Wow, now this was a long time to wait for an update, eh? Sorry for such a long wait, I've been pretty busy lately, not to mention .TED. Haven't had any time for writing ANY of my stories lately, just as soon as I get done with school work, I crawl into bed thinking 'eh, I'll work on it tomorrow' and then boom. It's the day after. Well, even if delayed, I hope it's as good as the last.
Also! I promised action, and here it is. Enjoy. (Even if I am a little out of practice writing these scenes).
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Nick Fury was at a crossroads. He could, on one hand, opt to tell his ragtag group of warriors that the same essential, and in every way applicable, terrorist and warmonger that had made off with the Tesseract, had also managed to make off with one of the most important biological anomalies they had yet to discover. This matter of handling, however, was not ideal; not when there was an ex-POW amongst the few and would potentially see the girl's incarceration as the same sort of situation, and not for what it was. It was a scientific experiment, no more than this, or at least that's what he told himself. Through all the things he'd seen, he miraculously still had enough of a conscious to know what they were doing was wr—who was he kidding? They'd done it before, and the result was another one of his soldiers standing just before him now; Captain America was the subject of one such test some time ago, and he was brilliant really. Best work of genetic engineering they'd managed to produce, without... well, to put it bluntly; consequences befitting of Bruce Banner's, but… lessened. The only thing though, that the blonde could argue, was that he'd given consent to be turned into what they had made him. The girl had come the way she was, and they were taking advantage of it, the director knew undeniably, somewhere deep in his mind… and if they wanted to start asking questions about just what other kinds of things they were hiding if this was one of them, things could get ugly quick.
On the other hand, he could keep it from them, but this situation left just as bitter of a taste in his mouth as did the last one. Having information is one thing, but not to use it is another; the fact was that Loki had attacked another base and stolen from them, and they needed to be better prepared if he'd found a way to use the girl to his advantage; worst yet, if she agreed to help him. Or what if he attacked another compound? They needed to find a pattern, see if the Tesseract had any connection to the subject, or if they had anything else with a connection to either of the two. Why the scientists at either base hadn't thought to think of these things before, Fury had nary a clue, but what he did know is that it's going to be a hell of a lot harder figuring those mentioned things out now with both missing. With this in mind, was there still a point to telling the team about the theft? He had his decision to make here and now, he noted duly as he watched over the five who were currently milling about, invested in their own doings for a quick meantime. He then stepped forward.
"Loki hit another base." He deemed to admit, pacing to the middle of the room as though he'd just stepped in with the news. He felt eyes that'd hadn't been before, instantly upon him as Tony and Banner were distracted from their readings at a computer, whilst the other three who were invested into a kind of conversation that of which the director probably didn't have a reason to care about, also had their attention turned towards the stern-voiced man in a mere second. In another, they were all onto their feet and off to hear the latest update, both Steve and Thor practically fit to burst with questions, meanwhile Tony was slightly annoyed that he hadn't the chance to ask them ahead of the old man and the god. However, it quickly became quite obvious the director wasn't interested in specifically answering a single one of them, when he continued, "The entire thing might as well have been destroyed; no survivors, nothing. Besides the one he stole, that is." He said simply, as if this were the kind of thing to happen on a daily basis. He might as well have wished it was, because then he could know how to deal with this situation. The others were silenced, intently eyeing the director and a little more patiently than others, awaiting him to continue.
"A top class prisoner, by the name of Sayuri Lin. She has some… information that would be best not getting out, much less given to your brother." He said, the last part obviously directed to Thor, who cast a glance down at his feet. He was both beyond embarrassed and saddened that he who had not been blood to him but still his brother, had taken more lives for the sake of a girl who could reveal no more to him than the Tesseract itself would, if the information he had gathered on it's abilities were true. In the end, the loss had been seemingly needless, and it was this reason that had the demigod so upset. Then again, if this were the case and Nick Fury knew this was the case then why was the information important? Why would it be so imperative that they knew this, rather than just leaving it to the fact that Loki, really in the end, had many of their enemies who had information that probably shouldn't be out there in the public eye? He continued to brood on this as the conversation ensued between the others.
"About the Tesseract?" Banner cut in, deeming this the logical way to go, though he himself was having some doubts about the information they were receiving.
