"Hello?"
"Yes, I'm calling to talk to Agent Coulson." Sam said as she leaned back in her rolley chair before her desk, her feet placed upon the top. On her lap lay the file that the aforementioned man had given her and she had thoroughly went over the file the previous day.
"Alright..." The other line went silent for a moment and Sam called her orb to her from across the room before she began to toss it up into the air before catching it again. "Hello, Agent Coulson."
"Yeah, hey!" She sat up in her seat slightly, her fingers now just fiddling with the orb as she concentrated on his words. "Samantha Greene."
"So you decided to call after all?"
"Yeah..." She replied quietly, bringing the orb closer to her face so that she could look at the churning light inside. "I'm in."
Gritting her teeth, her feet dug into the cement, creating a small crater around her Converse. Looks like she had come in a little hot.
Straightening up from her crouched position, she looked around in amazement. All sorts of military personnel and weaponry was strewn throughout the entire surrounding area. People had been rushing about before she had landed but had now stilled and were looking at her.
"Is this...? Hold on..." She reached down into her bag and pulled out the file before she flipped it open to reveal the name at the top of the page. "Have I found S.H.I.E.L.D.?" She asked the surrounding people.
Everyone seemed to turn away and go about their business, completely ignoring her once more.
Alarms suddenly started going off all throughout the base and Sam tensed, ready for the attack that was sure to occur since it seemed that she had intruded. The people who had once been calm began to yell at each other as they started to rush about.
"Why, yes you have Miss Greene." She slowly turned around to watch as a man dressed from head to tow in black walked towards her. He also had a patch over his left eye and from what she could tell, he had a few scars peeking around the edge of it.
"Alright, I was worried there for a minute, what with all the alarms going off..."
"Nope, you're in the right place." He took a step towards her, only for the blonde woman to eye him nervously. The man noticed this. "Where are my manners? Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D."
"And I'm-"
"Samantha Greene. Twenty five years old. Originally from Cantril, Iowa. Only child. 5'11". Professional stunt driver. You have a Bachelors's degree in both Computer Programming and Physics. You also attended Harvard for two years studying Astrophysics. Yes, Sam... We know who you are."
"And I guess that you already know that I'm here to join the Avengers?"
"Of course."
"Considering that my work as been... slowly lately." She smiled slightly as she thought about the irony of it. She had absolutely done nothing with her life for a whole year.
So, you can only imagine how slow it had been.
Not to mention the fact that when you don't work for a year, it can really drain your wallet. So, she was running a little tight on cash.
"Well, now that you're here, I suppose it's time for us to bring you up to speed so that we're all on the same page." Fury turned his back to her and began to walk away.
Glancing over to the side, she noticed a familiar man leaning against the side of a nearby building.
"Agent Barton?" She tilted her head to the side slightly and he could only smirk at her. He then jerked his head in the direction of Fury before he moved to follow the man dressed in black.
Sam could only follow in his wake.
The three of them entered another large building and they stepped into an elevator. Fury pressed a button and they began to descend underground. She shifted uneasily in the small metal box as she stood beside the other two men.
Clint just risked a glance at her behind Fury's back and she just looked down at the elevator floor before taking a deep breath.
She had to be sure that she remained calm. It would be bad news if she lost control and they were trapped underground without an escape. Things would certainly get messy.
However, as they stepped from the confines of the small box, Sam felt that she could breath easily once again.
They stepped out into a huge room, the ceiling above them stretching a good fifty feet above them. Computers and a variety of other machines filled the large room and it appeared to Sam that she was standing in some sort of high tech lab.
As they neared the center of the room, however, the woman had to stop. Something in the room was giving off a huge amount of energy. It was slightly overwhelming and Sam soon found it hard to breath as they drew closer.
They came to stand beside a few of the people working in the lab who were desperately trying to work on a section of computers.
"Dr. Selvig, any news?" Fury asked as a man dressed in a plaid shirt approached them.
Selvig. His name sounds familiar...
"The Tesseract keeps acting up." He replied solemnly as he suddenly bent down to examine the information on the computer screen before him.
