Gun

"Stop lying to me!" Bruce Banner slammed his fists down on the table, and found himself staring into the barrel of Natasha Romanoff's gun. She looked like she might burst into tears from fear, but she was still determined. She would fire if the need came. Bruce smiled wryly. "I'm sorry. That was mean. I just wanted to see what you would do. Let's do this the easy way, where you don't use that," he nodded to her gun. "And the other guy doesn't make a… mess. Natasha."

Natasha let out a tense sigh and lowered her gun. She lifted her hand to the earpiece she had in her ear and muttered into it, addressing the soldiers hidden outside. "Stand down. We're good here."

Banner smirked humorlessly. "Just you and me," he repeated her reassurance from moments before.

Natasha sighed and slid her gun into its holster. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but you have to understand… SHIELD has been on edge… a lot of… funny stuff has happened recently."

"You say funny, but you don't really look like you're laughing," Dr. Banner commented.

Natasha shook her head. "You know what I mean."

Banner nodded. "Of course. I'm just wondering what you mean by funny. I mean," he let out a breath of amusement. "Besides the whole… aliens really do exist and we have to steal an unlimited source of energy back from them."

Natasha turned away from the doctor, clasping her hands behind her back. "There are things about the Tesseract we don't really understand."

Bruce nodded in understanding. "It's something not from our world. Of course there are things we don't understand about it. What do you mean, specifically?"

The redhead sighed. "Specifically… the effect it apparently can have on people when it… misbehaves. It has major fluctuations and such."

"To be expected," Bruce nodded slowly, taking off his glasses. "Go on. What do you mean the effect it can have on people?"

Natasha bit her lip. "Nearly a year ago, when we first started the research into the Tesseract as an energy source, it had some heavy tolls. When its energy levels fluctuated, some of the scientists found themselves with concussions or migraines. If it had a really bad fluctuation, there were some people who passed out."

"There's still more to it, isn't there?" Bruce asked slowly.

"I'm getting there," Natasha muttered. "During one of the worst fluctuations, there was a girl in the room. She was sixteen."

"What was a sixteen year old doing around the Tesseract?" Bruce asked suddenly, raising his eyebrows.

Natasha sighed deeply. "She's… the daughter of a SHIELD employee. She spent a lot of time at the base in otherwise prohibited zones. The Tesseract wasn't misbehaving at the time when she was in there... at least, not at first. The fluctuation started suddenly, and was over in a minute, but the energy the Tesseract released was astronomical. Off the charts. The girl and a number of other scientists and agents passed out. Everyone else was alright when they woke up, just with a killer headache. The only one to suffer any kind of long term effects was the girl."

Bruce waited, watching Natasha carefully. "What happened to her?"

"No one knows exactly how it happened, or exactly what happened, actually." Natasha frowned. "She was… changed. Her mind got somehow twisted. She's now an impulsive killer."

The doctor waited another moment. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked softly, disturbed by the idea of a sixteen year old girl suddenly becoming an impulsive killer.

Natasha met his eyes. "We were… hoping you could help her."

The doctor shook his head quickly. "I'm not that kind of doctor, miss Romanoff."

Natasha smiled grimly. "We know. But we were hoping you might be able to figure out exactly why the energy released by the Tesseract had the effect on her, and see if maybe you can reverse it. It would mean a lot to…" she trailed off. "Certain people."

00000

"That's Emmie?" an agent asked. His name was Coulson. The Director had told Emmie that a little while ago. She had never met him before, but apparently he knew her by reputation.

"That's her," the Director confirmed quietly.

Emmie smiled, though the Director and Coulson couldn't see it since they were behind her. They were in a jet, flying to the Helicarrier, as the Director called it. Emmie sat in between two muscular men armed with Tasers, batons, and hand guns. Emmie wasn't handcuffed, much to her surprise, and she didn't have any extra straps to hold her in her seat, as she had expected. She was simply sitting in her seat with a seat belt across her small lap. The girl didn't question why there was such lax security on her, but she suspected it had something to do with her mother.

"She looks younger than you said… you said she's seventeen, right?" Coulson asked.

"She turned seventeen six months ago," the Director answered.

"She looks like she's only fourteen. She's a shrimp. She doesn't have much muscle, height, or weight. She should be easy to take down if she gets out of hand, shouldn't she? But you've told me she's managed to severely injure six caregivers in three days before?"

"Four of them didn't get out of the hospital for two and a half months."

"How does she manage that?"

"She's got a twisted mind, Coulson. She's quick, smart, manipulative, devious, and she looks like she wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone put you in the hospital for three months." The Director sounded grudging. "Altogether, that's a lethal mix. You wouldn't expect the things that she does or threatens to do. She doesn't mess around. If given the chance, she'll torture anything. Even if it's not alive."

Coulson was silent a moment. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

"I mean she enjoys destroying things just for the knowledge that she's destroying something. She once made gingerbread cookies with a caregiver for rehab. She knocked the caregiver unconscious with the baking sheet, finished making the cookies, put them in the oven, and then proceeded to watch the gingerbread men burn to ashes just for the fun of watching cookie men burn."

Silence. Emmie smirked. She remembered that. It was funny when the caregiver woke up hours later taped to a chair while she still sat on the floor in front of the oven, grinning as the gingerbread men blackened and crumbled.

"She's going to be in a locked room the whole time on the Helicarrier?" Coulson asked.

The Director probably nodded, but Emmie couldn't see it.

