...and voila! New update!
Sorry, I had writer's block for the longest time. Let's just say that taking Hiro out of his usual environment of friends and family and chucking him straight into the middle of a bunch of SHIELD personnel is hard to write; basically, in this chapter it's a lot more of Hiro acting as a professional and as a hero rather than the spunky goofball we all know.
BUT, it's still fun and exciting, and finally we actually kick off the plot of the Avengers movie. You'll probably notice that I took some liberties here and there instead of following the movie's script directly. This is because I'm combining the two universes, and when you plop characters and elements into a story where they weren't there originally...let's just say a lot of things can and will be affected. It's like throwing a stone into a pond (cheesy analogy, I know); there will be lots of ripples.
Anywho, on to the story! Hope you enjoy!
o-o
Hiro learned three very important things during his first week on base.
One: coffee is love, coffee is life.
Two: most agents really weren't too happy with the idea of having a young teenager among them.
Three: the Tesseract is a very, very dangerous alien object. And it did not like being on Earth.
"What were the readings on that pulse?" Hiro called out, fingers flying over the computer keys.
"We can't tell," one of the scientists shouted in response. "It keeps fluctuating."
Hiro scowled, shooting a glare at the glowing blue cube in the center of the room. He was used to working with robots and mechanics, with things that actually cooperated with him and gave him steady data to work with. This - this endlessly infuriating object - had given him nothing but headaches. And possibly a few gray hairs, according to Clint.
With an exasperated groan, Hiro pushed his rolling chair to another station across the room, glancing over the data on that monitor. "Do you at least have an average I can work with?" he asked.
The scientist hummed thoughtfully, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he scribbled down a couple of calculations. "Here, I think," he said, handing a clipboard to Hiro. Just then, the monitor showed another spike in the Tesseract's energy, and both let out another groan.
"Well, thanks anyway," Hiro replied, scooting back over to his usual station. Wearily, he took another sip from his coffee cup (Aunt Cass would kill him if she found out how much he had consumed in the last hour alone) and flipped open his laptop.
"Mr. Hamada," a voice suddenly called out. "Have you got anything new for me?"
Hiro spun around in his seat, one eyebrow raising at the (now familiar) sight of an elderly man dressed in plaid walking over to his station. "No, Doc," he replied. "The cube's still acting up. We can't get a good reading."
Dr. Selvig's brow creased into a frown. "What about the containment field?"
Hiro pressed a couple of keys on his laptop, and a large loading bar appeared on screen. "I'm calibrating the emitters right now," he said, chewing on his lip in thought. Wasabi's plasma blades had inspired the mechanism, but Hiro was used to working with the neat-freak's crazily precise calculations, not some weird glowing blue space cube that basically did whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted. "The magnetic field generated should be enough to keep the energy levels steady."
"'Should'," Selvig echoed. "Now that's the key."
"Hey," Hiro shot back defensively. "My tech always works. Trust me."
The laptop beeped twice, and Hiro grinned triumphantly, disconnecting a large metal ring from the computer. "Alright, let's set this bad boy up."
Carefully, the two attached the ring to the compact muon solenoid coil chamber holding the Tesseract, the machine's lights and buttons blinking to life as Hiro ran a few final checks. "All systems are clear," he announced, settling down with his laptop. "Now let's just hope this works."
With a tense frown, Hiro punched a few buttons on his keyboard. Immediately, the machine began to hum, and a thin, shimmery white field appeared over the Tesseract.
"Levels are holding steady," a scientist called out from the other side of the room, and Hiro couldn't help but smirk.
"See," he said, glancing up at Dr. Selvig. "Told you it would - "
There was a loud boom, and the metal ring shattered in a pulse of blue light.
"'Always works', huh?" Selvig asked with a raised eyebrow.