"Yes, among other things. It will be imperative to find her immediately; if she chooses to help Loki, this war may well be lost." He hoped at least this would spike some kind of a fire under their asses about how serious this was rather than sitting around asking him questions he would very much rather not answer. It wasn't as if he didn't have the answers… actually, that may be incorrect, now that he thought about it. He might not have the answers at all; He didn't exactly care for the magical aspect of things much anymore, and seeing no longer that Lin was just some psychological phenomena, he couldn't say he well liked the look of how things were going so far. Whether this was because he couldn't imagine how things were going to continue from here, or because it was actually fairly foreboding, was something to be decided.
"As of now, finding the prisoner is top priority." He concluded, turning quickly from his spot in the middle of the room to step up to a computer, and typing some information into it's keyboard. It seemed it was Natasha's turn to ask a question now, as they were left in their own spots whilst the Director went to pull up pictures of whom, she presumed, was Sayuri Lin. She raised a single brow at the mentioned man as she spoke a bit of an edge in her voice while.
"Not the man who's killed eighty, no eighty-plus people?—and plans on killing more?" She stepped forward herself, the others quickly following her example to look over the director's shoulder at the pictures. Natasha pondered over the information for a moment or two; usually she was made aware of the top class prisoners. They usually didn't last for long, but in case of an escape they needed every able-bodied… well, anyone who could go looking for them. There were two answers in Natasha's mind; a. This prisoner was somehow a very serious threat, with globe-wide implications, or b. They didn't want anyone knowing of her. She could have sworn she recalled the name from Clint before, but Clint wasn't, at present, here. What could a girl like this have done to deserve the title of a world-class criminal? Fury could have kissed the Captain when he hadn't even given him the time to respond to Natasha's half question, where the other part was an apparent accusation on his character or intelligence.
"This is her?" Steve asked, sounding fairly surprised as he pointed to the screen where a pair of big blue eyes seemingly stared back at him, belonging to a pale girl with paler hair and a rounded face. She couldn't have been out of her teens, yet she was a first class prisoner, for such unknown and… vague reasons as having information that the organization obviously didn't want out. She'd sooner look like the picture of innocence than a top tier criminal… 'There's something wrong here' both the Captain and Tony thought collectively, though Tony for once in his life was remaining silent, not even a sarcastic comment waiting in his arsenal of such similar things, which was odd in and of itself for Tony, Fury silently noted as the billionaire remained thoughtful. With the bug he'd just manually installed on their system sometime prior, he'd have all the information he wanted, on the Tesseract and the girl. SHIELD would be hard-pressed to trace it back to him in time. Was it a concern of his that maybe he'd go missing, and end up a prisoner like this Sayuri? Maybe… were his chances of this happening so bad that he shouldn't? He certainly hoped not, but it wasn't going to stop him.
"Yes." The Director started in, "we're going to reroute the face-recognition tech to look for her instead. If we find her, we'll find Agent Barton and Selvig. Maybe even Loki, while we're at it." He said, now leaving the computer, but just as last time, he left the Avengers behind and to their own thoughts and questions spinning around in their heads, when Agent Hill came hurrying through the door. Fury stopped in his spot as the short-haired brunette made her way over to him, looking quite urgent. "Agent Hill?" He addressed her, finding obviously his plans for the escapee were probably to wait
"We have a match." She said firmly, before turning and leaving again, the Director and others following suit, pursuing her back through the door and back to the main room. To think if they'd had this discussion five minutes earlier they wouldn't have found Loki… All of their tech would have been focused on Lin instead and the warmonger would have gone on to do whatever it is he was doing and all it would have left them was a notification of more tragedy and loss that SHIELD would have to answer for.
"—Let him be your example…" Loki raised the spear, feeling the energy build-up resonating in the weapon, and reverberating well through the arm on which it sat, towards the man who had dared to speak against him. He couldn't say he disagreed with the Midgardian's point, in all actuality… humans were unruly. They often rebelled, and it didn't matter against whom, but only that they had a cause to fight; controlling them was difficult, proven evident by the fact he did have an individual disobeying his word even now. It was, however, a matter of making his presence known and creating a distraction for Agent Barton than it was anything personal—with him making noise here, all of SHIELD's attention would be drawn rather than them focusing on what was going on elsewhere in the world. For this, he would not be sorry for targeting the Midgardian elder, whose eyes had now gone wide with fear, ever so slightly shrinking back in realization this may be his last moment on this Earth. With this, Loki fired.
