----

Loki watched carefully the different paths he was led down, making note of the different rooms on these paths as well as how useful they might come if worst came to worst. One of them held the monster, hiding away in their mortal skin. Banner looked pained at spotting him, rubbing for forehead.

It seems his plan might be even easier than he first thought, Loki noted happily. They'd be close to the staff's influence and they were likely not getting on if the moment in the flying vehicle was anything to account for. He couldn't ask for a better set up.

-----

Climbing up to a nice beam to sit on, Clint started the wait. He couldn't go straight away, not when he didn't know how long until Loki was going to reach the Helicarrier. He had to wait until the tracker had settled into the correct motion and momentum for a significant period of time.

There would be no point setting off now, not when the ships were only half ready and the scientists still needed greater time in enveloping the iridium into their machines. Loki also wanted time to be able to talk to them, as well as annoy them all.
As much as Clint thrives off chaos, making the members of the Avengers Initiative mad doesn't seem like the best idea. In fact, it seems very counter productive. Hopefully, it would go the other way and actually tear them apart instead.

So he has time to finalise the plan, to figure out what would be the best way to sneak aboard the Helicarrier and free Loki. A full force attack wasn't going to work. 64 was a fully functioning war station, so going in guns blazing was only going to get them killed. Instead, they needed something sneaky.

Something like the vents he knows Fury still hasn't fixed. He knows they have to be there, but he doesn't know why they cannot be more enforced, as well as have guards rotating around them. Maintenance vents can access most places — let alone the ventilation vents he knows he can fit through if needed.

He would have to take into account the men that he will have following him for the first part, so at that point he'll need to be in the maintenance vents, however, if something goes wrong then it would be easy enough for him to get into the ventilation vents instead.

He also has to figure out what code to say to the pilot to tell the S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. He wouldn't be able to correctly guess the exact code they were operating as they would have scrapped that the second emergency operations came into play. So his unrecorded craft would need to be using a backup code to try and get within their radar.

There were plenty of codes that he could use, some more known than others. Some would flag people down straight away that it was him attempting to get close. So Strike, Widow and Hawk codes were all out of the picture. Even the man in the suit codes would be too easy to link back to him. Standards wouldn't be known enough, nor would there be enough reason for them to be coming — especially with the Helicarrier in the air already.

The carrier wouldn't be in the correct alert level to accept blackout codes, so he'll have to be careful that he doesn't suggest any of those codes. But, it would be in a high level code enough that shipping codes wouldn't work either — they wouldn't give the craft enough clearance. Firefly codes wouldn't work as their craft wouldn't be damaged.

He also had to be careful that the code was one that they'd recognise straightaway. If the communication person had to question what the code was, then he was more likely to find himself caught. So likely something a level five or six agent would be handed, that way, it wasn't too low down and it was also known enough that they wouldn't have to question it. There was enough ammunition already for them to not believe them, they didn't need to give them a bad code as well. Ammunition—

Arms to ammunition
It would work as a code, level six agents receive it when briefed on major issues that would cause base lockdown during emergencies. It would also work with a flying helicarrier. Making a note of it, Clint looked through the rest of the plan, happy that everything was coming together well.

-----

The cell they escorted him to was strange. It was circular in shape, and was suspended above the floor Loki noted. It looked too well built to be a new creation, this had been made some time ago. Loki heard a door hiss open, revealing Fury. He watches the mortal walk over to a panel on the walkway surrounding the cage.

"In case it’s unclear, you try to escape— you so much as scratch that glass," Nick pushed the first button and the floor beneath the cell dropped away to nothing, "thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?"

Loki raised an eyebrow. It was a very dramatic way to tell him that. Especially now as the wind was howling in their ears meaning they'd have to raise their voices to stand a chance of hearing each other.

Nick closed the floor back up before he motioned at Loki. "Ant," he said before motioning at the control panel. "Boot."

"It's an impressive cage," Loki noted. And it was, the whole idea was brilliant and well executed. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard," Loki said before looking up at the camera. He knew at least one would be watching he could only hope the correct one was. "A mindless beast— makes play he’s still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I?" Nick echoed slowly walking towards the cage as Loki focused all his attention on him again. "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can’t hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill ’cause it’s fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Oh. It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power— unlimited power, and for what?" Loki questioned before glancing back up at the camera. "A warm light for all mankind to share?" He looked over at Fury again. "And then to be reminded what real power is."

Nick grinned, knowing it was one of those smiles that would send agents running from him in fear. "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something."

Loki watched as the mortal walked away. He was disappointed, he expected to be tortured — at least interrogated. Unless they intended to let him settle more beforehand? They likely were just waiting for the most opportune time to interrogate and torture him.