Hiro shrugged sheepishly. "Eh...most of the time."
o-o
Clint sat hunched in his little "nest" over the laboratory, eyes trained on the dark blue hoodie that stood out so clearly in the sea of white labcoats bustling around. The young teen didn't seem all that fazed by the situation - frustrated and annoyed, yes, but not fazed in the slightest. Clint could see him relegating orders to some of the other scientists and discussing possible scientific solutions with Dr. Selvig that would probably fry any normal person's brain; the kid was a genius, and more so, a natural leader. No wonder SHIELD had wanted him so badly.
(Well, that and the fact that he led one of the most prominent superhero teams in America...but that was technically classified.)
A frown crossed his face as he spied Hiro glancing up in his general direction. Quickly, he zipped down from his perch and padded over, arms crossed over his chest.
"What's up, kid?" he asked, peering at the teen's laptop.
"The cube's still acting up," Hiro replied. "Dr. Selvig and I don't know if it's even stable anymore."
Okay, that grabbed Clint's attention. "Stable? What-?"
"We've tried everything," the teen continued, rushing between monitors and typing in a few more values. "Containing it, shutting it down - nothing's working. It keeps going haywire." He ran his hand through his messy hair as he pulled up a few more blueprints on his laptop. "Someone's messing with it."
Messing with it? Clint's frown deepened. "Well, from what I can tell, no one here's doing anything," he remarked, pressing his lips into a thin line. "Must be on the other end."
Now it was Hiro's turn to frown. "What 'other end'?"
"Selvig didn't tell you?" Clint asked. "Legend has it that the Tesseract is a doorway to the other end of space."
Hiro's eyes went wide. "A portal…" Hurriedly, the teen all but yanked his laptop over to him, hands flying over the keyboard. "No, no, no…"
With a swipe of his hand, the image on the laptop's tiny screen transferred onto the big monitor, displaying the blueprints and wreckage of two massive metal rings. In the corner sat a logo of a red bird soaring through a circle, and just beneath that, video footage of the events at Krei Tech almost a year ago.
"'Project Silent Sparrow'," Clint read aloud.
"That was the last time someone tried harnessing portal energy." Hiro's tone seemed darker, his eyes glaring coldly at the screen. "It...didn't go so well. If this is the same thing-"
"Or worse," Clint interjected.
"-then a lot of people could get hurt." With a heavy sigh, Hiro pushed himself away from the monitors. "We need to get everyone out of here. I'll talk with Dr. Selvig and see if we can stop the cube from forming that…'doorway' or whatever, but in the meantime, everyone needs to find a safe place."
Clint nodded sharply. "I'll tell Coulson to order evac," he said.
Hiro flashed him a tense but grateful smile. "Thanks."
"And hey," the agent added, clapping the younger boy's shoulder, "for the record, good luck." He took a deep breath. "...looks like you're gonna need it."
o-o
"Doctor, it's spiking again."
Dr. Selvig let out a tired huff and hurried over to the scientist's station, examining the readings on the Tesseract with worried eyes. The energy pulses were getting steadily stronger by the minute; he didn't know what would happen when it reached peak levels, and quite frankly, he wasn't sure he even wanted to know. Across the room, Hiro was all but flopped over in his swivel chair, spinning aimlessly as he tried to come up with a viable solution.
"See?" the frustrated teen finally groaned out. "This is why we don't mess with portals!"
"Hey, it's alright," Selvig tried to reassure him. "We'll figure out a way to contain it." He quickly strode over to where Hiro sat, hands on his hips. "Have you finished the calculations yet?"
Hiro sighed and pulled up the values on the monitor. "I tried, but they came out the same as the Silent Sparrow numbers. And we all know how well that worked out."
Selvig pressed his lips into a thin line, patting Hiro's shoulder. "Keep working. We're bound to find something."
There was the sudden sound of the heavy lab doors opening. "Alright, boys," a deep voice called out. "What have you got for me?"
"The Tesseract - she's misbehaving," Selvig answered.
Hiro raised an eyebrow. "Wait, since when has it been a 'she'?" he asked.
