Evacuations are always messy.

Especially when they include a top-secret government facility, with boxes everywhere, agents panicking, and alarms pounding through concrete floors. We all would've gone deaf if the stone walls had been any less sound proof.

On top of all that cacophony of noise, there was a loud hum; a sound deep and powerful from far underground. This ear-splitting call was from the Tesseract itself. The source had been 'behaving' as doctor Selvig had apparently said. I wasn't sure because I heard someone else say that, but I guessed it was true because they weren't saying it to me. Even I could tell that it had begun its whine earlier, and Director Fury ordered the facility to be evacuated immediately. He would be here soon.

I saw him maneuver through the chaos with agents Maria Hill and Phil Coulson flanking his sides. He stood out from the black suits, his bad-attitude cape flapping behind him, revealing simple dark clothes..

The posse continued moving, dropping Coulson off with orders. The agent ran off to fulfill his instructions, and Fury and agent Hill disappeared from sight to go see the Tesseract.

What was I doing to help? Nothing. That's the best way to aid everyone; to stay out of the way.

So I sat crossed legged on a box, watching sweaty people run to and from the building.

"Where's Robertson when you need her?" An exhausted voice gasped right in front of me. I peered over the tall box to see a man wiping his brow and leaning heavily on the crate he was carrying.

Hurt pinged in my chest as I looked away. Here they addressed me as 'Agent Robertson', but I knew he wasn't talking about me. He was speaking of my twin, Emily.

Emily Robertson was a blessing and a curse to the government. She was not only armed with admirable leadership qualities, but she was also the easiest person to work with out of any stiff-legged S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

The curse was me. She wouldn't help them unless I did too. So unfortunately, they took in the far less powerful runt of a sister I was. All I could muster was some barely controlled magic. Happy thoughts all around.

I was ripped out of my bitter thoughts by a slam of a door against a wall. My eyes opened, and settled on agent Coulson who rushed into the room, desperately searching for something. My green eyes followed him as he rushed to the nearest person, and asked them something that I couldn't make out from the rest of the noise. The girl he approached shook her head and gestured to the box she was carrying.

Coulson asked many people, but they all gave the same answer. They were busy. . . but I wasn't! I resisted the urge to jump up and frantically wave my arms to get his attention.

I was actually tempted to get up, when he looked in my direction and gestured for me to come down. I scrambled off my crate and ran over. He pursed his lips when I almost tripped over my own two feet in my haste.

Coulson bent over and said in a low voice; unnecessary since he had to raise the volume so I could understand him over the mayhem around us. "I have a message for Director Fury. Do you think you can deliver it?"

I nodded my head vigorously, and saw he was starting to have second thoughts. "Tell him a room collapsed containing some of the most valuable-" He paused, searching for the right word. "-Instruments from phase two. Got it?"

I nodded again then sped off. I could feel his worried gaze follow me as I leapt two at a time down the stairs. I was so excited to finally have something important to do. The small handgun strapped to my thigh was jiggling happily as I raced down to Director Fury.

I barged into the Tesseract room, and yelled "Director-" but the words died in my throat as my gaze fastened on the Tesseract. I was awed by the pure power from it. It was surrounded by a metallic skeleton, keeping it in place. My mouth dropped open in amazement. How could something of such perfect balance exist? It shone so beautifully, its colour bluer than any other colour had every seen in my life. It swirled elegantly, yet cast a dangerous aura around it. I could feel the raw power radiating off this magical object.

Director Fury was waiting impatiently for me to snap out of my trance. I looked embarrassed for a moment, before I remembered why I was there.

"Oh, um," I stammered. "Uh, agent Coulson wanted me to uh, instruments. . . um . . ." Fury's gaze cowed me, but I finally spat it out. "One of the rooms containing the most valuable, uh, things from phase two collapsed!" Not exact, but close enough.

His eye widened, and turned to face Hawkeye, whom he was conversing with before I interrupted. Barton gave me a quick wink then nodded at whatever Fury was saying in hushed words. Clint Barton was the only person who liked me that was high ranked. Since I was the 'frail' amateur, I spent long hours training with him.

Not to mention many more hours I spent going on some cool errands for S.H.I.E.L.D, before they decided they actually didn't like me, and tossed me in a corner. Asshats.

A strong radiation from the Tesseract nearly knocked me off my feet. I steadied myself as the Tesseract started to set off visible waves of power in one place. I wasn't informed enough to know what was happening, but it was big. I cursed myself for fading out so often. I saw a glimpse of . . . stars? Were those stars for only a second before the, I'm guessing, portal closed?