However, Sam was slightly distracted as she watched a man insert a needle into the center of a glowing cube that was placed inside the middle of the room and Sam could only guess that it was the cube giving off so much power.
It sparked slightly and the already overwhelming power in the room grew and she winced before taking a small step away from it.
Agent Barton also noticed this but said nothing, his sharp eyes focusing on the woman beside him, suspicion crossing his irises.
"Is that supposed to be funny?" Fury asked as he glanced over at the aforementioned 'Tesseract'.
"It's not funny at all, the Tesseract is not only acting up. She's... misbehaving!" He explained and the group followed behind him as they crossed the room.
"How soon until you can pull the plug?" Fury asked as he began to examine the cube.
"She's an energy source, you turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level-"
"I thought you were prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space?" The older man glanced back at them.
"It's a lot to harness. My calculations are far from complete. It's throwing off interference, radiation, but nothing harmful. Just low levels of gamma radiation..." Fury looked back and forth between the cube and the Doctor.
"Gamma rays can cause cancer." Sam sputtered out before she covered her mouth with her hand. The older scientist turned to look at her, just now realizing that she had never before been seen at S.H.I.E.L.D.
Not to mention the fact that she had interrupted.
"Like I said. Gamma rays aren't harmful." He narrowed his eyes at her before examining her more closely. "I don't believe that we've met..."
"Dr. Selvig, I would like to introduce to you Sam Greene... Graduated at the top of her class in Computer Programming and Physics at Carnegie Mellon University." The two extended their hands towards one another before they shook.
"I also did two years at Harvard for Astrophysics." She added shyly when the man beamed upon hearing that she was interested in his line of work.
"Doctor, it's spiking again!" A woman announced as she stood up from her place before a computer. Dr. Selvig quickly dismissed the girl and walked over to the woman to look at the readings.
"Agent Barton, have you seen anything that could set off the Cube?" Fury glanced over at his agent who was following beside him and the female as they began to walk back towards the cube.
Barton rested his eyes upon their newest female companion and Sam felt her skin begin to prickle with nerves.
"No, everyone in the lab has been here for a while now and no one else outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been in here... Until now." He said and she could only swallow nervously.
Was he imply that she was the reason why the cube was acting how it was?
"But, if there was any tampering, it wasn't one this end." He explained and her stomach continued to churn uncomfortably.
"At this end?" Fury asked, a confused look appearing on his face.
"Yeah, the Cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides..." Her heart stopped beating in her chest as she turned and looked over at the machine.
"So, you're implying that it is a teleportation device? A doorway from another world?" She took a small step forward when suddenly the Cube's power spiked. Raising her hands up to her face, she winced slightly as wave upon wave of power radiated off the glowing cube.
Pressure began to build up around her and she glanced up to find that a huge amount of energy was building up before her and her eyes widened before it suddenly collapsed upon itself.
Being thrown backwards, she felt her body tingle from the energy. As she was tossed into the air, she was blown off to the side.
The air was knocked from her lungs and a few of the computer screens around her shattered, leaving her to lay in a splattering of glass.
Slowly raising her head up from the ground, she groaned as she opened her eyes to find that the rest of the inhabitants of the lab were also knocked on their rears.
She watched as the bright blue light in the center of the room seemed to crawl up the walls until it settled in a fiery mass upon the ceiling.
Her eyes darted back up to the platform as she slowly raised her body back off the hard ground.
What appeared to be a human form was crouched upon the platform. In their hands, they held some sort of strange scepter that was glowing itself. Blue fire momentarily danced across the figure's body and Sam could only gaze wearily at the person.
Someone who traveled from a different dimension was never good news. And what was to come next would only confirm those beliefs further.
Military personnel stepped forward, baring their machines guns as they slowly approached the unknown person.
Reaching into the pocket of her sweatshirt, Sam took hold of her orb to try and find comfort in its shape. She rolled it around in her palm as she stood up off the ground, her eye not leaving the mysterious figure.
The figure slowly raised its head, revealing a very dark and sinister smile upon the strange man's lips.
