Hello everyone, my sincere apologies for vanishing for as long as I did, but life caught up to me and it sucks. Now, here is the first proper chapter of my new story and I hope you all like it. (I'm sorry if it seems too much like a recreation, I felt it was important for setting the scene).

Disclaimer: I do not own any facet of The Avengers including and especially the characters. The only thing I own is my OC; Leticia Stark.

Chapter 1

In a remote research facility in an unknown location, Director Nick Fury stormed across the linoleum floor, his face etched into a dark scowl and his black trench coat billowing behind him. Accompanying the harsh noise of his feet was a wailing alarm, growing in intensity with every moment more that it was blaring through the thin walls of the facility. Muscling his way past scrambling employees to get to his second-in-command and Coulson, he growled, "How bad is it?" They turned to him and Coulson replied, "That's the problem sir we don't know." After a short rushed conversation between the three of them, Fury ordered Hill to get every piece of phase 2 out of the facility and stormed off once again in the direction of the lab. Before he turned the corner, he called over his shoulder, "And make sure Stark doesn't hear about this. I don't need to listen to her brothers caterwauling about our security systems again." With a sigh and a "yes sir," Hill and Coulson set off to complete their individual tasks.

Entering the large lab, Fury stormed straight past all of the complex machines to the glowing blue cube and the doctor stood beside it. "Talk to me, doctor." He barked at the balding doctor Selvig. Selvig turned to him and nodded in acknowledgement. "Director."

"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asked.
"The Tesseract is misbehaving."
"Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury demanded raising an eyebrow.
"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's...misbehaving."
"How soon until you can pull the plug?"
"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."
"We don't have the harness. Our calculations are far from complete. In fact, they are even less complete than the last time you asked. A certain someone got into the system again and obviously didn't like what she found. Now the Tesseract's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."

"That can be harmful." Fury retaliated, thinking of a certain man whose life had been irreversibly changed by gamma radiation. Then his mind processed what the doctor had said. "Again? And she removed your calculations?" At Selvig's nod, he continued. "Do whatever you can to retrieve them; we can't afford to be put even further behind schedule."

Turning to look around the room then, he barked. "Where's Agent Barton?" Selvig gestured over his shoulder.
"The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual." Looking up, Fury could indeed see a mousy-haired man perching on the railings of the second floor, watching them from above. Speaking into his ear piece, Director Fury ordered, "Agent Barton, report to me." Attaching his wire, Agent Clint Barton slid down to them and nodded in greeting. "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things." Fury chastised.
"Well I see better from a distance, sir."
"Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asked, hoping for a breakthrough in terms of what was happening.

Suddenly one of the machines made a strange whirring noise, the readings went through the roof and a scientist rushed forward to talk to Selvig. "Doctor, it's spiking again." Doctor Selvig then rushed to her and began to press buttons and check readings on the machine. Clint turned his back to them and spoke covertly to Fury. "No one's come or gone. Selvig's clean. No contacts, no I.M.'s. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end." Fury's eyebrows raised and he hissed back, glancing quickly at the machine encompassing the cube. "At this end?"
"Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides." At that moment, realisation shone in Fury's eyes and a loud bang from the machines accompanied the sudden thrum of the cube as it shot forth a blinding blue light. The blue light spiralled outwards before finally stabilising as a large portal at the other end of the room. Through this portal, thousands of stars could be seen standing out against the midnight black of space.

Moments later, a tall dark-haired slim man stepped through the portal. His dark green and black clothes offset his pale skin and Fury noticed the air of otherworldliness he had about him; from the strange designs on his tunic and the overall oddness of his dress to the slight glowing sheen to his visage. Belatedly, Director Fury noticed a small spear with a shining blue orb in his hand. Aiming his gun, he spoke slowly and cautiously. "Sir, please put down the spear!" The dark-haired stranger glanced between them and his sceptre and a malicious smirk grew on his cold features. Spinning on his heel, he rose to his full height and brandished the sceptre at them. Fury and Barton barely had time to dive out of the way as blue light exploded from the sceptre towards them.