I would never be sure, as the portal collapsed, leaving a kneeling man in its wake. The figure on the platform literally was smoking, as guards crept up slowly with guns. The man held some type of blue tipped spear, with a sharp edge pointing to the roof, as the figure's head gazed at the floor. I knew this was bad. Bad bad bad. With a capital 'B'. It radiated from this guy. I did not want to stay there.

I was just about to leave, when Fury turned around and beckoned me. I sighed quietly and joined Fury and Clint as they stared at the figure like everyone else in the room was. I glanced at Barton, subconsciously leaning towards him. Hawkeye was twitching to his back, where his reliable quiver usually resided, but wasn't now. I wondered why, but the thought whimpered in my mind. The man raised his head, grinning evilly. His blue eyes showed mischief and anger, but also amusement. My knees felt weak as his gaze flitted across the room, and examined everything carefully. He slowly got up, and rose about six feet above the ground, though it was hard to tell because he was so far away.

"Sir, please put down the spear," Fury yelled across the room. The man looked daintily at his spear, then bared his teeth as he pulled the spear back and shot a blue sphere of power across the room. He leapt inhumanly over to the guards and kicked one to a wall while swiping off another's head. Fury grabbed me gruffly by my uniform and yanked me out of the line of fire. I wasn't complaining, seeing as I was about to throw up out of fear.

Barton rolled away, as the man blasted another sphere and shot some scientists. He then swiped his spear again, sending the bullets back to the guards who shot them, killing them. He stood panting for a second, before advancing on Clint.

Barton tried to fight, raising his gun up to shoot, before being stopped by the man's spear. Hawkeye struggled, before the man mumbled something and pressed the spear to his chest. Clint's eyes glazed over and went blue. It was strange; His once tense figure relaxed considerably, and he seemed to look at the man without fear as he put away his gun, and stood there like a robot. Just staring at the ceiling.

I snapped out of the spell I was in, and jumped out of the corner. Something ahout seeing Barton like that made my legs move. I whipped out my pistol and shot at the man twice. The figure actually seemed surprised, not seeing me there before. My suprise attack didn't make him any less prepared, though, as he easily stopped them in mid air. Clint, still under the weird spell, shot at me, any emotion he usually treats me with gone. I somersaulted away, and stood beside Fury, my gun pointed at the man. Fury wasn't to pleased with the attention now on him.

The man met my angry gaze, and his own hatred fizzled in his blue eyes. He reacted suddenly, shooting in between me and Fury. I dove away, and my gun skittered just out of reach. I lunged for it, but before my hand could close around the pistol, the man picked me up, clean off the ground by my neck.

My hands clawed fruitlessly at his firm grip. I gasped and sputtered , but the man cruelly watched me thrash in midair, unaffected I turned to see where Fury was. My vision started to get fuzzy at the edges from his strong hold on me. I spotted Fury, slowly getting up. I cursed myself a million times for actually thinking I could kill this man after what I just saw. The man just sneered at me as I struggled to free myself, my lungs on fire.

"Stop!" Fury surprised everyone, as all our heads turned to him. He seemed panicked for only a moment before he regained his composure. "Let her go."

"Or else what?" The man spoke in a deep voice riddled with hate. He squeezed even tighter, and I made a pathetic noise, halfway between a squeak and a meep.

Fury held the Tesseract in a box, and the knuckles around it turned white. The man's gaze flitted from what the director was holding, back to his face.

"Please don't," the man's voice was . . . pleasing to hear. I knew he was using magic. "I still need that." The man loosened his grip, and I gasped sweet breaths of air. Still my legs dangled above the ground uselessly, though.

"Who are you?" Fury asked.

"I am Loki," the man looked almost expectant for a reaction. "Of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki. . ." Selvig suddenly looked up from a scientist he was checking the pulse for. "Brother of Thor!"

I couldn't help but be happy that the outright anger Loki showed was directed at Doctor Selvig and not me. Distracted, the man let me go, and I took a few steps backwards. Clint - if it was even still Barton - intercepted my escape, and held me in place with a pistol. Well, damn.

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury said hurriedly.

Loki smirked, the side of his thin mouth curved up ever so slightly. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

"Are you planning to step on us?"

"I come with glad tidings! Of a world made free."

"Free from what?" Fury looked unimpressed to the max.

"Freedom," Loki said immediately. Freedom? Did he not just possess Clint Barton? Seems legit. "Freedom is life's great lie. If you accept this, in your heart, " Loki swung his spear over his shoulder at Selvig, putting him under the same spell as Barton. "You will know peace."

Loki's cool gaze settled on me once more. My blood ran cold as he observed every inch of me. He smirked once again at my fear. Even though this man was about to kill me, and I supposed he was crazy, I couldn't help be awed by him. He was so seductively handsome, it was almost impossible, yet there he stood in front of me. Wait ... what? My mind was feeling fuzzy just being around him, like a headache I couldn't shrug off.

