//------------------------------// // What Have You Become? // Story: We Remember Everything // by Thunderscourge //------------------------------// A/N: Special thanks to D48, Evowizard25, Drgnwolf, Ketvirtas, Cadmium, MoonSparkle The Vampony, Mutie Genic, Farista Sairuv and Kyle Guardian of Harmony for our more in-depth comments last chapter, but thank you to everyone who let me know what you thought and everyone who has favorited and liked this story! I hope you enjoy and that I can hear from you after about what you think! Think of it as a holiday gift to me! Happy New Year everyone. Luna had half a mind to teleport directly to Loki’s cell before another thought crossed her mind. In her fights with him the only edge he had had on her were his tricks and the scepter he held, one of which was in the nearby vicinity. Before Director Fury could even react to her stealing the alien artifact that they had taken from her upon arrival, Luna had vanished from sight. The ship tilted and shook again just as Luna appeared in the detainment room with Loki, tossing her off balance and into the console in front of his cell. Luna made sure not to press any of the various instruments on it, not wanting to free him, before righting herself and glaring at the still occupied cell where Loki was barely withholding his amusement. Luna straightened out her dress and used the scepter as a crutch to keep herself up as the ship shook again, “Good. You are still here.” Loki smiled at her facetiously, “Of course I am. Has something happened?” Not in the mood to deal with his bad behavior, Luna pointed his own scepter at him threateningly with warning eyes, “You know full well the ship is under attack. Now I will just stay here in case one of your minions tries to free you.” He glanced her over, perhaps a second longer than he would anyone else, before stating, “I think you might have a hard time doing that.” Luna took a step back from the console, keeping her aim at Loki, “What do you have up your sleeve, Loki?” The far door that Coulson had once brought Luna to in order to let her see Loki was blasted across the room, landing in a burnt mess from where an explosive charge left it. Luna whipped herself around to look at the disturbance as Loki narrated, “I originally intended to have a smaller crew infiltrate this Helicarrier, but when I remembered you would be here and be in my way I decided to double the amount.” A dozen and a half men rushed through the now open doorway and waved their guns towards Luna, none firing but all preparing to do just that. Luna pointed the golden scepter at them to threaten them back, but her stomach dropped as she thought about how she had no idea how powerful the weapons she was facing were. They could not scratch Loki, but any good old blade could wound a pony. And these were much more sophisticated weapons than just blades. Loki took a seat in his cell to prepare and watch the show, “Half to destroy the ship, half to free me. Have fun.” Not about to let them get the first move, Luna leapt into the air of the very open room, intending to close her distance to the soldiers as their weapons were ranged to her knowledge. There was no way they could overpower her in close combat, even if they likely had more combat training in their humanoid forms. They opened fire as she leapt, the muzzles of their weapons flashing as bullets poured forth. Luna’s speed was considerable in her leap, so the majority of the shots missed, but the weapons were designed for rapid fire and as such some stray shots still collided with Luna. Luna’s eyes snapped shut as she felt one bullet scrape past her thigh, three collide with her shoulder and upper right arm, and another catch her in the gut. Not as painful as being struck by the full power of Celestia, but the humans and their weapons managed to make Luna bleed. While airborne Luna let out the power of the scepter, a blue pulse shooting forth from it and colliding with two of the soldiers. Its unrestrained power sent them hurtling back through their crowd, knocking another three over as the others all scrambled to avoid Luna as she landed on top of the fallen pile. Upon closer inspection, the soldiers' eyes were not blue. They were doing this out of their own free will and choice, and as such any sympathy Luna might have had for these men dropped to a negative level. Quickly jumping forward, Luna avoided the gunfire of one soldier which then hit one of his still standing comrades in the back. Ignoring this, Luna impaled the scepter into another soldier, only to twist it and him with her strength around to slam into another soldier. One unlucky soul attempted to knife the sister of night from behind, and he was unlucky because he succeeded. Luna growled as she felt more of her blood trickle down her blue dress, turning around and elbowing the offender in the face with enough force to cave in the cheek and other parts of his lower face. He was thrown back with such force that when he hit a wall he left a dent, falling forward off of this with no signs of ever getting back up. Noticing that some of the soldiers in the pile were about to rise, Luna released a blast of her own energy at them with enough power that she was sure they would not be rejoining the skirmish. The nine remaining soldiers turned their weapons on her and fired, one more being taken out by friendly fire as the remaining bullets all bombarded Luna. The princess felt herself stumble back as some of the shots managed to tear into her flesh, one even tearing off skin off her cheek. Their shots did not cease, however, and the professional soldiers poured the entirety of their ammo clips into the physical goddess whom they had been warned about. Luna was forced back even more until she tripped over one fallen foe, crashing on to the ground without struggling anymore. The soldiers approached their target cautiously, believing her to be dead until a laugh brought them all to attention again. Luna sat up from her fallen position as more bullet fire was poured into her, ignoring the new pain as she wiped blood from her lips, “It’s been awhile since I’ve been that hurt, at least physically,” her eyes shot to Loki, who was actually surprised his soldiers had proven so useful in taking her down so far. So far. The bullets stopped connecting with flesh, instead whizzing uselessly through