Alchemy
Chapter One: Blue in Black
25th April, 2012
The remote project P.E.G.U.S.U.S research facility was in a state of alarm.
Admittedly, this was an understatement.
Panicked men in suits and soldiers rushed about with orders to get the hell out of there, as helicopters swooped somewhat ominously over the S.H.E.I.L.D facility, and voices boomed from hidden speakers.
However, one of said suited men was calm amiss the chaos around him - of course, he would have fit right in to 'Men in Black' in his suit and shades, typical of S.H.E.I.L.D - waiting patiently a few feet away from a landing pad as a black helicopter landed.
This was the famous S.H.E.I.L.D agent Phil Coulson.
From the helicopter walked S.H.E.I.L.D agent Maria Hill, with Director Nick Fury quickly following behind.
"How bad is it?" The Director demanded, getting straight to the point.
"That's the problem, sir. We don't know." And with that, Coulson lead Hill and Fury through the radiation section of the facility, while seemingly hundreds of technicians, scientists, and other staff members rapidly took only the essentials for their research.
"Doctor Selvig and Cariss read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago." Coulson explained.
"NASA didn't authorise either of them to test phase." Director Fury argued, the group weaving their way through the corridors as he did so.
"They weren't testing it; Doctor Selvig wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous advancement." Agent Coulson continued to explain as they turned a corner.
"It just turned itself on?" Hill asked incredulously.
"What are the energy levels now?" Fury interrupted.
"Climbing." Coulson answered grimly, "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, and we ordered the evac. Cariss is trying to buy us time."
"How long to get everyone out?" Director Fury demanded.
"Campus should be clear in the next half-hour."
The three agents pause at the top of a set of stairs.
"Do better" Fury ordered.
Fury emerged from the hall, entering the lab facility where the Tesseract was being held by a Compact Muon Solenoid Coil Chamber. Aka, a sci-fi looking metallic machine.
"Talk to me, doctor." He called from the other side of the lab.
Doctor Erik Selvig emerged from behind the CMS machine, a concerned expression on his face.
Meanwhile, the Tesseract glowed unusually brighter than usual and flaring rings of energy would shoot out at random.
"Director." The doctor said in greeting.
"Is there anything we know for certain?"
"The Tesseract is misbehaving." Selvig answered.
"Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury asked.
"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's...misbehaving." Selvig tries to explain.
"How soon until you pulls the plug?" Fury asks.
"She's an energy source. If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level-"
"We've prepared for this, doctor. Harnessing energy from space." Fury pointed out, cutting Doctor Selvig off.
"Unfortunately sir, that implies we actually have the harness." A young girl's voice piped up from next to the CMS machine. Her right arm outstretched as if to touch the cosmic cube, the girl twisted round to see the Director. Apparently, her genes had yet to decide their pigmentations, as her eyes were a bluish-greyish colour, and her hair was brown, get almost orange. Every few moments, what looked like blue electricity crackled from her gloved fingers. Despite her age – thirteen? Fourteen? – She wore a white lab coat with the S.H.I.E.L.D emblazoned upon it.
This was S.H.I.E.L.D scientist Cariss.
"We still need much more time to complete out calculations."
She paused for a moment, pushing her black rimmed glasses back up her nose.
"Good evening by the way, Director."
"Time isn't something exactly we have much of, agent." Director Fury reminded her, as she turned her attention to back the Tesseract, blue-grey eyes peering out over the top of her glasses.
"She's giving off interference radiation at the moment... nothing too harmful – just low levels of gamma radiation, I'd say." Cariss assessed.
"That can be harmful." Fury pointed out, before asking, "How much more time can you buy us?"
"W-"
The young scientist cut herself off however, as the Tesseract glowed a brighter blue, and in response Cariss flinched backwards. As she threw her arms forwards again - with blue energy crackling at her fingertips – every electrical output – lights, monitor screens and even the Tesseract itself – surged with power, flickered for a moment, and returned to normal (to the thanks of everyone else in the room).
There was a long, silent-filled pause.
Everyone seemed to have turned their attention to the cube and the girl in the centre of the room for a moment. Said girl eyed the Tesseract suspiciously for a moment, before sighing – in relief, perhaps? – and giving the Director a shy smile.
"I've been trying to dissipate most of the energy the Tesseract is giving off; turning it to something potentially less harmful: heat, light, or-"
"Electricity?" Fury guessed. Cariss nodded,
"Though, the energy is still building up – I'd say we should have enough time to evacuate at this rate, but the energy is increasing sporadically… which makes it kina hard to tell." She explained.
Fury nodded, analyzing the information for a moment, and then he turned to Selvig,
"Where's Barton?"
"The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual."
Agent Clint Barton leaned on the railing somewhere above them, gazing downwards, watching them.
"Agent Barton, report."
Barton rappels down from the catwalk and walked over to Fury. They both walk around the facility in a discreet manner.
Meanwhile, Selvig returned to his work near the monitors.
"This must be a Tuesday." Cariss called. Selvig only raised an eyebrow and gave a confused look.
"Stuff like this, I swear it used to happen once in a blue moon, but now... every other Tuesday, it seems. It's going to be a field day, I can tell."
