Salty Ice Crystals

Inquiries and Misgivings

Chapter 1: A Hole Collection

"Father, this is Loki's life at stake!" Thor argued, Mjolnir resting on the floor beside him as he knelt before the Allfather.

"And this is the fate of the Nine Realms at stake." Odin countered, rubbing his eyes softly. "Forgive me, my son, but we do not know whether this is all a scheme of Loki's or not. I am a king as well as a father, and sometimes I have to act in favor of the realm, whether I like it or not."

"Loki is weakened-"

"Which may be just a play to get your sympathy."

"He would not have fooled Mother."

"If Loki is truly beyond redemption, he would not have cared about what the Queen would think."

"Are you doubting my ability to recognize an illness when I see one?" Frigga stepped into the audience chamber, sweeping into a low curtsey before standing straight before Odin again. Their places were equal in name, after all.

"I do not doubt your abilities, but I am confident in Loki's ability of using one's emotions and sentiments against him or her." Odin said. "The Tesseract is powerful, and I am not letting Loki near it until I am positive that he really needs it. You will have to present proof before me."

"What proof?"

Odin waved a hand dismissively. "Whatever genuine that you can get your hands on."

"Father." Thor said, rising from his place. "Would what the Midgardians call blood samples be sufficient?"

Odin stroked his beard for a moment, calling upon his knowledge of 'blood samples'. After a moment, he gave his answer. "Yes." He said. "For science never lies."

And Thor was out of the room before they could blink.

Thor rode towards the newly repaired Bifrost. He was going to be the proud first user of the improved and fixed Bifrost, but he didn't care. He urged his horse forward, reining it in and skidding to a stop, vaulting off the horse as soon as it was slow enough. "Heimdall, I have need of the Bifrost!"

"Where to?"

"Midgard."

"As always." Heimdall chuckled. "Paying a visit to your lady friend? Or is there an ultimate purpose?"

Thor smiled. "You see all, Heimdall. You have no need to act otherwise. I know that you already know the answers to the questions you ask."

"True." Heimdall slid his sword in, opening the Bifrost. "And I know that you have permission this time."

Thor grinned sheepishly before passing through the realms in a flurry of rainbow light. In a few seconds, he was already landing on the Bifrost site in Midgard without any side effects. Quickly and determinedly, Thor swung Mjolnir and set his course for the most prominent tower in sight, almost even with the skyline-Stark Tower.

"Anthony Stark!"

Tony cringed, ducking behind a lab table. Whenever Pepper used his full name like that, it usually meant trouble. Bruce looked at him, amused before returning to his work. He did feel a little pity for Tony though, so he told Pepper just as she was about to come through the door, "Peps, I think it would be better if you don't come in here. There's radiation and chemicals and we still don't know whether it is safe to be exposed to normal humans-"

"I know Tony told you to say that!" Pepper fumed. "Jarvis, open the door!"

"Certainly, ma'am."

The glass door slid open. Tony gave a muffled wail. "When did Pepper's orders start to override mine? Jarvis, not fair, you can't play favorites!"

Jarvis went a step further to annoy and play an indirect part in his murder. "Miss Potts, Mr. Stark is currently under the lab table on the far left. Please do not knock over the acid."

Pepper stormed over to the table and dragged Tony out by the ear, Tony still cursing Jarvis and swearing to update his software later so he wouldn't take orders from anyone but Tony himself. Of course, he'd sworn that a thousand times before, but never really got around to it.

"Anthony Stark, I know that you collect a hell lot of things, the art collection is still hanging in the wall and all the different car models are still parked in the garage, but can you seriously not start a new one so soon?! Especially a one that's so crazy!"

"What?" Tony asked, annoyed. "What collection did I start this time? And didn't I donate the art collection to…I dunno, someone?"

Pepper sighed in exasperation. "You said that you would donate your vase collection, not the art collection. And seriously, starting a hole collection?"

Tony looked horrified. "Wait, I donated the vases? I quite liked them!"

"Tony!"

"Okay, fine." Tony sighed. "And that isn't even near a collection, that's just one measly hole to record the greatest event in history-the Hulk's smashing of the weirdest super-villain ever in history! Kids after a few hundred years would come here and say, 'Wow, how awesome is this? The coolest ever Iron Man actually preserved it for us!' Now, isn't that nice?"

"Two holes, Tony."

Tony blinked. "Now, where's the other one?"

"A Mjolnir shaped one. I bet you told Thor to smash it down on the roof when you were drunk, didn't you?"

Tony scratched his head sheepishly. "Well, I usually don't remember what I did while I was drunk, so you'd have to go to Asgard and ask Thor for confirmation. Wanna me to fly you up there?"