The man himself was enough to cause an unnatural stir in her stomach. His hair was long and as black as the night sky. His eyes were also an eerie blue and yet Sam couldn't shake the unsettling feeling in her stomach.
"Sir, please put down the spear." Fury warned from the side as he stepped from the shadows, having had to pull himself from the ground from the entrance of their new acquaintance.
Her shoes crunched as she stepped upon the broken glass and the man's eyes immediately shot to her. She froze mid step and watch as something faltered in his gaze, something akin to almost recognition.
Turning his gaze back to the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., the man suddenly fired his strange scepter at Fury. Quick as a whip, Sam knocked the man in black to the ground as the hot energy flew above them.
The blonde happened to glance over and found that Agent Barton was also on the ground a few feet away from them. He immediately struggled to his feet and Sam quickly followed the Agent's suit after she had made eye contact with him.
Slinking along in the shadows, Sam waited until the man was distracted before she chose to strike. Tightening her grip on the orb in her hand, she took a deep breath and concentrated before a strong stream of water shot forth from the alien object and knocked the man clean from the platform.
She frowned, however, when he quickly regained his bearings and he took out two small daggers and sent them flying through the air. They impaled two soldiers standing nearby and the innocent men fell to the ground, dead.
Seeing her moving in the shadows, the strange man shot another strong energy bolt in her direction but she was prepared. She quickly tucked and rolled out of the way, coming to land with her back pressed upon a machine that she could use for cover.
Glancing over, she saw that Fury had crawled over to the machine and had removed the glowing Tesseract before he put the cube into a black brief case.
Looking back to the strange man, Sam found that he was distracted and instead chose to focus on the remaining men in the room.
More shots rang out around then and when she glanced back, she swallowed nervously as the strange man came face to face with Barton.
The Agent went to reach for his gun but was stopped when the strange man took a hold of his wrist in his hand, finding the stranger to be impossibly strong.
"You have heart." He murmured before a devious smile pulled at his lips. He slowly raised his scepter up to his chest, the tip of it just pressing against the spot over his heart.
Her eyebrows drew together in confusion when a stream of energy traveled up Clint's neck before his eyes turned completely black before they faded back to a strange, light blue.
The stranger released the man's arm and to her own horror, Barton slipped his gun back into his thigh holster before standing straight, awaiting orders.
She watched as the strange man made his way over to a few other men in the room, also pressing the scepter to their chests and causing them to become brainwashed and almost zombie-like.
From beside her, Fury sealed the brief case shut and moved to leave, causing the man to turn and look at the both of them.
"Please don't." Fury froze mid step as the man spoke to the both of them. "I still need that." He added, taking a few steps towards them.
"This doesn't have to get any messier..." Fury murmured as the grip on the suit case tightened. Sam herself also tightened her grip on the orb, the feel of it giving her a form of comfort.
The man just chuckled before smiling widely. "Of course it does! I've come too far for nothing less!" He retorted.
Fury turned around and the man took another few steps closer to them before Sam stepped in front of the director. "I wouldn't come any closer if I were you..." She warned, turning the orb slightly in her fingers.
The man just shifted his gaze from Fury to her, a snort coming from his nose and a crooked smile forming on his lips.
"Oh, really?" He purred and she felt the electrical current inside her begin to buzz slightly as she prepared for an attack should he come any closer.
"Who the hell are you and why are you here?" She snapped, diverting the conversation away from violence.
"I am Loki of Asgard and I am burdened with glorious purpose." He smiled slightly again, looking at her the entire time.
Dr. Selvig immediately recognized the name Asgard, remembering his friend that had claimed to come from Asgard.
"Loki! The brother of Thor!" The man explained and Sam's brows drew together in confusion.
Where the hell is Asgard?
"We have no quarrels with your people." Fury said as he tried to calm the man, Loki, down.
"An ant has no quarrel with a boot." He simply retorted and Sam turned back around to face him, not enjoying his words in the slightest.
"Is that a threat?" She snapped back, the current wavering greatly as she took a threatening step towards him. He just chuckled again.
"I come with glad tidings from a world made free..." He began to pace around the edge of the platform, his gaze flickering back and forth between Fury and the lone female in the room.