Selvig chuckled and continued with his work.
"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things." Nick pointed out, from across the room somewhere.
Cariss' attention was drawn to the Tesseract again, and she frowned.
"The energy levels are about to spike again." She called in warning, and stretched her arm out again in preparation.
"Well, I see better from a distance." Barton reasoned.
"Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asked.
A NASA scientist called over to Doctor Selvig,
"Doctor, it's spiking again." A few seconds later, the electrical equipment in the room surged with energy.
"No one's come or gone. Its oven is clean. No contacts, no I.M.'s. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end." Barton listed.
"At this end?" the Director questioned sceptically.
"Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides."
Agent Cariss' head shot up, staring at the Tesseract wide-eyed in surprise and panic.
"Doctor Selvig..." She called in warning. Doctor Selvig clacked away at the keyboard, but then looked up from the monitors, not quite wanting to believe the readings he had seen.
"Can you keep it under control?" he called over to his fellow scientist. Cariss opened her mouth to say something, but her voice was drowned out.
Suddenly, the Tesseract thundered, shaking the entire facility - hard enough where both agents Hill and Coulson could feel it - and they were at different ends of the facility.
The flaring rings and glow of the cube spouted out brighter and louder, like a boiling pot of water. Cariss slowly extended her left hand, a blue electrical-like energy crackled at her fingertips. Surrounding the cube, the Tesseract's energy slows, almost faltering.
Unfortunately, this didn't last long.
Energy from the Tesseract had built rapidly into a beam much like the Bifrost Bridge, and - if it were possible - Cariss' eyes widened even further. She dived out of the way, as the energy hit the end of a platform that was wired to the CMS device. Firing a beam of Tesseract energy all the way to the other side of the room, so it seemed, a vortex of cloudy blue energy opened up a portal, showing off the mysterious yet beautiful black vortex of outer space, strewn with an uncountable number of stars. Filling the room, blue energy clouds blinded everyone, and said clouds reached out; filling the top of the facility's tall vacuum chamber ceiling.
It was way too quiet. But then...
Heavy breathing could be heard from the platform next to the gap in reality before them. Cautiously, S.H.E.I.L.D guards approach a dark figure who kneeled on the platform, smoking and unmoving, weapons in hand.
It was Loki.
Smiling in his trademark mischievous manner, he raised his head. The smile died down, as he looked into the eyes of Fury, Barton, Cariss, and Selvig in turn. As the Asgardian got to his feet, his grip on the golden spectre in his hands tightened.
Cariss stood too, finding herself next to Director Fury and Agent Barton.
"Sir, please put down the spear!" Director Fury called.
Loki glanced at the spear for a moment, but in a swift motion, thrust it forwards.
A blinding blue light exploded out towards where Fury, Barton and Cariss used to be standing, but Barton tackled Fury out of the way just in the nick of time, and Cariss simultaneously leapt in the other direction.
All hell seemed to break loose. Machine gun fire was shot at Loki, but the primitive Midgardian technology just bounced off him harmlessly. In the blink of an eye, Loki had jumped down into the mess and mercilessly attacked those who had fired upon him, using knives and energy blasts. He paused - the guards lying on the ground, presumably either unconscious or dead – and almost dared someone else to attack him.
It was Barton, as he tried to stand up. Loki swiftly strode towards him. Barton raised his gun, but Loki grabbed Barton's hand.
"You have heart."
Loki pointed the tip of his spear in the centre of Barton's chest, making his eyes turn black, and then washed away to an unnaturally bright blue. Loki had complete control over agent Barton, who placed the gun back and stood straight.
As Loki was busy using his abilities to control the minds of several S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, Fury took the Tesseract, placing it back into its case and tried to leave the lab. Unfortunately, he was stopped.
"Please don't. I still need that." Loki called.
Fury stopped, and turned. Having caught on to his plan, Cariss was already a few meters ahead of the Director, and spun back to watch.
"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury pointed out.
"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose." Loki exclaimed.
"Loki? Brother of Thor?" Selvig asked incredulously.
"We have no quarrel with your people." Fury stated.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."
Now it was Fury's turn to be incredulous.
"You plan to step on us?"
"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free." Loki claimed.
"Free from what?"
"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart..."
Almost like some kind of gunslinger, Loki turned to face Selvig, who was standing behind him, and placed his spear against Selvig's heart. Selvig's eyes glow black, just like agent Barton's had just previously.
"You will know peace."
"Somehow I think that's unlikely" Cariss murmured dryly.
"Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing." Fury said.
From the vacuum chamber ceiling, Tesseract's energy cloud rapidly built into what could be an implosion.
"Director..." Cariss whispered in warning.
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us." Barton stated in warning.
"Like The Pharaohs of Odin." Fury confirmed.
"He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." Selvig warned.
"Well, then..." Loki said.
Loki, looked at Barton - who doesn't even hesitate; shooting Fury, who falls to the ground. Grabbing the case containing the Tesseract, Barton goes to leave with Loki, along with the other S.H.I.E.L.D personnel under Loki's control.
