Prologue: Enter the Trickster

"So tell me, in very small words, what it is that's happening with the Cube."

Doctor Erik Selvig looked at me like I didn't know myself, but I was adamant. After all, I'd gotten woken up from my very-uncomfortable bunk not three corridors down from the lab where we were standing, so I needed small words while I woke up. Especially with a lack of coffee that didn't taste like ditch water.

If you're missing the memo, my name's Andy Stark. Yes, Tony Stark's younger sister and the other half of the famed "Iron Twins", that's me. I've been working for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division – commonly known as SHIELD – for nearly a year, ever since the death of Ivan Vanko and Tony saving both me and himself from dying a nasty death by palladium poisoning from the old reactors. Why am I currently standing in a joint SHIELD-NASA bunker in the middle of the New Mexico desert and arguing with an astrophysicist about using plain English to describe the situation?

It has to do with the glowing blue cube that was perched in a mount just off to my right. From the briefing Director Nick Fury had given me before I'd gotten effectively buried down here, I knew the fancy name for said cube was the Tesseract. Back during World War II, a Nazi science division called Hydra had used it to create an army's worth of powerful weaponry. The recordings I'd gotten a look at of those weapons reminded me a little too much of the repulsors Tony and I used in our armor suits to fly and put bad guys on their backs. Add to that the fact that my father, Howard Stark, had found the Tesseract while searching for any sign of Captain Steve Rogers. After that, he'd studied it as a way to create a sustainable energy source…and those notes, I now knew, were what had led Tony to actually synthesizing his own pieces of said Tesseract and were now used to power the arc-reactors in our chests. But it wasn't like I was going to say I knew all about that.

"And keep it simple for me, too," Fury said as he strode into the lab, black leather coat flapping behind him. There's a lot of things I could say about him, that he's six-foot-one-or-two, no hair but a goatee of sorts, dark skin, eyepatch over his left eye; that I'm sure his favorite color is black because that's the only color he ever wears; but what my personal opinion boils down to he's a son of a bitch who is, mercifully, playing for the good guys. I don't have to like him on a personal level, but I can get along with him professionally. Except I didn't salute while Selvig hurried over to his side, obviously hoping I'd miss the dummy-speak.

"The Tesseract, she's…behaving," was how Selvig started his explanation. "All of a sudden she turned on the power."

"So turn it off," Fury retorted. I shook my head, even managing to get my black bangs out of my eyes.

"The Cube's an energy source, so turning off the power isn't going to do anything; it'll turn it back on," I added, and Selvig nodded confirmation.

"Besides, right now she's only throwing off some interference; mild levels of gamma radiation, nothing too serious," Selvig added, and both Fury and I looked at him like he was nuts.

"'Mild levels of gamma radiation' are what turned Bruce Banner into a global fugitive," I noted calmly, not even making mention of the giant green rage monster he could turn into. For my "initiation" after closing the Expo and finishing my accelerated SHIELD training, I was sent up into British Columbia to go find the said Banner and offer him asylum with SHIELD. It didn't go over too well with him, and I only managed to get away from getting all my bones broken by flying out of his reach and left him the hell alone.

"Hence, harmful," Fury agreed before looking around. I knew who he was looking for before he turned to me; technically I was in charge of the base's total security, so I should know where anyone was at all times. My personal AI, Mental Imaging Network Artificial – Mina, to keep things easy – did most of that heavy lifting for me.

"If you're going to ask about Barton, he's up on his perch," I told him, thumbing over my shoulder to a yellow security post, where Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, was watching everyone move under him. Of all my new spy friends, Barton was honestly my favorite. When not being a hard case on a mission, he could crack wise almost as well as Tony, and the fact he preferred a bow to a gun made him a little more interesting. I tapped my Bluetooth earpiece, which was connected to SHIELD's communication network.

"Get down here, Fury might rip on you for not walking among the people."

"If that's what he calls what he's doin', I like bein' up here and not bossin' people around," he answered, but I saw him get up and head for the rope he used to ascend and, in this case, descend from his nest. I couldn't help but grin. "Just 'cause he's metaphorical God doesn't mean I gotta follow suit all the time."