"Free from what exactly?" She asked, her arms crossing over her chest.
"Freedom." He said as a twisted grin graced his pale yet perfect features. "Freedom from one of life's greatest lies. Once you accept that in your heart..." He approached the astrophysicist and raised the scepter to Selvig's chest. "...You will truly know peace." He finished as the Dr. changed until he was one of the brainwashed men. Sam took a few steps back.
"You say you want peace but I don't think you'll ever know true peace..." She said, raising her head up more fully to show that she was confident.
"And who are you, a woman of Earth, to say that you know true peace?" Loki asked her as he took a few steps towards her. She held her hand out as a warning to not come closer or she would strike him.
"They're stalling." Barton said as he walked up to stand beside Loki. "This whole place is about to blow and we need the Tesseract." He turned towards the two people.
Selvig suddenly approached one of the few remaining computers to examine the information on the screen. "He's right. We've only got about two minutes until this place goes critical."
Sam swallowed nervously as she heard the man's words. Two minutes wasn't enough time to get out of there.
Before she could process what was going on, Barton pulled his gun out and shot Fury who fell to the ground with a yell of pain. The suit case clattered away from the director before coming to land just before her feet.
Sam's adrenaline started to pump rapidly through her veins as her mind struggled to put together a good plan.
Quickly picking up the case, she cradled it close to her body, knowing that it was extremely important and if it fell into the wrong hands, bad things would happen.
Clint's gun snapped up to point at her but he didn't shoot. Instead, he kept his weapon trained on her for another long moment before he slowly smiled before lowering his gun.
"Sam, Sam, Sam..." He shook his head, the smile still on his face. "What will we do with you?" He asked and she wrapped her arms more tightly around the brief case. Loki also took a few steps forward and Sam shifted nervously on the balls of her feet.
"We could take her with us." Loki suggested, liking the idea of having another person to do his dirty work for him. She had proved to be brave so far. He had also recognized her.
"Come on, Sammy girl. Give us the Tesseract." Barton said as he held his hand out expectantly. She just looked down at it, an uneasy feeling bubbling in her chest.
"Run!" Fury shouted as he reached out to grab a hold of her leg. She nearly jumped out of her skin when he shouted, his voice echoing throughout the vastness of the room.
Looking down at him, she saw the pleading look in his eyes before she looked back at the men before her.
"Go." He groaned and she could only stare wide eyed as she nodded her head.
Quickly turning, Fury let go of her and she made to move to the first door her eyes found in the room.
Taking off at a dead sprint, she ducked her head out of the way as gunshots ran out, quickly followed by a few energy bolts. Her knuckles were white as she gripped onto the case, her eye peering back over her shoulder to see that she wasn't being followed. Yet.
Slipping her hand into her pocket, she quickly placed her headset over her ear before turning it on.
The little screen appeared before her left eye.
"V.A.N.S., I need to get our of here right now!" She spoke into the microphone and the processing device quickly began to work on that problem. The roaring of a motor suddenly filled her ears and she glanced back to find a military Hummer roaring towards her.
Barton was leaning out of the driver's window, shooting at her while he drove. She flinched as the protective current around her flared when one of the bullets hit the invisible shield.
Turning and sprinting again, she nearly flew down the long hallways before she saw a corner coming up. Turning down the new hallway, she could still hear the Hummer behind her.
"I have plotted out your escape route." Her AI spoke through the headset and a map appeared on the screen.
As she ran, she passed a number of hallways before she found the one that was meant to lead her to freedom.
She turned another corner before coming to a door and when she pushed on it, it was locked. Frowning she took a few steps back before lashing out with her foot. The door burst open, nearly coming off its hinges.
Quickly exiting the doorway, she new that the Hummer would have reached a dead end and smirked slightly, knowing that she would get out in time if she kept running. Bursting out into a wide tunnel, she could feel the fresh air hit her skin and she knew that she was almost to safety.
However, she was so focused on how close she was to the end of the tunnel that she didn't hear the roar of a vehicle behind her.