"You wouldn't mind if I borrowed this mortal, would you?" He brought his spear back around to me, and began to bring the tip towards my chest. But something clicked inside my brain.

I would not be compromised that easily.

The clouds in my brain must have been made out of some kind of adrenaline drug. He stood roughly three feet away from me, so I hopped forward and made it two. Loki, initially, was confused at my odd endeavor, until I sent a well-aimed kick that connected with his chin loudly.

Loki snarled, reeling backwards. I hit the ground as Clint open fired at me. My limbs, still jittery, rolled my body away. Barton ran out of bullets, and I allowed myself to release my head from my hands. The telltale sign of gun clicking emptily made relief wash through me. I was just looking up to see if the coast was clear, when I saw Hawkeye load up his gun and point the barrel at me once more.

Loki, rubbing his jaw, had more important things to deal with, it seemed. As fast as lightning his arm shot out, preventing Clint from sending a bullet straight through my skull.

"No!" Loki hissed, forcefully pointing Clint's gun at Fury instead. Barton took the hint, and a second later Fury was flying backwards, a bullet lodged in his chest.

Barton, remembering his quarrel with me, shot blindly at me. I easily dodged the shot, but I lay still. Hawkeye misses a target? Definitely unusual. I waited until the footsteps receded, then jumped to my feet as Fury groaned in agony.

I got up quickly, ignoring the cuts and scratches left from my rolling pin experience. I ran over to Fury as he struggled to get up, the wound from his chest gushing blood.

I tried to bandage it, but he just shoved the walkie-talkie he had into my hands and growled "Tell agent Hill they have the Tesseract."

I pressed a button and almost screamed into the microphone. "Agent Hill! Please answer! Agent Hill!"

I listened intently in the receiver, and my spirits rose when I caught background noise from something getting loaded into a truck. She answered, sounding irritated. "Who is this? How did you get Director Fury's-"

"There's no time! I'm Robertson-"

"Robertson? Melony Robertson?! I swear to whatever's out there, Robertson, if this is one of your tricks-"

"No!" I lowered my voice just a bit. The rustling in the background died suddenly when she mentioned my name. "No, they have the Tesseract! Look at the thing they're holding! It's the Tesseract!"

"I don't know what you're-" Gunfire went off, then the line went dead. Before I could worry, Fury snatched his walkie-talkie back and started running down the hall. How a man with a bullet in his chest could move with such agility was beyond me. I sprinted after him.

We ran through the facility as we dodged falling pieces of the building. Director Fury stumbled and nearly fell, but I yanked his arm to keep him moving. We just made it to a helicopter before the entire place completely collapsed. I let my jaw drop as I watched so much work slip neatly down the drain to oblivion.

Fury stood up and leaned on a post near the gaping hole, letting wind whip through the helicopter. The director had spotted something. I leaned over and barely saw a truck driving off-road. I could faintly see Loki standing up over the hood of the car.

Fury shot at the truck, and I saw the tiny figure of Loki move. That was never a good sign. A massive sphere of blue came to the helicopter, and the next thing I knew we were spiralling towards the ground at amazing speeds. Fury jumped from the machine, and I hesitated before following. I landed on my feet thankfully, but couldn't look as picture-perfect as Fury. I wobbled and fell. My ankles groaned, but I managed to get up sluggishly.

Fury was talking into his walkie-talkie, and I heard agent Hill's voice faintly. It was clear enough to know it was her, but I couldn't hear their conversation. That didn't stop relief flood into my mind, making me breathe in deeply. But I knew many more would actually be dead. I remembered the chaos I left. What had happened to the rest of the people who were still packing up when I left them? What would've happened if I hadn't left? Worthless thoughts swirled in my mind.

Nothing my active mind could ever think up would help me. Would help anyone.

Fury turned to me, his expression actually showing a bit of fear.

Coulson's voice was crackled from the machine, but I could hear it clearly. "What are we going to do, sir?"

Fury just simply looked at me, as I nearly fell to the ground again.

"Sir?" Coulson's voice was now hesitant.

Fury finally spoke, the words clear and carefully. "We need. . ."

"What do we need, sir?" Coulson continued, the confusion etched in his voice. Hill and I were all thinking the same thing.

Fury adjusted his coat, and stared off to where the truck was just a small dot on the horizon now.

". . . A response team."

The statement had all three of us reeling, even though they weren't there I could almost feel the utter bewilderment. For all I knew the grass I stood on was disoriented by his vague words. But at the same time, I thought of Loki's pure blue eyes, and how they showed hatred.

So at the same time, I guess I just had to agree.

I guess we needed a response team.

Whatever the hell that meant.