Everyone either stood or sat around the briefing room table and listened in on Fury and Loki's conversation. Vanessa's hands were clutched tightly in front of her as she watched trying not to let her emotions get the best of her. She tried to ignore Bruce's frequent concerned looks; eventually she knew she had to tell him something.
"Incase it's unclear," Fury said and typed on the computer, "You try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass, 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant, boot."
"It's an impressive cage; not built I think, for me." Loki laughed.
"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury said, and crossed my arms.
"Oh, I've heard," Loki said and looked at the camera, "A mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you? You call on such lost creatures to defend you."
Vanessa shot to her feet not able to sit still anymore and walked away from the screens.
"How desperate am I?" Fury asked, "You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that ya did."
"Ooh, it burns you to have come so close, to have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all of mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is." Loki said as Vanessa came back over to the table. What he said rang a bell somewhere in the back of her mind.
"Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something," Fury said walking away.
"Loki, what are you doing?" Vanessa whispered to herself with world weary sigh then startled slightly when it seemed that Loki snapped his head to the screen right before it went off line. She shook her head sadly wondering what had become of the Loki she had fallen in love with.
"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce asked.
"Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve said. "So, Thor, what's his play?"
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asguard or of any world known." Thor said, "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return I suspect for the Tesseract."
"An army? From outer space," Cap said.
"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Eric Selvig for." Bruce said.
"Selvig?" Thor asked.
"He's an astrophysicist," Bruce said as Vanessa was walking over.
"I've met him, he's extremely brilliant." Vanessa added.
"He's a friend." Thor said.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha said bitterly. The more she heard the sicker Vanessa got.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him." Cap said. "He's not leading an Army from here."
"I know, he seems amused, like this is all some sort of game to him and he's just biding his time." Vanessa mused knowing how smart he was.
"I don't think we need to be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him," Bruce said.
"Have care on how you speak," Thor said, "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asguard, and he is my brother."
"He's killed 80 people, in 2 days." Natasha said making Vanessa flinch and close her eyes in pain trying to stop her tears.
"He's adopted." Thor said. Vanessa's eyes popped open and she shot him an extremely venomous look before masking it with a stone face, but not before Thor saw it, he had seen all of her reactions. He could tell she was still in love with his brother and more than likely still mad at him.
"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the iridium for?" Bruce asked getting everyone back on task.
"It's the stabilizing agent," Stark said walking into the room with Coulson. "So the portal won't collapse on itself like it did on SHIELD. No hard feelings point break you've got a mean swing," Stark patted Thor on the arm as he passed by then gave Vanessa a quick one armed hug. "Hey kiddo."
"Hey dad." Vanessa replied. "Can't believe Fury caved and brought you in."
"Me either." Stark said the continued on without missing a beat. "Also, it means the portal can stay wide, and open as long as Loki wants."
"So he can bring as many as he wants to Earth." Vanessa said. "We're looking at a full scale invasion."
"Seems that way, Nessa." Stark said then let out orders, and everyone looked at him like he was an idiot. "That man is playing Galaga. Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Stark said pointing at a guy. Steve perked up clearly interested in the old game. Stark covered one of his eyes. "How does Fury even see these?"
"He turns," Hill said.
"Sounds exhausting." Stark said. "The rest of the raw materials agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density." Stark said, "Something to kick-start the cube."
"When did you become an expert at thermo-nuclear-astrophysics?" Hill asked.
"Last night," Stark said. "The extraction. Selvig's notes. The extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Would Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Cap asked.
"He'd have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the cool room barrier," Bruce said.
"Unless Selvig has figured out a way to stabilize the quantum telling effect," Stark said.
"Well if he could do that he could create heavy ion fusion in any reactor on the planet," Bruce said.
"Finally, someone other than my daughter who speaks English," Stark said
"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked.
"Just think about needing the right kind of battery." Vanessa explained. Steve nodded, understanding a little better.
"Dr. Banner, you're work is unparalleled and I'm a big fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous rage monster." Tony said shaking Bruce's hand.
"Thank you." Bruce said uncertainly.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube." Fury said. "I was hoping you might join him."
"You may want to start on that stick of his. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a hydra weapon." Cap said.
"The staff is powered by the cube, and I'd like to know how Loki turned two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury said.
"Monkeys? I do not understand-" Thor started to say.
"-I do!" Cap said then looking around noticing the looks he was getting. "I understood that reference."
"Don't worry cap, we'll get you up to speed on the vernacular after all of this is over." Vanessa said patting his back.
"Shall we play, Dr?" Stark asked Bruce.
"If you say so," Bruce said.
"Come on Nessa." Tony called out.
"I'll be there in a bit, I need something to eat." Vanessa asked.
"You couldn't find your way her, but you know where the Cafeteria is?" Bruce asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Priorities." Vanessa said patting her stomach as she started to walk in that general direction, but had no real intent on going to the cafeteria, she was going to sneak in to see Loki. She was about to change her course when she realized she was being followed. She came to a sudden stop and whipped around coming face to chest with Thor. She bent her head back to look up at him with a glare. "Can I help you, Thor?"
"I heard the mention of food and wished to join you." He said with a hopeful smile.
"Right." Vanessa drew out shooting him an irritated look after all they had not parted on the best of terms. She turned around starting down the hall again with Thor falling into step beside her. She would have to get him settled before she could see Loki. She led him into the cafeteria where she showed him how to properly get the food. By the end of it his trey was piled extremely high, mostly with pop tarts that he had had to ask for. "I'd ask how you've been, but I don't really care."
"Lady Vanessa, I confess I have another reason for asking to come with you." He said as they sat down ignoring her slight against him.
"Not that I hadn't already guessed that, what would that reason be?" Vanessa asked as she opened her bottle of Pepsi.
"My brother has changed since the dreams he had shared with you." Thor said causing Vanessa to raise an eyebrow as she gripped her bottle tighter.
"I noticed." Vanessa said with a dark look. "Does this conversation have a point? I got things to do."
"Whatever my brother was like when you knew him know that he has changed and not for the better." Thor said looking straight into her eyes. "I do not wish to see you get hurt."
"Good to know, now if you will excuse me, I have to go help my dad and Bruce." Vanessa said in a tight voice, but paused for a moment. "If only you had shown Loki half this much concern maybe things would have been better all around."
Vanessa turned on her heel not waiting for his reaction and left the cafeteria.