"Not all, but some," I amended, and Fury went off to get a situation report from Barton. I turned to eye the Tesseract, tapping slightly on my reactor in thought. Fury never needed to know that Tony and I could effectively synthesize our own Tesseract if we ever felt like it, but something about knowing that connection made me uneasy. I crossed my arms and sighed, leaning against a shelf.

"What's on your mind, Andy?" Selvig asked me, not unkindly. No matter how often we butted heads, he was still friendly and even treated me almost like a daughter. Sometimes if I just needed to get something off my chest, I'd tell him in the relative privacy of the commissary over a cup of that ditchwater coffee. Being buried down here meant I hadn't had a lot of outside contact, so that meant no Tony, no Pepper, and no Rhodey or Sam, my best friend from MIT who was also in the Air Force. I offered him a shrug and turned to look at him through the metal netting keeping his computer from blowing hot air into me.

"Just stuff. Thinking, is all."

"You know you can tell me."

"I trust you, doc, but…I dunno. Bad feeling."

"What bad feeling?" Fury asked, getting me to straighten up as quick as possible.

"The power surge thing," I replied, and Barton nodded, obviously moving to cover me with his breakdown. I hadn't put him on this particular bunch of scientists for nothing.

"There's been no outside contact with anyone, no messages or IMs…whatever caused it, it wasn't on our end, sir," Barton clarified. That made Fury double-take, if only for a flicker of a second.

"On…this end?"

"If the Cube can not only generate energy, but also open a door to the other side of the universe, for all we know," I explained, "then, well, there's got to be someone out there somehow trying to trigger the Cube."

"Doors open from both sides," Barton added.

Fury was about to ask something, but he didn't get a chance to. An electric rattle filled the air, and I started back a bit as the Tesseract glowed nearly-white. I only just had time to lunge for the locker I'd gotten installed in this sort of event before the Cube activated, shooting a stream of light towards the arrays Selvig had arranged to try and contain whatever energy the Tesseract would put out. But instead of shooting energy into them, the Cube's light seemed to pool and darken, and my eyes widened as a literal portal opened. I had to turn away from the appearance of foreign stars and the arms of some kind of nebula to wrench open the locker and pull on the metal backpack within. I just had time to secure the clamp over my reactor and around my hips before turning to see a new figure half-crouched on the platform under the arrays.

"Mina, get the travel suit on me now, please," I muttered into my earpiece, and obviously Mina was too busy to offer commentary as the black plates on my back opened, then folded around me. I'd had time to make up a Mark VI suit, to replace the Mark IV I had lost in Monaco that had been integrated into my motorcycle…which, too, was no more. It closed up tight, and my helmet clacked into place only a few seconds after, HUD flaring to life. Barton's security team was moving forward slowly, and I was careful to do the same, gaze fixed on the newcomer.

Even though he looked human, his clothes looked more at home in a renaissance fair: long green robes trimmed in black and gold, a lot of leather in his shirt and various belts. His face was long and pointed, almost regal, and with his long black hair slicked back as it was, despite the flippy-ness at the back, only added to that impression. What immediately caught my notice, though, was the gold spear-looking-thing in his right hand, and the dark blue crystal installed in it.

"Sir!" Fury barked once the man was standing, breathing heavily from his movement from space into the base. "I'm gonna hafta ask you to put down the spear."

"Andy, I'm getting wild energy readings, from the Tesseract energy up in the ceiling, and from that scepter," Mina reported, zooming in on both points of interest. "I'm pretty sure that energy is going to level this place, and who knows, maybe we'll take the bad guy with it."

"Let's hope so," I retorted, and just in time. The stranger from outer space suddenly leaned back, and with a noise matching that of the repulsors a blast fired from his spear. Barton went to cover Fury while things exploded, and the security men opened fire. I was starting to charge forward, one of the plasma-channel blades in my gauntlets extending, but he'd literally flown over me, apparently unharmed by the bullets. I dodged out of the way of a trio of little throwing knives that appeared from his sleeve, and I rolled to his left to barely avoid another blast from his scepter.

"Shit, Mina, is this one of those can't-handle-alone bad guys Fury was talking about a year ago?" I asked, trying to regain my breath as I forced myself back onto my feet. She didn't get a chance to reply, that or I missed it, because the green-robed freak swept up behind me. I nearly had my blade up to slash at him, but he not only blocked me with his right arm, but he held there. I was forced to look up at him, into light blue eyes that looked unnatural and half-crazed.

