3

Pressure pushing down on me,

Pressing down on you, no man ask for,

Under pressure that burns a building down,

Splits a family in two,

Puts people on streets,

It's the terror of knowing what this world is about,

Watching some good friends screaming, 'Let me out'...

~Under Pressure; by Queen + David Bowie

Fury and Banner immediately hit it off on where S.H.I.E.L.D was on finding the Tesseract. Banner made a few demands, then Natasha led him—on Fury's command—to where he'll be conducting his research on the Tesseract's location. In the meantime, everyone else was working on finding Loki.

After a couple minutes went by, Steve went over and started to look around. When Coulson went and started talking to him, that cancelled out the only other person I could talk to. So I opted for sitting myself down at the table at the other end of the room. Fury hadn't really told Steve or I if there was anything for us to do, so we just waited until there was.

"We got a hit!" one of the agents called. "Sixty-seven percent. Cross-match—seventy-nine percent."

I stood up from where I was sitting, a bubble of anxiety forming in my stomach.

"Location?" Coulson ordered.

"Stuttgart, Germany. He's not exactly hiding."

"Loki?" I asked.

Fury turned and looked between Steve and I, an indescribable look on his face. "Captain, Benningfield, you're up," he ordered.

Steve and I shared a look before nodding.

One of Fury's agents led me to where I'd change out of my 'civilian clothes' and into more. . . .combat ready attire. Which, apparently, had a fair amount of leather mixed in with some bulletproof material. So, as I changed into the outfit S.H.I.E.L.D provided for me, I had to stop myself from cringing. The outfit made me look more like a pirate, in my opinion.

The pants were a comforting fit—not too tight, not too lose, stopping just a couple inches above my ankles with a bit of a flare going on. There were some buckles that were thrown on here and there, probably to make it more dramatic.

The shirt on the other hand, looked more like a corset than a shirt. It zipped up rather than strapped up, and was very fitting.

Once I was completely finished changing, Natasha came in and led me out. There was a hint of something in her eyes when she saw me in my outfit, and that look made my stomach churn. I wasn't sure who was responsible for choosing an outfit like that, but I chose to keep my mouth shut.

"So. . . .Loki's finally made an appearance?" I asked.

"You and Captain Rogers will detain him and, hopefully, he'll tell us of the Tesseract's location."

Seems simple enough, I thought.

Natasha and another of S.H.I.E.L.D's agents had shown Steve and I to one of their miniature jets, where they'd be flying us to Germany to get Loki. We didn't really know what to expect, and that made us all tense.

I had noticed how uncomfortable Steve looked in his Captain America uniform, as if he were trying to re-familiarize himself in it. But I also noticed the blush on his face when he saw me in my outfit. I guess he still wasn't used to how revealing clothes got these days.

"You doing OK?" Steve called.

I looked over at him. My stomach had been doing flips since we took off. "I'm fine," I answered. "Just not a big fan of flying."

A sympathetic look came over his face, along with a small smile. "Neither am I."

I gave a humorless chuckle. "It, uh, must be weird going back to Germany," I stuttered, trying to find something else to talk about.

A slight shrug. "If the world's really changed at all, I don't think it'll be all that bad."

That's one way of looking at it. I nodded.

"All right guys, we're just over the location," Natasha called out. Steve goes over and opens the back, holding his shield tightly.

"Steve, what the Hell are you doing?" I cried.

"Taking the quick way," he said simply.

"You're not taking a parachute?" I exclaimed.

Preparing himself, Steve gave a single shake of his head before jumping out of the opening.

After many attempts to calm myself down after Steve's little stunt, I gathered enough courage—if that's what you'd call it—to get a parachute, open the back and jump out, as well.

By the time I landed, however, I saw a large crowd of people kneeling on the ground. Steve was standing in the near center looking out of breath.

Near the front of the crowd, a man dressed in green, golden, and black stood. His hair was slicked back; a golden helmet with two horns protruding from the front rested on his head and he held a golden Scepter in one hand.

I carefully maneuvered my way through the kneeling people until I was standing next to Steve.

"The soldier, a man out of time," he spat, a British accent lacing his words. When his gaze sifted to me, his lip curled up in disgust. "My idiot brother's pathetic Mortal."

I felt a sting in my chest at that.

"I'm not the one who's out of time," Steve said.

'Loki, drop the weapon and stand down,' Natasha called.

Another look swept across Loki's face before he aimed the Scepter at the jet and a blue beam of energy shot out. Steve threw his shield at Loki and the two started fighting. When Loki managed to knock Steve down, I used that opportunity to throw out as much telekinetic energy as I'd allow to make him immobile. I could see him trying to struggle against it, which made me try harder to keep him trapped. Right at his Scepter started to glow again, AC/DC started blasting from the jet. My concentration faltered for a minute and that allowed Loki to break free. Steve threw his shied at Loki and he fell to the ground.

Tony Stark, in his Iron Man suit, landed beside us and started aiming all the guns and missiles his suit had to offer at Loki.

"Your move, reindeer games," Stark taunted.

Loki's helmet and Scepter dematerialized, his hands raised in surrender.

Stark put away the guns and missiles.

"Mr. Stark," Steve said after he caught his breath.

"Captain."

Author's Note:

I hope you guys like this chapter! Hopefully it wasn't too similar to the movie! Let me know what you guys think. If you guys have any suggestions on future updates, leave a review.

I own nothing in the 'Marvel' universe. Everything belongs to Stan Lee, the producers of the movie, etc. I only own my characters and fillers.

As for the whole X Men Apocalypse/Avengers crossover [I think I mentioned it last chapter], I am thinking about doing it, I just need to know how I'm going to do it! If you guys have any ideas, let me know.

Zelda's 'superhero outfit' [these clothes are from Pinterest]: www—dot—pinterest—dot—com/pin/ASWbX3u5i4cgnBMv2VMzelMAP4j7cG5HYW3HIVh60EVD_q5LO0Cz0pM/ for the pants.

www-dot-pinterest-dot-com/pin/5658351406578919663/ for her shirt.

Leave a kind and helpful review, please!

Thank you.

Susan Strong