-----

Just as he got to the bottom third of the plan his tablet vibrated. Opening up the notification, he noticed that the movement and momentum of the tracker had reached the correct parameters to be within the helicarrier. As predicted it was jumping around a lot, unable to pin point itself — but this tracker should get them close enough that the blue haze could do the rest.

Pulling up the map alongside the tracker page, he located the rough area the tracker was on the map. From there, he made points across it to select the radius of the jumping tracker. It was luckily not that large of an area, and would easily put him within the reach of the staff — which meant the blue haze would be even more effective. It also allowed Clint to note down the direction it was heading as well.

He climbed down, sending out a message for everyone involved in the plan to head towards the jets. Soon, they were all loaded and heading towards the location he believed the helicarrier to be by the time they reached there. Clint wasn't overly sure, but they soon reached the radius where the blue haze was able to lead him in the correct direction.

-----

Loki knew resorting to pacing would only make it easier for the mortals to call him an uncivilised beast, but he couldn't help it. There was nothing to catch his attention except to look for an escape plan and wait out for when the torture would start.

His head snapped up, a female staring at him from outside the cage. They stood like someone who knew they had power. This was the Black Widow, the woman Clint called Nat. He hummed approvingly. "There’s not many people that can sneak up on me," he commented, watching how the woman studied him for weakness.

"But you figured I'd come."

"After," Loki corrected. "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate."

"I wanna know what you’ve done to Agent Barton."

Saved him.
"I’d say I’ve expanded his mind," Loki said carefully. He was seeing more, but he was also understanding more about himself than he'd done under the mortals. His little hawk was acting to his full potential, using his skills to their greatest advantage — those mortals wouldn't have allowed him that before.

"And once you’ve won. Once you’re king of the mountain. What happens to his mind?"

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki questioned.

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt."

Now that was interesting. Was this going to be a way out — it very well was a life debt she was talking about. "Tell me."

"Before I worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., I— uh— well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn’t care who I used it for, or on. I got on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar in a bad way," Nat explained. "Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."

Loki wondered if she even knew that was a life dept — one of the highest that could be held in Asgardian rules. "And what will you do if I vow to spare him?" He will spare him, he was already trying to. The Other had demanded to kill everyone in the room, he spared him by wrapping him in the blue haze.

"Not let you out."

"Ah, no." Now that was a shame. He could have used it to his advantage. "But I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"

"Regime’s fall everyday. I tend not to weep over that, I’m Russian, or I was."

Well that was curious. What did she see herself as now to make that statement? "And what are you now?"

"It’s really not that complicated."

Typical avoidance of the question. Loki hid his smirk, it seems the little spy had something to hide from everyone. Who knows, it might even be enough to rock the boat between herself and his archer.

"I got red in my ledger. I’d like to wipe it out," Nat declared, looking at Loki sharply. He seemed amused by her.

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red?" Loki questioned. He wanted to know, he wanted to find out how to wipe out his own. "Drakov’s daughter? Barton told me." Loki could almost taste her anger, the way her brows furrowed together and her lips pulsed. "Your ledger is dripping, it’s gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?" His little hawk had enough red that even Loki's looked pitiful — and he's led armies. His archer, one of the best out there with his hawk's eyes.

Loki grinned over at the woman. "This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child, a prayer. Pathetic." Honestly, she should be trying a different route. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code something that makes up for the horrors," Loki said, staring at her coldly. Codes were just lies made by the privileged. "But they are a part of you, and they will never go away."

Loki took great pride in the way she startled as he banged his fist against the glass — no matter how he cage creaked warningly at him. "I won’t touch Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear," he said. Loki hated saying this, he hated imagining a world where he forced his little hawk to kill the ones he'd chosen. "And then he’ll wake just long enough to see his good work," he hesitated when he saw how distressed the woman looked before she turned away from him, "and when he screams I’ll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

With her back turned to Loki, it was easy for Nat to fake sobbing. Some noises as well as shaking her shoulders and she knew she'd have him convinced. "You're a monster!" She declared, laying the bait, setting the trap.

Loki grinned, showing all his teeth at the back of the woman. "Oh, no. You brought the monster."

Nat dropped the act straightaway, turning to face the man. "So Banner? That's your play?"

Loki startled, only just stopping himself from stepping back. The womans face is dry, he doesn't believe it. This Black Widow lied to the God of Lies and got away with it. "What?" He watched as Nat walked away from the cage, speaking into her communication device before waving her hand at him silently as the door closed between them, leaving Loki on his own again.

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