Bruce and Stella spent the next few hours working while Bruce filled Stella in on the situation with as much as he knew, when they suddenly heard the sound of boots heading down the hallway.
Turning to see a man being escorted by several agents in handcuffs, Stella noted that he was gauntly with long dark hair and a dangerous looking smirk.
Eyeing Bruce he gave a smile that reminded Stella of a predator stalking his prey, then he turned his gaze onto Stella and raised an eyebrow at her.
Closing her eyes she felt like something was poking at her brain before she shook it off.
"Loki I take it?" She asked as Bruce nodded. "My guess too." He said before the two of them were summoned back to the bridge.
An agent named Maria Hill, who seemed to be the next in charge of SHIELD led Stella and Bruce to a conference table on the pilot's deck.
Walking into the room they saw Natasha and Steve seated at a table with monitors in the table while a giant of man with blonde hair and large muscles watched on.
Steve was partially dressed in what looked like his uniform and Stella couldn't help but admire the way it clung tightly to his muscles.
"Now is not the time for your libido to go bezerk Stella." She thought to herself before turning her attention to the monitors in the table.
They could see Director Fury talking to the person Stella assumed was Loki, who had been escorted into what looked like a large cylinder glass cage.
"Just to make this clear to you…you try to escape- you so much as scratch that glass-" Fury began, pushing a button as the floor beneath the cell dropped away to nothing and the wind rushed through the room.
"Thirty thousand feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" He stated, pushing the button to close the doors before gesturing first to Loki.
"Ant." He stated then gestured to the control panel.
"Boot."
"It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me." The prisoner asked, looking around the glass containment center.
"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury replied as the prisoner nodded and turned towards a camera.
"Oh I've heard." The prisoner started as Natasha turned to look up at Bruce.
"A mindless beast- makes plays he's still a man..." The prisoner continued as Stella turned to look at Bruce feeling sorry to hear such a harsh statement.
"...How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?
"How desperate am I?" Fury asked rhetorically as he walked towards the cage.
"You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did." Fury spoke in a calm but very firm tone, and it only seemed to please the man that he was getting a rise out of the director.
"Ooh. It burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power- unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share?" He asked as Stella frowned wondering what he was talking about.
"And then to be reminded what real power is." Loki spoke trying to get a rise out of Fury, who in turn just grinned and shook his head as he turned to leave.
"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." He mumbled before the monitors at the table turned off and everyone turned to look at each other, not sure what to say.
"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce asked to help break the tension as Stella chuckled at his attempt.
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked as Stella's eyes widened at the tall blonde man she had seen when she walked into the room.
So that was Thor.
The god of Thunder was real as well.
Fury hadn't been lying when he said things would seem unbelievable.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asguard nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor spoke before turning to look quizzically at Stella.
"An army, from outer space?" Steve asked in disbelief as Stella shook her head once more.
"This just gets better and better."
"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce stated as Thor's eyes widened.
"Selvig?"
"He's an astrophysicist." Banner explained as Thor shook his head.
"He's a friend." He stated sadly, obviously worried about his friend.
"Loki has them under some kind of spell- along with one of ours." Natasha added with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve asked as Bruce chuckled.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can small crazy on him."
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asguard, and he is my brother." Thor corrected as Stella smiled at the way Thor took up for his brother despite all Loki had done already, it's just what family did for each other.
"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha pointed out as Thor froze.
"He's adopted." He stated quietly as Stella bit her lip to keep from giggling at his comment, knowing he probably hadn't intended for it to be comical.
"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?" Bruce asked as Stella realized the elements involved.
"It's a stabilizing agent." She stated at the same time as someone else walking in.
The man was having a conversation with Agent Coulson, but Stella felt her heart drop when she saw the man in front of her.
Even if he had only been 18 when she left, she'd recognize that smug little shit no matter how many years passed.
"Anthony Edward Stark. Why am I not surprised you're here?" Stella snapped as Tony froze, he'd know that voice anywhere.
"Stella…no one told me you'd be involved." He stated beyond shocked to see the one girl he could never forget.
It'd been 15 years since he'd seen her last, even if Pepper did keep him in touch with her.
