The mission was quite simple; the Avengers would go into the other dimension, subdue the threat, and return home.
They had been gone a little over twenty four hours, and Fury had begun pacing in his office, irritation level shooting from five to ten in under five minutes.
The general rule of thumb was that an unhappy Fury was an unhappy Coulson, and an unhappy Coulson meant unhappy SHIELD Agents... And loads of paper work... That too.
Fury began rubbing his eyes tiredly, a dark circle highlighting his chocolate brown eye. It had at some point occurred to him that there was probably another one hidden beneath his jet black eyepatch, but he had no inclination to lift it and check.
He let the cool water from the sink trickle through his fingers before cupping his hands and allowing it to pool.
Finally he splashed it on his face, slightly mindful his eyepatch, but not really caring if the fabric was dampened.
There was a knock on the bathroom door, and he scowled, steely disposition replacing the exhaustion that had seeped into his bones.
He meticulously straitened his jacket, making sure no button was out of place and no dust was present on the dark overcoat before he pulled the door open, ready to snap at whoever had disturbed him.
Coulson stood waiting, I-pad in hand eyes quickly scanning its colorful readouts, excited anticipation radiating off his professional face.
The tension in Fury's shoulders dissipated slightly, the director clasping his hands behind his back and clearing his throat.
Coulson's head snapped up in susrprise and he spoke with a professional air, not at all as if his boss had literally just emerged from the bathroom.
"Sir, there's an energy disturbance in ready room six; I think its the Avengers." Coulson announced, fingers shifting across the back of the clipboard in barely reigned in excitement.
Not voicing his relief, Fury nodded, brushing past Coulson and striding towards his office door.
-BREAK-
The swirling green vortex started small, barely the size of a quarter, growing rapidly as the green expanded and swirled inwards like a funnel.
Moments later, very tired and dirty Avengers were deposited into the ready room. A bare room with one table and a quarantine door.
Fury had asked them to specifically arrive in that room, due to said quarantine doors.
Natasha, Clint, and Bruce were the first through, followed by Steve and Tony. The last ones to exit the spinning portal were the two Asgardians, Thor and Loki.
The director noticed that it was Loki who looked the most haggard of the group, and Fury assumed it was due to magic depletion.
"We're baaack." Tony shouted, breaking Fury out of his train of thought as the inventor's scuffed metal suit pulled away from his body and turned into a small brief case on the floor.
Tony glanced down at it with disdain, nudging the case with his singed boot.
"I hadn't noticed." Fury deadpanned through the speaker in the ceiling. The director had moved to an observation room with tons of high-quality monitors.
"Okay, Fury, why'd you have us come here instead of the tower?" Steve asked, his usual chipperness replaced by irate exhaustion.
"Because you all are emmiting irregular radiation patterns right now. We don't know if it's deadly to the human population, thus you all are to be quarantined for the next seventy-two hours for observation. We already have a room ready." Fury explained, an air of irritation edging into his voice.
There was silence as everyone tried to process what Fury had just said.
Finally it was Clint who moaned ", Joy." dragging a hand down his dusty face and wiping them on his muddied britches.
The last thing any of them wanted was quarantine; what they really craved was a warm shower and their nice comfy beds.
They attempted to explain this to Fury with a chorus of crest-fallen groans, which mingled together harmoniously through the sparsely populated room.
Ignoring the protest, Fury continued on, "The quarantine suits are on that table over there; get changed and our scientists will escort you. "
The room itself was a white-walled windowless room with a collapsable table hastily cobbled together in the middle of the room. The one door would open up into an air lock once they had their suits on.
"No."
All the Avengers turned to face Loki, varying expressions of surprise flickering through their worn out faces.
"Loki... " Fury sighed, not ready to get into a verbal sparring match with the god of mischief.
"No, I said no. I will not be locked in a room for three days." Loki reiterated, his face paling slightly as his nervous green eyes darted to the one bubble-like camera mounted in the far corner of the room.
Five people total were privy to what happened to Loki in the void after his fall from the bi-frost. Loki himself; Frigga whom he had confided in, Odin who had used Heimdall to evesdrop, Thor who was with Odin at the time, and Fury who had been told by Odin and Loki.
Shortly after the invasion of New York had been thwarted, it was revealed that Loki himself was a puppet, also under the influence of mind control. Proof was presented, and he had been pardoned for his actions.
Regardless, he and Thor had returned to Asgard with the tesseract, returning to Midgard two weeks later with Odin.
The Asgardian king had informed Fury that his youngest was being banished temporarily from Asgard to serve restitution for a crime committed just before Loki's fall into the void.
Unlike Thor who had been stripped of his godly powers and reverted to a mere mortal, Loki had been allowed to retain his magic; but would serve a longer sentence of two years.
