Chapter 18

"Tony!" Steve shouted, stepping into the lab, shield in hand. "What happened?"

"Someone broke into my tower! Our tow- someone's in here!"

The tower had been in darkness on his way to the lab, only for a moment; the storm outside was shorting out power all over the city. Luckily the tower had numerous generators.

Steve scanned the room but could only see Tony inside the lab. He did a quick walk through of the small lab room but returned to Tony's side to help the man into a chair in the corner of the room. Thor stepped into the room, followed by Loki.

"Friend Stark! We did not realize Rogers had already come down to assist you. Are you alright?" Thor asked.

"Perhaps he simply had a bad dream. Brother, can I go back to sleep now?" Loki asked, frowning at Tony who looked…unwell. His skin was pale with fright. Loki had seen the same look on many people before; some of them from his own doing.

"Hey Thor, thanks for coming down. I'm sure what's going on but Tony said someone's broken into the tower." Steve explained, keeping a hand on Tony's shoulder. He knew the physical contact could help ground Tony at times. The same thing worked on Bucky as well. Sometimes.

"I heard them! It…I heard a man talking about a female voice? Oh, Friday, I guess…and…" Tony was shaking; he was trying to ignore it. He focused on his team members as they walked through the room, doing their own small searches for clues, or anything amiss.

Loki found something.

He picked up a notebook he'd noticed on the worktable; it had been laying open with a pen laying on top of the writing.

"Don't touch Peter's stuff." Tony grumbled, trying to glare at Loki.

"This is his notebook?" Loki asked, slowly raising his head to stare at Tony. "When did he write this?"

"What did he- oh, for god's sake. It's some song that book girl was singing at work. He's been singing it to himself for a few days and it is fucking killing me. I swear."

"What is it?" Steve asked, taking the book. "I don't recognize the lyrics."

"I can't imagine you would." Loki said stiffly. "It is a song called Mistress of the Sky."

"Brother you can't-" Thor began, then noticed the book and slowly took it from Steve s he could read it for himself. "By gods."

"Kai is an Asgardian god, or spirit, who represents the sky and the sun. His mistress is the sun; it is an Asgardian song about the eternal love between the two of them."

"How did the young spiderling come across it?" Thor wondered out loud. "Friend Stark said he got it from the girl he had been working with. How could she have come to learn the song?"

"…It couldn't be from the…wizard? Could it?" Tony asked. Maybe Peter going to that place had been a mistake after all. What if he was some kind of target now? "Or whatever it is."

"It is…possible but it still highly concerning that they know the song at all; it is a traditional Asgardian song and very few Asgardians have been outside of Asgard…except for war." Loki said, glancing at Thor.

"We must find out more." Thor said. "We can not risk any harm coming to the spiderling by this being's hands."

"Who has it not…helped yet?" Tony asked.

"Natasha and Bruce, I would say so far." Steve said. "Bruce might be the best bet since he has an understanding over the…energy levels it's been showing. We could keep Nat nearby, in case Bruce needs a rescue."

"If the creature is capable of bringing out the Hulk, this young book lady may need to be rescued instead." Loki pointed out. Everyone nodded; they were beginning to find more risks as they discussed the plan. Bruce was nervous about the plan they decided on in the end but his curiosity over what they were dealing with won over his nerves in the end. Tony dropped Bruce off outside the building the girl worked in, reminded Bruce about the emergency alert before driving off to park the car outside a café nearby where he could it with Steve and Natasha. Bucky was waiting with Clint on top of a roof facing the building Bruce had walked into; Bucky wasn't going to be swayed on having eyes from up high. He was insistent on it; Clint agreed with him it was an important precaution.

"Good morning, how can I help you?" Sarah asked when she noticed Bruce walking into the foyer.

"Morning, I'm here to…Tony asked me to come check on some book? He said he'd arranged a drop in with David but his plane's late coming back from some Stark Industries…stuff…so he asked to come by for him." Bruce told her; he hoped he didn't sound as nervous as he felt.

"Oh, I see. David has been busy in meetings for an expo he's been asked about attending so it's possible it slipped his mind. Molly is the only artist in today, so you won't be interrupted." She said, raising from the desk and leading Bruce down the hallway towards the workroom.

"Molly?" She called out as she knocked on the door. "Sorry to interrupt, could I come in?"

There was a 'sure' from behind the door, which Sarah pushed open slowly before stepping into the dark room.

"I know you're busy, I'm so sorry but this gentleman is here on behalf of Mister Stark." She said with a smile. Molly turned in her chair and glanced at Bruce, looking him over once before sighing.

"It would be nice if David could let me know when people were coming by. Let me pack up and I'll be with you." She said, turning back to what she was working on so she could pack it away.

"I'll leave you to it then, give a shout if you need anything." Sarah said, giving a wave before leaving the room, closing the door behind her. Bruce looked over the various stacks of books and papers on the shelves around the room. When he leant over to look at a book he thought he recognized, his jacket pocket opened up enough for his pens to fall out and tumble to the floor.

"Sorry!" He said quickly, crouching down to pick them up; he was careful to accidentally kick one under a desk without noticing. "I always forget about them. I'm forever losing pens so I keep lots of them on me."

Molly was standing up now, looking at Bruce with what he could've said was noticeable frustration.

"Sorry, again, I was just looking at this." He said, nodding at a book on the desk. "Is it…an actual copy?"

She was quiet for a moment but eventually nodded.

"Yes, I've been meaning to look at it but there's been no interest from any buyers so far, since much of the original artwork is missing. It's mostly notes from previous owner-"

"How much?" Bruce asked, then smile a little bit. "Sorry, Tony's stuff first. Seriously though-"

"Mister Stark's book is underway, there some's supplies I'm waiting for in the mail but they won't take long."

"Wow that was quick-"

"We already had the book and most of what I needed for it. You can have that." She said, sitting back at her workstation and unpacking what she'd been working on.

"What?"

"The book, you can have it. I'm tired of looking at it." She said without looking back at him.

"But…"

"Please take the book."

Bruce nodded, even though she wasn't looking at him, and grabbed the book from the desk without a second thought. He held it as tight as possible on his way to find the others. They were in the café they'd agreed on earlier, looking at a laptop that was in the middle of their booth.

"You were meant to ask about a book not get one-" Tony said with a smirk but was cut off by Bruce.

"She's crazy!" He spat out; he was out of breath from practically running to the café. "The last time I saw this book for sale it was ten grand and that was too cheap to believe. It can't be real if she just…gave it to me."

"Go order something and come join us, we'll see if she says anything." Tony said. Bruce nodded and hurried off to the counter to order himself a noodle salad and a coffee, before joining them at the laptop. Tony had plugged a headphone splitter into the laptop, and four sets of headphones were plugged into that. Bruce's food arrived quickly, and the team were left alone in the back of the quiet café.

"There, energy levels! Set it to that frequency we had it on at the tower." Bruce said; Tony was already doing it. The odd static that came from silence was interrupted by a male voice that definitely wasn't Larry or David.

"He seems like a nice man, can we not invite him for dinner? You could make dinner, you make such nice pasta."

Tony snorted at the voice, glancing at a blushing Bruce who was paying a good deal of attention to his noodles.

"So it…just talks around her? Is it stuck maybe? If she can't hear it-" Steve was interrupted by Molly speaking.

"You aren't nearly as good at knowing voices as you think you are."