Of all the things the demigod had expected, to have his shot rebuffed back to him was not one of these things. Nothing more than a flash of red, white, and blue, and especially blue as the energy came bouncing off whom was obviously Captain America's shield, ricocheting back to him and knocking him clean off his feet. Loki spared a moment to think about the pain that he'd just inadvertently inflicted on himself, while his opponent stood back to his feet, and began a slow amble towards the villain. "You know, the last time I was in Germany, I saw a man standing above everybody else. We ended up disagreeing." He stopped about half of the way.
The trickster god pushed himself up from his place on the ground, sneering nastily when he flashed his glare to the mentioned patriot. "The Soldier…" He spat, though his tone was edged with a slight amusement, getting back on his own. "A man out of time…" He noted blankly how those he'd worked so hard to contain were now fleeing from the premises, leaving them to one another—besides of course, the jet that came rocketing into view which only stopped, hovering behind the army man, after pointing a gun in his direction that had formed from the undercarriage of the vehicle itself. "I'm not the one who's out of time." The man said with a little more confidence than Loki was fond of.
"Drop the weapon, Loki." A woman's voice resonated from the jet, and he found himself narrowing his eyes to get a better look at it's pilot. Scarlet hair… was this the one the archer had told him of? If it was… maybe he could eliminate an enemy or two here and now? He fired another bolt of energy at the flying vehicle, it quite disappointingly missing it's mark and continuing off into space to some unknown, and unfortunate, destination. The soldier took this time to swing his play thing of a shield at him next, which only served to bounce off his armor and stagger him enough for a single punch. The blow may have well been enough to cave in a Midgardian's skull, but for he, it may as well have been a slap from a Asgardian maiden. He was, in any case, put off by the strike, and so he bashed the curious shield, that somehow didn't crumple under his force (It was evidently as strong as it'd seemed from the view of the Tesseract) enough to knock the army man off balance before mercifully driving the blunt end of the staff into his stomach, sending him flying back a few feet, much to his amusement.
The patriot looked to him with a newly lit fire in his eyes, apparently having realized that you can only have the element of surprise for so long before it's usefulness wears off. He attempted to throw the shield once more, but in the predictability of the action, Loki swung the staff out once more, throwing it off it's track and batting it aside leaving the soldier without it's aid once more, until perhaps the trickster knocked him back over by it. Repeat? The demigod didn't have time to ponder it as he was rushed once more, dodging a hook. The two warriors swung at one another for a few quick seconds before the Captain finally landed another punch, but was unfortunately disregarded by the Asgardian, who used the victory against him to knock the other down onto the bricked ground once more. "Kneel…" the demigod breathed out, the blunt end of his staff pressed to the other's crown, giving him a chance to submit lest he do more damage on the poor soul before he is imminently captured. His doubts in his own auctioned were quickly gratified when the super soldier shoved the offending object from him, sending an aerial kick into Loki's chest, which did, admittedly, catch him off guard. Only was he angered, except, and took the mortal by the throat before chucking him off a good few feet, harshly back onto the ground that he'd become so acquainted with as of late in this singular fight. Loki actually found himself wondering if they'd have more of these tussles, him and this Captain America. They were quite enjoyable, really
Again, caught off guard, Loki looks up when he hears the blaring of what seems to be a song through the speakers that of which who he had assumed was Agent Romanoff's, seeing something streaking through the sky that reminds him much more of his brother than he'd like, but was only relieved when it had turned out to be the man in the suit of iron. Launched a few beams of energy back at him, Loki accepted the blow, deeming now a suitable time for his no less than planned surrender, but had miscalculated the force of which he was to be hit. He'd went flying back into the few stone stairs, groaning loudly as he did so. This had been what had hurt him, and he wondered for a moment whether the Captain had underestimated him, or was simply this weak… or perhaps unprepared? He remained seated in his spot as the man made his way to him, pointing what seemed to be every weapon in the suit's arsenal, or at least it's arms, at him. It was refreshing to see that someone could pose a challenge to him…
"Make a move reindeer games." Well, wasn't he terribly clever?
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The beginning will be fairly similar to the movie, yes—it's not exactly a carbon copy so far (obviously) but I do realize that I did just take a scene from the original movie and write it out (Yes, this was everything I observed from the fight between Loki and Captain America. I never realized just how smacked around the Cap' got until now. O-o) Once we get further into it and the oracle has a bit more screen time, though, I can start writing my own story, and then we can really have some fun! :)