"She's an energy source, isn't she?" the doctor replied. "She's alive, pulsing-"
"And from what I heard," the voice interrupted, "causing you two a hell of a lot of trouble."
Hiro took a deep breath and finally turned around, glaring straight Nick Fury, director of SHIELD (he was a lot taller than Hiro that thought he would be...and the eyepatch was very unsettling). "What you're dealing with is portal dynamics," he said. "You can't control energy like that, let alone contain and harness it!"
"Normal people can't," Fury corrected. "But you can."
"Director," Selvig interjected, walking over to the other man's side. "The Tesseract seems to be...tampering with our plans to control her. She's throwing off interference: low levels of radiation, energy pulses, etcetera. Hiro here says there's a possibility she might blow."
"Well then let's pull the plug and move," Fury snapped.
Selvig shook his head. "Can't do that. She's turning the power back on every time we try. And our calculations aren't ready to formulate a harness yet."
Fury grit his teeth together. "Well then-"
"Doc!" Hiro shouted from his station, eyes trained on the screen and growing wider by the second. "Th-The energy levels are spiking. We might reach peak level."
In the middle of the room, the Tesseract began to thunder and shake. Massive blue arcs of energy lashed out in every direction, churning and whirling together like a brewing hurricane. Hiro instantly grabbed a hold of a table leg (there was no way he was flying off into another portal), and Selvig cautiously backed up a few paces.
Suddenly, a colossal beam of light blasted forth from the Tesseract's chamber, culminating in a swirling vortex at the far end of the room. For a moment, Hiro swore that within the blast he could see the vastness of space, dotted by thousands of stars...and then the whole thing exploded, wisps of blue energy soaring across the room.
And then...nothing. No explosions, no thunderous shaking. Only the sound of heavy breathing coming from the room's newest occupant.
The man seemed tall, with long black hair and a sneering grin; his pale skin glistened beneath the blue light of the Tesseract energy and his eyes glittered with malice. Even hunched over, he carried himself with an air of imposing regality, his long leather coat sweeping the now-burnt floor of the facility. In his hand he clenched a long, golden, spear-shaped object crowned with a glowing blue stone.
"Sir," Fury called out, hands raised in a gesture of peace. "Please, put down your weapon."
The man's head shot up, and the sneer dropped off his face. With a low growl, he swung out his spear, causing a blue arc of energy (not unlike the one just emitted by the Tesseract itself) to lash across the machines.
Hiro instantly darted under the desk. His eyes scanned over the room, desperately searching for something - anything - that he could use to help. He saw Clint, who had rappelled down during the commotion and now had his gun drawn, and Dr. Selvig, who was crouched over one of the scientists who had been struck by the blast. Panicked gunshots rang in his ears, but they were drowned out by the blasts of the man's spear, followed by cries of pain.
His gaze finally landed on the blinking fluorescent lights above them. "Wait…" Hiro frowned in thought, an idea building in his head. Hastily, he jumped up and snatched his laptop from the desk, beginning to type madly. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" he quietly begged the lines of code racing across the screen. "...there!"
He pressed one last button, and all the lights in the room went out.
There was a grunt of surprise from the man with the spear, and general confusion from the remaining SHIELD agents and scientists. All the while though, Hiro snuck out from his hiding spot and crept closer to the blue light of the Tesseract.
There's a case somewhere, just grab it and run, get it out of here safely, just-
"Stop."
Hiro froze at the sound of the menacing voice.
"Don't think I don't see you, brat," the voice continued, and Hiro could see those malicious eyes glittering mere feet in front of him. "Now step away."
Hiro lunged for the Tesseract.
A loud whoosh sounded as the man swung his spear, and Hiro felt pain sear through him. He crashed to the ground, head colliding against a fallen table, and then...darkness.
But several hundred miles away, a white vinyl robot looked up from playing with a cat and announced to the empty air, "Hiro is...gone."
o-o
...please don't kill me.