the air and ricocheting off the metal walls as Luna completely vanished in a black cloud. The soldiers looked worriedly around for the missing target. One was so unlucky to find her, as a scepter found its way through his gut. He gurgled something intelligible as his allies turned and fired at him and his killer, only for their shots to end his pain as Luna had once again vanished. Her voice did not disappear however, rumbling out from the very shadows of the room, “Congratulations on making me try. Your reward for this matter is death, unless you surrender.” No soldiers made a move to signal a white flag, so one of them dropped dead without his head the next moment. “You think I jest. You would come here and harm my allies, kill us all, and release Loki so that his maniacal plan can be unleashed?” her voice chuckled from the shadows, “I do not care for you at all.” Loki narrowed his eyes as he watched another soldier be torn apart from a precision strike from Luna, and another. Her fighting was brutal and unforgiving, not unlike what he witnessed of Jotunheim’s warriors, but they were barbaric. They were evil. Given her different physical form than when she transformed prior, this one having greater height to the point she even stood taller than him or Thor, Loki presumed that her change to Nightmare Moon was not restrained to her equine form. And in her hand she held the scepter, which he knew of course amplified the very nicest and kindest emotions to be found in a wielder... A blood curdling scream drew Loki’s attentions to what Luna was specifically doing, and he found himself surprised to see her grab a soldier, disappear, and then reappear high in the air only to let go of the man. The other soldiers just let him fall, too scared for their own lives to move to help, but he did not impact the ground right away. First he was skewered on the scepter through gravity, only to then be tossed with disgust to the ground by Luna who vanished as bullets flew by where she had been. Luna’s continuing assassinations of his soldiers drew her attention away from one wounded man who crawled over to Loki’s cell console. Luna noticed just as she finished killing the last of his standing men what was about to happen and so she teleported right over to there as another figure rushed into the room. Loki’s soldier released the lock on the cell just as a bladed scepter was thrust through his gut. He fell lifelessly to the ground as the cell door opened and Loki grinned. “Oh look at that.” “No!” a hammy voice yelled from behind Luna. The new person in the room was Thor, who dashed to Loki’s cell and prepared to tackle his wayward brother back into containment if he needed to. Seeing Thor’s charge, Luna too rushed to where Loki braced himself, the doorway of the cell, with Thor by her side. They both tumbled right through Loki, his illusion dissipating as his real self sealed the cell made to contain doctor Banner. He smugly grinned at the two of them as they turned and rose from the floor of the cell, “Will you two ever not fall for that?” Thor pounded his hammer angrily at the side of the cell to almost no effect, Luna instead just having her mouth and eyes widen as she watched Loki’s hand on the control panel. The room was designed to drop the cell if need be to kill the dangerous prisoner held inside. Loki looked to the control panel and then to Thor, “The humans think us immortal. Should we test that, brother?” Luna growled as she pointed his own scepter at him despite the durable cell in between them, “Don’t. You. Dare, Loki.” Noticing that she still held the scepter, Loki pointed to the ground beside him, “You can teleport. Come out and make me.” She furiously obliged, teleporting from the cell to where Loki stood so that she could smash that smug look off his face with his own weapon. What happened instead was the scepter swinging right through Loki, who once again had substituted himself with an illusion, and who now stood to the side where he deftly swiped the scepter from Luna. Unable to react in time, Luna could not dodge the blast from the scepter that slammed her into the wall, nor could she then avoid in her dazed state the torrent of ice Loki shot towards her. The ice molded her to the wall, leaving her face free while preventing the rest of her from moving. Loki sighed and shook his head as Luna instantly began to thrash about to no effect, “Stay put.” A thud across the room took everyone’s attention away from that, however. One of Loki’s guards had managed to get back up after the massacre Luna enacted, only to be knocked down by the butt of a very, very large gun. The wielder of this gun, Agent Coulson, pointed it towards Loki. His voice remained as polite as ever as he ordered, “Move away, please.” Loki warily looked at the human, unsure as to why such an ant could possibly think they could fight him. It took an entire team of elite soldiers to just nick Luna here and there, and Loki was from a race by far more durable than Luna’s. So did this human desire to die? Coulson waved the large gun in his hands a little, “You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer after Thor. Even I don't know what it does,” the front of the gun glowed orange as Phil powered it up, “Do you wanna find out?” The gun quickly dropped from pointing at Loki to pointing at the floor as a silver blade erupted through Coulson’s chest, the man in a suit crumbling onto the floor and the nearby wall as Loki reappeared behind him. Luna stopped all attempts to get free as she watched a human she considered a friend fall to Loki, Thor screaming from within the cell as he watched the display. Neither could move to do anything about it, and neither could believe what they had just seen. Loki’s fake self by the control panel faded as he approached it once again. He amusedly pointed to his scepter, which held the blood of many humans on it now, before lowering a hand to the panel. Thor’s eyes widened as Loki activated it, the floor in the center of the room disappearing as the cell dropped from the ship and entered free fall. Luna felt a tear run down her face as Loki approached her. He knelt down to where she lay frozen to the wall and floor, and surprisingly held a finger out to her blood and tear stained cheek. Before Loki could say anything, Coulson’s voice rang out from across the room, “You’re going