He'd threatened to fire Pepper on more than one occasion for sending a birthday card every year, but Pepper believed it to be the right thing to do. Damn her and her conscious.
"Hmm…it's been too long. Really." He added reigning in his emotions and placing the cool façade he'd come to perfect over the years.
"Not long enough." She added as everyone turned to look at the two of them with wide eyes.
"You two know each other?" Steve asked, sensing the tension between them, and oddly…feeling a little bit jealous.
"Like father like son." Was all he could think as he remembered that feeling he got when Peggy and Howard talked about fondue-ing.
"Unfortunately yes." She stated shaking her head with disdain.
Well whatever history they had, it didn't seem like a pleasant one.
"We'll deal with the personal shit later. Right now, back to business." Agent Hill interrupted as Tony nodded walking towards the computers.
"Right so. As Stella said it's a stabling agent. Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD." He said walking past Thor.
"No hard feelings point break, you get a mean swing." Tony said patting Thor on the arm before stepping to the control panels.
"Ah, raise the mizzen mast, jib the topsails." He commanded as Agent Hill rolled her eyes and the others looked at him strangely.
"That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." He pointed out before covering one eye and turning left and right to look at the different computers in the Captain's quarters.
"How does Fury even see these?" He asked as Agent Hill replied with a snarky, "He turns."
"Sounds exhausting!" Tony uttered, before turning to mess with the screens and stick a chip with JARVIS to the underside of the desk.
"The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to- kick start the Cube." Tony added as Maria rolled her eyes once more at his arrogant behavior.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers- am I the only one who did the reading?" He asked as Steve butt in.
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"
"He'd have to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Stella stated, putting her personal feelings of Tony aside to focus on the task at hand.
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect." Tony added as Bruce nodded.
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce interjected as Tony smiled, glad someone spoke his language.
"Finally. Someone who speaks English." Tony said moving past Stella towards Bruce.
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked as Tony and Bruce shook hands.
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony added as Bruce smiled uncomfortably, and Natasha couldn't help the feeling of déjà vu at Tony's statement to Bruce.
Those had been the exact words that Stella had said minus the mention of the Hulk.
"...Thanks" Bruce mumbled as Fury entered.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the Cube. And Dr. Patillo is here to help as well."
"Patillo…going by your mother's maiden name?" Tony asked turning to look at Stella who nodded. "I didn't want to be branded a Stark my whole life." She said as Steve figured out what the history between the two of them was.
Apparently, she was his ex wife if she was now going by her maiden name and not wanting to be Stark her whole life.
"It's suited me fine." Tony added.
"Yea well being a Stark was never an issue for you." She snapped back with an angry glare as Fury interjected.
"Glad to see you two getting re-acquainted. Perhaps Mr. Stark can help you out in the lab." He added as Stella bit her tongue to maintain some form of professionalism.
"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve added, finding himself slightly disappointed now that he knew their history.
"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys? I do not understand-" Thor began only to be excitedly cut off by Steve.
"I do!" He exclaimed as everyone stared at him. "I...I understood that reference." He mumbled as Tony rolled his eyes and Stella couldn't help but smile a little at the adorable expression on Steve's face.
"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asked ignoring Stella. "This way, sir." Bruce started as the two of them walked off to the lab and Stella turned to look at Fury.
"Why didn't you tell me Tony Stark was involved?" She asked walking over to him as he turned to face her.
"I didn't think it'd be a problem."
"Director Fury, you've obviously done your homework and know who I am, don't you think it would've been fair to at least warn me that that man was involved?" She asked not about to let Fury play "dumb" with her.
"Up until about an hour ago, we didn't know he was involved."
"Knowing him, up until an hour ago he probably didn't know he was gonna be involved." She mumbled with a sigh and squeezing the bridge of her nose when she felt that probing again.
"Is this gonna be a problem?" Fury asked as Stella shook her head turning to look up at him.
"No. You've just given me my motivation to work harder so I can leave quicker." She stated before turning to walk down the hallway to the lab.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman pissed off." Fury joked watching her walk down the hallway as Steve chuckled before standing up to follow her to the lab.
He couldn't help but think of how Stella reminded him of Peggy right then. Didn't look like she took anything from guys and was obviously not easily intimidated.