In the aftermath of his explosion, the strangely-dressed man approached the disorientated crouching archer who quickly drew his gun and aimed it at his head. Forcefully grabbing Clint's hand preventing him from firing, he focused for a moment before hissing, "You have heart." Raising his spear, he pressed the head of it against Barton's broad chest, focused his power and watched as Barton's eyes grew foggy and then turned electric blue. Letting go of Barton's hand and stepping back, he watched as Barton straightened and stood at attention. The dark-haired man then turned on his heel and proceeded to repeat the process with several other S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. Trying to be quiet and go unnoticed, Fury stood and crept to the machine holding the Tesseract. Swearing under his breath, Fury disengaged the cube and tried to slip it silently into his open briefcase and retreat out of the lab without attracting the-weirdo-with-the-magic-stick's attention.

Edging backwards, Director Fury was drawn to a halt when a slippery voice broke through his concentration. "Please don't. I still need that." Fury turned to face him and straightened, raising the briefcase with him. "This doesn't have to get any messier." He placated. The dark-haired man sneered at him in response.
"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose." Fury started slightly, but tried to look unaffected by that revelation. However, he was slightly confused by the change in situation. "Loki? Brother of Thor?" Fury took Loki's sneer as affirmation. He raised his hands and continued. "We have no quarrel with your people." This statement drew a dark chuckle from Loki. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot." Fury raised his eyebrows. "You planning to step on us?" Loki smirked and then began to pace across the linoleum floor. "I come with glad tidings, of a world made free."
"Free from what?"
"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart..." He paused, then twisted round quickly and thrust his spear against the heart of Selvig who had attempted to sneak up behind him. Selvig froze and his eyes frosted over. "You will know peace." Fury snorted and took a step closer to Loki.

"Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing." Clint Barton stepped forward. Fury watched him approach warily. |"Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of raw material, he means to bury us." Fury mentally cursed but responded wittily.
"Like The Pharaohs of old." Selvig turned back to the machines and analysed the readings for a moment, then addressed Loki.
"He's right; the portal is collapsing in on itself. You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." Loki turned to Barton and commanded. "Drop him." Barton reloaded his gun and shot at Fury, sending him falling to the ground away from the briefcase holding the cube. Barton then stepped forwards and grabbed the brief case, before following Loki, Selvig and the other bewitched personnel out of the lab.

Fifteen minutes later, Fury dives out of the helicopter hurtling for the ground. Standing, he surveyed the damage that the implosion had had; the entire research facility had collapsed and Loki and his cohorts had gotten away with the Tesseract. Suddenly his walkie talkie blared with the panicked tones of Phil Coulson, "Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" Holding his walkie talkie to his mouth, he responded as his scowl grew ever darker. "The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down. Hill?" Moments later, Hill replied in a voice hushed and pained.
"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors."
"Sound the general call, I want every living soul not needing rescue looking for that briefcase."
"Roger that."
"Coulson, get back to base. This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war."
"What do we do?" Phil hesitated, not sure he really wanted to know the answer.

Several hours later, Phil Coulson was on hold. He was rocking backwards and forwards on the balls of his feet, waiting for the sounds of grunting, smacking and general vocalisations of pain to end. Moments later, it was silent on the other end and then Natasha Romanoff spoke. "Where's Barton now?" In Coulson's opinion, she sounded mildly concerned, which coming from a super spy, probably meant she was seriously concerned. "We don't know."
"But he's alive."
"We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy." He could hear her snort on the other end and his lips quirked upwards.

""You know that Stark senior trusts me about as far as he can throw me. Especially if junior is involved."

"As amusing as that would be, I've got the Starks. You've got the big guy." Silence on the other end was his response and then the dial tone. With a sardonic grin, Phil slipped his cell phone into his pocket and muttered a silent prayer that he would walk away from his meeting with the Stark siblings alive.