Odin requested that Loki be allowed to join the Avengers, which Fury had promptly agreed, eager to add new members to the team, especially one so powerful.
It was at this time that the director himself was told about what happened to the trickster in the void. Fury knew that one of the forms of torture used against the god of mischief was solitary confinement, often being subjected to it for weeks at a time.
That's why Fury wasn't surprised by Loki's strong objection to quarantine procedures.
"Loki, listen-"
"You forget, Fury, I'm no longer in your service. My two years have long passed, and I do not take orders fromyou."
Loki had stayed with the Avengers for his two years, and in the process, grown fond of not only them, but Midgard as a whole. While he did have the opportunity to at any time return to Asgard, he, like Thor, chose to remain on earth; he did however demote his status to honorary Avenger.
Having attained a certain liking of the mortals, Loki often worked with them and even stayed at the tower from time to time, but primarily worked alone.
"And I'mleaving." Loki growled, green wisps of magic dancing along his finger tips as he prepared himself to open another breach.
"Alright, go ahead. But remember that you do it at the risk of injuring countless civilians with the radiation currently contaminating your cells."
Though he would never admit it, Fury felt bad as soon as the words left his mouth. He knew it was a necessary low blow to give the man such an ultimatum.
He was asking Loki to choose between possibly reliving some of the worst moments of his life, or hurting innocents, neither being high on the Trickster's to do list.
Though he still glared at the camera, everyone noticed Loki's resolve slightly waver, the magic playing at his finger tips sparking out for but a moment.
"You'd be with the other Avengers , of course, if that's any consolation." Fury added, through the speaker, trying to crumble Loki's resolve once and for all.
Finally, Loki deflated, the tension pouring out of him as his shoulders sagged. Thor frowned, knowing just why Loki was struggling with this, but saying nothing.
It was a puzzle to Natasha as to why Loki had given in at Fury stating that he would be with the Avengers. Sure they were all good friends, but Loki usually didn't need them as reassurance.
She watched as without glancing back at the camera, Loki brushed past the Avengers and stalked over to the hazard suits, using magic slip it on, the only sign of submission Fury would be getting.
-BREAK-
"Yo, Fury, we have a slight problem!" Clint called minutes later from the same room.
While they dressed, Fury had been called aside by a SHIELD agent, and hadn't really been paying attention.
Turning back to face the monitor, Fury let out a groan while a nearby Coulson let out a snort.
The suits fit like a glove... On Clint, Natasha, and Bruce.
Thor's suit was too tight, the god of thunder pulling at the armpits of the suit, his face scrunched up in discomfort.
Loki's wasn't too tight however, it was too short. The fish-bowl-like helmet hung two inches from its connection point on the suit, resting on the trickster's head as he wrestled to snap the helmet onto the suit.
Steve's was actually missing the bottom half of the suit.
-BREAK-
Fury was once more reminded as to why he liked magic so much. Loki had easily replicated the bottom half of Clint's suit, making one for Steve.
Meanwhile, he had also adjusted his and Thor's suits to fit their height and size.
-BREAK-
Loki frowned as the airlock hissed shut behind the; the room wasn't anything he had imagined.
Unlike the small dank cell Thanos had tossed him into, the quarantine room was spacious and cozy.
There were three bunk beds and one cot lining the back walls of the room. On the left side towards the front were several leather couches with an eighteen inch TV fastened to the wall.
On the right side of the room was a table with seven metal chairs, and just behind the table, was a book case with games and Stark-pads occupying the metal shelves.
In the very back on the left wall between two bunks was the door to the bathroom with a sink and mirror on one side of the door.
Just above the lounge was a window leading to one of the observation labs, where scientists were already gathered. Some clustered around computer screens while others werwere reading charts on clipboards.
"You kinda feel like a fish in here." Tony mumbled, prying the suit off and tossing it back into the airlock.
"Indeed." Loki mumbled dryly, his tongue barely working as he tried to keep a lid on his panic.
Soon all the suits had been tossed carelessly into the airlock, and the door to the quarantine room hissed shut.
Moments later, decontamination jets began hosing down the hazard suits.
"Well... Home sweet home, at least for the next three days." Clint groaned, stalking stiffly over to the bunk beds.
Everyone had been hosed down with decontamination hoses, but the radiation hadn't passed through their systems yet, neither had the microbes and other nasty little bugs.
"I claim the cot." Bruce shouted as Clint approached it.
"Dude, it doesn't work that way! I was already here. " Clint snapped, plopping down on it with a dull thud and untying his boots.
"Alright, but don't blame me if the Hulk decides to visit because someone is kicking the bottom of the bed or snoring above or below me." Bruce sighed innocently.
Mulling over the thinly veiled threat, Clint finally Chuckled nervously, standing up and muttering, "All yours , Pal."
"Thankyou, " replied a very smug Doctor Banner.
TBC