Without a warning, pain radiated up her back and it felt as though she had been set on fire. Being knocked by the force on her back, she hissed as she was sent sailing through the air.
Landing hard on the ground, the woman rolled a few times before her skull cracked against the hard pavement. Not daring to move because of the pain, Sam could only lay on her stomach, both her back and head throbbing with pain.
The ground beneath her suddenly began to shake once more and she could only groan as she tried to lift her body off the ground, knowing that she was running out of time. Finding that her body was trying to heal itself quickly like it had in the passed, she felt more weakness overcome her, knowing that her powers were purposely weakening her so that she could heal more quickly.
Her body didn't heal small wounds, like scratches and bruises, very quickly but when it came to life threatening injuries, her body did its best to try and repair itself.
Getting up onto her hands and knees, she took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her shaky body. Suddenly, someone slammed a car door and she slowly turned her head to the side, her vision blurring. After a moment of concentration, she could tell that it was Agent Barton walking towards her.
Her blurred eyes slowly turned back to find the brief case, faintly remembering that it was why she was in this mess to begin with. Finding that it only lay a few feet away, she weakly reached for it but before she could even get a finger on it, the case was snatched away from her.
"No..." She protested as she reached for the man. With luck, her hand latched around his pant leg and she found that her grip was surprisingly strong. "Clint... Please..." She groaned, her still blurry eyes struggling to focus on his face.
He only looked down at her for a moment, a tormented look passing through his blue irises. Glancing back at the Hummer and then back to her, he sighed through his nose before he reached down and pulled her up from the ground. Pulling her over his shoulder, she could only let herself go limp as another wave of pain passed through her body.
The Agent then walked around the back of the truck and tossed her into the back. Landing with a loud thud, she hissed in pain as the burnt and bare skin of her back touched the cold metal.
As she weakly rolled over to try and relieve her back of any pain, she found that Loki was also perched in the back, his scepter clutched tightly in his hands. He could only smirk down at her, a triumphant look on his face.
"You thought you could get away, didn't you?" He taunted and she only remained silent, her head swimming as she struggled to remain conscious.
She could only rest her head against the hard steel of the bed of the Hummer truck before a wave of cold washed over her and she knew that they had made it outside. Opening her still blurred hazel eyes, she found the stars sparkling back down at her from the dark night sky.
And she suddenly knew that she had to get away. Barton was bad. Loki was even worse.
A helicopter suddenly passed overhead and Loki began to fire upon them. Seeing as how he was distracted, Sam was able to slowly crawl her way over to the side of the truck bed.
With all her might, she pulled herself up to the side before she eased herself onto her feet. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath before she used what strength was left in her legs to push herself out of the back of the truck.
The air currents carried her away from the truck before she felt her strength and concentration beginning to fail her. Her weak body began to sail quickly toward the ground.
"Slow down. Slow down." She had to speak in order to get her thoughts organized. She was able to slow her fall slightly, coming to slide into the dusty ground below with a groan.
She simply lay there for a moment, her thoughts muddled as she struggled to hold onto reality. At least she had gotten away from the enemy. She was relatively safe for the moment.
After a few more minutes, she felt the buzz in her body grow to full capacity once more as she felt the rapid healing nearly halt all together, her cells apparently feeling as though she were no longer in critical condition.
However, her brain was still muddled from all the stress her body was still under and she felt the blackness beginning to tug at her.
She was able to organize her thoughts long enough to find that her orb was not on her person at the moment. In fact, she had no idea where it was.
Weakly raising her hand, she held it out in the air while her cheek pressed against the dusty ground. It felt as though only a few minutes passed before she felt the familiar smooth surface press into the palm of her hand.
"Greene? Are you out there, copy?" She was pulled back from the darkness when she heard a voice in her ear.
Reaching up, she pressed her fingers against the headset on her ear, surprised that it hadn't been completely destroyed when she first smashed into the pavement at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
"Fury, this is Greene. I'm injured and out in the middle of the desert. They got the Tesseract..." She murmured into the headset before letting her hand fall away for the button, knowing that they would soon find her position and come pick her up.