"…you have heart," he breathed after a few seconds' consideration.

"If you're tryin' to flirt with me, man, it's not gonna work," I grunted, but he ignored me, raising his spear and aiming it for my chest. I heard it powering up, and I was about to bring my other fist around for a surprise attack when someone rammed against me, shoving me out of the way. I barely had time to roll away and get close to Fury before the space-guy completed his maneuver. The pointy end of his spear met Barton's chest, and something flowed from it to him, all the way up his face and into his eyes.

"…dear God," I breathed. Fury was already a few seconds ahead of me, pulling out the Tesseract and lodging it into its case, and I got up to help him close and secure it before his voice rang out.

"Please don't. I need that."

"This doesn't need to get worse," Fury replied evenly, half-turned towards him. I was scanning the ruins of the lab, spotting Selvig alive and moving, starting to get up. I helped him to his feet as the stranger took a few steps closer to Fury, smiling slightly and being ever so suave. And, no, this is not me admiring the guy.

"Oh, but it does," he continued. "I am Loki, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki?!" Selvig breathed in shock, and I glanced at the stranger – Loki – very warily. I'd read the debriefing Selvig had given after Pueblo Antigua, a tiny New Mexico town, had been virtually leveled on account of a bit of family hate from another planet. I'd had to hit up Wikipedia to look up some intel on the Norse pantheon, and I knew Loki as a trickster who had some very serious identity issues. Obviously this Loki didn't have as much, or so I hoped.

"We don't have a quarrel with your people," Fury tried, playing a diplomat I'd never seen before.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," was Loki's cold rejoinder.

"What, you plan to step on us?" I asked sharply, and Loki rewarded me with a glance and a cold smile. Something about this guy was rubbing me the wrong way.

"I bring glad tidings!" he answered. "Of a world made free."

"From what?" Fury asked. Loki turned that hard, cold gaze to him, and I tried to wave Selvig towards the door and safety. The problem, though, was he was drifting uncomfortably closer to Loki, and Mina flashed a warning at me.

"That energy's getting to critical mass, hurry it up!"

"Freedom," Loki informed Fury scathingly, and that made my chest freeze. Loki pressed on anyway, "Freedom is life's great lie. And once you accept that…in your heart…"

"Selvig!" I barked, but it was too late. Loki had already turned and, just like with Barton, planted the tip of his scepter into Selvig's chest. Purplish tendrils flashed up Selvig's neck and face, and it was all I could do not to lunge forward and kill the bastard. Fury, too, moved a hand to hold me back, though honestly I could have just shot over his grasp – or through it.

"…you will know peace," Loki breathed in conclusion, and since his back was to us I was able to glance up at the steadily-growing mass of energy licking at the concrete dome over the energy arrays.

"When you say peace," Fury noted, "I kinda think you mean the other thing."

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Barton interrupted. Dammit, man, you had to go all self-sacrificing for me, now I have to owe you. "He intends to bury us."

"Just like the pharaohs of old," Fury replied smugly. I looked over at him and, had my faceplate been open, I could've more successfully given him the arched brow and scowl I was giving him.

"…Nick, this wasn't in the retirement plan I picked out," I deadpanned, but my attempt at humor went unnoticed.

"He's right, we've got about two minutes before this goes critical," Selvig confirmed, and before I could react Barton fired a bullet towards Fury. But before the Tesseract's case hit the ground, I'd lunged forward, not at Barton, but Loki, blade out and ready to give a beating. Thankfully, he hadn't expected that, and I drove him into the floor before rolling back.

"I'll let you have five minutes to get this guy, but you have to get out before then!" Mina informed me sharply. "I'm alerting Coulson and Hill!"

"Great, you do that!" I told her, and blocked a vicious lunge from Loki. I jumped up and fired my boots into him, propelling upward vertically and aiming down towards where Fury had dropped the case. I barely had time to see Barton and Selvig escaping – with the Tesseract's case – before a blast hit me square in the back, throwing me into the wall just below where that energy was getting larger and more energetic. I crashed down to the floor to watch Loki dash out, though clutching his midsection, but I wasn't going to let him go so easy. I only spared Fury a glance – he was up and moving, clever bastard – before running out after Loki.

