"Okay, so this is the lab." Logan said as he walked through a pair of large automated glass double doors and into a large white science lab filled with SHIELD's highest quality lab equipment, "We have everything that you're most likely going to need. If we don't Miss Stuart will order it and we'll have it in no time." Bruce walked around the lab trying to familiarise with it and all the placements of the equipment.
"So, where should we start?" Tony asked as he sat down at one of the many white computers. Logan looked at Bruce for an answer to Tony's question.
"How about starting with the video footage from the explosion?" Bruce said, "I want to know what exactly caused the blast."
"Okay! Hold on." Logan said before pulling up the video and playing it again for Tony and Bruce to watch.
"Play it again." Tony said once the video had finished. Logan frowned at him as he seen Tony doing something on the computer that he was sat at. "Never mind what I'm going. Play the video again please." Logan shrugged before playing the video again. "Bruce, did you see what I did?"
"Yeah..." Bruce said before approaching the large screen that the video was being played on, "Something moves across the screen from the left to the centre of the courtyard." He drew a red line following the path of the thing he and Tony seen before drawing a red circle in the middle of the screen where the blast came from. "It wasn't accidental."
"It was close enough to do some damage but not in the middle of the band where it could kill." Tony said, "So what is an attack where no-one gets killed?"
"A failed attack?" Logan suggested, "But what was it that moved across the courtyard?"
"What does the blast evidence say?" Tony asked as Bruce turned to look at Logan who moved uneasily.
"There wasn't any evidence except this and a large hole in the ground afterwards." Logan said, "Look at these if you don't believe me." The video disappeared as Logan pressed a button on a keyboard before pictures filled the screen.
"JARVIS," Tony said.
"Sir?" JARVIS' voice asked suddenly from the computer that Tony was sat at.
"Could you run the video through a filter program for us please?" Tony said.
"Of course Sir," JARVIS said, "But it will take some time."
"Thank you." Tony said before turning to Bruce, "But why set up a bomb? Why does it need to be a bomb? You heard what Rachel said about the readings; they started in Romania."
"Then why go through the trouble of blowing up the courtyard of Scotland's capital's castle?" Bruce asked and enlarged an image of the very centre of the blast, "Why blow up something here if they readings started in Romania?" Tony shrugged while Logan watched the two with pure fascination.
"Maybe it's a message?" Tony said finally, "Or even a warning."
"But to who?" Logan asked finally.
"Maybe it was unintentional." JARVIS said causing the three in the lab to look at the computer, "By looking at the video –even without filtering it- you can see the point of impact." The video came back up onto the large screen and started playing again. "If you slow it down you can see that the explosion does not start until there is an impact of a bright light. It seems almost as if it were a lighting strike." JARVIS replayed the video but slower to allow the three to see what he was talking about.
"So does that mean Thor's gone rouge then?" Logan asked causing Tony to laugh at the question.
"No, Mr Macmillan." JARVIS said causing Logan to frown at how JARVIS knew his last name, "There is no evidence to support that theory other than the very similar reading from the explosion when compared to the power readings of the Bifrost. Though, if you look more carefully at the light as it just hits the surface of the earth." The video played again but more focused on the light.
"Is there something moving down that beam of light?" Bruce asked.
"Yes Doctor Banner. That seems to be the case." JARVIS said.
"Whoa!" Logan said impressed, "This is just like what happened in War of the Worlds!" Tony and Bruce both looked at Logan. Tony gave him a disapproving but slightly humoured look while Bruce just looked at him confused causing Logan to look at him shocked. "Tom Cruz, aliens invade the Earth with large robotic outer shells, then all of them die because of the air being poisonous to them… Tell me you've seen the film or at least heard the original radio broadcast!" Tony looked at Bruce with a desperate look. Bruce still looked at them both confused.
"JARVIS, play the original broadcast of War of the Worlds." Tony said before a clip of the broadcast started up.
We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than men. A man said on the clip, Yet as mortal as his own.
"1938 on Halloween eve CBS put on a Radio play with Orson Welles as either the director or Narrator." Bruce said causing the clip to stop playing, "The broadcast threw everyone into panic because they believed that we were under attack from aliens from Mars."
"Oh thank God you know what I'm talking about!" Logan said relieved, "Otherwise that would have been a wee bit awkward."
"I haven't seen the movie though." Bruce said.
"Don't worry about that." Logan said, "That is easy to fix and you'll know what I mean once you've seen it."
"So back to what you mean," Tony said, "You think something alive and not from this world came down that- that light stream and caused the explosion?"
"Yeah!" Logan grinned and nodded excitedly, "I think that's exactly what happened!"
"So that crack from the explosion was caused by the sheer amount of power from the impact." Tony said while looking at the photo which came back up onto the big screen, "Well that narrows the field."
"Do you think I could get the readings taken from the castle?" Bruce asked Logan.
"Don't see why not." Logan said before printing off the readings Bruce wanted and handing them to him. Bruce looked over them quickly and frowned.
"No radiation readings?" Bruce asked.
"The team that were there tried but they didn't really find any readings that were useful." Logan said, "You see the castle is built over an extinct volcano and they ruled that any reading for radiation may have been affected by the volcano itself."
"But it's no longer an active volcano." Bruce argued.
"I know but the team said that the radiation readings they got were the same as those you would think you would get from the centre of the earth." Logan said causing Bruce to frown even more.
