Holy guacamole! So many alerts and favorites, and even reviews! Just from one itty bitty chapter. Thank you virginger, ttlokisdashiz, and BANEHiwatari for your comments. I'm glad you like what I'm doing with Loki so far.

Also! Forgive the basic Marvel knowledge. I'm definitely more of a DC girl, but I really wanted to write this fan fic. I'm learning more as I go on.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except my own fabricated plot and characters. But not the legit ones. I sadly will never own them.

In the short time it took Tony and Steve to stand up, Natasha had already pulled out her gun and had it aimed directly at Loki's face. Barton slid opposite her and cocked his pistol, watching the god intently.

"Why is he here?" Barton demanded, never taking his eyes of his target. Bruce crossed his arms and looked to Fury, about to interrogate him for an answer. But before he could do so, Thor stepped forward. He raised his hands and stood directly in front of Loki, blocking him from the agents. Silly mortals. Bullets would do nothing to him anyway.

"Please, friends, you do not know what is at hand. Lower your weapons and you shall be given an explanation." The S.H.I.E.L.D agents looked at one another, and then slowly, but unsurely, put away their guns. Thor stepped back, leaving all eyes on Loki. The god took in his surroundings, briefly looking over each agent.

"Hello."

Everyone was silent. Loki quickly glanced around to see if anyone would make a move, but they seemed to he frozen in their spots. Before they could get their wits about them, Fury intervened.

"Yes, Loki is back. But this isn't going to be a repeat of last time." He glared at the god, making sure his words got through to him. "Loki has been temporarily released from his punishment for his crimes with the Tesseract and ordered by the King of Asgard to help us."

His words brought on a brief silence before Natasha whipped around. "Excuse me? Since when did we take orders from Asgard?" She stared down Loki, who had nothing to say in his defense.

Tony stepped forward. "Fury, you can't be serious. You must be crazier than him if you actually believe this. He's unpredictable, and we can't trust him."

Fury raised his hand to silence him, but Thor intervened once more. The thunder god was eyeing Bruce, making sure he would not get involved in the conflict.

"Friends, I understand your quarrel. As does my father. Loki is under strict orders as well as the watchful eye of the King of Asgard. A wrong move will send him back to my world to continue his punishment, only that time it will be certain death," his deep voice spoke solemnly. The others were still not convinced.

"I am not here to redeem myself." the other god spoke quietly. He carefully watched everyone's faces to see their reactions. "I know that is not an option." He chose to leave out "not that I would want it anyway."

"But my father believes that having me at your side could some what even the battlefield. If I am to die in battle, so be it." his voice was painfully calm, as if his father sentencing him to death was no big matter.

Once again, no one spoke. But it was clear no one liked the idea. Steve turned to Fury and asked the question everyone was dying to know,

"Who are we up against?"

Fury sighed and uncrossed his arms, walking back to the front of the room to turn on the projector screen. "More like what."

A large picture covered the screen, and everyone instinctively walked forward to get a closer look. The picture was of ... a man, if you could even call it that. His sheer size was daunting, rivaling only the Hulk. His skin was a sick grayish-purple color, and his face could only be described as alien. He wore a large helmet and foreign battle armor. He had no weapons, but his hands alone looked like they could kill someone in a matter of seconds. But perhaps the worst thing about him was the fact that he was smiling. Like he knew he was being photographed.

"This," Fury said pointing to the screen, "is Thanos. Someone we never had to deal with until now. We've only just recently learned about him, so we don't know much. But what I can tell you is that he's powerful. More powerful than anything any one of you has faced before." He waited a moment to let his words sink in.

"Over the past week, our satellites have picked up strange gamma radiation in the atmosphere. Gamma radiation we haven't seen for almost a year now."

He pushed a button on a small remote, and the screen flipped to a picture of the Tesseract.

"Our sources believe that it's coming from the Tesseract."

Steve turned to Thor. "How could this be? You were supposed to take care of it."

"Maybe you're asking the wrong brother." Bruce commented, looking at Loki. The younger god shook his head. "I play no part in this. Thanos is no friend of mine."

Tony stood and walked in front of Loki. "Sorry if we don't believe the God of Lying just yet." Loki said nothing, and looked away. Thor moved closer to the two, hoping to prevent any rash actions.

"We believe," Fury continued, "that Thanos wants the Tesseract, and we know that nothing good can come of this. But, the reason why he doesn't have it now is because the last time he tried to get it, it ended up severely weakening him. So before he can wreak havoc with it, he needs to find a means to get it. And we know exactly what his 'means' are."

"We know Thanos is a superhuman, part of a race called the Eternals from Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. We also know that he has certain powers that enable him to use the Tesseract's raw power, but also would end up killing him in the process. We have tracked down the only other person in the universe that we know of, who has powers similar to Thanos. They've been on our radar for years now, but we have left them alone since there has never been an incident. We believe that Thanos will harvest the power of the Tesseract through this person, killing them in the process, and absorb their life force and the Cube's powers."

"So before we fight Thanos we must find the person who he plans on using." Thor concluded.

"That part's already been done."

The group was taken aback by this news.

"Who... I mean, what..is it?" Clint asked.

Bruce stepped forward. "And where are they now?"

"Retained in the medic ward of this location. It's a human." he replied, turning to Clint for the last part. "And we believe that she is not hostile."

"Well," a voice came from the back of the room. Everyone turned to where the unfamiliar voice had come from, and were met with a young girl who certainly looked like she didn't belong here.

"You've got that wrong."