"Hill, I'll meet you up there, we've got to catch him," I barked into my earpiece, but the only reply I got was gunfire; obviously Loki and his new friends were already on the move. I didn't waste time, running through corridors and using my thrusters to save time in the climbing. I got to the lower vehicle bay, just in time for Maria Hill, Fury's right-hand woman, to honk the horn of a jeep at me.

"Get in!" she yelled over the thundering rock, and I got into the back before she pulled out and tore into the tunnels. "Tell me what's going on!"

When Maria Hill is yelling at you and it's a life or death situation, you tell the woman what's going on. It was a lesson I learned during my run from Banner's green rage monster.

"Tesseract opened up a portal; guy named Loki came through and did some kind of mind-control on Barton and Selvig," I reported as she drove us through side tunnels to try and catch up. "They've got the Tesseract and are making a trail."

"Then I hope this works," Hill replied before slamming a hard right into the main tunnel. I saw a flash of green as the jeep skidded in reverse, then met the other car grill to grill. Now I had a clear view of Loki, hunched down on the truck bed, but a shot not so much. Despite the need to get Barton, Selvig, and Tesseract back whole, I wasn't risking exploding their whole truck just to get Loki.

Hill saved some time and tried to shoot something, which made Barton shoot back. I hung on, watching Mina's timer on the imminent explosion, but yelped as I was nearly pitched out as Barton accelerated and somehow got mine and Hill's jeep off of his front. I was cursing violently for about two seconds as Hill got the jeep back in gear and tried to hurry up.

"You got a shot yet?!" she asked over the echo of the engines and the sounds of breaking rock. I dared to look up and saw Loki still hunkered in the bed ahead of us, but a quick x-ray scan made me curse.

"He's perched on the gas tank, if I blow him I send Barton and Selvig with him!" I replied, and it got a bad word out of Hill. "If you can't get this thing to go faster, I can get you a bit of a boost –"

My offer came a bit late, because the tunnel behind us started dropping in a massive wave. I hated myself for it, but if I hadn't thrown myself out of the jeep and shot after Loki I would have met a very large boulder that dropped into the truck bed I'd been occupying. Of course, this meant Loki had a shot at me now, or at least a shot that he'd been delaying.

I was out of the tunnel just after his truck, and thankfully I had air support in the form of Fury's helicopter, though however much help that was going to be I wasn't sure yet. Still, I swung down low and blasted craters ahead of the truck, but Barton swung around them all. I would've opened up with the unibeam if Fury's chopper hadn't swung ahead of me to try and give Fury a shot. It was a bad move, too, because Loki got up, aimed, and shot a blast into the tail of the chopper, which summarily burst into flames.

"…oh, hell," I grumbled, because right after a piece of the chopper's debris slammed into my gut, throwing me down to the ground and preventing me from chasing down Loki. I managed to get the debris off me, and just in time to see Fury up and well.

"Stark, Hill, Coulson, status," his voice insisted in my ear.

"Right behind you…idiot scratched my paint job," I decided to complain.

"We just managed to avoid the collapse, sir," Coulson reported in; ever-loyal and ever-dogged Phil Coulson was a guy you could count on to start something. After all, if it hadn't been for him, Tony and I wouldn't be on SHIELD's radar, or at least not so prominently as we are now.

"There's still a lot of men trapped down here," Hill coughed from the tunnel I'd had to leave her in. "No idea of survivors."

"Anyone not on rescue, I want looking for the Tesseract," Fury ordered, and a pit dropped into my stomach. "I'm calling this a Level Seven. As of now, we are at war."

It was what Fury had warned me about a year ago, before SHIELD's command council had scrapped the Avengers Initiative. Now there was someone out there ten times worse than Stane and Ten Rings and the Hammeroids and even Vanya. It was someone I couldn't take down alone. I doubted that Tony and I, even with SHIELD support, would have been able to do it.

"…what do we do, sir?" I asked, even tacking on the honorific to reflect the new level of serious. The thought was on my mind right as Fury said it.

"What we need is a response team."