After another signal, Barton fires upon agent Cariss, the only opposing force in the room, who dashed over to the monitors for cover. On her way, she grabbed the only thing she could possibly use as some kind of weapon – a thick cable from the now useless monitors.
However, Barton had followed her, and swung the gun at her head, which she jumped backwards to avoid, and then lunged forward. With a flick of her wrist, the cable hit Barton across the face with a crack like a whip.
Suddenly, the smell of petrol appeared out of nowhere, as Cariss clicked the fingers of her left hand, sparks flying away from her gloves, which immediately burst into flames, twirling after Barton but swirled into nothingness, pushing him back as the young scientist lunged again, appearing just behind the blaze.
Barton grabbed her hands and disarmed her, the cable falling to the floor, but she ripped her hands out of his, backing away. Unfortunately for Cariss, Loki advanced on her, bored of this nonsense. He thrust his sceptre forwards, a blast of blue energy shooting out. Cariss tried to block it - throwing her hands forward, as blue electricity sparking outward - but this did nothing, and she was thrown backwards.
Loki, Barton, Selvig and the other S.H.I.E.L.D personnel had just arrived in the parking lot of the facility, quickly gathering certain weapons. Agent Hill watched in confusion, referring to Loki.
Barton pointed to Loki's little following, "We need these vehicles."
"Who's that?" Agent Hill asked.
"He didn't tell me." Barton replied, shrugging.
Agent Hill looked suspiciously at them as they get into the truck and turns to leave, but as she was walking away...
"Hill, do you copy?!" Fury demanded through the walkie talkie.
Back at the lab, Fury was sitting up, pulling out the bullet, breathing heavily. A few meters away, Cariss was sitting up slowly, groaning, as her clothes smoked.
"Barton is-"
Gunshots were heard over the walkie as Fury snatched up the briefcase and stood. He looked Cariss up and down as she got to her feet, but soon set off running, holding his side and shouting orders down the walkie talkie.
"He's got the Tesseract! Track it down!"
Cariss hesitated a moment. She looked up at the spiralling cloud of energy – it was beautiful, in a destructive kind of way. Perhaps...
Cariss raised a hand upwards. Perhaps, in this form, the Tesseract energy would be more easily dissipated.
No... it was already too late for that.
Agent Cariss set off after Director Fury.
After what seemed like an eternity, Fury raced out of the hallway, avoiding falling pipes with Cariss hot on his tail. The entire facility was, at that moment, shaking and vibrating; shockwaves from the Tesseract's energy. Nevertheless, with no time to stop, the two bolted out of the facility like they were on fire and jumped into a helicopter. The surface of the pad gave way, plunging the helicopter through the surface, but – just barely – the helicopter made it out.
From inside the chopper, Cariss turned her gaze back to the base. To her, the staggering amount of energy almost blinded her extra sense. There was too much, and it was... shrinking back in on itself. But whenever there's an implosion, usually there's also an-
Boom
Explosion.
A roar seemed to deafen the entire desert, as a blue cloud of energy tore apart what used to be a S.H.E.I.L.D base.
Over the stolen truck, the blades of a helicopter were heard, as Fury and Cariss gave chase, flying just above the Asgardian prince. Bullets flew as the helicopter door slid open. In a fit of rage, Loki threw his sceptre up, shooting the infamous blue beam once again.
Just too late, Cariss reached out a hand, and – like a river parting around a stone – the blue energy flowered and spiralled outwards, as if the young agent had put up some kind of invisible force. Her whole body shook like a leaf in a storm, hoping that, for just another second, she could keep the energy at bay.
The next second, Cariss was thrown backwards by the strain of the energy.
A whoosh of fire marked the helicopter going up in flames; a flicker of orange in the jet-black sky, from which the two agents – Fury and Cariss – dived for safety onto the cold desert ground.
Behind them, what remained of the chopper crashed, burned, and screeched as it fell to the Earth as a fireball, lighting up the night.
Fury came back to his senses quickly, and fired off several shots in the direction of Loki, but he was too far away, and much too late. Only the sound of breathing could be heard as an almost-silence filled the night. That deafening silence that fills every space - which you're too afraid to fill with meaningless noise.
Luckily, neither Director Fury nor the scientist Cariss had to. The voice of agent Coulson broke through the walkie-talkie, which took the two by surprise.
"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?"
Slowly, Fury took the walkie to his mouth to reply:
"The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down, but Cariss is with me. Hill?"
It took a few moments for the Agent to answer.
"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors."
"Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase." The Director ordered.
"Roger that." agent Hill replied
"Coulson, get back to base. This is level seven. As of right now, we are at war."
There was a pause before Coulson's voice sounded over the walkie again.
"What do we do?"
Another long pause passed. Director Fury stood, in the middle of the desert, thinking, and looked up to the starry sky. Perhaps there would be hope. The girl's voice whispered from beside him, the final interruption before silence fell once more.
"We fight back."
Well! It certainly took me long enough to get started on this. XD Oh well, hopefully I can get the next chapter up pretty soon. Oh, speaking of soon – a front cover for Alchemy is in the works: I'm almost done, actually...
I hope you enjoyed, and please follow and review – it would make my day!
-Time