Pepper rolled her eyes and turned to leave. "No thanks."

Tony ran after her. "Wait, I want to see this awesome hole! Don't fill it with cement yet!"

Pepper entered the elevator, Tony dogging her footsteps.

When they arrived at the top floor, Tony was flabbergasted. He was sure that he would never have forgotten something like this. It was not a Mjolnir sized hole, but a Thor-sized hole on the wall too. Debris and dust was scattered everywhere on the floor. Dust rose with every step and Tony sneezed.

A figure rose from the swirling dust. Tony tensed, pushing Pepper behind him and snapping a bracelet on his wrist. He had taken to bringing them everywhere in his pocket since Loki had paid a visit.

Then Tony almost had the life squeezed out of him and his eardrums burst as someone hugged him tightly, yelling, "Greetings, friend Stark!"

"Nice to meet you too." Tony muttered, choking, Thor released him and looked around the room. "My deepest apologies, friend Stark. I appear to have miscalculated the speed and slammed into your glorious building at full speed. I threw Mjolnir away from me to slow myself down but it slammed into your tower and I had to call it back to me and I smashed into your tower as well."

"Pepper!" Tony exclaimed triumphantly. "Did you hear that?"

Pepper ignored him. "Thor, would you like some Pop Tarts? You can have Tony's entire stock, if you like."

"Hey!" Tony protested.

"Thank you, Lady Potts, but I have urgent matters to attend to." He turned to Tony. "Is the good doctor here?"

"Bruce? 'course, he's my science buddy, after all. He's in the lab. Come on, and don't knock anything over. Better yet, don't touch anything."

"Doctor Banner!" Was Thor's first words as he entered the lab, the force of his voice so great that a few test tubes toppled over and Tony muttered, 'Shit' before flying in to save his work. So much for warning Thor not to touch anything.

Bruce looked up. "Oh, hey, Thor. What can I do for you?"

"I need you to give me all the equipment needed to take a blood sample and to teach me how as fast as you can. I fear Loki's life hangs in the balance."

"Reindeer Games?" Tony muttered, carefully storing the precious few drops that were left in a drawer. "What are you doing trying to save him?"

Thor started forward, eyes blazing, knocking over another table. Tony covered his eyes and groaned.

"You will do well to know that he is my brother." Thor rumbled as Bruce started to lead him out of the lab. "Calm down, big guy. I will teach you. Don't mind Tony, he's being a jerk as usual."

"Hey!"

Bruce shot Tony a warning look that meant, 'You'd better make yourself invisible right now or god help me, I'm going to help Thor kill you.'

Tony shut up.

"So, you want to learn how to take a blood sample?" Bruce asked in a calm air, pushing up his spectacles.

Thor nodded eagerly.

"Well, you can give me the details when you get back from Asgard next time, since you're in such a hurry. Come on. And you can use Tony as a test subject."

"HEY!"

Bruce shot Tony a death glare though he couldn't help the corners of his mouth tilting up a little.

"Let's go then, big guy."

After lessons and demonstrations that Thor seemed that he at least tried to pay attention to, Bruce gave Thor the go ahead to try a hand at it. After fumbling a little to get his large fingers in the right position so that he won't break the needle-which suddenly looked very small and fragile in Thor's hands-he inserted it into Tony's wrist.

Forget the small and fragile part. It certainly hurt.

"Oww!" Tony yelled, practically jumping off his chair and dancing around the room. He yanked the needle out and cradled his wrist close like it was some baby. "Just because I'm the white mouse doesn't mean that you have to torture me!"

"We have to torture you because you're Tony." Pepper walked in just then.

Tony glared. "Not fair!" He howled. "Just because I'm a billionaire playboy-"

"Yeah yeah, don't start with that rant again." Bruce interjected. "Thor, ready for the second shot?"

And Iron Man, who saved the Earth and survived countless dangers, promptly fainted.

In the end, Bruce had sighed and wrote a list of instructions for Queen Frigga on Asgard, hoping that Thor hadn't inherited his hands from her. Thor reassured them that she was as gentle as a queen could be, and since they didn't know how Asgard defined 'gentle' they hoped it would have to be enough.

"I cannot thank you more, my friends." Thor said deeply as he stood at the Bifrost site. "Man of Iron, you have achieved a great feat."

"Oh yeah?" Tony said, still weakly rubbing his arm. "Well, it'd better be worth it then."

"It will be." Thor promised just as rainbow light shot down and Thor disappeared, leaving Tony and Bruce to stare at the sky.

Finally, Tony uttered, "They really love drama, don't they?"