"Well I'm going to need all readings taken that day." Bruce said, "Including the radiation readings." Tony looked at Bruce slightly confused while Logan nodded.
"Sure thing, I'll track the readings down, get them printed off and to you in no time." Logan said before turning his focus to the computer in front of him.
"What are you thinking?" Tony asked before looking at the door, "Hey Capsical, what's up?"
"Thor's here and he has some information for us." Steve said before Tony and Bruce turned and followed Steve out of the lab and back to the conference room where they found Clint, Natasha, Thor and Rachel stood around the table in the conference room.
"Wait a minute." Natasha said as she leant against the conference room table and Bruce, Tony and Steve walked into the room, "There's been readings and stuff like this before?"
"Yes." Thor said as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest, "Heimdall said that he remembers such events happening before in this land."
"Does he say when they had happened before?" Steve asked causing the others to look at him and Tony while Bruce walked over to the tea and coffee table and made himself a cup of the tea he just couldn't get enough of.
"Over three hundred years ago." Thor said.
"That takes us back to the eighteenth century." Bruce said after taking a sip of tea, "I'll have a look into the history from then but I doubt we'll find anything."
"It's the best we've got." Clint said as Bruce took the new Everyday Tea & Green Tea Blend teabags and snuck them into his pocket.
"Also try seventeenth century stuff as well." Tony said while tapping his chin, "I'll have JARVIS give you a hand looking but as you said we might not find anything linking then to now. I mean there wasn't all this technology around then so readings would be impossible to use."
"Eye-witness reports would help the search." Natasha said.
"But they'll all be about witches and evil spirits." Tony said, "Ask Bruce, he knows about it all as he was reading a book about it all on the plane." This caused Bruce to look up at Thor.
"You don't think that there are any other races that could do what's happened here?" He asked but Thor shook his head.
"Sorry but I don't think so." Thor said, "But Heimdall did say that he's trying to find a similar energy to the one we are looking for."
"What makes him say that?" Clint asked but Thor shrugged.
"Heimdall doesn't always share what is going through his mind with others." Thor said, "He only tells them things that are important to them at the time anything else he keeps to himself until it is important."
"That's helpful." Natasha said.
"Do we have anything else that could help us?" Rachel asked while turning to look at Tony and Bruce.
"We have a lead that we're following at the moment." Bruce said.
"Which is?" Rachel pressed on for a better answer.
"It seems that something arrived on Earth through a light stream of sorts and caused the explosion once it hit the ground and something met it at the point of impact." Tony said, "So we think we're looking for a person or another form of being." Rachel nodded as she took in all the information.
"Was anyone who wasn't in the Pipe Band or the show crew found at the castle?" Natasha asked.
"No there wasn't but we should keep an eye out for the same person or repeating figures on the CCTV cameras in the areas that the readings were." Rachel said.
"Something tells me that this all started in Scotland back in the 1700s." Bruce said, "But it never finished like people thought it had."
"So now this thing that started is being brought back up into the present day?" Steve asked, "That's a long time to wait to finish something off."
"Maybe whoever or whatever was involved didn't know it wasn't finished until now." Clint said, "The readings started up in Romania before the explosion so maybe that's where they went when they thought it was all finished and being so far away meant they never found out that it wasn't until now."
"But how did they get word about it?" Tony asked, "I mean I highly doubt that this being is going to be Tec savvy after hiding away for hundreds of years."
"Maybe, maybe not," Natasha said, "We won't find out until we know all that facts."
"So let's get more facts." Rachel said, "Widow, Hawkeye, go and get the information you need from Rona if you haven't already. Captain, Thor, you go and do the same. I want to know what's happening and fast before anything else goes boom. Stark, can you go back to the lab and continue following that lead with Logan for us while Doctor Banner follows up the lead that Thor has given us."
"Sure thing." Tony said while the others nodded before Rachel sent them all from the room, "Well Bruce, where do you want to start?"
"I'm going to look into records from the late 17th century." Bruce said as he and Tony walked back to the lab, "Then I'll work my way forward in time from there and see what I get."
"Banner!" Thor shouted as he ran to catch up with the two heading to the lab, "May I speak to you." Bruce nodded before Tony walked off to the lab and left Thor and Bruce alone. "Heimdall asked me to pass on a message to you."
"To me?" Bruce asked confused, "Why?"
"He said that it would help your search." Thor said while shrugging his shoulders. Bruce nodded slightly causing Thor to continue, "He said that there was a group back then that have records that could help your search."
"Did he say which group?"
"No, he didn't but back then Earth was not really being watched by him. It wasn't until readings -such as the ones that the humans are picking up now- were around back then that he started watching Earth again."
"Okay, well if Heimdall finds anything that could help then ask him to pass on the message." Thor smiled widely and nodded his head, "Oh, and tell him I said thank you." Bruce then walked away to the lab as Thor shouted a happy reply.
"Hey Bruce!" Tony said once Bruce got back into the lab. Tony hadn't even lifted his head from the readings on the lab table. "Rona dropped by and asked me to tell you that she has ordered a few books and record copies for you to use and she left these for you." Tony held up a box of Twinings Everyday Tea & Green Tea Blend causing Bruce to flush slightly and run his hand back though his hair in embarrassment. "You really need to stop stealing these from the conference room."