"Has she ever escaped from her room at the base?"

"A few times," the Director said evasively. "She didn't cause too much damage. Just a little, um… explosions and irreparable damage to a few pieces of equipment."

The green-eyed girl grinned. Plus several more agents getting injured in the process.

"You sure she won't escape this time?"

"No. But I hope not. She's a master escape artist, a genius at making anything into a weapon, and determined. But we'll make sure there's nothing in the room she can use as a weapon. And there's not going to be many people going into her room that she can hurt, anyway."

"What about…" Coulson trailed off a minute. "Her mother? Is she going to want to see her?"

"She'll want to. I'll try to stop her. She knows what Emmie's like now. She shouldn't want to see her like this. But she's probably still going to want to visit her."

"Will you let her?"

The Director seemed to consider for a moment. "I won't stop her from seeing her own daughter. She hasn't seen her in nearly a year. But I'll still advise her against it."

Emmie pursed her lips. She didn't want to see her mother. She had told the Director that. She had made it perfectly clear. Yet he was now saying that he would allow her to see Emmie if she so wished.

"I don't have a say in this matter, Director?" the girl asked, raising her deceptively sweet voice so they would hear.

They were both silent for a moment.

"Emmie, I didn't know you were listening," the Director commented.

"Liar. You know I'm always listening, don't you?" she smirked. That was good. That was partly accusation, partly a jab at his common sense, partly a mysterious hint at a threat.

"No, Emmie, you don't get a say in this matter," the Director continued. "If your mother wants to see you, she will see you."

"I don't want to see her. I already told you that when we left the base. I told you, I'll only behave if I don't have to see her," she said stubbornly. This was a lie. She had said no such thing. But there was no backing out of his fictional agreement.

"Emmie, she's your mother. You're a minor. She has every legal right to visit you—"

"To visit me in my cell?" Emmie interrupted. "Hmm… that doesn't sound quite right. She's your mother, you're a minor, and she has the right to visit your cell. One of those doesn't quite belong with the rest. Now do me a favor and stop talking about me and my mother like I'm not here unless you want me to steal a hand gun from King Kong over here," she nodded toward the muscular guard on her right, who frowned and adopted a defensive posture.

"And speaking of stealing hand guns," the teenager continued airily. "You said there's not going to be anything I can use as a weapon in my room."

"There won't be," the Director said.

"Will there be a bed?" She smiled when he nodded. "Then there's something I can make into a weapon. How about a blanket? Pillow? Door with a handle? A chair? A dresser with drawers and or doors? There's got to be light bulbs. I can use those. And I think all those things are somewhat necessary, so, I think no matter what you do, I'll be able to find something to make a weapon out of."

The agent and Director exchanged glances.

"It's not right to hear that coming out of that little girl's mouth," Coulson muttered. "It's eerie. She looks so harmless, but she gets this vicious glint in her eyes… It's very off-putting. I don't know if I'm comfortable sleeping in the same country as her, let alone the same Helicarrier."

"Don't worry about sleeping in the same Helicarrier as me," the bright-eyed girl grinned sweetly and said in a sing-song voice. "I'll make sure you don't wake up."

"Okay, that's enough. Either you shut your little mouth or we break out the tranquilizers," the Director snapped as Coulson furrowed his brow at her.

Emmie glared at the two of them but didn't say anymore. She preferred to not be tranquilized.

The Director and Coulson returned their attention to each other.

"I believe Agent Romanoff is already at the Helicarrier, Dr. Banner will be arriving soon, and you'll be going to get Rogers?" the Director questioned.

Agent Coulson nodded, a small smile on his lips. It must have had something to do with Rogers. Emmie recognized the symptoms of what could pass for a crush. She shook her head, light brown hair swinging over her small shoulders. For such a tough-acting guy, he obviously had a soft spot. Rogers. Whoever that was. She had to remember, just in case she could use the knowledge against Agent Coulson later.

Emmie always had to think of things to use against people. She was always preparing to manipulate people and get things her way. Not that anybody needed to know that.

00000

The god of mischief was really starting to take a liking to the way his plan was going. He had two of SHIELD's people on his own side: Erik Selvig and Clint Barton. That provided sufficient leverage in the case of discovery of the underground bunker his minions were currently working in. He could quickly turn this into a hostage situation if need be. Still, he was hoping it wouldn't come to that. He had far bigger plans to put into effect.

He was going to provide a distraction while Clint Barton and a few other agents for an organization opposing SHIELD stole the iridium, which was necessary for the Tesseract's stabilizing. During the thievery, the god of mischief was going to be captured by SHIELD. This way, he would be able to get to some of their key weak points. Namely, Bruce Banner and the girl, Emmie. They were his plan. They were what he was counting on to be the downfall of SHIELD.

Dr. Banner and Emmie were the key.

Note from LoquaciousQuibbler: Okey-dokeys… so… Not much is happening plot-wise at the moment. These first few chapters just get the ball rolling, and then we can get to some more interesting things. Please stick with me for a few more chapters before you dismiss this as boring or something. It is in the fourth chapter when Emmie and Loki will have their first encounter. Please favorite and follow, and pretty please leave me a review. It makes me happy beyond belief to get reviews. :D Also, you are allowed—nay, encouraged to PM me. I will always message back, and I'd be happy to talk or answer questions.

Okey, I'll stop ranting now… Emmie wouldn't tolerate such ranting. She'd knock me out with a baking sheet. :P