to lose.” Loki, prideful as ever, turned from Luna to Coulson and stood up to his full height, “Am I?” “It’s in your nature,” Coulson replied, politely insulting the same man who had just brutally impaled him. Luna was just glad to hear his voice, as it meant the strike had not slain him at least just yet, and she craned her head as best she could in her position to see him. Loki took a step towards the wounded agent, “Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky...where is my disadvantage?” Heroes scattered? Luna was curious as to what he meant by that, but she knew he at least meant Thor. Who else could be missing? Phil’s response was another insult, “You lack conviction.” The Asgardian prince was not fond of being insulted by any, nonetheless those he considered beneath himself, so he missed something glowing orange as he angrily retorted, “I don’t think I-” The large gun Coulson still held onto discharged a blast comparable to something even an Alicorn might throw out, impressing Luna as said blast collided with Loki and sent him crashing through the wall and into another room. He had been too wrapped up in their conversation and too overconfident to avoid it or have an illusion up, and he paid the price. The ice on Luna cracked and began to melt to her joy, it’s existence being tied to Loki’s power. With him stunned in another room, it weakened enough for the wounded princess to force herself free. She conjured up what magic she could to blast off the rest of it, flopping to the floor weakly as a chill ran down her spine. From across the room Coulson cheekily spoke to himself, “So that’s what it does.” “H-hold on,” Luna gasped as she tried to crawl, too weak to pull herself to her feet after the damage she sustained in the past few minutes. She was too weak to heal all of her own wounds just yet, and what power she did have needed to go towards healing her wounded ally and friend. Loki may have possibly just slain Thor, but she would not let him take two she cared about from her. Coulson could see her current state, and he could tell her attempt to get to him was futile as she dragged her bleeding self across the floor slowly, “Save your energy. They’re going to need you.” “Coulson!” a new voice yelled out, which Luna weakly recognized as belonging to Director Fury. Sure enough, the one eyed leader of Shield had rushed over to Coulson and knelt down beside him. Coulson apologized to his leader as blood trickled down his own face, “Sorry boss. I couldn’t stop him…” “Just stay awake. Eyes on me!” Fury ordered his agent, the dark skinned man apparently having none of this mortally wounded business. Phil, however, was more realistic about his situation, “No. I’m clocked out here.” Fury still refused to just accept that one of his most trusted agents, quite possibly even a friend, was dying in front of him, “Not an option.” “It's okay, boss. This was never going to work... if they didn't have something... to…” His words never finished, leaving the two others in the room to mourn in the silence left by the now deceased Phil Coulson. “Agent Coulson is down,” Fury announced over his communicator solemnly. Luna slammed a fist onto the floor. Mind control or not, she was going to hurt Loki for this. Only Captain America, Stark and Luna were able to drag themselves to the meeting Fury called later after the crisis had ended. Stark and Rogers had stopped the Helicarrier from falling to its demise as well as that of its crew, but Loki had escaped. Thor had been dropped to his supposed death by his own brother. Luna had no idea about Banner, Romanoff or anyone else, but Coulson was dead. She was finishing healing off the various wounds she had sustained when Fury spoke to them all in the meeting room. He pulled out a handful of cards, “These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them.” Fury threw the cards towards Captain America, the set soaked in thick, sticky blood that those who sat around the table could plainly see had dripped from Coulson. The Captain picked them up and looked at their stained state sorrowfully. Luna looked down at the ground at their sight, beyond furious at herself for her inability to prevent the event and distraught over how she had lost a friend. Someone had genuinely been kind to her and offered her support when she needed it, and now they lay dead and she could not even lift a finger to stop it because of Loki’s trickery. The cards...Luna assumed they were some form of fan cards pertaining to Captain America, who she was beginning to notice seemed to be an inspirational figure. Phil must have been a fan of his and wanted his hero to sign them, but now the kind and geeky man would never have the chance. Luna only tried to imagine if one of her own subjects who actually worshipped her, like Scootaloo after she assisted the filly in her dreams, had been slain. How it must feel to be the hero who could not even protect their own worshipper. The Captain must be hurting inside to know he let someone down like that, even if he had not been there to fail Coulson as Luna had. Fury continued to speak to the crowd, all of them shocked and dazed from what had transpired, “We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you,” he paused as he reflected on Phil, “Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming.” He glanced over to Stark and Luna with his one eye, “Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative.” This was never going to work if they didn’t have something… Luna felt realization dawn on her as she thought about what Coulson may have been trying to say. Fury’s voice was downtrodden as he continued to be the only one able to find their voice, “The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes.” Stark got up and walked off, not wanting to hear what Fury was saying anymore. The one eyed man looked down and sighed, reflecting on the situation they now found themselves in poorly. “Well, it's an old fashioned notion.” The meeting quickly fell apart as silence drifted in. No-one knew what to say or what to do. They had lost and had no guidance to lead them out of their crushing defeat. Luna too sauntered off from the room, having nothing to say or add. All she knew was that she wanted to speak with Stark, who seemed just as upset as her. She would rather argue and let off steam than wallow in this pain.